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

 

BOY WANTED

This "want ad" appeared in the early part of [the 20th] century.

WANTED - A boy that stands straight, sits straight, acts straight, and talks straight;
A boy whose fingernails are not in mourning, whose ears are clean, whose shoes are polished, whose clothes are brushed, whose hair is combed, and whose teeth are well cared for;
A boy who listens carefully when he is spoken to, who asks questions when he does not understand, and does not ask questions about things that are none of his business;
A boy that moves quickly and makes as little noise about it as possible;
A boy who whistles in the street, but does not whistle where he ought keep still;
A boy who looks cheerful, has a ready smile for everybody, and never sulks;
A boy who is polite to every man and respectful to every woman and girl;
A boy who does not smoke cigarettes and has no desire to learn how;
A boy who is more eager to know how to speak good English than to talk slang;
A boy that never bullies other boys nor allows other boys to bully him;
A boy who, when he does not know a thing says, "I don’t know," and when has made a mistake says "I’m sorry," and when he is asked to do a thing says "I’ll try";
A boy who looks you right in the eye and tells the truth every time;
A boy who is eager to read good books;
A boy who would rather put in his spare time at the YMCA gymnasium than to gamble for pennies in a back room;
A boy who does not want to be "smart" nor in any wise attract attention;
A boy who would rather lose his job or be expelled from school than to tell a lie or be a cad;
A boy whom other boys like;
A boy who is at ease in the company of girls;
A boy who is not sorry for himself, and not forever thinking and talking about himself;
A boy who is friendly with his mother, and more intimate with her than anyone else;
A boy who makes you feel good when he is around;
A boy who is not a goody-goody, a prig, or a little pharisee, but just healthy, happy, and full of life;
This boy is wanted everywhere. The family wants him, the school wants him, the office wants him, the boys want him, the girls want him, all creation wants him.

Source unknown
Quoted in The Children's Book of Virtues
by William J. Bennet

******************************************************************************************************************
Lord, give me wisdom to raise this son of mine, and to turn his heart toward You!

April Quotes

Sparrow is six, Golden is three and two-thirds...

G, after a pee accident: "I really don't wanna get potty trained."
me: "What's potty trained?"
G: "Going potty."
me: "You never wanna go potty again?"
G: "Never pee and never poop."
me: "Well, in heaven we won't have to pee or poop."
G: "I really wanna go up." -April 9

Sp: "I wanna go to GOD-world!" -April 10 (after much thinking about Disneyland, Sea-world, etc.)

G: "I'm really serious. I'm really DUPER serious." -April 10

G: "Nonsense!"
me: "Do you know what that means, nonsense? It's from "non" which means no, and "sense." It makes no sense!"
G: "Well if somebody doesn't have a nose, then they can't smell. That's non-scents." -April 10

G: "Mommy, whenever you drink coffee, it makes me wanna go peepee." -Apr. 21

G: "I had a dream of a poky monster. And he did do bad things to me. And I usually wanted to go back out." ...then later..."Mom, the poky monster was scratching up my nose. And it really hurted. He had sharp claws." -April 21

G: "I had a dream about sparkle warkle unicorn city. And there was pink and rainbow-colored birds in the sky, and they were singing nice songs about unicorns. About not die. And they were singing and singing and their breath was getting tired." -April 23

me: "You can't attach the rope to the pulleys first. The pulleys need to wait, they are just an in-between place."
G: "The pulleys need to get in the patience of God." -Apr. 24

me: "When I was little, my friends and I made up a language. And we wrote a dictionary so we could say what each word meant."
Sp: "...And when you wanted to talk to each other in your language, you would just look in your dictionary!"
G: "Yeah--and if you put a dictionary on your chair, you will sit higher." -Apr. 25

G, praying: "...And that Daddy will get a job. Amen. I prayed for that twice. I mean TWO TIMES." -Apr. 25

G: "Mom, I'm a doula. You can be a doula too."
me: Oh yeah, what's a doula?"
G: "It makes a crazy sound and then it turns bad and then it grows up. It can eat you. And it's a monster. A doula is a javelina. It's a bad pig." -Apr. 27

Sp: "I went as DOWN as I could, cause I was a worm-dragon, and then I found the lava place." -Apr. 30

Near accident in the middle of the night, but Golden woke up and I helped her in the bathroom. I told her afterward, since her panties were a little wet, to put new ones on. She wasn't into that, and didn't skip a beat in informing me:
"I LOVE wet panties!" -Apr. 31

Pippa!

My fourth child. I can't believe I have four children. I still feel like a shy little out-of-place girl in a foreign country sometimes, or rather--I remember that girl so well, that it seems hardly possible to be a mother of four of my own children. I now have more children than anyone in my family. More than my parents. More than my grandparents. More than my aunt and more than my uncle. More than my cousins. Wow. I am so blessed!

