Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CD 11 and FLOODING!

Seriously?!?!?  I really am flooding on CD 11.  I flooded on CD 2, 3, and 4 then the flooding resumed yesterday on CD 10.  Why can't my body just do what it's supposed to do?  It's been hard running after a busy 15 month old while flooding.  I'm so tired.  Oh well, something else to offer up.

Please pray that my favorite person from last night works out for the mother's helper position.  I feel like I could really trust her to take care of S but she could be making more money somewhere else.  I pray that it all works out as I'm just too tired to keep going.  I guess it's nap time.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Doing better

Y'all must be praying for me!  I am still in a good amount of pain but feeling more stable emotionally.  I finally posted an ad for a mother's helper position as well as a housekeeper position.  Our beloved housekeeper started a full time graduate program last week and this place is getting pretty bad.  I had hoped to have a mother's helper in place before our housekeeper left so that I wasn't having to have 2 new people at the same time, but we had a bunch of drama with the last mother's helper back in May and I just wasn't up to dealing with the interviewing again until now.  Right off the bat I had to turn down 2 people for the mother's helper position and was not feeling very optimistic last night but then this morning 2 people that I'm interested in talking more with applied.  And a pretty awesome sounding candidate applied for the housekeeping position.  I know that God is always looking out for me but I'm feeling it a little more today.

I smell poop! ;o)

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

What a load of c#@&!

Two posts in one day??  It's just because I'm hormonal and am so tired of worthless stuff like this article.  If I wasn't so hormonal it probably wouldn't tick me off so much but oh well.  I love how they mix a little truth with a lot of lie.  Ugh!  I also LOVE how they make it sound like E and I have no hope for making a baby in our OLD age!  St. Michael Defend Us!

Until my period started, I'd been doing pretty good at staying off of sugar and grains and following a mostly GAPS based diet but I really need  hot chocolate!  Good night.

Ripping apart

Seriously, sometimes I have no idea how I ever got pregnant with S other than the fact that I was about 30 pounds lighter when I conceived.  The cycle that I got pregnant with her I didn't think that I could get pregnant as my cycle was the lightest cycle I'd ever had.  I really thought it was abnormally light.  When I got pregnant I wondered if that's what periods are supposed to be like??   My first period after pregnancy wasn't as light I don't think but I had no pain....  what a concept!  Last cycle was very heavy and painful but nothing like this.  This cycle is hell!  I have been flooding for days and feel like I'm ripping apart on my left side.  Side note: my left side had more adhesions.  Ugh!  I give up.  I just want to crawl into bed and stay there.

Oh and to add insult to injury...  I've been trying to taper down on pumping as I'm still experiencing D-MER  and for our family's sake I need to stop.  You'd think that someone with such a low supply (I'm only getting maybe 4 oz a day) could just stop pumping but not me.  I hear of these women who just stop breastfeeding without their breast hurting, but not me.  Heck despite a low supply, I soaked my shirt today...  what the heck?  Can't anything go right with my body?

Obviously I'm a hormonal mess and my poor husband is getting the brunt of it.  That man is a SAINT!  Please pray for my dear sweet saint of a husband and for my marriage.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Total Bust


I was hoping to not have to start charting again.  I was hoping that I was just testing too early.  Nope, it's CD 1 after just a 24 day cycle...  It's time to start charting again.  Crud!  I had pretty severe ovulation type pain on Friday 8/12 so that means I might have had an 8 day luteal phase...  Crud!  I'm so tired of all of this.

Since there are post dates on both sides of the family and S was exactly 10 months from LMP to delivery, if I'm blessed enough to become pregnant again, I can probably count on having another close to 10 month pregnancy.  So that means that I would have to get pregnant this cycle to be able to deliver by my 40th birthday which is exactly 10 months from today.  Ugh!  I feel so old.

Now for some happy news...  S is 15 months today.  She is in full on todderhood.  She wants what she wants, when she wants it or the world might end.  Despite that, she is more fun everyday.  She learns new words and signs everyday.  She has a shy side but after she gets her bearings is outgoing and talks to just about everyone.  She sleeps in her crib which is a corner of our room.  This morning when I heard her wake up I pretended like I was asleep and just watched her play and talk away to herself...  she is magical.  She is truly the light of our lives and I can't imagine my life without her.  I know she will make a great big sister if that is God's will.  She makes me want to be a better person.

