This week, on The (Dr.) OC
For some time now a number of you, have been asking to hear more from the elusive Dr. O’C. She pops into the comment stream now and again with a clever commentary. But, she’s been a bit reluctant to seriously put pen to paper (or fingertip to key), primarily because she’s rankled by my titular narcissism - “It’s afreeman.org , not ‘A Free person.com”.Well, after much cajoling, begging and badgering I’ve finally worn her down. Today marks the beginning of a (hopefully) episodic new feature here on afreeman.org- Dr. O’C speaks…
Chris has been hassling/requesting/asking kindly that I write a post for a while. Most likely because he doesn’t have the time to keep you entertained now that he is a busy man tackling 1.5 jobs. I warn you however - I am not a writer. My school counselor strongly recommended that I give Year 12 English a miss if I wanted to get into University. On a recent English quiz on the BBC I scored a pathetic 12/20 and had to have Chris (re)explain where apostrophes should be positioned at the end of words ending with ‘s’. But, I thought I would tell you the story of my experience of motherhood so far.
I thought it was going to be hard and it is, but first let’s go back to late 2006. Chris and I had talked often about having kids, he wanted them now and I was always the one to hold off. I loved my job, working and traveling and the baby-thing wouldn’t really fit into all that. I also wanted my life to play out in a certain, pre-planned way and having a baby before we owned our own house or were in a country we both felt was home was insanity to me. But somehow my sister, who works in an IVF clinic and a nurse who I went to see about refilling my prescription for The Pill, put a fear into me that it would take ages to have kids. Two years was the time frame they were talking about. And I thought ‘Shit, if it takes two years, I could be back in Oz with my own house, just in time to pop one out to get the $5,000 baby bonus. I had better start cracking. Chris, where are you?”.
I stopped taking The Pill in October 2006. We went to Sweden for Xmas, the winter was miserable and in early January I was feeling increasingly sick and tired. Chris came back from a trip to the US, I complained about having SAD and two days before I was due to fly to the US for work it clicked ‘Shit, I could be pregnant!’ Chris came home armed with pregnancy tests, the digital type which left no room for error. I persuaded him to wait until the next morning when the tests are more effective.
There was one problem though. I could not pee. Normally my bladder wakes me up, but on this Saturday morning it wouldn’t work. I drank enough water to overcome Australia’s drought problem but my bladder knew that I wanted to remain in denial. If truth be told, I didn’t want to be pregnant. When finally through risk of serious bodily injury (Chris was not impressed with my bladder) I did pee, the bloody digital stick took barely a nanosecond to light up ‘pregnant’. Chris said “cool!” and I started to cry hysterically. There goes my bloody plan!
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Ha! Blame it on the Swedes and their damn fertility! LOL
That was a great story, Sinead. I am glad Chris stepped off his soapbox long enough to give you a little room. I am looking forward to your posts!
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09 Jul 2008 at 10:27 am
Ah Sinead. Great to hear from you and no problem with the English there at all, at all, girlie!! I am hoping this is going to be an ongoing story???? And while Chris is explaining apostrophe ’s’ to you, explain the difference between your and you’re to him!!! ;-D (titular narcissism indeed…..who does he think he is? A writer??)
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09 Jul 2008 at 10:27 am
Good to hear from the other main character! When is Zach’s turn?
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09 Jul 2008 at 10:51 am
Hi, Sinead! So glad to see you getting a bit of “airtime”! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of your story.
09 Jul 2008 at 12:23 pm
Ha Ha. That sounds a lot like us. I’d heard it takes most people a year to conceive. I was about to turn 30 so I decided to stop taking the pill at the end of February. Three weeks went by and I didn’t think much of it, figured my body needed to adjust to life with out pharmaceuticals. Another week went by and we were at Target so I thought, maybe I should buy some pregnancy tests for when the time comes. Matt disapproved, saying “There’s no way you’re pregnant.” I agreed, but decided to take one when we got home just in case. That freaking second line appeared in seconds, and I stood there in disbelief. I went and told Matthew and he thought I was joking. When I assured him I was not he said “Yay?!?” It took a while to get used to the idea. Now Matthew calls me fertile Mertyl.
