After resting for a little while at the birth center, my husband and I gathered up our new baby and our stuff and bid good-bye to everyone. Sarah promised to come for several postpartum visits and help me out with household chores and watching my little girl in order to better earn the money we'd paid her, since she had missed the labor and birth. (She kept that promise, and was soooo helpful; I was really grateful. Sarah is wonderful!!!!) Then we bundled into our van and drove home.
As soon as we brought the baby inside, his older siblings, who were awake now, made a beeline for him and were enthralled and fascinated to check him out. My husband supervised and made sure they (especially our daughter, Lalita, who was just 19 months old going on 20 at the time) were gentle with the newborn.
The tradition we follow in our family with regard to naming our babies is that we wait until after they're born, then consult astrologer friends of ours to find out what's indicated in the babies' horoscopes regarding what syllables their names should start with, and then we search for names we like that start with those syllables. When my older son Bhadrasena was born, this process was much less stressful, because he was born at home and, except for the Medicaid caseworker who kept calling to see if I'd named him yet because she wanted to register him with Medicaid, nobody put pressure on us to pick out a name by any particular time. We took six weeks to choose his name, then invited a bunch of friends over for a home ceremony at which his name was finally announced, which took place when he was seven weeks old. But with my two younger children, since they weren't born at home but rather at a birth center, which legally had to file birth certificates for them within a certain number of days after they were born, the stress level was way higher. With Lalita, the time limit that we had in which to get back to them with a name for her was one week. I was expecting the same time limit for my third baby, but no! The policy had changed by then, and we had only three days! Ahhhh!!!!
Luckily, we have one astrologer friend who's super great about getting back to us promptly when we contact her in times like these. She quickly let us know that our third baby's name(s) should be connected with the star Swati (Arcturus), whose sounds are Ru (pronounced Roo), Re (Ray), Ro (Roe), and Ta (pronounced either Tah or Tuh). Although most Vedic astrologers just stick with the standard recommendation of naming the child according to which nakshatra (star or group of stars) the Moon is located in at the time of his or her birth, our friend is more open-minded and thorough in exploring all the options, and as it happened, based on her recommendations, we named my older son according to his Sun placement, my daughter according to her Moon placement, and my second son according to his Jupiter placement.
Each nakshatra that the planets can be located in (of which there are a total of 27, spanning the sky all the way around the Earth along the path that we call the zodiac) is divided into four equal sections, called padas, and each pada has its own syllable. Some astrologers are more particular that the child should be given a name starting with the syllable corresponding to the exact pada that a planet is located in, while others say there's no need to get so specific, and any of the four syllables connected with the nakshatra will do equally well. Our astrologer friend whom I mentioned belongs to the second school, and with my older two kids, we chose names that were connected with the indicated nakshatras, but not the specific padas where the planets were located. With my second son, though, we ended up deciding to get more specific and give him a name based on the actual pada that Jupiter was in at the moment of his birth, which was Ro.
There wasn't a plethora of "Ro" names to choose from (we give all our kids Sanskrit first names, so we were looking for a Sanskrit "Ro" name for him), but there were a few, and when we hit upon the name Rohan, my husband and I both loved it immediately. We're both fans of Tolkien, and the fact that Rohan is a name that appears in The Lord of the Rings was super cool to us; plus, it's not only a Sanskrit name, but also an (Anglicized) Gaelic name (I found out subsequently that the original Gaelic is Ruadhan, meaning redhead -- a meaning that doesn't apply to our son, but oh well; I'm still happy that there's a Gaelic version of his name, because my husband and I both have some Gaelic [Scotch/Irish] heritage and feel that that culture is really cool). Additionally, Rohan is apparently used as another version of the name Rowan in some parts of the world, meaning a tree in the rose family with reddish-orange berries, and I adore trees and love the rose family (and Tolkien's Ent character named Quickbeam really loves rowans, and Tolkien made up a lovely tragic song for Quickbeam to sing about his rowan-tree friends that got cut down by Orcs, so there's yet another Tolkien tie-in with this name!), so that's awesome as well. My husband and I loved that Rohan was not just a Sanskrit name, but was actually multicultural. As far as the Sanskrit meanings, though, my own understanding is that Rohan means "growth" or "growing," but in my husband's research he came across the meaning "ascending" (which I guess makes sense as a synonym -- growing [up] = rising = ascending), as well as "healing," which can also make sense as a synonym because new growth (of whatever -- skin on human / animal bodies, or greenery in forests) can cover, replace, and heal damaged areas. The Sanskrit word roha (clearly related), appearing in the Shrimad-Bhagavatam verse 10.63.26, is translated as "sprout."
