A Failed Experiment

Well, in retrospect, it was probably a little soon to try to make it to church…but we did it anyway.

After a pretty rough night, it still somehow seemed like a plausible option, so (in my sleepless stupor) I started out two full hours before church started. After taking my shortest shower to date, I answered Cora’s call and she fed for a good long while. With time to spare, I got ready faster and with less “prep” than I ever have before (I’m pretty sure this is going to become the norm for the next few years, right?). Still on target here.

Then Coleman changes her diaper and we get her dressed. She looks like a precious little angel, doesn’t she? Oh, just wait…


By the way, this a little Feltman (sp?) dress I wore when I was a baby. It's hard to tell from this, but it's pale pink with precious smocking across the front. I love smocking! Anyway, it’s a little short, but it’s just too hot for tights right now, so what can you do? Actually, you can’t see how short it is in this picture after all, but apparently I don’t give clear photography instructions. Oops.

But seriously, isn't she just so pretty? (*Not so subtle attempt to draw attention away from haggard, sleepless mom and on to adorable infant*)

At any rate, it’s at this point that she decides she wants to feed again, so it’s pretty clear we’re going to be late.

We pull into the parking lot about 5 minutes after the service has started, and – as if on cue – Cora erupts with a voluminous cascade of throwup all over herself and the carseat. In fact, she threw up so much that when we tipped the carseat, puke ran out the bottom (and all down Coleman’s pant leg and shoes).

So now she is upset and, understandably, hungry again, so we make ourselves even later by feeding nursing again in the car. Then when we’re finally ready to go in, we sneak in the back, very late, covered in barf, and very exhausted. And of course this is the one Sunday all year when the a/c is working correctly, so it’s quite chilly for us, not to mention Cora who is still pretty damp. I ended up covering her with the light sweater I had on and praying she didn’t erupt again all over it.

She lasts all of ten minutes before she fusses and wants to eat – AGAIN – so I take her out and finally find a room where it is unlikely people will be walking in on us. Keep in mind that I wouldn’t care if people saw us nursing, but I didn’t want to offend anyone else…at least on our first week back. We’ll see…

So she’s nursing like a champ, and all of a sudden I hear the postlude. We missed the entire service!

At least she got to meet some of her church family, even though many folks were gone and even though she was smelling quite ripe after covering herself in her own barf. She’s so cute, though, that no one seemed to mind.

We also threw off her whole schedule for the day, which we paid for mightily well into that night and the next morning. She was feeding like crazy, but only in spurts, and wouldn’t sleep for longer than an hour at a time. Then, one of the cats started puking everywhere and we had to clean up after her all night and all morning (followed by an expensive vet visit when she started throwing up blood). This, I told Coleman, is the point at which I thought for sure that the “wheels were falling off” this whole system. Things got better, but it was pretty rough for awhile.

None of this makes me eager to replicate this experience this Sunday, but we probably will. Just call us gluttons for punishment!

And don’t worry, Mom – the puke came out of the dress very nicely.