The Day Before Ivy

When my friend Lori came to work Friday afternoon, her first question was “so you gotta tell me—what did you do the day before?”

It isn’t very glamorous…not very memorable even…but it is Ivy’s day before!

I remember drinking about a half gallon of grape juice and apple juice. (Incidentally, I normally don't even like apple juice. For the latter part of this pregnancy, I liked it.) I usually mix the two kinds together when we have both on hand, and that’s what I did. And of course, it was on ice, because from about the sixth month of pregnancy on, I eat ice. I most likely consumed about 100 pounds of ice in those months. I’m not exaggerating. I would buy the five or ten pound bags of ice at the grocery store and I did this many times.

So, I drank a lot of juice.

And I ate like four quesadillas.

When I say quesadillas, I mean the upper midwest, raised on hotdish, ketchup and salt are the only spices you need version: a soft tortilla shell, a little butter, sprinkle with shredded cheese and a pinch of salt, and pop it in the microwave. I don’t know if that even qualifies to be called a quesadilla, but it’s what we call it here at our house.

I remember I didn’t feel like eating what I made for the kids and Dennis to eat at dinner and supper, which was waffles. I just drank juice and ate those quesadillas throughout the day.

I texted Dennis at about 7:30 or so that night and said that he didn’t need to rush through chores, but that I thought something was happening.

He and Linnea came in from the barn at about 9:30…I had fallen asleep about a half hour before that. I remember feeling “different”. Dennis grabbed something to eat, I read a book, he fell asleep on the couch and I kept reading. My back was hurting…I took a bath. I was beginning to get discouraged that maybe nothing was happening. The short contractions I had been having hadn’t really gotten any stronger and I didn’t really have any during my time in the tub. I went to bed at 1:00 am pretty bummed, thinking I had been wrong again. (There were many times in the last few weeks that I was sure labor was imminent.)

So, went to bed at 1:00…not long after had a very strong hard contraction.

Oh, but wait---this would be part of Ivy’s birth story! And that’s a whole ‘nother post!