Lynn’s Recollections and Reflections #35 – And Then There Were Five

Having a Baby at 42

As I mentioned last week, I was sure that I was going through menopause but after 3 or 4 positive pregnancy tests, we had to face facts. We were having another baby.

My Pregnancies

Like the other two, I did not do well being pregnant. I’m 5’5′ tall and my legs are 2/3 of my body. I’m very short-waisted so there isn’t a lot of room for a baby. Consequently, I had 9 months of nausea and heartburn.

The one difference however with this baby, unlike the other two, she wasn’t breech so I thought that having had such an easy time with two caesareans, having a regular birth would be a breeze.

Boy was I wrong. Who signs up for that club? With a cesarean, your baby is gently lifted into the world and the only thing that’s hard to do for a few weeks is sneeze, cough, and laugh too hard. Everything in the nether regions is completely intact and works like normal.

My V-Back was awful. It was for me almost as many hours of pushing as actual labor which was a lot. It was completely unmedicated (a big mistake). I had more stitches than you think would be possible in that area.

Coming Home to A Disaster

I forgot to mention that when we found out that we were having another baby, our house just wasn’t big enough for one more. Since I couldn’t get “Handy” to move, we added a few hundred more square feet to our house.

At the time our house was only 900 sq., ft. and because we live on water we are very restricted in what we can do. Changing the footprint of our home was not an option.

We could however add a dormer to one side of our home which added 5 more feet of living space to one whole side of our 2nd floor. While it doesn’t sound like a lot when you have 900 sq. ft., adding another 400 sq. ft. to a home is life-changing. It made both bedrooms upstairs much bigger and room for a walk-in closet. At the time the rooms upstairs were occupied by Kenny and Annie.

When I saw how big Kenny’s room was going to be he was moved downstairs and that space was going to be our bedroom. For a small house, we now have a good-sized primary bedroom.

The Coldest Day in January

We signed the contract for the remodel in July of 1998 and then we waited and waited and waited. I was getting more and more pregnant and more and more frustrated. As my due date approached we moved Kenny and Annie down to the dining room and set up a little crib next to our bed which was on the first floor (it’s now my office).

Finally, on the coldest day in January 1999, they showed up to start tearing off our roof. My Mom also showed up from Florida to help out with the baby so all of us were living and sleeping on the first floor and using one bathroom.

On the morning of January 24th, 10 days before my due date, I got out of bed and my water broke. We were having a baby.

Peace & Love,

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1. The Introduction
2. My Parents and Their Friends in the 60s
3. A Lonely Kid
4. The Day I Ran Away TO Home
5. The Tornado
6.  Moving Away from My Friends
7. The Summer of 1975
8. Living with the Devil
9. After the Summer of 1975
10. The Wedding
11. Newlyweds and 2 New Houses
12. A Baby
13. Behind Closed Doors
14. Living the Dream
15. Four Tumultuous Years
16. My Sister
17. Fast Forward To Today
18. The Divorce
19. Do Your Homework
20. Why Am I Writing This
21. Living Through Abuse
22. Fixer Upper
23. Dating Single Mom
24. The Ghost
25. Losing My Favorite House
26. Present Day
27. Meeting “Handy”
28. Falling in Love
29. Becoming a Grandma
30. Where Did We Leave Off
31. And Then There Was Annie
32. Something Else Was Happening
33. Our Family of Four
34. We Bought a Boat