Late Night Emergency Room Trip

First of all, it was for me, not the baby!  Thank goodness!  Around 10:00 PM, I sent Sean to Walgreens to talk to the pharmacist about the stomach pain I was having and to see what OTC medicine I could take while breastfeeding.  A few minutes after he left, I decided to try a banana and a glass of milk.  After taking a couple of bites, I noticed that I was wheezing.  I have asthma, but it very rarely flares up.  I took two puffs out of my Albuterol inhaler, and my breathing got better.  At this point though, the weirdness really started.  First, my hands itched uncontrollably.  I was scratching and referring to Dr. Google to see what could possibly be causing the insane itching.  I decided I better grab the baby and go upstairs to get my phone charger, since a dead phone would be of no use if I needed to call Sean or 911!

By the time I got back downstairs, welps were moving up my arms, and I was getting a fat lip.  I have no known allergies, and I began to panic a bit since I was home alone with G.  I called Sean and told him to get home because I had a much bigger problem than a stomach ache.  When he arrived, we loaded the baby up and headed to the emergency room.  The scene in the waiting room was a sight to behold.  The highlight was a woman moaning over and over that she was in so much pain, and everyone ignored her.  That inspired a lot of confidence when I walked in the door, let me tell you!

Much to my relief, they took me back right away and started an IV line.  I got a shot of epinephrine and then Benadryl, Prednisone, and Pepcid in my IV.  The swelling and redness began to go away almost immediately.    People kept asking me if I had a latex allergy because apparently people who are allergic to latex are usually allergic to bananas, too??   I told them that I was unaware of any allergies, and I had no idea what caused it.  Luckily, I am doing Weight Watchers, so I have a list of everything I consumed yesterday.  In the end, everything was fine, and I was treated kindly by the staff.

Whew...what a scary night!

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

Baby's asleep, coffee's made, life is good...

My life philosophy

I found Desiderata around the sixth grade.  I've always loved it.  It reflects how I try to live my life.

Enjoy...

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul. 

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

~Max Ehrmann

What is a CSA?

I promised to write a post explaining what a CSA is, so here is my best explanation.  CSA (community-supported agriculture) is a program where people in a community can buy a "share" of a farm at the beginning of a growing season and in return receive a weekly sampling of the farm's harvest.  Every week it changes as different crops are in season.  This is a great way to support small-scale, local farming, as well as a way to ensure your family is eating fresh, seasonal produce.  I am finding there are other benefits, such as trying new vegetables that you might not try, learning new ways to prepare dishes to include items from your weekly share, and learning how to cook with fresh herbs.  Plus, I feel like we are starting a fun ritual with Grayton.  On Saturday mornings, we load him onto my back in the Ergo, grab our reusable bag, and head to the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market on foot to pick up our weekly share from Downing Hollow Farm.

Here is the share from this past Saturday:

As you can see, it included a loaf of fresh baked bread, different lettuces, tomatoes, radishes, bok choy, sweet field peas, herbs like oregano and dill, and a big bag of sorrel.  Also, not pictured, we added a dozen fresh eggs to this week's order.

Farmer's markets have popped up all over the city and in surrounding suburbs over the last couple of years.  As a result, CSAs have also increased.  There are several farms to choose from.  Check one out today!

Salad fixins from the CSA!

Sean and I typically eat a Greek style salad when we fix salad at home.  It usually contains some combination of Romaine lettuce, kalamata olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, and red onion (depending on what we have on hand).

Now that the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market has started their second season, I am picking up farm-fresh veggies as part of the CSA I am sharing with my friend, Nicole.  I plan on writing about the CSA in my next post for those of you who are interested in community-supported agriculture.

Needless to say, Greek salads will be back in the winter, but for now, we are using what comes in our weekly share.  This week I topped some of the fresh lettuce with radishes and raw spring peas.  I never knew that I liked peas, but these were amazing!  They were crunchy and sweet, and they were a great addition to a salad.

Here are the salads before we chowed down (I added cucumber and feta, the only two things that did not come from the CSA)!

Homemade tzatziki!

This was my first attempt at making one of my favorite sauces.  The tzatziki at The Castle on Park Ave. is my favorite, and this one didn't quite measure up!  But, for my first attempt, it was good, and now I know what to tweak next time.  I used my small food processor since I only wanted enough for our mahi mahi last night.  I used about two cups of fat free greek yogurt (mistake #1- I'm sure full fat would be better!!!). Then I added chopped, peeled cucumber, three peeled garlic cloves (mistake #2- next time I will use already minced garlic because the small food processor did not get it small enough), a handful of fresh dill from Downing Hollow Farm (mistake #3- next time I will chop the dill much finer- the texture was odd with the dill in bigger pieces), and a splash of lemon juice.

