Christmas Keeps on Giving

Grandma took my suggestion and made felt food for her grandkids. Peas with actual dried peas sewn into the felt, fried eggs, heads of lettuce, bow tie pasta and more. The kids adore it, and play with it all the time. I have eaten hundreds of bowls of veggie pasta surprise brought to me with a spoon while they look on, bright eyed and approvingly, as I blow on my bowl of felt to cool it down before pretending to eat it up.

Homestead Mama made each kid a doctor's bag, which we gave them a few days after Christmas. 26 and 18 months might seem early for them, but both kids have had semi-traumatic blood draws to check lead levels, seen their mommy in the post-op and with stitches after the gall bladder removal, and seen Grandma on crutches. They LOVE the bags. H-Mama doesn't slouch, and had on hand two actual leather gate-mouth doctor's bags, the kind Marcus Welby always carried and I've never seen a modern physician toting. She filled them with medical grade stethoscopes, tongue depressors, gauze pads, bandaids, and syringes with the needles removed. We have a lifetime supply of those from all the IVF we endured, and we use them all the time for non-injection things these days.

The kids unload all their equipment, spread it out, then play with their favorites. Bandaids are the biggest hit. Having an unlimited supply has not yet gotten tiresome for them. What a tiny investment of money for such joy. One is never enough.

Monito is giving the dogs a dose of medicine with his syringe. They are taking it like good pups.

Pequita has been asking to hear the story of her blood draw several times a day for months by pointing to the crook of her arm and asking for 'more'. Now she can really happily re-enact the whole event with her supplies. Below is H-Mama pretending to draw out the 2 vials of blood the nurse took that day. Pequita gets to talk about how scary it was, how it pinched but didn't hurt much and how we then got Pudding! in the cafeteria. Such a good idea H-Mama had.

Lead Again

While I was having my gall bladder out, Pequita had her two year old lead check and H-Mama had her 43 year old blood panel. H-Mama's cholesterol is slightly elevated, which was a sad surprise. The doc prescribed increased fiber and a glass of red wine each night. H-Mama is diligently trying to keep up with this.

Pequita has a blood lead level of 1O.2. Can I just say goddamn it? God only knows where it is coming from now. I bought a big box of lead swabs today to start testing, but suspect I will just pay the health department to come to our house to do a thorough testing of all surfaces interior and exterior. She goes back for a retest next weekend, and I'm taking Monito in for one too. I am really surprised and irritated, and of course worried. This is such bad news.

Thank god they're pre-verbal

I have an annual physical soon. I will likely end up bringing the kids and hope they are sleeping in their stroller when I have to 'scoot forward a little more, please'. It is timely that I just read this post - it totally cracked me up. It is so very much what I would do. Poor doctors.

Monito's Ten Month Stats

A rip-snortingly hearty child, despite the two days of intestinal flu that preceded his appointment. Blowouts are easier when we aren't dressing him in layers and snowsuits, to be sure.

Monito is 31.5 " long [98th percentile] and 24 lbs [83rd percentile]. He has a lead level of 4.1, which prompted congratulations from the staff. I begged to differ and will retest him in three months instead of waiting a year like most folks. Hopefully once he is no longer crawling his level will go down. He is also a little low on iron, which is surprising. Summer is coming and with it the dark leafy greens that will make us all healthier. Until then, he's getting lots of white bean mush, white beans being the highest iron content of all the beans, according to my little How-Not-To-Kill-Your-Baby-With-Food book.

Today I take Pequita in for her 18-month checkup, and will ask about the deep rattly chest cough she is sporting. A little cough medicine for nighttime would be super, but my guess is that the suggestion will be to keep using the humidifier.

And for those of you wondering, yes indeedy, I did get both the chest cold AND the intstinal bug. Yay for Mommy.

Pequita's Lead Level Retest

I just got a call back from the pediatrician's office. Pequita's blood lead levels are 1.1, down from a high of 9.25, with 10 being considered toxic levels.

I'm ecstatic. I admit that I teared up when the nurse told me. I was quite worried. Damn clawfoot tub.

I'd appreciate it if anyone reading this make a point of spreading the word that antique cast iron bathtubs and sinks can leach significant lead into the warm water that children bathe in, wash their faces in, and brush their teeth in.

