Being a mom isn't easy. It's always full of hysterics, tears and heart-bursting happiness. When my daughter was about to be born, however, life just wasn't ready for the Lifetime movie moments I had dreamed of.
My daughter's birth was a planned c-section. After having a terrifying three-day horror show of a birth with my son that ended up in an emergency c-section, I opted to cut to the chase. I wasn't thrilled about being gutted like a fish again, but I was thrilled about immediate pain relief.
My husband and I met my mother at the hospital before my daughter was born. We were all glowing with anticipation to meet this little girl. My husband lugged paisley u-shaped pillows, piles of polka-dotted blankets and more than one tutu into our hospital room. We were ready.
I laid on the bed in my starchy gown ready to get this over with. During my first c-section, the time between the announcement of necessary c-section and the moment I heard my son's first cry was less than 10 minutes. I was expecting this type of urgency during round two and was sadly mistaken.
The elderly nurse that would be preparing me for surgery waltzed in immediately and cut to the chase.
"Did you shave?" She croaked, no doubt just stepping in from a cigarette break.
"Huh?" I said, quickly glimpsing at my loved ones' bright red faces seated next to me hoping she was talking about my armpits.
"Your bikini area, did you shave it?" She asked again, this time with much more vigor in her turkey neck.
"I was not told this was necessary..." I whispered, hoping I could avoid what was certain to be mortifying.
"No problem. I will take care of it," she said and with the whirl of one liver-spotted hand she had a hedgetrimmer between my thighs.
Did I mention my mother is still sitting right next to me?
"Holy hell!" I squealed as I watched the scene before me unravel.
"The Packers play tonight, eh?" My mom quickly questioned my husband at ten higher octaves than normal to be heard over the landscaping that was taking place in the room. I'm not sure my husband ever answered her as he was vomiting up giggles so hard he couldn't function.
While I stared at the ceiling, pinching the fat of my thighs willing this moment to be over, I heard the trimmers stop. The room grew silent with happiness as the awkward cloud began to dissolve. Before I could let out the pained breath that was gripping inside my rib cage, I heard ol' Turkey Neck screech.
"We need another clippers in here!" She bellowed out the open door of my room to apparently catch the attention of every on-looker in a 30 mile radius.
My lack of a beauty regime in the prior nine months was wielding a monster that could not be tamed by one go-round with a trimmer. My mother's face was puce as she looked on from her rocking chair. A chair she, no doubt, envisioned holding her granddaughter in for the first time, but instead watches an Afro pile at the feet of a nurse who should have retired during the Clinton Administration.
My lower half burned while this woman wrenched, tugged and buzzed every inch of my bits. We could have eaten dinner off my loins that evening. She didn't give up though, not until 30 MINUTES passed and I whimpered in pain. Pain for both my bikini area and shriveling pride.
If it wasn't for the distraction of the surgery and soon-to-be newborn, I am sure I would have died more than once of embarrassment that afternoon. Moral of the story is: even if you can't see your va-jay-jay for six months, it still needs to be at-the-ready no matter what the circumstance.
