Archive - October 2010

Twelve

Boo turns twelve today. I was due in early November and the one thing I did not want was for him to be born on Halloween. So much for that.

I don’t even remember what my thinking on that was, but as always, I was making plans instead of letting God do the work. So Boo arrived on Halloween – thus giving him the nickname “Boo”. It’s not just a family nickname, everybody calls him that. Everybody. It goes on certificates, his Boy Scout uniform nametag, and everything else. He does have real name, and it’s a nice one. I use it when I’m mad at him.

The top five things on his birthday list this year were an iPod Touch and iPod related accessories. Including a $50 iTunes gift card. A boy can dream, right? He actually already knows he’s getting the iPod Touch because he’s paying for most of it with money he saved up himself.

He likes 80’s music, Star Wars and being a Boy Scout. He loves history and will sit through any documentary. Right now he’d like to follow his dad’s exact career path.

Tonight he is going trick or treating as St. Michael the Archangel and he thinks that next year he’ll reuse the gladiator costume, minus the wings, and then that might be his last year trick or treating. But he’s not sure.

He loves being an alter server, he doesn’t like to draw, he couldn’t care less about spelling and math is still his arch nemesis.

He grew five inches last year. He and I wear the same size shoe. He drives me crazy most of the time. I look at him and I see both the little boy he once was and the man he is growing to be.

Twelve years ago I became a mother. This is why.

This is Halloween

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

…the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

from When the Frost is on the Punkin by James Whitcomb Riley

The Journey

“Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace…”

The journey to Tuesday morning was a long one. I didn’t talk too much about my pregnancy on my blog because it would have been a lot of complaining. I was hot, tired, uncomfortable, swollen, worn out, and just crabby in general. I had an irritable uterus that liked to have contractions, and I was plagued with worries and anxieties, both my own and Bip’s.

And yet the baby and I were healthy and my pregnancy was uncomplicated. So really, what was there to complain about?

And I was fully aware that many women would gladly suffer through such a pregnancy and worse, but are unable.

So I kept my complaints to myself. At least here. At home, not so much. I don’t suffer in silence well at all. Yet, my family suffered me the whole time.

The day I reached 37 weeks was a stressful day for me, which triggered uncomfortable contractions all day. I was officially at term, but not due for another 3 more weeks. Not a good place to be.

At 38 weeks I was more than ready to be done. I tried very hard to trust God and His timing. But my prayers sounded like this: “Please, please, please, let the baby come soon. ”

At 38 weeks and a few days, my mom arrived to provide support and childcare. We counted off the days as they passed.

39 weeks and I was 50% effaced and 3 cm dilated. More days passed. I hung on only because I knew I wouldn’t be pregnant forever.

Monday afternoon my water broke. Still the journey wasn’t over.

My previous three births went quickly – 2 hours, 1 hr and 15 minutes, 1 hour. Water…baby…birth – just like that. This one, not so much.

Hours passed, 14 in fact, with only mild to slightly uncomfortable contractions. I was dilating enough to keep my midwife happy and I was in no real pain, so I was content.

Around six in the morning my contractions needed concentrated breathing and relaxation techniques to manage. I got in the tub and stayed there for a while. After a time I got out and Phil and I did the labor waltz, where he holds me and I grab him by the belt loops, head pushing into his chest and I try to breathe.

Then I got back into bed in order to better rest between contractions. Somebody helped me move my leg. The pain became excruciating, somebody grabbed my hand, the one not clutching Phil’s. I pushed with all the strength I had left, through the pain, through the encouraging voices. I pushed again and heard Phil tell me that the head and shoulders were out. It was 7:31 am.

Our son was lifted out and laid on my chest. He cried and I loved him instantly.

The journey was over.

And another one begins.

Updates

Remember when Pumpkin Girl was cast in the Marzipan Dance in Nutcracker, but it was her very least favorite variation? She said it was because she didn’t understand how they wanted her to hold her arms during the audition. After the first rehearsal she told me that she was put in Marzipan because they liked the way she held her arms. I laughed so hard when she said that! Even she got the irony and laughed, too. She’s been enjoying the rehearsals and is over the disappointment.

We figured out our heater right as we headed to bed last night. The temperature in the house was close to 60 and getting colder, so I was glad to hear the fan start up and catch a whiff of that familiar scent of hot lint.

