Good Night Sweetheart

Let me set the stage for you:
Isabelle has been sick from daycare continuously for the past month and a half. Everything that she has gotten, she has given to Conrad and I. I understand this is par for the course. Just what happens when your children are in group settings. Okay. Got it.

But this weekend she seemed to be feeling better. But I was feeling worse! Enter Stage Right Hero: Nyquil (the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine…need I say more?). So Sunday night I take a nice dose of Nyquil about 10:30 and sleep the sleep of the drugged for two solid hours. I dream about Olympic swimming competitions and mansions that resemble Charlie and the Chocolate factory scenes. Old friends I haven’t seen or thought of in years visit me and bring nice presents…don’t you love drug induced dreams?

Here we go:
A cold and snowy Sunday Night

1:45a.m. Baby (who is sleeping upstairs in crib, instead of in pack and play) starts crying. Daddy goes and gets her and feeds her. She keeps thrashing around, falling asleep and waking up. I think she can’t breathe…stuffy nose. Or her tummy is upset…maybe it’s the rice cereal we have just started feeding her? Maybe she has a fever? She feels kinda hot. So we dose her up. Baby Tylonel, Baby Gas medicine, Baby Cough Syrup, don’t forget the antibiotic that she is still on.

2:45a.m. Baby still up. Daddy (who took a 3 hour nap that afternoon) is graciously up with Baby…trying to put her to sleep…no success.

2:50a.m. Mommy gets up. Rocks baby to sleep (sings a little, with a voice only a baby could appreciate) *sigh* sweet relief

3:25 Stumbles back in bed in her drug induced stupor.

3:32 Baby up again crying. Mom and Dad up, because, really who can sleep while baby is crying??

3:33 Tries rocking, singing, swinging, bouncing, walking, talking, watching TV, watching fireplace, bottle, sippy cup, cuddling, hugging, crying, pleading. Mother still in drug induced stupor. Some works a little, falls asleep, wakes back up.

4:15 Daddy goes to bed and shuts door. Really, who can blame him?

5:55 Mommy and baby fall into light sleep

6:15 Baby wakes back up, crying. Mommy cries a little too knowing in a little while she has to get up and drive two hours to a clinic.

7:30 Daddy gets up and calls doctor out of desperation. Makes appointment for 11. Takes baby. Mommy goes to sleep and closes door.

8:30 Gets up, puts baby in bath, where she stops crying and laughs and smiles in warm tub…

9:00 Mommy drinks two cups of coffee and drives through the snow to clinic for work. Daddy stays home with baby.

This makes for a great start for the week, huh? By the way, the doctor said she’s over the flu, over the bronchitis, this was just another virus. Keep her fluids up, use the humidifier, and the snot bulb thingy. But she seems to be fine now. We were wondering why she couldn’t be sick on a Friday night? Sometimes at 2 in the morning I have thoughts like she is doing this on purpose?!? I know, how bad of a mother am I??

Balinesian Celebration

For Conrad's birthday, we celebrated by having Indonesian food. We found this great little resturant called "A Taste of Bali." I had Ayam Goreng Rica rica...chicken in some chili lime sauce...and can I say hot?? Soooo hot I could only eat a couple of bites. It was reministant of Rachel and I's trip to Bali, tho!


On another note, I highly recommend www.restaurant.com Here you type in your zip code and you can buy gift certficates from local restuarants. The kick is that for $3 you get a $10 gift certificate or a $25 certificate for only $10. Not a bad little deal. Okay, now that I shared my little moeny saving secret with you, have any to share with me???

Happy Birthday Baby....

Today is Conrad's Birthday. I surprised him by making a couple of cakes and putting up a BIG sign outside his office saying that it was his birthday, eat some cake and wish him a good one. I think he was surprised when he got in from his meeting this morning, and of course, his co-workers were ecstatic with a morning cake break. We ride to work together and I took a big heavy gym bag with me today stuffed with tupperwear, napkins, and all the fixins. He asked me if I was running away from home on our way out the door. Geezzz, I wish I took my camera to work today!

The next logical question you might ask is how old is Conrad? Great question. One I will try to answer. You see, one day, thirty or so years ago, Raymond, Conrad's older brother fell behind in school. Something about going to stay with his grandparents for an extended amount of time and missing too much school. As a result, his older brother got put in Conrads class. For reasons only his father will understand, his dad decided that he was going to change Conrad and Raymonds Birthday's by a year....making them both a year younger. I think age is a relative concept in India... I'm not sure I got all of the details of that story right, but it's interesting trivia about my husband!

Anyway, happy 34/35 birthday, honey. I Love you!

The verdict

Conrad took Isabelle to the doctor this morning and we found out that she has bronchitis...I hate to say that we are relieved...but we are. At least it's not pnemonia. So the doctor gave her some medicine and she already seems to feel a ton better! I thought I would also post some more pictures of Christmas and Isabelle for our family in India.
I wish I had more things to write about but life has been pretty busy and crazy lately, and it seems that mommyhood has sucked some of my brains out...particularly the part that allows me to think about anything else but parenting..I wonder if there is a name for that syndrome?

