Petting Faces

I haven't meant to let so much time lapse between posts. My intentions have been good but, I often have my small assistant by my side and we have different writing styles. She is more free-spirited and likes to crawl across the keyboard, pressing any and all buttons that inspire her. Whereas, I prefer a bit more uniformity and putting together specific letters to form words. To each their own, I suppose. Additionally, I've been on vacation. I spent a glorious week in the Las Vegas sunshine and to be quite honest, I enjoyed closing my eyes, floating in the pool, and forgetting real life for awhile. But, I'm back. Here I am, surprise! Now, let me get my pen...

Back to reality means back to pain and because of this, I need a lot of help. My main symptom has been intense pain and let me tell you, The Big C has no qualms about raising hell in each of the bones that it resides in. I have prescriptions of medications that can help keep the pain at bay; but, I have been adamant, since the beginning, that I won't take anything that makes me like a zombie. I want to be fully aware and capable of caring for Avery, so during the day I just take several Ibuprofen on a consistent schedule.

That's a Catch 22 however, because, as a result of the pain, I cannot adequately care for my daughter. I am unable to bend down to pick her up. I also can't lift her in and out of her crib and since she still likes to wake up for a late-night snack and girl talk, at least once a night, I require extra help. My cute husband would be the obvious choice but he can't very easily fly airplanes from the comfort of our quaint condo, so he is away quite often. When he isn't home, my mom and my college roommate Kari typically split the night-shifts throughout the week. It is an unbelievable help to have someone stay over and allows me to take stronger medicine to help the pain while I sleep.

One night when Kari was over, we were just relaxing and decided to have a cocktail to accompany our plethora of DVRed TV shows that had accumulated since our last slumber party. Kari concocted some vodka and pop combination while I settled on a beer. We each just had one drink and shortly thereafter, decided to go to bed. At this point, I had to sleep sitting up because of the pain so I constructed my five-pillow bungalow, popped a Vicoden and attempted to settle in. I say attempted because I hadn't slept comfortably in months... until, this night. I was knocked out and my body felt incredibly relaxed.

I remember waking up to the baby crying and Kari giving her a bottle in bed. I dozed back off and awoke again to myself asking Kari where the baby was. For some reason, I kept thinking she had fallen back to sleep in bed with Kari and I, but I wasn't sure. Time after time after time, after time, Kari assured me that Avery was in her crib. I'm pretty sure I asked her about 16 times through my grogginess before waking up again to realize that after a second feeding (A-bomb went through a short phase when she thought sleeping was way uncool and would wake up a lot.) Kari did leave her between us. I figured it was because it would be easier for me to see where the baby was, rather than have to continuously ask.

Now, I love my sweet little goose (Avery,  not Kari...I love her too, but Avery is my goose) and even though it will apparently scar her for life to sleep in my bed, I was content to have her there at that moment and I lovingly rubbed her face. Then, I leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek and rubbed her head while I fell back asleep, with my hand resting protectively on her for the rest of the night.

Fast forward to 5:30 am when I woke up; being more coherent, I saw that Kari had moved the baby back to her crib at some point before she left for the gym. When she got back, I was up making coffee and going on and on about how good I had slept. That's when Kari reminded me about how often I asked her where the baby was. At that point, I said "Oh man! I must have been talking in my sleep because I only vaguely remember that. BUT, it was sweet when she slept between us, she looked so cozy" This caused Kari to start laughing and inform me that the baby was never asleep in my bed. Indignant, I said, "Yes she was, I was rubbing her face." To which Kari replied.... "Nope. That... was me."

Turns out, Avery slept in her crib the whole night (she actually only woke up once) but, everything else was true.... The stroking of her face. The kiss on the cheek. The head rub. YES, it all happened... to Kari! It was supposed to be a well-intentioned motherly instinct, but I guess our friendship hit a new level. Maybe next time I better save the "good sleep," for when my husband is home, just in case.