Judecorp.

Bogo went to his first movie today, at 13 days old. He saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1). Not bad for less than 2 weeks, you know? He slept through most of it, grunted a couple of times, cried for about 15 seconds, nursed, and had a bottle. Good times. I dropped popcorn on his head a few times (whoops) and he got startled by some of the noise. The movie was very loud, so I covered his ears.

Speaking of the Bogo, he was weighed today and was 10 pounds on the dot. Not yet two weeks old. Punk was 9lbs and change at one month, and 11lbs and change at 2 months. Yikes! Big baby!

We had to take him to the pediatrician today to check weight because he was still under birth weight last week and because of all of the nursing issues I had with Punk (when she lost so much weight and got dehydrated and sick). We ended up meeting with a new nurse practitioner instead because the doc was super busy. She was very nice and very sweet and very pro-breastfeeding. Which is nice, because I'm pro-breastfeeding. But she kind of was crossing that line between "supporting breastfeeding" and "making women feel like they are never doing enough." She just kept hammering me with ways to increase my milk supply and stop supplementing, and was full of "How do you know you won't make enough for this baby?" Because, lady, I /know/. I know like I know that I'm breathing. I know that my kid nurses without swallowing. I know that my kid nurses for 30+ minutes and pops off STARVING. She told me to cut the amount of supplement in half so he would wake to eat more and therefore nurse more and therefore I would magically make more milk. Except I won't. I'm maxed out on galactogogues and I won't. Aah well. She should just be happy that we were proactive and our kid is gaining weight and being healthy and thriving.

Also, I like the longer stretches of sleep when we give him formula bottles at nighttime. ;)

We were supposed to go meet some friends at Davis Farm in Sterling today but Jen has some weird skin infection and it has gotten really bad, so I cancelled last night. It's a good thing, because she's down at the hospital women's clinic right now because the doc she saw yesterday wasn't really sure what to do about it. It's a heck of a bummer, though, because it is positively GORGEOUS today, at least this morning. Hopefully it will still be nice after naptime and I can take Punk to the park so she can enjoy some of the day.

Poor little punkin pie is teething molars hardcore right now (they grow in spurts, this has been going on for freaking ever) which means she is getting calluses on her fingers from chewing on them so hard and has been nightwaking. Typically it's been somewhere around 4am but last night it was 1:30 or so... night waking means in my bed which basically means my night of sleep is over. This has been especially rough because I have been having a really hard time falling asleep at night because of anxiety over my friend's lost baby, my child care provider's biopsy, and two of my friends having suspected miscarriages. It's just major Bad Juju Week and I can't sleep, and by the time I fall asleep, Punk's waking up. Awesome.

Anyway, I think I have slept somewhere around 10 hours total this week and that kind of sleep dep typically causes my knees to ache (why?) so I have been popping ibuprofen like candy. And of course Punk decided to wake up at 6 this morning instead of 7 so I had to drag my sore self out of bed to entertain her. I tried to have her read some books in my bed but she couldn't do it quietly and Jen got upset that she was waking her up. Bleh.

She is finally asleep and my original plan was to try to nap while she did, but I think I might have dozed off while she was watching Diego before lunch (he's better than Dora but I still hate them) and now my brain is whirring again. Dang.

Jen just called and is on her way home after picking up a scrip for Bactrim. Erk. If she has MRSA I am going to have a hissy fit.

Punk has a swollen bump on her leg that is a big red circle about the size of a half dollar. I drew a circle around it and put some cortaid on it and put her to bed. We'll be taking her in tomorrow if it's not gone, but I'm just so paranoid about leaving it alone all night. I'm terrified of what it will look like in the morning, and I'm terrified that it's MRSA.

:(

I am now oriented to the hospital system. I attended two days of ice breakers, group activities, motivational speeches, and organizational policies. I learned about parking, safety, confidentiality, organizational values, benefits, etc. I also got free breakfasts and lunches. Since I am used to working for small non-profits, it was pretty intense.

I got all of our benefit info and we will be switching health insurances effective June 1st. The new insurance costs less per month and has cheaper copays, so it's a no-brainer. The conundrum comes up in terms of my upcoming tonsillectomy. As my insurance stands now, I will have a $500 copay for a hospitalization or surgery. (And I just had one a couple of weeks ago, ugh.) Ouch. I have my pre-op appointment with my ENT on May 5th to schedule my tonsillectomy in May.

