Saw this over at Acidicice:
1. What time did you get up this morning?
5:45
2. How do you like your steak?
Medium-rare.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Bride Wars
4. What is your favorite TV show?
I don't watch TV.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
I think I'd have several homes dotted around the world rather than sticking to one particular place.
6. What did you have for breakfast?
Jungle Oats.
7. What is your favorite cuisine?
It varies.
8. What foods do you dislike?
Spicy food, mostly.
9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Zaatar w Zeit, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
Citroen C2 VTR, Black.
12. What are your favorite clothes?
I don't want to talk about it.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Italy, Russia, Thailand, Canada, New York City, Las Vegas, Mauritius, The Caribbean, Zanzibar.... to name a few.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
Meh.
15. Where would you want to retire?
Dunno.
16. Favorite time of day?
Bed time.
17. Where were you born?
Evander.
18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Not a big sports fan. Don't mind watching the odd rugby/cricket match with the husband if there's a fair amount of action.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
Meh.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
See above.
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
Anyone who might bother to answer.
22. Bird watcher?
Not so much. I dunno. Maybe sometimes.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Is it bed time yet?
24. Do you have any pets?
Yes.
25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
I know what orange/rooibos tea puke looks like!
26. What did you want to be when you were little?
Rich.
27. What is your best childhood memory?
Receiving parcels from my mom in the mail. She used to cram them full of Mr. Sweet Nougat bars and Iced Zoo biscuits and stuff...
28. Are you a cat or dog person?
Cat.
29. Are you married?
Yes.
30. Always wear your seat belt?
Yep.
31. Been in a car accident?
Yep.
32. Any pet peeves?
Are you sure you want to open that can?
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
Chicken & pineapple.
34. Favorite Flower?
Varies.
35. Favorite ice cream?
Magnum Classic.
36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Zaatar w Zeit, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.
37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
Two. Once because I was pregnant and unmarried and the second time because the same official who failed me the first time made me so nervous I forgot to use my handbrake on the incline pull-away.
38. From whom did you get your last email?
Someone at work.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
No credit card for me, thanks.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
Does vomiting count?
41. Happy with your job?
Nope.
42. Broccoli?
With creamy cheese sauce? Yes please.
43. What was your favorite vacation?
Probably the one right after I finished high school.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
The husband, one of his ex-colleagues, his former employer from Dubai & his entire family, and their local hosts.
45. What are you listening to right now?
Myself battling to breathe through constricted nasal passages, the radio in the background, the keys on my keyboard as I type.
46. What is your favorite color?
Varies.
47. How many tattoos do you have?
None.
48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?
Whoever reads this.
49. What time did you finish this quiz?
14:22
50. Coffee Drinker?
Not anymore.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Why I Choose to Birth With a Private Midwife
Most pregnant women spend inordinate amounts of time online, reading about pregnancy, labour, birth and babies, whether they're pregnant for the first or the fourth time. Because, as any woman who's been pregnant more than once will tell you, each pregnancy and each baby is different from the last and what's it to you what I do or don't do in my spare time anyway?!
So if you're pregnant and have internet access, chances are you've read up all about common pregnancy niggles, the various birthing options available to you, symptoms that tell you all is not well, what to eat, what not to eat. Personally, I'll skim through the "what to expect" type stuff (I mean, come on, this is my fourth time) before quickly moving on to the multitude of other women's Birth Stories available on the wide ol' web. Because there's absolutely nothing weird or creepy about reading how babies come out of other people's lady bits, right?
I've had two of my birth stories published in a local pregnancy/baby magazine, one of which was also photographed by the magazine's photographer (who also happens to be a friend), and so it's all good, because I can relate to the feelings of accomplishment and wellbeing that mothers experience when relating their tales to the world. I remember writing a typically warm and fuzzy birth story shortly after my first child was born and feeling perfectly content with the outcome, despite the fact that the birth had gone very differently from what I'd planned and hoped for. I ended up having an emergency c-section due to foetal distress and failure to progress, after 25 hours of oxytocin (probably Pitocin)-augmented labour.
