Monthly Archives: January 2012

The Other Side of Bliss.

There was an accident outside our community tonight. It was a white mini-van and a small white pick-up truck. When I saw the white minivan, I held my breath without realizing it, praying without realizing it, that it wasn’t our next door neighbor. When we passed by and saw the woman on the stretcher, maybe it was bad, but I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a neighbor we knew and my prayer changed to one that she would be OK.

Someone ran a red light in front of me the other day. His light had been red for at least 5 seconds before he sailed through. The guy next to me was so angry about it that he blared his horn at the person. Too late, of course, the law breaker was far on down the road by that time. I was just thankful that I had been checking my son in his car seat and hadn’t gone when my light had turned green.

I finally received my disability payment today from the state. They pay that stuff by issuing a debit card now, which I guess is supposed to be all hip and cutting edge, which is what I thought at first. But then I realized, it’s kind of a pain in the rear for those who already have bank accounts that they like, because then you have to create yet another login and password, initiate a funds transfer, which then takes up to 2 business days to complete. Plus, the debit card is issued in an account with Bank of America, which is not a bonus to me since I absolutely loathe that bank.

I caught a cold from someone last week and have been praying that William doesn’t catch it. If he manages to somehow avoid getting it from his main provider of food who breathes on him, and can’t avoid coughing on him, it will truly be a miracle. But then he’s a miracle, so maybe it’s not that far fetched of a hope that he remain healthy? I took some Children’s benadryl to try and help with my cold symptoms, but am being very careful about what I take as I don’t want my milk supply to suffer. As a result, I’ve had a couple bouts of insomnia this past week. Apparently, I’m one of those people that benadryl, instead of making me sleepy, has the opposite effect. Let me tell you, it really sucks to lie in bed listening to my newborn baby cooing in his sleep from his co-sleeper, hearing the house creak around me, knowing the minutes and then hours are ticking by and that everyone in the house is asleep but me.

I guess I should be glad I didn’t have any other orifices that stuff could come out of, because my ears are crackling, my eyes are red, my nose is dripping, my mouth is coughing out stuff that shouldn’t see the light of day, my breasts leak milk, my southern area is still working on recovery… and that just about sums up how I’ve felt this week.

The other night, I was nursing William and my nose was dripping. Rather than drip on my son, I shoved a kleenex up the offending nostril and just sat there, defeated, while William ate in blissful oblivion. I must have been quite a sight, because my husband walked by and stared for a second, told me how sorry he was for me, and then started laughing. Five minutes later, my mom did the same exact thing. They both apologized for laughing at me, but honestly, I can’t blame them. In fact, I almost wish I had asked them to take a picture of it, because I’m all about recording the reality of the moment.

Anyway, I think I’m on the mend, or at least I hope I am. My husband thinks he may be catching some form of something and is trying desperately to find someone to blame it on, but since his symptoms in no way resemble mine, I’m not allowing him to lay it at my doorstep. So far William hasn’t caught it, thank God, and let’s continue to pray that he stays healthy and strong. Because let’s face it, I would rather be the one with insomnia and sick than for it to be the other way around!

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Filed under Gross Can Fascinate, I Worry A lot, Love/Loathe, Our Kid is Cute, Sometimes I Sleep

Savoring it All.

My time with him is so limited before I need to go back to work. Twelve weeks is what FMLA allows, and just over 4 of those weeks are already gone. Dissipated into the thin air that new babies demand.

Anyone who’s had a baby knows all about the endless nursing, endless diaper changes, baby clothes changes, laundry that includes more baby clothes than adult, baby butt baths, baby whole body baths, crying (both baby and mommy), squeezing in parental showers and parental nourishment.

Finger foods are my friend.

I find myself being intentionally selfish with William. Not wanting to share him with anyone outside of my immediate circle of family. I want to soak everything about him into my soul. He’s already growing, changing and doing things today that he didn’t do yesterday. It’s the new thing in my life, being grateful that he is healthy and sad that he’s even now growing away from me… and it started before he was even born! At 36 weeks pregnant, I remember looking at an ultrasound picture of him when he was 26 weeks and going back to his gummy bear ultrasound picture of 8 weeks and being sad that he had already been growing so fast.

So forgive me… rather than type one handed, I’ve intentionally chosen to simply stare in wonder at this marvel that I spend my days and nights with.

Speaking of finger foods, allow me to share a funny little story… the other night I was snacking on pistachios, we all know that pistachios, for some reason, are one of the snacks of the holiday season. It was late, and I was single handedly cracking the shells and eating them.

The next morning, Tony was doing a diaper change for William and in bafflement held up a green thing and asked me what it was. Excited, I exclaimed, “That’s the missing pistachio! I lost one last night when I was eating them… where’d you find it?”

Tony frowned slightly, and his eyes crinkled as if he were holding back a laugh and he said, “It was inside William’s sleeper, under his back. No wonder he was restless last night, he was sleeping on a pistachio!”

I scoffed and replied, “He was NOT restless, he slept the undisturbed slumber of his father. This is the story of the Prince and the Pistachio, NOT the Princess and the Pea.”

Although, now if I’m eating snack type foods that drop crumbs, I’ll look down and see this… and it makes me laugh and laugh.

Talk to the monkey paw…

…Or protecting himself from dropping debris…

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute