MY labor story, sort of

For the moment I am enjoying some peace and quiet in our house! Kisa is down for a nap and Matt and I passed out with her... unfortunately I woke up, but oh well. I am feeling well enough rested for the moment.

I'm sure Matt will write a great blog with all of the details of delivery and our hospital stay, so I will just say a few things.

First, I feel incredibly blessed to have had such an amazing labor and delivery experience. I feel like everything went not only as I had planned but even better than I had hoped. I remember that I kept being surprised by the news the nurse would give me. She'd come in and give me an update on how far dilated I was, and I'd think, "really? Already? Wasn't it supposed to be hard?" I woke up from a nap at noon and was told (to my surprise and pleasure) that I was ready to push! I felt like I had barely even pushed and pretty soon they were calling in the doctor, and then before I even realized how close we were, they were putting my daughter on my chest!

When we got home and unpacked all the bags we had brought to the hospital, I kept pulling things out and kind of laughing to myself that we had never used any of the stuff we brought to cope with labor. We literally slept right through it. All I can say about that is God must love me, and I sure love epidurals.

Also, Matt was great and that made the whole experience so much easier than it could have been. He held my hand and encouraged me and even held his breath with me while I was pushing. He anticipated all of my needs and then met them without me having to ask. It was perfect. Over the last three days I have been thinking over and over how blessed I am to have him because he has been so good at taking care of me and Kisa. I really don't think I could have done it without him... which is a totally cliche thing to say, but true nonetheless.

Anyway, little Kisa is pretty much amazing and definitely the cutest person I have ever seen in my life, especially when she is sleeping or nursing or cuddling. When we were in the hospital we sent her to the nursery so we could get some sleep, so yesterday was our first night with her at home. She kind of gave us a run for our money. We had to call in my mom for backup. But today I am feeling a little more confident and well rested, so hopefully tonight will go a little more smoothly.

I don't really know what to say about Kisa. I feel like I am still getting to know her and I'm still kind of shocked that she is actually here. But I am also really proud of her. She is beautiful and she is doing so well. She seems to be eating, pooping and sleeping like she should be, so I'm not feeling very anxious about her the way I thought I would be. Plus, I just can't describe what it feels like to cuddle with her or nurse her to sleep. I guess other parents understand that feeling, but I can't put it into words.

Well, I should probably stop writing and see if I can catch a few more z's before the rest of the fam wakes up.. it could be another long night.