What's an Easter memory from your childhood? How is/will your child's Easter celebration be different or the same?
As I was preparing for 4.0’s first Easter, I couldn’t help but reflect upon my Ghosts of Easters Past.
Spring break never seemed to coincide with the holiday. My first year in law school, I remember thinking I was going to make myself a nice Easter dinner since I was spending it alone (I splurged on lamb!) Unfortunately, I got a little over zealous with the garlic. To boot, I suddenly came down with the flu and started feeling like death not long after I tried to stomach the over-garlicked spread. It was awful and all I wanted was my mommy to make it all better. So when I hosted a potluck Easter the following year, I made ham.
One year in college, a bunch of my sorority sisters who hadn’t made the treks home to celebrate decided to have a potluck at the house. I think I ended up bring dinner rolls. I don’t remember much more about it than that, except that I was glad to have friends to share the day with.
As I was shopping for the final touches for 4.0’d Easter basket (read: candy for me and Fella) I recalled the goodies my brother and I got from the Easter Bunny each year. There were definitely some constants: these little cartons of chocolate eggs, foil wrapped chocolate bunnies and eggs, jellybeans (Jelly Bird Eggs, actually), and maybe a Regal Chocolate Rabbit. Somehow I remember getting spice drops, too, but I could be confusing that with the candy we were traditionally given on Valentine’s Day.
Regardless, I found myself wishing I could pick up the same candies for my guy (who can’t even eat it this year). Now that I think about it, I’m sure I could order most of the above, but that would take a little foresight on my part (got to work on that). And now that I’ve had time to contemplate, I wonder: do I really want the focus of 4.0’s memories to be on candy like his food-troubled mother?! Things that make you go hmmm.
What I’d really like for 4.0 is to have are memories like the one I have of my Easter in Memphis. We shared the holiday with relatives we didn’t get usually get to share any holidays with, including my second cousin five months my junior. I remember we each got Barbie umbrellas and I was SO in love with mine. I kept treating it like a parasol. I mean, we were in the south after all. Oh how I longed to be a southern belle!
Looking back, what resonates with me most now was how special it was to spend the holiday in a different place with different relatives than we were used to spending the holidays with. I want 4.0 to relish the time he spends with his family, especially since so many of my relatives are far-flung . I certainly want him to have a greater appreciation of his extended family than I did when I was younger. Hopefully he’ll take after his father that way.
It does strike me as odd that being a religious holiday, I don’t have much memory of the church part of Easter. I am sure we attended Easter Mass (or at least ¾ of us did), it just left no impression on me. But can a child really get his head around the religious meaning of Easter anyway? I mean, Christmas is easy—we all have birthdays like the little baby Jesus. Getting that. But death and resurrection? Not exactly hitting close to home.
So how will my child’s Easters Yet to Come differ from mine past? Really, I hope not much at all.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Blogging Challenge #8
Quite awhile back, I accepted a blog challenge, but leading up to, and in the aftermath of 4.0’s arrival, I missed a whole lot of posts. Then the challenge took a little hiatus, too. But just in time for Easter, it has been resurrected and we’re both back in action! So here’s what we’re tackling this week:
What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?
Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we getstuck to watching some pretty interesting Old Hollywood quite often.
The one hetortures me with …imposes upon me … has goaded me with lately is Mildred Pierce. All because it came on PBS one Saturday night and I said “I just can’t take watching this one,” explaining that I was too tired to watch such a dull sedate B&W movie (that we’ve seen before) that night. Oh how he thinks he’s a laugh riot with his interpretation of that reaction!
It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.
So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.
North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.
Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”
Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.
Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.
It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.
Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.
What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?
Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we get
The one he
It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.
So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.
North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.
Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”
Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.
Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.
It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.
Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
WW Week Wrap Up
This post will wrap up the first two week since I'm just getting around to posting. So here goes!
