Mothering role #572- Central Sounding Board

As I'm writing an e-mail to a parent, trying to get things settled before things get crazy around here HS comes down and starts rattling off his plan for the day.  It involves Jeremy, but I guess it's necessary to let me know everything going on and the play-by-play as it happenes. 

About three sentences in I ask him to wait a few minutes until I finish the e-mail.
He says, "Yes," waits a few seconds and then continues.

"Sweetie, I just a few minutes while I finish this thought please."

"Ok."  And then he continues.

 After a few sentences he realizes that I really am not listening and says, "I'll go talk to Jeremy."

"Sounds good, as it sounds like your plan involves him."

So he heads downstairs to talk to Jeremy.  A few minutes later Jeremy comes upstairs and Samantha curls up next to me asking if I'll play animals with her, "Yes, just let me finish this e-mail, sweetie." 

Jeremy then stands in front of me and starts, "HS just came and told me his plan for the day- we are going to-"

At which point I bellowed out, "WOULD YOU ALL JUST LET ME FINISH THIS E-MAIL!  I NEED TO THINK FOR A FEW SECONDS SO I CAN COMPLETE THIS SENTENCE!!!"

To which Jeremy replies, "NO!!!! WE WILL NOT!!"

And then he sat down next to me and helped me finish it (I tend to be a little too blunt so I always need someone to proof-read e-mails to parents.)

And that is why my husband is awesome.

Leagues different

As I sit here 40+ weeks pregnant I can't help but compare how different things are this time around.  With Samantha at this time I was freaking out.  We were moving in less than two weeks and baby was staying put.  This time I'm hoping to go past my due date and every day I just pretend that I'm not near giving birth- and so far so good.  I was a little stressed the last few weeks, but things really have settled down at work and I'm just too tired at the end of the day to care about details...which is good as I was having a hard time with the idea of letting someone else take over my classes for 2 months. 

We'd really like to make it to October 1st for a few reasons- but our current and biggest one is Samantha.  She tested positive for strep on Tuesday and after 2 days on antibiotics and being fever free was sent home from school with another fever.  This time it's suspected to be the flu.
 
This girl just can't get a break. 

So she's fighting off two things right now and it would kill me (and her) if Charlotte was born and we had to keep them separated.  Heck, Sam wouldn't even be allowed in the hospital! 

Prayers please for a healthy Samantha so we can allow her to be the big sister that she has waited oh so patiently to be. 

Also, a picture from last week's hospital visit.  Jeremy said she was just too cute walking back and forth to the bathroom in her gown pulling her IV along like it was nothing.

Samantha's Hospital Visit

That's right. Sam's.  Not the 38+ week pregnant mother.  Very confusing for my students when I returned today, let me tell you.

Samantha had her first migraine in seven months on Sunday.  It was the longest stretch we've ever had, but it was a doozy.  We were at Pius and she was running up and down and up and down and up and down the hallway (her favorite thing to do there).  At 6pm I suddenly I heard a scream, walked out and saw her curled up in a ball on the floor.  "I HAVE A MIGRAINE!" she cried. 

Hoping against hope I tried the usual, "Let me see" and "open your eyes" and "stand up please" to see if she was faking it (she's four and likes to experiment sometimes).  Unfortunately this was for real. 

Luckily, I had her meds with me so I was able to give those to her, but she had to wait for me as I locked up all the doors in the building that I had unlocked.  I tried to explain to her that I couldn't carry her, but after her begging, "Just call Daddy so he can carry me, please, please please!" I decided to risk it and carried her to the van with her eyes buried deep into my shoulder.  I had to leave my room a disaster, with all of her crafts on the floor and my papers on my desk, but we made it home before the vomiting started. 

She was able to settle in her dark room and started the usual routine. 

Jeremy took the night shift to wait out the migraine and I went to bed, hoping she'd be better by morning.  It really is a waiting game.  We're suppose to give her zofran, ibuprofen and then hydrate her up with gatorade.  But this time she'd started the migraine a little dehydrated to begin with and so the vomiting wasn't very productive.

At 1am Jeremy woke me up to tell me that he was taking her to the ER because she was vomiting  every 10 minutes and there was blood. 

Now, I'm not very coherent on a regular day when I'm woken-up.  So waking up to hear this I was a complete mess.  Do I go?  Do I stay?  I'm 9 months pregnant.  Not sleeping could cause labor and then there would be TWO of us in the hospital.  My classroom.  Even with a sub they can't have class in the condition it's in. 

I called my mom bawling and she said she'd go to the hospital to be with Samantha and I was to stay home and try and sleep. 

