Tuesday’s Child is Full of Grace

6:33 pm, he made his way into this world, 8 pounds, 5 ounces of squirming, squalling misery.

Like my labor with his brother, a slow start, but a dash to the finish.  This labor was hard, and a little melodramatic at the end.  The midwife came in a scant handful of minutes before he came out.  The tub we rented for my water birth stayed filled with warm water but empty of me.  I have never screamed so loud.

His name is William, and we call him Liam.  More tomorrow, including pictures, but for now, there is this: a cupid’s bow mouth – not mine, not his father’s, so whose?  Curly fine black hair, dark blue eyes that will surely darken, a pointed chin, a round baby nose.  He is pink all over, a saggy baggy elephant with wrinkly folds of skin around his knees and longish fingers.  I cup his tiny bum in my wide, large hand and think – this.  Again.

Glorious.