March 21st

It’s a funny phenomenon – the memoies that come flying at ya sometimes.  I’ve had the stomach flu for going on two days now.  Two days, in the big scheme of things, is not that long of a time...however, when the time is spent curled around the toilet or lying in bed whimpering and shivering because you’ve never been so cold in your life and then two minutes later, you’re sweating and cursing ‘cuz holy dooty, who turned up the heat?!...Walking hurts....Breathing hurts...Your brain aches like crazy...it feels like longer than two days.  It especially feels long when, not to toot your own horn, but you’re pretty sure the world (or at least the world of your family) revolves around you – or in the very least relies on you a heck of a lot.

 

Thankfully, I’m married to a husband-father rockstar.  Mike has totally rocked at taking care of the three mini-Martins.  Getting the boys off to school, entertaining a toddler who lacks any reason what-so-ever (and is still slightly disturbed by the shadow – of herself – that constantly follows behind her), making sure that I have everything I need, etc., etc.  He’s even somehow managing to work in and around all of this.

 

Hmmm, kind of reminds me of March, a few years back – seven to be precise – when I did a lot more than lie around for two days.  In fact, I laid around, in a hospital room for 49 days.  I told Mike this morning, that there’s no way I could’ve done bed rest at home.  It’s just too hard to chill on the sofa having to watch Mike take care of everything.  It’s too hard!  No wonder I was whisked away and essentially locked in a hospital room!    

 

Anyway, my current (and very brief, I pray) reminder of bed rest had me curious.  What was I doing seven years ago on March 21^st?  Well, lying in a bed, yes.  I’d been in the hospital for six days already, completely unaware that I still had six weeks more to go (not just 3 weeks as the doctors were saying at that time).  I also depicted an episode of the boys’ brotherly interaction (yes, Zachary was still in utero, cooking away in me, the mama oven).

 

Let’s take trip down memoy lane, shall we?:

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 1:44PM “Life without an IV is bliss! Who knew how easy getting up to go to the bathroom or taking a shower sans plastic covering and arm apparatus could be?! I'd certainly forgotten! So, that's the big news today -- I'm off the Magnesium IV drip (woohoo!) and have been put on oral meds that I'm given every six hours to keep those contractions down. Dr. Anton came to see me this morning and said that she definitely agrees with Dr. Walker that I need to be here on monitored bed rest at least until/through week 32. They'll be monitoring me along the way and if there are any changes, then obviously the plan will change. On average my graph/monitor reading shows that I have four contractions an hour (though they're very little and I don't usually feel them). The doctors said that they'd be OK with up to six an hour as long as they weren't getting painful or long. It's interesting to have the nurses explain my graph though. They can look back along the squiggly line and say, "Ahh, yes, and at 12:23 you had a contraction that lasted for 17 seconds." When we monitor Zach, they can look at his graph and tell me when he is in a sleep cycle, when he's awake, when he flips over thus accelerating his heartbeat, when he settles back down, and when he has the hiccups (which they don't need to tell me as I definitely feel those)! He's a very active little guy, that's for sure. Today Matthew had a good time bumping my tummy monitor (that was tracking Zachary) and making a big thumping noise come through the speakers over the sound of Zach's heartbeat. So, poor little Zachy is already getting abuse from his big brother! When Matthew first heard the baby monitor the other day he looked so confused. I said, "That's baby Zach in Mommy's tummy. It sounds like horses galloping, huh?" Matthew responded, "Yeah, horses in Mommy's tummy." So, now the already confused little man, thinks that I'll be having a horse-baby! As if this whole ordeal wasn't weird enough already. Guess we better start saving up for therapy. Who needs college, anyway?!”

 

Little did I know that my cute anecdote was, in fact, a very realistic foreshadowing.  Zachary is very active. Matthew does still inflict abuse upon him (though Zach dishes it back, for sure).   And, really, we should be saving up for therapy for all of us.  I bet even Suze Orman would agree that therapy would be a more sound investment than college!