The blog that is.
I will no longer be posting our family blog on blogger here, I have it hosted myself again at www.groftzoo.com. There are plenty of new posts over there! Check it out!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
What I did today:
It's the kind of day that needs a good, old fashioned Success List. I need to see in black and white what I get done today instead of the ever-lengthening list of things I need to do. So here goes:
1. Only hit snooze twice, woke all kids up, checked email, sat like a zombie, decided against working out because I don't want to blow dry my hair again after and because I have so much to get done.
2. Got Lily dressed, discussed at length what shirts possibly go with her wacky hippy pants.
3. Shower, get dressed.
4. Tell Max to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
5. Look for Lily's shoes, force her to wear sandals since her other tennis shoe is apparently in Narnia.
6. Tell Max to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
7. Unsuccessfully attempt to sync my iPhone so we can listen to Screwtape Letters in the car.
8. Tell Max, again, to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
9. Give up on iPhone sync, load everyone in car, drive to all schools, return home with only two kids and my favorite McD's breakfast (Birthday money! Woot!)
10. Switch laundry
11. Remove Molly's hands from toilet, blockade bathroom.
12. Put away Molly and Lily's clothes so I will have room to fold more.
13. Set up the laptop and Netflix so that my old buddy Dr Who can fold some clothes with me.
14. Start Shirley Temple Video for Lily and Molly. Google how to make Shirley Temple's curls.
15. Take water bottle away from Molly.
16. Start cleaning my bedroom.
17. Remove water bottle from Molly again, change her clothes since she was soaking wet, nurse Molly.
18. Help Lily find a skirt to wear to dance along with Shirley Temple.
19. Return to cleaning my bedroom. FINISHED! It is not dusted or swept, but it is clean enough that I could do either of those.
20. Tidy up my bathroom. FINISHED!
21. Molly pooped. Change her diaper/clothes AGAIN, nurse again, and put her down for a nap. For the record, it is now 9:30am.
22. Switch laundry
23. Fold clothes, watch Dr Who. Lily plays barbies for a while until it is time for the...
24. Next clothing change (Lily)
25. Molly is awake! 45 minute nap, not too bad for her. Nurse and snuggle.
26. Snack time, peanut butter crackers.
27. Change Lily back into outfit #2.
28. Fill dishwasher with last night's dishes, wipe counters, ignore floor.
29. Molly knocks over recycle bin. Pick up all the stuff and take to the outside bin.
30. Lil and Mol play with toys and alternate climbing on and off my lap while I check message boards and facebook for a bit.
31. Make lunch, feed girls.
32. Finally get iPhone successfully synced.
33. Switch laundry
34. Read book and nurse, put Lily down for a nap. How is it possible that it is only 12:30?
35. Fold a little more, nurse a little more.
36. As of 1:05 I have two sleeping babies! Yay!
37. Well that didn't last long. Molly only slept in her bed for 10 minutes. Then I nursed her through the rest of her nap.
38. Molly woke up, I had a nice phone call with Lucy, folded some more clothes and then BAM! It was time to go get the kids - so we were off and running again.
39. Get kids at one school, then at another and another, then to Safeway, then home and snack time.
40. Nurse the baby, make kids put away clothes and tidy kitchen after snack. It is now 4:15.
41. Fold, Fold, and Fold. Finish Dr Who Season 2!
42. Switch laundry last time, start diapers.
43. Put away ALL of my clothes, a first in a while.
44. 5:06pm - Change diaper, get everyone's shoes on, and out the door for dinner at Hot Dog on a Stick Family night. Free hot dogs for the crew! It may not be a healthy dinner, but I don't have to pay or cook, so I'm sold!
45. Feed all the kids at the mall at Hot Dog, get to help stomp lemonade. Molly has her first french fry. Try to keep Lily from climbing the furniture.
46. Arrive home, upload photos.
47. Kiss Jay goodbye, head off to Auction Meeting, drop James off at a friend's house not so on the way.
48. Home at last, nurse baby. Finish post. Stick a fork in me I'm DONE.
1. Only hit snooze twice, woke all kids up, checked email, sat like a zombie, decided against working out because I don't want to blow dry my hair again after and because I have so much to get done.
