Tears of joy... (466 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by KarmaJane (View user info) at 2004-08-12 11:03:37 EDT
Have you ever wondered what the expression "Crying tears of joy" would feel like? I always did. I actually know what it's like now. I found out at eleven minutes to one yesterday morning.
The background of this little statement is this: I, along with many of the people around me, have waited patiently for the greater part of the last ten months for a miracle. That miracle being my best friend's baby. Technically we didn't know she was pregnant until she was about 6 weeks along but I think somehow I was waiting for it anyway.
This pregnancy has been especially significant to me for a simple reason. The day that my friend told me that she thought she might be pregnant was the day after I broke up with my ex. Strange, but in a way this signified a new beginning for me almost as much as it did for her.
For quite a while we had each been the only person the other could always turn to. I came to cry about my problems and so did she. There was a period of a few months that whenever we were together at least one of us was crying. Pretty dysfunctional but it worked. It was one of those days that I had come to cry to her that she meekly suggested that she might be having a baby. Which caused me to cry harder while apologising for crying on her at a happy time like this.
Over the coming months, as I changed emotionally, she changed physically; her tummy swelling in that wonderfully pleasant way that pregnancy produces. That's not to say that her emotions were rock-solid; she had her moodswings whenever her "bellyfull of arms and legs" dictated hormonally that she should. And when she had THE ultrasound, the one where they tell you the baby's sex, we affectionately began referring to her "bump" as Holly; she believed the doctor somewhat when he told her it was a girl but the doubt in her made her come up with Jackson "just in case".
We spent increasing amounts of time together as her pregnancy progressed, mopping up her tears every time her loser boyfriend screwed up in some way. I helped her set up baby's nursery just so even though she knew that she'd most likely be moving house soon after the birth. I experienced some of the first kicks and helped with the morning-sickness. Except for the facts that the two of us are both heterosexual females and the baby's dad is still in the picture, we were almost a couple! We joked about that a lot.
Finally the due date came...and no baby. One day over. Two. Three, four, five, six and seven. STILL no baby. On day eight, or minus eight as we called it, the doctor decided on an induction (partly due to the not-so-subtle prodding of my hormone-high friend) and, at 7:00pm gel was applied to her cervix in an attempt to make it dilate. After three hours and not much progress, myself and her family went home for some sleep, fully expecting a baby sometime the next day.
My mobile phone rang early the next day. Her sister saying that the labor had intensified and she wanted me. Off I went, excitement pulsing through my veins. I got there in record time.
One hour passed. No baby. Two. Three, four, five, six and seven. STILL no baby. The doctor offered my friend a caesarian which she refused; she wanted to press on, determined to have this baby naturally. So they gave her a hormone drip to hurry things along. More time passed and, before I knew it, I'd been at the hospital for sixteen hours meaning that she had been in labor for twenty-nine hours and STILL no baby! This time the doctor insisted on a caesarian and, with pain and defeat in her eyes, my friend was wheeled away.
I waited with her family, all of us pacing nervously, for all of thirty minutes or so.
At eleven minutes to one in the morning, almost thirty hours after she had begun, my friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who she named Holly Jane. At 8 pounds 1.8 ounces, Holly was perfect. The midwife wheeled her out to those of us who were waiting while the doctor finished sewing my tired friend up. And, the first moment I lay eyes on this tiny bundle of tangible love, emotion welled up inside me and I knew what it meant to cry tears of joy...
User Reviews
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2004-08-18 08:31:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Plus fucking 2 my girl.
Submitted by Quasiplasmohedron (user info) at 2004-08-13 05:45:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ParlorTrick (user info) at 2004-08-12 12:04:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
A birth is such a primal joy ... nice story.
Submitted by funk_boy (user info) at 2004-08-12 11:37:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
ahhh
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2004-08-12 11:30:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
*sniff* I need a tissue
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2004-08-12 11:25:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This reminds me of that movie "Under the Tuscan Sun," which is really a complete pile of saptasticness, but it tries.
This was like a good version of it.
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-08-12 11:14:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment