When It Rains

Holy crap. Too much happening. Cannot cope. Seriously. Let's recap my week:

After some unusual and odd symptoms in LL, I innocently called his pediatrician to make sure that everything was okay. I expected to hear, "Yeah, don't worry about it!" over the phone. Instead we had two emergency pediatrician appointments, a just-in-case exam that made him screech in pain, and a referral to a specialist. Right now, we don't think that it's anything too serious, but whatever it is, it will need to be taken care of, and it's breaking my heart.

Next, S's grandfather suddenly and unexpectedly passed away this week. He lived far away from us (as in, there's an ocean between us) so he hadn't met LL yet. We had mailed him lots of photos, and we were planning on bringing LL to visit him in April, which ended up being two months too late, though there was no way we could have seen this coming. He had been so excited to meet his first great-grandchild. We've been asked not to bring LL to the funeral, but S is trying to decide whether he will be able to fly there himself. Given LL's medical problems, though, he's understandably reluctant to leave us alone, even for a few days.

Next up: S's company had major layoffs this week. S's job is still safe for now, but several of our close friends lost their jobs this week. And the layoffs mean extra work and longer hours for S, which is particularly stressful on top of everything else going on right now.

The layoffs and longer work hours for S means that he isn't able to stay home at all with LL, so I didn't work again this week. (We had been planning to trade off, so that I could work a few days, too, but alas, it's not going to happen that way.) We did hire a part-time nanny, who worked one day this week, but since it was her first day, I stayed home to show her the ropes. Some friends of ours who recently moved out of the area referred her to us, since she was a nanny for their daughter for more than a year. She's only available two days a week, so over the next two weeks, I'll be able to go into work for just four days. It's just as well, since LL isn't feeling that great, and I want to keep an eye on him. Also, one day of the nanny costs almost as much as a full week at Natasha's, so we couldn't afford more than two days each week anyway.

And, just in case a death in the family and layoffs and childcare problems and LL being sick weren't quite enough to deal with, S was in a (very minor) car accident this week. With my brand new car. No injuries, but it was unquestionably S's fault. (Yeah, he's distracted. See above.) It ended up being cheaper to pay for the damage (our car and the other car) out of pocket rather than making a claim through insurance, so we've been dealing with the other driver and repair estimates all week.

To cap it off, my brother called last night because he thinks that he's starting to see early Alzheimer's signs in my mother, and he wanted to know if I'd noticed anything. (I haven't, and I think he's imagining things, but holy cow it's hard not to be paranoid and over-analyze everything now. Alzheimer's does run in our family.)

Also, LL has been waking up several times each night, then getting up at 5am, and wanting to be held for the rest of the day. And he's not napping. I'm averaging 4 hours of sleep a night. This morning, I had my first shower all week.

Happy Valentine's Day.