parenting in a team of 3

MF and I are close, close enough to practically be Sister Wives minus the whole double marriage thing, yep love him but Hubby is all hers. I'm selfish, I'd like my own. But dear Hubby had to go out of town this weekend for work, had to in a come-back-to-no-job-if-you-don't-go kind of had too. No big deal right? MF is a stay at home super mom any way, two days is no biggie, she's used to 7. Oh but you are wrong, so very very wrong. See two days is a big deal when the night before Hubby is slated to leave MF ends up in the hospital for the second time this week. I think this requires a flashback.

Tuesday MF ended up in the hospital, a whole day in the hospital. Hubby took the day off work, MF's Mommy came down from Seattle to help with Monkey and her downstairs neighbor took over until she could get here. A few MRI's, three (count them THREE) Lumbar Punctures (read as: spinal taps, or as MF described them "like my Epidural without the numbing") and not many answers except for "water on the brain" and MF was back home. She's been having really scary vision issues and monster migraines over the past several months and just recently her Optometrist decided it was a bigger problem than we thought and sent her to a Neurologist who sent her to the hospital on Tuesday to run the tests so they could be run now and not in a month. For all that we got "water on the brain" and a new slew of medications. For about 12 hours after her recovery things looked like maybe they were getting better and then they weren't. Her vision was getting worse and the headaches were back and turning into full blown migraines, and fast.

Friday I was getting off work (where cell phones are only allowed on breaks) and found two things "when are you off work?" and a missed phone call both from MF, separate that's fine but together the two things made me worry especially after the weeks earlier events. I immediately dialed her back. Yep, it's official she needed to go back. Her mom was already gone so Hubby was coming home from work 4 hours early, I was closer so I swung by my itty bitty apartment grabbed a couple things and changed and grabbed her. Hubby must have drove fast because he was already there. So I drove MF to the hospital and we waited, waited and waited. Two hours after getting there we were finally led to her freezing closet with a gurney and introduced to the charming and fatherly RN Al who helped monitor her pain and give her harder drugs than either of us ever imagined to help her symptoms. After spending a lot of time there with her we decided that now that she was settled in an actual room and was officially going to be staying overnight it was time for me to go home. So I did well, I went back to her home where Hubby and I finished figuring out the care plan for Monkey for the next day. We got help from a couple of MF's wonderful friends but with everyone else's schedules it was clear that I was going to have Monkey most of the day until we could go pick MF up from the hospital and she was going to have to stick it there alone. Not ideal for her, but I was actually relieved I could help as much as I could. Monkey doesn't normally spend that much time in other people's homes so it was nice to know he could at least be with me in his, someone he spends a lot of time with and some where he is extremely comfortable. And boy the second I picked him up I knew he was feeling better. Normally unstoppable and goofy he was quiet the whole day and observant. Plopped into my car and on the move he smiled and laughed when I played peek-a-boo and then crashed. And hard, he was out cold. The morning and all the movement and new people had obviously exhausted him and he took a nice long nap. Several hours, lots of playing and way more cuddling than he's done with me since he was a bitty baby and we could finally go pick up MF. He was extremely confused and quiet as we drove to the hospital, even more reserved when we were walking in. When we finally got to MF's room he didn't know what to do. This was his mommy, in a very weird place and she had been gone for a very long time, he was reserved but he looked happy to have her back.

Overall, it was a long weekend for all of us. I'm glad she's back and hopefully the medication and everything they gave her to help does just that. But I wouldn't have traded anything for being there for them this weekend. All the stress and worry over MF and trying to keep Monkey's life relatively normal among the chaos, it's been hard for all of us and it's not quite over because Hubby isn't home yet so he knows but I'm sure doesn't feel like everything is quite ok, but he will be soon. Let's hope for no Round 3 of this shall we?

Did You Know?!

MF: Bec! Did you know that if you're thirsty in the bathroom, that you can just sit on the counter stick your foot under the faucet and suck the water off your big toe?!

Way to be creative duders.

Every Mommy has a Single Friend

Tonight was the epitome of what a friendship between a Mommy and her Single Friend looks like. I walked out of work, hopped in my car and zipped over to my Mommy Friend's (MF) house and showed her my outfit for the day. I wasn't rubbing it in that I had gotten dressed today and she hadn't, or that my make up was done and hers wasn't it was simply because a mere week ago we had splurged (yes splurged) and gotten a sitter, whoa. Really? WE got a SITTER. As far as the two of us go, it's almost non-existent. And an even bigger deal, we went SHOPPING. Ok really, you must understand that as far as MF and I go, we try our best to go places with Baby in tow and more often than not we succeed, however as Baby has become a Toddler we've come to realize that going out anywhere is quickly becoming something that we can't do. He's fast, on the move, loud and giving us a whole lot of NO with a hip out these days. To say the least it was an accomplishment and boy did we run with it. We went to PDX (normally not an option due to distance), we went to Nordstrom's Rack (sure, if we want him to pull every piece of clothing off of every single rack), we sat down to eat (without making sure things were out of reach), and although this time there wasnt a reason, we still shared a dressing room. Yeah, we're that close. Sidetrack much? Yes. Where were we?

Ah yes, the epitome of a Mommy Friend/Single Friend relationship. Tonight when I showed up at her house to show her my outfit it was to show that on my second day of work I wore the skirt that we bought together on that rare shopping trip, (see there WAS a link there) as a true blue friend she also offered me dinner knowing that I was tired from being at a new job career and working a second job and going to school. Have I mentioned she's an awesome Mommy? And that it rolls over now and again into taking care of me, and her hubby (who is really another very big child, but hey what hubby isn't?) Problem being she had managed to find the weirdest Minestrone recipe either of us had ever seen, and bought the ingredients without really paying attention to the fact that it didn't make sense. Sound familiar anyone? This resulted in a quick Toddler free trip to the grocery store to pick up items. It wasn't until we were out of the car walking through the parking lot that this is our life right now, in a nutshell. Me in heels, skirt, blouse, earrings, big ring, hair done, make up still looking good. MF in jeans, teeshirt, Crocs (ok not the big foot ones the cute Mary Jane style ones), messy bun no make-up.

...Yeah...she's a mommy, I'm single and it shows.