Baby Story #1 and Massage Monday

Sorry for posting so late, it's been a weird day.

I'm going to start with Massage Monday so those of you who want to skip Baby Story #1, can.

I was going to call this something "clever" like Hands on Your Balls but it seemed silly. Another tennis ball tip - take your favorite yellow friend and put the ball btw your two hands. Clasp your fingers together like a little child praying and put the ball in the cup that makes. Now, if you squeeze a tennis ball with one hand, it's a strengthening exercise that most people don't need. If you squeeze it btw both hands, it's a lovely massage. It's particularly nice on the thumb pad area (that big fleshy spot at the base of your thumb. Feels good, no? Feels even better after you've been knitting for hours!

BABY STORY #1


I already wrote about how we decided when to have our kids and how we were lucky to be able to get them both, first try. I also told how Dave got to name the first boy and I got to name the second. Dave chose Trevor Osborne M. The baby's initials spell Tom and his middle name is Osborne. Tom Osborne is the greatest Husker football coach of all time. It's just sad really. Good thing we all look good in red!

With our first baby, I was dead set that I didn't want to know what the sex was before it was born. Dave wanted to know. We went back and forth about it and finally decided he could find out when we had our sonogram and he wouldn't tell me. He mentioned something about telling his parents and his friends Chris and Ty but I said, "No way!" "Why not?", he asked. "There's no way I want your buddies knowing the sex of our child before I do!" He said if anyone let slip and told me before the baby was born, we wouldn't find out the next time. Turned out to be a completely moot point as Trevor was spread eagle, shaking it at the camera when we got the sonogram.

We had this whole water birth thing planned. The Women's Health and Birthing Center in Tucson has these beautiful birthing rooms and a huge jacuzzi tub for water births. Best laid plans, right? Trevor was breech.

We tried everything to get him to turn. Moxibustion, chiropractic, even a version. Nothing worked. Great, the baby is stubborn already - just like his parents. A version (and I don't know if I'm saying/spelling that correctly) is when they try to turn a breech baby from the outside. That was weird. Plus the doctor who tried it was a dick.

We show up for the appointment and I have to get in the stupid hospital gown and on a gurney, then wheeled to this small room. There they make me slide from one gurney to another (why not just have me dress and get on that gurney to begin with?). As I'm trying to heave my 8.5 month pregnant ass over, I looked at Dave and said, "It's like boatin' a marlin!" which was a little joke we always said. We laughed but the Dr. and nurse seemed unamused and confused. They monitor the whole thing with a sonogram while they are doing it, so I asked if I could see, too. The Dr. looked at me like I was crazy and bluntly said, "No." Ohhhkay. So, the way they do this is, the doc gently, slowly, but firmly pushes into your belly, beneath the baby... it's hard to describe, I'm on my back and he's coming in from the sides of my belly, pushing downward and rocking my belly back and forth. It's super deep abdominal work and it's uncomfortable and almost hurts but it's also like a deep tickle. Plus I was nervous and whenever I'm nervous, I laugh. So I start cracking up - the doc yanks his hands away from me and, again, looks at me like I'm nuts. The nurse said she'd never heard anyone laugh while having this done. She said it like I was supposed to apologize. I didn't. The doc tried for a little longer but said the baby wasn't going anywhere.

C-section here we come. We were both really disappointed but, whaddya gonna do? I was already off at work but they called me anyway and begged me to come in ("We have clients booked, and someone called in sick, please, please, please...." says the whiny voice of Spa director #2. "I'm giving birth in 3 days, but OK," says I. Actually, what I told them was, "I'll only do 3 and no Hot Stones. One of them was a Shiatsu and with that type of massage, I'm up and down on the table like a monkey. All three clients gave me weird looks like I was going to drop the baby at any second. One woman actually refused to let me work on her so I traded her for a smarter client. I got really good tips that day!)

We showed up for the C-section at 7am and the midwife, Janice, met us there. We thought that was really cool, considering she'd only be able to watch. She warned us that the doctors were going to talk like we weren't in the room and discussed my options for anesthesia. Then the anesthesiologist showed up and we chose the spinal tap over the epidural. The anesthesiologist was a blast! She was cracking us up and considering my nervousness, she was even funnier! We told her we didn't want a drape, that we wanted to watch and she got us this big mirror on a stand so we could watch the whole thing. (Yeah, we're gross that way.) A nurse commented that in 25 years of nursing, she'd never known anyone who wanted to watch like that.

Janice was right - the doc's were discussing where to get the best veggie burger in town. We didn't care, we were having a party up by my head with that funny anesthesiologist (wish I could remember her name because I'm bettin' it's easier to spell then her profession!). She said she'd never met anyone that laughed so much during her c-section, maybe she should turn down the juice!

Anyway, a c-section is so quick! We were shocked! It only took 20 minutes from first cut to last staple. They pulled Trev out butt-first and one of the nurses commented, "Uh-oh, he's already got the pouty lip thing down!" We got the pic's to prove it.

You know how a newborn baby is ugly? Has that weird alien monkey baby face? Well, Trev hung on to his for about 6 weeks. Of course, he's beautiful now. He has eyes like little blue/green planets. Dave jokes that when he first saw T, he thought, "Aww, oh well, I will love him anyway."

And we do! He's so funny and a brilliant little guy. He currently reads on a 3rd grade level and says things that sound so funny coming out of a now-6-yr-old's mouth! Like just last weekend, we were downstairs and when Trev woke up, he came down stairs and said, "Mom, Dad, it's the strangest thing..." What kid his age talks like that?

He's so observant. He never misses anything, even though sometimes we wish he would! If I had to guess at a profession based on his personality now, actor. Or doctor. Or forensic scientist. He's a total ham, he loves anatomy books and he's one of the most compassionate, generous hearts I've ever met.

And social! Ever since he could walk, he'd go up to anyone and take them by the hand and start pulling them around, showing them things. Scary, right? He'll talk to anyone anytime and he makes new friends wherever we go. We've had some serious talks with him about stranger safety and it doesn't seem to sink in. We've had to resort to outright scaring him about it. (He was going out front without telling us and talking to anyone again. I brought him inside and told him that some one could grab him (and I actually grabbed his shoulders really fast) and throw him into a car and we'd never see him again because we didn't even know he was outside.) He's starting to understand. But he still talks to everyone.

He's our special little guy and wouldn't trade him for the world.


Happy Birthday Trevor!

Going to go make another cake, Ruth!