WEEK ONE: Chips Are Not On The Plan
Last week I started to write about all the reasons why I had a "bad" first week back at Weight Watchers. But before I could finish I realized that all the rationalization in the world wasn't get me to the root of the problem. My problem has to do with a chip.
Not a potato chip or chocolate chip, but worse: a little chip residing on my shoulder.
There are some folks in my @Work meeting who have never been on WW before. They’re come to the table each week withnaïveté fresh eyes. They sit there holding their pairs of new discoveries and lost pounds. And I think I’ve got them beat with my Full House of cynicism and years of failure experience. But really, it’s me holding the losing hand.
So my personal challenge after the first week (and no loss) is to not just ante up, but to get my chips all in.
Week 1 Stats: +0.2 lb
WEEK TWO: Little. Yellow. Different. Better.
One out of those four statements are true. This week was better.
OK, so maybe two of the statements because I was also different.
After realizing that I was acting as my own personal sabatouer, I was hoping that I would turn a corner in week two. While I didn't quite make it that far, I did manage to peek around to the other side of said corner. That's progress I'll take!
I contributed to the meeting. And constructively, I might add. SWEAR!
It may not have been all-or-nothing, but it was a step in the right direction.
Week 2 Stats: -0.4 lb
WEEK ONE: Chips Are Not On The Plan
Last week I started to write about all the reasons why I had a "bad" first week back at Weight Watchers. But before I could finish I realized that all the rationalization in the world wasn't get me to the root of the problem. My problem has to do with a chip.
Not a potato chip or chocolate chip, but worse: a little chip residing on my shoulder.
There are some folks in my @Work meeting who have never been on WW before. They’re come to the table each week with
So my personal challenge after the first week (and no loss) is to not just ante up, but to get my chips all in.
Week 1 Stats: +0.2 lb
WEEK TWO: Little. Yellow. Different. Better.
One out of those four statements are true. This week was better.
OK, so maybe two of the statements because I was also different.
After realizing that I was acting as my own personal sabatouer, I was hoping that I would turn a corner in week two. While I didn't quite make it that far, I did manage to peek around to the other side of said corner. That's progress I'll take!
I contributed to the meeting. And constructively, I might add. SWEAR!
It may not have been all-or-nothing, but it was a step in the right direction.
Week 2 Stats: -0.4 lb
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Up To My Old Shennanigans
I'm not just a Weight Watcher, I'm something more. More like a weight stalker, I've been doing the WW program so long.
I'm the girl who, after she found out she was pregnant last year, wouldn't cancel her Mothly Pass for fear that when she had to register again post-bambino, she somehow wouldn't get the same deal. Totally rational.
I'm the girl who should get honorary Lifetime Membership, I've been a member so many times. I think the first time I joined was in 8th grade (although I have documentation of wanting to lose weight going as far back as the 4th grade). And then there was high school...and college...and law school...and well, still today. So I think I'm entitled to something, even just eTools for life.
While I was pregnant, I really thought long and hard about my struggle with my weight and weight loss. And what I came down to was that I didn't want to struggle with it anymore. I don't want to be a mom who struggles to keep up with her kid because she's carrying around extra pounds. And I want to be a good example for my son. But I wasn't sure what that meant and I certainly didn't know what it meant to the status of my WW Monthly Pass.
I guess I figured I would give WW one more chance once I finally decided to get back on the wagon. One last cycle to get my head straight and then plan to branch out on my own. But that wouldn't be for awhile. At least not until I was done breastfeeding 4.0.
When I got back to work, I found out my company was going foster a WW @ Work meeting. This was MUCH sooner than I had ever contemplated drying out again. But this was a no-brainer, right? Stars are aligned, it's there fallen in my lap, I've seen all the signs. WRONG! I wavered right up until the meeting started.
But I pulled the pin. I went to the meeting. I wrote my check. And I stepped up on that scale. Now all I need to do is call to cancel that Monthly Pass that's been collecting dust for 14 months.
And to keep me honest (and I hope you entertained) I'm going to blog about it. The ups, the downs; the triumphs and tribulations. All the gory details.
