Tummy Bug

Can you say "booo" to being sick?! I've had some kind of tummy bug since Monday. I really wish mom and dad had a set of scales so I could see how much all of this is helping the bottom line. LOL... I better be getting some good results from all of this. Thankfully if Neal must be away, I have mom here to help with Kaitlyn. Mom has been great with changing diapers, dishing out food or just watching Kaitlyn so I can get some sleep (or run to the bathroom). I'm so done with this bug. Thankfully no one else has come down with it yet. When I first woke up sick on Monday I thought it was food poisoning, but it still hasn't gone away.

On a totally different topic I was ready to add some Velcro to some modified toddler panties when I remembered I didn't buy new needles for my mom's sewing machine. Aah! I was going to cut out 2.5" squares for the bath mat or "making-it-up-as-I-go-along-quilt", but I decided to not stress the cutting until I knew I could sew it together. Because my sewing is on hold I decided to oil her machine. It should now be working well. I also looked up how to sew a skirt onto a t-shirt. I know it's not rocket science, but I didn't want to stretch out the shirt to put a skirt on it. I considered buying the directions from You Can Make This, but again, I knew it wasn't rocket science. I did a simple google search for t-shirt dress tutorials and what do you know... I got results. My problem is few options of knit dresses. I bought Kaitlyn a couple dresses from Walmart and Kohl's, but I feel really limited. Mom had purchased some fun fabric last summer which I'm thinking of using to make a tiered skirt onto a shirt. I actually picked up a couple 3t-4t shirts from Kohl's when I bought the dresses. If the t-shirt dress comes out well, I will probably make her a couple more. Otherwise she will spend more days like today wearing her sleeping shirt (regular tee from Walmart) all day long. The poor child needs options.

Speaking of Kaitlyn. I painted her toe nails hot pink. Her nails are actually brighter then her cast if you can believe that. Before the polish it looked like her toes barely stuck out the end of the cast. Now her toes seem to really stick out. She has such a little foot. I was washing her free foot tonight and was struck by how small it looks compared to the big cast she is wearing. Her dainty foot with hot pink nails was splashing in the water. =)

Day 2 At Home

I continue to be blessed by both my FertiliChat and blog family. Of course my biological (and married) family has been a huge support too. As expected Kaitlyn has both good and bad moments/days. She woke up around 11 PM in pain so I gave her a little sippy cup of juice with Tylenol in it. After drinking half of it she went to sleep. She woke up again around 1 AM. Her and I went around and around. Nothing I did or tried to do made her happy. I even picked her up and she pitched a fit to be put back in bed. So back to bed she went. I gave up. She wouldn't go to sleep. I went for the good stuff. Her liquid vicodin doesn't taste bad (I tried it to see what the fight was about), but she still won't take it willingly. I put the syringe in her mouth as well as my finger along the side so she would be forced to swallow. She loves spitting it at you. Grrr... Well, there wasn't any spitting this time. I played Mario Cart on the DS for 20 minutes until the crying stopped (AKA the drug kicked in). She woke up once or twice more, but thankfully not for long periods. She woke up a little after 7 AM in a great mood. I wanted to keep things happy so I asked if she wanted some milk. When she took me up on the offer I laced it with Tylenol. LOL... I wanted to keep things happy. She's napping now... and the whole house gives a relieved sigh. =)

Here's some pictures I promised.

Kaitlyn slept really good across mom's stomach this way. It was hard on mom's knees (her feet were on the bed), but she held out so Kaitlyn could have more time off her rear.

This was Kaitlyn's second wagon ride at the hospital. Although she isn't smiling here she was loving the ride. Notice her hand is in a cup; she was eating ice. I put her in the wagon and walked her around the hospital. She loved it so much she cried when I took her out.

For all who have wondered about diaper changes, I flip her onto her tummy (over pillows) to tuck the diaper into the back of her cast. Her doctor's nurse was really impressed that Kaitlyn felt good enough to push up on her hands and knees (like in the picture).
Lastly, here's a picture of Kaitlyn opening her first piece of mail. This was a get well card from "Sundance"; one of the ladies I know from FertiliChat. This picture was taken the day she got home from the hospital. She has gotten a little more mail in as well as a package which included a second little table like the one in the picture. Yes, you may be thinking we already have one and don't really need a second, but let me tell you I was blessed to receive it. I meant to buy a second table yesterday so she would have one on either side of her bean bag chair. Now she has toys, books, and markers right in her reach on either side.

