Royal Watch

With the birth of the Royal Baby any day now, I am realizing how out of the loop I have been about this whole hullabaloo. I am not sure what turned me off from keeping up with the Royals, but somewhere along the way I zoned out.

Today, as I was loading my groceries into my William and Kate tote, I got to thinking about their upcoming venture into parenthood. I cannot imagine what it will be like for them. I just read that Kate did not have any baby showers because it would be deemed inappropriate,  given that she and William have plenty of money. Practical Royals. They definitely don't follow the lead of Hollywood. I give a nod to Kate for her prudence, but I also feel bad for her. I hope that there was a secret shower so Kate got to have some sort of gal pal time to giggle about pregnancy. Because that's what showers are all about, right?

In my eleventh hour intrigue of the Royal Fetus, I have learned some interesting things. The most interesting news I have come across, other than the fact that Americans are far more into the Royal Bump than Brits, is news of Heidi Agan, a Kate impersonator. Heidi, like most lookalikes, has a real rags-to-riches story. I get the sense that there is a formula to being a hired lookalike: work as a waitress or minimum-wage job, have multiple people insist that you look like someone famous, alter your appearance in one subtle way, and - voila! You are moving up in the world and almost completely indistinguishable from a celebrity. 

For years I have known that celebrity impersonators exist. I am almost certain we have all seen the move Dave at least half a dozen times, given the repeat nature of TBS movies. Even though I know about impersonators, it all seems theoretical. Looking at Heidi Agan's Facebook page, and all the work she does, leaves me feeling betrayed. She was walking arm-in-arm with Barbara Walters for a brief stint on 20/20, answering questions about the baby. Babara WaWa did come clean that she was talking to an impersonator, but it was weird. How many celebrity impersonators have conducted entire interviews that I undoubtedly ate up?

Thought-Provoking Thursday: A Glass in Hand = What Type of Mother?

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Here is a confession that is not likely to make me win awards in many mothering circles: I drank while pregnant with both Grayson and Lu. Maybe it is ironic that I drank during my pregnancies, given my background in public health. But I think my maternal health background is what gave me the confidence to know that my babies were going to be okay. I had read so much research about the effects of alcohol and knew the politics behind the Surgeon General's warning. Maybe I was cocky to think that my wine with dinner would not cause a problem, or maybe I was exactly right. My pregnancy drinking was never extreme, just a couple of glasses of wine a week after the first trimester. Sometimes I went as far as to drink wine in public. We actually had a special bottle of wine that we opened when I was in labor. Since my labor was vague and herky-jerky, we ended up buying replacement wine for the first bottle of the labor wine. 

I have wanted to market Labor Wine. Labor is such a fun and exciting time. It makes it all the more memorable to have a special bottle of wine to go with it. Can you tell that I have already devised a marketing scheme for this wine? Unfortunately, I don't think my Labor Wine would ever take off in the States. I would have some groups coming after me, and all the other folks would likely be too scared to buy the wine. Maybe this research would help my business.  

What do you think? Is alcohol during pregnancy okay, or too much of a risk?

Thought-Provoking Thursday: Full Disclosure?

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Last week I read this blog post from Motherlode about the dilemma of whether or not to disclose a pregnancy to a perspective employer. I had this dilemma when I was pregnant with Grayson. When I was nine months pregnant with Grayson I began applying for jobs outside Atlanta that would be more baby-friendly. I was uncertain about what approach to take in addressing my pregnancy, whether it should be addressed at all. I did not know the best strategy for going into an interview nine months pregnant. I picked out clothing that would minimize, maybe even hide my pregnancy. I did not want to be discounted the moment an employer saw my stomach. As things would turn out, I was in early labor when I was scheduled to have an interview. I had no option but to disclose my pregnancy, since I thought it would be worse to just randomly ask to reschedule the interview. It was surreal to email an potential employer to ask him to rearrange his schedule because I was in labor. My cover was blown. My disclosure did not hurt my cause, though. I got the job. Admittedly, I was very surprised I got the job. I continually told myself that no one in their right mind would hire a woman who just had a baby. I guess I am biased.

What are your thoughts? I think the dilemma could be challenging for women who about to get married as well. Would you tell an employer that you are engaged? It seems like a red flag to me.

