I’ve been on a little hiatus. Long enough to grow a beard.
And then shave it.
Before I get into the subject of my post – which will be the
use of babies as billboards – I will explain my extended absence.
Since my last post, my mom has taken ill and has spent more
than a month in the hospital. She’s undergone stomach surgery twice, but that
has not fixed the problem. We’re told it could be about six more weeks to
confirm a diagnosis (they suspect a blockage that they just can’t see) and then
she will likely have a third surgery. The good news is, she gets to go home (well,
to my house) today. No more hospital food. (Actually, she didn’t eat for 30
days, so she can’t even complain about the food.)
Once mom went to the hospital, caring for Tyson became an
issue. He has to be fed through a tube, and until my mom’s illness, only my
wife, mother and I have fed him. I stayed home from work for more than week to care
for him after my mom went in the hospital. That's when I grew a beard and kept it for about a month. But I've since returned to just the goatee, for all those who could give a damn, which probably only equals my wife.
Life should slow down for me now, too. I've been going straight from
work to the hospital, then home by 8 p.m. to eat, do dishes and put the kids to
bed. (A 2 hour ritual when you include bath, story time and Sydney's grousing about not going to bed.) I get to sleep about 11, wake up at 2 and feed Tyson, go back to sleep at 3 and wake up at 6:30 for work.
I'm exhausted. All. The. Freaking. Time. I could sleep for about four months. In fact, wake me up when Kim and Kanye get divorced.
But life is moving in the right direction. Mom is getting better and we eventually transitioned Tyson to
the child care provider who cares for Sydney, the wonderful Ms. Amber. Things are going very well. Learning to
feed through the tube is not difficult, and she quickly mastered that. But when
you have to spend 20 minutes getting him to drink as much as possible by mouth
and then another 20 dumping the rest of his required nutrients down the tube,
you are tied up from doing much else. Ms. Amber has five other little ones
running around. That can be challenging.
Her solution is to pop in a movie during his morning feed
and hold nap time during his afternoon feed. It is working. Thank you, Ms.
Amber. In fact, a thousand thank yous.
As for a Tyson update, he is doing well. His disposition is
great, a complete 180 from his pre-surgery crying and screaming. He’s a pretty
quiet and gentle kid. His heart continues to heal and there are no red flags.
He still is not on the growth charts, but he is slowly gaining weight. We can’t
remove the tube until he is voluntarily eating what he is supposed to on his
own. Right now, he is probably at 60 percent. Still a few months to go, I
suspect.
I think Sydney could care less about having him at day care.
Other than doing her best to wake him every time he falls asleep, she ignores
him, like she does at home. I was hoping some sort of protective instinct would
kick in, but I’m pretty sure if we left him at Ms. Amber’s permanently she
would be fine with that.
Ok, this update is already too long. I’ll pick up the whole
babies-as-billboards thing in a couple of days. There’s probably some money to
be made there if you do it right.
