Before Lily was born (Lily B.C.), and about the time in her development that she was able to move her legs, she spent most of her days kicking me in the ribs. Hard. I was out for tea with some of my university friends (at the Secret Garden in Kerrisdale - highly recommended) a month before she was born and she kicked me so hard I swear she broke one of my ribs. This should have been our first clue....Nevertheless, Jason and I embraced impending parenthood with that fluffy, romantic idea of the sleepy little newborn with the helpless cry, lying like a lump while we watched in adoration and basked in her cuteness. Ahem.....
Lily Assunta (named after my Grandpa Pisacreta's mother) Johnston was born 11 days late and one day shy of inducement. In pregnancy time that's equivalent to about 57 years.
The labour, while relatively uneventful was a scathing 25 hours, plus 1 shot of morphine, 2 trips to the hospital, 5 puking episodes, 17 "don't touch me's", and 20 minutes of pushing. We love, love loved the doctor's (Dr. Meakes, Dr. Hall) and Nurse (Susan) at the BC Women's Hospital and had an overall wonderful and awe inspiring birth experience. (Is it glaringly obvious that I have since forgotten the pain of labour - and may indeed do it again in the future???)
Anyways, Lily was born at 3:04am on January 11th, 2006 with all of her toes, fingers and various other body parts intact. She popped out screaming and when the Dr put her on my chest, she stopped for a moment and just stared up at me as if to say "So... You're my mama". Later on I realized what she was really thinking was "I'm going to get you back for bringing me into this dry, cold, bright world" We brought her home the next day....The next 8 weeks were entirely on par with heeds from generations of mothers before me.
Suck. ASS.
Endless crying by both me and baby; bottle after bottle of Ovol (gas relief); sleepless nights and hazy days; anxiety over stupid things like the Bird Flu, Global warming and whether she would cry if I took her to Walmart; shits that actually covered distance that could be measured with a ruler; and stains - oh the stains... 
And did I mention that for some reason she smelled like boiled eggs for the first week of her life? But we all made it through... No serious emotional trauma. And by about 2 months, Lily was consistently sleeping through the night, smiling, and pretty much squiggling and moving every waking minute of the day.
But I will save the last part of this for another post.
L
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