Thursday, July 16, 2009

Times are a Changin'

Last night I went to visit my 88-year-old grandmother in the nursing home. She's only been living there since the end of May, so she spends most of our time together complaining that her kids put her there. It's pretty unpleasant, so I'm constantly looking for ways to change the subject. Last night I asked her what rules there were for pregnant women when she had her five children. She said they recommended she not drink alcohol and they told her not to lift her arms above her head. The doctors especially cautioned against hanging laundry. Bizarre, huh? Of course, she thought it was insane that today's restrictions included coffee, turkey, and some cheeses.

I also asked her about her deliveries. She got the cutest little look on her face, like when a kid asks you if Santa is real and you are torn between telling the truth and lying. She hesitated a few seconds and said, "Um, well, it hurts pretty bad." Which, of course, wasn't news to me, but maybe she thought she'd be the first one to break the news to me that it hurts like hell to push a watermelon-sized object out of my hoo-ha. She followed quickly with, "You forget about the pain, though," which is something I hear over and over again but refuse to believe.

It was nice to bond with my grandma over the process of becoming a mom.

No comments:

Post a Comment