jello

Last night at dinner, Elisabeth started chatting about the time when we "didn't used to have a baby." She talked about when we went to the hospital and baby Charlotte came out. Then came the inevitable, "can we get another baby sometime?" I said that babies were a lot of work, so I probably didn't want to go get another baby but that one day she could grow up and have a baby of her own. "And I can have my own jello??"

When you have a c-section, they won't let you have anything other than a clear liquid diet until they're sure your intestinal track isn't blocked. I'll spare you the details on how they know that. So after 13 hours with no food or water, and major abdominal surgery, they finally brought me some clear liquids. Sprite, broth, and jello. At approximately the same time, my mother and Elisabeth and our good friend Jean arrived for a visit. Needless to say, I did not get to eat my jello. Does Elisabeth remember meeting baby Charlotte? she claims to, but not nearly as strongly as that jello.

We continued the dinner discussion. Elisabeth said that once she had a baby (and jello), there would be TWO babies - the new one and Charlotte. I explained that Charlotte was going to be a grown up then too, and she could have her own babies. Not thrilled with this plan, Elisabeth went back to trying to persuade me to go have another baby. I again tried to dispel this wish by telling her that if I had another baby, she'd have to share my jello with Charlotte since I'd have two little girls both wanting to eat my piddly little bowl of jello that I had been drooling over for the previous 2 hours - the bowl of jello that I thought about lying on the operating table. Her solution? She'd have a baby AND I'd have a baby. That way she could have her own jello, and I'd have to share mine with Charlotte.

I'm glad that Charlotte's arrival in Elisabeth's life hasn't been so traumatic that it turned her off babies all together, but at the same time - I'm not going to enjoy years of lobbying for another baby. And I'm just now in my pre-pregnancy skinny jeans, and I plan to remain in these jeans for many, many years to come.