Mom of the Year?

If at ever a time you are thinking that you are maybe the worst parent in the world, don't...unless you are like me and cause your child to have to go to the Emergency Room!  Then you have every right to think of yourself as a bad parent (at least temporarily)! 

Seriously, only this would happen to me...it was just that kind of week!  Kahn has been pretty sick lately with his allergies and asthma and fevers and just last week we were at the doctors and the hospital for x-rays, but for the most part, he has been feeling better this week and his fevers were gone and his coughing was down to a minimum (which was a huge improvement from his condition just a week ago).  And although Tuesday was a pretty rough night with the kids both being completely tired and whiney, Wednesday (my day off) was a great day with the kids...they both were in good moods, we had a really fun, productive day, went out to eat for lunch (yes, in public), everyone took good naps (including me), dinner went smoothly and bath time went down without any bickering.  It was just a good day!

But all that good day stuff abruptly ended after I put on little Kahn's pajamas.  As he does every night when I turn around to grab his toothbrush, he quickly got up after I had just put on his pajamas and started to run from me on my bed.  In an attempt to stop him from running, I just reached out and grabbed his arm (like I probably do most nights).  As I grabbed him, he immediately fell on the bed.  A second later, he started screaming.  Of course, I initially yelled at him in a I-told-you-so tone of voice and told him we don't run on the bed because he can get hurt.  And then I realized he was more than just a little hurt.  He was in extreme pain and couldn't move his arm at all.  Ugh!  He cried for a while, but eventually realized that if he didn't move his arm then there really wasn't much pain.  But he wasn't able to move his arm...at all!  Being the medical professional that I am (ha!), I inspected his arm and decided it definitely wasn't broke, but that something had to be dislocated.  I called Kahn at school and told him that he needed to come home to take Kahn to the hospital to have his arm checked out.  I sure as hell wasn't taking him to the hospital...I mean, I didn't want to be arrested for abusing my son!  So at 8pm, the boys headed to the hospital!

As I sat waiting for DFACS to show up at my door any minute, the doctor in the ER was able to pop his elbow back into place.  He screamed hysterically for a second but once it was 'popped' back into place, he was instantly fine.  Apparently, he had nursemaid elbow, a type of elbow dislocation.  And according to WebMD (a very trusted medical site :-)), nursemaid elbow is very common in children under the age of 5 and can easily be done by pulling too hard on a child's arm or swinging a child by their arm.  The NP at the hospital that night said it was extremely common as well and that she sees at least one case of nursemaid elbow per shift.  I guess, in a way, that made me feel better, but I still felt TERRIBLE that he had to go to the hospital because of me!!!  I mean, what kind of mother dislocates their child's elbow!  And honestly, I didn't even pull on his arm that hard...I only reached out and grabbed his arm and I guess with the force of him running forward or maybe the angle that he fell, it just happened.  But it happened, and I will forever feel terrible about it. 

Thankfully he is fine now and there is not pain or anything associated with his injury.  He actually wore his hospital bracelet from the night before to school the next morning (he insisted on keeping it on)--which meant all the moms at the party asked about what happened...although a few of them actually said the same thing had happened to them.  Whew...I'm not the only bad mom out there!  :-)

Of course, I hope Kahn learned his lesson that we don't run and jump on beds because you can get hurt (just normally it wouldn't be from your mother but from actually falling off the bed).  I know I learned my lesson! 

[And just to add....although sometimes we wonder why we don't and why we have taken the approach that we have with our children, we do not use physical force when disciplining our kids.  There is definitely not violence in our house.  This was just a really crazy outcome of a relatively normal reflex to grab your kids when they are running from you on the bed.  As upset as we were when it happened, we just have to laugh about it now...only us!]

Utah!

Two weeks ago, Kahn and I and some old and new friends headed to Park City, Utah for 5 days in the mountains. It was a blast!

I have been skiing nearly every year since I was about 5 years old.  It was just an annual thing that my family did and I must say, it's by far the best family vacation in the world.  This year, however, my family was unable to go.  My younger sister, Erica, is in grad school getting her doctorate, my mom was still nursing an injury from last ski trip and with them not 'in', the rest thought they'd skip a year.  Kahn and I had just thought we'd skip this year too...but at about the end of September last year, after a long day of drinking on a college football Saturday, my neighbor Melissa got us and a bunch of our neighbors to commit to a ski trip in February.  I definitely wasn't opposed and I liked her tactic of having us commit when we were three sheets to the wind, but I actually didn't think it would really happen.  But that following Monday, she sent out the email and everyone was still in.  So the planning began!  And I love planning so it was 'game on'.

We rented a beautiful, huge house complete with 6 bedrooms, 2 hot tubs, a pool table, an elevator, a sauna, a steam room, a gym and an awesome view of the mountains!  It was luxury at its finest.  And we packed the house...17 in all!

Everyone had a blast on the slopes!  Of course, the trip wasn't necessarily a ski trip for me.  As you all know, I am 23 weeks pregnant and my baby bump excluded me from the daily festivities of skiing followed by apres ski.  And not skiing just about killed me!  It was much harder than I ever imagined...being out there and not being able to ski was brutal!  But being there with the best friends ever, eating great food, and laughing to the point of tears every night wasn't too bad of a way to spend a few days.  And you certainly couldn't beat the surroundings for a few kid-free days relaxing, reading, going to the spa and just being lazy!