Hypochondriac

All in all, I'm a pretty healthy person. However, I have a lot of surgical excitement in my life; sometimes it seems like if it can happen, it will happen to me. Yeah, most of my surgeries stem from a car accident, which is bad luck, not bad health. But then I've also had my appendix out, my tonsils out, had my nose broken enough to require 2 surgeries to fix it (Hottie Friend hits a nice line drive); one of my ortho fusions failed and I had to have it redone and spend a second 3-month stint on crutches in one year; after a 10 days in hospital after my car accident I was about to be sent home when I got a systemic infection due to too many antibiotics which required an extra 10 days in hospital, blood transfusions, feeling like I wanted to die, etc. I wanted a lovely med-free birth, and ended up with a c-section. I'm not even adding in the idiot incidences, like dropping cabinets on my foot. Sometimes I feel like a hypochondriac when I worry about symptoms for regular daily things.

I currently have some chronic pain that I don't know how to handle. What I am calling carpal tunnel may be something else - I've only really had it since being pregnant, but it is worse than ever now. I have serious pain in my hands, along the knuckle and up the wrist and forearm. Sharp, scorching pain that zaps me when I bend my wrist to put on the Ergo sling, or pull off baby pants while changing a diaper, or pick up a baby. I am almost unable to open the dog crate for Cosmo. I can't open jars, push myself off the floor with my hands, or carry groceries well. My hands go numb regularly; it is not unusual for me to wake up when Monito cries and have to shake the feeling back into my hands before I can pick him up at night. It hurts so much that I have awakened a sleeping baby with my loud gasp after attempting to crate the dog. I did buy a wrist brace and wore it for a while, but misplaced it. It helped some, but it is damned hard to deal with soft sensitive babies with a club for a hand. I have been going to acupuncture for it, which also helps, but that is $65 per session and isn't covered by insurance. I'm not going to go any more until I've exhausted the treatments for which I won't have to pay out of pocket. I also have serious pain in my feet, along the balls of both feet. It feels, frankly, like the same pain in my hands. What the hell is that about? Arthritis? Lupis? Nature's way of telling me I'm too fat? Sigh. I like knowing how to fix things. This soft tissue crap is so amorphous and vague. Some medical professional is going to make a mint off of me.

I'm Very Talented

Clever, clever girl. I put together another cabinet, and when Homestead Mama got home, asked her to help me move all of its 150 lbs into the kitchen. Guess which one of us dropped the weight of the whole thing on her foot? Ahem. That would be me, the talented agile one. Dropped it on my good foot, by the way, the one that basically allows me to do everything reliably. After some extended deep breathing, and shockingly no swearing, I soaked it in cold water in the tub until I couldn't feel it anymore, and then did the logical next step. Before the swelling and pain really hit, I made H-Mama help me finish moving it into place. We couldn't leave it in the middle of the kitchen floor! Then I elevated, iced, dosed NSAIDs, and moaned. X-ray the next day showed no break, but the bruising is going to be better than a sunset in San Francisco.

I don't do pedicures, so that is the natural state of my very wide duck-like feet. I suppose I could have moisturized for the picture. And those red things peeking out from my jeans? I felted a sweater to use the wool for projects, and these are the sleeves that I just lopped off. Lovely, felted red wool cable knit leg warmers. It has been cold here, and in my defense, no one can see them when I'm upright.

Sadly, once we got the cabinet in place, our fears were confirmed. It is too deep for the location. All standard US base cabinetry is 24" deep; we need 18" deep for this location. Wall cabinets at 12" deep don't offer enough storage. So we will do what we always do (have you wondered why it is taking us years to renovate?) we will modify the cabinet to suit our needs. We will rip the depth down by 6 inches and then install it. It will house our trash can, recycle bin, and some appliances like the rice maker and blender, and still leave a nice wide aisle through which to walk.

Pequita's 1-year Stats

At her 12 month checkup, Pequita weighed in at 24 pounds (80th percentile) and measured 28.5 inches (50th percentile). If they leave us waiting in the exam room, it gets hot, so I open the door to get air and remind them that we are waiting with a baby. She had a great time running around. Her lead levels had gone up, from 8.9 to 9.5, = not in a way that is statistically significant. The doc was pleased to hear about us finding the likely source of lead exposure, and we'll re-test her in 3 months. He has high hopes that she'll have a markedly lower level then. Her exposure to date should have no significant effect on her development, other than the lowering of her I.Q. by up to 7 points. This whole episode has been and will continue to be a hard thing to endure. I am sick of all medical and plumbing professionals saying, "Boy, I've never heard of a clawfoot tub causing lead exposure." I can't believe that no one mentions this! Clearly, folks know about it:

http://www.slate.com/id/2172544/
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13.html

I Survived 30 Hours of Labor...

