Oh Mother

What have you been up to these past few weeks? No one asks. Most of you already know I had a baby and that it was recently Mother's Day. I thought I'd fill you on a few details, but keep your expectations low and your patience high.


Here I am the morning of my scheduled C-section. (p.s. I'd like a new term for C-section. It's time we moved on.) "Justin, quick! Take a last ever shot of me pregnant!" Here I'm trying to think about how excited I am to see and touch my new little baby in just 3 short hours, rather than 'hey, they're going to cut me open in just 2.5 short hours'.

All set to go! This photo proves my lack of vanity. The creepy anesthesiologist already came in and gave me a pep talk that freaked me out. I won't give you all the details but he prattled on about how I might feel contractions, even with a spinal, when my uterus was out of my body, because-funny thing-it just does that sometimes! Also that about 50% of patients throw-up in the operating room anyways so I'm free to join that statistic.

I am near panic when the nurse announces it's time for me to wear a hat and walk down the hall to surgery. At this time Justin sneaks the above photo. I decide never, ever to have surgery again while awake and conscious. (So that rules out further C-sections and brain surgery?)

Still I have a lot to look forward to and here are the highlights:

Hearing her cry for the first time! Then Justin brings her over for me to take a look and nervously analyze which feature comes from which parent.

As soon as I'm stapled back together I'm given the baby to nurse. All 4 of my children have been aggressive nurses from the first hour of life. When thinking about this ahead of time, it is a little concerning to me because this is what I am like:

Loopy. And they're trusting me to hold an infant?? I made Justin promise to watch me carefully so I wouldn't drop the baby on the floor. Fortunately it's human instinct to not drop your children. My face is red because the anesthesia makes me itch and I clawed at it all day. Does it jazz up the photo to know I had been puking but no one brought me a toothbrush, ever, and I didn't even care?

That same afternoon the boys came to the hospital to meet their new sister. "Boys! Put on a striped shirt, no, don't worry about your hair, just get down here as fast as you can!"

Perfect. A blank slate. What did we name her? It took a couple of days, but, wait for it..

Violet Marie

There were so many names to choose from! I could have renamed all the girl babies in the hospital. Thank you for all your suggestions. I picked Violet because, as my mom said, "I love the flower, I love the scent, I love the color, and I love the name." Marie is a family name.

Here's how I sold Justin on the name. Outside our front door I have a giant pot of pansies/violets growing. I conspired with my mom and she brought one of the smaller pots to the hospital on day one and we snuck a flower behind her ear. "Oh look who wants to be named Violet". And because Justin is a visual kind of guy, he totally fell for it.

Jump to Mother's Day. I usually don't give all the M.Day's details because one of Justin's talents is being thoughtful and generous on holidays and I don't want another mother who's reading to feel jilted or that her family loves her less if her husband doesn't bake, cook, clean, bring flowers, and buy gifts. It has me slightly concerned about my performance on Father's Day.

One thing I've been doing a lot of since having a baby ? Laying around? Yes! And eating lots of chocolate. Seriously, every day. I need the endorphins. My Easter stash was gone and Justin was nice enough to replenish. Also, he gives me roses every year. I need to get better at arranging roses.

Brunch

Saturday night Justin was downstairs baking up a storm. I heard the clatter of rolling pins, the mixer running, at 11:15 he came and asked me if we had any powdered sugar (we didn't) and he didn't come to bed till well after 1am. In the morning I found that he had made two quiches, see above, and pancake cookies, see below.

Also, lobster tacos for dinner. One of the best parts was that Justin took the little boys shopping the day before and they were gone for 4 long hours. They picked out the above placemates. I enjoyed laying around all day and being fed delicious food.

Here are the cookies he invented. I'll say this- I don't like pancakes very much but I love these cookies. I ate a stack, if you know what I mean. If you want the recipe, check it out here. You're free to try the recipe but don't submit it to any contests. Justin's sure that he can submit it to Betty Crocker and win a college education.

Lastly, it wouldn't be a Mother's Day post with out mentioning my own beloved Mother. She came and took care of both me and my family while I was at the hospital and recovering, for TWO weeks. Thanks Mom.