Leslie's Post

You know you're ready to deliver when your right foot swells up twice the size of normal...and your left foot swells up twice the size of your right.


And your stomach is bigger than all of the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

I was SO ready to deliver. However, when Tuesday finally came, I wasn't so sure. Are there really any guarantees with this childbirth thing? Well I will spare the details of Liv's birth, only to say that I knew when the moment came I could be brave. I knew I was in good hands; I knew it would be over soon. I knew more than ever I couldn't wait to meet my baby girl. And finally--



The first time I looked at the face of my child, I didn't think 'my child.' I made no claims. Transported by awe to someplace way past tenderness, I was courteous and grave, one fierce creature greeting another, newly arrived. Then (he) said, 'Our daughter, our little girl,' and -wham- I bought the complete package: tenderness, yes; devotion and longing, euphoria and despair; ache and work and rage and boundless gratitude. My girl and I got it backward, backward and right. She did the claiming. I was delivered, unto her. 'You are mine,' she cried, her hands reaching for my face, and nothing was ever more true.
-Marisa de los Santos, Belong to Me