What did you do yesterday? I had a baby.

I wrote this for a co-worker:

baby!

feel free to tell everyone.

december 8, 11:43, 13 hours of labour (no epidural, although i sucked back nitrous for several hours. brain damage, schmain damage.) i bit the boy several times and begged them to kill me halfway through.

21 inches. 8 pounds, 12 ounces. apgar 9/9.

his name is blake. labour sucked but he is perfect.

I wrote this for Livejournal:

well, it finally happened. yesterday i gave birth to blake donald, a strapping young lad.

it was a very dramatic birth. i was 9 days overdue on monday when i tried some herbs. i was kind of down about how long it was all taking. but the cohosh kicked in, and i had little contractions all evening. we got to loftwyr & gilamonstre's house at midnight. we weren't sure about leaving home, but after i threw up all of my dinner & started to shake uncontrollably - in other words, when it was established that labour wasn't going away - it seemed like a sensible decision. my water broke on their couch - try doing something like THAT, and see if you get an invitation to come back!

by 4 o'clock i was begging the boy & hectate to kill me. everybody thinks this is funny. (i do too.)

we got to sinai at about 5:30, and i went into the shower right away to see if it would help the pain. after about a half hour and 8 or so contractions, i refused to leave the shower until nitrous oxide was made available. (q is very proud of me.) they made me stop using the nitrous after 4 hours. something about brain damage. what-ever.

pixie got to the hospital for this stage, and was incredibly helpful for the next interminable stage. it was about 10 a.m. & i was at 9 centimeters when my mom traded off (she was amazing, too - incredibly nurturing, exactly the way you'd want your mom to act during such a time). i was still keeping all of my cursewords in my head, but i ended up biting james' wrists over & over during transition.

blake was born at 11:45 a.m, cried spontaneously & then stopped to look around. it took me awhile of holding this wet steamy smelly baby to realize that he was here and that labour wouldn't start up again. i always thought that i'd be a weeping, joyous mother, but i was more or less totally shell-shocked. we didn't even try to figure out his gender for a good 10 minutes. then he peed on me.

there's no praise high enough for the midwives. i felt completely informed & completely cared for. i was continually surprised that whenever hectate asked me to do something that i felt was utterly beyond me, it turned out that she was right and that i could do it after all. such an amazing, horrifying, incredible experience. for the first couple of hours, my entire happiness focused on not being in labour. when that passed, i actually became interested in my son.

no pictures yet. but soon.

This is from Ophelia:

December 8th in History

• 1894: cartoonist Elzie Segar was born in Chester, Illinois. In 1919 Segar created the newspaper comic strip "Thimble Theatre," which initially featured Olive Oyl and her brother, Castor Oyl, but later starred the hamburger-craving Wimpy and on January 17, 1929, Popeye the Sailor joined Segar's animated troupe
• 1931: Coaxial cable patented
• 1941: As a result of the attack on Pearl Harbour, Britain, the United States and Australia declare war on Japan
• 1952: 1st TV acknowledgement of pregnancy (I Love Lucy)
• 1980: the comic strip "Bloom County" debut
• 1982: Demanding an end to nuclear weapons, Norman Mayer, holds the Washington Monument hostage - After 10 hours, police kill him; he has no explosives
• 1987: President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles
• 1990: the largest pizza made was 122'8" long with 11,816 square feet in Norwood, South Africa
• 1991: The Soviet Union comes to an end, with the forming of a 'Commonwealth of Independent States'

December 8th birthdays

• 1542: Mary Queen Of Scots, Scottish Queen who ascended to the throne aged seven
• 1765 Eli Whitney inventor (Cotton Gin)
• 1894: James Thurber, American writer
• 1925: Sammy Davis Jr., American actor
• 1936: David Carradine
• 1939: James Galway, Flutist, Irish
• 1953: Kim Basinger
• 1962: Marty Friedman, Heavy Metal Guitarst of Megadeth
• 1964: Teri Hatcher, TV/Movie/Soap Actress
• 1966: Sinead O'Connor, Pop Singer, Songwriter, Composer, Irish, Lesbian, b. in Dublin; Pron:SHIN-AID; ripped up Pope John Paul II's picture on Saturday Night Live 10-3-92
• 1997: Gabriel Luke Beauregard Jagger, Celebrity Son, Jerry Hall and Mick's son

The coaxial cable. Who'd've thought?

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 12/09/2003 10:22:00 p.m.