A very serious concern

A little background is needed so that you can fully understand my concern.

Grace was born on October 25, 2006 at 7:58 p.m. After three hours of back labor with no drugs, one of my first thought was, "LOST starts in two minutes. I wonder if they can get me in a room in time to see it." They didn't and I missed it. I still look at her sometimes and think, "You made me miss LOST."

I LOVE LOST. I watch it religiously. When it's over, I go to bed and think about it for hours. I read the message boards, I even comment sometimes. I read the blogs and comment often. When the writer's strike took it off the air, I wondered if there was a way to raise enough funds to bring the LOST writers back.

Are you getting it? Do you feel my addiction?

The reason for my current concern is that my sister Michelle is pregnant. She was due on Sunday. She wants me to be present for the birth of her son and to photograph her labor and delivery. My concern is multifaceted.

Many of you know a photographer friend of mine, Tabitha photographed Grace's birth. She is incredibly talented. And brave. A few weeks ago, I was looking at the photos from Gracie's birth and I saw one that made me go week in the knees and PIMMAL a little. It shows Grace crowning. It's not cropped or blurred or anything. It is what it is. A photograph of parts of me that I have never seen, with a babies face peeking out (Grace was sunny side up, so it is indeed her face). I saw it and thought, "How on earth am I going to take these kinds of pictures of my sister?" Besides the fact that my longest lens is 50mm, (which basically means that in order for me to get a close up like that, I will have to be standing right next to her doctor. Close enough to catch the baby.) I hate blood and I hate pain.

My concern grew when Sam cracked his head a few weeks ago and needed staples. I almost passed out while trying to clean his wound. Again, I wondered how I was going to pull being present at a birth off.

Today, my concern reached new heights when I realized that tomorrow is the two hour season finale of LOST. What is she goes into labor tomorrow? I called my sister and told her that if being at the birth of her son in any way conflicted with getting to watch LOST, I wasn't going to be able to make it. Know what? My crunchy, all natural, dread lock sporting sister understood. She proclaimed that she'd been thinking about it this morning and has decided that if she has to, she will get an epidural so that SHE can watch LOST.

I'm not sure which of us is a bigger fan.