Who Buys This Crap Part III

Who Buys This Crap Part II

Who Buys This Crap Part I


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This was selling at Walmart last week.

See something - Say something. 

Ambushed

Hey you! Other Mommy Blogger! I surf the blogosphere between the wee hours of 'The Baby Finally Fell Asleep While Jumping on the Couch-O-Clock' and a 'Quarter Past I Can't Keep My Eyes Open Any Longer'.   So if I click on your blog and suddenly Shania is singing about how Today is my Day, loud as shit because the last person to use the computer was a seven year old who thinks the volume should always be on eleven, then you are ensuring I can never read your blog.  Because, like a jack in the box, something you thought was totally cute popped out of it's box and scared the crap out of my kid.  Stop it.

Learning to Eat

I keep giving Jack pieces of banana and sometimes peas even a few corners of toast. The only thing he's managed to feed himself is two scraps of black construction paper and a kernel of dry dog food.

3:12 Update

It's late onset Group B Strep. We'll be here for at least ten more days getting antibiotics. We caught it early and dodged a bullet. I was tested for it during my pregnancy but must've got it after they tested, I passed it to Jack and it sat around in his body for 30 days building up an army. Penicillin would kick it's ass but Jack is going to get some good stuff just to make sure. We are limiting new germs so Ella will get to wear a mask when she comes up. We are hoping for a very boring ten days.

Getting Better

They are done trying to pinpoint a cause or a specific infection and ruled out some serious things (meningitis, blood infection,) they are treating it like a staph infection that could have some from a mosquito, a scratch, anywhere. He's getting broad band super antibiotics still and will continue to get that for a few more days. His body is doing what it needs to do. He's also getting something for the nausea as well as regular blood test to make sure his kidneys can handle the super antibiotics.

He is happier and fussier and more alert today. Still nursing great. The hard red swelling on his neck is almost gone and some of the rash is back but this time it's different, smaller, more like little milk pimples. We may be able to go home and take oral antibiotics in a few days instead of the projected two weeks we originally thought. We are relieved and still tense waiting to make sure his body and the antibiotics keep doing what they should.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes, prayers, thoughts, rosaries, offers to babysit and or bring food, and in general all the good juju. We feel blessed to have such a great community surrounding us both online and in three states.

Ella went to her BFFs last night and the first day of school is tomorrow. Dan will go to work late and get her on the bus, I'll leave here and get her off the bus and bring her up here until Dan gets off work. We can do that for this next week if needed and hopefully we'll all be home after that.

My cousin Kelly said a nurse once told her when her son was ill "little babies get sick very quickly but they also bounce back very quickly." Luckily that seems to be the case for us. And yes Kelly, I think I have three years of grey hairs in these three days.

Jack is Sick

We took the big trip back to IL and while we were there Jack developed an acne like rash all over his head and shoulders. After a call to the pediatrician we thought is was just baby acne. Two days after our return home he wouldn't eat and wouldn't stop whimpering with every breath. After about 40 minutes of listening to him whimper on my shoulder and waiting for a burp I called Dan and then the doctor. I took his temp it was 99.2 by the time we got to the doctor's office an hour later it was 102. They sent us straight to the emergency room.

After a blood culture, a urinalysis, a spinal tap, and an x-ray they called it sepsis and started pumping him full of antibiotics. His neck swelled up, they did two ultrasounds to make sure it wasn't closing off any airway or blood flow then they could decide if he needed to go to the bigger hospital and have surgery. They didn't find anything, just swollen tissue, so no surgery. We are on hour 30 in the intensive care unit and his fever is down, he's nursing well, his color is no longer a waxy yellow. He's still clearly in pain, and occasionally throwing up. We don't know where the infection is coming from , though the doctor asked if he'd been bitten by any mosquitoes. It's a possibility. We have the best nurse in the world. That's all I know.