...and all I got was this lousy baby. (Really, just kidding!)

I just graduated from OB care. I passed my 6 week checkup - all is back where it should be, tightened up and firm. The doc says I am to continue to take it easy for another 2 weeks, so once we return from vacation I'll be clear to care for Pequita again - what a relief and a joy! She is crawling increasingly fast - cornering like a well-tuned Porche, actually. She has only discovered the lower shelves so far, so we plant interesting items that are acceptable (moderately) for her to mess around with to spice things up for her. Behold, breastpad-apalooza. She spends many minutes every morning while we dress emptying the box and flinging them about, then tears little bite-sized nips out of the edges with her little teeth. She clutches a few in each hand and spins in circles on her butt with joy. She looooves breast pads.

Firstly, my copy of Harry Potter arrived from the UK. I like their version much better than the US version, plus I'm offended that the US publishers strip the book of all things British, like we don't know what a lorry is, or a bloke. Harrumph. The best thing of all? It will take me forever to read it, since I will be reading it in 2 page increments due to parenting.

Secondly, I wanted to update the night time situation. It is much much better. I have started swaddling Monito despite his regular protests, and this makes him sleep the night through (ptthuh, ptthuh - the sound of spitting to ward off evil & jinxes), with maybe one waking. This is wonderful - fantastic, even. Except I am still waking up at least twice to deal with the milk that threatens to morph into blocked ducts or worse if I don't pump. Homestead Mama, whose milk supply is stable and steady, has generously offered me Pequita in the nighttime. She can decant off enough milk when she wakes enough to nurse to ease my discomfort. Seems odd, though, to be pumping 6 - 12 oz of milk per night & freezing it while the boy sleeps on. The La Leche monthly night meeting was cancelled tonight, so I'll have to wait until next Wednesday's 10 am meeting to chat about this. On the plus side, I have successfully tandem nursed twice now, and Pequita, while curious to the point of popping off the boob repeatedly to examine her brother & check out what must seem like odd competition, seems perfectly willing to participate. This consists of me nursing Monito in a regular cradle hold, and Pequita sits on the bed/couch and leans her head back onto my lap on top of Monito's feet and nurses too. It is quite amazing to behold. It will only get easier as Monito can maneuver his own head better.

Third. My dashingly handsome son, who is 5.5 weeks old, is wearing 3 - 6 month old clothing - definitely not too big, see?

His little legs and arms poke out of all the 0 - 3 month clothes we saved from Pequita. He is displeased, clearly, at the hand-me-down situation, as evidenced by his expression of being captured on film in PINK POLKA DOTS.

Fourth. Pequita's real lead levels are 8.75. A score of 9.0 is the upper end of what they are comfortable with, so she is pushing the limit. We are diligently de-leading the homestead, and will recheck her blood in 3 months at her regular checkup. If it isn't improved, I believe we then call in the Lead Mitigating Team from the health department. There is no treatment until her blood reaches the 40 level, so this is all we can do now. Doesn't seem like enough to me.

Fifth. Pequita is definitely relaxing to her brothers presence. She might be learning 'gentle' in regards to her touching, as she is doing better at not grasping immediately for his soft spot with her sharp and strong little fingers, but she looks for him in the room now when she enters it, and turns to him when he chirps and squeals. This is GREAT news.

Sixth. I had some thoughts about things non-children, as well as (I think) some really good and useful tips on pregnancy, birthing and the post-natal period, but now that I've posted pics and updated on the babes Monita has woken up. Sigh.

