On Saturday night, I checked my cell phone before going to bed and got a voicemail from my Aunt M, telling me my Aunt J was in labor and inviting me to the labor with her. Aunt J had planned a home birth and thought it would be neat for me to see a birth. (They must read my blog or follow me on Twitter. Or they just sense the baby fever.)
Side note: I want no one at my birth aside from Mike and a midwife. Probably my mom, since she's been through five of them and attended at most of my aunts'. She's pretty much a champion birther. But! I could never imagine INVITING people to see me give birth. I'm already paranoid about possibly pooping (!) in front of people and groaning or crying or whatever pain will make me do. My aunt is insanely awesome and low-key, obviously.
Since I didn't check my voicemail until 11:30pm, I decided the baby might be already born and it would be far too late to call Aunt M. I went to sleep and called Aunt M first thing when I woke up.
A baby girl. Born at four in the morning. Marie Lucia.
You may have noticed I have quite a few little boy cousins. Nine under the age of six, in fact. My grandma has 26 grandchildren and the last nine have been boys. This little girl will have a LOT of boys around. It was amazing to hold a baby that was less than 12 hours old. It has been a long time since I've done that. There is something truly fascinating and magical about a tiny, perfect little human who has recently been through a great deal of trauma to get here. Seeing her open her eyes, overwhelmed by light and flail her arms around slowly, probably not used to being able to move so freely - it's just beautiful...
Also, my aunt gave birth at HOME. Which is crazy fascinating. If you want to read more about why someone might choose home birth, checkout Sara's great post here. I didn't even know they had considered home birth - but they were keeping it quiet, since people tend to be quite judgmental about alternative health choices. I'm currently reading Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Day Midwife and just watched The Business of Being Born (which I highly recommend to any pregnant or wants-to-be-pregnant-someday woman) - so it was really neat to get to talk to my aunt about her home birth less than a day afterward. (This was after a C-section, which is apparently a pretty big deal. Go Aunt J! She's a rock star - all 4'11" of her.)
From a visitor's point of view - it was fabulous to be able to sit and chat with my aunts NOT in a hospital on their king-size bed. And capture moments like this. And enjoy moments like this:
Your aunt is a rockstar! Congrats on your new little cousin.
ReplyDeleteWow! Newborns are amazing. Your aunt is amazing, too!
ReplyDeleteHusband's aunt is having her first baby in a week (or so); I have two cousins having babies in the next month; and my aunt is having her first baby (squeee!) at the beginning of the year. Babies all around!
Brand new baby--yay!
ReplyDeleteI was born at home, but it wasn't planned that way. :)
Brand new babies are so amazing. I had the pleasure of meeting one a few years ago. Although I know that i personally don't want kids of my own, just knowing that this real person is here today and wasn't here yeterday is quite a miracle to witness.
ReplyDeleteOK oh my WORD that is a beautiful beautiful photo. And I have baby fever too so you've just made that worse :P Sounds amazing though. How very very exciting.
ReplyDeleteAww baby!
ReplyDeleteI am always surprised to learn people have issues with home births. But that's probably because I was born at home, as was my mother and her two siblings, and all I've ever heard about it is how great it is. Should I ever have children, it's something I would seriously consider. I can't imagine that in a hospital they let all your relatives in at 6 am to see the baby and bring you cups of tea and a fry up breakfast. :)
Congrats to you and your family! She's a beauty. :)
ReplyDeleteAw, that's a really adorable picture.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to be a part of something so amazing :)
Wow! Your aunt is amazing. I really support anyone who chooses an alternative birth. It is hard to go against the "normal" hospital birth. I have opinions on why hospitals push hospital births so hard, but I will leave them off this post. Your cousin is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI've recently become curious about home birth, and your post (with links to other places) was really interesting. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI just watched the Business of being Born last weekend. It was awesome and totally made me look at birth in a whole different way.
ReplyDeleteaw congrats! at least she'll have lots of boys to look out for her :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so great! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see more good press about home births. If I have kids, I'm probably going to do it at home. I don't know all the politics behind everything, but I don't want a "drive-thru" birth where I feel pressured to leave the hospital so quickly after, and frankly, I don't like hospitals and would feel much more calm at home. I also like the idea of water births (less pain I hear). Anyway...lucky you for getting to experience that. It's a great photo.
ReplyDeleteAwww!!!! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteWow! This is absolutely amazing and SO exciting! I've read quite a few stories about home birthing recently, and while I am not anywhere ready to have a child, I definitely want to keep it in mind whenever that time rolls around.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! And congratulations!
Thanks for this post Ash, and the link.
ReplyDeleteDid I tell you, I'm going to be in the mamma club??
::squeee::