Juice Feast Day 2 AND 3

You'll never guess what happened.

I got home from the birth at four in the morning!! I was there for a total of 20 hours. Luckily it was a homebirth at my best friend's house and because she eats like me, there was plenty of produce for me to make more juice as I needed it.

So on day one, in addition to the quart of Crenshaw melon juice, tomato blend and cantaloupe juice, I drank a half a quart of apple, strawberry, ginger juice, and one more quart of the veggie blend juice mentioned on Monday.

I really started having a hard time with energy at about 2 in the morning (now officially DAY TWO). I had been awake all day and had been helping my laboring mom. I was out of energy so I went to the kitchen and found some Yerba Mate tea and made a cup. It helped so much! It seemed to pull me through so that I was able to continue on until that beautiful baby girl was born in the wee hours of the morning.

I finally got home and into bed at 4:30, and here's where the, "you'll-never-guess-what-happened" line comes in. Two hours later, I received a text from another client, saying that her water had broken and she thought I should know! Luckily her labor was very slow and easy at that point, so she and her partner didn't need me yet.

I was able to get a couple more hours of sleep, but had to go down to my commercial kitchen to do Raw Melissa's Tuesday orders. [A side note: my Tuesday Order employee had HER baby three weeks early, 6 days ago so I HAD to do the orders no matter what. I was also her doula so that makes three births in six days! A record for me]. Before I left, I made LOTS of juice so that I was prepared when my clients needed me.

Day Two Juices: One quart Crenshaw melon juice; two quarts carrot, tomato, cucumber, zucchini, cayenne, GARLIC and dill juice; half a quart of apple, blueberry, ginger.

It took me about three hours to finish the orders. My delivery people came, packed everything into their car, and as soon as I got them out the door, I rushed home to get some much needed sleep. I lay down and had just started to fall asleep when I got a text: "Contractions are three minutes apart and 45 seconds long. She can no longer talk through them." I dragged myself out of bed and texted back that I was on my way. I loaded up my juices including a quart of strong, unsweetened Yerba Mate and Spearmint tea to get me through what I thought might be another all-night labor vigil.

After an intense and long night of serious contractions and sheer courage, my sweet mama had her baby; the papa welcoming his baby into his arms as the midwife guided him in catching her. Time: 7:36am. 25 hours after her first text.

I dragged my bottom home and climbed into bed at 9:30am this morning. I finished the other half-quart of apple, blueberry, ginger juice on my way home and ended up sleeping and just sitting in the sun most of the day. So far today I've drunk a half-quart of carrot juice, a glass of tomato, garlic, cucumber, dill, zucchini, celery, red pepper, cilantro, lime, cumin and cayenne juice (so amazingly tasty - salsa in a glass) a quart of blended nectarines and pluots (a cross between a plum and an apricot), and a bit of blended mango and blueberries.

I am sheerly and utterly tuckered out and ALMOST quit for good last night at 2:30am when I had been going, for two days, on about four hours of sleep accompanied with lots of physical work, but I chose instead to eat about a quarter cup of veggies to supplement my juices, and it was just the boost I needed to get through the night and keep helping my mama.

So far I haven't watched the sunset once, but I figured welcoming two human beings into the world and being witness to the struggle, bravery, and ultimately, the ecstasy of their mothers, far surpassed watching the sunset.

This is hard, but I'm doing it. This is hard but I'm doing it. And I can positively say that it's all down hill from here.