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Watch A Sitcom? No, I just live my life.

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LONG POST!!!!!

 

(The following is an informal attempt at a sitcom script of my afternoon from 4p – 5p)

Characters:

Mom (That’s me, 30 yo, pregnant with third child, exhausted)

Alli (3 yo daughter in the midst of potty training and has sensory issues)

Charlotte (16 month old, napping)

 Open: Living room, toys scattered. Mom curled up in recliner, she’s covered in a soft camel blanket. Cell phone alarm goes off. Mom reaches over and turns it off. Curls back up and goes back to sleep. Five minutes later, Cell phone alarm goes off again. Mom’s arm juts out from under the blanket and hits the cell phone button. Arm retreats back under blanket, Mom shifts a little bit. Nine minutes later, Mom decides to get up. Throws blanket off, shoos the dogs off the chair, and makes her way to the bathroom. On the way, she discovers Alli in the process of pooping in her room. Grabs paper towel. Cleans it up. Carries it to the potty. Alli comes with her.

Alli: “Mommy, I’m all sticky!”

Mom: “Ok honey, well, we’ll do a rain bath. Get in the tub.”

Alli climbs into the tub.

Alli: “I don’t want the toys!” Alli starts to cry.

Mom: “Well then pick them up and put them in the bag.”

Alli: “ok” Alli squats and begins to pick up the toys.

Mom flushes toilet. Not working.  

Mom: “Great.”

Mom reaches over to turn the faucet on. Not working either.

“Alli, we can’t do a rainbath. Water isn’t working.”

Alli: Why?

Mom: I don’t know why.

Alli: Why?

Mom: (frustrated): I don’t know why.

After cleaning Alli with wipes, they leave the bathroom. Alli runs around the kitchen, demanding a snack over and over. Mom goes to living room to get phone to call water company.

Mom: Yes, my water’s been shut off. Is this for non-payment or because y’all are having another problem?

Water Company: Non-payment, ma’am.

Mom: Well is there anyway you can turn it back on if we promise to make a payment in the morning? ALLI! Don’t DO THAT! PUT THAT DOWN!

Water Company: No ma’am. We can’t do that. We have to have a payment.

Mom: Fine. Mom hangs up and calls Dad.

Dad: Hey, what’s up?

Mom: Our water’s been shut off.

Dad: WHAT!?!

Mom: Yup. It’s off. For non-payment. ALLI! PUT THAT DOWN!

Dad: Well, what are we going to do?

Alli: I want a snack! I WANT A SNACK! I WANT A SNACK NOW!

Mom: Alli, give me a minute! I don’t know what we’re going to do. That’s why I called you.

Dad: Well see if they will take the debit card number and run it in the morning.

Mom: *sighs* Ok. Mom calls the water company back.         

Mom: I just called and was wondering if I could give you the debit card number and have you run it in the morning and you guys could then turn my water back on now?

Water Company: No ma’am. We would have to run it as soon as we got it and besides our guys got off at 4p so they wouldn’t be able to turn it back onto today anyway.

Mom huffs.: Fine! I’ll be calling back in the morning then.

Mom fixes Charlotte’s bottle and calls Dad back.

Dad: What’d they say?

Mom: No go. Plus their guys got off at 4 so they wouldn’t be able to turn it on today anyways.

Dad: Great. You gonna be here to pick me up by 5?

Mom: Yeah. Just gotta give Charlotte her bottle and I’ll be on my way.

Mom and Alli go into the living room to get Alli dressed. She puts on her blinky sandals and while Mom is getting Charlotte up, Alli gets the boppy and sits on the couch with it. Mom comes into the living room with Charlotte.

Alli: I wanna give Charlotte her bottle.

Mom: Ok honey, go for it.

Mom lays Charlotte down on the boppy and helps Alli guide the bottle into Charlotte’s mouth. Alli plays with Charlotte’s hair and gives her kisses as Charlotte drinks her bottle. Mom takes pictures. Once Charlotte is done, she starts to cry. Mom picks her up and turns the TV off.

Mom: Let’s go. We gotta pick daddy up.

Alli: ok!

Alli runs over to the door. As mom opens the door, the family discovers it’s raining. Alli darts outside to play in the puddles. As they get in the rain, Charlotte starts to giggle as the rain hits her. Alli plays in the rain drops. Mom gets Charlotte secured. Alli keeps splashing.

Mom: Alli! Come here! Alli continues to play.

