Well! Howdy do! I am writing to you from this house of five, where I sit upright and awake and also not bone-crushingly exhausted. Hooray! Turns out I don’t have to subscribe to AARP magazine just yet: My slow recovery has a cause. Two postpartum infections! Take that! …Whomever!
Seriously, I was going crazy trying to figure out why I felt like death left in the microwave overnight for so long after giving birth. I mean, 33 is not the youngest anyone’s ever had a baby, but I was really starting to think it was a good thing I had decided to stop after this kid because at this rate. If I’d gone for four kids, I’d have to have round-the-clock in-home care for a few months after that delivery.
Things just weren’t right last week, but most pressing was the fact that I was worn slap out all day long. Like, couldn’t get off the couch, achy like I had the flu, holding on to things when I walked kind of worn out. I called the nurse line at my OB practice several times, but found them to be most unhelpful and not very sympathetic. In fact, I was reminded more than once that I was older now, you know, and every pregnancy is different, you know, etc., etc. I didn’t seem to meet their strict protocol that warranted a visit to the office. So instead, I ended up in the ER for four hours on a Saturday afternoon with my 10-day old unvaccinated baby. Hooray! Except the opposite of that.
But! Now I am bionic! Or antibiotic, same diff. And I already feel loads better, which is a huge relief. For one, I have stopped weeping out of sheer exhaustion. So, there’s that.
There are a lot of things to yammer on about (like the birth story of Max, which is coming, hand to heart, you guys). But typing was not so much within my capabilities last week. There are just so many keys. And you have to push them. It was too much for my fragile weak-fingered (and everything else) state.
However, in closing, things are still pretty awesome around this house. Everyone who lives here is my favorite.
Editor’s note: Atomic Family has gone back in time a bit to May 2012 when our humor columnist Rachel Reiff Ellis gave birth to her third child, Max. We’re posting her blog entries as essays for Hump Day Humor.