Which lead to me calling my department head bawling and about not coming in and not having anything for the kids the next day and my room being a disaster (this may sound petty, but my teacher friends can understand- right?).  Being the absolute best boss in the world she said they'd take care of it and to keep her updated (my whole department spent the time before school in my room getting things all set up for my sub.  Seriously, I don't deserve them.)

After bawling some more and waking up a little I realized I couldn't NOT be at the hospital.  Good grief, what was I thinking!  So I called my mom sobbing and she said she'd leave to come get me, as I was "in no condition to drive". 

When I got to the hospital my poor baby was hooked up to an IV and sleeping soundly.  Jeremy told me that when it was time for the IV she simply help up her hand, they put it in, she said "It tickles" and then went back to sleep. 

Seriously.

That story makes me chuckle and cry at the same time.  Chuckle because that's my backwards daughter.  Throws a fit if her shoes aren't just right, but says an IV "tickles".
 
Cry because it was mostly likely nothing compared to the migraine pain.  It very well may have "tickled" in comparison.

Anyway around 2:45am they said it looked like she was stabilized and were going to send us home.  I asked that we stay until 3:15, as that would put us 15 minutes past the hour-mark for puking pattern that she usually follows.  She did great, slept the whole way.  They took out her IV, we signed the discharge papers and Sam asked for a drink of water (migraine was still going as she still couldn't open her eyes).

Within a minute she was vomiting again.

So, she got another IV (same routine- still said it tickled) and they decided to take a CAT scan.  I was actually very happy about this- a scan DURING a migraine.  Maybe it would give us some answers.

But it came back normal (that's good, right?)

Around 4:30 they wheeled her up to her room in the Ped's ward.  They got her into her bed and "pop" she opened her eyes.  Jeremy and I just melted with relief, as this is the "switch" that tells us the migraine is gone. 

We had to make sure the doctors orders for more meds were canceled and tried our best to explain that we knew she was ok now (and had to promise the nurse that she did, in fact, have a migraine 2 minutes ago).  Samantha was very charming and so excited about her own room and got to watch TV (the ultimate prize in her book). 

At this point my feet were puffy little pillows and my adrenaline rush was gone so my amazing mom (who was still with us!!!)  took me home while Jeremy stayed at the hospital to sleep while Samantha got her TV fix. 

Fast forward to 11:30am and Sam was back at home.  She had charmed the pants off the nurses and got some serious loot.  She came home with a new baby-doll with three outfits, a new set of PJ's (she's messed her clothes up), a Project Linus blanket and a princess book. 

The rest of the day was spent tag-teaming naps, follow-up with her doctor and game plan for where to go from here as far as her migraines go.  We'll be seeing a pediatric neurologist and a pediatric optamologist.  The latter is because Samantha has some noticeable light sensitivity on a regular day and when she has her migraines she says the pain is all in her eyes and she cannot open them or she starts to vomit immediately.

Aaaaaand that's all for now.  'Cause it's gonna be Wednesday in one hour.

Podium

The title says it all.  I've been searching and asking around for a podium since May.  99% of the time I prefer to work standing.  Currently I am just too out of breath to stand for too long but I try and stand when I can simply because I'm able to think and stay awake.  Plus my rear end doens't start to mold into the classic "desk-job" shape.  So anyway I sent out an all-staff e-mail at work and asked (again) if anyone had a podium they'd be willing to part with.  That's when one of the priests stopped me and told me to talk to his dad.  Apparently his mom had just called him the other day and asked if there were any projects for his dad to work on. 

I've known this family for a while and use to babysit their grandkids.  And now they are all coming through Pius.  Which is weird.

 

Anyway, I was told to sketch something up (thank you Dad!) give the dimensions, was asked stain color and in a few weeks- violá!

It's so pretty!  I would have loved to watch him work on it. 
Oh, and that's me at 37 weeks.

And it was perfect timing too- I had planned on spending the whole day at Pius working and was wondering how in the world I was going to survive having to sit to work on my computer (or figure out how to make the counter work).  Right before I was to leave I got a call that he had finished it! 

It was like Christmas, my birthday and Mother's day all rolled into one.  It's so original and just beautiful.  If you look closely you can see that it was a "wheel" at the bottom- it's from an old tredmill!  I can tip it towards me (and the shelves have slight lips to catch whatever is sitting on them) and roll it wherever I need it.  Also, some of the wood he used is from old church pews!  So. Cool.

Currently it is sitting between my desk and the wall.  Every gets confused and thinks that I teach from there, but I meant it when I said I wanted to work standing.

Before it was moved to it's final location on the other side of my desk

Look at the pull out shelf!  That was my biggest wish and he made it so awesomely perfect! 

I love love love love it and my students ooo and ahhhed over it.  Some did it on their own, the others I highly encouraged them to be impressed.  The drawer generally did the trick.