Emma Grace Lee
January 30, 2009
6:06pm
6lbs 10oz, 20 inches
San Ramon Regional Medical Center

Dear Friends,

Our little girl arrived Friday, January 30th. It took awhile for us to decide on a name. But we are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Emma Grace Lee. Derived from 'Emmanuel' -- God is with us.

Isn't it beautiful?

The story behind the naming of our daughter requires an entirely separate blog entry :) ... so we shall save that for another day.

On Friday, January 30th, I went in for my weekly checkup at the doctor's. I was full term at 40 weeks and the estimated arrival date was the 31st, so we had been expecting ANY day. Of course, in the days leading to Friday, I had two false alarms and poor David, both times, got up in the middle of the night ready to rush to the hospital. Sadly, both times I had to recant and an exhausted David would watch me crawl back into bed just as dawn was breaking. At the time I felt bad that he would have to start his day with little sleep. But in hindsight after having given birth naturally without the aid of anesthesia, I find myself left with little to no compassion for others' pain.

You: I lost my leg in a shark attack.
Me: Oh, wow. Sorry to hear that. I gave birth naturally.

You: I was bit by a brown recluse spider which caused my flesh to rot. It hurt.
Me: I bet not as bad as giving birth naturally.

You: I was struck by lightening.
Me: You think that hurt? You should try giving birth naturally.

You: My body caught on fire while I was trying to deep fry my turkey last Thanksgiving.
Me: Hmm...wow...that sounds painful. But you know what's really painful? Natural childbirth. There's this thing they call the 'Ring of Fire'...

Anyways, my doctor accidentally broke my water. So I called David and asked him to meet me at the hospital with a Subway Club. You would think that he would have brought me a foot long given that I would be taking on the task of giving birth to life. A six inch sandwich provides enough sustenance to fuel the remainder of a workday. You know, emails, telephone calls, meetings...You eat a six inch before heading to the mall on a Saturday afternoon. Six inch sandwiches are eaten by construction workers, mailmen, teachers, kids, and soccer moms on Friday afternoons. A pregnant woman about to give birth on a Friday afternoon needs a foot long.

Things at the hospital were at a standstill. I had not gone into labor. No contractions, so they sent us off to walk around and see if labor would kick in. We were told to stay on campus at the hospital, but I made Dave help me bust the joint and we went to Baskin Robbins and had some ice cream. I ordered 'Wild and Reckless' and Dave had the 'Gold Medal Ribbon'. Then we went next door to See's Candies and bought a box of chocolate. And I ate that too.

In life, we get little messages. Sometimes we see them, sometimes we don't. But hindsight always reveals the small tokens of foresight that life tries to offer. Eating ice cream labeled 'Wild and Reckless' is not a normal occurance--for anyone. I should have avoided eating anything called 'wild' or 'reckless' before having a baby. You've heard of the saying: "You are what you eat"...

We returned to the hospital around 4pm and still no contractions, so they gave me potocin to induce labor and 15 mins later, I was going to have a baby...soon.

So here's where my life came to a fork in the road and I had to choose.

Epidural.

Or natural.

I asked: "What's the time difference in labor with epidural and without?"

The nurse told me that I would have the baby much quicker going natural, and that, usually, epidural adds time to the labor process.

I asked: "How much time?"

The baby could come as quickly at 15 mins going natural versus an hour with epidural. The time difference was significant enough for me to forgo the epidural because all I was thinking about was Baskin Robbins. I had been regretful all afternoon long about getting only one scoop instead of two.

Sadly...very unfortunately...I had been asking the wrong question. What I SHOULD HAVE asked was "how much more does it hurt without epidural?"

This, I can answer for you:

Natural birth hurts so bad that the birth of my second child will go down in my medical history as a near death experience. I almost died that day. I asked David if he saw any bright lights or little glowing orbs floating around in the room that day. He said, 'No'. But I'm sure he had his hands full trying to stop me from getting violent with the hospital staff and yelling at strangers.

But, here I am. Alive and well.