7 Quick Takes [11.30.12]

1.  Thank you all for your comments on my post yesterday.  It made me feel not so alone and that maybe, just maybe, I'm not so crazy after all.

After that rant I spent the entire afternoon in the basement and completely UNLOADED the storage closets.  Nothing was safe.  And it was awesome.  Then I got all giddy when I realized the Good Will donation center was open until 8:00 that evening and that Brian would have time after dinner to make the trip.  Our backroom is now a storage space for only three categories:

1. Baby gear (swing, Bumbo, jumper, etc.)
2. Holiday accessories (Christmas decorations, Easter baskets, Halloween buckets)
3. A few sentimental items (college diplomas, kids' memory boxes)

I'm a purger by nature even when I'm not pregnant so my standards for sentimental items are quite high.  I don't save every drawing or piece of schoolwork that comes home.  I don't save locks of my babies' hair or the little hospital cap they came home in.  It has to pass the will they care about this at all when they get older test.  If not, it's gone.  And then I breathe clean, open, fresh air.  And all is well.

I also painted my toes after taking a bath last night.  I was hoping the pretty color would distract from my extremely swollen cankles.  It's amazing what just a few little clean-up and self care tasks can do for your overall mood.

2. We received some disturbing news from our school yesterday that there was a possible attempted abduction just a few blocks from our house on the day before Thanksgiving. And then the same individuals and van (why is it always a van?!) were spotted at our very intersection again on Wednesday as the school patrol line walked home. The story is a bit hazy so it's hard to know the real facts and if this is even a cause for worry at all.

I'm equal parts trying to not make a big deal of it and also slightly freaking out. I'm less concerned about William walking to and from school (because he's in a large group) and more concerned that we frequently let our kids play outside by themselves. I want to be smart about this but I also don't want to become a crazy helicopter parent.

Our neighbors are amazing at being cognizant of anything that seems off and our police force is always wonderfully responsive. So I know an actual incident will be rare. But still. I'm thankful the colder months are upon us and the kids' outdoor time is limited.

3. Lucy's recovery from surgery is coming along quite nicely. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. The two-week no-bath rule came to a close on Monday and now some of her stitches are starting to fall out which is making hair doing and combing a whole lot easier. And I have to admit, I'm a bit obsessed with it. Is anyone else a scab-picker? Stitches give you that same kind of high. It's all a little sick, I know. But also weirdly gratifying when I find one poking out and it slides out clean and easy. Sorry to be grossing any of you out. Moving right along...

4.  Who heard about our favorite college football team, Notre Dame, this weekend?  Katherine did!

Cinderella story. Unranked at the beginning of the year. Perfect, undefeated season. Number one in the country. Going to the National Championship.

A few games in and we knew it was going to be a special year. But now that it's all over and they didn't disappoint, it feels a little like postpartum baby blues. Now what? Now we wait for more than a month for the final championship game where they could get a possible whooping from Alabama and flush the whole hype down the toilet. Or not. You never know.

I realize there are about two whole readers who are still reading this so I'll move on once again...

5. Have you started Christmas shopping? Have you put up your tree? Or any decorations? Have you baked any cookies? Aside from a wreath on our front door, I have done nothing. I don't feel too guilty about this, considering my condition, but I still know it has to be done at some point. We're going to attempt the tree tonight and some decorating tomorrow. I'm hoping that puts me in the mood to make out lists for the kids and start crossing things off. Is it ever OK for Santa to take maternity leave?

6. I put the word out on Facebook but I'll also mention it here. I would be eternally grateful if anyone out there has an Ergo infant insert that I could borrow until about April. If you aren't local, I will pay for shipping. Also, to all Ergo users, how important is the infant insert? If I don't find one, could I just as easily roll up some receiving blankets? The online pictures don't make it look worth the $20.

 

7.  And finally, I have a small giveaway for anyone who made it to this seventh entry.  If you comment on this post you will automatically be entered into a giveaway for a free package of Earth's Best Toddler Biscuits, perfect if you have any teethers!  Deadline to enter is next Friday, December 7 at Noon Central time.  Good luck!

End of Pregnancy Insanity

I'll never understand why women become certifiably insane in the final weeks of pregnancy but it happens.  Every. Single. Time.

