Breathing Archives ⋆ Rhiannon Giles

August 1, 2017 Rhiannon Giles

Can You Call it a Vacation, Really?

We took a vacation!

I’m kidding. We went to the beach for an hour before Lorelei got sand in her bathing suit and said she was ready to go. The amount of time spent walking to and from the car, with all the sunscreen application, clothing changes, bathroom breaks, and showering was longer than time spent actually on the beach. We didn’t have Rowan with us, which may have felt more vacation-like since we didn’t have to keep him alive at the beach, but he was home with my parents because he had diarrhea. If you’ve got to use the word “diarrhea” in your description, it probably wasn’t much of a vacation.

Life

July 5, 2017 Rhiannon Giles

Also, Get Off My Lawn!

Tips for taking children to see fireworks.

Don’t. Just don’t. Tell them 4th of July has been cancelled. Blame Trump if you need to. Save yourself the agony.

I’m currently running on Diet Coke and a bladder just full enough to keep me awake.

Mental Health Parenting

May 2, 2017 Rhiannon Giles

Teachers: I Appreciate You, I Just Really Suck at Being Told What to Do

So, it’s teacher appreciation week. That’s basically a test for adults. And I am not nearly adulty enough to have to do specific things at specific times.

Life

October 30, 2016 Rhiannon Giles

My Imaginary Memoir Will Be Titled, “Well, It Could Have Been Worse….”

When something shitty happens, it is inevitable that someone is going to tell you to be grateful for whatever is less than shitty. I get it, I do. My imaginary memoir is titled, “Well, It Could Have Been Worse….” But sometimes I just want to wallow a little bit in the unfairness of things that are, well, unfuckingfair.

Parenting

October 19, 2016 Rhiannon Giles

Life on the Bright Side: It’s Not ALL Bad News

Embarrassing our children — Not just for human kids anymore.

We get Squirt shaved once a year or so, but normally if we are going to get Maya groomed it’s just a bath and brush out. But because I am not capable of caring for the number of living beings in my house, she had gotten matted without me realizing how bad it was in a couple of areas. So this happened. She is so fucking embarrassed.

Life

April 27, 2016 Rhiannon Giles

Pneumonia and DC

Oh my gah. Rowan decided to up the ante on the whole ear infection thing and get two ear infections and pneumonia. Pneufreakingmonia. We were supposed to leave for a trip to DC on Friday night, but Thursday we ended up back at the pediatrician’s office for the second time that week when he cried for 12 hours straight. He had O2 sats in the low 90s, and after two rounds of nebulizer was still crackly, though his saturation was better.

Prematurity

March 9, 2016 Rhiannon Giles

Inconsolable irony of Breathing

Rowan is sick. Again. I remember well the welcome-to-daycare series of plagues, but for Rowan a regular cold seems to turn into something more. This is the third time I’ve taken him in for coughing, with the second time being the dreaded RSV and hospital admission. I think he has had more sick visits in the eight months since his hospital discharge than Lorelei has in her entire six years. He’s on his second ear infection, and we’ve gone through almost an entire box of Xoponex nebulizer treatments. He spent hours last night screaming inconsolably.