Shooting Up

Ben had his two-month shots on Friday. He took it like a man. I thought I'd be a mess, but I handled it fine. The nurse (who'd obviously seen nutcase moms before) said I could step out if it was too much for me. I just looked at her like she was nuts. She expected me to LEAVE my baby while he received painful shots? I just kept looking at his face and talking to him. It's for his own good, after all. Then as soon as I picked him up and held him, he quieted down. Such a good boy.

Today we went to see a movie. (A theater here has a special matinee for mothers with little babies every Tuesday.) Then we went shopping. Then we went to visit the wife of the publisher of the Ann Arbor News. She just had knee surgery and her recovery is slow. She loved seeing and holding Ben, though, who was a real charmer.

But after that we were both hungry and tired, so we went home and ate. I gave Ben his bottle while munching a sandwich and watching "Baby Story" on TLC. It’s this nutty half-hour show that follows some poor woman through the birth process. 15 minutes to meet the happy couple and 15 minutes of anguished birthing.

The parents are ALWAYS a happy, heterosexual, well-off, usually white married couple who always dreamt of children. They often have an adorable toddler already and Daddy is intensely involved. Mommy talks in that annoying sing-song voice that you usually only hear from 30-year kindergarten teachers. Although I've noticed that more women my age with children talk that way ALL THE TIME.

Anyway, the second 15 minutes take you through the birth itself, which is generally a trip. Most of them don't want drugs (??!!) so they hoo and hah through the contractions. One woman had her toddler witness the whole thing. Another woman had her neighbor's 8-year-old grandson in the room, where he stayed for the whole 12-hour labor. Poor kid was exhausted.

So anyway, after that, Ben and I crawled into the bedroom and took a long nap on the bed -- myself, the baby and the kitty. We were wiped out. Ron found us still there when he came home at 7 p.m.

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