I originally wrote this Friday night.
Most of the readers of this blog had already known that we were expecting another Pickles baby in the spring (apologies to those who didn't know yet -- we were just getting ready to tell you, honest!). We had our first dr. appt. today and brought the girls so they could see the sonogram of the new baby. However, while preparing to take one of those fun urine samples, I learned that I had started bleeding. Because that was the first indication something was wrong when we lost Gabriella, I immediately assumed the worst. I told the doctor, and at first he tried to assure us that it was most likely implantation bleeding, perfectly normal, nothing to worry about. But while he was doing the pelvic exam (another fun part of being a woman) he said my uterus did not feel 9 weeks pregnant -- it was more like 5. So even though they don't usually do the sonogram at the first pregnancy appt. (a change from our last pregnancy -- otherwise we wouldn't have brought the squirm monkeys!) he agreed to do a sonogram to see what could be seen.
There was no baby. There was a bag of fluid, and a spot outside it where the bleeding was coming from, but nothing else. No little peanut. No heartbeat. Mr. Pickles put it best when he said he felt like all the wind was taken out of his sails. We had all been so looking forward to seeing the newest little Pickles for the first time. And now we're facing another miscarriage.
Right now I feel too numb to feel anything else. Poor Mr. Pickles was heartbroken -- he had been so excited about the appointment. I have to say, though, that in a way I felt prepared for this. For one thing, once you've suffered a miscarriage that fear is always with you through subsequent pregnancies, so in a way you're prepared for the possibility. (That's why the loss of Gabriella was so devastating -- I had never expected that tragedy to happen to ME.) Additionally, I'm not really surprised to lose this baby. For some reason the pregnancy never felt real to me. That's one reason it's taken us so long to announce it even to our close family. Yes, I was exhausted, and irritable, and nauseous, but I never really felt like there was a BABY, another little person, inside. And all today, especially on the way to the doctor's, I felt like something wasn't quite right. I wanted to believe it was just hormonally-induced irrational worrying, but now I know it was that mystical thing called mother's intuition.
In a selfish way it doesn't seem fair. Why should I be suffering all these symptoms of pregnancy when my womb is empty? I'll gladly cut my right arm off for my baby girls, but to suffer this annoying seasick feeling and tiredness and annoyance with the children that I DO have... to suffer all this for nothing? And I was so looking forward to the end of the first trimester in a few weeks! To think I'll have to go through it all over again.
Which brings me to my last thought -- will we ever be able to have more children? This is the thought that worries me the most. Will we only ever have two children? We love them both dearly -- I appreciate their lives even more so now that I've been reminded what a gift life is. But we want them to have siblings. (For Katie's sake, Miriam needs more siblings to boss around!) But what if we can't? That's why the supposed "consolation" to a grieving mother that "she will have more children" rings so hollow in my ears -- you can't know that. What if we keep losing baby after baby after baby? My heart has always gone out to women who suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. I don't know how they kept going. I never thought I could cope as they had. But what if I become one of them? It's interesting to think that I was just discussing with a friend what it means to be open to God's will regarding the size of one's family. She thought it sounded like only large families were truly "open." But I pointed out that it really includes everyone trying to follow God's will in their lives -- even infertile couples could be considered open to God's will, when they accept that God will not be blessing them with children and they try to manifest their mother- and fatherhood in other ways. We want a larger family -- we were just talking the other day about how many kids we could cram into the house before we had to move to something larger -- but it may be that God will never send us more. That's the thought that hurts me the most right now.
Even so, through it all, I feel God so close -- as if He were hovering near, strong and silently waiting, but for what I don't know. I feel no anger, only trust -- trust that He knows what He is about and is allowing this for some purpose. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Please pray for us, for peace and acceptance and hope, while we try to sort everything out in our hearts. I may not answer the phone for a time until I feel I want to talk about it.
----------------
UPDATE
It's official -- I passed the pregnancy last night. It got a little scary for a while -- after two hours of having to stay in the bathroom I called my doctor and he prescribed something to help my uterus cramp up to slow the bleeding. (Great... a drug to make the menstrual cramps even WORSE....) Mr. Pickles wins the Husband of the Millenium Award for going to a 24-hour drugstore at midnight to pick up my prescription along with some Depends and heavy-duty feminine products. Well, the drug worked (and so did the Advil) -- after a couple hours I was finally able to sleep. This morning I feel tired and a little shaky, but otherwise okay. Mr. Pickles is staying home to take care of things until I'm back on my feet.
