I'm not Super Woman after all

Despite my stubborn tendency to think I'm Super Woman, this week I had to accept that this simply isn't true.

~First of all, as you may recall from a few posts ago, I now have a baby belly. Yes, I know I need to get an updated picture up soon, as this baby (ahem) is growing at a lightning fast speed. I lost 5 pounds the first trimester, but I've gained 20 since then!!

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to persuade Chance to come downstairs, but to no avail. So I picked him up, and although he was kicking his feet in protest, I thought I could handle it...until I took my first step down the stairs. I fell, kinda backwards, and landed hard on my butt/ lower back. Chance went flying downward, which was the scariest part, and hit the back of his noggin on the window ledge. Did I mention that he had just hit the front of his head about 30 minutes before? So he now had matching goose-egg sized bruises. We like our kids well balanced like that. Anyways, Chuck was downstairs and came running, consoled Chance and looked on worriedly as I winced for about half an hour. But then we went to eat and all was forgotten. Food is such a comfort sometimes.

So since that day, I've been feeling the soreness down below, but it was getting better daily. Last Monday I ran errands to three different stores, which meant unloading the boys from the minivan, then picking them both up and putting them into shopping carts, pushing them thru stores, then the loading them back... Then on Tuesday we went to Ladies' Bible Study at church, in which I let Chance walk and hold my hand (thankfully he is getting better about that). But I also had a backpack weighing about 15 pounds on my back. For the first half hour of study time we were in a place that was standing room only. By the time I was able to sit down I'd been standing for 45 minutes and had climbed 2 flights of stairs with the backpack. Strangely, as I went to sit at my table, I couldn't get comfortable. My back had had enough. I eventually moved to a couch and felt somewhat better. But as I walked back to the car later, I was almost in tears.

Also, I thought I should mention, while I was in my class, Charlie was in his Bible class...and while in recess on the playground he got into a fight. The teachers said he was wrestling a 5 year old boy, but he told me they were fighting. It's hard to tell the difference, I guess, but still I was a little unnerved that he's not even 4 and he's already been in a fight. Hopefully it won't happen again...

So, I get home and put both boys down for naps, and took one myself, hoping to relieve my back. When I awoke it was even worse. Sitting and standing were both difficult. Chuck had to take over my normal duties for the evening, and by nightfall I could not even walk. It was a big test of my faith, I was so quickly overcome with fear and worry. I spent the evening locked up in my room so the boys couldn't jump on me, trying hard to relax and not freak out. It's an odd thing to lay in bed and have plenty of energy to do what needs to be done (and good ol' nesting hormones pumping), but know that you can't physically move. If I attempted to walk to the bathroom and back, I would spend some time afterwards just sobbing from the pain. I say all that to say it gave me a quick taste of what many people experience on a daily basis. It was truly awful.

During the night I realized that I could crawl on my hands and knees to get to the bathroom, and not feel the pain. So that's what I did. The next morning Chuck postponed working in order to care for the boys, but I got tired of laying in bed when I wanted to see my boys. So I crawled around the house for awhile in order to be with them. Of course anytime Mommy is crawling on hands and knees, that should mean it's horsey-riding time. But we managed to keep them from hurting me, and it was so uplifting just to be around them. I set an appointment to see the doctor, and Nana came in from Austin to relieve Chuck in caring for the boys.

I think I should mention here about the Men's Prayer Group. For the past probably 10 years now, the men of our church in Austin have met on Tuesday nights to pray. This group is the backbone of our little church there. It's been amazing to see what God does as a result of this group. Both my dad and Chuck's dad go to it faithfully. I had talked to my dad prior to the group and had asked for Nana to come help. What didn't occur to me was that he would have his group that night. So afterwards, Chuck's parents call to check on me, which I just delight that our families are that close. Anyhow, they told me how they had prayed for me....

So Wednesday morning as I'm crawling around, I think whatever was out of place popped back in. By the afternoon I could walk again, although it was still very sore. Things were definitely improving. When I went to the family doctor, I actually met with a new doctor, and he was so helpful. He had been an OB before, so he knew well what I was going through. He simply explained that my fall a couple of weeks ago had been aggravated by all the pressure I was putting on it. He explained why I need to be more disciplined about not lifting too much. I've heard that before, but never really thought it applied to me. Chance is 25 pounds, and it's an emotional thing for me to not be able to carry my baby around ;) I always thought if I lifted heavy things often, my muscles would keep up. But now I know that physiologically that's just not possible. I had to face the fact that I can't do as much as I once could. Thankfully, this is a temporary thing with no permanent damage done...At least pregnancy only lasts 9 months! Everyday my back feels somewhat better, and I'd say I'm about 90% recovered.

So I spent the rest of the week being served. Nana has an incredible gift for care-taking, for which I'm so thankful.

~I know this is a super-long blog, but there's more to catch up on. Remember how I told you about the big dentist bill we never anticipated? Charlie had to be put under anesthesia to get 2 root canals, and it ended up a financial nightmare that my health insurance didn't hardly cover. The dentist said he needed my authorization to do whatever else he thought necessary while this was happening...what I didn't know is he found 8 cavities to fill!! So my bill to him went from $250 to nearly $2 grand!! Anyhow, the second half of this story...the hospital and anesthesiologist was supposed to be covered under the medical (versus dental) side of the insurance. But for the last 4 months, Humana kept rejecting the claims. I even filed an appeal, telling them they needed to cover this. Finally, Chuck mentioned it to the HR dept. at Rackspace, and they offered to help me with it. While Humana is still refusing to pay (which makes no sense, it should be covered!), Rackspace has decided to cover it anyway! This was a potential $3500 bill on top of what we've already paid, which had given me a few nights of no sleep and more than a few tears shed in the last month. I had truly agonized over the fact that I couldn't seem to fix this problem. Once again, I'm not Super Woman.

So another huge praise to God for taking care of us this week!! Another big relief....

~One funny story to end this on a lighter note...

Today we went to meet Santa and the boys did great. Chuck had prepped Charlie on how he could tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. We were at the end of the line, and poor Santa and Mrs. Claus had been taking photos for a few hours. I bet their eyes were hurting from all the pictures! Anyhow, Charlie gets up on his knee, and it's all we can do to get him to stop talking long enough to look at the camera. Then as other kids were already crawling up into his lap, Charlie was still explaining to Santa what he wanted. He was very thorough in making sure Santa knew exactly which toy he wanted. It is a "Car Racing thing - Hot Wheelers Fee Fast ("Hot Wheels...Beat that!" - the slogan) where the cars go into the dinosaur's mouth." He went on and on to Santa, trying to make sure he understood and remembered. Then as we were walking back to the car Charlie says, "I'm really going to miss Santa. I hope he gets me a present for Christmas." I think Santa won't have a problem remembering...

PS I'll post their Santa pic next time, so stay tuned...