Tell me your labour stories

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, I’m due next Tuesday, and I’m bored because of sitting around trying not to have my blood pressure spike. So, tell me about your labour and delivery- cheerful stories preferred (see the blood pressure thing above :D) but anything will do. How long, what happened, did you have arguments with the doctors or nurses? OBs, GPs, or midwives? Week-long or five hours? Natural, epidural, waterbirth, c-section, knocked-out unconcious? Funny things your partner or parents did? (My Dad drove into a lamp-post in the hospital parking lot when I was being born) I expect Mr. Lissar will pass out at least twice- big tough martial arts guy who faints when people discuss surgery. :smiley:

So, what happened?

2

No labour or labor either. :smiley: Both of mine were C-sections. The first one was 25 days overdue. (Hopefully, that won’t elevate the BP.) Doc tried to induce her but it just didn’t work so into the operating room we went. The Klingon was there and didn’t faint. I had a spinal so I knew everything that was going on. She was beautiful and perfect.

Number 2 was a scheduled C-section and everything went off without a hitch. (Well, the Klingon almost didn’t make it because he was up all night playing poker.) I had another spinal. He was beautiful and perfect.

I am sending you the very best of vibes that all will go well with the Lil Ninja Chef. :slight_smile:

3

Both of mine were hours long (and my son also kept backing up in the birth canal every time the nurse let me rest between pushes) so I won’t mention that. :x

A funny: when my water broke with my first, it woke me up and I groggily thought that the waterbed had popped. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

I went to the pound, but they wouldn’t take a credit card! So I had to write a check. $45 later I was the proud parent of a german shepherd. Second time around was even easier - I had my checkbook ready and was the proud mama of a siamese cat.

Seriously, my sisters have given birth to 10 babies between them. None of them had drugs or an epidural. One sister put her son to bed around 9:00, went into labor and got to the hospital around 11:00. She delivered an 11 lb baby girl at 1:30 and left at 7:30 that same morning saying she felt fine. She was home before her son woke up.

Good luck!

StG

5

You probably don’t want to hear mine. My daughter was huge, over 10 lbs., and turned over, so she just bounced against my pelvic bone for hours. Her face was all squashed and swollen afterwards. After 24 hours of labor, I had a c-section and then slept a lot. The recovery wasn’t too bad, really.

My next baby was a scheduled c-section, 10 days early, and that one was still over 9 lbs. The recovery was a lot easier, though.

I’m really good at growing babies. Not so good at giving birth to them. I think I would have done great with a nice little 8-pounder…

6

Ooh, are you sure you want these? Well, okay then!

My first pregnancy began when I was 17. Easy peasy. If it weren’t for that silly education/job/social expectation thing, I’d recommend late teenage pregnancy in a heartbeat - it’s when your body is in the best shape it’s ever going to be. Anyhow, 37 weeks in I went for my weekly OB apt, I found out I was 2 cm dilated and about 80% effaced. He told me I’d be in to deliver by the end of the week. Went home and couldn’t sleep (due to P.U.P.P.S. - horrible all-body itching) so I got up and laid on the couch to read. My wrists were resting on my belly, and at some point I realized my belly was getting really hard. Harder than late pregnancy hard - harder than a fully inflated basketball. And then it got regular softish again. A few minutes later and it was Basketball Belly again. Mind you, internally, I didn’t feel so much as a menstrual cramp. Nothing at all. After a couple of hours of this, I woke up my mother, who said, “You’re in labor, silly!” and told me to call the doctor. Into the hospital we went, where I chatted with the nurses and told them all how easy this labor thing was! ( :rolleyes: )

A couple of hours later, at about 4 in the morning, back labor hit. Excruciating back labor. Found out later he was presenting posterior (but head down) and had a scoliosis, so his crooked little spine was popping down each of my vertebrae. Ouch. Had some Stadol (sp?) or Demerol, which I don’t recommend. It didn’t dull the pain, just made me loopy and sleepy between contractions. It’s not given as pain relief, but to shut up the patient.

About 45 minutes of pushing before I figured out which muscles to use, and then he popped out like a cork. The worst part is when the head is out but not the shoulders. To prevent snapping a collarbone, they tell you to stop pushing while they wiggle the shoulders out. Of course, I had just finally figured out how to push and really, really wanted him all of the way out NOW! But no pushing. Ergh.

