For those who don't know yet, Ben and I are expecting our first addition to the family this November and are beyond excited!! I will be 16 weeks tomorrow, which means baby is about the size of an avocado, and is beginning to hear my voice, which I think is just the coolest thing in the whole world!But with great joy often comes challenges, and we now find ourselves in the midst of what I like to call the great mothball fiasco of 2010. Yup, you heard right: mothballs. Whatever you do, do NOT buy these poisonous, stinky balls of chemical toxins. It is not worth it!
After returning home from a fabulous European vacation to our rental, which is the main floor of a cozy house, a place we have loved living for the past 10 months, we began to notice an unpleasant odor. New tenants had moved into the basement rental while we were away, and we chalked the smell up to cleaning or hair products, maybe some strong-smelling cooking, and assumed it would go away.
By day three, the smell had become unbearable and and taken on a chemical, hair-burning sort of twinge, and we had to get our landlord involved. Upon talking with the downstairs tenants, we learned that in order to kill a few ants, they thought it would be a good idea to put mothballs ALL OVER their unit. In the carpets, along the floors, god only knows where else. The tenant cleared them out, and we saw her walking to the garbage with an armload of mothballs. But the fumes from these things do not go away. They have not diminished at all in the four days since the mothballs were removed, and from what I have read, they might linger around for another month, or forever.
Ben and I had begun coughing, getting headaches and our eyes were irritated after sleeping in our home all night. A quick google search revealed that mothballs are highly toxic and are only intended to be used in a closed, airtight container. If ingested by a small child or dog, they are fatal. And this tenant has two young daughters. In the U.S., it is illegal to use mothballs in any way other than directed (ie, other than in CLOSED containers).
Needless to say, Ben and I have "evacuated" to a friend's house down the street. We had to hurriedly move all of our clothing and furniture into the garage, as they were beginning to absorb the fumes, and in a huge rush, we have now signed a lease at a new condo and will be moving in in two weeks.
Yep, life happens, and this has been one of the most stressful and bizarre weeks of my entire life. But the moment that brought me back to my center, to my zen? At my midwife appointment this week, when I got to hear baby's strong, fast heartbeat. In the end, baby is what really matters, and we can get through a few weeks of struggles if it means having a safe, chemical free home for our little one to spend his or her first months in. All I need to do when I feel stressed is try to remember that little heart beating in there, the tiny miracle forming inside me, or to look at my ultrasound photo and see that beautiful little creature!
