A Quick Confession

I am unreasonably excited about the royal wedding tomorrow. I'm so tempted to get up at 4am to start watching the coverage, but alas, I will be recording it for future viewing.

We're ok

I guess the tornadoes this past weekend were relatively close to us, one even touching down in downtown Raleigh. But we were blissfully unaware of any danger and went on with our lives like nothing was happening. There was some pretty intense hail, and the storm was loud enough to wake the kids up from their naps. But that was all the drama we saw.

Hopefully next time it storms like that one of us will realize that we should turn on the stupid radio to make sure we don't need to head down to the basement. Parents of the year here.

Grandpa Murphy

My grandfather is dying. He met with the doctor a week ago Tuesday, and the doctor told him it was time to stop treatments and call in hospice care. The doctor estimated his remaining time as 2 months.


Jarrod and I and our families made the trek to Ohio to see him this past weekend.

I can't begin to tell you how much my grandfather means to me, or how much I'm going to miss him. But the thing that hurts my heart the most is knowing that my kids and my niece won't realize or remember how much he adores them. Because if there's anything my grandfather loves, it's his grand babies.

(Pictures were stolen from Jarrod's wife, Amy's, website.)

Post-Surgery, Doing Well

Genevieve did not care for surgery at all, but she's doing really well now. She took a giant nap immediately after that, and she's been a little fussy today, but that's it. So yay!

I'm really hoping tubes work as well for her as they have for Annabella. They were life-changing for her, really.

Tubes for G

We took Genevieve to the ENT today. She's had 4 ear infections since Jan 23, and even though today is her 7th day on antibiotics, her ear still has puss in it.

So she will be getting tubes put in her ears on Wednesday.

I'm not as frightened as I was with Annabella. I know the tubes for Annabella were little miracles for us and that she's been much healthier and happier since she got them (not to mention she can actually hear now.) So I think having been through it once before is making it easier.

But still... I'm really not looking forward to leaving my tiny baby behind for her first surgery. I'm guessing it would be more traumatic to actually be in the room with her, but I really wish they would just let me go in to hold her hand through it all.

After I had Annabella, I often felt overwhelmed and anxious. I felt like there weren't enough hours in the day, I was afraid the house would burn down and I wouldn't be able to get her out, and I was so sleep-deprived that I could barely see straight. But I was happy. I was in love with my baby. And life was hard, but good. Even on the bad days, the thought of seeing my little bundle of joy would bring a smile to my lips.

After I had Genevieve, I felt numb. And when I didn't feel numb, I often felt bad. I had a tough time bonding with my little baby, and I attributed this to not being able to spend as much time with her as I'd like, due to the postpartum hemorrhage. I felt like anybody else could and would do a better job taking care of her, and that she deserved more than I could give her.

At my 6 week postpartum appointment, I learned that the effects of the hemorrhage should be long over, and that the hemorrhage, while making me physically weak, should not have had a negative effect on my ability to bond with G. My doctor told me he thought I was suffering from postpartum depression.

Since then, I've learned a whole lot more about postpartum depression, and I gotta tell you, it's just not much fun.

Potty Training!

We started potty training Annabella this past weekend. We'd tried before, a few months before Genevieve was born, but she just wasn't quite ready then. I think she was probably ready awhile ago now, but we chose to wait because getting a new little sister is just such a big transition. But recently Annabella has started requesting diaper changes instead of fighting them, and we took that as a sign that it was time.

So far it's going really well, and I'm really proud of my little girl. Seeing her running around in her big girl panties makes me ache for the baby she was, smile at the big girl she's become, and wonder what the future holds.