Plumbum (Retro Post - July 13)

We were back at the pediatricians office today; Pequita was due for her 9 month well visit, and Monito had his 1 month visit. Both are healthy. We had few questions, and in response to them the Doc had good advice about how to minimize Monito's spit up problems (feed him at a 30 degree angle on my chest, as the esophagus enters the stomach from the back) and some comforting but useless help about Pequita's constipation. Then they did the regular 9 month blood test on Pequita. Here she is exiting the exam room, having demanded to walk out of her own volition.
Lead. Pequita has an elevated lead level, according to her finger stick & the portable, admittedly less reliable tester machine. Elevated only one point above the acceptable normal range, but since we live in the 150 year old homestead, we are concerned. Her exposure could be nothing - we were told to go to the hospital on Monday for a real blood draw & to have the test run on a regular machine vs. the portable one in our pediatric office. However, the predictions are dire for kids who have lead poisoning. She could have been exposed in a myriad ways, but the most likely culprit is our own home. I bought some lead tests and have been swabbing everything in the house. We removed almost all the original woodwork in the house during the renovation, as we knew it had lead paint on it (and it would have taken months to delicately remove it, strip it, and reinstall it). We still have a few original doors in the house, admittedly with their original paint on them. Also, we have 2 step-back cabinets that test positive for lead paint. The one in the living room I bought for a song at an auction and we have begun stripping it already, the other is original to the house in an out of the way place and we'll get to soon.
When Monday rolled around, my mom and I took the kids to the hospital to get Pequita's real blood test, as Homestead Mama had to go to work. It nearly broke my heart to lay down next to my daughter on a hospital gurney and hold her still while the tech stuck her in the crook of her arm to draw a huge vial of blood. I'm not sure if Pequita cried harder because of the needle stick or the act of being pinned down by strangers. There were two nurses doing it, as she was a baby and they are famous for thrashing around. Afterwards, she recovered quickly and we all went to lunch in the hospital cafeteria for lunch - this was a planned reward for Pequita's suffering. The only thing that made her stop picking at her bandage was pureed squash - mmmmmmmm.
The food is quite good for a cafeteria, cheap, and there is no one to care if the babies melt down or H-mama and I are both whipping boobs in and out while we breastfeed. I am not kidding when I say that Homestead Mama and I will likely be eating out there with some regularity when we need to get out of the house. Restaurants are very hard for us these days - Pequita always manages to overturn a beverage, and we are starting to leave a mess in our wake as she insists on helping feed herself. I usually tip more the bigger the mess we make, but it isn't relaxing in most restaurants. The sacrifices one makes as a parent - sheesh! Gone are the days of our yummy adult restaurants with lovely wine cellars and fantastic table service. Our standards are so different these days.

On the plus side, Monito has begun smiling in response to us smiling at him. He is adorable, we have decided. We figure we'll keep him. Wouldn't you?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sorry for being AWOL. We made it through the first 9 months of parenting with no real negative experiences. We have now, with the arrival of Monito and with Pequita entering into the most dreaded stage of all babyhood (the learning to crawl/walk/ talk no-sleep stage) become a little, um, snappish.

Warning: boring alert. Cataloging fatigue and snot production is never a good blog topic, but it is all I can process right now. I have become one of THOSE people. Ick.

Monito came home from the hospital to a loving family of diseased people. All of us had a cold. Pequita is still hacking away at night, but the rest of us are on the mend. Monito, though, has such a stuffy nose that he cannot breathe around the boob at night. He wheezes, snorts, snores, and stops breathing for long seconds at a time. This makes it difficult for me to sleep, as I worry. I just called the doc's office. We will continue our current repertoire of steam-showers, humidifier, and bulb-snot-sucker (which he loathes). To this we will add sleeping in the car seat to be upright (which might allow me to lay flat to sleep instead of holding him on my chest) and infant saline nasal spray. Fingers crossed.

Pequita. Oh, how proud we are. She is physically ahead of the game. In the last week she has learned:
to crawl
to climb a step
to walk while holding onto support (table, leg, dog, etc.)
to drink from a straw

She is now eating many fruits & veggies, as well as the occasional milkshake & ice cream. She loves best to drink from our cups, which she can do quite neatly. She has ongoing constipation, so we feed her prunes in every form which she loves, and all the juice, water & breastmilk she'll tolerate. Apparently it is common to have much sleep interruption when learning to be mobile, and she is resisting rest in all forms at all times of day & night. Last night, Homestead Mama was up for 2 hours walking and rocking Pequita, as every time we lay her in her crib or our bed she thrashed, cried and was very agitated, all while sleeping. When she is willing to lay down, she wants to be nursing at all times, which is causing H-mama some discomfort, since she's a little out of practice with that frequency. Pequita is also beginning to want autonomy that she is just too young for, which is resulting in temper tantrums. Who would have thought this would start at 8.5 months? Not me. Homestead Mama is very patient with her, and lets her have all her emotions and flip out, and remains remarkably calm and collected. She recovers fairly quickly, but Oy! while they go on, she is loud and screamy.

