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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Sisters

So far so good, no baby on baby violence at our house. However, Maggie is currently wrestling a very reluctantly participating Jack Russell Terrier... a girl has to take our her frustratation somewhere.

Seriously though, Maggie loves this baby. She may not always be keen on Mom and Dad, but she LOVES this baby. I just came out of the bathroom and the two of them are on my bed watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Maggie is "Feeding baby sister Mama!" Cate had been crying and Maggie grabbed the bottle off the nightstand and very gently gave her sister some sips. Yes, this does freak me out a little bit, but what's the worst that could happen - gas bubble? baby barf? not the end of the world, and if Maggie wants to try and make her sister feel better in the 30 seconds it takes me to pee, then I think it's worth the risk.

When I came back to the bed and scooped up the baby (who had resumed crying), Maggie said, "Hey! Give me my baby sister back!" She was just sitting next to her, not holding her or anything crazy, but she liked it... and I was intruding. It made me think about a few years from now when they will be playing or gossiping or whatever and I will banished from their fun. Is it strange that I'm looking forward to being banished? I'm just so happy that I can give my two girls to each other, that they'll always have each other - even when they are 14 and 16 and I'm an old lady that doesn't know anything about anything and totally suck.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I Want A Goose That Lays Gold Eggs for Easter!

I think I'm going to rename Maggie, she is now Veruca Salt. If she wants to watch TV she wants to watch it NOW, if she wants to be picked up she wants to be picked up NOW, if she wants help with her markers she wants help NOW!!!!!! I want it NOW! I want it NOW! OH MY GOD!!!!! A fabulous new bad habit to break.

Monday, July 19, 2010

No Filter

The other day we took the girls to breakfast at our local sh*t-hole diner. It's one of Maggie and Daddy's favorite places to go. Maggie was pretty much done with her pancake and was doing a little people watching. A really big guy - tall, wide, etc. - came in and Maggie (thank god she still can't be understood all that well) says, "Big! Big, big, big guy Mom!" while standing on the bench next to me. Made me remember the story my mom tells about me at about the same age pointing out "Look! A cowboy!" in the grocery store when a man in a cowboy hat passed my path.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Better Pictures

Last Cate-only post, I promise :)
Check out a few pictures from yesterday...








Thursday, July 15, 2010

All the Gory Details, part two

Part Two... on to delivery day...

July 13th, 2010. Today is the day we're going to have a baby! Woo Hoo! I had an induction scheduled for late in the afternoon and was going to spend the morning getting the house ready to be abandoned for two days, getting my daughter ready to be abandoned for two days, and basically just psyching myself up. Cate had other ideas.

At about 4:15am I woke up pretty sure my water had broke. That, or my bladder had broke, one or the other. I took a little time to try and figure myself out, I wasn't really having contractions so it was a little confusing, and eventually called Granny to come over and watch Maggie while Jason took me to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital, got through triage, and got to our delivery room - about 6:30am - my contractions seemed to be about five to six minutes apart. Even though in triage they said I had NOT broke my water (which I still don't believe), I was definately in labor.

The rest of the morning was a waiting game, nothing too exciting. I had decided to wait longer this time to get the epidural than I had with Maggie. With Maggie I was so scared that it would get bad fast that as soon as I started feeling something I called for the anestheologist. This time, by the time I started asking about the epidural, and they called for the order from my OB, and they called the anestheologist, and the damn doctor got there (the women next door got to her first), the contractions felt like they were practically right on top of each other and I had my one truely bitchy moment of the day... told Jason to "Shut up" as he was trying to distract me with commentary on the HGTV show that was on the TV. Seriously though, I couldn't have cared less what that damn house was being sold for in Argentina - GET ME SOME DRUGS! That was at about 11:00am.

One funny thing that happened, that I almost forgot about...I think it was after the epidural, but it might have been before... I was sitting in the bed talking with my nurse as she took my blood pressure after having checked my progress down below, when all of a sudden this little boy, maybe about three years old, came careening into my room giggling and running in circles. For a second I thought maybe my mom had brought Maggie over, but then said, "Oops, that one's not mine!" My nurse looked horror stricken, rushed the kid out of the room, and came back in apologizing. "No big deal," I told her, "Good thing he wasn't about five minutes earlier, or he would have had a very unpleasant education about where babies come from."

So anyway, back to Cate...
From 11:00am to about 2:00pm I was totally happy and doped up. I took a little nap, tried to read a magazine, but right around 2:00 I started getting really uncomfortable. I tried to roll over on my side and discovered that this time, everyone agreed, that my water had broke for sure. The nurse checked me out and it was time to get the doctor. No induction, Cate was going to do this all by herself.

The doctor came in a little while later, all hyper and jovial, had me push once, and the baby's heart rate dropped. He wasn't so jovial any more. I pushed once more and it happened again. All of a sudden I was in that movie She's Having a Baby and Jason had turned into Kevin Bacon. I could hear the Kate Bush song playing in the background. They put an oxygen mask on me, called in about four more people and told me that they were going to use a vaccum to help get her out ASAP and I had better push as hard as I can or I was going to end up with a C-section. I was fighting back tears, praying she was OK, and trying not to look at my husband becuase I knew he was doing the same thing. It took about five more minutes and she was born, it was 2:40pm.

She was having some trouble catching her breath so the nurses took her across the room to work on her. I was trying hard not to start screaming "Give me my baby!" and keep my shit together. I don't think I've ever wanted anything so bad in my entire life than to have her in my arms, a little bit of drama can really crystallize a moment for you. I got to see her very briefly, kiss her, and she was wisked away to the nursery to be better monitored. So then I started crying, and shaking. Everyone was telling me she was going to be just fine, but I didn't want just fine - I wanted perfect. Not perfect for me, but for her. I didn't want her to be struggling, or scared, or hurting, or whatever was going on with her, I just wanted her to be perfect... is that so much to ask?

After about five hours the breathing issues resolved themselves, and by the next morning the giant dome on her head from the vaccum had dissappeared. They said they didn't really know why her heart rate dropped so much right at the end there - or maybe they did know and it just wasn't so important to tell me anymore.

We're home now, learning how to live with a newborn again, and watching her get closer and closer to perfect with each passing hour. Maggie loves her sister, and Jason and I love them both so much it will be impossible to ever tell them... until maybe they have their own little girls. Like Jason wrote to friends the other day, our life is pretty good right now. Pretty good... pretty amazing.