The classic that could kill me

 

This book seems harmless. Who could hate Baa, Baa Black Sheep?

Well, certainly not Anne Marie. I read her that book no less than 30 times yesterday afteernoon. Then, when Matt got home, he read it 30 more. We went to the grocery store, where Anne Marie said, "Mo Baaa Baa" while signing "more" until I sang her the song over and over. But these are typical toddler fun activities right? I was tired of the song, but I was surviving.

That is, until 4 a.m., when I heard those horrible words coming over the baby monitor, "Mo baa baa!" Then I heard her say,"Oh, no," then uncontrollable crying. It seems that her need for her favorite song woke her up enough to see all the scary shadows in her room, and she freaked out. Three hours later, she fell back asleep. That book will haunt me in my dreams.


Meanwhile, Bubba, who has become a great lover of the outdoors, saw a couple of cats in our backyard that he wanted to fight. So, about 5 a.m., he started howling at the door (I didn't take the picture then- this is something he does a lot). When Bubba howls, Freddy gets ticked off and usually attacks him. So Bubba's high-pitched piercing meow was soon replaced by hissing, growling and the like. No one sleeps in our house anymore.

 

Mine...No... more

These are the words that make up much of my daily life. When Anne Marie wakes up in the morning, she holds her arms up to get out the crib and says, "Mine!" It's almost as if she knows that "mine" is a toddler word and she has to use it, despite the fact that she seems to have no idea what it means.

No and more always come together. "No more..." followed by vigorous head shaking. :)

Of course, there is the nice, "I love..." that also seems to be constant. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to hear, "I love mama," but there is also, "I love bilk (milk)," "I love rocks," and, my personal favorite, "I love poop."

Spelunking and toddlers...

can be an excellent combination!

Last weekend, Anne Marie and I had the opportunity to go to Craters of the Moon with Alex and my mom. We went up there to see the Perseids in a light-free environment.

I ended up falling asleep without seeing one shooting star (I love shooting stars, but this girl needs her sleep), but we had lots of fun all day before the star-gazing. Behold, the highlights:

First, Anne Marie took a hike. The girl made it almost 1/2 mile!



We ran up the cinder cone, as is tradition. Of course, it was dang windy at the top.



Then we ran down, as is tradition:



We prepped for caving:



Then we went in. Here is an early cave pose.




The hole to get out was a bit tight. I had to go in on my stomach so I didn't whack the backpack on the cave wall. As we were coming out, Anne Marie said, "Push mama! Push!"



We were tired.




In the morning, we awoke bright and early, and stopped at Pickles in Arco on the way back.



All in all, exhausting, but fun.

Poor Rosa

 

 

So it was a trip to the ER last night, not for any humans in my family, but for poor Rosa.

Anyone who knows my dog knows she's a bit neurotic. She loves her family, and is fiercely loyal, but has only let a few select others in her circle of "safe humans." She believes the Schwan man has a secret agenda, and might kill us all at any moment. She won't take a treat from a stranger, whether it's the vet or the Petco cashier because of the possibility that it's poisoned. The poor rejected Petco cashier has even given the treat to me to give to her. She takes it and spits in on the ground.

She also has a bad fence-jumping habit. We have an 8 -foot fence in the backyard. At the gate where she jumps we put a trellis to make it about 13 feet. The dog has hip dysplasia, but she still climbs up the stairs and leaps about 6 feet into the air over the trellis, crashing on the other side. This happens if she's left outside too long (more than 12 minutes). Then, of course, the neurotic dog gets scared because she's now alone in the big world, and hides under the car.

Last night, she made the great attempt, but her foot got stuck and she was hanging from the fence. I didn't hear her howls over the fans in our house, but three neighbors came running and pulled her off. Then she looked terrified at them and went under the car. I went outside to find out why there were three men in my carport, and they told me the news. I called Rosa in, and quickly noticed her leg was hanging really funny. She was a brave dog - I squeezed her leg to see if I could feel bone or deformity, and I felt definite crunching, but she didn't whine or even wince.

I called the Pocatello number for on-call vet emergencies and no one called me back (that is a whole other story- we have a billion vets in town, and very few you can count on for more than vaccines). So I called my mom's vet in Idaho Falls, got Anne Marie and Rosa in the car and headed out. Poor Rosa had x-rays, and it turns out she broke her foot. She got a cast, which I'm hoping the cats will sign later, and is now home and on pain meds.

For me, the humor came when Matt came home on his work break while we were getting ready to head to IF, and, in a very fatherly stern voice told Rosa, "That was a bad choice. Now you won't get to play with Reggie this weekend (Reggie is my mom's dog and Rosa's very best friend). You were going to have a fun weekend with Reggie visiting, but I don't even know if she can come any more. Maybe next time you'll think about that before you jump."

