Tuesday, November 30, 2010

My Thanksgiving Weekend

Wednesday I flew around the house getting everything packed, food prepared and the car loaded. Smug-Baby and I headed out and got gas on the way to pick up Smug-Hub from work. He was supposed to get off work at 6, but he got a last minute phone call that ended up keeping him until close to 6:30 and Smug-Baby was way unhappy about it. We made a quick stop for a sandwich and got on the road. We started out the drive with Smug-Hub in the back seat playing with the baby and me driving, but after about an hour it was clear that Smug-Baby was tired and hungry, so we switched and I nursed her to sleep leaning over her car seat and then she slept the rest of the drive, Smug-Hub drove and I dictated the directions according to my iPhone (my new iPhone that I had purchased that afternoon after my old phone fell out of my pocket during an unfortunate toilet flushing incident).

We arrived about 9:30pm and the whole house was buzzing with family energy, running children and the smell of pizza and Thanksgiving day food prep. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins all chatting, eating, laughing and watching movies. Since Smug-Baby had just had a 2 hour nap she was totally ready to rock and roll and quickly became the hit of the party with her shy, flirty smile to everyone who tried to hold her. We finally got her to settle down about midnight and off to bed we went. The problem was that most everyone else was still up and since we were in a new place, with new sounds and a new bed, every sound, squeak, or movement woke my sweet baby. It was a rough night for mommy :(

She was up for good about 7am and I was able to take a short shower before others started getting up. The day was spent talking to my family, catching up on every ones lives and helping get the food on the table. We ate ourselves silly and only had one incident where Smug-Hub forgot that we were keeping Smug-Baby away from dairy and gave her a tiny bite of mashed potatoes. When I reminded him, it ended up making me look like the bad guy since my family isn't reading the same research that I am when it comes to introducing solids. Smug-Hub and I talked about it later and while he understands that he didn't handle it well, I know that I could have handled it better myself.

I just don't compromise when it comes to her health and well-being. I would rather my family think that I might be nuts or militant about something than risk my baby girl on anything! I think that sometimes people just follow the advice of parents or grandparents without doing their own research or do their own research 30 years ago and did the best with that information. I am just doing the same thing, following the most resent research and trying to do what is best for my child.

I had a short conversation about circumcision with my cousin's wife when she questioned why we may not have any more children. She told me that her husband (my cousin) had problems and had to be circumcised at 25 and because of that she was totally for circumcision. I totally understand that and to each his own, however, it has only been in the last 10 years or so that doctors have realized that their old recommendations that an uncircumcised penis must be pulled back and cleaned to prevent infection was actually causing infections.  If you leave the penis alone, like God intended, 99.9% of boys will be totally fine!! I am constantly amazed that people have absolutely no faith in God and totally assume that He screwed up!! How arrogant is that???

Anyway! Back to the holiday! The food was amazing and then we did a small baby shower for one of my cousins who is expecting her baby boy at the end of December. Smug-Hub and I decided that we should stay the night and just leave super early Friday morning to get him to work. Smug-Baby fell asleep about 9:30, for which I was totally grateful because I had slept so poorly the night before. But alas, she was up and down again all night due to the unfamiliar noises and the alarm at 5am was almost welcome because it meant that I could stop trying to get any rest.

We quietly showered, packed and loaded the car (which Smug-Baby totally slept through by the way - go figure) and got on the road by 6am. Smug-Baby again slept most of the way and we made good time, getting Smug-Hub to work about 30 minutes early! Smug-Baby and I went home and we crawled into bed and slept until noon! I felt a lot better, but I totally could have slept a few more hours and if the UPS guy hadn't rung the bell, I might still be sleeping :)

After our nap, we decided to do some Christmas shopping, so we picked up Smug-Grandma and headed to Toys-R-Us to get gifts for all the kids that I wanted to buy for and had a nice time. I was expecting huge lines and crowds, but it was fairly slow and we got in and out. After dropping Smug-Grandma home I went to see my Grandpa and we talked and caught up for about an hour or so.

Upon leaving his place, I got a call from my sister that my dad's dog had died very suddenly and my step-mother was taking it very hard, so Smug-Baby I drove straight to their house to offer comfort and hugs and spent some time talking with them before it was time to go home and get the baby ready for bed.

It had been a long day and I hoped that she would sleep, and she went down just like normal, but was awake and ready to play at 4am!! So I played and rocked and nursed her until she went back to sleep about 6, but by then I was totally awake and I just stayed up hoping to nap with her later.

That afternoon, Smug-Hub started feeling sick to his stomach and barely touched his dinner. He ended up with a high fever and chills, running to the bathroom to throw up and telling me about all the pills all over the house that Smug-Baby was playing with and how it was so cold in the house he could see his breath! By this time, I too was feeling sick to my stomach and after getting him and the baby to bed, I threw up and got the shakes and spent the night in that half-sleep restlessness of illness.

By Sunday morning, I was fine aside from being truly exhausted beyond anything I've ever felt. Smug-Hub was better but very weak and still pretty sick. I tried to take care of everything/everyone throughout the day and did lay down when Smug-Baby napped for 2 hours, but was never able to fall asleep. I think that I was too tired to sleep - you know that feeling??

Sunday night, Smug-Baby was not able to keep her eyes open another moment past 7:45 and frankly I was happy to go to bed that early, because I was desperate for some quality sleep. However, she was up and ready to play at 11:30. Smug-Hub said that he was feeling OK and he would play with her and give me a chance to sleep, but was back to get me at midnight. He had over-estimated his strength, so I took over and she finally fell back asleep about 2. I got up at 4 to get ready for work.

UPDATE: Monday was fine, I took a long walk with the baby's and spent a huge amount of energy keeping Smug-Baby awake until 9:30 and we were both in bed by 10. While she did wake a few times to nurse, she slept mostly through the night and I feel a bit more rested this morning!!

1 comment:

  1. that sounds HORRIBLE. I can relate to every single bit! I hope you are more rested today little mama! Mwah!

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