Comments on: swept into the world on a churning rapid of blood

swept into the world on a churning rapid of blood

JohnR — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:43:56 -0800

Hey, Natalie Dee had a baby

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:49:17 -0800

So did John and Judith Kovalic.

By: jayder

jayder — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:50:45 -0800

Am I supposed to know who Natalie Dee is?

By: Mister Cheese

Mister Cheese — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:52:42 -0800

That baby is bigger than a loaf of bread.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:54:01 -0800

This post should make it more clear that its a link to a detailed and witty memoir of a pregnancy, not a birth notice.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:55:30 -0800

Photos of swollen bare feet, great. Good thing I wasn't eating or anything.

By: Salvor Hardin

Salvor Hardin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:56:45 -0800

That baby is going to grow up with a terrible potty mouth! Congratulations to her though.

By: ericb

ericb — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:57:03 -0800

Who is she? And why should we care?

By: rhymer

rhymer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:58:49 -0800

She says "fuck" a lot so we know she's telling it like it is.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:58:52 -0800

Ahhh those feet will haunt my dreams!

By: OolooKitty

OolooKitty — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:59:23 -0800

Wow. They should hand out copies of her story at Planned Parenthood. The birth rate would plummet.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:00:23 -0800

deleted -- reason: Your favorite thing has a new thing.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:04:28 -0800

Wait. Wait. Everyone, they perform c-sections while you are awake and more or less aware? This is the best advertisement for birth control I've ever read.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:05:25 -0800

The only thing I know about her now is that 1) she has a baby, and 2) There are over 1500 Natalie Dee comics.. Oh, and her art reminds me of what exploding dog (no real exploding dogs here) used to look like. Except ED is more interesting, and less prolific.

By: ericb

ericb — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:05:57 -0800

Hey, Natalie Dee had a baby Is she related to Sandra Dee?

"Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee. Lousy with virginity."

She must be. That is...she must be related to Sandra Dee.

By: paisley henosis

paisley henosis — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:05:58 -0800

Oh wait, the one who makes those stupid comics, but her name isn't really what she says it is? I hate those comics. Except for this one.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:10:44 -0800

I was a little "what, seriously" too, but it's a whole big hospital-adventure writeup that's actually pretty engaging. I've changed the link to actual entry's permalink instead of just her main page, which might help a little and certainly will help in the long run for making this not a broken link. Hubby Drew would be this guy, who I believe is actually knocking around here somewhere too.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:13:00 -0800

Why was it a detective story to figure out who this post was about? Is this a new RiddleMeFi thing that I'm not cool enough to understand?

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:16:02 -0800

So this is how come it is women used to die all the time in childbirth. Birth hardly works. Stories like this are good palliatives for my biological clock complaints.

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:17:07 -0800

I didn't know who Natalie Dee was, but that was funny as hell and I laughed my ass off. Good post.

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:22:24 -0800

I mean seriously naysayers this shit is fucking funny e.g.: All the doctors were completely covered in blood, rivers of blood flowing over the floor, buckets getting blood pumped into them, filling rapidly. Then, my daughter was born in the most metal way possible, swept into the world on a churning rapid of blood.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:24:00 -0800

Way to put 50% more Drewness out there, Natalie Dee. Maybe now you will be too busy to continue those labor-intensive comics, of yours, hmm? hmmm??

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:26:41 -0800

Hubby Drew would be this guy, who I believe is actually knocking around here somewhere too. And that guy is also this guy, which makes this story News. Congrats, Mr. K!

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:27:56 -0800

9 months of hell? Cervadil? C-section? This story sounds remarkably like my wife's pregnancy, labor and delivery, just without all the fucks. Well, except the one that got us there in the first place.

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:29:59 -0800

AWWW BABBY PLAY WITH CHARLES <3

By: piratebowling

piratebowling — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:30:00 -0800

To all the grumblers, you'd be happy to know she has a comic on this subject!

By: Locative

Locative — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:30:06 -0800

I googled Natalie Dee, and found that she looks like Ambrosia Voyeur.

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:32:34 -0800

Drew

By: rokusan

rokusan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:33:49 -0800

I mean seriously naysayers this shit is fucking funny Yeah the link is fine, and it's a funny tiny-alien-was-implanted-and-then-burst-forth story and all. It was the context-free FPP that was confusingly opaque, I guess. Like, get some of them cartoons all linkied up in there. Maybe a "Mefi's own" or two. Something.

