but it seems like yesterday. Tom is unemployed again. That makes this the third time in less than two years. It seems like just yesterday when we got home from China with Jonah, and the economy seemed to turn upside down, making his company's very existence tenuous. And then, 4 months after getting home, instead of going out of business, they pared down everything they could. Tom's job was one thing that was trimmed... laid off the job which he'd been at for nearly 10 years. The company that he'd help build from the ground up. All seniority... lost. In the worst job market of our times. He took a short contract to make ends meet, and then more unemployement - just in time for Christmas, 2009. That was so fun. Then he found what seemed like the perfect fit with a good, solid company last April. Everything was looking up. We finally felt safe enough to spend some money fixing up our house. Finally felt like maybe the craziness of the last five years was over. Only for him to be laid off again this past Tuesday along with a huge group of people in a massive restructuring.
Unemployed. Again.
I look at other blogs and I just get more depressed. Everyone I know, it seems, is adding to their families either by another adoption or another pregnancy. We can't do the latter, and we could never even consider bringing another child into this unstable financial situation. Losing all seniority and having to start over... again and again... in this job market... it's just so frustrating. I'm really not sure I will EVER trust life again to not keep throwing us these stupid curve balls. Where is that nice, content, happily-ever-after that seemed so promising when we got married?
When I stop feeling sorry for myself, I'll have to do something about redesigning this blog so that it is worth keeping up. I suppose that will happen about the time I feel like my life is worth keeping up. Right now it's just a matter of just hanging on. Again.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
HOMELAND ADOPTION SERVICES
was our agency. So you dont' have to hunt for it :) :)
Their yahoogroup is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeland_xingfu/
You don't have to be a member to read the posts, but you do need membership to view the files of the kids.
The latest hoopla over their behavior doesn't surprise me in the slightest. We had no end of problems with them, as you can read in the archives.
Kate
Their yahoogroup is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeland_xingfu/
You don't have to be a member to read the posts, but you do need membership to view the files of the kids.
The latest hoopla over their behavior doesn't surprise me in the slightest. We had no end of problems with them, as you can read in the archives.
Kate
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Happy Birthday Jonah!!
I just had to pop back in from my AWOLness to wish my littlest man a very Happy Birthday! Today is the day that Jonah officially turned 3 years old! And wow, what a year this has been :) We've just loved watching Jonah grow up and now he has SO MUCH to say, it's been really great getting to know him even more. We spent the morning playing at the park, and then took a jaunt to the Children's Court in Monterey Park to file for Jonah's official re-adoption in California (from which he gets a CA birth certificate rather than this very strange thing he brought home with him from China!). We dropped off MOST of the paperwork, but as always, Mommy forgot something and I have to mail it in AGAIN, and we had to wait around for over 20 minutes for someone to even show up at the Adoptions Unit to take our paperwork. I was hoping this one would be quick and easy but OH NO, that's just not possible for us!! Then we continued on to Chinatown in Los Angeles and had a great dinner (we JUST missed Dim Sum due to the delay at the courthouse, but nevertheless it was terrific). The boys shared rainbow jello and we all sang Happy Birthday to Jonah, who got a little nervous about the candle in his jello :) But I snuck behind him and helped him out, so all was well. We walked around for a couple of hours afterwards, letting the boys spend some pocket money on cheap made-in-China toys (most of which didn't survive the drive home...) and even were able to buy some 12th Night gifts for our friends. Pictures will have to follow later... this was one HECK of a long day!! So long, in fact, that the real birthday cake and presents will have to wait until tomorrow night :) :)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Grow baby grow!!
During Jonah's last cleft team appointment, the nurse actually printed out his growth charts and everyone was just marveling over how much Jonah has grown since he came home. It is AMAZING!!! Over 10lbs and 5 inches in only 7 months!! And to think... a year ago we were so incredibly worried about how small he was and how poorly he seemed to be doing. It doesn't seem to have slowed him down, now that he actually can eat as much food as he wants (and obviously needs)!
