Why I Play Xbox During Nap Time

Me: “Hi, my name is Angela and I am a gamer wife.”

Group (that’s you): “Hiii Angela!”

As far as I know there aren’t many of us.  We’re kind of like rainbows, I suppose; you can only find us when the conditions are right.  “Hello, hello, hello… any female gamers out there, out there, out there…?”  That’s me echoing out for female gamers.  Okay that was kind of lame, but hey, it’s a hard knock life trying to find other rainbows!

Anyway, here’s my backstory:

When we got married Mister said, “hey, while you’re at home looking for work, you should learn to play Xbox.”  I was introduced to Elder Scrolls Oblivion – the most time consuming game ever.  I would practice all day trying to learn the game.  Once I learned how to play Xbox… oh boy, did I learn it.  I played as soon as he left for work at 8am and stopped right before he got home at 5pm.  Yes, it was that serious.  Sometimes I wasn’t finished with a mission before he got home or I’d wake up early on the weekend and get on the game before he could.  After a few bouts of this, he declared that HIS Xbox was not OUR Xbox and that he was evicting me from his Xbox.  How rude!  But it worked out because after I got my own Xbox, Xbox Live account, headset and separate plasma T.V. we were able to play together!  Mister and I would spend most non-working hours playing Xbox.  I’m talking about: wake up early, turn on the game and play until our eyes burned in the midnight hour.  Usually we picked up beer the day before and ordered pizza so we wouldn’t have to take a break and eat at the table like civilized people.  It’s a shame, I know.  I’d be in the living room and he’d be in his man cave, both playing Xbox online together with our headsets talking to each other (and with a good amount of his real friends also online – that makes teams so much more fun).  The day that Elder Scrolls released their next series, Skyrim, I left work during lunch to buy us 2 copies at the local Best Buy.  It sounds really bad when I say it out loud.  Imagine if I was that on-top-of-my-ish in other areas of my life?

Those days are long gone since having our little one, which is why I play Xbox during nap time.  I need my fix.  Plus it is actually relaxing.  My love bug is an amazing toddler, but some days he is on TEN.  Okay, maybe seven… eight… naa, seven… he really is a great boy.  Xbox takes the edge off by allowing me to completely zone out and not have to think about anything other than what I am doing in the game.  And when my hun bun wakes up I am calm, cool and collected.  Now I know that some moms get that feeling from working out, shopping, watching T.V., cooking or having a glass of wine, but Xbox is my opiate of choice.  Some wives/girlfriends get annoyed when their man is playing video games and seemingly ignoring them.  (Let’s not make playing Xbox sound like a negative.  Let’s rebrand “ignoring” to “focusing on recreational stress reduction activities.”  See, problem solved.).  My suggestion: join him!  C’mon give it a try!  Yes, there is a learning curve, but the action in the game is fun and best of all you get to spend quality time with your snuggle bunny big strappin’ man!  In a weird way it makes you feel as though you’ve really accomplished something when you level up – even when your real life laundry isn’t done.  Are there any rainbows that feel me?  What games do you play?

 

My Birth Story

I was told that every mom should write out her birth story.  I don’t know if it’s either to reminisce on the wonderful experience you had or to tell your know-it-all teenagers how much work you did to get them here and how they should be grateful, but here it goes.

The morning I went into labor was a regular morning.  We got up, had breakfast and decided to drive out to the in-laws house about 45 minutes away.  Mister and his dad were grilling steaks while his mom and I were lounging by the hot tub.

Mister jokes, “you should stay the night over here and I’ll pick you up in a few days.”

To which my MIL replies, “oh no!  She’s not going into labor over here!”

My FIL (father-in-law) then chimes in, “she looks like she’s gonna have that baby in about 7 hours!”  We all laughed not knowing that it would be true.

When we got home I cooked dinner; we decided to watch a movie.  As he is getting everything set up, I go pee (for the millionth time that day) and see blood.  Um… WTF is that about?  I had read about women losing their mucus plug or water breaking, but I had never heard about blood.  I peeked my head out of the bathroom and yelled down to Mister “I think I’m in labor!  I’m going to call the midwife.”  He starts pacing back and forth.  I call the midwife’s office and leave a message for her to call me back.  Mister says “oh no, I have to get gas!”  O.M.G. This is not happening.  While he is at the gas station, the midwife calls back and tells me to come to the hospital.

As we drive down the freeway, I’m gripping the seatbelt with gut wrenching contractions just to I look over to see that Mister is doing the speed limit!  Yeah, because I am not in a hurry at all.  We finally arrive at the hospital.  My nurse, Danielle, put me in a wheelchair and took me to my birthing room.  She checks me and says that I’m 6-7cm!  What?!  It has only been an hour!  That means that this baby is almost here!  OMG, OMG, OMG, THIS IS THE MOMENT!  I had already planned to have a natural water birth so I firmly asked Danielle to get my birthing pool ready because I needed some relief.  Poor Danielle… she was so sweet and calm as I ordered her around for the next few hours.  I had to be on the fetal monitor for 30 minutes and in the meantime my in-laws showed up.

It was finally time to get into the pool.  Ahhh instant pain relief.  I floated on my back for a minute while Mister pushed water over my body.  Ya know, months prior I was really paranoid about being naked during birth and was sure that I’d cover up.  But in that moment I really didn’t care.  It was ALL hanging out.  And I do mean ALL.  I decided to change positions and get on my knees with my head lying on the side of the pool.  All of a sudden I felt the urge to push.  Danielle says, “don’t push yet love” in her calm Jamaican accent.  My midwife, Margaret, had not arrived.  I said, “I can’t help it Danielle.  I’m not trying to push, my body is doing it.”  I pushed about 5 or so times before Margaret came into the room.  Everyone was quiet.  Margaret did not coach me through my birth.  She had confidence that I could do this myself and really let me do my own thing.  I’m so grateful for her.  I pushed about 20 times and our son was born.  In that moment, Mister decided to cut the umbilical cord.  I got out of the pool and walked to my bed.  I felt great!  Danielle laid our son on my chest and I said to Mister “DUDE, we’ve got a kid!” as if I just had an epiphany.  Everyone in the room laughed.

I stayed up all night thinking about my new title: mom.  It was kinda scary at first, but becoming a mother has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Duty calls…