Friday, 12 July 2013

Benny Boo!

It's been 113 days since our second baby arrived so I figured it's high time I wrote about it; thus avoiding accusations later on in life that I love Carys more because I wrote about her birth and not his, but also because the experience was totally different to both our other ones.


Zen Master At Work
Once again it was a scheduled event, we knew right from the start that Sher would be having a C-Section. The fibroids which got in the way of the first pregnancy and birth hadn't magically disappeared, thankfully they hadn't grown either. So we knew there was no way Sher would have a natural birth, it was physically impossible not to mention highly dangerous. Try telling that to the hospital staff at QMH who carried on talking about a natural birth right up until a week or two before the delivery date. Incidentally Sher really, REALLY worked hard to be calm and good natured at the antenatal appointments this time around. There was lots of deep breathing and one word answers. If you know my wife at all, you'll know her tolerance for stupidity, in-the-box thinking or plain laziness is....low. If you put her tolerance or patience for those things on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being none at all, 10 being a Zen-like mastery of calm and control; Sher would be about about a 1 when not pregnant. When carrying a 7 pound baby inside of her, with a constant need to pee, nausea, hunger, an hour worth of travelling, 90% humidity and 30 degree heat outside, her tolerance drops substantially into the negative. In this way I'm sure she's a lot like most women when they're pregnant. It's always slightly fun to see the startled, deer in a headlights look the staff at the hospital get when she explodes because they've asked her for the 10th time whether she smokes or drinks, or when her last check-up was. I do want to reach across and gently point out the answers to their questions, found on the first page of Sher's file which is often sitting in their lap. Ask a stupid question, piss of a heavily pregnant white woman.