And she's back - sans gallbladder!

Back in July I posted about how I had to go to Labor & Delivery due to some god awful stomach pains that were unbearable. The on-call OB said that it was probably gallbladder issues, to take some pepcid and avoid whoppers. So I did. The remaining 2 1/2 months of my pregnancy, I only had 1 more minor attack and then came Avery.

Since Avery was born 6 1/2 weeks ago, I have had gallbladder attacks at least once or twice a week. It became unbearable. It got to the point where I was hardly eating anything for fear of inducing another attack. After having an attack Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday in a row, I decided to bite the bullet and call the surgeon. I had a lot of fears that prevented me from calling earlier. I thought I'd have to leave Avery for 24 hours. But I couldn't go on any longer.

I got an appt for a week later with Dr. L. The appt was very short. It basically went like this.

Dr: "So tell me what made you think you had gallbladder issues"

I told him the symptoms I was experiencing and recounted my trip to L&D this summer

Dr: "well, you do have gallstones. So when do you want to have it removed?"

Me: "I'd rather not ever have another attack"

Dr: "see you friday at 7 am"

Alrighty then!

The surgery went well. I did have a number of gallstones and it was probably the best thing for me to get it removed. The staff at the Surgery Center was amazing! I feel a little guilty for poking fun of the nurse who donned a Winnie the Pooh pink scrub shirt, seeing as she was the wonderful woman who was able to get my IV into my very dehydrated veins. (Note to self - I need to drink more fluids!).

The pain afterwards was pretty intense. It was definitely way worse than my c-section recovery and I still can't seem to get this trapped air out of my shoulder. The doctor made three small-ish incisions in my abdomen. One of them is pretty gnarly looking. They are covered with this plastic sheath stuff and the top incision has some leaking blood (it's normal) but it looks really disgusting.

Avery has faired well with all of this. Because of the anesthesia and the crazy amount of pain meds they gave me (morphine, demoral and lortabs) I had to dump my milk for 24 hours and she ate bottled breast milk in the mean time. She definitely prefers the bottle for laziness reasons. She is able to get a lot of food quickly with the bottle and this little piglet loves it. We are re-learning how to breastfeed and she's not too keen on it. She's getting there. It will be easier when I am able to relax a little with her on my abdomen. Right now it's so tender having her there that I know I'm really tense. I am just extra grateful that she isn't a picky baby and adapts to situations well.

I ate real food this evening for the first time and so far so good. Many times a nasty side effect of gallbladder removal is that your body will go through a dumping syndrome where you'll literally have to use the restroom 20 minutes after you eat. I haven't had any tummy issues at all so I am hoping that it stays this way. Of course I will have to watch what I eat and can't eat tremendously fatty foods, which is really not an issue since we eat fairly healthfully most of the time.

So... 7 weeks and two surgeries... It's been quite eventful around these parts. Let's hope for an uneventful next couple of months :)

Mushy Brain continues...

When one is pregnant, one suffers from a chronic condition called "Pregnesia" - This is the technical term for losing items, forgetting appointments, heck, even forgetting your home phone number at most inopportune times. Women who have never been pregnant, and men do not understand why being 'with child' turns your brain to mush. Only pregnant women and mothers know exactly what we women go through.

I stupidly thought that I would gain back my keen senses as soon as the baby was born but apparently I thought wrong, waaay wrong. It got worse.

My birthday was 10 days ago. In that 10 days I have lost a $50 cash gift and my bluetooth that I had for a whopping one week.

This morning I found the $50 - it was in my pants pocket, washed and dried, even though I would have placed my right hand atop a bible and SWORE I put it in the little purse pouch that the lipgloss Dana bought for me along with my company network access card and my debit card... Come to think of it... what the heck was I thinking putting those precious items there either?

So - now I would like to find my bluetooth. Since the dawn of their creation, I have made fun of people walking through store aisles with an earbud sticking out of their face, but as soon as I got one (it was a gift as well), I fell in love. Granted, I don't walk through stores with it, but I love it when I am driving (Both hands on the wheel) and while I'm sitting on the couch trying to nurse. The last time I KNOW I had that stupid earbud thing was in the car at the "Schnitzel Ranch" on my birthday while I was (ironically) nursing Avery in the parking lot. I hope it fell somewhere in the Envoy and NOT on the black asphalt. UGH!

I am also missing 2 baby socks, and a gift certificate for a gift that I would love to cash in for a baby carrier.

I attribute it to "baby brain" - it's the secondary symptom of "pregnesia". Blame it on lack of sleep, or never ending thoughts of your baby taking over your brain or possible the constant worry over finances, fears of having to leave your baby at day care when you return to work, or for me, the fear of Dexter coming into your house to hack up the innocent family some nutjob brought over (don't ask...) , but the point is...that you can't think anymore. You lose items that you would really love to be able to find again. Daily activities like showering or doing the dishes seem equal to climbing Mount Everest. The day escapes you and before you know it, you haven't called Delta to add your infant to your fast approaching holiday airfare.

Hopefully it will get better by January, when I have to return to the grind. Until then, can someone come over and help me???

Picture time!!!

Look at this face!!! How can you resist it? Avery is very expressive with her facial expressions and this has got to be one of my favorites.

"These boots were made for walkin...."
My friend Dana now lives in Texas - so naturally, she had to send her some baby cowgirl boots. She wore them today with pride! Thanks "Aunt" Dana!!!

To start preparing Miss Avery to go to DayCare (So sad!) and so that we can leave her for more than 2-3 hours at a time, we decided to start introducing the bottle to her. Last night I pumped milk and Robert gave her the bottle. She has no prejudice in what is given to her, which is great! and she took the bottle like a champ.

...After the bottle, she found her thumb...

And she LOVES her pacifier at night when she's cranky and fussy and doesn't know what to do with herself!

When Avery was born, she had these LONG skinny fingers... but now that she's starting to fill out and chunk up a bit, I realized that she and I have the "same" hands...Or at least I think our hands look similar!

Side Note: I still can't quite get my wedding rings on... I miss my rock so badly... Hello!??! Diamonds, platinum, bling bling! How can one NOT miss that? Instead I'm wearing my "mother's day" band that Robert got me for my right hand.

Happy Halloween - a little late...

Before Avery was here, I bought this sweet "Baby's 1st Halloween" outfit. She wore it with pride. For the record, we got one trick or treater this year...that's it! It was a great costume though - one of those goombas from Super Mario Bros. Hilarious! Next year, we will NOT be handing out candy. We ended up eating it and that is NOT what my hips needed :) Here is a great picture of Avery's "milk face" - she is by far the messiest eater EVER and gets milk all over her face when we're nursing. I love my milk face baby!