Hey There, My Big Boy!

Hard to believe, but Wednesday of this coming week will mark 20 weeks that Henry has been in the world, and he’s already wearing clothes for 6 month olds. My little peanut is now more than 16 pounds and 27 inches long!  I’m thinking it might be time to bust out the jumparoo for him. 🙂

This kid is all kinds of awesome.  Sure, I spend all day, every day with him, so I’m biased — but I used to babysit a lot.  This little guy only cries when there’s something wrong. He’s inquisitive and gentle (except when he’s pulling my hair), and he loves music and books. He snuggles like a champ, he’s decided that diaper changes are actually an opportunity for
jiu jitsu training, and he has the best laugh on the face of the planet.

Right now, his daddy is out of town, doing some training for work, and my mom is coming in town to be with us.

It Takes A Village.

I have to say, I had no idea, when I got pregnant, what I was in for or how much help I was going to need.  I thought, based on those years of babysitting, that I had this mommy gig handled no problem. Man, was I wrong! I hadn’t even thought about what life would be like when I got sick. And I’ve been sick for 3 weeks now with acute sinusitis.

The first nurse practitioner who diagnosed me only gave me 5 days of antibiotics… so I got a little better, and then relapsed hard.  The second nurse practitioner (who I saw about a week later) was completely worthless and referred me to my primary care physician. When I arrived for my appointment with her, to my surprise (and dismay), I was examined by a STUDENT nurse practitioner!  Then the practice’s regular nurse finished up the visit, decided I still have sinusitis and put me on a 10 day regimen of antibiotics.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that only 4 hours after the first dose of antibiotic, I started feeling better.  This morning is actually the first time I’ve had energy without drinking a Monster Rehab in almost a month. (This stuff is stronger than 5 Hr Energy, believe it or not!)

I’m not sure why it’s been so difficult to see an actual doctor this month, but when I tried to establish care in my new hometown, I was informed that the doctor was booked up until October.   Yeah, like I’m gonna wait 3 weeks for something like this… I can only guess that this virus/infection has hit an awful lot of people.

Anyway — as many of you know, fevers cause pseudo exacerbations of MS.  This means that over the last 3 weeks, accompanying the low-grade fever that came with this infection, I’ve had a lot more seizure activity than I normally would.  There was one day where I kept seizing over and over again. I became very worried for my son’s safety and my own, and called Adam, who promptly called Laura (my sister-in-law). She came over and watched us for a couple of hours.

I was, and am, so profoundly grateful that we have family members who are willing to help us in times like that. I’m also glad that we now live only 20 minutes away from them. When we were living in Chicago proper, it took between 45 and 90 minutes just to see them, depending on traffic. So, I don’t remotely take their help for granted  — or that of my mom’s. She’s actually driving 8 hours from Pennsylvania right now to spend the week with us while Adam is handling his job requirements.

I’m especially grateful that Mom will be staying with us since I’m a little worried about Henry.  Adam took him to the doctor earlier this week because he’s got similar symptoms to mine. (No one in the Majka family has escaped this cold — not Busia, not Dottie, not even Uncle Jeremy.)  Anyway, Henry’s temperature has been good, but today, he’s been tugging at his left ear.  My right ear was clogged for 2 weeks straight.  It was miserable, and only got better 2 days ago.  Unfortunately, Hugabug’s too young for decongestant, and the doctor doesn’t want to give him antibiotics unless he ends up with a fever, which is understandable.

So, right now, Little Dude is going back and forth between fussy and asleep.  The only bright side I can think of is that I’m getting pretty skilled with the disgusting-in-concept, but incredibly effective NoseFrida snot sucker. Fortunately, his goop is not green like mine has been.

Homemaking

I’m also grateful that Mom is coming to town because, with all this illness, we’re still not fully unpacked. I’m really looking forward to having her assistance with organization, since this house is sorely lacking in innate storage space.  I have a strong feeling we’re going to be buying some furniture.

I also am happy that it’s almost Monday, which is when the plumber will be here to fix our leaky kitchen sink (which he completely rebuilt less than 2 weeks ago, so really, WTF?) and the HVAC guy will be repairing our return duct (which is somehow not attached…) so we can run the furnace.

Temperatures here in the greater Chicagoland area dipped into the low 50s last night. When I woke up this morning, it was 62 degrees in this house, thanks to the combination of not having a working furnace and having windows with broken seals. At least now, it’s warmed up to 70 in here.  We gotta get this shit fixed ASAP. We have to be ready for snow.

Other than that, not lots is going on with me.  I want to make some friends in the area, and am sort of at a loss for how to do so. There doesn’t seem to be an active Orland Hills/Orland Park/Tinley Park mommy group on Facebook or Meetup.com like there is in Chicago proper.  My inner entrepreneur says, “Just start the group, and they will come!”  but the most of me says, “UGH. MAKE ME SOUP AND TAKE A NAP ALREADY.”

I think I should probably listen.