"You get what you pay for, but I just had no intention of living this way." -Counting Crows

Why We're Here...

My husband David and I delivered a stillborn Baby Boy that we loved, and wanted. Our first and only son, Logan, had Down Syndrome. Our daughter's smile is a little light in the darkness. She turned one year old three days after our sweet Logan tip-toed away on January 24, 2009. After 2 1/2 years we found out we were having another baby, whom we affectionatly called Rudy. Just shy of 6 weeks we found out Rudy was Ectopic. Rudy was surgically removed on May 26, 2011 delivering another blow to our already broken hearts.


Manic feelings

I'm not sleeping again, and I feel manic. Or more like a maniac. Either way, its exhausting. I'm tired, and I lay in bed and stare into the darkness and I obsess. I obsess about my family and the crap storm I feel like I am in the middle of there. I obsess about my marriage and my husband and I feel like something is wrong there and I can't put my finger on it. I obsess about myself and why I feel unloved, and why I feel worthless and why I don't feel like there is any hope...and it hit me tonight, maybe I'm not over the depression. Aren't those key signs of depression? And I know its somehow related to my cycle. I mean all women get moody just before the start of it, but am I just fooling myself during the two good weeks that I'm OK, and then when my hormones flux I find myself in another extreme? Its messed up, and it makes me weary. Weary of everything around me. The phone rings and I'm nervous who's calling. The mail arrives with no return address and I'm leery about opening it (since my step-mother has an affinity for sending me horrible letters and trying to disguise them with no return address, sending from a different state and changing her hand writing...yeah, I'm surrounded by crazy). I've even started dreading opening my email, because there's always something in there to deal with. I just don't want to deal with anything anymore. Its making me feel panicky. I'm starting to feel trapped and that makes me feel like I have to run and hide...except that I can't, because I really am trapped. Where am I going to go? I am a wife, a mother. I need my daughter near me. I need to be near the reassurance that is my husband, his steady and constant rhythm. Remember the good old days when if you wanted to remove yourself from the world you just unplugged your phone?? Now if you did that people would call your cell, then text you, then Facebook you, then email you...there's no escape. And how do you tell your family to leave you alone with out everyone taking it personal? Its just that I guess people have always been able to lean on me, and I've always propped them up with out much complaint, but I can't anymore. I don't want to. I want someone to ask me how I'm doing, and not because I'm some circus side show or a car wreck that makes people just HAVE to look, to stand witness to the horror, or because its a juicy tidbit of gossip, but because someone really does give a crap about how I am. And not just "someone" but the people in my life who are "supposed" to love me, who are "supposed" to care. And no one ever asks. Worse yet, I get the feeling its because people just expect that its been long enough. And no, I don't want to talk to them about Logan. I just wish they'd get a clue and stop pestering me with their mundane crap. Like all I do is sit around bored waiting for someone to saddle me with their problems. Really I just spend most of my energy trying to figure out how to avoid just that.

I cut off my Dad, step-mother and sister almost a year ago. My step-mother recently sent me two nasty letters. Illustrating, once again, that they never really got how impacted I was from Logan's death, not to mention the impact that they have had on my life as well. A subject, as I have stated before, that there are not enough words in all the worlds languages to explain that topic. But the thing is, it eats at me. Not my step-mom. She's worthless and evil and I can happily live out the rest of my days on this earth with out every having contact with her again. But my dad (and even my sister)...I just don't get it. How can you have such little love for your own child? How can a father neglect, abandon and take advantage of his children for years and years? I just don't get it. I can't fathom treating my daughter with such neglect and indifference. But the reason I cut them off is because I couldn't take anymore hurt. And in the year since I cut him off he's tried to contact me three times, the last one being in September. And, ironically, its not that I want him to actually contact me because I am so done with that. I can't take it anymore. But the fact that he put up so little of a fight for his daughter... Its just one more thing.

I'm tired of feeling obsessive. I'm tired of these extreme highs and lows and feeling manic. I'm tired of me being up when David is down and vice versa. I'm tired of feeling out of control and I just want some peace in my life. Some steady rhythm. I want to feel like these uphill steps that I'm taking are actually taking me uphill, instead of feeling like for every 2 steps forward I take 3 steps back, and not loosing an weight while doing it mind you. Its an exhausting way to live and it has worn me down again. It affects my very personality. It affects our marriage, how I mother my daughter and how I look at myself as a person. I don't like this person, and I'm too worn out to do anything about it.

6 comments:

Emmy said...

Heather, seriously, what is UP with the stepmonster? She really goes to that length to send you a letter? Cuckoo, cuckoo. Be glad THAT'S not in your gene pool!

Just try to be kind to yourself, friend. You're a beautiful person with a giving spirit. You're a great wife and mother. You're creative, articulate, smart, motivated. You love Logan, and it still hurts to not have him. Guess what, dad and stepmonster? It always will hurt. That doesn't go away. We just learn to hide it better.

Heather, would you consider coming down here for an overnight with Aub? We'd love to have you!

Lea said...

Hey Heather - I hate to hear the hurt in your words. It's all so exhausting, isn't it? It's like we're not allowed to be sad... have bad days, because the beat just continues to move on. I'm sorry you are in such turmoil. Be gentle on yourself. Good for you for recognizing you don't need crap like your stepmother in your life... as difficult as it is.

xx

Barbara said...

Sweet Heather, I'm so sorry that this depression is hanging on to you.

Dealing with the babyloss grief is bad enough without having to deal with the grief from the loss or lack of a caring family. You deserve SO much better. Cutting them off was good self preservation.

Will you go and visit Emily? Maybe back to your doctor? I wish you were closer and I could invite you around for tea and cake.

xxx

Monica said...

I'm really sorry about the manic sleepnessness...GAWD. Insomnia sucks as it is, and when it's grief-related (and/or cycle-related) that only compounds it. I can really relate to the idea of turning into someone you don't want to be. Man, I can't tell you the number of times I wondered who I had become, this newly shaped person from a string of kukd losses. Hang in there, dude. I think you'll land on your feet. This part sucks.

Michele said...

Oh sweetie... I wish I had the words to make it all better. Sending hugs and warm thoughts...

Catherine W said...

I'm so sorry about the lack of understanding from your family and that they have hurt you so much.

I can't say it better than Emily. It is their loss. xo

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