The Pippa Story--II

After the Bright child was birthed, she was placed on my tummy and we examined her with glee and relief. Thomas cut the cord--they routinely wait until it has stopped pulsing--and she stayed with me for a long long time before they weighed her or anything! In fact, they never gave her a bath the whole time we were there! Amazing! Though they did wash her hair... It was thankfully an extremely clean birth. I didn't even have any water breaking. To this day, we still do not know what on earth happened to my bag of waters! Anyway, out came the placenta a few minutes later. And that is still in the freezer, thanks to our doula who ran out right away to get us an ice box from the store since we had forgotten one. I would love to encapsulate it again, but to dehydrate it I suppose I will have to wait til we move and I can get my toaster oven back.... Not to mention the roommate factor--nobody wants to deal with watching a placenta butchered in their kitchen.

So there she was! One minute in, next minute out. The miracle of birth is truly earth shattering. How anyone can chalk it up to evolution is beyond me. It all works so perfectly! And it always gives me such delight to see the baby we've been waiting for--who's been with us all these months, and yet we didn't know her. We'd felt her little heels, the roundness of her body, the hard head--through the rubber water balloon--but it was a mystery--what are you? Who are you? It was Pippa the whole time. Hah!

But rewind, because she wasn't yet named Pippa when she was born. We had spent so much time brainstorming a boy's name--because girl names are easy, right?--that we now found ourselves with a girl and--oops--not having settled on a girl name! My idea was to name her Olive if she came out with dark hair--I am asking you, what are the odds of having a black-haired husband and four blond-haired children? I love the Biblical symbolism for olives and olive trees. And yet, when she arrived, I was suddenly not so sure. Thomas seemed also not to have the strength of a resounding "YES" in his voice when I talked about that name, though he did say he liked it. Then I suggested Pippa. This name I had heard of long ago, and it recently came back to my attention and I just thought it was the cutest, happiest little name! At this idea Thomas brightened. And so did the postpartum nurse! She said, "Oh my goodness, seriously? When you started discussing what you should name her, I just had the thought, 'they should name her Pippa.'" I think that settled it for me right there; it was prophecy! But it would still take us until the next day to decide...

The nurse's name was Evangeline, too, (another one of my favorite names) and she was a Christian! She saw my Bible on the stand and then overheard something else we were saying, and she asked us finally if we were Christian, then confessed herself, "I love Jesus!" She was the dearest thing. She also was a Calvary Chapel girl, too, but she attended one closer to downtown. Thomas went off with Amanda to get me a Peets mocha =) This is becoming a post-birth tradition now. Sadly, I have perfected my coffee making at home to such a degree that I can hardly appreciate even a Peets mocha anymore! Dread. Thomas went home soon after this and I was eventually moved to a shared room with another postpartum mom, whom I hardly saw at all before curtains were drawn. I think she had had a C-section. I had been told I would eventually be moved up to the birth center-- but alas, it never did happen. So while I was a bit longing for the nice double beds up there, I had no reason to complain.

I nursed my baby, had my lunch, etc. and before I knew it, Thomas was arriving again for a visit with the children! They all busted in, disheveled, half in pajamas, hair unkempt, (OH the things that fathers may neglect to do! ...But the important things do get done: spending time with them, training them up, loving them, playing with them, and praying with them!) and fell upon their new little sister like a horde of hungry javelinas!  They were all instantly IN LOVE. Even Silas! Oh my--the way he kissed and licked her and cooed "Baba, ...baba" over and over again. My poor husband was tired and not feeling well, so I told him he could lie down in the bed and I would move to a chair. He was dozing within minutes. There I was with my delicate situation and three children bouncing around the (shared!) room and climbing on any available furniture... fortunately a nurse noticed my plight. Her name was Liberty. And she gave me some liberty, alright! She ever so delicately pointed out that my children were energetic and encouragingly said, "Let's move you to another room! One just opened up down the hall." She bustled us down there, had other nurses grab all our stuff, and settled us in. She was SO sweet about Thomas and said with a wink, "We'll just let him keep sleeping until we need the room, ok?" Then she turned on the tv for my children and went away, coming back with about 18 packets of graham crackers and mini cartons of milk, which my children fell upon ravenously. Dinner is served! What a nurse!

