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Plan B

Three offers on Burbank houses proved to be worthless. So we took this as a sign to do Plan B. A house can come in due time but for now we're going to focus on the baby.

My Fluffy Love

If you haven't heard already, I just came back from gall bladder surgery. It turned out to be a 48 hour ordeal which meant the husband was in charge of our 4 1/2 month old baby, ALL by himself. This was a big deal but he took care of her with flying colors. He brought my daughter to visit me in the hospital (well she needed to eat) two times and both times she had on her cloth diapers and he neatly packed away her diapering supplies in her diaper bag without me even saying anything.

I use an All in 2 (AI2) system called Gro Baby by The Natural Baby Co. If it weren't so easy to use their system my husband would have been forced to go buy sposies. When he and my daughter came to visit me, he didn't quite feel comfortable using the wet bag and such so he brought along a few Bio Soakers which are biodegradable inserts that fit into the Gro Baby shells.

I felt so proud that my husband used cloth diapers on his own and this wouldn't have been possible without Gro Baby cloth diapering system. So I just wanted to post some fluffy love.

Gall Woes

This past Sunday I had a beautiful breakfast with my Dad and Step Mom, Husband, and Daughter. We ate a quaint little place at the Redondo Beach Pier called Polly's on the Pier. It had been foggy that morning and just as we had arrived the sun shone through. We ate outside right on the tiny little fishing pier. The water lapped at the edge of the rocks making for a nice soundscape while we ate. We talked about future plans, we talked about the baby, we just had a thoughtful time.

Fast forward a few hours later I felt like I was going in to labor again. My stomach wrenched in pain, twisting, turning, stabbing pain. I reluctantly went to the ER, with husband and baby in tow. A sign read at the front door "No visitors 18 years and under are permitted in the Hospital." A little extreme but this is to help keep the little one's safe during flu season. Already I felt a pang of guilt having her there. I couldn't think of an alternative though. She refuses to drink from a bottle, and I'm her source of food.

My experience at ER last  year "bleeding while pregnant" had me in the waiting room for 7 hours! This year I was slightly luckier and only waited about an hour and a half. I was put in a room and the doctor came to see me half an hour after that. He asked me a few questions, glanced at my baby, and immediately ordered an ultrasound of my gall bladder. Apparently having gall stones is entirely common after having a baby; maybe something to do with escalated estrogen levels. The ultrasound confirmed the doctor's suspicions but my bloodwork is what dictated how the rest of my hospital stay would go. I had a silght infection racing through my blood and its at that point when they say "bye bye gallbladder." I was rushed into the operating room an hour after my diagnosis. The surgeon was a short, seemed to be 30 something right out of med school. But her name was Dr. Allie Jones and Allie is my nieces name so I felt at ease in a strange way. I sent my husband  off with the baby with instructions. I had complete trust in him, but I also felt a huge pain in my heart because I knew she wouldn't take well to the bottle. This really weighed heavy in my heart. Again I felt helpless.

I woke up choking on what I thought was phlegm and later after the anesthesia wore off I realized it was my uvula (you know that punching bag thing hanging down from your throat). woops!  My mom was there before and after my surgery. That was welcoming and I didn't feel so estranged with what was going on anymore. My mom and I have a way of downplaying major happenings in our lives with mediocre banter irrelevant to what's really going on. It's comforting.

The hard part was the night there without my baby, without my husband. I heard a man coughing hacking his brains out ALL night long. My piddly little incisions from the laproscopy seemed to pail in comparison to what he was going through. I received three punctures (one in my belly button) and one three inch incision below my sternum.  They used some sort of scifi super glu to hold my wounds together. It was 7am the next day and the nurses let my husband and baby come so I could feed her. She only took 1oz when I was gone for 15 hours. She gulped like crazy. All was in working order and the doctor let me go home. I was in my own bed by 10am on Monday. Me and my baby slept all day together. She ate and all was right.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I put the baby on her activity mat and noticed that I was looking quite yellow. My urine was almost a blood tinged color. I called the surgeon and she said I may have a bile leak and to come to ER right away. Round two of being in the hospital. This time they had to put me under again (8 hours after I came got to ER mind you.) I had an endoscopy which was to determine if I had any leaks, blockages, or loose gall stones. Earlier I had a catscan to see if the surgical clip was still in place or any fluids were in my gut. All looked good. To do the endoscopy I laid on my stomach (not too fun when you have incisions on your stomach) and they exray your insides. The good news is all was clear, but they did confirm I had acid reflux...who doesn't? So the true testament was my bloodwork the following morning.

