Supermom

Today I was supermom...Ugh, I hate that term. But today I was. I woke up early, packed the diaper bag, took the dog out, got myself dressed, got the baby dressed and drove through rush hour traffic to John Tracy Clinic. Sydney needed a hearing test and they are the best. We amazingly got there on time. Sydney had a booth test and did wonderfully. Her hearing remains about the same - she tested better in some areas and worse in others so her aids needed to be adjusted. She is a good listener and even without the aids she is hearing fairly well. After bumping up her aids I can already tell she is hearing more. She could hear Woody's ears flapping as he shook his head.

After a long drive home we made a trip to our local Target, made it home in time for lunch, we played hard, one of us napped, I cleaned, I planted a sunflower patch, fed the baby, bathed the baby, microwaved dinner (lol) and then made this:

I was thinking of making Sydney's 1st birthday cake since we spent our cake budget on an over- the-top cake topper from Etsy...soooo, I figured I could get creative and save some money. Plus I think baking bday cakes is a sweet tradition. The cake topper will be the real eye candy anyway. The above was my practice cake. It's not anything like the idea I have in my head but the point of making a practice cake (other then a serious cake craving) was to get the hang of homemade butter cream frosting. Thank goodness it was only practice because it was super sweet and very rich - to the point of being kind of gross. The middle is raspberry Bavarian cream and that was only slightly lighter. I over whipped the butter cream & there were too many air bubbles that I couldn't completely smooth out. I kind of half assed the decorating and in my defense I didn't have any proper cake pans or decorating tools. I know what I have to do to make it better next time...but right now I think canned frosting sounds like a good idea...

or maybe I'll just fork out the cash & buy a cake. Yes, that sounds like a better idea.

Surgery Day

Sydney's adenoidectomy and tube surgery went very well. We arrived at the hospital at 9am & checked in. Both sets of grandparents came to comfort a nervous mommy & daddy and kept Sydney's mind off her empty tummy. She had her last bottle the night before at bedtime & the poor little thing was starving. When she would start to fuss the grandparents took turns playing with her, rocking her and walking her around the waiting room. I can't even tell you how much having them there meant to us.

While the grandparents sat in the waiting room, Stephen and I took Sydney back to get prepped from surgery. They gave her a little gown and hooked her up the a bunch of monitors. It broke my heart to see her in her little gown. She was so good and patient while the doctors and nurses came to talk to us. The anesthesiologist came and gave me a liquid sedative to give her orally through a syringe. They had us support her head in case she started to get sleepy. It didn't seem to have any affect her. She crawled all over the hospital bed and got tangled in the wires. I guess it was just meant to relax her so they could put in her IVs. Her Dr. came to talk to us & then the anesthesiologist came to go over the risks of anesthesia. When he told us the worst case scenario would be coma or death it felt like a knife was stabbed into my heart. I wanted to grab her and run away. I had to try my best to keep it together. They came and told us it was time for surgery. We gave her kisses and hugs and handed her over to the nurse. It was so hard to leave her! I cried and Stephen and I hugged. We headed out to the waiting room and waited...and waited. It felt like hours, but I think it was only an hour before the Dr. came out (smiling) to talk to us. She said everything went well and that we had made a good decision to follow through with the procedure. She said Sydney may have to stay the night because she had some sort of "episode" during surgery while the breathing tube was in her throat. She wanted to be extra cautious and see how she was doing after the anesthesia wore off.

After a little bit we got to go back and wait for her to wake up. She didn't wake up happy. She seemed to be in pain and cried. I felt so bad for the other people in the recovery room waking up out of surgery to a screaming baby. I was getting annoyed by the nurses and their lack of knowledge with dealing with a baby waking up from anesthesia. One of the nurses asked me if she was a "crier". She was in pain - of course she was going to cry! They ended up giving her morphine which only knocked her out again and when she woke up she was grumpy and groggier then before. Finally they moved us into another area where there were other babies and children. They were stocked with diapers, pedialite and the nurses seemed to be a little more comfortable with babies. Sydney had a little apple juice and some Tylenol and when the anesthesiologist gave us the okay we were able to get her dressed and leave. She was still grumpy but when we got out to the waiting room to see the grandparents her face lit up. She looked at each on of them in the eye and gave the biggest happy grin. It was such a sweet moment to see all that love.