But I am definitely looking forward to next year when I am actually skiing, partaking in apres ski and enjoying the hot tub!  Until next year...

Oh, Oh, Oh Olivia!

Olivia is a handful!!!  There’s really no other way to put it.  She is strong-willed; she knows what she wants and she’s going to get it; and she doesn’t take ‘no’ too well.  Maybe it's  a girl thing or maybe a 2nd child thing because we don't remember Kahn being this 'busy', but I think we have our work cut out for us with her.  We always tell people she is ‘busy’ when they ask about her, but I think that’s just the nice way of saying that she is totally mischievous, completely independent, hates to share, loves to push the boundaries, won't sit in her high chair, laughs when we yell at her but then cries hysterically when we put her in time-out, climbs on tables, hits and pushes her brother and basically loves to get into trouble--and then an instant later is the sweetest, most lovable little girl in the entire world!  Oh, and she’s only 18 months!  My dad just laughs at me when I tell him about her.  Supposedly, I was the same way when I was little.  He likes to tell me that ‘paybacks are a bitch’.  [I may be a little biased, but I think I turned out pretty damn good so maybe all this is a good thing…it’s a stretch, I know, but just trying to look on the bright side].

Here’s a few pictures of her tonight when she refused to get out of the car.  Yes, she decided not to get out of the car after a disastrous trip to Publix (that literally had me in tears and questioning (yet again), why I don't beat my children!).  It was so typical of her that I had to pull out the camera and take a few pics.  She loves throwing herself onto the ground and screaming when she doesn’t get her way, and tonight she decided to lay on the floor in the car to make the point that she didn’t want to get out, telling me ‘no’ with this huge smile on her face.  And no, she doesn't have shoes on in this picture.  She had to take them off in Publix too.  She’s seriously going to be the end of me, but damn we love her so, so, so, so much!!!

Baby #3...So much to be thankful for

Again?  You’re really having another baby?  Are you nuts?  I guess it’s warranted when you have three kids in 3 ½ years, but I always love the responses I get when I tell people I am having another baby.  Those who know me have always known that I wanted a big family and that I wanted my kids close together (and yes, all 3 pregnancies were planned).  I just don’t think they really thought I was crazy enough to do it though!  But crazy and all, we will be welcoming baby #3 into the world in early July.  And we couldn’t be more excited!!!   And it’s another little girl!

Here’s her glamour shot at 20 weeks!  I know you all love the insider look into my uterus!  (And sorry it's sideways...I couldn't figure out how to flip it!)

Getting pregnant (the 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd time), getting through the first trimester and making the big announcement to family and friends is always exciting.  It’s something you want to shout from the rooftops…it’s such a cool experience.  But along with my excitement, comes wonder.  Why is it that my husband can basically sneeze on me and I get pregnant, but so many other women struggle?  Over the past few years, I have had way too many friends miscarry; I have had friends have ectopic pregnancies; I have had many friends undergo fertility treatments; I have friends who can’t have kids; and I recently had a good friend experience the unimaginable—delivering a stillborn baby girl.  Sometimes I think God has a struggle for everyone, and having babies is just not the struggle he has planned for my life.  Maybe I have already experienced my life struggle or have another big hurdle to overcome later in life?  Whatever the reason, it will always make me wonder what makes one person so fertile and another struggle with what comes so easy to me.  Believe me, I am thankful for my fertility and the miracle of conception and having a healthy baby, but definitely feel for those that endure the struggle that I know nothing about.  I wish everyone that wants a child and is ready to be a mother or father would have it as easy as me and I pray that one day they themselves (or through another method) will have the healthy, happy children that they desire.

Due to my apparent fertility, there is another thing I am definitely thankful for…my birth control for those 15 years!!!  Yes, that means there was a lot of premarital sex going on!  Thank you, birth control pills!  Thank you, emergency contraception!  Thank you, condoms!  You have definitely lived up to your end of the bargain!  I am so thankful that my birth control methods (which for some time were received at PP) have been so effective for all of those years …otherwise who knows where my life would be right now.  I am so thankful to my parents, who when I approached them at 17 and told them I wanted to go on birth control pills because I was planning to have sex, that they didn’t beat the crap out of me, but instead put aside their personal beliefs and judgment and took me to the doctor immediately to get on the pill.  I’m positive they didn’t want their 17 year old daughter having sex, but they had enough sense to know that I was a teenager, in a long term relationship with her boyfriend and I was going to do it no matter what.  I am thankful for that open relationship I had and continue to have with my parents that allowed me to come to them about such an important issue.  And I’m pretty sure with as fertile as I appear to be, that they are also thankful for their smart decisions and taking me to the doctor that day.  I am thankful that birth control has given me the opportunity to have kids when I wanted to, when I was ready and I will be thankful for the birth control my husband and I choose when we finally throw in the towel on having kids. 

So, there is much to be thankful for and so much to continue to pray for.

I am thankful for my birth control choices and all of those years I was able to prevent having children so that I could have the life that I am blessed with today. 

I am thankful for my ability to have children.  And I pray for all of my friends struggling to have children and pray that one day soon they will see a ‘+’ on their pregnancy tests.  And for all of my friends that are pregnant, I pray that they have safe deliveries and healthy babies in the upcoming year. 

And I am thankful for my healthy, extremely happy children.  I am thankful for the baby growing inside me and I pray for a safe delivery and healthy baby come July! 

We can’t wait to meet you, Madeline Elizabeth!  We love you already!