Surgery Day

Thursday was surgery day for the girls. We woke up bright and early and loaded the car to treck over to Oakland.

We had to be in Oakland in at 9 am, we got there and got checked in at the surgery center. The nurses were great, and gave us our own pre-op room and it would be the room Addi used too so we could leave our stuff in there between surgeries.

They did the pre-op stuff and got us all settled, the girls got their cute little gowns on. Natalie got some meds to make her sleepy since she was going first. Within just a few minutes of getting the meds she was super sleepy. Once she was sleepy the nurse took her back to the operating room. At that point we went to the cafeteria to have some lunch at relax for a hour or so until we could take Addison back to finish her pre-op.

We sat in the cafeteria and had some lunch with Dan's mom who had come down early and relaxed for a little while until my parents came. Then we waited about another half hour before we got the call to bring Addison up for the rest of her pre-op. We knew that once we were called for Addison that they were in the "closing up" stage of Natalie's surgery.

We headed back up to pre-op and got settled in, Addison got her sleepy medicine and we were just starting to relax when surgeons came in to tell us that Natalie's surgery went perfectly and that she was up in the PICU recovering.

Dan stayed with Addison until they were ready for her while I went up to the PICU to be with Natalie. When I got up there she was still out and the nurse was just getting her settled in and checking her out. About 20 minutes later Dan came up to the PICU and we sat with Natalie.

She was pretty upset when she woke up but the nurse was great about keeping on top of her meds and she continued to sleep. She was most upset about the IVs and the catheter.

About an hour later Addison came up from the PICU and was still out. The nurses tended to her while we sat with Natalie and finally we were able to see Addison as well. They had put them next to each other so we could easily go between the girls.

At this point we were able to have our parents come up to visit, and that was nice. It was nice for the girls to have the distractions and for us to have some time to relax and know that someone was always sitting with the girls.

We were able to have some dinner while my parents stayed with the girls. Poor Natalie had a reaction to the morphine while we were at dinner and threw up...but again the nurses were great.

Dan and I were both able to sleep there as each child could have one parent room in. So we were all able to be together and both able to be with both girls.

Over all the surgery went perfectly and our care was amazing. We loved all of our nurses, the surgeons and the PAs. Our recovery time was great as well and I'll post more about that later. But for now I leave you with pictures of the girls in their gowns pre-op.

24 books...

IS my final count for the year!

After I wrote this post about how I had amazed myself with having read 20 books this year, I continued to plug away at my To Be Read (TBR) list...and low and behold I finished 3 more books and am almost done with one more.

I read
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
The Girl who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
The Right Address by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman

And I'm currently finishing up
Reunion by J.L. Penn

I'm shocked, that's an average of 2 books a month...which I find amazing considering I work full time and have two little kids.

One of my goals for 2011 is to read at least 25 books...I plan to put my kindle to good use!

Okay enough tooting my own horn!

Spoiled....

You know your kids are spoiled when they want to stop opening presents in the middle of Christmas morning because they are "tired of presents". After I got past my initial shock, questioned if Natalie was really my kid...I forced her to keep opening presents...because really who gets tired of presents!

Christmas Recap...

Christmas was awesome, truly great! We spent time with family, the girls got amazing gifts, everyone was spoiled. The food was delicious, the drinks were plentiful, and the desserts were divine. But....oh and it's a big BUT...the poop and barf sort of overshadowed the day.
Yup, poop AND barf. And yes this is a TMI post...so stop now if you don't want to read about poop and barf.

Natalie woke up on Christmas morning at about 6:45 covered in poop. She is potty trained but wears pull-ups at night time...well pull-ups as I've learned do not have the same holding shit in power that diapers have. So my lovely daughter comes into our room crying and saying "I'm soaking wet" okay, no problem we've had pee leaks here and there and it's nothing I can't deal with...even on Christmas. But as I turned on the light in her room I was greeted with the HORROR of poop EVERYWHERE! Seriously it looked like a poop bomb had exploded all over Natalie and her bed. So I decided that my evil plan of changing her pj's and putting her back to bed would have to be trashed in favor of a shower, Lysol, and a gas mask.
Not only was it disgusting, but my grand plan of the girls on Christmas morning opening presents in matching pajamas was ruined!

