It woke me up sometime around four this morning, less than an hour after being up to nurse: a dull sense of something not feeling right. I’ve had a sinus infection for two days, one I’ve been trying to self-treat with Sudafed because in the last 2 1/2 weeks, we’ve already spent $90 in doctor…
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A Snuggle On a Gray, Gloomy Day
The nights are harder this time around. Maybe it’s being older, with more kids; maybe it’s the cold weather, which renders the space beneath the blankets so cozy and the space outside it so unfriendly. Or maybe I’m just getting lazier. In any case, I actually sleep through the first minute or two of “I’m…
Read MoreI Guess It’s Postpartum Blues
The thing I’ve always valued about breastfeeding is that it is a symbiotic relationship. The well-being of baby depends upon mother, and the well-being of mother depends upon baby. We’re a partnership, and my motivation is high to keep us mutually healthy. I’ve been through difficult nursing times, but I have never faltered in my…
Read MoreWhat I Will Miss About Pregnancy
I’ve reached that point in pregnancy now where I just want it to be over, where it’s all too easy to think only of how miserable it is. This is the point for which I wrote my advice on being pregnant with grace. So today I’m going to come up with ten things I love…
Read MoreWhen A Family Dances
The moment snuck up on me on a night when I was focused on finding the exact one hundred fifty words I needed to string like pearls on the thread of the end of my novel. It came on the heels of a wood fire and s’mores and friends sharing a meal. The children retreated…
Read MoreThe (melo)Drama of a Scraped Knee
This is a story about this child of mine: The one I’ve called the drama king, whose toy conflicts require trial by jury, whose every sniffle becomes a matter of national security. I don’t think the title quite does him justice. We went outside after dinner last Thursday to play for an hour before baths.…
Read MoreSometimes, You Just Need A Bit Of Affirmation
Some days, I wonder what my kids will remember. I’ve been slowly making my way through the book No Ordinary Time, about FDR & Eleanor during World War II, the way the home front and the war efforts impacted each other, and their family. It turns out that Eleanor Roosevelt wasn’t always very good with…
Read MoreJust Like Me
(Note to 7QT readers: I’m doing a Fiction Friday this week, so I’m trying something a little different with my 7QT this week. Hope you don’t mind. 🙂 ) ** In so many ways, he’s so much like me. 1. He spends his days in a wild frenzy of imagination. In theory, he loves toys.…
Read MoreShoe Shopping For Kids With Special Needs (or: You’ll Never Complain About Going To the Mall For Shoes Again
We’ve been having insurance problems lately. (Lately? When have we not had insurance hassles?) Fortunately, we’re not having health problems…just insurance problems. Most recently, the clinic that measured Julianna for her new shoe inserts–in August–called to ask me to get a detailed justification from my doctor, because the insurance was balking at paying; these inserts…
Read MoreWhat Makes It All Worthwhile
Not long ago, someone very dear to me expressed reservations about parenthood: the fear that after so many years of independence, it would be all too easy to resent the responsibility inherent in child-rearing. My response was that yes, you sometimes resent the responsibilities, but what you receive in return far outweighs it. Ever since…
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Kathleen M. Basi 