Great grandparents

My mom called me on Saturday. My Granny's surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday, the 7th. I know I didn't get around to mentioning it before, probably because I was hoping to get some time to process it and write something poignant. But I'm pretty lazy when it comes to blogging I guess. My grandmother has breast cancer. And apparently it's pretty advanced, but it's isolated to a lump so her doctor was pretty confident that he could remove the lump and just give her radiation therapy to resolve it. My mom didn't think her health (she has COPD and was just getting to a point where she didn't need oxygen to move around anymore) would last through radiation treatments. So my mom had her doctor consider other options and they sought a second opinion. The next doctor told my grandmother that a complete mastectomy would negate the need for radiation. My Granny wasn't really going to go for it, but finally came around to our way of thinking. I think she was rather scared because my Papa passed away within months of his cancer diagnosis (when I was only 13). He had pretty advanced cancer too and when they went in to remove it, they found tumors throughout his body. He just never made it through the chemotherapy. But the reason my mom called, other than to wish me a happy birthday and apologize for not being able to visit, was to say that the surgery had been scheduled and Granny had taken a turn for the worse in health. She's been through a lot of tests to assess her for surgery and she's been getting progressively run down since Liam's birthday party. Well, it turns out that her potassium and sodium levels have plummeted again (this happened last year too). It leaves her so weak and unsteady; she's tired all the time.

We went to visit her today. She is pretty worn out. Her voice is deep and congested sounding. She was wearing her dressing gown. She hadn't made her bed in three days she said. We brought the boys to entertain her and just be generally cheerful, but I don't think her surgeon is going to want to do the surgery after I saw how she was doing. I made her bed. Jon went out and brought in the trash cans and took out the newspaper to the recycling bin. We brought in her walker and her toilet seat which upset her because she just got them out of the house at the beginning of the summer. She's back on oxygen, but only at night. She didn't have any water to drink the whole time we were there. Mom came in from work (she's just moved out of the house and back into her own house but is still working in Sac) and made Granny a sandwich and we had a little chit chat. I think it was a good visit overall and I'm glad we insisted on visiting. Who cares that she didn't have a gift or card for my birthday? I'm 32 tomorrow. It's not a cool birthday; I'm claiming to be 27 again. But she did give me some money. We stopped by Louis Cairos in Williams on the way home and brought home delicious steak dinner. I got a rib eye smothered in miso onion butter and grilled onion with ranch beans and minestrone soup. Yummers. So I still got a great gift.

On a side note, I also got a call from my dad yesterday. He was apologizing for being incommunicado the last 2 months and wanted us to swing by to pick up some money he wanted us to have for Liam's daycare. His van finally died last week and I guess he and my uncle Ted spent the day on Saturday shopping for my dad's first new vehicle since they bought my Garfunkle when I was 12 (um, 20 years ago!). He got a Toyota Tacoma pickup, new, and I think it will be a great investment for him and his property. But he also told me that my Grandpa Bert was in the hospital in Stockton, just having had surgery and was recovering really well. I thought this was for a kidney transplant that dad said he needed. But no. Apparently he had a brain tumor too. And his doctor had not originally wanted to operate on it; I guess he said "let's wait a couple of months and see, but I don't think it's malignant." So I guess my grandpa told him that if he didn't get the tumor out of his brain, then he would stop going to dialysis. I can understand his reasoning. The man's 90 years old. If his brain isn't good enough to rescue, why should his kidney be?

All in all, I'm so lucky that my boys have 3 great grandparents still in their lives, even though we only spend a significant amount of time with my Granny. I still have fond memories of my two great grandmothers, both of whom I knew throughout elementary school.

Colin is 4 (months)

The little Coco-butter is now 4 months old and becoming a better human every day. I'm getting a little apprehensive because I can't believe it's almost Back to School time and I'll be leaving my little guy and heading back to work in a couple weeks. Here's the latest on Colin Alexander Rogers: Age 4m.

