Don't hate me, but....

I have a baby that sleeps. I mean, really, really sleeps. Last night she fell asleep around 10pm. She's *still* asleep. She slept ALL NIGHT. I had to wake her up at 5am because *I* couldn't stand it anymore...I woke up with rock hard breasts and milk leaking everywhere...I could barely get her to wake up and nurse much at all! She kept falling asleep! And then I put her back down and she's STILL ASLEEP! Wild...

Anyway, don't hate me, because I've had my share of babies that don't sleep, believe me...I had this coming.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, random pic...here I am reading The Very Grouchy Ladybug to Tess...see what good parents we are? I expect her to be reading soon....



hehe...I'm kidding, actually I was reading to Jack, Tess was just along for the ride. I'm really not in the "baby genius" crowd. But it occurs to me how cool it is that these little kids of mine will be exposed to so much good literature so early due to homeschooling...Tess will hear me read Sarah, Plain and Tall, and Little House in the Big Woods to Kain this year, hear us drill his phonograms and spelling words, read about thunderstorms and earthworms, and she'll hear me decline Latin vocabulary with Maria, help her write papers on the Gospel of St. Luke, hear us discuss the Hittite Warrior, etc.

I had my 6 week postpartum check-up yesterday. There was a little issue...this is the visit where they want to have THE TALK,,,you know the one where they go, "Ok, so congratulations on that beautiful baby, she's great, now WHAT are you going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again?" I told her we weren't going to do anything. Really. The look she gave me immediately told me how stupid and naive she thought I was. In the past, you see, my cycles have stopped for several months due to breastfeeding, and we seem to have some fertility issues anyway. I mean, we didn't "do anything" after Jack was born and he and Tess are three years apart, know what I mean? And if we felt the need to "do anything" at all, it would be natural family planning of course. But right now...we don't plan to do anything. Yes, yes, I do realize that just because doing NOTHING worked fine for us before doesn't mean I won't become pregnant again sooner than later...and it probably doesn't help delay my fertility by having a 6 week old that sleeps through the night! But we've decided, at this point anyway, that we are comfortable leaving such things in God's hands. I would feel really overwhelmed and vaguely nauseous if I got pregnant with a little "Irish twin", for sure. But I wouldn't be mixing up cyanide kool-aid or anything if I did manage to get pregnant right away, you know?

She assured me that I definitely needed to DO SOMETHING, and told me the best thing to do, since I was breastfeeding and all, would be to use condoms. I didn't respond at all. I know I should have said something, like, "Thanks, we're Catholic and don't use contraception, and really condoms are barely any better than doing NOTHING, aren't they? If we wanted to do SOMETHING, natural family planning would be a far more effective SOMETHING."

Not to mention that I find condoms repulsive, mostly because what an obvious and blatant slap in the face of the marriage covenant, you know? Like, "We interrupt this marriage act and renewal of our sacramental vows before God to get up and physically put a barrier between us that will allow us to blatantly and obviously attempt to remove our God-given creative powers and yet still allow us to get our groove on." I mean, I know all artificial contraception does this, and I guess at least condoms aren't abortifacients like the pill, but they are still a mortal sin, and I find them personally repulsive because they are just so...RIGHT THERE. Anyway...sorry, off on a tangent...some of you might not read this blog to hear about my sexual beliefs and preferences. But, hey, it IS a Catholic blog, says so right in the title up there...

I didn't say anything, because as usual in situations like that I can't think of anything appropriate to say until I'm in the car 20 minutes later, especially with my 3 kids running around the place and Tess desperately trying to nurse after the long car ride out there. My mind was just blank as I fumbled to come up with an appropriate response. So, I preoccupied myself with latching Tess on and she briskly moved on to other topics. Later, I saw she had written on my chart that I had selected condoms as my form of birth control. Grrrr. I should have said SOMETHING!