After I chiseled the shit off of my kid (really who shits themselves in the middle of the night and doesn't notice until the morning) and got her settled in my bed with some Mickey mouse, I tackled stripping her bed and showering the stench off of myself....all in time to begin cooking breakfast for the 12 people who were due at our house...just an hour later.

Breakfast was delicious, I made a yummy strata and a delightfully fattening hash brown casserole and my mom made an amazing French toast bake.
We spend HOURS opening gifts, it took so long that Natalie had to take a break because she was "tired of presents".....sometimes I wonder if she is really my kid.

After we finished presents, we ran out the door to Christmas #2, where my girls got their first pairs of diamond earrings..*cough* spoiled *cough*, after opening more presents and visiting we had to run to Christmas #3 (and thankfully the final destination )

We had an intimate dinner at my parents house, with only 10 people in attendance...which is a far cry from the dinners where we had 20+ attendees.
We had Fillet, and delicious wine and then played an fun game of Left Right Center....if you haven't played...you must try it. SO fun!

Then more friends came for my parents annual Christmas Dessert party where guests buried their Christmas drama under servings of cheese cake and wine!

Finally I pry my kids away from the fun they were having with their Aunts and Uncles and coax them into going home. No sooner do we make it home than does Addison barf all over herself and her car seat.

Poop in the morning and now barf in the evening....and that set the tone for the day after Christmas and the 2 days following. The girls took turns vomiting on me, and or shitting all over everything....and I spent 3 days doing laundry and spraying everything with Lysol....

Oh and I almost forgot....Sunday morning we (Dan and I) spend 4 hours in the ER where we learned that his giant kidney stone, which had been blasted into many many smaller kidney stones had decided to get stuck in his ureter and was causing pee to back up into his kidneys and cause excruciating pain.

As sympathetic as I am towards him, I was totally pissed that this left me alone to clean barf and shit while he laid passed out on the couch from all the "great pain meds" they gave him in the hospital.

So, as awesome as Christmas was....I'm glad it's over and hope that our household can remain shit free for the foreseeable future.

We have a date!

Surgery is scheduled for January 6....just over a week from now.
Holy Shit! I knew that it would be here soon since it had to happen before the 13, but having that date on the calendar is kind of freaking me out.
And after how crazy my kid have gotten after being couped up in the house for only 3 days I'm a little nervous about how they'll do being in the house for 2 weeks...yikes!
Let the count down begin!

Awesome mom moment of the week....

Natalie has been waking up in the middle of the night, most nights she comes to our room and I put her back to bed. Well at 3am this morning I heard (what I thought was) her door opening, I decided to try to cut her off before she even made it into our room.
So I jumped out of bed to rush to her room....upon my "jump" out of bed I kicked something....I thought it was the dog.... WRONG.
I kicked Natalie in the face, she went flying back and hit her head on my dresser. Shit! Well of course I couldn't put her back in her bed at that point....so once again she ended up in bed with us....
Nothing like kicking your kid in the face to give you a bit of mom guilt.

I should start getting dressed at work...

I think I might actually have better luck if I wore my pjs to work and then changed.

I got dressed this morning, got the kids ready, dropped them off at daycare, came to work and worked for a good chunk of the morning before I looked down and realized that my shoulder was totally covered in baby slime. Slime that had now dried and looked like gross crusty white stuff on my shoulder. Freaking awesome. Oh and then I proceed to continue to examine my outfit and see a foot print on my jeans....apparently my toddler's shoe was a bit dirty and left a mark today when she used my leg as a spring board.

I guess the bags under my eyes, the half-assed makeup, the perma-ponytail and the extra lbs just weren't enough...no now my kids are marking their territory on my clothing too.

I really love my life, sometimes I just wish I didn't look like life was kicking my ass.