first!

james entered the world while his mama soaked in a warm and deep bathtub, and it was no accident. my labor and delivery happened to be meriter hospital's first official water birth. meriter, madison's community hospital and my dear employer, just became the first hospital in madison to offer water birth to uncomplicated laboring moms, and no one had done it by november 17.

enter the staple family.

david and i spent 2 1/2 long and booooring days hanging out in the hospital waiting for labor to kick in after my water broke. had we not been so anxious to start labor, meet the baby, get home and see ramona, it would have been a pretty fancy vacation. we did manage to enjoy a few full nights' sleep (ramona's never really let us taste an uninterrupted 8-9 hours since january, 2010, god bless her fussy little heart), some pretty sweet room service hospital food, and some serious tv watching and music listening. finally finally finally, after a bit of gentle nudging toward labor, i started to have hard contractions. after an hour of contractions, i slipped into a deep and warm tub of water and floated around. the pain of the contractions did not go away, but the water took the edge off. the energy needed to reposition for contractions was minimal, and i was able to sleep a bit between contractions in the water, allowing good rest and recovery. within 30 minutes, i was pushing. 10 minutes later, james was born quietly and peacefully (no lie) underwater (no lie), and was soon sweetly looking around for the first time while resting in my arms.

it. was. amazing.

maybe it was so amazing because ramona's birth was beyond traumatic and medical. maybe it was amazing just because i seriously love taking a bath anyway. maybe it was amazing because of the super wonderful people in the room supporting me at the time of birth. maybe it was amazing because, as a former labor and delivery nurse and a current women's health care provider, i know just how beautiful and how terrible birth can be. regardless of the reason, it was amazing.

first photo after delivery, just soaking up the joy, soaking in the tub.

for more information on the safety and function of waterbirth, check this site).

and, of course, james is amazing, and we're all in love with this quiet, peaceful, easy baby. even ramona digs the little guy.

and now we're a family of 4. weird.

we have so so so much to be thankful for, not only this thanksgiving, but every day.