She's Finally Mine

    On Sunday, December 30, we got up and went to church, just like every Sunday. After church we went to the mall to do a little bit of walking. I had lost part of my mucous plug a few days before, so we thought a walk would speed things up a bit. During our walk I had a few mild contractions here and there. But I barely noticed them. We then went home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Later on that evening I had a little bit of spotting so I called  my doctor. She said it might just be more of the mucous plug and told me not to worry. I was still having a mild conmtraction here and there, but they were painless and undisturbing. At about eight o'clock pm the spotting got heavier and the contractions a little bit stronger but they were still very manageable and irregular. Our doctor told us to got to the hospital to get checked out.
When we got there the nurses checked me around 10:00 pm and found I was dialated to four centimeters. We were shocked! I hac no idea I was actually in labor. I thought that I was suposed to feel pain but all I was feeling was a little bit of pelvic pressure. My doctor thought I still had a little while to go so the nurses said I could go home or chekc into my room. We decided to check in and at 10:15 pm I was admitted to my room to await my doctors arrival. A friend of mine stayed with me while my husband went to the car to get the bags. The pelvic pressure I was feeling was getting a little bit stronger now, so I laid on the bed and chatted with my friend.
At about 10:30 pm mid-sentence I felt a gush of water and something between my legs. I had my leg in the air and I yelled "help! what's going on?" My friend laughed and said it was just the baby. I yelled "go get muy husband" I was trying to hold to baby in. A few nurses ran in and my husband ran in just in time to see our baby boy Caleb Jonathan born at 10:35 pm. One of the nurses caught the baby and my husband and I were totally shocked. It was over before we had thought i began! What a great joy and relief to have a painless delivery. Our doctor got there shortly after the birth. I hadn't had time for a montior and IV or anything. Later that night the nurse was still working on my admitting papers, and we all laughed when a man came into the room a few hours later and asked "does someone in here need an epidural?"
 From The BIrth Book by William & Martha Sears

February 22, 2004 my daughter Brooklyn Star was born, it was one of the most beautiful expiriences of my lifetime. Earlier that day I took my three children swimming at the jr. high-school pool in Amherst. For some reason I was feeling extra flexible and kept bobbing my huge belly around in the water, doing squats and lunges; I felt weightless. At 4:00 pm I had had enough and as we dried off I began to feel contractions, it seemed to me that they were becoming more and more regular but even after three births, I still wondered, "is this really labor?" At home I relaxed and fed my kids dinner, we just relaxed after that. I started to get more excited, this was really happening.... for the fourth time! 
Around 12:00 am I decided to call my midwife, I had seen some blood and mucus when I used the bathroom and just wanted to let her know that I thought I was in labor. She asked what I wanted to do, and I knew that I was going to stay home as long as possible, so I told her I was going to sleep and would call back when I was ready to come.
I laid on my bed visualizing my uterus contraction and my cervix opening everytime I felt another one, I knew my baby was coming sooner. My husband was quietly sleeping by my side. My children slept in their beds, prepared to get up when it was time to go to the hospital. I had planned on their attending the birth, but it ended up happening so fast, that they missed it. I was so relaxed and so in-tune with my body that I was easily able to breath through contraction after contraction, resting in between.  At about 3:30am I called my midwife back, told her I was coming soon, and my mother came to our house to pick us all up.
The ride to the hospital brought on more intense contractions. I let my body relax, I would vocalize and breath through them; and then explain to my wide eyed  kids in the back seat that mommy was okay, the baby was coming and it felt better to make noise. At the exact moment we pulled into the emergency exit at the hospital that my water broke. I stood up, covered in meconium laced amniotic fluid, and held out my hands, "I'm all wet" I said and went into the hospital bathroom. When I sat down on the toilet,  I quickly stood up - I remembered that feeling all too well, the baby was coming, and I knew it was coming soon. If I had sat for a second longer I'm sure I would have pushed her out.
A very non-chalant nurse wheeled me up the the maternity ward and I kept telling her to move faster, I guess she couldn't tell how far along I really was because even in the midst of it all I was still pretty relaxed. "You still have awhile" she told me, as I held my legs together trying to keep my baby inside. The minute we got into the delivery room I saw my midwife, she told me to get onto the bed, the nurses helped me to stand,  and as my midwife turned to wash her hands, my daughter made her appearance - just in time. I stuck my hand on her head to try to hold her in.... but she was already out! My husband had turned his back to put down our stuff and when he turned around she was already in my arms. Her birth was documented as a "birth without pushing." The meconium in the fluid has not affected her and she was perfectly fine. I held her tiny little body, rubbing her mass of black hair and marvelling on how beautifully brown her complexion was and I breastfed her, holding her skin-to-skin was the best feeling of my life. It was amazing.
Birth story by Ruby

