Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Better?

Thanks for your nice comments on my last, crazed entry. I am still crazed and in fact was totally nutters today but now? Now everyone's in bed, I'm going to watch and see who got kicked of AI, and tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is Thursday, a day on which I have TWO things to do, and even though one of them is the hateful, hateful speech therapy, I love to have something to do and I love to have people come to my house, even if it is the hateful speech therapist, who thinks Joseph should be strapped down so he can 'focus' on his speech therapy. I have NO taste! Come on over, Jack the Ripper! Coffee's on!

The weather is getting better, I can see the light at the end of the winter. My mom is coming home in a few weeks and she can help me, or at least be trusted to babysit so I can go out to dinner. Or go have a drink. Or something. My MIL didn't come up last weekend because gas prices are so high. Sigh.

My latest bitch? Because I know you all are DYING to hear? Is that Kathleen isn't nursing well. She pops off and screams and then I pump and get four or five ounces and then she takes the bottle like it's all she was waiting for. This scares me, I don't know that I can pump and feed her bottles. Also I'm afraid my supply is going to get all weird. WHY do I have these weird kids? Or maybe everyone feels this way?

So things are better, kind of. I am sleeping more which of course helps a lot. I have started to use cloth diapers, which I have always wanted to do and it makes me feel very accomplished. I am not eating well, even though I swore I was going to after my birthday. Today I ate all the ears off Joseph's easter bunny. He isn't interested, so it's not like I snatched it away from him but still - they were big ears! Todd said he never likes that cheap bunny chocolate and I said, I don't like it either! That is not the point! I ate it standing over the sink and had potato chips in between bites. The chocolate, and it's quality was never the point.

I am going to bed.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I'm thinking of quitting my job

I called my husband before, one of those crazy phone calls? He's told me about a guy that used to work in his office who had a crazy wife, who would call and make up crazy stories in order for him to come home. That's who I feel like when I call him at work and tell him that I'm quitting but I can't help it.

Today I was folding laundry down by the dryer and Joseph crawled in the dryer. And I thought maybe if he breaks the dryer door, maybe THEN someone will listen to me. We have had a lot of people through here doing evaluations on Joseph so he can start his therapy and we tell them all the same thing - that we want to put him in a preschool but we are afraid no one would take him, because he's so crazy. And I thought then why do *I* have to watch him? With also an infant to take care of? I'm not qualified! I'm all alone here and crazy and trying to breastfeed one and make sure the other one stays out of the dryer, the exersaucer, the road, off the top of the tv, on and on.

So I try and think, wait. Wait three months and see how he does in therapy. Kathleen will get older and won't have to be breastfed every two minutes, she won't have to be carried around or scream, just wait. And then I think, I can't make it three days, let alone three months. We start O.T. on Thursday afternoon and maybe it will go well. I'm frustrated because his other two therapists, who are supposed to start after tomorrow, haven't called me, or returned my call, or my email. I hate to start on the wrong foot but man, this is the way to do it - don't return my call if you really want me to think you're an idiot.

And then - after three months - if it's no better and I can't do it, I'm going to look into some kind of daycare/preschool option. I hate to do it to Kathleen, but then I think oh well, maybe she'd be better off in daycare. They don't get much more screwed up than Joseph and I have been home with him all this time.

I feel like such a failure, though. I am constantly amazed at how BAD I am at this job. If it were any other job, and I worked for me, I would have fired myself years ago.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Business of Being Born

There's this new movie (I think it's new) coming out - The Business of Being Born. So far the trailer has made me cry while changing Kathleen's diaper and apologizing for birthing her wrong.

The thing is - I really was interested in having a midwife and going to a birthing center. My husband was not so into it. He used to say, "Sure, why go to a hospital where they have millions of dollars of equipment and where the doctors have had years and years of education when we could go to a birthing center where someone has taken a six week course". He was kidding and exaggerating, of course, but I took his point. I was of advanced maternal age and I honestly don't know if I could have gotten anyone to take me on as a patient - they act like you're poison or something.