We're Home!

I'm glad the hospital stay is over. When we arrived Monday morning I could tell Kaitlyn knew we were there for her. She was anxious and kept saying "poo poo potty" to get out of the room. As soon as I would get her into the bathroom she would cry while saying "noooo". She didn't need to go potty she just wanted to run away.
It helped that I brought a bag of toys. When she wasn't worried about what may be going on she was playing. We learned Makka Pakka and a Tombleboo can fit in the Barney car just fine (see the yellow car by the rail with Makk Pakka standing in it).

The nurses told me I didn't have to take Kaitlyn's sleeper off that they would do it later, but she's my baby so I thought I should have the honor of doing it for the last time presurgery. I waited until they drugged her to make the switch. Even with her limp and loopy she tried to fight me about removing her clothes. However she only gave a brief fight.
It was really odd to see her on this drug. She looked like a special ed child. I don't say that to be rude, but to give you a better understanding on how limp she was and odd her behavior became once the drug was administered. To be honest for a moment I panicked when she looked at me and gave a sluggish half (one side of the mouth) smile. The drug was supposed to take all her anxiety away and wipe the memory of the morning out of her mind. I'm not sure about her memory, but the girl still had fight in her. At one point I was trying to pull the gown down to cover her diaper better and she freaked out, bent her knees up to her chest while screeching "nooo". Also, when the anesthesiologist was carrying her away she started crying and trying to fight her. The lady slowed her pace and started singing and swaying. I had to quickly walk out. I couldn't handle watching my baby cry while someone carried her away.
I was supposed to be taken back to the recovery room while Kaitlyn was waking up. I was told I would be the first person she would see. However, I walked in the room and she was fighting the nurse. She wanted all the wrapping taken off her left hand. She ended up keeping that club-hand until yesterday. She did a bit of yanking on her IV and it started to bleed. I called in the nurse and after taking most of the wrapping off she left the room to get something. Kaitlyn started wiggling her fingers. Suddenly the IV line fell out. My mom was there and she grabbed Kaitlyn's hand, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. I pinched the IV off and called the nurse back in. They had put a spare "just in case" line in Kaitlyn's foot so they moved the IV to her foot.
Here she is resting on Tuesday. As you can see the cast goes all the way down her right leg to her toes. You can only see four of her toes sticking out the end. I'm a bit torn about her having a free leg. We had a hard weekend which left me looking forward to her being immobile. LOL... The tan strip on her left leg was just tape holding down her catheter line. By the way, the catheter fell out yesterday. I discovered her with a wet diaper. The nurse thought it was just sweat, but when she had a wet diaper an hour later we knew it was pee. With the catheter gone the epidural had to be cut way back. The wire coming from her toe in the picture is a heart rate monitor which she got to lose when the epi was gone yesterday afternoon.

I have a couple more pictures of her wagon rides (which she REALLY loved), her sleeping belly to belly with my mom (picture the casted leg in the air) and her here at my parents house.

Big Request!!!

I'm working on what I would like to call Showers of Stickers. Kaitlyn LOVES stickers; small ones, big ones, shiny ones, simple ones, she likes them all. Some of the ladies from a discussion board I have belonged for the passed three years are sending Kaitlyn stickers.

So now I'm turning to my blog readers to ask if any of you would like to "shower" Kaitlyn with stickers. You don't really have to shower her actually. Just get one of those flat sheets of stickers that fit into an envelope.

Kaitlyn is going to have a LONG recovery follow her surgery on Monday and I'm hoping the stickers will give her some joy. After a meltdown at the hospital on Thursday I found some glittery Christmas ornament stickers in the diaper bag that made her HAPPY. I told her they were "shiny" which I knew she would relate to her favorite preschool show, The Shiny Show. She kept saying "shiny" while paying with the sheet of stickers.

So if you would like to be apart of making a little girl happy during her long recovery you can email me at njclark8203(@)aol(.)com for our address. Just take the ( ) out of the email address to reach me. Thanks!!!

Change

Things are happening quickly with Kaitlyn's hip surgery.

