Skip to main content

Thankful

The conclusion to my Thanksgiving injury: it is okay. The orthopedist performed surgery on my hand and, as he said, "I'm baffled." Neither the tendon nor the nerve were cut; both were just damaged. I'm not sure what this means for the long-term (my pinky and ring-finger are still numb), but I cannot help but feel extremely thankful that I do not have to recover from a tendon repair (6-weeks without picking up my kids, 8- to 12-weeks for a full recovery plus rehab). Honestly, I did not know what I would do come January when life went back to normal and I no longer had "holiday help" with the kids. I only had one week by myself. My husband got home as early as possible and I limped along in between friends stopping by with meals and changing my babies. Currently, I am essentially recovering from stitches. The palm of my hand was cut open; it is stitched and wrapped, making it fairly difficult to take care of almost 8-month old twins and a 3-year old.

Which brings me to what I am extremely grateful for: both of my hands. We were sliding into a funk before this. The babies aren't crawling; they are just angry they can't move more. Getting out with them was difficult with spoon feedings and their desire to keep moving, talk to someone new, see what is around the corner, go, go, go! (I don't even want to know how it will be when they are walking.) It was starting to overwhelm me and staying home was easier than going out. Fun things that D enjoys doing were shelved because I didn't want to deal with the hassle (Target trips, kids playplaces, lunch out). Then I am stuck doing a fifteen minute diaper change because I only have one hand. Suddenly, all of those things seem fun again and I miss having the option to leave the house. To spoon feed the babies alone while my hand was in a fiberglass splint, I developed a strange system with the Bumbos that involved tipping them over at the end to get them out of those amazing little seats. There is no dignity in infancy.

I am grateful for this new perspective. It sounds silly, I know. It was a small injury that caused a ridiculous fuss. But because of it I came to appreciate how much these day-to-day tasks mean to me. How I miss the smiles they give me when I take them out of their highchairs, a task I now need help with for the time being. I miss being able to comfort them at night (try getting a teething baby back to sleep with one hand). While these things can be tiring, they are interactions with my children. I am so thankful that my hand is healing and that soon I will be the one once again changing diapers in the middle of the night and wiping down messy babies in their highchairs. And I will love it.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I love my stroller

Napping while we are out. North Carolina September 2011 I get stopped all the time when I go out. I don't mind that people want to wave at my babies or ask D if he is a "big help" or throw their hands up in mock distress and say, "I don't know how you do it." Sometimes, yes, I would rather run in and out of a store, but, honestly, even if people weren't stopping me, would that really happen heading out with three kids? I've gotten used to the "you have your hands full" conversations, but one thing I never tire of talking about is my stroller. People stop me all the time to comment on my stroller, either to tell me that they wish they had that stroller back when their kids were young or to find out what it is and where to get it. Let me start at the beginning. When D was an infant we had two different Chicco strollers, the travel system and the Chicco $40 umbrella stroller. Neither was that exceptional, but they both served their p...
74 comments
Read more

Supporting yourself during deployment

I recently posted my top 10 ways to help a military spouse through deployment in my blog post " Supporting military spouses through deployment. " It can be really hard to know exactly what to do to help a friend or neighbor or whoever the military spouse in your life is when they are navigating the deployment of their spouse. But how can you, as the military spouse, help yourself through a deployment? Help comes in various ways and sometimes the help you need is abundant and everywhere you look and sometimes you can't catch a break and feel completely on your own. So what are things that you can do to make your life just a liiiiitle bit easier? 1. Deployment pre-planning To quote Monty Python, "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition." Before deployment, before you are navigating the emergency situation on your own, make a list of every phone number you could possibly need. It sounds ludicrous, but when you start making this list and you struggle through th...
1 comment
Read more

Submarine Officer's Basic Course (SOBC)

My husband was picked up STA-21 . I've written several blog posts about our STA-21 journey  and going through the officer pipeline: power school and prototype in South Carolina . It is surreal to me to be writing this post about the last piece of his STA-21 journey, going to SOBC in Connecticut. It doesn't seem that long ago that we received the news that he was picked up STA-21. It was such a whirlwind leaving Hawaii to move to North Carolina for him to get his degree in mechanical engineering; all too soon he graduated college and we were off to South Carolina going through the officer pipeline.It is crazy to me that in a few short weeks we will be back to the fleet. When we left the fleet for the STA-21 program, I felt we had all the time in the world. I tried to remind myself along the way that the time would slip away from us, but it is one thing to know it and another to live it. But I digress. Right now my hubby is at SOBC (Submarine Officer's Basic Course). ...
2 comments
Read more