Farting Crane

I've never been to a yoga class in my 34 years of life. Until today that is. I'm not sure what kept me away. I don't know if it was that it just didn't appeal to me or that I didn't think it was anything more than funny poses and stretching, or perhaps that I've always had a secret fear of farting mid class....and knowing me and my luck, that would totally happen.

Since my gym is offering some free classes this week, I decided to check this yoga thing out. I was quite careful to visit the ladies room beforehand and not make any strenuous moves. I also had to be careful to not get too relaxed because I heard that one can fall asleep in those classes (you know who you are hee hee).

I arrived to class and did not have a yoga mat with me, so I had to use one of the padded mats they had on hand (thank God for that, you'll find out why). I had to share the large mat with a fellow yoga-ite? yogarson? yogapotomus? yogi-bear? What are yoga-doers called anyway?

Class started off easy enough with a couple of animal poses and I quickly realized that although yoga looks easy, it totally is not. Fortunately it was a mixed class so we had all skill levels there....from people doing impressive head stands to...well....me.

Things started getting interesting when we had to do a tripod and be upside down on our heads. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do this. With the blood flowing to my head, I was amazed that I wasn't toppling over (or farting). Unfortunately the blood wasn't the only thing that went to my head (no, not my shirt, thank god), but the confidence went to my head and our next pose involved us going up on our shoulders and supporting our bodies on our hands and elbows. I thought, oh this is easy, I can totally do this as I waved my legs in the air. All was fabulous until I lost my balance and came toppling down backwards. Go ahead, picture it...now picture the ungraceful sound of that fall during a calm and peaceful class. FH3J8KWKRSBX
Right. Moving on.

I recovered quickly from the collapse (of both body and ego) and went back to worrying about farts. We then had to do a balance pose in which I found out (once again) that I have no balance. In this pose, we had to put our knees on our elbows and balance ourselves on our hands. Yeah, that didn't quite happen. Once again, I lost my balance (this time forward...yeah, I'm all about variety) and I would have eaten the mat if it weren't for my lighting quick reflexes. I still came crashing down though. Once again, the thud sounds permeated the room. Once again, they were coming from me. Oh the shame.

The rest of the class, I was able to do the poses and keep from falling, but it was quite a challenge. The relaxation part at the end was truly wonderful and I remembered to not relax too much (less we fall asleep or fart). I am happy to say that, despite my ungraceful plummets I really enjoyed the class and will do it again (next time they have a free one). After all, now I have my own yoga pose...The Falling Claudia.

9 months old

On the 20th of this month, JJ turned 9 months old (yes, I'm behind on my blogging...don't remind me). We took him to his pediatrician and he weighed in at 19lbs 13 oz. He was 27 inches long. She felt he was a little behind on his motor skills so she recommended OT and PT for him. She was mostly noticing that his hands are still closed (and should be open), he doesn't sit up from a laying position and that he didn't try to scoot or reach for an object that was in front of him. I'm going to wait a bit and see because this weekend, he was really active. I think he's just taking his time with things. I find that I'm a bit more relaxed about when he does things vs when Christian did things. I find that it's mostly because I don't have any other babies his age to compare him to (whereas with CMan, there were 3 other babies born around his same time that always did everything before he did).

He doesn't crawl yet, but I think that's coming soon because as I said, this past weekend he was Mr. Antsinmypants. I put him down and he lunged himself towards any object that grabbed his attention. Unfortunately that meant he came close to face planting more often than not. He then ended up on his belly and he totally hates that. When I try to help him lift his knees, he tries to stand up instead. Maybe he'll skip the crawling and go straight to standing.

I'm also teaching him to sit up from a lying position by pushing off with his little arms. Even though, he's my second child, I think he's got first child syndrome. Mommy carries him too much and babies him too much, so he doesn't get the chance to learn new locomotion skills.

As far as his eating goes, he still hates baby food. He has started eating some finger foods now though. At meal time, we sit him in his high chair to "eat" with the rest of the family. We put little puffs on his tray and he picks them up (pincer grasp!) and puts them in his mouth. At first he would drop most of them, but this weekend, he really became a pro at it. If I'm eating something soft that he can eat, I give him some of that too. Either he picks it up off the tray or takes it from my finger. So far he's had noodles, potatoes, papaya, yobaby yogurt, rice and zucchini. I'm hoping that if we keep this up, each day he will eat a little bit more. Maybe we can skip the baby food and go straight to solids.

