Pee Everywhere

It is late on a Sunday night, but something rather traumatic just happened to me and I need to write about it. My wife is in bed, as she has to get up at 3:30 to feed our seven-month-old and then go to work, so I don't want to wake her up.

I was working on some chores this evening, trying to do some things around the house so that my wife can deal with our seven-month-old and our four-year-old during the day without feeling like she needs to be Betty Crocker. It's a full time job just keeping up with one of our kids.

So, as I was working in the house, my four-year-old came downstairs in his pajamas. He was whining, and I didn't know if he was sick. He was groggy, so he walked into the living room as I tried to ask what was going on, and then he started going upstairs again. He suddenly changed gears and headed quickly for our downstairs bathroom.

When he got to the bathroom, he started taking down his pajama bottoms and underwear…and started peeing–mid-trouser take down. EV-ERY-WHERE. I kid you not. It's like the kid has a bladder the size of a punching bag. Is there a fresh water shortage in the world? If so, I know why.

This whole is followed by my shock, disbelief, and terror–and with my poor parenting skills, much shouting and cursing (sad but true) and then getting him on the toilet, getting his pajama bottoms and underwear off…in a sea–A SEA–of urine. I know the Duggars would have kept dignity and calm as they assessed the situation. Sorry–I'm missing that gene,

Finally, he's done peeing, and my next step is to start to clean up the urine off the floor, which is a futile effort. When I say sea, I mean it. I eventually break down to pouring straight Pine Sol on the urine (pretty much the entire bathroom floor) and the having my son step through it, drying off his feet outside of the bathroom, and then getting him upstairs for a bath.

Mind you, we already had a bath earlier that night.

And the upstairs bathroom is literally two feet from the room he is sleeping. He also went to the bathroom a short time before be went to bed.

Currently, the child is back in bed (in different pajamas), and I've cleaned the bathroom diligently. I had to mop up all the Urine Sol first, then I used chemicals to clean the floor after that. Finally, I used chemicals again and all-out cleaned the whole bathroom. The urine soaked things are in the washer, which I will run right before I go to bed.

The problem is…and I think it's mental…is that all I can smell right now is urine. I've had my hands and arms in corrosive cleaners, I've washed my hands and arms and legs, and I've changed clothes. Still, all I can smell is urine.

My four-month-old son and twenty-nine-year old wife didn't even wake up through all the cursing and shouting. It's a good thing it wasn't a fire. And if it was…now I know I can put my four-year-old on the task of putting it out.

Picture Credit to: http://nursingcrib.com/nursing-notes-reviewer/routine-urinalysis-normal-laboratory-study-values/

 

Posted with Blogsy

At my stepson’s baseball game

Last week, we went to watch my stepson play baseball. He plays on a traveling 12-A team. When we all go to one of his games, it means that the three-month-old and four-year-old come with us. The most recent game was at the football field of South St. Paul High School, which is a natural bowl. They remove the guest stands over the summer to make room for a baseball diamond. The three-month-old was requiring our attention, as he is wont to do. The four-year-old was running around with other kids, so we were not watching him very closely. Suddenly, we looked up and realized that our four-year-old was a long ways away, on the home stand for the Packers:

Real parent of the year material here, I tell you.

 

274

274. That’s all I’m going to say. 30 pounds so far. 99 to go.

276

I didn’t quite miss weighing in two weeks ago; I avoided reporting about it. I had lost weight during the week, only to have a weekend with more family events (e.g. eating at Olive Garden for Mother’s Day), and my ending weigh-in was 181…a steady weight from the previous week. But I knew that I had lost weight and gained it back. That’s really disappointing, and I decided not to post.

But no worries…I kept on the diet after a busy weekend.

So I’ve done a few things differently this week. Off and on, I’ve been eating a bit more. I’ve had some treats (a root beer float here and there, or a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich). And I’m not weighing myself daily any more. The end result? 276 this week. That means 28 pounds lost, 101 to go to meet my goal.

If you don’t know, we have a twelve year old boy, a four year old boy, and a two month old boy in our house. The two month old hasn’t made it easy on us; he cries a lot (towards colic) and insists on being held a lot (as in ALL THE TIME). I’m at work, so I only see seven waking hours of this a day; my wife is still at home on maternity leave and deals with it all day long.

Here’s where I’m getting at: one of the ways we’ve found to calm this little boy down is to take him on a walk. The last couple of walks, I’ve ended up carrying him, and he weighs over fourteen pounds. By the end of a mile lap (or just short of a mile), I’m pretty tired–and I used to carry TWICE that weight on my frame 55 days ago.

How am I going to feel at 40 pounds lost? 50? 100? 129?

My intent is to find out.

Addition 5/21: I should add that the root beer floats have been a nod towards the healthy side–A&W Diet Root Beer and Lite Vanilla Ice Cream. Not healthy by any means, but significantly less damage than regular root beer and fully loaded ice cream. The Skinny Cow treats are already calorie reduced.

It has been 90 degrees here already (amazing) and there are times that a person just needs a treat. The challenge for me is just having ONE treat, rather than four (or a box).

There and Back Again; Weight Loss This Week

After several days at 282, my weight dropped to 280 this week, followed by 279.5 on Friday morning. My son (my oldest, if you don’t count my stepson who is 12) turned 4 on Saturday, so my parents came up. Although I worked pretty hard when I arrived at home on Friday night (e.g. mowing the lawn, cleaning the basement, patching holes in our walls), I ate a large amount of spaghetti for dinner. Spaghetti always sticks with me for a few days, so I wasn’t surprised to see my weight at 280.5 on Saturday morning. This morning, after a day of partying and literally staying away from most of the “bad stuff,” my weight was 281. In all cases, I was under the number of allotted calories on Lose It!, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

End story of the week, 2.5 pounds lost, 1.5 pounds gained–net loss 1.0.

Not exactly what you want, but as I’ve said before, family gatherings are a food land mine where it is SO hard to make good choices or limit eating. There’s the danger of having a large family!

A Mild Week of Weight Loss

Not a lot to say this week; I’m keeping on the diet, doing a good job.  I’ve been trying to get out to walk or move 30 minutes a day.  Ending weight 282.5, just 2.5 pounds less than last week.

I’ll take it.  But in medical terms, this would be considered a stall in the weight loss process.

These are going to happen.  And I’m okay with it; several weeks of stalling can lead to depression, however (this is true of anyone on a diet).

I’ll just keep “keeping on.”  No worries.

The positive news is that I’m now under the lowest weight I’ve been since the fall of 2009.  21.5 pounds lost.  That’s great.  But in my mind, this is where the diet actually begins, and I won’t feel like I’m losing weight until I see a 27-something (e.g. 270s) on the scale.

No need for a chart this week.  I was under the permitted calorie count every day; I ate correctly; and hovered between 283 and 282.5 most of the week.  This too, shall pass.

 

Weight Report

I am quite happy to report that my current weight is 285. That represents a loss of six pounds over the last week, and 19 pounds in the past 26 days. Things are going well.

That said, just a couple of additional thoughts. I’ve hit 283 a number of times in the past years, and have given up at that point. So I still don’t consider myself even “starting” this process or being successful at it until I see a 27* number on that scale. Second, I now have only 110 pounds to lose to hit my goal. I’m being a little sarcastic using “only,” but this is a long process. Third, the weight loss is still impossible to see…no new pant or shirt sizes. They will come, but those changes aren’t there yet. Here are some Weightbot captures from this week: