Both of them are sure with the full moon tomorrow that I'll be popping a baby out or at least get seriously into this labor business. As it is, I'm just really crampy with occasional contractions, i.e., it ain't serious yet.

This morning was spent making alternate arrangements for the care and feeding of the Bear. Yes, Mike's mom was supposed to cover, but that's another thing.

Okay, so yesterday with Mike's mom was a disastrous pain in the ass, but at least the house is clean.

We showed her the video of our wedding and were told how our wedding was about not trusting her. Our wedding was about our children and our concern for them, and certainly NOT about Mike's mother or any trust issues we may or may not have with her. Good Lord, just be happy for us and stop whining! Of all the things that a wedding is about, I don't think I can imagine any bride saying that her wedding was about her future mother-in-law. Truly.

I admit that in day-to-day interactions with her, the not trusting her is just standard operating procedure for us.

Frankly, dear MIL, you're the same person who upon finding out, rather than let us get to all the calls and let family know, went ahead and called them all for us. We were not amused. We knew you'd be like that, we didn't want to have you there nor have the marriage by familial committee, which is what would have happened.

I would have liked to tell my parents, but telling them wouldn't have been fair to you and vice versa, so we didn't tell either of you. We simply didn't want the hassle. And no, don't EVEN try this shit of you would have understood that we wanted something small and intimate with friends. You would have called the entire family and had them all call us and try to pressure us into having a wedding we didn't want, so don't even give me that shit. I'm tired, I'm pregnant and I'm having a LOT of contractions and I'm not in a shit-takin' mood. And for God's sake, I'm not stupid. Give your son a little credit for picking a partner with a brain in her head.

And yes, our wedding was about family -- specifically about our little family with ourselves and our two children. It was not about your big-ass rude family that goes out of its way to make me leave their house when I don't want to take their shit, calls my son a bastard at Christmas dinner, and makes comments about those fat 40ish chicks in bars. Apparently, our children don't matter to you like they do to us because you decided out of the clear blue that suddenly you aren't available to come watch Russell when I go to the hospital, and you're leaving 4 days before you told us you were, even though, we could really use the support.

Remember, you told us that you would watch Russell and that you'd be available...that's what you told me not once, but at least twice, and that's what my parents based all their plans on because they were willing to put aside their disappointment and put the kids first, just as Mike and I were. But of course, the world revolves around you and apparently, not being invited to the wedding is a perfectly good reason to be a totally unreliable asshole to your son and I, and our son. I couldn't believe you acted surprised when Mike called you and verified that indeed, you were blowing us off.

I don't ever ever want to spend another holiday or special event with your family and listen to how badly you need to get on with your lives and heal. Mike and I will hold a celebration next year, when I feel up to coping with the enormous amount of shit, we're going to have to tolerate when we do it. I am not up to it now. I'm not clear I'll be up to it then, either, but at least I've got a year in which I can leave town.

You know what your son said? "If I had it to do over again, I'd do it the same way. I don't care how she feels about it. We did it the way we wanted to."