Appointments and non-existant cleaning

New developments in this house continue. I see the tip of a tooth that Ory has been hard at work on. It is hidden behind the thinnest layer of tissue and might even be poking out by now. Kiki lost her umbilical cord today. I was able to get appointments made today as well. I made Ory’s appointment for a booster, and my postpartum appointment. Kiki’s next appointment has been made already. Next up is the dentist because I have cavities that I learned about at my last attempt to visit a dentist (which turned into the worst visit of my life and I didn’t go back). And we also need to make optometrist appointments for myself and Tim. I want to wait until my eyes are done changing though. My eyesight always gets worse after I give birth and I don’t want to rush getting new glasses.

I also need to concentrate on Evie. She needs her first dentist appointment, except she has a doctor phobia and barely brushes her teeth. She brushes her teeth as good as a 3 year old can, but she’s not too happy about letting me brush her teeth. I don’t know how to do the dentist thing with her when we was unable to do anything with her at her 3 year check up with the pediatrician. She needs a cardiologist appointment in a couple of months too. She wouldn’t need this appointment if she cooperated during the last one, but she didn’t. She’s not going to cooperate during this one. What’s a mother to do?

Attempts to get the house back into order is failing. The most that’s been gotten done is trash being taken out, laundry and dishes, which accumulates as soon as you do them. I got the crayon off of Evie’s walls, and intended to put her toys and books away, but I was needed downstairs as usual. Tim’s been slacking about picking up the mess they make when he puts her down to bed. This always happens, and when I get it clean again, he’ll be good about it for a while. Then the cycle will repeat. We haven’t picked up all the toys downstairs since before I had Kiki. This means the floors haven’t been vacuumed since then either. I need a maid. Every time I try to do something, I have to get a kid off a table, feed a baby, change a diaper, medicate Ory, let Evie into the bathroom, etc. Kiki always becomes the most demanding during nap time or bed time. What’s with that?

First day catastrophes

This is my first day to watch the kids while Tim returns to work. Tim canceled the urologist appointment for Ory yesterday so I wouldn’t have to figure out the logistics of carrying Ory, Kiki, and drag a screaming Evie into a doctors office that doesn’t even deal with children often. He looks much better anyway, I don’t know what the urologist could tell us at this point. Tim tried to stop giving Ory his medicine yesterday, much to my disapproval. I put Ory right back on it. Just because he looks better doesn’t mean we should stop giving him his medicine until the prescription states. The prescription says to keep him on it until Sunday, so he’ll be on it until Sunday.

To sum up my first day in one sentence, I’ll point out that I just had to relocate Ory from the baseboards that have been pulled out for weeks with nails in them. To give a further elaborate view, I had to find a phone that Tim didn’t put back into the office where it belongs. Ory got ahold of it, turned it on, and was playing with it. I didn’t mind, but then I lost sight of it, and it had been on for 40 minutes before I found it again. He’s pulled papers on the floor. He has learned he can relocate the trash can, climb on it (it is a sturdy can), and reach even higher places than the chairs allow. He still relocates chairs though. He also learned how to remove the canister from the vacuum.

To put an even better view on the chaos of my day, I’ll go back just 30 minutes ago during my attempt to feed Kiki. During this feeding, Ory ripped out all of the wipes and I only have a few left. He assalted me with the changing pad which he removed from the changing table with my telling him, “Don’t touch it! Leave it alone! … Put it back. Don’t you THROW IT AT ME. Time out.” I had to put the bottle down several times during this feeding. But the most frustrating thing was when he grabbed Evie’s cup, which still had juice in it, and immediately dumped it all over the couch, changing pad from when I confiscated it earlier, and Kiki’s warm blanket which was set aside because I was feeding her. He normally tries to drink from Evie’s cup, and he’s been doing really good. I didn’t expect him to grab and dump it so quickly. It was like his goal. Then he spent the rest of the feeding trying to shove his fingers in Evie’s mouth, with Evie pretend biting him, sending him into The Tattle Cry.

Evie listens. That’s the good thing about 3 year olds. They know what you’re saying, even if they don’t follow directions when you really need them to. 18 months old don’t understand some of the time, but choose not to listen the rest of the time, unless it benefits them in some way.

