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!!!

Colin 2 month

Colin turns 2 months old today. Yesterday we kept Liam out of school and took both of them down to Davis to see Dr. Honeychurch. The weather turned to crap pretty quick too. Can you believe it? It's almost Memorial Day and we've only had 1 day all spring that felt like it was getting warmer. It's basically been in the high 60s all spring and yesterday the temps dropped again and we had torrential rains in our area (it was only slightly sprinkling in Davis though). On an aside: I had to call Dad a couple of times yesterday afternoon to try to wake him up (he sleeps days/works nights) because his town was right in the path of a tornado warning!!! He didn't answer but I think it might havebeen hard to hear the phone when it was hailing so hard. Luckily no tornado touched down in Rio Linda, but . . . there were 4 confirmed tornadoes in the area yesterday. FOUR TORNADOES!!!

Okay, Liam still has a nasty little preschool plague. Jon's got it now and so do I. I'm starting to feel a bit better now though. Luckily Colin is only a little congested. Doctor didn't seem too concerned at all either about their lungs; both boys had clear lungs (as clear as you can get with a cold). Liam got a check-up too since he needed one for preschool. He's 39 1/2" tall which I kind of suspected since he's been walking around with a meter stick from my classroom and is pretty much as tall as it is. He also weighed in at 36 lbs. That puts him at 99th percentile for height and 65th percentile for weight. It also explains why he's still wearing 2T size waist but has to have 4T length. My boy is so hard to shop for. Since his eyes were a little crusty from his cold, the doctor decided to give us a prescription for pink eye medication just in case he should develop conjunctivitis. Gawd I'm not looking forward to putting eye drops in his eyes - please pray he doesn't get pink eye from preschool.

Colin was 23 1/2" and just a smidge over 12 lbs. He's pretty much in the 80th percentile for both. I compared their charts and Colin is consistent with a little shorter and a little chubbier at every mark so far. He had to get his next round of vaccinations and that was sad for poor baby. But I took him out and nursed him in the car right after the appointment and he seemed to be comfortable right away. He also did not get a fever or sleepy from his shots; he stayed on his normal schedule all day. Doctor also took a look at his strawberry hemangioma, which has gotten quite a bit bigger since his 2 weeks appointment but seems to have slowed/stopped growing now. Doctor said that it'll probably go away on its own but that it might take up to 2 years. He also told us to keep a good watch on it because they can get bigger and are very vascular so if it should get scratched, it wouldn't be uncommon for it to bleed for an hour or more. Ugh. He also said there's a treatment for it that uses lasers, but he doesn't want to consider it until Colin's growth has slowed in toddlerhood.

Without further ado, here are pictures of my big little boy!

Look at how strong he is and holding up that head of his! Good job!

Obviously Liam was not having a good time trying to take a picture with his brother. He really does love him, honestly.

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.

long day - ugh

Didn't sleep well last night and I'll admit it's because I'd had too much wine to drink. When Colin woke up to breastfeed at 1:30, Ii probably would have slept right through it if Jon hadn't gotten him diapered and handed him over to my half conscious body.

Woke up, but could not keep my eyes open this morning even after 2 cups of coffee.

Liam was already getting whiny by noon even though he was a charming cherub when he first woke up. Colin was whimpering or crying every 1/2 hour. I was a little grateful to get to run off to the dentist, but let's face it, I went to the dentist; never will you hear anyone remark "I had the grandest time getting my teeth cleaned! Tra-la!" And just my luck, I had a cavity. Luckily, I'll be able to wait until January to have it filled when my benefits go to 100%.

By the time I got home, the boys (all 3 of them) were falling apart. Jon had had a devil of a time giving the whiny 2 y/o quality time and still meeting the needs of the infant. He handed them both over to me and started playing a game on his phone. Apparently there had been one tantrum that lasted 45 min. until Liam calmed down.

