Catching Up...

This is long, so get comfy…

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, Big D had to work on Saturday. I had two parties to attend. The Monster and I woke up that morning and played. She had trouble napping, and at one point as I was trying to rock her to sleep, my right arm went completely numb, and I almost dropped her. I had terrible carpal tunnel when I was pregnant with her due to the massive amount of water retention my body was kind enough to take on. I couldn’t feel my hands for a good 5 months. And now I find that it comes back easily when my wrist is in an awkward position, or when I’m gripping my steering wheel with white knuckles during my commute. I put The Monster down, begging her silently to sleep for a mere 20 minutes so I could get ready for the party circuit. She slept for an hour and a half. Good girl.

I woke her up and put her in a cute lavender dress. We drove all of a quarter of a mile to R & A’s house. Their daughter was turning one. We arrived early, but it took me damned near ten minutes to put the tissue paper in the gift bag (didn’t want to do it until we got there so that it wouldn’t get messed up), lug The Monster’s stuff out of the car, and then pull the infant carrier out as well. Just then, our friends J & A arrived and helped me carry in our crap. The tissue paper in the gift bag got messed up anyway. Oh well.

R & A’s house was beautiful, as usual, and their daughter was dressed in the cutest halter top dress I’ve ever seen. Too bad The Monster isn’t old enough to ask to borrow clothes! Ha!

I passed The Monster around a little bit until she discovered one of the birthday girl’s toys.

She was entranced. I could not pull her away from this thing. It gave me a minute to indulge in some seven layer bean dip. Eventually it became time to continue the party circuit, so we said our goodbyes and headed out.

We drove 45 minutes to my parents’ house so I could drop The Monster off with my mom. I laid out her quilt and toys, put her bottles in the fridge, sniffed her hair, and gave her a kiss before whirling out the door. I was running late and I still had about 30 minutes of driving ahead of me. I was headed to Margaret’s parents’ house for a shower. I arrived out of breath and slightly disoriented from my travels.

Margaret’s mom asked me what I would like to drink, and I probably did not hide my disappointment for the lack of vodka on the counter. They’re Polish, I tell you! “A diet coke would be wonderful, thank you.” A couple of minutes later, Margaret’s sister brought me a very strong rum and coke. Very strong indeed. I chased it with a cape cod for good measure. We snacked on some very good appetizers and ate cheesecake.

Here's Leslie, Margaret, and I. We went to law school together.

I get along very well with Margaret’s family and friends, so we ended up chit chatting for a long time before someone decided it was time to open presents. Among other things, I got Baby A a bib that says, “I’m so cute, I must be Polish.” Eventually it was time to say goodbye. My parents’ were going to a party that night, and I needed to pick up The Monster so they could go. And I had to pump. Badly. You know what I’m talking about.

I got home about half an hour after Big D. He had just enough time to shower the ER off and turn on the Discovery Channel. It was way past The Monster’s bedtime, and to my delight, she went down easily.

Sunday, we woke up and spent the day together, all three of us. I could barely get The Monster away from Big D. He doesn’t get to see her all that much these days, so when he does, he won’t let her go. It’s so cute. We noticed her second tooth coming in. I’ve heard that once they start, they don’t stop. It’s very cute, but I’m afraid that my photography skills aren’t that great this time around. Yes, I had to make her cry for this shot. I swear there are two teeth there!

Speaking of crying, we took her outside and put her feet in the grass. She’s not a fan.

Monday was a typical day at work. I had scheduled a baby shower for a co-worker’s wife for the next day. I was so excited. I had bought presents and ordered the cake. I picked out decorations and taken orders for lunch. And then we got word that the office would be closed until noon the next day. Apparently a tropical storm was off the coast and threatening the area. Yawn. A tropical storm? We’re too far inland to worry about a tropical storm, but whatever. Then I got word that The Monster’s school would be closed all day.

Tuesday morning came, and Big D had to go to work. As a resident, he has to go to work no matter what. It doesn’t matter if we’re being attacked by aliens – he’s got to go in. So he went to work early in the morning. I’ve never been one to be afraid of tropical storms, but add a baby into the mix along with six trees in our backyard about 2.5 stories tall that are apparently “stressed out,*” and all of a sudden, I’m convinced that The Monster and I are going to be crushed by falling trees. And by ourselves! The horror! I was extremely tense all morning until it was clear that at most we’d get just enough rain to spare us the trouble of turning on the broken sprinkler system with the water hammer. Eventually, the stress knots worked their way out of my shoulders so The Monster and I could play and crawl around. I put her to bed that evening, and then Big D got home.

