I wish I took more time to jot down my thoughts throughout the course of the day…I keep forgetting to record so many things, and I feel like I want to grab on to every precious memory right now. Today was another good day. I love having my Mom home with us. There are definitely big adjustments (more people, caretakers, more people making messes), but being together has been…nice.
My mom woke up briefly at 2:30 am again last night. Her nighttime waking is never an issue – she usually just needs something quick and easy and then falls right back to sleep. Unfortunately, last night, both kids were awake and screaming all night. Maya has been extremely clingy lately, and just does not want to sleep unless she is tucked in close to me. Micah woke up around 4:00 am screaming, so Elliot went in to sit with him while I kept Maya close. Turns out, Elliot forgot to give Micah his reflux medication, so it had him coughing and hurting all night.
Once we finally got the children to sleep, all was quiet in the house until 8:00 am. Mom woke up first while Micah and Maya (and Elliot) slept. I gave her some water and her morning pills. We took her blood sugar, and I asked her if she needed me to start getting her ready. She said she could wait for Krystal, and asked me to bring her some granola to tide her over until breakfast. Lately, my mom is obsessed with the Costco granola. She had three helpings this morning before we even ate breakfast!
Krystal showed up around 8:30. I prepared breakfast for my Mom while my Dad ran a few errands, Elliot, Micah and Maya slept, and Krystal and Mom did their morning routine. I managed to unload the dishwasher and clean up a few things, too. Micah woke up next, and I brought him out to eat breakfast with my mother.
After breakfast, I realized that we needed to get moving. Micah had swim class at 11, and we had a simchat bat (a baby naming) at 1:00. We ran around trying to find our things for swim class. I successfully located the swim bag, Micah’s bathing suit, and my bathing suit. I even managed to find a clean outfit to wear today! I again failed to find my contact lenses…that is my task for tomorrow. I could not find a clean outfit for Maya, so I ended up recycling the one she wore yesterday. She had fallen asleep, so I grabbed the outfit for Elliot to use later.
I love swim class – Micah has so much fun blowing bubbles and practicing his swimming skills. He was extremely excited to see Daddy up on the observation deck, too, and took a few “time outs” to wave and yell to Daddy. After swim class, Micah and I took a shower and got ready for the baby naming. Elliot and I had previously bought a gift…but could not find it in the move, so we ran to Target to get something small to bring until we find the “real” gift.
We had a great time at the naming. Micah ran around with two of our friends kids (Max and Sarah) and they had such a good time playing together. He is getting to be a really big boy, and it just amazes me. I ended up having a few fairly heavy discussions with a few of the other guests…a few of them have been through similar challenges and even the loss of a parent. I have to say, I shed a few tears, but it was also nice to know others who have been through the same thing.
We left a little after 3 and came home. My mom was asleep, and my parents had a nice day while we were out. Arleen and Lorin came by and brought lunch (and left behind a smoothie for Micah). We put Micah down for a nap, Elliot fell asleep, and Maya and I snuggled and snoozed on the couch together. I woke up around 5:15, and realized we needed to get things ready for dinner. We decided to keep it simple…just hot dogs for dinner. My father ran out to the store to pick up some hot dog buns, baked beans, potato salad and sauerkraut. I ate veggie dogs, and we had an easy dinner together. Tomorrow, if I can get the kitchen in order, I’m going to tackle cooking a real meal. My mother has specifically request our special vegetable cheese and bean topped bulghur wheat dinner.
My mother was barely finished with dinner when she was asking for dessert – a slice of apple pie and some chocolate ice cream. After dinner, we retired to the living room. Krystal took my mom back to her room to change, and then she settled in on the sofa. Krystal left around 8:45, Micah was in bed asleep, and my Mom decided to stay on the sofa until her 10:00 medicines. I tried to get Maya to fall asleep in her crib – we even decided to let her “cry it out” for about 10 minutes, but that didn’t seem to work. I brought her back into the living room to sit with us. We had recorded a show on national geographic on migration (Lorin recommended it to my Mom today), and we sat and watched it this evening. Actually, the cinematography was fabulous! There was a segment on penguins, and Elliot called me back in the room to watch.
Elliot and I have a joke about penguins. On our honeymoon, we went to South Africa. There are lots of penguins in Africa, and African penguins are known as Jackass Penguins. I thought it was funny…so we started joking about using the word penguin instead of jackass. Calling each other penguins (and doing a cute little penguin walk to imitate the penguins) became our little joke. I even bought him a penguin afghan as a Chanukah gift that year.
While Mom was watching tv, Maya was being difficult and refusing to go to sleep. I ended up putting Maya on Mom’s lap, and she sat there quite contentedly for a while. I took some time to do the dishes and clean up a bit, and I managed to put a few more things in the kitchen drawers.
At 10:00, we gave Mom her bedtime medications and put her to sleep. Elliot managed to get Maya asleep, and he put her back in her crib. No surprise…she started crying again. We gave her another 10 minutes to see if she would cry herself to sleep, but no such luck. Elliot went back in, flipped her onto her back, put in her pacifier, looked at her and said “You’re okay. Time to go night night. Daddy loves you.” She looked at him, got quiet, and he left. Much to my amazement, she stayed quiet and eventually fell asleep. I’m hoping we can keep her in the crib all night and she can sleep through the night.
Things seem to be going well for us. I am feeling free to leave, and we are slowly making plans. We have different therapies scheduled to start this week – Tuesday is physical therapy (here is a “small world” story – we were given our PT’s name, and both Mom and I thought it sounded familiar, but couldn’t place it. She called today…turns out, we DO know her – she is the mother of one of my brother’s childhood friends, and we just didn’t recognize her remarried last name) and Wednesday is speech therapy. We are going to a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, too.
For those interested in visiting, I’m thinking that morning time or dinner/early evening are probably the best times. My mom seems to nap for a few hours in the afternoons, and I would hate to disrupt her rest time.