So what about...?

The Princess:

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with the Princess I had an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with the placenta because of the partial abruption I had with SkyWalker. The placenta was fine, but they saw dilation (backed up fluid) in the right kidney. That was roughly 3 1/2 years ago and we have been dealing with it ever since. She's been on antibiotics every day since the day she was born. She was taken off after her first surgery but developed reflux and got a UTI within just 2-3 months and put back on them. 

Today was her latest ultrasound. There's still some dilation around the ureter they fixed, but it looks exactly the same as it did 6 months ago. Not better, but also not worse. We finally heard the words we've been waiting to hear--she can go off the medication. We'll have to be super vigilant about preventing UTIs from all the other ways little girls get them--holding in pee too long, not wiping correctly, etc. I am sure I will be more paranoid than ever now. I think I'll probably get those at home UTI test kits so I don't have to drag her to the doctor every time I panic. She'll have yearly ultrasounds to make sure that nothing is changing but other than that she should be okay.

*************

SkyWalker:

We had some bad days and got into some serious altercations, but for the most part it's been great having SkyWalker home. I almost don't want him to go back to school. Our problems always stem from the same thing--he makes some kind of mess or does some crazy thing and then when I tell him it's time to stop he refuses to listen and is disrespectful and rude and doesn't take me seriously. Until I explode and then he's hysterical. How quickly it takes me to explode seems to vary a lot lately. We've been doing pretty well recently. And when I put things in perspective, we only have these blowups at home, never in public. When we are out he is always very well behaved. He's a great big brother. How many almost 6 year olds do you know who willingly take their 3 year old sisters outside and push them on a swing? With a smile? He's always coming and getting Chewie out of the dishwasher and taking her to her toys and distracting her so she'll stop crying. He loves his sisters and I know I can always trust him with them. 

He has huge tonsils and probably huge adenoids and will see an ENT in September who will probably recommend surgery. This will royally suck since as we all know surgery sucks, but more so because he will be a big baby about the recovery. And this is the first time I have a kid having surgery who can actually say the words "I don't want surgery." So that's fun.

*************

Chewie:

She walks. I fought it, but she walks. She doesn't run and she still crawls more than walks, but she is putting one foot in front of the other on a regular basis. She also screams. She makes sounds and can say Mama and Dada and Nana and bababababababa. But for the most part her preferred method of communication is "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" very loudly. She can hear, she copies her brother's humming and singing, and she sometimes follows directions. She is just LOUD. Perhaps when she has me all to herself she will find her inside voice. It must be inside of her somewhere. 

*************

Running:

I had to cut down to 3 times a week, which is the funniest thing I think I've ever written. I have yet to do any yoga and probably won't. I do have a weight lifting routine that I will start after my race this Saturday. I am training for a 10K in October, but since I am pretty sure SkyWalker's surgery will be in October I'm kind of doing it for the training and expecting to not actually do the race. Whatever happens, happens. I ran my longest distance (4.5 miles) last Sunday and thought "I only have to do 1.5 more" not "holy crap how am I going to do 1.5 more?" So that's good. Oh! And my girlie problem turned out to be nothing more than some low-down cramping so I just have to take motrin 800 and I'm all good. It won't interfere with my running at all. 

*************

Working:

I've been thinking a lot about when I have to go back to work when my last baby is in school. I have no desire whatsoever to go back to work. But I'm sure Vader will have a heart attack if I say that. If I could find a library job that will let me work 9-1 that would be great. I want to get the kids off the bus and be here when there are here. I don't want nights or weekends. I just don't want that anymore. Ideally, I would like to find a job that will let me work from home. Even though I get paid crapola from the examiner I've been doing lots of articles. I'm trying to build up a resource between that and my book blog and establish my presence online again. If I can do some kind of freelance writing or even librarianing (I know that's not a word but I like it.) through the internets I think we'd be okay. Vader's school loan is paid off. Mine will be paid off by then. We won't be spending money on diapers. The only debt we have is the van and the house. And by the time the last baby is in school SkyWalker might be old enough to start mowing lawns. So, if you haven't been reading my examiner articles or going through my book blog to get to amazon, you're dead to me.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Princess and the pee, part 2

