cousin noah

Yesterday, July 14 at 12:09 p.m. Eddie's cousin Noah Michael Wilson entered this world. I was honored to be a part of the process, aiding my sister in an all-natural, drug-free birth. I got the call at 12:30 a.m. that the contractions were becoming stronger and she had to breath through them. Luckily the call was no surprise because she had been having pre-labor signs for the past week and we had just had her "last supper" together just a few hours before. I got over to her house just after 1 a.m. and we labored at home until 6 a.m., mostly in her bathtub amidst candlelight and the sounds of Miles Davis. Her labor was arduous, emotionally charged and draining...different from mine with Eddie as even she recalled I seemed to labor "with grace." I likened Noah's birth to a Greek epic, whereas Eddie's was more like a fairy tale; both have their place on bookshelves, but of course the epic tales are those that have been deemed "classics" for a reason. Noah was born on a birthing stool, a sort of bar-like apparatus that is like a chair with no back and no seat. He hardly crowned in the traditional sense, only presenting a small portion of his head before he literally slipped out; the head slightly appeared and the nurse said to me "go get another nurse." I ran to the nurses station and said "my sister is crowning and we need another nurse" and by the time I got back into the room, there was Noah out on the floor, luckily on the soft surface of a pillow. The midwife didn't even have a chance to "deliver" him. Wow. On the homefront, my Eddies had a bonding day and little Eddie took crazy long naps, 3 hours apiece, which is unheard of normally. Maybe he missed his Mama. Or it is because he is still feeling under the weather - actually both Eddies are sick. E3 has had a sore throat for over a week and E4 had a fever Friday night and now has a cough and runny nose. So it will be awhile before the two cousins get to meet but I have already shown Eddie pictures of Noah and he smiles.