For those waiting adoptive parents out there... I hope these charts give you hope. You can even see how little Jonah Tao Tao was falling OFF the charts over time (especially in height). And yet, he has bounced back and there is still no telling which percentile he'll end up on! Adoption of this sort is just a leap of faith... but hopefully here is a story to help you keep yours. And Jonah is developing in other ways just as rapidly. I have no doubt that he'll more than catch up - in ALL ways - by one year home :)
For those waiting adoptive parents out there... I hope these charts give you hope. You can even see how little Jonah Tao Tao was falling OFF the charts over time (especially in height). And yet, he has bounced back and there is still no telling which percentile he'll end up on! Adoption of this sort is just a leap of faith... but hopefully here is a story to help you keep yours. And Jonah is developing in other ways just as rapidly. I have no doubt that he'll more than catch up - in ALL ways - by one year home :)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Adopted
"Are they adopted?"
Tom and I get this question sometimes. Much more when all of us are out together. I think in diversified Southern California when I am out and about just me and the boys, most people assume that I've remarried an Asian man, or some such configuration. Adoption isn't always the first assumption. Or perhaps people just consider it rude to ask? But we do get this question occasionally. And really... it is kind of awkward.
I say awkward because I consider all three boys of my boys to be adopted!
Sound odd? I don't think it is. With none of our children did we play any significant role in the miracle that is their existence. We accepted the responsibility to care for them, love them, teach them, and raise them. But we did not create them. With Joshua we accepted a 2-week-old embryo, a gift from God conceived by a miracle in my body. With Jonah and Noah we just accepted children a little further along on their life's journey. But none of our children "belong" to us. They are not "ours". They are God's Children, entrusted to us temporarily. And we are incredibly honored to be able to be their Earthly adoptive parents.
So on this Mother's Day, I enjoy the flowers and the cards. It's nice to be treated and have a day to be "honored". But most importantly, I praise Him who has allowed me the treasured job of raising these three beautiful souls of His. Only by God's Grace do I get to be a Mother... and to thank him with all my heart this day and always.
Tom and I get this question sometimes. Much more when all of us are out together. I think in diversified Southern California when I am out and about just me and the boys, most people assume that I've remarried an Asian man, or some such configuration. Adoption isn't always the first assumption. Or perhaps people just consider it rude to ask? But we do get this question occasionally. And really... it is kind of awkward.
I say awkward because I consider all three boys of my boys to be adopted!
Sound odd? I don't think it is. With none of our children did we play any significant role in the miracle that is their existence. We accepted the responsibility to care for them, love them, teach them, and raise them. But we did not create them. With Joshua we accepted a 2-week-old embryo, a gift from God conceived by a miracle in my body. With Jonah and Noah we just accepted children a little further along on their life's journey. But none of our children "belong" to us. They are not "ours". They are God's Children, entrusted to us temporarily. And we are incredibly honored to be able to be their Earthly adoptive parents.
So on this Mother's Day, I enjoy the flowers and the cards. It's nice to be treated and have a day to be "honored". But most importantly, I praise Him who has allowed me the treasured job of raising these three beautiful souls of His. Only by God's Grace do I get to be a Mother... and to thank him with all my heart this day and always.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Ok, this is ridiculous
If I wait for enough time to really do an update justice, I'll never get caught up, so here goes...
Since I posted last:
My company closed!!
Well, at least that's what they said. But there are still some projects ongoing. So who knows. But I switched to a different company and was able to pick some projects while Tom was unemployed. Now I am trying to get rid of the projects so I can stay home mostly full time. I was leaning towards this decision back in January, planning to work until our college babysitter graduated in May, and then just stay home. But Tom's layoff threw that plan into chaos. Still trying to get back on track :)
We bought a motorhome!
Well, actually a business. Purchased right before my company closed, otherwise we NEVER would have had the nerve to go for it!! We have a motorhome and a website www.rvrentalca.com and commercial insurance and a ton of paperwork. So if you want to visit Southern California (or drive somewhere from here) give me a shout and I'll set you up!!
Jonah turned TWO!!
January 6th. We put off the party a little while because Jonah was still recovering from his palate surgery, and had a nice little celebration on January 18th. We had a party at home with just a few close friends, as Jonah was still getting used to new people. But he really liked getting presents! It was hard to convince him to dig into his birthday cake, he was kind of a prissy little fellow at first - always coming to me to get his hands wiped off it they got anything on them - but he's growing out of that now.
