Someone make me a cup of tea - we're just back home from celebrating Mark's 6th Birthday - you know how it is. The kids had a ball and I feel as though I've been hit by a truck. Not so different to the way I was feeling six years ago then!
Mark's birth was not the easiest. If I had known him then as I do know, I would have expected him to approach the business of being born in an unconventional manner! After being in the perfect position for birth, he got edgy during a long car trip we took about a week before his due date and flipped posterior. Believe me - if you are nine months pregnant and the baby decides to turn, you know about it. No amount of hanging around on my hands and knees would encourage him to move back, so I was in for a posterior labour. And what does that mean? In a word - LONG. Thirty-six hours long.
Now I need my sleep - I'm a 10-hour-a-night girl in an ideal world, and having lost 2 nights sleep prior to his birth was no joke. I was, by choice, in a midwife-led birthing unit with no facilities for epidurals, ventouse, forceps or any other high tech interventions. Not that forceps are hi-tech. I mean have you ever SEEN a pair? Medieval or what. But I digress.
There I was, plodding on with my student midwife and beloved gas and air for company, feeling shattered. The chief midwife popped in and casually suggested that I seemed very tired and should transfer to the main hospital because I wasn't going to have the energy to push this baby out. At which point I rallied and shouted loudly at poor old Andy "I did not go through all this to get shipped off to the bloody hospital! Get me some sugar NOW!" And I lied like crazy about feeling the urge to push and squeezed that little monkey out. There's nothing like being told I can't do something to make me determined to prove otherwise.
And Mark? He's still looking at the world from an alternative point of view and given the easy way or the hard way to do something, he'll never opt for straightforward. Happy Birthday lovely boy - life may not always be simple for you, but it will never be boring!
Happy B-day, Mark! Now go to bed and be quiet until 9 AM tomorrow! :)
Posted by: Strikkelise | 01 October 2006 at 17:50
Happy birthday mark! thanks for sharing your birth story it made me smile, love how his personality shines through!! great cake as well, looks really yummy.
Posted by: hannah | 01 October 2006 at 18:09
Thirty-six hours of labor?
Did he get you flowers for his birthday? Because, really, he should.
Posted by: capello | 01 October 2006 at 19:54
You are such a great mom to make it a fun day for him! You and I have similar birth stories - student midwife, 29-hours of labor, occipital posterior. Yikes, except yours sounds much worse! It was a good thing the hardest labor was my first because I would have begged for drugs if it had been my 2nd or 3rd.
Posted by: linda | 01 October 2006 at 20:07
That kid is tough, and so are you...good for you for holding to what's right for you!
Love that cake!
Happy Birthday Mark, and let your mom sleep, because otherwise she'll tell you about your birth whenever you get out of line (just kidding, lol)
Posted by: madmommy | 02 October 2006 at 02:36
oh, yes, I'VE seen forceps! (shudder)ki
Posted by: kirsten | 02 October 2006 at 04:48
happy birthday Mark (bet that cake was delicious!)
I had a posterior labour with my first, but I wanted as much drug as it was legally possible. I'm a wimp I know.
In fact I was so happy to finally have the epidural that I almost gave him that as a middle name. Luca Epidural Dunkley. Now that would have made for some good conversations!
Posted by: Monica | 02 October 2006 at 10:23
I want to know if there was a red carpet for you when you had number 2? There should have been.
The cake looks great. Such a funny thing to see for me. (Aussie girl).
Now go and sleep.
Posted by: tiel s-k | 02 October 2006 at 11:13
Wow.
And beautiful cake!
Hope a cup of tea will revive you. I for one am not ready for these exhausting parties in my future.
Posted by: Amy | 02 October 2006 at 16:21
Yummy looking cake!!
Happy Birthday Mark!
Posted by: Catrina | 02 October 2006 at 18:19
Wow, I'm exhausted just reading about your labour!
Happy Happy Birthday Mark!
Posted by: Soo | 03 October 2006 at 11:18
Happy belated birthday to your little man. After reading his birth story I think you deserve a present(s) on Mark's birthday every year too. You put the "birth" in his birthday, afterall.
Posted by: Sarah | 04 October 2006 at 05:16
Thanks for sharing Mark's birthing story...happy, happy 6th birthday!
Btw, I absolutely love the piggy stamp!!!!
Posted by: quenna | 04 October 2006 at 05:31
36 hours. 36 hours?!?! ugh.
Well, Happy Birthday to Mark (and You!) Now, go get yourself a nap!
Posted by: Angela | 04 October 2006 at 13:24