Friday, November 30, 2007

I just found out that my pregnant co-worker, who is due in March, was admitted to the hospital yesterday with complications. I am so worried for her, and also very sympathetic. She has a toddler at home, and I feel bad for him, too. It's also a little freaky, because she and I have been pregnant this year, and we both had complications. That means that 100% of the pregnant women here had problems. Which is just may way of explaining that statistics are useless. Anyway, I'm concerned, and I'll keep her in my thoughts.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

being a parent means chatting about your daughter's poop schedule over MSN messenger.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

vaccination day

apparently, babies hate shots. poor thing. it was a big vaccination day, 3 shots and a dropper of medicine. i couldn't be there, and i'm simultaneously glad of it, and sorry. i don't think i'd enjoy watching Charlotte get stuck with needles, but i also hate to think that she was upset and i wasn't there. her daddy learned a valuable lesson today - always bring a bottle. because the one time you don't, that's the day the doctor is an hour and a half behind schedule. and shots are worse when you are already fussing because you're hungry.

according to matt, charlotte is in the 91st percentile for height. she's 24 inches long, and 11 lbs 10 oz at 9 weeks. go, charlotte, go! matt also discussed my trouble breastfeeding with Dr. S, who told matt to tell me to stop beating myself up about it. i'm wondering if he really said that, or if matt is paraphrasing.

matt just gave her some baby tylenol. i'm a little freaked out by giving her medicine, but i don't want her to be in pain, either. i wish that she would nurse. all the baby books say that nursing makes vaccination pain feel better.

Monday, November 26, 2007

holidays & going back to work

(cross-posted and edited from LJ)

Tomorrow I go back to work for a few weeks. Then I can work from home. It's gonna be rough.

My Christmas wishlist is brief - it mostly involves yarn, babies, and water bottles.

non-leaching Nalgene bottle
Sigg aluminum water bottle
Moby baby carrier - in moss or indigo
Moby D baby carrier - in sage silk with black, or black silk with black, or woven brown
yarn. just yarn.

I'm looking forward to Christmas this year. Gee, I wonder why.

Okay, gotta get ready for bed and *sob* work.

Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving was okay. I was gratified at how excited my dad and stepsisters were to see the baby. My stepmother, too. I was tired and sore from the trip, and particularly frustrated with trying to nurse and pump. For some reason, though, Charlotte nursed better there than she does at home. I think maybe because it was unfamiliar surroundings that she really wanted the quiet time and cuddle time. Who knows what really goes on in the minds of babies? But it sounds like a sound theory to me.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

short and grumpy

(cross-posted and edited)

Not much to say, Charlotte is currently napping, and I am cranky because we are going to my dad's for Thanksgiving from Thursday to Saturday. And I have to go to work again next week. But I made a cute new Charlotte icon for LiveJournal. It only took what, eight weeks? I'm a bad mommy. Well, to soothe my conscience, here's a picture of Charlotte from last week, when she turned seven weeks old.

Monday, November 19, 2007

As much as I like Cooley Dick...

...I'm tired of being a patient there. For those of you who aren't on Matt's friends' list, I was in the hospital again from last Tuesday to Sunday.

Apparently this pain that I've been having periodically since Charlotte was born wasn't weird abdominal things from picking up and holding the baby, but actually gallstones. Oops. On Tuesday I woke up in HORRIBLE pain, and called my sister to come watch the baby so Matt could take me to the hospital. By the time we got there it was so bad that Matt filled out my paperwork and I just moaned in a room. It was relatively quickly diagnosed as my gallbladder, and I was given sweet, sweet, morphine.

Long story short, I was treated with antibiotics and painkillers all day on Tuesday to reduce inflammation, and the gall bladder came out Wednesday. Bad news was that a renegade gallstone escaped, they had to go back in on Thursday. It proved complicated and elusive on Thursday, so on Friday I got my first ever ambulance ride down to Baystate to have the super cool doctor there try and capture the gallstone. He did. Saturday was spent recuperating, and I came home Sunday afternoon.

I'm always really flattered when doctors are impressed by my condition. Like, when the doctor says, "Wow, that gallbladder was really inflamed and full of sludge!", I'm kind of like, "Aw, shucks, I do what I can." Or when two doctors tell you that you look REALLY yellow, because your liver is starting to not work properly because of the goddamned sneaky gallstone. Or when the doctor they sent me to down at Baystate was like, "Whoa, that was a lot trickier than I thought it was going to be." I guess I like impressing authority figures. Lame, but true.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and out of it, and not even going to bother trying to catch up with everyone's livejournal posts from the last week. I've spent a really traumatic 6 days completely away from my daughter, and I need to go snuggle her as much as I can before I have to go back to work next week. God, those two sentences make me want to cry my brains out. Anyway, just wanted to let you all know what's up, and to apologize for continuing to kinda fly below the radar.

(cross-posted and edited from the original LJ post)