Pippa Bright Octavia McDonnell was born on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 6:29 am, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz. What a fabulous birth! I have always had quick labors, but this one set the record at 3 hours 15 minutes. And began at 3:15 am. Hah! I always know it is real labor when it wakes me up out of sleep. I had had one false alarm this time, on Saturday night/early Sunday morning (my due date), but it turned out to be just an April Fools' joke. ha. ha. Actually, I am kind of glad she was not really born on April Fools Day.

I decided that if the baby hadn't come by my due date, I would do all I could to get the labor going (there were some insurance issues that would be much less complicated if baby was born before April 5th). I was due on a Sunday. Monday evening I went over to the beach with the girls and we did the stairs three times in a row. One lady commented, "Is this your Stairmaster?" I said, "Yup! Trying to induce labor!" She looked alarmed and said "Oh no!" I think she thought I was kidding. I just panted, "due yesterday!" and kept on truckin'! Sure enough, that night around 3:15 I woke up with contractions about 5 minutes apart and stronger than the "false labor" two nights before. I lay there for awhile timing them and finally got up to get things ready. I packed the rest of my stuff, got online to send emails out to my family (and announce on facebook, of course!) and write a line in the family journal.

I prayed through each contraction. This time I wanted to fight that pain in the Spirit, not submit to it as before. I felt that God had given me permission to pray that pain away. Pain was not God's original intention for childbirth, and it may not even have been His secondary intention! The word given to Eve over childbirth was "sorrow," though many versions translate it "pain." It is the exact same word, in the original, that is given to Adam in how He will have to till the ground. In SORROW. (They never translate that one as "pain!") So yes, we do have to bear children into a sinful, sorrowful world. But do we have to bear children in pain?? I had come to believe that Satan has a powerful ministry of fear and pain over childbirth. It is he who makes this so miserable for us, sometimes from beginning to end, because he hates women, hates families, hates LIFE. And now, eons later, the word "pain" has been spoken over childbirth so many times, that we are programmed to expect it, believe it,  succumb to it. Words. Are. Powerful. So there I was, at 4 AM, standing and swaying in the living room, fighting words with words. I would pray that pain right down every five minutes, then five minutes later do it again.

Standing! I was standing in labor! I normally cannot stand in labor, I buckle with the pain, I have to lean on something or lie down, or kneel. I moan and groan and moo. I "work with" the labor, but in the past that has meant for me using natural pain-coping methods and accepting the pain as something that is moving my labor forward. This time, I was fighting the pain. I had come to believe in my right to fight the pain. I wasn't fighting my labor, but I was fighting in the spirit against something I have come to believe is spiritually induced; why should a muscle working hard cause automatic excruciating pain? I remembered the names of the women I had read about that had had pain-free childbirth and spoke them aloud to remind the Lord: you did it for her; would you do it for me too? Eventually I woke up Thomas to tell him it was time. We called the midwives to tell them we were coming but didn't get a hold of anyone; they were supposed to call back within 15 minutes. After 20 minutes, I called again. When I hung up, I had a voicemail. From the midwife. Telling me that they had a couple of births going on and to just call back if I really needed to come in. Well we were already on our way. It was cold outside and in the car. I had a blanket and we turned on the heater. I was shivering. We arrived at the hospital and I labored in the lobby while Thomas went and parked the car. Our doula (whom I had met a week beforehand through a Facebook group) met us there and started squeezing my hips, wonderful girl that she was. After about a half hour in the lobby, they told me to go up to regular labor and delivery since there was no room in the inn--ahem--birthing center. I was quite disappointed not to get to be in the birth center after all! But happy to get into a room.

They asked me if I was feeling pushy, and no, I wasn't yet. The nurses were really nice and tried to remember I was supposed to have been a birth center patient. She monitored the baby with a doppler device instead of the dreaded belly band. Then I suddenly did feel pushy. Someone checked me and said I was complete, and the baby's head was "right there." (that was the first internal check I had gotten since moving to California!) I got into my preferred position: kneeling upright while hugging the back of the bed. Thomas came to the back of the bed so I could hold on to him. They kept assuring me the midwife was trying to make it down in time. But she didn't. Instead they sent in two OB's. One was blond and was wearing a face shield (presumably as a result of a bad experience with bodily liquids during birth--LOL); the other one I am not sure if I ever saw. Sure enough, she asked me to turn around and lie down. I said something like "do i have to?" and didn't move. I could feel that baby coming down the canal. The doctor asked again. I said something like "No, I'm good, the baby's coming right out, you know?" Then a contraction would come and I would stall, "Just wait wait wait a minute..." Then she pulled out the "for your baby's safety you really have to lie down now!" But what were they going to do--grab me and force me to turn over? I knew this would be over soon and the lying-on-the back was NOT what I had signed up for--so they could ask me to lie down all they wanted. I knew better. It was NOT for my baby's safety. It was for their own personal comfort. And then I began to roar. And really really push. The blond doctor was giving me counter pressure as requested, (I have a great respect for that one!) and out that baby came, in two pushes, perfectly and easily. Of course it felt intense. Somewhat like pooping a bowling ball. But it is an intensity equal to the absolute craziness of the situation: that your body has been growing a second human, complete and perfect, and is now expelling it to begin LIFE on its own! "It's a girl!" they told me. THEN I turned around and lay down--very compliant--and they put that wonderful baby in my arms, and the love story began.