Mom: ALLI! COME HERE!

Alli: OOOH! MUDDY PUDDLE!

Alli runs over and stomps in the muddy puddle. Mom picks her up and puts her in the car. Alli whines about being wet. Mommy explains that’s what happens when we play in the rain. Mommy gets in the car and starts it. The belts squeal a bit so mom turns off the AC. Belts continue to squeal down the road. Mom begins to smell burning rubber and watches the temperature gauge. As they pull onto the main road, the temp gauge spikes. An accident in the left-hand lane ha s traffic backed up. Mom turns the heat on, opens the windows, and prays fervently that the car makes it home. Mom calls Dad.

Mom: Can’t pick you up. I popped a belt.

Dad: You’re kidding.

Mom: Um, no.

Dad: Well, I’ll see what I can work out.

At the traffic light while waiting to make a u-turn, Mom desperately wants to bang her head against the steering wheel but doesn’t because of Alli. Mom begins to pray that Dad can get a vehicle so she can make it to therapy in the morning. If therapy has to be cancelled, that would be IT. Dad manages to get a vehicle.  ____________________________________________________________________________

In summary, from 4pm-5pm pretty much sucked yesterday. I am now watching Radio in an attempt to make myself cry just for the sheer release but so far nothing and I’m an hour and 19 minutes into the movie. Don’t know if it will happen or not. I’m not much of a crier when things go wrong. I get irritable and angry. I almost wish I was a crier. Sure would make releasing all this tension easier… Therapy was VERY therapeutic this morning and I wish it could have lasted longer – even my therapist commented that we probably needed a three hour session or so. It had been two weeks since my last session so I had the poopy painting, chris’ wreck, and then yesterday to vent about. A LOT for just a one hour session. I almost started crying on the way home from therapy but not quite. I know I need to but I just can’t. I almost can’t until I do because I know that once I do, I will feel so much better.

And in an update, water is now back on. My car has been fixed and is ready to be picked up. And Alli hasn’t painted yet this afternoon *knock on wood* and is actually not screaming for me every five minutes. *sighs* Now if I could just have that cry, I’d be good to go!

What does “stress-free” REALLY mean??

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Since I last posted, a lot has happened. Ok, well, maybe not that much, but my husband wrecked his car. We’re not sure yet if it’s totalled.

My oldest daughter has painted her walls with well, excrement at LEAST three times (two times with her own, once with the dogs.. fun doesn’t even BEGIN to cover it)

And last but not least, the same daughter is now potty trained and had her first completely accident free day yesterday. I even managed to get an hour nap. (The day before she would call me to go potty as soon as I had finished taking her and managed to sit back down in the living room. I went to bed when she did that evening!)

Our youngest daughter has taken three steps in a row now on three separate occasions. Walking is not far off.

And our youngest daughter’s pediatrician seems to think she needs to be on a high fat diet – as according to her chart she lost 10 oz in between March and her July appt. I believe it was a mistake in her chart. She already eats like a horse! I don’t know how to get her to eat more and not get sick! He wants her on whole milk but frankly, we can’t afford to get two different kinds of milk at the store. *sighs* He also seems to not connect the dots between increased activity and typical weight gain slow down. He did this same thing with our other daughter as well.

The reason for the title of this post is because I had an advert link pop up when I was checking my gmail the other day. It was for 72 hour potty training – for a Stress Free mom. Frankly, I was less stressed when she was in diapers. This potty training has been the hardest thing we’ve had to do with her. I’m hoping peer pressure/example will make the second child easier but hey, I won’t know until I’ve done it. But at least now I’ve done it once and have a general idea of what it’s going to be like. Poor first kids. They get experimented on when it comes to parenting!

On another note, I’m going to ask for my iron levels to be checked at this next appt. I’m tired ALL the time now again and just can’t keep my energy levels up. I need to start walking with the girls again but just can’t bring myself to do it in this heat!

Gotta run. I’m being told it’s potty time.

The Insanity of Motherhood

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Growing up, my mother had a black and white cartoon taped to the fridge. The cartoon shows a woman answering her door talking to a man. It appears he’s a census taker or something along those lines. There is one balloon of speech in the cartoon. It says: “Work? I just wake up in the morning and there it is.”

If I get nothing else when my mother passes on (and I hope that will be a long time coming), I want that cartoon. The past three years of my life have more than proven that statement to me and the past few days have been particularly difficult.

