Dutch's Fun Weekend

Meezy took Dutch out to my sister's in-laws' land near Quitman on Saturday, and he had a fun-filled day in the water!  Here's some video of him discovering the kiddie pool:



They also had a slip n slide set up, and Dutch thought that was pretty cool.  Each time he rode down, he would run over to Meezy (who was filming), give him a hug, then run back up to the top to do it all over again.  So sweet!



Back home, it rained some later that day, and apparently Dutch hadn't had enough of the water.  He really wanted to play outside in it.

On Sunday, Dutch got to take a ride in his cousin's buggy, and he had a blast!  He loves being outside, and he loves anything active, so summertime is definitely going to be his favorite season!

I'm so glad that there hasn't been a disruption to Dutch's life, just because I can't pick him up for a while.  He does reach for me occasionally and whine a little, but Meezy or someone else is always nearby to take care of his needs. 

Raw and Real

I mentioned before how tough my first day after surgery was. I almost had a break down that day, because I thought my recovery might be like that every day for the next 2 weeks. Thank goodness I was wrong, and each new day has been a little better than the one before. I stopped taking the muscle relaxers and that gave me a huge reprieve from the dizziness. I was able to sit up the second day, and even walk around some. The third day, I ran errands with my sister for a couple hours. It was very slow-going and at times very painful, but it was nice to get out of the house and have a small semblance of normal life. (I took an epic nap that afternoon)!

The weekend was challenging, because we had a dinner party planned for Sunday, and there was quite a lot that needed to be done around the house. Normally, I would have handled all the preparation and just had Meezy juggle Dutch with me so that it could all get done. Being that I can't lift a finger now, I needed Meezy to handle Dutch exclusively (who happens to be a little fussy lately because he's not feeling well), while also doing all the housework and tasks for Sunday. Stress.

In our household, I try to handle all of the housework. I mean ALL of it. Part of that stems from my job historically being less time-consuming than Jer's. Another part of that stems from me being more anal about the condition and appearance of the house. The last part of that stems from my mentality that I really like the way I do things, and I don't like when other people do them differently. Example: Meezy does laundry differently, and I don't like that, so I'd rather just do it all myself instead of ask for help. This arrangement has worked out fine for us thus far, but when I became incapacitated, things kind of fell apart.

I had a super hard time asking Meezy to do the things I wanted done. When I did ask, I would micro-manage because I wanted them done the way I would've done them. I ended up becoming impatient, getting frustrated with Meezy, and sometimes even doing tasks I shouldn't have been doing.  Meezy became upset with me for being a micro manager instead of a delegator, and for not just laying down and resting and letting him handle things his way. Dutch's fussy behavior added to the tension level because I was never able to contribute in providing him comfort.

There has been an air of frustration around our house for a couple of days, and it really sucks. I hate not being able to do practically anything, and I hate not being able to fulfill my role as a mother.  I don't normally like speaking about conflict I'm having with my husband, because I would prefer everyone to think I have a perfect life.  But, I'm going to swallow my pride on this one and admit that when one person's normal role in the relationship gets severely stunted, it is tough. It puts a strain on the relationship, and it takes patience, understanding, and just plain love to get past it.

With that said, I'm very lucky to have a husband who is stepping up to take care of our son and the house while I recover. While I'd like to think that I'm the best mom in the world and no one could do as good a job as me with Dutch, Meezy actually can. He completely nails it in the father department. I'm also very lucky to have a sister and brother-in-law who live nearby and have lent a hand on numerous occasions already. Lastly,  I'm fortunate that this is just a temporary situation, and I can go back to being super mom and uptight house manager very soon.

Oh. Em. Gee.

Wow, talk about naive.  I had no idea I would be in this much pain after my back surgery.  You all are probably thinking, "Duh. Why wouldn't you be?"  Well, my "lucky" past has included a bone marrow donation, a D&C, a C-section, laparoscopy, and 2 spinal injections.  I've been through a lot, and the recovery was only bad on my C-section.  That was a large incision and major trauma to numerous organs, so I was expecting this procedure to be more like the laparoscopy.  Wrong.  It's just been a bummer of a scenario, for multiple reasons.

My surgery probably lasted from about 1:30pm to 3:30pm yesterday.  I was in recovery for a little while, and then they moved me into a private room.  They started me on pain meds and a liquid diet.  The medication was making me very nauseated, probably because I hadn't eaten all day, so I tried to eat as much as I could when they let me transition to solid food.  After that, I made the trek to the bathroom, and that was quite an ordeal.  It was hard to even push myself up and get into a standing position.  Then, I got pretty dizzy and nauseated walking, so I had to come right back after using the restroom.  I ate a little more and let more time pass, and then decided I would try to walk again.  (To be discharged, you had to be able to eat, use the restroom, and walk).  I requested the nurse's help at 7:20 and she didn't come in until closer to 7:45.  I guess it was a shift change or something, but that's pretty crappy response time.  I was able to walk further by then, but it was very slow-going and I still felt nauseated.  Even though I wasn't feeling well, I really wanted to go home because I wanted to sleep in my own bed, and Meezy needed to relieve my sister, Jo, who was watching Dutch for us.  I asked if I could go ahead and be discharged.  Sweet jeez.  That process took forever.  I don't think we got to leave until close to 10pm.  When you're ready to go home, that delay feels like an eternity.

We got home and I went straight to my bed.  I was beyond exhausted.  I took some more pain medication and put an ice pack on my back and expected to fall asleep quickly.  Wrong.  I don't know if it was the medicine or what, but I could not go to sleep.  I literally slept for maybe 2 hours overnight.  Are you kidding me??

