All the women reading this raise your hand.

Now, would everyone who does too much raise their hand. Thank you. I know a bunch of men will raise their hand at that question and be entirely correct in doing so, but I tell you, no one can over do it like a woman. Especially a Mom woman, you know, like this. 

                    

(Seriously, how is she so cheerful?)

So I know that I do not have the market cornered on doing too much by any stretch of the imagination, but apparently? I have been doing waaaaaaaaaaaay too much because my body hung a  big fat I QUIT sign on the mirror on Monday. It left without hiring a replacement or even cross training the girl who works next to her. She just flat out left and I was scrambling like the exec who takes two martini lunches and golfs while his assistant does his research, writes his reports and attends his teleconferences. Scrambling like when she quits and takes her hard drive and her Blackberry with her. Uh huh, it was Neat-O.

As a new Mom I had all the plans in place to rest, recover and transition with our baby after he was born. My Mom and sisters had lined up times to come and help us so that I could just rest and take care of Joel. That’s what you do after you have a baby right? You take care of the baby and go a little bonkers from lack of sleep. We had nearly six weeks of help lined up to make sure we didn’t lose our minds in those early days – and to be certain that I allowed my body to recover from having a baby.

But when there was no crying baby keeping me up all night, it seemed pretty silly just to rest all the time. Without Joel here, I’ve had no reminder that my body just went through a rather traumatic event. In my grief I spent a lot of time at home those first few weeks. I didn’t go out much, worked a little remotely, and stopped into the office occasionally. The last few weeks I have been in the office more and more, and generally trying to function at some kind of normal. Because, well, there’s no baby here, so I should just be normal, right?

Cue Mr. Strep Throat/Vicious Fever That Will Take You Down Like A Rabid T-Rex On A Weak And Pathetic Human. Welcome sir, make yourself at home, enjoy my humble corpse.

Consider me reminded that absolutely nothing is normal. Because I needed a reminder, I was forgetting so often you know. Sigh.

Ladies, you can put your hands down now. Really, there is no prize for who held theirs highest or held it up the longest. You just did too much.

Again.