How It All Went Down

So, I don't plan on making my posts so frequently but I thought I should post how everything went for us the other day at the doctor's office.

I woke up bright and early and nursed Michael. After getting the girl's their breakfast and dressed and ready to go, I straightened up the house and put baby down for a nap. While he napped I exercised and then showered. I thought I was doing pretty good - quite on top of things I thought proudly. I even had called the doctor, confirmed our appointments, found the address, entered it into the GPS and placed it in the van ready to go. All this on four hours sleep the night before!

I hadn't eaten yet so I was trying to make a fruit milkshake for Seth and me before getting out the door. As I tried to pry the frozen strawberries apart with a sharp knife, my knife slipped and I literally stabbed my wrist! I was shock and I knew it was deeper than a small little kitchen mishap. I quickly plunged my hand under cold running water and applied pressure right behind the wound to prevent too much bleeding. Seth calmly took care of me (he could tell I was unnerved by the whole thing, but not panicky) and bandaged me up. I realized something like this would have been minor to him and he would still have put in a rigorous full day's worth of work had he been in my shoes. I decided to be stoic, but it hurt more than I had thought. I kept my hand above my heart and began trying to give the girls a basic lesson in first aid - never miss a teaching moment!

We got packed up in the car and began our little adventure. Usually when these kind of things happen (doctor's appointments, shots, confrontations, basically anything unpleasant) I'm pretty fine coping with it until reality hits in the day or hours before the actual even. Seth usually has a pretty good grip on reality from the get go. I usually am thinking, what's the big deal and then I start to think, oh this is kind-of scary. So, I began getting slightly apprehensive, but tried not to dwell on what is coming up too much. I was really tired and tried to take a nap in the car. I didn't want to snap at the girls even though I explained to them I am trying to sleep and they continued to ask me questions, tell on one another, and request services from me. Seth detected the irritation in my voice and told the girls to only address him for the remainder of the drive. (The appointment was in Raleigh - about 1hr 45min away.)

We arrived 25 minutes before the appointment and I went in with Michael while Seth helped the girls out of the car, etc. I had to go to the bathroom, so I first went there and then changed Michael's diaper. When I got into the office Seth was already there with the girls waiting. He thought I had checked in, but I hadn't. The waiting room had been empty when we arrived, but once I walked in there were several other people waiting. Basically, we might have been seen earlier had I not made the bathroom stop. As it turned out, we had to wait the extra 25 minutes as well as an additional 45 minutes at least. (So remind me, what are the purpose of appointments?) Oh yes, and we also discovered Katrina had come with no shoes! I had told the girls to put their shoes on after the little kitchen accident and they are usually so obedient when I give orders (especially Katrina) that I rarely have to check up on them - ok, plus I was a little preoccupied.

Once finally taken in to the mysterious maze of little rooms, Michael and I began our wait again after a nurse asked a few questions. She told me to get him undressed so she could weigh him. You all know how cold those medical buildings are! We waited for almost 10 minutes then the Dr. came in a began to get the procedure going. Since they weren't going to use an anesthetic I brought orajel to help. (hey - it couldn't hurt, right?) Michael hated the orajel and that got him so upset! Then, while he was wailing the nurse decided to weigh him and the doctor told me to bring Shiona in to see if she needed her's clipped too. Thankfully a quick examination revealed she was fine, so I quickly return her to Seth and Katrina in the waiting room and dashed back to hold my little crying baby. They were ready for the procedure and I helped hold him down and told him how much I love him and am so sorry he has to go through this. It was an incredibly simple thing - just a snip of the tissue with a pair of sharp scissors and then they applied gauze for a few minutes.

Michael was beside himself and when I removed the gauze and tried to nurse him he refused. There are only so many options left to soothe an upset baby when you can't nurse. I walked him around and sang to him. The doctor wanted me to stay and he would come back and check how things were healing in a few minutes. I kept trying to nurse, but he would try and then scream. I think it was more because he couldn't get the hang of the new sensation rather than the pain that was bothering him the most. After about 12 minutes he fell asleep. The doctor came in a few an eternity later and after a swift examination said it looked good and we were free to go! What relief! As I walked back to the front room to pay I could sense that it had fared no better for Seth in the waiting room with two very active girls! Ha! The story he had to tell me later. Poor man - and I had requested he accompany me because I thought it'd be too difficult to take all three by myself. Did I feel guilty! (Of course, you all know he would have insisted on helping anyways!)

It was almost four when we ate lunch at Subway. It was freezing, I could feel mastitice coming on, Seth was tired, I was achy, blah, blah, blah. We were so happy when we finally got back home. And I was so relieved when Michael finally was able to nurse a few hours later. He was a little fussier than normal, but not inconsolable.

At the end of the day, I was just so happy to have it behind me. I set my alarm every four hours so Michael would nurse all through the night and help me get over the infection quickly. It only lasted a few days and it was more mild that previous ones.

Thank the Lord for His grace - sometimes it is the only think that you can see got you through sometime. I know I probably sound like a spoiled child compainling about trivial things, but God is there for us in each circumstance and whether it is life and death or just general overwhelming circumstances, He is real and there for us.