Mi amor

i started writing this post about a week ago. mia's 2 week birthday is tomorrow. it's kind of all over the place, but i just need to post it! if you can read this whole thing- you get a prize ;)

my mia is amazing. i cannot even believe how amazing she is. though i was very very upset with her when she would not come out to meet us earlier, she has proven to be a very good and obedient baby in her own way.

having a baby when you already have another kid is a pain in the butt to plan. because you can't really plan anything cause like the end times- you don't know when anything is going to happen. i asked mia to not come between the hours of 12 am and 6am. why? cause i really didn't want to have to call anyone to get out of bed and come to our house during those hours. sure lindsay and robert, and my friend grace who lives 2 minutes away from us, were more than willing to get out of bed for mia's arrival, but i just didn't want to have to harass them at such ungodly hours. and my wonderful mia started 'the process' at about 5:30am on thursday morning last week, and i ended up calling my midwife and lindsay at 6am. yeah! 6am is early, but 4am is earlier, so i think everyone was ok with getting the call.

so we got to the hospital at about 6:45am with my contractions coming about every 10 minutes. i was still on board with myself for this whole 'natural-drug-free birth' at this point. why did i want to do this? i'm not really sure to be quite honest. and would i do it again? probably not. but maybe. i don't know. the whole birthing without drugs is painful as all get out, BUT feeling everything in retrospect (and only in retrospect) is kind of amazing. like i could actually feel mia coming down the birth canal. very strange. and very amazing.

we got to triage at about 7am and i was already 100% effaced and 7cm dilated. surely i was going to pop this baby out asap styles, right? we got into our delivery room at about 7:30am, and i was kind of a hurting unit. chris was there, as was his mama, and my midwife, and a nurse. and that was my birthing team, unbenownst to me. i guess i should have talked more with my midwife beforehand to know what to expect. the only thing that i specifically talked about with my midwife was that i really really did not want to tear. i tore a ton with lily and almost not at all with topher. my midwife told me i was not going to tear with an uncanny degree of certainty, so i just went along with it.

basically, i don't know why i had this baby naturally. would i do it again? probably not. but here's the thing- i did not tear! it was amazing. my midwife was amazing. even though i felt like she didn't do anything for 80% of my labor- but apparently that's what midwives are there for- to not boss you around and let you do what your body is telling you to do. unlike doctors who are there to catch your baby and stitch you up. if for some crazy reason i have another baby- it will be via midwife with drugs. cause that's an option, and probably the best one out there. but my midwife also told me that recovery in general is much faster for people who don't have drugs, and though it is almost two weeks out and i still have some pain and discomfort in my back, i did feel 'pretty good' (considering a human being emerged from my body) hours after mia was born. the jury's out on whether we will have more kids and whether or not drugs are the way to go or not.

all i know is that life is good right now. chris is home and will be for another week and a bit. he has proven to be a ripe and mature seasoned veteran of a dad and husband. he is all over waking up with the older two so that i can sleep in every day. he empties and loads the dishwasher. he takes lily and topher to the gym so that i can hang out at home with mia. he also hangs out with mia and lily and topher so i can have moments entirely to myself. what a stud and a champ! i am surrounded by awesomeness and i feel so very very blessed.

people ask if i am sad that mia couldn't wait an extra 15 hours to be born on 11/11/11, but truth be told i really just needed mia to not be inside my body any more. and 11/10 happens to be the Marine Corps' bday, something that chris- a former marine, likes to celebrate every year. and every year i usually get him a gift, or a cake, or something to commemorate this special day. but i had nothing prepared for chris this year. until mia showed up! so happy belated Marine Corps bday my beautiful husband. and happy birthday to my sweet mia.

here are some of my favorite pics of my awesome husband and my awesome mia.