Sunday, September 23, 2012

Stress, stress, and more stress.

The past two weeks have been pretty close to a nightmare. I will say thank God Whit has been fine! He's the only one that's been fine lately and he really has been blessing for the rest of us to delight in while things got rough.


First, Ben's uncle suddenly had two very bad strokes and a week later passed away. He was only in his 50s so it was a shock to everyone. I didn't know him very well but it was strange since they had just been in town to meet Whit. Later Ben told me he had taken him aside (so both of us wives couldn't hear) and promised to steal him away so they could get in a golf game. That story and his uncle consoling me by saying that their first house had been smaller than ours are what I'll have to remember him by. That and his pink shirts that cracked me up. I have never known someone closely that passed away suddenly and it is just bizarre. Anyway, Ben, Whit and I drove into Memphis for the visitation and almost the entire time Whit was being held by his great-grandmother. It was sweet; the line of people would give their condolences to the family and then come to Edith holding Whit and be cheered up a bit. Unfortunately I was standing guard behind her making sure no one touched him too much and that the younger cousins stayed pretty far back. We are getting into flu season!

After we spent a few days with family we came back home and Ben went back to work for a day. The next night was our celebrating our anniversary night. Ben's mom is our babysitter when we need one, but she is in Memphis with her sister until further notice, so we had to celebrate a week earlier than planned. We had a really great night, tried a new restaurant (and had some raw oysters finally!!), went to a show and got a nice hotel room for free and SLEPT IN... gasp! Got home Sunday afternoon to relieve Diane from baby watching, then that afternoon.... bam, Ben gets ill, seriously ill.

We went from home to clinic to ER to home to ER again in the course of eight hours. And I cannot tell you how stressful it is trying to balance a six-week old and a grown man that's about to pass out at the same time. I had to do a couple of maneuvers I'm not proud of before Ben's parents showed up to help out. One being pulling into the ER entrance, leaving the car running (with Whit inside) while I dash to get Ben in a wheelchair and up to the front desk. Thankfully it was only for about 30 seconds and we live in a VERY good area, and Ben's step dad showed up right after. I parked Ben up to the lady at reception, told her I had a baby in the car and I would be right back.

After a few hours and test the doctor tells us he thinks it's mesenteric adenitis, and there's nothing they can do except give him pain medication and wait it out for 3-7 days. Btw, this pain medication was twice the strength they gave me while healing from my c-section! So Ben was out of commission for a few days and I was taking care of a baby and a drugged out his gourd man. I was exhausted!

In the midst of this latest chaos was my 6-week follow up with the OB and I'm not ashamed to admit I asked for help. I had been moody anyway, but with all the stressors I was becoming a poster child for postpartum depression. The doctor and I talked and agreed it was probably just situational and she gave me a couple of prescriptions in case I felt I needed the help. I did fill them, but have been reluctant to try them. Instead I started walking quite a bit more and Ben's mom came over a few mornings so I could shower and so far that has done the trick. I'm still moody occasionally, poor Ben had a VERY emotional wife on his hands yesterday, but it's getting better. And now it's looking like we may have to move for a year or two. (insert maniacal laugh here)

But, as I stated earlier, Whit has been amazing! He's started smiling at us, he loves being on a blanket and just watching anything! His favorite toy is becoming Zoey, he actually smiled at her the other morning. And last night he slept 4.5 hours then 6.5 hours! Thank you, Whit!

Hopefully the storms have past and we can resume reveling in our little bundle of joy...


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