I need to pick up toys so I can vacuum, but I don’t want to neither pick up the toys, nor battle with my vacuum that needs cleaned out using pliers and scissors after every single room.

They want to get hurt, I swear

Tim took care of Ory’s boyhood care all day yesterday. Today is my turn. It’s hard to remember with 3 different medications. My first thought was now I know why it’s so difficult for seniors to remember their medicines. First thing I had to do was give him the antibiotic cream during the first diaper change. The second diaper change gets the anti-fungal cream and pink liquid medicine (eww). The third and fourth diaper changes are antibiotic cream, the fifth more anti-fungal and pink stuff, and the sixth is the last bit of antibiotic cream for the day. Of course, then there is the diaper changes where he actually needs changed. It is so easy to get everything mixed up though.

Speaking of Ory’s boyhood, it looks much better today. It’s not swollen or red anymore. Instead, it looks bruised, which I take as an improvement. Ory is protesting all diaper changes for obvious reasons. He’s also working on his teeth. You can see the little teeth wanting to come out, but they just don’t seem to want to come the rest the way out.

It’s a new goal of the house to keep Kiki from being pummeled. The old goal was to keep Evie from killing Ory by her constant pushing him down or attempts to drag him around by his shirt collar. She appears to have stopped the dragging thing, and we only have to worry about the pushing now. Both Evie and Ory don’t watch where they are going though. They’ve both tripped over her bouncy seat, knocked something on her (never intentionally), and both have at least once almost fallen on her.

Just today, Ory was pushing Evie’s bike around and it fell over. The handlebars just barely missed Kiki’s head. The steamers landed on her face but didn’t seem to bother her. WALL•E tripped Ory today, and guess where Ory landed? On the bouncy seat with Kiki snug inside. This wouldn’t be a big problem, seeing as he missed Kiki completely. Except he immediately rolled off of it. His nearly 30 pound weight was removed from the bouncy seat and Kiki bounced a good 6″ off the seat. At least her head did. She was strapped in so she wasn’t completely flung out of it. Then I got hit with the “Which kid do I tend to first?” dilemma. Kiki just looked around shocked for a second, and went back to sleep. Ory needed cuddled though.

How am I supposed to keep them from injuring themselves?

Ory steals the spotlight

Ory has decided that Kiki has gotten way too much attention. So what does he do? He sends Tim into a panic and gets to visit the ER.

Last night, we was giving all the kids their bath. Evie and Ory share a bath. Tim puts them both in their bath and I put Kiki in her bath up on the counter top. As I was finishing up with Kiki, Ory stood up in the tub and his penis was swollen and really red. Tim was alarmed. I told him to take him to the ER, that I’d finish the girls up. I also told him to bring some juice and snacks because it’ll probably take a while. Tim left with Ory, forgot the juice, and I finished giving the girls their baths, fed Kiki and put Evie down for bed.

So here’s what went down at the ER. They think it’s an infection, but they don’t know for sure because this doctor had the bright idea to try to retract Ory’s foreskin which is a big no-no in my book. He was unable to because of the amount of swelling. The ER doctor suggested we take him to an urologist, prescribed antibiotics and anti-fungal cream, and gave Ory an antibiotic shot because we wouldn’t be able to fill those prescriptions until morning.

Now we have two creams to put on Ory, plus a liquid medication, and to top it all off, the soonest we can get in to see the urologist is Monday when the infection should be under control. I have no idea if I’ll ever find out exactly what went wrong. The fun part is upcoming, where I get to take all three kids by myself to see this doctor in the next city over… Especially with Evie and her doctor phobia. I’m not looking forward to it.

Tim’s being iffy about the whole situation. The ER doctor mentioned the possible need to get Ory circumcised, which isn’t going to happen because of ONE unknown infection. He also made Tim believe that we weren’t caring for it properly, because we weren’t retracting it to clean it. It needs to retract by itself, my pediatrician told me to leave it alone. I will continue to leave it alone. And I am definitely not about to let them retract his already injured penis. This, topped with the fact that his testicles haven’t dropped yet, has Tim a pile of nerves. Does anyone want to take Tim away for a few months?