Emotionally I feel resigned. Still a little numb, but somewhat relieved to have the miscarriage part done with. I'm glad it happened after our first appointment. The hardest part about losing Gabriella was not knowing anything about what was going on. But having had the ultrasound this time, we could see that there wasn't a baby developing. The doctor said his best guess was that it was a blighted ovum -- where the fertilized egg develops for about a week, but then stops. The comforting thing is knowing that there's nothing wrong with my body -- it was perfectly content to keep pumping out those pregnancy hormones for weeks! This does give me some hope for the future of our family -- as long as our babies can grow, my body can nurture them.
Pray for Miriam too -- we explained to her that the baby died and is now with Jesus in heaven, but she keeps asking when she will see the new baby, and saying that she can't wait until it comes. She's a little young to be trying to figure out all these deep questions now, but pray that we'll be able to help her come to an understanding that deepens her trust and love for God.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Saturday, July 29, 2006
If we don't answer the phone, it doesn't mean we don't still love you
Keep us in your prayers -- we think we're going to lose Pickles baby #4. I'll write more about it later.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Grandpa time!
Here's another trip we took back in early June to see Grandpa Gene and Betty, who were visiting family in PA.
walkin' with Grandpa
This is Katie's personality in a nutshell.
zoomzoom
awww
Now you know where the girls get it from. :)
aren't we cute
And of course, the whole purpose of going for a walk after a rain isn't to get out of the house, it's to splash in puddles, of course!
oh joy
Miriam and Sara got along great (I guess they would be step-cousins?).
Miriam's new big sister
The girls loved the visit. It's good knowing that even though we can't visit as often as we'd like, the girls love their grandpa all the same. (Heck, Miriam's just happy to have someone listen to her meandering conversations all day long!) :)
Grandpa with his girls
all the Pickles with Grandpa Gene and Betty
We love our Katie Kaboom.
cutie Katie
classic mother-and-child calendar shot :)
walkin' with Grandpa
This is Katie's personality in a nutshell.
zoomzoom
awww
Now you know where the girls get it from. :)
aren't we cute
And of course, the whole purpose of going for a walk after a rain isn't to get out of the house, it's to splash in puddles, of course!
oh joy
Miriam and Sara got along great (I guess they would be step-cousins?).
Miriam's new big sister
The girls loved the visit. It's good knowing that even though we can't visit as often as we'd like, the girls love their grandpa all the same. (Heck, Miriam's just happy to have someone listen to her meandering conversations all day long!) :)
Grandpa with his girls
all the Pickles with Grandpa Gene and Betty
We love our Katie Kaboom.
cutie Katie
classic mother-and-child calendar shot :)
Okay, here goes...
Do you think 2 months is too early to post pictures? Yeah, I didn't think so either. :) Hopefully you'll all think your patience has paid off...
These pictures are from our trip to the ol' alma mater for another cousin's graduation. I think this is the 4th family graduation since we left the hallowed halls. (We have a very cute pic of Uncle Joe holding newborn Miriam in the lounge, hoping to attract the attention of cute chicks, during Uncle Paul's grad.)
We stayed with cousins Edy & Max and much hilarity ensued. Here are some highlights:
Mr. Pickles did lots of this while we were there.
The Daddy Tilt-a-Whirl
The Daddy Coaster
just hangin' out w/Edy's Grandpa
It's Mine! No, I want it!
Gosh, the line is STILL busy!
musical princesses and their enraptured court
Uncle Phil is very proud of the fact that even though he didn't produce the first great-grandchild (as most of you know, Miriam beat Edy to that title by 3 days), he did father the first boy.
Paterfamilias with The Heir
Oh yeah, I guess there was a graduation or something going on that weekend, too. We stayed in the lounge, since asking five young children to stay well behaved in cramped folding chairs for 3 hours is paramount to asking a pig to sprout wings. (Mr. Pickles and I couldn't help but wonder, though -- however did we manage it for Uncle Joe's graduation when Miriam was just over a year? Was she really that angelic? Surely not!) So we camped out in front of a TV in the lounge.
The Bobbsey Twins
The parts of the addresses that we heard were very good -- they invited some pretty stellar speakers this year: Cathy Cleaver Ruse (awesome pro-life spokeswoman and wife of Austin Ruse, someone I rubbed shoulders with before I took on my current Job), Mercedes Arzu Wilson (founder of Family of the Americas, to teach people in 3rd world countries about NFP) and Bishop John Magee (personal secretary to three popes).
The kids, well, did what kids do best.
and they're off!
Katie is turning out to be quite the ham. Mr. Pickles just can't fathom where she got it from.
I can see you!
On Sunday we had the traditional Lenora's Mother's Day brunch with current and future family. Have we mentioned that Uncle Martin, in addition to graduating with his master's in business, was also getting married in a month?
The Soon-to-be Happy Couple (and an interloper)
Edy & Miriam w/ future Aunt Sara
more on that to come!
