Pink Prickly Pear

Baby!

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Dashiell* McCall finally made his appearance on 9/25/08 at 6:55 a.m.

8 lbs. 9 oz.!!!

Almost as big as his sister (8 lb. 11 oz.).  It was a rough ride, but we did get our VBAC.

Pics, birth story, etc. to follow.  Now we nap...

^{*pronounced Dash-ull, and of course, immediately shortened to Dash.}

Rant-o-Rama

Dear Hospital,

Thanks so much for the emailed week by week updates on my pregnancy!    I'm so happy you actively encourage breastfeeding.  I'm grateful you encourage skin to skin contact for at least 90 minutes immediately following birth.  I'm glad my husband can sleep in the same room as us for the duration of our stay.

It seemed every time I opened your update, I was reassured that we had made the right decision in choosing your facility.

It was therefore disappointing to open today's message.  Unfortunately, it's a bit too early for "Congratulations and Welcome Home".  I'll file away those helpful tips for newborn care, but you see, I don't actually need them this week.  I may be past my official "due date" but we are still well within normal range for a healthy pregnancy.

Grouchily,
Triple P

Weekend round-up.

I know all you really care about is da baby... If his arrival, or lack thereof, is revealing anything at all about his character, we can assume that he's as stubborn as his big sister. 

Speaking of Mini-Pear, this morning she was invited to join the Black Belt Club at her karate dojo!  She's spent a lot of time and energy working towards this.  Her dad and I were watching the end of class through the window and watched her get called up in front of the class and presented with what looked like a certificate.  As soon as we saw the look on her face, we knew what must have happened.  She couldn't stop smiling all day.  We're really proud and excited for her.  She's made such an effort.  The skills she needs don't necessarily come naturally to her, but she's very determined, has been working extra hard, and talks often about wanting to work all the way up to her black belt.  It's great to see her determination and effort recognized by her Senseis.

*****

They both look like they are waiting so patiently.  The poor dog already knows who's in charge.  How will she feel when she's once again demoted in the pecking order?

I am trying to be patient.  Warm baths help.  Pretending I'm not pregnant and just getting on with things?  Sort of helps, but only when I'm sitting on my big exercise ball.  Otherwise, there is no pretending anything.  Sleeping whenever I can helps, because despite what the songs says, apparently night time is not always the right time.  Mr. Pear and Mini-Pear are most understanding of my propensity towards narcolepsy at the moment.  They were even most understanding of my completely embarrassing temper tantrum* yesterday afternoon.

At any rate, other than throwing temper tantrums, what did we do all weekend?  Yesterday we took the dog down to the dog beach.  No need for leashes during the off-season.  I perched on a sunny rock and took in the scenery.  The water was warm enough for Mini-Pear to get all the way in.  As usual, Tanky avoided the water as if it were molten lava or corrosive battery acid. 

After karate this morning, we decided to brave Costco.  We were running low on pretty much everything, but now the fridge, kitchen cupboards and pantry are loaded.  I had to take the vodka and the ice cubes out of the freezer in order to make it all fit.  The horror.

Later on Mini-Pear and I curled up on the bed with The Long Winter from the Little House Series.  We're at about the fifth blizzard or so.  There's no flour and no kerosene and the men's antelope hunt just failed miserably.  Pa just told Ma and the girls that the train won't be coming after all.  I felt a little guilty about our groaning shelves. 

Mr. Pear came home with a freshly washed dog and took Mini-Pear for a swim.  I can't be bothered to wriggle into things like bathing suits, so I opted for a bath at home instead.  Then I tried to make a little more room in the fridge by making a salad and prepping food for the grill.  I was supposed to marinate some chicken and after taking one look at the slimey breasts decided I was not up for job.  Perhaps this means my pregnancy induced carnivorism is over?  Perhaps this means my pregnancy is soon to be over?  I dunno, after Mr. Pear prepped and grilled it, I certainly didn't have any trouble eating it, but I did prefer my potatoes.  I quartered them, liberally doused them in olive oil, sea salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and then twisted them into a little tin foil packet to chuck on the grill.  They were so soft on the inside and nicely browned on the outside...drool.  I thought I was making enough to snack on for days.  There were leftovers, but only because it would have been a poor display of humanity to eat all of them in one sitting.

^{* OMG.  It was so awful I inadvertently ended up with a new catch phrase, "No more fruit!"  And seriously, what did that all mean?  Yes I was hungry and no, I wasn't in the mood for the suggested fruit, but really, what did I hope to gain by repeatedly howling "No more fruit!" and stomping off to dramatically pull the curtains shut in the bedroom.} 

No news is...

oh!  it's no news...

