Real Talk

This is a recounting of a true life event and subsequent episode many months later. My son is ventilator dependent. He also relies on five other machines daily to keep him alive. So car travel looks more like an ambulance ride. And I used to be able to handle it as the lone adult in the car, until the day we left the hospital about two years ago, and it was a horrifying, near death experience. My son does not "transition" well anymore. Meaning moving him from one place to another, especially into the wheelchair or carseat. It's one of the main reasons we moved to home nursing exclusively almost five years ago. Trips in the car meant multiple stops...

 I hate being pregnant. "Wow."  "That's a pretty harsh statement, Camille." I know it and I mean it. I know it's a completely different opinion from someone who has documented their struggle to get/stay pregnant, but I stand by it. Pregnancy is a means to an end for me. Now, before you furiously type in the comments about how lucky I am to experience this true act of God, let me explain. I don't hate being pregnant for the superficial reasons. I am still currently dealing with all day sickness and extreme fatigue even in my second trimester. My skin is breaking out and I divert my eyes on the scale at my doctor's appointments. My husband does everything around the house and with...

I surround myself with some pretty cool chicks. We try to meet regularly, check in on each other, celebrate our victories (parenting and otherwise) and support each other when we have those days we fail spectacularly.  Because we do. We all do.  No one likes to fail, BUT when I fail, I don't want your encouragement (not right away). I want your participation. I want you to jump right in with me - and make me laugh at myself or cry with me because we both totally suck. I want to go down in a blaze of glory - when I set the kitchen on fire (accidentally), when bath time deteriorated into a battle of wet, frustrated wills, when bed time...

Almost anytime we as adults {myself included at times} encounter a child whether male or female, it seems like we feel the need to compliment their physical appearance in some way. Which I would argue is really more about paying a compliment to the parents, rather than the kid himself ... but I assure you they are listening even if we are not speaking directly to them. Why do we do this? My daughter has beautiful hair. Golden curls that cascade down like liquid gold, there is no questioning its loveliness. And at three years of age, she is keenly aware of this physical trait of hers because 99.9% of the time she encounters a stranger or an acquaintance who is an...

Today I'm going to break some rules. I loved my fellow contributor's post, "I Don't Want to Talk About my Body with You" because it's so true. Regardless of our shape or size, there are so many more interesting, productive and healthy things to talk about other than our bodies. I don't want to talk about my body with anyone, but because of what happened to me recently at the doctor's office, I'm going to make an exception.  You see, even though I don't want to talk about my body with people, I do have to talk about it with my doctors. After all, it's kind of their job to evaluate my body and its health. But during an appointment with my...