I came in with a bilirubin level of 4, normally its a 1. The next morning's draw was a 2. They let me go home; said the stone must have passed on its own. All is right in my world now and my baby couldn't be happier to have me home. She is my ultimate sunshine.

Note to self in case I have surgery again....stay your ass in bed. For some reason I'm always on the go. I came home started cleaning house and even cooked dinner. I paid for it that night with a sore abdomen.

Cloth Diapering PSA to the Media Gods

There are a few people in this world that have missions to make humanity better and go out of their way to get followers. Today I am following one of those people in order to get cloth diapers back to the main stream. How this person and their loyal followers intend to do this is to try and feature the "modern" cloth diapers with media giant Ellen Degeneres.

This holds a special place in my heart since I used to work for the company that produces her show and well because I want to save the earth from ourselves too. Cloth diapering is ridiculously easy, incredibly inexpensive, and can't understand why so many people just dismiss them without any thought. Only 29 years ago when I was born my mother and most everyone elses' mother used cloth diapers. It's time to get back to the old but with modern technology and save this planet.

I learned about this three phase plan from the "DiaperShops.com" facebook fan page who linked to the dirtydiaperlaundry blog post "Cloth Diaper Carnival IV-Get Cloth Diapers Featured on the Ellen Show." So I am writing this entry in order to do my part to get the Cloth Diapering PSA out to the Media Gods and hopefully onto Ellen's show.  This blog entry is part of Phase 1.

If you are a cloth diapering advocate and want to help....post a blog about this topic and tweet “@TheEllenShow  Why I want to see #clothdiapers on your show. "your blog post link"  #operationfluffy”

Into the Wild

January 9th marks a somewhat special date for me. It was on this date in 2009 that I went snowshoeing. Big whoop some might say but for me it was my first time snowshoeing...while pregnant! Now don't get all panicky. I was blissfully unaware of the little sesame seed that was growing in my belly. A few days after returning from my trip I felt this horrible sickness in my stomach and on January 13th the sickness was confirmed to be due to pregnancy! I immediately felt horrible that I had unknowingly gone snowshoeing while pregnant. All the foreseeable'what if's' went through my head. From the point of finding out I was pregnant I vowed to walk on egg shells. In retrospect I probably didn't have to.

Fast forward to one year later with a happy, healthy, beautiful, unbelievably peaceful baby (sorry had to brag) I felt it was time to venture off into the wild again. I purchased an Ergo baby carrier at the recommendation of the Baby Wearing Mamma's board on Baby Center. And signed up for a hike with the Sierra Club's Little Hikers. Now I know plenty of places to hike but I love hiking in groups and they accommodated kids. 

So on January 9, 2010 me, my husband, and my daughter all ventured into the hills of Malibu on the famous M*A*S*H hike. That morning I excitedly strapped on my hiking boots which mind you were last worn exactly one year ago on my snow shoeing trip (who knew I'd become pregnant!). I felt no anxiety at all taking my baby out in to nature. To me being in nature is like breathing air. Fresh air.   My husband on the other hand had a lot of apprehensions but finally 4 months after her birth he felt comfortable enough to "risk it". 

The hike was beautiful, lined partially by a slow moving creek, large oak trees, a few redwoods, and surprisingly green hills! I suppose two days of rain had helped. I strapped on my baby in the new Ergo and it was surprisingly comfortable. Though my husband offered to carry her, I felt like the extra 13 odd pounds of weight would help me with my "lose the baby weight" fitness goal. As avid backpackers BC (that is before children), having the right weight distribution was important and Ergo seemed to keep the baby close, put the weight on my hips, and keep my shoulders from aching. All in all we did an 8 mile hike and the only thing sore were my feet from my "unbroken" in boots. I actually also purchased a Beco Butterfly II at the recommendation that it fits petite women better however it was horrible in my opinion for a five + hour front carry. 

It was today that I finally felt like my old self and not the frenzied, frantic, flabby, saggy, lack of sleep, new mom that I was.