The Progeny
Glimpses of the Past
{warning: non-graphic retelling of birth, after last picture. It's really not a big deal, just thought I'd mention it}
Today's walk down memory lane is brought to you by Trevor, and his sudden wish to do his math workbook, "by himself."
Oh hey, that's fine with ME. Free time fer Ma! Free time fer Ma!
(O-laaayyy, O-lay O-lay O-laaaaaayyys....tastes gooo...tastes goooo")
Yeah, sorry...that commercial is getting burned into my brain.
Anyhows, I promised pictures from Carolyn's birth, and pictures we have! Don't worry, nothing gory.
This was probably within an hour of the birth. That's Jason, on the left...
...and Ardith in the back with her arm around Melinda, who had just lost "head cheese" status.
The younger ones are looking to the side, where the midwife was probably checking the placenta or something. You know kids....baby--placenta...it's all pretty much the same.
I see that Ardith is the only one looking at her chère maman. Bonus points for Ardith :-)
Oh hey...notice my glam fingernails? That was during my "let's-try-to-pretend-we're-a-girly-female" period.
I am SO past that.
This is sorta the same, but with 3 1/2-year-old Derek giving Carolyn the once-over.
Even back then he was finding imperfections in everything.
If you didn't realize it by now, Carolyn was born at home, or in truth, our rental trailer, which was a reasonable facsimile. All the children were home births, but we won't get into that right now.
ANYWAY, the best part of this particular birth was that we proved ourselves right and the midwife, wrong.
She and her helper--both of whom I never used for another birth--had been hesitant to acquiesce to our request, that of breaking my waters so we could be assured they would actually be on hand for the birth. (this all stems from Ardith's birth, when the waters broke spontaneously and she arrived 5 minutes after the midwife....it kind of spooked us for life)
The other factor concerning Carolyn was that she was already one week overdue, and Melinda's birthday was in 2 days, PLUS the midterm election (Clinton's first term) was the following day.
Any ANYway, they had tried all kinds of "natural" means to induce labor, but to coin a phrase, "Just not feelin' it." Finally, FINALLY, they agreed to break the waters, and Carolyn popped out 40 minutes later :-)
"Popped out" is not (much) an exaggeration. That crazy midwife had me laying on my left side to "get things goin'" and then she came up with this brim-full glass of apple juice, wanting me to drink it, no doubt. Except, I felt like throwing up...I didn't, but that signaled....the PUSHING STAGE!
Ha. THEN things started jumpin'! They dragged me offa da couch and threw some chux pads on the floor and were literally ripping to shreds certain garments that might possibly stand in the way of observing the baby arrival.
Ah, sweet revenge :-D
Ended up being one of the easiest births, ever. And then they had the nerve to tell me I'd probably been in labor all day and wasn't aware of it.
Oh yeah. After six kids, I'm not gonna know when I'm in labor, hee, hee.
Now, as I've already said, the next day was the election, and I REALLY WANTED TO VOTE!
This same midwife gave me careful and detailed instructions of how she would allow me to vote, but only if I PROMISED that I wouldn't step up into a vehicle that was more than 8 inches off the ground, to which I solemnly agreed. (she must have been worried about our Suburban)
I felt great the next day, and we lived right in the downtown area, so....I just walked to the polling station :-D
Ma wins, again.
Tweet
Today's walk down memory lane is brought to you by Trevor, and his sudden wish to do his math workbook, "by himself."
Oh hey, that's fine with ME. Free time fer Ma! Free time fer Ma!
(O-laaayyy, O-lay O-lay O-laaaaaayyys....tastes gooo...tastes goooo")
Yeah, sorry...that commercial is getting burned into my brain.
Anyhows, I promised pictures from Carolyn's birth, and pictures we have! Don't worry, nothing gory.
This was probably within an hour of the birth. That's Jason, on the left...
...and Ardith in the back with her arm around Melinda, who had just lost "head cheese" status.The younger ones are looking to the side, where the midwife was probably checking the placenta or something. You know kids....baby--placenta...it's all pretty much the same.
I see that Ardith is the only one looking at her chère maman. Bonus points for Ardith :-)
Oh hey...notice my glam fingernails? That was during my "let's-try-to-pretend-we're-a-girly-female" period.
I am SO past that.
This is sorta the same, but with 3 1/2-year-old Derek giving Carolyn the once-over.
Even back then he was finding imperfections in everything.If you didn't realize it by now, Carolyn was born at home, or in truth, our rental trailer, which was a reasonable facsimile. All the children were home births, but we won't get into that right now.
ANYWAY, the best part of this particular birth was that we proved ourselves right and the midwife, wrong.
She and her helper--both of whom I never used for another birth--had been hesitant to acquiesce to our request, that of breaking my waters so we could be assured they would actually be on hand for the birth. (this all stems from Ardith's birth, when the waters broke spontaneously and she arrived 5 minutes after the midwife....it kind of spooked us for life)
The other factor concerning Carolyn was that she was already one week overdue, and Melinda's birthday was in 2 days, PLUS the midterm election (Clinton's first term) was the following day.
Any ANYway, they had tried all kinds of "natural" means to induce labor, but to coin a phrase, "Just not feelin' it." Finally, FINALLY, they agreed to break the waters, and Carolyn popped out 40 minutes later :-)
"Popped out" is not (much) an exaggeration. That crazy midwife had me laying on my left side to "get things goin'" and then she came up with this brim-full glass of apple juice, wanting me to drink it, no doubt. Except, I felt like throwing up...I didn't, but that signaled....the PUSHING STAGE!
Ha. THEN things started jumpin'! They dragged me offa da couch and threw some chux pads on the floor and were literally ripping to shreds certain garments that might possibly stand in the way of observing the baby arrival.
Ah, sweet revenge :-D
Ended up being one of the easiest births, ever. And then they had the nerve to tell me I'd probably been in labor all day and wasn't aware of it.
Oh yeah. After six kids, I'm not gonna know when I'm in labor, hee, hee.
Now, as I've already said, the next day was the election, and I REALLY WANTED TO VOTE!
This same midwife gave me careful and detailed instructions of how she would allow me to vote, but only if I PROMISED that I wouldn't step up into a vehicle that was more than 8 inches off the ground, to which I solemnly agreed. (she must have been worried about our Suburban)
I felt great the next day, and we lived right in the downtown area, so....I just walked to the polling station :-D
Ma wins, again.
Tweet
posted by Ma Hoyt | 9:40 AM
7 Comments:
In 1992, I had Kevin in the morning and voted that evening. We lived in Democrat country then so I was probably one of two republicans in the precinct.....me and my hubby :-)
I meant to say County ^^^^^ and sign my name....
Deb
I remember that night that mom went out and voted - it was a cold one! And I'm enjoying these older pictures. =)
The glasses Ardith have on look like your old ones Bekah....heehee
Ah yes....the 'big glasses' style.
I had horrid ones too, emphasized because the lenses were so thick.
Gotta admit I didn't think I was in labor when I actually was with #2 because the pain was so daggone light. I thought it was that "false labor" everyone talked about. I'd had one child and I KNEW LABOR. I'm still pondering if it is the difference between having a boy (painful) as opposed to a girl (not so much). But since I stopped with two, I will never know.
Got a kick out of the "let's-try-to-pretend-we're-a-girly-female period". How other women keep their nails looking nice or lipstick in perfect condition is beyond me. Within five minutes of putting either on, I'm a mess. I'm with you...I am SO past that!
I will say this, Kim...keeping the ol' fingernails long in the winter did help prevent those painful dry cracks where the skin would split open around the fingertips.
But basically, it was just a phase I went through :-p
Post a Comment
<< Home