One of our dogs is ill. We’re not sure what is wrong with him – we thought it was a 24 hour stomach bug but he’s still not able to control himself and it’s quite disgusting, especially now that good old Ms. Morning Sickness is getting bolder. (I think I need to find my Louisville slugger) So my husband has had the lovely chore of cleaning up after the dog. On Monday I put the dog in his crate for the bulk of the day once it became clear he wasn’t going to be able to control himself – there was no way I was going to be able to continue cleaning up after him. He was fine yesterday for the most part but today he’s off again and we’re contemplating calling the vet.

Speaking of work – be right back. Charlotte is crying. (8:09 p.m.)  

Ok, so right after Charlotte got settled, the computer crashed and I have NO idea when I started this post! It took me almost 10 minutes to get her resettled by the way.

Dose of Reality…

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Tuesday evening this week I held my first peer support group meeting of the month. About an hour and a half in, I was ready to pitch in the towel and go home because no one had shown up. Just then, our one regular drove up. I recognized her vehicle and was happy to see her because I really needed someone to talk to this week. Turned out she needed to talk too but that’s confidential and I can’t share it with you! (sorry!) I listened to her first, and finally decided to share my news. She was thrilled for me and asked if I was scared – not only because of the PPD but because of the potential for a repeat birth defect.

At first I said that I was doing ok, then I stated that it kind of scared me that I’m doing so well with it. She told me not to worry about being scared and to just take the OK part.

Not so sure that I am doing that. In the back of my mind, I’m freaking out a little bit more every day. But by the end of the day, I’m ok again. I feel like such a yo-yo. And I had totally forgotten just how much early pregnancy can mess with your physical well being. Ok, well, pregnancy messes with you in general, but early pregnancy is my least favourite. I am horrible at being exhausted and queasy. I just shut down. I discovered yesterday that as long as I keep my belly VERY full, I don’t get queasy. So I pretty much need to be grazing all day long. Which means I need to find healthy non-fat stuff to snack on because I am determined to not gain a lot of weight this pregnancy. It’d be nice if I could actually end up losing weight when all said is done. Granted I want to have a healthy pregnancy but at nearly 100lbs overweight in the first place, the last thing I need to be doing is adding another 25-35lbs! I handled the Gestational Diabetes diet with my first just fine and she was great so I am trying to slowly gear my diet in that direction.

 As far as counseling goes this pregnancy, the first thing I did the day after I got my positives was call my therapist and find out if we could move my appointment up. She saw me the next morning at 730a. I LOVE MY THERAPIST! My husband and I have a joint visit this Tuesday at 6pm. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. He’s having some stress issues related to the financial aspect and his overall responsibility in that department. I’m hoping we can work through those together. Although he abhors being “shrinked.” Sometimes though – it’s necessary to deal with a tough life situation. And I would certainly call what we’re going through a tough life situation.

That’s all for now – just gotta face my biggest decision of the evening – do I REALLY want to give into my craving for fried chicken skin or not? (yeah, I know, and it IS my weirdest pregnancy craving to date!)

Warmest,

Lauren

Mixed Reactions from the Family

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So far, Praise God, no one has outright disowned us.

My entire family knows, apparently my father didn’t have much of a reaction, my mother wants me to lose weight (and I agree, I am overweight), and one of my younger brothers is relieved because we’re “doing all the work” and have taken the pressure off them for yet another year at the least! LOL.

I told Chris’ mother this morning. She was hesitantly excited – nervous because of what another pregnancy means for us emotionally and financially, and excited because she’s going to be Nana to another baby!

Tonight I’ll be telling my father in law. I am not really looking forward to it but my gut tells me he’ll take it better coming from me than from Chris. I’ll update later as to how he handles the news.

 We’ll also be telling Chris’ brother & sister in law. I will be asking my sister in law if she’d be willing to let me borrow her maternity clothes because I have um, well, I was done! Who needs maternity clothes lying about?!?? Not me! (Hindsight SUCKS) At least we hadn’t had our big yard sale and sold all the infant stuff yet, right? And to think – that was going to be in just a few weeks!

Gotta run now, time for Alli’s quiet time – and my sanity saver nap!

150pm: Quick Update: Chris went by his dad’s office on his lunch break and broke the news. According to Chris, Dad was shocked but seemingly excited. Mom knows that Dad knows so now all we have to do is tell brother & sister in law. Phew. So glad all of that is over and done with! Now we can get on with the pregnancy and what’s to come!