OK, maybe not ALL of the details. Hell, my husband is lucky (?) that I let him learn how much I weighed during my pregnancy. All you need to know is that my weight is a three digit number. And there's nowhere to go from here but down.
I'm the girl who, after she found out she was pregnant last year, wouldn't cancel her Mothly Pass for fear that when she had to register again post-bambino, she somehow wouldn't get the same deal. Totally rational.
I'm the girl who should get honorary Lifetime Membership, I've been a member so many times. I think the first time I joined was in 8th grade (although I have documentation of wanting to lose weight going as far back as the 4th grade). And then there was high school...and college...and law school...and well, still today. So I think I'm entitled to something, even just eTools for life.
While I was pregnant, I really thought long and hard about my struggle with my weight and weight loss. And what I came down to was that I didn't want to struggle with it anymore. I don't want to be a mom who struggles to keep up with her kid because she's carrying around extra pounds. And I want to be a good example for my son. But I wasn't sure what that meant and I certainly didn't know what it meant to the status of my WW Monthly Pass.
I guess I figured I would give WW one more chance once I finally decided to get back on the wagon. One last cycle to get my head straight and then plan to branch out on my own. But that wouldn't be for awhile. At least not until I was done breastfeeding 4.0.
When I got back to work, I found out my company was going foster a WW @ Work meeting. This was MUCH sooner than I had ever contemplated drying out again. But this was a no-brainer, right? Stars are aligned, it's there fallen in my lap, I've seen all the signs. WRONG! I wavered right up until the meeting started.
But I pulled the pin. I went to the meeting. I wrote my check. And I stepped up on that scale. Now all I need to do is call to cancel that Monthly Pass that's been collecting dust for 14 months.
And to keep me honest (and I hope you entertained) I'm going to blog about it. The ups, the downs; the triumphs and tribulations. All the gory details.
OK, maybe not ALL of the details. Hell, my husband is lucky (?) that I let him learn how much I weighed during my pregnancy. All you need to know is that my weight is a three digit number. And there's nowhere to go from here but down.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Projections
I have no illusions about this year being a tough one to get "me things" done. My life is all about my family now. But let's face it, I'm also a member of that family and we all have to think about ourselves sometimes, right? Besides, if I keep finding excuses to put aside the things I want to accomplish for another [week, month, year...] they'll never see the light of day.
So I'm going to give it the old college try. And at least I'll be able to say I made some kind of an attempt. I consider this my list of New Year's Resolutions, albeit better late than never.
Writing
I love this writing thing. And I used to write a lot more. When I had a lot more time to write. And what's more, I used to have a lot more to write about. That's a whole lotta mores. So Project One: find more things to write about. Which leads to...
Project Two: Take Project One and Write 'Em
Get Real
If I'm being real here, I admit there's really only one project with sub-parts. Saying it that way just makes me feel more accomplished.
Project One (and Two) Status
So where do things stand on this/these project(s), you may wonder. If you've read the blog below lately, you ought to know that not much progress has been made this side on the New Year. Hell, this side of 4.0's birth!
But you also might wonder if I've already got any newfangled topics selected for the project. Well, yes. And no. It's, as they say, a work in progress. But that's really the crux of this blog anyway, right?
So I'm going to give it the old college try. And at least I'll be able to say I made some kind of an attempt. I consider this my list of New Year's Resolutions, albeit better late than never.
Writing
I love this writing thing. And I used to write a lot more. When I had a lot more time to write. And what's more, I used to have a lot more to write about. That's a whole lotta mores. So Project One: find more things to write about. Which leads to...
Project Two: Take Project One and Write 'Em
Get Real
If I'm being real here, I admit there's really only one project with sub-parts. Saying it that way just makes me feel more accomplished.
Project One (and Two) Status
So where do things stand on this/these project(s), you may wonder. If you've read the blog below lately, you ought to know that not much progress has been made this side on the New Year. Hell, this side of 4.0's birth!
