Hi there.
Brain dead. Back from "vacation" to grandparents' house.
Two nights of too many people in house. Then three nights of appropriate number of people.
Grandmother's slow decline is draining (on her, too, I imagine. But I'm whining about my own feelings, of course).
Mom's knee is hurting. A lot. Arthritis. Pain makes her grumpy. Stress over grandmother makes her grumpy. Exasperation with my retired Dad makes her grumpy. Sigh.
Baboos out of routine and lacking enough sleep. Grumpy Baboos.
(Sweet has done and is doing, off and on this weird thing: awakening in the middle of the night for up to 3 hours, tossing, turning. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is hurting. She just can't sleep. She goes to sleep fine but then wakes up in the wee hours. I know this because we were sharing a bed. Ideas from the pixies?)
So. Whine away.
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Oh, Sweet, why are you up in the wee hours? I have no wisdom for you, of course. I'm right in the "Why aren't you sleeping?" trenches with you.
Related W: For the past few days, E has only napped for 2 hours, instead of her customary three. Is she phasing out that third hour of nap? Is she doing so during the last week before school starts and her father goes back to work? And immediately before her mother has to find some way to get dissertation work done during the day?
Seriously: I didn't know how much my productivity and sanity depended on three hours of naptime, spread through the day. (And yes, I can work to an extent while she's awake. I can collect sources, read a little, and do light editing. I can not write while I'm tending to her. And I can hardly get anything done now that she's mobile and into everything!)
I might become very dependent on that couple of hours in the evening between her bedtime and mine. And on the grandparents. And on caffeine.
QWP: You have my sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated condolences. If I were not in said conditions, I could have thought of a clever third description.
Sorry sleep-deprived pixies! I sympathize but my sleep issues are not baby related of course- more of a "woman of a certain age" related.
Sorry about the continued decline of health for your grand,other esperanza. All the widespread grumpiness in your world.
AW: Great appointment in the big city last week. Multiple injections later and I'm getting some much-needed pain relief. Yay!
W: it is more difficult every year to "disappear" while I'm on vacation. Emails that say "Don't worry about this until you're back to work" don't help.
So, as of today, I won't be reading emails. At all. Not even sender and subject line. If the place can't manage the next two weeks without being in touch with me, then we have a problem.
AW: two weeks of sloth remaining!
That should say "grandmother"
esperanza, i'm sorry about your grandmother's continued decline.
sympathy to all who are experiencing too little in the way of kidlet sleep, the importance of which cannot be overstated. personally, i'm in sue's club.
QWP, fingers crossed that everybody settles into a workable routine soon, so the dissertating can power on ahead.
W: trying to power on ahead with a piece of a work project, and was doing great last week until suddenly i wasn't. need to make up for a couple of v. slow days. ugh.
stupid plumbing tricks: thought there was a toilet leak, but it turned out that the shower faucet was not 100% turned off, so it was splashing a little on the floor. oy!
sue -- have a great vacation! so glad about the pain relief!
Hooray for pain relief, Sue. And I think email reading is definitely not necessary while on vacation. Definitely.
I wish my plumbing was as easy to fix as kathy a's...
sleepy animals! ze cuteness!
oh, oh! antiwhine! daughter had a good phone interview today with a wonderful museum! for exactly the kind of work she already is doing as a volunteer someplace else! cross fingers; they'll call next week about a real interview.
Fingers crossed!!!!
:) Neighbor Lady
Yes, fingers crossed for your daughter!
NL, how goes the job prep? Or shouldn't I have mentioned it? :)
Fingers and toes crossed for your daughter, kathy!
QWP - I hope a good schedule happens asap.
Yay for sleepy animals. I played the video next to a sleepy kitty who woke up when she heard the dreamy doggie barking.
Everything crossed for kathy a's daughter!
W: three medical appointments in a row tomorrow. 9am: E's unnecessary opthamologist appt. 11:30am: my OBGYN appt, where I find out the results of all the scans and whether my fibroids can be removed easily (ie. whether they'll be able to preserve my fertility). 4:45pm: E's appt with Dr. Over-eager and Over-concerned With Head Shapes. Mr. Q is coming along for appts 1 and 3, and I'm raring for a fight in favour of Let's Leave My Daughter's Head Shape Alone. I have all the research at my fingertips, demonstrating why his earlier claims are false, and why the Head Clinic was correct in choosing not to helmet the baby.
