Clothes

Last fall I got a bunch of maternity clothes from my friend, Sarah, who grew up across the street from me.  I've always known her, ever since I can remember, and it's totally weird that we're both mommies, now, and that we're sharing maternity clothes instead of tree houses.  That is the magic of Facebook.

Anyway, she wrote the other day (pre-plague) and said that another friend of hers is pregnant, so could I please box up her maternity clothes and send them back to Grammaland so she can pass them on to her friend.  Since I completely wore the red shirt with the runching to death  totally lost track of what belonged to her and what belonged to me am such a generous person, I said that I'd add in all my own maternity clothes, and she could pass those on to her friend too.  I have stuff that other friends sent me when I was pregnant with MG.  The sisterhood of the traveling stretchy pants.

What I never saw coming was that I would have a big ol' ugly cry over getting rid of my maternity clothes for good.

We're done.  Our family is complete.  And even if I didn't think so, the odds of talking BJ into a fourth kid are between slim and none.  

The childbearing years are so special - they're the years we're going to look back on when we're old.  They're the hardest and the best in so many ways, and they're over.  I mean, we're not throwing the baby out with the maternity clothes, but this is it.  I never get to feel a baby kicking inside of me again.  I never get to hear "it's a boy!" or "it's a girl!" again.  The next time I hold a brand new, hours old baby that is literally a part of me, it'll be my grandchild. 


So I stood there, looking at the clothes that I got so sick of over the past year, and I had a big old cry, and I felt really old.

I'm sure there will a point when knowing that we're Done will be a big relief, but right now it's a lot more bitter than sweet.

In other news, nursing tops are a total scam.  I found a couple white t-shirts in the bin with my other non-maternity clothes that had small stains on the front...  you know how white t-shirts are.  Instead of throwing them out, I cut slits over the boobs.  Now I can wear them under regular t-shirts and not flash the world when I nurse the baby.  This is good, because the bin with the nursing tops and the nursing bras has gone missing, and because the commercially available nursing tops are like $25.00 a piece.  The layered look is still in, right?

Anyone know how to convert regular bras into nursing bras?

Recovery

Everyone has been much better today (except me, I'm worse, but I'll suck it up), so we actually went out for lunch (Steak & Shake - the shake felt good going down but it sure didn't help my cough!), and to Best Buy to look at printers for BJ.  The kids were pretty excited to get out of the house for a change.  Then we stopped at Grandpa Bob's new house (just six doors down the street!) and visited for a while.  BJ hooked up Grandpa's DVD player.  I got tired and we came home, but Claire opted to stay.  We're going to try that new Mongolian Barbecue style place for dinner with Grandpa in about half an hour, so now that my hot tea is gone, I'm going to close my eyes for a bit.

Thanks, Facebook friends, for keeping me laughing yesterday!  It really helped!  If we're not yet Facebook friends, shoot me an e-mail with your link and I'll friend you as long as you aren't one of my creepy ex-boyfriends from high school.  :)

I Am Smote

So Claire came down with the flu this morning, and because we're quick on our feet we called the on call doc and asked for Tamiflu for her (to shorten it) and for BJ (to prevent him catching it).

BJ came home with the medicine, gave it to Claire, and she promptly threw up all over the couch.  Being the smart ass that I am, I put the following on Facebook:

Jammies - $12.99, Tamiflu - $60, Sectional Sofa - $699. Keeping $4 worth of Tamiflu down for approximately 11 seconds before puking it all over the jammies and the couch - Priceless.

Apparently the Universe does not appreciate gallows humor.  The Universe also does not appreciate it when one makes fun of one's sick 3 year old, because the next time Claire threw up, it was all over MG's favorite Jessie doll.

Without thinking, I say, "I can't clean this, we'll have to throw her away and get a new one."

MG starts freaking out.  "What's going to happen to her in the garbage place?" she bawled.

Oh no.  Curse you, Pixar!

If I had a brain in my head I would've put Jessie in a bag and said, "I'll clean her up later..." then I would have discretely thrown her out when no one was looking, and I would have swapped in the new Jessie without any drama.  But nooooooo....  

Instead, now MG knows that her beloved Jessie is facing this:

Awesome.

So I did what any mother would do.  I lied.  "She's not going to that garbage place.  She's going to heaven.  She and kitty are going to play with each other and wait for us."

"Mommy," she replied, "We're not going to get puked on!"

Oy.

(New Jessie was $50.  This is a VERY expensive flu.)

Awesome

Now I have it too.  The minor sore throat, low fever, headache, body ache thing I had this week turned ugly yesterday.  Higher fever, bad cough, chills...  I've been up since about 4:30 with various kids, and I decided to stay up and drink some hot tea, instead of going right back to bed.

But if I have to get it to produce the antibodies to protect Jack, then I'll take it.

How on earth do people manage to deal when they, or their kids, are really ill?  I know this will pass, and that keeps me going.  I guess when it's bad you deal because you don't have a choice.  One foot in front of the other.  What else can anyone do?

A friend of mine had a baby on 12/29, and she's in the hospital with RSV.  It seems like everyone on Facebook has at least one sick kid.  But it could be worse, it could always be worse, and so even in the midst of it, I'm grateful.

MG's Results

The CT scan was negative for appendicitis - the doctor said that her symptoms were probably caused by the urinary tract infection that she has, but to keep an eye on it.  (Yes, I feel a tiny bit better knowing that the ER doctor saw enough of what I saw to test for it, but mostly I'm just glad she doesn't need surgery).

The bad news is that she has Influenza A, and she needs to stay away from Jack until she is symptom-free for 24 hours without fever reducers - which will be about two weeks from now.  Influenza A can be fatal in infants, so, yeah.

I have no idea how we're going to manage this...  Thank goodness we're self-employed. 

See you in March or so....