Nebulizer City

It's been Nebulizer and Antibiotic City at my house for the past 10 days. Christian was diagnosed with left upper lobe pneumonia and a double ear infection and JJ had a runny nose, a cough, and icky ears, so both were given nebulizer treatments. Do you know how hard it is to give an 8 month old nebulizer treatments? I don't recommend it that's for sure. It involves lots of flailing and screaming...and that's just me.

Yesterday was the last day of Christian's antibiotic and an Xray done earlier this week revealed that the pneumonia was all gone. Thank God. That was a little scary for a moment there because Chris got really weak (he wanted to be carried) and he refused to eat for a couple of days. He said no to happy meal, pizza, macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets, so you know something wasn't right.

Fortunately, he's all better now. JJ on the other hand still has a runny nose and a cough, so we've had to hold off on the things that the G.I. doctor wanted us to do. I refuse to do a cry it out when he is sick. I did stop on the pumping though (on Cinco de Mayo). It was starting to get a little tedious. Why is it that I always choose to stop pumping around a holiday? For Chris I stopped on St. Patty's Day. I just noticed those are both drinking holidays too...ha ha. That totally makes me look like a lush.

The weaning has gone smoothly because JJ is taking formula like a champ now (still hates food though). I still nurse him at night to go to bed and in the wee hours of the morning when he's in my bed (4am-7am) so I'm not completely done, but it's very minimal. I think because of the fact that I'm weaning is why I've recently gained 3 pounds all of a sudden. This totally sucks because I haven't finished my 20/20 plan (it's more like 7/11 at this point) but oh well, I guess it will have to be extended. 20/30 perhaps?

Speaking of 20/20, I'll be doing another 5K in about 2 weeks. I enjoyed the first one so much that I'm ready to do it again. Hopefully this time I can take a picture...you know to have proof that I was there and that I did it. Ha ha.

Last but not least, I've entered Jordan in a baby picture contest, so please vote for him (once daily until May 18) so we can win $5000. It would really help us to get his college fund going. Pass it on to your friends too! I will do a more thorough post about this tomorrow. Thanks y'all.

Someone ran a 5K yesterday!

That's right, yours truly. I ran my first 5K race yesterday at the Mercedes-Benz Corporate run. This was my first time participating in this type of event and it was so much fun, I plan on doing more of these in the future (Disney, here I come!). I'd been running at the gym and at home for a little over a month now, so I was able to run the whole thing without stopping, well except for that one time, but I'll tell you about that little fiasco now.

Unfortunately our "company" didn't' have a tent for us to hang out and leave our stuff in, so we had to only take with us what we could run with. With this in mind, I bought an arm band for my iphone and car key and ID. Wouldn't you know it, the day of the race, I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to use my old ipod arm band (which does not accommodate my iphone very well and is a little wobbly and has no pockets for keys and IDs and such). I had also purchased a nike+ sensor for my ipod so that I could check my pace, distance, etc. This is a wonderful little gadget that helps me stay on pace (thanks for the suggestion R!).

So I lined up with the thousands of people ready to start my run. They were starting to count down so I turned my ipod on and guess what? The screen wouldn't turn on. It didn't work. Fabulous. Fortunately, the music came on, but since the screen didn't work, I had to listen to whatever song the ipod wanted me to hear (the same 3 songs over and over again) and forget about turning on the nike+ sensor. It looks like I would have to wing it. Fortunately, I have a Runkeeper app on my iphone, so I turned that on instead so it could track my run. That one isn't as user friendly though and doesn't give you updates at the touch of a button.

The cannon went off and the people began. I had managed to squirm my way to the front half of the group so it was only a minute before I was able to get running. The weather was fabulous and it helped compensate over how mad I was at my ipod. I was basically running with no way of monitoring my progress (which I totally hate). As soon as I stared running, my arm band was jiggling and bopping all over the place. I thought to myself, oh no, this won't do. I tried to put the phone towards the underside of my arm to hold it against my body. So now, I was running with no speed sensor, repetitive music, a wobbly arm band and the use of only one arm. Can it get any worse? Actually, yes it can (I should have known better than to ask that). I dropped my car key! Fortunately, I felt it and heard it fall. I immediately stopped and looked for it to pick it up (I found it THANK GOD). Note to self: when running in a crowd of 20,000, it's not a good idea to stop all of a sudden...I'm just saying.

