busyness and blessings
I heard Kim leave very early this morning to do her volunteer/home care duty, then I heard Charlotte waking up. When I went into the Littles' room I first gave Julia a kiss and wished her a happy birthday, then got Charlotte out of her crib. The three of us snuggled in the recliner under minky soft blankets while Charlotte nursed. I told Julia about the day of her birth and she had a the biggest grin pasted to her face the whole time. Such a love.
Breakfast this morning is a bowl of dry shreddies, grapes, wildberry yogurt, and a mixed berry/green/protein smoothie, respectively. Now I remember why I don't like raspberries in my smoothie - the seeds. I don't mind eating seeds, but I don't like drinking them. Charlotte is happily slurping up her yogurt, proud of her novice spoon skillz.
Much to do this morning:
* four large bags of bottles to return for recyling
* garbage to go out
* a cake to decorate
* birthday presents to wrap
* coffee with an out-of-town friend after lunch
* bills to pay
* mail to collect
* wool to wash
* a few more small prizes to gather for party games
* mouths to feed, diapers to change (and wash), and all the usual glamour that is my life.
And totally OT, but I want to write this down before I forget.
The other night I had a very vivid dream of catching a baby. It was a precipitous birth and I walked into the room, saw the mother grunting and pushing and a loonie-sized patch of baby's head appearing between her legs. With bare hands (o-O) I quickly palmed my hand on top of the baby's head to allow a slow crowning. The dream was so vivid; I could feel the soft, wrinkly scalp of the baby, the sticky vernix, and the wet heat of fresh newborn skin. I was aware of the strength and power as the mother struggled to birth her baby and resist pushing as the head crowned. With a squirt of blood-tinged fluid, the chin slipped over the perineum and the head slowly rotated to face the mother's thigh. I kept my hand under the baby's head but allowed it to gently hang to encourage the anterior shoulder to slip out from under the pubic bone. I felt the subtle 'clunk' of the shoulder slip under the bone and I slid my fingers around and under the baby's head to deliver the posterior shoulder. As the baby's body began to emerge from the mother's body....I woke up. It's been nearly four months since I attended a birth, but this dream gave me a bit of a fix ;-)
As I was doing this journal entry, Charlotte wanted to be held, so I picked her up and she put her head on my shoulder, wrapped her arms and legs around me, and fell asleep! She'd only been awake for a couple of hours, but I guess a soft, squishy mommy and a snuggly warm fleece robe was too much to resist ;-) I carried her to the recliner and pulled a blanket over top of the two of us and we *both* slept....for two hours! The ultimate indulgence. I rarely have the chance to sleep with my darling baby anymore so I enjoyed every second of her head resting on my shoulder, her litlte hands clutching my fleece robe, and the feeling of her belly moving against my chest with every sweet breath. Do I care that it's now 11 a.m. and I'm still in my robe, not showered, and not one thing done on my to-do list? Nope. Not one bit.