Early in the morning of Wednesday  September 18th, my second daughter, Lars, was born.  After a long labor of almost 22 hours, we had to opt out of our original birth plan and bring her in to the world via a c-section.  5 hours after her birth we were moved upstairs to the maternity recovery floor.  Our first room was tiny and barely fit the three of us comfortably but we made due with our surrounding since the hospital was at full capacity.  Thursday we were able to move to a larger room that gave us more space and myself a better fold out couch/bed to sleep on.

Our first room had an identical rocking chair as the one pictured above.  For some reason though, it didn’t really stand out to me like the one in our room currently.  Maybe it was because we had the windows open today watching the rain heavy clouds roll around as the rain patted against the windows.  Maybe it was because even after a rough evening and day with cluster feeding, we had a quiet and relaxed moment for the three of us.

Regardless of why, I was mesmerized by this rocking chair today.  The arms of the chair were visibly worn; the original staining was partially worn away by the countless hands and blankets that had been rubbed against it.  The rockers were also full of scratches and pock marks from all the different shoes that must have bumped into them as all the different family members crowded around the chair to catch a glimpse of their newly born family member.  My brain immediately starting making up visual stories in my head  of the countless number of newborns held in various family members’ arms as they were rocked to sleep.

And finally, meet the newest addition to our family, Lars Zephyr Rose…