Marilyn Olivia Dante

Marilyn Olivia Dante (Mod) was born March 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm. She weighed 9 lbs. 2oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long.
This last Sunday I finally had "feeling" that she would be a girl and that she would be ornery and come on the 17th because that's how long I gave her... what do you know.
I started having contractions worth 'counting' at 2:45 pm and they were about 8-10 minutes apart until 4:30. I called my midwives and my friend Jessie and made biscuits to go with the soup for dinner. Being up and moving around brought the contractions a little closer together. After dinner at about 6 pm we went for a walk around the block with all the kiddos, I didn't think I would make it all the way around, contractions were about 5 minutes apart and much more painful. We got back to the house about 6:50 (it took us that long to get around the block because I had to stop every time I had a contraction). My midwife Jennifer showed up at 7pm and checked me said I was just fine to lay in bed where I was...she went out to call Pat (my other midwife) and I stayed in bed and contractions came every 3-5 minutes. At about 7:50 pm I felt like I had to go to the bathroom so I went and sat on the toilet and my whole body just started pushing...my water broke and I yelled for help and Jennifer came running to find that baby's head was crowning. She asked if I wanted to have the baby on the toilet and I said, "No" so she helped me to the bed and I called for Erik (who had just finished putting the other kiddos to bed) and he came in. He was very shocked to walk in and see a head crowning. I breathed through two contractions and my body did all the work and Marilyn Olivia was born. It was absolutely amazing to have a labor go so quickly and amazing that I didn't have to actively push. Jessie made it through the front door about the same time Mod was born and Pat made it about 30 minutes later. Erik went and got Hannah out of bed, she was very excited to meet her new sister. Ivan had already fallen asleep so he got to meet Mod the next morning. It was very sweet he sat by her and stroked her head for about 10 minutes. Clayton hasn't shown much interest in Mod yet, but yesterday after his nap he came in my room every 10 minutes to look at me, I guess he was just checking in on me.
Thank you Rolana for taking the kiddos yesterday and this morning. The oldest three are with Erik's parents for a few days and I am enjoying the rest and pampering.