2. Got Lily dressed, discussed at length what shirts possibly go with her wacky hippy pants.
3. Shower, get dressed.
4. Tell Max to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
5. Look for Lily's shoes, force her to wear sandals since her other tennis shoe is apparently in Narnia.
6. Tell Max to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
7. Unsuccessfully attempt to sync my iPhone so we can listen to Screwtape Letters in the car.
8. Tell Max, again, to tuck in his shirt and put his shoes on.
9. Give up on iPhone sync, load everyone in car, drive to all schools, return home with only two kids and my favorite McD's breakfast (Birthday money! Woot!)
10. Switch laundry
11. Remove Molly's hands from toilet, blockade bathroom.
12. Put away Molly and Lily's clothes so I will have room to fold more.
13. Set up the laptop and Netflix so that my old buddy Dr Who can fold some clothes with me.
14. Start Shirley Temple Video for Lily and Molly. Google how to make Shirley Temple's curls.
15. Take water bottle away from Molly.
16. Start cleaning my bedroom.
17. Remove water bottle from Molly again, change her clothes since she was soaking wet, nurse Molly.
18. Help Lily find a skirt to wear to dance along with Shirley Temple.
19. Return to cleaning my bedroom. FINISHED! It is not dusted or swept, but it is clean enough that I could do either of those.
20. Tidy up my bathroom. FINISHED!
21. Molly pooped. Change her diaper/clothes AGAIN, nurse again, and put her down for a nap. For the record, it is now 9:30am.
22. Switch laundry
23. Fold clothes, watch Dr Who. Lily plays barbies for a while until it is time for the...
24. Next clothing change (Lily)
25. Molly is awake! 45 minute nap, not too bad for her. Nurse and snuggle.
26. Snack time, peanut butter crackers.
27. Change Lily back into outfit #2.
28. Fill dishwasher with last night's dishes, wipe counters, ignore floor.
29. Molly knocks over recycle bin. Pick up all the stuff and take to the outside bin.
30. Lil and Mol play with toys and alternate climbing on and off my lap while I check message boards and facebook for a bit.
31. Make lunch, feed girls.
32. Finally get iPhone successfully synced.
33. Switch laundry
34. Read book and nurse, put Lily down for a nap. How is it possible that it is only 12:30?
35. Fold a little more, nurse a little more.
36. As of 1:05 I have two sleeping babies! Yay!
37. Well that didn't last long. Molly only slept in her bed for 10 minutes. Then I nursed her through the rest of her nap.
38. Molly woke up, I had a nice phone call with Lucy, folded some more clothes and then BAM! It was time to go get the kids - so we were off and running again.
39. Get kids at one school, then at another and another, then to Safeway, then home and snack time.
40. Nurse the baby, make kids put away clothes and tidy kitchen after snack. It is now 4:15.
41. Fold, Fold, and Fold. Finish Dr Who Season 2!
42. Switch laundry last time, start diapers.
43. Put away ALL of my clothes, a first in a while.
44. 5:06pm - Change diaper, get everyone's shoes on, and out the door for dinner at Hot Dog on a Stick Family night. Free hot dogs for the crew! It may not be a healthy dinner, but I don't have to pay or cook, so I'm sold!
45. Feed all the kids at the mall at Hot Dog, get to help stomp lemonade. Molly has her first french fry. Try to keep Lily from climbing the furniture.
46. Arrive home, upload photos.
47. Kiss Jay goodbye, head off to Auction Meeting, drop James off at a friend's house not so on the way.
48. Home at last, nurse baby. Finish post. Stick a fork in me I'm DONE.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Zoo Week in Review
This past week was a busy one - but then most weeks are - this just had a different flavor of busyness. There was a storm that blew through the city and dropped a little rain, leaving the air with a cooler feel and the skies darker. Around here, things just felt stormy as well.
A few tidbits:
There is almost $4000 damage to our van from the recent hailstorm here, but everyone has their car in the shops already so we are waiting a week or two to send ours in. At least it wasn't totaled. Some of our friends found themselves car shopping once the insurance had a gander at their cars. For now we are just a big gray golfball, hurling through the city.