After the key fiasco (thank God it didn't fall when I was going over the bridge otherwise, my key would be in the Miami River at this point because the street has holes in it) I took my arm band off and held it in my hand along with my key. My nonfunctioning ipod was in my other hand. I was sure that I had totally lost my pace at this point. There is no way I'm beating my personal best (34+ minutes) with all this crap going on. I soldiered on and kept running as best I could. I didn't stop for water because it was too much of a hassle, plus it's not like I had any hands to hold it with.

After going over the 2nd bridge I didn't see how I could continue any longer. Running over bridges was not part of my training regimen, so that was pretty tough but I refused to walk at any point. I kept on and I saw the final turns ahead. I mustered the last bit of energy to run just a little faster. I was mad because an 8 year old was totally kicking my ass just ahead of me. As I turned the last corner I noticed the clock in the distance said 31 something...Oh my god, could it be? Wow, I'm actually running faster than I thought. I put in a final sprint and made it past the finish line at 32:09, estatic that I had beat my personal best despite all the issues with my equipment.

My happiness was short lived though, when I found out that the course had been shortened to 2.89 miles (or something like that), but that's OK, because I probably would have beat my time anyway. What an awesome experience, I can't wait to do it again.

Go Me.

Oh, and my ipod? It started working about a minute after I was done running. Nice.

G.I. Jordan

Jordan is 8 months old today!

To celebrate we took him to the G.I. doctor due to several ongoing concerns of mine:

1. Does not like baby food one bit. On a good day, he eats 3 spoonfuls. On a bad day, he screams when he sees it.

2. Green poop (he does not eat any green food).

3. Not sleeping through the night.

4. Heart shaped tongue (tongue-tied?).

The verdict?

1. He weighed in at 18+ lbs. and measured 27.5 inches (37% and 50%) so he's not starving. The doc says we need to give him baby food and if he doesn't want it, try again in half an hour and keep doing that until it's time for his next feeding. In other words, don't be so quick to give him the bottle if he refuses the food because he is manipulating us. If I say no to food, they give me bottle/boob. He said he should be eating breakfast, lunch, dinner (a whole jar of the big baby food...HA!) and milk bottles of 6-8 oz (with cereal) (18 oz a day is fine) and eating every 4 or 5 hours.

2. Green poop is OK sometimes. Will do poop culture to make sure there isn't any bad stuff in it.

3. Need to cut out the boob...and do a cry it out...and not put him in our bed (easier said than done buddy). If he has his bottle with cereal at 11pm, he should be fine until 6am. Any crying before that is due to bad habit and not hunger.

4. Tongue is prob not the reason he won't eat. Will do an upper G.I. to make sure the rest of his swallowing/eating anatomy is OK.

Fun times ahead huh?

In other news, his two bottom teeth are showing really well now, so I was able to photograph them. They came out approx 2 or 3 weeks ago. Check it out!

Oy, I forgot the Easter photos! Next time, oh and I also have to remember to tell you about Christian's swimming class fiasco. Let's just say it's very similar to the first time I took him to swim class.

7 months

My littlest man turned 7 months on Friday. He sits by himself now (since 6 months 1 wk). He babbles alot and says da da da da. He transfers objects from hand to hand to mouth and plays with his feet. He rolls from tummy to back, but not the other way around. I just haven't found anything to give him the incentive to do so. He's very lazy because if he wants the remote, I put it out of reach so that he'll turn over and it's as if he says, oh never mind, I don't want it then. No teeth yet, but he does drool alot. He loves it when CMan entertains him, but if he laughs too much, he gets the hiccups. He likes his playcenter, his swing and his jumperoo, but only for 5 minutes and then he wants to be nowhere but in someones arms (oh boy).