So the name has many nice meanings. But of course, as Hare Krishnas, we want everything in our lives to be connected with Krishna. So how is the name Rohan connected with Krishna?
Well, I have a friend who tells me that it's actually a name of Lord Vishnu (an expansion of Lord Krishna). We didn't know that when we chose it as our son's name, though. What I had found out, through VedaBase (a database of Shrila Prabhupada's words and writings, plus those of some of his disciples and previous saints in our line), is that there is a holy place in Vraja (Lord Krishna's homeland) called Shakata Rohana. It's located in the Kumudavana forest. Here's what Shri Narahari Chakravarti wrote about it in his book Bhakti-ratnakara:
“ 'See here Shrinivasa, the place called Shakata Rohana. It is a beautiful pleasant place and very dear to Krishna. Bumblebees are always humming in the forest of flowers. By bathing in this kunda [pond or pool] one will get supreme bliss.'
“Shakata Rohana is described in the Adi-varaha Purana thus: 'One half yojana [four miles] on the west side of Mathura is My supreme abode named Shakata Rohana. Many thousands of bumblebees live there. Whoever fasts for one night and then takes bath there is certain to attain the happiness of Vidyadharaloka.' ”
So the exact word Rohan (the "a" on the end of Shakata Rohana is a short a, which means pronouncing it at the end of a word is optional, which means Rohana and Rohan are exactly the same Sanskrit word) is present in the name of a holy place that is very dear to Krishna, even being described by Him as His supreme abode. There are plenty of Hare Krishna devotees who have been given the names of holy places, like Vrindavana, Vraja, Mathura, Mayapura, et cetera, so those are most definitely authorized holy names. To me, based on the above quote, the name Rohan can also be placed in this category.
However, what my husband and I decided to do, just to make absolutely sure we were giving our precious son a holy name of the Lord that he could give as his name while in the company of devotees (or anytime!), was to name our son Rohini-tanaya dasa -- "servant of Rohini's son," i.e., Lord Balarama. Just as the word mohini, "enchantress," has as its masculine counterpart the word mohan(a), "enchanter," I thought the feminine name Rohini might have Rohan as its masculine counterpart. I know of a male devotee named Radhika-Ramana dasa ("servant of Radhika's lover," i.e., Krishna) who goes by the nickname of Radhika (which is a feminine name), but to my husband and me, it felt weird to call our son, Rohini-tanaya dasa, "Rohini" for short. But we wanted the syllable Ro to be there on the beginning of his name, so changing "Rohini" to "Rohan" -- more appropriate for a boy -- seemed like a suitable way to shorten the name Rohini-tanaya to a more manageable length for practical, everyday use.
So in this way, we settled on Rohini-tanaya dasa as his "full first name" and Rohan as his nickname. For his middle name, thanks to my husband's inspiration to celebrate his Nordic heritage in the middle names of his children, we did the same thing we'd done with our daughter and chose a Nordic name. We selected Raeifr for our son, which means "friendly and happy" in Old Norse.
We barely got all the above figured out in time, but somehow or other, by Krishna's grace, we made it by the three-day deadline. Phew!
And all of his names turned out to fit him very well! ^_^
to be continued...
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
Birth Story #3, Part 3: The Actual Birth Story
OK, I thought. Could this be Braxton-Hicks? I doubt it. It's probably the real thing at this point. All right. We'll see what happens as far as how long the labor takes and when this baby will be born. It's in Krishna's hands. If He thinks a Wednesday birth would be better, he can delay it until then. Otherwise, I guess most likely this baby will be born tomorrow. A Tuesday baby. Well, I guess that's not so bad. After all, my horoscope says I will be the mother of heroes, so I guess it might just be inevitable destiny that I'll have babies with intense, powerful, strong personalities. And if this boy really does become heroic, that's cool. I can be happy and proud about that. I guess I can accept a Tuesday baby.