These pictures are from our trip to the ol' alma mater for another cousin's graduation. I think this is the 4th family graduation since we left the hallowed halls. (We have a very cute pic of Uncle Joe holding newborn Miriam in the lounge, hoping to attract the attention of cute chicks, during Uncle Paul's grad.)
We stayed with cousins Edy & Max and much hilarity ensued. Here are some highlights:
Mr. Pickles did lots of this while we were there.
The Daddy Tilt-a-Whirl
The Daddy Coaster
just hangin' out w/Edy's Grandpa
It's Mine! No, I want it!
Gosh, the line is STILL busy!
musical princesses and their enraptured court
Uncle Phil is very proud of the fact that even though he didn't produce the first great-grandchild (as most of you know, Miriam beat Edy to that title by 3 days), he did father the first boy.
Paterfamilias with The Heir
Oh yeah, I guess there was a graduation or something going on that weekend, too. We stayed in the lounge, since asking five young children to stay well behaved in cramped folding chairs for 3 hours is paramount to asking a pig to sprout wings. (Mr. Pickles and I couldn't help but wonder, though -- however did we manage it for Uncle Joe's graduation when Miriam was just over a year? Was she really that angelic? Surely not!) So we camped out in front of a TV in the lounge.
The Bobbsey Twins
The parts of the addresses that we heard were very good -- they invited some pretty stellar speakers this year: Cathy Cleaver Ruse (awesome pro-life spokeswoman and wife of Austin Ruse, someone I rubbed shoulders with before I took on my current Job), Mercedes Arzu Wilson (founder of Family of the Americas, to teach people in 3rd world countries about NFP) and Bishop John Magee (personal secretary to three popes).
The kids, well, did what kids do best.
and they're off!
Katie is turning out to be quite the ham. Mr. Pickles just can't fathom where she got it from.
I can see you!
On Sunday we had the traditional Lenora's Mother's Day brunch with current and future family. Have we mentioned that Uncle Martin, in addition to graduating with his master's in business, was also getting married in a month?
The Soon-to-be Happy Couple (and an interloper)
Edy & Miriam w/ future Aunt Sara
more on that to come!
Mystery Words Revealed
Well, even though no babelfish bit, as promised here are the translations of Katie's Mystery Words:
lala -- umbrella/Cinderella
tush -- touch, usually with "no"
butt -- bright
dry -- cry
fees -- face
ghee -- blankie
clin -- sing (as in "sing me a lullaby")
bush -- fish
un-doh! -- I don't know, but if you ever figure it out, let us know! she gets very irate when we don't give her whatever this is!
wuvvey -- rosary
lala -- umbrella/Cinderella
tush -- touch, usually with "no"
butt -- bright
dry -- cry
fees -- face
ghee -- blankie
clin -- sing (as in "sing me a lullaby")
bush -- fish
un-doh! -- I don't know, but if you ever figure it out, let us know! she gets very irate when we don't give her whatever this is!
wuvvey -- rosary
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
How timely.
One of the reasons I love this strip -- they always seem to be going through the same things I am!
It Never Rains But Pours!
I'm just never going to get this blog updated. Never ever. Ever. Life keeps intervening! We woke up this morning to find this in our basement.
water water everywhere
Only this time, it was the 20+ year-old hot water heater that gave up. Why can't they invent hot water heaters that DON'T flood one's basement when they die?
the culprit
Sigh. At least a)we'd already removed the carpet, so it's going to be a breeze to clean it up; b)it's covered under our home warranty; and c)we already had someone scheduled to come inspect the downstairs today for water damage!
Unfortunately, the valve that controls the water going into the heater is what broke, so Mr. Pickles had to shut off the water to the whole house until he can call someone to help us out. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in my pajamas indefinitely, since I couldn't take a shower this morning! Grump grump.
The lyrics from "Flood" by Jars of Clay keep going through my head today, can't imagine why....
Further bulletins as events warrant!
water water everywhere
Only this time, it was the 20+ year-old hot water heater that gave up. Why can't they invent hot water heaters that DON'T flood one's basement when they die?
the culprit
Sigh. At least a)we'd already removed the carpet, so it's going to be a breeze to clean it up; b)it's covered under our home warranty; and c)we already had someone scheduled to come inspect the downstairs today for water damage!
Unfortunately, the valve that controls the water going into the heater is what broke, so Mr. Pickles had to shut off the water to the whole house until he can call someone to help us out. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in my pajamas indefinitely, since I couldn't take a shower this morning! Grump grump.
The lyrics from "Flood" by Jars of Clay keep going through my head today, can't imagine why....
Further bulletins as events warrant!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Reason # 4723 Why I Love My Husband
For my birthday he found me the sheet music for this!!!