We endured a fair bit of drama from Ben's school this week. It seems that my jokester son and a couple of his friends had tried to reach out and include a child they judged as lonely, which can aparently get a person in trouble for "Bullying". The school conceded that it was probably more like "Pestering", which, knowing my son, is not so far out of his league. To me, Bullying encompasses threats, fear, and physical harm. Pestering, on the other hand has more to do with unwanted fart noises and other 13 year old boy jokes. So after many hours of discussions, phone calls, written accounts, emails, and commiserating with other parents, the issue is declared DONE and we can all move on. But it sure ate up a lot of my week.
My birthday was this week! (I'm not 40 yet. That's all I'll say!) A few years ago I managed to finally give up my childish idea that my birthday should be a national holiday and just came to expect a normal day with a few nice surprises in it. And so it was. Mostly. A friend brought me chocolate, my mother in law gave me a little money to spend on myself, and Paisley stopped by with a chai latte and flowers. Jay took me to lunch and got me more flowers and a card. (Lest you think that was all he did, he also schlepped all around my favorite mall with me last Saturday and got me a nice pair of shoes.) So my day was going along swimmingly until I opened my email.
In my email was a notice from the older kids school (yes, the one I was already having issues with this week) informing the families that they had selected a new campus. Yay for them, Boo for me. This new campus is two and a half times further from us than the current one. I already spend 2.5 hours per day just in getting my kids to and from schools and the thought of extending that... Ugh. How can I look at my younger children, learning about the world and developing their bodies and tell them that they have to spend 3-4 hours per day strapped down in the car?
For this and other reasons, this just would not be a feasible arrangement for us. So I proceeded to freak out entirely. (Which involved crying for about 2 days.)
Since then I have calmed down quite a bit, and all is not settled with this move for this school. There is still quite a bit of time before I will really need to panic (or otherwise figure out what to do) and I am resolved once again to let the future be the future.
In other news around here, Molly has added in several baby signs. She signs: nurse, eat, drink, dog, thank you, cat, bird, more, shoes, and I think she has done all done and blanket at least a couple times too. She has grasped this concept that she can communicate with us so readily that she wants to be able to tell us more. She will fling her arms around trying to tell us something, but she can't figure out which sign to use. Then there was grocery shopping. Because she can tell us what she wants now, she is more likely to get it, so she got so frustrated when we walked through an aisle with lots of cups and she couldn't understand why I wouldn't give her a drink when she signed it over and and over!
She also really likes baths and was on a mission to get one today. She fell into the (empty) tub once, and then later managed to remove her diaper and try to climb into the toilet while Posy was in the bathroom curling her hair.
Molly also experienced her first oreo cookie today. I hoped she would get all chocolated and gross, but she was a pretty dainty eater. She first removed the top cookie, proving she is a genius, and licked at the filling a little.
She decided she didn't like that a whole lot, so she scraped that off the bottom cookie and just worked on eating that part.
Finally, she got to the cookie part. She made a little slobbery mess with it, but not too bad. I guess the real mess with have to wait for her First Birthday Cake. (Two more weeks!)
In other news Max and Tessa got rave reviews at their teacher conferences, although Max's teacher said he has a hard time remembering not to sing all the time.
Jay hurt his back again, and has been hobbling around in pain all week.
And I managed to mess up the garage a little more in and effort to clean the garage. Which I know sounds counter-intuitive, but is really progress. I have to dig out all the clutter-infection to clean the wound so to speak.
And that, if you can believe it, is just a small sampling of what went on around here this week.
A few tidbits:
There is almost $4000 damage to our van from the recent hailstorm here, but everyone has their car in the shops already so we are waiting a week or two to send ours in. At least it wasn't totaled. Some of our friends found themselves car shopping once the insurance had a gander at their cars. For now we are just a big gray golfball, hurling through the city.
We endured a fair bit of drama from Ben's school this week. It seems that my jokester son and a couple of his friends had tried to reach out and include a child they judged as lonely, which can aparently get a person in trouble for "Bullying". The school conceded that it was probably more like "Pestering", which, knowing my son, is not so far out of his league. To me, Bullying encompasses threats, fear, and physical harm. Pestering, on the other hand has more to do with unwanted fart noises and other 13 year old boy jokes. So after many hours of discussions, phone calls, written accounts, emails, and commiserating with other parents, the issue is declared DONE and we can all move on. But it sure ate up a lot of my week.