Though she was born Monday morning, 6:59am, October 25, the story begins the previous Thursday. I went to my regular scheduled midwife appointment, it was just days before my pregnancy hit the 38 week mark. I had already been taking evening primrose oil capsules to start softening the cervix, and as a matter of early preparation the midwife suggested a brief cervical massage to further help ripen the cervix since I was only 20% effaced and 1/2cm dilated, just to make sure I didn't go overdue as most first time mothers do. It seemed early to me to start doing anything so explicitly labor conducive, but I thought, what do I know, I guess bodies hold on to those babies the first time around. As expected I had some crampy pain and bloody show following the procedure in the next 24 hours.

Well Friday night Scott and I had a date to go see Ralphie May, a comedian we knew from Last Comic Standing, who was making an appearance at the Admiral Theater in downtown Austin. I laughed for two hours straight (bounce-bounce-bouncing baby's head down onto that cervix!), and became aware that the tightenings were becoming somewhat regularly spaced apart. They felt more intense than Braxton Hicks so my internal monitor self began its watch. They were strong enough so that in retrospect, I call this the beginning of 58 hours of labor.

That night I was up more often than usual for my bathroom breaks. The squeezes made me feel like I had to go to the bathroom, which was every half hour instead of the usual two hours or so. The next day, Saturday, I sat down to do my morning internet work, but by 1pm found it hard to concentrate as the contractions continued their regular appearance every half hour or so, with increasing pain. I called the midwife on call and she said it's false labor and that I should go on bed rest, drink a beer & a take a Benadryl to relax & get sleepy & to take pressure off the cervix. My mother was arriving from out of state that day for her one-month stay, so I couldn't go to the airport.

I slept for a couple of hours after the Benadryl in the evening, but after that the night took over as I had really intense contractions, ranging from every 5 to 7 to 15 minutes. I began to use my breathing to get through the pain, grabbing my sleeping Scott every time it got really bad, using his innocent, pain-free, relaxed sleeping body as inspiration. I was shaking and crying and moaning all night. I didn't call the midwife until Sunday 7am, now a different one was on duty. She also told me this was false labor and that I should ignore (IGNORE??) the pain and go about my day as usual. Nevertheless, she later told me that at this point she decided to take a nap during the day, during which she dreamed of two babies being born.

I got up Sunday after a fully sleepless night and continued to have contractions every 15-30 minutes. I could feel the baby's head burrowing down into my cervix. Sometimes she seemed to kick off the top of my belly and push herself downwards. The peak of each contraction was such that I needed to close my eyes and really concentrate on the number of deep breaths I was taking, knowing that at the count of 5 or 8, depending on the length of the sensation, it would start to ease up. There's a sureness in numbers- the logic overwhelmed the raw wildness of the sensation. I knew time was my only ally in dealing with the pain. With time each contraction would be over, with time the baby would be born.

This whole time, because the midwives didn't acknowledge that this could be stage 1 labor, I felt like I was being a wimp if these were simply advanced Braxton-Hicks, that I couldn't fully engage with the process, because I "wasn't supposed to be in labor". They said this kind of false labor could last until my due date, which was still 2 weeks away!! I started to feel nevertheless that there was no way I could endure this still manageable albeit too intense pain for two more weeks. I began slowly to believe that this could be real labor, for it wasn't going away.

All day Sunday I lay on the couch watching football with Scott, taking little walks around the house. The crash of the football players' bodies into each other helped me deal with the pain. I imagined the pain of their muscles, their bones colliding, body parts being slammed down. I called my best friend and paused throughout our conversation to deal with contractions. She said either you'll have a baby in 24 hours or this will go away. False labor doesn't just continue, you know it's real labor when it doesn't go away. This helped feed that part of me that wanted to just lose myself in this experience and call it by its name - Labor - and let run in full force all my prepared dealing mechanisms. It was so frustrating to be told this wasn't 'real'. But it proved to be good practice for patience when my experience was finally christened The Real Thing. I went outside on our back deck in the afternoon, and the air was heavy with impending rain. I looked at our trees in the green gray light and felt their sagging expectation of moisture. I went into the baby's room and paused in front of each object, telling the baby if she comes soon, this is her bassinet for sleeping, this is her nursing chair, these are her little clothes...

