Monday, December 27, 2010

This and That...

So, Christmas wasn't traditional this year. Strange. Mom was still in the hospital, but insisted that we still go to our uncle's house for Christmas dinner. After visiting her in the hospital we did end up at my Uncle's. It was nice, but just not the same without my mom there.

My mom has at least been diagnosed. She has Colitis. She has finally admitted that she has been experiencing symptoms for quite some time. I guess she might have had this for years, but never knew because she was a smoker. She quit in September of this year after smoking for 40 something years. I guess they say that the nicotine in the cigarettes suppresses the symptoms of Colitis. Unfortunately quitting causes symptoms to show.

Mom is feeling a lot better, and is responding well to the treatment. We expect that she will be out of the hospital some time this week. She hasn't held her granddaughter in over 3 weeks, and it is just killing her. As soon as she's out of the hospital we will go spend some quality time. I'm looking forward to it. My brother's family and us will have Christmas with mom once she is out of the hospital as well.

Maizey is sleeping better, sometimes, at night. We are having her sleep in our bed with us. This is something I thought that I would never want, but it works and we all get to sleep this way, so we will just have to transition her to her own crib/bed later when she sleeps better at night. She's changed so much over the last month. She's gained almost 2 lbs. Such a sweet little girl. I feel like we are the luckiest people on earth.

I do get paranoid about lots of things. She makes this loud "snoring" like sound when she breathes sometimes. We ended up taking her to the Emergency at the hospital one night last week after paging the midwife and having her listen to it over the phone. It sounded a lot like croup to her. After seeing the ER doc and then the pediatrician on call, we came home that night with a diagnosis of Tracheomalacia, the "snoring" sound is "stridor". We were told that it is not really anything to worry about and that it will likely go away with age. Usually disappearing by 18 months.

I am also paranoid about her eating habits. She is still eating only 2oz every 3 hours or sometimes more than 3 hours. We don't let her go more than 5 hours without eating. Sometimes she eats less than 2oz, and that is what starts me worrying. The midwife has told us since she has gained so much weight, it is fine to let her eat by her own appetite, especially because she is peeing and pooing regularly.

Something we haven't really mentioned too much on this blog, is the fact that we used a known donor to conceive Maizey. We do have a legal agreement with this donor, who is a very good friend of ours. Angela and I and the donor and his husband all agreed to have Steven (the Donor) play an active role in the baby's life, as a dad, on a social level, he has given up any legal rights he has to her, and understands that Angela and I are the legal parents who will make all decisions regarding Maizey. Angela and I allowed him in the delivery room for the birth. He took the pictures for us. :)





Yesterday, for the first time, I let Steven and Michael take Maizey for the day. They had some Christmas visiting to do, and well they wanted to show her off. We all survived. :) I missed her all day, but it was nice to have some time to sleep and clean the house. Angela and I also got to go on a date, and have some alone time. That was really nice too.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Thursday, December 16, 2010

:(

Sorry about the lack of posts. Been busy. One baby who doesn't sleep at night.. A mom who is very sick, (my mom) and can't figure out what is wrong. Lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks kinda sick... Just went to the hospital. A mother in law who just had some spinal fractures from her cancer filled, and came out in worse shape than going in... She had 4 units of blood given cause one of her incisions won't stop bleeding... Christmas shopping! So much to do.. No time! Too much stress and worry! Not to mention I got an email from my dad who is vacationing in Thailand and my step mom is in hospital there with suspected typhoid fever! WOW! I'll Try to update soon. Sorry about the sloppy post!


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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

boobs are a no go

So, after much heartache, Maizey is off the boob. it wasn't working. She would spend an hour at the breasts, and then gobble up 3oz of formula right after. It just seems she wasn't getting what she needed. even if we fed her 3oz of pumped milk, she would be looking for more as soon as she was done.

We are such first time moms. everything is questions. Is she eating enough, is she sleeping too much, do we hold her too much, are we spoiling her by holding her too much, why does she wake up and cry as soon as we put her down? will we ever sleep at night again? etc...

she sleeps almost all day and wont settle at night. she seems to get a lot of gas at night. we try to keep her up during the day, but she wont have it. wow.. so different than i expected. not worse...just different. it is especially hard when Ange goes to work for the day. I'm just not good at living on someone else's schedule.









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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Breast Feeding

Some nights are less of a routine than others. I mean, really we've only had her for a week so i'm not expecting clock work yet. Breast feeding is well... Going. I thought I was indifferent about bottle vs breast, turns out... I want a breast milk baby. I've shed many a frustration tear about this as I struggle. My boobs are good boobs for this.. And a week in and I haven't given up yet, but it seems little Maizey doesn't want to work for her food. She either isn't/can't latch far enough on my nipple, or she is too lazy to suck hard enough. She's just not getting enough and simply wants to graze all day/night. We've been supplimenting with formula and now that I'm pumping, bottles of breast milk. It seems to be helping get a routine. Speaking of feeding, it's that time again...


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