Likes:

• sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed (no we don't co-sleep, but he falls asleep nice and hard after his early morning meal and can sleep a couple hours more if we leave him on the bed)
• his JumperRoo (which he is now a pro at using and gets everyone in the house smiling when he uses it)
• his feet - he hasn't quite gotten them into his mouth yet, but he loves to hold them and usually only talks when he's got his feet in his hands
• LIAM!!! - zOMG his big brother is probably the most awesome thing Colin has ever encountered
• diaper changes - probably the time Daddy and I get the biggest smiles from him is when he's trying to make diaper changing difficult by grabbing feet, diapers, or various articles of clothing
• Lamaze toys - he was obsessing over Mortimer "Bruce" Moose earlier in the month but switched to Jacques Peacock. Then we got him a "knot monster" the other day when we wanted to go to Roseville and he love love loves that.

Development:

• talking/cooing - he's a chatty little guy, but see above note about feet
• rolling over - ummm, still trying hard on that one; Colin gets about halfway over and decided being on his side is better
• no longer needs to be swaddled, but it still calms him down a lot of the time
• can be put down for a nap/sleep without falling asleep in the arms
• has basically outgrown the Puj (his baby tub)
• almost reached out for me in his first moment of "Mommy, you need to come here and pick me up" when he caught eye contact with me after I had been at the grocery store and didn't come get him as soon as I got home. He also cried really loud then.
• sleeping for long long stretches at night and on a good-night schedule that usually has him asleep within 30-45 min of putting Liam to bed each night (8-10hours of straight sleeping baby = bliss for Momma)

Growth/Doctor Stuff:

• Dr. Honeychurch is still not concerned with Colin's poop-schedule. Yup, Colin is still pooping only once every 3-4 days. Because he's not straining and his belly isn't distended and there's no blood in the stool, he's just not a poopy baby. It's just so weird for a mostly breastfed baby to not poop all damn day. Liam pooped at least 3x/day and he was mostly formula fed by this age.
• Jon thinks Colin's hemangioma is getting smaller. I can't see a difference. Doctor said it would actually shrink from the inside (middle) out so I don't think it is shrinking just yet.
• Both Daddy and I were WAY off on our guesses for how big he would be. We had a bit of a cheat in that we weighed him the day we took Liam in to ask about his fever & rash. Colin was 14 1/2 lbs on that day.
• 15 3/4 lbs (55th percentile)
• 27 1/2 inches tall (99th+ percentile)
• 42 1/2 cm head circumference - my babies have such enormous braincases
• Got more shots at the doc's this time. Only, unlike the 2 month visit, he was not so much of a trooper. And boy was he miserably grouchy for the rest of the day.
• Still mostly breastfed; he takes only about one bottle/day anywhere between 4-6oz of formula.
• Had an allergy attack this week. Basically, seasonal/environmental allergies. Luckily his only reaction was red rimmed eyes and lots of congestion (which led us to haul out the dreaded sot snucker)
  

Where we've gone:

• 4th of July celebration at the Stonehouses. Colin did a little better swimming in their pool than he did in Katherine's pool in June.
• Spent a day at Granny's with Granny and Mannam while we were at a food & wine afternoon with friends.
• We went to the doctor for Liam; ergo we went to ice cream at Ben & Jerry's scoop shop
• We went to Roseville to go shopping for a breast pump adapter for the car; ergo we went to Big Spoon for fro-yo.

Happy 4 months my little man. I love you!!!

Mothers Day & school

Yesterday was my 3rd Mothers Day and my first being a mother of TWO!!! It was a pretty low-key affair. We basically stayed indoors all day. Jon made all the meals and got me a card. We watched Toy Story 3 and The Princess & the Frog to help keep Liam placated and entertained. Dinner was steaks, baked potato, and roasted asparagus. I will probably go get a pedicure or a hair cut or something as a mommy gift to myself.

On Saturday, I took Colin all the way down to Roseville very very early in the morning because I had to do my glucose tolerance test to see if my diabetes has gone away. I had to fast for 8-10 hours overnight and I just barely passed the fasting glucose. I still don't know what my 2-hour result is. Colin and I are also participating in a study about gestational diabetes/diabetes. So I had all my measurements taken; height, weight, waist, BMI. And then Colin got measured (basically the same thing). He's only 6 weeks and he's now 11lbs and 22.4". Wow! Then afterward, I took my mom and grandmother out for lunch at Spaghetti Factory. Granny kept sneaking glances at Colin about every 3 minutes. When we went back to Granny's house, I fixed her email and her Facebook page for her. She kept falling asleep in the easy chair and talking in her sleep. It was very funny.

