The Other Side

I won't do a play by play or go into any of the gory details, I will save that for the countless hours Carmen will have sitting on her butt nursing. But I will say that if you ever have the opportunity to be on the other side of labour take it. It is incredible what women's bodies go through in childbirth and it's more incredible they can manage it with grace.

My sister laboured at home for 8 hours to give her in laws time to come in and watch Mateo just so it wouldn't be hard to leave him crying. Sorry let me rephrase that, it didn't take them 8 hrs to get here but early into the labour she didn't want to call them just to return home shortly after from the hospital, so she stuck it out until she was sure it was time to go.

Surprisingly every grimace through a contraction didn't remind me of the pain of having Mateo. So I guess it is true, you forget the pain. Not right away but eventually. Every grimace did remind me of how hard we work for our children.

We carry them for 9 months, 9 months that are often filled with backache? heartburn and nausea. Some of us try for months beforehand just to conceive, some are a lot luckier. Then we go through hell and back ( if we are lucky on the way back we get an epidural) to deliver them. Once they are here, we are battered and bruised but that's not enough we start nursing and going through weeks of chapped and cracked nipples. We fear going to the bathroom for months and clean poop and puke for a living. And even after a long day we settle in for a long night and start all over the next day.

That's where I am at now and I am happy staying there. My mother wears the greys of 30 years of motherhood and hides it quite well.

What I learned yesterday is that you are stronger than you think you are and it's over before you know it. Carmen was sure she was weak and couldn't handle pain and it was the exact opposite. She was eerily calm and incredibly strong. As for it being over, even after a long day it came to an end. And in the end there was a little baby in my arms. A little baby that reminded me that it feels like just yesterday I held my little baby. But when I came home from the hospital to a little boy I had a little cry (yes births can even crack this egg). Not a sad cry, just a little moment of emotion. Watching him babble, belly laugh, crawl, practically walk and most of open his arms with the biggest smile on his face made be so grateful for motherhood, the few short months of it and the years ahead.

I think I am ready for another!