“Pulling an Emi”

I was upstairs napping when I heard what sounded like Tim dropping something. It was followed by a quick curse in a tone that only means he messed up somehow. It was quiet afterwards, so I assumed it couldn’t be that bad. I got up anyway, as it was almost dinner time and I wanted Chinese food. Chinese food requires you to get there early or late. I get re-dressed and head downstairs and get ready to situate myself next to Tim on the couch. I didn’t mention what I heard.

My failing to mention it bothered Tim. Tim said I wouldn’t guess what he did. I informed him that I heard him do something. He wondered why I wasn’t going to bring it up. I finally asked what he did which got me this story.

To set the scene, we have baby gates that have actual gates in them. You have to fiddle with it to get the darned things open to walk through, especially if Tim closes it because he closes it pretty darn tight. Tim had to go to the bathroom, so he went to the gate that blocks the hall. He tries to pull the switch back, tries to lift the gate up slightly, and uses his body to push the gate open instead of swinging it open with his hand. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, except the gate didn’t unlatch and he walked right into a closed baby gate, sending himself head over the rails, nearly knocking the whole gate down.

This is something we’d expect me to do, not him, which is why I call it “Pulling an Emi”. If only we had caught it on camera.

As a new parent of 3

We are not yet hit with sleep depravation in this house. We’ve been taking care of Kiki in shifts, and whoever doesn’t sleep in during the morning gets the privilege of an afternoon nap. Today, Tim is getting the nap. Tim’s main job during babyhood is being the official baby bed. Babies love sleeping on him. Probably because he’s warm and furry and doesn’t have two mountains getting in the way of a comfortable sleeping position. Tim’s been sleeping with Kiki on the couch, while he sits up. Kiki sleeps with me in the bed on my arms. I’ve kept my bedroom warm so we don’t need any covers, and Tim doesn’t like being too warm which is probably why he’s sleeping downstairs as it’s much cooler down here.

Bed time is the real test around here. We’ve had two nights home with Kiki, and both were mildly difficult to say the least. On the first night, both Ory and Evie decided bed time was evil and wanted no part of it. Tim had to get Ory several times and put him back to sleep. Evie refused to go to sleep until around midnight, and only after she was able to lay in bed with me for a while. Last night was probably uneventful for Tim, but took a toll on me. I went to bed late, around 1:30 am, while Tim had Kiki sleeping on him. WALL•E decided to start barking for unknown reasons. The cat threw up. And eventually, I made my way downstairs to take an Ibuprofen for back pain. I got back into bed at 2:30 am and fell asleep. Then Ory woke up at 3:00 am, and Tim was still being a baby bed downstairs so I had to get him. Ory normally hates it when I get him in the middle of the night for unknown reasons. Luckily, the most he did when I picked him up was wriggled his almost-30lb body around making him difficult to hold. He stayed in bed with me until Tim came to do the pass off.

I got Kiki around 4:00 am while Tim relocated Ory back into his crib. I fed Kiki at 4:00 and 4:30 am. She’s a piggy when it comes to eating. She pooped twice in that 30 minute period and threw up on me once. I’d throw up too if I ate as much as she did. She finally settled down to go back to sleep after the last diaper change and we laid in bed. It took me a while to get to sleep because of engorgement pain, but I finally got to sleep. At 7:30 am, Evie woke up and came into our room. I think I had a less uneventful night with her because I was the one who put her to sleep instead of Tim last night. Anyway, I poked Tim to do the hand off, and Evie climbed into bed with me. Tim went downstairs with Kiki and Evie laid with me for about 30 minutes before she decided it was time for breakfast and went downstairs herself. Then I went to sleep for good!

Until WALL•E started barking 30 minutes later. I take the baby monitor for Ory’s room downstairs to Tim and let him know I was releasing the hounds from their crates. Tim gets ready for the stampede down the stairs and I let the dogs out and head back to bed. Just a few minutes later, Tim brings the baby monitor back and I get confused. I had checked on Ory before I brought it down, and he was sound asleep. So now everyone’s awake. I get up, go to the bathroom, and lay back down for the final time.

