Tag Archives: frazzled

#PPDChat Topic 02.25.13: Outta Steam – Coping on the Hard Days

ppdchat-02-25-13Motherhood, heck, parenthood period, doesn’t come loaded with sick days or days off when the going gets tough. No, we have to steel ourselves to push through it. Sometimes we soar right on through whatever is flung in our direction and then there are times when we feel we fail miserably.

It’s not easy.

With a Postpartum Mood Disorder on board, it gets even muckier. We barely have the energy to fight that in addition to taking care of our children, let alone tossing anything else on top of the flames. So how do you handle it when a tough day (or days) hits when you’re struggling? What if you get sick? What if everyone is sick? Or there’s an emergency family situation? Or..the list could go on.

Today’s chat will focus on these situations. Feel free to join us to vent, share tips, or just hang out. We don’t promise to instantly cheer you up or fix all the tough in your life, but after today’s chats over on Twitter, you’ll know you aren’t alone.

See you there!

 

 

I’m BACK!

So you may have been asking yourself – where’s the new stuff? She’s been so awesomely active lately and then BAM – offline! What’s going on???

Well, for starters, I have been blissfully Bill Gates free for nearly 6 months now (I think) and using Ubuntu, a Linux based OS. One day in the not to distant past, my Firefox refused to open. It would open up long enough to load and then disappear. So I’ve been using Epiphany, a no-frills really annoying browser that limits what you can do on the world wide web.

Last Friday I finally backed up my data onto a 2GB USB key so I could reformat with the hopes of getting Firefox and my website design (formerly NvU but now Kompozer, a Firefox extension) back on track. You would think this would be easy, right?

Yeah well, here we are eight days later, an entire day of which was spent without power due to 6.5 in of snow dropping here in Georgia on March 1, and nearly 3 entire days of which was spent without an internet connection due to said storm. Oh, and our schedule was insane this week. Charlotte went back to ATL for speech therapy and had her early pre-K eval, Chris had surgery to deal with his kidney stones, and for added fun, our landlord did some cleaning up after the storm on Friday and burned some debris – the smoke enshrouded the house and I ended up spending the better part of the day at the in-laws because our house is drafty and I didn’t feel like not being able to breathe or see through the allergic reaction tears. Oh, and did I mention the run-in with a trash truck’s drive-train on the way home from ATL? Scared Charlotte and I to pieces!

My poor little Centro has been quite the workhorse and thank God I didn’t get behind in email otherwise I’d really be in trouble. I know it’ll be happy to get a break.

Ubuntu didn’t want to re-install. I didn’t want to go back to Bill Gates land and was not willing to compromise on that. My dear husband has really worked as hard as he could to get me up and running and thankfully he was successful tonight! Still have some glitches to iron out but hey, I’ve got Ubuntu runing, I’m posting here, and all is well.

Oh, and in the meantime I managed to clean my kitchen. The sinks have been clear of debris for the better part of the week. Yeah. Brings to mind a famous quote I’ve seen circulating before: “Show me a clean house and I’ll show you a broken computer!”

But I’m back.

Oh how I’ve missed the Internet on the big screen!

No interview today….

I apologize that there is not an interview today.

We’ve been having a rough go of it lately – Chris has another horribly unco-operative kidney stone. He’s been to the ER twice within the past two weeks and goes to a urologist today because it’s getting worse. We do not have health insurance either so everything is coming directly out of our own pocket. To make matters worse, his new job has not gotten his check right yet so we’re still flat broke.

I had planned on trying to post the interview this morning but will instead spend my day running around – Chris to work @ 11, picked up at 145 and to the urologist at 2, Alli from Pre-K @ 230, back to the urologist to get Chris, then home to collapse.

Pray for us. We could certainly use all the strength that brings.

Mommy!

Mommy! Mommy mommy mommy mommy!

MAAAAAHHHHHHHHH-MEEEEEEeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeee!!!!

CHARLOTTE HIT ME!

Mommy! She’s not sitting down!

I hong-ee Mahmee – me want ice-pop! (nevermind that we just finished a meal!)

Mommy. I’m not feeling well. Mommy. I want to lay down. Mommy – I need to take my shirt off cuz I’m getting sweated. Can YOU unbutton it for me?

Mommy! Look what she did! Charlotte! We don’t DO THAT!

Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyy!

But I want to

No but I want to

I wanna watch this just not the scary part mommy!

Can I go on my computer? MOMMY! I wanna go on my computer! Mommy! CHARLOTTE’S BOTHERING ME AGAIN!

Me got poopy! (yay)

Mommy! Charlotte drew on herself with the marker!

She’s touching me!

Two Hours to finish a Smoothie?

My attempt at hiding Alli’s medicine in a smoothie failed miserably.

It took nearly two hours for her to finish the thing and if I had recorded the sounds she was making the entire time, you’d expect me to be announcing the birth of a child after it was all over. Seriously!

What the heck is going on here??? Why won’t my kid take her medicine? Chris says it’s because she’s got his discerning palate which means she’ll be a chef someday. I don’t care about someday, I told him. All I care about is that she take her medicine now so she can go back to school.

I just got off the phone with a very unfortunate nurse at my pediatrician’s office who’s first suggestion was to hid the medicine in some yogurt or pudding. Were you NOT listening to what I just told you about the friggin smoothie???  The medicine was hidden in blended layers of frozen blueberries, yogurt, banana, and blueberry juice. AND SHE KNEW IT WAS THERE!!!! Then the nurse brilliantly told me to hide it in some Sunny D. Listen here sweetheart, my kid’s got strep. I’m not giving her something as acidic as Sunny D. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that’d be a bit like rubbing salt in an open wound. And then Brilliant Nurse Idiot suggested I not let Alli see me put the medicine in whatever I’m hiding it in. Really? Oh My God. Thank YOU for that brilliant tip. I HADN’T THOUGHT OF THAT ONE!!!! The pediatrician is supposed to call me back. I think I got a bit too belligerent on the phone but I’m at my wit’s end, can ya blame me?

I want to go curl up in our bed and go to sleep.  I think I will right after the ped calls me back.

Anyone have a tracking number for that Cuervo?