With my new insurance, I will have a $0 copay for hospitalization or surgery as long as I use one of the affiliate hospitals I work for. And the hospital is in Springfield, so none of the doctors I see have privileges in that hospital. So it would require: 1) postponing the surgery, 2) finding a new ENT with privileges in that system, 3) getting all of my records to that person, and 4) seeing if that person thought I should get a tonsillectomy.

I can either get it over with and pay a lot of money, or wait it out and pay nothing. Part of me wants to just get it over with, but $500 is a lot of money, especially when I can pay $0. I wonder if my ENT is going to freak out. Should I call him first, or just tell him at my May 5th appointment?

It's been crazy around here.

I have been in High Tonsil Drama since Saturday, and Sunday I almost didn't go to my grandparents' house for Easter dinner because I felt crappy and didn't want to risk possibly passing on any germs. I ended up going (since my grandfather really wanted everyone there) but never even made it to the dinner table and instead napped on the guest bed until it was time to go home. I feel bad about that, as I wasn't able to sit for dinner with my grandfather, but I had a wicked fever and couldn't eat anyway. Then we all came home.

Monday night, I couldn't sleep because my stupid tonsil hurt so much and was so swollen, and had caused my soft palate and the rest of my mouth/neck to be swollen, and advil and tylenol weren't cutting it, and it was miserable, so Jen told me to go to the ER. While I was at the ER (got there at midnight), I read a book and had to get a CT scan, which was crazy because I had to take out all of my piercings. With no mirror. Score! And then the CT scan showed that it appeared that I had multiple abcesses, so the ER doctor (who was actually quite cool) said that he was going to stick a needle into my peritonsillar area to drain it. (Don't read anymore if you are squeamish).

So I move into this dental-type chair and first he shoots me up with lidocaine and then proceeds to try three times to suck out pus. No pus. He says he has a rule that after three times, he stops. But then he wanted to do one more time. Still nothing. And then he called me the most awesome patient ever for not even flinching and being a rock star. And I got some IV antibiotics and got sent home with instructions to call my ENT doctor in the morning.

I got home at 4:30, fell asleep around 5, and Punk woke me up at 6. GOOD TIMES. I was even more swollen than before, probably from all of the poking around, and could no longer swallow and it was very difficult to talk. I called the ENT doc with a lot of effort and they told me to come in right away. He saw my CT pictures and tried AGAIN to do the needle-pus thing, twice. He also got nothing, and oh my god, by that time, I was so DONE with needles. But he said that since I couldn't swallow, couldn't take my antibiotics, and hadn't eaten since Saturday, that I needed to be admitted into the hospital. Yikes!

I drove myself over there (Tuesday morning), got admitted, and had Jen call my new job to tell them I wouldn't be in the next day for my medical screening. It took forEVer for them to get me into a bed and then they tried SIX times to get an IV (it's not that hard, people) with three different people. And then I watched a marathon of Top Chef and waited for Jen to come by with all of our tax stuff, because we still had to do our state taxes. (Whoops.) I was pretty much the laughing stock of the hospital, sitting in my bed doing taxes. Good times.

Anyway, I got a bunch of antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, a steroid, and a bunch of other stuff. But while I was in IV hell, I got a call from my uncle that my grandfather had died that morning. And there I was stuck in the hospital and not able to go see my grandmother or anything. I pretty much told all of the staff that I was leaving the next day no matter what (although I needed to get the doctor to agree). But I started feeling a bit better and by the end of Tuesday was eating solid food, so it was all good.

The ENT doc visited me twice in the hospital on Tuesday, once at about 8pm! And then he came again around 8am on Wednesday. On Tuesday he showed up with this weird camera that goes up your nose and down your throat. I seriously hope I don't have to repeat any of these procedures ever again. Freaky. But yeah, when he came on Wednesday morning, he said things were looking much better but that my palate was (very bruised) - probably from all of that needle action, dude! - and that I could leave. WAHOO!

I got home, took a shower (thank you, Jesus), made a couple of calls to reschedule my medical screening to next week, and went to see my grandmother. Then stopped at the flower shop to order funeral flowers, came home, and got to hang out with my kid for a while.

Tomorrow's the visiting hours, with the funeral and burial on Saturday morning. I've never had to navigate a wake/funeral/burial with a toddler. Should be interesting.

