#23

Today is a RED LETTER day: kindergarten registration for Maja. I can imagine to some people this would not seem to be such a big deal, but in our neighbourhood for our local public school is it. Richard was in line for registration at 6am. In the dark, cold, mid-January freezing-ness with a thermos of coffee and some hot bagels. And guess what? He wasn’t the first in line for one of the coveted 51 spots. He was #23. There were people in front of him with lawn chairs and blankets!

WHAT? Did I just say “public” school? Yes. A public school in Philadelphia. You heard me correctly. I have not lost my mind. And people lined up in the pre-dawn hours to get in? Uh-huh.

Our local public school is somewhat special, you see. It is the reason houses in our neighbourhood are so expensive as you have to live within a catchment in order to attend this school. The school which is partnered with the University of Pennsylvania and therefore is so well run. One of the few schools where a child can actually get a decent public school education in this city.

Disappointingly, though, Richard didn’t have to stay out there for 3 hrs waiting until the doors opened at 9am. A security guard handed out numbers and sent everyone home with instructions to come back at 8:45am. I am only disappointed because when the time comes I can not hold the guilt over Maja’s head:

Your father stood out in the cold for THREE HOURS so that you could go to school, young lady!!!!!!

Alas, he only stood out there for about 15 min. Ah well, there will be other opportunities to instill parental guilt on my child. For now, I’m just glad we don’t have to pay for daycare for Maja anymore come September.

Wild Thing

One of the events that occurred during December which I never got around to writing about was Maja’s stage debut. I have always proclaimed that Maja would be an actress… she’s SO DRAMATIC. Ooof.

The nursery school that the girls attend has the pre-K class put on 2 “plays” a year. The mid-year play was Where the Wild Things Are and Maja was the “lead” — as in she played Maxine, a female version of Max.

Here’s the video. Of course I cried — pregnancy hormones and all.

3 sisters

My three babies:

Maja in 2005; Madeleine in 2007; Pippa in 2009

welcome Philippa Emma Sabine

Pippa made her appearance on December 30, 2009 @ 10:07pm.

She weighed in at 7lbs 14oz — much heftier then I had thought she would be. 19″.

Philippa is because we like the name. Even more, I like her nicknames: Pippa, Pips, Pipster.

Emma was my great-grandmother’s name; it’s also my mother’s middle name.

Sabine is my older sister’s middle name.

My labour was… well, FAST. I thought Maddy’s labour was fast? HA! Try this: 1 hr. One. Hour. Quite frankly, I think it’s a small miracle I a) didn’t have the baby at home or b) have the baby in the ER or c) have the baby in the PEC (Perinatal Evaluation Center).

So, on the 30th I had an OB appointment. I was already annoyed that Pips had not made an appearance as now my entire family had left after the holidays — she was LATE and I was DONE being pregnant. The midwife that I saw that afternoon told me that I was at 4cm and about 80% effaced. WOHOO. I quietly asked if I should try the castor oil “trick”… and I got a very sotto voce answer: yes. 4oz in a chocolate shake. But then the midwife said I should wait until the morning of the 31st to do this; if I did it after my appointment I would be in labour all night and tired by the time the baby arrived. The look on my face then caused her to say: You’re not waiting are you? You have the look of a woman who is desperate.

Damn straight. Hello? The drugstore and the chocolate milk shake place are rightnexttoeachother. There was no way I wasn’t going to do the castor oil right away. So, by 3pm I had downed the concoction and probably within an hour I was having some moderate contractions. And it stayed that was for the rest of the afternoon and evening — definitely having contractions but nothing painful. I entertained my in-laws, we had Chinese take-out for dinner, I put the kids to bed at 8pm.

Shortly past 8pm I lay down in bed and prepared myself to do some Sudoku puzzles and fall asleep. I also started writing down some times of contractions. Not that they were painful, but just in case… between 8 and 9pm I had contractions that ranged from 3 min. apart to 8 min. apart. So: Not regular. Not increasingly painful. Not “progressing”.

At 9:10pm I had a contraction that was accompanied by a “pop”. My water broke. I rounded up the troops (Richard and my mom), Richard called our neighbour down the street to be in the house for M&M (who were asleep) and we headed to the hospital. I was checked in by 9:29pm and WALKED over to the PEC. At the PEC things got interesting. I joked that they were going to send me home! I mentioned that if possible I would like an epidural — at which point I believe the PEC nurse started laughing at me. Then all hell broke loose. She checked me — 8cm. No time for an IV. She called in the doctor and the two of them wheeled me down the hall from the PEC into a labour room. Yes, the DOCTOR wheeled the gurney.

Someone in the labour room (I swear there were like 5 nurses and the doctor, plus of course Richard and my mom were in there — a regular party) then mentioned my request for an epidural. Hello??? I’m done with the hard part — I know how this works, so I responded by yelling “THERE’S NO TIME FOR THAT!!!!” and I promptly started pushing… while I was still on the gurney. Someone asked me while I was pushing if I could move over to the other bed! Right. Don’t know how, but I slid over and immediately pushed 2 more times in the space of about a minute (taking a pause to yell at Richard to get the hell over to the bed and hold my hand! dammit) before Pippa made her arrival at 10:07pm.

Fast.

And there she was:

dust dust dust

It’s been almost 6 weeks since my last post. I swear that I haven’t forgotten to post… but well I’ve been BUSY. You know!

My mom has been and gone. We had an epic snowstorm in December; then there was Christmas and a baby. Then a few weeks of adjustment to our now family of 5.

The baby of course deserves a post of her own. With her birth story!

Let me just finish my dinner and I’ll get started on that…