The only complication we had was that my placenta didn’t want to detach. Reading the charts now, I’m really pissed - they gave me Pitocin, without consent, moments after delivery, and did a manual extraction 5 minutes later. There’s no medical reason the placenta needs to come out that fast - I wasn’t bleeding or anything. The doctor, IMHO, just wanted to get things over with. So he reached a gloved hand up inside me (through the still open cervix) and just yanked that sucker out. That was…interesting!
My daughter, of course, was a different story. 13 years later, I was 31, chose a midwife and natural birthing center, arranged for a water labor, 5 of my best female friends to be there with essential oils and soft drumming and chanting and massage to soothe me…and I started bleeding heavily at 23 weeks. So it was into the ER and up to Labor and Delivery, where they took a few hours to figure out that my amniotic sac was leaking and there was probably an infection in there.

Once again, however, I felt no contractions. They read contractions on their monitors, but I felt nothing. Regardless, because of the possible infection, they wanted her out of there ASAP. They gave us a choice - vaginal delivery which would kill her (the cord was closer to the cervix than she was) or c-section with a 50% chance of survival - and 10 minutes to decide. We chose the c-section, spent the next 3.5 months frequent visitors to her bedside in the NICU, and I spent the next 14 months pumping milk. She’s almost 3 now, and doing great.

And as a result of all that, I decided to become a nurse. Registering for pre-reqs next week, in fact!

So what have I learned? Every childbirth is unique. Don’t get too attached to any one vision, but also don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself. I wish I had understood what was going on with my placenta so I could have told them to back the fuck off. OTOH, I’m glad I didn’t insist that I water birth a 23 week preemie, either!

7

Two babies, first one a relatively quick (for the first time) 10 hour labor. There was merconium when my water broke, so I had to stop pushing after his head was delivered so they could siphon him out.

Second one was only five hours. When the nurse asked me when my due date was and I told her, “Today” she thought that was such a hoot she called all her friends over to point out the woman who had the good sense to deliver on her due date. :smiley:

I got an epidural with the second, but not the first, and my labor was so fast it didn’t have a chance to fully take effect. I didn’t fully deliver the afterbirth, and (TMI alert) while the midwife is up inside me, cleaning me out, I had to tell her that it hurt. So she started pinching me with the forceps asking me, “Do you feel that? Do you feel that?” and when I said yes, they have me a second shot and took me to the OR for a D&C.

Kids are 15 and 18 now, healthy and scrappy.

Oh, I learned after number 1 to visit the bathroom to empty everything out. When you’re pushing hard…other stuff has a tendency to come out too. :eek:

8

Mine was easy. Induction at 10:30 am, delivery by 4:12 pm. I didn’t ask for an epidural until about 30 minutes before I delivered, and by the time it was placed and kicked in, I’d delivered.

We brought Trivial Pursuit cards to read while I was in labor, which helped me focus. My nurse had also been my childbirth instructor, so it was good to have a familiar face. As part of the class, we’d discussed a birthing plan, so she was able to advocate on my behalf, should that have been necessary. It wasn’t. The medical staff were receptive to my wishes, and if there was a difference of opinion, they listened to me, and I listened to them. In fact, the only time it came up was when they wanted to use a fetal scalp monitor, and I said no. We discussed it, and they backed off because there was no good medical reason to use it that would override my reasons.

After delivery, the nursing staff on the OB floor were great. They’d come in, do what they needed to do, and left. The pediatric nurses tried to do as much in our room as possible and explained it as we went along so I could do it at home if I needed to. They’d also take the baby so I could go for a walk once in a while.

If/when we decide to have kid #2, I want to have the same OB and the same hospital. :slight_smile:

Robin

9

All four of mine were easy, and the fourth was the easiest of all. I worked full-time until the Friday before the Monday when he was born. At about 7 a.m. Monday, my water broke. We drove to the hospital and he was born after maybe an hour of labor. 9 lbs. 6 oz.

And he potty-trained himself at one year! That was the best part!

10

I’ve got midwives, whom I adore, and who carefully ask me about my preferences in everything. I want them to move in and help me raise the kid. And my husband, and a friend who’s volunteering as my doula, and is an Occupational Therapist (not freaked out by blood or bodily fluids or pain). All of them should be with me pretty much all the way through. Except when my husband passes out.