Theoretically, it should be the easiest time.  The days are numbered.  You have arrived.  The long 40 weeks are finally coming to close.  Nobody expects much of you.  You can sit in your house in your tattered yoga pants and eat ice cream directly from the carton and not a single person will dare to roll an eye at you.  Who cares if they're only agreeable because they fear you'll punch that eye right out of its socket if they so much as look at you funny.

"Your body is ahead of the curve."

That's what my midwife told me at my appointment on Tuesday.  I'm so far progressed that this baby is nearly falling out of me.  The problem is, this happens to me every single time.  And I get all excited slash nervous that this baby is going to come early. Except they never do.  Well, my first did but that was the only pregnancy I didn't care about going early.  Go figure.

So technically I have two weeks left.  But when my midwife says "any day now" those two weeks turn into 336 excruciatingly long hours.

Yesterday I went on a tirade.  All these things on The List that seem so quick and simple have gotten pushed by the wayside.  They all seem like easy last-minute items.  But when they pile up, suddenly it's one big giant project of little things.

I started opening dresser drawers and closet doors and found myself unable to breathe.  All this stuff!  It had to go!  Purge, purge, purge.

"We'll do it on Saturday," Brian said.

No! Now!  I wanted to scream.  How important can that conference call really be?  Not nearly as important as getting rid of this old lamp, I bet.

I told him I was suddenly feeling overwhelmed.  That I simultaneously wanted to cry my eyes out while punching someone in the face.

"I know.  I could tell this morning," he said.

And then I told him he needed to work on his empathy skills.

He's just in the line of my fire.  It's not his fault.  Well, I mean, kind of it is.  I didn't get pregnant all by my lonesome.

You see?  Certifiably insane.

Once that baby is in my arms I know I'll wonder what all my fuss was about.

But until then, this is where I'm at.  One giant hormonal beast who will donate anything she finds in her path to Good Will.  Watch out Nash Family.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Thanksgiving was quite pleasant this year.  Mostly because I didn't expect too much of myself being that I am in my ninth month of pregnancy.  We spent all day Thursday at Brian's parent's house.  The cousins had a grand ole time and the adults laughed until our sides hurt well into the early hours of the next day.

And then Katherine and I went home on Friday while Brian stayed on with the older kids.  I just needed my own bed and tad less chaos in order to get through the rest of the weekend without a hormonal meltdown.  Everyone understood.

Before the turkey was carved, we sat all the grandkids down to get a picture.  We are missing two: a newbie from Chicago and the one in my belly.  That's a grand total of 12.

This is what I think when I look at this picture: We have an embarrassment of riches.

One recent weeknight, after an especially difficult bedtime routine, Brian and I sat on the couch daydreaming about what life might have looked like had we decided not to have kids.  We'd sip coffee every morning at the finest cafes.  I would write all day.  He would play music.  Then we'd hit up happy hour at the local pub.  And we'd finish off the evening with a sushi dinner.  We would travel wherever our hearts desired.  And we'd live in a posh brownstone in the finest part of St. Paul.

We sat for a little while thinking of what could have been.  And then Brian broke the silence.

"Well that would have been boring!"

And it's true.  As much chaos and headache as the little ones bring, I know deep down they are the true treasures in life.

At Christmas I remember my Grandpa, now gone for seven years, used to sit in a recliner on the porch watching all his relatives come and go.  He just sat there and took it all in.  He'd partake in conversation from time to time but mostly he just sat there with a smile on his face.  Sometimes I'd wonder if he was sick of it.  Were we invading his space?  His routine?  Did he want us all to leave so he could go back to reading the newspaper or the latest bestselling novel?

But no, he didn't.  He was at the end of his life.  And he knew it.  Instead he sat there in awe of all he had created.  His children.  The spouses they found.  The children they birthed.  And then the spouses they found.  And the children they then birthed.  All of them.  All there because he started it.

I shared this story with Brian the night we daydreamed about our hypothetical kidless lives.  I told him how one day we would be there.  Free of responsibility.  Just the enormous privilege of getting to behold the fruits of our labor.

"And that," Brian added, "must be why old people are so grace-filled at the end of their lives."

I hope you had the happiest of Thanksgivings wherever you were and whomever you spent it with.  And I hope each and every one of you can also say you have an embarrassment of riches in your life.

William Nash, Age 6

Dear William,

You are both my easiest and hardest child to raise.

You are easy-going. I didn't know what a tantrum was until your sister was born. You take life's disappointments as no big deal are always content with "maybe next time."