Tim let me sleep until noon. It was really nice. I’m still very tired though. Luckily, Kiki likes the bouncy seat so we don’t have to hold her all the time… Just most the time.

Birth Story

I had been plagued by the dreaded false labor for days when I went to bed at a little after midnight on January 21st, looking forward to sleeping in that morning and dreading going to my next appointment that afternoon. None of that happened.

I woke up at 4:30 am with a really bad contraction. But it was no big deal. This happened on two other nights before and they all eventually stopped. I went downstairs, got something to drink, went to the bathroom, and all that good stuff that helps contractions go away so I could go back to sleep. Before I knew it, I was wondering what time would be acceptable to wake Tim up. I waited until he would’ve gotten up for work to catch the train and woke him up then. It was a little after 6:00 am at that point. I informed him that I was about 80% sure that I was in real labor. I was sure enough to wake him up. We spent the morning stalling from waking up the kids and leaving too soon. We packed the bags, got snacks, and things like that. Around 7:30 am, Tim decided it was time to wake up the still sleeping children and get them ready. We was out the door just before 8:00 am.

We got all checked in at the hospital a little after 8:00 am and I changed into the birthing clothes. I got into the bed, got the IV started, and had my cervix checked. 6 centimeters with a bulging bag of water! I was 7 centimeters when I showed up with Auron, and had a bulging bag with Evie. I joked with Tim that I told him my bags were bulging like with Evie earlier. Tim said he thought I’d have the baby by 9:00 am. I said I’d have her by noon. The real laboring starts! The kind where you don’t want to get up or move. I kept requesting they let me sit the bed up more until I don’t think it could have gotten any straighter. Tim put on WALL•E for the kids. I don’t remember much of this part.

What I do remember really well is when the contractions really started hurting. And I mean really started hurting. It was the point that I said, “Oh my God, this really hurts.” and kept saying “Oh my God.” that I started paying a bit closer attention to everything. I ended up wondering to myself if I was offending any nurses and took all my will power not to curse like I really, really wanted to. Everything was already mostly set up at that point. Tim and I was joking about how his 9:00 am guess isn’t going to happen, and he was insistent it would. 9:00 am came and went and I joked at Tim for his estimated time frame being over.

Right after that, I learned it takes doctors 3 years to show up to a delivery. I needed to push. Tim called for the nurse. The nurse checked me at 9 centimeters with a lip. That happened with Auron. They called for the doctor. My doctor took 3 years to show up. At least, it felt like 3 years. He came in and asked for an update. The nurse told him my status and informed him my bag was still intact, bulging, and was the only thing keeping the baby in. I thought she was joking. How could a bulging bag be the only thing keeping a baby in? They started fiddling with their setup. I recall stating I need to push again. I also recall relaxing my vagina muscles in hopes that my body could sneak a few pushes in by itself. That made it feel only slightly better. I finally asked, instead of informing them that I need to, if I could push. The nurse was off to the side, and the doctor was fiddling with some stuff. I don’t remember getting an answer, although Tim informs me that the doctor said I could, and that even he told me that I could. I didn’t hear either of them.

So I pushed anyway. My water broke, which made me hesitate only briefly out of shock. I continued with the push. My doctor had a brief look of shock himself as he hurried over by me, Tim stated almost immediately, “I see the head.” I tried to go for my second push when the doctor stopped me. I was thereby forbidden from pushing anymore at all. I tore already and he didn’t want to make it worse. He told me to let the baby come out by herself. That was hard. He told me to stop pushing when I delivered Auron, but I was unable to. I succeeded this time. It hurt bad, it was hard, and I could feel a lot of stuff going on without knowing for sure what it was. I definitely felt the head come out. Then I was allowed to push again, but only little pushes. Then I had a baby at 9:04 am!

They plopped her on my tummy, but I couldn’t see her because the blanket was positioned wrong, so I moved it a little to get a look. The rest is pretty much history. Ory was angry. Evie’s only opinion was, “No baby.” and she continued watching WALL•E. Tim started recording stuff. Kiki was commented on about her size and her being nice and pink.