As of Tue, his 2nd blood culture hadn't grown any bacterias, so it appears that the antibiotic has done the trick (cross fingers). Unfortunately, he's got a cold now. He's got a phlegmy cough and clear boogers, so I'm waiting for the doc to call back to see what to do now. I hope she doesn't say to bring him in again or I'm going to request a personalized parking spot. I'm also going to make an appointment for him to see the G.I. specialist because he still doesn't like the baby food (although we did get him to drink 4 oz of formula last night!). He won't even open his mouth for one spoonful, although, I think it has to do with the fact that he's got a cold right now (and CMan has the croup cough again...joy).

On Saturday, I took him (and CMan) to have his 6 months pictures taken (a little late) and I can't wait to see how they came out. I think they're going to be adorable...then again, I'm biased.

We were supposed to go to JJ's first Mommy and me swim class on Sunday, but since he's got a cold now, I don't' see that happening. Hopefully, he'll be better by then. Thanks for the good vibes folks!

Elusive Infection

The ER is not a fun place to be, yet that is where I spent 9 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Saturday. The culprit? Jordan's high fevers.

Let's start at the beginning. For a couple of weeks now JJ had been having fevers that came and went. On Wed last week the fever was 103.8 so on Thursday we took him to the pediatrician. His ears were fine, his throat was fine, his urine was fine. No malady could be found. He had blood work done and it showed that his white blood cell counts were really high, so on Friday, the doctor called us back in to her office and sent him to Baptist ER. At the ER my poor baby had a battery of tests that I don't wish for any parent to have to watch their baby go through. He had a catheterization done (to check for urinary tract infection), he had mucus aspirated through a tube that was stuck up his nose (to check for Flu or RSV), he had an IV placed on his hand (that took 10 minutes...10 minutes of crying and screaming...horrible), and he had a chest Xray (to check for pneumonia). They were determined to locate the infection, but they did not. They gave him IV antibiotics and sent him home with a promise to return the next day for more antibiotics.

On Saturday we returned and they told us that the blood culture had grown something so he had Bacteremia (bacteria in the blood). Unfortunately we still don't know where it originated and/or how it got there. Another blood culture was drawn (amazingly enough, he didn't cry this time) and he was given a shot of antibiotic and sent home with a prescription for an antibiotic to take by mouth for 7 days.

I just called the hospital and the first culture was not big enough, so that's why they drew another one on Saturday. Unfortunately, Saturday's blood draw was very measly (just a couple of drops), so I don't know if that will help at all either. I hope he doesn't have to get poked again, but it's certainly looking that way.

I'm really worried about this because if they don't know what's growing in the blood culture, how will they be able to give the correct antibiotic? I hope the one he's taking now works and kills the elusive infection he seems to have somewhere in his body. If it's not working, then will this allow the infection to spread to other parts of his body? since it's in his blood?

I'm also wondering if this is somehow related to all his gastric problems (spitting up, reflux). Although the Prevacid was discontinued at his 6 month visit, we went back to giving it to him because he was miserable with out it. He doesn't eat but 3 or 4 spoons of baby food in a sitting, he won't take cereal, or formula and he is very gassy and crabby. I'm thinking a visit to the Pediatric GI is in our future as well.

Please send good thoughts our way.

The Craziest Loser

Every week I watch the Biggest Loser on TV. I love watching this show because it's inspiring to see these people lose the weight and feel great about themselves. I especially love the finale show where you really see what a change they've made. It's great! The irony of course is that I would watch it while snacking on some Doritos or cookies and milk. Ha ha. This year is different though. Since I am no longer planning on having more children, the time has come to lose the extra weight that I've been jostling around. As little as 7 years ago, I was at a pretty good weight, but then came marriage and school and kids and the weight went up and up and up.

Since the peak of this last pregnancy I have managed to drop 40 pounds. I would still like to lose 20 more and be around where I was seven years ago. I think the breastfeeding has helped tremendously with these first 40, so I kind of want to keep going since I have this running head start if you will. I'm setting a goal to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks. I shall call it mini-me my 20/20 plan. Let's see how well this goes. I guess I'll be doing my own Biggest Loser except without the screaming trainers and the nationally televised weigh ins (thank God for that).