On a side note, the Pocatello vet did finally return my call - 30 minutes after I had waited 45 minutes for the return call, called the IF vet, drove to Idaho Falls and got Rosa x-rayed and cast. The emergency doctor visit cost is $30 less in IF, so I saved more than the cost of gas by driving, plus she got medical attention faster.

Lame book

I just added the bookshelf feature today, and I read a bit more of that Green book I put on it tonight. I can't figure out how to get it off the bookshelf, but I can tell you it's pretty lame. They suggest bringing your own organic sheets to the hospital to give birth. Geez. Who would want to bring their own sheets that they will have to wash to the hospital? I will be glad to give birth on earth-unfriendly sheets, and leave them at the hospital when I go home. All I wanted to know was if cloth diapering was easy.

A political post (warning for those who don't want to get political)

I never usually post political things, but when I got this in the e-mail, it freaked me out, because the same thing happened to me. I had to go back to work six days after Anne Marie was born while she was still in the nicu because it was the only way to have enough maternity leave when she got out of the hospital. And I had to beg work to allow me to do this, even though my maternity leave was unpaid (they wanted my maternity leave clock to start ticking immediately, so I would be back in 12 weeks regardless of Anne Marie's predicament). I felt lucky that they let me return to work, but it was hard (I was visiting Anne Marie four times a day, then working in between).

I think it would be nice if the U.S. joined the rest of the world and offered paid family leave so mothers who must work didn't have to leave their babies so early to make ends meet.

My goal is to someday not have to work, and stay home with my little ones. While it might be possible for me in the near future, it isn't for many women. Even with state help, it's difficult to live on one minimum-wage job. It's even difficult to live on two, but a lot of people have no choice.


Anyway, here's the story:

Dear MomsRising.org member,

I want to share the story of Selena with you -- a woman who had her baby on a Thursday and was back at her desk the next Monday morning while her newborn son remained in the hospital.

Here's what happened with Selena: She was pushing a shopping cart full of pasta, rice, tortillas, and other basic food staples, when a pain started as a nagging stitch in her side. Her baby wasn't due for another six weeks though and she thought the pain would likely just go away, as many strange pinches and pains do during pregnancy, so she continued shopping for her family.

Selena and her husband, James, had carefully worked out their finances to accommodate a second child, figuring out that they could only afford to have Selena take a little over two weeks off after the baby was born. Like 61 percent of families in the U.S. with children, they were both in the labor force.

But unlike the rest of the world, the United States doesn't (yet!) have Paid Family and Medical Leave for all new mothers (which is paid time off after the birth of a baby). In fact, only four countries in the world don't have some form of paid leave for new mothers: Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho, and the United States. So, not surprisingly, having a baby in the U.S. is a top cause of poverty spells as people face job interruptions due to lack of paid family leave.

It's not so very hard to see that what happened to Selena could happen to many of us.

The best laid plans sometimes go awry. The morning after the shopping trip, Selena went to her doctor and found out she really was in early labor. After trying unsuccessfully to stop the labor, Selena and James' baby boy, Connor, was born six weeks early.

Their baby was rushed out of the room and up to the Neonatal Intensive Care unit, Selena's husband rushed up with him, and Selena found herself alone in a hospital bed realizing that she was going to go home well before her baby. She had a tough decision to make.

With her son stable in the hospital, but not knowing how long until he could come home, the choice was between Selena taking time off when he was in the hospital, or waiting to take time off when the baby was released from the hospital and could come home. "There was no way we could afford for me to take off more than we planned," recalls Selena.

They made a difficult decision: They decided it would be best if she waited to take time off until the baby came home.

So this is how after Selena had the baby on Thursday, she was released from the hospital Friday, and was back at her desk on Monday morning. "It was the hardest two and a half weeks of my life," she says recalling the ache of being away from her newborn son and the rigorous family schedule at that time.

We have great news though. MomsRising members are making a difference at the state level. In Selena's home state, Washington, such a law was passed within the last couple of years-mainly due to the work of local MomsRising members pushing it forward. This means that Selena wouldn't face the same predicament if she had her baby there next year.

In fact, due in no small part to the efforts of local MomsRising members, Paid Family and Medical Leave laws (also called Family Leave Insurance) have passed in both New Jersey and in Washington, and are moving forward in Oregon, New York, Maryland, and more. And, California was the first state to have such a law.

Working together, we moms are making progress at the state level, and know we can do it at the national level too. And now we have the chance to build much-needed support for a strong, groundbreaking bill for all moms and families.

Take a moment to forward this email to friends and family. The more moms that Congress hears from, the faster they'll realize that something must be done now. The bill is written and ready to be passed; they just have to get working on it.

Here's that link again to urge Congress to pass the Family Leave Insurance Act in case you need it:

http://www.momsrising.org/NationalPaidFamilyLeave