Dinner turned into another 30 minutes of screaming when I admonished him for trying to stick beef fat onto the wheels of a Hotwheels car. We would not even have sent him to his room except that he purposefully dumped his plated on the floor. I let Jon escape to walk the birth announcements to the post office. Liam was basically pretty good for awhile. He even tried to help me sweep and mop the entryway (keeping up with my FLYlady chores - wish I could say the same for Hubster). Then I gave him a bath. But then he devolved again.

He tried to throw a full out, head bashing tantrum in the bathroom. I simply can't allow that as the bathroom is such an easy place to get hurt (although also easy to mop up blood if he really continues to insist on bashing his brains against the ground). I tried a naughty-chair time out for the first time; we've been watching a lot of supernanny while I've been on maternity leave. It only took 5x to reinforce that he would stay on the chair for 2 min. Then he even said he was sorry and told me he loved me. And then he went into an uncontroleable screaming/sobbing fit for 20min. Jon came in, said goodnight and got "goodnight" and "i fuff u daddy." I just got more crying and whining. I couldn't read to him because he was so loud. He refused to rock. I finally got to the verge of tears and just shut the door. He railed on for another 25, but at least he never came out of his room.

Colin was sobbing when I came out. He needed to be fed. I'm so so done now. Liam's sleeping but now Colin is screaming (I apparently didn't have enough milk tonight).

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32 weeks

So here we are with 2 months left. I don't know which seems shorter or freaks me out more in terms of leaving my classroom unprepared. 8 weeks? 2 months? Either way, I'm still hoping to work up until I go into labor or my doctors refuse to let me work. And either way, it freaks me out because I'm so busy and focused just trying to get my lessons for the next month all squared away and pull off our school's first medieval festival that I haven't had time to put a schedule of lessons for long-term (and as yet undetermined) substitute. Things were so much easier when I knew I was having my baby in the summer. This not knowing thing is awful in the middle of the school year. I go to the doc on Wednesday.

So here's some updates:
Baby B still has no potential names.

He is now the size of a squash, but what does that mean? I know he's definitely bigger than any summer variety squash (like zucchini or crook neck). But does it mean he weighs the same as a squash or that he's the length of a squash? Acorn squash are small but dense. Is he a spaghetti squash? a butternut? (I love butternut squash). All this talk of squash is making me nostalgic - acorn squash puree was Liam's very first solid food!

Home scale says I'm only slightly up from my pre-preggo weight. Only about 1-2 lbs on avg. I made a specific point to ask my high-risk clinic nurse when she called a couple weeks ago for my blood sugar report. My doctor hasn't said anything about the weight. The nurse said that if I'm eating right (following my diabetic diet), snacking frequently, and not feeling hungry or deprived then it's okay to not gain weight. She said I was overweight to begin with (I know) and that the doctor would probably only want a 15lb gain overall. She also reminded me the fastest gain will be in the last 2 months, when I'll probably gain 1lb. week.

Speaking of diet . . . I've been bad lately. I've been sneaking in sugary snacks here and there and everywhere. So this last week I decided I needed to monitor my sugars more than my required 3x week. The worst thing is that my fasting glucose levels have been sneaking up. They're supposed to be <100 and preferably <90. Well, this week I've had several levels higher than 90 and the last two days were just over 100. I'm gonna get in trouble. I MUST have a late night snack of only protein!!!

Aches? The sciatica is easing. A lot in fact. At the beginning of last week it was so bad that I could barely stand. But I think I've finally gotten used to the new mattress (which is heavenly by the way). Since about Wednesday, the pain has just gone away. Ahhhh! I did get some stretching ideas from a coworker who is seeing a PT for his sciatica. They help when I do feel some twinging.

Weirdest moment this week was watching B spin somersaults around my belly. Jon got one of those weird-cool kicks out of it. I just liked watching him go-go-go. He's very active. Doctor said last time that this one might be our athlete...great.

Cravings? Many, but all things I really shouldn't have. Ice cream. Candy. The best was my idea was lays potato chips dipped in See's chocolate.