It's just as awesome as the soundtrack. Dario Marianelli is an amazingly talented composer. His music is so evocative and beautiful. (I'm a sucker for lovely music!) I played through the book earlier today, while the girls played dress-up and danced next to the piano. It was precious. They seem to like Henry Purcell. :)
It's just as awesome as the soundtrack. Dario Marianelli is an amazingly talented composer. His music is so evocative and beautiful. (I'm a sucker for lovely music!) I played through the book earlier today, while the girls played dress-up and danced next to the piano. It was precious. They seem to like Henry Purcell. :)
Friday, July 07, 2006
Katie's Mystery Words!
This is to test how well our readers can interpret toddler speak. In the sidebar is a list of Katie's latest new words, reproduced below. Whoever can correctly identify the REAL meaning of each word gets... um, well some really cool prize that we'll think of. Leave your guesses in the comments. (This should be amusing!)
lala
tush
butt
dry
fees
ghee
clin
bush
Bonus: un-doh!
Correct answers will be published next week. May the best babelfish win!
lala
tush
butt
dry
fees
ghee
clin
bush
Bonus: un-doh!
Correct answers will be published next week. May the best babelfish win!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Happy (day after) Fourth!
This is becoming a Pickles Independence Day tradition:
Patriotic Cake!
Miriam decorated the cake ALL BY HERSELF. Katie provided moral support (by crowding Miriam and saying "oooh! oooh!").
Mommy's little helpers
Mommy's little helpers II
After dinner we walked to a park 1 1/2 miles up the road to see fireworks. We intended to arrive a little early, but what with getting the double stroller set up and packing a bag and having to dodge traffic (there were no sidewalks) and Mrs. Pickles being out of shape, we ended up arriving just as the fireworks were starting! We weren't sure how the girls would react, but they LOVED them! The noise seemed to bother Miriam the most, but she's figured out how to stick her fingers in her ears. Katie just stared and stared.
After a busy day being all patriotic:
all tuckered out!
Mr. Pickles had to go ask the usual teenage hoodlums who thought it would be fun to set off bottle rockets in a crowded neighborhood at 11:30 pm to knock it off (Miriam was so freaked out she couldn't sleep), but other than that we had a great holiday!
God bless the USA!
Patriotic Cake!
Miriam decorated the cake ALL BY HERSELF. Katie provided moral support (by crowding Miriam and saying "oooh! oooh!").
Mommy's little helpers
Mommy's little helpers II
After dinner we walked to a park 1 1/2 miles up the road to see fireworks. We intended to arrive a little early, but what with getting the double stroller set up and packing a bag and having to dodge traffic (there were no sidewalks) and Mrs. Pickles being out of shape, we ended up arriving just as the fireworks were starting! We weren't sure how the girls would react, but they LOVED them! The noise seemed to bother Miriam the most, but she's figured out how to stick her fingers in her ears. Katie just stared and stared.
After a busy day being all patriotic:
all tuckered out!
Mr. Pickles had to go ask the usual teenage hoodlums who thought it would be fun to set off bottle rockets in a crowded neighborhood at 11:30 pm to knock it off (Miriam was so freaked out she couldn't sleep), but other than that we had a great holiday!
God bless the USA!
Sunday, July 02, 2006
The rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.
I'm glad Mr. Pickles was able to post from work -- I've been anxious to assure everyone who's been watching the news that we're still alive! Slightly damp, but alive and well. It's a good thing no one is allergic to mold, though.
It's been a topsy-turvy week! To start off, we had lightning & thunderstorms galore -- a pretty amazing one the night we returned from vacation. Nobody got much sleep for several days because the girls couldn't fall asleep as long as there was thunder. Miriam has been getting better about her fear of thunder, but Katie seems to have picked up where Miriam left off: she's TERRIFIED of it now. She starts to flip out when the lights even flicker (reminds me of a certain canine...). I can't say I blame her -- I was pretty freaked out by some of the louder explosions, and I usually like thunderstorms!
Virginia is for Lovers... of Rain
And then it just rained and rained and rained for so many days that you felt like it would never stop. We were about ready to build ourselves an ark! The rain last Sunday night was just incredible. We got a month's worth of rain in a couple hours -- 7 inches overnight. But we would have been fine if part of our 25-year-old sump pump hadn't rusted in place. During yet another evening lightning storm (they typically waited until the girls' bedtime to start) I went downstairs to unplug the computer, only to find a river running through the basement. It was coming under our back door, flowing across the family room and into the even more flooded office/laundry room, where the pump well itself was overflowing. I just stood on the stairs for a minute, staring in horror. Where do you start? Fortunately after the initial shock, my cool maternal crisis-dealing instincts kicked in and I started unplugging things and dragging valuable things out of the water (like Mr. Pickles' laptop and my sewing machine pedal). I could see that the sump pump had failed, but I didn't know what to do about that so I called the aid of the resident domestic god. He had a similar reaction to mine (although his jaw dropped a couple feet lower), then ran outside and started bailing water away from the back door using the trash can cover, all the while getting soaked in the downpour. (We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't very funny at the time.) Eventually the brave, brave man stuck his hand down the murky well of the pump and lifted up the lever -- praise be, it started working again, so the water level was reduced as soon as the river stopped flowing in the door. He also borrowed a neighbor's shop vac and vacuumed up all the puddles. My man is my hero! He was up till about 4am vacuuming water. Meanwhile, after I had done all I could to help, I took the girls (who had been sitting on the stairs in wonder, watching their crazy parents running around like ants) upstairs to attempt to get them to sleep. I just brought them into bed with me and we all finally fell asleep sometime after midnight.
