<p>LOL Hmom
In retrospect, I am lucky S did not wait until the last second (this is close enough to the last second. As I most definitely recall he was close to 3 weeks late in making his first appearnace almost 18 years ago, and has been running late ever since</p>
<p>OMG missypie, and I thought mine was big at 10. Labor lasted 3 days, my doc who was on vacation, showed up just as we were heading to the OR AND after the first 4 hours of hard labor. Then she says - oh no, this mother does not want a c-section, (I had adamantly said so when we were making our so called birth plan - duh) - and I am saying Oh Yes I DO! But she says Oh you can do it and sure enough another hour later I do, but ugh. A C-section would have been a blessing.
Not saying this birthing process we are all going through today is quite <em>that</em> physically difficult but it is very hard in its own rite. But the desire to have it over with is sure there</p>
<p>My S was 10-1/2 pounds and two weeks late, but I ended up having a c-sec since he was too big to drop (only 20.5" - he had a huge head!). His pattern repeats too…late again and not dropping any decisions.</p>
<p>Hey maybe there is something to be said for long hard labor and children taking their time deciding? Just a question. Both of mine were scheduled C sections, no labor, none, nada. They were too big for me to have natural so my feeling was why try. So no labor and easy recovery. Both my kids did ED. So again easy no waiting. Kind of think in both cases I went to the party and left before it really got started.</p>
<p>Well, Rochestermom, in this case being at the party early left you a lot more time to enjoy yourself! I never had a moment of labor either, but it’s certainly not something I feel deprived of, and trust me, this waiting game is mental agony.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine the waiting. Seems that it would be hard on EVERYONE. I crab about my D being grouchy lately. I can’t imagine if she was trying to decide on a college also. I would have to rent a motel room to stay remotely sane.</p>
<p>Following this idea…birth experience equals kids temperment and our experience…waiting for S to arrive from Korea was much harder than birthing D (C-section/breech). SHE never rotated at all and her temperment and raising her has been a breeze overall. Now living with S is still with “uncertainty and anticipation” as I feel about his college decision. He doesn’t let on much and so it is hard to know where his head is and I keep wondering if he stretched enough, looked enough, etc. He did finally speak outloud last pm and said that he likes the school he chose (and so be quiet mom was implied).
Congrats to all of those with decisions. It is just another 1-1/2 weeks until they HAVE to decided isn’t it?? Sorry but I would be going bonkers and overthinking everything. Oh, guess I am doing that anyway…
OK margaritas for Texas but it is wine for the PNW</p>
<p>I love how this thread has morphed into labor and delivery stories. I had a rough time with both and was told after the second that it would have to be my last as it would be too dangerous to my health to get pregnant again (having spent several days in intensive care after the second delivery). H’s response was to tell me we should get a second opinion on that! I have never let him live down that commment.</p>
<p>I dunno about this theory - S was born 3 weeks early (8lbs, 2 oz) - after several attempts at early labor. Never have known him to leave a place of comfort since.</p>
<p>Are we scaring away the fathers who post here?</p>
<p>D was over 2 weeks late after 2+ days of labor - and she’s taken her own sweet time ever since. Including arriving late for prom pictures last Sat night. Everyone was ready and waiting at the appointed picture-taking site, including the nervous sophomore boy who she’d asked to be her date!</p>
<p>She’s always had a mind of her own ever too, including deciding on her ED choice while I was still saying “What about school B?”, “When should we go visit school C?”, “Have you thought about school D?” </p>
<p>The girl moves at her own speed and in her own direction :)</p>
<p>Guess my D is going to be the exception who proves the rule: She was a tough, tough labor, sunny-side-up and ultimately pulled out by the salad spoons - but she went ED with great certainty and joy and has never looked back. S1 was the cakewalk: eeeeeeeasy labor; pop! there’s your son. And he also went ED and has been happy about it.</p>
<p>We’ll see about S2 - but not for another ten years. :D</p>
<p>Oh - further to D’s being the exception, she arrived on her due date. As a first child.</p>
<p>Well, we are done (with a caveat). I dropped my son off at Wesleyan at 4 PM yesterday and went to my super deluxe motel to do some work. At about 10 AM, he calls and says, this confirms that I want to go to Amherst. I ask, “Did you go to classes?” No “Did you take a tour?” No. So how do you know? I don’t think these are my kind of people. How do you know? Well, they all seemed nice and somebody had organized to grill steaks, but it was 4/20 and so it was International Marijuana Smoking Day in the dorm. I said, there will be people who smoke pot at all of these schools. He said, I know. But, there was a guy walking around the dorm naked and lots of indie music and Dead head types (the last two not a problem for my son, just the concentration seemed very high). I met him at around noon and we walked around the campus and it was very high in hipsters types. More smoking of cigarettes, etc. Hard for me to judge, but to him, somehow this wasn’t a great fit. My concern is that this was a small sample problem and I asked him to hold off on a final judgment.</p>