Here they induce ten days after due date as standard practice, so I’m really hoping the kid will decide to start popping himself out before the 18th. I’d prefer non-intervention delivery, and the hospital I’m going to does midwifery-model childbirth. It’s really awesome- even if I get transfered to an OB, my midwives and my support people stay with me, and are responsible for my care. And I get two midwives- one for me, and one for the baby.

We’re going to start sweeping the membranes at my next appointment, if I haven’t popped yet. It sounds like not a lot of fun, but it’s a nice, non-invasive way to get the ball rolling.
Of course, my preferences are completely overshadowed by what the baby needs etc. so fetal distress or whatever means instant transfer to the OB, whatever interventions are necessary.

Yesterday at my appointment we talked about oxytocin shots to help deliver the placenta. I’ll probably go for it, but I haven’t decided yet.

11

Old wives tale coming up, so take it for what it’s worth

Sex. Have lots of sex. Apparently orgasms are supposed to help…um…coax the kid out?

Of course, if it’s unsafe for you to have sex at this time, don’t. Check with your doctor.

12

Mine was pretty easy. A few days before Christmas I went to the doctor and she said I was slightly dilated but that it could take awhile, so go home and enjoy Christmas and we’ll probably see you sometime the week after that.

I woke up on Christmas Eve, about 8 in the morning with what I knew were labour pains. They were pretty regular, about ten minutes apart or so, and weren’t that bad so I didn’t bother telling Mom or anything, just went about my day, though it was somewhat draining so I had a shower and ended up napping curled up on the living room floor for about 2 hours, waking up whenever I had a contraction before dropping back off. About 3 or so, Mom was wanting to get ready to go to my aunt’s for supper (we were planning on spending the evening there, going to Mass and then staying the night) but I told her I thought we should go to the hospital instead because I was having contractions 5 minutes apart.

By the time we got ready and to the hospital it was about 4:30 where they checked me over (got some looks because I didn’t look pregnant at all), measured contractions etc. I did get someone, not sure if they were a nurse or doctor, telling me my contractions weren’t very strong or long, but they were doing their work so they weren’t going to do anything extra/give me anything.

By about 6 I was settled in the labour/delivery room with an epidural (with the lady in the next room screaming she scared me and I did NOT want to go without). About this time they decided that my water wasn’t going to break on its own, and since Velociraptor was a little higher up they took a needle and (carefully) made a slow leak so his umbilical cord wouldn’t slip down.

I spent the next hours either dozing or reading until it seemed like all was good to go, so I started to push as directed and at 1:59am on Christmas morning he was born.

The worst part of it was when he decided to press on a nerve on my left side so I was hurting even through the epidural until he shifted again, but he was gorgeous.

When we got cleaned up and taken to our room, I think I spent most of the rest of the night just looking at him. :slight_smile:

Oh, and I had found out quite late in the game that I could get a doula for free, but when I contacted the group the office was closed (this was just a week or so before he was born) and they didn’t call me back until the week after he was born.

13

Two kids.

First was a scheduled induction, due to some issues I was having. I had an epidural and everything went smoothly until I started pushing. Every time I pushed, his heart rate dropped. My OB had me try all sorts of positions, but eventually, when the heart rate dropped, it was taking longer to recover. So, into the OR we went. My husband was there and thought it was funny when they made him sit in a wheelchair throughout the c-section. Apparently, they’ve had issues with dads passing out. The cord was wrapped around my son neck and shoulder several times, but he was fine. The c-section sort of sucked…I threw up while they were stitching me up and being in the recovery room was weird. I was back on my feet fairly quickly, though, and home within three days.

Second son was a VBAC at a district (public) hospital in Australia. My labor started at around 11 pm. I told my husband (who was snoring away) and he made phone calls to arrange for care for my first son, while I took a shower. We made the 25 minute (incredibly bumpy!) drive to the hospital and they admitted me. I asked for an epidural, but they didn’t manage to get the anaesthetist to me in time. Instead, they gave me a mask for “laughing gas” and had me suck on that. 30 minutes later, they discovered it was broken and I hadn’t actually been getting anything. Oh well! Just the act of breathing in the mask really helped. So, labor proceeds and again, heart rate was dropping. Turns out my son is facing the wrong way (head first, but face up) and was a bit stuck. They raced me to the OR (seriously, running through the hallways - all very dramatic) and started to prepare for another c-section. The head OB guy came in and took over. He told me to just push as hard as I could. I did and out he came! My husband missed it all because he didn’t have time to get suited up. They offered him tea and cookies in the waiting room. He declined because he thought that would be a bit slack of him to have a treat while I was in there having a baby. My son had a low APGAR and, after they sort of quickly showed him to me, they took him to the nursery, gave him O2 and got him warmed up. I had a tear, which they sewed up (I got an epidural for that!). Baby was fine, I was fine. We stayed in the group room for one day and then I was transferred to a nearby hospital that had open private rooms, where I stayed for the next 5 days. It was great…just him and me, establishing our nursing and bonding.