On Parenting - Part II

More events for the Parentolypics, in the newborn category:

• The pee dodge
• Marathon infant holding - extra points for eating with one hand
• Speed showering
• 20 Sit-up burping at 2am & 5am
• Sleep deprivation vocabulary use - extra points for knowing what that thingamajig is

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I am taking the kids to Illinois on Wednesday for two weeks. I am planning to fly up, bringing only one suitcase, a diaper bag, a car seat and a stroller. Yes, one suitcase for the three of us, for two weeks. It will contain;

For me:

• One dress
• One pair of jeans
• Two skirts
• Four shirts
• One long sleeve sweater (it gets down in the low 70s up there!)
• Sandals
• Tennis shoes & socks

For Ella:

• Two dresses
• Two shorts
• One skirt
• Four shirts
• One pair of pants
• One sweatshirt
• Flip Flops
• Tennis shoes & socks
• Swimming suit
• Crayons and a coloring book

For Jack:

• Three blankets
• Four t-shirts
• Four pants
• Two sleepers
• Sun hat
• Booties

General junk:

• Bathroom stuff
• Baby monitor
• Mosquito net
• Two slings
• Chargers for phone, camera etc.

I plan to do laundry often and buy what I don't bring. I'll let you know if it's a total debacle or if I finally didn't over-pack.

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My son is outgrowing everything. He's wearing an outfit marked 3 months today. He's 26 days old. I think the next pack of diapers I buy will have to be size 2, to prevent leaking right out the side where his chubby little thigh sticks out. I guess they do make everything bigger in Texas.

Pranking the Baby

Nerdy Mom

When I slide down in the blue chair to get comfy for bebe who is laying on my chest waiting to recline so he can sleep, my underwear roll up, then he falls asleep and am stuck under a sleeping baby with a giant self impossed wedgie.

Stark

The things you think you need when you have your first baby fill a book and the things you know you need with the second baby you can count on one hand.

Jack's favorite nap time laundry basket

Meet Jack

Born on 7/8/10 at 3:20pm a healthy and content 7lbs 10oz and 20inches. We are all happy and healthy and tired. I will have more to say when I can get enough sleep to think beyond how joyous I am.

Chubby Cheeks

Reassurance

We got the cradle today. Mom sent it. It had a sock monkey in it from Rockford, my home town. We put it together. I unpacked little clothes and baby sheets. And the dog got fidgety. She laid near the cradle uncomfortably watching. While I moved things around in the closet and bustled about I heard the Kid telling the Dog

"Don't worry, I know it looks like a lot, but when the new baby comes even though there will be less time for us she will still love us."

After the weekend

We're moved. Now the long slog of unpacking and finding things as well as the realization that our furniture was meant for a giant Victorian building in IL not a little modern place on the coast of TX. I will post pictures as soon as things a put away a little more.

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I am pregnant "out to here!" (put your arms straight forward and make an exasperated face) I spend my time sleeping, fretting about unpacking and being mad about things. For instance it's June, in Texas and I'm pregnant out to there, and that should be cause enough to be mad.

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33, 30, 18

I'm on week 33, I've gained about 30 pounds and I don't own any clothes that are comfortable any more. I have maternity things in the sizes I need, I just have an aversion to clothes, so I've taken to wearing togas around the house and just not going anywhere. This is also conducive to the 18 hours of sleep I need in a day. Everyone is healthy and good. I'd tell you more, but I really rather go lay down.

This Smiling Boy

My Breech baby boy at thirty weeks

The Lost Six Hours aka Welcome to the World Kid!

I stopped by the labor and delivery floor of the hospital connected to my OB's office today. A very nice nurse was kind enough to give me a quick tour and answer some questions. The good news was most of my labor options are up to me and my OB, like being able to eat or drink during labor, getting into the jacuzzi, or what monitoring I'd prefer. That was all great news as I vetted my new doctor with great care and I adore her. The not so good news was what happens to baby boy after being born at this hospital. I had the following eye opening conversation with the very nice nurse.