My birthday was this week! (I'm not 40 yet. That's all I'll say!) A few years ago I managed to finally give up my childish idea that my birthday should be a national holiday and just came to expect a normal day with a few nice surprises in it. And so it was. Mostly. A friend brought me chocolate, my mother in law gave me a little money to spend on myself, and Paisley stopped by with a chai latte and flowers. Jay took me to lunch and got me more flowers and a card. (Lest you think that was all he did, he also schlepped all around my favorite mall with me last Saturday and got me a nice pair of shoes.) So my day was going along swimmingly until I opened my email.
In my email was a notice from the older kids school (yes, the one I was already having issues with this week) informing the families that they had selected a new campus. Yay for them, Boo for me. This new campus is two and a half times further from us than the current one. I already spend 2.5 hours per day just in getting my kids to and from schools and the thought of extending that... Ugh. How can I look at my younger children, learning about the world and developing their bodies and tell them that they have to spend 3-4 hours per day strapped down in the car?
For this and other reasons, this just would not be a feasible arrangement for us. So I proceeded to freak out entirely. (Which involved crying for about 2 days.)
Since then I have calmed down quite a bit, and all is not settled with this move for this school. There is still quite a bit of time before I will really need to panic (or otherwise figure out what to do) and I am resolved once again to let the future be the future.
In other news around here, Molly has added in several baby signs. She signs: nurse, eat, drink, dog, thank you, cat, bird, more, shoes, and I think she has done all done and blanket at least a couple times too. She has grasped this concept that she can communicate with us so readily that she wants to be able to tell us more. She will fling her arms around trying to tell us something, but she can't figure out which sign to use. Then there was grocery shopping. Because she can tell us what she wants now, she is more likely to get it, so she got so frustrated when we walked through an aisle with lots of cups and she couldn't understand why I wouldn't give her a drink when she signed it over and and over!
She also really likes baths and was on a mission to get one today. She fell into the (empty) tub once, and then later managed to remove her diaper and try to climb into the toilet while Posy was in the bathroom curling her hair.
Molly also experienced her first oreo cookie today. I hoped she would get all chocolated and gross, but she was a pretty dainty eater. She first removed the top cookie, proving she is a genius, and licked at the filling a little.
She decided she didn't like that a whole lot, so she scraped that off the bottom cookie and just worked on eating that part.
Finally, she got to the cookie part. She made a little slobbery mess with it, but not too bad. I guess the real mess with have to wait for her First Birthday Cake. (Two more weeks!)
In other news Max and Tessa got rave reviews at their teacher conferences, although Max's teacher said he has a hard time remembering not to sing all the time.
Jay hurt his back again, and has been hobbling around in pain all week.
And I managed to mess up the garage a little more in and effort to clean the garage. Which I know sounds counter-intuitive, but is really progress. I have to dig out all the clutter-infection to clean the wound so to speak.
And that, if you can believe it, is just a small sampling of what went on around here this week.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Checking in
I'm not going to start this post with another apology that it has been so long since I posted and make a bunch of excuses about it. My whole life is an excuse not to write while at the same time being ripe pickings for juicy blogging goodness. So here I am, taking a few not-so-spare moments to check in here.
The last post was about Molly's ailments. I am happy to report that we have some resolution to a little of those. About a month ago she tested negative to all her previous positive allergy tests. She was still having trouble swallowing food at the time and tended to choke and vomit when she tried to eat. But with the lifting of the threat of an allergic reaction, we were able to offer her a wider variety of foods and came up with some she was willing to practice her eating on. That was victory number one. Next she underwent an endoscopy to check for the extent of her GERD, gastrointestinal allergies, eosinophilic esophagitis and celiac. We just got the results back today that she is clear of all of those, except the GERD. This was the best possible news we could get from that test. Victory number two.
And while I don't want to claim it yet as victory number three, I just got her to go to bed without nursing to sleep. (Silent cheering!)