The Princess had her ultrasound yesterday and her ureter looks a lot less swollen than it did, her kidney looks fine, and everything is working. We're on the right "track" but we'll be continuing the meds for at least another 6 months. I'm disappointed about that but the last thing we need right now is another UTI. And potty training girls tend to get UTIs. While it's a nuisance for them, it's really bad for the Princess. Because she is potty training she was able to pee in the "hat" in the toilet and give them a sample. The doc was happy about that. Her urine is clear and that's great.   

Speaking of potty training, we almost had an accident free day yesterday. Her only accident was when we were coming in from outside. She had wanted to pee in the grass since Daddy had her do that but it just wasn't working with Mommy. By the time we got inside and negotiated sitting on the potty she told me she was going in her underwear. 

The exterminator came yesterday for our yellow jacket problem. They're coming back on Friday and will take out some sheet rock to get rid of the HUGE nest in the wall and then patch it up. It is not cheap. But it is cheaper than what they quoted us because my husband refused to do it otherwise. I just want them out of my house. 

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, just like Monday. They went outside a little bit with Daddy. I'm sure the days that we do not have doc visits will rain. We've used the pool twice? Three times maybe? It's rained so much or we're out when it's nice. The sun really needs to coordinate with our schedule.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

My day with the medical profession

I had my regularly scheduled OB visit this morning at 10:20. Since I was pretty sure I was having a girlie infection problem I didn't want to bring the jedi and subject them to the horrors of Mommy getting poked. We left the house at 9:30, I dropped them off at Vader's office at 10, made it to the OB at 10:20. I didn't wait very long and I wasn't seen very long either. The doc (one of two that I see) didn't even look at the rash on my lower back/upper butt but merely said that PUPPS is on the trunk not the rear. But didn't look at it to tell me what it is then. Argh. And when I mentioned the girlie infection he said I could get the OTC stuff. No poking. No test. So I could have had the kids with me (although it was so much nicer without them) but more importantly I could have had some damn relief days ago! It's my own fault for not calling and checking but I figured they would have to test me since I'm you know, 8 months pregnant and all. Oh well, at least it was a scheduled checkup and not an appt. I made just for that. 

I picked up the kids, got them home by 12, made lunch, tried to clean up after lunch, Vader got home at 1:10, he made his lunch and the kids decided they were hungry. Again. They ate again. We packed up the car. Again. And left at 2 for the Princess's ultrasound at the hospital. It was scheduled for May 14, but I got a notice in the mail saying it had to be cancelled and was rescheduled for today. I had a momentary panic before we left that we were supposed to go to the surgeon's office and not the hospital so I looked for the note, which of course I could not find. We made it to the parking garage of the hospital by 2:30, drove around FOREVER to find a spot, and finally made it inside. They had no record of us. After speaking with the nice Russian-accented ladies at reception AD NAUSEUM, they managed to get the surgeon to fax over a script for the ultrasound. 

It was scheduled at 2:30 but was closer to 3-3:30 by the time we got in there. The Princess was unbelievably well-behaved the entire time. As was SkyWalker. After the ultrasound we headed to the surgeon's office for our consult and what I hoped would be some much needed closure to this whole thing. We got there around 4:30 since we had been so delayed at the hospital. They had no record of us having an appt. Wonderful. It was time for them to go home so they were all cranky. The surgeon wasn't even there. And furthermore when they found us in the computer system she said it had been rescheduled to June 25. JUNE 25. As in, one day before my due date. No. I don't think so. I may be mostly stupid at this point but there is NO WAY IN HELL I would see the date June 25 and say "Okay." ARGH. So they just royally screwed up. The other doctor was there and did the best she could. BUT, radiology had some "questions" about the ultrasound results that only the operating surgeon could answer before anyone could give US any answers. So we went home very much lacking in the closure department. We left there at 5, picked up subs for dinner since I was in no mood to cook. 

