Baby!

I'm declaring a 3-week break from school, due to Baby's arrival. My parents will come visit from Feb 11-14, and I'll aim to start up again after they leave.

He was born yesterday, Jan 27, after only 5 1/2 hours of labour (only about 3 hours of which were truly uncomfortable). This surprised me as, with each of the other 2 kids, I knew I was in labour almost 24 hours before the baby was born (and the first 18 hours or so were very easy). I went to Arabic Bible Study in the morning and, as I was pulling off the freeway, had a contraction that really meant business. I decided to go to Bible study anyway, and the contractions continued every 5-7 minutes. I started to become afraid of driving back home. The subject of the Bible study was Jesus walking on water, and how he said to his disciples, "I am he - do not be afraid". I was thrilled to be able to understand enough Arabic to grasp the main point, and I repeated it to myself (in Arabic) all the way home, through each contraction. By the time I got home, I knew without a shadow of doubt that this baby was on his way, and soon. I lay down for an hour and the contractions intensified. My mom called as I was getting up. By then the contractions were only about 3 minutes apart, so I didn't exactly have a leisurely conversation with her. I called the midwife and she headed over while Ari started setting up the birth tub. By the time there was enough water in the tub for me to get in, the contractions were intense enough that I needed to make a lot of noise - I tried to keep it to a pure musical note, and mostly succeeded, but it felt much more like the sort of note a baritone in an opera would make than my typical soprano range! Once I was in the tub, I was marginally more comfortable, but it was really intense. My mother-in-law had taken the kids out to be out of the way, but things were moving along quickly and they started back. I pushed for about 10-15 minutes, and the kids arrived back during the last push. They watched him being born - I think the intensity of the noise I was making was a bit overwhelming for them, but they saw him come out. He was born at 4:34pm. I was so grateful to God for making it so that the kids saw the birth, but didn't have to listen to my noises for any longer than necessary. The midwife showed the kids the placenta (which was huge - almost a pound bigger than average) and explained to them about the cord, and the amniotic sac, and the blood vessels that were on my side. When I was sitting on our bed with him, the kids came and got a closer look and were reassured that I was okay, too. This morning, they got to hold him for the first time, which they really enjoyed. They are so gentle and sweet with him, but he finds them a bit overwhelming and becomes overstimulated more quickly than they would like. Sorry, kid - the 3rd born is just going to have to learn to deal with a lot of activity around him! At this point I'm starting to feel somewhat recovered, but bed beckons appealingly. Good night!