I would love to say that the rest of my life is boring right now, but it is only boring in the typing of it. My days are filled with driving the big kids here and there and spending the quiet moments sitting on the floor with Molly and Lily and enjoying their littleness. It is so tempting to get pulled away from that to go do things that look more important, but given the choice this is still where I want to be. Getting to the end of the day and finding that my to do list has grown instead of shrunk is not any big problem (although it can be frustrating) and a day will come soon when I have plenty of time to clean my house and no nursing and rocking left to do.
Which reminds me, just tonight, as I rocked and nursed Molly, she stopped nursing, sat up and gave me a kiss. Then she giggled and went back to nursing. She did it two more times right after that. It was very sweet.
The last post was about Molly's ailments. I am happy to report that we have some resolution to a little of those. About a month ago she tested negative to all her previous positive allergy tests. She was still having trouble swallowing food at the time and tended to choke and vomit when she tried to eat. But with the lifting of the threat of an allergic reaction, we were able to offer her a wider variety of foods and came up with some she was willing to practice her eating on. That was victory number one. Next she underwent an endoscopy to check for the extent of her GERD, gastrointestinal allergies, eosinophilic esophagitis and celiac. We just got the results back today that she is clear of all of those, except the GERD. This was the best possible news we could get from that test. Victory number two.
And while I don't want to claim it yet as victory number three, I just got her to go to bed without nursing to sleep. (Silent cheering!)
I would love to say that the rest of my life is boring right now, but it is only boring in the typing of it. My days are filled with driving the big kids here and there and spending the quiet moments sitting on the floor with Molly and Lily and enjoying their littleness. It is so tempting to get pulled away from that to go do things that look more important, but given the choice this is still where I want to be. Getting to the end of the day and finding that my to do list has grown instead of shrunk is not any big problem (although it can be frustrating) and a day will come soon when I have plenty of time to clean my house and no nursing and rocking left to do.
Which reminds me, just tonight, as I rocked and nursed Molly, she stopped nursing, sat up and gave me a kiss. Then she giggled and went back to nursing. She did it two more times right after that. It was very sweet.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Medical Mystery That is Molly
She began as one of those run of the mill fussy babies. Screamy might define her a bit better. From birth she could be heard across the house even without a baby monitor. She is a zero-to-sixty crier. She is either content or screaming. There is no middle ground. Her cry is something between a fire alarm and the screeching of a Ringwraith.
Around 2 months old she added coughing to her repertoire. Her cough was dry, breathy, and most troubling of all - constant. I have heard that cough before in asthma kids after running or jumping around. I asked around to see if she could have environmental allergies, but was assured by many people that it takes 2-3 seasons of exposure before those kinds of allergies can develop. We waited a bit to see if it was just a mild cold , but after a couple months we caved in and took her to see an allergist.
During a grueling two hour appointment, Molly was tested for both environmental and food allergies. Many of the environmental ones came up strongly positive. (One of the allergists later told me she had the worst environmental allergies of any baby she has seen.) And the big surprise was that she tested strongly positive for several foods as well. She was 4 months old at the time. We left the allergist office with several prescriptions including asthma medications and an Epipen Jr. and one very shocked mommy. Around the same time we also began (with great success) treating her for GERD, which reduced her fussiness.
Over the last couple of months we have dealt with two major asthma attacks, some asthma misinformation from a well-meaning pediatrician (which caused the second attack) and muddled conclusions with regards to the food allergies.
So for now we have established an asthma baseline for Molly's maintenance medications, and her GI doctor and Allergist both agree that she should remain Top 8 Free with regards to foods for at least her first year, if not longer. (The Top 8 Food Allergens are: milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, plus apples and chicken, which she has tested positive to, and pears which she seems to have failed on trial.) It has been hard to get used to having to give daily medications to a child who looks so well, but we have seen the repercussions of taking her off the medications. The truth is that she is well because of those meds.