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09 Jul 2008 at 12:36 pm
Your, you’re - what are you, Arizaphale, a school teacher or something?
09 Jul 2008 at 1:03 pm
Whatever gave you that idea?
arizaphale’s last blog post..Boy Meets Kitchen
09 Jul 2008 at 5:00 pm
Sinead, it’s lovely to hear from you!
When I first began reading this blog I wondered about you and just how insane you had to be flittering from country to country with a baby on your hip! Not to mention having your man child in tow along the way. But through his words, Chris has allowed us to watch how it all takes place, and it’s easy to see that while it’s difficult for you to continue to realize your dreams with the responsibilities of a family, you’re doing a marvelous job of it!
Of course you’d get pregnant immediately! The fate sisters are nothing if not snotty little bitches. Looking forward to hearing more!
09 Jul 2008 at 7:50 pm
yo sinead you not gonny get a sinead.com to rival chris then? and you too could post gratuitous baby photos and moan about your work? and i would give you prizes you could post up on it too! xxx
09 Jul 2008 at 7:53 pm
Definitely no plans for my own blog. My arm is being firmly twisted behind my back to do the stint on this one. I guess I can’t complain too loudly, he is paying the bills at the moment.
Angel, insane about covers my mental state at the moment.
09 Jul 2008 at 9:08 pm
What a welcome addition to Chris’ writing. I enjoyed your story and look forward to hearing more from you!
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10 Jul 2008 at 2:28 am
Yay, I’m looking forward to reading your posts! I’m intrigued to see how you got used to the idea of a baby.
Jessica K’s last blog post..Kiddy Collages and a New Obsession
10 Jul 2008 at 2:37 am
I am so happy to hear from Dr. OC. I had the same reaction to pregnancy both times: I cried hysterically. I was so not ready to be a mom.
But, it worked out.
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10 Jul 2008 at 4:56 am
2 years eh? maybe that’s an average…
nice one!
Out of curiosity, where in Sweden? you know, just in case…
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10 Jul 2008 at 5:02 am
Xbox, She is in Goteborg. Lovely city.
Thanks everyone for the comments. It will be a regular feature until I run out of things to say or get a job. Which ever comes first. The way things are looking probably the former.
10 Jul 2008 at 5:23 pm
hahahahahaha
I will be yelled at for being on the internet when I shoudl be cleaning, but um, excellent story! (and no Im not locked into the apartment, but we have a day to leave this place and ive had the computer shut down on me twice in the past 2 days because I “waste” time on blogs.
heh heh heh
But I may print this off for my final class tomorrow, weve been talking baby talk all week with my private because she is thinking maybe, but what about timing. My thinking has always beens yours Dr OC, and now Im glad I havent tested the 2 year theory out yet.
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10 Jul 2008 at 9:10 pm
Thank God I got a 20/20 or else I would have had to reconsider my current occupation.
Looking forward to the rest of the tale!
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10 Jul 2008 at 11:45 pm
Sinead, maybe Chris can start paying you for your articles…
11 Jul 2008 at 12:29 am
How cute is that? It’s not far from our story, too.
Don’t listen to him with that whole apostrophe thing. I think it’s acceptable in plural before or after the ‘S.’
I think.
Maybe my Honey will have a guest post. She said she would like too, but the problem is that she’s very foul mouthed.
11 Jul 2008 at 2:07 pm
Tell me about foul mouthed, I had to edit out all the ‘fucks’, ’shits’ and ‘damns’ to maintain my strict family friendly standards. The Irish curse as if it’s an art form.
11 Jul 2008 at 2:14 pm
I was disappointed there were no potato or leprechaun references.
11 Jul 2008 at 10:38 pm
Is this nice new hair i see Sinead? looking good!
15 Jul 2008 at 7:28 pm
Nope, pictures from Paris from a couple of years ago. Chris now thinks I should cut my hair short again. We will see…
15 Jul 2008 at 10:35 pm