That girl is amazing!

One of the girls I work with had her baby girl early this morning (the 4 a.m. kind of early, not 7 a.m. kinda early). Everybody is healthy, the pictures she sent over are beautiful....and by the time I got in to work and heard about it they were already home!

My friend is very sweet, and because her parents were hippies, she grew up with a lot of those same values & holds onto them in her own life. She and her husband are very environmentally conscious, very natural, down-to-earth kind of people. She went through her entire pregnancy without any real problems & without complaining. She never missed a day of work until the very end just a few days ago, and never treated us to the emotional ups and downs and mood swings many pregnant women experience. She's a strong woman. In short, she can best be described as a real pioneer spirit. So none of us were surprised by her decision to visit only a midwife throughout her pregnancy & to deliver naturally at a local birthing center.

I was completely surprised to hear that the birthing center only keeps you for 4 hours after delivery. I should say here that I'm a total wuss & have zero tolerance for any kind of pain, and so anything less than a perfectly working epidural wasn't an option. I don't claim to know anything about birthing centers, but I am just so surprised to hear that statistic. Four hours hardly seems like any time at all.

Now, I did have a Cesarean delivery so I wasn't in any way ready to go home that quick - but even if I'd had a regular delivery I wouldn't be ready in such a short time. Physically - maybe. Like a very questionable maybe. But emotionally? Mentally? Not a chance. & if nothing else, I'd take full advantage of the delivered meals, full staff of nurses, and the choice to send the new babe to the nursery for a few hours to get a few winks of sleep of my own - goodness knows as soon as you go home all that is gone! 

This girl is brave, folks. I admire her so much for it. She's got more guts than I'll ever have - but maybe, just maybe, some of those will rub off on me.