Other than that, Molly is doing amazing! She is nearly 9 months old now, completely uninterested in solid food, crawling fast, and determined to figure out how to walk. She waves Bye-bye and says Mama, Dada, Buhbuh, and Nana - which may or may not mean anything depending on what she is pointing at and who she is talking to. She is a serious baby and saves her smiles for those who really earn them, and she LOVES to swim. When we put her on the top step in the pool she will scooch her butt off the step and into the water and "swim" to us. It's very cute!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
It's a Random Post Kind of Wednesday
Today you get to look in our windows and see what is up at the Groft house.
Currently the kids are scattered far and wide - Posy is in Kentucky visiting relatives, Tessa is shopping with Nana, and who knows what Paisley is up to. Last I heard she was planning a day trip to Flagstaff. The rest of them are home in varying stages of undress.
This morning's plans were interrupted by an appointment for me, so I am now contemplating at 2pm the chores I would otherwise have done at 9am. But such is the flexibility of a family. I had intended to to them before leaving this morning, but the night was interrupted by reflux, asthma, teething, or all of the above and so I had a lazy morning instead.
Lily (2) is supposed to be going to sleep in her bed, Max (5) has just had a complete meltdown over Super Monkey Ball or some video game and Ben is holding Molly so I can get this started. James is hoping he is off the hook now since he babysat this morning. So here we go, starting again at 2pm - this post is for the random thoughts that occur to me along the way.
1. I am going to tidy my bedroom. Because then, when I melt down later today I can come in here and pretend the house is clean. I fully realize that I may not accomplish any other quantifiable task today.
2. Flashlights show up in interesting places. This one was in the cloth diapers.
3. I am trying to reconfigure my blog and it's not going so well. So far today I have made it so it doesn't show up at all and then I collapsed groftzoo.com as well. One call to tech support and I can see why I messed it up so badly. It seems you have to stand on your head and click through seventy-two screens, then back through four to actually make the changes I as going for. Whew! At least I was confused for a reason. Anyway, it looks as if this post, and all the rest will be viewable in the next 24 hours (give or take...). Ah, Technology, you make our lives so much easier!
4. Lily took a nap, Tessa came home, and now everyone has popsicles. Yay!
5. I finally, after 8 months, finished Molly's birth story and posted it.
6. I did a bunch of loads of laundry. Like 5 or 6, and didn't fold a lick of it. But I am pretty sure that it won't go anywhere without me, so I can do it tomorrow.
7. We visited Nana's and Papa's house, where we had some nice conversation and Max was attacked by ants. A dip in the pool and some benadryl and I am pretty sure he will live, if I don't kill him for all the whining.
8. Stopped at Carl's Jr to pick up dinner and realized that aside from ketchup, I haven't fed my kids any real vegetables today. And since I don't really count ketchup...
9. Paisley stopped by - she wants her dresser back, which is currently holding all of Molly's clothes. So now I have to find a dresser for Molly. But in all fairness, I offered it to Paisley.
10. And eventually, with much help from James (who cleaned the kitchen) and Ben (who read a book to the littles) we got the younger bunch in bed and then suddenly it was 11pm and I have no idea how that happened. I didn't even finish watching the TV show I started earlier.
So this Wednesday is over, and Boy Howdy, has it been random. The whole point of this has been to stretch my posting muscles again and get the writing juices flowing. It felt good. Maybe the next one won't be just boring randomness and will be more funny and interesting. Until then... Goodnight.
Currently the kids are scattered far and wide - Posy is in Kentucky visiting relatives, Tessa is shopping with Nana, and who knows what Paisley is up to. Last I heard she was planning a day trip to Flagstaff. The rest of them are home in varying stages of undress.
This morning's plans were interrupted by an appointment for me, so I am now contemplating at 2pm the chores I would otherwise have done at 9am. But such is the flexibility of a family. I had intended to to them before leaving this morning, but the night was interrupted by reflux, asthma, teething, or all of the above and so I had a lazy morning instead.
Lily (2) is supposed to be going to sleep in her bed, Max (5) has just had a complete meltdown over Super Monkey Ball or some video game and Ben is holding Molly so I can get this started. James is hoping he is off the hook now since he babysat this morning. So here we go, starting again at 2pm - this post is for the random thoughts that occur to me along the way.
1. I am going to tidy my bedroom. Because then, when I melt down later today I can come in here and pretend the house is clean. I fully realize that I may not accomplish any other quantifiable task today.
