Shift Work

   Right now, the second shift has the grands at the pool. Uma ( another one of my names) and Grandpa Bill,are home picking  up the pieces and trying to squeeze in a nap. Emma will be home soon, she is the third shift, and then we gather as a tribe . Kicking and screaming all the way.
   There is nothing easy about children, but you do have moments of jubilation.
   Today I am reminded of where I was thirty years ago, and I have let Hart know hourly what I was doing!
   He turns thirty today, and he needs to be know all details each year, of his birth story.
   My mom was with us in Pennsylvania, I was sick and she had all shifts at the time. We went to the doctor, and she said , " You have pneumonia and are in labor, so we have a problem!" I think I told mom to drive me to the railroad tracks and just let me end it, Quickly! but that could have just been the fever. The doctor sent me home on giant doses of antibiotics with the hopes that it would kick in before the kid. You realize I had a three year old, in tow also.Better yet, my mom did. A three year old, that only loved his mom and her hair! We made it home, and I hit the bed, yelling at mom from my prone position, " Call Bill, this is not working, I have a scheduled C-section, why am I going through all this labor, again!! So Dr. Bill rushed home and to Trenton, New Jersey we flew. The doctor said, " You are four centimeters and you cant breathe, want to try natural?"  Me talking, gasping for air, " You have five minutes to numb me, and cut this baby out of me, and tie my tubes!" She laughed, " Oh Bonnie, you are so funny." When my husband said, " Now you have four minutes, doctor before her head starts spinning!" ( why do they always use the Exorcist reference?) She took out this huge baby boy, and we called him William Hartley Baron, or Hart to all that love him. Then the pulmonary people came to deal with me, I was a sick mom. Plus I get a psychosis in hospitals and start to see things! The man that came to do some respiratory therapy on me in the wee hours, I called the nurse to get him out! I could blow on that tube with out a teacher, and he looks like a ghost to me! ( that little tid-bit I kept to myself. Then later when my breast were as big as a football stadium, Nurse Ratchett wants to do a honey enema on me, promising me that it would not hurt, but failing to tell me how hard it is to wipe honey off your...........for days on end, after a c-section.( I think it was honey-molasses, have you ever)
  Well all the shifts took care of me,and I was off for home, to give mom a break ( by now she and Ward are sick) Hart was a perfect child, slept hours on end, and I never put him down. Now I had two boys in my lap and in my heart forever. He grew up to be a fun teenager, and smart  young man. AND now, he has a shift with the grand kids. A long shift.....and a reminder from me. There will always be shift work in your life, you will not like some of it, but give it your best. AND anytime you want to see my scar where your big head came through, just ask!
         Love,
           Mom