January 18th

Yeah, yeah.  I know...it's been entirely too long since I last blogged.  My excuse?  LIFE!  Want an glimpse into a day in my life?  Here ya go.....

 After just having fallen asleep 2hours prior, my day, January 18th, started at 1:40am when Hannah woke me so she could "go potty" (despite my best training efforts, she refuses to go to the bathroom by herself in the middle of the night!).  As I escort her from the bathroom to her bedroom, we pass by Natalie's room and I hear that distinctive sound.  The one I know all too well.  The last three times I heard it, we found ourselves in the ER.  By the time I got Hannah tucked in to her bed and back to Natalie's room, Nat was in a full-on scream/cry/can't-catch-my-breath mode.  I calmly removed her from her crib and rocked with her for a few mins; just enough time to get her to calm down, so I could re-assess her and come up with a game plan.  Natalie continued to struggle with her breaths (stridor) so carried her to our room and let her sit with Ben so I could pull on something that did not resemble pajamas for our first trip to the ER...our 1st trip for the year 2013, that is.  Me sporting an ensemble that was a cross between running (upper body), yoga (lower body), a trip to the beach (my feet) and post-massage (my hair)...Natalie and I hit the open road, cruising at a comfortable speed up I-95.  I have to admit, it really was serene that time of the day.  It was us, three tractor trailers and a ford escape for the entire ride to AI.  However, this trip felt like it took an eternity!!!!  I guess with a little one in the back seat retracting with every breath, it can kinda add to the stress.  Don't worry...there was no need to call an ambulance.  Croup is typical.  She wasn't in severe distress and at no point was she lacking oxygen.  Everything was under control!   We arrive at the hospital and naturally all the front row parking spots are spoken for.  Despite my desire to plow into one of the smaller cars, Despicable Me style, I realized I was in my car and not Ben's tank...

  

   Alas, we settled for a parking spot at the top of the hill.  Nothing about this experience stood out from the previous three Croup ER visits.  Go in,  confirm that Natalie is my child (one of these day's I'm gonna be in good spirits and with a straight face say "Oh Shit!  This isn't my kid, I must have left her in the car.  Here, take this one, find her parents...I'll be back with my actual kid!"...like I said, one of these days.), get our ID bands, go through the Triage rig-a-ma-role, be escorted to a room (that has enough fluorescent lighting to comfortably light up the evening construction on 202), get her hooked up to pulse ox and heart monitors, go through Natalie's history, see a nurse, go through Natalie's history, get her some steroids, see a respiratory therapist, go through Natalie's history,  get her some racemic epi, see another doctor, go through Natalie's history...I'll spare you the remaining events as you get the gist...eventually this leads us to discharge! 

     We arrive home just in time for the sun to start peaking his/her-self over the horizon.  I meanly think to myself 'are you flipping serious?  The state of DE hasn't seen your ass in at least 72 hours and you choose TODAY to be all sparkles and happiness?!?  You know what, you have to be a woman, cause you're total bitch!'.  Anywho- as Natalie and I are ascending the steps to our home, my Uncle Gary who lives across the street is descending his, headed to his truck to start his work day.  We politely wave and refrain from yelling, seeing as the rest of the neighborhood is quiet.  Natalie and I get inside and she's all hopped up from the drugs she's just ingested and she's acting like a total drunk...yelling down the hallway trying to wake her dad, dogs and sister...remind me to apologize to Ben for all the times I've been an annoying drunk, yelling when I was supposed to be quiet!  Natalie and I text Uncle Gary, wishing him a happy day and to drive safely (he drives & assembles cranes for Maxim) today.  He inquired about our late (or early- depending on how you look at it) arrival into the neighborhood; I explained our night of clubbing in North Wilmington and how Natalie was taking whatever drugs were passed her way from the MD's! hahaha.  Even after a wild night, she settled nicely into her crib after some snuggles, songs and sips of milk.  It was now time for me to crawl into bed for another quick nap!

    When I awoke 2 hours later, Ben & Hannah were in full swing and departing for school and work.  It was only a matter of time till Natalie and I had to leave for her 2 morning appt's at AI.  I'm not kidding, when I walked her out to the garage it barely felt like 4hours had passed!  But we trudged on anyway and she barely had any fight in her to do her usual pissing and moaning about me locking her into her carseat.  I hop in my seat and go to fire up the car....it won't start; all I get is clicking...DEAD BATTERY!!  Natalie's sleep deprived mommy left the interior lights on in the car after snapping this lovely picture....

Happy to be home...well, in the garage!

   I panic and do a quick brainstorming session while Natalie is grunting and signing her little hands off for her Elmo DVD.  I think, Oh I can:

   ~Take my mom's car to our appts...Nope!  She has to have a working car because she is picking Hannah up from school since we will be at AI.

   ~Have my mom drive us over to UD and pick up Ben's truck.  Shit, that won't work either...we only have Hannah's carseat installed.

    ~Hmmm....I could steal, Holli's,  my out-of-commision neighbors car!  No, that would require I take a carseat out of my car and install in hers...that would take too long.

   ~OH!  YES!   I will jump start my car and pray that our drive up 202 is enough to juice up the battery and I won't be stranded.

Isn't it sad, when in a moment of panic I forget how to jumpstart my car??  Hahaha!  I had to call Ben to guide me through it; for fear that I was going to blow myself through the wall of the garage!!  I get the car fired up and we high-tail it up 95 to my eye doctors appt and we arrive there the only we know how...15mins late!  

   After a fun 30min wait in the world's smallest waiting room we and a fitting for my new glasses, Natalie and I head back out to the car, which surprisingly fires right up :)  We get all the way over to AI and I realize that I have been doing all of my running since 1:40 this morning on an empty tank.  If valet parks this beast on a hill, for sure there's not enough gas to get her started, so we turn around and fill up at the nearest gas station.  On our return drive to AI, I remember my uncle informing me that he was delivering a crane to the construction site today.  I drive Natalie around the grounds as we look for his big rig and would you believe...we found his truck and HIM!  He was just waiting for the construction team to finish up their work so he could begin his.  We call him Unkie Gary because that's what Hannah used to call him.  It's adorable and he is now stuck with that title.  As soon as he saw my car he hopped out of his truck in a flash and was at my door before I was even in park.  When we opened Natalie's door and she caught her first glimpse of her favorite Uncle....she LIT UP!  It was the first time I had seen her happy today!!  That melted my heart and it was at that point I wanted to abduct my Uncle and take him with us to her appt with Dr. Martin!  I totally should have because Natalie was in rare form.  She was clearly tired of being poked & prodded and we were both fed up with spending time within the walls of AI.  And I had even saved us additional time there by canceling her morning speech session!  Thank goodness I did...there's no way she could've handled three appts that morning! 

Want to know the most insane part of this day?  I attended the Down Syndrome Association of DE's parent meeting tonight....At A.I.!!!!  Mwahahahaha!!!!!