Amputations, Vaccines and H1N1

I'm getting over what could possibly be, one of the worst weeks in my life.

Wait.

The worst two weeks.

It all started with Election Day and snowballed from there.

Dad had his surgery on his foot at Brigham and Women's in Boston and his surgeon was awesome! Dad was able to keep his foot. Yes, KEEP. His dead toes were removed and his physical therapy is going to make leaps and bounds (yes, I actually hope to see my Dad doing leaps and bounds!) If you don't know the story about why my Dad had to have part of his foot amputated, I'll catch you up to speed by directing you here. Dad's in Dover at the rehab place there. We went to see him in Boston after his surgery, but haven't been over to see him in Dover because...

Nik and the kids had H1N1.

Wait, back up.

Before I tell you about the swine, I have to first tell you about Kate's 1 year well-child check.

I'd been dreading this check up because of two things. The first being that I knew the doctor was going to tell us that we needed to have Kate go to an allergist before we can start weaning her from formula. And, well, that's exactly what they told us. Allergy testing, for those of you who haven't done it before, is not fun. The allergist is going to do a bunch of "prick" tests to see how large the "bump" or reaction is and that will tell us exactly how allergic she is. Hopefully it will be a one time thing. I am not looking forward to it.

The second thing that I knew was coming was her MMR shot. Oh yes, I'm bringing up the dreaded vaccine conversation. It's almost as bad as the gay marriage conversation. Whether you choose to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, it's your choice. I have done a lot of reading on vaccines and vaccination reactions. When Dougie was a baby, I didn't know I had a choice. I figured since my doctor was telling me, this is what we do, that, well, this is what everyone does. Dougie got a lot of ear infections as a baby, and looking back at my calendar, I was able to pin point that each time he had an ear infection, yes, EACH TIME, he was at the doctor just the previous week and received a vaccine. I wanted it to be different for Kate, so I started my research.

Kate is on a delayed vaccination schedule. She doesn't get as many vaccines as the normal baby and I choose to only give her the ones that Nik and I thought were the most important. When she was born, she didn't get the vitamin K shot, the goop in her eyes or the Hep B shot. I mean, come on! Three shots before she even leaves the hospital?!? Welcome to the world Baby girl! Poke, Poke, Smear. Nope. Not my kid.

Each visit after that I had to remind them that we were delaying and waiting and choosing to not be so aggressive in vaccinating. Hey, I KNOW that the MMR shot is important. I get it. But during my research I read about kids that had SEIZURES after that got that shot. and I was scared. I knew they were going to push it on me and I knew I wanted to wait...but, I didn't push it, I let them give it to her.

Fast forward 29 hours and I'm driving Kate to the ER because her fever is so high, guess what? She's having SEIZURES. I'm so mad at myself that I'm crying on the way and I was stuck behind a car that thought it would be fun to go 35 on Route 4, when the speed limit is clearly 55. We get there, and they don't really fuck around with babies, so we went right back to the Ped room and within 45 minutes Kate's fever was down and she was sleeping in my arms. But, man, that was scary. She's tested for pneumonia, the flu and a whole bunch of other crap, but two hours later, her fever is down and we're being discharged with a diagnosis of "fever". I'm so tired I want to cry.

I came home and was relieved to put Kate to sleep in her own crib with no more fever and I walk into my room and surprise! Dougie is in my bed because he can't sleep. He's got a cough and a fever. I lean over to talk to Nik, and you know what? HE has a cough and a fever. Welcome to the H1N1 part of this post.

You know that old saying, "God doesn't give you more than he thinks you can handle"? Yeah? Well, I was almost at my breaking point last week. Nik, Dougie and Kate came down with H1N1. On top of it all, Kate got an ear infection (see paragraph in which I describe that my children get ear infections from vaccines) So, I wasn't sleeping (Kate, ear infection, coughing, needing meds every 4 hours, Nik and Dougie, coughing and needing meds every 4 hours...), I was still working because, somehow, someway, I did NOT get H1N1.

There is a God.

and he is Good.

and H1N1 isn't as bad as eveyone says it is. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but everyone survived and no one had to go to the ER again. Yeah, their fevers were high and they didn't eat and some of them, I'm not saying who, had diarrhea, and I wouldn't want to do it again, but it wasn't any worse than the regular flu.

Did I mention that I didn't get it? Thank you, God.

So, after ten days of being home and life being a little abnormal, life returns to normal tomorrow.

