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
Posted under Texas
This post was written by Barbara Burns on November 26, 2007
