Negotiations and plans

I'm listening to Walter negotiate with Sean for more, more lullabies. It's a nightly thing.  He tries to make it last as long as he possibly can, in part because he wants us to stay in his bedroom with him forever, in part because he doesn't want to go to sleep yet, in part because he loves singing with his whole heart.

"Other one.  Chicken, please?"
"I gave my love a cherry, it had no stone.  I gave my love a chicken, it had no bone ..."
"OTHER ONE! Chicken!"
"Ok ... *sings the chicken dance song*"

"Other one" is Walter's new favorite phrase, joining (not replacing) such classics as "no" and "my turn." It drives us all a little crazy.  There are only so many "other ones" out there, you know. Particularly when it comes to lullabies about chickens. He really, really loves sung Alleluias, and there are a whole lot of "other ones" of those to sing, but he quickly exhausts all the ones we know.  His appetite for Alleluias is insatiable. For the record, I think this has (almost) nothing to do with him being a pastor's kid, and more to do with his love of vowel sounds, words with the letter "l" in them (see also: "Aubriella"), and words that have a joyful connotation.

Walter is really, really good at singing, and getting better at it every day.  He sings whole songs by himself, now. He seems to be repeating the sounds he hears rather than associating those sounds with words, although as he hears a song more and more the approximations of words gradually become actual words.  Last week he went on an almost non-stop jag of singing his version of this new daycare favorite:

Baby bumblebee
Walter's mommy peapod-a-me
Baby bumblebee
Ouch. Stunna me.

I love that "won't my mommy" became "Walter's mommy." I bet he's got all his classmates singing it that way, too. He tends to be a bit of a trendsetter at school.  They all say "uppaday," for example, and they all evidently asked their parents for hats like his, too.  Just keep using your powers for good, Walter.

***

I had my 36 week appointment with Dr. M. today.  We're into the every-week appointment time ... but of course, that time is not very long at all ... just three weeks before Sally day!  It was a good appointment.  Measuring well, heartbeat great, moving like a champ, urine clean, blood pressure perfect.  My weight gain leveled off after going a bit off the rails the past few weeks; I celebrated this good news by eating some Oreos.

Dr. M. and I had a good and candid discussion about all the bad things that happened last time I had a baby, from the botched IV placement to the terrible complications after the c-section.  I told him I was hesitant to write up a "birth plan" because I know that plans, goals, any sort of illusion of control is kind of silly when it comes to childbirth.  I want him and my other caregivers to know that I trust them, and that we'll work through whatever happens together.  He encouraged me to write it down, anyway.  "Limiting the number of IV attempts is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for," he said. "And the process of writing it down will help you think through everything you're worried about and hoping for."

So ... Birth "Plan" Draft #1:

1. I'd like for the anesthetist to place my IV.
2. I'd like to spend as little time with the catheter in as possible. I'd like to get up and moving as soon as I'm able to after surgery.  If I can't get to the bathroom on the first day, can we consider removing the catheter and using a bed pan?
3. When Sean leaves the OR to go with the baby, I'd like my mom to be gowned up and ready to come into the OR to hold my hand while I'm being stitched up.
4. I'd like to not throw up on the operating table, have uncontrollable diarrhea in my bed, have a huge blood pressure drop right after surgery, or go into renal failure. I know my docs and nurses can't promise these things won't happen, but maybe knowing that they did happen and could happen again will help, somehow.
5. I'd like to hold and try to nurse Sally as soon as I can after she's born. Even though this was hard with Walter, it was so important to me to make that connection as soon as possible.

There's more, of course, but that's enough for now, enough for a first draft. Mainly, I'm hoping for a healthy baby. Walter was such a gloriously healthy baby!  What I'd like to be different, this time, is that the healthy baby would also get a healthy Mama.  I know recovery will be hard, but I'm hoping it's not as hard as last time. Not something we can plan for, but definitely something we can hope for, and pray for.