All the doctors and nurses we dealt with were great, especially the doctor that ended up delivering my second son. He was Scottish and one of those really exuberant, funny people. He was so excited and happy, it was kind of amusing.

Anyway, even though neither of my sons had smooth entries into the world, it all turned out okay. Their births weren’t really what I envisioned, but we just took everything one step at a time and made the decisions we needed to make. They’re now sitting next to me playing with their matchbox cars together.

14

Not only do orgasms sometimes cause contractions, but prostoglandins, chemicals in sperm, soften and ripen the cervix. They may even be more effective than Pitocyn. Not an old wive’s tale. The deeper, darker secret, however, is that they may work even better taken, uh, orally. We haven’t told the menfolk about that, yet. :wink:

15

With my daughter, it started as back pain in the middle of the night. After a few hours of this terrible backache, I realized that it was coming in waves and I could time it. I stayed at home until the pains were about 8 minutes apart, then we went over to the hospital, but it was hours and hours before she was born. They gave me demerol, so I was falling asleep between every contraction and it took three hours of pushing to get her out. She was finally born at 3:22am, about 27 hours after it started.

With the second, I decided I wasn’t going to have any drugs; I wanted to actually remember the occasion. He was two weeks late when they decided to induce. First they broke my water, then started the pitocin to get things going faster. The kid still didn’t want to come out, though. When his heart rate started dropping when I was pushing, the doctor used forceps for the delivery - man, that was painful! He was born about 10 hours after we started.

Did it hurt? Well, yeah, especially the forceps. But it’s easy to forget the pain when you have such a great reward. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

16

Like you, my blood pressure was up (I don’t remember the numbers, but my feet were SUPER swollen and I was on partial bedrest). I went in for an appointment with the midwives on a Monday, about 2 weeks before my due date, and she discovered that I was already 5 cm dilated – yaaay, Evening Primrose Oil (she also swept my membranes, which is uncomfortable but not that bad)! Then, that Wednesday night at about 11:00, I felt a cramp and commented to my husband, “I just had a really strong cramp – I wonder if that was a contraction?” He said, “Great, now I’ll never get to sleep!” :slight_smile: I had another one 15 minutes later (I’d told hubby not to worry and to go to sleep, and he managed to), and then another 15 minutes after that. Because I was already so dilated, I didn’t get any of those little “pressure” contractions – they hurt from the get-go! After that 3rd one, they went to 7 minutes apart, then they floated between 3 and 6 minutes apart. I woke my husband up a little after 1am, so he could shower and stuff. I called the midwives and my parents, and we left for the hospital birth center around 2:30am. My water broke at about 3:15, I started pushing shortly thereafter, and he was born at 4:22am! I tore some, and I bled a lot (apparently, both of those things come with being a redhead – who knew?), so I had to have some cytotec and pitocin afterward, but we were both fine.

So, not quite 5-1/2 hours of labor for my first child, no drugs, and while it wasn’t fun, it really wasn’t bad. And now I have an adorable 4-month-old (cite), so what’s not to like? :smiley: (Well, other than the fact that he is, at the moment, screaming his head off…) I had pretty much exactly the birth I wanted, so I’m very happy.

I also just watched my friend give birth on New Year’s Day, and she has a similar story – her labor was 9 hours altogether, and she didn’t bleed afterward, but otherwise a lot like mine.

You can do it – your body was made to do this! And I can’t wait to hear your story in a few weeks (not that it will be that long till you deliver, just that I don’t expect you to have the time to report back in detail for a while)!

17

Oh, good. I was afraid it wasn’t true.

Slight hijack…did any of you have problems, late in your pregnancy, um, “seeing God” during sex? I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t get there. It didn’t hurt, it might have been the angle was slightly off, but no joy.