In the spirit of my new weight loss goals, yesterday I went to the gym, but I forgot my towel. If you don't have a towel, you can't go into the main room where all the machines are so I had to find an alternate way to work out (I could have paid a dollar for a towel rental, but I don't like using other towels....plus I'm really cheap like that). I thought about doing one of the classes, but realized that I had just missed the last class. I then remembered that there were some machines on the 4th floor. Perfect, I'll do that! I climbed the 1,001 stairs it took to get to the fourth floor and noticed that only one machine was empty. Ah I'm in luck I thought. Until I got on the machine that is.

The impending trap of death was precariously perched on the edge of a flimsy little railing four floors up (I am not comfortable with heights). And of course it had to be a stairmaster machine. A machine that would make me feel like I'm climbing even higher and higher just about to step off the rail. I worked out with much trepidation and held on to the machine for dear life. I realized this was going to be a long 30 minutes because I couldn't figure out where to focus my eyes. If I looked down, my knees got wobbly. If I looked straight ahead and saw no floor my knees got wobbly. If I closed my eyes, I was afraid of falling off the machine and over the railing. I finally decided to just stare at the controls on the machine. I was only on the machine 1 minute and had already broken into a sweat, not from working out, but from freaking out.

At this point, my mind started making up scenarios. What if this platform collapses and I fall over the railing? What if the machine goes bonkers and it catapults me over the railing? Could I hold on to the railing for dear life? If so, for how long? How could I hoist myself back up? Then the sane side of my brain tried to talk me off the ledge. Claudia, the building is well constructed, the platform will not collapse. Besides if it does, it doesn't matter what machine you're on, you're still fucked. The machine is a quality machine and will not break. If it does, it will not catapult you over the ledge, it will simply stop functioning. Then the freaky side would start again. What if I'm trapped on the ledge and I have to jump all the way over there, could I make it? What if someone pushed me over?

Like I said, it was a long 30 minutes.

After my freakout workout, I headed down the stairs and noticed that part of the stairs jutted out past the fourth floor platform I was on. So I realized that if I indeed did fall over the railing, if I could just manage to hold on to the railing and scoot over to the left for a couple of feet, I would be able to let go and land on the stairs. Well now, that changes everything. In that case, I think I CAN workout on the fourth floor. You know, since I have a back-up plan and all now.


Insane people should not be allowed to go to the gym.

Why'd you give me such a long name mom?

Christian is learning to write his name at the daycare he goes to. He's learned the first three letters already, but not the rest. Sometimes he makes up his own order: Chrstiian or Chrtsiain. He seems to know what lettes are in his name, but not the order of them all yet.

Here he showed off his writing skills. He wrote this all by himself (mommy just helped by telling him which letter to write next). I feel bad for him though because his last name is 11 letters long; and they wonder why I kept my maiden name.


The other day, we were at a stop light and the following conversation ensued:

C: Mommy, green means go, red means stop and yellow means slow down.
Me: Yes babe.
C: What does blue mean?
Me: There is no blue
C: It ran out of batteries?


PS There's an update on my dad in the previous post. Thanks for your well wishes.

When it rains....UPDATED

My mom just called me to let me know that my dad has been hospitalized in El Salvador (he was over there for business) because they found a blood clot. He's have a catheterization done. We will hear from my uncle when the procedure is done. My mom is probably going to fly over there to be with him. I'm so worried about him because he's had other health complications recently (not just this) and it just seems like it's too many things at once.

UPDATE: My dad is doing better. It turns out it wasn't a blood clot, but a clogged artery (just as bad). He had been having chest and neck pains so he went to the ER. The Cardiologist said if he had waited another hour to go to the hospital, he would not have made it. There was definitely a guardian angel watching over him yesterday. He is still in the hospital and provided that his recouperation goes well, he can fly home on Friday. My sister stayed with him at the hospital last night (she was in El Salvador handling her late husband's affairs...poor thing, as if she didn't have enough on her hands). I thank God that he is doing OK.

Thank God.

I called the doc's office this morning (since they didn't return my call yesterday) and the nurse said the biopsy was benign. Thank God. You know, you'd think they wouldn't sit on that kind of information....it's kind of important and stuff. Thanks for all the positive vibes you sent me...to say that I'm feeling quite relieved today is a major understatement.