By evening the intensity of the pain was reaching another level and I just couldn't believe any more that this was false, and not accomplishing anything. The midwife had said this kind of false labor only dilates you like 1/2 a cm, but I didn't think she understood just how intense it was getting. Well by Sunday night I gave her one more call to let her know they were still only 15 minutes apart but that I was losing my mind at the peak of each contraction. She finally conceded to let me come to the birth center at 9pm so she could check me and probably send me back home. I changed the time to 9:15pm, so that we could all watch Desperate Housewives, our new favorite tv show, heheh.

It seems I appeared tougher on the phone to the midwife than my experience dictated. Upon inspection she said I was 100% effaced and 4 cm dilated! This is when all the women on A Baby Story beg for their epidural! I cried and hugged Sandra, the midwife who would become my pillar that evening, relieved that all that pain had been accomplishing something after all, that I wouldn't have to endure this for another two weeks, that it was no longer a prelude but Real Labor, and that I could stay at the birth center to have an actual baby some time this night!

We were unprepared completely, we hadn't brought the suitcase, the car seat wasn't installed, but there I was to stay until the baby's birth. Scott took off to gather the items back from the house, and I settled into labor with my mom and Sandra keeping me company. My mom began the round of calls to my dad and sister back home, trying to rouse them from sleep to let them know labor had truly begun.

I found many positions which helped pass the time as I dilated. In those first couple hours, while Scott was gone (he chatted with a friend online about my labor, and shaved while at home too), I went from 4 to 6-7 cm dilation. My favorite positions were straddling the birth ball holding on to a solid chair back in front of me & laying on my side on the bed. Sandra sometimes just put her warm hands against my back, sending warm calming forces through me. Sometimes my mom sat by me and just kept me company. Sometimes we chatted until my breath and mind were taken away by a contraction. Scott returned just as the tub was being filled up for some warm water labor. He lit the candles from my suitcase and took pictures of me laboring both before the bath, and in it. This didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It felt very spiritual and beautiful. He sat by me keeping me company as I labored in the hot water.

Time seemed suspended as I rode the waves of contractions every few minutes. They were so mind blowing at their peak that time seemed reset after each one. There was only the pitch of my moaning, tuning into the frequency of the pain. It helped drown out chatter if Sandra & my mom happened to be talking during a contraction. I reached into my inner strength, the same I tap into when doing Iyengar type yoga: the sense of pushing yourself to withstand "just a couple.. more... seconds...of...this..ok...it's letting up". When you hold a pose for a certain amount of time, and your muscles are aching and the teacher's saying hold for one more minute and you get into that personal endurance zone; this is the kind of body practice that helped me deal, helped me be patient and just count down to the end. In between the pain there was no pain, so I could pretend I wasn't in labor almost. At the same time, it was always less painful than I had been expecting. I thought once I allow myself to treat this as Real Labor, things would get excruciating, but it never quite went there. I guess an overactive imagination comes in handy this way. But the excruciating part was still awaiting me.

It became clear that 6-7 cm was where I was going to stay, water still unbroken. After 5 hours I was still there, something in my mind was holding me back from entering Transition, and I now know that it's the same tenacious sense of staying in control that caused all my bad trips to happen when I was younger. My body was trying to dilate but my subconscious wouldn't let it. We agreed that if by 5am there was no change, Sandra would manually reach in and push my cervix back. I took a super dose of evening primrose oil and some other herb in a tincture and waited out the interim hour, contracting all the while, trying to visualize my water breaking, trying to relax, and preparing to wrap my mind around the idea of entering into a commitment to the pain, a commitment to getting this baby born.

