There’s nothing like hosting a holiday party to get you to finish up your cleaning. 🙂 Joel and I hosted our Sunday School class’s Christmas party this past Sunday, and we had a great time! Of course, we were both running on adrenaline at that point due to the fact that we had been working for the past week on getting the house ready, and the kids hadn’t been sleeping well to boot. This is actually the first time since we moved in May that I’ve been able to look at our house and say, “Wow… I really like our house!” It’s amazing the difference unpacking and cleaning can make! Now, we do have a whole room upstairs on our second floor that’s packed full of junk, most of which hasn’t been taken out of boxes yet, but at least the first floor and part of the second floor look nice. 🙂 (The house is a three level townhouse… the top level is the nursery, master bath, and a walk-through bathroom, and it’s not completely unpacked yet.)
Anyway, the Christmas party was fun. Most of our class was able to make it. There were 16 adults, 3 two year olds, 1 almost two year old, and two infants. We ate, chatted, and had a white elephant gift exchange. 🙂 It was definitely worth the cleaning. 🙂
However, now that it’s over my body is starting to talk back. I haven’t been getting enough rest (partly due to preparing for the party and partly just because I’m a mother of two young children), and I probably haven’t been drinking enough fluids since that seems to be a typical problem for me. Both of those things can contribute to clogged ducts and eventually mastitis, otherwise known as a breast infection. It’s incredibly painful and comes with a nice fever to make the rest of your body feel icky, too. Thankfully, it can be taken care of with antibiotics and should go away within a few days. I have a Dr.’s appointment this afternoon and expect them to give me the prescription then. Not that I can be absolutely certain that I’m right in my diagnosis, but I had it five times in the year I was nursing Alexis, so I have past experience to rely on. Part of me would like to stop nursing so I could avoid the problem altogether, especially since I seem to be prone to clogged ducts (had them more times than the mastitis since I often was able to get rid of them before they became infected), but there are too many benefits to nursing for me to stop. The cost savings alone would probably convince me, and then there are all the health benefits for both me and the baby. Anyway, I’ll get through it just like I did when Alexis was a baby. Not fun, but liveable.
Well, it’s getting close to time for lunch. I think I’ll let Alexis watch some VeggieTales while I get things ready. That way I can be a little more sure that she won’t try to play with Branwen while Branwen is trying to sleep. 🙂