Doping Scandal !!!!!!!!!!!

All right, all right, I confess. Yes, I took a banned substance during my attempt at Olympic glory. I promise to never do it again. But you've got to understand that for the past 16 hours my Olympic Experience has been reduced to this:

Also ginger ale, crackers, the unleavened kind, and, more recently some applesauce and a banana.

It all began simply enough at about 10pm Monday. It felt so good to relax after the Saturday baby shower, and Monday spent nurturing a sick toddler. Sick with what you ask? A viral stomach bug, of course. Because he is walking typhus, and in the last two years I have been sicker in that in the previous twelve. Monday we also had a very exciting tour of the Birthing Center locally in preparation for the baby who was due March 18th. What's that you say? "waaaas due??" I was relaxing, reclining...and the phone rang. Girl answered it, and suddenly I heard loud screaming - "K's in LABOR! She's in LABOR!!!" I got out of the tub and got on the phone with M, father to be. Sure enough....felt sick at dinner Monday and water broke at 9pm. Four weeks early. I stuck some essentials in my Lady B bag (knitting, herbal tea, and my design notebook), assuming this could be a long ordeal, but knowing that with ruptured membranes there would be a baby, one way or the other, sometime within the next 24 hours. The triage room is great - two beds, a big chair, so we all were relatively comfy overnight. It was a fitful night. There was no organization of her labor. At 6am we got up, walked, moved into a birthing room, and prepared for the long haul. Mom took a shower, Dad went to feed dogs. Dad retuned just after we started the pitocin at about 9:40am. At about 11:30am mom asked me for drugs. We discussed it and decided that something to take the edge off would be a good plan. The midwife came in and checked her cervix and said "I have good news and bad news...." from the bed mom cried "You're gonna tell me it's too late for drugs aren't you??" Short version - she managed to go from 1cm to nine cm in two hours on pitocin, which may be some kind of record, and was astonishing to myself (who was thinking 4-5pm) and the midwife (who was thinking 5-6pm) and the nurse who was also assuming it'd be an evening birth. At 12:44pm on February 21 (my dad's birthday) Miss EJ was born, weighing a whopping 5lb, 14ounces, 18 inches long, and loaded to the gills with brown hair. She's so tiny. A button of a girl child, and beautiful to boot. (sorry, no pics, not my kid!). I can provide pics of the sweater I finished while waiting for pushing to begin, however...this is a size 1, in Kiss, and very sweet and cute. Of course, she probably won't wear it till she's 2. We spent a mild afternoon, moved into a much bigger room with a double bed for mom and dad to sleep in overnight. Miss EJ was checked and rechecked, eventually showing no more difficulty adjusting to life on the outside than a little low temperature, which was fixed by placing her on mom's chest with a heat lamp. Early babies can have problems with lung development, but EJ seems fine. She may yet develop some jaundice, and will have trouble with simple things like nursing, as she was not planning on learning that skill for a month, and has to become a quick study. And K? The mountain biker, tough girl, not sure if she can be somebody's mom? She's turned into a mushball. A blearly eyed, soft voiced, "that's my baby", breast feeding, worrying mommy.

So, my doping issue...well, I came home at about 5pm, had some supper and a bath and went to bed. At 1:30 I woke up and remember why we call the grandchild 'Typhoid A'. This is where the toilet comes in. I spent the next bundle of hours with the porcelain god. I spent most of today sleeping. My beloved husband brought home from work bananas, applesauce, ginger ale, and a desire to do laundry. I've been running a fever a bit, and got a whole two rows done on Rogue! TWO ROWS!! WOO-HOO!!! This is where the doping comes in....and I hope the IOKC can forgive me...I did it. I confess. I took....tylenol (sniff)

Feeling somewhat better right now, but heading back to bed shortly. I just want to sleep. The banana has been a big help, I think I really needed the potassium. I think my Olympic Careeer it at an end. We'll see...but the remained of the hood, the sleeves, steaming and seaming? I know I'm fast but...at two rows a day?? Oh well. I fought the good fight. I did my best. And now I am going back to bed before I fall off my chair!