For the first time, when Homestead Mama and I have awake time together in the wee hours of the morning we aren't gushing about how adorable our kid is and professing our love. We are now finding new and creative curse words, getting a little snappy with each other and trying hard to keep each kid quiet enough so as not to wake the other one. Luckily, this can't go on forever. Sadly, it is unpleasant while it lasts and with all my hormones, I'm not so pleased feeling disconnected from Homestead Mama.

My mother is still here, and is dedicated to tending to Pequita so that I can bond with Monito and learn how to care for him, and get enough rest. God bless her - she is running herself ragged looking after Speed Racer, which is Pequita's new nickname. (At least in the daytime. At 3 am, we tend to call her Hellraiser under our breath.) Granted, she is revelling in her grandmotherhood, but Pequita is exhausting for anyone, let alone a woman of (ahem) advanced age who just had a knee replacement a couple months ago. She is also still keeping the house clean and making many meals. I am taking note of her system, as I'll be on my own with all this in a week and a half when she returns to her normal life of taking care of my dad, who is for the most part less taxing.

I'll post some pictures to make up for the boring post. At least, despite all else, the kids are still completely beautiful and loving.

All's Well...

I have a hard time cheating on tests, even ones that taste awful, so yeah, I drank a whole new bottle of Glucola for my appointment this morning. We'll see how I score. I'd better not come back as at-risk for gestational diabetes, as I'm pretty sure that will get in the way of my Breyer's chocolate ice cream addiction. My OB is pleased with my pregnancy, as I have only had a very short list of the normal aches and pains, my blood pressure is great so far, and I've gained a total of 4 lbs in 30 weeks. The page in my file dedicated to troublesome issues, problems, and concerns is blank. His happiness about this flies in the face of Homestead Mama's attitude that I am having a 'problematic and difficult pregnancy' since it isn't like hers. She, however, is a physical mutant. The OB shakes his head and throws up his hands when he thinks back on her pregnancy. She played softball (as pitcher, for goodness sakes!) well into her seventh month, and was happily trotting around & going up and down stairs with ease for the duration until she went into labor. This makes her think that I am having an unfortunate experience, with my very sore & separating joints, fatigue & sleep interruptions, and my difficulty carrying around the 20+ lb baby we now have. Ahem. I regularly set her to rights, but will be insisting that our OB mention repeatedly how great I am doing - how average my experience is - when she next attends an appointment. And I very KINDLY don't bring up the fact that she never dilated or effaced, Pequita never descended, resulting in a c-section. Perhaps the fact that the kid was firmly ensconced comfortably within her barrel-shaped & waist-less (but very sexy and lovely) abdomen and not sitting in her pelvis EVER had something to do with it. Harumph.

My fabulous acupuncturist slipped me onto her schedule today for treatment right after my OB appt, as my neck was entering a spasm, and I just couldn't stand to have one more thing on my body feel like it was broken. Between the pregnancy-induced carpel tunnel in my right hand and the pinched nerve in my left shoulder/arm, I was dragging the kid around instead of picking her up. Luckily, she thinks it is a lovely game to slide across the bed (floor, counter, dining room table). I'm much better now.

Pequita's 4 month checkup

Yes, she's 5.5 months old now, but there was a huge snowstorm last month and the doc's office closed, and she missed her appointment. We are most pleased with her progress. She is now 17.32 lbs and 25.5" long (tall?), which puts her in the shocking 90th percentile in weight and 75th percentile in height.

On the other hand, we WILL be switching doctor's office, because Homestead Mama & Pequita have been at the docs office for an hour and a half so far and STILL hasn't received any vaccinations. They're 'running a bit behind'. I told H-Mama to stop nursing and comforting the baby and go stand by the check-in desk with a squalling bored infant and let them revel in their scheduling ineptitude. If we switch, it will be to the downtown hippy pediatric office which is lovely, there is never a pile-up in the waiting room and the docs are highly recommended. They don't take our insurance, so we'll have to pay out of pocket & then get reimbursed, but good lord, what kind of office makes you wait w/ a baby for over 1.5 hours? Sheesh. They are lucky it isn't me there with the kid.