The next day after many tries we were finally able to get a hold of a company (I never appreciated the "fire and water restoration" section in the yellow pages, until now) who sent a couple guys over in the afternoon with a high-power vac to suction out the rest of the water. They also lifted up the carpet, removed the sponge-like underpadding, and vacuumed the concrete floor. We set up a dehumidifier (we had always talked about getting one for the basement -- but it took an actual flood for us to finally get one!) and several large fans to try to dry the carpet out. (The girls are having great fun playing with the boxes!) After a couple days we gave up the attempt when we realized parts of the carpet were still soaked and just never going to dry, especially since it kept raining and raining and raining and raining! It's hard to remove humidity from inside the house when it's 100% humidity outside! We had the A/C on of course, but that really only succeeded in spreading the mildewy smell all over the rest of the house. Yummy.
The Sun'll Come Out... Tomorrow... or Maybe the Day After That...
The sun FINALLY broke through on Thursday morning -- I opened the curtains and Miriam exclaimed, "MOMMY! LOOK at that BLUE SKY!!!" I was about ready to jump for joy myself. With the sun out, things were FINALLY able to start drying out. The carpet was beyond hope -- after 3 days of being soggy (even with all the standing water vacuumed out of it) you can imagine how nice it smelled. It's amazing how the quality of the air in the house improved after Mr. Pickles just chucked the carpet out in the yard. (We kept a sample of it to prove to the insurance officer that it did indeed need to be chucked.) After the break in the rain, God was gracious enough to grant us some extra-nice weather. I think it only rained once or twice more, and stayed cool enough to keep the windows open for several days -- we didn't have to turn the A/C on again until last night, when it got up to 84 in our bedroom! Today and tomorrow look to be like scorchers, but we've got a kiddy pool so who cares? :) (Well, poor Mr. Pickles will, when he has to play hockey tonight...) (UPDATE: his game was rained out!) We're also supposed to have scattered severe thunderstorms for the next couple days -- lots of wind and rain and hail. I only pray the pump doesn't malfunction again!
It Could Always Be Worse
That's something we learned through all this -- we were barely hit compared to what some poor folks had to suffer. The men who vacuumed our carpets told us they were at a house earlier that morning that had thigh-high water in their basement. And we've heard about some people in Old Town (right by the Potomac) who were stuck in their houses because the main floor flooded and they couldn't get out. Others evacuated when the floodwater had risen so high that it had filled their basement and was rising up to the first floor. Incredible. When Mr. Pickles called around to another water restoration company and told them our situation, they explained that they'd have to put us on the waiting list for several days (we still haven't heard from them) -- they were dealing with people who had 7-10 feet of water in their homes, while we only had one inch, plus our electricity was on, so we should be grateful. That really helped to put things in perspective for us! And really, now that the carpet's gone, I don't mind too much about the rest of the disorder. As long as I can function as a homemaker I'm content. Monday was pretty much crisis day, so by Tuesday I needed some normalcy back in the home. I took the girls over to a friend's house (thanks Theresa!) so we could have a fun sanity break, then came back and did about 100 loads of laundry -- all the vacation laundry plus linens plus anything that had gotten wet (couch blanket, bathroom rug, etc). I also made sure to keep the kitchen clean during all this. So even though the rest of my house was a disaster area, my kitchen sink was shined! :)
The things we did lose were kind of sad. A lot of Mr. Pickles' math textbooks were on the floor, so they're pretty much ruined. I don't know if the insurance will cover it, but I hope so -- that's at least $400 right there. The girls had also left about a dozen books on the floor that I didn't even look at twice before I chucked them in the trash -- they were completely soaked through. There was also a box of pictures that hadn't made it into albums yet.
So how could it have been worse?
1. We only had one inch of water, compared to one foot.
2. We discovered the flood really quickly. Imagine if we had gone to bed and didn't see it until the morning. No, I really DON'T want to imagine that!