2. Flashlights show up in interesting places. This one was in the cloth diapers.
3. I am trying to reconfigure my blog and it's not going so well. So far today I have made it so it doesn't show up at all and then I collapsed groftzoo.com as well. One call to tech support and I can see why I messed it up so badly. It seems you have to stand on your head and click through seventy-two screens, then back through four to actually make the changes I as going for. Whew! At least I was confused for a reason. Anyway, it looks as if this post, and all the rest will be viewable in the next 24 hours (give or take...). Ah, Technology, you make our lives so much easier!
4. Lily took a nap, Tessa came home, and now everyone has popsicles. Yay!
5. I finally, after 8 months, finished Molly's birth story and posted it.
6. I did a bunch of loads of laundry. Like 5 or 6, and didn't fold a lick of it. But I am pretty sure that it won't go anywhere without me, so I can do it tomorrow.
7. We visited Nana's and Papa's house, where we had some nice conversation and Max was attacked by ants. A dip in the pool and some benadryl and I am pretty sure he will live, if I don't kill him for all the whining.
8. Stopped at Carl's Jr to pick up dinner and realized that aside from ketchup, I haven't fed my kids any real vegetables today. And since I don't really count ketchup...
9. Paisley stopped by - she wants her dresser back, which is currently holding all of Molly's clothes. So now I have to find a dresser for Molly. But in all fairness, I offered it to Paisley.
10. And eventually, with much help from James (who cleaned the kitchen) and Ben (who read a book to the littles) we got the younger bunch in bed and then suddenly it was 11pm and I have no idea how that happened. I didn't even finish watching the TV show I started earlier.
So this Wednesday is over, and Boy Howdy, has it been random. The whole point of this has been to stretch my posting muscles again and get the writing juices flowing. It felt good. Maybe the next one won't be just boring randomness and will be more funny and interesting. Until then...
Molly's First Day
Sort of a continuation of her birth story:
Once Molly was out and breathing well and we had all settled into bed, the midwife mentioned that she heard a heart arrhythmia. She had heard it during my labor but had thought it was just Molly moving around. So she hung around for quite a while - the whole rest of the night and checked up on Molly periodically. She left sometime between 8 or 9am and told us to get Molly in to see the pediatrician that day to check out her heart sounds.
We took Molly to see one of the pediatricians in our practice (not one we usually see, our first mistake) and had him take a look. He said she sounded fine, but didn't specify if he heard the arrhythmia. And we didn't ask. (Our second mistake.) So we went home thinking all was fine and tried to get some rest. Carol (midwife) came to check up on us at 7pm and wasn't at all satisfied with the pediatrician's reaction. She could still hear the arrhythmia (and so could we, it was pretty obvious) and really wanted Molly to have an EKG. Apparently as babies switch from womb to outside, there can be a little trouble for some little hearts. She was really concerned that Molly was headed for such trouble.
Off to Phoenix Children's Hospital Urgent Care we went. They did a 3 line EKG, but weren't satisfied that Molly was out of the woods. They called ahead to get Molly a spot in the PCH NICU and sent us there so that Molly could have a 12 line EKG and see a cardiologist. By this point I had been awake for over 42 hours with just a few snoozes and had given birth besides. To say I was beside myself is such and understatement. I SOBBED the whole way to the hospital. I had no tissues and had to use my sling to wipe my face. I was worried about Molly and I was so tired I couldn't even think straight anymore.
We arrived at PCH a little after 11pm. We were ushered through the flu-infested ER straight to the NICU and to a cozy little corner to call our own. I had a recliner to sit in and a little barrier to provide some privacy. Molly's little isolette was right in our area and her nurse had a desk right there as well. The lovely nurse-practitioner did her best to calm me down and answer all of our questions. We decided that Jay should go home and get some sleep and come back to the hospital after getting the other kids off to school in the morning.
Molly was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and we settled in for a breastfeeding marathon and the long night began to tick by moment by moment. I was informed that I could not sleep in the recliner while holding Molly. But every time I set her down in the isolette she would cry. So I held her through the night and caught 10 minutes of sleep when the nurse wasn't looking.