This was a great complement to the fish, and it was fun to make with ingredients I already had on hand!

Six Months Already??

Yesterday was G's half birthday!  I truly cannot believe that it has been six months since this precious soul has come into our lives.  For the past week or so, I have been reflecting on how much things have changed in the short time he has been here.  In those first weeks, I remember feeling so overwhelmed!  I still had a couple of school assignments to complete for the end of the semester, and I thought there was no way that would happen. Somehow, the fog lifted and I finished those assignments.  Looking back, I truly believed in those first couple of weeks that I would not be able to handle anything outside of taking care of my little one.  Now I realize that the around the clock feeding is temporary (although it has returned on occasion for growth spurts and teething) and that I am a master in getting stuff done in very short time increments.  It is amazing how quickly I can clean when I am racing against nap time!  Although I have more responsibilities and less time these days, I am so much more efficient!  I think motherhood makes women expert time managers. Now I just finished another semester and have gone back to work part time.  I could not do it without support, though.  I am so lucky to have my mom available during the week, so that I can work and go to school with the knowledge that G is in the very best hands.  When he is not with me, he is with his daddy or one of his doting grandparents.  I am truly blessed.

Everybody loves to say how time flies, and I have never believed more than I have in these past six months.  When I look at pictures of my little man when we brought him home from the hospital, I have a hard time grasping that he was once that little.  In the blink of an eye, he has changed so much!

What I have learned so far:

• Everything is temporary! As soon as I think I have something figured out, it will probably change as G moves so quickly through developmental stages.
• Flexibility is the key to my sanity.  I have to be adaptable as I follow Grayton's cues.  What works one day may not work the next!
• I know my baby best!  I remain open to learning new things, but ultimately, I trust my gut instinct when it comes to knowing what's best for my little guy.
• I cannot take too many pictures.  He is changing so rapidly, and it is fun to look back and see the changes!

If you are a new mom reading this, what have you learned so far??

The Continuum Concept

I just came across the work of Jean Leidloff, who is known for her book, The Continuum Concept.  When I was browsing her website, the principles she espouses are basically attachment parenting staples- breastfeeding on demand, bedsharing, and babywearing.  I was searching around to find out what makes her different, and I came across this interesting article, "Who's in Control?" that was originally published in Mothering magazine in 1994.

If you have time and interest, it's worth a quick read, but I will give a summary here.  She spent two years in the South American jungles living with and observing the Yequana Indians.  One of her observations was that she never witnessed two children or a child and an adult arguing or engaged in any sort of power struggle.  So this became her question she sought to answer:


"Where were the 'terrible twos'? Where were the tantrums, the struggle to 'get their own way,' the selfishness, the destructiveness and carelessness of their own safety that we call normal? Where was the nagging, the discipline, the 'boundaries' needed to curb their contrariness? Where, indeed, was the adversarial relationship we take for granted between parent and child? Where was the blaming, the punishing, or for that matter, where was any sign of permissiveness?"


What she found is that while the Yequana keep their babies in close physical contact until they can crawl, they are not child-centered.  All this means is that they go about their daily activities with the baby close and secure without focusing on the baby.  The baby is allowed to observe a competent, confident adult going about the business of daily life without being the center of attention.  This gives the baby a rich, developmental basis for future behavior, language and general pace of life.  She sums it up like this:

"Being played with, talked to, or admired all day deprives the babe of this in-arms spectator phase that would feel right to him. Unable to say what he needs, he will act out his discontentment. He is trying to get his caretaker's attention, yet — and here is the cause of the understandable confusion — his purpose is to get the caretaker to change his unsatisfactory experience, to go about her own business with confidence and without seeming to ask his permission. Once the situation is corrected, the attention-getting behavior we mistake for a permanent impulse can subside. The same principle applies in the stages following the in-arms phase."


She goes on to say:

"It appears that many parents of toddlers, in their anxiety to be neither negligent nor disrespectful, have gone overboard in what may seem to be the other direction. Like the thankless martyrs of the in-arms stage, they have become centered upon their children instead of being occupied by adult activities that the children can watch, follow, imitate, and assist in as is their natural tendency. In other words, because a toddler wants to learn what his people do, he expects to be able to center his attention on an adult who is centered on her own business. An adult who stops whatever she is doing and tries to ascertain what her child wants her to do is short-circuiting this expectation. Just as significantly, she appears to the tot not to know how to behave, to be lacking in confidence and, even more alarmingly, looking for guidance from him, a two or three year old who is relying on her to be calm, competent, and sure of herself."


I think this is so valuable for me to remember as a parent who is trying to practice attachment parenting.  I believe that what I am doing will help my little boy to be secure, confident, and independent.  What I have never thought about is that he needs to observe me being that way as well.

Thanks for the food for thought, Ms. Leidloff!