SoI had the baby.  Labour was 5 hours of crazy intensity but I managed to do it drug-free again and was happy about that.  I was only able to do it because I’m really stubborn.   The yoga breathing and hill running experience helped too.  The good news is that contractions don’t last as long as it takes to run up the average hill. 

Towards the end of my pregnancy women would stop me trundling in a store and say “I bet you can’t *wait* to get that baby out of you!”  But for the most part I was OK, I was still getting stuff done, my garden was shaping up, I was non-stop baking and feeling zen for the most part.   Then at 7 days overdue they scheduled me for an induction and I REALLY didn’t want to do that.  

First I was bummed out.  So I took Angus to the beach to take my mind off it.  And  it helped although I had to hide in the beach grass  to pee 3 times.

Then I got cheesed off and wanted payback.  I announced to my doctor that I was going to put the baby in a time out the minute he was born for freaking out his Mom.  And I’d name him Beatrice.   HaHA, let’s see how that goes on the playground bucko!  But a few hours later I felt the first contraction and he was born 3 hours before my scheduled induction.  Whew.

When I went to the hospital it was like they didn’t really believe that my water had broken.  I’m like no, girlfriend,  trust me, I’ve seen Like Water for Chocolate.  But I understand that lots of women probably go in early because they’re dying to get it over with. 

They left us to our own devices in the delivery room which was fine.  But when my contractions were 3 minutes apart Honeybunny went to tell the nurse and she said, “excellent, tell her to get in the bath, that really helps move things along!”  So I did and then nearly *had* the baby in the bath because things were already moving along.  Someone finally came in  to check and heard my leg-trapped forest animal sounds, her jaw dropped and she said, “Um, I’ll go get a nurse”.

The doctor said later that I was really good at pushing.  It’s weird being good at something you have no interest in really doing letting alone being good at.  Can I transfer that gift to something I really want?  Or something more useful?  Like fluency in Cantonese? 

My parents dropped in the day he was born.  Significant considering they live across the country, how’s that for timing?  The first night I was home I was up for a game of Scrabble.  I almost won too, so I think things went pretty well.

It’s been hard to be reflective, and say, write a blog post about any of it with a newborn in a house.  It just seems like I’m in constant react mode.  If I’m not responding to the baby needs then I’m responding to my own and is that ever fun.  I tell you, a meal has never tasted so good, a shower never so amazing and lying flat on anything resembling a sleeping surface never so awe-inspiring. 

When he falls asleep I think - yay now I get to do something *I* wanna do!  But sure enough, if it’s  a marathon nap, before long, I start to miss him.  The little bugger.