The Labor Of Delivery

My parents left this morning, amongst tears, sobbing and sadness, and that was all just from me. I have been more fortunate than I could ever say that I had my mom here for the past 5 weeks, and my dad for the past 12 days, and while I knew I would have to eventually tackle this motherhood thing on my own it was nice to know I had the help and expertise of someone who did an amazing job raising her own kids, if I do say so myself.

So after they left Finn and I felt adventurous and headed out to meet some friends from my childbirth class to catch up. This involved a walk and a train. The walk part was a piece of cake. The train part? Not so much. It was hard to get the stroller on and off the train but then I was met with stairs. About 50 of them. And no elevator. As I contemplated what my next move would be, which seemed to involve getting back on the train and going one more stop up and switching to a train back to Wimbledon, a nice man asked if I needed help, and carried the stroller with me down the stairs, telling me he had a 22 month old and a 6 month old, and people helped his wife all the time. I thanked him profusely, trying not to cry, and told him it was good karma, that him helping me would mean others would keep helping his wife.

But on the way back? I wimped out and and took the bus. Two of them actually. And what would have been a 5 minute train trip was a 40 minute bus ride, but I didn't have stairs, so it was worth it.



When we were sitting talking about our deliveries I realized I have been thinking about Finn's birth all wrong. I haven't posted a birth story on here because it is too long and I am probably too dramatic and honestly it is our story to hold onto, but I did share it with a friend who is pregnant and who asked. I haven't heard from her since then, and I sincerely hope I didn't scare her so much she doesn't want to talk to me! But what I should have told her, and didn't, is that despite the fact that labor was as tough as it was the delivery was completely the opposite. It was magical and amazing and, yes, painful, but to see what I was capable of doing, of producing, erases all the pain away. So from now on if anyone asks how my experience was I won't focus on the labor but instead the delivery, and this amazing baby that we got out of it.




I know this blog is pretty Finn-centric right now, and I promise it won't always be that way. But my life is pretty Finn-centric right now, so I can't apologize, but I will try to talk about some other things soon. I have to catch up on my Perez first.




And now there is a smell wafting towards me from the little man dressed in polka dots laying next to me that tells me his daddy is in luck and won't have to change a smelly diaper when he gets home from work. I really need to have a talk with Finn and tell him it is much better to poop after 6:30 so I don't have to clean it. Do you think it will work?