2005-12-07 - 2:34 p.m.
Wow.
I thought I’d be able to write lots of journal updates while I was home taking care of the family. Not so. I’d forgotten how demanding new babies can be. Add the needs of a three-year-old and it all adds up to “not a moment’s peace”.
Anyway, to pick up from the last entry, my grandmother survived the stroke. She’s paralyzed on her left side, her speech is slurred, but her personality is intact. With her assent, she’s been moved to hospice care and taken off most medication. Now it’s a waiting game. It could be a few more days, or it could be several more months. I can only hope that it’s painless.
In other news, Michael Walter was born November 8th, at 8:27 AM after a series of mishaps worthy of the Keystone Kops. We got to the hospital without any problems, but first there were problems with the epidural, then lights in the surgical theater kept shorting out. It was rather amusing to hear the obstetrician loudly declaim that any delays in the day’s surgical schedule were not her fault. This time around things were much less stressful. J got good drugs the entire time, Michael was not squeezed and pushed for 37 hours straight, and I did not have to sleep on a rickety, spavined recliner. (They had this loveseat thing that lengthened out into a daybed. I want one!) We were home by Saturday afternoon, and we settled into a routine pretty easily. Michael took to nursing like a champ, which helped get him over his jaundice easily enough. The Professor seems to be adjusting well enough; there are certain territorial disputes to contend with, but that’s only normal. She hasn’t tried to smother him, or hit him with anything, or draw on him with markers, or anything like that, so I guess we’re doing okay. We’re trying to make sure she gets plenty of time alone with either one of us, but mostly we just handle things day by day.
Here's some pictures.
All in all, we’re doing pretty well. The Christmas beer is almost done, most of the presents have been bought, and we’re in reasonably good health (though I have some sympathy weight to work off). The Professor starts school in January, which we are all excited about. J’s sister is getting married next week. It’s going to snow tonight.
Life is good.
