Women of Steel

When I had my first baby, I acted like the walking wounded. Whined. Limped around the house in my bathrobe for weeks. Had the devil's own time getting into that heavy cotton nursing bra.

I remember drinking gallons of water to stock the dairy case, so to speak, and when I spiked a fever and got a lump in one breast I called the doctor in a cold panic thinking, Breast cancer! An episiotomy and now breast cancer!

He took my panicked call and agreed to see me.

“Uh, that’s milk,” he said on examining me.

“That’s just a blocked duct,” he went on and patted my hand. “Put the baby to the breast more often and you’ll be cured in a matter of hours.”

And so I did and so I was, but I was still a wreck for at least the next 12 weeks – right up until the time the baby pushed herself up on her elbows and started smiling like mad at her pint-sized Raggedy Ann doll.

Well this is that smiling baby above. She had a baby two days ago and talk about a contrast.

Let’s just say that I don't expect much limping and whining.

She did most of the labor at home. When I came by the house, she was calmly reading in the tub while timing her contractions.

She and Chris got to the hospital somewhere after 9pm and the baby came shortly after midnight. When we saw her there 9 hours later she looked as fresh as a bouquet of apple blossoms in her tank-top and skirt, with nice shiny hair and lovely pink cheeks.

In short there couldn’t have been a greater contrast to my experience, I don't know why.  Maybe it’s because she played sports in high school whereas when I was in high school there were no sports - unless you called cheering for the boys a sport.

Girls today are tougher than we were, what can I say? They can look sweet and pliant but underneath? Pure steel. You think it's easy bringing one of these into the world? This is the new little Marotta-Campo baby, to be called Callie, short for Caroline.

I hope she goes easy on these two big brothers of hers (and they think playing games on their grandparents' i-Phones is a challenge!)