My Firstborn

My good friend, Vicki, recently blogged the birth story of her only girl. It was so sweet and so funny, it got me all sentimental and thinking about my own births. So, please humor this sappy mom as I regale you with a tale from the apparently distant past. (boo hoo!!)

Three days after Christmas, I woke up with light contractions. I hoped, but didn't allow myself to think much of it. I called my friends and we headed to the mall to make returns. I had contractions off and on the whole time we were there. We stopped at ChickFilA for lunch and I remember eating whatever french fries anyone left on their plate.
Still not confident this was actually labor, I took a nap when I got home. Contractions stopped soon after I laid down. When Kyle got home from work, I told him I wanted to go out. We went back to the mall to walk around; I wanted to pass the time. We didn't walk far before I was tired of that and wanted to sit down somewhere and stuff my face. So, we went to one of the cheapest pizza buffets in town. You know the place. I remembered hearing that spicy food induced labor, so I ate plenty of my favorite- Pepperoni Jalapeno. Dumb move. It didn't taste anywhere near as good when it came back up later.

Fast forward a few hours, my parents are in our living room while I labor on all fours. It was a fairly easy labor, very textbook. But sometime early in the morning, things got intense and as I lay on the couch with Kyle inches from my face, I said with bug eyes: I feel like I'm coming out of my skin!! As soon as I said that, I knew I was in transition and a big hopeful smile came over my face.

An hour or two later, I was in bed ready to push. My water was still intact at this point. That's the way to go, I tell you, that extra cushion really makes laboring so much easier. Well, one big push later and I splashed water all over the midwives. 40 minutes after the big splash, Elena torpeedoed out of me. We had talked about Kyle catching her, but there was no time. The reality was- nobody "caught" her, she just slid out onto the bed, apparently in a big hurry to eat after all those hours.

What a peaceful experience her birth was! Today my Elena Glory is 9 years old. Happy Birthday, Elena!!