Wednesday, September 19, 2007

HERE YOU GO!

My dearest, darling, Sophia, I have not been a good daughter in law.. I have not posted an update EVEN ONCE! So, here you go, and I sincerely apologize for being so delinquent.

Except that blogger is misbehaving, and will not allow me to add pictures. I will try again in the morning!

( But all is well and good. Tomorrow we go to the beach, the divorce has been worked upon, and the children are behaving admirably. Robby is doing quite well with Grandma & Grandpa, and has only irritated them slightly. Mila had a week of eating very crappily but now seems to be on the upswing, thank goodness! She's awfully fussy too, and has become a drool faucet. I am led to believe that this is teething, and have picked her up some teething remedies. She got two tablets tonight and crashed hard - no more tears, nothing! Whoohoo! Hopefully this will bring about another great week of eating and all that good stuff. Did I mention we are going to the BEACH!? )

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

T Minus Two Hours & Thirty Minutes!

I can't sleep.

At 7:30am, I will have been awake for 24 hours. By the time we land in West Palm, I will have been awake 36 hours. I am so darn excited. Except I HATE flying. I hate it with a passion that rivals the smell of eggs cooking. I'm faintly nauseated and reaaaally tired. But I can't sleep. And despite repeated warnings again bringing ALL of our simply thick in carryon, Alex thinks it is a very very good idea. The letter the doctor left us doesn't seem to do it for me " Mila needs simply thick added to her formula. Her parents must carry it on the plane. " I'm not sure thats going to be good enough! And thats $100 of Simply thick that would have to be replaced, and God Only Knows how long it would take to ship to the US... And she simply CANNOT go without!

Robby is uber excited as well. He keeps asking me : Mommy, will you tell me the story of the plane, again? Please? And what do you say to that? Okay honey... Tonight, after you go to bed, even when its still night dark outside, Mommy will come and wake you up. She'll get you dressed, and we'll bring all of the suitcases and backpacks down to the car. Boris will come, and he will drive us to the airport. At the airport, we will wait in a big long line, and we'll give our bags to the person behind the counter. (( Mommy? Will they give them back? )) Yes, honey, but first they have to put them under the plane for us. Like they are in the trunk of a car, they'll be in the trunk of the airplane. Then we are going to walk walk walk to the gate - thats where we'll get on a little bridge! That bridge will take us right into the airplane. We'll find our seats, and you will sit with Daddy. And then Daddy will buckle you in, and Mommy will give you piece of gum. The captain will tell us " Ready for takeoff! " and the plane will start to move. It will go faster and faster, and then the plane will lift off and fly in the sky.

Then his brows scrunch up. His eyes tear a bit, and he whispers " But I don't want to go so high! That's scary! "

I know, baby boy, I know. Mommy gets scared too.

Do you think they serve vodka on the plane before 8am?

Monday, September 10, 2007

One day Left!

Vacation starts in T minues 30 hours. And there is SO MUCH that needs to be done!

So far : ( and this will be updated as I find more or do more )

Finish packing
( Robby is packed except underwear )
(( do they sell little boy underwear in florida? )
Finish the laundry
Pack toiletries
Pack cell phone & charger
Pack camera & charger & card reader
Pack Robbys " packpack " - snacks, books, puzzles, little cars, juice boxes, markers, paper
Pack Mila's diaper bag - 10 simply thick, nutramigen, 3 bottles, 10 diapers, wipes, blanket, extra outfit, cookie, gerber puffs, rings to chew on
Pack Backpack - Granola bars, chips, book for each parent, all travel documents, all birth certificates, drivers licenses.
Fold up Pack N Play
Clean out fridge
Finish dishes
Change sheets
Double check flights on time / gates / terminals
Pick up dry cleaning
Go to bank
Go to inlaws for dinner
Bring Computer to FIL
Set coffee pot to 3am
Set alarm to 3am
Put out outfits for flight
Bed by 9:30
Shut all windows and lock
Lock back door

I'm sure there is more.