By: dirty lies

dirty lies — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:38:03 -0800

That picture by the Apple laptop? How I wish my parents had taken a picture of a newborn me next to whatever the state of the art computer was that year in the 70s. Imagine all the geek cred I would have.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:39:17 -0800

That was great. After spending most of the last couple of weeks obssessing about the election, it was awesomely entertaining to read a pregnancy and birth story that contained the word "fuck" so many times.

By: Mblue

Mblue — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:39:43 -0800

Reasons for childbirth: 1) It'd make a great blog post!! 1a) with pics!!! 2) Future blog posts* *buy film

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:42:20 -0800

She is an adorable dollbaby, and congrats to Natalie and Drew!

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:43:56 -0800

PS Anybody who calls the operating theatre where they perform c-sections "the Splatterdome" is A-OK in my book.

By: stubby phillips

stubby phillips — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:46:01 -0800

ka yoot!

By: jeanmari

jeanmari — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:46:46 -0800

Screw y'all haters. I love ND's comics, especially these ones. Congrats, awesome birth story, glad I didn't read it before I had my kid because I never would have had the guts to do it.

By: stubby phillips

stubby phillips — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:47:11 -0800

(the baby. not the feet)

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:48:05 -0800

how babies are not made, by Natalie Dee. Locative: yeah, she does, a bit. Maybe I should kill her and steal her identity, and, as in Being John Malkovich, turn her career in another direction! (Can you tell I hate her comics? Haaaaate em. Love MTTS, though.)

By: naju

naju — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:48:58 -0800

Hey, Natalie Dee had a baby

By: TheClonusHorror

TheClonusHorror — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:48:58 -0800

I liked the story and was not aware they had a baby. Thanks for posting this.

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:51:11 -0800

Baby Nona vs. Household Items (for size comparison).

By: DU

DU — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:52:06 -0800

Natalee Dee is awesome, that's who. The part I can't figure out is who she's having sex with. Her husband is the prototypical 40 year old virgin.

By: stubby phillips

stubby phillips — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:56:49 -0800

this is the toothpaste guy? wow. cute baby, drew. pinch her well.

By: brennen

brennen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:57:15 -0800

How I wish my parents had taken a picture of a newborn me next to whatever the state of the art computer was that year in the 70s. The floor in the maternity probably would have had to be reinforced to support that.

By: brennen

brennen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:57:58 -0800

maternity ward. jebus.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:58:12 -0800

I wasn't planning on reading that whole thing and then I did. Favorited.

By: Grangousier

Grangousier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:07:12 -0800

Kind of reminds me of David Shrigley, although I'm fairly sure he doesn't do childbirth. At least not like that.

By: Lacking Subtlety

Lacking Subtlety — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:10:45 -0800

That was hilarious. Sorry to folks who didn't like it because there were swear words.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:26:09 -0800

Natalee Dee is awesome, that's who. The part I can't figure out is who she's having sex with. Well, I guess it's not you. ZING

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:28:13 -0800

Yum, pancakes!

By: norabarnacl3

norabarnacl3 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:28:36 -0800

Great write-up. Love being a dude. Love it!

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:39:41 -0800

So this is how come it is women used to die all the time in childbirth. Birth hardly works. I think the reason women used to die in childbirth all the time is because rickets, anemia, and other sorts of malnutritional ailments used to be widespread, and pelvis bones were much weaker than in healthy women.

By: liquefaction

liquefaction — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:45:08 -0800

That was worth it just for the use of the phrase "abortions of shoes" to describe size 10 wide Crocs in a blog post about pregnancy and childbirth.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:47:45 -0800

Awesome writing. Enjoyed every raw, vital syllable. Brava Natalie Dee, Drew and Nona!

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:56:33 -0800

Pre-eclampsia is one of those things medicine should have figured out by now, but hasn't. I'm a big 'ol natural-birth-is-best type, but pre-e is a bitch and a killer. She was in some serious pain and danger. I'm mostly surprised they didn't c/sec sooner, as the US has one of the highest c/sec rates in the west. Probably just trying to get that baby to cook a little longer. Kudos to the mighty mama and her adorable girl.

By: billyfleetwood

billyfleetwood — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:30:11 -0800

On one hand I am always in favor of "tell it like it is" acounts of things I haven't experienced. More often than not, people leave out all of the salient details and fall back on "it was a miracle, the happiest day of my life" or they try and be all artful and flowery and whatnot.So yeah...kudos on this and whatnot. On the other hand, the current vogue of incessant reliance on sarcastic euphemism and ironic metaphor is starting to wear me down. And I can be guilty of it myself, to the point that I'm starting to worry that it's become a permanent generational feature, that will follow us into a very annoying grave. Also I would make a lousy father/husband. Which given recent history pretty much guarantees my offspring will become president someday.