At 5am there was no change and I made the shift into putting myself into whatever natural action would speed along the labor. I explicitly didn't want my water broken, however this last time when she checked me, it tore on its own during a contraction (at least I am fine in believing so.) Clear liquid gushed out and I expected things to change. I lay there and sang along with Sandra a simple repetitive melody about opening up and flowers. Then I sang "Polskie Kwiaty," a Polish folk song from my girl scout days, my favorite that I had been hoping to sing some time during labor, about native flowers blooming in Poland. We tried one last thing- the cat/cow yoga poses and low moaning to help me enter transition. I abandoned myself into the poses arching my back, going for a kundalini breath flow, willing myself into a wilder opening state, a possible sexual ecstasy even. Sandra intoned encouraging opening visualization thoughts, alternately singing and softly talking. My hair became an electric sweaty bush floating about my head, suffocating me, I moaned for my rubber band and wildly tied it up into a bun when Scott's efforts produced a loose knot with straggling sticky strands... still there was no change. My sense of control ran deep, and it was time to commit to the pain.

The midwife reached in and pushed the cervix back around the baby's head, taking me from 6-7cm to 10 cm in the matter of less than a minute. In a way I feel like I missed out on Transition, but in a way I'm perhaps lucky to be ushered through it so quickly, with sure confident hands. I can't really describe the sensation other than it being so shockingly intense that it totally blew my mind. I was committed to whatever came my way.

Then began the two hours of pushing to get the baby to descend and come out. I tried the toilet. I tried the birthing chair, with Scott sitting behind me supporting me. I tried laying on my side with one leg up. I lay back across the birth ball, arching. Anything but the dreaded 'hospital-y' position on my back with feet up. None of these positions did the trick, and once again Sandra was firm in guiding me to accept the next level of pain by suggesting the unfortunate typical hospital pose, but with a twist.

I was to lay flat on my back and make a diamond with my legs, holding my feet together in the middle and pulling them towards me. This has always been a comforting position for me, actually, and sitting down, one of my favorite stretches. I was to keep my chin down, breathe slow and deep and hold my breath as long as possible at each push. At this point it also became clear that another woman was calling and coming in to the center in labor (Sandra's second baby from her dream), and a nurse arrived to assist in my delivery; Charlotta. I couldn't see her, my glasses had long been discarded. I felt for a minute that her 'new person' energy would halt the labor process. You could feel the energy in the room wrinkle up thickly and suspend, like I was a wild animal whose lair had been wandered into. Scott felt it too, but then a contraction hit, and her energy was only kind and helping, so I welcomed her into the folds of the experience. She gave me water to sip and we were friends. She held a long sheet tied with two knots and had me pull against her weight, just like in those pictures from medieval times of midwife births.

To describe the pain of these two hours...The absolute insanity of it: like having your chest cut open, no anesthesia and having your heart squeezed until it starts ripping in places, but it keeps beating, and being asked to plunge in there 3 or 4 times every two to three minutes for two hours to willingly squeeze it again while someone else pries your chest further open. All that in your vagina of course. It's a place beyond mind-dealability with pain. Horror? Wonder? Fear? I could only think of it in terms of higher concepts: commitment to get the baby born, commitment to the sensations, and trust to the midwife, her assistant, and Scott through all their metaphors and encouragement.

Scott whispered in my ear laying next to me, wiping my sweaty forehead with a cool cloth in between contractions. He kissed me. He told me to push like a M---, calling upon my maiden name and my childhood full of my father pushing me to always ski for one more hour, to kayak around another bend, to bike ride over one more hill. He whispered lines from my sheet of inspirational quotes that I had been gathering for months, such as reminding me of my 10 hour solo mountain hiking expedition in Switzerland. Although I have to say most of that sheet became highly irrelevant due to the very physical nature of labor, transcending the intellectual. He told me when I push to do it towards a point beyond the midwife, far out into the room. (He later said this idea came from his kung fu practice). Sandra was saying push through the pain, just when you think you can't do it anymore push some more, for those are the pushes that accomplish everything. Together they brought me to a place of starting to understand what I was doing.

Over and over again we rode the crest of a contraction into at least 3 or towards the end 4 pushes per contraction. At one point Sandra started chanting 'pushpushpushpushpush' the way they do on A Baby Story which has always driven me insane. I held up one finger to Scott from the depths of my pain, and he immediately communicated my need to Sandra: "don't say pushpushpush like that." She complied no questions asked. As the baby's head descended, Sandra would reach in and open me up around the baby's head, squirting & massaging in warm olive oil. It felt like she was reaching into my eyeball and massaging the nerves of my eye socket: like I had my third eye down there between my legs. I held my breath dutifully, tried to breathe deep instead of insanely fast between contractions (each time Scott reminded me I wound it down immediately- this was his job- cheerlover at the top).

