Thankful

A few weeks ago as the snow was beginning to melt and leave muddy residue everywhere, my sweet husband graced us with a visit at home over his lunch hour. As I was preparing his lunch, he paused at the bottom of our stairs to swipe his boots on the rug before running up them to retrieve his watch he'd left behind. 

We have white carpeted stairs and the whole upstairs is white carpet. A thick, plush, memory foam shaggy white carpet. We never walk with our shoes on the carpet.. not even our cleanest pair unless its a super emergency and super fast. As I looked up the stairs after Shane had run up them and observed the perfect muddy tread line from his boots, my initial thought was to be annoyed and a little upset. However, I also thought of how nice it was to have Shane home for lunch and how thankful I was that he'd made a special trip to see us and how I also own soap, water, cleaning agents and rags. 

Shane and I didn't have any children when the house was being built and we were given the choice of having it made to our specifications. My mother-in-law had 7 children of her own and advised strongly against white carpet, but I was absolutely sure that's what I wanted and I would simply train my little ones to removed their shoes in the house. I did not take into consideration at the time, how often Shane and I would be almost ready to leave to go somewhere and realize we needed to run up the stairs to get it and so we'd had to remove our shoes, retrieve the object, come down ,put our shoes back on.. etc. I'm thankful to have a custom house with fluffy white carpet, but, in all reality, its a thing that will get dirty and will probably need to be replaced in a few years. 

Anyways, so with Thanksgiving being right around the corner, I can't help but notice that my attitude isn't always that of thankfulness. I've been trying to make it a habit to find something for which I am thankful whenever a complaint comes to mind. i.e. I' m thankful I have a sweet husband like Shane to make muddy footprints on the white carpet when others don't have that.  I'm sure for everyone who has lost a loved one, they'd take muddy carpet footprints any day of the week just to have them back.

Life Changes

Here we are, 3 1/2 weeks into parenthood and loving it. I will admit, there are times I cry more than she does, but she is a very happy baby who is content to sleep most of the time... except at night time when I would like to be sleeping... hence the crying on my part. It's amazing what post-partum hormones and lack of sleep will do to one's emotions. 

Anyways, it was hard for me to transition from working in the Graber Heating office full time to just being home with a baby. Actually, Shane and I were responding to work emails and calls while we were still in the hospital.. the day she was born, even. 😬. ( She was sleeping.. we weren't missing anything). But in the weeks since being home, I've come to enjoy the quiet moments of being able to read and sip coffee and try and come up with a plan for supper. I'm thankful my appreciation of the taste of coffee came back as I could barely stand it while pregnant. Granted, the morning sickness stuck with me all the way up to the operating table while the were c-sectioning the baby out. As I started my usual morning dry-heaving and loss of stomach contents (Of which there were none as I had to fast before surgery) mid operation, I managed to croak out to the nurse standing nearby that I was going to throw up. The anesthesiologist sitting just behind my head heard me and jumped up to add an anti-nausea something to my IV line while the kind nurse held a vomit pan to my mouth. I was numbed from the neck down at that point and I can't say if I've had much weirder sensations than dry-heaving on an operating table when one has no feeling in ones muscles that are doing the dry heaving. But all is well and I'm happy to say that it has been a wonderful three weeks of not throwing up and I've never appreciated feeling so well as I do now. 

However, during my entire pregnancy I managed to avoid getting colds or bronchitis or the flu as it swept through its usual course of the seasons. But I was hit with a cold this last weekend and I'm not even sure how to handle it. I digress.

Baby is a doll. She's not much for crying unless I have to suction out her nose or give her a bath. She's slowly gaining weight and is 8 1/2 lbs these days! I'm amazed at how quickly she is growing and changing. Every mom says that, but its crazy when you see it first hand. I am still recovering from the c-section and am still sore and sometimes in pain but they said at least 6 weeks of recovery would be needed. 

Shane is the true people's hero. He is back to work full time and doesn't get to recover from middle-of-the-night feedings or diapers by sleeping a little extra like I do. Shane still wakes up almost everytime baby does as with me still recovering from the surgery, baby stays in a bassinet on his side and she hands baby over almost every time she's fussing. Plus, he often does her midnight diapers as he is very quick and efficient and doesn't mind them.  Poor man, though, I don't know how he isn't dying from exhaustion.