Baby Update 38+ Weeks, NOT Fake Out Labour

Water broke.

:)

Baby Update 38 Weeks, Fake Out Labour

Dr. appointment went well this week BUT here are some things I have learned about myself this past week.

I am a putterer when it comes to labor. Seriously. I have had regular contractions for almost a week now. A notch up from Braxton Hicks, longer periods each day, stronger each day. There is a name for this kind of labor: Prodromal Labour.

It is described as torture. It is described as confusing, discouraging, and degrading (people don't believe you and you stop believing it too). Then someone wrote that simply knowing that it is progression, though slow, is encouraging. That every contraction and pain now is one I won't face on the big day.

That was a turning point for me. I am a putterer. My labour will be slow because I need it to be, to get ready. There are theories that it helps prepare for big babies and mine might certainly be since Lil'Bug was 9 lbs 6oz when she was born. I also had this painful pre-labour time that sent us to the hospital early with her. It was not quite as intense as this time, but still there. It is not faking me out, since I know it is just part of the whole process.

Also, in researching I found that the contractions are so painful because of the positions I shift to. So, today I've tried others and I feel much better.

The Dr. appointment: all is the same, good stats, healthy babe. Ultrasound next week to double check some things. That's about it. It is a waiting game now.

Video Games, Teaching, and Mean Moms

A student of mine decided to publish his essay about video gaming in an unschooling home online. Another online "mommy blogger" picked it up and started discussing the writing, then another, and now it is being discussed all over online:

Here is the link to the student's essay:

His mother's response to the controversy

Sandra Dodd's link to the issue at hand.....

The last two generated a lot of other discussions and links, but I'm not going to list all 100+! I'm also going to let you get to the offended's blog through the other links. I'd rather not generate more traffic to hers if I can help it!

I don't typically discuss details about my teaching or students but this one I'd thought I'd share. The thing that really peaked my interest was the way that the offended blogger approached discussion in the comments. I also teach Argument 106 and she kept dropping vocab terms to dismantle the arguments of others, but not quite getting them right. Also, if this was in the confines of my classroom, the offended mom would be explaining such an unprofessional reaction to the Provost. She called his writing horseshit and emotional blackmail. I usually explain the rules of engagement in the classroom (online) as how we would be expected to treat each other in the "real world".....so much for that, eh?

That said, I really enjoyed this student's essay. I am glad he published it. I am glad that it is generating discussion. Discussion leads to learning about others and ourselves, even if one doesn't agree with the original premise.

In fact, I might have been on her side of the fence at one time in my parenting life. It took a while for me to understand my child and myself enough to finally allow video games in my home. It took me even more time to overcome resentment and guilt and such that I was unknowingly (or un-admittedly) passing on to my family. It takes a community of learning and kindness to help us through times like those. A wonderful mentor said to me, when I was fed up with a mom bully and her kids at park day and wanted to start a new park day, that the greater change will come when we open ourselves up to such encounters, "you never know who might stumble across a group of unschoolers and have their own minds changed for more peaceful and respectful family relationships," she wisely said.

Love Story

A bit back Evie posted her love story at a Road Less Traveled. I meant to post ours here too, but it got away from me.

Ours is pretty simple. We were teenagers. :)

The first time I met Dearest it was a bit unusual. I had just moved to Iowa from Illinois and felt really out of place. I drove around sometimes just getting the feel of the new place. There was a high school DJ'd radio station and one night I heard the strangest combination of songs......
Violent Femmes, Benny Goodman, and TMBG mixed with some Christian punk. ??? I had to meet the DJ.

So I drove to the station and walked in. That's the first time I met Dearest. He was polite and sweet, but very busy.

The next time, I was eating beef jerky at the high school voc-tech campus and he thought that was pretty cool. Girls don't usually eat beef jerky?

The next time, (sense a pattern?) it was at a punk show. Still, I thought he was sweet and really cute but my life had gotten quite crazy by then.

Finally, I ended up in the program that ran the radio station and he spent a lot of time there too. He was reading a J. D. Salinger book that was not Catcher in the Rye (at the time I thought I was the only person on earth who knew Salinger wrote other books......) and we struck up a conversation.

So then we were friends. That was about it. Friends. Then good friends. Then good friends who spent a lot of time together.

One night he called me at 11 PM and invited me to go fishing. It was the end of my sister day with Aunt Bee so I asked if she could come along, explaining a bit about sister day. Aunt Bee was bitter and 11 years old, but said yes too. She wanted to ride in his very cool VW Bug.

We headed off for fishing in the moonlight. No fish were caught. In fact Aunt Bee threw rocks at Dearest and pouted the whole time. She tried to fish and ended up losing some of his best lures. The funny thing is, after the excursion she said, "You'll never date him." Why? "He's cute and nice and you only date losers." Thanks Aunt Bee. (BTW, I never dated another loser again in my life. Also, ha ha. I married the cute and nice guy AB threw rocks at!)

Back to the story at hand-
Still, we were not ready. Suddenly we were good friends who were not dating anyone else. Then good friends who secretly had crushes on the other but didn't want to mess with the friendship and then......

Then one night he showed up at the bookstore where I worked. At closing, he asked if I had ever seen the badminton sculpture at the KC Art Museum. No? Ok, let's go. Tonight?

It was a blizzard in December, we left Iowa at 1 AM for KC. Nuts, I know. We had a blast. Two days of art museum bliss, meeting his friends and family, eating at some neat places.

When it was all said and done and he dropped me off at home, he said, "You are beautiful." Then he left. He left me speechless. I was in shock. He was messing with our friendship! Part of me was scared and the other absolutely gleeful. This is a photo of me the next day.

I showed up at his work and invited him over to watch movies. That December was a whirlwind.

Christmas Eve, 1996 we kissed for the first time. That was it. We began our life together.