This Is How We Do It

I know; Montell Jordan called from 1995 and he wants his song back. Still, it's a good jam. It reminds me of cruising the town in high school with all the windows down. But I digress....

14 weeks pregnant and still not over the hump. I was sick with Marin until 17 weeks, but I was not this sick at this point. It makes me wonder if I'm going to be sicker longer this time around, or if I'm just going to be more sick for the same amount of time. The good news is that I have about 75% of my energy back. I'm getting out of my pj's before noon, I tackled the insane pile of laundry (nine loads later), and I actually picked up three months worth of acquired clutter strewn from corner to corner of our house. But I'm still getting sick morning, noon and night. It's better, but not over.

So you might be wondering, how do you do it? Good question. Staying home with Marin means she is my full time job. No longer can I sit at my desk in quiet "pretend I'm working" peace for a few minutes if I need to keep from getting sick. And as Marin nears two, she wants little to do with sitting still all day long just because mommy asks nicely. So how do I do it? Here's the answer: very poor parenting.

I'm not proud, but I have caught myself giving in to the "oh whatever" feeling more times than I know I should have. You want candy? "Oh whatever." Your hair hasn't been brushed all day? "Oh whatever." We have introduced TV before I said I would. One day I discovered that Sesame Street was a whole hour long, and I was thrilled that Marin sat there for every minute. She sat next to me on the couch and I fell half asleep for the whole stinking hour. Amazing. I have served yesterdays dinner for today's lunch one too many times- for one too many days in a row. And when all she ate was apple sauce for lunch I told her "Good job Marin; Are you ready for your nap?" When I realized that in the event of a fire I'd save Jason, Marin, the dog, and the microwave, I thought it time I back off the reheat. And when Marin started saying "Elmo" as clear as day, I thought it time we go back to reading more of our books.

Also key to my arsenal are my parents. Many days they have appeared at my house like little angels minus the white fluffy wings. They have brought food on demand, or out of the blue. They've whisked Marin away to Grandma and Grandpa land where she plays non stop (and I sleep for hours), and they have done laundry. One night early on, I called my dad and said, "I feel like chicken noodle soup." In about four minutes flat, he was at our house, chopping up carrots and celery and chicken and boiling it all for me in a pot. We had homemade chicken noodle soup for days.

I am getting better. In fact, all of these days are far behind us now (happy sigh). I am taking medicine that they give to chemo patients, and it is does help most of the time. And slowly but surely we're getting back to our old days of walks and trips to the park and play dates. Soon I'll be 100%. In the meantime, this is how we do it.