Nurse: We allow* the baby to stay in the room with you for about an hour and then we take him over to the nursery for four to six hours, for his first bath and tests while you recover.

Me: What do they do that takes four to six hours?

Nurse: We do a vitamin K injection and the Hepatitis B vaccine, PKU Screen and eye ointment, all according to your pediatrician's orders of course. Then we give baby a bath and put baby under the heat lamps to warm up and regulate body temperature. You know clean baby up, put a little hat on and blanket before bringing baby back.

Me: Wait, the nurses give the baby his first bath? Why not the parents?

Nurse: Well sometimes you can ask the nurses on staff and they'll let you participate**, otherwise you or a family member can certainly come down and watch through the glass.

Me: So, why does the baby need to have his body temperature regulated?

Nurse: After the bath they are cold and are wet and so we put them in the warmer to get their body temperatures back up. It can sometimes take a few hours.

Me: Why don't they do that in the room with me if there's a warmer in each room or better yet, why don't they just put the baby on me so I can warm him up while nursing?

Nurse: Well, again it depends on who's on that day, you can certainly ask them, but most of the time you really need some time to recover and we need to monitor the baby closely, so it's best to let the nurses do their job***.

Me: Ok, how about giving the baby a bottle? Last time the hospital did it despite my instructions not to. I plan to breast feed.

Nurse: Well, if the baby's blood sugars are low, we do give a bottle of sugar water to get them back up to speed.

Me: But if you let the mother nurse instead of making the baby wait for six hours won't that automatically keep the blood sugars up?

Nurse: Well, you know usually your milk doesn't come in for a few days.****

Me: Ok, thanks, I think those are all the questions I needed answered.

*Yes, she really used the word "allow" and it made me bristle.

** Again with the "letting" and "allowing"! While we leave the treatment of my newborn son and my participation or non-participation of his first moments all up to the random chance of who's on call and what mood she's in. I may get to watch through the glass. Good grief.

***In other words, you are asking hard questions and now I must make you feel silly so you'll shut up.

****I guess this nurse never heard of Colostrum.

So to paraphrase the whole conversation, she told me "Your baby will be born and whisked away for our nurses to wash off all the natural protective moisturizer he's born with, under cool water, perform a shit load of unnecessary tests and vaccines that one should actually wait to do and then plop him alone under a heat lamp like a Chicken McNugget while we don't feed him. After a few hours we'll give him a bottle of sugar water to correct the starvation we just imposed, totally derailing your efforts to breast feed. But he'll be fashion forward in a cute knitted hat, shiny clean and you should be all rested up in six hours!"

I will tour a different hospital next week.

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I found this amazing resource GivingBirthNaturally.com that helped me learn about the mystery of this lost six hours. These are the things they do not tell you in the hospital birthing class.

Sick Day

I got to sleep straight through until 11:00 this morning. It was glorious. Ella is home sick and we lounged. When I got up she had taken a small sharpie and drawn monkeys on her leg. She tried to hide it because she thought I would be mad. I wasn't, they're wonderful monkeys. Instead I made her hash browns which was a giant mess. I got a plate and the grater out and washed two potatoes. The first potato was smaller for Ella and I set to work grating when I was almost finished I shifted my leverage catching the side of the plate and flipping the entire thing into the air sending grated potato onto every surface of the kitchen, my hair and the dog while I stood there in fixed disbelief. Then I couldn't stop giggling. I spent the next 15 minutes picking tiny potato bits from everywhere and starting over with the next potato. The hash browns were very yummy. After seeing the monkeys she drew and eating the hash browns I mentioned to Ella doing some belly art. I'd wanted some after looking at all these henna bellies and she got very excited about it. It's what we did with our afternoon. She did such a magnificent job and it was so relaxing, I'm positive I'll ask her to do it again.

22 Weeks