Pregnancy update: 25/26 weeks

Yesterday was a loooooong long day. I had trouble sleeping. Then while I was completely awake at 3-something, Liam woke up screaming so I got up with him instead of making Jon do it. He only took 2o minutes to get back to full sleep but I was still totally awake and chose to read. I didn't turn off the light until 4:45 (the alarm goes off at 5:15 ugh). Luckily everything I'm teaching this week is for next quarter when we return in January, so I think "If I screw up teaching about the Norman Invasion of England in 1066, well at least I have time to reteach it." Surprise!!! Get to work at 7:45 and had an IEP (special ed) meeting I'd completely forgotten about.

After school, it's off to the doctor's office. I actually got a coworker to cover 10 minutes of the end of the day so I could leave early. My doc works in Roseville which is about 75 minutes from school if I speed. This time I got to my appt with a few minutes to spare which meant my blood pressure was way down (in November, I sprinted up the two flights of stairs while suffering from a head cold and congestion so I was very winded). No proteins in my pee so pre-eclampsia is still not a worry (not that I was concerned, look at my ankles, they're shapely and Michelangelo would beg to sculpt them in marble). Only 1.5lbs gained from my pre-pregnancy weight. Don't freak out about that now - A) my doctor has never been concerned with my weight gain in either pregnancy because I've never had any major problems (like too much or too fast), B) I started off 20lbs heavier with this one than with Liam and officially in the "overweight BMI category, C) I've been on my diabetic diet the whole pregnancy and have been losing weight all over whilst baby/body/uterus gains.

She chose to increase my anti-depressants a little. (I think they're the cause of my sleep trouble so I'm switching to morning doses). I explained that I understand that they don't work like valium to take my world away on a cloud; they have been taking the immediate edge off of my reaction to things. Unfortunately, I am not seeking out the stressors in my life and I can't avoid the ones that are happening to me - namely things like angry parents or lack of money. But, besides being a union negotiator in the midst of compromising on $250k in stimulus money we got, I'm not choosing stress. Social obligations of the holidays have been especially difficult to (if you read my last whiny post, you understand my feelings). There was no more talk about going on disability, but only because I've only been on the zoloft for 4 weeks. I'll see how things are going when I meet with her/psychologist during break. Speaking of psyche . . . still can't get in to see one; they're so booked (probably the holidays).

Made my doc swear there was only one baby in my belly since I feel huge and ugly and none of my clothes fit. She said, only one - I've had 3 ultrasounds, and I'm measuring about a week behind by fundal height. Baby B's heartbeat was super strong though and very loud. She joked this one might be our athlete.

Got home around 7. Ended up not feeling tired until about almost 11pm. Wha?!!! Didn't I wake up at 3 am?! Wow, who knows why I had that much energy still. Hope to get a belly pic sometime this week.

Fungus amongus

We've been sick here in the Rogers house. It all started with a little bug bite on my ankle one morning, mid-October, when I woke up. It was the kind that I scratched the hell out of (it even bled a little) and then never bothered with it again. Well, a couple days later it was starting to look like a pimple or an ingrown hair. Then I made the mistake of shaving over it --- stupid!!! Within 10 days, it had gotten to be a red spot the size of a quarter and had that distinct circular ring shape. Yep, I have Tinea corporis, aka ringworm! I had been suspecting it for about a week, even before the ring shape developed and had been treating with miconozole (which I knew from my previous pregnancy was safe for topical fungal/yeast treatment) but it wasn't helping and now my legion was hurting.

Liam developed one ring spot on the back of his leg just before Halloween. We stopped by Target on November 1st and asked the pharmacist (they're great people, they know their shit, use them as a resource). She suggested clortrimozole; apply 2x daily like the package says. Well, my legion started to go away right away and is now practically gone. Two weekends later and Liam's spot is bigger and looks, to quote my husband, "angry." Over the weekend, we also noticed that Poppy has a bald spot on her ear and it's inflamed. Monday night Jon emails a photo to the doc; Tuesday found us racing to catch the last appointment.

Doc looks at both legions and says "yup it's ringworm." But apply 4x daily and expect it to take 4-6 weeks to clear up. Has to do with the compromised immune system of children. Add to that we've had head colds and mild congestion the last week and then I mentioned that Liam's cradle-cap is back. "Yup, more evidence of immature immune system. Perfectly normal."

