Evolution

I yelled at my mother this past weekend. Not my finest moment by any stretch of the imagination.

It was pretty much a given that something would get to me after typing up a post about how accepting I am of Charlie’s disability, and this past weekend something did.

It started on Thursday. Charlie had a Feldenkrais session and at the end his practioner noted that “he was trying so hard to talk.” That little phrase hit me harder than I expected, but I brushed it off in the process of getting one disabled preschooler and two infants out to my car.boy in wheelchair

Two days later my mom made the same observation with a smile on her face, and I lost it. I yelled at her to just stop saying that.

And why? I’m still not exactly sure. I mean, I should be excited to hear this–my mostly silent boy making attempts at communication.

But it feels the opposite. I can do nothing to help him with this. I can’t move his tongue for him, I can’t make it easier to vocalize. I have no choice but to sit here and see him struggle to do something that comes effortlessly to most. I’m helpless. A part of me wishes that he wouldn’t even try because it would hurt me less. Great mom, huh?

I can accept that my ideas and thoughts about the future will be different than what I thought. I can accept that there are things that my child will never do. What’s harder is accepting that there are things he wants that are out of reach, things I can’t give him. That’s the hard pill to swallow.

boy in wheelchair bording school bus

 

Back to Basics

The boys are still in two different hospitals, but I’m happy to report that they are both racing to get home at this point. They are getting better and better at the eating thing, and that’s the last hurdle before coming home. It will be interesting to see who actually gets here first.

So the last time I was visiting Louis, the Lactation Consultant for the NI came by and asked me if I’d like to try nursing Louis before he went home. While I’m an expert at feeding the yellow Medela beast, I have zero experience with actual breast feeding, so I took her up on her offer.

Today was the big day and I stopped on my way to the hospital and bought a nursing bra for the occasion. When I got to the hospital, I ducked into a bathroom and changed into my new bra. I carefully took off all the tags and headed up to the NICU for my lesson.

As I stood at the sink washing for the recommended two minutes, one of the nurse tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I hate to tell you this, but your shirt is on inside out.”

Clearly my life is returning to normal.

Sleeping baby

August sleeping after his bottle.

So I’m Not Superwoman

superwoman logo (big pink S)

On Friday I had a fantastic appointment with the doctor who looks at the babies. They both are continuing  to wiggle and grow. They both like to kick my anatomy, open and close their mouths, and avoid any and all tests the doctors may attempt. The personal ad practically writes itself.

The general consensus seems to be that Baby B probably caught the Parvo virus, but he was big enough to fight it off without requiring serious intervention (a.k.a. The Needle of Doom).

So, with things looking so good, my doctor has decided to space out our visits to every two weeks. Then he began to broach the topic of releasing me back to my original OBGYN.

I started to panic a little. While I wouldn’t never want there to be anything wrong with the twins, the scrutiny and extra appointments have really helped me keep my sanity during this pregnancy. Most days I feel pretty confident that the babies are doing well.

In the back of head, though, I know that Charlie was supposedly doing well at this point too. When I think back over my last pregnancy, my mommy instinct tells me that things didn’t head south for my little one until the very end.

And I get scared. Scared that another “typical” pregnancy will end in disaster and I’ll be sitting in a cold hospital room wondering if the whole thing has been some sort of awful dream. It’s not rational, it has absolutely no logical basis, but it sits there in the back of my mind–the fear. I’m not superwoman–I’m not even a distant relative–I’m just a regular girl who would like to take home her babies after a couple of days and with as few diagnoses and possible.

So the thought of being dismissed from the specialty doc, while excellent news, didn’t exactly fill me with joy. And while there is absolutely nothing I hate less than appearing weak, I told the doctor “please don’t dismiss me early.” Let me tell you–that wasn’t easy for me AT ALL. He and the ultrasound tech started laughing and wanted to know why–I mean, what woman in her right mind wants to keep going to the doctor?

So I was honest, even though it was hard, and just told them both that the visits were reassuring and that I was nervous. In fact, I might have said, “if you need to check off the box that says Mom is Neurotic, go ahead.”

We all had a good chuckle and the doctor said that he’ll keep me for growth scans until the end of my pregnancy, but he doesn’t think we’ll need to do many more anemia checks.

It’s hard to admit weakness. It’s difficult to let others know that you’re anything less than serene and rational.

But sometimes you gotta do just that. Sometimes your sanity depends on it.

Less than eight weeks to go!

 

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