The pushes started to yield the head- it felt like a squishy extension of my labia. I had to always put away my disappointment, after each push to the limits of my endurance, that the head wasn't just shooting out entirely. But it could only happen as fast as my body could stretch gradually. I still didn't believe that there was an actual child behind the sensations I was feeling. I knew only that my pubic bone seemed so low and it was weird to realize that I had to push the baby under it, not simply downwards out my belly bulge, and that this was a lot more towards my back than I imagined. So I created that pelvic space in my mind and always tried to push down into it. Sandra assured me that though it might feel like it, my butt was not going to explode. I began to believe in the power of the 4th push, the one that came as if from its own force, born out of the tail end of the 3rd push irrepressibly. A few pushes from the end I could feel a round bulge that didn't go away between my legs- the last of these I experienced the Ring of Fire as her head crowned. It was a smaller feeling than it had been built up to be in my imagination. It was a nice complete feeling, a good, out of my body feeling; a small solar eclipse. And then they were saying the head is out!!!

Scott was compelled to look down at this point, and was shocked since the little miss opened her eyes and took a look around! Her body still in me, and her beautiful eyes were already checking the world out. I put my hand down and patted the head disbelieving until it slid down her face and I felt the little nose. A feeling of total euphoria started flooding me as I waited out the minute or two until the next and final contraction. I held on to recognizing each second of this precious in-between moment in my daughter's life: the threshold between placental and terrestrial existence. Then the push took over, and my mind blocked it out completely, for suddenly there was a crying beautiful shiny wet clean floppy baby being handed up my stomach into my arms. "I love you, oh baby I love you, I love you, I love you" was all I could cry and cry and cry. It was surreal that all that sensation down there had produced this little being now being snuggled, rubbed, and suctioned gently at my chest. Like she came from another dimension, and the pain had all been just the doors opening but she hadn't really gone through me. She couldn't have been the source of what I had just been feeling for three days, I thought fleetingly. I was in total ecstasy, I told Sandra and Charlotta that I love them, I melted all over everyone, but especially over the little being now entrusted to my care. Scott & I just marveled and marveled over her and kissed each other.

My mom and Scott's brother were outside the closed door, with cell phones held up in the air to let my dad & my maternal grandmother and Scott's parents (who were on their way) hear the baby's first cries. We were alone with her until after the placenta was born & I had two small tears receive a stitch each. The whole time she was snuggled in towels and my flannel receiving blankets at my chest.

