The Wisdom Of Others, The Barfing Of Myself

Oh man you guys. Nothing like a twenty four hour stomach flu to remind you that maybe the dry heaves and the nausea and the food aversions of morning sickness aren't so bad compared to an entire night of projectile vomiting and subsequent raw throat and painful dehydration symptoms. Perspective! See! Isn't that a cheerful spin to put on it!?!?!

Ahem. Moving on. So I'm a little tired and delirious and also woefully, woefully behind on laundry once again thanks to literally spending an entire day tucked in bed recovering from said flu (and begging God to please oh PLEASE not let anyone else get it.) The only interesting thing was that I of course lost a few pounds, in the course of emptying my body of every fluid and then not being able to eat anything but Jello and graham crackers the next day, and therefore my belly was much more taut than usual, giving me an unusually clear glimpse of my actual baby bump. Still not very big, I have to say. I hope that's ok.

I am feeling little twinges here and there that are maybe movement, but I couldn't say for sure. This is disappointing, since with Jameson I could absolutely feel him moving at least a couple times a day from thirteen weeks. I know that's a rarity, but I was hoping it would happen again. My stupid fetal heart rate monitor thingie also completely died on me, so I have to settle for waiting to be reassured at my sixteen week appointment, like a common CHUMP. Humph. Though, I guess I could let the only slightly lessening nausea (flu aside) comfort me that all is still well. When that magical fourteen week marker came and went and I was still retching at the smell of the garbage can, well... panic set in a little, I must admit. Is it possible to have had normal, done-at-the-end-of-the-first-trimester nausea three times in a row and then have it the whole unlucky nine months with your next? Never mind, don't answer that.

In conclusion to further barf talk and complaining, I give you, in lieu of anything meaningful from myself, Erin's wonderful, wonderful post, which is kind of about MLK Jr. Day and kind of just about life, and of course made me well up in tears and wish that everyone had to sit quietly in little kindergarten chairs and just listen to her. She also links to this post, written by a teacher and called "On Gifts and Talents," and it too was so wonderful and well worth the read. As Erin explains, the gist of it is so simple: are kids are ok, and will be ok, if we can only start actually believing that they are ok and making sure that they know it.

I have certainly had my moments of worrying that my kids were not ok, that something, somewhere was off and needed fixing. This was such a good, such a wise, such a calming thing for me to read. Yes, it's concerning that my four and a half year old still has almost daily meltdowns despite our constant attempts to help him control himself. But to my nagging fear that oh no something is wrong with him this post was soothing truth. One way or another, he is ok, just exactly who he is. And he is going to be just fine as long as he knows that his parents believe that.