Thursday, May 22, 2008

On hold...

I'm on hold with Verizon, and have been for nearly an hour... which gives me time to think about the things that I haven't been writing about!

Dax is smiling a lot more lately. :)

We had his 8 week checkup at the midwife yesterday, and he's a whopping 13 pounds, 10 ounces! What's cool, too, is that my midwife told me I can't feed him too much. I can't hold him too much. And I should try to sleep with him more (which is what I've been doing, since discovering how to breastfeed lying down in bed with him - and feeling guilty about him wanting to feed to sleep, or cuddle with me to sleep, instead of wanting to be held by his daddy). She also said his "witching hour" (as I've been calling it) is really normal for breastfed babies - they'll "tank up" (or "cluster feed") before they go to sleep at night, feeding every hour or nearly constantly for several hours. I was starting to think Dax had colic - he was fussing and eating so much from 8 to midnight, sometimes 2am - which now I get it that he'd be staying up late because I wasn't feeding him as much as he needed to finally go to sleep for any longer duration than 2 hours! Go figure!

We had a nice long night of sleep after a big day at Honey and Popi's last Sunday - Honey mentioned putting a swaddle on him to hold his arms in, so he wouldn't feel like he was falling, or keep slapping his own face in his sleep (waking himself up suddenly and screamingly) - something we tried to do when he was new, and he wasn't having it - he had to have his arms out. But this time? It worked!! I used the arm-swaddle piece of a swaddle set (sleep sac and arm swaddler thing) - and just pinned in his arms, and I'll be darned if he didn't sleep for 7 freaking hours straight! I was like Snow White when I woke up that morning at 6 am - birds and forest creatures were flying around me - it was great!

And it hasn't happened again since.

Dax has a new "cry" for a new emotion now. He cries when he's tired - but he keeps himself up, like he doesn't want to miss anything! So now he cries when he's hungry, cries when he's gassy or has to poop, and now cries when he's sleepy and doesn't want to go to sleep.

I've already had a period (I know, TMI for some readers) - but that's pretty quick in the scheme of back-to-normal for moms; I got it about 6 weeks after Dax was born. And I now weigh less than I did when I started this crazy ride, too!

And Dax is finally using his cloth diapers! We finally got him in them on Mother's Day, and we haven't looked back. I've only got 24 of them, so I do laundry about every other day, and if I'm not paying attention, I have to do them two days in a row. If I had 12 more diapers, and a larger diaper pail, I could do them every third day... which would make it seem less "dramatic" to get the diapers done. So I'll have to buy them slowly to bulk up my stash (or sew my own too - I have some I just need to sew up, but I also have Dax's curtains to finish, more spit-rags to finish, and then I can think about those diapers).

What else?

Mom started chemo on Monday, and seems to be handling it pretty well. I think the anti-nausea medicine is a GODSEND. And that's what will get her through most of this, I think. We'll go down there on Sunday to see how she did after week one.

I feel like I'm finally getting a little more sleep, or at least I'm getting used to getting no sleep... :) So I'm starting to feel like a normal human again. Not bad - 2 months to "normal". :)

The book I won - From the Hips - is really a pretty cool book so far. It's just what it said it would be: "a comprehensive, open-mided, uncensored, totally hinest guide to pregnancy, birth, and becoming a parent." I highly recommend it for soon-to-be, or brand new mommies.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

My Mom vs. cancer

My Mom had a double mastectomy on April 30th.

Dax smiled at Mom as we left my parents' house the night before her surgery.

Mom went into recovery after nearly 6 hours of surgery with the oncologist, and the plastic surgeon. She lost both her breasts. The doctors said the surgery went well, and they were pleased... as "well" and "pleased" as losing two breasts can be, I guess.
Dad said Mom was feeling ok (pretty drugged up, to his entertainment), and I could probably come up to the hospital to see her the next day if I wanted (they didn't let me go to the hospital with the baby the day of the surgery - they didn't want him to contract some horrible flesh-eating flu virus or something - but apparently this hospital has all of 6 in-patient hospital rooms, with as many nurses and assistants to take care of the people in them - so it didn't seem to be so germ-infested as they had previously thought it might be). The next day, though, she was very tired, and she said for me to come up on Friday.

