We decided to just have a nice day together as a family. We went out for brunch--a rare treat. Shrimp and grits, french toast, and beignet heaven. We went to Ikea and bought some furniture that we built that afternoon. All of this was done with irregularly occurring contractions, but boy were they getting painful by the time we got the furniture built. Finally, around 6 in the evening, I said--I don't care if these are inconsistent, I've got to go the hospital and get checked. We dropped off our kids at their second home (the Burgess'), and went to the hospital.
I was dilated to 5 cm and they said the baby was coming very soon and immediately gave me a room. In a family full of doctors (two of which are anesthesiologists), they probably don't understand why on earth I'd be determined to have an unmedicated delivery. I thought it'd somehow be empowering to experience in full, this process that my body is built to do, and that billions of other women have done. I wanted to experience it at it's own natural pace, without interrupting the feedback cycle by removing pain and then needing pitocin, like my other deliveries. Plus, I figured my third baby would just slide right out. I wish I could report that it was a wonderful experience. The outcome was great, and we now have a beautiful baby, but an unmedicated delivery didn't feel empowering for me, it felt out of control. I concede I'm a bigger wuss than I thought. It was horrifically painful. All the warm, tender feelings I anticipated getting like when I birthed Seth and Ada were lost in my getting caught up in the pain. The hippie feminist in me can go back into hiding. I'm now quite mindful of the billions of women who would have jumped at the chance for an epidural if given it. Modern medicine isn't perfect, but there are a number of things it does quite well, and a comfortable birth is one of them.
So, back to the baby. His name is Jay David, he's sweet as pie, we're completely in love with him, he makes lots of squeaking sounds (a first for us), and one reason he didn't "just slide right out" was his extra pound of weight versus his siblings. He's such a tank next to them. It's great to fall in love with one more baby. We enjoyed Seth and Ada's early years so much, it's exciting knowing the potential fun in store.
A big part of the fun already is the sibling love. Seth and Ada absolutely adore Jay. Their meeting of Jay the morning after he was born is easily the top melty-heart experience of my life. They can't get enough of him. Every morning when they wake up, the first thing they want is to hold him, as well as any other opportunity we'll give them throughout the day.
And then there's Aaron. My perpetual crush on him multiplied as he helped me through labor. It was so comforting and intimate--my sweetest memory of Jay's arrival. One of Aaron's greatest joys in fatherhood is cuddling his newborns as they nap on his chest. This time around we were fortunate that Aaron was able to take a week of paternity leave. Like most newborns, Jay slept a lot. It seems that most of that first week was spent with him sleeping on Aaron, and both of those boys were in heaven.
Welcome to the family Jay. You'll never run out of love with this crew. We have a policy about that.
