Keeping up with the Kants

Well, we've made it through half the week, and I am exhausted!  I forgot how much I hate getting up in the morning; if would be helpful if my baby alarm would go off when I want it to, instead of an hour before I need to, or just as I'm exiting the shower.  I had a slight meltdown Sunday night thinking of taking her to daycare and going back to work...I kept trying to think of ways to save money so I could stay home.  Erich has narrowed it down to winning the lottery, le sigh. Daycare is going good; they're really nice and have a good teacher to infant ratio.  It helps that she's been in a good mood when I drop her off so far.  Yeah, I drop her off, I got the raw end of this deal!  It makes more sense for me to drop her off since it's on my way to work--kind of--and Erich gets off earlier than me so he picks her up.  I feel out of the loop getting the details of her day secondhand.  Today was my halfday, so I picked her up early and it was good ...

Well, my final week of maternity leave is coming to a close...these 8 weeks went by too fast!  I don't think it helped matters that I spent at least a third of the time either in the hospital or recovering.  I wish that insurance companies would understand this, and view maternity leave as a time of bonding, instead of a time of healing--this is BS...I don't know if I will ever fully recover from the mental scars of my C-Section...almost dying kind of does that to a person.  I look at Harper and Erich sometimes and think how lucky I was to be sitting there watching them.  But, enough about that sappy stuff!  Speaking of insurance companies, the place that handles our company's short term disability--who shall remain nameless--has the worse customer service I have experienced in a very long time.  My intital claim was quick and painless, as it was just maternity leave.  I would be given 6 weeks of paid time off, then it was up to me to use my own vaca...

Seriously, is it really already August?  Where oh where did my summer go?  Oh yeah, surgery, recovery, and more surgery.  I really thought these first couple months would be harder than they were; honestly I think that had I not had the c section and gall bladder removal, it would have been a breeze--and I'd probably be even more bummed about daycare and going back to work.  It hit me tonight and I kind of lost it; one more week with Harper and then I hand her over for 8-9 hours a day to someone I don't know...weird how I'm not entirely OK with this prospect.  But, after budget discussions we just can't afford to be a one income household right now.  Erich is looking into some other jobs, but it would still only be feasible to drop to part-time...sad pandas! I never thought I'd want to stay home with her, but as it turns out, I actually enjoy listening to Veggie Tales and watching her mobile with her and changing diapers and getting puked on and narr...

The surgery was done on Friday and it was pretty quick and painless.  I got there around 8:30, they had me prepped within an hour, and here are the few things I remember: -a nurse asking me if I was nervous for the surgery, to which I said no because I had had a horrible c-section...she kind of rolled her eyes and asked for details, which after telling her I think she felt kind of bad for doubting my definition of a "bad experience". -Erich coming back to wish me well into surgery; I thought he was there for a few minutes, as it turns out he was there for at least 30. That's what they get for sedating me that early on -I remember that going into the operating room, Willie Nelson was playing, and both my nurse and I had negative comments about it, and in essence asked for a new cd. -Coming to, I woke up in a recliner--so I missed out on about 30 minutes recovery time, and being moved to the chair -I was pretty out of it from there, and really tired, and all they wante...

Well, a date for surgery is set for tomorrow morning.  It's an outpatient procedure, and takes about 72 hours for recover,y, so having it on a Friday is a good move.  Problem is that during that time I can't drive, or pick anything up, like say, my daughter.  So, game on for Daddy Erich this weekend.  Luckily he already picks up the slack as needed, so this shouldn't be an issue.  Took Harper into work for the first time today; she did really well and slept most of the time.  I always said I'd never bring my kids into work, for fear of germs and whatnot, so it's funny that in the "now" I didn't think twice about it. Might as well get that tolerance built up before she heads to daycare, right? Ahh daycare, something I don't want to even think about, even though it's right around the corner.  I like the place we chose, but am still leery of letting someone else take care of her.  I mean, she'll be spending more time with these people than...

A few weeks ago I had what I thought was the worst case of food poisoning of my life. I was literally on the floor writhing in pain, and scaring the crap out of Erich at the same time. I had pain in my abdomnen, upper back, and eventually my chest, and it lasted all night. By morning I was fine (and greatful that Erich stepped up with Harper that night). So, this happened on and off in the evenings over the next week. My nursey cousin said it sounded like my gall bladder, which apparently can be out of whack after pregnancy. So, I had an ultrasound done and lo and behold, I have gallstones. So, surgery is in the works; it's a very simply procedure done with a Laser! Exciting stuff. My maternity leave (6 weeks) is officially over as of today; technically I should go back to work tomorrow, but decided to take some vacation time to be out 8 weeks with Harper; this whole gall bladder thing may help me out with that, in that I might get some short term disability time...we'...

We made it back home in time to celebrate the 4th with some friends and family. Our A/C is back in business, and it's downright cold in this house! On the plus side, the chilly weather helped me realize that some pre-prego jeans fit me, woot! That made me feel pretty good about myself! Just wanted to post some pictures from the weekend, then need to do some laundry and family time since Erich has the day off!