You sleep like a dream. From five weeks of age you were sleeping through the night. To this day you sleep 12 hours every night and still find time for a nap somewhere during the week. A wrecking ball in the side of your bedroom wall could not wake you.

You love people. Transitions have never been an issue for you. You leaped into preschool. Sprinted into kindergarten. Eager to please. Excited to learn. You've never looked back.

You make friends with strangers just walking past our house. You think everyone wants to play with you all the time and have a hard time understanding why they wouldn't.

You are constantly seeking my attention. You do not like to be alone. Ever.

You always need something to do. You always need something to talk about it.

It is difficult for you to finish a meal in a timely manner because you are perpetually in conversation.

You like to be close to people. Your cold feet drifting over under mine when we're under the covers in the morning. Or insisting on practically sitting on top of your sister on the couch.

You love superheros. And Star Wars. And football in the backyard.

You adore school. You are reading now and it makes my heart pitter patter with joy. Last week you read The Cat in the Hat from cover to cover to me all by yourself. It comes so easy to you.

You like to ask questions. SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Mom, why did God make lying?

Mom, how do you know when it's time for the baby to come out?

You are a horrible joke-teller. We need to work on that.

You are a great helper. Helping Lucy with her shoes. Carrying Katherine away from danger. Opening the garage. Fetching me items from the basement frig.

Love doesn't even begin to describe how you feel about your sisters.

But you still desperately want a brother. When I ask you how you might feel if the new baby is another sister you casually say, "That's OK because then the next baby will a boy."

I found myself not being too sentimental about your sixth birthday. You are so ready to be six. It feels like you've already been six for the past few months.

Tonight, the night before your sixth birthday, I tucked you in to bed. I blew you a kiss and you caught it and then you blew me a kiss and I caught it just like we do every night.

And then, ten minutes later, you were out of your room.

"MOM! DAD!" You exclaimed. And you opened your hand to reveal your first lost baby tooth in the palm of your hand.

And just like that I got sentimental.

Because that little tiny tooth that lay there, dead in your hand, I remember feeling that for the first time when my finger swept across your baby gums for any signs of teething.

The little tooth that emerged when you were sixth months to remind me you were growing up. And now the little tooth that fell out when you were six years to remind me that you're growing up even more.

William, I am so proud of who you are becoming.  You play your part in our family as the eldest boy with such perfection.  You never get enough of my time but you are always near to my heart because you were my first.  I am so delighted to call you my son.  And so honored to get to be your mother.

Happy sixth birthday, William.  Today is your day.

Giving The Best We Have

Our neighbors are hosting a Turkey Party tonight for all the cute little kiddos in the neighborhood.  The invitation asked that everyone bring a food shelf donation.  Great idea right before Thanksgiving, right?

I'm embarrassed to admit that whenever there was a call to donate to the food shelf, I used to rifle through the cupboards for any boxes or cans of food that I no longer wanted.  Which really means, I would donate the stuff that I knew my family wouldn't eat.  Perhaps a BOGO item that sounded like a good idea at the time.  Or maybe an old can of veggies before I switched the family to all fresh or frozen.

The underlying message is not a good one: If you can't afford to buy your own food, then you can have my family's scraps and nothing better.

As most of you know, I've partnered with Earth's Best for the past few months to sample their products and post reviews right here on this blog.  What this means is that every month I get a big box of Earth's Best products delivered to my doorstep.  It's a great gig because I really love Earth's Best and truly believe they put out quality items for babies and kids.

Inside my pantry cupboards I have a plethora of their baby food pouches and boxes of their infant cereal.  Katherine has outgrown this stage of food but, of course, we've got another one in the hopper who will be eating solids by next spring.

I was saving all this food for the new baby.  Until I began to think about it.

It's no secret that Earth's Best is not the cheapest baby food on the market.  You get what you pay for and when you feed your baby quality, organic food, it's going to cost more.

I wondered how many food shelf patrons had ever had the privilege of feeding Earth's Best baby food to their babies.  Probably not many.

So I've decided to donate every last jar, pouch and box of Earth's Best baby food I possess to the food shelf.  I'm hoping there's a little baby out there who will get an extra punch of nutrients all because I decided to give up my stash.

Do you regularly give to the food shelf?  What do you typically donate?

*This post was inspired by products I received from Earth's Best.

A Day At Home & Simply Shimmer Giveaway!