I went for a check up from my gynae on the morning of my due date, feeling excited and anxious for things to get going and practically kissed her when she suggested a "stretch & sweep" of the membranes to see if it would set things in motion. I was to report to the hospital at midnight for an induction if labour hadn't begun by then. By late afternoon I'd lost my mucous plug and started having mild contractions, but these remained constant and didn't change one way or the other throughout the remainder of the day. I arrived at the hospital as scheduled, was examined and found to be 1cm dilated, with the contractions still mild and about 20 minutes apart. So they inserted the ol' gel into my cervix, hooked me up to a drip and a foetal monitor and cranked the Pitocin and I went about the business of being in labour for the next several hours before finally being sent to bed to get some rest before the hard work to come. I remember waking up as a nurse came in to give me a Pethidene shot and meekly accepting it even though I had specifically requested that I not be given any drugs for pain. The contractions were becoming pretty painful and the nurse was saying quite emphatically that I would be thanking her for it later. So I let it go and felt myself slip into a lesser state of conciousness as the drug took hold.... Several hours, yet another dose of cervical gel and increasing doses of IV-administered Pitocin later, my baby went into distress and I was wheeled into theatre for an emergency c-section.
When I initially wrote my birth story for publication, I never mentioned any of this. I guess I was just too grateful that there had been a team of professionals on the job and that my baby came out healthy and unharmed at the end of the whole thing. I chose not to dwell on the fact that the birth had not gone according to plan and later, while researching VBAC and other related topics in anticipation of the births of my other two children, I blamed my own lack of education for this. I never imagined that it could have been orchestrated.
Today, Megan is a healthy, funny, intelligent 7 year old and it shouldn't really matter how she came into the world. Until now, I didn't really think that it bothered me much. But knowing what I know now - that this type of thing is considered pretty routine practice in certain parts of the world, I realise that it does bother me. It bothers me. It bothers me that my trust and inexperience could have made me so vulnerable. That it could have been used to manipulate me and placed my child's life in jeopardy. That I'll never know with absolute certainty whether the whole thing was planned out from beginning to end. That I just might have been well and truly had and that it has taken me this long to realise it. That it is what it is and that, after all this time, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
And so, instead of letting it build up and fester, I'm going to treat this as a lesson learned the hard way and encourage other pregnant moms out there to keep on reading everything they can lay their hands on about pregnancy, labour, birth and babies, whether they're expecting their first or their fourth baby. Because you can and should know and be prepared to deal with any possible outcome.
So if you're pregnant and have internet access, chances are you've read up all about common pregnancy niggles, the various birthing options available to you, symptoms that tell you all is not well, what to eat, what not to eat. Personally, I'll skim through the "what to expect" type stuff (I mean, come on, this is my fourth time) before quickly moving on to the multitude of other women's Birth Stories available on the wide ol' web. Because there's absolutely nothing weird or creepy about reading how babies come out of other people's lady bits, right?
I've had two of my birth stories published in a local pregnancy/baby magazine, one of which was also photographed by the magazine's photographer (who also happens to be a friend), and so it's all good, because I can relate to the feelings of accomplishment and wellbeing that mothers experience when relating their tales to the world. I remember writing a typically warm and fuzzy birth story shortly after my first child was born and feeling perfectly content with the outcome, despite the fact that the birth had gone very differently from what I'd planned and hoped for. I ended up having an emergency c-section due to foetal distress and failure to progress, after 25 hours of oxytocin (probably Pitocin)-augmented labour.
I went for a check up from my gynae on the morning of my due date, feeling excited and anxious for things to get going and practically kissed her when she suggested a "stretch & sweep" of the membranes to see if it would set things in motion. I was to report to the hospital at midnight for an induction if labour hadn't begun by then. By late afternoon I'd lost my mucous plug and started having mild contractions, but these remained constant and didn't change one way or the other throughout the remainder of the day. I arrived at the hospital as scheduled, was examined and found to be 1cm dilated, with the contractions still mild and about 20 minutes apart. So they inserted the ol' gel into my cervix, hooked me up to a drip and a foetal monitor and cranked the Pitocin and I went about the business of being in labour for the next several hours before finally being sent to bed to get some rest before the hard work to come. I remember waking up as a nurse came in to give me a Pethidene shot and meekly accepting it even though I had specifically requested that I not be given any drugs for pain. The contractions were becoming pretty painful and the nurse was saying quite emphatically that I would be thanking her for it later. So I let it go and felt myself slip into a lesser state of conciousness as the drug took hold.... Several hours, yet another dose of cervical gel and increasing doses of IV-administered Pitocin later, my baby went into distress and I was wheeled into theatre for an emergency c-section.
When I initially wrote my birth story for publication, I never mentioned any of this. I guess I was just too grateful that there had been a team of professionals on the job and that my baby came out healthy and unharmed at the end of the whole thing. I chose not to dwell on the fact that the birth had not gone according to plan and later, while researching VBAC and other related topics in anticipation of the births of my other two children, I blamed my own lack of education for this. I never imagined that it could have been orchestrated.
