The Hedonist

A few days ago, while nursing my six-month-old early in the morning, I was enviously reading about the weekend plans of hip twentysomethings in my Twitter stream. "Breakfast at Crema, browsing at Grimey's, then the art stroll.......shop at Sephora, see a movie, then dinner with the girls.....Farmer's Market, then Porter Road Flea Market, then Jeni's Ice Creams...."

Gee, I thought. I guess that type of life no longer exists for me. I wish I had taken advantage of weekends and had that kind of fun before I had kids.

And then I realized I had heard that somewhere before.

Before I had kids, I was thinking, "Gee, I wish I had that kind of fun in college."

In college, I was thinking, "Gee, I wish I had that kind of fun in high school."

Suddenly, I saw my life stretched out before me. And the underlying theme? I wish I had more fun. Every age, every era was filled with unnecessary worry and stress, and I didn't realize until much later that the worry was swallowing up my potential, my life.

I've always been the serious, over-responsible type. But today, I'm resolving to have more fun. I'm not likely to lay down my prudish ways any time soon, but I hope I can look to live a lighter, freer life. I aspire to a life of trusting God's plan intrinsically and enjoying His Creation. A life where I rest in His beautiful gift of Grace and teach my children that every day is a celebration of Our Savior. A life of dancing, community, love, forgiveness, faith, and freedom.

And maybe, if I'm really brave, I'll even take my kids to a coffee shop. 

Fish = Blegh

Husband: Ah! Smoked Salmon! That will make firing up the grill for hamburgers worth it.

Me: Are you going to buy a separate grill for the salmon?

MedSquare

I think we need a social media game for moms of kids with special needs where we can unlock achievements and mayorships a la Foursquare.

Badges I've earned:

-ER Trip
-Shared Bathroom (spending the night in a hospital room where you have to share the bathroom with your  neighbor).
-MASH Unit (holding your child when blood is spurting everywhere)


I know Nancy, Mollie, and Bethany would have a few badges to add as well. Maybe Ambulance Ride and Preemie Pride. Ooh, and a special badge for having five doctor appointments in one week.


Just for the record, I am totally the mayor of Bed Rest!

ModCloth Madness

I love, love, love ModCloth. Their clothes are so retro and fun. I wish I had know about them when I was working in the corporate world; I would have stocked my closet with their dresses and blouses!

This is my current obsession from ModCloth:

Isn't that a fantastic swimsuit? It's a perennial shopper favorite on the site. A friend of mine got one a couple of years ago, and I've been thinking about getting one ever since. They are normally $90, and I just can't make myself pay that for a swimsuit. However, this weekend they are on sale for just under $60 (it's a super secret sale only available to newsletter subscribers). Hmmm....tempting, tempting. I have until Monday to decide, unless they go out of stock (which is entirely possible).

My other modcloth fave is this dress:

It pretty much stays out of stock 75% of the time, so I have to be fast if I ever give in and order it. If I had this dress, I think I could bake the world's best apple pie.

So can you resist the ModCloth madness?

Post Surgery

Hello, me lovelies.

 So sorry I haven't written in a couple of weeks. As you can imagine, life has been a bit hectic.

I am overjoyed to report that David's surgery went very, very well. We were happy and relieved to see him kicking and trying to roll over just a few hours after surgery (it would have been sooner, but he woke up so quickly after the operation that they had to sedate him again -- he's a feisty one, he is).

David, the day after his surgery.

The hospital was so overcrowded that we didn't have a "real" patient room -- we had to stay in a small recovery room and share a bathroom with the patient next door. It really wasn't a bad experience, though. The nurses and medical staff were absolutely wonderful and really helped us sail through everything.

The surgery went so well that the doctors offered to let us go home after only one night instead of two. Being a bit nervous about taking home a baby with a giant incision down his back, I decided to stay the extra night. That turned out to be a good thing -- David was allergic to the pain medicine they originally gave him and vomited all of it, so we needed a few extra hours to get that sorted. The second night David managed to kick out his iv (feisty!), which involved a few seconds of blood, drama, and Mommy trying not to pass out. But all in all things went incredibly well.

Last night we made a return trip to the hospital because I found some sort of fluid on David's sleep sack after his nap, fluid that lined up with his incision. The neurosurgeon's office urged us to go to the emergency room so David could be examined. The doctors and nurses thought the incision looked fine, but neurosurgery decided to admit David for overnight observation just in case. Any leakage from spinal surgery has the potential to be spinal fluid, which is a very bad thing to have leaking.

David got a clean bill of health this morning, and we got to come home. I felt kinda silly about taking him to the ER, but the doctors assured me that I did the right thing. We still don't know if the fluid I saw was sweat, a leaky diaper, or a spinal leak that stopped, but I am thankful that David is healthy and happy. And hey, we did get to stay in a normal room last night, so I got the true children's hospital experience. It was nice!

I do have some sadness and stress post-surgery. I'm really relieved that it is over, but the recovery is much harder than I thought it would be. Honestly, I was expecting a one- or two-inch incision that would be no big deal and a baby I could tote around to playgroups and activities after just a few days. David actually has a rather large, 5-inch incision, and he has several restrictions on his activities. We can't lift him under his arms, give him a bath, send him to a church/Y nursery, or put him in his exersaucer for six weeks. We can't lift his legs when changing his diaper; instead, we have to roll him over.

I'm sad for David that he had to endure such major surgery (although I am thankful it exists!), and I'm sad for Ian and me that we can't quite resume our normal lives yet. I thought post-surgery life would be a stress-free time when I could resume an exercise routine, take the boys to play with friends, and explore our community. It's just a few, short weeks in the grand scheme of things, but the restrictions hit me pretty hard because I wasn't expecting them.

Anyway, that's where we are right now. A bit isolated, a bit crazy, very tired, and very thankful.