I Haven't Died

Sorry folks for the sudden long lack of posts....

I've got a pretty good excuse and will explain it all after the holiday weekend.

You've Got a lot of Gall

The Geddes family must keep winning the hospital lottery, as it was my turn to visit. On a Wednesday morning at 4 am, I drove myself into the ER after 5 days of semi mysterious pain and visits with Dr. Google. I had some sort of idea as to what it could possibly very well be, but with throwing in my monthly, things were still a bit unknown.

It turns out, my gallbladder was not at all happy. Two years to this month of August, while carrying Nolan, I had a gallbladder attack. Surgery was not an option, so I was instructed to get it taken care of after the birth. Well, things and symptoms vanished and so I just went on my merry way with no issues, thinking my body had naturally taken care of business itself. While in the ER, they recommended sending me home with pain killer and doing a scheduled procedure later on. 

Ummmmm, no. 

After waiting all day with nothing to eat or drink, they took me down to surgery around 6 pm.

I woke to being coherent while they were transferring me from the surgical gurney to my room bed at 11 pm! Holy smokes!

.....and why do I feel like I wet the bed? (thank you for forgetting to catheter me before surgery) 

I guess the surgery took longer than expected as my gallbladder was HUGE. About the length of a mans hand spread and full of stones. This required incisions being larger than normal for laparoscopic, and I guess 14 or so staples. I never seem to luck out and just get sutures.

That night of recovery was the.worst.ever!

The Morphine was causing the massive migraine and despite Zofran, gave me wicked nausea.

"Lord, I can't take care of this myself. I know you are powerful to take these symptoms away....help me Jesus!"

Less than a minute later, I channel the Exorcist and vomit a green bile mixture clear down past my feet and hit the footboard of the bed. Be careful as to what you pray for! Even the nurses were impressed at my skill. Morphine was discontinued and I got to wait until 9 am for something else for pain.

Oh, did I mention that my roommate also laughed and shrieked in her sleep?

I stayed that day in hospital and discharged the following afternoon.

I am feeling very grateful for Matt's parents driving out to help take care of the kids so he could go to work, the visitors and meals that have been dropped by. I don't know what I would have done without this extra help for my family and I.

I pretty much have a free pass on anything house or childcare related activity until my post op appointment. Each day gets a little better...and so does my skills of picking things up with my toes (if only it worked with diaper changes)

RIP- Erin's Gallbladder 8/6/2014   

Keeping up with the Uteruses

After a very long day with the kids and excitement at the local hospital for hubby's sinus surgery, I landed on this blog posting from an Australian mommy.

Might I say...did it ever strike a chord with me, considering my own birth experiences. Even when Matt cringed at the pain of getting his IV started, I told him he could have an epidural instead ;)

I remember mourning my child birthing experience with Nolan for most of my 8 weeks of maternity leave. I was not happy to have failed to show any signs of impending labor for the second time around the block, requiring an induction. Even though I had kept in the back of my mind that a cesarean was always a possibility...I didn't think too much of it and felt like I still could give birth the traditional way again, despite a second induction experience.

I knew Pitocin all too well and the harder labor pains....Cervidil prep the night before...etc

What I didn't know was how horrible it would be to try and get an epidural in my spine and work effectively....

That my son would get stuck after 4 cm and stay that way for 5 hours until my OB had gone his highest ever on the Pitocin and left the decision up to me as far as to what Matt and I wanted to do...

But the biggest, was my OB standing up for me in the OR to the 3rd anesthesiologist who thought, "I can get this, just give me a sec...." (no I can not stay still during a contraction) which ended up with me being knocked out for the birth of my son and my husband absent from the OR.

I remember asking myself, if the c-sec rate is so high, why am I reading about all the natural ones on social media? In the area that I live in, our medical resources are very limited, especially when it comes to duellas, water births and other pregnancy alternatives.

We as women, whether we have been aware of doing it intentionally...need to just shut our mouths about some things and think about the truly important things in our reproductive life. We need to stop adding to the maternal pressures placed upon us when it comes to this area. I remember thinking that my friends and/or FB contacts would think I was weak because I didn't try every other option, or become a pain to my OB and say "no" to common practices.

Never have I heard this before at a graduation ceremony

"This years valedictorian is Walter White, who by the way was born in water and mother had no medical interventions/pain relief, AND even had his umbilical cord cut until AFTER it had stopped pulsing..." 

Parenting does not come with a sash to be adorned with merit badges. There is no cash prize for enduring the most pain ever in labor because you put your foot down hard enough. In the case of my daughter, getting pain relief actually helped my body relax so I could let labor progress...and much faster I might add.

...Because every woman's body and labor experience is never the same, can't we just be as satisfied with a healthy baby to announce and not feel any less of a mother because of the method of entrance into the world? Think of how many more happy new mothers we'd have if we changed our words! Thoughts could be instead, directed to a new creation...and where on earth did the nurses put the instruction manual ;) There will be plenty of time to second guess your parenting choices and methods.

So can't we just hold off for a little bit?

***Please note, I am not putting any mothers down for doing any of these things or if they are right or wrong practices, as this is what they chose.I am happy to simply celebrate the new life, just not the glorifying/bragging of the mechanics of it on social media.