We got home at 5:45 and there was a message from Bee on my machine. Sadly, no one had told HER that I was not coming in to work (luckily I had anticipated long waits so I took the night off when I got the new ultrasound date). Even more sad was that it was her son's birthday and she had wanted to go home early. Which she could have done if I had been there. I ate my dinner and kept thinking that maybe I could get down there to let her go home early but it was well after 6 by the time we were done and I needed to the Princess to bed early since she had no nap because of all the doctor visits. I still feel guilty but by the time I would have gotten to the library it just would not have been worth the gas money. And I would really like to lay down before 10:30 tonight. 

Just a short while ago the surgeon called and said that he looked at the ultrasound and that while it's not as good as he had hoped, he is not concerned about anything. It's very consistent with just having had the surgery. Her right ureter is "fat" and it's going to take some time to build up the muscle it needs to do its job. So she is still on the antibiotics (bactrum) and we'll do another ultrasound in 2-3 months. I'm starting to think we will never get the closure we need on this. It wasn't bad news and he said it was not cause for concern at all, but I really just wanted someone to say "She's all good". Although the last time someone said that and took her off meds she got a UTI and wound up with reflux so maybe they are just really covering their asses this time... If they schedule her next ultrasound for June 25 now I will shoot someone. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Camera shy

We had our Level 2 Ultrasound today and everything is normal. For now. The doc made a point of saying that it can develop at any time and if we want to do another one in 6-8 weeks we can, she would leave it up to us and our OB (they don't do L2s at the office, so it wasn't our OB). I think we will just to be on the safe side. And because I want to get a better picture. This baby (no, of course we didn't find out the gender. Where is the fun in that? ;-p) is laying sideways, which might explain why I feel kind of stretched out right now. The klondike bars every night could also explain that though. Anyway, it's sideways and the little face was either pointing down or covered the entire time. The tech did her best to make it roll over and move and it put it's hands in front of the face! Camera shy already. Nothing like the older 2 who beg for me to take their pictures everyday. I feel pretty optimistic because it was at this point with the Princess that we first discovered the dilation. And that was a result of a structural anomaly that would be present by now. So while we will do the next one, I really do feel optimistic that the kidneys will be okay. Of course, if it's a boy there is a chance that he would have hypospadius like SkyWalker, but that surgery was a walk in the park compared to what my poor baby girl has had to go through.

It's been a very long day and I am very tired. I should have taken the night off but I didn't. There really was no reason for me to... the appt was at 11 am! But afterwards Vader and I went shoe shopping--my own personal hell. Shoe shopping for HIM. He is worse than a woman! All I wanted to do was get home and he had to try on a zillion pairs of shoes. By the time we got home it was after 2 (after leaving at 9:15) and I feel like I had such a short day with my kids. Right before I left the Princess was sharing some food with her baby doll. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. She was sitting in front of her kitchen with a little plate and a pretend baby food jar on it. She had her baby doll on the floor next to her. On the baby doll's tummy was a little plate with a pretend pizza on it. She was whispering to the doll and then seemed to realize that something was wrong and switched the plates and gave this little "Oh silly me!" laugh that was just hilarious and unbelievably cute. And then she said "eat" to the doll. I cannot tell you how hard it was to get in the car and drive to work.

SkyWalker has been awfully cute lately too. He tells me he "loves me the cutest" everyday. The other day I was telling him what a good big brother he is (because he really really is) and I said he was going to be a good big brother to the new baby too. He gave me a look like I was smoking crack and then like I'm twisting his arm he says "Fine. Fine (all exasperated)! I will try. But it will be hard because I already have [the Princess]." I laughed and laughed. He's been saying "Fine!" a lot lately.

My eyes are getting blurry. I think I am in serious need of a nap.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A bunch of nothings

Muppets from Space is a funny movie but I don't think SkyWalker is really getting it. Too much plot, I guess. 

