And Then There Were Three

This is an email I sent to folks in my address book I don't see regularly, hope you find it entertaining...

So, everyone knows when you hear the words, "the check is in the mail" not to believe them. I am here to tell you that along with that lie, you should never believe a person who does not have more than two children when they tell you that once you have two adding more isn't a big deal. If I had thought about it, I would have realized that if that person truly believed what he was saying he is likely to have had more than two children.

Katie's birth went just as smoothly as the last two. I missed my doctors and hospital in Athens, but all in all we came home with a healthy baby. Although we were significantly less rested after this hospital stay since the helipad for the life flight to Carle Hospital was literally outside our window. (This did serve as entertainment for the big kids when they came to visit.)

I am sure that you can guess since I have not emailed anyone about our experience that I have been a little busy. A friend of mine with three kids describes her life like a big game of musical chairs, someone always gets left out. I like the illustration of a plate spinner at a carnival, every now and then they all come crashing down and a lot of the time the plates are wobbling.

Katie will be four weeks old tomorrow and God bless my husband, he has taken the first three week pictures without me. (We take a picture of our kids each week for the first year and compile an album for their birthday or when I get time in Charlie's case.)

This week has been a little crazy. It started out with me going to the convenient care facility here in town at 6:00 a.m. with a localized infection. Since they couldn't tell if it is a lymph node, we are treating it with an antibiotic o.k. for Katie and our feeding and ibuprofen for pain. So, I have been running a low grade fever since Monday morning.

Maggie is a wonderful three year old who behaves like a third grader. She helps me diaper Katie, talks to her while I take care of Charlie, and is generally good at following rules. Charlie is a 22 month old BOY. Yesterday while I was on the phone with Nana Waller, I thought he had gone to the play room, come to find out, he was in the kids' bathroom washing his hands, the sink, the counter, and the cabinets.

Today, I was in the kitchen and discovered him in my bed room having emptied a box of nursing pads. We put them back in the box together and I went out to check the manufacturer on a blanket we had received for Katie. When I went back into the bed room, I saw him with the isopropal alcohol bottle in his mouth. At first I couldn't tell if he had removed the cap or not, but oh he had. I was just half a second too late to stop the plate from falling! So, I snatched him up and proceeded to call poison control. Being still a bit hormonal I was not comfortable with the fact that it was taking me more than thirty seconds to find the number so I just called 911. We are a small town with not much going on. To illustrate this point, they wanted to dispatch the ambulance to my house. Seriously, it wasn't like I had found him passed out with an empty bottle of rubbing alcohol next to him. I saw him take the drink and start to make the hxkk, hxkk sound immediately after. After re!
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porting to the operator my name and address I was able to convince her just to give me the poison control number and let me talk to them before we jumped off the cliff of sending the ambulance. (I hope to save that experience for when there is a scary amount of blood involved.)

Poison control was great and turns out I just had to give him some juice and a snack and watch him. His pupils dilated a bit and he asked to go to bed, which he never does, but he is no worse for wear. (I am not convinced that he wasn't looking for a way to get out of drinking his milk before getting juice.) To top off my morning, I took a phone call from a friend in Georgia and returned to the couch to discover Maggie smearing A&D ointment into the slipcover. Like I said, she is generally a very good kid, but still only three and very curious.

Katie is having some prolific diapers and spitting up for the first time since coming home as a result of the antibiotic I have to take for the infection. (I just talked to my husband whose coworker said a friend of hers had the same type of infection and it lasted for weeks. Oh joy!)

I hope that you all realize in reading this that my hormones are still way out of whack so don't worry for the safety of the Waller babies, duct tape is only applied over the clothes. (Kidding of course.) I am eternally grateful for the gift of each of my children and when I look at them, I see the face of God. Just don't let anyone tell you that going from two to three is an easy transition, zone coverage is complex and takes a lot of practice to master. I will be seeking full time employment at the end of the year.