True Simplicity

I think that I live a fairly simple life. I do my best to go without a car, I don't have a television and we try to spend lots of time as a family, interacting and enjoying time together. I certainly feel that I have a long way to go, but for where I am in life, I'm pleased with my efforts to live simply.

I took a moment to watch my new son. He was sleeping. He does a lot of that. When he's done sleeping he usually wakes up ready to eat. He cries... or lets call it an obnoxios screatching... until my wife feeds him. While he's eating he makes little noises of contentment. You can just tell that he is happy. When he's finished eating, he poops. This is associated with some grunts and pushing. After the work of eating and pooping he goes back to sleep so that he can start the process over again in a couple hours. I can't believe that I think I have a simple life.

The world would really be boring if all anyone did was eat, sleep and poop. So can a life be too simple? I think that it can. I think the human interactions are the greatest thing in life, but they also act to complicate life. The complications of human interaction are generally good. I have very much enjoyed what No Impact Man has said on the topic recently.

As I read that post by No Impact Man, I started to think of a conversation I had with a man in France while on the train. He was on his way home after work to have dinner with his family. I don't recall how the topic came up, but he told me that he would spend 3 hours eating dinner with his family. (He was actually quite skinny, if you were wondering.) I was amazed! Who eats dinner for 3 hours? He explained that they don't spend the whole time eating, they eat the first course, and then talk a while. Then they eat a second course and talk a little more. I don't know how many courses there were, but there were several. I then asked if this was a Thursday night thing, or if it was like this every night. He said that it was typical, except Sundays when they would have a larger meal that would take a bit longer.

First off, this was not typical of all French families that I met, but I would certainly say that meal time is different over there. How would your life be different if you had a 3 hours dinner with your family every night? I think it would get back toward the simplicity that my new baby has with the addition of positive family relations. I think it's great. I don't think I could do it. I like to be doing stuff. Although I often wish that I were better at relaxing and doing nothing, I think it would be quite difficult for me.

What would that three hours of eating replace? TV, kids' sports leagues, reading the paper, playing games, wrestling on the floor. OK, I like wrestling on the floor, but I think a lot of those after work activities could be done away with and it would benefit the family. I think about that man often and wonder if he still does it (I would guess that he does). I wonder how many other families in Europe are like that. I wonder how the world would be different if everyone lived like that. I still don't think I could do it and I don't know that it's the perfect situation, but it's an interesting thought. Could you do it?

It's a... wait a minute, I'm going to make you read it

I'm going to ruin the ending of this post right from the start. My wife had a baby this morning. It's funny though people will keep reading to find out the silly little details like name weight and length. Who is going to remember the weight and length at the end of the week? I don't remember the lengths of either of my other boys (I do, however remember their weights).

So my wife had an appointment with the midwife (Valerie) yesterday morning. She came over to our house and with the due date quickly approaching (Feb. 8), she wanted to do an exam. She found that my wife was dilated to 2 cm, 75% effaced and the baby's head was positioned correctly in the pelvis. A birth was going to happen soon. I already ruined that part, but my family will keep reading anyway.

The midwife left and I got home later that evening. My wife was experiencing some "cramping" that was a little more significant than had happened before. She felt that the baby was on the way within a day. There also happened to be a snow storm on the way within a day, so we decided to call Valerie and have her come back and stay with us rather than call her when my wife was expecting a baby any minute and have a midwife stuck on the other side of the valley in a blizzard. It worked out well the way we did it. But before Valerie gets here, we need to get some pictures of how 'big' my wife is. OK dear, stick it out.
... and suck it in.
Valerie got back and checked my wife again to see how things had progressed. Well, things hadn't progressed all that well, the baby had turned sideways and was lying transverse in the uterus. That's generally when doctors do C-sections. Valerie gave my wife the mother of all belly massages and turned the baby head down again and we let things continue to progress. We went to "sleep" and decided to get up when my wife was in enough discomfort to wake everyone else up. I slept well anyway.

At about 3 am my wife walked into the living room to visit with Valerie. Misery loves company, I suppose. We had some wonderful soup that Valerie made us and Aly had to walk around a bit, hoping to get the baby to descend. I offered to go borrow a pogo stick, but she declined. Here is what a home birth is like. My wife walking around the kitchen at 4 am with a cup of Valerie's homemade soup.

As contractions became more regular and intense, we went into the bedroom to prepare for the birth. Valerie checked Aly another time, it wasn't transverse, which was good, instead it was breech. Baby wanted to come out butt first. At this point in labor, that was just how it was going to happen. This is why we did research on our midwife to find that she has shown many doctors how to deliver breech babies. Evidently they don't teach that in medical school. So we (when I say 'we', I mean my wife moved and I got shoved to a new spot) changed positions a little and Valerie told us what to expect.

Two good pushes (and many preparatory pushes) and the baby popped out, butt first. In fact we saw that he was a boy long before we saw his head. Dad (me) thought he was a girl, and was actually quite confident in that fact. I think the little guy wanted to prove me wrong... with flair. I'm not guessing on the next one. So it was a boy and we named him Shackleton Lawrence. We're waiting for Gramps to come up with a screen name for him. He weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. And he was cuter than most babies because his head didn't get all deformed on the way out. Although he did get a big bruise on his bum. Mom and baby are both doing great. That is just after the birth, mom and baby got some time to get to know one another from a different angle.

After Mom and baby had snuggled awhile and Dad got to interact as much as you can interact with a 15 minute old Valerie came back so we could do a little bath and cut the cord and stuff.

A couple hours later, Valerie had left and the Mugwump woke up. He was so excited last night about the baby and he was still excited this morning. After an intensive hand washing lesson, he got to hold his little brother. He was just a little disappointed that it wasn't a little sister.

And finally Six-Pence woke up and we got a picture of Mom with her boys. All are well.

I'm going to go spend time with my family.