I actually had to go look at the date stamp on my last post because I had a sudden panic that I'd skipped a day. This is a way of saying that today has been a Very Long Day. Tomorrow is our girl's birthday. She will be five. She has told this to everyone she has seen today. Some of them have heard it multiple times. There might be a little excitement over this event.
The Before Picture
Just about exactly five years ago right now (adjusting for the time difference) we were packing up our stuff at the birthing center after my midwife decided that we needed to move to the hospital. My job was to stay in labor indoors until Michael and my M-I-L Betty had moved everything to the car and gotten it warmed up. It was Anchorage in mid-November and it was below zero heading to 30 below for Darcy's birth.
I had recently gotten my diploma for my PhD completed several months earlier, and on the way out to the car, Betty asked Michael, "When we get to the hospital, will they call her doctor?" He stared at her blankly. He asked her why on earth they would do that. People were tired. There was some misunderstanding. It was cold. And I had been having regular contractions for about 15 hours at this point. Michael got very frustrated trying to figure out why his mother thought the hospital knew or cared that I had just finished my doctorate and why they would be that formal anyway. And Betty, although she has never said so in the many recollections of this story, probably thought her son was being kinda bone-headed for not realizing that she was inquired about an OB. As it happens, my midwives all had full privileges at the hospital, so there was no doctor involved. It's one of their favorite stories about the day before Darcy was born.
Mine might be that my midwife spent quite a lot of time teaching Betty the joys of sodoku after learning that she had never tried them. After checking in with me at our temporary housing, she went home to feed her family breakfast and returned with several books of sodoku. I wasn't all that important after that.
Check in tomorrow for The After Picture.
7 comments:
Wahhh, can't I just be a lazy lurker? I read every post, my dear, with relish. And I read your friends' blogs too. Evidently I do that instead of writing on my own uncommented-on blog. I hope you have great festivities today. Such a wonderful occasion.
You can be a lazy lurker on, let's say, three out of every four posts. I comment on your blog sometimes! (And read always.)
I love the story about the doctor. I can just imagine Michael's face, and Betty's. It makes me laugh out loud for real.
Wait! I'm not anonymous! It's me-- Auntie BEST!
Glad you enjoyed it, Best!
While I won't claim to be a hyper-vigilant commenter, my activity on your blog outshines almost all my other virtual communication. For instance, I've commented on your blogs more often this month than I have updated my facebook status in, well, I don't remember how long I've had the account. But I think the only time I updated my status was election day 2008, so at least 3 years.
I hear the clownfish was a big hit. Figures--it takes a 5-year-old to pick out just the right thing for a 5-year-old!
The clownfish was indeed a big hit. I had no questions about who chose it.
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