What a weekend. I need just one more day to recouperate and get ready for the week ahead. Can't I have one more day? Just one? Please? No, it's Sunday night and our busy week begins in little less than 12 hours.
Daria and I have beaten the fun out of this weekend. We've shopped for craft supplies, taken walks in the woods, played video and computer games, sipped tea, attended a field hockey game, began construction of my very first Harvest/Halloween craft project (description and photos pending), and laughed ourselves rotten.
Friday was just about the perfect Autumn day. The weather was cool, crisp and ridiculously sunshiny. Redheaded Snippet's game was the perfect opportunity to bring my favorite corduroy jacket and hand-knitted scarf out of storage. Good friends came to the game with us and we all sipped hot chocolate and spiced chai and cheered and clapped. Afterwards we had The Viking's celebratory feast with all his favorite manly foods: ribs, stuffed jalapenos, shrimp (there was some debate as to the manliness of shrimp), Smithwick's and sour cream cheesecake. He gota bottle of Glenlivet and a wool fedora as gifts. I came home later that night (after a last-minute Walmart run) to find him sitting on the porch steps with a cigar in one hand and a tumbler of whiskey in another, a very happy and contented man.
Needless to say, we got to bed late Friday night. We had been asleep for only an hour or so when the phone rang at 2:00 am. That is never a good thing. It was a very grave Daria telling me Dharma (21 wks pregnant) was on her way to the hospital with contractions and lots of pressure. Mom had already booked a flight and was packing her bags. Dharma and Vance were beside themselves, having lost twin girls at 21 weeks just three years ago.
We called Lobelia. Daria came over. None of us could sleep. The Viking poured out a round of whiskey to calm our nerves (I was trembling from head to foot) and we sat, waiting and crying. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Another funeral for an infant? Another tiny white casket? Another year or more of trying to heal from a devastating loss? I was terrified, and not just of losing another niece.
Almost two hours later, Mom called again. Dharma and the baby were fine. Absolutely perfect, in fact. Apparently, the increase in the baby's size and lower position in the uterus was causing the increase in pressure. And, several weeks ago, Dharma had had a cerclage, a procedure in which the cervix is literally sewn shut. Dharma's was done with a thick ribbon-like tape that, previously unbeknownst to her, has a long tail that hangs down into the birth canal. As the baby has grown, the tail of the tape has dropped lower and lower. Dharma didn't realize this and when she was able to feel the end of the tape for the first time, she thought the cerclage had worked its way out and with the increased pressure she'd been feeling, assumed the worst and thought delivery was imminent.
The good news brought fresh tears of relief, another call to Lobelia, and another round of whiskey. We were too keyed up to sleep after all that and wound up going to bed at dawn. This led to all of us sleeping past noon and lying around like sleepy slugs all day Saturday. After the excitement of the night before, we were pretty worn out.
This morning we all had to be up bright and early to attend Vantastic's dedication service. That boy just might be the sweetest-faced baby I've ever seen and I've seen a LOT of cute babies! He's not just cute, he's so sweeeeeeeeeeet! And getting to be with two of my sisters at once, while not nearly the joy that is being with all three of them, is a delight that is becoming increasingly rare. But, dang! I'm tired! Something about having to be in fancy clothes with nice shoes and stockings all day long just drains me or something. It's only 9:30 and I'm more than ready for bed!
So, I'm worn out! All the activity, both good and bad, has taken its toll. I'm not even going to go back over this post and check it for mistakes, that's how tired I am! So, if you've come across typos or grammatical errors tonight, just remember I'm running on a very low battery.
Right then. I must to bed. A day of excessive busyness arrives with the dawn.
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