While I had her on the phone, I told the nurse that I had been feeling crampy this morning (plus I slept horribly last night) and she told me to go to Labor and Delivery triage to get hooked up to a monitor. I felt that was a little excessive. I told her I had only had about 3 cramps and she said that maybe I had only felt three, but that I might be having contractions that I wasn't feeling. Hmmm...I'm not ready for this baby to come yet convinced...I'll just drink more water and wait and see.

Appointments

Thank you for the comments on the biopsy post. I had the procedure done on Tuesday and Meredith was right, it didn't hurt much. Just the needle pinch and the stinging from the numbing medicine they used. The area is a little tender, but other than that, no pain, no problems. I get the results today or tomorrow.

I also went to the pediatric cardiologist on the same day (talk about double-whammy). The arrhythmia did not show up on the fetal echo this time (yay!). The doc said everything looked great, continue total caffeine avoidance (no soda, no coffee, no chocolate, no tea) and call him when the baby's born so he can go seem him in the hospital. Finally, some good news.

A funny thing happened last night. I keep a cup of water on my nightstand in case I get thirsty in the middle of the night. Last night Cman woke me up and as I tried to reach for the clock to see what time it was (2 am) , I knocked over my glass of water. R heard me making a ruckus as I tried to clean it up and he asked what the matter was. I told him my water fell. Telling your half asleep husband that your water has fallen when you are 36 weeks pregnant is not a nice thing to do. "WHAT? Your water?".... "no babe, not THAT water...my cup of water".

Alright, now what....UPDATED

So yesterday my day started with the toilet bowl clogging and overflowing...not a good sign. I went to the OB for one of my many appointments. I was congratulated for not having gained weight since the last appointment two weeks ago (don't ask me how that happened). I was given a gown, poked around for a bit (GBS test? I forget) and given a breast ultrasound appointment (for today at 12:30) due to a lump that has set up shop in my right boob. The doc thinks that the lump is a clogged milk duct and I am hoping that he is right.

Will update later...

UPDATE:

I'm back. Here's how it went down:

First ultrasound tech: Couldn't find the lump on the screen. Took some pictures and left to show them to the Radiologist. She came back with another ultrasound tech.

Second ultrasound tech: Found the lump on the screen. It looked like a black round space of nothingness. She took some pictures and left to show them to the Radiologist.

Radiologist comes back with first tech and looks at lump again. They conversed amongst each other about the shape of said blob being round and that breast tissue is more pointy on the ends. Radiologist mentions something about sticking a needle in it.

Final decision: She thinks it's a harmless (fibroadenoma?), but I need to have a needle biopsy done juuuuust to make sure.

Great. Just what I need at 35 weeks pregnant, something else to worry about.

Here's what Dr. Google says about it:

Fibroadenoma is the most common benign breast tumors seen in women under the age of 35 years. The peak age of incidence is in the third decade. Most fibroadenomas are 2-3 cm in size, but may reach to 6-7 cm... fibroadenomas...may increase in size during pregnancy and undergo infarct following childbirth.

fibroadenoma -- An adenoma in the breast, composed of fibrous tissue. On clinical examination or breast self-examination, it feels like a firm lump. These usually occur in young women and are benign.

Let's just hope that's what this is....all extremities crossed.

Fetal Echo

The appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist was yesterday. He did a fetal echo and the heart looked great as well as the beats. I explained that in the OB office the heart had skipped a beat a couple of times. Once he left the probe on for a little while, the arrhythmia started again and we were able to see the irregular heartbeats on the screen. It's one thing to hear them, it's another thing to see the little heart take a pause. Scary. The doc said that structurally, the heart looked fine, and that the arrhythmia should go away by itself, but that 1% of the cases where the heart skips a beat turn into the heart skipping 3 beats and that is when it is treated (with medication). He said he would see me again in 4 weeks to continue to monitor it. He will also examine the baby when he is born to make sure all is OK.

Baby check-up

I had a follow up OB appointment yesterday. I'm one pound over my recommended pound per week rigmarole, oh well, blame it on my morning indulgence of Starbucks Fourbucks.

Anyway, Little Wiggly was still showing signs of arrhythmia, so I'm going to be scheduled for a fetal echo. Hopefully that will give us an insight into what is going on. The doc didn't seem too concerned and said that this happens all the time and the babies are born OK. I guess the fact that she didn't send me to do it right away should be an indication of her non-worriedness. It still freaks me out though...

