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Week 32 ~ August 29, 2004
~ Babies, Shots and Reading Time
The two people I know who were due in August have had their babies! My cousin had her first this past weekend. It sounds like all went well, and my aunt e-mailed a photo of the baby to everyone. He is gorgeous!
My friend also had her baby yesterday, just after midnight and just a few days past her due date. She called me today and told me the details. Her birth was really lovely. She has two little boys already, and decided to keep the boy/girl thing a mystery this third time, just like we are doing. She had another little boy. I got tears in my eyes when she told me his name. She sounds very content and very much in love with him.
Charon had her five-year well-child doctor's appointment this week. She needed to get some vaccinations, but felt okay about it. I prepared her for the visit, and she really had a good time for most of it. Since she's been to this same office for my midwife visits several times in the last few months, she was very comfortable there. She loved the developmental activities, and enjoyed showing off to us: hopping on one foot, drawing a person and answering questions like, "What is a door made out of?"
At the end of the appointment came the shots. She had three to get, and two nurses came in so that they could get them done as quickly as possible. She held my hand, and told them, "I will just say, 'Ow'." Well, they hurt more than she expected them to, and she cried.  She worried that there were more to come, but we told her she was all done. One of the nurses gleefully told her that "now she could go to kindergarten!" I had avoided telling her that the shots were so that she could go to school, because they really weren't. (We could sign a form that says we conscientiously object to any shots, which we did with the chicken pox vaccine.) I didn't want her to connect something that hurt with something that was new and exciting but also a little scary. Before the appointment, I explained to her what vaccines are for, and I would have felt better if the nurse had exclaimed, "Now you're protected against these diseases [listing them]!" Charon would have understood that much better.
I've read some depressing novels lately, and I'm ready for something more upbeat. The two I read in August were The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. With the first, I just couldn't connect with the characters, and the story was attempting to be too romantic. Time traveling the way this character did would not be romantic for the person or their partner! The contrast between the seriousness of his illness and the way the characters just floated along, so in love with each other, was odd to me. The second novel was just sad. It was basically about a family and their difficult relationships to each other. It was beautifully written, however. For the rest of this pregnancy, I know I will be in the mood for cheery, funny or light novels. We'll see what I (and my book groups) pick out to read.
I wonder how much reading time I will have when this little one comes. I remember with Charon, holding her during her daytime naps and reading. Maybe I can do the same at times with this baby. I really liked that forced quiet time where my hands were full and my body was anchored, but my mind could work and dream.
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