Tired baby, tired mommy

Untitled, a photo by jbellis on Flickr.

The Sinden Kids

Originally Jonathan was going to speak at a conference in Japan at the beginning of October.  We invited Brian to come out for a visit, and to help me with the kids during the week Jonathan would be gone.  Brian, being the great brother that he is, agreed.  Chris discovered he would have leave during the same time, so at the last minute he decided to fly out too and stay with Andrea.

Somehow during the move to Austin Jonathan's passport got misplaced or lost.  It's hard to say what happened, but he searched the box he thought it was in- and it wasn't!  Unfortunately he didn't discover this until Friday night and his flight was Sunday evening.  Instead of flying to Japan he arranged to give it over Skype with a Japanese interpreter at around 3 AM Austin time. It all worked out, and without the jet lag. 

It was SO much fun to have my brothers here.  Between Chris and Brian's missions, it's been years since the four of us have all been together, so we played, ate delicious things, and had fun.   

Due to the abundance of limestone, Texas is home to many really cool caverns.  While Brian and Chris were here we decided to pay a visit to Longhorn Caverns.  It's about an hour northwest of Austin.  It's unique since it is one of only a hand full of caves in the United States formed primarily by an underground river rather than acidic erosion.  Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is another famous river formed cave.  The cave is carved smooth and you don't see many stalactites or stalagmites.   Still it is beautiful in place, the crystal sections are incredible, and the history is quite colorful.

FDR's Civilian Conservation Corp cleared out the debris in the caves and discovered evidence of a Confederate stronghold.  Inside they found dynamite, weapons, and two uniformed soldiers' remains, likely from an unfortunate gunpowder accident.  Outlaw Sam Bass is rumored to have stashed his loot in the caverns, and legend has it that the Texas Rangers rescued a kidnapped woman from Indians in the caverns.  During Prohibition, the caverns served up bootleg whiskey.  Free drinks to the local sheriffs ensured the law turned a blind eye, and on Sundays the caverns hosted a church.  Patrons who passed out on the floors from the night before would awake to the service and join the congregation!  There is a long wide passageway know as the subterranean ballroom, and yes they did have a dance hall with wooden floors.

The caves are still used for entertainment.  Willie Nelson occasionally performs in the caverns, choirs come to sing, and every December they hold caroling.

Isaac with Uncle Brian.

Unfortunately he wasn't as entertained by the caves, the ipod, or being carried in the backpack as I thought he would be...  Still he made it, and mostly unscathed- just two skinned knees from tripping.  Er, Isaac that is.  Brian did fine.

 

Passageway dubbed "short man's revenge"  It is about 4 to 4.5 feet high and 7 wide.  Duck!

Smooth formations made by the quick-moving underground ancient river. 

Not a very good picture of them, but there were two passageways filled with enormous crystals.  Even Isaac was impressed.

The watch dog.  This is perhaps the most famous formation/sculpture in the caverns.  No tool marks have been found.

The four Sinden kids + 2 babies (and our tour guide) after the tour.  Isaac (not pictured) was DONE and climbing the stairs. 

On Friday night Andrea and Jeremy played host to an elaborate murder mystery dinner.  They even used the fine china!  Andrea set up Brian and Chris each with a date for the dinner and the eight of us busied ourselves in the sordid business of fame, love, Hollywood, and murder.  Watch your back, folks, because it turns out you don't want to double cross me.  Not that I'm confessing to anything...

Jonathan likes it when we have out of town guests, because it provides the perfect excuse to take them out to taste the local cuisine.  We took Brian to try some authentic Chinese, a Brazilian steakhouse, and good 'ol Texan barbeque, plus the world famous Round Rock doughnuts.  Yum!

Brian and Chris also watched the kids for us so we could go out on the town.  Come again anytime guys!  Or as they say here, "Y'all come back now!"  The kids LOVED having so much attention from their uncles.  Uncles are pretty awesome. So are brothers.

She's on a rampage

She's on a rampage
Originally uploaded by jbellis

Rachel was fed up with fighting the kids about cleaning their rooms.
We decided to move all the toys to "the kids' area" at the top of the
upstairs landing. While she was at it , she unboxed the rest of the
upstairs, assembled a new toy chest for Matthew and two bookcases, and
re-arranged our furniture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture, but here is the kids'
area "after."

Takin' it easy

I didn't want to tempt fate, so I stayed in pajamas until it was time to pick Matthew up from school.

Feeling much, much better today. The fever dropped dramatically several hours after starting the antibiotics. When it got down to 101 I was feeling almost lively.

Fever is gone today, but the right breast is still exquisitely painful. Why, why, why is it always the same side? I'm sorely tempted to just nurse Isaac on the left side. Never had a bit of grief on that side....

The trend is at least going in the right direction. With Matthew I had 4 bouts of mastitis before he weaned; the first when he was around a month. Melissa it was 3 times. The first was when she was 3 weeks, and I got so sick we decided to head to the ER- just in case. Had a raging fever of 104 despite being on antibiotics for over 24 hours and taking motrin. In addition, fluids weren't staying down. Turns out it was "just" mastitis. Felt rather sheepish about that. Still, they gave me an all purpose, stronger antibiotic which must have started eradicating the bacteria, because the fever dropped fairly quickly.