I am thankful for the ability to be out of the hospital and that my grandfather had a long and prosperous life, and died peacefully during a nap in his own bed after having a nice big breakfast. God bless you, Grandpa. I love you very much.

I took Punk to the pediatric dentist today for the first time to check out a white spot on one of her front teeth. I had Jen ask the pediatrician about it at her most recent well-baby, and he basically said that it was probably nothing but to check with a dentist since teeth aren't his thing. There are a ton of pedi dentists in the area and most of them will do a "teeth count and check" for kids under two for free, so why the heck not, right?

Except that it was a disaster. ;) Punk is definitely not feeling the medical establishment these days and is starting to freak out at the pediatrician when they come near her with any equipment (thermometer, needle, you name it), so I was leery but basically just hoped she didn't bite anyone. (She is strong. She has bitten me a couple of times when I was trying to feel for her back molars.) I am pleased to say that she did NOT bite anyone, but she had to be held down and she screamed bloody murder. It was horrible.

The hygienist was kind of a robot and seemed to be operating on a script. She told me that the spot was demineralization (which I kind of figured) and to watch out because it could turn into decay, blah blah. Fine. She asked if Punk nurses or uses a bottle to sleep (no), if she goes to sleep with or walks around all day with a sippy cup (no), if she drinks a lot of juice or eats a lot of sweets (no), and then proceeded to remind me at least four times that I shouldn't let her walk around with a sippy cup all day and take little sips because it keeps her mouth full of sugar. Even though I already told her that she only drinks at meal and snack times.

She kept reassuring me it was "very early" and "not a big deal" and that I was such a good Mom for noticing but all the while reprimanding me for the sippy cup thing. And so I would say something like, "So how did she get decay if she doesn't do these things?" and she was all "it's not decay, it's no big deal," and then read me the sippy cup riot act again. Weird.

She had the dentist come in and check it out. By this point, *I* was sitting in the dentist chair with Punk and was hugging her and rubbing her back (her back was to everyone). He was really awesome and just peeked in her mouth around my shoulder and said, "It's nothing. It's fine." And he was really freaking hot.

They didn't really have anything to recommend for the demineralization because Punk is too young for flouride treatments, but she did say I could swab a little flouride rinse on the spot before bed sometimes, and I might do that. They also re-recommended the flouride drops (pedi recommended them at 6 months but we didn't do it), and I called the pediatrician to call it in. I might do every other day or something.

But umm, taking my screaming crazy child to the dentist really made me feel like a mama! And aside from the murderous screaming, the hygienists commented on how beautiful she is (which of course she is) and remarked on her impressive vocabulary. (More like, "Wow, she sure does talk a lot for a one year old!" and "She knows her letters already? That's crazy!" But I will take what I can get.)

Punk has been congested the last couple of nights. No runny nose, no sneezing, just congestion. Which makes for crappy sleep for her. Which makes for crappy sleep for me. And she didn't want to eat breakfast this morning and then didn't eat lunch at day care and I was super worried because umm, she ALWAYS eats. And she started out refusing dinner but then ate about a million dino nuggets so I guess we're good.

Now I have a cold, and I'm getting about 3 hours of sleep a night, which does not bode well for the cold. Oh well. Happy birthday to me tomorrow, hopefully I won't feel like a train hit me like I did today.

I left work early because I felt like crap and because staff meeting was doing chart reviews and all of my charts are done. I laid down for a while and that actually helped a bit. Yay.

There was a miscommunication at work today and I got not one but TWO fancy bakery birthday cakes. It was very sweet (pun intended) and I took the one that didn't get touched home. It's a huge chocolate cake from La Fiorentina (fancy bakery of deliciousness) and I will probably gain 50 pounds. NOM.

I never get a flu shot but I am debating it this year because I get so little sleep that I'm worried I'm going to pick up every little thing. Thoughts?

For Marla. :)

Totally uneventful. Actually, the biggest "event" of the whole thing was that it took place during nap time and Punk is teething at the same time so she was a howling banshee for most of the appointment and I couldn't hear anything. Argh!

But basically the neurologist said that while she DOES seem to be cruising longer than most kids (she's now been standing for nearly 5 months, cruising for nearly 4), he can't seem to find any obvious reason WHY. He checked her reflexes and did this neat thing with a black light to check for missing pigment (coolz), and he watched her cruise around and said that basically she is cruising really well, he doesn't get it.