Joshua ended up in the hospital (AGAIN) from his asthma!
February 9th. Three nights in the hospital, including two nights in ICU. During which time it poured down rain and our new motorhome's roof leaked. Like a seive. Stuck with dealing with Joshua, we just paid someone a small fortune to redo the entire roof and replace some underboarding as well. Probably not what we might have chosen if it hadn't been for the hospital stay, but oh, well... it sure looks pretty! Hopefully we'll get enough business to at least pay for the repairs.
Joshua turned 5 years old!
February 16th. Amazing... I can't believe 5 years ago we began this great adventure that is our family. It was kind of bittersweet because we had plans to take our new motorhome up the coast and visit Joshua's godparents (aka Uncle Joe and Aunt Christy) up in Northern California. But the roof leak killed that plan, and the hospital stay made it pretty impossible to plan anything else - he only got out a few days before his birthday. So we had a low-key celebration at home. I baked my first actual birthday cake, and it turned out pretty good!
Tom lost his job!
On February 17th, just a few days after Joshua got out of the hospital, the day after his birthday, Tom's &@#^%$ work of over 10 years laid him off in mid-February with two weeks notice and a pathetic severance package.
Jonah had his lip re-repaired!
March 17th. Happy St. Patrick's day! I will not call this a revision (as it is typically called) because it ended up being a complete dissection of the earlier repair and a complete "do-over". Jonah's lip now looks way better than it did - even with fresh scars - and is healing great. Except that he is extruding the absorbable stitches rather than absorbing them. The surgeon intially thought he was only going to re-align the outer layer - the two sides were off from each other by 7mm - and leave everything else alone (since his muscles seemed to be attached properly). HOWEVER once he "got in there" he found that Jonah had abcessed around all the SILK sutures that were left behind in the muscle layer. So he re-did the whole thing. And it turned out great.
Tom found a new job!
March 27th. Tom got a new job offer exactly 4 weeks after his last day at the old job. It is more money and closer! However, it is a contract job that is only for 6 months. There might be a possibility of it turning into a full-time permanent position. Or Tom might end up liking being a contractor. But at least the bills are getting paid!
Noah's surgeon agreed to re-repair his lip!
April 16th. I've been pushing for this since his first appointment since we got home. His scar actually healed very nicely, which has made the decision complicated, but I'm absolutely convinced that the underlying structure is just not connected right. And there is so much scar tissue binding everything together that his lip is completely non-functional. He never had the mobility or ability with his lip that Jonah had, even with Jonah's disaster of a first repair. And Jonah's lip has turned out SO nice, that at the last post-op visit I basically told the surgeon that I wouldn't leave with Noah at his June appointment until the surgeon agreed to do something about Noah's lip. So he said, "well, then... let's do it now!" Noah was originally scheduled for May 19th, to give us time to get his tooth taken care of. He had a bad cavity diagnosed on our last dentist visit before job-loss insurance chaos, February 23rd, and the dentist said it needed to be done SOON! We couldn't go ahead with the surgery until the tooth was taken care of, because that sort of dental work would be out of the question for at least another month or two. So we scheduled the surgery several weeks in advance, although the option remained to move it up if we got the tooth taken care of.
Noah had a root canal!
April 29th. Poor baby... after getting it diagnosed at the end of February and FINALLY got it filled. While Tom was unemployed we signed up for the California CHIP program, Healthy Families. COBRA was just INSANELY expensive, and then the co-pays on top of it were going to kill us. So finally we got a referral for Noah to see the pedodontist, and the poor baby had to have the whole nerve of the tooth removed and a stainless steel crown placed. He wasn't complaining of pain AT ALL, but has repeatedly mentioned - since then - that his tooth "doesn't hurt anymore"! He's such a tricky boy that way... I think 14.5 months in China probably being in constant ear pain from his ears, and he just doesn't process pain the way "normal" kids do. One time I took him to the pediatrician on the vague sense that "something" was wrong, only to have them find he had a fever of 103.5 and full-blown, bilateral ear infections. So when the dentist asked me if he had been in any pain, my only answer was "now that is a tricky question to answer..." But apparently he feels much better now.
