Playtime and birth plans

Ok, this is breaking news.

Our kids have learned how to play with each other.  For extended periods of time.  And by extended, I mean that they did it for over an hour this weekend, while I frantically assembled every piece of Christmas dinner that could be frozen while waiting for chaos to erupt in the next room.  It didn't.  They played and laughed and shrieked and came to the verge of a tantrum or fight a few times, but managed to pull back from the edge.  Talia has learned to speak clearly enough, and in long enough sentences, that she and Mateo can converse and decide what they want to play with and how.  Listening to them negotiate is just about the cutest thing ever.   I read somewhere that ages three and five are the ideal ages for siblings and playing, so I'm thrilled that we're getting a glimpse at 2.5 and 4.  Wahoo!

Secondly, I was just reading another blog about making a birth plan and it made me think of ours for Drizzle.  Sacha is totally ok with sharing it, so here it is:  epidural.  Epidural!  Epidural!!   I am 100% on board with this.  Somehow, as opposed to many couples who get more into natural childbirth as they have more kids, we have gotten less so.  In fact, it seems as if epidurals fly in the face of waht Portland is all about; unmedicated homebirths abound around every corner.  Maybe it was because Talia's birth was challenging, or maybe because we realized that you have to have some energy left to care for your newborn around the clock starting immediately after popping that newborn out of your body.  However, in any case, Sacha is all about the epidural.

I am so relieved.  Seriously.   Labor really sucks, as I can tell you from having been in it, but it also really sucks to be the partner of someone in labor.  I can tell you that from having been there, too.  There's really nothing you can do for them except be there, which I know is helpful, but you can't relieve their pain.  And, being with the person you love most in the world and watching them writhe in agony for hours and hours and hours and hours....well, I was ready to throw in the towel on natural childbirth loooong before Sacha was when she was in labor, although I kept my mouth shut and let her make her own decisions (and she did eventually decide on an epidural, even without knowing of the forceps in her future and how glad she would be in retrospect to have made that decision).  I was on the verge of tears for most of her labor and by the time Talia finally came out, I was sobbing out of sheer overwhelm, exhaustion, happiness, fear, and you name every other emotion in the book.  In no way am I saying that this was harder than what Sacha had to go through, but at least she got the hormones that made her forget most of it!

I know that this time around, she'll still have to get far enough along to get pain relief, but I am seriously thrilled just to know that she wants it to be there at some point.  If things are going smoothly and she's doing great and she decides she doesn't want to use it after all, that's fine, too, but the thought of an easier birth for both of us sounds very appealing.  Especially since we're going to have a newborn and two small children to take care very soon after Drizzle makes her appearance.  If Sacha can go into that with more reserves than she had last time (ie, none), then all the better for all of us. 

As my dental hygienist once said, in her fabulous Korean accent, when I asked her about the births of her two sons, she said one word very loudly with a HUGE smile on her face: "EPEEDURAL!"  Yes, ma'am, we are on board with that.

(Now, please, Portland readers, don't kick me out of this nice city for the blasphemy I have just written.  We really like it here!)