I went to visit on Friday, the 2nd - Mom mentioned that they might let her go home that day, but she and I agreed that she'd better stay there, if for nothing else than the "good drugs".

She went home on Saturday, and slept most of the day. My Aunt came into town that night, and helped Dad some. I had started getting a cold Friday, and felt pretty miserable, and didn't want to risk my Mom getting anything right now, so I didn't go down. I called on Sunday morning, and they were having breakfast on the patio (they have a beautiful view) - what a wonderful morning. I talked to everyone for a little bit, and said I'd come this week.

I called yesterday (Monday), hoping to go down there to see them, but Mom had an appointment in the Oncology department - something of an "Orientation" kind of thing, to make her feel more at ease about where she needed to be and where she should go for her chemotherapy sessions... She made morose jokes about asking people there where they got their wigs (so she would know to either GO there, or NOT go there to get hers).

Today, I'm waiting for Anooj to come home, so we can go down there and see her. My Aunt is still here, and she's so much fun. Mom again was making jokes, this time about watching what she ate for dinner tonight - since she'd just recently lost nearly 15 pounds, she wanted to be able to keep it off. Nice one, I have to admit. :)

Something's Amiss...

We've noticed recently that Dax seems to look a lot to the left, and that his eyes almost automatically move to the left when we pick him up, or dangle a toy in front of him. Picking him up won't avert his eyes either - he'll stare upwards and to the left at whatever's caught his eyes, and will even move his head around so that he can continue to stare at it.
I've been trying to get him to focus on toys in his hanging gym thing (to no noticeable effect), and have dangled something else in front of him, or tried to break his stare by putting my own face in front of his eyes... and nothing seems to work...
I told my mom about this last night, and she decided that it might be because he may not be hearing from his right ear...
Completely makes sense.
And she reminded me that I had to have my hearing checked many times until I was about 6 because I had horrible ear infections that impaired my hearing when I was a baby.

Needless to say, the hearing and sight tests will be top on our list of things to talk to the pediatrician about at our next appointment in about a week - he's 6 weeks old today!! :)

Anooj and I are getting over a nasty cold - nasty for us, actually - it's really not as bad as it could be, or as bad as some colds I've ever gotten have been... but it's been an extremely long time since I've been sick (I wasn't sick once while I was pregnant!), and blowing huge wads of green stuff out my nose has made my face a big red dried up mess. And now I'm coughing the gunk up too (my voice is all weird and shaky because it's caked up my throat, lungs and vocal cords so much)!
Of course, Anooj didn't realize that I was broken until he got it - and at that, I think he thought I didn't have what he had, so I surely couldn't understand how rotten he felt... Men.
I'm about a day or two ahead of him, so now he's listening to me, and I'm trying to keep him apprised of what he needs to be taking (my recommendations only go that far, though - he'll read the back of the box of medication for dosage amounts and times, instead of listening to me - which is fine. If the medication isn't working, he can yell at the box)

Dax has been having a bad day - for me. Anooj came home for lunch and he was a happy baby to hear Dad's voice. But he's been a little whiny and whimpery for me today, wanting to be held, not wanting to be held, wanting to eat, definitely not wanting to eat, pooping, gassing, boredom, overstimulation... Thank God for the vibrating bouncy chair (but note the furrowed brow, and arms barely relaxed from a startled Moro reflex).

Oh - I won another contest! Go figure! I won a book called "From the Hip", and I'll probably get through it pretty quick with the number of feedings we've been having with this latest growth spurt (which I would clock as having started last night - eating nearly every hour). I'll let you know how it reads.