When I think of all the effort we went to because we were so worried the problem would be keeping him in long enough, I have to smile.

Here's my other son:

Why the obsession with facial hair?

Let's rename it Whensday.

It's Monday...

and it's still just the three of us;)  Slow and steady wins the race.

It looks like you are all hitting "refresh"...

I feel obligated to update;)

Maybe I'll try and unfurl like this flower instead of the other one.

So how are things going here?  Slowly.  This little boy wants a long, slow, gentle greeting.  And while I can appreciate slow and gentle, my body is starting to get a little tired.  Patterns that would have most mamas heading off to the hospital or calling the midwife to come?  After over a week of them, I know better than to think it actually means we're having a baby that evening.

I did go see Dr. Wonderful yesterday afternoon and he said he'd be very surprised if we didn't have a baby this weekend - then again, he was surprised I hadn't given birth last week.  Everything is where it should be - baby's in a great position, my cervix is almost completely thinned out and dilating...we'll see...

In addition to that good news, he did a brief cervical massage in case I have any scar tissue there that's holding things back.  If you're in the know, you know I don't even really go for regular massages - needless to say, one on my cervix was no fun at all, despite Dr. Wonderful's efforts to be gentle. 

Still, I'm really grateful that he is proving to be as supportive of natural birth as I'd heard.  During my appointment, I said something about wishing things would just kick in and get going.  His response was not to offer me a menu of induction methods, but to just commiserate and ask me what I was doing to stay relaxed and keep my mind off things.  He did mention sweeping my membranes, but followed that up immediately with how he didn't like to try and move things along before my body was ready to, especially since I'm going for a VBAC.

Okay, I need to turn my energy towards baby...

We'll let you know.

My Jedi mind tricks are f**king unstoppable.

Apparently, I am not unfurling like this big pink flower...

I am, however, living proof that one can have big strong, thigh tingling contractions every five minutes for well over an hour* and then not go on to have a baby later that evening.  Even if you have contractions all the following day...even if you start having them every three minutes the following evening...five hours later you can be scratching your head and thinking, "Well, I suppose there's nothing left to do but brush my teeth and climb into bed and if this is the real thing, it will certainly wake me up later..."

It's like that.  And that's the way it is.

Sigh.

Let's end on a positive note:

No one's ever stayed pregnant forever.

Praise chamomile tea and good mattresses.

^{* Let's not even discuss all the other regular contractions I've been having for days...}

Who needs Back to School Clothes?

I guess that's a "No".

This afternoon we are having a massive sort-through of her closet though.  If you see us with any regularity, you know that Mini-Pear wears the same 2 shirts and the same 2 pairs of pants over and over and over again.  She's always been a bit sensitive with regard to tags, seams, itchy bits, etc.

That's fine.  I'm not going to make her wear itchy, uncomfortable clothes.  However, despite her clothing sensitivities, she is, at heart, a bit of a clotheshorse.  Most mornings, she tears through the closet, tries on at least 4 outfits, before finally appearing in either the pink no-sleeved shirt and her comfy grey cropped sweatpants, or the pink and brown 3/4 sleeved shirt and her comfy brown cropped sweatpants.

The end result is a bedroom floor carpeted by clothes that have never been worn.  They may have been tried on, over and over and over again, but actually worn, for the entirety of a day?  Hasn't happened.  So, today, we are going to cull the clothing stash.  Mini-pear's little sister already has the largest stash of never worn hand-me-downs ever accumulated, and it's about to get bigger.

Speaking organizing and such, we have a finalized schedule for the fall.  "Finalized" meaning that no matter what new cool activity finds its way into my in-box, we must, in the interests of sanity, say "No, thank-you".

Mondays: Circus Arts class.  Mr. Pear was totally enthusiastic about this one, so he gets to make the drive all the way downtown with her first thing Monday morning. 
Tuesdays: Choir (same one she participated in this spring), but it's only a five minute drive down the road, and a friend has offered to drive Mini-Pear if we ever need it.
Wednesdays:  Science club - there is a meeting once a month, and an associated field trip once a month.  We found out about this at the last minute and it sounded too good to miss. 
Thursdays: Gym, but yesterday Mini-Pear's instructor stopped by to offer to pick her up and drop her off.  He lives just around the corner and his kids are in the class, so it's no big thing for them to grab her on their way.  Yay!
Fridays: Karate (this also meets on Sunday morning).

And of course, we can't leave out park day!  Alternating Mondays and Tuesdays with our unschooling peeps, and then there is another one we usually hit on Wednesday afternoons.  We're back down to one book club which meets once a month.

Somewhere in there we'll find time for a new baby.