How did I get it? you ask. Well, my coworker (and landlord's girlfriend) had a major outbreak of ringworm in her house this summer. I then roomed with her on a business trip while she was treating it. Any physical contact with her or her things could have caused it. But that was August!!! you exclaim. Yes, but ringworm is a fungus and can live dormant for a long time. I basically gave it to my cat, who gave it back to me, and that fateful morning I scratched that bug bite until it hurt-so-good I transferred it back from my hand (and the cat) to my leg.

As for treating the cat . . . the same clortrimozole cream on her ear a couple times a day. Rub it in really good so she licks as little as possible off. Her ear already looks better in the last couple days.

Stay healthy!

4-day weekend (day 1)

Warning LONG!

Today is Veterans Day so we have a crazy holiday in the middle of the week. Too bad students, you have to be back tomorrow. I originally scheduled a prenatal appointment with my nurse practitioner for tomorrow morning and then decided I would take ALL of Friday off instead of just a half-day. The original plan was to pawn the spawn off on someone else and take a little extended weekend with the Hubster. Well money's tight, that didn't work out. Then yesterday, I finally get around to checking my voicemail and find out my appointment on Friday has been canceled and I need to reschedule. Eek!!!

Well, guess what. The doc's office is open on Veterans Day and my actual Ob/Gyn had an opening. So I saw her today instead. Took some pics of my 20w belly to post up on Facebook for everyone (sorry about the blurry one with Liam, it was too cute though).

There was a new nurse taking my BP and checking my weight (oh yeah, still 1 lb under my first weight for this pregnancy - nothing like a carb-starvation diet!). She was awesome. While wrapping my arm with the BP cuff, she stops and exclaims "you have the most beautiful face!" Awwwww. Love her, she's my new favorite nurse!

The rest of the day . . . not so awesome. Turned into an emotional, blubbering mess with my doctor and all this just managed to triple the amount of snot coming out of my already rhinopharyngitis-y face (common cold). Gonna try going on some meds to help me manage life. It was either that or consider going on medical disability and ummmmm, that's not gonna pay the bills. Her first response was "can you quit your job?" Don't I wish. We'll give this about 6 weeks and see how I'm doing. Basically, the risks of medication to Baby "B" are far outweighed by the risks of momma being overwhelmed emotionally and financially strapped and stressed out. Yup. I'm a mess.

Then tried to go to JoAnn's to see if anything caught my eye (not that I could afford it). It was mobbed because, oh yeah, it was a holiday. I had a coughing fit in the middle of the store that was so bad I was gagging. I had no more tissues because I blew through them all in the doc's office. I had to race out to the car where, yet again, I had no tissues. I spent 5 minutes in the parking lot coughing and blowing my nose on a flyer for Woodland Community College. Let's just add to all this embarrassment the fact that I'm basically incontinent because I've had one child and never bothered to do kegel exercises last time or this.

WARNING IT GETS RANT-Y HERE!!!
I stopped at Target to get a few items we needed (like COFFEE FILTERS) and bought a box of tissues for the car. What should have been 5 minutes in-and-out turned into an ordeal as the gal in front of me turned out to be buying with an EBT card. Ugh, and her foodstamps card didn't swipe. So they checker had to ring her through like 3x before he finally got a manager. All the while, I'm miserable and just want to drive the 75 minutes home (or at least blow my nose again) and I notice that she's got a new Blackberry, a new purse, and basically appears like she's abusing the government assistance. This just serves to make me more mad about the fact that we can't get on WIC or foodstamps because I make too damned much money in gross but no one ever pays attention to the fact that my share of health insurance is 1/3 or my monthly check. We never make it through the month and haven't for 18 months now. I friggin' use birthday money to buy groceries or pay for electricity. And to top it all off . . . SHE WAS A HAIR TWIRLER! ugh >:(

Oh, I stopped by Chic-fil-a for the first time on the way home. It was decent, but I still like Carl's Jr. burgers better.