I got some pics uploaded from Liam's milkshake adventure if you want to go back and view them. I have to admit, they are frickin' ADORABLE (and I'm not just saying that because he's my sweet little man).

And now, our big milestone . . . Liam went off to preschool this morning. The school is on the opposite corner of our block. He's as big as the 4y/o kids but of course he's 32m. He'll be going from 7:30-12:30 every weekday and we plan to keep it up over the summer. He didn't want to wake up this morning, but he did eat his breakfast and get dressed with ease. We walked him there and he immediately ran into the preschool room and began playing with the toy cars. He couldn't have cared less if we were there; he only cried when Jon tried to get a hug goodbye because he didn't want to stop playing. I think it's gonna be so great for him. I'm really excited.

Easter

While I sit here and nurse, I thought I'd finally post on Easter (with pictures!). I'm also thinking about it because Liam was whining (it's been a whiny morning) "Mannam and Gamma," and I got some great pictures of Liam with my grandmother

Colin 4 weeks old.

To start off, with Easter being so late this year, everybody except my mom thought Easter was the previous week (apr. 17). So Jon and I were planning to do a combo Easter/Jon's 36th birthday. Once we got that confusion over with, we decided to postpone the birthday celebration to actual Easter. And I decided we should host since I wanted to get the house cleaned up a little. The birthday was really important because Liam's been wanting to have a birthday party since Colin was born (probably because of the balloon that's still floating on our living room ceiling).

A couple of days before Easter, my mom called to say that my granny was in the hospital again. She had had heart attack symptoms but luckily it was not the case; she was extremely anemic though. Mom didn't know that she'd be feeling up for celebrating even if she got out of the hospital. So we canceled and then stopped housekeeping. Lol.

Liam's 2 Easter baskets.Colin's 1st teeny tiny Easter basket.

Granny got discharged on Friday night and really wanted Easter. So plans were back on and then we had to hustle to get cleaning done before 3pm.

The boys taking a nap during cleaning.

We had corned beef, roasted potatoes and asparagus, and cabbage. It was delicious. I put some lovely cala lilies from Jon's mom's plant on the table.

We had devils food cupcake with peanut butter cup surprise inside and Liam helped Jon blow out his candles (Jon is now a whole box of candles old - 3 dozen).

Liam checking on the spoils of his egg hunt. Note the color sorting. He also counted them in Spanish (until he got to cinco, then they were all cinco).

We did an egg hunt indoors because our yard is too unkempt and too noisy being on the busy corner we live on.

We tried to watch Tangled since Mom and Granny hadn't seen it, but Liam was getting too fussy and loud (I'll have to let them borrow it).
The best surprise from the Easter bunny was a "magic wand," what Liam calls his "big, giant egg!" and all the candies.

Liam flinging basket grass around to look for more "jumping" beans.

I guess we're more regal now

Well, we finally did it. We upped the size of our bed. Jon's been moaning about getting a king-sized bed for more than a year now. He claims we are really uncomfortable in it. At his birthday in April, I asked him if he would rather have an e-reader or a bigger bed. He voted for bigger bed. But he ended up with neither since we just couldn't swing it financially. Well, the New Years sales were our godsend. Thanks to mega sale at Sears and my mom having just opened a Sears charge, we were able to purchase our big new bed(s).

We got a Cal-king for us. Liam got a twin (but my mom paid for that mattress). Both new beds are actually the same model. Yeah sure it was the 2nd cheapest in the store, but aside from frugality, we both liked the feel. It was firm enough for support, but the euro-top makes it squishy. Liam loves his new bed, but he's also very wary of sleeping in it; it's rather big for a little guy.


So this morning I woke up with a marked increase in my sciatica pain (oh yeah, that symptom is back...on the other side than what I had during my first pregnancy). I know it was from sleeping in a strange bed and that I'll feel more comfortable in a few days. Jon said he felt like he was in a hotel bed or sleeping at Grandma's house. It just felt weird for all of us. Can you blame Liam for waking with whimpers just 2 minutes before my alarm went off?

It was tiring to work with my back/hip/leg pain all day. But not as bad as yesterday when I had a bout of contractions in the middle of an afternoon class. Not too much to worry about; I'm assuming they were braxton hicks. But I felt really low and slow before my class began and then about 30 min in I had definite tightening and discomfort in the abdomen. I realized I can't tell if it would be early contractions/labor as I never went into labor on my own with Liam. I walked around for 2 1/2 weeks being dilated to 3.5cm and 90% effaced on my cervix and still needed to have my water broken and pitocin.