All the nurses were wonderful. There was one the following day whose name was Karen, who was the chattiest thing you ever met, but in a good way! She asked me a LOT of questions, about my life and mothering and Christianity, even, just because she cared to know. My friend Melody has that skill as well, (the questions/caring combo) and it is rare. Haha, when we still hadn't settled on a name, Karen heard the baby scream and said, "you should call her Piper! Hahaha!" Little did she know we were considering Pippa, which is practically the same! I had a lot of time to research the name while I was at the hospital, and loved what the Holy Spirit was showing me. He reminded me that Philip the evangelist had particularly been impressed upon my heart in my study of the book of Acts a few weeks prior, what with his table-serving skills, evangelism skills, and then being teleported on top of all that. =) (Pippa derives from Philippa, which comes, of course, from Philip.) And the book of Philippians is also special and dear to my heart for family. I'd memorized chapter 2 last year. This would be her book. Then there came the issue of the middle name, and God gave us "Bright" at the last minute, which we both liked. Thomas had been inspired by Foxes Book of Martyrs and had suggested all kinds of middle names from there, derived from Roman, Gaelic, etc. But we decided on a Roman one for her 2nd middle name, Octavia. Eight is Thomas' favorite number, not to mention the spiritual significances of the number 8. Fruitfulness and superabundance being two of them, but especially this--renewal. The season that was ushered in at her birth was promising renewal. We saw it with the eyes of faith. The world would say another child just adds to the downward spiral. God has a different vision and a different agenda. Will we accept what He says? Pippa Bright Octavia. A name for a little princess destined for big things.

May munchkin talk

G: “Mom, I missed my dream because it was fun and it was nice! It was about a nice cow and a nice moose and a nice lion and a nice sheep but they didn’t fight and the sheep was a princess in the castle.” –May 2

Sp: “Mom! As soon as you move, you just want to live in your old house again… I miss both houses I’ve lived in—and the womb.” –May 3

Sp: “I wanna get a limo, mama. Cause we’re gonna have 20 children—if they’re all good—and we can’t fit them all in this car.” –May 4

Golden, singing to Pippa:

“I will give you milk

And I will use your brain

And you are faith-doodle-bug

And you are called blubbery

You can lead the way…” –May 4

G: “Mommy, I can’t move my arms cause my armpits hurt.” –May 4

Sp: “Mommy, why is Daddy sleeping in the morning?”

Me: “Because he goes to bed late and gets up early. He takes naps cause he doesn’t sleep that much at night.”

Sp: “So…he’s like animals?” –May 8

Me: “These fleas are evil!”

G: “And you hate them.”

Sp: “Well, we don’t like the fleas, but they are God’s creation.”

Me: “Yes, they are. I don’t know why He made fleas though.”

Sp: “Because He’s God and sometimes He has secrets.” –May 8

G, waving a piece of paper: “I’ve got good news! It’s here in my hand!”

Me: “Oh good! What’s the good news?”

G: “Our house is on fire—and we have to run away to a castle.” –May 9

Golden, commenting on a nice playground: “No wild things here—no bobcats or robbers.” –May 12

G: “Mom, I wanna be big right now and go up to heaven and have fun. I can’t wait to see if it’s beautiful.” –May 12

 (Talking to my husband about onomatopoeia)

Me: “It’s a word that sounds like the sound it describes.”

T: “Like what?”

Me: “Tinkle. Or crackle.”

T: “What about pee?”

Me: “No… but poop is probably one.” (Thomas laughing at this point)

T: “What about butt?”

Me: “Butts don’t make sounds.”

(both laughing suuuuuuuuper hard)

T (crying-laughing): “Yes they doooooooo!” –May 18

G: “Mom, when you say ‘I doubt it,’ it means that I want to eat a cloud.” –May 12

(A  little confused from all our readalouds/ family devotion times)

Golden, giggling: “Daddy was reading the book of John, and he said ‘Mr. Thornbutt’ a lot of times!” –May 21

G: “Thank you Lord for this day, and that we would like for Daddy to get a job, and that we had a good day, and that we could rent this house and get a dog and a cat. Amen.”  -May 28

(playing with Golden, Sparrow makes up an imaginary address)
Sp: “Let’s go to Africania, Sixty-O house, and Hermie street.”  -May 20

(talking about fake online names)

Sp: “I’m Cherry, and Golden is Strawberry. Mom, you can be Coffee Girl.”

G: “And Daddy will be the guy who drinks the coffee and eats the strawberry and the cherry!” –May 20

Sp: “I’m gonna sit down and eat this big humiliated chicken.” –May 27

G: “My eye hurted in the night and Mama put Pippa’s nu-nu milk in it.”

Sp: “Did it hurt?”

G: “No.”

Sp: “What did it feel like?”

G: “It feeled like a cloud.” –May 27

Sparrow seriously and patiently explaining to Golden:

Sp: “A brain burn is when you eat hot food too fast.”

G:  “Yeah and it burned my tongue too.” –May 27

Sp: “Mama, I wanna play funly, and Golden isn’t making this game really all that fun.” –May 28

Me: “You put your pants on backwards.”

G: “Oh. Well can you help me not put them on backwards?” –May 28

Daddy was moving sleeping Golden, who had been very tired and crying minutes before, to the bedroom.

Daddy: “Heavy!”

Sparrow: “She’s lots heavy when she has a bunch of tears in her tummy.” –May 31

Daddy: “If we didn’t have Jesus, who would we go to? What would we move toward?”

Golden: “We would move to Temecula.” –May 31