SuperOva does it again! Labor & delivery

Eli Wallace Eberly was born Wed, June 24, at 12:42 pm. Second child. Poor kid. He barely has had any pictures posted, no formal announcement or even email yet, just some sad facebook updates. But he is beautiful and perfect in every way.

The labor was even easier than the one with Clyde. Everyone said the second will be cake, and it was easier, but not quite cake. My water started trickling at about 2 am the night before, and I was bleeding a little, and then regular and painful contractions started at around 2:30. We headed to the hospital by around 4 am, I was 4 cm dilated already, and I had an epidural by 5:30 and was feeling great. The epidural hurt like hell going in, though. Those needles in your spine are hella big.

Then my labor slowed down (contractions but no cervical progress) so they gave me some Pitocin, a small dose, to try to get it started again. It picked up quickly and by about 11 am, I was 8 cm dilated. By noon, 10 cm, and ready to push. Dr. Flagg was our OB, and she said, "Liz, you're going to squeeze this baby out in about 5 mins." She was almost right. Once the pushing started, it took two Blondie songs on the iPod, and he was out. Dr. Flagg told me to put my fingers down near my vaginal canal part way through pushing, and said, "Feel your baby's head!" Then he was out. It burned a little but was really not too bad.

And now Eli is here! A gorgeous, perfect little baby boy. Welcome, Eli!

SuperOva does it again

Well, probably no one else is reading this anymore, which is fine by me, but if they are, they're going to learn some early news that isn't out of the bag yet. SuperOva is in the family way. Again. Only 4 weeks along so far, but am feeling hopefully that it's going to be successful, because, well, I feel like crap.

The morning sickness started pretty much on Monday, about four days ago, and it has hit like a hurricane this time. It starts from when I wake up in the morning and doesn't end until I fall asleep. Somehow, it feels much worse, much harder this time around, and not just because I have a toddler to care for when I'm at home.

I've been having dry heaves in the morning and horrifyingly, had to vomit in the work bathroom yesterday. It was godawful. I was trying to time it when no one was in there, but someone walked in in the middle--a coworker who sits right in front of me--and I pulled myself together but I don't know if she noticed, anyway. She asked if I was feeling OK, I suppose because my eyes were all teary and my face was red and splotchy.

I'm both hungry and not at all in the mood for food, all the time. At this point, I can pretty much only tolerate starches: Bread, rice, cereal, oatmeal, crackers. The thought and sight (and particularly, the smell!) of vegetables is awful. Same goes for fruit. Anything I used to like, really.

Subway rides are a nightmare. When they're crowded, I feel claustrophobic, trapped, nauseous, overheated, short of breath. Today I almost trampled some people trying to get to a seat that was about to be vacated. It has to be vigilant, trying to find a seat, or else I lose. I'm close to asking people to give up their seat, but not there yet. Today I vacillated between passing out and vomiting. I had to try to do ujai breathing, and visualize feeling good. It was very difficult.

Smells on the streets are horrible, too: Cigarette smoke, men's cologne, sweet & sour Chinese sauce from midtown NYC delis, street meat carts, car exhaust. I haven't been able to walk/exercise at all this week, because I've been too busy at work, and that sucks too.

I'm very happy that we conceived--the first time we tried, this cycle! And at home, to boot!--but dzang, so far, trimester one has been ROUGH riding. I'm trying really hard to remain positive, and thankful that we conceived again, something I know so many couples are struggling with. Perhaps even harder than the physical nausea and fatigue (how do working women do it???) is the emotional isolation I feel. Ingrid (and my mom and our tenant) are the only ones who know at this point (and you, if you're reading this), and I'm still trying to keep it under wraps because it's only been a month, and who knows what could happen, and I'm not ready for it to take over the subject of all of my dialogue just yet. But because no one really besides Ingrid knows, and Ingrid often isn't available to talk during the day, I feel like I'm bearing the secret of feeling awful, and why, all alone. I think I have to tell someone soon.

Mommy Goes Crazy, Day 1 of Training

I'm all jazzed about the idea of running a half-marathon with Jenn in Philly, September 21. I felt horrible this morning because of too much drinking, too many cupcakes and junk food, and then we were woken up in the middle of the night by a FIRE in the house next door to us!! Smoke pouring out of the house, the smell of burnt plastic coming through our windows! We grabbed Clyde and ran outside and huddled with our tenant and our neighbors as 30 firefighters and 4 fire engines broke the glass windows and sprayed the water to extinguish the fire, right next to our bedroom window. We went back in, without any problem, about a half hour later. No one was hurt, it seems. Not sure if the house next door will sustain any water or fire damage, or how major it'll be. But suffice it to say, I didn't sleep well.

BUT, I went to the gym at lunch, and listening to very upbeat stuff on my ipod, and thinking of Jennifer running the NYC Marathon, which she did last year, I ran 3.1 miles!! Whoomp. There it is. I'm getting psyched.

Mommy Goes Crazy

Last night we went out to dinner for Clyde's and my birthday and I got drunk and agreed to do a half-marathon in Philly with my sister-in-law Jenn. Am I crazy! I can run two miles pretty easily on the treadmill but 13???? Wish me luck; there's no getting out of it now, and I needed a new fitness goal. Thanks Jenn!