You Must be This Tall

Do you remember the movie with actor Tom Hanks who wanted to be BIG? He desperately wanted to go on a thrill ride while noticing a girl from class. If it wasn't bad enough that his parents were there embarassing him, he learns he came up too short to ride. He later finds a Zoltar fortune teller and makes a wish to be big.

We have now reached the age where a little girl may experience the thrill of amusement rides for the first time. At an annual event held by the Erie Canal, kiddie rides were an obvious draw to this excited three year old. So we decided to treat Eliza to a ride wristband.

Dragons, spaceships and motor cars took her up, down and around.

I think the giant wavy slide paid for itself in number of rides for the cost of the wrist band. She carried her sack and climbed all the way to the top. Her first words after each return at the bottom was "again again" as I had to reminder to wait her turn in line.

Despite the humid heat, she was a hardcore thrill seeker. Nolan spent most of the time sleeping in the wagon since it was smack dab in the middle of nap time.

Maybe some of this growing older stuff isn't so bad...

Kids just Don't Understand

This Youtube video got me a good laugh as I kept nodding to just about everything.

There is such a difference between married couples who don't have kids yet. From the topics of conversation and playing 'What's that Smell'...we have crossed into a whole new world. Or the fact that my 17 month old son has taken to giving me random hickies as of late. (No Pastor, we were NOT necking in church.)

We never knew just what we'd get excited about before kids came into the picture.

Examples:

>Marveling at the ginormous blow out....

>Impressed at the snot bubble they just blew....

>Wondering how on earth they managed to get food flung so far from the table....

>Calling our spouse over to the changing table to show how proud you are that you can tell what they had        for dinner the night before....

>Looking at buying a car and getting excited at how many car seats you could fit in the back and still have       room for a passenger...

>Being able to use the bathroom ALONE!
>Sitting down to eat and not having to think and request X number of high chairs/boosters.
>Transitioning your kids rear facing car seat to forward so you can finally recline your blasted seat back on     long road trips....

The list could go on and on and...well...forever.

Compare this to life without kids:

Going to a 10:45 pm movie, knowing you can sleep in well after 7 am the next morning...
Finally getting past a Candy Crush level you've been stuck on for weeks...
Sitting in church and enjoying the sermon while taking notes and highlighting scripture in your Bible...
Being able to watch trash TV at any time of the day and not fear about the language or content...
Enjoying an artisan pizza with exotic toppings...

I am not complaining about having kids. Quite the contrary. I do love my children very much, and they've made life a bit more exciting, patience building, humble, compassionate etc... It's just that my prayer life has gone a little further from praying for world salvation to asking Jesus to just help your baby poop/sleep through the night/stop biting you and everything else.

But...sometimes you just can't understand until you have a kid of your very own ;)

U Pick Blueberry Morning

The van was loaded up early that morning, and mommy scrambled to get both kids out the door in time, while of course forgetting her Canon DSLR at home. Sometimes, phone cameras do save the day. This was the first time I've been able to enjoy blueberry season, as the weekends are a bit crazy at this local farm, while weekdays in the mornings are manageable. Being a working mother had is sacrifices. 

I think it is safe to say....Eliza is pretty safe from any child labor. And for what little she did pick for the family...fell to the ground as she stumbled, toppling her bucket. After that...she was a bit over picking. Nolan did more eating than picking...until he picked a green one. Then fighting with his sister seemed much more entertaining :/

My milk jug bucket was pretty handy as I would fill and then dump into the Easter basket pail that hung on the wagon handle. We picked close to 7 pounds, and at 1.98/lbs. it came to $13.20 for our morning out. Going with another friend and her mommy was nice company for the girls to play around the bushes.

                

The morning was finished with a stop at a park with friends. I swear...these kids could swing all day!

Girls will be Boys

After I had my boy, I wondered who would be the first to make a visit to the emergency department because of some silly stunt or pushing of physical boundaries.

Little did I know, our little girl would be channeling her daddy.

At three years old, daddy tripped and fell on a cannon while visiting the Military Academy-West Point. It earned him several stitches on the forehead.

Fast forward many years later...

She earned herself 3 stitches for not listening to mommy or daddy about not climbing on furniture and jumping off it. In her case, we believe she landed on a Duplo Lego block as they were the only hard pointed surface scattered all over the floor.

Eliza was a trooper for most of it, even letting them clean the wound 3 separate times for assessing the severity and topical numbing. Because of the sensitive cosmetic nature of the wound, using Dermabond would not work since the cut was shaped like the inner position of a Mercedes Benz logo.

Things were all fine and dandy until the Lidocaine was injected as the nursing assistant and I helped restrain her. Through out the sewing of sutures, I had to keep reminding her about how I would sew with thread to close up fabric pieces.  

At least we left in good spirits when she received a plush bunny wearing a purple dress. Now the next question is...will they let them take the sutures out next week?!

The life of a parent is NEVER dull.... 

From the Dungeness Cell Phone

Yay for not killing each other!

She could play a rock in any theater production

Um...I new we have weight epidemic....but

A nugget break for my own nuggets

Eliza giving Nolan "pink belly"

Grandparent PJs

Could these kids look any sadder looking into the park pool?