But you also might wonder if I've already got any newfangled topics selected for the project. Well, yes. And no. It's, as they say, a work in progress. But that's really the crux of this blog anyway, right?
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A Baby Saga
Since I don't think anyone has gotten the full story on the events surrounding the birth of JOC:4.0 (aka Jack) here it is for your reading pleasure (to the best of my recollection).
Scheduled for Induction
At my final OB appointment before my official due date, my doc broke the news that things were not progressing. She was reluctant to let me carry on past my due date because he was already a big baby, so she scheduled me to be induced on the evening of October 13th. Some locals may recall that we were having a pretty wicked storm on the 13th, which apparently brought a storm of other babies making their way into the world. Our appointment got bumped.
So we are finally told to report for duty at 07:30 on October 14th.
As it turns out, despite our best efforts (Prego pizza from Skipolini's among others...) our boy was no closer to getting here than a week earlier (two, actually!) and I was still just 50% effaced and 1cm dilated when I showed up at the hospital. So they start me on cyto-something-or-other to get the effacement moving along. In the meantime, they took a quick U/S to make sure our boy was in fact head down (he was).
And four hours later, when there was little progress, they hit me with another dose of cyto-whatever-you-call-it. I had read that sometimes this can trigger contractions to start on their own without pitocin, so I was hoping for the best. But Murphy's Law being as it is, I should have been expecting the outcome.
Bring on the Pitocin
Let the contractions begin. At this point, I was still hoping that I had a high enough pain tolerence to make it through the process naturally. And I was taking the contractions in stride. My doc then broke my water at sometime around 20:00, in further hopes to move the process along. And I'm still taking the contractions like a champ. That is until around 22:00 when I announce: "I think I may need the epidural." Boy was I right.
Then the Morning Comes
We still have no baby. But I have very little to no pain and I am thankful for that. And I am still not progressing as would be expected and we start hearing whispers of C-Section. So they try to position me to target the one side that doesn't seem to be dilating and two hours later, I'm still stalled at about 9cm dilated. So we have the C-Section talk with my doc.
And it came down to this: even if we took the wait-and-see approach, I could still have several hours of pushing ahead of me and I could still end up needing an emergency C-Section. Consider that at that point we had been in the hospital for 26-ish hours. My water had been broken for 14+ hours. Sometime a couple of hours earlier I had spiked a slight fever and was on antibiotics. I was completely wiped out. I didn't think I had several hours of pushing left in me, so I opted for the C-Section then and there.
On the O/R Table
As they were prepping me for surgery, I lay there on the table wavering. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Early on in my pregnancy I had considered a scheduled C-Section, but over time I settled into the idea that I wanted to give the whole au naturale thing a shot. I questioned again whether I had it in me to call it off and keep trying, but something kept telling me to keep mum.
So Fella joins me and I'm feeling marginally better. My doc gets going and see's little Pal, face up with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Two definite strikes against any kind of smoothe-sailing as far as a vaginal birth is concerned. It's no wonder he wasn't descending into the birth canal enough to help the process along, he was a little tied up!
But at 12:35 on October 15, 2009, my 19-inch long, 8lb 10oz wonderboy was brought into this world.
Hindsight being 20/20, the C-Section was obviously the best way to go. Thank goodness I didn't delay the inevitable!
Swooped Off
Because I spiked that fever, they were concerned about the baby's health, so he was taken off for testing pretty quickly after they got him out. Fella went with him as they drew blood and got all of his stats taken care of.
That is Except For...
Those pesky blood tests. They came back irregular, so a day later they took him away again for more tests and to start him on antibiotics, to be safe. But this time he would be quarantined to the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN, aka NICU in other hospitals).
That afternoon I was outfitted with a breast pump and equipment. And two days later we find out that my boy's blood was tainted with two bacteria, one I can't recall, but the other I'll never forget: E. coli!!! These required a 14-day course of antibiotics, so he was stuck in the ICN for awhile, yet another unexpected turn of events.
