Birth Story #1 Part 2

I picked up the cold pay phone receiver, pressed the cold buttons, and shivered as I told my husband the news.  The pay phone made our conversation difficult to understand, he rushed to the hospital while I stopped by home to pack my bag and put some laundry into the washing machine.  When I finally arrived to reassure him, we were unceremoniously admitted to the hospital.

At 4 pm the nurses applied prostaglandin to my forbidding cervix (50% effaced and not even 1 cm.) The prostoglandin burned into my tissue, the IV dripped into my veins, my bladder swelled, and my sciatic nerve cringed as I was ordered to lay on my left side and not use the restroom for an hour--the longest hour of my life. The procedure was repeated at 10 pm for the second longest hour of my life.

Birth Story #1 Part 1: Birth and Burgers

After 4 births, whether by a sense of nostalgia, maturity, or appreciation, I feel it is finally time to write my birth stories. I feel like the poster child for methods of delivery having had an emergency c-section, a planned c-section, a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) and a miscarriage. I hope my experiences will enrich yours be it past or present.


Birth Story #1 Part 1

I lay in the quiet darkness of the cavernous ultrasound room at the regional hospital. I listened to my deliberately slow breaths to ease the beating of my heart. The ultrasound technician hadn't said much, but I watched the calculated measurements flash on the screen: gestation 37.5 wks, head 37 wks, abdomen 32 wks, total weight 5 lbs 7 oz.

When the mouse is away, the cat sleeps!

Or Top 10 best things about your husband being out of town:

1. Not having to stay on my side of the bed.
2. Not having to get out of bed to blow my nose.
3. Not having to use the kids bathroom down the hall.

Mo-ther I Lo-ve You, I Want Your Fo-od

Surprisingly, Mother's Day is the most popular day of the year to dine out.  More than 6 out of 10 Americans who celebrate Mother's Day with a special meal do so in a restaurant (via source).  Does that strike anyone else as funny?  This means that while we want mom to kick up her feet and be served instead of serving, we also don't want to be the one serving either, because who wants to spend their leisure time cooking and cleaning up?  (Only about 1 in 5.)  In which case we should be ashamed, because eating out was likely mom's idea in the first place.

You Are What You Think

I read 21 blogging mistakes today (among about 100 other things), but that one stuck. Given that my answer to the question "Do you have a blog?" is "No, but I have a domain :)" I make about all the mistakes that one can make not posting--the biggest being rule #2, and if I did post it would probably be an even 21 (I'm an english major--not a mathmetician.) ;) But no more!

Blah, blah, blog

So I thought I would finally put a little something out there for all you who think I'm never going to do anything with this blog I created on a whim of creative inspiration. I intended to begin what may someday be a career in writing. But with a slowly growing list of random topics and snipits like "In Memory of the Manual Toothbrush" and "Pull Your Hair Up" and a blank blog, I find myself lacking in time and place to hear myself think (my kids just don't appreciate my potential in creative non-fiction.) So here I sit after midnight (I can actually hear my computer faintly humming) posting a meager and less than brilliant excuse for my effort averse nature. And if that isn't enough to keep you coming back in hopes of more then here's another teaser: "Baseball: the Great All-American Model for a Society Going Nowhere."