Toby (officially Tobias), born June 30, 8 lb 1 oz. Whole family is doing well. (Actually, the big brother may have some different opinions on the subject, but he'll adjust.)

You can stop at the cute baby picture there, but if you want them, the gory birth details are here...

Monday the 29th was technically my due date, and I felt nothing particularly labor-ish most of the day, which disgruntled me. I'd been hoping for at least an on-time baby if not a somewhat early baby. I did have a couple of stronger than usual contractions in the afternoon, but then nothing, and I fell asleep with Z during his nap. That evening I noticed the faintest traces of watery blood, which got me excited, but then again, "bloody show" can mean birth is hours away or days away. So I went for a long evening walk with Z and Steve, and checked my email. My eldest sister, a certified nurse-midwife, responded to my due-date report with "Sounds like it might be tonight." I scoffed to myself, and went to bed.

Uncomfortable contractions woke me up around 1 AM, and I lay in bed a while, dozing and wondering if they meant anything. They did involve lower back pain, which was new, and usually a sign of real labor as opposed to pre-labor. OK, I thought; one more like that and I'll get out of bed and start timing them.

I had one more like that. Thus I got out of bed around 2:00, tiptoed downstairs, found my iPod, and used the stopwatch feature on its clock app to time the contractions. (They need a new app for this, Steve says. iLabor?) I jotted the figures down on a notepad in the light of the iPod's glow. Since they were occurring between 4 and 10 minutes apart, and lasting 30 seconds to a minute each, and felt stronger and more serious than the old Braxton-Hicks types, I called Labor & Delivery at about 3:00 and told them what was up.

"Try taking a shower," was basically their advice. This might relax me and subside the contractions if they were "false," but if not, I was welcome to call back.

So I took a shower. No change, but at least I was clean for starting the journey to the hospital. At about 4:00 I woke up Steve and said, "Contractions are getting mean. We better get this checked out." Also called the hospital to tell them I was coming, and my sister Kate so she could meet us there, and my folks-in-law so they could come over and stay with Z. (They've been in town a couple of weeks now pretty much for this exact purpose.)

Steve wins at smooth but speedy driving. Seattle traffic is miraculously nonexistent at 4:30 AM, which helped a great deal. Between contractions I got to enjoy the breaking dawn behind the sparkling city skyline as we zoomed over to the U med center.

We arrived a little before 5:00, and soon Kate got there too. At Labor & Delivery they put me in a triage room to check if I was really in labor before admitting me. Since by that point I was gripping furniture, wincing, and groaning with each contraction, this seemed a silly step to me, but so be it. I got stripped and into a hospital gown, and the resident doc stopped in to examine me. Contractions were only 2 or 3 minutes apart, I was already 7-8 cm dilated, and I hated lying on my back on the table. As I inched forward off it, right after his exam, the bag of waters broke, bringing on a super-nasty contraction (as is commonly the case). So yeah, they decided I was in labor (you think?), and helped me down the hall to a proper delivery room.

The midwife on call got there within ten or fifteen minutes, but by then I was up to yelling and making the hospital bed tremble from the force of my grip on it with each contraction. I still did not want to lie down. I remembered from last time that gravity is my friend in speeding things along, and felt best when I could stand, or squat, and hang onto the bed rail. Fortunately the midwife and nurses were totally on board with this, and seemed honestly not to mind that I was likely to have a baby on the floor rather than on their nicely prepared bed. They spread blanket-pad things under my feet for safety and cushioning, and told me to keep at it.

Steve and Kate said, "You're doing so good!" and "Great job, Molly," with each contraction, but as they told me later, "We were just getting warmed up." For within minutes, those nasty transition contractions turned "pushy"-feeling, and after maybe five minutes of pushing, out came Toby, at 5:50--less than an hour after we got to the hospital.

He started screaming instantly. Quite impressive. I thought normally they had to suction out their mouth or something first. Anyway, I plunked down on the floor blankets (Steve sat behind me to support me while Kate snapped photos), and I picked up the darling wet baby, and really all the other medical stuff they did to me after that hardly mattered. I did notice I had quite the case of horror-movie legs, though--streaks of blood all down to my feet. Expecting moms, take note: don't wear your prettiest socks for this adventure. Probably want to go barefoot here.

I finally got into their nice bed so they could deliver the placenta (practically a non-event after the baby's birth; not painful at all) and they cleaned me up while I sat back and caught my breath and admired the baby. Kate handed me her iPhone so I could log into Facebook and set my update with the news, but that's as much online time as I've really tried to do since then.

She commented that I "didn't even break a sweat," which is sweet of her, but not true. Maybe I didn't look sweaty, but I definitely did sweat. I don't think it's possible not to. Someone else (in the hospital) remarked on how good I looked after having a baby, and having it "the hard way," too--that is, without pain meds. But honestly, I don't think there's an easy way, nor that I'm any braver than women who get an epidural (or a C-section). You're facing serious discomforts any way you look at it. But you also come out of it feeling pretty darn impressed with yourself when you hold a 7 or 8 pound baby and realize, "This was in me??" So do not fear. Nature knows what she is doing and will usually help you along.

Also, that was of course a fast birth. That's often the case with second or subsequent babies, and definitely so in my family. So, even if I'd wanted an epidural, I'm not sure they would have had time to get one together. It's kind of amazing, too, to think of that evening walk we took, when I didn't even feel like I was in labor, and realize that 9 hours later I was holding a new baby.

Zach, incidentally, slept through the whole thing. He woke up at 8:00 AM, found his grandparents there instead of us, and cheerfully took it in stride. As to how he felt last night when he realized Mom would have to be cutting short her nighttime cuddle with him to feed the squawking baby--well, not so much in stride there, poor guy. But he's only 3 and a half, so chances are, he soon won't even remember a time before he had a brother. Strange!

Now the heat has come back to Seattle (not a day too soon), and I'd like to go down from this warm attic bedroom to a cooler place in the house, taking this warm baby with me. And eat! I can eat large amounts again. There's room for it! This is awesome. I'm so sleep-deprived, but sleep-deprived and not pregnant is better than sleep-deprived and pregnant. However, if I fall off the radar for a while here, now you know why.

Happy holiday weekend to those in the US. And please hug your mom and tell her "Good job."