Did I Mention This Thing That Happens EVERY TIME?

So, I went away for the weekend to attend my sister’s baby shower, and the night I returned, Jack threw up and Liam had a croup/breathing scare/emergency that prompted a midnight 911 call*.  I think I mentioned that every time I leave town and have a kid-free night, I return to illness and chaos.  But really.  I mean.  Come on.

The weekend was absolutely wonderful.  I worked remotely on Friday and Monday, which let me have two full weekend days to spend with family and friends.  I stayed with friends (my sister’s current place is very small so these friends took in me, the refugee.  Fingers crossed Sister gets in a new home before Baby comes so they have more space for her and the whole Baby Safari that she’s going to bring with her!)  I took long jogs, hung out with their 5 year old (you’ve seen her here before, she is very special to me), met my sister and her husband at a bar to watch a really great band play, went out for a couple of meals and stayed in for a few, and enjoyed seeing my wee niece get spoiled at her first shower.  Almost everybody there flew or drove in from far away – she’s got a devoted fan base already.   I still feel a strong connection to our old home in NC – what a great place.  I always love going back.

Tuesday was my birthday.  I spent the whole day in a highly stressful and pressurized mediation, which ended just in time for me to jet home for a birthday dinner of steak, baked potatoes, and salad (prepared by my mama and daddy!), then hop over to baseball practice.  Yesterday was more work, more baseball practice.  Today – you guessed it – work and baseball practice.  So happy these boys have fun activities planned, so sad that they are on different baseball teams that appear to enjoy practicing on all different nights.  It’s a very short season, thank heavens.  The school year’s just begun and I am wiped out.  However, I do currently have three birthday cakes at home – one bought by the Professor, one made by my dad, and one rum cake made by my legal assistant.  Mama Lawyer Life, powered by Frosting.

I can’t wait for Labor Day Weekend.  A 3 day weekend at home really gives us time to clean the house, do the laundry and grocery shopping and all that junk you gotta do to keep the household together, and also gives us extra bonus time to actually chill a bit.  After all the travel, plus the midnight paramedics visit, plus one intense long workday, plus busy kid-activity-filled evenings – this girl needs some down time.  It’s been great, but I’m settling in for a good long spell in the normal home routine.  And no thought pleases me more!

*We did not go to the hospital or anything – what I think happened is Liam woke with a throat blocked with congestion gunk, and it scared him, so he was hyperventilating and couldn’t get much air, which made him panic, clawing around him for breath and mouthing the words “I can’t breathe, my throat’s blocked” in a very scarily intense way.  But once he got calmed down he was able to breathe again, albeit with a pronounced wheeze.  By the time paramedics arrived, he was mostly asleep, though still with a barky croupy cough and congested breath.  We truly cannot afford to pay out of pocket for an ambulance ride and hospital stay – so we stayed home.  He slept it off, while I sat up with him, listening to him struggle to suck air, staring into the dark and hoping I’d made the right choice in sending the ambulance away.  Anyone who loves high deductible plans because they force the consumer to make smart health choices can go jump off a bridge, as far as I’m concerned.  “My kid can’t breathe, but can you tell me how much this will cost and then let me call my bank and see if we have that much cash in flex spending?”   The most ludicrous part of it is that no one can tell you how much anything costs before you access the care, plus you don’t know whether what’s going on is a minor or major health issue without a doctor telling you, and so you can’t make any kind of spending decisions with any cost-benefit knowledge whatsoever.  /endrant