We celebrated our 6-year Anniversary!
April 27th, Well... "celebrated" is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. At first we both sort of mutually acknowledged that we were going to ignore it. But then I had second thoughts, and Tom had to backpedal the next day. Life is so busy, it's hard to find time (and energy!!) to celebrate. But even with all that, I am still so very grateful for the life we are living. As Tom and I keep saying to each other, this is the "Springtime" of our family. Spring is a very busy time, putting in the crops and getting all the seeds started. That's what we are doing... building our family. And it's hard work right now. And sometimes frustrating. And I constantly worry that things are not going the way they "should" be. But it is what it is... and I still love my life.
Noah's lip re-repair is now on May 12th - NEXT Tuesday!
As soon as I got the tooth taken care of, I left the surgical scheduler a message that we were good to go. She just called back today and asked if we wanted to move the surgery up to next Tuesday. I took it, even though we have Jonah's 6-month post-adoption visit that evening and the family is going with extended family to Disneyland on Friday. Three days later! Either Noah is going to be still mellow from surgery, in which case riding in a stroller all over Disneyland will be SO much easier than crazy-run-around-Noah... or if he's up and around (and around and around) by then, he'll either be running around like a lunatic at home... or at Disneyland! Disneyland is cleaner than the park and playing in the dirt. And unless we get a rental for that weekend, we are planning on taking the motorhome to Disneyland and parking it in the oversized vehicles lot so small and recovering boys can nap during the afternoon if necessary.
So... I think that is it. Now I can report on how the surgery went and people won't be like "HUH??? When the heck did that happen???"
:)
Since I posted last:
My company closed!!
Well, at least that's what they said. But there are still some projects ongoing. So who knows. But I switched to a different company and was able to pick some projects while Tom was unemployed. Now I am trying to get rid of the projects so I can stay home mostly full time. I was leaning towards this decision back in January, planning to work until our college babysitter graduated in May, and then just stay home. But Tom's layoff threw that plan into chaos. Still trying to get back on track :)
We bought a motorhome!
Well, actually a business. Purchased right before my company closed, otherwise we NEVER would have had the nerve to go for it!! We have a motorhome and a website www.rvrentalca.com and commercial insurance and a ton of paperwork. So if you want to visit Southern California (or drive somewhere from here) give me a shout and I'll set you up!!
Jonah turned TWO!!
January 6th. We put off the party a little while because Jonah was still recovering from his palate surgery, and had a nice little celebration on January 18th. We had a party at home with just a few close friends, as Jonah was still getting used to new people. But he really liked getting presents! It was hard to convince him to dig into his birthday cake, he was kind of a prissy little fellow at first - always coming to me to get his hands wiped off it they got anything on them - but he's growing out of that now.
Joshua ended up in the hospital (AGAIN) from his asthma!
February 9th. Three nights in the hospital, including two nights in ICU. During which time it poured down rain and our new motorhome's roof leaked. Like a seive. Stuck with dealing with Joshua, we just paid someone a small fortune to redo the entire roof and replace some underboarding as well. Probably not what we might have chosen if it hadn't been for the hospital stay, but oh, well... it sure looks pretty! Hopefully we'll get enough business to at least pay for the repairs.
Joshua turned 5 years old!
February 16th. Amazing... I can't believe 5 years ago we began this great adventure that is our family. It was kind of bittersweet because we had plans to take our new motorhome up the coast and visit Joshua's godparents (aka Uncle Joe and Aunt Christy) up in Northern California. But the roof leak killed that plan, and the hospital stay made it pretty impossible to plan anything else - he only got out a few days before his birthday. So we had a low-key celebration at home. I baked my first actual birthday cake, and it turned out pretty good!
Tom lost his job!
On February 17th, just a few days after Joshua got out of the hospital, the day after his birthday, Tom's &@#^%$ work of over 10 years laid him off in mid-February with two weeks notice and a pathetic severance package.
Jonah had his lip re-repaired!