Icky Coughs and Job interviews

Isabelle has developed a really bad cough. I guess we should expect this with all of the stuff that goes around in daycares, but man, this child has been sick for weeks and weeks!
I think we are going to take her to the doctor again this week just to make sure it's only a cold and not something worse like pnemonia or whooping cough. Did you know that's going around again? Who knew??

Anyway, on other fronts, I have a job interview today. It's a management position, which would mean a little more money, and more responsibility...but mostly it means I won't be traveling as much as I do now! This is a good thing for Isabelle. It's in the Ohio Lead Prevention Program. I know, I get into the most random jobs! Who would have figured when I graduated from college that I would have been into eyes or lead!

I haven't had much to write lately. We have been blotting along, trying to get over sickness. We went to visit my family this weekend and particularly my grandpa who is in a nursing home recovering from surgery. We also hung up some pic's for my grandma in her house. But it was just a good weekend of relaxing and recovering!

I AM excited about a new development. Apparently, Spirit Airlines has these periodic sales....flights that cost one cent her leg! Yeah, seriously! And we got tickets to Cancun, Mexico! Whoo hoo! So we are going to have to celebrate our 2 year anniversery in Mexico this year!

Sick Day

Today Isabelle is home sick. She's sitting in her bouncer as I speak watching Sesame Street...I remember many a sick days doing the same! Oh how the world turns. She has been throwing up all weekend and after a messy episode on our way out the door to daycare we decided a trip to the ped was warranted. Only to find out what we already know...the flu. But she seems to be weathering it well. So pray for Isabelle if you think about it!

The Life and Times of Dilbert

I am a professional. I have an MBA. I work in a cube. My walls are soft and institutional mauve. I know so much about my co-workers lives I could write their obituaries. There are days when my life feels like that movie, “The Office.” Today was one of those days. As, I mentioned before, there is little privacy in Cubeville. I understand that, but do others? I think not.

Today (and most everyday I am in my office) I listen to the ever unfolding soap opera of a co-worker who’s office backs up to mine. I know, for example, that her car (or her daughters car, I’m not sure) is in the process of being reposed. I hear her yell at her daughter about a baby daddy who is neglecting his offspring (her grandchild) and tell her that she needs to take control of the situation (WHEN did the situation get out of control? I feel like I missed an episode or two over the holidays!). Although the details can get a little blurry, since I only hear one sided conversations, I am ashamed to say that the sheer volume has made it impossible NOT to easedrop! Oh the life of Dilbert.

Ringing in the New Year!

Our weekend wasn't too exciting. Conrad had to work late Friday night and then again New Years Day so we kept it low key. We did have friends over on Friday night and the Chase Family from Tyler Texas, who visited us on Saturday. That was fun!

Conrad's mom says that whatever you do on New Years Day is what you will be doing for the rest of the year. All I have to say is Yikes! Monday started off with me waking up in great pain. I wasn't sure what is was. By Monday night I had narrowed it to two possible problems: downfood poisening or an ulcer (after I googled my symptoms, of course...you gotta love the armchair doctor). After a rough night were, to add insult to injury, Isabelle just wouldn't sleep! The symptoms got worse and I called my family doctor on Tuesday morning. I quickly recapped my symptoms and asked for an appointment today. She told me that it sounded like Gall stones and to go to the emergency room.

Well, fast forward four loooongggg boring hours and indeed, I have gallstones. It does not appear to be infected, so I was invited to "manage" the pain with heavy narcotics, compliments of the MD on call. Well, I have a meeting with a surgeon on Thursday to discuss the removal of my gall bladder.


Another interesting tidbit is that my 9 mo of "morning sickness" during pregnancy was most likely...gall stones! Ick! I even asked my OB who said, "nah, nope. Not gall stones." I asked because my mom had these (and the morning sickness) and had them removed after her second pregnancy, and had a much much better 3rd pregnancy. Listen to your patients, people!

2006 Thankfulness Cont.

I’m thankful for my family in India. They love us and would do anything in the world for us. They love Isabelle and their love and presence in her life is priceless. I’m thankful that we had a chance to visit them and introduce our baby girl to them while she was small. I love being a part of an Indian family. I am so glad that my family will be a woven cord of two different cultures. My family has great food, beautiful clothes, fierce loyalty, a cool sense of friendship with my brothers and sisters-in-law, a mother and father in law who love us and add immeasurably to our lives with their wisdom and grace. And I LOVE my husband’s cousins, aunts, uncles, cousin-brothers, cousin-sisters (did I get that right??), nephews, nieces, brothers, and sisters-in-law. You are truly MY family!

I am thankful for my family. As I have become a parent, I am reflecting back on the vital role my extended family played in raising me. And I am realizing how important they are in the lives of my children.
No one loves or cares for your children, other than you, like their grandparents. And they play a different role entirely, than parents. It’s a priceless role. And as my grandparents age, I realize how blessed I am that I have known all four of them throughout most of my life…how unique and special is that? Every day I have with the remaining three grandparents is a gift that I don’t take for granted.