Friday, September 7, 2007

This isn't a sewing blog

But I'm awfully proud of my DIY accomplishments! Here's the scoop - I accidentally dyed half of Mila's clothes a very ugly splotchy blue. Not sure how, but I did it. :-( Meanwhile, the poor thing has no clothes that fit! I'm not buying her anything new, cause I'm a dolt for ruining everything! But since I have a sewing machine and ( it seems ) a bit of talent...... Well thats a recipe for SEWING CLOTHES! And I've, slowly, taught myself. First I sewed a sling, then a mei tai, then Mila's party dress, and then the babypants ( which, btw, are sewn wrong and I may or may not be able to fix them! ). And today, well today, I sewed a whole outfit - minus the bottom hem on the shirt ( and the straps, once I figure out how I'd like to do them ).


And here it is!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Eight Days in the Hospital!

When we went to the pediatrician for Mila's 6 month checkup, we very loudly voiced our concerns about her eating habits. Since said pediatrician was going on vacation for several weeks, he agreed to see us again in two days, and if her weight had changed, he would admit her.

Eight days in the hospital. Holy cow. And what was accomplished was NOT what I wanted. First came the swallow study. Mila sat in a chair in front of an XRAY machine set up to video flouroscopy. I then fed her liquids of varying thicknesses - thin, nectar, and honey. The technician stopped us after just a few sips of " thin ", saying it wasn't safe. Apparently, she gets very close to aspiriating, with laryngeal penetrations, and sinus pooling. Um. Ick. She did better on nectar consistancy, but did start to have laryngeal penetrations as she got tired. The honey consistancy was so thick that she was gulping air. She did just fine on solids, thank goodness!

After the swallow study, she had a PH probe done. What a waste of our time! They put the probe in at 10am, and at 4ish, the probe malfunctioned. It was 6:30 by the time they were able to replace the probe ( which, by the way, involves greasing a tube, placing it in the nose, and sliding it down the throat... then you wait for the baby to gag, and push it farther down, into the stomach. Next, you take an xray to make sure its in the stomach and not in the lungs ). They removed it at about 10am the next morning. Except that they only got 16 hours of usable test. And she was SLEEPING FOR MOST OF IT. We already KNOW that she's not refluxing at night! The few hours during the day did show reflux, but because it was only a few hours here and there, they labeled the test as " normal ". What a crock!

The next day, she had an endoscopy. I can't tell you anything other than the next time anyone takes my daughter and sedates her, I will be giving them VERY CLEAR AND LOUD instructions as to what she is and IS NOT allowed to have. NO WHERE did I authorize them to FEED HER. Especially UNTHICKENED SUGAR WATER WHILE LYING FLAT ON HER BACK, HALF UNCONCIOUS FROM SEDATION. I don't know WTF they were thinking, or where they got the idea that this was allowed, but in no way, shape or form did I find this acceptable. The endoscopy, btw, twas " normal " as well, but we are waiting on the biopsies to rule out eosophilic esophagitus. I am sure that I mangled that.

EE is a allergic condition of the esophegus, which closely mimics that of reflux. However, sometimes it can only be diagnosed by esophegial biopsy, showing esonophils in the lining of the esophegus. The treatment is substantially differant from that of AR, and therefore, it is an important test. Mila already is on a hypo allergenic formula, but it does contain broken down proteins. This could explain why she briefly did better on the nutramigen and then got worse. It tends to go hand in hand with dysphagia ( swallowing difficulty ).

Oh, and did I mention she was drinking 24+ ounces a day in the hospital? Little poo head. Of course, yesterday she only had 16 ounces, true to form.

I am also concerned about a condition called delayed gastric emptying. While in the hospital, we kept Mila off all solids. We added solids back, and her intake went way down. DGE is much worse with solid food than liquid. It also goes hand in hand with... dysphagia and EE. The reason I am concerned with DGE is that a ) Zantac wouldn't do a darned thing for it b) Mila can puke solids literally HOURS after eating, when technically her tum would be empty c) Mila is missing most hunger cues, and can/will go HOURS on just a few ounces.

So there. Thats where I've been for the last 8 days.

And I learned to do shirring on my sewing machine. HOW COOL!