What a Life!

I have had the most bitter-sweet 2 1/2 weeks. Thanks for your prayers and kind thoughts...I wish I had been doing homework, but that was not the case...my life was invaded. Sorry to those of you who have heard the story, I thought I'd share with everyone rather than re-writing it.
My oldest niece Frances went in for gallbladder surgery...no problem right...in and out in a few hours and has women at the house that can help with the baby. Well Wednesday night after surgery, she put the baby to bed and collapsed in pain. I got a call saying that the ambulance had taken her to the hospital...unfortunately, I left my cell phone at work, so I was home writing my final paper. Actually I think it was a God thing that I didn't have my phone because I would have gone to the hospital and never would have had time to do my final. Anyway, the next morning I got to work and checked my phone and left for the hospital.
The doctors thought she might just be overly dramatic from her surgery, so nothing was done until 1pm Thursday when they did a CT scan. Then Dr Dave came in (wooo hoo...he was so good looking...the bright spot of being at the hospital all day). He told Frances that she had some fluid internally, but it was just from the irrigation from surgery and again suggested that she might just be overreacting. That's when I had to pipe in. I said everyone in this family has an extreme threshold for pain, for Pete's sake (not that I know Pete or anything), she had her child natural and was up and around the next day and didn't need a single Tylenol. He looked at me seriously then and said "we'll try one more thing." They took her in for more tests and found that her body had filled with bile. Apparently, Dr Dave somehow poked a hole in one of her bile ducts and wasn't aware of it. They rushed her into surgery and put some sort of drain pipe (that's what I called it) in her to get the bile out....uh, I had lots of names for the gadget, but was yelled at because laughing = pain...therefore, names were forbidden (I still had to throw a few cracks in). So, Dr Dave woke me up around midnight to let me know how the surgery went...mmm hmmm...Dr Dave was a nice wake up call...lol. Anyway, so all is sort of well...right...wrong. Frances has a baby, which now means Auntie has a baby.

I called it "the runway".


Like I have a clue what to do with a 6 month old baby...so I put her on the runway and provided healthy boundaries for her...like any normal psych student would. I pulled every available pillow, and puffy quilt in my house to make it a most pleasant experience for her and me both. She's a roller and I didn't want her smacking her precious head on the concrete fireplace floor thingy, or grabbing any wood to build a fire...she's a smart one...lol.
She really was an awesome baby. She took a bath, took her last bottle at 7:15, and I took her upstairs and put her in my feather bed, laid my hand on her little belly and prayed for her, and she was out. She slept with me the first week and I would wake up and poke her to make sure she was still breathing...scary thing those little people are.





Granny (my sister) came out the first weekend to help with Frances...so she got 6am baby duties...lol...oh yeah, I woke her up sent her to my room and I crawled in her bed...then, of course, got up to take a picture. hee hee





I took time off work to take care of her...she is the most darling little girl in the world, but I was so stressed out. I didn't know if I should find a daycare...how I was going to budget for daycare...how I would choose one...uhhh...then I finally said "Frances, you are going to have to find a way to comfort your baby without holding her." Sounds kind of mean, but I was freaking out. So I set everything up near the runway so Frances would be able to change her, feed her...blah blah blah...with as little movement as possible. Well, it worked and I went back to work, but like I said, I have no idea how to care for a baby and while Frances was taking care of her, she noticed that Anika's neck was swollen. Anika has a thyroglossal duct cyst and it became infected and I didn't notice it...it was the size of a ping pong ball. Woo, I felt bad. We got that under control and she forgave me, but passed her little cold on to me in the process....little petri dishes too they are.
Anyway, so I'm sick, working, coming home and taking care of Frances, and doing my baby routine...every night after I put her to bed, I went right downstairs, sat on the sofa, and fell asleep.

Meet Senior Penguini

She loved this little guy...he's a bath sponge I got in my expensive little shop-because-I-have-a-baby-in-my-house trip to Target...it was soooo much fun!

My cats weren't thrilled about the addition, but they certainly have taken to sleeping in her bouncer. I warned them that they would be gassed if they touched the baby. They took me serious too...they never stepped on the runway...they always walked the perimeter of it knowing my eyes were watching them. My Chloe is not fond of little people, she pops them on the forehead and smacks their bottom's when they walk by her...at least she keeps her claws in. Anyway, my boy cat is a sweetie and eventually allowed her to pet him and even purred to Anika's utmost delight...I think he was really starved for attention. No, they aren't spoiled.

So, the drama has ended. I took Frances and Anika home on Sunday and then went to bed. I was really exhausted! Monday morning I woke up, and as usual, I turned on the Joni show to wake me up a bit, then when I hear Joyce Meyers voice, I know it's time to get up and get ready. Well, as I was getting ready, I heard Beth Moore on Life Today...I went into a full on panic attack because I thought I was so tired that I slept until Wednesday!!!

My homework was late two weeks in a row and I never wrote a huge paper, so I have some making up to do, but I am finally back to normal. Sure do miss my Bab's sweet smile & kisses though!