And So the Story Goes

It's been almost three weeks since I birthed Lucy. I have intended to write the story of Lucy's birth sooner, but for some reason it has felt very difficult to devote time to it. I mean, it's a birth story - it must be a great work of literature that can be read for generations to come. And, there is no concise way to tell a birth story. Only TLC can concisely edit birth stories to tap into the dramatic parts and shave out the rest. My birth story actually involves a lot of sitting and waiting.

In hindsight I can see that my labor with Lucy was very similar to my labor with Grayson, except I spent a majority of my labor with Lucy in the hospital. A quick recap, the labor I experienced with Grayson was very long but also very quick. I was dilated at about 5-6 cm for days. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sensation of my water breaking, and Grayson was born shortly after we arrived at the hospital.  Since everything was such a rapid whirlwind after my water broke, it was assumed that this labor would progress even faster once my water broke.

When I was pregnant with Grayson I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I got my wish. I practically did all my laboring at home and in my sleep. My first birth experience was great. I cherished every unique minute of it. This time, however, I was not so adamant about laboring at home as long as possible. We live less than a quarter of a mile from the hospital, but the midwives still joked that I could deliver at home, in the car, in the parking lot - basically anywhere but the delivery room. With every joke I would give a small chuckle and mutter something like, "Yeah, my husband is reading Emergency Childbirth to prepare just in case." This would make the midwife laugh. But in my gut I would have a knot. John really did read Emergency Childbirth in preparation of a rapid birth, and I personally know women who delivered in their home, in the car (the gal just threw her legs on the dash board and gave a good push), in the hospital parking lot. As much as the extreme stories make good fodder for conversation, I did not want a birth experience that would require me to think about anything beyond allowing my body to do what it needed to do.

Thankfully - spoiler alert - John and I did not have an emergency childbirth situation in which we had to MacGyver our way through the birth of our child.

Ready or Not

The most common question I am asked these days is, "Are you ready for the new baby?" In one word, "Nope." I have accepted the fact that I am not one of those women who is absolutely excited and always ready to bring another child into the mix. I know I will very much love all my children, but I am also realistic that transition is work, and sometimes I am not in the mood to work.

Everyday I think about how unprepared I am to have another child, and everyday I am one day closer to welcoming a new child into the world. Sure, I have clothes, a place for the baby to sleep, diapers, the car seat, all the things, but mentally I am still operating on being the mother of one. Last week, when I was having regular nightly contractions, I just kept thinking about how we have a good system of how things work in our house, and how another child is going to change that entire system. I am certain that we will adapt and that we will love our new little one so much that we cannot imagine the world without her, but adaptation takes time and effort. This week I am more open to the time and effort it is going to take to have a new little one. I have not have the reoccurring thought of, "What have we done? How did we get into this mess?" nearly as many times each day. I guess that is growth; I guess that means I getting ready to have this baby.


*Photo from http://www.turbosquid.com

Word Vomit

Pregnancy launches you into a whole new realm of Girl World. Being pregnant and being around a lot of pregnant women has made my conversational boundaries fuzzy. I am so comfortable and accustomed to gabbing about the everyday things like my cervix, dilation, effacement, the bloody show that my filter for what is appropriate in certain situations is all but gone. Today I went back to work after having a week-long holiday. The act of getting to work was enough to make me want to pack up for the day, and it was enough to make me too tired to adhere to any professional social boundaries that exist.

During a staff meeting I decided to discuss with my boss the risk of my water breaking at the office and the mess that it would be. I also discussed my options for getting to the hospital if I went into labor at work. One of the possibilities was to have my boss drive me to the hospital. He graciously said he could take me, even though I emphasized the damage that could occur to the interior of his car. Somewhere along the line I lost my mind and I heard myself gabbing about all the things pregnant women talk about amongst themselves, not the topics pregnant women discuss with there bosses. The only thing that kept me from going completely over the edge and into gory detail of labor and delivery was that I know that my boss has hemophobia, which leads him to pass out at the thought or sight of blood. It's an interesting day when the only thing that held me back from falling into the socially-inappropriate-in-the-workplace abyss was the fear that I would have to deal with a passed out boss as a result of my detailed conversation.