Uh Oh

Clyde's first word is "uh oh!" She says it all the time, but especially when she hears us say it. She also is SO into her reading. If she has a book turned upside down, and Ingrid points that out, she turns the book right-side up. We think she's going to be a good reader!

The Norma Rae of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

I've been joking that I'm going to become the Norma Rae of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, regarding Clyde's education. Our biggest issue with our house is that we are zoned for Public School 38, which is 2 blocks away from our house, but it is considered an "underperforming school," everything from "in transition" to just plain "not good enough" for people we have talked to to send their kids. We live next to a housing project, and most of the kids from the project go to PS 38 (ranging from K through 5th grade). As well, a lot of very upper middle-class families are moving to the neighborhoood (the house two doors down from us, same layout, sold for a million dollars, and the buyers are a young, pregnant couple who are gutting the house and renovating it). All of this is to say that there are a lot of class differences involved with the families zoned for PS 38.

We love where we live--love the neighborhood, love how close we are to Smith Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope and Atlantic Avenue, and love how we've met all of these new families with kids around Clyde's age, since we've moved here. Our biggest concern, though, is how Clyde will be educated. We can't afford private school (that costs roughly $25K a year from kindergarten on), and we certainly can't afford private school for more than one child, in case we want to have a bigger family. And so our options are to send Clyde to PS 38, to apply to private school, or to go through numerous bureaucratic petitions to try to get her into a different public school.

In past years, parental communities have gotten involved to get schools to improve. It happened in Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, apparently, the best schools in Brooklyn. So Ingrid and I thought, why not in Boerum Hill, and why couldn't it start with us?

We decided to start with a tour of PS 38. I called the parent liaison, this lovely young man named Mr. Hassan, who gave us a great tour of the school. They have a very diverse student population, a new principal in the last two years, and a gifted and talented program, and a very diverse roster of after-school cultural activities, from Israeli dancing to painting to karate.

Ing's and my biggest concern after that tour was this: if your child tests into the gifted and talented program (she has to take a written test of 160 questions as a kindergartner!), she has the option to go to the gifted program in any school in the district that has a gifted program, but has to win acceptance by lottery. If she doesn't win acceptance, she is automatically admitted into the gifted program at the school she is zoned for (38, in our case). But then we discovered that the gifted program takes those kids out of the classroom of the other kids for five days a week--they only share time with the general population for lunch and recess and gym. We didn't like the idea of the gifted kids being segregated out so completely. We left there with a big question mark.

Then, we went to a stoop sale this past weekend, at a public school in Park Slope, and met someone who was a teacher at PS 38 last year. She told us she had lovely students, but that there were some behavioral problems, and that she spent so much time disciplining the kids that she didn't get to fully, effectively teach. Ingrid and I wanted to know exactly what "discipline problems" meant, and this teacher gave us an example: 1st graders calling their peers "crackhead ho's." Hm. She also said, off the record, that the new principal is black and that she sensed some racial tension with her, in that she sensed that the principal didn't feel that the white teachers really identified with her nor the student body.

We've got a challenge ahead of us. (That teacher, incidentally, left the school and is teaching at another school in Brooklyn, now, and loves it.)

Our friend from college is a Broadway star!

Last night I went to see Boeing Boeing, this play on Broadway starring Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, Gina Gershon (deelish in Bound), Christine Baranski and, drum roll, our friend Kathryn Hahn (and my onetime roommate) from Northwestern. Kathryn is probably the most successful theater grad from our years at NU, unless you count Greg Berlanti, who created Everwood and Brothers and Sisters, and is a writer/director, not an actor. But Kathryn was on Crossing Jordan for years, and has been in a bunch of movies, including How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days. She lives in LA but is here for the run of the show, and she's part of a fantastic ensemble cast, and she has a great, scene-stealing role.

The show is a farce--honestly not my favorite kind of theater, but that said, it is really great if you do like farce. All the performances are spot-on, especially Kathryn's. Mary MacCormack was nominated for a Tony. My friend Brekke and I went backstage after the show to see Kathryn, and it was just thrilling. Neither of us had ever been backstage at a Broadway production. We had to wait a few minutes, then we were let up by the security guard, and we passed Bradley Whitford's, and then Gina Gershon's, and Christine Baranski's, and Mary MacCormack's dressing rooms, and finally, we arrived at Kathryn's little dressing room. It was all so thrilling. She had a congratulatory note from David Hyde Pierce!

Kathryn, we are all so proud of you. You were always a brilliant performer and bound to be a star. (Oh and an amazing mother of a beautiful 18-month-old, Leonard, to boot!

Anyway Kathryn introduced us to Mary, her next-door neighbor in the dressing room line, and she was gorgeous and gracious. She had a bunch of bottles of Pinot Grigio in her dressing room, and we laughed about that, and she told me she loved my (cherry-tomato-red vintage) jacket. It is pretty great.

Mary was nominated for a Tony for best featured actress in a play. Good luck!