Double-Meme

Becky went and tagged me twice, so I'd better get busy answering.

First, the Mommy Meme:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Umm, yes, sort of? We had decided it was a good time, so I went of BC for one cycle, during which we weren't really trying. Then circumstances altered suddenly and the timing wasn't so great anymore, but by then I was already pregnant.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes, we'd been married for seven years.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was utterly floored. By the time I found out, I'd almost forgotten we had "tried", and I had not the least suspicion I was pregnant.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Not even considered.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 28.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I broke my little toe (stubbed it on a wooden magazine rack). When I went to get it X-rayed, they gave me an automatic pregnancy test before shoving me under the X-ray machine.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My husband.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes

9. DUE DATE? June 6, 1998

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Yes. Though it all magically vanished within a week after quitting my extremely stressful job.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Tuna fish. Canned, water-pack tuna fish. And occassionally french fries.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? My father-in-law, who would make retching noises at the breakfast table.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Male

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No. I was pretty indifferent about which sex.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 40

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? No. None of my close friends lived in-state, and I didn't work in that kind of office.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? N/A

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? A couple. My hip ligaments over-loosened and caused me chronic hip pain after month 6 or so, and a case of the flu about month 7 turned into an overnight hospital stay for severe dehydration and pre-term labor.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Tucson Medical Center

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 22 1/2. Unless you count the four bloody weeks I wandered around 2 cms dialated and contracting every 20 minutes. Annoying that.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My husband.

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My husband, the doctor, 2 nurses and some NICU staff.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Emergency C.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Yes, after the first 12 hours I asked how far along. They said "about halfway." I said, "I want the epidural, please!"

25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 9 lbs, 12 oz.

26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? June 18, 1998

27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Robert Xavier

28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? Eight. He'll be nine in less than a month!


The second meme is the meme of sevens. I have to list seven random facts about myself, and then tag seven people. The first should be much easier than the second.

The facts:

1. I'm an inveterate, addicted reader. I'd rather read than eat, watch TV, go anywhere or do anything. My record reading marathon was 27 books in three days.

2. (Related to 1) Deprive me of good books, and I'll start reading anything available - romance novels, encyclopedias, L. Ron Hubbard - anything.

3. I'm a purple belt (san-kyu) in Isshin-ryu karate. This is my second time up the ladder, having reached ni-kyu (brown) before I had kids. If I make it to black, I will likely be my sensei's first or second promotion to black (depending on whether our current brown can stick with it while nearly two hours away).

4. I have written a novel, and am partway through writing two others. I would dearly love to be a published novelist, but overcoming my own procrastination is proving a major hurdle.

5. I am currently on three prescription medications and heading for a fourth. Rather than risk being without any of these, I keep them in my purse, which as a consequence does a nice stand-in for a maraca.

6. I love knitting and spinning, but have difficulty in actually making myself anything. My success rate in attempting to make myself sweaters is currently two sweaters out of over a dozen attempts. This is not because the sweaters don't get made, but because they end up going to other people, either over issues of fit, or of flattery.

7. Somewhere in Tennessee is a Congo African Grey Parrot named Mystic that I hand-reared from a chick. She was my bird for about eight years, but I had to give her up when we moved to Arizona. So if you ever wander into a pet-store (her new owner is a pet-store manager), and here a gray parrot with a red tail saying "My name is Mystic!" - that's my old bird. Give her a scratch for me.

Now the tough part. Becky tagged me, and she already got Frotoe and Black Belt Mama, so, hmm:

1. Craig
2. Miss Chris
3. Mat
4. Bill (I know you don't have a blog - you can put responses in the comments if you want)
5. Ryan
6. Eveleaf
7. Polarchip