3. It didn't happen while we were gone on vacation. (what a welcome home!)
4. Mr. Pickles, resident domestic god, was able to start the pump again.
5. Even though the computer was on the lowest shelf of our computer desk, it was raised high enough to be spared. (although we were half-hoping we'd have to get a new one...)
6. Even though some pictures were ruined, most of the envelopes in the box were fine.
7. All our important papers were filed in plastic boxes.
8. I had recently put a bunch of the girls' toys upstairs in storage -- things that would certainly have been ruined in the flood. The only toys left on the floor were a bunch of plastic blocks.
9. Because it was a sump pump failure and not simply flooding from so much rain, our insurance will cover it. (thanks heavens, since we don't have flood insurance!)
10. Even though it was a sump pump failure, the water was freshly fallen rainwater -- and not sewage!
What I find the most interesting about the whole situation is that not only were all the readings at Mass last Sunday about trusting in God, the Gospel was about Christ calming the storm at sea! I had also just the previous day been reading a Bible meditation about submitting one's whole life to God and trusting in Him. So the theme of trust was in my heart when I found a river in my basement! I have to say that at worst, the whole thing is just annoying. (Well, and expensive too, if you count the dehumidifier and fans and plastic storage boxes we purchased in the last couple days.) But as far as we can tell, no major damage was done (just pray our drywall is okay!). And for that we're grateful. Well, of course, Mr. Pickles lost a couple precious vacation days staying home to battle the water demons -- I think that and the math textbooks were the worst losses! :)
Where Are the Gypsies Now That We Need Them?
Through all of this, the girls behaved fairly well, considering. Well, at least during the day. Well, at least one of them. On second thought, it's a miracle they both survived the week. Granted, their lives have been turned completely upside down, what with coming down from vacation and jetlag and thunderstorms and lack of sleep and no basement and a crowded living room and distracted parents! We've tried to be understanding but we have our limits too. The other night we had to let Katie scream herself to sleep (and I SWORE I'd never Ferberize my children) because she would not stay asleep longer than 5 minutes no matter what we did. I have to say that it worked, after 30-40 minutes -- and she slept like a rock for the first time in days. And the next day she was as happy as her usual self. Amazing what a good night's sleep will do! Poor little Katie has been extra-clingy since we returned from vacation, which is very unusual for her. Usually she's so independent. Our guess is that after spending so much time with other relatives in strange surroundings, she needed to check back in with "home base" (meaning Mom). Mr. Pickles calls her my little barnacle. It's not so bad during the day -- she seems content simply being in the same room as me, although she insists on eating in my lap during mealtimes. But it's been the most difficult when it's time for her to sleep -- for a while she couldn't sleep unless she was in bed with us. If we put her in her crib she'd panic. The last couple days it's gotten better, thankfully -- she's content to hold our hand until she falls asleep (which thankfully only takes 5 minutes!). Miriam's had her moments too -- she's been jealously clingy, and picks fights with Katie (although they're reconciled very cutely with lots of hugs and kisses), and throws tantrums for the slightest reason. So other than extra-clinginess and extreme terror during thunderstorms and boredom from being stuck inside for days, it's pretty much life as usual! :) The only upside for the girls is that since I had to move all their toys out of the way I put everything in our storage room (Miriam's old bedroom), and pretty much let the girls have free rein. It's like they've discovered a treasure trove of all the forbidden toys I've been keeping from them!
Well, thankfully, home life is slowly beginning to return to normal. A couple days ago I moved the TV equipment upstairs to our room and rearranged the living room furniture, so we actually had a living room again. (although there are still books piled in the corners and boxes of movies and a sofa mattress lying around) We were also finally able to reconnect the computer today, hurrah! I felt so cut off from the outside world while I couldn't access the internet! :) I don't know when our basement will return to normal -- we still have to remove the office carpeting (it's glued to the floor so it'll be a project to remove it) and recarpet the whole downstairs. But if nothing else, this has given me the incentive to really get things organized, with a (waterproof) place for everything and everything in its (waterproof) place.
I'll post updates and pictures from our last THREE family trips as soon as I can! (I was actually in the process of uploading some pics last Sunday evening, until fate intervened)...
It's been a topsy-turvy week! To start off, we had lightning & thunderstorms galore -- a pretty amazing one the night we returned from vacation. Nobody got much sleep for several days because the girls couldn't fall asleep as long as there was thunder. Miriam has been getting better about her fear of thunder, but Katie seems to have picked up where Miriam left off: she's TERRIFIED of it now. She starts to flip out when the lights even flicker (reminds me of a certain canine...). I can't say I blame her -- I was pretty freaked out by some of the louder explosions, and I usually like thunderstorms!
