Friday, April 29, 2005

Nice Surprises

Last night Kevin and I parted ways for the evening. He went to a Sacramento Rivercats (minor league baseball) game with several guy friends. He had a good time and came back home pretty pleased that he’d caught his first foul ball ever.

“All those games my dad took me to as a kid where I’d brought my glove and hoped and hoped I’d get one and it never happened,” Kevin reflected “Until now.”

Because it was the first foul ball of the game, he also got a bonus prize – a coupon for a free haircut. It’s a good thing because he really needs one. His regular barber (a.k.a., wife) has really been a slacker lately.

Last night I attended a surprise birthday party for a lady at my church. It was planned by her daughter, who did a great job. Some people have a special knack for planning parties. (Angela, you did good!) I was pleasantly surprised because I won the party game … and I never win those things. It was a game where we were each given various words (mine were “whiskers,” “dishwasher,” “hold,” etc.) and we had to write a themed poem out of them. In the end, everyone voted for the winner. And I won … ha! Although I’ve never really enjoyed reading poetry written by all the famous poets, I do periodically like to write stupid, random poetry myself … probably just for the challenge of it.

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Last Wednesday was our second childbirth prep class. For those of you who are starting to get worried, let me assure you that I will not be giving you a play-by-play of all that we learn and do at these classes. But this week we did watch a recorded live-birth. And that’s worth mentioning, I think, for this reason: I’ve never seen anything so simultaneously amazing and gross – at the same time.

Kevin, in his imaginative mind, had pictured it to be a lot worse than what it was (I guess!) and so it was good for him to see it. Before this particular class he said he didn’t think he would want to cut the umbilical cord (I think he envisioned huge pliers and blood spurting everywhere) … but now I think he’s more open to the idea. MAYBE.

3 comments:

Rachelle said...

About cutting the cord: MJR started out with the idea "Don't they pay someone to do that?" By the end he had told the midwife that he would play it by ear--to ask him. He was all set to do it but apparently they were too concerned about Ben me and they just did it and went on. Next time....

Anonymous said...

The video I saw had the mom SCREAMING! I couldn't figure out why in the world she was screaming and after going thru childbirth nine times, I STILL don't know why she was screaming except it made a great scare video :( FYI, I have never heard anyone screaming in labor!

Anonymous said...

Hey, about the screaming thing. My husband said I screamed plenty but I didn't have an epidural and I often make more noise than is warrented when pain is involved. Maybe that is a way that I cope with it. He couldn't believe the doctors would come in and leave the door open when I was making all that noise. He figured they weren't used to people forgoing the epidural.

The thing that I was going to say before I read the screaming comment, though, was about the "amazing and gross". When we saw one of those videos, my husband Vincent said that the baby looked like an Ork, from Lord of the Rings. But when it is your baby, it doesn't matter, you are sooo excited to see him and so ready.

When we had our second child the midwife kept encouraging Vince to cut the cord and he finally gave in and did it despite his nervousness. It wasn't so difficult after all.