March 17th. Happy St. Patrick's day! I will not call this a revision (as it is typically called) because it ended up being a complete dissection of the earlier repair and a complete "do-over". Jonah's lip now looks way better than it did - even with fresh scars - and is healing great. Except that he is extruding the absorbable stitches rather than absorbing them. The surgeon intially thought he was only going to re-align the outer layer - the two sides were off from each other by 7mm - and leave everything else alone (since his muscles seemed to be attached properly). HOWEVER once he "got in there" he found that Jonah had abcessed around all the SILK sutures that were left behind in the muscle layer. So he re-did the whole thing. And it turned out great.
Tom found a new job!
March 27th. Tom got a new job offer exactly 4 weeks after his last day at the old job. It is more money and closer! However, it is a contract job that is only for 6 months. There might be a possibility of it turning into a full-time permanent position. Or Tom might end up liking being a contractor. But at least the bills are getting paid!
Noah's surgeon agreed to re-repair his lip!
April 16th. I've been pushing for this since his first appointment since we got home. His scar actually healed very nicely, which has made the decision complicated, but I'm absolutely convinced that the underlying structure is just not connected right. And there is so much scar tissue binding everything together that his lip is completely non-functional. He never had the mobility or ability with his lip that Jonah had, even with Jonah's disaster of a first repair. And Jonah's lip has turned out SO nice, that at the last post-op visit I basically told the surgeon that I wouldn't leave with Noah at his June appointment until the surgeon agreed to do something about Noah's lip. So he said, "well, then... let's do it now!" Noah was originally scheduled for May 19th, to give us time to get his tooth taken care of. He had a bad cavity diagnosed on our last dentist visit before job-loss insurance chaos, February 23rd, and the dentist said it needed to be done SOON! We couldn't go ahead with the surgery until the tooth was taken care of, because that sort of dental work would be out of the question for at least another month or two. So we scheduled the surgery several weeks in advance, although the option remained to move it up if we got the tooth taken care of.
Noah had a root canal!
April 29th. Poor baby... after getting it diagnosed at the end of February and FINALLY got it filled. While Tom was unemployed we signed up for the California CHIP program, Healthy Families. COBRA was just INSANELY expensive, and then the co-pays on top of it were going to kill us. So finally we got a referral for Noah to see the pedodontist, and the poor baby had to have the whole nerve of the tooth removed and a stainless steel crown placed. He wasn't complaining of pain AT ALL, but has repeatedly mentioned - since then - that his tooth "doesn't hurt anymore"! He's such a tricky boy that way... I think 14.5 months in China probably being in constant ear pain from his ears, and he just doesn't process pain the way "normal" kids do. One time I took him to the pediatrician on the vague sense that "something" was wrong, only to have them find he had a fever of 103.5 and full-blown, bilateral ear infections. So when the dentist asked me if he had been in any pain, my only answer was "now that is a tricky question to answer..." But apparently he feels much better now.
We celebrated our 6-year Anniversary!
April 27th, Well... "celebrated" is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. At first we both sort of mutually acknowledged that we were going to ignore it. But then I had second thoughts, and Tom had to backpedal the next day. Life is so busy, it's hard to find time (and energy!!) to celebrate. But even with all that, I am still so very grateful for the life we are living. As Tom and I keep saying to each other, this is the "Springtime" of our family. Spring is a very busy time, putting in the crops and getting all the seeds started. That's what we are doing... building our family. And it's hard work right now. And sometimes frustrating. And I constantly worry that things are not going the way they "should" be. But it is what it is... and I still love my life.
Noah's lip re-repair is now on May 12th - NEXT Tuesday!
As soon as I got the tooth taken care of, I left the surgical scheduler a message that we were good to go. She just called back today and asked if we wanted to move the surgery up to next Tuesday. I took it, even though we have Jonah's 6-month post-adoption visit that evening and the family is going with extended family to Disneyland on Friday. Three days later! Either Noah is going to be still mellow from surgery, in which case riding in a stroller all over Disneyland will be SO much easier than crazy-run-around-Noah... or if he's up and around (and around and around) by then, he'll either be running around like a lunatic at home... or at Disneyland! Disneyland is cleaner than the park and playing in the dirt. And unless we get a rental for that weekend, we are planning on taking the motorhome to Disneyland and parking it in the oversized vehicles lot so small and recovering boys can nap during the afternoon if necessary.
