She asked for guidance with her next push, andrea helped coach her and Steph powered baby out in one big contraction.

It's a BOY!!!!! Parker is here! He is doing great! Steph is doing great!

She wants to move to the birth stool, they are setting up the stool in the bedroom. The contractions are coming close together. It is so wonderful to see her working with her body in this quiet and sacred space.

Everything is set up, Steph can feel the baby moving down. Karen just gave her soome words of encouragement, it's time to meet the baby, then nap time.

Steph has been working so hard today, she is ready for a rest.

Her sounds have started to change a little, she still has a long moan but now at the peek of the contraction she moves into pushing and an "ahhhh" sound. There is nothing more beautiful then a woman bringing her baby into the world.

she just moved to hands and knees, had one contraction and said, I think the baby is coming! We are all getting excited, the birth team is setting everything up.

She is sitting now, leaning back on Ken, Karen is sitting in front of her, she just said she thinks she feels more pressure. yay.

Listening to the baby...baby is on her left side, sounds great.

The photographer has arrived :)

Natalie here...
I just arrived, the lights are low and the apartment is silent except for the wonderful sound of Stephanie singing her labor song. The midwives have been here for a couple hours and just broke her water about 30 minutes ago. The contractions started to get more intense and closer together after that. She is standing in the bedroom leaning on Ken and Karen is giving her counter pressure. Heather and Andrea are giving Steph water and cooling her down with a cool cloth. She is doing so well and has had another two contractions since I started typing. It sounds like we are getting close. I will continue to keep everyone updated between taking photos :o)
Keep sending the love and prayers!

Just an update

So after Steph decided that she needed to disconnect for a bit and take her mind off of labor, we went and watched a movie (that new Divergent movie) at 2130.  We had stopped trying to keep track of her contraction duration/frequency for a while in hopes that it would help get her more relaxed, and ready to go into active labor.

Movie ended a little before midnight, and it seemed like she was getting a little more uncomfortable than earlier in the day; we decided to monitor her contractions again.  She was at 40-60 sec every 3-6 mins.   Called Karen and her minion (Andrea) an hour later.

As of right now, the birth team has set up their base in our apartment, and made sure all their equipment and tools were functional.


Will try to keep updating later.