Getting a 12 line EKG on a newborn is no easy task. Her skin had not been washed yet and so the adhesives didn't stick to her well and the probes would fall right off. Then she was moving around and not wanting to be put down, so they couldn't get a good read on her. We tried three separate times (about 2 hours apart) before we finally got her still enough, and we still had to hold each and every probe on her. She also got a rash from the contact with the adhesive. Great. But we finally got enough of a read on her and then I just waited for morning and for the cardiologist. It was a very, very long night.
The cardiologist came through early in the morning, 6am I think, and talked with me and cleared her. He said the arrhythmia was just a little hiccup in the top part of her heart and that she could have it her whole life and never suffer any ill effects. But if it had been in the lower part then it would have been a concern and could be serious, so it was good that we brought her in.
Around 8:30 Jay came in. I don't think I have ever been so happy to see him in my life. Finally I changed clothes and told him all about my night. By 9:30 we were on our way home with our healthy little girl, ready to finally get some sleep.
Once Molly was out and breathing well and we had all settled into bed, the midwife mentioned that she heard a heart arrhythmia. She had heard it during my labor but had thought it was just Molly moving around. So she hung around for quite a while - the whole rest of the night and checked up on Molly periodically. She left sometime between 8 or 9am and told us to get Molly in to see the pediatrician that day to check out her heart sounds.
We took Molly to see one of the pediatricians in our practice (not one we usually see, our first mistake) and had him take a look. He said she sounded fine, but didn't specify if he heard the arrhythmia. And we didn't ask. (Our second mistake.) So we went home thinking all was fine and tried to get some rest. Carol (midwife) came to check up on us at 7pm and wasn't at all satisfied with the pediatrician's reaction. She could still hear the arrhythmia (and so could we, it was pretty obvious) and really wanted Molly to have an EKG. Apparently as babies switch from womb to outside, there can be a little trouble for some little hearts. She was really concerned that Molly was headed for such trouble.
Off to Phoenix Children's Hospital Urgent Care we went. They did a 3 line EKG, but weren't satisfied that Molly was out of the woods. They called ahead to get Molly a spot in the PCH NICU and sent us there so that Molly could have a 12 line EKG and see a cardiologist. By this point I had been awake for over 42 hours with just a few snoozes and had given birth besides. To say I was beside myself is such and understatement. I SOBBED the whole way to the hospital. I had no tissues and had to use my sling to wipe my face. I was worried about Molly and I was so tired I couldn't even think straight anymore.
We arrived at PCH a little after 11pm. We were ushered through the flu-infested ER straight to the NICU and to a cozy little corner to call our own. I had a recliner to sit in and a little barrier to provide some privacy. Molly's little isolette was right in our area and her nurse had a desk right there as well. The lovely nurse-practitioner did her best to calm me down and answer all of our questions. We decided that Jay should go home and get some sleep and come back to the hospital after getting the other kids off to school in the morning.
Molly was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and we settled in for a breastfeeding marathon and the long night began to tick by moment by moment. I was informed that I could not sleep in the recliner while holding Molly. But every time I set her down in the isolette she would cry. So I held her through the night and caught 10 minutes of sleep when the nurse wasn't looking.
Getting a 12 line EKG on a newborn is no easy task. Her skin had not been washed yet and so the adhesives didn't stick to her well and the probes would fall right off. Then she was moving around and not wanting to be put down, so they couldn't get a good read on her. We tried three separate times (about 2 hours apart) before we finally got her still enough, and we still had to hold each and every probe on her. She also got a rash from the contact with the adhesive. Great. But we finally got enough of a read on her and then I just waited for morning and for the cardiologist. It was a very, very long night.
The cardiologist came through early in the morning, 6am I think, and talked with me and cleared her. He said the arrhythmia was just a little hiccup in the top part of her heart and that she could have it her whole life and never suffer any ill effects. But if it had been in the lower part then it would have been a concern and could be serious, so it was good that we brought her in.
Around 8:30 Jay came in. I don't think I have ever been so happy to see him in my life. Finally I changed clothes and told him all about my night. By 9:30 we were on our way home with our healthy little girl, ready to finally get some sleep.
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