But Wait, There's More!
Just as I am getting ready to be released from the hospital, one of my nurses notices some possible signs of infection to my surgical wound. So my doc keeps me another day. Fine, considering that it would keep me closer to the babe for another night. And the next day, she changes my antibiotic, which has a 20% chance of reaction in people allergic to penecillin (of which I am one). So she holds me over yet another night for observation.
And the Hits Just Keep on Coming
They had to open up my wound for treatment because of the complication (which I was preliminarily told was likely caused by staph bacteria that is naturally occurring on the skin). And on my last day, I was assessed by the hospital's Skin and Wound Assessment Team (SWAT).
My doctor happened to show up precisely when I was being assessed and they determined the best course of treatment. Treatment that includes nursing care visits at home every other day and visits to the John Muir Wound Care Center (WCC) once a week.
At my first visit to the WCC, the surgeon assigned to my case decides that the fastest course of treatment would be to use what's called V.A.C. Therapy. Basically I have to tote around a little machine that's connected to a very long tube, that's connected to foam, that's packed into the wound and all covered by this film that creates an air-tight seal and does exactly what you'd expect a vaccuum to do. TMI? My apologies.
Oh--and as it turns out, the second culture that the WCC surgeon took on my wound came back as (drumroll please...) E. coli bacteria. (On a side note, after a little research we have come to find that E. coli is not an uncommon bacteria to be found when such a complication occurs from childbirth).
So in addition to a now 9lb 13oz baby, I've got this accessory to tote around constantly that's close to 5lbs. And after just two days with both, my back is killin' me. Thankfully the doctor said I should probably only need this contraption for 2-3 weeks to get the underlying tissue all good and healed.
There's No Place Like Home
So we're all home and JOC:4.0 seems to be adjusting well (although we are having some latching issues, I think due to his getting bottles in the ICN half the time). So we're troubleshooting those. I've finally got my ankles back (they got HUGE after the birth) and I'm driving again.
And Fella and I are just plain old trying to figure out this parenting thing and hoping we're not already somehow scarring our kid for life. You know, the usual.
Scheduled for Induction
At my final OB appointment before my official due date, my doc broke the news that things were not progressing. She was reluctant to let me carry on past my due date because he was already a big baby, so she scheduled me to be induced on the evening of October 13th. Some locals may recall that we were having a pretty wicked storm on the 13th, which apparently brought a storm of other babies making their way into the world. Our appointment got bumped.
So we are finally told to report for duty at 07:30 on October 14th.
As it turns out, despite our best efforts (Prego pizza from Skipolini's among others...) our boy was no closer to getting here than a week earlier (two, actually!) and I was still just 50% effaced and 1cm dilated when I showed up at the hospital. So they start me on cyto-something-or-other to get the effacement moving along. In the meantime, they took a quick U/S to make sure our boy was in fact head down (he was).
And four hours later, when there was little progress, they hit me with another dose of cyto-whatever-you-call-it. I had read that sometimes this can trigger contractions to start on their own without pitocin, so I was hoping for the best. But Murphy's Law being as it is, I should have been expecting the outcome.
Bring on the Pitocin
Let the contractions begin. At this point, I was still hoping that I had a high enough pain tolerence to make it through the process naturally. And I was taking the contractions in stride. My doc then broke my water at sometime around 20:00, in further hopes to move the process along. And I'm still taking the contractions like a champ. That is until around 22:00 when I announce: "I think I may need the epidural." Boy was I right.
Then the Morning Comes
We still have no baby. But I have very little to no pain and I am thankful for that. And I am still not progressing as would be expected and we start hearing whispers of C-Section. So they try to position me to target the one side that doesn't seem to be dilating and two hours later, I'm still stalled at about 9cm dilated. So we have the C-Section talk with my doc.
