What we have been up to..

Wow.. So it has been awhile since I have posted. I have felt kinda weird posting lately since after Lil'C's birth (almost 3 years ago!!) this kind of turned into a NICU/hospital life blog. I guess it is time to turn it more towards its original intention which was actually a journal, mostly for my projects. So we shall see how it morphes now.

Cabbage Patch Doll Hat

So I have made the only piece of k's costume that I need to make for this Halloween. It's a cabbage patch doll hat! And it is crazy easy!

One of those days

Today is just one of those days, one of those "life isn't fair" days. I'm frustrated, so that just makes it worse.
I have been watching my niece, who is 9mo (6G) younger than Lil'c, during the day. The comparison just makes his issues all that more obvious. At his age, he should be talking, verbally. We use sign to communicate since the brain cysts damaged his ability to express verbal language and has a rather large vocabulary. About 65 signs. She signs some because he does, but she does have words. She actually prefers sign since it is easier at her age. He used to have words.. He used to say "mama", "ah-ma" (grandma), "Ning-ning" (daddy, he made that noise when Lil'c would beep his nose) and a few more that I have on the list on the fridge that I can't even look at anymore. He lost them all when the scaring hardened around the cyst.
Most of his signs are so similar, because of his lack of dexterity due to the cysts, that he is hard to understand. BALL, YEAH, BOOK, CRACKER, COOKIE, ALLIGATOR, BEAR, and blanket all look like MORE. Hers are perfectly articulated, she even gives a "well, duh" expression when she does sign, which is cute.
He falls frequently while she climbs EVERYTHING. His O2 also gets caught around furniture and he gets stuck, while she flutters about the room. She puts stickers everywhere, he can't get them off his hand. She loves to color and make fantastic scribbles, he makes tic marks.
He has to take meds around the clock while she took some earlier today for a bug bite.
For her the O2 tube is a fun and interesting toy, for him an annoyance.
Her only scar from an accident where she fell down.. His scars.. All from surgery.
Her legs are twice as thick as his and she is already taller, but we are both shorter than her parents, so she probably would have been anyway.
If she is the slightest hungry, she lets me know. He never does, I think he thinks it is normal. I just give him snacks when I give her snacks now.
His 6mo baby sister, Lil'K, almost eats with a spoon as well as he does.
Sometimes the comparisons and the feeling that "life isn't fair" hits you like a ton of bricks, even 2 years after he came home. Today is just one of those days.

Cloth diapering in the hospital

Using cloth diapers in the hospital can get you some funny looks, but you can get those anywhere.

I have converted/changed the opinion of many a nurse when it comes to using cloth. The nurses actually referred to us as "the cloth diapering mom" for awhile. :P

We frequent the hospital due to my son's medical issues so, I have tried a few different methods of cloth diapering there.

Mended Heart Thanks

So I came up with this a little while back while writing Thank you notes for Lil'K's baby shower gifts. Later, when I was tired, I just used some basic ones.. And apparently upset some people. Little did I know that the ladies at church were talking about my cute cards and those that got the basic ones were confused about what was so great about the cards... Oops.
So I now make these for every thank you card that we need to make as a family.

Now if you want to copy the idea to use for your family/gifts go right ahead. Please don't sell them and if you post some you made from the idea.. Please link back. It's only polite. I would also love if you link to a post of one you made to see the different styles :)

Thanks!

Family of 4

A week before

Well lil'k made her appearance before the end of February.. Barely.

During reading bedtime stories to lil'c I felt a pop, similar to sitting on a balloon. I stopped and waited a second thinking she had either head-butted my pelvis or my water had broken, when nothing happened for a second I figured it was a head butt and went back to reading.

Then someone peed in my pants..

NICU Babyshower

For all the mom's who either know ahead of time that they will have NICU time (high multiples for example) or those, like me, missed/canceled/postponed their own shower due to being on bed
rest or Pre-term labor/delivery. This is going to be a list of great in-the-NICU or post-NICU items for whenever someone asks "what can we do" or "what do you need?" you will have somewhere to send them :)

Extreme Pumping

ACK found this waiting in my Draft pile!!

I recently read a post on babycenter by the author of Kitchen Stewardship, which I LOVE! It was about the strange places she had nursed a few I haven't done, my son was in the NICU during my 6w PP visit and I don't like baseball. But a few I had done and hadn't really thought much of them. Once he came home Nursing-in-public (NIP) wasn't something I thought about doing or not doing, I just did.