Sure enough, the contractions continued as the evening progressed. With my first two births, my contractions had not only been irregularly spaced but also remained fairly brief and gentle for a good long while, but in this case, my contractions very quickly got to the point where they were around a minute long, although the spacing was still irregular. I timed them and called my midwife and doula to inform them of what was happening. Both midwife and doula told me to keep on laboring at home for the time being, and call them again when the contractions started being more regular and close together.
Eventually, my mom, husband, and kids went to sleep. I went into my bathroom, keeping my husband's phone with me (mine was broken at that point) to time the contractions and to have it close at hand so I could call my midwife and doula when I needed to. The contractions started being harder to bear, but not too terrible. I breathed through them and kept my eyes on that clock on his phone, just waiting, waiting for the time to come when they would be a regular five minutes apart or less so that I could call my doula and tell her to come on out.
When that time finally arrived, which wasn't until about 4 a.m., it was (unsurprisingly) hard to speak. But I called my doula, who lived about 45 minutes away, and told her I was ready for her to go ahead and drive down. She asked whether she should drive to my home or to the birth center (which was only 8 minutes from my home). I told her I was at home for the time being, but if we decided to go to the birth center, I would call her back and let her know so that she could go there instead. She said OK and hopped into her car to start driving.
Then I called my midwife to update her. Kathy (the midwife) aims to orchestrate things so that birthing moms do make it to the birth center in time to have their babies there, but don't get there many hours in advance -- and in order to achieve this, she seems to me to pretty much always err on the side of telling moms to go on laboring at home and wait a bit longer before going to the birth center. So it was not a big surprise when that's what she said to me when I called her with contractions I couldn't speak through that were at least one minute long and five minutes or less apart. (Do I sound like I'm rolling my eyes? Hmm, I wonder why!)
Anyway, I accepted her advice, got off the phone and breathed through another contraction or two -- but then I felt it. The urge to push! Oh, no! I was about to have this baby!!! Quickly, I woke up my husband and mom and let them know that I needed to get to the birth center, now! We had planned on all of us going there together, including the kids... but the kids were sleeping now, and waking them up and herding them out to the car would take too long given the urgency of the situation. So we decided that my husband would stay home with them while my mom took me to the birth center.
As we walked out to the van, I called Kathy to let her know that I was entering the pushing stage and that we were on our way to the birth center, and then called Sarah (my doula) to tell her to head there as well. I felt the need to push again after climbing into the front passenger seat of the van. I couldn't sit down normally. I knelt backward on the seat, holding on to the headrest. It was an uncomfortable ride. I was glad the drive was short and the early-morning streets were empty of traffic.
As soon as we pulled up beside the building that housed the birth center, I had the urge to push again. With that push, my water broke, leaving a mess on the seat.
I climbed out of the van and crouched on all fours in the parking lot. Kathy arrived and urged me to my feet, telling me I had to get up and make my way into the building, to the elevator, and up to the birth center, which was located on the top (4th) floor. It was difficult, but I complied. I had to push twice more on the way up there, and then, while walking down the hall toward the room that Kathy had designated for me to give birth in, I needed to stop and push again -- and this time, I felt the burning, stretching sensation that meant the baby was crowning. I gasped to my mom and Kathy, "I think he's coming out!" My mom, who was closest to me (Kathy was slightly ahead of us) got down to take a look, and confirmed with excitement, "Yes! I can see his head!"
Kathy quickly joined us, and in no time, with another couple of pushes, he was out! Right there in the hallway! (It was 4:34 a.m.) We congratulated ourselves afterward on our good luck that the birth had taken place on the tile floor rather than the bed, because it meant easier clean-up of the bloody mess! LOL!
