Medical Calls

Yesterday was the day for making calls to the hospital and doctor's offices. First I called the Ob/Gyn office to cancel my appointment for this Thursday morning as I have a training I need to do online then. I've used Blackboard for the past 6+ years, but our university is switching to a different learning management system - effective in just two months. They told us about this switch a few weeks ago. Most of the training sessions will be done on campus, but at least this one I can do from home. I wasn't really wanting to go back anyhow since I was just seen at that clinic last month for my post-partum/ post-operative appointment. I was wishing the doctor just would have done the pap smear last month even if it was a month early since I was there. I am not in any hurry to reschedule. The past seven years I haven't gone for yearly gyn appointments because I've been going far more regularly either to an RE for fertility treatments or to an OB for pregnancy related appointments. The REs have been handling my annual pap smears, but I don't plan to see REs any more.

Then I called the Pediatrician's office to check and see what they thought about Ian's weight gain. The nurse said that he was right on target as they look for babies this age to gain an average of 1/2 ounce a day. I was surprised. I guess I should feel relieved, but I don't. I mean I'm glad he gained one pound in the last month, but he still seems very scrawny to me, and I think if he weighed more that he might be sleeping better at night. I mentioned that he spits up a lot, but they seem to think everything is fine. I guess that's good news. However if he doesn't start sleeping better at night, I am going to want to try supplementing some and see if that makes a difference. I also am going to keep a log as to how long I nurse each day as it feels like I am nursing him All Day Long. I usually only get 2 ounces when I pump at school which makes me think my supply isn't what it should be although I usually pump for less than 10 minutes, and I know that pumping at work can give you a very different result than nursing or even pumping in the presence of your child. I was encouraged when I weighed him this morning as he's up to 8lb 9oz! This means over the past 4 weeks (since February is exactly 28 days long) he gained 20 ounces as he weighed 7lb 5oz on February 16th.

The last call was to the Patient Advocacy office at the hospital where I had the c-section. I reported what happened to me. I feel there were three mistakes along the way: #1 the three doctors who did my c-section didn't remove all the placenta, #2 the nurse didn't take me seriously when I was passing huge clots a few days later, and #3 the two OBs whom I spoke to on the phone on January 19th weren't listening to me and gave me bad advice regarding how to handle my hemorraging. She said she'd be opening an investigation and would be getting back to me. I kept putting it off because I envisioned I'd be on the phone a long time, but actually it was a pretty short conversation. I did a little more research on having a retained placenta, and I learned about Asherman's Syndrome which has a few causes but one of them is that 40% of women who have a D&C for a retained placenta develop Asherman's. This scar tissue in the uterus can cause a variety of problems. Time will tell if I have developed this or not. If I had to go through this, I am very glad it was after my second not my first delivery, as Asherman's can cause infertility and recurrent miscarriages.

In the morning I thought we might be making a trip to the doctor's office as Nadia's face collided with the coffee table. Sometimes when she falls it makes a horrible sound and actually she's fine - no marks whatsoever which amazes me, but that wasn't the case yesterday. Paul had tried to leave for school earlier in the morning, but his car wouldn't start. He was using my car to recharge his battery. So when the blood started spewing on to Nadia's shirt and pants, I screamed for him to come downstairs. After she calmed down she kept saying "hurt." I felt awful. You don't have to be a parent for very long to realize that you'd much rather endure any sort of pain than to see your child suffer in any way. I was afraid she might have cracked a tooth or something, but thankfully she hadn't. She had a cut on the inside of her lip and also had an abrasion that was bleeding on her chin. Over time I noticed that a portion of her lip was bloody and swollen. I wasn't expecting to continue the popsicles in the morning routine, but my reason for doing it was for her injuries rather than potty training. She happily ate two popsicles.

We had a good nap day yesterday with the exception that there wasn't much overlap between their afternoon naps. Ian needed help (i.e. put the pacifier back in) for both naps, but this still represents significant progress. His morning nap was about 2 hours long. I am not sure how long his afternoon nap was because I left for school while he was sleeping. Nadia slept for almost 3 hours again! Because they both had good nap days, I decided to stay home from ladies Bible study today. When I went two weeks ago, I couldn't keep Nadia awake the whole way home and then she didn't take an afternoon nap (except for sleeping in Beth's arms for 30 minutes). I'd like to see both of them stay in a good nap routine, and me going to Bible study interferes with that. I'd love to get a little nap today, and I also want to do some more grading of the midterm exams I gave last night. I'm about half-way done at the moment. As for sleeping last night, Ian slept about 7 hours total from 9:00pm to 5:20am. I nursed him twice during that time span as he woke up once prior to midnight and then again around 3:30am. The amazing thing was that Nadia didn't wake up until 6:50! So far we're 3 for 3 of her not getting up before 6am since the clocks shifted one hour, and two of those days she got up around 6:45. Hoping this will continue!! We've moved her bedtime to 8pm. Maybe that's also helping.

Nadia didn't too badly with her transition of doggy staying in the crib. She asked for him several times, but we were able to shift her focus rather easily. You can tell by looking at the pictures I've taken of her the last couple of months that he's usually in her arm. Speaking of pictures, she definitely makes sure I take a picture of her after I've been taking some of Ian. On Sunday she went and sat down on the step with her doggy and said to me "take picture." I took one and then she went and got the big bear that I use for their monthly pictures, and she tried very hard to get bear to sit upright beside her on the step. It was hard not to laugh at my adorable little model. She wanted me to take a picture of her with "bear bear" and doggy. I doubt I'll be posting too many pics of her until her chin & lip heal. It's easy for me to get Ian to smile, but 99% of the pictures I take of him are really blurry. I have been trying the technique of pushing the button down half-way prior to taking the picture so that the "shutter lag" is much less, but that's not enough to solve the problem with Ian. He is constantly in motion when I'm talking to him. I need to buy a better camera.

As for watching tv, she watched one VeggieTale dvd with me between the hours of 6am-3pm. Paul said he made it until 7pm and then needed to pop one in. So she watched more than 30 minutes, but she watched FAR less than she did last week. It helped that the toys in the dining room/living room (her slide, kitchen, etc.) seemed "new" to her yesterday as they had been off limits during the week of potty training since I was trying to limit the area where she might have accidents. One positive result of potty training is that she's now drinking water. So I made that a third goal of the week. She can have milk at meals and when she gets up from her nap, but at other times she needs to drink water. She still doesn't like juice, but that's really not important to me. I'll be happy if she just drinks water and milk in the months and years to come.