Well! We survived Christmas and ringing in the new year, and now winter decided to show up. Usually when something shows up fashionably late, people like to throw around the ol' "better late than never!" adage, but I was one of those native Midwesterners who was quite liking the idea of a winter with minimal snow and daytime high temperatires that were hovering right around the actual freezing point.
I was also one of those native Midwesterners who was waiting for the other shoe, or perhaps it was a fur-lined Sorel boot, to drop.
Because it just wouldn't be winter around here without temperatures below zero, and wind chills in the double digits below zero, and -- of course -- snow. Whether it starts in late October or mid-January, we all know it's going to be here sooner or later. I'm just thankful that, this winter, it decided to get here "later". It may have been awkward putting up Christmas decorations without snow on the ground, but I wasn't complaining.
Anyway...
The other major event we have thus far survived is my baby boy's 26th birthday! Yep. In fact, 26 years ago on this very day, we brought our tiny bundle of joy home from the hospital for the very first time. It was a cold, wintry, icy day, much like today. I don't think it was as cold as it is today, in fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but it was definitely wintry. The night before he was born, the area we lived in had what I'm pretty sure was the only winter storm of that season. And it wasn't even that snowy, but it was icy. At least, that's how I remember it. It took us about 2 hours to get to the hospital for my scheduled induction, for what was normally a 45 minute drive. I was half-worried that our baby was going to be born on the side of the road, except I wasn't even in labor yet. (So why was I going to a scheduled induction? My blood pressure had been elevated at my 39-week prenatal appt the day before. Even after I laid (or is it lied?) down and rested for 15 minutes.)
I read a meme a few years ago that said going home with a newborn baby is like being discharged from the hospital 2 days after a major car accident, and being told you have to take care of this tiny stranger who was also just in a major car accident. Oh my gosh, how true is that?! And how in the world did we ever survive before memes?! But I digress. Thankfully, the hospital where I'd had the boy was all about this new concept (at the time) called "rooming in" where you actually kept the baby in the room with you all.the.time instead of keeping him in the nursery, so the transition to taking him home didn't seem so bad. I was already getting used to all the little noises he made all the time, and to getting up to feed him and change him and all that. I honestly couldn't imagine what it would have been like if he'd been kept in the nursery and only brought to me when he needed to be fed.
I honestly don't remember much of what happened while I was in the hospital after having the boy. We lived in a different state at the time, and except for the fact that my mother-in-law, one of my sisters-in-law, our niece, and my husband's grandparents were visiting at the time, I wouldn't have had any visitors. And they even postponed their departure by a few hours so they could meet him! My hubby visited, of course, but he didn't take much time off of work. Which might sound cruel, but he had just started a new position (the reason we lived in a different state) and worked stupid crazy long hours anyway, and also wanted to save his time off for when we were actually home. So most of the time, it was just me and the boy in the hospital room, either sleeping or crying. Both of us. Just kidding, I don't remember crying. Just sleeping. Or trying to sleep. Either trying to nurse the baby or trying to sleep but then being interrupted by the nurse checking on me or the baby or the doctor checking on me or the baby, or one of the other endless interruptions because everyone knows you do NOT go to a hospital to get rest. Even if you just delivered a nearly-nine-pound baby boy with no pain medication on board.
But, I digress. This year, so far, has been uneventful. But it's only been just barely over two weeks, so, what can I say?!
Christmas with my parents was about how I expected it to be. That is, depressing. We went and visited my Dad in the nursing home, where of course he had no idea that it was Christmas Day, and telling him that it was Christmas didn't seem to mean much of anything to him, anyway. It seemed to be just another day. We claimed a corner of one of the lesser-used "activity" rooms, plugged in a DVD (The Sound of Music), more for our distraction than his, and spent a few hours there making small talk.
One of the first things my Dad asked when we got there, was where my sister was. I told him, I don't know. Probably at her house. She hasn't talked to me in years, I told him. I've tried calling her and sending her messages and she never responds to me, I told him. He just looked at me, quizzically. I always look my Dad in the eye when I'm talking to him. It's getting harder and harder to read what's behind those eyes. But since he even brought up the question of where my sister was -- and since he asked me in particular where she was -- it was pretty obvious that he didn't remember 'what's going on' and my carefully yet quickly-chosen answers weren't going to trigger any helpful recollection for him. But before he could say anything more, my Mom jumped in with something like, "She's not going to be here today. Do you want to try calling her again sometime?" to which my Dad replied, "Yes, I would like that." I don't know if he saw me roll my eyes at that. I couldn't help it. I'm pretty sure it still didn't trigger any helpful recollection for him.
But that's a backstory I'll have to get into another time, because my time here is up! Suffice to say the reason I brought it up here is because it made me mad, not at my parents at all but at my sister for hurting my parents by ignoring them. And I know I said I don't have time to get into the backstory, but the quick version is that the backstory, as far as I know it, doesn't even involve my parents! It involves me, and my sister, and that's it. So why she's ignoring them, too, is beyond me. But that will be a rant to explore another time. I could dedicate a whole entire blog just to my daily thoughts and musings on THAT topic...heh heh heh.
Alright, gotta go. TTYL!
