Lucas's First Surgery

Like any "laid-back" (borderline neglectful) mom, I've always been happy to let Lucas run around our backyard in his bare feet. Shoes and socks just seem so oppressive in the summer time, and we didn't have sandals that would fit his chubby Fred Flintstone feet.

About a month ago, we noticed that he'd gotten a splinter in the bottom sole of his left foot. Brandon tried to get it out with tweezers, but without success. Lucas kicks and screams like he's demon-possessed if you mess with his feet, so we decided to leave it alone for a few days to see if it would work its way out. Instead, it just got puffy and red, with angry lines crawling up his ankle, so off to his doctor we went.

The first trip to the doctor, we saw someone else in the practice instead of our regular pediatrician. She had me and a nurse hold Lucas down so she could dig in his foot with tweezers and a needle while he screamed so loudly and frantically that I thought he might actually pass out. I was so frazzled afterward that I didn't hear her say that she'd only been able to get part of the splinter out due to Lucas's enthusiastic complaints.

The second trip to the doctor, our regular pediatrician, resulted in a referral to the orthopedic office after hearing my account of the first doctor's attempt and reading her notes in his file. At the third appointment, with an orthopedic surgeon, they did an ultrasound on his foot to visualize the "foreign body" (his objections regarding that procedure were also quite emphatic) and decided that the best result for everyone would be to put Lucas under some mild general anesthesia and get the splinter out that way.

So today we left for the hospital at 5am for our 5:30am check-in time for a 7:30 surgery. Lucas couldn't have any food after midnight, and no liquids at all after 4:30am. Since he magically slept through the night on Monday, this meant that he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 8pm. I was very anxious about how he'd be without breakfast, so I forbade Brandon from drinking coffee or eating anything in front of him before the procedure.

Lucas did surprisingly well in the two hours between the check-in and the surgery while we met with the pre-op nurse and spoke with the surgical fellow, anesthesiologist, surgical nurse, and surgeon. He looked so cute and little in his "extra small" hospital gown and was the youngest patient there by quite a bit. I felt very lucky that our procedure was so minor after overhearing one doctor inform the parent that his child's surgery would be "at least 8 hours." The part I was most dreading, when the nurse carried him away awake for the procedure, turned out just fine; at least, he didn't cry until I was out of earshot so I can pretend it didn't happen at all.

The procedure took all of 10 minutes; he woke up from the anesthesia about 30 minutes after that. We met him in the recovery room. I wish I had a photo of him sitting up in his tiny gurney, guzzling down his first sippy of juice ever like he had just been rescued from a desert island. I swear he barely even noticed we were there in his haste to drink down the sweet apple nectar as quickly as possible. In all, baby's first "surgery" went as well as I could have hoped.

Our day back at home has been a little more difficult; he couldn't stand up on his own for several hours and wouldn't let me put him down. I feel like I've been carrying his 28 -pound butt around for the last 10 hours straight! After some Tylenol and a few of his favorite snacks he seems in a much better mood and has figured out how to get around on one foot and the tippy toes of the injured foot.

The bandage stays on for a week and his three stitches should dissolve about 2-3 weeks after that. Now, to figure out how to keep Hurricane Lucas contained for the next week since we can't really run around outside too much! Here are a few photos of him in his gown.

Lucas at 15 months

Lucas is 15 months old now! That's a year and a quarter, for those keeping track at home, aka REALLY OLD. We had his 15-month checkup this week, and he's in his pre-growth spurt phase of being very chubby without having grown more than half an inch since his last checkup. I'll be surprised if he hasn't shot up quite a bit by the time we go back in November for the 18 month checkup. He weighs about 28.5 lbs now and is still wearing 24mo/2T clothes. He has 9 full teeth and another molar about halfway through.

Our boy is the strong silent type, meaning he's not talking yet. We get an occasional Mama or Dada thrown our way, and he uses some of the same sounds for certain requests (for example, asking for a drink is always an emphatic BA! followed by pointing), but other than that, nothing. He's quite good at pointing and saying "eh, eh, eh," though, which is reportedly all the talking his mother did until she was creeping up on two years old. And look how well I turned out, right?! I'm not too worried yet and neither is his doctor, so we'll follow up on this at the next appointment if he's still not talking at all.

He's just about made it up to a running speed on his mobility, although he face plants fairly often when he tries it. I think his fine motor is pretty good too -- he loves working straws in and out of our insulated drinking cups that I keep ice water in all day. He's still quite funny and extremely active; I always roll my eyes at bit when I hang out with my moms group and their toddlers will happily sit in strollers for literally hours at a time while mine is begging to get out and move around after 30 minutes.

