It's been a while since I blogged. It's been a hectic week-plus. My brother's surgery went well Friday and he may be going home from the hospital tomorrow. I talked to a cousin Friday evening (about my brother) and found out that another cousin is getting married this fall, probably in September or October. Depending on the date they choose and the date my baby chooses, I may have to miss the wedding.

DS crawled up some stairs for the first time yesterday (4 steps at church). Now we need to teach him to go down backwards, because he turned around and wanted to go down head-first! He is always walking very well holding onto someone's fingers or his "push-walker".

My Sweet Adeline competition last weekend was fun but we didn't perform up to our ability during the 6 minutes on stage when it counted for the competition. DH did fine taking care of DS, and DS did very well being quiet during the singing.

I'm at work right now (10pm on Sunday night) and wish I were at home. This is part of what I do, and I usually take it very much in stride. This time has been different. All I want to do lately is sleep, or hold or play with DS. I have been extremely un-motivated at work the past few weeks and I wonder "why am I here" often. My new office finally got furniture over a week ago, but I can't move in until the electricity is hooked up to my desk (because they will have to pull it away from the wall to do the work). Hopefully getting into my new location (but not until the end of this/next week) will inspire me.

Ouch

Yesterday evening DS was bitten by one of the other kids in the nursery at church. It didn't break the skin, and the nursery attendant said he only cried for a couple of minutes. The boy who did it is 15 months old, I think. I think DS must have forgiven the other boy pretty quickly, because when we left he waved and jabbered at the other boy.

Sleep

Last night DS slept until 4am again! This is the 3rd or 4th time since the weekend. It sure has been nice! And last night / this morning he even stayed asleep until about 7 after nursing (and a bottle). I'm hoping that this means he is "sleeping through the night", or will be soon. Six to seven hour stretches are great! Now if I would just go to bed at a decent time, I could get that much too! :-)

BM success!

After two days of Karo (corn) syrup in his juice, three tries with glycerin suppositories, 4-5 days of abdominal massage, and several warm baths, DS finally had the big uncomfortable BM we've been waiting and hoping for. About and hour and a half after the suppository last evening he started grunting and squirming, so I started drawing the warm bath. I knew it could be messy, but by that point I didn't care. He had been so uncomfortable for so long.

(Stop reading now if you don't want the graphic details of what and how it finally worked.)
His diaper had a small amount in it, as it has most changes for the past 2 days. Since DH was gone, and I was on my own, I did things a little differently than usual. I undressed DS and put on another regular diaper, put our towels on the bathroom floor, then undressed myself, took of DS's diaper and we both got in the warm tub. We played and I rubbed DS's tummy a little. It had been close to 20 minutes without any action, and I was about to get us out when DS started squirming and whining. A little BM material came out and floated around in tiny pieces (ick) and then a medium sized chunk. Okay, that was progress. Then a minute or two later DS really started crying. I lifted him up a bit in the water so he wasn't sitting on the bottom of the tub. Out came 2 big logs. I waited a bit to make sure that was all, then DS started sucking his fingers (which I had kept out of the water once things started moving). I got us out of the tub, flushed the logs, and took DS to the kitchen for a real bath with soap in the kitchen sink. Within minutes he was jabbering and playing and as happy as ever! (Not reserved, clingy, and almost lethargic like he had been for almost 2 days.) Large chunks of fecal material have never been so sweet!

After the 2nd bath, nighttime diaper, pajamas, nursing, and getting DS to sleep, I wiped out the tub then sprayed it down with Lysol. It wasn't nearly as gross as I had anticipated.

Oops

The news is still bad, but it is a different person. My brother is the one with cancer on his kidneys. He just called to correct my misunderstanding because he wife still reads Blog to a Baby. (Hi J!)

I think my brain must have just flipped out last night when my husband told me about the phone call from my dad. I heard my brother's name, then my dad's name, then "cancer" and the rest must have gotten mixed around. It's a big relief about my dad... he has enough to deal with right now with recovering from his broken hip (and getting to go home tomorrow -- finally). But it raises all kinds of other concerns for my brother and his family, which includes 3 children. The good news is that renal cell cancer, if still Stage I, or even Stage II, has a very good prognosis. He will have surgery, probably next week, and they will remove the kidney and some tissue around it and a few lymph nodes to test to see if it has spread. Even without a biopsy they are fairly sure it is malignant. Apparently the looks of it on the CT scan are pretty telling.

OncoLink -- I just found out that my dad has cancer. He has a cancerous growth on one of his kidneys. I don't know much about it yet, but they think they caught it early and that it has not metastasized. They will operate "soon", but I don't know how soon.

Cancer is such a scary word. My mom died from cancer 4 1/2 years ago. My son never met his Grandma. He does know Grandpa, and I pray that he will know him long enough to remember him!

Feeding Times - Issue 5 - January/February 2003 -- this includes an article about the Ad Council getting ready to do a campaign to promote breastfeeding.

Don't Try This at Home! - How a C-section is performed, in detail, from the doctor's perspective. I was aware of most of this... between watching videos, watching my sister's, and having one myself.

Cloth Diapered Children and Day Care Providers -- Is Cloth a hygienic alternative within a day care setting? -- Cut of Cloth -- I don't think it ever dawned on me that a Day Care would not accept cloth diapers. Mine has made provisions for handling them, and I didn't even have to provide my own diaper pail. The first teacher would separate the diapers from the covers for me, but the current one will not. I have also asked them to dump the solids into the toilet, but they won't do that either. The good side to that is that I know at the end of the day how big of a "bm" DS had. This article makes an interesting point, that for the reduction of spreading disease, all fecal matter should be flushed, both from cloth and disposable diapers.

Mothering Magazine -- Slings

I feel awful

I stayed home from work this morning and went to the doctor to have my ear checked. I have a bad cold and my ear and throat hurt. He thinks it's a sinus infection with fluid behind my eardrum because the ear itself looks okay. I vomited again this morning, too. That is definitely no fun! I stayed home all day Wednesday because of "morning" sickness. I took a morning nap and had intended to go to work in the afternoon, but my "morning" nap lasted until 2pm. Besides the antibiotic, my doctor prescribed plenty of fluids and lots of rest. Yeah, right.

Changing The Sleep Pattern In The Family Bed -- an email friend of mine recommended this, but she took much more time at each step than Dr. Gordon suggests.

Last night was rough

Everytime DS awoke he cried and cried. I tried to nurse him, but there isn't much there (which made me sad enough to cry too). Even after drinking a bottle it took him a while to go to sleep, and he didn't seem very satisfied. We are starting to think that he might really be teething finally.

I think I'm catching DS's cold, too. He has had a runny nose since Saturday. I don't really feel like it's a cold yet, but my voice is starting to sound like I'm getting one. I have to figure out how to get more sleep!