Isaac is 5 months, and this is the first and I'm hoping (knock on wood) last time. Please?

So why do I continue to breastfeed? When I look down at my deliciously plump, satisfied baby with milk dribbling down his chin, and then he looks up at me and grins, well, how could I not?

Yuck

It's a cold, rainy day, and I have mastitis.

I'm wearing warm pjs, a bathrobe, and thick socks, yet I'm still freezing. The thermostat says it's 70, but I think it lies.

Melissa can have anything she wants today.

Update: Melissa can have almost anything she wants. She wanted me to do her hair, and I'm not really able to remain upright for ten minutes at a time. A grand mal tantrum ensued, with Isaac joining in the chorus. 45 minutes of this and she tired of it. Then she wanted me to read a story. That I can do- lying down. Jiggled Isaac to keep him somewhat pacified. Body aches!!! Convinced little Miss to go wash her ponies in the bathroom sink so I could try to get Isaac down. Works. Isaac is sleeping and Melissa is happily splashing.

Now I'm only freezing on the lower half of my body. The upper half is on fire. I always forget just how miserable this stuff is.

Drinking lots of water, but am not hungry AT ALL. Uggghhh!

Update2: Can't do it, getting sicker, called Jon.

Why is this woman eating dinner in bed?

Why is this woman eating dinner in bed?
Originally uploaded by jbellis

An experienced husband knew immediately: she's hiding from the kids.

Unhappy Mama

This is a pity post; you have been forewarned.

Took the kids to see Isaac tonight, and went to his room only to learn he'd been moved. I get to his new location and the phlebotomist is there using the lab reader to check his glucose. I ask his bedside nurse what was going on, why weren't they using the glucometer? Apparently someone is in a tizzy again about the glucometer being used because there isn't a protocol written for it for the NICU and the nurses aren't trained in how to use it. What the?!? Aren't trained??? It takes less than 5 minutes to be "trained" to use this device. I look around the room and see pumps, drips, lines, ventilators, and other complicated pieces of equipment, and a glucometer is out of the realm for training!?! ARHHHH! The bedside nurses who have used it with Isaac have had no problem, and the lab reader requires much more blood than the glucometer. Isaac has already had 2 blood transfusions due to all the blood they've needed to take out of him; I'd like to avoid a 3rd, thank you very much. Plus, when we go home, we will be using a glucometer, not a high end lab reader. Later that evening I spoke with the NP when she finally got out of a meeting. She agreed to allow the glucometer for the evening, but it looks like we may be in for round 3 in this fight tomorrow. I don't get the bureaucracy, his doctors have approved it for his use. They've gone all the way to the head of the NICU. Why, oh why does this keep coming up?

I looked at Isaac's poor heal this evening. It seems the nurses favor his right heal, and it is dark purple and scabbed over with pokes. His other heal is not bad, and neither are his fingers. Tomorrow I'm going to talk with the nurses about using other parts of his anatomy to stick.

The room we were in was an isolation room. Isaac was placed there because he came from home. It was quiet and somewhat private. Now he's in a big open room with lots of other babies. It is incredibly loud. Nearly every baby was crying, and we seemed to be right next to the nurses' gossip station and they were quite loud too. It was yak, yak, yak, amid the wailings, and beeping of the monitors. Poor Isaac. I'm also concerned because he is right next to another baby with the same name (though spelled slightly differently). What if someone isn't paying attention or gets careless with medication or procedures?

Isaac is also sharing a nurse with a baby on the opposite side of the room that has many wires and tubings. This has me concerned that little attention will afforded to him because it's just not possible. I know his basic needs will be met, but no one will hold and rock him when I'm not there. And he needs to be held! Who will comfort him when he cries? No one will be there to love him, when I'm gone. I hate, hate, hate this situation!!!!!!!

It just rends my heart to leave him, and now I am very worried. My heart is torn in two. I worry and miss Isaac when I'm home, and I feel terrible about missing out on time with Matthew and Melissa when I'm at the hospital. I should be there to pick Matthew up from kindergarten and hear all about his day when it is fresh on his mind. I should be snuggling more with Melissa and taking her to story time at the library. Instead I am a tired, sometimes cranky Mama, who is insufficient for any of my children.
[Jonathan's postscript: when we called at 4 AM during a pumping wake, his nurse said she'd found the authorization for the NICU head for the glucometer and was printing a sign to hang on his crib to let everyone know that It Was Approved Thank You Very Much.]

You Know It's Time to Go Home and Get Some Rest When....

You dump 2 oz of just expressed milk down the front of your pants while trying to pour it into the sterile containers. Wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry...so I laughed.

Cyborg Baby No More

They lost the artery line this morning and decided against replacing it. For testing glucose, they are now using heel sticks. The IV in his hand is gone as well. This afternoon they took out the needle in his scalp. So Isaac only has some monitors and oxygen on. Hooray!