We do our best to tire him out every day, but it looks like he's about ready to drop his second nap which will bring him down to one 1.5 hour nap daily, tops. Ugh, sucks to be mommy. I will miss my afternoon snack and reading time, as he seems more willing to drop the afternoon nap and just shift his morning nap to a little later in the day.

He's a great eater most of the time and we're trying to expand on the variety of foods he will eat. His favorite is still bananas, but he loves pretty much any soft fruit. Other big hits are peanut butter, string cheese, yogurt, and graham crackers. He is pretty cranky about veggies and meat, but we're making some progress.

I want to put in some of the awesome portraits we have from the family photos taken when my family came down for a week last month, but I don't have the files in hand yet. I'll try to remember to come back this weekend and post a few of the really good ones.

Lucas Goes to Comic-Con

I love the idea of Comic-Con. All geeky stuff, all the movies I want to see, people in awesome costumes. I'm all for it. The thing is, Comic-Con is crazy expensive and crazy crowded. So I'm not interested in buying a ticket so I can see the Joss Whedon/Hunger Games/insert other awesome panel here, waiting in line for 4+ hours (on the short end) and more than likely not even getting into said panel. So I don't bother. (I wish they sold half-tickets so I could just walk the convention hall though!)

That said, the atmosphere at Comic-Con is such fun, I wanted Lucas to experience it. So we headed down on the Friday of the 4-day convention to people-watch and take in the fun. It was my first time taking Lucas on the trolley, too, and it went quite well.

We mainly just walked around the outside of the Convention Center and hung out in a picnic area to watch the crowds, but I had a great time and I think my tiny Superman did too!

A little weirded out by the trolley but he liked it

They changed all the text at the trolley stop to Game of Thrones style

Right when we got off the trolley there was an awesome giant robot!

Rocking the cape

Cool giant Hobbit Lego structure

Running around after being trapped in the stroller

I can take you, bat boy

Learning to fly

More Adventures in Personal Health: Complex migraine with aura

Do you know what this is? I didn't either, until Wednesday.

As far as I know, I've never had a migraine before. I assumed that migraines are simply a really bad headache, although I knew other symptoms like nausea and light sensitivity can also play a role. But I've never been one to suffer from chronic headaches; the worst headache I've ever had was the spinal headache I had following my epidural when Lucas was born.

So on Wednesday, when I suddenly lost half the sight in the right eye, and the other half was nearly taken over by a blinking, zebra-striped light, I had no idea was happening. So I did what anyone my age would do -- I googled it.

Only when the results came up, I couldn't read them. Not that I could see the words or make them out -- I literally could not understand the words on the page. Only if I went very slowly and picked out each word one at a time could I decipher them, and even then I couldn't make the whole sentence make sense. At this point I got pretty scared and called Brandon. It was also difficult for me to talk clearly, find the correct words, and make myself understood, and about half of what Brandon said to me sounded like gibberish.

Loss of vision and inability to speak or understand words -- I had no idea that these are symptoms of a complex migraine with aura. I figured I must be dying of a stroke or something equally dire. I made Brandon come home and take me to the hospital. Just as we arrived, my vision loss and "transient aphasia" (the technical term for the understanding words thing) were fading and being replaced by nausea and headache that lasted for about 24 hours. The doctors checked me out just in case and I even had my first head CT scan, but the official diagnosis was complex ocular migraine.

I admit I feel a little silly for going to the ER for a headache, but if this happens in the future at least I'll be more aware of what is happening to me and be able to remain calm. I'm also going to follow up with my regular doctor to see if we can track down triggers or preventative measures in case this becomes something that happens to me more regularly. Hopefully it won't! The aphasia in particular was extremely unsettling.

Oh, and if you really do think you are having a stroke, do these three things: 1) Smile, 2) Stick out your tongue, and 3) Raise both arms above your head. If you are having trouble doing anything of these things, call an ambulance rather than waiting for your husband to drive home from work to pick you up. Other symptoms of complex migraine with aura are weakness, numbness, dizziness/vertigo, confusion, and loss of body control/paralysis. These symptoms can precede any head pain.

Why am I happy today?

Did you know that people in China, Russia, Australia, Belgium, Spain, South Korea, and Israel have looked at this piddly little blog? I don't know how on earth anyone in these places found this blog or why it seemed interesting enough to check out. Unless they are spambots or something, which seems more likely.

What am I happy about today?

I am happy that DOMA was overturned and that Prop 8 was too.

I am happy that my house doesn't get as hot as our old one did, even when the temperatures are pushing triple-digits this week.

I am happy that friends gave us their old portable AC that we're going to install tomorrow.