By: danb

danb — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:44:24 -0800

Then I heard OK LET'S PUT HER UTERUS BACK IN, and I felt some really horrible shoves that seemed to displace every organ in my body aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:56:49 -0800

I blame Canada.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:11:44 -0800

Does it look like Kompressor?

By: onlyconnect

onlyconnect — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:37:57 -0800

I didn't know Natalie and Drew were in the family way. I'm 5 months pregnant myself and still read all the way through the horrors of the too-wide-for-extra-wide-crocs feet swelling and delivery story. Good post!

By: ersatz

ersatz — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:04:46 -0800

Screw y'all haters. After that story? No way!

By: fungible

fungible — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:12:20 -0800

Love it. Her blog and cartoons remind me of plenty of girls I knew in college, and her story reminds me of my own kids' births - both C-sections, both with lots of fun complications like near-miscarriages and painful breast engorgement. Fun! Really, I don't know how you women put up with those bodies of yours. What a freak show.

By: kimdog

kimdog — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:28:02 -0800

It's these stories that keep me pushing "Have a baby" further and further down the To-Do list. I think it's off the first page now.

By: AsYouKnow Bob

AsYouKnow Bob — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:32:11 -0800

I'm still trying to figure out how the hell we as a species ever got to this point, here in the twenty-first century: Why the hell did any woman ever dare risk getting pregnant in all the centuries before modern medicine? I had no idea who Natalie Dee was, but, after reading her story, that blog post has become another exhibit in my theory that Women Are Brave.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:45:44 -0800

(great story; thanks for posting) AsYouKnow Bob: this is one of several reasons why the invention of the birth control pill was truly, seriously revolutionary.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:19:46 -0800

No cure for pre-eclampsia, but wrt prevention, "research conducted in the past two decades strongly suggest the importance of repeated exposure to the father's semen throughout the full length of the pregnancy due to the immune-modulating effects of key factors in semen." Drew! Bang your wife more, Drew.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:12:20 -0800

flagged as cankles.

By: Miastar

Miastar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:24:29 -0800

Link includes Reasons #2, #8, #11 and #23 as to why I adopted a baby.

By: letitrain

letitrain — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:36:09 -0800

I had tears in my eyes, dying of laughter at least four or five times, then a real tear at the end. Nona is so pretty! The picture of the husband in hairnet is an all-time classic "glad it's you not me" photo. No idea of who these people are, but I love the writing and the comics...

By: Dreama

Dreama — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:53:37 -0800

Birth hardly works. Oh yes, it does. The vast majority of the time, birth works just fine, and in a number of instances where it doesn't, it doesn't because people are fiddling with it unnecessarily. If women's bodies were as broken as popular cultural treatments of birth led us to believe, the human race would not be about to break the planet with its numbers. The problem is that normal birth isn't dramatic. It doesn't lend itself to stories with "awesome" stuff in them like "splatterdomes" and rivers of blood. When having feet so tender and swollen that you have to (gasp! horror!) ugly shoes (or sandals in late October) is the worst of your pregnancy, it doesn't make for a compelling, virally spread story that's the masses (as opposed to those of us interested in birth) will read (or watch) so there is a common perception that birth tends to be this horrific thing. In fact, it doesn't, and in most cases, it could be something entirely different. As for pre-eclampsia, one of the best ways to prevent it is the Brewer (also known as Bradley) diet, but your run of the mill ob/gyn doesn't know anything about that, throws up their hands in wonder when asked, and won't do the research, because the conventional wisdom is "we don't know why this happens or how to prevent it." Period. Nona is a beautiful baby, and I'm very happy for Natalie and Drew that their story of everything-gone-wrong has a happy ending, but this story, cathartic as it may have been to write it, doesn't really serve anyone. It's not a cautionary tale that can apply to other people, and horror stories of pregnancy and birth only serve to give women an unnecessary and unhealthy dose of fear and worry rather than actual information about the things that they can do to help themselves and their babies to the best outcomes.

By: asok

asok — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:40:19 -0800

AsYouKnow Bob - Why the hell did any woman ever dare risk getting pregnant in all the centuries before modern medicine? What Dreama said + most women in recent history (the past 5000 years) and in the world today do not have any choice in the matter.

By: qinn

qinn — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:37:36 -0800

doesn't really serve anyone After reading the David Wallace article, it served me very well. And now my dog and I shall hunt down some french toast. We'll think about stuff.

