Seven Years

Seven years ago I woke up in labor pains, gentle but strong labor pains. I say gentle in hindsight. Here's what I wrote on my now-defunct baby blog on August 4, 2003:

The condensed version of her birth story is this: 19 hours of labor starting at 2 am on Friday. I was able to get to 8 cm dialated before even hitting the hospital and that was at 9 am. My midwife thought that since I was able to get that far, Elizabeth shouldn't be taking too much longer. WRONG. I got stuck there until 2 pm when it was made clear to me that 1) I was exhausted and 2) not progressing, so I got an epidermal. Yes, I made it 12 hours without drugs - good for most, a little disappointing for me. But it bought me about 4 hours of sleep and then at 7:30 pm I started pushing. Elizabeth came into this world at 8:53 pm.

I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I think I was breaking my midwife's heart as well...she said I was about 30 mins away from a c-section, but had faith I could do it. I really couldn't have done it without the hubby and all the wishes and fab thoughts of friends, on and offline. 

Seven years later I would say the same thing. I couldn't have gotten this far in mamahood without the love and support of my friends who I see in person and those whose love comes through hi-speed connections. It really does take a village to raise a child and in today's connected world, that village is a bit bigger than I ever would have expected.