After a few days of being home and having my buttons pushed we went to a playdate at the library this morning. It was SO nice to be able to just play in the storytime room and not have to worry about chasing the kids. As an added bonus we went to lunch--at our favorite place--with friends this time--and I had the best burger I have had in eons. The kids were fine, spilling milk and being loud, and we were able to have real adult conversations. In bits and pieces of course, but you get my point. It was divine. 

Why is Pacey in this movie? And um, what was Katie Holm's on Dawson's Creek? I can't remember her name. Crikey.  I could look it up but that's not as much fun as torturing myself. 

The Princess has her ultrasound/VCUG tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will be posting that she is reflux-free and will be off the amox in a few months. I'm sure they'll keep her on it a little longer just to be safe. When she first started it (the day she was born) it used to bug me how much I had to get rid of after the 2 weeks were up. Regardless of how much is left over you have to get rid of it after 2 weeks and get a new bottle. It would be mostly full. Now? It bugs me even more because we have just enough for 2 weeks. There's a big difference between the dose for a 7 pound baby and a 23 pound toddler. She has been on it *that* long, not counting her brief few month hiatus after her first surgery. 

Yes, I changed the name at the top of this blog. Not the address, just the name. As much as Miss Bagel disagrees with me, I'm just not the goddesslibrarian anymore. There was a time when I kicked ass in this profession but that time was long ago.

Whenever I type anything SkyWalker always asks me if I'm typing "a bunch of nothings." I believe I told him that once A YEAR AGO. And he won't let it go. Sadly though, he's usually right.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Creak

That is the sound my back is making. But it is worth it. 

I started the day out praying to the wallpaper gods. By the end I had totally made the wallpaper my bitch. I have one section left to do. Part of it is behind the fridge. I'll have to decide if I will move the fridge out and take the wallpaper or just leave it. Our fridge is at the corner so you can kind of see behind it. I guess it'll depend on how smoothly the rest comes off. 

My "mother's helper" has been here twice so far (including today). The first time the kids started out shy and then warmed up rather quickly. Today there was no hesitation. It's so funny to hear SkyWalker playing with someone else. And the Princess did well too, as long as she couldn't see or hear me. I know I could be saving myself $20 a week by having my MIL come over but I don't want to do that and I think it's better for the kids to be around other people. They both have the tendency to be shy and I'm really trying to break that. 

The thunderstorms woke SkyWalker up last night at 2:30 in the morning. Much crying. Vader had to go up and I think he may have even laid down with him to calm him down. We got rained out of another playground playdate today. It's getting very annoying. 

The Princess has her ultrasound and VCUG tomorrow. Hopefully everything is all clear. I'd really rather she not need another surgery. One is enough I think. Personally I think we've had all the surgeries we should need forever. But I'm sure by the time #4 comes it will be missing an entire kidney. Or have 3 testicles. Something like that. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Princess's ultrasound

The Princess had her final post-surgery ultrasound today. We skipped storytime this morning so she could get a good nap (and because she was up crying at bedtime last night and didn't fall asleep until after 9!) and not be a cranky baby at her appt. MIL watched SkyWalker since Vader had an appt. at work he couldn't get out of. Despite the nap she still SCREAMED during the entire ultrasound. She used to lay so still and be so mellow. Now that she is mobile she does NOT like to be still under ANY circumstances. Diaper changes are horrible; getting dressed is almost as much of a pain in my ass as getting SkyWalker dressed. So the ultrasound was even worse because not only did she have to be still, she had cold metal on her belly! Ugh. Anyway, she looks great, she does not have to go back on the amoxicillin. She's normal and healthy. We have to take her back when she's 3 and fully potty-trained. I laughed at that, thinking about my 3 1/2 year who has wet the bed every night but one this past week. 