Can't wait for this 3-day weekend of king-sized bed bliss.

sleep challenges all around

No one in the Rogers family is getting a decent night's sleep.

Pregnancy is starting to wear on my back. I hate side sleeping and I'm starting to get the first twinges of sciatica. I miss belly sleeping. Last night was my worst night because we gave the cats their flea treatment yesterday afternoon. Well Poppy spent the entire [expletive deleted] night sleeping wrapped around my head. I mean wrapped. Because I was so locked in, I had trouble rolling and tossing like I needed to to take the pressure off of my back. The new bed can't come soon enough!

Speaking of new bed...we're finally getting a king sized bed. We have been trying to do it for the last - oh I don't know how many months - since Jon's last birthday. So many things kept us from buying; the top two reasons are the fact that we moved to Colusa and then we had NO money. Well, my mom and Sear's came through for us. No, my mom didn't buy the bed for us (sadly) but she did offer to put it on her store card so that we wouldn't have to risk getting dinged on our credit or rejected flat out. Then Sears had a phenomenal New Year mattress deal. 50% off + 10% off any set over $499 + free delivery & haul away. Funny thing, we ended up getting the second cheapest model but after rolling around on it for a long time, it really was the one for us. Firm but with a "euro-top". We added the most expensive frame. Got free warranty (10 yrs on the mattress and foundation, lifetime on the frame) but unfortunately no free delivery or haul away as we live out in BFN. And because my mom put it on her store charge, we got the option of NO INTEREST FOR 18 MONTHS -w00t!!!! And she got store appreciation points for redeeming too. The bed is supposed to be delivered on the 13th.

Sunday night: My mom also bought Liam a twin sized bed. It's a combo birthday/Christmas gift. It's actually the same model mattress and I think it will do him for awhile (until he's 11 and 6'17" right?). So we pulled the mattress from his crib on Sunday afternoon and set him up a little nest on the floor. He did okay going to bed and was so exhausted from not napping all day that he went down fairly easily. We only had to get up a couple times to put him back in as he'd rolled out.

Monday night: It was just as easy to put him to bed because we'd spent the whole afternoon with the Mathesons and, again, Liam got no nap. But at 2:30 am, Jon was called to duty. I was kept awake for a good 30 minutes or so while Liam wailed. Sometime around 4:30 Jon came limping back to bed. He'd had to sleep on the floor with his head on the mattress - bad idea. My poor hubster got the worst muscle tension in his neck from it. Thankfully, the little man slept until 9am yesterday so Jon was able to sleep for several hours in our bed.

Tuesday night: Liam refused to nap in his nest yesterday afternoon. Oh well. We have a lot of trouble getting him to nap, crib or no. But he went to bed easily again since he was exhausted. But Jon was called to duty at 3 something. My alarm was already going off by the time he came back to bed and Liam was obviously not asleep. We tried to ignore him. Finally Jon asked me to get up and go in with him (I'm currently trying to get back on my work schedule for next week, but was worried about getting up and starting my morning since Liam would want to get up). I opened the door and Liam was wandering around his room crying "momma, daddy!" but there were no tears. He saw me, smiled, and ran over to his changing pad (new frog in arm) and said "diaper!" Okay...so I changed his nighttime diaper which was pretty full. Then we rocked for a couple songs on his lullaby CD. He was out like a light but the second his head made contact with the bed, he woke up and started fussing. So I laid next to him and patted his back for a few more songs. I tried to get up as my back was KILLING ME from the cat fiasco last night, but as soon as I made a noise, he sat up and whined again. I told him I was still there and sat next to the bed. He settled, closed his eyes and didn't make any movement when the other cat came lumbering in and tromping on stuff (how does a 7 1/2lb cat make so much noise and be so ungraceful?). We sat watching him for awhile. We snuck out. HE hasn't peeped the entire time I've been writing this entry. My back is killing me. The coffee isn't kicking in yet.

Like I said, no one is getting a decent night's sleep at the Rogers' house.

big Friday

Day spent with Nana delightful. New clothes.

Trip to park.
Visit from Mommy's friends, Tom & Liz.
Tom's a great tickler; kept making him tickle me more.
Crashed at 8!