That's all I can think of for now.  Prayer buddy, please pray for peace and understanding in our little Catholic blogging world.  It seems as though the evil one is trying to stir the pot.  Of course he loves nothing more than to get God's children to quarrel.  St. Michael, pray for us!


Friday, August 19, 2011

Feeling left behind again / Annoyed with the health and wealth gospel

I got a BFN this morning. I didn't expect it to be +, we were a little off on our timing this month... it was possible but not probable. Then a friend who was pregnant with her first at the same time I was pregnant with S, posted on FB that she's pregnant with her second. That was the 6th or 7th person who was pregnant when I was to announce another pregnancy or birth in the last month or so. I know this is only my second cycle since pregnancy and that it's still really early for testing but I'm still feeling left behind and all those feelings that have never really gone away are getting louder in my head.

Funny enough, it may really be a blessing that I'm not pregnant as I really need some major dental work but can't God just heal my teeth? I know how pathetic I sound. I can laugh at myself but it's still hard and unfortunately I didn't realize until just now how much I took out my disappointment from this morning on my dear little S. That child will have no purgatory time, as having me for a mother will have been enough!

I'm sorry I haven't updated the hospital story yet. I just haven't been able to get myself back into the place to write about it again.

S has been doing really well lately. Her blood sugar has remained in the normal range, her skin is looking better everyday (although the diaper rash is a bit worse again - still NOTHING like what it was) and she's sleeping better. Poor thing did get stung by a bee or wasp on Wednesday. She did really well with the whole thing and had only a minimal reaction but the sting site is still bothering her some. It just broke my heart to see her start screaming like that.

Okay so here is my soap box for today: GOD IS GOOD ALL OF THE TIME, not just when things are going good! I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one but some comments on FB have really been annoying me. I know the people mean well but when they write things like "Glad to hear the good news!!! God is good", I know that they subscribe to the health and wealth gospel of "if you pray hard enough or well enough that you will be blessed." Nothing could be farther from the truth. I so wish that those health and wealth gospel types could understand that God is ALWAYS good and that He does answer prayer in the best way for our salvation. I wish they could understand redemptive suffering. I wish that they knew the Communion of Saints. I wish so many things but I'm not very good at helping people gently find the truth. Is this God asking me to work through my weaknesses or Him trying to teach me to learn to let go? Crud another thing to discern. I'm off my soapbox now.

I'm so glad that we're in this time of prayer buddies again. It has been so good for me to offer up some of this for my prayer buddy and to know that someone is praying for me.

Prayer buddy - please pray for healing in my family.

Blessings Everyone! CC

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Grueling Week

I want to start by expressing my deepest gratitude for each and everyone of you who have been praying for S.  Here's the story as best I could get out in my sleep deprived state.  I'm sure there are many typos but I'm too tired to proof read.

S has had this horrible diaper rash since right around her birthday a little more than 2 months ago.  We've tried everything and she would get maybe 90% better and then it would flare up super bad again.  Then when we went to E's class reunion about 4 weeks ago she ended up breaking out on her legs and stomach.  It didn't look too bad at first but then it kept getting worse.  So last week on Wednesday we took S back to her primary care doc.  The primary care doc was surprised that S wasn't healing like she expected but decided internal anti-fungals were necessary and was sure that would be the trick.  Well by Monday of this week, I knew that it wasn't helping.  S's rash was getting worse and it looked like the rash was starting to bruise her.  We took her to pediatric urgent care that night and were blessed to have a ped from our parish on that night.  He said he thought the bruising was just an abrasion that was not related to the rash and was not concerned.  He was concerned that the internal anti-fungals weren't working and switched her to a stronger one as well as prescribe a steroid cream for the diaper rash.  I knew Monday that something was seriously wrong but I let the ped calm me down and convince me otherwise.