Turns out our deck did have a final inspection, it just failed. Then was repaired, then the permit ran out, then the company went out of business. The contractor can’t (or won’t, I’m not sure which) just repair it, since it never passed. The whole thing has to come down. I guess it is for the best in the long run, since the material is not the right type for the weather here. I liked the contractor who came to do the estimate. He said all the right things before we even asked, he was up front about the need for permits, he had copies of his liability and workers comp insurance. He had references and even recommended that we go to a current work site to see a deck in progress. (Alas, he was not Mike Holmes.)

On the up side with the deck, we’ll be getting a composite material that does well with the temps here. We’ll get to add some decorative elements of our choosing, including stair and post lighting. And we found out that we can use a movable fire pit as long as we stick something called dura-stone under it.

Monday Musings

(yes, I know it’s late Tuesday, but I started this post in my head yesterday. Go with it.)

Did you have a good Columbus Day weekend? It’s an odd holiday, isn’t it? Not everyone gets the day off, just federal workers. We were all blissfully sleeping in on Monday when we heard the school bus stop. Philip thought it was the trash man and was about to leap out of bed to set the trash out when I said that the trash gets picked up later in the day. We can’t put our trash out overnight because of the bears and our pickup day never moves, regardless of whichever holiday it is.

When I was a kid, there was a couple of times when we took advantage of the federal employee discount tickets offered by Disneyland on Columbus Day. This was back when you had to buy ticket books and every ride had an A-E classification. But if you had the special discount tickets, you got this special pass that you just waved at the ticket taker at each ride. The lines were always pretty light on Columbus Day and the weather was nice. We lived about 2 hours away, so it was an easy day trip. We’d show up to work and school the next day, groggy and tired. Good times, those.

The weather took a turn for the cold today. We can’t figure out how to turn the heater on and we accidentally turned off the pilot light to the fireplace when we first moved in. We have a new thermostat for the heater and we just can’t seem to get it to work. User error most likely, since we had the furnace serviced a couple of weeks ago and I heard and felt the heater go on then. Good thing all the bedrooms are upstairs.

We found out that our deck never had a final inspection 10 years ago. It’s a plastic deck – not composite- and was added after the house was built. We found out from neighbors that the original owners had problems with it and had it repaired twice before the company went out of business. It still looked good when we first saw the house, but by the end of that first summer, planks were cracking and beams were warped. We figured we’d just repair it as needed, but that’s out of the question now. The whole thing needs to be replaced. Ouch. It’s one of the nicest decks in our whole neighborhood, with two levels and lots of room to eat, cook, play and entertain. I think we’ll stick to basically the same design, but with some lighting added.

I wonder if Mike Holmes would like to visit Colorado?

Waiting

I am 37 weeks today. The baby is “officially” full term, he’s been head down for a while, and all systems are “go” for launch. Just waiting on God to light the fuse, so to speak.

I’m anxious. I have been blessed with easy labors, the kind which make people want to throw things at me when I talk about them. So I wonder, is this the one that will be long and dragged out? Am I really up for doing this one more time?

I’m uncomfortable. I’m only 5 feet tall, so there is not much room for a baby to be in my belly. At the end of the day, everything just hurts.

I’m caught. I’m so done being pregnant, yet the only way out of this is to go into labor. I don’t like either choice.

Bip is worried. It seems like every fairy tale we read has the mother dying. Cinderella, Snow White, even the Little Mermaid has the mother gone. I know it’s just a plot device, but to a 5 year old, it is too close to home. The thought of breaking his heart like that just shatters mine. But I can’t make him any promises. When it is my time to go, then it is mine time to go. Now or another 40 years from now, it is in God’s hands. Small words of comfort to a sweet little boy who needs his mother.

If you could spare us some prayers, I’d sure appreciate it. Above all, I would ask that you pray for a safe delivery, with a healthy mom and baby at the end. And until that time, a peaceful heart for both me and Bip. Knowing that others are praying for me has always eased the load, so I thank you in advance.

More Baby Knitting

While the baby is busy enjoying his limited days in my belly (he’s on 30 days notice to vacate), I wrapped up some final projects for him.

Here’s a little hat from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.

It’s a great book if you like to pick your yarn with only a vague notion of the sort of project you want to use. Or if know what you want to make and the yarn you want to use, but don’t want to do the math to figure out how to make it all work out. An any gauge, any yarn, any needle, any size book. Love it!

Also, love the yarn. Usually, all the different colors and patterns would be achieved with different yarns and complicated charts, but this is self-patterning yarn. So the simpler the pattern, the better, which totally works for me.

And matching socks, just because.

I’ve got one more hat in mind to make for him and then I’m ready for him to arrive.

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