We flew out to be with Kim (SM) and her family on Sept 15. On Sept 23 at around 8 PM Kim began to have some contractions. At 11PM the midwife suggested Kim try to lie down and get some sleep. At midight the midwife checked on Kim and found her sleeping and went home to wait for our call. At about 6AM Sept 24 the contractions woke Kim up and everyone knew this was IT.

Kim's DH paged the midwife several time but she never called back. Finally Kim paged the midwife and left a one word message, "Come!". It wasn't until the midwife arrived at about 10AM that we all learned that Kim's DH never left a message all the times he paged her so she didn't know what was up. But now she was there and everything was alright.

Kim labored for awhile in her room and then moved to the birthing pool in the spare bedroom. She was doing great and stayed in the pool till about 2PM when it began to get very hard to concentrate with people coming and going. She moved into her room with just her DH, the midwife, her assistant, and the doula. The doula came out every so often to let us know what was going on and how Kim and the baby were doing. At 3:49 PM Kim's water broke and we expected things to really start moving but the doula said Kim still didn't feel the need to push.

I can't remember what time it was, but the doula came out to say Kim was now pushing and the baby's head could be seen in the birth canal but it was still way up. We later learned that everytime Kim would push the baby's head would decend but as soon as she quit pushing her head would go back up!!! Eventually Kim did get her head down and at 5:13 PM Amanda's head was born!!!!

The doula ran out to get us and when we came in Amanda's head was completely out but she was stuck at the shoulders!!! The midwife and Kim both worked really hard to get her out but she wasn't budging!! Finally the midwife had Kim roll over onto all fours and she was able to get a grip under Amanda's arm and her shoulders were born. With the next push her chest was born and the rest of her slid right out!!!!!

Amanda was very purple, but the cord was still pulsing so she was getting oxygen. The midwife wiped her face, suctioned her nose and mouth, and rubbed her little chest until Amanda gasped a few times. Soon she was making some crying noises and pinking right up. The midwife put an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth to help her for a few minutes while she wiped her off and did a quick exam. DH cut her cord and the midwife wrapped her in a towel and handed her to me.

The midwife went back to finish up with Kim as we all commented on how big Amanda was. Everyone tried to guess her weight. I heard 9 something, 10 something, 11 something, and I think even a 12. I was holding her and said maybe 10 lbs. When we finally put her in the sling to weigh her DH had to lift it up because she was so heavy!!!! Everyone was awed when the scales said 11 lb 3 oz. Kim was really surprised and said, "No wonder I was so miserabel". :-) Kim was awesome!!!! She was totally in control the whole time and she did not have even one tiny tear!!!!

We stayed with Kim and her family for 2 more weeks and then flew home. During the 2 weeks we were there everytime Kim would hold her she would be amazed that Amanda had ever been in her belly because even curled up Amanda's head was on her breast and her feet were below her pelvis!!!! How she ever fit in there is a mystery to us all :-)

We are all at home now. Nichole loves her baby sister or bebe as she says. And we couldn't be happier, tired but happy. We send pics to Kim and speak on the phone regularlly. I do not think there will ever be words adequate enough to describe what Kim has done for us so all we can do is say, "Thank you for our miracles and we love you".