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:43:36 -0800

As for pre-eclampsia, one of the best ways to prevent it is the Brewer (also known as Bradley) diet, but your run of the mill ob/gyn doesn't know anything about that . . . Did midwives in the past? How many women in the past just died outright in their teens and twenties, from obstetrical complications that we can treat today through interventions, but that no one could imagine then? (And how many women still do?) There are many billions of us, but I don't think that's because birth comes easily to most women, but for a number of very unpleasant reasons that involve immense human suffering.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:54:22 -0800

Every "internet famous" person has that same look: chubby if it's a girl, too thin if it's a guy, the small, thick-rimmed or bizarre geometric shaped frames (have these people ever heard of contacts or Lasik?), the dyed hair that's not a real color for humans if it's a girl, facial and neck hair if it's a guy and the dusty-looking, drab Urban Outfitters wardrobe. And they all say they embrace diversity and hate conformity.

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:02:00 -0800

Other than the part where your whole description comes flying out of your ass -- half-formed from clumps of worn cliche and misplaced smugness and clotted, stringy bits of misanthropy -- to splatter messily against the wall about twenty feet from the target, that was a pretty good comment, dude.

By: rtha

rtha — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:07:48 -0800

Someone tell mathowie to grow a neckbeard or he won't be internet famous anymore. Also, jessamyn should dye her hair pink and blue.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:22:50 -0800

this story, cathartic as it may have been to write it, doesn't really serve anyone. It's not a cautionary tale that can apply to other people It wasn't written as "a cautionary tale" but about her life. And she happened to have pre-eclampsia, which could have killed her or caused incredible damage. I'd never heard of this pre-e thing until the daughter of a dear friend almost died of it. It's quite like a stroke and can be devastating. "Pre-eclampsia occurs in as many as 10% of pregnancies." On this site, it's "5-8%". My half-aunt's mother died several days after giving birth because of complications. Another online friend told me her mother had giving birth complications. I appreciate knowing about the Brewer's diet (70 to 80 grams of protein a day for the pregnant woman to try and prevent pre-e). One of the gazillion cool things about the web is reading stories of people's lives, the good, bad and the ugly. Each story isn't an archetype that others have to live by, it's one out of 6 billion stories on the planet. And I think worth reading for lots of reasons. Natalie Dee is brave, outspoken and raw in describing what is usually treated as, imo, tediously cutsie putsie, like pregnancy is this fluffy wuffy experience. And it's not. At all. That's a lie. Her baby was born in a "churning rapid of blood", cut out of her guts. I love that she can own the reality of it and then feel softly tender for Nona, with the fun, warm ending, "I will smell y'all later. Love, Natalie".

By: squarehead

squarehead — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:01:10 -0800

For those who don't know who Natalie Dee or Drew are, and for completeness (since I think only a few of these have been linked to in this thread): Natalie Dee's comic is at nataliedee.com and here's her Youtube channel Her husband Drew's comic is Toothpaste for Dinner, and here's his Youtube channel Their joint comic is Married to the Sea They seem like good peoples.

By: Catfry

Catfry — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:52:47 -0800

Try to get any sleep at all when you have a baby smaller than a mens' tennis shoe making snorting noises next to you all night. I challenge you to not freak out and have to check every ten seconds that she has not died of smallness. I like this.

By: showbiz_liz

showbiz_liz — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:31:51 -0800

Oh yes, it does. The vast majority of the time, birth works just fine, and in a number of instances where it doesn't, it doesn't because people are fiddling with it unnecessarily. If women's bodies were as broken as popular cultural treatments of birth led us to believe, the human race would not be about to break the planet with its numbers. Not sure what makes you think this is true. Just because birth is natural doesn't mean it's this super easy beautiful magical miracle. People die in childbirth all the freaking time, and out silly 'cultural treatments of birth' are the only reasons it doesn't happen more. Take a look at this. Childbirth is amazingly dangerous, and without medical care it's much worse in humans than in other animals, because our narrow pelvises for walking combined with our large brains make for a ridiculously tight fit. We have to be born premature compared to other primates, or we'd all get stuck and die. We have to be helped when we give birth- that's not true for any other species. We are so bad at giving birth, it IS amazing that we've made it this far.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:22:43 -0800

Also, jessamyn should dye her hair pink and blue. Hey hey, I have perfect vision! And this is my real hair color! And I'm not chubby so much as hey it's the day after Halloween. Jerks.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:33:15 -0800

I really, really don't like the concept of having children. This story strengthens the conviction that I will ever be a single sonic meat machine, with nae urchins runnin aboot.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:31:39 -0800

HAaaaaa ha hahaa