Archive for the ‘pregnancy’ Category

Last week my friend, Catherine, had a little baby girl.  They named her Nora and she was beautiful.  She didn’t come out all squished up like a lot of newborns.  She was pretty and smooth and she looked like she’d been born a thousand times before.  Like she was an old pro.

When I saw a picture of her, my ovaries instantly started chanting, “WE WANT A GIRL!  WE WANT A GIRL!”  And then Bean threw my keys in the toilet bowl (true story) and my ovaries paused for just a moment before chanting instead, “MAYBE WE CAN WAIT!  MAYBE WE CAN WAIT!”  And later that day as I paid bills and did our depressing banking, my ovaries paused one more time before chanting, “NEVERMIND, LET’S BUY A FISH!  NEVERMIND, LET’S BUY A FISH!”

Occasionally, my ovaries chant.  They’ve done it before.  They’ll do it again.  My ovaries are chanters.  They demand things from me from time to time – usually more babies.  And when they’re being particular, they demand babies of the female variety.  Usually this happens when I find that I have accidentally wandered into the girl section of Carter’s or Target and frilly dresses and underpants with ruffles have somehow managed to jump spontaneously into my cart.  For some reason this triggers my ovaries.  I can’t imagine why.

But, inevitably, one of two things happen to silence my chanting ovaries.  Either Bean does something that makes me sigh and say, “No, Bean!”  For example, yesterday I looked over to find Bean feeding Big Molly all of his blocks.  Molly had eaten four wooden blocks by the time I got over there.  Or like yesterday evening when Chris and I were sitting down to eat dinner and Bean poured Chris’ drink all over the table – including all over our food.  Yeah, those are the times when you sigh, “redirect the child’s attention” (according to the books), and think to yourself, “There’s no way I could handle two of him.”

If that doesn’t silence the ovaries, then they chant until Bean does something so incredibly funny or sweet or cute.  Like yesterday morning when he learned to blow kisses.  Or when he fell out of his school bus toy and Chris picked him up, but Bean held his arms out and cried for me.  Those times when your heart melts and you realize that being Bean’s mom is the best thing in the whole world.  My ovaries stop chanting then because I think that there would just be no way I could ever love another baby as much as I love him.  And they stop when I realize how much fun it is to be a mom to a baby boy. I love having a boy.  He’s into everything, always on the go, rough, ready to play, loud.  He just fills the house with his boyishness and makes everything seem bigger and better.

But then SOMEONE decides to be all selfish-like and have a little girl named Nora and suddenly my ovaries wake back up again, demanding children.  Please, people.  Could you stop having such beautiful little babies so that my ovaries could focus on the task we have at hand – raising a little boy who throws keys into the toilet and spills drinks on my food and cries for me when he falls down?  Because that is a full-time job in my house and I just don’t think I can handle adding another being to my list of responsibilities.

And yet…what is that I hear?…so faint in the background?…

“we want a girl, we want a GIRL!  WE WANT A GIRL!  WE WANT A GIRL!”

I slept through my first photo op with Bean. I blame drugs.

But I woke up eventually and joined the birthday party that was happening in my hospital room.

There was lots of celebrating...

And lots of family to meet, like Grandmomma...

And Charles...

And Granddad...

And Nana...

And Aunt Ginny.

Aunt Ginny brought Bean his first teddy bear. He still sleeps with him every night, face to face just like this.

And then everybody left and it was just our new little family.

And that's when Bean and I really got to know eachother.

I checked him over from head to toe, making sure he had all his parts.

And he did.

And then on the second day I forgot where Bean's head was and Chris took him away from me for a while so I could get some sleep.

Which is good because Bean wanted some time with his Daddy.

Five days later, I became an old pro at this parenting thing and so I started multi-tasking...

And that's when the hospital made us leave. So I cried and begged to stay because things are just a lot easier with nurses around, but they still made us go home.

Which actually ended up being okay because I got to use my new baby stuff.

And then another week went by and I still looked very pregnant...

And my feet were more Hobbit-like than ever.

Then I cried. But Chris told me that I was the most beautiful mother ever and so I stopped crying and asked him when we could have another baby.

At two weeks old, we told Bean he had to start earning his keep so he helped Chris install our air conditioning units.

And then he helped me cook dinner.

But it wasn't all work. Bean also watched a little baseball with Chris some nights.

At three weeks old I put him in his crib for the first time. And then I snatched him right up out of it because CLEARLY he wasn't ready for such a big step.

One month in and Bean was almost sleeping through the night already. But there were still some earrrrrly mornings. And I loved those most of all, even as tired as I was. Sunrise snuggles were my favorite.

Bean discovered trees and spent hours staring out the window at them. Funny little guy.

Between the lack of sleep and the feeling that we had no idea what we were doing, that first month of motherhood felt like I was being hazed for some whacked out sorority. But it was the happiest I'd ever been.

Stay tuned today for highlights from the rest of that first year…

Mother’s Day is this weekend.  It’s my first one and I can’t hardly believe it.  It seems like only yesterday that Chris and I found out we were pregnant.  This past year has been the most incredible, surprising, terrifying, gratifying year of my life.  Who would have thought that one little pregnancy test could turn my world so completely upside down?

October 25, 2008

My first belly picture

I had to start eating healthy for Bean Man.

And then my feet swelled into Hobbit feet.

And I slept a lot. Carrying around all that weight takes a lot out of you!

And then I nested like an insane beached whale.

And then I took another picture of my Hobbit feet.

I got some baby loot at a few showers and then Chris and I got into a fight about when to set up the nursery. I won.

And then Chris put together a high chair.

And then a swing.

And then Chris bought me flowers on Mother's Day and cooked me chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

We bought a stroller and the dogs became suspicious.

And then I had painful IV's for the even more painful ECV when they tried to get Bean to turn head-down. No luck.

And then my family came to stay for the c-section and birth.

And then he was here.

Today I am doing another blogging blitz in honor of my first Mother’s Day.  Check back for pictures of the first year of Bean’s life and my first year of being a mom.