He basically tried to blame the whole thing on either the donor ("well, sometimes late walking is hereditary and you don't know anything about the father") or the lost twin ("or I guess maybe something could have happened when you lost the twin that is resolving") but basically shrugged his shoulders and said she was fine. We made an appointment for 6 months from now and if she isn't walking then, he will do more things.

He didn't even want to do an MRI! I was shocked!! Of course, she was full-on howling at this point so he was probably like, "Get that crazy baby out of here!"

I asked him about why it takes her so long to figure out new things, and how I have to help her motor-plan everything before she does it (like when she couldn't figure out how to get down and I had to do it over and over and over) and I think he wrote me up as "neurotic mom" and said, "I don't see anything to worry about." He seemed to think she should be saying more words, but eh, it is what it is.

Exciting times.

Jen was offered and accepted a full-time position at her current part-time job. It comes with a significant salary increase and it is something she enjoys very much. I am skeptical about the job a bit because the company seems more than a little disorganized, but they have come through in the part-time capacity and I can only hope they continue to do so in a full-time capacity. She is very excited about it.

The big hitch is that the new job is in Springfield (where I also work) as opposed to Amherst, which is where her current job is located and also where her child care provider lives. I /love/ Punk's child care provider and she has proven to be very devoted to Punk, very good with children in general, very in line with our parenting philosophies, and just awesome in general. When we found her I really did feel like we won the child care lottery. But it is not feasible to keep her in child care there if Jen is working in Springfield, because it would involve ridiculous amounts of driving, tons of gas money, and most importantly, really long days for Punk. So we have to find alternate child care.

I have no idea how this is going to work. Jen's new job starts on August 18th and that is about a week and a half away. I have no time to call child care centers, let alone visit them and interview providers. And I am really, really, REALLY sad about losing our child care provider. She loves Punk, sends me e-mails about her on a regular basis, sends photos of her enjoying her day, and is just genuinely invested in her. I can't even think about it without crying.

I am trying to find child care near our home or on the way to work, and I hate it. I hate everything about it. I keep finding all of the things out there that made me so glad for M in the first place - scheduled naps, one nap per day no matter what, requiring full immunizations, etc. I am sick about it all.

~//~

My new doctor made me sit for a 2 hour glucose test for whatever reason. I asked for a prescription for Metformin for my PCOS and she required the 2 hour glucose. I did it on Wednesday and it was the most boring thing ever. And of course my blood sugar is fine. Now give me my damned prescription!!

While I was sitting at the lab for 2 hours for my glucose test, I read a lot of People magazines. And there were a couple of articles about "the pregnant man." And then he had his baby! And all I could think of was, "Pregnant Man Gives Birth. That's a fact."

~//~

This morning we headed to family court so Jen could officially adopt Punk. It was short and sweet, and the judge has this special bowl full of brightly colored pens that she uses for adoptions. She lets the kid choose a pen, uses the pen to sign the adoption decree, and then gives the kid the pen. It was really the cutest little thing. Then they take a polaroid picture of the family and the judge and stick it to a little certificate. And the court officer takes photos with whatever camera you bring. Cute cute cute.

Fin Update:
Yesterday I put some Delicious Canned Food on our deck table and this morning, Fin was totally chowing down on it. I thought maybe I would open the door and see if he would come in, but he ran away as soon as he heard me turn the lock. DRAT! I guess we'll just be leaving food outside.

Job Update:
There aren't many staff members, which means there aren't a lot of people to get into trouble with. That is very very sad. However, they need to start billing pronto and I can pretty much take cases right now, so they like me a lot. Heh. And I confirmed that I will get the big money I wanted ($6k more than my last job) for a four-day work week. Nice.

Punk Update:
She has this AWFUL diaper rash that seems to get worse when she is at child care. This evening it was red and puffy and just so bad. I'm wondering if she is sensitive to the disposable wipes (we use cloth wipes at home). I'm going to send cloth wipes to child care and see what happens, and Jen is taking her to walk-in hour at the pediatrician. Also, she has had horrible poop for the last couple of days... I think maybe from the increase in solid finger foods? Or because we started yogurt and cheese? Either way, we have some experimenting to do.