A little slice of the hot place

So, we have just concluded the end of a very long LONG weekend. I so want to go into great detail about my labor/delivery, but as you may well guess, my time is very short so I'm gonna bullet things about the weekend because I need to get this done after my rather cryptic Hymn posting and turbulent backdrop...and then see how far I can get.

Friday evening:

*Got to come home! Yay! Made it here around 6pm-ish.
*Baby woke up and was up from about 1 am to 6 am. Long night.

Saturday:

*Working to get everything adjusted.
*Wishes I had cleaned the house before I went to the hospital. NOTE: Be careful what you wish for.
*Took nap.

Saturday evening:

*About 5 minutes before Super J leaves to go on splits with the missionaries, discover bug in Miss A's hair. Ugh.
*About 4 minutes before Super J leaves to go on splits with the missionaries, discover ANOTHER bug in Miss A's hair. Oh no. Do some research.
*Discover it is lice. Yes. Lice. Her head is infested with lice.
*Begin to freak out. Am mortified! Am embarrassed! Cannot tell if my own head is now itchy or is psychosomatic issue.
*Call all the amazing and wonderful friends I have to tell them that they have been exposed. Am mortified! Am embarrassed! Am frustrated I don't know what to tell them about how to identify or take care of these things, as it is the first time I am dealing with them. Am disgusted and feel like a filthy mother who makes children live in hovel. Try futilely to identify WHERE this got picked up from. Have no clue...except maybe Nauvoo...but surely would have noticed this before now???? UGH!
*Super J comes back home and we comb through every one's hair. Have new found knowledge of "Nit picking with a fine tooth comb." Oh. That's what that means.
*Results: Miss A has them. Miss E has them. Miss O has 1. Miss L...has them...not alot, but still, even one is one too many. AM DISGUSTED!!!!!!!!!!!
*Begin treatment with...

HAIR CUTTING! Yes. Miss E and especially Miss A's long luscious locks are a thing of the past. Cannot truly comb through hair the length of hers (as it goes to her bottom). Soooooo sad. Even cut Miss O's bangs (she kept saying, "It's my turn! It's my turn!"). Wanted to cut my hair but fought urge, especially unhelpful suggestion by Super J just to shave head because it would be sexy (LONG story concerning strange bald woman fetish of Super J's; suffice to say, DID NOT happen. Last thing I need 3 days after delivery of infant is to be considered "sexy" while dealing with shaved head and children with lice, for crying out loud). Had nightmare's all night about forcing people to commit suicide. Very very wrong and weird and, again, unhelpful.

*Follow hair cutting with using over the counter lice remover kit Rid. Super J works with girls. I start washing and vacuuming and cleaning. Read on some website that you really don't have to clean much because once lice and/or eggs leave host (read: food supply), they die very quickly. Oh, uh huh. The peace of mind alone means Super J and I will do at least 20 loads of laundry and will pack up plush toys and pillows and store them for the next 2 weeks.

Saturday night/Sunday morning

*Continue cleaning.
*Treat Super J's and my own hair. Do not feel comfortable with pesticide "If nursing, do not use" product, so use home remedy of Olive Oil. Douse my hair with the stuff. Put on one of Super J's swimming caps (thank goodness he loves the triathlons and we even had one!). Threaten Super J's life if takes pictures. Not a memory I want to keep. Head feels very weird and it's hard to hear.
*Get to bed around 2 a.m.
*EXHAUSTED.
*Feel guilty as poor Miss Q has done LOTS of crying because she's not happy not being carried around, etc.

Sunday morning

*Treat girls hair with Olive Oil...works very well as a follow-up.
*Continue to clean
*Super J preps things to put Miss Q in the sun, via window in Miss O's room. Plans are to let her lay on changing table, a la isolette thing in NICU (remember, she is on jaundice side) and he tries to work on lesson for church meeting later that morning
*More cleaning and vacuuming
*Super J leaves for church (he's going for last hour). I nurse Miss Q. She falls asleep, so I put her on changing table that is sitting by the window wearing her diaper.
*Continues cleaning. Checks on baby, still napping.
*Finish vacuuming. Goes to check on baby and check diaper.

*Baby is breathing. Need to say that from the start. She's breathing and seems to be in very very deep sleep. She's not responsive as I'm moving her legs...no resistance. This is not normal. She is like a limp rag. She is very warm. VERY warm.

