SILENCE

Silence and Support

On Friday, something completely devastating happened.  The scariest part for me, some of those children were Gabby's age.  It breaks my heart to imagine what those parents are going through.

When you have a platform of any kind, I feel it's your responsibility to use it for good. We knew we wanted to help and we came up with this:

On Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. We will post the button and that's it. Please try to not post anything else that day if possible.

 We are also raising money that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services.

Here is the official description of the support service we are donating to:

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic 

and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their

highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support

groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."

Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

 We can't imagine how they must be feeling, especially this close to the holidays. We would love for you to spread the word on your own blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let's make a difference and use blogging in a positive way.

Thank you in advance for participating.

 Love,

The Blog World

p.s. If you would like to, copy-paste and repost any part of this, please do. Share on.

(A special thank you to Neely, Michelle and Meg for putting this together for us)

Work From Home

Tired Mama got a treat from work.  One day each week I get to work from home.  What does this mean?  It means that after getting up 4 times in the middle of the night with that handsome baby, I get to shower and put on yoga pants and a tank top, drop off the kiddies at school and daycare and then come back home and work all day.  Can I just say that, surprisingly, I have focused better and worked a hell of a lot harder at home.  I like this and would certainly love to see them expand the program to 2-3 days at home.  This rocks.  Back to work...

Don't Wake the Sleeping Baby

I never imagined that I'd have a baby that refused to sleep.  When I was pregnant, I had these visions in my head of a beautiful baby boy all snuggled up in his crib sleeping sweetly while I looked on from his doorway. Fast forward to now, I have an almost 9 month old who refuses to sleep.  Granted last night was bad but this is how it went:

8:00p - Complete meltdown leading to bath, pj's and a story
8:30p - Tylenol (he's teething and I was hoping for a good night's sleep), bottle and bed
9:30p - Fussing baby who was put back to sleep when his mobile was turned back on and I patted his butt
11:00p - Screaming baby. Daddy was sent in with a bottle.
1:30a - Screaming baby.  Mama went in, changed his diaper (made him scream louder), nursed him and put him back to bed
4:00a - Same story as above.
5:30a - Screaming baby. Mama went in and did everything except change the diaper (it was dry!).
6:15a - Screaming baby who is wide awake and ready to start his day.

All would be well, but I work full time.  I can't handle this up all night non-sense when there is no particular reason to be up.  He won't take a pacifier but they're in his crib on the off chance that he decided a pacifier will do.  He has stuffed animals in his crib because no one likes to sleep alone.  He has his blanket which he always sleeps in and buries his face in to.  He has a space heater that has a thermostat to keep his room a nice 69 degrees.  He has everything he could possibly need and yet he wants to be rocked all night long.  I can't do it.  Amazingly though, if he isn't asleep after one of the times I nurse him, all I have to do is turn on the mobile and put him in his crib and he goes back to sleep.  When he wakes himself up and is screaming, the mobile isn't good enough though.  He makes me crazy.  And very, very tired.

TIMING

You're right. I stopped.  I crashed.  I hid. I froze.  I couldn't help it.

Two days after I found my way back to bloggy land, I got shitty news.  The kind of news that makes me want to crawl into a ball and cry.  It's not that the Mayans were right.  They weren't.

Two days after I found my way back here, I got a text from my sister saying that my mom's doctors found a spot on her diaphragm.  Later, I would find out that this spot has been there for a while and that the spot has grown.  Mom has stage 3c ovarian cancer.  M.D. Anderson puts a line through cancer and I like that.  It makes me feel powerful in a situation in which I have no power.  She has been fighting this ridiculous disease for almost 5 years.  She's a bad ass and she'll tell anyone who will listen that her reason for fighting was to see me graduate college.  She did.  She also watched me meet a man, fall in love and have a baby.  We aren't done with her yet and she's going to have to keep fighting.  She goes back to the hospital in February for further testing.  I guess the spot is in a tricky spot.  [Pun not intended]  I'm scared.  The day I got the big news of a spot, I burst into tears at work... twice.  I didn't have many details at that moment but I was scared.  Then, on the way home from work, I called my sister and we had a good cry on the phone.  Yes, a cry can be good and healing and a great release.  So now, we wait.  We wait for February (or early March) to see what happens.  To give the spot time to shrink because that asshole should shrink-- it has no right to grow.  Not now.  Not after everything she's been through.

In the meantime, we celebrate and we prepare.  Christmas is a beautiful time of year.  A time for love and family and generosity.  Maybe Santa will be super generous and make the spot disappear.  It's time for a Christmas miracle around here.