But the mess wasn't entirely over and done with, of course, and (if I remember things correctly) Kathy wanted us to be comfortable for the next part, so she spread absorbent pads with waterproof backing on the bed in my designated room, and she and my mom helped me and the baby get in there and lie down. Kathy immediately started encouraging me to nurse him. She was really pushy about it! I nursed him as best I could; he was a bit fussy and wanted to drink, but seemed to have some difficulty with it. (I discovered later, when we visited my older brother who is a pediatrician, that my baby has a tongue-tie; no wonder he had to struggle to figure out how to get the liquid to come out!) A little while longer and the placenta came out. I had some afterpains with this birth -- the first time I had experienced them. Sarah arrived, surprised and sorry to have missed the birth, but eager to be helpful in any way she could (which she certainly succeeded at, assisting me in many small ways, and just giving me the gentle comfort of her sweet, pleasant company).
My husband was called, and since the kids were still asleep, my mom went home to stay with them so that my honey could come over and meet his new baby son, bringing with him some necessities that my mom and I had left behind in our earlier rush. My husband was disappointed about having missed his son's birth, but ultimately said that the way things had happened was probably for the best, as he thought he might not have been able to handle the events as well as my mom had.
Eventually the baby got his tummy full and went to sleep, and I was able to get up, take a bath, change into clean clothes, and have some breakfast. My wonderful friend Joanna came to meet the baby and hang out for a bit, and I was very glad to have her there. I took care of filling out the requisite forms, and after letting the baby rest for a while, one of the assistants at the birth center bathed, measured and weighed him. He weighed 10 lbs., 1 oz. His sister had weighed 10 lbs. exactly, so we made sure to make a big deal over how he had beaten her by one ounce. ;)
It had been, for sure, my easiest birthing experience. The contractions, while strong enough to mean business almost from the very beginning, had never gotten so unbearably painful as to break me down emotionally, like they had done during my daughter's birth. The sustained length and strength of the contractions had meant a far shorter labor than I'd had during earlier births: only 9 hours! My family and I were amazed by how quick it had been!! (Only because of my history of super long labors. 9 hours is really just a little on the short side of average! ^_^ ) And the pushing stage had been much less painful than with my first birth. All in all, the whole thing had been very bearable. And because according to the Vedic system, the day of the week doesn't change until sunrise, by that manner of calculating, I had -- miraculously enough -- actually gotten the Monday baby I'd been yearning for!!!!!!!
to be continued...
Sure enough, the contractions continued as the evening progressed. With my first two births, my contractions had not only been irregularly spaced but also remained fairly brief and gentle for a good long while, but in this case, my contractions very quickly got to the point where they were around a minute long, although the spacing was still irregular. I timed them and called my midwife and doula to inform them of what was happening. Both midwife and doula told me to keep on laboring at home for the time being, and call them again when the contractions started being more regular and close together.
Eventually, my mom, husband, and kids went to sleep. I went into my bathroom, keeping my husband's phone with me (mine was broken at that point) to time the contractions and to have it close at hand so I could call my midwife and doula when I needed to. The contractions started being harder to bear, but not too terrible. I breathed through them and kept my eyes on that clock on his phone, just waiting, waiting for the time to come when they would be a regular five minutes apart or less so that I could call my doula and tell her to come on out.
When that time finally arrived, which wasn't until about 4 a.m., it was (unsurprisingly) hard to speak. But I called my doula, who lived about 45 minutes away, and told her I was ready for her to go ahead and drive down. She asked whether she should drive to my home or to the birth center (which was only 8 minutes from my home). I told her I was at home for the time being, but if we decided to go to the birth center, I would call her back and let her know so that she could go there instead. She said OK and hopped into her car to start driving.
Then I called my midwife to update her. Kathy (the midwife) aims to orchestrate things so that birthing moms do make it to the birth center in time to have their babies there, but don't get there many hours in advance -- and in order to achieve this, she seems to me to pretty much always err on the side of telling moms to go on laboring at home and wait a bit longer before going to the birth center. So it was not a big surprise when that's what she said to me when I called her with contractions I couldn't speak through that were at least one minute long and five minutes or less apart. (Do I sound like I'm rolling my eyes? Hmm, I wonder why!)