18

Hey! This is on my mind today because my eldest turned 4 at 9:00 a.m.

I was due on NYE. On New Year’s Day I started having contractions 10 minutes apart. They worked their way to 5 minutues apart by lunchtime, and in the mid afternoon were getting rather uncomfortable* so I went to my midwife for a check. I was 2cm. She wrote me a scrip for Ambien** and sent me home.
The contractions continued at 5-7 minutes apart and uncomfortable. At 8 p.m. I took the Ambien. It bought me 6hrs of sleep.
The next day the contractions were 5 minutes apart and painful***. Sleeping was out of the question. I was tired, and the novelty of being in labor had worn off. In the afternoon around 4:30 I went to the midwife for a check, convinced the painful contractions must be doing something. I was at 2cm. I cried. I asked the midwife how long I could expect painful contractions every 5 minutes and no progress to go on. She said, “Hm, you were due on the 31st, so we definitely won’t let you go any longer than the 14th without an induction.”****
:eek:
I was thinking hours. Not weeks. I explained to her that I would jump off a cliff before I ever got to that date (maybe not in those words, but that’s the image I had in mind - I wasn’t really verbal at that point). She scheduled me for a hospital induction***** to be started the following evening and sent us home.

I knew the Ambien would only buy me so much time, so I held off taking it as long as I could. I showered for a long time. I remember saying a little prayer in there on my knees letting the soothing water wash over my back. “Dear Lord, I am sick of being in labor now and would like this baby to get out. Thank you.” I waited until 10 p.m. and took the sleeping pill. It only gave me 2.5hrs of sleep. Around midnight my yelling from upstairs woke my husband who was downstairs on the couch. He rubbed my back for a very long time. I was very out of it, but I still don’t know if it was from labor or Ambien. I could only endure the contractions on all fours, and between them I would collapse in a heap. They were still five minutes apart. Around 5:00 in the morning I decided I couldn’t take it anymore I had been at 2cm two thousand years and was never going to have a baby. I no longer cared about going natural. If someone offered me a baseball bat to the head in lieu of an epidural I would have taken it.
“Call. Midwife.”
Husband picks up phone. Asks me for the number.
“Give. Phone.” I dial the number, thrust the phone back at husband.
He explains to the midwife that the contractions seem more intense and we would like to just go to the hospital now for an epidural instead of waiting 14 hrs for the induction or something to that effect. She asks him to put me on the phone.
“Husband talk!” was all I could bark into the phone, which I then gave back.
The midwife suggests we meet her at the birth center for a check and then go to the hospital if I still want an epidural. We agree.
When I walk in the door 30 minutes later, the miwife says, “You’re pushing!” This was news to me. She was also surprised to find me at 9.5 cm. So was I. When I heard that I had passed 2cm I was ready to tap dance. The end was in sight! I no longer wanted pain relief, I only wanted to finish the job. I spent half an hour in the whirlpool tub and 2 hrs pushing. It felt like thirty minutes honestly. I gave birth to a beautiful 7lb 6oz baby girl and we were all home eight hours later. It was great******.
It was so great I did it again 2 years later (almost to the day - my second daughter’s birthday was last Saturday). Her labor was much more uneventful (thank goodness) - contractions started in the evening 8 days past due. Got heavier the next morning, decided to go to the birth center after lunch, was 6cm. Labored in the tub again while spouse fed me oranges and cinnamon toast. Had baby at 6:19 in the evening, was home in time for The Late Show.