To be continued...

March Madness!

G: "Mom, why do people get ready?"
me: "For what?"
G: "Why do people get dressed and have a party--EVERY DAY?!?!?" -march 1

(coming in crying)
G: "Mom! I didn't want her to put her feet on me!"
me: "Oh, I'm sorry. ...Do you want to eat a quesadilla with me?"
G, still tearfully: "I want a covered chocolate hot dog." -march 1

Sparrow's casual observation: "The devil is a hypocrite alien." -march 2

G: "Mom, I had a dream that I was seeing a bunch of guinea pigs on the mountain, and there was ocean and snow all around." -march 7

G: "Goliath lives in Hawaii."
Sp: "No, he doesn't."
G: "Yes, he does, he lives in Hawaii!"
Sp: "No, he doesn't Golden, cause he's DEAD!" -march 7

me playing with girls: "Apparently I'm British cause I have an English accent."
G: "You're lovelish." -march 10

talking about a Bible passage
me: "So Mary and Martha asked Jesus to come because Lazarus was sick. And what did Jesus do for sick people?"
G: "hmmmm....mmmmmm....get a barf bucket?" -march 10

me: well it's jeans and a t-shirt, or how about these shorts and this shirt?"
Sp: "yah, yah! shorts and this shirt--that looks really prosheffonal." -march 15

G: "In my dream, when we were going home, on a walk, a bee stung me. Right here. (points to foot.) Isn't that a sad, sad story?" -march 17, 4 AM

(eating Kix cereal for the 1st time)
G: "These are REAL chickpeas. I'm not kidding. And they're GOOD. And they're CRUNCHY." -march 18

Sp: "Who would ever wanna snuggle with a knight?" -march 28

G: "I used to throw straws out the window.  When I was a little girl. ...That's a sad, sad story." -march 29

Sp: "Someday I wanna go to Coco's Island."
me: "Are you going to be a marine biologist?"
Sp: "No."
me: "Are you going to be an explorer?"
Sp: "No. I'm going to be a ballerina. On Coco's Island."
G: "I'M going to be a BUTTERFLY!" -march 30

January and February Brilliance

me: "What does 'invisible' mean, Golden?"
G: "hmmmm.......mmm....(rolling her eyes about to think) .....whiny?" -Jan. 3

Sp: "We'll only die for a minute...I mean,--the shortest, shortest time you can imagine." -Jan. 3

G: "Mommy! My baby is coming soon!"
dad: "Oh yeah? What's it gonna be, a boy or a girl?"
G: "A girl with eyelashes and pink."
dad: "What's its name gonna be?"
G: "Toothless." -Jan. 28

(some argument about a bike going on)
me: "There's another bike outside."
G: "Nooooo! Skunks like me, and they spray stink out of their tails, and I don't wanna take a bath!" -Feb.  1 (lol--apparently she had heard that there was a skunk outside)

G (cupping the face of some Catholic saint statue) "Jesus, do you love me?" -Feb. 1

me: "I have to go to Medi-CAL again and get something done."
G: "But Medi-CAL isn't that good!"
me: "I noticed."
G: "But Medi-CAL doesn't get that much money. To pay ice cream on Saturday. I mean bubble gum."
-Feb. 15

(listening to a song "take my breath away" by tuck and patti)
Sp: "He is singing about God. Cause God can sometimes take our breath away." -Feb. 15

G: "Why can Jesus make even the biggest messes?"
me: "Well, Jesus can do whatever He wants, but He doesn't want to make messes. He wants to make order."
G: "But in His heart He wants to make a BIG mess." -Feb. 27

Sp: "The devil is a hypocrite alien."
later...
me: "Sparrow, what's a hypocrite?" 
Sp: "It's like... a tax collector bad guy. With a crown. Girls can be hypocrites too sometimes." -Feb. 28

Sp: "Mom, is a parakeet dinosaur twice as big as Silas?" (she may have been thinking 'pterodactyl'?) -Feb. 28