There is some other amusing (or not so amusing) details that I’ll leave out for random talking about. Like how the doctor didn’t believe me when I said “ow” the first time when he was sewing me up. Or the mess I made of myself when getting up to use the bathroom once. A cute story would be about Evie freaking out when Ory tried to leave with the pediatrician, yet remained absolutely calm during the rest of the visits.

Birth Announcement

Kiana Selene joined us on January 21, 2010 at 9:04 am PST. She weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 20½” long. She appears to have blond hair and dimples. Eye color will be determined later. She passed her hearing test, has no heart murmurs like Evie did, and is currently a good sleeper.

We came home a bit after 1:00 pm on January 22nd. Birth story and more pictures to come.

Evie’s 3rd Birthday

A long awaited update of Evie’s birthday party from 3 days ago is here! Not too much to report upon about it though. When Evie and Ory went down for their nap, Tim left to pick up the cake and I emptied the box containing Evie’s new bike. I got intimidated and left it in pieces on the floor for Tim to put together when he got back. I had asked him to pick up the cake, birthday cards and birthday wrapping paper. He came back with 4 rolls of different wrapping paper when we only had 2 presents to wrap. We only used one roll and there is still plenty left on it. None of the wrapping paper were birthday-ish either. The one I used was the only child-friendly one with Hello Kitty on it.

Tim put together the bike and I wrapped the two presents. Then we waited for Evie and Ory to wake up. When that happened, we did the cake thing in which she became extremely bashful and hid her face. She had trouble blowing out the candles because she wouldn’t get close enough. Yet she has no problems blowing out candles she isn’t supposed to blow out. There was eating of cake and ice cream. Then she unwrapped her presents. She got Candy Land from Ory, a Hello Kitty rug from Grandma and Grandpa (which she HAD to sit on right then and there), and the bike from us. She then proceeded to ask for more presents. Talk about feeling guilty as there was no more.

We went out and got her a helmet later. Here are the pictures!

3rd Birthday is upcoming

We’re getting ready for Evie’s 3rd birthday. Her birthday present, a bike, came the other day. We still need to acquire a new helmet that fits her head. She also has a new board game she’s going to get and a present from Grandma and Grandpa. I still need to acquire some new wrapping paper and some birthday cards. We ordered her birthday cake yesterday, but they didn’t have the toys for the first choice in stock so we went with another. If they didn’t have that one, she would’ve gotten this really cool and expensive Tinker Bell cake that cost $50. Luckily they had the second choice in stock! Saved us a bundle.

Yesterday was rather interesting in a I-drove-Tim-crazy kind of way. I ate some eggplant parmesan for dinner, insisted we buy oregano and basil, and also bought my first fresh pineapple which I hope to learn to cut properly. Why? I want this baby out like a normal person who hit their very first assigned due date. My first due date I was given was yesterday. My second one is the one we’re going by, which is in two weeks. However, I’m also measuring a week ahead and have since close to the beginning but he just didn’t want to change my due date again. I went to my doctor yesterday and he doesn’t think I’ll make it to the assigned due date which gives me false hope. I’m only 1 centimeter dilated. I was already 3-4 and I had great effacement with Evie and Ory during the last previous appointment I went into labor with them.

After I got all this food, Tim grabbed two different types of cookies (out of all the cruel things to do) and held his breath as he informed an employee that grapes got knocked on the floor and needed cleaned up. He only ever does that if I’m there and would normally walk away. I’m sure he hates me for it.

So I had salad, eggplant with seasonings on it, spaghetti and cookies for dinner last night. It was delicious. Next up, pineapple!

Evie has been getting out of bed around 10:30 pm every night lately. It’s annoying but she sure enjoys herself. She didn’t get back down until after midnight last night. It was mostly because I got hit with a ‘pick up all the toys’ kick that drove Tim crazy. He had a massive headache and I was cleaning with difficulty. I got irritated at him for not helping eventually. It’s not easy for me to get on the floor and up again to pick up all their toys. It took about an hour to clean up even after Tim started helping. We still didn’t pick it all up. So many blocks, tracks, books, legos, and other items that come in bulk.

I got Kiki’s bed out and her clothes washed and put away. Next up, Tim has to put the carseat in the car and put in Evie’s new seat. Then we get to teach Evie how to put herself into her new seat, if possible.