Anyway, I accepted her advice, got off the phone and breathed through another contraction or two -- but then I felt it. The urge to push! Oh, no! I was about to have this baby!!! Quickly, I woke up my husband and mom and let them know that I needed to get to the birth center, now! We had planned on all of us going there together, including the kids... but the kids were sleeping now, and waking them up and herding them out to the car would take too long given the urgency of the situation. So we decided that my husband would stay home with them while my mom took me to the birth center.
As we walked out to the van, I called Kathy to let her know that I was entering the pushing stage and that we were on our way to the birth center, and then called Sarah (my doula) to tell her to head there as well. I felt the need to push again after climbing into the front passenger seat of the van. I couldn't sit down normally. I knelt backward on the seat, holding on to the headrest. It was an uncomfortable ride. I was glad the drive was short and the early-morning streets were empty of traffic.
As soon as we pulled up beside the building that housed the birth center, I had the urge to push again. With that push, my water broke, leaving a mess on the seat.
I climbed out of the van and crouched on all fours in the parking lot. Kathy arrived and urged me to my feet, telling me I had to get up and make my way into the building, to the elevator, and up to the birth center, which was located on the top (4th) floor. It was difficult, but I complied. I had to push twice more on the way up there, and then, while walking down the hall toward the room that Kathy had designated for me to give birth in, I needed to stop and push again -- and this time, I felt the burning, stretching sensation that meant the baby was crowning. I gasped to my mom and Kathy, "I think he's coming out!" My mom, who was closest to me (Kathy was slightly ahead of us) got down to take a look, and confirmed with excitement, "Yes! I can see his head!"
Kathy quickly joined us, and in no time, with another couple of pushes, he was out! Right there in the hallway! (It was 4:34 a.m.) We congratulated ourselves afterward on our good luck that the birth had taken place on the tile floor rather than the bed, because it meant easier clean-up of the bloody mess! LOL!
But the mess wasn't entirely over and done with, of course, and (if I remember things correctly) Kathy wanted us to be comfortable for the next part, so she spread absorbent pads with waterproof backing on the bed in my designated room, and she and my mom helped me and the baby get in there and lie down. Kathy immediately started encouraging me to nurse him. She was really pushy about it! I nursed him as best I could; he was a bit fussy and wanted to drink, but seemed to have some difficulty with it. (I discovered later, when we visited my older brother who is a pediatrician, that my baby has a tongue-tie; no wonder he had to struggle to figure out how to get the liquid to come out!) A little while longer and the placenta came out. I had some afterpains with this birth -- the first time I had experienced them. Sarah arrived, surprised and sorry to have missed the birth, but eager to be helpful in any way she could (which she certainly succeeded at, assisting me in many small ways, and just giving me the gentle comfort of her sweet, pleasant company).
My husband was called, and since the kids were still asleep, my mom went home to stay with them so that my honey could come over and meet his new baby son, bringing with him some necessities that my mom and I had left behind in our earlier rush. My husband was disappointed about having missed his son's birth, but ultimately said that the way things had happened was probably for the best, as he thought he might not have been able to handle the events as well as my mom had.
Eventually the baby got his tummy full and went to sleep, and I was able to get up, take a bath, change into clean clothes, and have some breakfast. My wonderful friend Joanna came to meet the baby and hang out for a bit, and I was very glad to have her there. I took care of filling out the requisite forms, and after letting the baby rest for a while, one of the assistants at the birth center bathed, measured and weighed him. He weighed 10 lbs., 1 oz. His sister had weighed 10 lbs. exactly, so we made sure to make a big deal over how he had beaten her by one ounce. ;)
It had been, for sure, my easiest birthing experience. The contractions, while strong enough to mean business almost from the very beginning, had never gotten so unbearably painful as to break me down emotionally, like they had done during my daughter's birth. The sustained length and strength of the contractions had meant a far shorter labor than I'd had during earlier births: only 9 hours! My family and I were amazed by how quick it had been!! (Only because of my history of super long labors. 9 hours is really just a little on the short side of average! ^_^ ) And the pushing stage had been much less painful than with my first birth. All in all, the whole thing had been very bearable. And because according to the Vedic system, the day of the week doesn't change until sunrise, by that manner of calculating, I had -- miraculously enough -- actually gotten the Monday baby I'd been yearning for!!!!!!!
to be continued...