Just to catch everyone up... On Monday of last week I faxed our insurance paper off. On Tuesday Kaitlyn was assigned a pediatrician. Wednesday we saw her pedi for the first time and got a new referral for an Orthopedic Surgeon. On Monday I get a call saying the referral was made out for the hospital the clinic is in, not the clinic, so it's bad. I then switched her Tuesday appointment with the ortho surgeon to Thursday. Thursday we spent all day at the clinic/hospital seeing the surgeon, filling out paperwork and waiting. The waiting is a killer. It was driving me nuts. So two weeks from faxing off our insurance forms Kaitlyn will have her surgery. By the way, that two week mark is this Monday. Yep, two days away.

Am I up for her being in a body cast? Am I ready for her to have surgery? Am I ready for the sleepless nights and Kaitlyn being in pain? Well... I'm ready for it all to be behind me. This is going to be the longest three plus months of my life. When I told the dr we are going to Guam in May he was quick to say it can't happen. I told him we should be able to get our tickets changed for a later date. He said we would have to stay here at least a year from the surgery. Today Neal has been trying to cancel the orders for Guam. It's either cancel the orders or spend one to one and a half years apart. I'm not sure how that will work out.

And the "quilt". I'm not sure when I will get to work on it. I've gotten as far as washing the fabric, but haven't had a chance to iron and cut it out. I'm not sure when the opportunity will present itself.

High Speed Internet... sweet!

Mom and dad now have high speed internet. I can't tell you how nice it was to pull up my "dashboard" here with blogger and not wait five minutes for it to load.

“I’m-Making-This-Up-As-I-Go-Along” Quilt!

Okay, I'm joining the adventure on You Can Make This to make a "I'm-Making-This-Up-As-I-Go-Along" Quilt! I thought it could be fun and heaven knows I need a project. Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby and bought four different fabrics two in tan/honey and two in burgundy. I know I'm not following everyone else and using scraps, but mine are on their way to Guam. Also, I'm going smaller. I don't really need a quilt nor have any idea where I will put a purely decorative one once in Guam. I'm sure once our house is set up I will be able to picture one over some chair arm. Instead of doing 4x4 inch squares I'm contemplating 3x3 or 2.5x2.5. The latter might work better for my needs. Instead of a small quilt, I'm going to make a bath mat. Neal is always getting my bathroom rugs wet, so I thought if he can put a bath mat down before getting out of the shower then he will stop wetting my floor. Or that's my hope anyway. Sooo... as far as the "quilt" top in concerned I thought I would follow the challenge, but on a smaller scale. Now I just need Kaitlyn to wake up from her nap so I can dig out my cutting mat, rotary cutter and new ruler. Oh yeah, I got a new ruler. It's okay to be jealous. LOL... I love getting new sewing stuff, but I put off buying the "new thing" if I don't really need it. The ruler I have been using all year had to go in our household goods because it was 24" long and I was afraid it would get broken in my suitcase. So now I have an 18" ruler.

I'm Here! I'm Here!

Some of you may be wondering what happened to me. Well I took a transatlantic flight with a toddler with a total travel/waiting time of 22 hours. Yikes!!! It was a long day. Kaitlyn only slept a couple hours on the first flight (10 hours) and it had to be in my arms. I tried to lay her down twice so I could go to the bathroom and she cried; both times I threw her over my shoulder and took a sleeping child to the bathroom with me. Hehehe...

I ended up not having to take the dogs with me. It was below 45 the morning I flew out so the dogs followed me a couple days later as cargo. I was dreading changing planes, going through customs, rechecking my bags (and dogs), and getting to my next terminal/gate. I tipped porters throughout my airport traveling to get my things where they needed to go. You wouldn't believe how smooth they made it for me. I highly suggest paying someone as you go. It was well worth the tip money. Neal flew in four days after me; arriving the same day as the dogs.

Neal's parents arrived on New Year's Eve; the day after him. They left out the day after he flew to Georgia for his tech school.

Neal started his long time away from Kaitlyn and I Sunday. He will be in Georgia till mid May. He will fly back to Texas in May for five days before we head off to Guam.

And an update on Kaitlyn... We had our insurance switched over to the local region on Tuesday, saw a pediatrician Wednesday for a new referral, and will see a orthopedic surgeon this coming Tuesday. The lady doing the referral really worked with us until she found an early opening. Now let's pray the guy is a good doctor.

My parents have crazy slow dial-up internet, hence the reason I have posted since arriving. A guy should be coming either tomorrow or early next week to hook up their broadband. It will be nice having high speed back. =)