7QT: Hurricane Sandy Edition

 --1--

I spent the run up to Hurricane Irene in labor with Birdie and then rode out the hurricane on the postnatal floor of the hospital where she was born, so I can't say that I did much hurricane preparation a year ago except to pray fervently that Birdie would be born ahead of the hurricane (and she was, by about 18 hours). I made some food for my husband and boys to eat while I was unavailable, but that was about it.  I would have done that anyway because of the intense nesting urges I get while in labor.  So when it suddenly occurred to me on Friday evening that we were directly in the path of a category one hurricane that was 800 miles across, I freaked a little.  I went to the grocery store, stocked up on groceries (especially bread, which we were suddenly out of), and then worried that we didn't have enough water in the house in case something happened.  I started filling up (clean) empty bottles and containers from the recycling bin and reading about hurricane preparation.

--2--

Being Orthodox, we always have plenty of candles on hand, plus we keep a small oil lamp burning in the icon room, so I wasn't so concerned about light if the power went off.  I wasn't even that concerned about food--we had plenty of things to eat that didn't need cooking.  I worried a little about having enough formula on hand for Birdie (our supplies were slightly low).  I ended up going back to the store on Saturday and Sunday for things I'd missed, or suddenly realized it would be hard to be without if the power were out for a week as they were predicting.  Judging by the picked over shelves, I think everyone else around here had the same thought.

--3--

Sunday night, Piglet's headmaster called to say school was cancelled for Monday and Tuesday, and then later that evening, our CHOP pulmonologist called to say that the department was going to close Monday morning, but that if we wanted to keep Piglet's appointment, he'd still be coming in.  I said yes, we'd get there come you-know-what or high water.  We've been waiting months for this appointment and Piglet is out of options.  He's been coughing his head off for four years now, and we just can't get to the bottom of it. And believe me, we've tried a lot of different things.  It interferes with his sleep, he is prone to croup and respiratory infections, and I think some of the behavior issues that we struggle with for him are related to the fact that he is so tired all the time from all the coughing.

--4--

Unfortunately, SEPTA stopped running at midnight on Sunday, and the taxis stopped service sometime Sunday night, so my sitter couldn't get in on Monday morning.  My husband was considering going in to work that day, but I convinced him that the campus-wide notice to stay home applied to him and got him to stay with the littles while Piglet and I braved high winds and heavy rain to get to CHOP.  I'm so glad we did!!  Piglet is seeing Birdie's pulmonologist, who has been fantastic, and I like having the same (very smart) brain thinking about both of them.  He thinks Piglet has tracheomalacia, which is one of the things Birdie has, and is starting him on the medicine that has helped her so much.  It's too soon to tell, but I'm hopeful.  In addition, he is scheduling a bronchoscopy to have a look-see in Piglet's lungs, because we just don't have a good picture of what is really going on down there.  GI is going to do an endoscopy at the same time because of long-standing unresolved GI issues as well.  So we'll have to wait a few weeks for the departments to coordinate their schedules, but I remember it didn't take that long with Birdie in the spring, so hopefully sooner rather than later.

--5--

 

We went home soon after the appointment as the wind and rain lashed us all around, but we were lucky.  I found myself cooking ahead, afraid we'd lose power at any moment.  I'd done all the laundry on Sunday, just to be safe, and kept filling empty containers with water as we had them.  A big branch came down from our neighbor's brittle pear tree and missed our power line by 1/2"!!  We were very fortunate to keep power through the whole storm.  There were some big branches down on our street, and the pear tree didn't fare so well over all, but everything stayed rooted, the lights stayed on, and we were all safe in the end.  I'm just shocked by the flooding in New York City--so many of the places that are under water are places we regularly visit when we are there.  There are tons of photos online of the devastation, but I found the photo of seawater rushing into Ground Zero particularly sad and poignant.

--6--

In news unrelated to the hurricane, this morning Birdie figured out how to clap her hands!  It is hysterical.  She slaps her hand against her chest first a few times, then looks at her hands, and then slaps them together, chortling all the while.  Of course, Boo and I were clapping our hands and saying "Yay!!" the whole time, so she may have been confused about the purpose.  She's also getting a few more steps every day--still unsteady, and still mostly cruising, but she is standing unassisted for longer periods, and is starting to get more brave about taking a few unassisted steps from point A to B.  Personally, I'll be glad when she takes off because I think she'll be happier overall.  Plus it may help with our current problem of having to completely confine her during church.  There is a world of difference between a walking toddler and a crawling toddler in an Orthodox space.

--7--

After having all three kids home for three full days (in addition to the weekend, when my husband worked all weekend), I'm all done in, as the British say.  We had planned to pull Piglet out on Wednesday because we don't celebrate Halloween, but I wasn't planning on Hurricane Sandy!  My boys get kind of nuts whenever the barometer changes, so they were all nuts this week.  I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, so even though it is finally sunny today, I just don't have it in me to go outside and photograph all the stuff I've got ready to go from the last little while.  On the upside, Alias is now available to stream on Netflix, so I've been re-immersed in the world of Syndey Bristow and Milo Rambaldi once more.  Gosh, that was a fun show.  Can I be as cool as Sydney when I grow up?

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