The Blessed Event

We had our first birth on the farmette last monday. ( I should say, live birth, because there was that issue of the bunnycicles.) 65 days from Itty Bitty Kitty's lost weekend, she gave birth to four adorable kittens and of course I missed it.  I had thought about calling in sick to work so I could play midwife to the teen mom, but since I had taken the previous week off for my trip to Paris, I thought it wise to go in.  Luckily, the husband was there to record every last moment, including  closeup shots of the cat eating the placenta, which he couldn't wait to show me and the boys when we got home that afternoon.

I had no doubt the husband would capture everything given the extensive footage he shot of all three of our boys coming into the world.  When Prince was born we still had a video camera which could be connected to the big screen tv.  It is such a wonderful experience to see one's vagina ten times its actual size on screen as a baby's head pops out of it while "Exorcist" inspired screams of, "Get it out!" echo throughout the scene.

The video was played for everyone who came over: Family, friends, acquaintances.   The husbands of the women in my mother's group got to see it the first time they met us.   His cousin's six year old daughter went screaming out of the room half way through.  Poor thing thought she was just coming over to see a cute baby and ended up having to watch a Polanski flick.  Luckily the mailman never came up to our fourth floor apartment or I am sure he would have been subjected to it.

One evening a couple of years ago,  I hear James Dean moan, "Oh gross!"  I came upstairs to see what they were all watching on the computer with their father.  Yup.

Not to worry, I will not be posting any of the video footage of the kitty births but I will post lots of adorable photos.  I have become THAT cat person.  All of my Facebook friends will still have to tolerate all of my liberal rantings but they will now be mixed with a heavy dose of cat pictures with nauseatingly cutesy captions.  Sorry.

I may even write a book, "The Ten Things Every Woman Can Learn About Motherhood From Her Cat," or something to that effect.

Seriously though, she is an amazing mother and watching her makes me realize how innate motherhood is.  I am not such an amazing woman because I managed to have three with a team of nurses, midwives and doctors around.  Shit, she was giving birth to the fourth one and munching off the umbilical cord as the other three were climbing all over her trying to nurse.  Nature is crazy.

It is funny how my relationship to this little cat has changed.  She is no longer the pain in the ass cat I chased after when she managed to snatch a piece of chicken off the kitchen counter.  She is a peer.  When she gives us the, "I wish I had hands right now so I could stab you in the face for waking up the babies" look, I totally get it.   I've been there.

The campaign to keep all of the kittens is in full swing.  The husband swears they will all be barn cats.  I am sure the lobbyists are going to exert their powerful influence to change my vote.


PS:  The husband just asked excitedly if I was including any video.