Today, Megan is a healthy, funny, intelligent 7 year old and it shouldn't really matter how she came into the world. Until now, I didn't really think that it bothered me much. But knowing what I know now - that this type of thing is considered pretty routine practice in certain parts of the world, I realise that it does bother me. It bothers me. It bothers me that my trust and inexperience could have made me so vulnerable. That it could have been used to manipulate me and placed my child's life in jeopardy. That I'll never know with absolute certainty whether the whole thing was planned out from beginning to end. That I just might have been well and truly had and that it has taken me this long to realise it. That it is what it is and that, after all this time, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
And so, instead of letting it build up and fester, I'm going to treat this as a lesson learned the hard way and encourage other pregnant moms out there to keep on reading everything they can lay their hands on about pregnancy, labour, birth and babies, whether they're expecting their first or their fourth baby. Because you can and should know and be prepared to deal with any possible outcome.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Another Bun
So I'm staying on at the temp job for another month and a few days, which is both wonderful and extremely frustrating. Wonderful because we really need the money and frustrating because it means I'm waiting another month and a few days to get started on that project of mine. And the thing about stuff like that is that I'm the type of person who needs to be able to jump right in and start when the inspiration strikes, otherwise the enthusiasm quickly starts to disappear and the longer it takes to get going, the greater the probability that when I finally do get going, it's going to end up being just another half-arsed excuse for an effort, resulting in something completely useless and very different from what I'd originally had in mind.
Moving on...
This was taken yesterday morning, so yes, I'm busy baking yet another bun. Which explains why Jack hasn't been feeding as eagerly as he used to and why my milk supply has dipped significantly in the last while.
I have no idea yet as to how far along I am, but I'm guessing, based on the date of the positive test, that I'm due sometime mid March.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping that over the next few months I'll find more and more stuff to say as I attempt to organise my life, launch a business and care for three kids while simultaneously growing a fourth.
Thing is, I don't want to spend my whole life bitching on my blog about the same things over and over and over and over.... And it seems for the last while that, while the details may vary, the general gist of my life remains unchanged and I find myself doing things I don't really want to do because we need the money. Or not doing the things I want to do because we don't have the money. Or waiting until we have the money to do what I need to do to make things change. And since I already bitch about it in my head all the time, there's no point bitching about it here all the time, too...
Meh. Listen to me going all woe is me! Truth is, there are a lot of things in my life that are going very well. With Jack's arrival, I discovered a love for my two older children that I had begun to believe I was incapable of, and while I still have the odd meltdown, we are generally getting along so much better than I can remember us ever doing before.
And Jack - I could not have asked for an easier baby! He's just always smiling and happy and so fucking cute I could die!
And the nanny we hired to care for Jack while I'm working is fantastic. She adores Jack and Megan & Michael, and they her. And I come home to a relatively clean house every evening.
And David's just started a new job where he'll actually get paid every month, which means that things are certainly going to get better. And then just try and shut me up!
Moving on...
This was taken yesterday morning, so yes, I'm busy baking yet another bun. Which explains why Jack hasn't been feeding as eagerly as he used to and why my milk supply has dipped significantly in the last while.
I have no idea yet as to how far along I am, but I'm guessing, based on the date of the positive test, that I'm due sometime mid March.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping that over the next few months I'll find more and more stuff to say as I attempt to organise my life, launch a business and care for three kids while simultaneously growing a fourth.
Thing is, I don't want to spend my whole life bitching on my blog about the same things over and over and over and over.... And it seems for the last while that, while the details may vary, the general gist of my life remains unchanged and I find myself doing things I don't really want to do because we need the money. Or not doing the things I want to do because we don't have the money. Or waiting until we have the money to do what I need to do to make things change. And since I already bitch about it in my head all the time, there's no point bitching about it here all the time, too...
Meh. Listen to me going all woe is me! Truth is, there are a lot of things in my life that are going very well. With Jack's arrival, I discovered a love for my two older children that I had begun to believe I was incapable of, and while I still have the odd meltdown, we are generally getting along so much better than I can remember us ever doing before.
And Jack - I could not have asked for an easier baby! He's just always smiling and happy and so fucking cute I could die!
And the nanny we hired to care for Jack while I'm working is fantastic. She adores Jack and Megan & Michael, and they her. And I come home to a relatively clean house every evening.
And David's just started a new job where he'll actually get paid every month, which means that things are certainly going to get better. And then just try and shut me up!
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