So, I'm preemptively arguing in my head. I have to make sure that I don't get all confrontational with Dr. #1, since he's never met us before and is just checking over E because he was asked to do so. I'll let him do his job, but I'll also explain that we're here because my pediatrician misunderstood something I said, and booked this specialist appointment before he got the actual report from the physical therapist.
(Also, I might have to take off with the car and leave Mr. Q and E at Appt #1, and then have my sister pick them up afterwards, if that appointment runs long. This possibility makes me nervous.)
So: AAAA! Too many medical appointments. Too many nerves. Too crazy of a day, and too many opportunities for E to freak out during that first appointment. (They were all "Please bring a soother or bottle, if the baby takes either!" and she hates both of those things. Maybe her sippy cup of water? Teething toy? I might have to break down and let her play with my phone, if that will distract her enough from getting eye drops and such.)
QWP, I've been there, with the too many appointments in one day and too many things, logistical and otherwise, to worry about. And with the baby who won't take bottles or pacifiers. Not easy to see a nursing baby's eyes, huh?
Hugs and crossed fingers for your appointment, too. So hard.
oh, too too many appointments, QWP! it makes total sense to let the eye doctor know where you stand and how you ended up there. crossing fingers for all the appointments.
One of the orgs who endorsed me made a really stupid mistake about another race that they endorsed, and now I'm wondering how they made that mistake, and if maybe they confused [other opponent] with [my opponent] since they said [other opponent] voted the way mine did when [other opponent] absolutely didn't. He's a jackass in other ways, and deserves to be booted out for other reasons, but he didn't do what endorser said he did. AND MY OPPONENT DID.
ooof,liz. but did your opponent do what they said he did? maybe just a clerical type error on the other guy, like the wrong cut 'n paste? further evidence of the value of proofreaders. ;)
W: i've stepped up my game with the current work albatross, and my neck is hurting from typing overload. AW: progress, baby.
They left my opponent out of the story all together.
Hugs for QWP for all the doctor's appointments!
Esperanza, the prep is going....slowly....
Just hauled my kids into the school to help me set up my room for about 6 hours. They really did great, and all that remains is poster hanging.
And, you know, .... lesson planning!
In over my head perhaps....
A colleague reminded me today that the kids are going to be way more scared than I am on the first day of school, but I'm not sure that's possible.
At least I have til the day after Labor Day.
Anyway, one foot in front of the other, as my husband advised this morning.
A mostly successful day, I think.
:)
Liz, sorry about the campaign confusion!
--Neighbor Lady
Yay, NL! You'll be great! And soon enough, you'll be getting to know the students, and the classes will get into rhythm.
Update: Appt #1 (baby's eyes) went perfectly. She's great, and we can go to appt #3 with even more ammo regarding how the pediatrician can just leave E's head shape alone.
Appt #2... it was not good. The scans show that, in addition to the big two fibroids we knew about, there are a lot of smaller ones. Too many to remove laproscopically and preserve any fertility at all. My only option for having more kids is removing the big two, and then hoping for the best with all the little ones, while knowing that my case history makes it extremely likely that I would have the same nightmare pregnancy again, with all the crazy risks to the baby, or I would have a lot of miscarriages.
So. Mr. Q an I had already agreed that, if they couldn't remove all the fibroids, we were done having kids. I already called my parents, and they were wonderful. My in-laws will be too.
But I am feeling pretty emotional about all of this.
AW: a friend, who went through something similar (fertile, but was told that another pregnancy would kill her), called at the last minute and insisted on coming with me to the appointment, because she didn't want me facing that one alone. So thankful she was there. I made her drive me home, and then she came over and watched E while Mr. Q and I talked.
Oh, QWP. I get how a decision made in the abstract is not so easy in the concrete. And THAT is how to be a good friend. Thankful you have her. And ((QWP and Mr. Q)). And so sorry you still have to face appointment #3 after all that. Ugh. It's take-out for dinner tonight. I said so.
It IS a take-out dinner night! It is so very much a take-out dinner night.
((( QWP ))) what esperanza said.
I would prescribe some other things, but seeing as how you're still nursing...maybe you should just stick with take-out and chocolate.