Today, I've been in quite a bit of pain and have no appetite.  That means the medicine makes me weak and dizzy because I don't have any food in my system.  I tried to walk to the bathroom, and I ended up having to stop halfway there and lay on the floor for a few minutes because I felt too dizzy to continue.  Meezy brought me some food and I forced myself to eat it, just in hopes it would make the medicine not affect me so much.  (Nothing like being curled up in the fetal position on your kitchen floor, force-feeding yourself a banana).  So, today has been spent almost entirely on the couch, laying on my side.  If I sit up straight, I get dizzy. Meezy changed the dressing on my incision site today, and I cringed the entire time.  I was terrified it would be excruciating, but it ended up not hurting as badly as I thought it would. Small victories?

From here, I have to get past the surgery pain and recovery, and then see if it actually worked.  Cross every digit on your body that it does, because I need my normal life back!  For the next two weeks, I'm not supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds and avoid bending and twisting.  (You don't realize how much you bend and twist until you're told not to).  I'm also not supposed to drive until I'm off the pain meds and able to use my legs fully.  For the next 6 weeks, I'm not supposed to do house work like vacuuming or mopping, and the only exercise I should do is walking.  Sheisse.  Here's hoping the time goes by quickly and this surgery was worth it.        

Pictures Lately

I've been pretty busy lately, so I think I'll just post some recent pics with short descriptions in lieu of a long, wordy post!

My BFF Jenn and I celebrating our 30th birthdays

Enjoying a donut with Dutch on Mother's Day

Installed Dutch's swing in the front yard

Meeting Jenn's son Parx for the first time!

Dutch having a blast at the splash table at daycare

Painting me a picture for Mother's Day

Dutch loves being outside

Attempting a puzzle

Eating like a big kid

Time for Surgery

As mentioned previously, my herniated disk is disrupting my life on a daily basis.  I went through two rounds of injections and they, unfortunately, didn't provide any relief.  After getting another MRI to confirm the situation, and going over the options with my doctor, we've decided to proceed with surgery.  It's a routine procedure with very minimal potential complications, and I get to go home the same day.  The doctor will make a small incision and remove the tiny part of the disk that is protruding.  I'm not worried about the procedure at all, but I am worried about the recovery.  For a few weeks, I'm not supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds.  In case you haven't noticed, my son weighs more than that.  That means I can't put him in his carseat, put him in his highchair, rock him to sleep, pick him up to change his diaper, etc, etc.  You pick up your child quite a bit throughout a normal day!  I'll have to rely on Meezy a lot during this time.  The surgery is supposed to happen next Tuesday.  Keep your fingers crossed this helps me get back to a normal life! 

Entry and Game Room

We've been at a bit of a standstill while we waited for our entry and game room floors to be redone.  We haven't been able to move the large game room furniture over from the old house, and we have had to stay out of those rooms completely this week while the crew was working.  I'm so excited that the floors are finally finished now, though.  Those rooms are completely transformed!  Our entry area before was horrible tile, atrocious wallpaper, and "antiqued" doors.  I hated every bit of it.  Check out what I'm talking about:

It's like they were going for a look of chunks of fossils or seashells or something

Why?  Just why?  They even wallpapered over the outlet and vent covers.

They were going for an antique look, but they just looked dingy to me.

I think you can see why I was ready to change everything!!  We opted for 18x18 polished porcelain tile because it was affordable and kind of looked like marble. 

The old stuff was a beast to get up!  

Shiny and new

I painted over the wallpaper with a beautiful green color called Promenade, and we went a bold route by choosing Black Bean for the doors.

  Can you even believe it's the same room?!?  It's so refreshing and modern now.  

As for the game room, it was carpeted and had salmon colored walls.  Here's what it used to look like:

Pretty boring stuff!

Entry looking into game room

We went with a 3" dark wood for the floors because we thought that would look good once a pool table and shuffleboard table were in there.  We still haven't decided what color the walls will be, but I think once we get the furniture in there, we'll be able to figure out what will work.  It's a huge room, so the color is a big decision!

Much more dramatic entrance to that room

I love wood floors!

Once we get the right color on the walls, this will pop even more.

This has definitely been the most exciting thing done to the new house so far.  I am so ready to get the last of our furniture moved over and really start the decorating. We're getting there!

More Projects

So much going on at the new house, so I thought I'd write down a few of the updates:

We decided to depart from the brown and blue color scheme in our previous bedroom and bathroom, and have switched over to greens with creams and browns.  Here's the new bedding:

 And we went with some new towels from Target:

Isn't that hand towel holder cute?  I snagged that from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

All of the fixtures in the master bath were brushed nickel, except for the mirrors.  They stood out like a sore thumb since they were gold.  I'm not a fan of gold to begin with, but especially when it doesn't match anything else in the room.  Here's what one of them used to look like:

I picked up some spray paint from Home Depot and voila!

Lastly, the biggest change of all was the installation of the new double ovens today.  The old ones were just that, OLD!  They were what you could call "vintage."  The top one didn't heat correctly, and the bottom one's door was hot to the touch when in use.  That's not good with a kiddo around!  Perfect excuse to update them.  The process for installing the new ones was quite difficult, however.  The cutout in the wall was just a hair too small for the new width, and we would've had to cut through brick to make it fit correctly.  We didn't want to do that, so Meezy and the installation guy spent more than 2 hours forcing it to fit! There were many times I felt like it wasn't going to work, but finally they had success.

 This was when I thought we were doomed

It worked!

Up next on the agenda is painting and new flooring.  The chaos continues!