- I woke up completely jazzed and talked Bob into going to Ikea to shop for living room tables. We asked if his mom wanted to come along, and we drove to South Philly. We had lunch there, walked and walked and walked. I felt great, only sitting down at lunch and once in the lighting department, and we headed home after several hours. I couched it and blogged while Bob assembled the tables.
- Woke up feeling VERY different than the previous day. Very crampy, tired, and I remember the horrific sensation of having to go to the bathroom BAD all day, but finding it quite impossible because A) I didn't really have to go to the bathroom, I had to deliver a baby, and B) sitting upright hurt like Hell. I remember Bob finding me in the bathroom crying more than once. I remember debating on whether or not I wanted to go to Bob's parents or stay home, because I went back and forth between just feeling very uncomfortable, and feeling like death itself.
- I remember Bob's insisting on starting to chart 'contractions', as if I were actually having them. I thought he was nuts, because there was no way I was in labor. Bob just likes to make charts, I figured.
- I remember zoning out of most of the conversation at my in-laws, finding more signs that labor was imminent (or on top of me), and finally calling my not-too-convinced OB on call.
- I remember practically putting my foot through the floor several times on the way home - this meaning that I had several contractions on the way home, and was actually very well into labor. Still denied it, because this was NOT labor was supposed to feel like. I took a shower, took a Benadryl, got waaaaaaay worse, and went to the hospital. An hour and a half later, I had my daughter.
- She came in a major a rush...well, she's never been particularly patient. :-)
- She's changed my life in a monumentally good way. I'M more patient, happier, more tired, more busy, less selfish, have unbelievable multi-tasking skills, and I think I'm a much better teacher because of her; looking at my students not as the little snot-nosed whiners that they appear to be, but as someone's former little babies that they carried, birthed, diapered, and love as dearly as I do Maddie has made me handle them differently (besides, how do I want her teachers to treat her some day?)
- It's scary, being a parent, because your heart is now out there, outside your body, with this little being who can get sick or hurt or bump her head repeatedly on the coffee table. You live each day differently, because have more to lose. But that's only because you HAVE MORE.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE!!!