It's a cozy day at home today.  We didn't go to our early childhood class.  I need to go to the grocery store at some point but decided to go when Brian gets home from work instead of trying to get the girls out of the house.  I just don't think I have it in me.  And I'm not sure how Lucy would do anyway.

She's mostly back to normal but every once in a while will start complaining that her head hurts and then we know we have to keep up on her pain management.

Have you ever tried to keep a three-and-a-half-year-old still just after head surgery?  It's nerve-wracking enough to send this mama into labor.

"Hey mom! Watch this!" As she jumps from the second to last stair on the staircase.

"LUCY!" I scream.

She looks at me as if I'm crazy.

Later I found her stacking bins of toys and then climbing on top so that she could reach something up on a hook.

ACK!  I'm going to go insane for the next two weeks until this thing is healed.

To keep her still I downloaded some new interactive books on the Kindle Fire.  We love the Sandra Boynton books and both the Halloween and Christmas Charlie Brown stories.  Any other recommendations?

Staying at home today means I have a lot of extra time to spend on the computer.  Well, let me rephrase that: Staying at home today means I have more than the usual amount of time to spend on the computer.  Once I've read through the daily news and my Facebook feed and all my favorite blogs, the next logical time suck is to start shopping.

Which brings me to my next topic.  I have a super fun giveaway!  It's mostly super fun because of the person I get to work with.  Remember this post way back in April about getting together with Brian's freshman roommate?  Well, his wife, Allison Mayer, has opened her very own shop on Etsy.

I love the Mayers.  They are a fun, down-to-earth, holy family.  But mostly I love them because they have four kids that are closer in age than ours and they still have their wits about them.  And their sense of humor.  And apparently a knack for entrepreneurialism!  How does she find the time?  She gives me hope!

Allison has opened a lovely little shop on Etsy called Simply Shimmer selling customized products.  She has everything from Christmas platters to teapots to wedding accessories.  She also has an adorable collection of handmade Halloween costumes for kids that you should absolutely keep in mind for next year.  And pssst...if you click over to her shop you'll be able to see pictures of her adorable kids modeling these costumes!

I think any of these pieces would look lovely on a Christmas table.  And if you're not hosting, perhaps a hostess gift?

A Giveaway!
Allison is offering a $25 credit to her store for one of my lucky readers.  To enter the contest you'll need to follow these two steps:

1.  Go to the Simply Shimmer Facebook page and like it.
2.  Leave a comment on this post.

Deadline to enter is Friday, November 23 at noon (Central Time).  Good luck!

*This contest is now over.  The winner is commenter #2!

A Lucy Update

First I want to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts and prayers both yesterday and today.  I got a ridiculous amount of text messages, Facebook comments and emails.  If there's just one positive outcome of this new age of instant communication, it's times like these.  Knowing you're not alone and that others are thinking of you is a very powerful thing.

I also want to apologize for not being able to respond to every single voicemail, comment or email.  It's all been so overwhelming and, of course, our first priority has been tending to the needs of our family.

All in all everything went well yesterday.  The surgery was a success and there were no complications to speak of.  That said, the process was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  To be fair, I set myself up for this disappointment by quickly brushing off anyone who tried to act like this surgery would be anything more than minor.  But we all know the only person having minor surgery is the person not having surgery at all.

When we woke up yesterday morning, Lucy was nervous.  Up until that point she had been excited to get to have a sleepover at the hospital.  But suddenly she kept telling me she didn't want to have surgery anymore.  And as a parent, having to have that conversation just plain sucks.

When we were all checked in to our pre-op room, Lucy was very quiet; quite uncharacteristic if you know her in real life.  She was pissed off about the gown she had to wear telling me that it was very itchy and that she had brought her own princess nightgown to wear so why did she have to wear this dumb bear one.

The staff at Gillette's was amazing!  The anesthesiologist was a dream to work with.  And the child life specialist was especially helpful when she let Lucy play games on her iPad and pick out a chapstick flavor for later use in the OR.  (They let her smear the bubblegum chapstick all over the gas mask and then have her take deep breaths to smell it.  Genius, right?)

Dad all scrubbed up for the OR.  Lucy much too occupied with her TV and iPad to look at the camera.

When it was time for her to go into surgery, one parent was allowed to go with her into the operating room until she fell asleep.  I felt that I was just too hormonal to be of any use so I passed that responsibility on to Brian.