Hello, my name is...

Little Wiggly... and yesterday I freaked my mom and doctor out at the prenatal appointment by having an irregular heartbeat. I believe the doctor called it fetal arrhythmia. This caused the doctor to send my mommy to the ultrasound place asap and have me checked out. He told her to not freak out because most of the times it means nothing, but telling someone not to freak out, is quite silly if you ask me.

By the time we got on the ultrasound table, the only one with arrhythmia was my mommy because I looked perfectly fine on the screen. My little heart looked great and it was beating away regularly as it should. The tech told mommy that all looked well and she was able to let out a huge sigh of relief.

Before we left, she asked the tech lady to take a picture of me. I made sure to give her my best pose by putting my hand under my chin.

Mommy says I look like Squiggy though...what do you think?

Reporting for duty

I have been reprimanded by Amanda for not updating my blog. So here I am, reporting for blogging duty lest you think I ran away to El Salvador and never came back.

Since I got back last week, I've been busy playing packrat working, so my poor blog has suffered.

I'm too tired for an El Salvador recap right now, so let me fill you in on this past week's happenings...

On Saturday CMan came out in the Miami Herald newspaper. We had no idea he was going to come out, so it was quite a surprise when R opened the paper and found his son's picture there. Ha ha! And all because I submitted his picture to a gallery at this site, who knew?

On Sunday he fell off Amanda's couch and hit his forehead and lip. It was kind of scary because I had never seen a head bump get that big before and at first we didn't really know where the bleeding was coming from (his lip) so we thought he had knocked his tooth loose. Fortunately, he's doing better today. The bump has gone down, but it's an ugly black and blue color. He doesn't seem to notice or care that it's there. Thank God.

Yesterday I had an OB appt and the babe is fine. Kicking up a storm and growing like a weed, or is that the Taco Bell that's making me grow? The doc says I'm big for my dates and I told him that I kind of knew that because I felt so huge....not to mention that my mom reminds me of this all the time. Almost sixteen pounds so far; at this rate, I definitely see myself beating my 42 pound record with CMan (I'm only 5'4" and already had too much weight to begin with!).

Oh and I've got a cold again...that's 6 in case you're keeping track....I know I am.

Greetings from Central America

Well, my pirate eye is doing much better and is back to normal. It all started because I was trying to put together the bed rail so that Chris could sleep in the twin bed (instead of the crib, we need to make room for the new tenant). He took the instructions away from me, with the intention of ripping them into itty bitty pieces, so I pulled them away and the rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway, I am in El Salvador for the weekend because my cousin is getting married, so R is holding down the fort. CMan stayed in Miami too. I was just telling my mom that I don't know what to do with myself; I've never really had this much time to just DO nothing and have no one to look after (since the NY trip). It just feels strange. He he.

It's freaking hot here...I'm gonna go find a fan and stand under it. See you in 3 days!

Just because I like pirates, doesn't mean I want to BE one.

I'm really starting to become an ER whore here. Pretty soon, they're going to greet me by name when I walk in.
Yesterday, while trying to wrestle a paper from CMan's hands, I managed to get a paper cut in my eye. Yes, you read right...only I would get a paper cut on my eyeball.
If it hurts on your finger, imagine how it feels in your EYE! I saw stars and covered my profusely tearing eye and had visions in my head of having to wear an eye patch for the rest of my life. Yes, I'm a bit morbid and exaggerated, so I immediately imagined the worst. Fortunately, the cut wasn't deep and I was given eye drops to use every 6 hours for the next 7 days.

Anyway, I still have some pictures to share from last week. It's all Amanda's fault though. Now that I have discovered PackRat on Facebook, I haven't been able to do anything else. I'm already a pack rat in real life, so this game just feeds on my natural tendencies.

Swim class went well last week with some more underwater action. It's called a mommy-and-me class, but there were no mommies in the pool this time.

Last Sunday (not this one that just passed, but the one before it) we went to a birthday party for Nathan who was turning 3. They had three chihuahua puppies running around at the beginning and Chris couldn't get enough of them (OK fine, I couldn't either). He hung out at the party and had a great time. There was even an old school piñata with blindfold and everything. I'm happy to report that nobody got whacked with the stick. There was so much candy in that thing that Chris filled up a whole bag and then started loading up his pockets too!

