You’re right — she’s been told by relatives it could be her anxiety. It’s not. It’s a diagnosed condition. Her anti-nausea meds work, so guess what? Not anxiety! People think they’re being helpful when they’re really being a-holes.

She’s hoping the same thing, Krista. I think she’s wishing the baby comes a few weeks early just so she can eat again! That she has a bucket her husband has named Oscar tells what it’s been like. 😉

Oh my goodness, give her a virtual hug for me. It is a horrible thing to be that sick for so long and something most people don’t understand. I think because a lot of women have nausea to some degree people tend to think you’re being dramatic or exaggerating. It is also very isolating because (speaking for myself at least) it is hard to get excited or bubbly when you feel so wretched, and people question why you don’t seem happy. I hope the final weeks of her pregnancy go by fast for her!

Krista, given all you’ve had to shovel, you’re well within your right to vent. My lord! I feel for you on the HG pregnancy — my daughter had lost 16 pounds (she lost 16 prior to getting pregnant, too) before the baby started adding to the total. She called me today, excited that she ate and kept down an Egg McMuffin. 😉 Eight more weeks…

You’re right — each thing separately can be managed, though I think an HG pregnancy is probably the straw that would break my back.

Go get that massage. Hell, take a few days off and don’t think about work or apologize for not working! Bills can wait. That’s one thing that’s a certainty — bills will always be there.

I wish you the best too, Krista. And I’m happy you commented. Thank you. It means a lot.

Thank you for the kind words, Paula. I agree, it would have been far worse to not be able to be there or to be dealing with hospital visits and pressing deadlines. And I think you’re right about taking a bit of time each week for myself. I tend to want to dash to the babysitter’s as soon as possible to get my little guy, but I’m sure he would be okay if I sat on my front porch long enough to have a quiet coffee!

Cut yourself some slack, Krista. You’ve been through more in the past two years than many people go through in a lifetime. And it sounds as if all of the hard work you put in before July is what is (or should have) paid for that less-than-restful time off. Being free to help your mother is priceless, so in that way the timing was right. Or at least better than if she’d needed surgery while you were juggling your already hectic life and deadlines.

Even if you can’t take a week or two off at once, try to give yourself a little time each day or maybe one day (or a half day) each week. You earned it.

I wish I’d thought of that the day I spilled the water! I have two big bags of rice that I bought to make my siblings some large back-size heated rice packs.

I’m glad you were able to find a creative work-around! That’s why I don’t think I’ll ever use a laptop. Well, that and the fact that they’re ergonomic nightmares.

When I told my editors about the issue, one told me that on a family trip to Paris, her (grown) son accidentally knocked a bottle or glass of water onto her laptop. They got to know the Paris Apple store really well in the five times they had to visit it.

My replacement keyboard feels like a child’s toy – clunky plastic. The “slim profile” and “responsive keys” are neither. It’s noisy. I also discovered it doesn’t have a built in USB port for flashdrives (or the mouse). I think I’d rather deal with batteries. After I get paid for the current workload I think I’ll splurge on the Apple keyboard & mouse.

Luckily I have a Mac Mini, where you can use any Mac-friendly monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Each thing on its own is manageable, but all together it just gets to be too much! I worked my butt off over the winter to relax during July. My first day “off,” my mother had emergency surgery and spent basically the entire month in the hospital. What I pictured as a month going to the beach/sipping wine/doing fun activities with my toddler ended up as weeks of daily hospital visits. At the end of all that rambling, I don’t know what the answer is. I did not have a restful, rejuvenating summer, but now I feel the need to make up for the time off (and lost income) over the summer. Reading this, though, I feel like maybe I should just say screw it and plan a mental health day or two for myself and go get a massage! So thank you! I have been sorry to read about your recent struggles with your father (I don’t comment often, but I read regularly). Wishing you the best.

Consider me your serial nudger. 😉

You’re right — it is about working smarter. I’m tired right now and could tell everyone to leave me alone, but I had already agreed to these projects, and I will follow through with them.

Any upcoming projects will have to wait. I need a breather.

Oh Mary, that sucks! Have you tried just getting a regular monitor and hooking it up to the Toshiba until you can get it fixed?

I hear you. I have a Surface that cracked years ago. I didn’t see it until much later (and I know because I heard a bit of a sharp crack when I put it down on the ceramic floor). It was a hairline crack that hasn’t grown much, and it’s been a year, so I put up with it. The Surface is my sometimes machine. I have a desktop for everyday. Switching between them isn’t too tough, but it takes time getting used to the smaller keyboard.