These Women - My Daughters

This is not really a birth story. That belongs to Crystal. She'll tell it in her own time.
This is the story of one of my most amazing moments as a mom.
Baby Nash was born last Thursday.
It started just after 1 am when I heard "Mom! I think I'm in labor."
I hope she knows how much it honors me to be her Mom. I hear her talk about me as her mom to other people. She calls me mom on Facebook. (THAT'S validation. Surely!) But in our daily interactions I guess we don't call each other by any name really. We just talk. Which is awesome! There's not a birth story for me to tell about how she became my daughter. But she certainly did - become my daughter. As loved as all the others.
We gathered ourselves up and went to the hospital. Started making the calls to the sisters. And they all started rolling in.
Kayleigh and Heather, together, as an energetic and enthusiastic FORCE through the doors of the labor and delivery unit. All smiles and laughter and loudness.
Kenzie on a 2am 2 hour drive from school, determined not to miss the birth of this nephew.
Emily stayed home with Jaxon, having declared herself too young for this. lol
Roger joined us and for a few hours there was lots of talking and laughing and one or more of us at a time wandering in and out for snacks or drinks or ice chips for Crystal.
But then....then we got down to the last hour and half or so.
Roger, still surprisingly squeamish about woman things for a father of six daughters, left the room.
And Crystal got down to the serious business of pushing.
Something happened.
Something very powerful that I'm still not sure how to put into words almost a week later.
There we were, two of us on each side of her, holding her legs and coaching her through sets of 4 pushes for each contraction. Encouraging her to do this hard, hard work so that she could hold her baby.
And I felt this incredible vibe, energy, connection, UNITY, no...none of those words is quite right. It was just this SOMETHING that I can't even describe that was going on between this group of women that I have mothered for so long.
It was just so moving. Any time one of them would offer up more encouragement than the business of "deep breath in! push! 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 exhale and deep breath in....." it would choke me up with emotion to the point of making it hard to count out loud. I might have miscounted a time or two. lol
And then Nash was here. And he is perfect.

I wish I had the words to describe this intense thing that I experienced seeing my grown girls come together this way for their sister. It was simply magical. There has always been some combination of myself and/or a sister or two at each birth but this was the first time I was there with all of them. Amazing. A week later and I'm still crying about it as I type this.
Our oldest daughter chose to become estranged from our family a little more than 2 1/2 years ago. It's beyond comprehension for me that anyone would choose not to be a part of this powerful sisterhood. I'm sad for her that she is missing out on this and that their group can't be one sister stronger.
I've never had a sister and it never really mattered to me. My one younger brother was my friend growing up and, I admit, the target of my occasional sibling meanness. It never even occurred to me to wish for sisters.
But after last week's experience I kind of retroactively wish for a few.
Everyone should have a team like that.