This Mommy Runs on Caffeine

This Mommy Runs on Caffeine

February 16, 2010

Terrific Tuesday: Rollin, Rollin, Rollin....

Yes... it's finally happened!!!  Kiera has rolled over from her stomach to her back for the very first time! (Well, that WE saw- we asked the grandparents and our caregiver to not tell us if she did it there first!!)  Just one day shy of her 26-week 'Birfday' and after some 'show and tell' by her BFF Kennadie (that really was a coincidence, no?), she just went right along and flipped over like she was an ol' pro and has been doing it forever!  Then she looked at us as we were cheering and clapping like, "what the heck??" and then put her back on her tummy to see if she would do it again.... and she did although a bit slower this time.  And then she was done......... D-O-N-E, done.  She doesn't get ticked off very often (we're spoiled like that, remember?) but her crying definately let us know that "silly human baby tricks" time was over. 
Yes, six months might be a bit late for the 'rolling' milestone... I haven't been a big fan of 'Tummy Time' so far... so call me a bad Mommy for letting her dictate what we want her to do.... whatever.  She just doesn't like 'Tummy Time,' and since I am a working mom, and my quality time with her Monday through Friday is limited, I prefer to spend happy time with her.  So, the pediatrician did say that putting her on her cute little belly would give her incentive to flop over... well soon enough the rolling over trick will be a daily occurance and not just another fleeting Mommarazzi moment.  At least when she goes to her six-month appointment next week, we will be honestly saying that she is rolling over... and her rolling means that she's just a short time from crawling and having to baby-proof the house.... it's been nice knowing that she stays in one place; AND not having to worry about peeing myself while fumbling with the baby-proof lock on the toilet at night!

February 9, 2010

A Little Hiatus

I'm a little swamped right now blogo-friends.... frankly I haven't quite gotten my groove back after ShynShyn died; it's been busy at work; and I'm still trying to figure out how this mom/career person/wife/short order cook/taxi driver thing works and it's still a bit off kilter- and then- WHACK- there's another HUGE bump in the road......

We took a short little family road trip- the first with Baby K- to Southern Cali last week to visit family and friends and introduce Kiera to the characters at a brunch @ the Disneyland Hotel.  (Fun, by the way!) On our last night there, I received a phone call from my mom that they were taking my uncle to the hospital by ambulance.  Once he got to the small-town hospital (I grew up in the sticks... seriously.) they discovered that he was far more ill than they were equipped to handle and medi-vac'ed him to Bakersfield.  They had to sedate him to fly (he hated it) and, well, he never came out of sedation. 

We took a small detour on our way home and I was able to visit him on Sunday - I needed to go on my mom's behalf so that we could actually get someone to talk to us--- you know how they are at the hospitals over the phone? No information whatsoever!  Going there wasn't any better- the nurse was a complete be-yotch and failed miserably at any minor shred of compassion.  What little information that I pulled out of her was that he was in advanced liver and kidney failure and was very sick.  It's been a long time since I've seen someone that has required that much medical intervention and it was heartbreaking.  What was even more heartbreaking was trying to figure out how to break the  news to my mother that it was very unlikely that Donny would make it.  I told her that it was urgent that she have someone drive her  the three hours to Bakersfield to see him as soon as possible.    Unfortunately, his organs were shutting down and he suffered a cardiac arrest sometime Monday night.  Although they were able to revive him, he again coded and 'even with their best efforts,' Donny passed away early Monday afternoon just minutes before my mom got to the hospital.

It has been almost ten years since I've lost a family member (and that year, it was three in as many months) and that's probably a good thing.  I'm sad that he's gone, but heartbroken that my mom has to go through this alone (she and her soon-to-be-ex-husband split up last March).  We live 328 miles (but who's counting) from her so I'm depending on her friends and my other relatives to help her through this until we can be with her.  In the meantime, I'm planning a funeral- which I've never done before and hope that it will be the last one for a very long while.   And I've now learned that along with weddings and babies, there is another life event that they decide to charge you an arm and a leg (pun intented) for- funerals.  As if it isn't bad enough that any funerary flowers are going to be hit with a Valentine's Day surcharge!

If you have any willpower to spare, I'd appreciate you sending it my way so that we can just get through the next week.....  and I'm hoping to be able to quit interrupting Random Musings with sad and depressing news!