Oh my gosh. My baby won't seem to wake up! I begin to panic. I go take her temperature with a forehead thermometer. 102 degrees. OHMYGOSH! I am thinking the absolute worst. Am thinking I have killed my baby or injured her to such a degree that all is lost. Am going to call 911. Call Super J to tell him I'm going to call 911 and to come home.

I am panicked he won't answer the phone. He does, though. I can't remember what I say but through, I kid you not, a blessing from heaven, one of the ward members is a pediatrician and children's specialist in local E.R. and is at church (he normally only gets one Sunday off a month). The doctor talks me through it in a very calm and helpful tone--he says she's probably overheated; I need to take her temperature rectally to find out what it is (I take a second reading via forehead and it's already down to 98). I try not to have anxiety attack while talking to Dr...am thinking to myself, "where is a rectal thermometer???? Where is Vaseline???? Where is anything but why are all three of the older girls SWARMING me while I'm trying to talk and get this done?????" Finally remember I have one with the new baby stuff (digital thermometer that will be sacrificed for the good of Miss Q). Take her temp: 100 degrees (if it was 100.4, I need to take her to Urgent Care or E.R.). Dr tells me that she should perk up (and she does, very quickly and rapidly for the rest of the day), but I should take her temp in half hour to make sure. I do, and it's down to 98.5 degrees. Am flooded with relief and extreme gratitude, to the doctor and especially to the Lord.

Sunday afternoon:

*feel combination of much guilt and relief, fatigue, post-partum aches and pains, and overall sense of being overwhelmed and at my wits end.
*I cry...alot.
*I pray...alot and cry some more.
*From the sprained/fractured ankle, to the ants, to the delivery of the baby (transitions went very very quickly but then we were in waiting mode for 25-30 minutes for doctor to arrive...my back is still hurting...so hard not to push when the baby wants to come out!!!!!!!), to Miss Q's jaundice, to the worry of Super J at work (haven't even touched the fact that Super J had a REALLY tough week at work, too, while at the hospital. So we saw each other about 20 minutes each day while he dealt with girls and work and I had newborn jaundiced baby! So hard sometimes for him to be literally the one employee in charge of so much in a small company. Very stressful!) And then to come home to LICE and then this near catastrophe with Miss Q. Feel incredibly guilty for the whole thing, just what I need.
*Have irrational fear that my friends won't be my friends anymore because they will now have to deal with lice. Ugh.
*Cry some more.
*try to still be prayerful
*posted the hymn

Sunday night:

*start the combing for nits process...find nothing "mature." Whew.

Monday morning:

*go to pediatrician for Miss Q.
*Meet Super J so he can take older girls with him on errand/get them lunch.
*Miss Q is doing well (though once I get home, will come down with eye discharge from blocked tear ducts. This means yellow goo-ish coming from her eyes. Of course, why not.).
*My job now is to fatten her up and make sure she is eating every 3-4 hours.

Monday evening:

*continue combing for nits. Jason finds two "friends" on Miss A. Curses!!!!! Hate lice. I hate them. Just wanted to let you know. Ants seem like benign albeit annoying pest. Lice...I hate. Sorry any lice lovers out there.

And that brings us to Tuesday (though I know the post probably says Monday...that's when I started writing it).

*Miss Q is a remarkably good sleeper. She got up twice last night (and I actually got her up at midnight and then at quarter to 4:00am).
*Watched some Olympics and some Dawson's Creek...good heaven's what a soap opera. I never realized how verbally gifted each of those "teens" were on that drama. Holy cow!
*I have researched more on tear ducts. Did you know you can actually put Mother's Milk on them, as it has natural antibiotics in it??? So can you guess what I've been doing?
*I do have to say that Miss Q is a sweet baby. Thank goodness she seems fairly laid back. Of course, she's only 6 days old and things could change, but for now, thank goodness she seems so laid back. :)

And that's the update, dear Gentle Reader. We are hanging in there. We are doing our best...and I'm trying, ironically, not to wish this time away because Miss Q is only going to be this eentsy and new once. And I do enjoy her. I do. And the other girls are being AMAZING! I'm so blessed and I do know this...more so today than I felt on Sunday, but still. Every little sliver of a silver lining counts, right?

Well, Miss Q, who has been in my arms/resting on the desk while I type has finally fallen asleep. I'm off to treat Miss A with a conditioner treatment that I read about on the web to see if I can't finally get rid of all her "friends." We'll see.

In the meantime, hope YOUR day goes really great. And thanks for all your love, support and prayers (and food, as the case may be) for me and my little family. We truly appreciate it.