August Birthdays, Childbirth and Flowers
Today at work, we were talking about birthdays … our own and our kids … mine is August 20th … my daughter’s is August 24th and my son’s is August 21st. I am 20 years older than my daughter and 25 years older than my son. Everyone always laughs when I tell them both my kids managed to make me miserable on my birthday 5 years apart.
I wasn’t in labor with my daughter at least … but I was at the stage where sleeping was just miserable and in Iowa hot weather with no a/c … anyone who has ever been pregnant remembers those nights not long before delivery when the baby kicks your ribs all night long and you feel like an elephant anyway … laying down is miserable .. sitting is miserable … she loved to get under my ribs and would kick right there for hours … and hours … and then even more …. mostly at night … I guess I should not have been surprised when we were awake all night every night for the next 7 and 1/2 months … she slept days …. I was exhausted! Yes some babies get their days & nights turned around … she is still a night owl as the mother of my grandson … and she dislikes getting up early very much.
With my son … I was in labor all day on my birthday … he made up for me not being in actual labor with my daughter [giggle] my family would not let me have anything to eat .. .all day and night - I felt like I was starving to death .. .they kept telling me I would be going to the hospital to deliver any time and eating was not something I should do … my water didn’t break at 9 AM the morning of my birthday … it leaked … all day, all afternoon, all evening and all night … we made 2 or 3 trips to the hospital and they kept sending me home - the first time, they gave me some antibiotics since my water was leaking just in case. My birthday was a Friday … my son was born Saturday afternoon after 2 PM … I quit being hungry about 7 or 8 PM … I had horrible back pains that just kept getting worse … I never did have labor pains such as I had with my daughter … The last trip to the hospital on Saturday afternoon about 1:30-ish … I refused to go home - I told them I was having the baby - the bearing down pains had started in the car on the way … no labor pains to time … back pain that felt like I was being torn in pieces and then directly into bearing down pains.
It took 15 minutes of arguing with the nurse to get her to even check me … guess what? I was right and she was wrong … they didn’t really even have time to give me a local anesthetic for the sewing up process afterwards … I think they managed to put in 2 stitches before they gave up because I was screaming the place down and bucking like a wild horse and kicking - a sewing needle down there with no numbness … that is not something I would wish off on my worst enemy!
A lady at work just came back today from maternity leave. Her baby is so pretty … but she has a heart problem that will require surgery sometime in the next few months. Once she has the surgery, she will be fine … they will repair the problem and she shouldn’t have any more heart issues. I was REALLY lucky … both my kids were okay and not needing any surgeries.
I’ve been trying to decide what to get my daughter as a Christmas present … I finally decided tonight 
Her brother was easy … I ordered him books online and I will send money before Christmas. When the kids were little, they always got school clothes for their birthdays and one toy .. .then at Christmas … they usually got new jammies and lots of toys. Now that my daughter is a grown up … she is really hard to buy gifts for most of the time … we have very different tastes in clothes and most household furnishings … we both love flowers though
A friend of mine, Sandra Idleman, has some really gorgeous flowers - fine art prints for the walls make perfect gifts! And these flowers never wilt or die … no mess to clean up from dead petals all over the table or floor … no smelly icky plant sappy water in the vase … just hang fine art prints on the walls and enjoy them forever! Perhaps dust them every once in awhile
Today’s featured art is August Rose by Sandra Idleman