We made the switch to underwear since 2 of SkyWalker's friends go the entire night and because I think he is taking advantage of the bedtime diaper. He's told me that he is "allowed to pee in his diaper", and if I don't get it off him right away in the morning he will pee in it rather than use the potty. So we put underwear on him. He stayed dry one night so I know it's possible. But only one night. I know it's only been a week, but he told me tonight that he didn't want underwear because he kept peeing in the bed (and waking us up each night). We're going to a wedding this weekend and staying in a hotel... and Vader is leaving on Monday for Rochester for the whole week. I'm not getting up every night to change his sheets. (Although I do have a system that's worked--I put sheets on, then a free-standing waterproof pad, then another set of sheets. All Vader has to do is take the top sheet and waterproof pad off and the under-sheets are okay. There's a bigger waterproof mattress pad under those sheets too.) I think with Vader being gone so much and SkyWalker looking for ways to get his attention, now is not the time for bedtime underwear. It's the exact opposite of my usual stick to it policy, but if he's not ready then he's not ready. 

And I need my sleep damnit.

I took advantage of my MIL's babysitting and went to Michael's after the Princess's ultrasound so I could get a Thomas track for SkyWalker for Easter. We always do a little gift in the Easter basket. I spent more than I normally would but as he gets older I'm sure I'll get cheaper. Even though the Princess was with me I completely forgot to get her something. Although I'm not sure what I could get her at Michael's anyway... I'm kind of at a loss. She has a bunch of rattles and teething toys and things like that now. There's a Babies R' Us at the mall that's hopefully within *my* walking distance from the hotel we're staying at this weekend, so I'm hoping that when the boys are having their time at the dinosaur museum the girls can check out BRU. I don't think the Princess will notice if I buy something and then the Easter Bunny brings it. And if she does, she can't complain about it anyway. 

It is 9:05. My husband is probably walking to his car right now and leaving work. He left the house at 7:45 this morning. If he did trials all the time he'd have to do his own divorce trial. 

I think it's snacky-snack time (aside--I never realized how much of a goofball I was until I started hearing SkyWalker saying things back to me. I do this with EVERYTHING. Snacky-snack. Lunchy-lunch. Nappy-nap. hmm. maybe those are the only ones. But still. Oh I also say "Did you do a poopinstein?" "A poopsi-cola?" What the hell is wrong with me?).  What was I talking about? Oh snacky-snack. Yes, I need a snacky-snack before bed.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Little of this, little of that

The Princess had her ultrasound last Tuesday. It was a good thing I took the night off from work. Our appt was at 3:30 but we weren't seen until after 4. We didn't get home until after 5:30! The surgeon was amazed by how well she's doing. She's still on amoxicillin for another 6 weeks *groan* but then she's off. Her next ultrasound is in March and hopefully he will tell us that she will never need amoxicillin again!

We had our first big snowstorm. She did not go outside at all but watched from the window. SkyWalker and I decided to hang up our Christmas lights during the snow on Thursday. Then we went out and played yesterday. I pulled him in the sled and nearly broke my back. We're supposed to be getting a lot more tomorrow. I'm hoping the library will be smart and not even open and I can spend the day at home watching Vader pull SkyWalker on the sled as I sip hot chocolate and read a book (yes I'm dreaming).

My sister was supposed to close on her house yesterday. I'm assuming she did... she won't move in until after Christmas because they're going to do some work. My brother and sister-in-law did the same thing. We started moving in the day we closed. Were we stupid? We sure as hell don't have the time to fix things now. We did redo our bedroom--put in wood floors and painted--but that was it. Granted we were paying rent and needed to get out of an apartment. But still... I LOVE my house. Everyone knows how much I love my house. But there's so much to do. I hate wallpaper. There's wallpaper in the living room going up the stairs, all over the kitchen, and in the bathroom. We'd need to rip that all off and paint. I hate the tiles in our bathroom and would love to have bigger tiles that would be easier to clean. And while I'm dreaming... I would love to convert our garage into a new living room, make our living room a playroom, and build a new garage that would really be a 2 car instead of a 1 1/2 like it is now. And maybe convert the attic into another room because I don't know what we'll do if we have 3 kids the same gender. I suppose we could convert our office downstairs into another room. But we don't have the time or the skills to do anything ourselves and we don't have the money to pay people. Or help from anyone else. Maybe someday we'll have more money and can actually do what we'd like. I'm tempted to tell SkyWalker to rip the wallpaper off so we'd be forced to replace it....

