Category - Family Life

“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.

Print Friendly

(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?

Print Friendly

After waiting forever, we finally have a resolution to the Nutcracker Roles Mystery.

Nutcracker 1 – with her studio’s pre-professional company – Pumpkin Girl will be a Mother Ginger Tumbler, which is the role she’d wanted with the other production. She was disappointed that the smaller girls are the only ones who get to hide under Mother Ginger’s skirt, but she’s in the group that gets to do all the cartwheels. Not to mention that this is a “bonus” Nutcracker, that we only just found out about a week ago. And, more bonus, the other production doesn’t even have Mother Ginger tumblers this year.

Nutcracker 2 – with the city’s philharmonic- She is in the marzipan dance. It’s also known as the merliton or shepherd’s dance and also the Dance of the Reed Flutes. This variation was at the absolute bottom of her list, but I’d been coaching her all these weeks to brace herself for getting it. Turns out that the reason she didn’t want this one was because she didn’t understand how to hold her arms during the auditions. But she is very happy that one of her fellow sheep from last year – who is also in one of her classes- is in Marzipan with her and is in the same cast, so that softened the blow.

I thought she did pretty well handling the small disappointments. It’s tough being 9 and not really having the skills to look on the bright side and bounce back. It’s a good life lesson, though. At the very least, now we can move from the anticipation that was driving us crazy!

Print Friendly

Somehow Pumpkin Girl is now not in one, but two Nutcracker productions. I know, I know.

One production is with a traveling ballet company, accompanied by our city’s philharmonic. She auditioned for this one way back in August and as I write this, she still doesn’t know which role she got. We do know that she’s in one of the “suite” variations – Russian, Chinese, Spanish or Arabian. She’ll find out at the first rehearsal this Sunday.

The second Nutcracker was a bit of a surprise. Her new ballet studio has a pre-professional company (which Pumpkin is too young yet to join) that stages its own annual Nutcracker. It never really even crossed my radar other than as something that she and I might attend together. So we were both a bit surprised when she received a letter saying that she was one of the dancers from the Children’s Division of the school to be selected for some of the minor roles. The letter did ask for sensitivity during their regular classes because not everyone had been selected.

I can’t be sure, but I think the selection process for this second Nutcracker took place during regular classes. Pumpkin told me that they were measured during one class for any future performances that year. She also told me about one class where they did cartwheels – not your usual ballet fare. Unless you’re one of Mother Ginger’s children in the Nutcracker.

(She doesn’t know which role she has in this production, either. She’ll find out at the first rehearsal this Saturday.)

After reading the letter, Philip and I discussed the possibility of back-to-back Nutcrackers. The performances will be a couple of weeks apart. The rehearsals will not conflict. And just how can you say no to such a sweet little face, all lit up with happiness?

We couldn’t, of course.

So we are committed to double rehearsals and double performances. Oh yes, and a new baby thrown in to the mix.

Pray for us! We’ll need it!

Print Friendly

Pumpkin Girl has Nutcracker auditions tomorrow.  She’s a little nervous even though this year she’ll know 2 or 3 other girls with the same audition time.  One of her fellow sheep from last year’s production is in one of her ballet classes.  I heard them discussing which parts they hope to get, who is going to be there and wondering if their cartwheels are good enough to land them the gingersnap roles.

Actually, the whole studio was abuzz with Nutcracker speculations.  The auditions are city-wide, not just for our studio, so it’s anybody’s guess as to who will be cast as what.  Most of the younger girls (Pumpkin’s age) will be cast somewhere, it’s the advanced classes that really have to worry.  Still, it puts one on edge, no matter what your age and skill.

In addition to the natural nervousness that auditions bring, the traveling ballet company is different this year than in years past.  That means different costumes, different roles, different ways of casting the children.  There may not even be any gingersnaps this year, or they may be taken from the pool of children that are slightly older than Pumpkin.  Or maybe the gingersnaps won’t need to do cartwheels.

I’m trying to be a good ballet mom.  I’m trying to emphasize that the most important thing is to have fun.  Go to the audition, pay attention, smile, dance and have fun.  Whatever part you get, it’s a chance to dance on stage with professional dancers, a live philharmonic orchestra and in front of thousands of people.  No matter how long her ballet career is, she will always have this experience to look back on and remember.

(Ask me how I feel in a few years when she’s old enough to compete for the role of Clara! )

So off we’ll go tomorrow, me swinging a bag with knitting, her swinging a bag with ballet shoes, both with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads.

I hope we have fun.

Print Friendly