The Newest Shively-Blinn

If you wonder what early labour looks like at our house, this is it. As you can see, Noah was busy building some lego boats. Scott thought maybe the idea was to sail them in the birth pool. Noah, being 9 and 3/4, has enough sense only to dream of putting a boat into a birth pool...both he and Octavia helped with topping up the hot water in the pool which was in the front room before a roaring fire. Scott has a special talent for roaring fires. The temperatures on Saturday made this a special talent indeed!

Now you enter a time warp...not many photos whilst I was in the pool. But I had good chats and jokes with my doulas and midwives, listened to the HypnoBirthing cds, and really enjoyed U2's It's a Beautiful Day. The decor for Birth Day included a Guatemalan painting of mother and baby, a stone from the sea, a red poinsettia, a photo of my ma, a collage from my L'Arche friends, and of course, a candle. This part of the labour, which lasted only about 3 hours, seemed an absolute eternity. I really found myself thinking more than once, "I don't want to do this job." But the relaxation, the encouragement of my family and friends, the thought of holding a baby got me through most of it. Then the cramp started! It started in my right calf, stayed there, and then began to spread to my hamstring. All well and good as I was trying to stretch it against the pool until the left leg decided to join in the fun. Suffice it to say that when things got serious and I really needed to be able to use my legs well, I was stymied. So I asked the team, in a gentle tone (ha ha ha) to get me out of the pool. They hauled me out and Aodh took his sweet time spiraling into the world on a rug before the fire. He wasn't halfway into the world before Octavia was saying "I want to touch the baby!" and Noah was agog, just as he had been at the birth of his wee sister.

The entrance was more in keeping with this boy's choice of birthdays: a Saggitarian under a big full moon would prefer fire to water. Also, his Irish name Aodh [pronounced 'ay' or like 8 without the T] means fire or fiery. Things were as they ought to be.

He is perfect. 4.050 kilo, 52 cm. If I texted you, I may have said 9 lbs. Forgive me as I have an English degree and my conversion was half-hearted after the birthing effort. He weighed 8 lbs 15 oz.

The waiting is over and Aodh Emmanuel Patrick is among us, just in time for the holidays. Ah, yes! Baby A knew the P name he wanted. I phoned my Grandma after the birth, who is the last of her siblings and had hoped the baby would arrive on her birthday, the 9th. I apologized for not getting the baby out on her birthday but she was over that big full moon because December 13 was her father's birthday. I never knew my great grandpa Pat but he was a family doctor who still attended home births and he was born at home himself. So Patrick it is...