All Systems Go for Mother's Day!

Well, friends, it has taken me several days to write a new entry. And I do apologize for that.

But I have been a little depressed and freaked out this week. Yet the SUN has truly come out today. Let me tell you about it.

Okay, fade back in time with me for a moment. February, 2007 or thereabouts.

Andrew and I decided from the very beginning that we would undergo genetic counseling and testing to rule out any problems with the baby, especially since we're "older" parents. (Did you know that Cajuns are vulnerable to Tay-Sachs disease? Neither did I!) Navigating this territory is absolutely overwhelming. I am very pragmatic when it comes to anything Medical. I'm the type who wants to take every diagnostic test available, and will explore every option for treatment. I want to know the facts. I do not hide from bad news, I never have. I would rather know than not know...you know? I'm too obsessive-compulsive to ignore possibilities. "99% benign" is not an acceptable diagnosis as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I am also a health nut progressive vegetarian weirdo New Age yoga teacher. I believe passionately in good balanced nutrition, proper supplementation, organic eating, homeopathy, massage therapy, acupuncture, hands-on faith healing, reiki, Sat Nam Rasayan, talk therapy, meditation, you name it...I've tried it and it has WORKED for me. I do not as a rule take antibiotics unless absolutely desperately needed. I only ever use local (or no) anaesthetic at the dentist. Etc. Yet I do take Tylenol, I believe anti-depressants are vital and absolutely crucial for some people, and I would gladly take them myself if I were unlucky enough to need them.

So there's also THAT.

Oddly enough, I could not find the literature or information about pregnancy and childbirth that applied to ME in either a) the New Agey/alterna/hippie category (too focused on how Evil all Western doctors and the Medical Establishment is/are) or b) the hardcore Western Med category (too dependent on drugs, obviously addressing either much younger or much less aware and/or unhealthy women). Every time I googled "First Time Mothers Over 4o" I got back tons of negative, fear-mongering entries that just didn't exactly meet my particulare demographic.

Where, indeed, are the progressive healthy mamas who are doing this for the first time?

But I digress.


I was definitely on my own when it came to figure out which prenatal testing to do.

Let's just say that I went the most frightening, grueling, high-risk and anti-holistic route. I tested for everything that could possibly go wrong and did all the Wrong Tests for a hippie Yoga Mama...and I just got the news TODAY, this MORNING, after a couple of weeks of waiting in hell that ALL IS WELL. "Completely Normal" are the words the genetic counselor told me.

WHEW!!! I finally feel like I'm really pregnant at last. Now I can tell the world. My Mother's Day will be a cause for rejoicing rather than being bitterly ironic. And my morning sickness seems to have tapered off quite a bit. I still can't eat Mexican food without paying bitter, horrible consequences, but I actually have Energy again!

So today, and tonight, I celebrate the SUN, and the MOON, and MY SON. I can go all goddessy on myself now. Take that trip to the Gulf of Mexico to commune with Mother Ocean. Breathe in Mother Air, Drink in Mother Water, sing and dance and write poems about how GREAT it is to be pregnant and ever-expanding Shakti Herself.

Now if I can just figure out a way to end this senseless war in Iraq and bring about world peace and stop global warming before he grows up, I'll have not a care in the world!