Swan Lake Cake

I did it!!! Made my very first swan lake cake! And it turned out pretty well, better than I had hoped. I think the blueberry topping could have been a bit sweeter. And the buttercream icing wasn't as stiff as I wanted it to, and the cake under the lake wasn't as flat as it should have been, but Tara was very very happy with the finished product. And since it was her birthday, I think I can declare this cake a success.

I had wanted to put flowers in the swans, but it was raining today, and we never made it to the farmer's market. They looked nice without flowers too though, maybe even nicer than they would have looked with them. Tara didn't want a candle on her cake, because of messing up the perfect composition. So I put an 8 numeral birthday candle on a separate small plate, I wanted her to have something to light and blow out for her birthday. Worked out well.

She invited just a few friends, two of them are sleeping here tonight. Only eight kids in the house, a lot quieter than when we had twelve a few days ago :-) :-) Tara wanted a water balloon fight, but the perfect weather turned to cold and rainy today, so we had to skip that activity. They did play quite a lot with normal balloons though, had a treasure hunt and played a game of killer bunnies...

I am really glad we did this birthday party before the baby is here. It would have been a lot harder to do with a tiny newborn in my arms, freshly post partum. But now I am ready to have this baby, he'd better come out before the mother-in-law's are here, five days from now! :-) And if he doesn't, well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now I am going to think that he will come out in time. Which of course will jinx me and then he will stay put till after every one is gone again :-) One thing that encourages me is that I measured 37 cm at my last prenatal, and that's exactly what I measured when Kate and Erik were born. Now this baby just has to copy his two older siblings :-) All my other babies were born at less than 37 cm fundal height.

Just posted this to the ICAN mailing list, but wanted to share it here too.

Are they going to induce you???

I got my first 'Are they going to induce you???' a few days ago, when a stranger found out that I was two days overdue. Yes, TWO whole days, definitely time for Them to induce me, right?

It's amazing how ingrained it seems to be in our society that They are in charge, that They will decide when the baby has to be born and that we are just going to lay down and have procedures done to us, because we are gestating. Not because the baby or the mom needs it, but because the calendar tells Them to start getting that baby out now. Before the placenta detoriates. Before the fluid level gets too low. Before the baby gets into trouble. Before we explode. Before They have Their Friday night dinner date, or Their Saturday morning golf outing.

What happened to waiting till the baby comes out on his own? To trusting our intuitions and our bodies, trusting our babies? Why do so many people seem to think that They know better, that we should just submit to Them and have Them induce us or cut us open? This was just a stranger, and she seemed to think that it would be totally normal for Them to start interfering with my pregnancy right now. Because of being two frigging days overdue.

I just told her 'No', but I wanted to yell and scream 'Why, why, why would They induce me and why would I give Them authority over my body anyway????? Who are They that They could just do that to me and have you think that would be the most normal thing in the world???' ' So instead of screaming at an innocent bystander, I am just sharing my frustration and anger at the system with you all. Aren't you lucky? LOL

I do realize that there are instances that induction is best for mom and baby, but I think that there are way more instances here in the States, when it is just done for convenience or for fear of litigation. Very sad.

Yes, I felt better after writing that :-) I got some good advice about not sharing my due date with others next time, which I might follow. Or maybe I'll just tell them that the baby is due about two weeks from when the 'real' due date is, since my babies always are overdue anyway. That should be pretty close to the expected birth date.