  • Being a first timer, I had no idea how “uncomfortable” things would get. The midwife spoke to me on the phone while I was having an contraction and could tell by how calm I was that it would likely be a while.
    ** Oh Ambien, sweet Ambien! How I love thy pharmaceutically granted bliss! Having never taken a sleeping pill before, I was amused when I took the first one and less than five minutes later there were two of everything on t.v. Then there was nothing for hours.
    *** I know that prodromal labor isn’t counted as “real,” but these contractions were the type I had to breathe through and grip the back of the couch with a death grip. I wasn’t talking much or eating/drinking more than necessary. As far as I’m concered, they were plenty real.
    **** The benevolent side of me says the midwife was underestimating the degree of misery I was in. The crochety side of me still thinks this woman was daft, but that also has to do with some other irritating interactions I had with her during the pregnancy. There are five midwives in the practice. This one did not catch either baby.
    ***** I was shooting for a natural, birth center birth. I decided while pregnant that most labors don’t last more than 24hrs, and that I could stand anything for 24hrs. At this point, I was past 24hrs and decided that I had tried long enough. I was still disappointed to give up the idea of the birth center. I should add that I was assured that no distress or danger was caused for the baby by waiting longer.
    ****** I still feel like a birth center sales person - it really was a great way to give birth. The attendants were with us the whole time, the room was dimly lit, my husband was beside me on a big four poster bed. After the baby came, we were served breakfast in bed and given time to just cuddle with our newborn undisturbed. 54 total hours of labor (officially it went down in the records as 9hrs since that’s when the contractions dragged me from the happy land of Ambien) did suck mightily. My mother later admitted that she eventually wished I’d just go to a hospital and get it over with (she had been a supporter of my choice to go natural), but even a hospital won’t admit you until 4cm normally.
19

I won’t tell you about the bad parts from when my wife was delivering our son so I’ll tell you the funny parts.

We were at a teaching hospital, which meant that interns, nursing students and basically anyone with the slightest medical education could come observe. At one point as my wife was experiencing a very strong contraction, she noticed a man in a windbreaker at the other end of the room. She said (OK, it sounded like Linda Blair’s voice), “Who the fuck is that?” The OB told her it was an EMT there for training. She looked him in the eye and said, “You’re in the wrong room. Leave. Now.” He ran.

Many hours later as she was pushing and getting more and more exhausted, she turned to the nurse and sobbed, “There’s got to be an easier way, right?”

Towards the end, when she had pushed enough that the head crowned, I told her that I could see his hair. She asked me how much I could see. I told her about 2 inches across. She sat up and yelled at me, “That’s not enough!” The doctor said, “That’s it! Make her angry! She pushes more when she’s mad.” I told him that I would do no such thing because I had to eventually take her home.

Finally, my wife squeezed my hand so hard that she fractured my finger and smashed the pattern from my ring into the other finger.

Good luck to you. I hope it goes smoothly and everything turns out great.

20

My daughter was due on Aug 28. August turned into September, and I was huge, and the kid apparently was in no hurry. I was working in the financial aid office of a junior college, plus teaching classes 3 nights a week. My coworkers were all terrified that I was going to go into labor at the office, and they had a list of all applicable phone numbers. Meanwhile, I just kept on doing what I’d always been doing, but with more waddling.

I taught my classes on Sep 2 & 3, and went to the office as usual on Sep 4. About 2AM on the 5th, I woke up to pee, and as I waddled back to bed, I felt liquid pouring down my leg. I was pretty sure I wasn’t sleep-walking-and-peeing, and I suddenly figured it out - my water broke. So I woke up my husband, pulled a dress over my head, and we went to the hospital.

My labor started, then stopped, but because my water already broke, they eventually put me on pitocin to get things going. My OB showed up that morning (at that hospital, I found out the duty OB did all after-hours deliveries…) and he monitored me on and off all day. My poor husband was dozing in fits and starts. The pitocin made the contractions pretty intense, so I gave up on drug-free and surrendered to Demerol.

Early afternoon, things started happening in earnest. My doc was there, and my husband and I had mostly forgotten everything we’d learned in LaMaze - thank goodness for the nurses. I was finally stirruped up, Dr in position, pushing along, and in my mind, I felt it was urgent to get the baby out - I envisioned the poor thing stuck with only her head out, and I didn’t want her to choke. So (according to my spousal unit) after a push when the Dr said, “OK, relax.” I allegedly said “NO!” and squeezed the kid right out so fast, the OB almost wasn’t ready. 2:22 PM - easy to remember - and 8# 8oz - don’t remember how long she was.

The nurses whisked the baby away to clean her up and do the Apgar thing, and I guess I delivered the placenta pretty fast. At that point, my husband and doctor are conducting a question-and-answer session. :eek: My husband finds all things medical to be fascinating. Don’t mind me - I’m just laying here, having given birth and all…

My baby is 22, starting her last semester in college. Much as I’d have liked another kid, it was not to be, and it’s a relief not to have to pay for another’s education! :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, yeah, she was born Thursday, and I was back teaching the next Monday. How’s that for dedication?? (and poverty - I couldn’t afford to lose both paychecks…)