Bliss of Life

Since my better half was kidnapped by the corporate man and forced against his will to stay in sunny California for yet another week, I’ve decided to flee this cedar infested town and join him. My sinuses are looking forward to this much needed get away. Our plan is to hit some beaches, eat a bunch of vegetarian food at hip and trendy cafes, pretend not to see celebrities, even if they should wander into our field of vision, have dinner with Jaijot and Gurudhan, and I’m going to go to one of Gurumukh’s prenatal yoga classes at Golden Bridge Yoga.

In the meantime, my nesting frenzy will have to wait. The house is still in complete chaos. There are curtain rods on the living room furniture, a filing cabinet in the dining room, tools in every nook and cranny and way too much stuff shoved in the middle of the baby’s room, so we could paint the walls.

I would like nothing more than to get that room ready and the entire house looking spic and span. In some ways, I feel like we’re getting ready to host a great (but rather short) dignitary at our house. Everything has to be up to standards that were not considered before. Of course, our tiny dignitary won’t be making any demands about the drapes or the moldings, but for some reason that doesn’t matter.

And on a completely different note, we received our first registry gift in the mail today! It’s all beginning to take shape, just like my belly.

Here’s a picture of our registry gift. (Baby not included).

Tonight I went to our prenatal parenting class. This time I was the single parent in the class. We talked about the intelligence level of babies and watched a video that showed how newborns mimic facial expressions and instinctively turn towards their mother’s voice when in the room with more than one woman talking. We also saw another video that showed the infant crawling reflex, which I had never heard of before. Apparently, when a newborn is placed on the mother’s abdomen after birth, the baby will pick her head up and use her feet and arms to “crawl” up towards the mother’s breast. It’s more of a scooting motion than a crawl, but you really see the determination in these infants expressions and movements and the sense of achievement they have when they are finally able to suckle.

The video went on to explain the research finding on two groups of infants, one group was given to the mother right after birth and the other was taken away to get cleaned up, have blood taken, get foot impressions and whatnot. The experiment did not separate those mothers who used pain medication during labor. The infants that crawled up the mother’s abdomen and nursed on her own, were those whose mother did not receive pain medication and were left with their mother to bond. The infants who were taken away to get cleaned up and whose mother did receive pain medication, never managed to suckle on their own, even with the mother’s guidance. There were varying results for the infants whose mother’s received pain meds but were allowed to be with the mom and bond.

Whether a woman needs pain medication is her own choice and she shouldn’t be judged for it, but it would be nice if hospitals could put aside procedure during those first few minutes after birth to allow for the necessary mother/baby bonding.

Being sick is always challenging. For me, anytime I am recovering from a good case of “the crud,” in whatever form it may present itself, I always feel like I just survived some slightly heroic feet, like climbing mount everest with only a nail file and a toothpick. Truth is, it’s probably a more accurate description of how my husband feels right now, at least how I would feel, if I were in his shoes.

While I’ve been in bed with fever, trying to control the seemingly infinite amount of fluids coming out of my nostrils, Ben’s been taping and painting the the trim in the baby’s room, doing his homework for grad school, putting together baby furniture and playing nurse nightingale to me. But now that I’m starting to feel better, not lets-go-walk-around-town-lake-and-grab-a bite-to-eat better, at least not yet, he’s still busy putting together furniture, removing tape from the walls and windows, and doing laundry. My big accomplishment for the day is that I am no longer too sick to knit. Woohoo!!! From a knitter’s point of view, having to lay around in bed all day and not be able to knit is just torture. Torture! So I’m off to continue my big accomplishment of the day, because bed still feels like best place to be right now.