welcoming

The months passed swiftly by. Julia grew with each month, in Chris' eyes, more beautiful as her body filled out with pregnancy. He let her indulge in day trips to the spa for pampering, and read pregnancy books by the handful. They went shopping for baby gear and held long, detailed conversations of how they wanted to raise the child. Julia was confident that the baby would inherit her artisitic ability, while Chris just hoped that it was a baby girl as beautiful as her mother.

One day, Julia was painting in the living room when she felt cramps start in her lower back. She did her stretches and ran a warm bath to determine if they were Braxton Hicks or the real thing. She moved all around the house for as long as she could, but the cramps grew more and more intense. Julia had watched the documentary the business of being born and decided on a home birth - she just hoped Chris would stop flailing his arms around and panicking in time to help!

As the pain spiraled, she thought her hips would crack wide open. It was too much. She began to think she was crazy for wanting this. This unrelenting pressure, this horrifying pain.

"I put my career on hold for THIS??!" she thought to herself. "I must be CRAZY!"

A couple of hours passed; Chris finally calmed down and was being an excellent Lamaze coach - until, finally, it was time to push - and that stage didn't take long at all.

Eight hours of labour, a steady stream of swear words, and multiple reminders to breath later, the world welcomed little Delaney Wisk into the world. It was love at first sight for both of them.

"I put my career on hold for this." Julia thought. "And it wasn't crazy."