Friday, March 22, 2019
Birth Story #3, Part 2: Astrology
When I wrote in my "Introduction" post on this blog about some of my experiences growing up in a Hare Krishna devotee family, there were of course plenty of things I didn't mention. One of them was astrology.
Astrology, or the science of examining the configuration that the planets and stars are in at any given moment and reading/interpreting what their effect will be on the people and events operating here on Earth under their influence, is one of the branches of Vedic (ancient Indian scriptural) knowledge, and part of Lord Krishna's culture. As stated in the Shrimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 8, Verse 5 (in which Lord Krishna's father, Nanda Maharaja, is speaking to the sage Gargamuni):
~*~
jyotisham ayanam sakshad
yat taj jñanam atindriyam
pranitam bhavata yena
puman veda paravaram
SYNONYMS
TRANSLATION
Last paragraph of the purport
(by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada):
~*~
The line in which Shrila Prabhupada says "It is the duty of a father to understand the astrological position of his children and do what is needed for their happiness" apparently made an impression on my father, because I heard him quote that line several times during my childhood. Immediately after my birth and that of my younger brother, my father had Nalini Kanta Prabhu, a Godbrother (fellow disciple of the same guru) and friend of his who had studied this Vedic astrological science, prepare detailed horoscopes for us. These horoscopes each filled many pages (mine, which I still have, is 24 one-sided 8x11 sheets, plus a beautiful cover and a couple of introductory/explanatory pages). Nalini Kanta Prabhu had also done similar horoscopes for my father and mother. Every so often throughout our lives, my parents would pull out our horoscopes and reread them, and together as a family -- snuggled up in a happy bunch on my parents' bed, or sitting around the kitchen table with lively conversation and my mom's delicious cooking to anticipate (or digest) -- we would enjoy discovering things in them that had proven true or newly become applicable since the last time we had read them. They were always fresh and exciting to revisit -- a rich mine of descriptions of our physical appearances, tastes and personalities and predictions for every stage of our lives up to death, with a sprinkling of advice, tailored for each one of us. Our family consensus was that they were incredibly accurate. Beyond engendering family fun and togetherness, my own horoscope was considered crucially important when it came time for me to get married, as comparing the horoscopes of the prospective bride and groom and checking for compatibility between them (with the help and advice of an expert astrologer) is a vital part of the process of spouse selection in our culture.
So I'm sure you can imagine that astrology is very interesting and important to me. My favorite component of it is definitely the analysis and description of personality traits. Predictions are cool too (and can certainly be useful), but meh...! Compared to understanding people -- how they feel, what contributes to their sense of identity, and what drives them to act the way they do -- I hardly care about what the future may hold.
I have a curious mind and love learning about things that interest me, so although making a formal study of astrology has never been a priority for me and I am thus a complete amateur, I have picked up a few small bits of information connected with it that have gotten incorporated into my awareness of the world and how I live my life. One such piece of information concerns the demigods that preside over the different days of the week. Suryadeva, the sun-god, rules Sunday; Chandradeva, the moon-god, rules Monday; Mangaladeva, lord of Mars, rules Tuesday; Budha (Mercury) rules Wednesday; Brihaspati (Jupiter) rules Thursday; Shukra (Venus) rules Friday, and Shani (Saturn) rules Saturday. Each of these planetary lords has his own qualities, which color whatever happens under his influence. Of course there are other factors involved which affect the ultimate outcome, but the question of whose day it is does constitute at least a small part of the picture. In India, my understanding is that people in general try to be careful never to schedule any big, important events on days ruled by inauspicious (malefic or harmful) planets.
