Tuesday, April 24, 2007

the tooth fairy's a lush


well, the tooth got so loose, kisu convinced pooka to let him pull it. otherwise, i was worried it might come out at a less than opportune time and it would be lost or worse, get swallowed. so after several attempts to lasso the tooth with a dental floss loop, it came out. she was so brave she didn't make a peep. she was just so geeked to have a tooth to put out for the tooth fairy. kisu and i were concerned that putting it under the pillow would lead to her waking up and seeing the tooth fairy, as accustomed as she is to getting woken up a couple hours into her sleep, so we convinced her to put her tooth into a shot glass. accordingly, the tooth fairy left her dollar in the shot glass as well. this morning at frank's when pooka was telling (everyone) that her tooth came out, they asked if the tooth fairy left money under her pillow. she replied, "no, a shot glass." kisu and i burst out laughing at the strange looks we received as we explained that the tooth fairy didn't leave our 5 year old a shot glass, but instead left money in a shot glass on the nightstand.

Friday, April 13, 2007

loose tooth!

i can't believe my baby has a loose tooth! i wonder if this process was hastened by the chemo. i need to ask dr. raj if i can get her to the dentist.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

false start

we want to get pooka into public pre-school, but because of the impending birth of the baby, we weren't sure when to start. when i took pooka to clinic yesterday, she was all excited and told everyone who would listen that she was starting school today. so this morning we get up and hustle to get ready, only to show up and find the doors locked. we waited until 9, but nobody arrived. i thought maybe today was one of the field trips the teacher had mentioned, but the whole place looked deserted. i went around the building and tried all the doors, until i found one that was open. i went in and asked the secretary if school was in session. she looked at me as if i were crazy, "no, it's easter break." of course.
doh! pooka was heartbroken. she even told me, "i'm just upset and there's nothing you can do to make me feel better." i suggested many things that she has been eager to do, but nothing would assuage her grief. until 2 hours later, at which point she wanted to do EVERYTHING i had suggested.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

jaundice

the bug had a jaundice problem. her bilirubin counts kept climbing in the hospital, but they released us saturday anyway, although we had to return sunday for a blood draw. this is an issue that is usually resolved within a day or two of birth, faster if the baby is formula fed. since bug is nursed, it would take longer. but i didn't think it would take as long as it did. for 5 days straight, we had to get blood drawn. the poor kid didn't have that much to begin with and her heels looked like pin cushions. the doctor sent a bili light home for us. this was not the innocent 'blanket' we pictured, but some monstrous hose and machine we had to sleep with. when i asked the doctor how long bug had to stay on it, she replied, "put her on and don't take her off." that was quite scary. and sleeping with it was not comfortable either, although it did lead to a cute nickname of 'lightning bug' for awhile.
finally they discovered that the bili counts were due to ABO incompatibility, which basically means that while bug was in utero, my body considered her a hostile body and made antibodies to fight her off. the antibodies crossed the placenta and attacked her blood cells, which caused the jaundice. she has kisu's blood type, not mine. at least we know, with pooka we never knew her blood type until diagnosis.
we were very relieved when we were told to stop using the bili light, but it wasn't until we went back and looked at some pictures that we could see just how yellow bug was. she looks practically orange in the photos! thank God she's healthy now.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

meet your sister

friday granny and poppa brought pooka and kisu up to the hospital to see us. i was a little nervous about pooka's reaction since she had been so fidgety the last month. worry was unneccessary because as soon as she saw the baby, she was in love. 'i want to hold my sister. my turn, my sister." we'll all be fine.
we had made all the family calls and announcements, so all we had to do now was wait for visitors. kisu's parents came while mine were still there, so it got quite crowded. we took a bunch of pictures and the ones on the camera phone were sent immediately. eventually they left when i announced that bug had to eat. pooka threw a huge tantrum and had to be carried out. i felt very bad, but she was nuts. i hope those tantrums stop soon.

Monday, April 2, 2007

birth of a bug

i had a doctor's appt thursday morning and an ultrasound to try and see how big the baby is and maybe it's gender. no luck on gender, and the best she could do was a rough estimate of 8 lbs, give or take 1/2 lb.
i had already been having contractions all morning and the doctor stripped my membranes and told me it would probably be this weekend. i timed contractions all the way to work, and then all day at work. everyone kept asking me why i was there at all. why should i sit home all day timing contractions when i can do the same at work and get paid for one more day? they were steady all day, at varying intervals from 3-10 minutes apart. finally, nancy kicked me out of the building at 4 and told me to go to the hospital. i couldn't get a hold of the doctor's office, but i went to the hospital. i admitted myself and they wheeled me up to the delivery floor.
when they checked me i was still only 2-3, so they said i could walk or go home. i was not about to leave. i called kisu and told him to come up at 6. i walked--a lot. after an hour, there was no change so i walked some more. they were waiting for dr. s to show up, so i basically sat around or walked. kisu showed up with a sub. i just started to eat when they transferred me into a delivery room. then the nurse came in and said the dr probably doesn't want you to eat, just in case. i said, "well it's a good thing he's not here, then," and i wolfed down half a sub.
i was hooked up to a monitor and the contractions were steady and pretty close, but i wasn't progressing very quickly. finally the resident broke my water around 830, and things picked up. dr. s popped his head in the room and said he had a c-section to do and that freaked us out before he clarified that it was a different patient.
my contractions started to get more intense and about 1000 i gave in and asked for some statol. starting the iv hurt almost as much as the contractions. they didn't burn in my hips so much this time as with pooka. the dose of statol must have been smaller, as well, because i managed to stay conscious this time. i was just on the verge of loopiness, which was kind of cool. i knew i was flying, but i could still understand the things going on in my environment. from the time the statol actually was administered, she was born 45 minutes later at 11:07 pm. 7 lbs 4 oz, 18 1/4 inches. i felt a bit dissapointed by her size; i expected bigger. kisu asked me if i was crazy because a bigger baby would have meant a harder delivery. oh, right. nevermind. hard labor was about 2-2.5 hours. not bad for a second baby. i had finally managed to get the head out and they told me to stop pushing. not what you want to hear. it was hard but i did my best when they told me the cord was wrapped around the neck. they got that taken care of and then i delivered and they announced it was a girl. i wasn't even disappointed, just relieved. but she was very quiet and i got concerned again when it seemed like 15 minutes passed without much noise from her. they got her all set though, and she was fine. mom called about 3 minutes after delivery, uncanny. do they have a psychic link now because they share a name? i could tell mom was balling over the phone.
they were careful with the placenta since we wanted to donate the cord blood. i only needed 3 stitches, but i felt 2 of them. the dr lied about the effectiveness of the local anaesthetic.
bug wouldn't nurse at first, so we got cleaned up and moved into a regular room around 1:30 am. kisu hung out and rested for a while and then went home. bug woke up and nursed with a vengeance.
i couldn't believe how much different i felt this time from pooka. more relaxed and confident about my abilities, actually less tired; i stayed up most of the night just staring at bug. bug was a lot quieter, too. pooka was up that first night screaming and fussing. i was amazed at how mellow bug was, but she still had a whole range of noises she made softly. squeaks and grunts. very funny. i didn't even need much pain medication, which was great, although i still had that cold and any time i needed to cough i was miserable.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

she's here!


full story to come, but the bug has arrived. healthy and mellow.