Pages

Thursday 18 October 2012

Display.

Don't be fooled by the displays of flowers:


and butterflies on display in this classroom:


Because one partition is given over to this display created in response to our son's show and tell:



Be warned and look away now if you are squeamish as some of these rather graphic caesarian photos are not for the faint hearted....yet a class full of small boys seems to go about their day to day classroom activities without even batting an eyelid.

A notice came home from school prompting boys to bring in stories about their families for show and tell. Good old show and tell. Somehow, in conjunction with his father, they thought that this selection of snaps from the family album would be just the thing:




Apparently, the class had never had so many questions.....the answers given to some of them have been inscribed on the poster. Along with drawings inspired by the photos.

It was a surreal experience, getting the school bag from the locker and noticing this poster out of the corner of my eye. I'll never forget my first caesarian....or my second...third or fourth. The first time I'd commented on the funny smell....two days later my husband took my hand and told me that it had been the smell of my burning flesh where they'd cauterised the wound. Needless to say I still struggle looking at my actual caesarian photos. And where you'd least expect to see it, here one is.

When I asked my husband if he'd noticed the poster in the kindergarten class room he said....and I quote 'Yeah, did you see how enormous you were before we went into the hospital'. To which I replied that I thought I'd been bigger during my fourth pregnancy (this was my third). 'No' was his adamant response and he reminded me that I'd been weighed during each visit to my French obstetrician who was very strict and forbade me to gain more that twelve kilos. The words 'diet' and 'reduce' (while pregnant) may have even been mentioned. My obstetrician in Hobart would never in a pink fit have uttered these words.

I took this photo yesterday, five years to the day after this incredibly happy event:


I wonder what the little boys would have made of it all had I had a natural birth.

Rx

12 comments:

  1. Forget pictures, I can't even look at my scar. I hope someday I'll be able to be as open with my boys about their birth as you are with yours.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I consider my scar as a badge of honour....my four beautiful, healthy and happy children all materialised into the world from the same place. I'm sure that one day you will be able to look at it all differently and I'm sure that when you are ready your boys will love the stories! Rx

      Delete
  2. show and tell guaranteed to reveal all you never wanted to!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, not what I was expecting at all! Rx

      Delete
  3. I endorse a planned caesar salad and did not smell burning. Baby was born at 7.48 am Mr FF was in court for a 10 day trial at 10 am....

    I so over people saying it's a "easy" option. Since when is surgery "easy"? xxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's definitely not easy! I usually considered running away just beforehand. Especially as they do it all while you are conscious. I think that you do what you have to do. I was in induced labour for 18 hours with my first before the caesarian.....afterwards my mum sat on the bed and regaled me with grisly stories about how 100 years ago my baby and I would probably not have survived....and now I have four. I am sick of people bailing me up at parties and telling me that I'm not a 'real' woman because I haven't experienced natural birth......I say long live choice! Rx

      Delete
    2. Good lord - surely no one has done that to you at a party - or anywhere, ever! Hideously rude. I'm sure teachers hear a lot of very personal stories on their jobs - the birth poster takes the cake!

      Delete
  4. I smelled that burning smell at my first c-sect, 1pm after a day of fasting and mentioned something smelled delicious, was someone making toast? Hamish nearly passed out I realised that I was the toast. I love T's notes next to the pics, so sweet. Jx

    ReplyDelete
  5. My husband usually did have a little faint at about that stage, poor darling! If I'd associated the smell with toast I don't think I'd ever have been able to stomach it again......so what do you have for breakfast these days! Rx

    ReplyDelete
  6. I must say I'm quite relieved that when my children ask how they came out of me, I just say that the Doctor cut my tummy open and pulled them out, then stitched me back up. I really don't relish the thought of telling the 6 year old how most other babies are born. I can't believe you had someone tell you you were inadequate for having c-sections?!! I only had one idiot say something to me - he asked if I'd had a natural birth and I said "God no, I had every drug available, and then a caesarian". After 28 hours in labour, a caesarian was a good option (especially when the baby eventually emerged 9lbs 7oz with a 39 cm head, and I'm 5'4"). Was very relieved when my Ob told me all the subsequent babies had to come out the same way. Love that the pics went to school - what an interesting show and tell they all had!! xH

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love hearing stories like this! You are such a natural storyteller too. I'm sure the article will be wonderful. Can't wait to read it.
    You would have loved a tapestry I stumbled over while lost in the wings of the V&A yesterday. It was as big as a room and depicted a formal French garden. Just glorious. Apparently the family who owned it before they gave it to the nation to pay for death taxes used to pretend they'd sewn it. That made me laugh.
    I saw a gorgeous feathered frock in Marlene Birger on Marylebone Road yesterday and thought of you!
    xx
    PS Thank you for the kind mention too. That room was in Jeffrey Bilhuber's Oyster Bay (Long Island) weekender. Talk about a Great Gatsbyesqe mansion...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Romy, with 3 caesars under my belt, I relate to so much of what you say here. Not the burning flesh part, thankfully. Thank goodness for our fabulous obstetricians! J x

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE hearing your thoughts! Rx