Is there a MINIMUM wait time at the ER?

Joshua woke up and coughed a few times. Then he just started screaming...inconsolably! Then, on top of that, he was coughing and spitting up phlem. He was blue in the face and he was "gurgling" when he took a breath! It freaked me out, so to the ER we went. However, it is impossible to get out of the ER in less than 3 hours.

I mean, SERIOUSLY, people! We came in, the ER was completely empty! I told you that my absolutely precious, irreplaceable baby cannot breathe and has been crying uncontrollably! So what do you do? You say, "Okay, sit here for 16 hours and fill out these papers..." We absolutely MUST know (in no particular order)....Your mother's maiden name, baby's shoe size, his daddy's height, any past illnesses/medicine or food allergies (Food allergies, lady? Really?) He's not even 3 months old! What food allergies could he possibly have at this point?! We finally get to triage (where he is weighed and weighs a whopping 14 lbs now!). Then we move on to wait for the nurse/doctor/x-ray technician... So here is how the night goes...

I changed his diaper before going back to the room. The x-ray tech comes in and says I'll have to undress him (and again, I have to change his diaper.) The guy lays a small black mat on a baby bed (if you can call it that...I'll explain in a moment!) So I put my handsome little man in the arms of the x-ray tech who then puts him on the ridiculously cold mat. Joshua starts to scream....I don't mean scream like, "hey this isn't cool. Please pick me up!" I mean scream, like, "OMG! They are trying to kill me! My mom obviously doesn't like me very much and just wants to torture me!" First shots kinda scream! I felt horrible. I cried.

Next, the nurse came in to draw blood. So she put him on the hospital bed. Then she tied that stupid rubberband thing around his arm so tight that it turned purple. Again, he screamed. I cried. The lady had one arm that was way shorter than the other (I know I know! Horrible of me for noticing!) So it took her twice as long to take his blood! He screamed! I cried! It was torture. There was nothing I could do so I cried and tried to talk to him. His response? He continued to scream.

We finally got out of there, and the result wasn't as bad as I expected, yet it wasn't as good as I hoped for. Joshua has an upper respiratory infection. 7 days of antibiotics and cough medicine (grape and bubble gum flavored). By the time we got home from driving 45 minutes in the opposite direction of our house (to get to an all-night pharmacy), he was feeling a lot better. He doesn't mind taking his medicine which makes it a lot better on me and him! Hopefully he'll be completely better SOON!

So now back to this baby bed....it was metal (like silver metal that they use for old hospital beds. It was built just like a regular baby bed, but the "drop" side had a little door in it (not sure what that's used for). It was scary and reminded me of a mental institution for babies or something... I could have nightmares about it....here's a similar pic of it. Just imagine it without the blue plastic pieces and the white cover on top of it. It was also bigger and bulkier...

It amazes me how quickly things change with a baby. He was sleeping 5-6 hours a night since right before Christmas...nightly. It was amazing how refreshed I felt! However, that has changed within the last week or so...He would sleep ALL day and then he wouldn't go to sleep until around 3 am or so...so much for being refreshed! Saturday night, we stayed at Josh's parents, and I was so worried that he wouldn't sleep well. (Josh's mom keeps him on Saturday nights and lets us sleep.) Well, he slept WONDERFULLY! He was asleep by 8:30. He woke up to feed around 10:00, and then he didn't wake up again until 4:30 a.m. He was up most of the day Sunday. He took an hour nap and an hour and a half nap! So I was absolutely sure that he would sleep well Sunday night, but I was wrong! He decided that he didn't want to sleep. He wanted to eat (every hour!) He only wanted to eat about 2 oz. though. Finally, about 4:30 a.m. he decided to go to sleep. He slept until a little after 11:30. When will we get back on track?

To make things worse, I have the WORST pain all the way across the bottom of my abdomen. It's like a constant cramp that never eases up. It's started within the last few days, and it still hasn't went away. Also, this whole post partum bleeding thing is still sticking around. It eased up for a while (I spotted for about 2 days around 3 weeks post partum). Now, it's back full force. I'm passing clots, and it's starting to scare me. I talked to a home health nurse today and she told me that I needed to call my ob/gyn tomorrow and see what they say. That may mean another 3 hour trip to Conway...alone, if it's something that I need to be seen for.