So I got a doula and it ended up to be such a bad experience. She was with another patient for a long time and my husband and I just ended up going to the hospital. We had no idea what was going on, it seemed like my contractions were so close together and so intense (I'm sure it was nerves contributing to that feeling) we just went to the hospital. This was a *mistake* as the rotten resident doctor immediately starting saying that I couldn't have ice chips, I needed to have a fetal monitor on at all times, etc., etc. Then Joseph never did descend after like 24 hours and they said they had to do a c-section. Did they? I don't know. But man, that baby's heart rate starts going down and I do whatever they say. I wish that the doula had come to my house when I called her so that I could have labored at home for a while and been comfortable and drunk some damned water if I wanted and walked around or bounced on my ball or rocked in my rocking chair. Then maybe I wouldn't have had Pitocin and the epidural and maybe he would have come down. But maybe not. He has a remarkably large head and even with Kathleen, the doctor had to use suction on her gigantic noggin and that was for a scheduled c-section!

But I feel bad. I wish I were 10 years younger when I had my kids and they couldn't hold my age against me. I wish I were 10 years younger now because I distinctly recall needing less sleep when I was almost 30. I wish I wish I wish.

But do all doctors do unnecessary c-sections on patients because they only take 20 minutes? I talked to my doctor about Joseph's delivery and he said see? Women say they want 'natural labor' but no one wants 'natural' labor. Unmedicated labor, maybe, but not natural. I said I thought of that - I thought what if I went to a birthing center, or tried to have Joseph at home and then he didn't descend and his heart rate dipped? What if it was 100 years ago? My doctor said he probably would have died and maybe you would have died too. I can't really type that without crying. The thought of the baby dying because I wanted to have the kind of birth experience that *I* wanted to have is too much for me to think about. But maybe it was just a scare tactic?

I don't know - I hate to be a sucker to the medical community, but aren't we all, really?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Damn You, GSA

My GOD have I eaten a lot of GS cookies this year. Todd brought home a million boxes from his office and I have been just eating and eating them. It's too bad, because if I had a brain in my head, I would eat well while I'm breastfeeding and in this stage of postpartumness. I lost the weight I gained with Kathleen, and then some. My clothes fit better than they did when I got pregnant. So clearly I'm in a good place to drop weight but do I eat well? NOOO. I do work out, a little bit, because Kathleen likes to do aerobics when she's fussy. I hold her for it and she's my 11 pound weight. But still - too many Cookies, Corduroy, to quote one of our favorite books.

It is such a rotten vicious cycle. If I ate better and exercised more, I'd feel better and less tired. But I'm so tired and feel so bad most days, I don't want to eat better and I'm too tired to exercise. Ugh.

I will be FORTY this month. FORTY! That's how it feels, capitalized. I am planning to start a new regimen when I turn it. I'm going to try to eat like I ate when I had the gestational diabetes. After all, I did very well when I was pregnant - I didn't eat sugar, I ate a lot more vegetables, etc., because it was good for the baby. If I ate that way now, it would be good for ME, which would ultimately be good for both my children too right? I have a hard time making that connection.

I was talking to my SIL this weekend, she was saying what easy labors and births she had. She was TWENTY years younger than I was, I pointed out. Isn't that crazy? She is younger than I am and her oldest will graduate from high school this year (mine will turn three) and her youngest has started her first part time job (mine was born). I wouldn't have wanted to be as young as she is, but I wish I were a little bit younger.

Todd just left for work. I am hosting a playgroup here today, I like these girls that are coming over, they are my people. I have another playgroup and while I like the women that are in it, they are not my people. This is my poor playgroup, we all live in town, our houses are pretty small, some of us have part time jobs. My other playgroup, they all live in the suburbs in these giant houses, some of their husbands are doctors, their kids are in preschool more often, etc. The only think I really envy them is their attached garages.

We went to my MIL's this weekend. She is perfectly nice, as I've said (defensively) several times, but LORD are they country. Her husband drives me batty. This weekend he was holding Joseph up over his head and bonking his head on the ceiling. WTF? I know it wasn't hurting Joseph, he seemed to barely notice, but if it was my Dad doing it (which it wouldn't be), I'd say cut it out. They want to be called Mammaw and Pappaw. I really don't like it but what can you do? Well, what I did was try to ignore it, at first. I never say it and I would usually say to Joseph "go give this to your Grandmother" or something. But it HURT her FEELINGS so I had to stop. I still hate it, though.

We have no plans for this week, really. Playgroup today, playgroup Thursday. It is going to be warm today and it was warm yesterday, but tomorrow is going to be back in the 20's and maybe snow. I feel like this winter will never end, but it has to right? It will be spring on the calendar in just a few weeks and maybe that will be true.

What a random post - I wanted to get something down while I had the time but it seems like a bunch of claptrap!