She came out so clean, with a perfectly round unmoulded head, blinking her little eyes. Silky smooth skin, she must have been washed in the amniotic fluid that came out. We tried breastfeeding and she latched on right away and had her fill of colostrum from both breasts. My little angel being had made it into this world, in my fulfilled vision of a natural childbirth, assisted by midwife at a Birth Center, for which I had spent all those months preparing. We got out our list of baby name choices and discussed what her name would be while family milled around at the end of the room. We chose Maia because that was always my secret name for her (a bumblebee cartoon character from my childhood), despite all other ideas, and Scott picked Posey (a street sign we had driven by on our move from Chicago to Austin) as a choice for middle name, which I seconded. And thus sweet Maia Posey came into this world.
~~~ Birth story By BriefCandle

Nataniks Birth Story

I had a pleasurable pregnancy, and spent the final months preparing myself mentally and physically for the pain of labour. I knew to expect the worst pain and all the birth stories I had been told and read gave me a wide perspective of variance. We had planned for a homebirth all along, but our midwives told us that high blood pressure would make us have to use the hospital. I was lucky and stayed calm right until the end, so got my homebirth. It wasn't really as I expected, but all is well that ends well.

1st stage:
I started having rushes on friday. I call them rushes, in honour of Ina May, because the first two days were gentle rushes across my belly. They did feel like energy being pumped into me to prepare me for the trials ahead. They were on and off through those first 3 days, at nights getting much stronger and faster, during the day sometimes stopping for an hour or more. I could sleep through them. On Saturday we went to ManWomans house and he painted my belly to bless you, Baby, and to tell me some things about parenthood. Saturday night things got pretty serious and I thought this is it! They were coming every 5-10 minutes. Your dad got up with me at about 4am, and asked if I would like a bath. He ran the bath and I soaked for a while, and the rushes wavered off. After we ate something things had pretty much stopped and I slept in late.
Sunday was the same, mellow all day and then getting really strong at night. I would say contractions started sunday night. I would have to jump out of bed for every one, because I couldn't take them lying down. I would lean against the wall and undulate my hips, streching out my back. I actually slept between them, but would awake with full focus every 5-10 minutes. We started writing down the times of them, just for something to focus on. And at about 5:30 during a strong one I suddenly felt water rush out between my legs! I caught it with my hand, and though I was expecting a big sploosh, that was it. I was pretty sure my water broke so your dad called the midwives. Then him and my mom started getting things ready in the living room. They brought the futon mattress down and put the shower curtains on, between the sheets, about 3 each alternating. Carolyn told me to hang in there and she should be in around 7:30. I think she showed up about 8:30 and immediately ordered me to lay in bed and get some rest, and she would come back in 3 hours. I took about 10 strong contractions lying down on our bed and couldn't handle that anymore. I started standing for each one again, not like I could sleep anyways! When she came back things started getting even more intense and I wandered around trying my best to relax more and more with each one.

2nd stage:
I was hanging off the bathroom door and leaning against all the walls. Lots of show was coming out, and it dripped around in the bathroom. I stayed in there alot because it was nice to sit on the toilet too. I was in bed when the pushing started, just about to jump up for a strong contraction when my womb just seemed to contract a few times, it was pushing! all by itself! I rushed to the toilet and sat down, and sure enough the next one caused some solid pushes too! I was grunting and breathing hard, very excited and not used to what was happening. I kneeled on the futon in the living room and got right into it. Carolyn and a nurse from the hospital, Jessica, were there helping me. My mom was also there, being quiet and observing, just like Denni. And your Dads mom was in the kitchen, just quietly being there. Your Dad sat behind me and held me through the contractions, he kept telling me positive things like "you are so brave" and "you are so strong, I love you so much". Jane, the main midwife, showed up at some point and was doing yoga and meditating at the foot of the bed. I pushed for about 2 hours, it was very hard work and I would moan low and deep with each session. Between each one, I would rest and drink something or chat a little bit. Carolyn was stretching me and massaging me with olive oil, her and Jessica were very encouraging and positive. I knew Carolyn had no kids, and I thought Jessica probably didn't either, as she looks super young (about 20). I later found out she is 31 and has 3 kids! For some reason whether they have kids or not effects my confidence in them alot. Jane, for instance has seven kids and I had really hoped she would be delivering, but she let Carolyn be in charge. Her energy was very strong, and at times I could tune into it- I knew it was a great source that I could draw upon should I need it. I kept telling myself "It could still get much worse" and that made the pain bearable. I could honestly say I was doing OK when they asked, and they did, it really was not too bad. I'll never forget when they said they saw your head, and made me feel it. It was still quite a ways in, but I could definitely feel it. Soft and small as it was, I later found out how heads cone up to fit through. Your head felt tiny and soft, yet it was stretching me quite a bit. They told me to feel around the edges, and I felt your skull which was quite a bit bigger, and hard thankfully. I wondered how I would ever get it out. That is when I began to draw on my sources, the last 10 or 20 pushes and contractions were extremely focused for me. I became that primal animal that must birth its child. My breath and voice really gave me power and I somehow balanced forcing you down and out with relaxing the birth canal and my yoni to let you out easily. Suddenly they were telling me you were right there, and you were!! With each push I would make progress, and you would slide back in a little in the break. Finally it was time to go, I wondered briefly if I would rip terribly- and I did feel the ring of fire. It was such a completely sheer and biting pain I cannot say it wasn't ecstacy; just knowing thats what it takes to get you here.... that and ........that and ......that forevermore. With a slippery gush they pulled out your body and all exclaimed loudly "there she is!" "its a girl!" "way to go!" "oh my goodness!" and so on, so I said "shhhh!", so you my poor tiny being would not be too startled by this new world of yours. They laid you on my belly on a towel and quickly scrubbed you clean. Then they laid you on my naked breast, and we looked at you in awe while Denni snapped a few pictures. You gave the tiniest little cry and then just looked around at everyone. Every bit of you was tiny and perfect, and I knew what all of my life had been for. Within 10 minutes you had already latched on and begun to nurse from me, and we were friends.
Birth Story by Star