She did well on the drive home and was okay until bedtime. She cried and nothing we did helped. Finally I brought her into bed with me and just held her until she fell asleep. She woke several times for medicine and a bottle. The next night was more of the same. Last night she slept better and I'm hoping she'll be back on schedule this week. The lack of sleep is wearing on me. Other then her sleep schedule regressing to her newborn days she is doing well. She seems happy and she has an huge appetite. She hasn't been able to wear her hearing aids yet but I'm going to try to put them in soon so she won't get too used to going without them. She doesn't seem to be hearing any better then before but of course it's hard for me to tell since I know she's hearing - but I just don't know how clear things are for her. We'll have her hearing tested again soon. Stephen & I were sure she said the word "kiss" the other day. She understands when I say "kiss kiss" and loves kissing her stuffed animals and the cat but to actually hear her say what sounded like "kish" was amazing. It would be "so Sydney" for her first work to be "kiss". She is so lovable and so affectionate. She was born with the gift of a golden heart. My baby is so very "kishable"! :)

Finally! My Etsy store is now open. I have a lot more items to post but I'm still getting the hang of how the site works. I'm really excited to start making (and hopefully selling) more pretty things. Right now I'm starting with some baby girl headbands but I will expand to adult hair accessories like the ones I made for my wedding. See below.



Here is one of the baby headbands I made. Look at my beautiful little model.

In addition to my Etsy store, I was introduced to a woman who has a store/gallery in Uptown who is interested in selling some of my Mexican Folk art / Dia de los Muertos art. She said she supports creative moms and she can't wait until I show her my creations. She's about to have a little baby girl of her own so I'm hoping I can send her some examples before she goes on maternity leave. I sold most of my inventory so I am going to need to stay up late & get working. I'm so excited!

In other news, my sweet baby is having PE tube surgery on Friday. Please keep her in your thoughts & prayers. I am so anxious about the whole thing but I am hoping this relieves the discomfort in her ears and increases her hearing. The ENT is going to examine her adenoids and if they are enlarged they may get removed. She was a little concerned with Sydney's heavy breathing. I noticed her breathing was heavy but it never occurred to me that it may be a problem until her infant teacher commented on it. I was going to mention it to the Dr. but she noticed it almost immediately and thought to do the surgery sooner then later so she can check things out while Sydney is under anesthesia. Just typing the word anesthesia has me hyperventilating. I am growing gray hair and wrinkles by the dozen!

School days

Look at all the fun toys that Sydney gets to play with at her Parent/Infant class! Sydney & I go to a Parent/Infant class two days a week. During the hour session the teacher brings out various toys and we talk about the toys, make lots of sounds and have a great time. Many babies with her degree of hearing loss (mild/moderate) get a monthly home visit where a teacher comes out to the home to work with the infant & track progress. After doing some research and a few sleepless nights we decided to opt for the more "intense" (for lack of a better word) program. I don't see any harm in doing more. She enjoys it and it's good for me too. When she actually starts speaking we can reassess her needs. We're not only new to parenting but in addition to all the tings new parents have to learn we got swept into the hearing loss tornado. At the beginning we were bombarded with information from doctors, audiologists, teachers, the state, our school district. It's been meetings and phone calls and tests and paperwork and...tons of it! It was tough at the beginning but going through this has made me a better person. A better mom. I know how to fight for my child and to keep bugging the hell out of people until I get what I want. It's been an interesting road. Le Chemin de Vie!

Sydney & Ms. Linda playing with one of her favorite toys.

The teacher will ask her to "open", "close" and to turn the handle "around". We spend 45 minutes to an hour working with her on listening skills, sounds and words. She has a great attention span. She's been able to complete a 45 minute session since she was 4 months old!

"Push"

The airplane goes "Ahhhhh Ahhhhh Ahhhhh". Sydney was flying her airplane just like her teacher.

After school we will go to the park or to have lunch. Then it's home for a 2 hour nap. If I'm lucky!

Home from school and waiting for DaDa...

Daddy's home with lots of kisses for Sydney...

And all is well in the world...