January 17, 1982
We survived one whole year! Michelle enjoyed birthday cake on the 10th with the McKindleys, Uncle Mike, Ernie, and Jan Nuckolls....and mommy and daddy of course! And BOY did she enjoy her cake! We celebrated again Tuesday night - the 12th - with Grandpa Stone, Mrs. Lento from next door and Bobbie Anne, the little girl across the street. Neither of us can believe it's been a year! Father Don approached us after Mass today..."Am I the last to know?" We told him he probably was! I'd been obvious for a couple months now! Approximately 12 weeks to go for our second trip into the wonderful world of parenthood!
February 8, 1982
Wayne's 35th birthday has come and gone... or as Joey said "the 6th anniversary of his 29th birthday!" He's surviving - Michelle is keeping him young. Baby #2 is keeping me awake. He/she is active and the Braxton-Hicks contractions are really potent. I have a Dr. appt tomorrow afternoon. My scale says 171#, It'll be interesting to see how close this scale is. We heard from Cal-Vet last week. Looks as though we're going to be refinancing the house from FHA to CalVet. the difference between 14 1/2% and 8% or to phrase it more practically, a house payment of $550 per month as opposed to $710. And since we're on an FHA245 plan, in 5 years our payment would be up to $897 a month! Between that and the raise Wayne is supposed to get in mid March things should loosen up a little!
March 15, 1982
Things are really starting to crowd in on me. I feel so pressured lately! There are closets to rearrange, things to reorganize, baby clothes to clean and inventory. I have at least one major grocery shopping to do...it's called restocking the pantry and getting ready for a two-three week visit from Mom! I don't feel as though everything has to be spit-polish clean, but cupboards and closets have to be redone just to get ready for baby. We're going to leave Michelle in the middle bedroom for now. No sense disrupting her life totally. We'll move the crib into the "guest room" and put Michelle into a bed. Saturday we bought the frames for two twin beds.One for Michelle, one for storage - at least for the time being. They'll fit together into bunk beds later if we decide to go that route. Now all we need is the mattress. However, since we're creating a new nursery, that walk in closet had to be emptied of 'our stuff' and new homes found for things like the file cabinets (into our closet) Wayne's uniforms (hall closet) all my sewing gear (linen closet and our closet) what a circus. I still don't know where I'll put the ironing! Maybe it'll just have to stay in there! Wayne had talked of repainting all three bedrooms. But I think we've run out of time for such ambitions. It sounds funny but it's true. Of the four weekends left till D-Day one is Marriage Encounter (March 26-28) the following is a Guard weekend (April 3-4) and the weekend after that is Easter Sunday. That leaves this weekend and I KNOW we can't get everything painted in two days...so why try?! Written out like that is even more scary. No wonder I'm feeling so pushed for time. Everything takes me so long to accomplish it's very frustrating. Between general pregnant tiredness and Michelle's very demanding routine, nothing is getting done. Wayne says, "Well, don't worry about it!" Much easier said than done! Besides, he's not faced with the day to day running of the household. I know I won't feel up to any labor saving organizing after I come home from the hospital with Gregory/Margaret! Best to get as much done now! I'm hoping Bhatt will schedule me for the 14th of April. It's a Wednesday so Mike could join Mom and Michelle at the hospital. The plans (as tentative as they are) involve Mom coming down Easter Monday, the 12th allowing two days to settle in, learn Michelle's routine and my layout, surgery 14th, home by 19th. Mom and I will fly to Sacto with Michelle and Gregory/Margaret on the 30th for a weeks R&R and visiting...Wayne would come up (flying) on May 6 - Baby will be baptized May 8 and the entire Stone family would return May 12. Mom is already planning a reception at the house for after the Baptism. I finished Michelle's Easter outfit a few days ago. A simple A-line type dress - blue flowers - and an aqua linen coat (lined with t he dress material) I honestly didn't know I had it in me! Lined yet!! Now she just needs new shoes (of course) and a white straw hat! Too cute!! And there again a case of doing it now because later will be too late! Wayne's raise will be showing up on his next paycheck - a 14% increase...1% less than he wanted but 4% more than he expected! We're still waiting to hear from CalVet. Why do gov't agencies have to be so SLOW? In the meantime we're paying FHA house payments and interest to Mom and waiting and waiting and WAITING!! As of the 8th they said 30 days to review file and 10 days to get it back from Sacramento...GOVERNMENT!! I think slowness and all this inefficiency is how they guarantee job security! SIX teeth now. She's kind of feeding herself and our big word is NO! Michelle is giving little smacky kisses and hugs and she'll blow a kiss or wave bye-bye at the drop of a hat. The ladies at the Bakery love her and make sure she has a cookie every trip to the store. What a con artist! She grins at them, blows them a kiss and leaves with a sugar cookie clutched firmly in hand! She bit my thigh today - I verbally chastised her and heaven's above you'd have thought her world had collapsed. The lower lip came out, the tears welled up and she turned away from me and crawled into Wayne's lap. He verbally backed me up but also comforted her. She just looked at me from the safety of Daddy's hug and sniffed! We both had a tough time stifling the laughter. What a girl!
