where happiness lives

He's here! 

Well . . . labor was incredible. I'm so glad it's over. I want to write a detailed birth story, but that will take time to compose, and time is different now that we have Finn. So we'll see, right now it's still difficult to think about labor, because it was really intense, and I don't want to relive all those fresh memories quite yet. But soon, when time softens the edges, I'll be able to write about my labor experience. 

In short, it was successful. About 12 hours long, including an hour of pushing. He was born at 1.25pm on September 22. He was 8 lbs, 4 oz, and 21 inches long. An "ice cream baby" as Kim said, due to his filled out body, and the fact that I ate ice cream nearly every day of my pregnancy. She also said she thinks my due date was earlier, because he looked "well baked", with almost zero vernix left on his skin. So I was actually pregnant for maybe 41 or 42 weeks. Holy cow . . . good thing I only thought it was 40 weeks, 1 day. Mentally, it's better. 

My mom drove in that evening, and fed us and we all went to bed. When Finn woke up in the middle of the night, I fed him and Scott changed him and we all went back to sleep. So far, he's only waking up twice during the night. He sleeps in bed with Scott and me. I'm not sure how long we'll continue this, but for right now it's the most convenient arrangement. It's difficult enough to pull my aching body up to a sitting position to feed him, I can't imagine actually getting out of bed and reaching into his bassinet for him. 

After the intimacy of childbirth, I think Scott and I are on a whole new level. That plus the intimacy of parenthood have brought all three of us pretty close over these past few days. I'm dealing with some stitches and (luckily rapidly decreasing) postpartum bleeding. Scott's been changing diapers, which sometimes includes getting soaked in urine. And let's not forget that my milk is coming in, so I'm engorged, and pretty much a human waterfall of breast milk. The human body is just incredible. 

I will say, though, the emotional fulfillment of kissing his marshmallow cheeks makes every gruesome detail totally null and void.