Whatever my normal is.

No longer a baby...

My daughter is no longer a baby, even if we continue to call her "Baby Kate". She doesn't walk, she RUNS. She doesn't babble, she screams. She's not an infant, she's a toddler. Sigh.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Tom Cruise tried to ruin the day, but in the end, The Connors came out married, again! :-)





Liz, anytime you need a personal assistant, I have experience and a great resume. LOVE YOU!

10 more days...

until my baby girl is ONE. The last 12 months have flown by. I can't believe that a year ago this week, I was still working, very pregnant and would cry at school every time someone would say "Oh, are you still here?"

My friend Ross took Kate's pictures for her first birthday and they came out so good! Here are a few of my favorites...

Time to make a quilt...

Okay, so I'm starting to really enjoy sewing. I mean, I love it. I love to pick out colors, pick out patterns and be able to say, YES, I made that. I MADE THAT. I've been making my pillows for about a year now, started making dresses for Kate this spring and now I'm entering the world of quilting. I'm so excited about my first project, which was inspired by this blog.

Hayley met me at JoAnns to get the quilting supplies that I needed...I can't believe I was sewing for a YEAR without a rotary cutter! My god! This is amazing! AND it's PINK! Hayley showed me a couple different ones, but I chose this one because of the safety features. The blade pops out and pops back in with the press of a button. With small ones around, I knew this was the best choice.

I had read about a technique for sewing together the pieces where you just keep sewing and leave a small amount of thread in between each set, and it worked great! You can see my pieces behind the machine here...

Here are my pieces (22 rectangles) all sewn together. This was before I went upstairs to iron them. I think the colors look great! Last night I sewed together two more lenghts of 22 rectangles and I have two more to go. Then I just have to piece together with white in between. Also, I have no idea what it means to baste, quilt and bind, but that's what google is for!

God Fearing

I was reading a mommy-blog this morning and she was talking about her sister. I don't have a sister, nor do I have what I would call a very close relationship with my older brother and my my younger brother is still in college and we don't see him much, but man, I love that kid. Her post intrigued me, until she described her sister and I couldn't stop thinking about it after that. She described her sister as, "one of the nicest, most understanding and forgiving, God fearing, relaxed people I know." The "God Fearing" part just struck a chord with me.

I was raised catholic and have baptised my children in the catholic faith, but I wouldn't be what you would call a "good catholic girl." I had pre-marital sex (oh my!), lie and swear quite frequently (no, shit?) , don't take my children to church (gasp!), don't say grace before dinner (Rubba, dub, dub, thanks for the grub!), don't have my children say prayers before bed (now you want me to read a book and say a prayer? I've got to watch Glee at some point here.) and take the Lord's name in vain (Jesus!). But, let's get back to the God Fearing thing.

God Fearing...why is this considered a positive trait? Should I fear God, my creator? Should I live my life thinking that my choices are going to anger God to the point where he's going to be mad at me and I should fear his reaction?

I make thousands of choices and decisions per day. As a teacher alone, I answer 1,500 questions. It's not as simple as it sounds. For example, "Can I go to the bathroom?" The answer to this question is a simple yes or no, but the impact on the child is far from simple. I have to take into account, did I just let this person leave the room for something? Will they miss something important while they are gone? Did a friend of their's from another classroom walk by and that's why they want to go? Thousands of choices and decisions that I am held accountable by myself, my students, their parents, my principal and now also God? Should I fear that God wanted me to let little Johnny use the bathroom during his math test??

If I am God fearing, should I be authority fearing? Since God is seen as an authority figure, should I fear all authoritative figures? When I first began teaching, I was fearful of my principal. She was not supportive and caring. When she walked into my classroom, I froze, got beat-red and by the end of my two years there would break out in hives whenever she would talk to me, look at me or email me. Is this the kind of fear I should have for God?

As a catholic we are taught to fear authority. Do what the priest says, or you'll go to hell. Vote how the Bishop tells you to vote, or you'll GO TO HELL. Pray everyday, go to church every week, get married only once, don't have sex before you're married, read the bible, respect your elders, Go to CCD, give money to the church out of your paycheck even if you're on food stamps, be pro-life, don't use contraceptives, don't use the Lord's name in vain, don't ask questions or YOU'LL GO TO HELL.

What kind of God is like that?

Not my God.

I am a very spiritual and religious person, but I don't fear God. Do you?

glee

This makes me want to go back to high school, start a glee club and sing my heart out.