Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts

Mar 27, 2012

Playing Ball...again

When my sweetie and I left town in September of 1983 to start our new life together, it never really occurred to me that my softball-playing days might be over. But then I got pregnant with Bossy, my sweetie withdrew from school, and I had that horrible Arctic Circle job. After that we gathered everything up and moved back to my hometown.

We weren't admitting defeat, we simply had a new plan. My sweetie had taken an electronics class and he was way more excited about it than he was about chemistry. Snow College had just started a new program for electronic technicians...but wait, this is a story about playing ball. I will tell you this other one later.

So we moved back to Ephraim just in time for softball season and even though I was about 5 months pregnant, I was feeling decidedly better. Unfortunately, the ladies on my team were not expecting me back and they had already replaced me at shortstop. I think if I hadn't been pregnant and awkward, they would have given me my old spot, but "as a protection" for me, they put me on second base.

Not that I really wanted or needed protection, my sweetie still talks about later in the season when I slid into home. I was just past seven months along. (Pretty sure I wouldn't do that now.)  In spite of the craziness, the season ended without any significant injuries and Bossy was born the first part of November.

We were still in Ephraim when softball season started up in the spring of 1985. One more season was way more than I had hoped for! Bossy was getting bigger and as the weather warmed up, my sweetie started bringing her to the ball field to watch me play. The playground was close by so sometimes he headed there and sometimes he just sat with her on a blanket.

One day my team was on the field. It was the second or third inning and I don't recall the score. Suddenly I glanced over at my sweetie. He had forgotten the blanket and my little Bossy was chewing on a mouthful of dirt and grass. Well I couldn't have that! I called an informal timeout and marched down the third baseline. My older and somewhat wiser friends were laughing at me from the in-field. Even the other team was laughing! Did all of these ladies let their sweet precious babies eat dirt?

I quickly wiped out her mouth and trotted back to my place. "Sorry!" I called rather self-righteously as I waved to the umpire. Even he was sniggering. I thought I was doing the right thing...but I guess stopping the game over a little dirt was a tad obsessive. Pretty sure I wouldn't do that now...

Feb 11, 2012

To Go or Not to Go...that is the Question

It seems that I've got myself stuck in a time warp. Writing the Drama Queen's birth story earlier this week has transported my brain back almost 25 years ago and I'm remembering tons of good stories I need to tell you. Family history, you know! Let's start with this one.

Me and Bossy making cookies.  Check out our rockin' hair!
When I graduated from the University of Utah in 1986 with my BA in English, my sweetie had taken the year off and was working as an electronic tech for an engineering group here in the Salt Lake Valley. It was a good job and he was making a pretty reasonable salary for a guy with only a two-year degree in electronics.

Our agreement had been that he would work for that year while I finished my degree and then we would transfer to Utah State and he would finish his BS in electrical engineering. That left me with a couple of choices, get a job...or try to get in to graduate school. To tell you the truth, I was pretty scared of getting a real job. I was 21 years old and Bossy was a year and a half. I was loving being a mom and taking care of our tiny apartment even with the classes and the homework.

So my decision was made. I applied for graduate school in the English Department. Six weeks later I was accepted and we started making arrangements to move. They also offered me a Research Fellowship that would pay about $250 every month. Not a fortune, but every little bit would help. We also applied for grants and loans, secured an apartment and got my sweetie registered for school. Things were moving forward quickly and according to plan.

Sweetie starts early - I think he's still hoping for a rock star in the family.
That's about when we found out I was pregnant with the Gym Rat. Suddenly everything was up in the air again. Our families told us we were stupid. We had excellent insurance that would pay for the delivery completely. All we had to do was put off leaving for a year. It was tempting.

We spent several days filled with confusion, but after some heavy duty prayer, we made a decision. We were still going. We decided that having kids just had to be part of everything we did. They didn't make life stop...they were the stuff life was made of.

My sweetie turned in his two-week notice and we filled out all the paperwork for Cobra. (No, that isn't another snake story...that's the interim insurance a company is required to offer as long as you make your own payments.) The Cobra bill each month was exactly $269. Just barely more more than my Fellowship. We paid that amount each month from September until the Gym Rat was born in February and we felt like it was money well-spent. Even though we didn't have any real issues with his birth, we had the peace of mind knowing that no matter what happened it would be covered.
Look at us all graduated from USU!

And school was awesome! Life was good.

Feb 8, 2012

Birth Story: Drama Queen


Such a beautiful baby!
I've told you before that I found out I was pregnant with the Drama Queen just a few days before Christmas in 1988. You really should read that story before this one if you haven't read it before.

