Saturday, January 14, 2012

Post Surgery Update

Yesterday's surgery went well. I've decided I could use more anesthesia naps in my life! Ha! Anyway, the doctor said I was born with extra cartilage in my knee so he trimmed off the damaged portion and I'm left with a "normal" amount. After surgery I felt a lot better than I thought I was going to. I drank a cup of coffee shortly after I woke up then ate a banana on the drive home.

Sleep last night was less than stellar. I woke up at least every hour. I have to sleep on my back with my knee elevated so it's not the most comfortable position to stay in all night. I kept waking up when my arms were numb or my butt was numb. So strange. I just had to stretch a little to get the circulation back. Also the Vicodin that was prescribed is making me incredibly itchy. I was scratching myself so much in my sleep I have scratch marks on my arms, belly and chest. That's not fun! I called to see about getting a different prescription but I guess they're extra cautious when it comes to narcotics do they wouldn't change my prescription. I was told to take 800mg of ibuprofen, ice and elevate my knee. I'm in too much pain to rely solely on ibuprofen so Eric when to the store to pick up some Benadryl (another option the dr gave me). As soon as he gets home I'll take my Vicodin and Benadryl and probably have a really good nap!

I'll check in later :) Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

(please forgive any typos that may be in this post, I'm using my phone)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Pre-Surgery Nesting

I'm going in tomorrow for a quick, out-patient surgery to repair a torn meniscus in my knee.  When I initially spoke to the orthopedic surgeon, he told me this surgery was no big deal, I'll be back to my normal daily activities by Monday and can start running again within 4 weeks.  I think I let myself get a little too comfortable with that idea and now that the surgery is so close, I'm realizing that I'm having SURGERY.  They're going to stick surgical instruments inside my knee joint.  Just the thought of it is making me feel nauseous.  I'm sure I'll be fine, but I'm just making myself be realistic about things.  I'm expecting to be in a lot of pain and discomfort and not being able to walk...that way when I'm able to put weight on my right leg and walk without crutches by Monday I'll be pleasantly surprised.  ha!

In preparation for my surgery I feel like I'm nesting. I'm trying to get all of my last minute chores done around the house so Eric won't have to worry about anything this weekend (well, except taking care of me and the girls!).  Laundry is caught up, there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge, I'm going grocery shopping later today, bathrooms are cleaned, floors are swept and vacuumed, cloth diapers are washed.  I'm feeling pretty good about the house being taken care of for a while so if I find that I'm not back to my normal activities by Monday, it'll be ok for me to take it easy!

Well, wish me luck for tomorrow and pray for a speedy recovery so I'll be able to keep up with the whirlwind that is Sadie!  :)

Llama, Llama, Boo Boo Drama

Maddie must be the most dramatic kid ever!  It's cute and ridiculous at the same time.  She seems to be most dramatic over boo boos.  It's been this way as long as I can remember.  I remember when she was really young, the first time she scraped her knee.  She would go along her day as usual, obviously not in any pain from the scraped knee.  But then if she caught a glimpse of it she would start crying and pointing to her knee as if it was a fresh boo boo.  So, I learned that I had to always put long pants on her to cover them up and she'd be just fine :)

A couple of days ago Maddie was playing in the playroom before breakfast.  Everything was fine until all of a sudden she started crying and told me something was wrong with her wrist.  She couldn't move it.  She told me if she twists it it hurts so she has to hold it still.  I was trying to figure out what she had done to herself, looking around in the playroom for any clues since she was fussing too much to give me any information.  Within a few minutes she decided she wanted breakfast.  I got her a cup of yogurt and a spoon and she started crying because her wrist hurt so bad that she wasn't going to be able to feed herself!  I asked to look at her writst, promising not to touch, of course!  She let me look and I saw some dry drool.  I asked if that was where it was hurting and she said yes.  I grabbed a warm, damp wash cloth and wiped it off.  Yup, that was the end of the boo boo.  She was fine the rest of the day.  She thought since it looked like a boo boo, then certainly it must hurt, right?  Silly girl!

