Planting Seeds?

As I was returning home tonight from a late-night trip to the grocery store I met our across-the-breezeway neighbor. He saw that I had Miss Anna with me and told me how precious she is (she is!) and asked how old she was (21 months next week, can you believe it?). He mentioned that his wife is due with their first child, a girl, in mid to late June. Ah! A due date conversation. Time to plant some "please don't induce on your due date" seeds.

I said, "Oh that's wonderful! Anna was born a week after her due date, on June 28th. I was certain she was going to be born in July." Turns out I couldn't have said anything more appropriate because my neighbor exclaimed, "That's our problem! My wife wants to buy the baby a birth stone necklace. She wants to buy the June birth stone." I told him I understood the pickle they were in because, "you know babies, especially first babies, tend to come much later than their due dates." He looked as if no one had ever mentioned the possibility that a baby wouldn't come on its due date and said, "Well I guess that makes sense. Maybe we should go ahead and buy the July necklace instead."

Now if I can just keep the parents-to-be away from our anti-VBAC OB neighbor, who lives next to me and caddy-corner from them!

Who Am I to Complain?

"I'd forgotten just how extremely tired [it] makes me. It's the weirdest thing having to sit down and rest after doing something simple like sewing Eli a pair of pants or getting the kids a snack."

That's a quote from my friend Sheri's blog. Sheri is going through this for the second time in two years. She has been preparing for this for a few months; getting her house in order, the fridge stocked with foods the kids can get/prepare themselves, summer clothes made, fall curriculum gathered and prepared, freezer foods, recipes for easy foods she or her husband can make. She's been mentally preparing for the physical rigors it brings with it. Coming to terms with the army of needles and tubes preparing to invade her body. She's begun the battle...again. Pretty typical HG right?

Except Sheri doesn't have HG. She has cancer. Again. She's young and has a husband and two small children and she's already fought and beaten cancer once and it's just not fair! It's so hard reading her blog and her facebook updates and knowing that all I can to is offer paltry "support" in the form of a meal and some kind words. I can't really make it any easier or take it away. I can't even join her in the fight. I'm just a witness, and I think...

This is what it's like for my loved ones when I have HG. They must feel so helpless. They must feel so angry. Because unlike Sheri, who didn't choose cancer, I have chosen to continue being open to more children. I have chosen to open myself to the risk of HG over and over again. So who am I to complain? Her sickness is caused by a poison that's not only killing her cancer but also damaging (for a time) her body. Mine is caused by a beautiful new life growing inside of me. She has no guarantee or assurance she'll live through cancer. Hyperemesis is probably not going to kill me, though it gets an A++ for effort.

I'm just feeling very conflicted this morning. I am so very thankful that Sheri has chosen to "blog her cancer". It gives me hope. Is that selfish? I don't know, but it encourages me more than you can imagine. If she can fight cancer, I can fight HG. Again.

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

My Babies: 6, 4 and 20 months

Caleb, age 4** Anna, age 20 months** Sarah, age 6

Won't OB My Neighbor?

You'll never guess what I recently learned about my next door (apartment) neighbor. I mean, I actually share a wall with this man! He's an obstetrician! Can you believe it? Of all the people with whom I could share a wall, and it's an OB. I'm very amused.

My husband made the discovery. He stopped him in the breezeway one evening when they were both returning from work. When the subject came up, my husband took the opportunity to ask him if he attended VBACs. Of course he doesn't. The OB was shocked to learn I'd had two VBACs. He said he didn't know anyone who "did" VBACs anymore. He's right, too. No one in this area attends VBACs. You drive to Atlanta if you have the motivation, or submit to surgery if you don't. I'm so thankful our hometown and families and several VBAC supportive providers are only a 4 hour drive.

Wouldn't it be something though, if I was planning to make the trek to Atlanta but discovered it was too late and I was going to have to give birth at home. Could I, should I, would I walk next door and ask the OB to attend? That thought makes me smile. Not only would he have a VBAC on his resume, but a homebirth to boot!