Tag Archives: 38 weeks

Sweet Pickles

Posted on March 13, 2012 | 5 comments

A lot of my readers appear to be just about my age. So, at least one of you read my title and thought “Oh, wow! I loved those books!!!”

Sweet Pickles books were distributed starting in 1977 and there was one for every letter of the alphabet. Throughout my life I have been both a slob and a neatnik. But one thing remained the same. I keep my Sweet Pickles books in alphabetical order.

Okay, two things remained the same. I am also a moody so and so. One moment I am elated, the very next in the pit of despair.

My very favorite Sweet Pickle book is about Moody Moose. Moody Moose is happy one moment, sad the next ,and it troubles the other folks in her town. So much so that Zebra throws Moose a party and gives her a set of buttons. One for sweet and one for sour, so that everyone can tell from a distance what kind of a mood Moose is in depending upon which button she is wearing.

Lucy takes after her mama. And Moose. But I don’t think she needs buttons. It is fairly apparent.

What a difference a few minutes can make...

5 Comments

Posted in Bad Mood, Family, Parenting

Tagged 38 weeks, 8 weeks, babies, Bad Mood, letter of the alphabet, Lucy, sweet pickles books, two month old

Welcome Back…

Posted on January 6, 2012 | 4 comments

A recent trend on facebook has people looking up the #1 song on the American Billboard the week of their birth. 1976 was a great year for popular music. Earth, Wind & Fire, Queen, Parliament, Paul McCartney, The BeeGees, The Who, Thin Lizzy, Neil Sedaka. There was something for everyone.

So, I googled and waited patiently. Expecting to find a long forgotten hit song or maybe an old favorite, a KC & The Sunshine Band song if I was lucky. I have laughed along with many of my friends as they have posted the song from their birthday week, some of which have been more foretelling than their parents might have guessed at the time.

And what did I find? John Sebastian’s Welcome Back. Yup. A TV theme song. At first I wasn’t thrilled that it was a song to celebrate the return of Gabe Kotter to the classroom that heralded my birth. (Although a soft spot for Vinnie Barbarino and the rest of the Sweathogs surely exists in me.) But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s perfect.

And even more perfect that I listened to this song last night.

Because I am ready to welcome someone back to my life. I don’t buy in to all the spiritual new age woo that you might think. But that which I do believe, I believe with my whole heart. And if there is one thing that I know it is that your children, they are and have always been yours.

Genetically speaking, of course, they could belong to no one else, but I think the parental bond goes beyond genetics. Even more than I believe MQD and I were meant to be together (and I do think that forces stronger than my desire to have a perfect blind date brought him to me) I believe that he and Emily knew one another before this life. I look at the way she looks at him, and the way that he loves her with all of his being and I see it.

The moment Emily was born, the first time I looked at her it didn’t feel like we just met. I had known her all my life. Just as she had been waiting for me, for the right time. To come back.

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.
Who’d have thought they’d lead ya…
Here where we need ya…

Well, I did. I knew they’d lead her to me. Just as I know that Baby D is right on time.

This morning I woke from a dream a little startled. In the last 36 hours Baby D has dropped and I can breathe. And I can sleep. And apparently I can roll over a tiny bit more to one side than I could before because when I woke, pillow between my knees like a good pregnant sleeper I was just slightly more turned towards my stomach than I have been in recent weeks. And for a moment instead of worrying that I was no longer pregnant I thought “Where’s the Baby?”

It happened. Baby D became a baby instead of a pregnancy. The other day it was KC’s cheesy ballad “Yes, I’m Ready” that made me think I was finally prepared. And this morning, it was ABC’s Welcome Back, Kotter that made me know it’s almost time. Just in case there was any doubt I am truly a product of late 1970’s pop culture.

So, c’mon, Baby D…. your dreams and mine, that’s your ticket out. We’re here. Waiting to welcome you back.

4 Comments

Posted in Family, Parenting, Pregnancy

Tagged 38 weeks, gabe kotter, john sebastian, john travolta, kotter, lightening, Pregnancy, sweathogs, thin lizzy, tv theme song, welcome back

Yes, I’m ready….

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 1 comment

My love for KC of KC and the Sunshine Band does not extend only to his hits. This morning I awoke (to a pile of sharp Emily elbows and Fisher breath and a cat howling at me, but that is neither here nor there) with a song in my head.

An often overlooked KC & Teri De Sario duet, “Yes, I’m Ready.”

I don’t even know how to love you
Just the way you want me to
But I’m ready (Ready) to learn (To learn)
Yes, I’m ready (Ready) to learn (To learn)

To fall in love, to fall in love
To fall in love with you

And I am. What changed between yesterday and today? I am ready to catch the leaks.

The first time you become a mother you are encouraged to pamper yourself and focus on your pregnancy and your post-partum period. Celebrate this new phase of your life. This time I felt like there was no need to do that. I am a mother already. And I know better this time than to think I need to buy every baby item under the sun, so the pile of Baby Stuff is much smaller. I thought that was what was making me feel like I wasn’t ready. The unknown gender of Baby D makes shopping for newborn clothes virtually impossible. We own everything yellow that has a duck and a giraffe on it already. And really, that’s more than enough.

And yesterday I realized what I was missing. I needed to be prepared to catch the leaks.

Yesterday afternoon I assembled an army of old friends. A package of pre-fold diapers to catch the slime that oozes from a baby constantly. A package of flannel receiving blankets to put down in my bed. I washed and dried and brought back to life my Lily Padz and a dozen sets of reusable cloth nursing pads. I made a pile of underwear that I know will end up covered in blood. All alone in the Target I stared at nursing bras designed for sleeping, camisoles with snaps and pajamas that button up the front. I stood in the feminine care aisle longer than anyone in my family would have tolerated until I could remember whether I liked wings or not. Until I recalled that an absorbent core is really just like having a plastic sack of jelly in your underwear and that I hated those. I stashed those little packs of Kleenex in every purse I own, next to my bed, near the couch. Because I know how quickly I will cry over the next few weeks as I fall head over heels in love again. While leaking from everywhere but my ears.

And now I’m ready. To fall in love. And to catch the leaks.