AW: (keep this quiet). I'm on a roll, getting Mini to stay in her room at bedtime. Ever since we got home from the g'parents' house. Three nights so far, no door opening, no outlandish requests. She's not going to sleep right away, but she's staying in her room. HUGE.
(((QWP)))
esperanza, VICTORY!
AW: gaining a little speed on this here work albatross.
Way to go NL! You will be great, I know it.
Applause also for (shhhh....) Mini's bedtime progress.
Oh QWP and Mr. Q, I'm so sorry that you've had such hard news today. I'm so glad you have such a good friend to go to the appointment with you.
Take out and chocolate sounds right.
Nice work on the albatross kathy!
((((QWP and Mr. Q))))
--Neighbor Lady
fourth night...
quiet WOOT for esperanza! shhhhh!
Quietly cheering! Wooo (shhhhh)!
AW: I got an afternoon off today, to go to a movie with my sister and my cousin. I'm surrounded by support. And I have a lovely little family.
I also had a good conversation with a friend who has one child (and also had a difficult fibroid pregnancy), and who is an only child herself. We had a good talk about families with one child being just as real of families as ones with multiple, and about how our FB friends with multiple kids who say things along the lines of "You have no idea what it's like because E's your first one" are going to have to step off now that E's my only one.
W: E's sleep has been terrible for the past few days. Last night she was awake for two hours with painful constipation. She's had...relief now. But I'm exhausted. Please sleep, little E!
QWP, you are no less of a parent -- a great parent -- if E is your only one. You DO have a lovely family!
People sometimes say stupid things and/or make assumptions. For some reason, people cross boundaries kind of a lot around fertility issues, and its none of their beezwax. xoxox
QWP, I am also a sometimes wistful member of the parents of only children club. Your family and mine are real families.
The thing I've found most important is to try to do plenty of playdates and sleepovers, and to keep MM connected with his cousins.
Y'all remember back in '09 when I came down with C-dif?
My digestive tract has never been quite right since and it's been a hassle.
But lately I've been eating a breakfast which seems to fix many of the problems I'd been having:
Low-fat vanilla yogurt with chopped-up bananas or raisins and granola.
AW: It's really doing a nice thing for my intestines.
W: Dearest Lord, am I gonna have to eat this every day of my life from now on? I want BACON.
AW: It's probably also better for my cholesterol than bacon.
W: BACON!!!
BACON!! well, it's great you hit on a good breakfast -- yay! can you eat just a little bacon, sometimes? i think of it as a rare small treat -- like the bite of someone else's death-by-chocolate dessert.
Liz--
I too was having digestive issues for a long time, though not c-dif, knock wood....
Maybe what's helping you in the yogurt is good bacteria--have you tried one of those good bacteria supplements? They helped me a lot, though I too am eating yogurt a lot these days.
Or, if all else fails, how about pancakes topped with yogurt, with a side of BACON!!!
:)
--Neighbor lady
Oooh, that sounds yummy. BACON!!!
i started reading this book, and it turns out that i really really want to see how this story goes. so, i ended up still reading at 1 a.m., when usually i'm zoned by 11 (to accommodate the insomnia wakeup calls later). looking forward to bedtime, so i can finish it.
Liz, the Baboos do probiotics during and after a dose of antibiotics. Pediatrician recommended it, and when we do that, there are rarely, um, pook repercussions, if you get my drift. It's like eating extra strength yogurt, if I understand correctly.
W: I have hit a Baboo Wall. Then I realized I haven't had a substantial break (>1 hour) in two weeks. That would explain things.
break time for esperanza! stat!
Mr. E got them ready for bed and put them down tonight while I went outside and talked to my mom on the phone. (Mini did not stay in her room. Coincidence? I think not).
He's going to stay home tomorrow, while I go to his office and work for a while. Yippee!
Hooray for a Baboo break!
W: E's coming down with a cold and having trouble sleeping. Hard to elevate the head of this toss'n'turner. I fear this might be another sleepless night for us.
BACON!
Good breakfast Liz - I'm glad you found one that is good for your body.
Hooray for the Baboo break esperanza.
And yay for an afternoon off QWP - those breaks are important.
AW: binge-watching Foyle's War with hubby for the past two days. Great program!
AW: I really love it when we can spend time together and relax. And by "we" I mean "me" because he's pretty much always relaxed. Anyway, it's been a really good week.
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