Day Old Child by Carol Lynn Pearson

Day Old Child

My day old child lay in my arms,
With my lips against his ear.
I whispered strongly, "How I wish--
I wish that you could hear,

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say,
(a tiny cough and a nod),
hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."

My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled his ear,
But a kind of light passed through his eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:

"How I wish I had a voice and words,
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget, I'd tell you of God --
I left Him yesterday."
--Carol Lynn Pearson

Here's another very appropriate poem from Carol Lynn Pearson. I don't think I really need to say anything more, except that Elizabeth is such a very precious gift and I love her SOOOO much.

I went to the hospital to be induced on Sunday night. We arrived at about 8, and waited around until 10 before the nurses began to do anything significant (evidently, the doctor hadn't sent over the right form, and the pharmacy didn't have the right medicine on hand, etc). At 10 they gave me the prostaglandin gel, and hooked me up to a bunch of monitors - measuring, among other things, my blood pressure, the baby's pulse, and my contractions. Then Peter went home to get some sleep in a real bed, and I began the long wait. If I thought sleeping in my own bed was uncomfortable, trying to get any rest in the hospital bed was worse. Besides that, every time I moved, the monitors wouldn't work right, and the nurse would have to come in and readjust them. My nurse had a manner which implied that everything I did was a vast inconvenience (including jut showing up that day at all), so I tried not to move more than once an hour. At 4 am, she started the pitocin drip, and the contractions really started in earnest.

At about 8, I called Peter, and asked him to come back, since the contractions were getting pretty strong, and I wanted some support. While I was on the phone with him, I felt my water break, so he hurried right over. By the time he got there, the contractions were getting very painful and fast. We'd been told that the anaesthesiologist had back to back c-sections, so if I wanted any pain medicine at all, I ought to ask for it now, or be prepared to wait until they could call somebody else in. I realized that with the pitocin going, it was only going to get worse, so I asked for the epidural. After that, I was able to get some rest, and it's a good thing I did, since I hadn't really slept in more than a week. When it came time to push, it was difficult to get the right muscles going, since they were all numb, but we ended up having everything ready when the doctor came over on his lunch break.

Elizabeth really did NOT want to come out. There was a LOT of hard pushing, an episiotomy, and they still had to use suction to get her out. It turns out, she had her hand up by her chin, and that got in the way. It was kind of funny to have everybody around shouting, "Push push push! Just a little more! We can see her hair! Oh, here comes a nose!" All the same, she made it out eventually, and Peter cut the cord, and she was finally there and beautiful, and everything was just perfect! Everyone was exclaiming over what pretty red hair she had ("A little girl AND red hair?" said Mom, "You REALLY hit the jackpot!"), and wondering whether it would stay that way. The doctor made Peter sing Happy Birthday (though he didn't need much convincing) and Mom took about a million photos. When they brought her back over after weighing and measuring her (born Jan 14, 12:47 pm, 8 lbs 10.4 oz, 19.5 in long), she started nursing right away with a good strong grip.

Well, that's all for today, I'll write more about the hospital stay tomorrow. For now, here are some pictures.