And it came down to this: even if we took the wait-and-see approach, I could still have several hours of pushing ahead of me and I could still end up needing an emergency C-Section. Consider that at that point we had been in the hospital for 26-ish hours. My water had been broken for 14+ hours. Sometime a couple of hours earlier I had spiked a slight fever and was on antibiotics. I was completely wiped out. I didn't think I had several hours of pushing left in me, so I opted for the C-Section then and there.
On the O/R Table
As they were prepping me for surgery, I lay there on the table wavering. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Early on in my pregnancy I had considered a scheduled C-Section, but over time I settled into the idea that I wanted to give the whole au naturale thing a shot. I questioned again whether I had it in me to call it off and keep trying, but something kept telling me to keep mum.
So Fella joins me and I'm feeling marginally better. My doc gets going and see's little Pal, face up with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Two definite strikes against any kind of smoothe-sailing as far as a vaginal birth is concerned. It's no wonder he wasn't descending into the birth canal enough to help the process along, he was a little tied up!
But at 12:35 on October 15, 2009, my 19-inch long, 8lb 10oz wonderboy was brought into this world.
Hindsight being 20/20, the C-Section was obviously the best way to go. Thank goodness I didn't delay the inevitable!
Swooped Off
Because I spiked that fever, they were concerned about the baby's health, so he was taken off for testing pretty quickly after they got him out. Fella went with him as they drew blood and got all of his stats taken care of.
That is Except For...
Those pesky blood tests. They came back irregular, so a day later they took him away again for more tests and to start him on antibiotics, to be safe. But this time he would be quarantined to the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN, aka NICU in other hospitals).
That afternoon I was outfitted with a breast pump and equipment. And two days later we find out that my boy's blood was tainted with two bacteria, one I can't recall, but the other I'll never forget: E. coli!!! These required a 14-day course of antibiotics, so he was stuck in the ICN for awhile, yet another unexpected turn of events.
But Wait, There's More!
Just as I am getting ready to be released from the hospital, one of my nurses notices some possible signs of infection to my surgical wound. So my doc keeps me another day. Fine, considering that it would keep me closer to the babe for another night. And the next day, she changes my antibiotic, which has a 20% chance of reaction in people allergic to penecillin (of which I am one). So she holds me over yet another night for observation.
And the Hits Just Keep on Coming
They had to open up my wound for treatment because of the complication (which I was preliminarily told was likely caused by staph bacteria that is naturally occurring on the skin). And on my last day, I was assessed by the hospital's Skin and Wound Assessment Team (SWAT).
My doctor happened to show up precisely when I was being assessed and they determined the best course of treatment. Treatment that includes nursing care visits at home every other day and visits to the John Muir Wound Care Center (WCC) once a week.
At my first visit to the WCC, the surgeon assigned to my case decides that the fastest course of treatment would be to use what's called V.A.C. Therapy. Basically I have to tote around a little machine that's connected to a very long tube, that's connected to foam, that's packed into the wound and all covered by this film that creates an air-tight seal and does exactly what you'd expect a vaccuum to do. TMI? My apologies.
Oh--and as it turns out, the second culture that the WCC surgeon took on my wound came back as (drumroll please...) E. coli bacteria. (On a side note, after a little research we have come to find that E. coli is not an uncommon bacteria to be found when such a complication occurs from childbirth).
So in addition to a now 9lb 13oz baby, I've got this accessory to tote around constantly that's close to 5lbs. And after just two days with both, my back is killin' me. Thankfully the doctor said I should probably only need this contraption for 2-3 weeks to get the underlying tissue all good and healed.
There's No Place Like Home
So we're all home and JOC:4.0 seems to be adjusting well (although we are having some latching issues, I think due to his getting bottles in the ICN half the time). So we're troubleshooting those. I've finally got my ankles back (they got HUGE after the birth) and I'm driving again.
And Fella and I are just plain old trying to figure out this parenting thing and hoping we're not already somehow scarring our kid for life. You know, the usual.
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