Virginia is for Lovers... of Rain
And then it just rained and rained and rained for so many days that you felt like it would never stop. We were about ready to build ourselves an ark! The rain last Sunday night was just incredible. We got a month's worth of rain in a couple hours -- 7 inches overnight. But we would have been fine if part of our 25-year-old sump pump hadn't rusted in place. During yet another evening lightning storm (they typically waited until the girls' bedtime to start) I went downstairs to unplug the computer, only to find a river running through the basement. It was coming under our back door, flowing across the family room and into the even more flooded office/laundry room, where the pump well itself was overflowing. I just stood on the stairs for a minute, staring in horror. Where do you start? Fortunately after the initial shock, my cool maternal crisis-dealing instincts kicked in and I started unplugging things and dragging valuable things out of the water (like Mr. Pickles' laptop and my sewing machine pedal). I could see that the sump pump had failed, but I didn't know what to do about that so I called the aid of the resident domestic god. He had a similar reaction to mine (although his jaw dropped a couple feet lower), then ran outside and started bailing water away from the back door using the trash can cover, all the while getting soaked in the downpour. (We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't very funny at the time.) Eventually the brave, brave man stuck his hand down the murky well of the pump and lifted up the lever -- praise be, it started working again, so the water level was reduced as soon as the river stopped flowing in the door. He also borrowed a neighbor's shop vac and vacuumed up all the puddles. My man is my hero! He was up till about 4am vacuuming water. Meanwhile, after I had done all I could to help, I took the girls (who had been sitting on the stairs in wonder, watching their crazy parents running around like ants) upstairs to attempt to get them to sleep. I just brought them into bed with me and we all finally fell asleep sometime after midnight.
The next day after many tries we were finally able to get a hold of a company (I never appreciated the "fire and water restoration" section in the yellow pages, until now) who sent a couple guys over in the afternoon with a high-power vac to suction out the rest of the water. They also lifted up the carpet, removed the sponge-like underpadding, and vacuumed the concrete floor. We set up a dehumidifier (we had always talked about getting one for the basement -- but it took an actual flood for us to finally get one!) and several large fans to try to dry the carpet out. (The girls are having great fun playing with the boxes!) After a couple days we gave up the attempt when we realized parts of the carpet were still soaked and just never going to dry, especially since it kept raining and raining and raining and raining! It's hard to remove humidity from inside the house when it's 100% humidity outside! We had the A/C on of course, but that really only succeeded in spreading the mildewy smell all over the rest of the house. Yummy.
The Sun'll Come Out... Tomorrow... or Maybe the Day After That...
The sun FINALLY broke through on Thursday morning -- I opened the curtains and Miriam exclaimed, "MOMMY! LOOK at that BLUE SKY!!!" I was about ready to jump for joy myself. With the sun out, things were FINALLY able to start drying out. The carpet was beyond hope -- after 3 days of being soggy (even with all the standing water vacuumed out of it) you can imagine how nice it smelled. It's amazing how the quality of the air in the house improved after Mr. Pickles just chucked the carpet out in the yard. (We kept a sample of it to prove to the insurance officer that it did indeed need to be chucked.) After the break in the rain, God was gracious enough to grant us some extra-nice weather. I think it only rained once or twice more, and stayed cool enough to keep the windows open for several days -- we didn't have to turn the A/C on again until last night, when it got up to 84 in our bedroom! Today and tomorrow look to be like scorchers, but we've got a kiddy pool so who cares? :) (Well, poor Mr. Pickles will, when he has to play hockey tonight...) (UPDATE: his game was rained out!) We're also supposed to have scattered severe thunderstorms for the next couple days -- lots of wind and rain and hail. I only pray the pump doesn't malfunction again!
It Could Always Be Worse
That's something we learned through all this -- we were barely hit compared to what some poor folks had to suffer. The men who vacuumed our carpets told us they were at a house earlier that morning that had thigh-high water in their basement. And we've heard about some people in Old Town (right by the Potomac) who were stuck in their houses because the main floor flooded and they couldn't get out. Others evacuated when the floodwater had risen so high that it had filled their basement and was rising up to the first floor. Incredible. When Mr. Pickles called around to another water restoration company and told them our situation, they explained that they'd have to put us on the waiting list for several days (we still haven't heard from them) -- they were dealing with people who had 7-10 feet of water in their homes, while we only had one inch, plus our electricity was on, so we should be grateful. That really helped to put things in perspective for us! And really, now that the carpet's gone, I don't mind too much about the rest of the disorder. As long as I can function as a homemaker I'm content. Monday was pretty much crisis day, so by Tuesday I needed some normalcy back in the home. I took the girls over to a friend's house (thanks Theresa!) so we could have a fun sanity break, then came back and did about 100 loads of laundry -- all the vacation laundry plus linens plus anything that had gotten wet (couch blanket, bathroom rug, etc). I also made sure to keep the kitchen clean during all this. So even though the rest of my house was a disaster area, my kitchen sink was shined! :)
The things we did lose were kind of sad. A lot of Mr. Pickles' math textbooks were on the floor, so they're pretty much ruined. I don't know if the insurance will cover it, but I hope so -- that's at least $400 right there. The girls had also left about a dozen books on the floor that I didn't even look at twice before I chucked them in the trash -- they were completely soaked through. There was also a box of pictures that hadn't made it into albums yet.