<p>Given his near decision, we debated canceling the appointment with the Disabilities Services Dean there, who had seemed somewhat frosty over the phone. I am glad we did not. She wanted to meet first (and predominantly) with my son. She had read everything and was a M.Ed. and J.D. and really knew her stuff. Like the Dartmouth guy, she asked for additional information. But there was a huge difference. She said, “I understand that you have had 200% time on exams. The neuropsychologist’s report does not address the issue of extra time directly. Can you ask him to provide an addendum to the report justifying this accommodation so that I can grant it?” Unlike the Dartmouth guy who needed to have the data to see if he would recommend it, she planned to grant it and was telling us what she needed to have in her hands to grant it. Like the Amherst person, she was in our son’s corner all the way on all of the issues. Wes has no language requirement but apparently some departments like Art History do and she explained to my son how she would probably handle it if there were he chose one of those majors. She told us how we could get Kurzweil and Dragon to work together, which could increase the utility of Dragon for my son. </p>
<p>Beyond this, kids with LDs register for classes early so that they can get the syllabi for each LD kid’s courses and then contact all of the publishers of all of the material to get digitized versions of the material for Kurzweil and scan in the rest of the material before the semester starts. Wow. At Amherst, my son will end up doing a lot of the scanning, though we’ll suggest to them that they work on getting stuff from the publishers. So, she was professional rather than frosty. </p>
<p>My son said that if he were to choose on just disabilities services, he’d go to Wesleyan. If he were to choose just on the kids, he would go to Dartmouth, but if he were to choose on the place that would give him the best education and the best overall experience, he’d go to Amherst, and that’s where he’s going to go. </p>
<p>The caveat: What happens if Brown says yes off the waiting list? Brown was his first choice. I thought Amherst was better and I think he has a strong feeling for why Amherst is such a good fit. Reactance does make the heart grow fonder.</p>
<p>Just saw the labor and decisiveness threads. My wife’s labor with my son labor was very long (also 3 days). Almost a C-section as well. But, he seems reasonably decisive and was here too. He has a series of pretty good choices among colleges and could easily cycle among them (e.g., Dartmouth is best for the kids, Wesleyan for the disabilities services, Amherst for the close faculty contact and support, wait but I loved the kids at Dartmouth and had great fund there, but wait, …) but saw each school and made his choice very quickly.</p>
<p>shawbridge–good luck with your son’s finalizing his choice…what excellent choices</p>
<p>I’ve never met others who had 10lb’ers—my third was 10.5 lbs, delivered him, only because the midwife/nurse encouraged me thru it…doc kept popping in discouraging me…but, since this was my third, I found my assertive mama voice and told the doc, if that’s the only thing you’re going to say, don’t come in for a while…it worked</p>
<p>cross posted with you sb</p>
<p>so did your s decide?</p>
<p>I think the experience with shawbridges son is very useful. It not only shows the insight of this wonderful young man, but also illuminates the fact that there is no “perfect” school for most kids. “Perfect” for sb’s son would be Darmouth,Wesleyan and Amherst combined with the best of each, but that doesn’t exist. These kids have to learn to sift through and ultimately come up with what’s their best option, not what is ideally perfect. For my d, when she was able to do that the decision wasn’t that hard…of course it took 3 weeks to go through the process!</p>
<p>lindz, he more or less decided during the meeting yesterday with the Deans at Amherst. I told him to keep an open mind for Wesleyan, which he agreed to do. While he and I were impressed with the high quality of the disabilities dean at Wesleyan, he left Wesleyan today convinced that Amherst was the best choice. No vacillation.</p>
<p>Amherst is a great school and a great town. Can’t go wrong even if Brown decides to come into play. Congrats!</p>
<p>And Amherst is actually half way between Wesleyan and Dartmouth. Less hipsters, less preppies. Less definition. That’s what David likes at Williams, that there are few labels. People are themselves and very little posturing. I bet Amherst is the same. They are brothers.</p>
<p>Shawbridge, is it time to bring up the books you Amherst folk store from the Williams’ library?</p>
<p>mythmom, I didn’t know they’d borrowed books. I did learn that the first president of Amherst resigned from the presidency of Williams to start Amherst, so they borrowed him as well.</p>