Notebook

Quite often MDF will come up with a funny pronunciation of a word. The latest and greatest is how she says hyena: “hi-nee-na”. She has been watching and reading a lot about Disney’s Lion King and has become fascinated with the hyenas. A couple weeks ago, when I would get home from work, she would ask me to be a “mad hineena” and chase her around.

Now she wants me to be the ogre from Kings Quest I…

Yesterday, or maybe Friday, I was doing some yard work outside and
MDF was helping me, or so I thought. When she went in for a
drink she told CDF that I “was a great helper” and I was doing a
good job outside. 😉

We were also driving the riding mower around with the trailer and
picking up piles of debris left over from Tropical Storm Ernesto, and
whenever I stopped to pick up piles I would turn off the engine and
let her sit in the seat. She would sit and say “start the onjon”
just to get me to say, “that’s not the word,” and then laugh about
it. It was great fun.

CEF arrived in this world earlier than expected. CDF was sent to the hospital on Friday, Sept 1, after the doctor determined that she was leaking amniotic fluid — and had been for the past few days. Because there was a danger of infection, she (Dr. Tolofsen) decided to induce CDF that afternoon.

I got to the hospital about 4:30 PM, and by 5:30 CDF had a room and the nurse had started the Pitocin. Carolyn met us at the hospital and took MDF back to Burgaw to spend the night. Then CDF and I settled down for a long wait.

To start with the contractions were very light. It wasn’t until about 11:15 PM that she requested Staidol for the pain. After midnight (when the pitocin was dripping at max) the contractions started getting harder. By 1:00 AM the doctor said CDF was about 5 or 6 cm dilated — which was good — and that now she should dilate about 1 cm per hour until she reached 10 cm. That was not so good, since it meant another 4-5 hours of labor! But at almost 2:00 AM, CDF
started feeling a lot of pressure, and said she was feeling the urge to push with the contractions. A nurse came and checked her, and discovered she was at least 8 cm.

CDF had another hurtful contraction, and this time cried out, which brought the nurses rushing in. Apparently they can tell by the sound how close a woman is to giving birth — at least they have with both of ours.

It didn’t take long after that. The doctor came in and started getting ready. A nurse coached CDF on how to hold her breath and not cry out so she could concentrate on pushing (she started doing so well they had to tell her to hold off on a couple contractions). I just stood beside CDF, holding her hand, and concentrated on wiping her face occasionally.

At 2:21 AM on Saturday, September 2nd, CEF was born. It was amazing to look down toward the foot of the bed and see a baby appear. She started crying right away and struggled a bit while the doctor tried to get her untangled from the umbilical cord. Of course I had the “honor” of cutting the cord — it’s not pretty, so it must be a symbolic thing — and they placed the baby on CDF’s chest so she could hold her while they finished wiping her down.

Finally I got to hold her, and she felt very tiny. I don’t remember how MDF felt — but CEF looked small. She lay quietly in my arms and looked around, cried a little, and just rested.

She weighed 5 lbs 5 oz at birth.

Sleeping well Saturday morning

Mother and daughter

Two sisters

Two nights ago MDF woke up in the middle of the night crying. At first she just went with me to get water, but when she got back in bed, she pulled her sheet over her ear. I asked if it hurt, and she started crying and said yes. We tried to get medicine, but she started coughing and got so worked up that she threw it up. After that she just wanted to go to bed. CDF lay with her for a while and eventually she went to sleep around 1:00.

Then yesterday CDF took her to the Doctor and they confirmed that she had an ear infection and gave her antibiotics. Interestingly they said she probably couldn’t hear out of that ear (I think it’s the right one), and we had started noticing on Saturday that she was saying “what” a lot. But I don’t know if it really related or not.

Last night MDF told me an interesting story:

“My daddy died. Some bad men dropped a rock on his head and he died…”

“But then he was alive again…”

“And he turned into ‘watermelon fox!'”

I do not know where she came up with this.

Today MDF and I were out looking for blackberries. I had found
some in the ditch to the left of our driveway and so we went walking
down that way. We only found two, but kept on going until we got to
the driveway of the rehab center. There is a clear “meadow” between
the parking lot of the center and the woods that separates it from our
house that MDF calls the “Witches Garden” (from the Rapunzel
story). We normally go in there and pick Asters, or just look around,
but today I thought I would check for blackberries. We found a bunch.

I started picking some and MDF was talking about the witch
finding us in her garden. We discussed the possibility that the witch
would not like us picking her blackberries, but I tried to tell
MDF that maybe the witch would share.

Soon I discovered that there were a whole lot of blackberries up the
slope of the berm that is hidden in the woods. So I told MDF we
needed to go back and get a bucket to hold all the berries we would
pick, so we headed back to tell CDF what we found.

When we got back, MDF told CDF about the “Witches Garden” and
CDF asked if the witch was going to put MDF in a tower, and
call up to her “MDF, MDF, let down your hair.” MDF
didn’t reply, but took a step toward me, and held on to my leg. She
had a worried look on her face, and, after laughing a bit, CDF and
I had to explain it was really just a story.

We picked half a small bucket of berries before getting tired and
heading back home. So for dessert MDF and I had blackberries and
ice cream! Not CDF though, she finds the blackberries too tart.