My understanding is that Mars, with his angry, warlike nature, and Saturn, with his tendency to make everything painfully slow and difficult by placing obstacles in our paths so we must work very hard to achieve anything, are considered the most inauspicious planets. The Moon and Venus (the most feminine planets) are generally soft, gentle and kind in their effects on us, and are viewed as the most auspicious or benefic planets for many purposes. The impressions I have of them based on what I've heard and read are that the Moon is domestic, maternal, caring, emotional, sentimental and sensitive; Venus is sensual, indulgent, pleasant, easy-going (sometimes to the point of being lazy), decadent, opulent, seductive and fun-loving. Jupiter is also super auspicious, representing righteous religiosity, rich abundance and generous giving. Mercury has a restless, mobile, quick-witted, intelligent and verbally articulate nature, which is very good for travel and communication, but there are situations in which Mercury's influence might not be the most ideal, so Mercury could be considered sort of middle-of-the-road in terms of general auspiciousness. The Sun is noble, great and glorious, but also capable of burning people with the intensity of his fire, so I might say, perhaps, that he might lean a little toward the inauspicious side of the spectrum as a result of that.
One very significant life event that often remains out of our control as to which day it happens on is, of course, birth. As with any other major event, which day it takes place on will indicate much about the way things are going to unfold from that point forward for everyone involved. Not surprisingly, the person affected the most is the one who is born that day; the planets will influence the development of his or her personality and orchestrate the lifelong playing out of his or her destiny (as determined by karma from his or her previous life). Again, which day of the week a person is born on is only one part of the picture; but still, I felt like I had noticed a strong pattern wherein the personalities of people I knew tended often to reflect the weekday they were born on. I was born on a Friday, and I definitely feel that I have more Venus in my nature than anything else, although I don't relate 100% with all those Venusian attributes that I mentioned above (to be specific, sensuality, decadence and opulence, while present, are tempered in my nature by the effects of other planets that influence me to be more mental/intellectual than physical, and to be religious and moral.) My brothers were both born on Saturdays, and sure enough, both have personalities dominated by Saturn (aside from being hard-working and having to undergo a lot of struggles and suffering in life, this also means that they are loyal and true. <3 ^_^ ) My dad was born on a Tuesday, and yep, you'd better believe that he's a warrior with an explosive temper. ;) My mom was born on a Wednesday, and although I don't think Mercury rules her personality more than any other planet, she does have quite a bit of Mercury in her nature. My ex-husband, also born on a Wednesday, is definitely ruled by Mercury more than anything else. My current husband was born on a Thursday, and although I don't think Jupiter dominates his nature above all, he's definitely a righteous man with a love of religiosity and frequently an abundantly generous, giving nature.
So you can probably understand why I felt quite interested in and concerned about which day of the week my child would end up being born on. While ultimately I was surrendered to whatever arrangement the Lord might make, I had by this point in my life undergone plenty of suffering, a good part of which was due to living with intense, dramatic, and chaotic people, and honestly I did not feel ready for more of the same. I really, really wanted this baby to be different -- to be easy to live with! I thought: Monday, ruled by the moon, is a sweet, gentle and auspicious day, but what are the odds of this baby being born today? I'm sure it's not going to happen! My labor with my first baby was 50 hours, and with my second baby it was 36. I do expect that my labor could very likely get shorter with each birth, because that's the pattern my mom followed with her births, but how short can I expect this labor to be when the first two were so very long?! It'll probably end up being somewhere around 24 hours long. So if it starts tonight, this baby will be born tomorrow -- on a Tuesday -- and be a heroic warrior type with anger issues. Or if my labor starts tomorrow, then this baby will probably be born on Wednesday -- in which case he may be a persnickety stickler for perfectionism like my ex-husband. I think we've already got a generous share of both of those personality types in our family. I don't look forward to having another family member that fits either of those descriptions. Why did Kathy have to put me in this position by poking around in my cervix, without telling me ahead of time that it might stimulate labor?!
I felt a bit outraged and disgusted that Kathy had asked my permission to perform that exam on me, without letting me know what the consequences of it might be. What happened to informed consent?! My mind was tossing in an ocean of agitation and bewilderment as I made dinner and took care of my family. And then, as I stood in the kitchen at about 7:30 that evening...
... I felt the first gentle cramp in my abdomen.
to be continued...
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