When it was time for me to say goodbye I knew I was walking a fine line.  On the one hand I wanted to shower her with hugs and kisses and let my emotions fall all over the floor.  But on the other hand I didn't want to scare her by not acting like my normal self.  So I gave her a quick kiss and happily said, "I'll see you in a little bit!"

She smiled and waved and continued giggling about some antics the nurses were putting on for her.  I watched them wheel her away and I knew that if I thought about it too much I would fall apart.  So I quickly grabbed my phone and pretended I had some majorly important emails to tend to.

Off to surgery.  Dad on the left.

We were away from Lucy for about a total of two hours.  But the surgery itself was only about half that long.  Her doctor, Dr. Wood, came to talk to us after he was finished. He told us the hole was much larger once he opened her up.  That was actually good news.  It meant that the surgery really was necessary.  The incision is about eight inches on the top of her head and follows the same scar line as her first operation.  He used a synthetic bone paste to fill in the holes and then put in an absorbable plate.  The plate should dissolve on its own in about 9-18 months.  She did not need a drainage tube or a blood transfusion as she did during her first surgery.  Great news!

After speaking with Dr. Wood we still had to wait another half hour before we could be reunited with her in the recovery room.  The recovery room was probably the hardest part of the whole day.  When she started to wake up she was not happy.  It was hard to tell if she was in a lot of pain or if she was just agitated from everything.  Lucy tends to get really angry when she's out of sorts (i.e. waking up from a long nap).  To complicate matters she was attached to a thousand and one wires and tubes and she kept wanting to turn this way and that.  Her face, especially her eyes, was swollen and that itchiness was bugging her as well.

The recovery nurses kept pushing the morphine until she felt comfortable.  At one point they told us they couldn't believe she was still awake with the amount they had given her.  That, my friends, explains Lucy to a T.

Dad gave her a few ice chips and she started to calm down somewhat.  I told the nurses that I bet once she got up to her room and settled in, she would be fine.  So we started to wheel her up to the patient rooms and as we did she finally started to give in to those drugs and shut her eyes.

Morphine-induced sleep post surgery.

She slept in her room for a couple of hours and then, much to my surprise, was quite pleasant when she woke up.  No screaming, no crying.  She asked to watch The Muppets so we turned that right on for her.

Popsicle and The Muppet Movie

The nurse brought in a popsicle for her but she wasn't very interested in it.  At about 5:00 she started to get restless and agitated again so I tried laying next to her in the bed.  And then she promptly threw up that popsicle all over her bed, narrowly missing me.  The long clean-up process followed and when she was all cozy again she shut her eyes a bit.

Brian brought William over to the hospital to see Lucy and she really like that.  But William was a little nervous about the state of his sister who is usually his equal to all things that include being loud and rough-housing.

While Brian stayed with Lucy, William and I went to the Ronald McDonald room to eat dinner.  Volunteers had made an entire turkey dinner for the families of all the patients.  Don't ever pass up the chance to donate to Ronald McDonald.  They do some serious good stuff.

When I came back to the room Lucy was eating dinner.  Nothing like puking only to be eating a turkey sandwich an hour later.  She had obviously found her appetite because she wasn't complaining about a belly ache at all.

At 8:00 William and I went home.  Brian spent the night with Lucy.  I knew my 8-months-pregnant body would get little to no rest on the pull-out bed so once again Brian stepped into the role that is usually reserved for mothers.

When I got back to the hospital this morning they were already in the process of discharge.  The only item left on the to-do list was for Lucy to take a shower and she vehemently refused.  I nearly had to get in the shower with her to get the job done.  And even then I wasn't able to give her incision the good washing it needed.

Which brings me to my next topic.  One that is of much less importance but noteworthy nonetheless: Her hair looks like total crap.  Mangled and tangled and so far beyond what would be required to call it a rat's nest.

We didn't have this dilemma to deal with the first time around because at six months of age she barely had any hair to speak of.

If I could just give it a good soak in the tub I think it would be fine but doctor's orders say no tub soaking for TWO WEEKS!  We need to find her some good hats.  Every time she gets a glance of herself in the bathroom mirror she freaks out.  "Why does my hair look crazy?!"

Crappy hair or not, we're home now and all is well.  She's sleeping soundly in her own bed.  William will be home from school later this afternoon and together he and Brian are going to pick up Katherine.

One thing I think is often forgotten about parents of hospitalized children is how much they ache for the time lost with their other children.  I know it will be total chaos once we are back together under one roof but at least it's familiar.  And totally normal.