Wednesday morning I heard S call "mama" about 7:45 am.  I was pumping so I just listened on the monitor and kept pumping.  She never said anything else so I figured that she had just said mama as she was rolling over.  After I finished pumping I thought that I should rest until S got up but I just couldn't settle down.  Normally I feel blessed when S sleeps in but there was a different feel to that morning and so I got dressed, ate something and then laid down on the sofa with the monitor in hand.  S woke up grumpy just after 9.  I hardly ever know exactly when she wakes as I rarely look at the clock and think about it until later.  That day for some reason I made sure to know what the time was as I was heading up stairs.  S was grumpier than she usually is when she sleeps until 9 but I didn't think much of it.  She had super soaked her diaper and her p.j. bottoms were damp too.  I asked her if she wanted to get a clean diaper right away or if she wanted a bath first.  She signed "bath" so we headed to her bathroom.  Not too long after she got in the water she got on her hands and knees.  She had been constipated for a couple days so I asked her if she wanted to sit on the toilet.  She reached for the toilet and I helped her onto her potty seat and put a towel around her to keep her warm.  Then she leaned back.  At first I thought that she was just trying a different position to poop in but her eyes went vacant.  I was concerned.  Shortly after I realized that I was concerned, S came out of her stare a bit and kind of threw herself forward with a groan / whimper.  I helped her off the toilet and she curled up on the floor of the bathroom and became non-responsive.  I picked her up and she had no muscle tone. I ran to the phone and called 911.  I had a hard time talking clearly to the 911 operator but I was finally able to get her to understand that we needed an ambulance.  While I was on the phone with 911 I moved S downstairs near the door and unlocked the door.  I'd never seen her so lifeless.

The ambulance guys were great and S perked up a little on the ride but then seemed to be slipping away again.  When we got to the hospital things were kind of a blur.  E was already there as I called him right before we left the house and the hospital is closer to his office than our house.  The doctor bullied us into a spinal tap for S and we consented.  I regret that as it was clear as soon as they took her blood sugar and temp what was wrong...  her blood sugar was 40 and her rectal temp was 96 point something.  They got her a warm blanket to warm her up but I think they didn't get an IV with sugar going until after they did the spinal.  Of course the spinal tap was fine other than low sugar.  The ER nurse didn't look too confident in getting the IV in.  I mentioned getting a NICU nurse and she just smiled and put the IV in the crease of S's dominant arm.  The IV helped and her glucose started inching up.

Finally when the pediatrician at the hospital came in they asked a bunch of questions and decided that he was pretty sure that S had just gotten into some diabetes medication and was going to be fine.  We admitted that while we couldn't be 100% sure that S's grandmother hadn't dropped a pill in our house when she was here for S's birthday in May but that we really thought he was barking up the wrong tree and would like her worked up for other causes.  After being in the ER for what seemed like forever, she was admitted to the peds ward and we started getting settled in.

*****
The nurses on the pedsmeds.  When E asked about the drop in the night, the doc said that he thought it was consistent with the med idea.  He went so far as to tell E that he wouldn't recommend looking into it any further as it would be too stressful for us.  Needless to say, I told E that I wanted to talk to the doc when I got back.  Hurried back there and had a little coming to Jesus with that doc.  I was polite but I felt like he made his decision in the ER and was not willing to even look for other explanations.

The doc offered to let S stay another night but I told him that since her 5 pm level (which we again had to insist on) was fine that I was okay with being discharged.  Then at some point in the conversation he said something that sounded like he was implying that S hadn't really needed to be in the hospital Wednesday night and that was a favor to us.  Considering that her sugar drastically dropped in the night, I was more than annoyed and just wanted her out of that hospital.

She did well Thursday night at home.  We made sure to get her up and feed her in the night since we have no idea what happened.  Friday was low key. I was so tired that I could barely function but S went easy on me and took a longer nap than she has in a while. S seemed so happy to be home and I know I was.  We are seeing our primary care doc this morning at 9:30 to see about next steps but E and I have already decided that we're taking her to a Pediatric Endocrinologist as soon as we can identify one that we are interested in and can get an appointment.

I'm pretty sure looking back now that S has had some blood sugar issues for a while.  As soon as they got her blood sugar up, her diaper rash started just disappearing and making sure to feed her every 2 hours has helped her be a lot happier.  I feel so guilty that I hadn't put it together before now.  Hopefully this is something that diet can fix.  Please keep praying.  As you can imagine E and I are sleeping with one eye open so to speak.

****  Update *** I just skimmed over this and somehow a chunk is missing where the **** is.  I'll try to fix that as sometime this weekend.