The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

“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.

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(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?

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