Wow! The joys/uncertainties/sleeplessness of motherhood!

The Beginning of it All

So, I'm not so sure where I should start. I guess I'll start off with the purpose of this blog, how it came to be, and how it will (hopefully) help me save my sanity.

I'm Crystal, a 23 year old college student (taking an extended break), aspiring writer, Mexican food junky, wife, (previously) addicted facebooker, and finally, perhaps the most important role I play, mother.

Josh, the husband, is 24, a college student (also on a break), baseball addict (well, other than that...sports in general), technology junky, husband, and father.

Joshua is the tiny miracle that was brought into our lives on October 22, 2009. His current passions are (in order of ranking from high to low): Food, Mommy & Daddy Time, Time with the grandparents (and when he isn't cranky, other family), and his new puppy, Scout (a Leapfrog toy).

Josh and I started dating in January of 2004, my senior year of high school. We left our families together to go off to school 3 hours away. We spent every waking moment together and decided to get married in 2006 (June 3). A few short months after our wedding (5 months to be exact), we lost almost everything in a house fire. We moved in with my mom, and Josh pledged a fraternity.

After 3 changes to the career goals and five years in college, a few skipped classes, a couple of failed classes, and the stresses of outside life, Josh and I found out in February of 2009 that we were expecting. Josh finished up the semester and I decided to take a break until after the baby was born. I, fortunately, had a relatively easy pregnancy, and baby Joshua was born on October 22, 2009. He's the biggest blessing I have ever received, and at times, I still think I'm dreaming.

Well late in the pregnancy, we decided that we would move back home for a while (something I SWORE I would never do) so that we could have some help and save some money. Joshua came, we left the hospital, and went straight to my dad's. A three hour drive at that point was not a fun move. However, little did I know, that was just the beginning. The next months would potentially be miserable, crowded, annoying, exhausting, frustrating, and I'm sure there are a few more adjectives that I'm missing here.

I know that everyone has the best intentions. They're trying to make things easier for me. They want me to learn from THEIR experiences. They just wanna help and yada yada yada, but frankly, it's getting to the point where I would like to pull all my hair out or pop them with a rubberband when I see them open their mouths.

Living with my dad and step-mom (Terri) was never the best idea to begin with...Okay, it wasn't even a fairly decent idea. Terri and I didn't get along at all pre-college, and because of that, my dad and I didn't really see eye-to-eye. At times, things got bad, and eventually I decided that I wouldn't even stay the night when Josh and I came home to visit. We would stay across the street at my mamaw's, or 15 minutes away at Josh's parents, or 30 minutes away at my friend (my bestie), Nikki's house....anything so we didn't stay at daddy and Terri's because I just didn't feel like I was wanted there.

After a few years, a little maturity on my part, and the ability to leave when I got too annoyed or pissed, Terri and I started getting along a lot better. Not perfect, by any means, but I didn't feel the urge to scream whenever I saw her. Well, apparently the pregnancy brain took away my judgement. We've been here a little over two months, and already, I would like to jump off an extremely tall building (a skyscraper, the Eiffel Tower...at this point, anything)! However, the tallest building around, for miles and miles, is two stories. Not only would it not get the job done or relieve my frustration and chronic annoyance, but I would be too exhausted to get to the second floor so I wouldn't even be able to jump.

Terri is the type of person who has the best-behaved children, always wears a dress to church, is the best cook for miles and miles, would never dream of taking the baby out in a sleeper. (He needs a suit for church). She knows the absolute best home remedies for pretty much everything (Okay, okay EVERYTHING). I was being modest. She's the type of person who cleans for hours and hours (after a hard days work) yet, somehow, no one ever sees her lift a finger (other than to cook dinner). She would rather completely ignore a person who talks to her than to express displeasure with them (although she is quick to spread the word that I'm not living up to her standards.

I never keep the house clean enough, I don't worship the ground she walks on, I don't follow her instructions on how to take care of MY baby, so I get bitched about, ignored, and eventually bitched at by my dad. So, in short, I figured maybe this blog will be a good way to try to keep my sanity....

Or maybe it's time to push someone else off a tall building.