May 18, 1982
And then there were TWO! Baby #2 is history! Margaret Elizabeth Stone was born on April 8, 1982 at 10:37 am. 8#8ozs, 20 1/2" long and gorgeous! Today she's 6 weeks old and quite a doll. Meg is a very calm baby. We don't seem to have the colic problem that we had with Michelle. Michelle seems to have accepted Meg - she gets rough with her touching and patting but not maliciously. She comes and gets me when Meg gets fussy in the cradle. And today she was trying to force a bottle of water on Meg...lovingly but very determinedly! I was scheduled for surgery on the 15th of April. Meg had other ideas however! I woke up at 5 am Thursday (the 8th) and rolled over in bed. In so doing I felt damp and another little squirt of water. Not much at all - but some with every movement. So I called the hospital and asked if my water might be leaking. not gushing, just leaking. The nurse said "come in now!" Wayne was in the shower getting ready for work when I poked my head in and told him we'd be going to the hospital.While he was finishing up in the shower - I packed, (or completed packing) made the beds, dressed, got Michelle up and dressed and moved all the stuff into the hallway by the front door. All the while thinking "My God, I'm about to go into labor and I'm doing this?!" Contractions started about 6:30am. Dr. Bhatt saw me about 7:45 and told me I'd be staying. I'd dilated to 2cm. But surgery couldn't be scheduled until (as Bhatt first said) that afternoon. So I went into labor. Totally unprepared for THAT! I forgot my breathing and relaxing - luckily Wayne remembered some of it...enough of it. This time I was much more panicky and scared. I had a spinal, so I was awake - in fact they'd already started and I wasn't even aware of it. Wayne was in surgery with me so he got to hold Margaret almost immediately. Mom arrived on Good Friday about 4pm. Backing up - the night before I'd been up with Michelle, she'd had diarrhea and had started vomiting and running a temperature. So on top of being in labor I had to think about her being sick. Liz took care of her - and Chaiyavet kept track of her and Meg with his daily rounds...he's a great doctor! I was in the hospital till Monday afternoon. And Mom stayed until the 25th. Thursday I was told by Bhatt that I was going to be a guinea pig for a new pain control device. Two pads placed on either side of the incision in surgery and connected to a battery pack. You could dial an electrical charge (0-10) depending on discomfort . the charge scrambled the nerve impulses tot he brain. I was the third patient to get it. But I wasn't impressed - I was convinced it was a placebo! No matter how high the nurses dialed it I was still uncomfortable (VERY) By 3am Friday morning, I demanded 2 pills and the night nurse gave 'em to me. When Bhatt made his rounds at 7am he checked the EPC and realized it wasn't working. The battery hadn't been connected properly so there was no electrical charge! I made it till 3am with no pain medication which absolutely boggles my mind!! I'd have thought my threshold of pain to be much lower! So maybe there was a placebo effect after all! Next entry will cover our Marriage Encounter experience. Right now Margaret has to be fed and Michelle should be waking up from her nap shortly. A mother's job is never done!