Today she has a little cut on her finger.  It's on the back of her finger, just behind the fingernail.  The finger does look red and puffy so I'm sure it hurts.  But this kid can't. do. anything.  She's bedridden (well, couch-ridden) and needs me to do everything for her.  She's crying off and on (probably every time she looks at it) and whining and fussing that it hurts.  I had been offering suggestions such as some ointment (which she HATES), bandaids, lotion, a kiss...anything.  She refused anything and actually started screaming at me when I made a suggestion.  Well, mommy finally had enough of it and told her I was going to take care of it.  I put some Neosporin on a bandaid (where she couldn't see me doing it), then brought the bandaid to put on her finger.  This is where things got crazy...she was pulling away from me and pulling at my arms with her free hand.  I had to get her behind me so I could put her arm between my legs to hold it still.  We wrestled like this for at least a full minute before she held still enough for me to get the bandaid on securely enough (I'm surprised I didn't really injure her wrist with this move!!).  She proceeded to scream/cry for a minimum of 10 minutes.  I'm not even exaggerating.  What a mess!

Ahhhh....these will be fun things to laugh about when she has a 3 1/2 year old of her own one day and can't get over how dramatic she is!  :)

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Toys, Toys, Toys!!

I'm pretty sure my kids have enough toys for a family of 12...they used to be organized in little bins according to the type of toy.  We had a bin for "baby" toys, one for My Little Pony, Fisher Price Little People, one for small stuffed animals, one for blocks, etc.  We still have these bins but it seems we have a lot of "floater" toys.  Little, junk toys that don't really fit into a category.  You know what I'm talking about right?  The kids meal toys, the little junk from party treat bags or class parties.  Ugh, the stuff that drives parents crazy!  The problem is my kid LOVES this stuff!  We sort out her class party stuff several days after the party in hopes that she won't ask for it again.  A lot of times she does.  I have to lie and tell her it broke so I threw it away.  I've even told her Murphy got a hold of it and chewed it up.  Am I a bad mom??

So, my question is this:  What do you do with your kids' toys?  I'm tempted to just do a big ol' toy box but I know they'll play with stuff less if it's not easy to get to.  Or I'll daddy will just have a huge mess to clean up every night before bed.  (As much as we try to get our girls to clean up, it becomes a hassle and it's easier to do it ourselves, which Maddie is fully aware of now that we haven't been strict on keeping up with her doing the cleaning up so she "lets" us do it...nice, huh?)

I'm off topic!  How do you organize your kids' toys so that they'll play with them but still be kept neat?  Our playroom is pretty good, but Maddie's room is a disaster!

Please help!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

What a year we had!  This year went by so fast that I honestly don't even remember many specifics.  Having two girls under 3 while your husband works overseas will put your mind in quite a fog...but now Eric's home and I'm able to breathe again.  Life is getting better and better and we're enjoying spending as much time together as a family. 

Some things we're looking forward to this year include a family vacation to the beach in Alabama!  Most of Eric's family will be going so it'll be nice to have an entire week to have lots of family fun and (hopefully) some relaxation.  Of course our girls will be 4 and 23 months old so I don't know how relaxing it'll be for mom and dad!  We're also looking forward to many more trips to the zoo (starting with a Mommy-Sadie trip to the zoo this Friday while Maddie's in school), plenty of time spent at the park and having friends over to play. 

My personal goals for this year are to take better care of myself.  As a mom, I often get pushed to the back burner.  I neglect myself in order to put my kids and my husband first.  This year I'm going to continue taking care of my family, but I have to put in the extra effort to worry about me.  Eating healthier, exercising more, spending quality alone time are all part of the plan.  I want to start reading more.  I had tried to start reading when Eric first came home from Nigeria but I was stressing myself out trying to "make" myself read.  I enjoy reading, I just didn't have the energy for it then.  Now I feel like I'm slowly getting caught up on sleep so maybe a few nights a week I can curl up with a book and enoy it.  Eric bought me a fire pit for Christmas so it'll be really nice to curl up outside for a relaxing evening of reading!

I'll end this post for now with pictures of the girls.  The first and last pictures I took of them in 2011.

Here's the first picture I took of Maddie in 2011:

And the last picture I took of Maddie in 2011:

The first picture I took of Sadie in 2011:

And the last picture of Sadie in 2011: