we're home!

Can you believe it. Link is was born 28 hours ago and we're chill'n at home.

Okay - so let me clear something up, when I posted earlier I did a type (no sleep can do things like that), Linkin's middle name is Urijah. It means "The Lord is my Light".

I know I'm not the best linguist when it comes to typing out events. Normally I can summarize a full day in three or four bullet points and so that's what you guys got. In addition it is a very personal experience that you want to share but there is definitely somewhere in there that you need to draw the line. So, let me take a moment to digress about 32 hours...

Erica was awesome. Labor started just before midnight on Friday with a "What was that?" contraction. It QUICKLY got more intense. Erica has a fusion in two of her vertebrae that has always caused her a lot of pain... it made the labor and deliver very painful. Even when she wasn't contracting the muscles and bones in her back never let up. I was able to get a few hours of sleep in the beginning - but then it was all about supporting Erica. I won't give all the details... but it was really hard. Erica had prepared like an Olympian. She kind of merged a few books she really liked (Ima May, Hypnobirthing, Active Birth stuff) into her version of what she wanted the delivery to look like.

Her philosophy was mostly hypnobirthing but she wanted it to be pretty active (reeeaaallllyyyy). Well her back pain pretty much took out the active part... but she KILLED the hypnobirthing part. I really don't know where she took herself for those 14 hours of labor - but she did. It was amazing to watch... A MAZE ING.

In the end we decided it was time to go to the hospital about 9:30. When she got checked upon arrival she was 7-8cm and fully effaced. It didn't go as quick as we expected from there. A bit after 1pm her water fully broke - from there it was VERY SHORT until PUSH TIME.

It took a minute to get a grasp on how to make her body work perfectly with the surges, but she did it - and before long we say a big head of hair and a second after that... a penis!

So - no... I didn't leave out the drugs part... she had nothing... not even a Tylenol. She knows she doesn't get a trophy for doing it that way - but she wanted to join the club of women from all areas of the globe and throughout time that have felt the pain of child birth. She did what she wanted and felt awesome afterwards - especially with such an awesome and alert new son.

I'd say more - but need to get back to tending to the family. Thanks again for all the support. I promise some picts and vids before long.