June 29, 1982
Margaret always has to be fed! Right now Uncle Joe is walking her and reveling in her quirky little grins! Daddy is reading the paper and Michelle is asleep for the evening. I'll probably be due to feed Margaret soon. Hopefully she'll go to sleep. Michelle and I are in the middle of swimming lessons at the YMCA.
June 30, 1982
You see - it just is so very difficult to finish anything with babies in the house. Right now I can hear Wayne in the front bath shaving, getting ready for work. The girls are both asleep - so's Joe. Margaret is asleep after her first AM feeding 2:45 am...I fed her and we dozed and chatted on the sofa until about 5:15 when she dropped off again and I put her in the cradle. It's 5:40 now - I'll stay up to say good bye to Wayne...and finish this entry! Our Marriage Encounter weekend was very special. Wayne is learning to get his feelings down on paper in our daily 10+10 - although that has been very difficult with the new baby. And the team couples were right if you miss one day even it is easy to miss many and you go back to your pre-weekend problems. I can feel a very definite change within our relationship.. In fact, it probably isn't evident to anyone besides us. There always were rules we observed which governed our conduct around other people. Rules that were the direct result of Wayne's previous marriage experiences. The most basic rule: We promised to build each other up - no put downs in front of anyone else. No cheap shots. If we fight, we fight alone - no fair dragging outsiders into it to choose sides. Settle things which aren't really so little. If I can't depend on Wayne to be my friend - best friend - and make me look good around other people and vice versa, who can I depend on? It all goes back to Bambi's (and Mom's) Golden Rule - "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all!" We're meeting all kinds of new people through M.E. Best of all, they're people with the same ideals and values as us. Makes it very special. We ran into a man who'd been on our weekend. He said that so often he'd wanted to go home and give up - all that sitting was uncomfortable. Then he'd see me - due any minute and very pregnant. And suddenly he'd feel "If she can stick it out, so can I!" As it turned out Margaret was born ten days later. So everyone is calling her the "Encountered Baby" And as it rather blindingly occurred to us at an open house a few weeks later - her initials are M.E.! Very serendipity! Exercise program is on in 5 minutes so...more later...sign off 6:30 am :)
June20, 1982
Mom was down for a visit, and I can't stop laughing! She'd been here for a few days and Wayne and I had been noticing that the bed seemed to be getting clammy. It just wasn't comfortable to sleep in - chilly for June, and we were thinking we needed to turn the heater on just a little. Then! I noticed Mom changing Margaret. She cooed over her and fussed over her...tickling her little belly and making GramBam faces, she ever so carefully took the plastic pants off...removed the pins from the diaper and stuck them into the bed where she could reach them when she rediapered. I started laughing and Mom looked at me "That's a waterbed mattress you just stuck that pin into!" The look on her face was priceless! And when I peeled back all the blankets and sheets and pads...sure enough...lots and lots of little poke holes. Not enough for a significant leak (yet) but enough to make all the blankets damp...and clammy! Something else to remember!
June 30, 1982
This arrived from Earlene today:
They Said By Brenda Grandinetti
They said that I was crazy to let myself get fat, And to give up the super job that I delighted at. They told me I'd be sorry, as each morning I was sick, But the didn't tell me how I'd feel when you began to kick!
They told me how my life would change, and that I'd sit and weep For time to take a peaceful bath, for uninterrupted sleep. They said my home would lose its shine, and that I'd get depressed, But no one told me that you'd sing while nursing at my breast!
They tried to raise my consciousness , to think about myself, They begged me to go out alone to help my mental health. They told me that by leaving you I could improve our bond, (But no one ever mentioned that you'd notice I was gone!)
They said that Day Care's just the thing, and nurseries are the rage, To encourage "independence" in a baby just your age! They said there'd be no money, with the mortgages all due, But they all forgot to tell me how I'd fall in love with you!