Here's a little video of Cman playing with the puppy (aw...I miss my little Peewee).



On a final note: Happy Birthday Adrian. Once again, I'm sorry about your rug. In all the commotion, I forgot to give you your present too. I can just imagine what ya'll are saying now: Not only does her kid pee on my rug, but she didn't bring a present either, Wench!

ps. Let that be a lesson to all of you. If you post about your son's outstanding potty abilities, you will be publicly humiliated by said son when he pees on the rug in front of everyone else. Potty Karma is a bitch. Arrrgh!

I'm almost scared to tell you that he slept in a big boy (twin) bed last night.

"Stomach hurts"

I am currently slogging through my fourth (or is this the fifth? I lost count) cold this year. What is going on? I hardly ever get sick! But nevermind my runny nose, instead let's talk about what led me to the pediatric ER on Friday.

If you recall from our last episode, Cman had an ultrasound appointment on Friday morning. It was at 8:30 am and my poor baby had to be fasting for it. That was a little hard for him because he usually has a bottle of milk as soon as he wakes up in the morning (anywhere from 5:30 to 7:30 am). Instead we had to dress him and put him in the car and promise him that he would get his milk soon (HA!).

Once at the hospital, he behaved like a champ and let the tech do the ultrasound. He didn't really like the gel ("no like the cremita") they were using, but he was really well behaved. Thanks in part I think to the TV screen above the bed playing cartoons and the endless amounts of stickers that he received. The tech scanned his upper abdomen at which point I told her that his stomach ache complaints were all below the belly button, so she should look at that part. She told me that this one was only for the upper abdomen at which point I thought we were wasting our time then. She got clearance from someone and came back to do the lower abdomen at which point she noticed some bubbles around his appendix. She then called the pediatric radiologist to have a looky and that he did. Poor Cman was fed up with having people probe him, but he remained calm, which was more than I could say for myself.

Basically the doctor said that there was some inflammation around his appendix and he should go to the pediatric ER to get it looked at by the surgeon to see if appendicitis is at work here and whether surgery would be necessary. I couldn't believe what I was hearing...we went from a little stomach ache to the possibility of my little boy going under the knife! Ren and I were a mess and my little man kept asking for food and water and cereal and milk and you name it. We couldn't give him anything as per the doc's orders...you know...in case of surgery.

Once at the ER he was given a gown (that didn't go over well) and blood was drawn and an IV placed. That was horrible. They had to pinch him twice to get the vein and he hated having that tube attached to his arm. It pained me to see him crying and calling out to me and the only thing I could do was hold his hand. How do you explain to a 2 year old that he has to have this done. It was heartbreaking. They also stuck a urine collection bag to his privates and he hated that as well. Every time they tried to console him by offering him a band-aid he would scream "don't wanna band-aid" (he hates them because they remind him of blood draws I guess). I can't even imagine what he must have been thinking...why did you people bring me here to get tortured? I promise I will never ever tell you that my stomach hurts again.

Fast forward several hours and the ER doctor finally came in and examined him and she said that she didn't think this was appendicitis, much less a surgical case for appendicitis, but that the surgeon would have to come and give his opinion anyway. This set us at ease a little bit; I hoped the surgeon wasn't one of those let's take it out anyway just in case types.

Finally at around 1:45pm the surgeon came and basically said what the ER doctor had said. He said that this was probably a virus that was causing the inflammation and that he certainly did not think an operation was called for. He gave us his card with instructions to call (and come back) if things got worse and sent us home. The IV and urine collection bag were taken off (more screams) and my little man finally got to have some juice (and yogurt and grilled cheese and fries and chips) after 17 hours of fasting.

When we got home that afternoon I was overwhelmingly relieved. Not only because we (he)had avoided surgery but because inflammation is the only thing that they found on the ultrasound. I thought about the fact that so many families of children get much worse news on a daily basis and I could do nothing but cry with gratefulness to God that that wasn't the case this time.

Cman is back to his old self now (no fever, no cold, eating so-so). He has not complained of a stomach ache since later that day. I wonder why...