Horror Stories!

Mim and her godfather.  He'd been dancing with
and she fell asleep.

 People have been asking me how the birth went.  To some extent, what can I say; it's only the hardest thing that the body will go through naturally.  And please, do not get the impression that when I say it was easy I mean that it was painless.  This was the most painful of the three.  It was also the fastest (there is a cause/effect relation there). 

I'd been in what I was calling "pre-emptive labor" for eight weeks before Mim was born.  It's kind of like the training you need to do before you go and run a 5K race--except that when I got to the race part I took a short cut through a briar patch.  That's how I give birth; and I'd rather go through eight weeks of labor and an hard, fast delivery than go through a 20hour labor and delivery. 

Anyway.  I'd woken up Thursday morning with a feeling--the one that says "in the next two days."  By dinner time I was mildly disappointed that I hadn't gone into labor yet, but around 8pm I noticed a subtle change in the contractions.  They were becoming consistent.  

Sometimes she doesn't like all the attention.

Nick's bosses had gone crazy during the summer and had him working from 5pm to 3am.  And sometimes on Saturdays.  That Thursday Nick had stopped to pick up some snacks on his way home.  I got up at 4am to eat with him, and again noticed that the contractions were getting stronger and closer together.  I didn't want to get too excited so I didn't say anything about it.  Nick and I stayed up till 6am eating and talking.  Nick fell asleep, I didn't.  I waited as long as I could, but I had to wake him at 7am.  We called the midwife at 7:30am.  By that time, although we didn't know it, I was more than half done. 

Now is a good place to say that we had planned a water-birth, at home.  The midwife had brought over a special tub a few weeks before, and we had everything that we needed. 

Mim and her godmother, after her baptism. 

The midwife arrived by 8:30am and I told her that if she didn't get the tub set up we were not going to have a water-birth.  Aside from asking for something to help ease the pain, that was the last thing I remember saying.  I have no idea of the time after that either. 

Within a few minutes of getting in the tub I hit transition (look it up, I'm not explaining the process of birth)--and that didn't last long.  It HURT.  I remember sobbing.  And then I was pushing.  And that HURT.  I screamed.  The only reason I didn't stop was because I knew that the one and only way to make the pain stop was to get the baby out.  It was almost more than I could do.  Looking back I'm not sure how I did it. 

Once she was out I had trouble moving so that I could take her.  When the midwife brought her up out of the water Mim was screaming.  I had figured she would be, since she always reacted strongly to the contractions.  She was purple, but that didn't matter because she was screaming so hard. 

Nick's sister had come over to take care of the boys, and as soon as I was holding Mim I asked them to be called.  They were a little worried from hearing me scream, and Thing Two was more interested in getting his breakfast. But by the time that she settled down the boys were getting excited. 

Another baptismal picture.  She'd screamed the
whole time and wore herself out.

Things got cleaned up slowly, but that was mostly because it was a while before I could move.  We determined later that active labor was only 3hours long, and that I only pushed for a few minutes (the midwife says 2, Nick says 10).  Mim was a full pound heavier than her brothers, and an inch shorter.  She seemed small (probably because of the inch) but she was chubby.  And she looked like my baby pictures.  She was born with all of that hair, eyelashes and brows, large hands and small feet.  Her eyes were dark and I'd thought they were going to be brown, but they've gone to a pretty, dark blue. 

We're settling into a routine now (provided I stick to completely decaf coffee), and she'll sleep for six hours at night.  She's still gaining about an ounce a day.  She never lost any weight, and by two weeks old she had gained almost a full pound.  In that time I've lost a proportional amount and am now back into my pre-maternity clothes. 

And that's it.  I can't think of anything that I left out.  You'll get the highlights of her life, just the same as for the boys; and tons of cute pictures.  I'm taking things slowly, but I'm on my feet again so I should have some recipes for you soon. 

Zizi