We were living in Provo and I was commuting to work every day in Tooele. It was a LONG drive! I left our apartment about 5:30 AM and drove about 25 minutes to catch the carpool van. I didn't get home until after 6:00 each evening. That left me very little time to spend with my sweetie and my two little ones. I hated the hours and I hated the job. I'll give you a little more insight later in the week on that, but for now, just know that I was anxious to find a new job. My sweetie was also commuting to Salt Lake, so we were both driving way too much and spending precious little time together.

I was finally offered a new job when I was about 5 months pregnant. I felt so guilty after the offer was made that I called them and told them about the baby. I didn't want them to think I was just going to quit months after I started. Thankfully, they were still interested and I started work two weeks later. I stayed with this company for 10 years, but that's another story too.

I have not typically had tons of cravings with my babies, but this little one loved Magelby's Carrot Cake muffins! I had to have at least one a week. The baby was due the end of July and the summer was long and hot! I was having trouble finding daycare for Bossy and the Gym Rat and my new job was insane from day one. We moved into the Salt Lake Valley and tried to get our bearings. We had lived in the area before, but only on the University campus. That was much different from the suburbs.

Bossy and baby Drama Queen
Thankfully, I wasn't very sick with this baby. My first two had both come early, so naturally I assumed the same thing would happen with this one. We made several (my sweetie would say a dozen!) trips downtown to the hospital with false labor because I really wanted to be done. We would drop Bossy and Gym Rat off at the Montessori school I finally found for them and then rather than show up at work, we would leisurely make our way to the avenues. About the time we pulled up in front of the hospital, the pains had generally evened out and we never got out of the car.

Finally, when we were 10 days past our due date, the doctor decided he was tired of hearing me complain and he would induce labor. Since we had no one in the valley to help with the kids, we dropped them at the Montessori. I had learned my lesson about food after my first one, so we headed to MacDonald's for a quick breakfast. I was nervous and excited all at once. People had told us over and over that the third child was the hardest.

After breakfast, we drove the 20 minutes to the hospital. We checked in and settled in to wait. The Drama Queen was never in much of a hurry to do anything then and she managed to hold off until about 9:00 that night. At ten days late we were expecting her to be huge, but she just had an over-sized water bed (no wonder she didn't want to come out) and she tipped the scales at 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz.

All was well and uneventful. We even went home the following day since there were incentives for a 24-hour stay. She never had jaundice or medical problems. In fact, despite what everyone said, other than the late thing, I think the third child was the easiest...at least when she was born. Now after that, it might be another story...

Feb 4, 2012

Guest Blogger - Valentine's Day by Princess


This is Princess. My mom told me to go write a blog even though I really didn’t want to, but I also really don’t want to be grounded. When she said, “Make it about crazy boys on Valentines Day!” I was like Blehh! Who cares about boys?

Now yesterday, the answer would be ME! I love boys! but today… The boy I liked got a girl friend this week, the boy that liked me did too, though I’ve heard it’s just a rumor. Every where you turn in the halls at school there’s a couple making goo goo eyes! The girls talk about flowers, teddy bears and heart shaped chocolates, the boys, well, they still talk about basketball. But they’re going totally crazy, they’ve started to wear nice clothes and all of them are being more social. Everyone’s looking for their Valentine.

There are the occasional few that don’t get caught up in that stuff. My group of friends talk about never getting Valentines, and how excited we’ll be in high school when we can date. So, I’ve spent my weekend listening to Adele. Prima Donna and I ate cookie dough and watched High School Musical! Who needs boys when you’ve got a Taylor Swift album?

My turn!

***Is this pretty much what you all think of Valentines Day? I know my older unmarried kids call it Single's Awareness Day.  Why are we so caught up in the holiday? It's easy for me to say that it's no big deal, but I've been happily married to my sweetie for 28 years so I have a valentine every day. I'm not really complaining about Valentine's Day, obviously this is a day that we celebrate at my house. I have three November babies, four if you count Baby Doll who was born a month early in October.

When we were kids we sweated over the valentines we made for our friends. We checked each little candy heart to make sure they didn't say anything that could be misinterpreted. And then of course when we were looking at ours we read each and every one just hoping there WAS a hidden  message from a secret admirer. My heart aches for my girls every year when they come home without a flower or candy heart. The Dog Walker is totally bummed that no one invited him to the Sweethearts' Dance. Yesterday he was trying to convince me that it was OK for him to ask someone to this girl's choice dance.


I think Princess is right...everyone's looking for their Valentine. I'm grateful every day that I found mine.***