Labor is a strange and intense experience. All of four of mine have been wildly different but what makes the recent birth of Pipsqueak most unique was my strong desire to write during my labor.
When my contractions became more intense and I was no longer able to rest, I sat in the rocking chair where I fed and rocked my other babies and timed my contractions. As the labor intensified, I spent my time between contractions writing (I’m lucky in that my contractions say about 7 minutes apart throughout labor so I do get some actual rest–and writing–time in between).
The first two paragraphs and start of the third below were the words that came to me during that time. The remainder I added later that day, after Pipsqueak’s arrival.
I expected her to come in the midst of a glorious thunderstorm (her name does mean “night rain” by all random baby naming websites, after all) but instead it happened in the calm of the night, the surges of the impending arrival cutting through my body like lightning. My body cycling through moments of rest and calm between the crashing waves, spattered with the thunderous cough of a cold that came on out of nowhere while we anxiously awaited her arrival.
The warm water of the tub called to me as time passed and the storm within my body intensified. The baby we feared would be a hurricane baby, born within the fury of a tropical storm, instead slid out of my body and into our world through the low howling of my soul as big brother and sisters slept down the hall, unaware of the storm brewing within our home that would bring a baby to us, the same storm that brought us each of them.
Yet this storm that had raged through my body all those times before was different, a different kind of intensity as we entered a new realm of forever. And as the storm cleared, all that was left in its wake was the surprise we had been waiting for. For the tiny baby girl we had dreamed about and expected (though we didn’t know for sure) landed in our arms in all his boyish glory and our hearts could not hold all the storm had brought and they began to overflow, the tears of joy streaming from our eyes.
There is always an eerie calm after a big storm, a stillness in the world, and his storm was no different. We settled down and looked in awe all the miraculousness of nature that had been brought to us that night. The storm that forever changed our world, that will always live vividly in our minds and that will be discussed and remembered for all of his eternity: the night his storm overtook my body and he was the beautifully unexpected calm after.