I went to the Christmas Tree Shop to get an apple peeler that one of my friends has. I turned right around and walked out of the store. What was I thinking going to to the CHRISTMAS Tree Shop in DECEMBER? I'll have to wait until the holidays are over. I really wanted that damn apple peeler though. I think SkyWalker can use it himself and it would make things easier. He likes his apples peeled and sliced and this does both. I also want to get to JoAnn's and buy a Christmas village. The little ones--5 inches--are cheap. And they have a library building this year. Maybe after soccer on Friday.

I'm not drinking enough water. It's so hard in the winter. I had another headache the other morning that was turning into a migraine and I'm pretty sure it's from not having enough water and having too much caffeine (even decaf tea has caffeine). I think my "supply" is also going down, partly from the Princess eating SO MUCH food, but also from not having enough water. I'm going to have to force myself to drink water everyday. And then a cup of hot chocolate to warm up.

Pumping break is over.... back to "work."

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I can't think of a catchy title

We had the Princess's 2nd ultrasound today (luckily just an ultrasound and not VCUG). The kidney dilation is still there. Looks like her 2nd ureter on the right side is not going into the bladder where it should be (well, duh, it's not even supposed to be there!). To confirm this they will send some type of scope up her hoo-ha to get an image of things. They're pretty sure they're right. So they'll cut her open and fix it. They'll take the bad ureter and attach it to the good one and then she should be okay for the rest of her life. We'll be able to stop the damn amoxicillin (that I have to refill tonight damnit) as soon as she recovers from surgery.

It hasn't completely sunk in that once again one of my babies will be having surgery. SkyWalker was 6 months old when he had his hypospadius surgery. The Princess is only 4 months old and it should be done before she's 6 months. Luckily she is so big and healthy and thriving and she can afford to lose a pound if it comes to that. But it still just sucks. I think one of the worst things any parent can hear is that her child needs surgery. There are certainly worse things, and worse surgeries, but she is still my baby.

They'll call us to schedule the scope procedure and the surgery. Should be in the next month or 2. Hopefully it will be in October and not interfere with Thanksgiving when we go to Long Island. I think he said it'll be an overnight. She'll have a catheter just like SkyWalker did. Sigh. I am hoping that the timing is such that I don't need to take off work but the Princess is very much a Mama's girl... she may just need Mama (and Mama's boobs) to feel better afterwards.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bad plumbing

And unfortunately I'm not talking about the kind with copper (do they still use copper?) pipes.

We had our second Level 2 ultrasound yesterday. Those of you who have followed me from my LJ will remember that 4 weeks ago we had our first L2 ultrasound to check on the status of my evil placenta. The placenta turned out okay, but they saw some dilation in a kidney. Hence the second L2 ultrasound. I had hoped that it would clear up on its own, but apparently I just can't escape children who have pee-pee problems. SkyWalker had to have surgery at 6 months old to correct hypospadious. This one will need surgery too. There is still dilation in the right kidney which means that something is either pinching the ureter or there's reflux, some kind of obstruction. They'll keep giving me the L2s every 4 weeks to make sure that there is enough amniotic fluid (baby pee). There's plenty of fluid now which means that the kidneys and bladder are working. If there is not enough fluid that could be a problem... We'll meet with a surgeon, the same guy who did SkyWalker's surgery, he'll check out #2 after its born to diagnose the actual problem and we'll go from there.

I wonder what will happen to #3 and #4? Will their pee-pee problems be worse? Will they tell me I can't have #3 and #4? That will suck.

In other plumbing news FIL is not feeling too well and is actually in pain. I think he starts the radiation next week. He's been on some pain medication that made him sick so now he's back on something he took when he had chemo last year.

Think maybe there's a reason my kids have bad plumbing? I'm going to blame my husband's side of the family.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend