life is short. love never dies.

 oi...

Ok, so on Sunday, i hopped on a ferry to visit my Best Friend Karen (who lives in Victoria) for 3 weeks. ie. All my vacation time. She's super pregnant. 

So i get there and she and Kaeda pick me up and we go get pizza and starbucks coffee for brelupper (breakfast, lunch and supper. it was 3pm-ish. i hadn't eaten all day. shut up.)

then we watched How to Train Your Dragon - one of Kaeda's favourites. I doubt she remembers that we saw it in the theatre together, but whatevs. 

After Kaeda went to bed, Me and Karen watched the first 2 eps of Season 2 of True Blood. It was pretty good. 

Around 11pm, we both hit the hay, making plans to maybe do a little shopping the next day, blah blah blah.

Yesterday, I get out of bed around... 730 or 8 am, and Karen's in the kitchen, preparing muffins. 

and she's all, "So yeah... my water broke."

O.O

Yeah, ok, so, she was SUPPOSED to have the baby while i was there - that was the plan. but the baby wasn't due until Dec 3!! 

AND AND AND!! IT WAS FREAKIN SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!!

timeblind and I had had a few talks about this, and seriously, MY GREATEST FEAR was that I was going to get STRANDED BY MYSELF with Karen, and none of the midwives would be able to make it to us.

cuz, yeah, She had a HOMEBIRTH!!

So I took over making muffins (which turned out delicious, tyvm - Blueberry Raspberry Butterscotch Chocolate Chip!!) and then she was all, "um... maybe you can go to Safeway and pick up some stuff for Chilli?"

So I had to DRIVE OUT in the SNOW in a car thats NOT MINE and has NO SNOW TIRES in a city that I DON"T KNOW VERY WELL... yeah...  it was kind of a slightly traumatizing morning. 

So i get to safeway, get everything on my list, and make it back home a-ok. Then i eat one of my scrumtious muffins, and start making chilli. Karen, in the meantime, was vacuuming. 

Karen's mother-in-law came by to pick up Kaeda, and we chatted a bit, then they were off.

Then we both kind of chilled out for a bit. We did some laundry, and changed the kitty litter, and... yeah. Her contractions didn't start picking up until about... well... I remember wanting her to call the Midwives, and then they called her a few mins later... 

and then around five, they still weren't here (i don't know what time they called at), and Karen had just had another contraction (not that she hadn't during the course of the day, but this one was around 5 mins after the one before, and lasted about 45 seconds, and that's when they said to call them or smth), and I gave her a look, and she's all, "I guess you want me to call them?" and she did, and they were at the store. They showed up maybe half an hour later. Well, 2 of them - Kim and Heather. 

So i had to go find a hose so they could fill up their birthing pool, and basically I just stayed out of their way. Sometimes I would follow Karen around the house and tell her to breathe when she had a contraction...

MEANWHILE, B, Karen's fiancee, was on the mainland, and had to get on the 5pm ferry and BOOK IT back home.

Seriously, you guys, he made it JUST IN TIME. 

Basically, he walked through the door, took off his sweater, and Karen started pushing out the baby. 

It took her 2 minutes. Yeah. she started at 7:32 pm, and Bowynn came out at 7:34 pm.

I have never witnessed a birth before. It was... interesting to say the least. It was weird, but beautiful. Especially since it was a homebirth, But yeah... seeing Little Bun come up from the water was... something. Looking kind of grey, and tiny. 

SERIOUSLY. SHE IS ITTY BITTY. AND ADORBS. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. 

This morning I got to hold her. I had been reading/sleeping until about 1030am, and came out to say hey, sat down in a chair, was told that there was coffee (to which i was all YAAAAAAAAAAAYYY on the inside), and Karen put Bowynn in my arms. She kind of blended in to my poncho that Karen made me (and gave to me as an early xmas present), as she was wearing a red sleeper. 

seriously. so tiny, and kinda squishy and soft. and my ice cold heart might have melted a little. 

THESE PARKER GIRLS. I TELL YOU. THEY MELT MY ICY HEART.

but yeah. Kaeda came home for a little bit, to see Mom and Dad, and her new little sister. 

Grandemere decided to leave with Kaeda when Karen tried to lie down for a while, since both B and I were around to watch Little Bun. 

But yeah... had a pretty chill day. 

I love being an Auntie!!