We were eating dinner with the video monitor on the table, when he asked, “Is that her snoring?” I laughed and said, “She is your daughter!” Being the doctor that he is, he began asking all sorts of questions, “Was her nose runny today?” Yes, but she’s teething. (I swear the books make it sound like anything unusual at all can be blamed on teething.) “Was she fussy today?” Yes, but she’s teething. Just then, she coughed in her sleep, and Big D’s eyes widened. Uh oh. She sounded like a dog. That woke her up, and she stood up in her crib and cried. She was hoarse. Fabulous. We went upstairs, and Big D held her close and listened to her. She sounded like Darth Vadar when she inhaled. “She’s got croup,” he declared. Fuck.

Now is the time for me to mention that I was going to be out of the office on Wednesday afternoon for The Monster’s well child check up. And then on Thursday and Friday for continuing legal education. I had a work deadline looming Friday afternoon, which meant that I needed to have it done by Wednesday at lunch before I left. Luckily, I had my work with me, but the last thing I needed was a sick kid to test my stress level.

Big D got his stethoscope and listened closely, checking for respiratory distress. He knew what to do, but still ended up calling a friend of his from medical school who is in his pediatrics residency. I called the pediatrician’s after hour’s number. Big D’s friend and the after hours nurse told us what he knew, The Monster probably had croup, but as long as she wasn’t in distress, she could wait until the next day to see the doctor. That’s a good thing. We put her to sleep in the playyard in our bedroom. It was a long night. She sounded awful. And I had dreams about being chased by the Death Star. Just kidding.

Wednesday morning, I had to e-mail my boss and let him know I wouldn’t be in (again). I took The Monster to the doctor and found out that she was also sporting a right ear infection. That’s number two for the right ear. She also had white patches in her throat. Love it. Big D called his mom and asked if she could come up to watch The Monster on Thursday. I had to go to my CLE, because it’s my birth month, and if you don’t complete your mandatory hours by the end of your birth month, your license gets suspended. That would be icing on the proverbial cake, wouldn’t it? That night we were lucky; The Monster didn’t get her croupy cough back. But she slept like shit again. In fact, when I first put her down, she woke herself up about every ten minutes for an hour by sneezing. Then I realized that we had a trusty bottle of Benadryl in the cabinet which has the very pleasant side effect of a drowsy baby. Oh Benadryl, you are my new best friend. (Sorry, Megan.) She slept much better after that.

Thursday, Big D’s mom arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed. She’s great like that. And she’s so good with The Monster. Big D went to work, and I went to my CLE. I got to the conference and as I ate my free bagel, I realized that I wasn’t feeling too hot. I was sick too! Wonderful timing. So I proceeded to spread my germs on Thursday and Friday at the CLE. I had to have hot tea underneath my nose almost the entire time so I could breathe. I couldn’t take any medication because I’m still nursing. We broke for lunch and I ate by myself in the hotel’s restaurant. I faced a window and watched people walk by. I have to admit that it was nice. Then more lectures. The Monster was feeling better that evening, but we lined up Big D’s mom for the next day just in case.

Friday, more CLE lectures. I was done at 3, which was nice. Big D’s mom hung out a little while after that. Eventually she left and The Monster and I crawled around. I think it’s so much fun to "chase" her. She’s doing well at standing up while holding on to something. She loves holding on to the coffee table and pulling stuff off of it. It requires a bunch of concentration.

Earlier in the week, I picked up her new favorite toy, which she enjoyed as well.

Because I was feeling under the weather, my mom came over on Saturday to help out. We had a lot of fun. I ended up feeling better, so we went shopping for The Monster and then went out for Mexican food. The Monster was an angel. She’s got such a great temperament – which is not something she got from me!

Sunday, Big D was home. Again, I could not pull The Monster away from him. We watched the Olympics, and he put together some new furniture (to be posted later this week).





It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Life is good, though, and that’s what’s important.

* So we have six trees in our backyard that have been there for years and years. The whole area was wooded before evil people like me insisted that the lots be cleared so that a house could be put up. Well, anyway, that construction is pretty stressful on trees, because it can mess up their root system. Three of our neighbors across the street have had all of their trees cut down, because they were dying. They told us about it, and we’ve started a small campaign to save our trees. It’s one of the things we really like about our neighborhood. So we called out a certified arborist, who told us that our trees are stressed, but we should be able to save them. We also have borers in one of the trees. Not sure what those are, but it doesn’t sound good. The quote to treat the trees is one grand. Our neighbors paid about four hundred dollars per tree to have them cut down. It’s cheaper for us to save them. It’s always something, isn’t it?