So how could it have been worse?
1. We only had one inch of water, compared to one foot.
2. We discovered the flood really quickly. Imagine if we had gone to bed and didn't see it until the morning. No, I really DON'T want to imagine that!
3. It didn't happen while we were gone on vacation. (what a welcome home!)
4. Mr. Pickles, resident domestic god, was able to start the pump again.
5. Even though the computer was on the lowest shelf of our computer desk, it was raised high enough to be spared. (although we were half-hoping we'd have to get a new one...)
6. Even though some pictures were ruined, most of the envelopes in the box were fine.
7. All our important papers were filed in plastic boxes.
8. I had recently put a bunch of the girls' toys upstairs in storage -- things that would certainly have been ruined in the flood. The only toys left on the floor were a bunch of plastic blocks.
9. Because it was a sump pump failure and not simply flooding from so much rain, our insurance will cover it. (thanks heavens, since we don't have flood insurance!)
10. Even though it was a sump pump failure, the water was freshly fallen rainwater -- and not sewage!
What I find the most interesting about the whole situation is that not only were all the readings at Mass last Sunday about trusting in God, the Gospel was about Christ calming the storm at sea! I had also just the previous day been reading a Bible meditation about submitting one's whole life to God and trusting in Him. So the theme of trust was in my heart when I found a river in my basement! I have to say that at worst, the whole thing is just annoying. (Well, and expensive too, if you count the dehumidifier and fans and plastic storage boxes we purchased in the last couple days.) But as far as we can tell, no major damage was done (just pray our drywall is okay!). And for that we're grateful. Well, of course, Mr. Pickles lost a couple precious vacation days staying home to battle the water demons -- I think that and the math textbooks were the worst losses! :)
Where Are the Gypsies Now That We Need Them?
Through all of this, the girls behaved fairly well, considering. Well, at least during the day. Well, at least one of them. On second thought, it's a miracle they both survived the week. Granted, their lives have been turned completely upside down, what with coming down from vacation and jetlag and thunderstorms and lack of sleep and no basement and a crowded living room and distracted parents! We've tried to be understanding but we have our limits too. The other night we had to let Katie scream herself to sleep (and I SWORE I'd never Ferberize my children) because she would not stay asleep longer than 5 minutes no matter what we did. I have to say that it worked, after 30-40 minutes -- and she slept like a rock for the first time in days. And the next day she was as happy as her usual self. Amazing what a good night's sleep will do! Poor little Katie has been extra-clingy since we returned from vacation, which is very unusual for her. Usually she's so independent. Our guess is that after spending so much time with other relatives in strange surroundings, she needed to check back in with "home base" (meaning Mom). Mr. Pickles calls her my little barnacle. It's not so bad during the day -- she seems content simply being in the same room as me, although she insists on eating in my lap during mealtimes. But it's been the most difficult when it's time for her to sleep -- for a while she couldn't sleep unless she was in bed with us. If we put her in her crib she'd panic. The last couple days it's gotten better, thankfully -- she's content to hold our hand until she falls asleep (which thankfully only takes 5 minutes!). Miriam's had her moments too -- she's been jealously clingy, and picks fights with Katie (although they're reconciled very cutely with lots of hugs and kisses), and throws tantrums for the slightest reason. So other than extra-clinginess and extreme terror during thunderstorms and boredom from being stuck inside for days, it's pretty much life as usual! :) The only upside for the girls is that since I had to move all their toys out of the way I put everything in our storage room (Miriam's old bedroom), and pretty much let the girls have free rein. It's like they've discovered a treasure trove of all the forbidden toys I've been keeping from them!
Well, thankfully, home life is slowly beginning to return to normal. A couple days ago I moved the TV equipment upstairs to our room and rearranged the living room furniture, so we actually had a living room again. (although there are still books piled in the corners and boxes of movies and a sofa mattress lying around) We were also finally able to reconnect the computer today, hurrah! I felt so cut off from the outside world while I couldn't access the internet! :) I don't know when our basement will return to normal -- we still have to remove the office carpeting (it's glued to the floor so it'll be a project to remove it) and recarpet the whole downstairs. But if nothing else, this has given me the incentive to really get things organized, with a (waterproof) place for everything and everything in its (waterproof) place.
I'll post updates and pictures from our last THREE family trips as soon as I can! (I was actually in the process of uploading some pics last Sunday evening, until fate intervened)...
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