My daughter’s best friend had her third child last night, after nearly a month of almost constant contractions, three stays in the hospital and a course of steroids to mature the baby’s lungs. Since her family situation is not ideal (mom and brother are crack addicts, step-father is in rehab, baby’s daddy is in jail) we were her birthing team, and got to hold her legs and help her through the whole messy, smelly, gooey, wonderful hour and a half of pushing. She had a 6lb, 11 oz baby girl, Ariana Sage(or Arianna, she hasn’t decided yet) at 38 weeks, and I got to cut the cord! She then had some trouble delivering the placenta, and they were prepping an operating room team and about to whisk her into surgery, but everything resolved and she avoided a repeat of her last delivery…I let my daughter stay at her side during that hectic hour while I played with the baby! I’ve never seen a birth in person (from that angle…I’ve had two of my own!) so it was quite an experience to see that little face emerge…sideways, poor thing, with an extremely pointy head! But she’s beautiful and perfect and cleaned up well!
So now keep sending good thoughts, because the mom is bipolar, not currently on any meds and prone to severe post-partum depression, so the next few weeks will be hectic for us as we try to help her as much as possible. She already has a four-year old (with the early stages of lupus) and an 18-month old, so she’ll have her hands full. If you could have seen the faces of the midwife and nurse when the mom told them about her mental health issues…after the birth, mind you…not happy to get that news so late. But she’s a great girl, and a good mom, and her problems are manageable, and she’s aware of them, so with help she’ll get through the rough few weeks just fine.