Hello out there! I haven't had time to write a blog post in a long while, but since baby Ray is happily babbling and bouncing in his Jolly Jumper, I thought I'd try. First, the Coles Notes of the last 7 months since our little guy joined us.
The Coles Notes of Baby Ray
Ray was born on Boxing Day with a blizzard rolling outside. I thought he was going to be a Christmas Day baby when my water broke at 6am, even though I'd requested, out loud to my pregnant belly, that he not come on Christmas Day. Many times. He was due January 3, but I guess he decided he wanted to always be the youngest in his class instead of the oldest. Either that, or he knew there were a few Christmas gifts for him under the tree.
As I'd been told, the nurses at the hospital in Nelson were all amazing and the one who really impacted me was Tracy, who told me stories of her chicken, Cinderella, who moved into the house after surviving a bear attack. Tracy celebrated with me when I got enough milk to feed Ray, and she patted me on the leg warmly when I cried over not having enough milk to feed Ray. It was all about the milk then. All about the milk. We stayed in the hospital for about 6 days, enjoying our beautiful view of the snowy mountains and snuggling our little pumpkin.
The Censored Coles Notes of the Actual Birth
You don't want to know the nitty-gritty details, so I'll spare you. But here's what I will tell you: I went into labour with no real 'plan' other than to take the drugs if I needed them, and not if I didn't need them. I needed all of them. I had everything on the drug menu. The laughing gas was a bust, helping me zero amount. Next up was fentanyl or something, and then the glorious, glorious epidural. I went from feeling all the pain to feeling no pain (but, surprising to me, I could still feel all the contractions, they just didn't hurt). I'm not saying everyone should have an epidural. I'm just saying for me, it was GLORIOUS. Yadda yadda yadda, hours later, I had a C-section. The recovery took way too long.
What else can I say about Ray? He loves milk, jumping in his Jolly Jumper, and chomping me with his two sharp bottom teeth when I'm least expecting it. He also enjoys liquid pooping into a freshly changed diaper, twisting and turning all over the bed when it's the middle of the night (yes, we sleep in the same bed), and when someone bicycles his legs. Starting when he was a fresh little peanut, I vowed to give him one new experience every day, whether it be meeting a new person, going somewhere new, or Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Because of his new experiences, Ray is also getting to know a lot of people in town!
Here are some of the highlights of his first 7 months:
-getting dragged to almost every baseball game down at Murray Pearson Ball Park this season
-attending Kaslo Jazz Fest and dipping his legs in Kootenay Lake
-visiting the coast a couple of times to spend precious time with friends and family
-going to a super fun ranch party at my cousin's place in Salmon Arm and getting way too many mosquito bites
-meeting all the members of the Ladies Auxiliary, where he's learning how to make a killer potato salad. All he needs now is his own yellow apron!
-buzzing around town in his little bike trailer (also for cross-country skiing!)
-experiencing the inconvenience of having your clutch go while you're on vacation even though you've only owned the car for SEVEN MONTHS!
-experiencing the inconvenience of having your transmission go while you're on vacation even though you've only owned the truck for FIVE DAYS!
In his first 7 months, Ray has met countless family members and friends and they've all shown him so much love, which brings me so much joy. He's learning that his mother likes hubbub, which means he's pretty good at being put down on a blanket in the middle of a party! He also doesn't seem to mind the loud motorcycles that constantly pass by our house in the summer (neither do I...they're having fun!)
Well, better wrap this up. The squeals of joy are becoming a bit more frantic. Just as a summary of my experience of the hard parts during the first 7 months of motherhood: I am tired, but it's not that bad. What's worse is the fact that both my shoulders feel like they're about to dislocate at any moment, from general baby wrangling. I'm not that crazy about the biting, but I guess I'll get used to it. The first five or six months I was still recovering from my surgery, and it was so slow I wanted to pull my hair out. I just wanted to get back to being able to sit up comfortably, and go for a brisk walk.
Now to the gushy stuff. I can't get enough of the smell of the top of his head. The squish of his thighs. The way he laughs. GOD, the way he laughs. The look on his face when he knows he's doing a REALLY good bounce in his jumper. The way he looks at Jordie when he holds him first thing in the morning while he's drinking his coffee. The way he looks like an adult when he's chomping on little morsels of raspberry. It's the tiniest things that bring me to my knees with gratitude, and there are just no words I could ever say that would really paint the picture of what the little guy has given me. I know it's cliche central, but man I'm in love.
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