Day 3

It's been three days since Baby E ate the honey. According to the sources I read, 3 to 30 days is the range within which she could start to show symptoms if she was going to have a problem.

I've been trying so hard the last few days to keep a close eye on her without overdoing the worry. Every time she doesn't nurse well or has more dirty diapers than usual, I wonder if I should be concerned. We're only three days into it and already the wait is driving me crazy.

She seems great--happy, energetic, etc. But when I changed her diaper a few minutes ago, it consisted of a glob of mucous with traces of blood in it. That doesn't really fit any of the symptoms I've read about, but it's definitely disconcerting. It wasn't a large amount, so I'm not sure how worried I should be at this point. We'll be keeping an extra-close eye on her next few diapers.

Yesterday was the women's tea at church, for ladies 4 and up. I was helping set up and host a table, so I had to be there early. My theme was Thanksgiving, and since it's my favorite holiday I had no trouble coming up with decorations for the table.

I had placemats my friend Julie and I had made years ago, with pressed leaves and Scripture passages about thankfulness on them. With the addition of dishes, a cornucopia and a couple of pilgrim figurines, the table looked quite nice.

DH was wonderful. He got up early to have breakfast with a friend. When he got home, he helped me get ready and came with me to the church. He watched all three girls while I set up, so Baby E would be out of my way but available when I needed to nurse her.

Then he took MM over to Chuck E. Cheese's to meet my mom and have some special time with Grandma while AJ stayed with me. Baby E stayed with Daddy. All three girls got some individual attention yesterday, and they all loved it.

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DH was such a help with the girls, and then he also helped pack and carry things to and from the tea. To top it off, he brought in the boxes of dirty dishes from the car, washed the dishes and cleaned up much of the mess last night while I went to bed. That was so nice of him. I'm really thankful for a husband who is so willing to help with that sort of thing.

Before the tea, I told AJ that we were hosting a table, so it would be our job to make sure everyone had everything they needed. So during the event, every few minutes she would ask in a loud voice, "Does everyone have everything they need?" She talked to the guests at the table, tried to make everyone feel comfortable, and enjoyed her sandwiches and tea. She was so thrilled to get to have real tea in a teacup at a table with grownups.

I did end up wishing I hadn't agreed to host a table. I'd forgotten from last year how much work and time it took to set up and take down, and then I had to be up and down during the meal a lot refilling teapots and getting more sandwiches from the kitchen. AJ ended up having to sit by herself at the table a lot. This was the first year one of my kids had been old enough to come, so I didn't think about how much it would hamper our time together. Next year I think I'll take a break from helping host, and just use the time to focus on my girls.

We had a raffle for door prizes, and AJ was intently listening to the numbers and comparing them to her slip. Several times when they called a number, she stood up and hollered, "I don't have 117."

Neither of us won a prize, and when the last number was called and the event was ending, she jumped out of her chair and went running toward the front of the room, yelling, "Hey, you forgot me!" I felt sorry for her, but explained that not everybody won a prize and she seemed okay with that. I guess I should have explained it better ahead of time.

They had a craft for the girls to do, but only enough space for about half the kids at the table. So we stood in line for a long time waiting for the first group to finish their craft. AJ kept asking when it would be her turn, but really she did a great job waiting for so long. She talked to some of the other kids, comparing fancy dresses and twirling their skirts. When she got bored with that, she asked me (as she often does) to tell her a story about when I was a kid.

When it was finally time to do her craft, she had a wonderful time. She used stick-on letters, snowflakes and glitter paint to decorate a picture frame. I was really impressed with her artistic sense of color and balance, and she was thrilled with how her project turned out.

Just as the kids were finishing their craft, a lady who goes to our church pulled me aside. She's a nationally known speaker, writer and artist. Her work is fabulous, and we just happen to be lucky enough to be her home church. She said that she's working on a new book geared toward young moms, and she wanted my input!!!

She is talking to several young moms to remind herself what this stage of life is like and what our needs are. So she said that if I had any specific memories, thoughts or journaling that I could share to help jog her memory and ideas, she'd like to hear them. I'm going to read through my old posts to try to pick out just a few that might be helpful to her.

But that's not all. I guess she's read some of my blog posts and a few other things I've written and liked them. She asked if I'd be interested in writing something to be considered (and possibly edited) for inclusion in the book.

Wow! It may or may not end up being used, but just to have the opportunity is quite amazing. I'm really excited about that.