A week and a half ago my Valentine and I started an incredibly rough ride. After a routine visit to the doctor for our newborn we also had the doctor take a listen to our three year old’s chest to diagnose a nasty cough that had lasted for a week or so. What we assumed were her allergies acting up we were told was walking pneumonia. Not a fun diagnosis, but treatable with antibiotics.
Later that afternoon, not feeling well (which is not normally my excuse for this) I took a nap. When I woke up I was accompanied by a fever of 101. Thus began my journey with walking pneumonia as well. The next Sunday our newborn began coughing and the next day we took her back to the doctor. Her lungs were clear and we were told to watch her and make sure she didn’t develop a fever.
Tuesday night I was woken up on four occasions by our toddler. Normally she gets frightened at night and needs to be placed back in her bed and patted for a few minutes and she goes right back to sleep. On this night she was inconsolable. Nothing we could do would calm her to the point of sleep. After hours of frustration on my part my wife told me to go to bed and put both the babies in the room with her (somehow a mom needs no sleep… I’ll never understand how they do this but it amazes me.)
At 8:00 Wednesday morning I walked back in our bedroom to see our oldest baby girl with hands on both of her ears screaming in pain. I raced her to urgent care to find that she had an ear infection in both ears. Round two of antibiotics began for her. On the trip home, while watching Netflix on my phone, I hear from the backseat, “I THINK I’M GONNA GET SICK!” This was followed immediately by that horrible sound of retching. I quickly pull into the closest neighborhood and open her door. As I gag while trying to clean her off to the point that I can pull her out of the seat, I wonder who might be recording me on video waiting to turn it in to either the police or Candid Camera.
I finally get her out of the car, pull off her dirty pants and place her in the front seat to continue cleaning the back. I am halfway around the car when I hear, “I really gotta pee… I’m gonna pee!” So I run back around, pull the little one out of the car in socks, a shirt, and nothing else, and place her over some grass so she can pee. Place her back in the car and drive home.
Thursday comes around and our newborn’s cough is considerably worse. So visit number four to the doctors office reveals she is suffering from the same thing we have been passing around the house. Now we begin a round of antibiotics for her.
Saturday night we have multiple episodes where the baby’s cough is so bad we end up staying up with her all night. The next morning we drop our oldest off with my sister and take the baby to the ER. After 5 hours we find out she has a viral infection in her lungs. They clean our her little lungs and we begin the journey home once again. We pick up our toddler, pick up some dinner and head home where the three year old is the first to walk into the door and announce, “It smells like poop in here!”
My dog, Bob, who has been in his kennel all day, has gotten sick (from both sides) and has been standing in his kennel for an untold length of time (possibly the last 8 hours). So for an hour and a half I clean up a dog, his kennel and myself.
Last night, the night before Valentine’s day, my wife and newborn went upstairs to sleep so daddy could get some rest. Our three year old slept soundly in her bed, and we are all on the mend and getting back to normal.
Five and a half years ago I stood on an alter and pledged my love to one woman for the rest of my life. For better or for worse. At that time I wasn’t thinking about changing diapers, pulling a toddler out of the back seat in the middle of an unfamiliar neighborhood to pee in the grass, making six trips to the hospital in a week, or sleeping apart from my wife the night before Valentine’s. But that’s life… that’s marriage. When we tell our clients to make sure they focus on the most important part of the wedding day, this is what we mean. At the end of that day you will be married. Marriage is an awesome, amazing, perplexing and trying institution.
So this is our reminder to all of you that decide to make the walk down the aisle to pledge your love to one person. It’s not always kisses and dances. But if you pick the right person and focus on the right things, you can make an amazing life filled with awesome memories.
Happy Valentine’s day 2012 to all of our clients: past, present and future!