I am happy that I get to meet friends at Miguel's tonight for drinks and delicious white queso.

I am happy to have an excuse to go to Target today.

I am happy that we finally seem to be making some progress with sleep training Lucas. He still needs us to be in the room, but we can sit by the crib quietly and he will fall asleep without additional soothing.

I am happy that my family is coming to visit in less than two weeks!

I am happy that my son has been napping for an entire hour. I probably should have gotten more housework done.

Weaning etc.

As of yesterday, my Biggest Boy is no longer nursing. I feel like I should write up a whole reflection about breastfeeding because it's been such a wonderful experience, but I feel weird writing a whole blog entry about my boobs so I'll probably refrain. Suffice it to say, I'm very lucky to have had the experience I did and I'm feeling very sad about deciding to stop. Lucas took to weaning very well over the past month and luckily he's still a terrible sleeper so I still get lots of snuggles before naps and bedtime.

Life is still nice and busy these days, with lots of playdates and visits to the park. I was saying to someone recently that I feel guilty as a SAHM for loving my life so much. It's like I should go back to work so I can be a little more miserable because it's unfair to everyone else for me to be this happy.  Or maybe I should just try to do a little more housework, that might even things up a bit for me. Or I could even try again to teach my child to fall asleep on his own. That would ratchet up the misery right away.

We found an amazing babysitter that we love. She runs the nursery program at our church, and is wonderful with kids. We had her over to watch Lucas last weekend while we saw Man of Steel and grabbed some lunch, and it all went swimmingly. Lucas has been having a little separation anxiety with me since then, but it could be unrelated. Poor guy also has at least one molar on its way in and he's having a rough time of it.

I'm not sure I have too much to say today, I just thought I should commemorate the End of Nursing somehow. Another reason to be sad: no more extra 500 calories a day for me. Time to return to pre-pregnancy eating habits, boo. Secret milkshakes I bought while Brandon was at work, I will miss you most of all.

Damn Casseroles: Breakfast Edition

Generally, I do not like making casseroles because they are deceitful. They PRETEND like they are easy-prep-and-serve meals for a busy SAHM. "Just throw it in the oven!" LIE. There are eleventy-billion steps prior to the "throwing in the oven" part that tends to result in an entire sink full of dishes and pans that I now have to deal with because Every. Single. Component has to be prepped and, most of the time, cooked before the Damn Casserole (D.C.) can be constructed and readied for oven-throwing.

(If you disagree with me and have a delicious casserole recipe that has ingredients that only need to be cooked one single time, now would be the time to jump down to the comments and share your recipe, please.)

Now Crockpot cooking, there is something I can get behind. Sure, everything I make turns into the a similar-tasting unattractive gelatinous goop, but did I have to do anything put throw things into a pot then flip a switch? I did not. Then again, afore-mentioned unattractive gelatinous goop -- plus the face my husband makes when he walks in the door and sees that the Crockpot is out -- means that option can't be utilized too often.

My favorite D.C. to make, when I'm feeling like I want to spend my entire afternoon prepping bits and pieces of it while listening to my son whine from the Pack'n'Play in the corner of the kitchen, is a Holiday Breakfast Casserole that I can customize based on what is in my house at the time. The recipe is based on one that my family makes for Christmas brunch, but it also works great for a weeknight meal if you're into the whole breakfast-for-dinner thing. (If you are not, jump down to the comments and explain why you are so lame.)

Holiday Breakfast Casserole

24 oz. package hash browns (Today I used freshly grated potatoes and zucchini instead)
2T butter, melted
2c. ham, diced (Today I used 1lb. crumbled sausage, sauteed until browned with about 1/2c. diced onion)
1c. grated Cheddar Cheese
1c. grated Jack cheese (Today I used all Cheddar because that's what we keep in the house)
4 eggs
1c. milk
1/2t. seasoned salt
4 (4oz.) cans diced green chiles (Today I only have one 7oz. can)

Grease a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Spread hash browns in pan, brush with melted butter. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until slightly browned. Layer meat, chiles, and cheese over potatoes. Mix together eggs, milk, and seasoned salt; pour over casserole contents. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

So, a little fussy what with the several steps and cooking potatoes first, etc., but it does turn out delicious. I like to eat mine with a little sour cream on top; Brandon prefers ketchup. It would be great with green salad or fruit on the side, and maybe some good bread or muffins.

I don't have any of these things in the house, so we'll be having ours slopped into a bowl, but I definitely recommend doing better for yourself. Especially if you've expended all this effort on a D.C., at least make it worth your while, you know? Because we all need to realize that D.C.s aren't making anyone's lives any easier.