28 hours

My client had her baby yesterday, at 2am after laboring for 28 hours, 26 of which I spent at her side. She labored like a champion, showing amazing strength, unmedicated the entire time. While it was her first baby, you would have thought that she had had nine. She stayed focused through being sent home twice for not being dilated enough to be admitted to the birthing center. The second time we were turned away, she couldn't face a cab ride home so we walked the streets of Manhattan, stopping to get her through each contraction, to the nearest hotel. As you can imagine, walking the streets with a laboring woman draws stares even here in NYC. People were so great, they cheered her on and said things like, "You're almost there!" and "You go girl!", it was so fabulous!
I spent today recovering after a good night's sleep...and today is Amazing Husband's birthday! His birthday wish was to go to the beach, so we spent the day at "our beach" as my kids call it after going there once a week all summer. I spent an hour or so there gathering these smooth rocks, collecting in nature is such a meditative restful activity for me. Once we got home the kids and I played with the rocks out on our deck, creating these installations of color. The gray scale one in the first photo is my favorite.

Wishing a happy and restful Labor Day Weekend to you all here in the US!