JuJuBee

Happy 24 Hour Urine Collection Day!

So, do you ever get to a point in your life when there is so much happening, that you wouldn't even know where to begin to chat about it, should an old friend call to catch up? Well, Old Friend...here we are.

My mom put it well when she likened my life as a Feast or Famine situation. In Ohio, we were bored and very lonely, only seeing family one a month as the most. In New York, we are beyond busy and see family or friends just about everyday. There is also the having three children and a new house factor thrown into the mix. Sometimes it feels great, sometimes it's exhausting. The baby (who is standing on furniture all over the house) still is not sleeping at night, by the way.

How about a good old round of bullet points to bring you up to date!

• We are all, with the exception of the baby, in a wedding on Saturday. I never knew how expensive having four members of your family in a wedding could be. I'll keep this in mind if I ever get married again. Heh, kidding.
• I was in the ER twice this year with kidney stones. I've been having pain quite frequently over the last couple months, so I decided to finally see a urologist. He took a ton of blood and a CT scan. Sent me home with a disgustingly large orange container so that I could do a 24 hour urine collection and I will go back tomorrow for a radial scan. GOOD TIMES!
• Our little terror princess spent all of Friday and Saturday of last weekend limping and crying and not walking on her foot. Came out of nowhere and scared us pretty good. Ended up taking her to the pediatrician (who sent us for an x-ray) and found out nothing seemed to be wrong. She said sometimes a hairline fracture won't show up on an x-ray, so if she starts complaining again, we should have a bone scan. So far, so good.

• The baby is standing one handed up against everything that won't move. He opens up all of the cupboards, pulls lamps down, pushes the screen door open, gets stuck under furniture and eats books. All of that, and he still won't sleep at night. He is lucky that he is so damn cute. Exhibit A:

• We made friends with a couple...who have....wait for it....wait....who have...children!! It's awesome having friends with kids who totally understand!
• I'm going to be in a church tomorrow evening for the wedding rehearsal, please let us hope (or even pray!) that it does not burst into flames.
• Julian was adopted and started 2nd grade. SECOND GRADE. I feel so extremely oldish.
• My mom and stepdad are coming for the weekend! They are totally saving our asses and helping out with the kids since both Mr. JuJu and I will be in the wedding. I owe them BIG.
• I kinda sorta got a JOB. A real job, where you leave the house and get sort of dressed up and talk to other adults! I have one more hoop to jump through, but it looks good. I can't say what company I work for, but I will say that I get to play with make-up and PRODUCT and wear a make-up DOCTOR lab coat! Will go into more detail on this at a later date.
• I picked out a new living room carpet the other day and now we need to choose a paint color, suggestions?

Ok, that's going to be it for now. I have a ton to do. Maybe more bullets as I think of more things going on in our crazy life.

Stupid Germ Laden Chuck-E-Cheese's

So would you like to know how I celebrated my son's FIRST MONTH finally being over? I puked a few times and made my husband miss two days of work while I lay on the couch and waste space.

Ahhhh. The stomach flu. Good times, good times.

I've been away you see. Been sick, been useless, been yucky and non-showered. But (BUT!) those days are over my friends and I can say that having the stomach flu has actually two upsides to it:

1) I am very close to my pre-pregnancy weight.

2) I heard something come out of my husband's mouth that I had been waiting to hear for a very long time. He said, "I don't know how you do it."

Those words alone were worth every ounce of fever, vomit, ache and chill. If you are a stay at home mom (bonus points for moms of multiples) then you know how very important those words are to hear. They put some validity to your existence as a mom. They echo what you say to yourself each and every night when the children are FINALLY in bed. How do I do it? How did I get through today? How am I going to get through tomorrow? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? When someone puts him/herself in your shoes and sees what it is all about, you can finally relax in knowing that you aren't alone. They lived it for a day...even the REALLY AWESOME parts, like when the baby cooed, or when the little girl blew a kiss and said "sunshine" for the first time...even those GREAT parts of your day are known.

It's amazing, when you think about it, what one can accomplish in a day. From the getting breakfast ready and cleaned up, to the getting children clean and on the bus and lunches packed and dishes clean and dry and laundry folded and put away and babies fed and burped and toddlers kissed and hugged after a fall and lunch served and....Christ Almighty...nevermind. I was happy to be well enough to fold clean laundry. That's how fucking insane I am.

So yes...the baby, he is one month old today. I'm not doing a monthly update for this as it would be so boring that even my parents would read through two lines and want to poke their eyes out with knives. "Oh the baby sleeps and eats and poops and cries all of the damn time....THE END". There you go. On to Month 2 already.

So, to recap: I was sick. I am better. My husband stayed home two days from work and totally kicked ass at making our house run smoothly, the baby is a month old.

That's about it.

What's new with you?

Ways NOT to Lose the Rest of your Pregnancy Weight

Seriously, moderate exercise paired with a sensible diet is the way to go. Trust me. This was not cool:

• Friday August 5th - feel somewhat achy and run down but pass it off as side effect of life with baby. Ignore and head to Applebees for happy hour, only to eat some tortilla chips since you don't have much of an appetite
• Friday Evening - shiver your ass off for the next 12 hours
• Saturday - Welcome the In-Laws for an overnight visit and fight a fever, cold sweats, massive back ache and some more of those fun chills (also find out that your grandma passed away) eat basically nothing
• Sunday - feel slightly better, no time to rest, must pack yourself and the kids for trip back to Pennsylvania for funeral
• Monday thru Tuesday - Wake and Funeral Mass for Grandma...food looks less like garbage and more like something you might actually need. Manage to ingest a bit here and there.
• Wednesday - back home to do laundry, the back is still hurting like a son of a bitch and you still don't feel 100%. Call doctor.
• Thursday - doctor tells you that you are fine. Must have been a bug. Maybe some pulled muscles in your back. Go home with prescripts for back pain.
• Friday August 12 - Feeling those weird body aches again around lunchtime. No appetite. By 6 p.m. you are shivering on the couch saying WTF? as your husband walks in the door. Fall asleep on the couch and remain there until NOON THE NEXT DAY.
• Saturday around noon - manage to crawl your sick ass up the stairs to pee and get into bed where you will stay until 5 pm. when the disgustingness of your own self takes over your body and forces you to shower. Still no food since Friday at noon. You have never been so sick. Your fever has not gone below 101 degrees. But bonus! It has not gone above 103. So you know. No reason to call a doctor.
• Sunday - you call your mother and ask her to drive almost three hours to come take your son away. She comes. You love her. No shower today! Go back to sleep to try and escape the pounding in your head. You've never been so sick, did I mention this?
• Monday - there is a remote chance, upon waking, that you might feel just alittle bit...is it even possible...better? Yep. Aside from the fact that you look and probably smell like hell...you actually feel alittle better. You praise the almighty Tylenol Flu gods and their team of under appreciated scientists. You even manage to hold your baby. You manage....SOUP! Heavenly SOUP!

I have to say. I wouldn't wish that strange out of nowhere illness on anyone. I seriously COULD NOT hold my daughter. That means that my husband, from Friday until Monday morning did EVERYTHING for me. He did laundry, dishes, made bottles, changed the baby, put the kids to bed, kept them quiet while JuJuBee Sleepfest 2005 occured, feed and clothed them, worked from home, gave me liquid, took my temperature, bought me soup, gatoraid, Tylenol Flu (cue harps), and even gossip to read. I am blessed. Especially now that I can sit upright long enough to read some blogs and check my email.

What a long strange trip it's been.