What We Need

     Leave house 20 minutes before school is out even though we live 2 minutes away from school to ensure spot in front of pick-up line. Be glad C and what loosely could be called “friend” B have stopped bickering over whose mother comes first which always ends up in tears for C because either B’s mother came first or because B is upset because I came first. Be annoyed that the newest pick-up obsession is that I have to be in first 10 cars in line. Be annoyed at self for giving into this neurosis but know that picking up a crying child is not a good thing and know that this obsession, too, shall pass. Worry about what next obsession will be.

     Arrive at school, am car number 7, breathe sigh of relief. Turn car off and listen to radio to try and catch up on day’s news. Be reminded that many, many millions of people have stresses far worse than ours, resolve to be happy, positive, thankful person. Feel blessed. Wait for bell to ring. Watch for C to come out of building and know simply by the way he waves before approaching car will explain tone of his entire day. Be happy when wave is appropriately jubilant and resist opening door from inside as newly found independence in opening door is a good thing as long as fingers don’t get slammed. Encourage him to get in car before starting to tell about his day as there are approximately 10 zillion cars behind us waiting to pick up their kids. Remind him to be careful closing door and silently chuckle remembering the time when door was simply too heavy and he fell right back out of car onto sidewalk. Revel in fact that he’s socially aware enough that he actually felt embarrassment at that incident, and marvel at how quickly I got out of the car and around to the other side to see if he was okay (he was). Wonder if I could ever move that fast again.

     Get door closed, pull away, stop once past the pick-up line to buckle into 5-point harness mentioned before. Ask about day, about special, about who sat by at lunch, who played with at recess. Listen to recitation of school announcements, lunch menu, which classes had perfect attendance and wonder if anyone else in the entire school even listens to that stuff half as carefully. Wonder about streaming text TV they have in classroom and be amazed that C ever tears his eyes away from it. Wonder if they’re putting subliminal messages in there somewhere because if anyone would have them sink in it would be C. 

     Get home, greet dog, wash hands, empty backpack, talk about homework, make snack. Wonder when this will become routine enough that I don’t have to prompt, and figure it will become routine about the time school is out for summer. Have snack, do something fun or have in-house therapy session. Start thinking about dinner, plan dinner, get dinner started for grown-ups, make dinner for C. Preferably (for him) something that can be dipped in ketchup. Search shelves of freezer making sure to get proper GF/CF/egg free for C and be impressed with self that I finally gave each family member their own shelf with special food on it. Wonder how we got so many allergies in one family and remind self Husband doesn’t have any allergies and it’s really just self and C who have 9 zillion allergies between us. Eat dinner, stay at table afterward to do homework. Remind C to write slowly and wonder if am striking appropriate balance between Encouraging Mommy, Nice Mommy and Task Master Mommy. Take bath (complete with epsom salts to draw out toxins, baking soda to draw down stomach acid, and vapor bubbles to draw out sneezes). Get out, slather in lotion made of absolutely nothing because absolutely everything causes rashes, put jammies on, make up silly compound words because THAT IS WHAT WE DO after a bath.

     Do bedtime chores, wonder if we’ll ever be able to move box of baby toothpaste closer to toothbrush area (step 4 in the 90 step process necessary to introduce toothpaste, which he has never used), and be thankful he seems to have inherited good teeth. Wonder how he will ever, ever, ever get through a full dentist appointment. Resove to make using toothpaste a summer goal. Remind self to start a list of all these summer goals I keep thinking about and wonder again about being Task Master Mommy.

     Read book together, have a few minutes of hang out time, remind Daddy it’s time for lights out. Watch Daddy get cup of ice water, go into C’s room and sing song. Collapse on couch as Daddy finishes song, turns out lights, turns on noise machine, shuts blinds, and exits room, shutting the door to the exact same spot every single night.

     Breathe for a few minutes and take bets with Husband as to how many times C will call one of us. Try to be Nice Mommy because C going to sleep unhappy does not make for a restful night for anyone. Try to balance patience (when C calls for us 13th time) with certain knowledge that we are completely and utterly allowing ourselves to be manipulated.

     Crash on couch again and laugh at self when I think of how much I thought I’d get done tonight.

     Shortly after C was born, he was put on a ventilator. Barely two days later, he blew a hole in one lung and had to have a chest tube put in. At that point, the doctors wanted him airlifted from our rural hospital to a facility in Denver for a more equipped intensive care unit. I remember watching the flight nurses wheel him away in a contraption that looked like a space shuttle, off into the blustering snowstorm to the airfield. I’ve never felt so alone in the world.

     Numerous sleepless nights, chest x-rays, heart scans, and re-intubations later, we were allowed to take him home with oxygen attached. I remember asking the pulmonologist if he would be okay. A loaded question neither of us understood for what it was. What I was asking was, “Would he be okay?”  What the pulmonologist thought I was asking was, “Would his lungs be okay?”  His answer, wrong on both counts, ”Yes, he will be fine.”

     I felt like we were leaving the hospital with a baby under warranty. Truly. So many times in those first years I wondered how this doctor could have been so terribly wrong. I wanted to call him and remind him of us and tell him that no, C was NOT in fact okay, in any sense of the word. In a weird, twisted way, I blamed him for everything, but at the same time, he probably preserved my sanity. If I had known what was coming, I would’ve collapsed on the spot. While he could have never known how much I took his answer to heart, it gave me hope during those really tough years because I still remembered his words. I had put so much faith into the answer to that question, and I think I held onto his answer for dear life.

     When we finally brought C home from the NICU, our doctor told us we had to keep him cold free for his first year, which translated to my quitting my job and staying home. For that year, my entire social life revolved around nurses and therapists coming to visit C at our home. Once we got the all-clear, however, we started to venture out in the world. At about 2 years old, we decided to try him in play school one day a week for some socialization. After a long visit, numerous conversations with the staff, the big day finally arrived. I brought him to the school, and he happily toddled into the room. He had no words yet, and had only started walking a few months before. I left, anxiety and eagerness fighting for control as I triple checked my cell phone to make sure it was on.

     I knew I had to come back and feed him lunch because of his feeding issues, so I went back early to observe. What I saw has remained one of my most painful memories. As I walked in the building, I heard the usual noise that one would expect coupled with something far more disturbing; the sounds of my own child’s cries, which any mother can pick out of thousands of such cries from a crowd of other children. As I approached, I saw him standing in the middle of the room, hands held up, fingers spread, tears streaming down his face. He was nearly hysterical in his sobs and as he stood there all by himself like he was all alone in the world. It was instantly obvious to me what was wrong - his hands were dirty. He hated having anything on his hands, and his frustration was obvious because he could neither communicate it verbally nor could he figure out how to fix the problem himself. “Boy, he sure is a screamer!” one teacher commented. I fought the urge to snap back at her that perhaps he wouldn’t be screaming if anyone had been engaged enough to figure out what he was screaming about.

     After getting him cleaned up, we proceeded to lunch, at which all the children happily ate their mini-tacos. I sat on a little chair at a little table, surrounded by little people eating big people food. I fed C his baby food and started crying. I couldn’t stop crying, and was soon fighting back heaving sobs as I tried to decide what to do. The young teachers tried not to stare at me in their complete and utter discomfort. There’s no manual for this; I felt completely lost and alone in the world - much like he had been when I saw him earlier. It was the first of many such choices I’ve had to make for him in is life; ultimately I took him out of a bad situation, one in which he probably could have learned something had I left him in the midst of it, but one where the lessons would’ve perhaps been at too great a cost.