So... I think that is it. Now I can report on how the surgery went and people won't be like "HUH??? When the heck did that happen???"
:)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Geography quiz!
How close are Afghanistan and Iraq? Don't look it up, make your best guess or knowledgeable choice!
A) 0 miles apart
B) 50 miles apart
C) 250 miles apart
D) 500 miles apart
E) 750 miles apart
A) 0 miles apart
B) 50 miles apart
C) 250 miles apart
D) 500 miles apart
E) 750 miles apart
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Ok, so this isn't going to be the update that you've all been waiting for (yeah, right!) But it was a thought I was just pondering as I finished reading the blog of a little girl and her family who have been through so very much. What an incredible story, and such an incredibly sad ending coming to it. Get some tissues.
But that brings me back to the eternal question: why does God allow bad things to happen in this world?
I don't profess to know the answer, but I've really been pondering this a lot as of late. We just finished celebrating the birth of our first son. It was a time of incredibly triumph, quickly turned into an agonizing medical journey as we sought treatment for Joshua's traumatic birth injury. Of course, I have Joshua here with me, and he's healthy, so it isn't anywhere near as bad as what Lydia's family is going through. But whenever anything bad happens to those of faith (or those struggling to have faith, such as myself) it always brings the question "why does God let this happen?"
I guess the only answer that I've found, that makes any sense to me, is that all the joy and all the misery that we know in this life are really not that far apart, when compared to what comes after this. Keep your eyes and your heart on God, and you'll eventually find that all the wonderful joy you could experience here absolutely pales in comparison to eternity with God. Turn away, and you will find that all the "suffering" that exists here on earth is nothing compared to being separated from God for Eternity. We are but children of God; we cannot see beyond our limited experience and what we think of as the range between joy and sorrow is nothing but a tiny fraction of what is really possible.
For instance: A child falls and hits his head, or stubs his toe, or any number of absolutely horrible things that can happen, and he feels the worst agony possible and is convinced that it is the end of the world. His mother feels badly for him, that he has to suffer pain, but she also knows that, in the overall scheme of things, this pain really is nothing.
Suffering here on earth is a bit like that stubbed toe. Yes, to us, God's children, what we suffer seems extreme and untenable. But that is because we don't see - can't see - the bigger picture. Our frame of reference, our ability to compare "good" and "bad", is so very limited. We see but a miniscule portion of the range from joy to desolation. And that is probably a good thing. Even if it means that we, like that little boy with the stubbed toe, cry out periodically that life is so very unfair.
But that brings me back to the eternal question: why does God allow bad things to happen in this world?
I don't profess to know the answer, but I've really been pondering this a lot as of late. We just finished celebrating the birth of our first son. It was a time of incredibly triumph, quickly turned into an agonizing medical journey as we sought treatment for Joshua's traumatic birth injury. Of course, I have Joshua here with me, and he's healthy, so it isn't anywhere near as bad as what Lydia's family is going through. But whenever anything bad happens to those of faith (or those struggling to have faith, such as myself) it always brings the question "why does God let this happen?"
I guess the only answer that I've found, that makes any sense to me, is that all the joy and all the misery that we know in this life are really not that far apart, when compared to what comes after this. Keep your eyes and your heart on God, and you'll eventually find that all the wonderful joy you could experience here absolutely pales in comparison to eternity with God. Turn away, and you will find that all the "suffering" that exists here on earth is nothing compared to being separated from God for Eternity. We are but children of God; we cannot see beyond our limited experience and what we think of as the range between joy and sorrow is nothing but a tiny fraction of what is really possible.
For instance: A child falls and hits his head, or stubs his toe, or any number of absolutely horrible things that can happen, and he feels the worst agony possible and is convinced that it is the end of the world. His mother feels badly for him, that he has to suffer pain, but she also knows that, in the overall scheme of things, this pain really is nothing.
Suffering here on earth is a bit like that stubbed toe. Yes, to us, God's children, what we suffer seems extreme and untenable. But that is because we don't see - can't see - the bigger picture. Our frame of reference, our ability to compare "good" and "bad", is so very limited. We see but a miniscule portion of the range from joy to desolation. And that is probably a good thing. Even if it means that we, like that little boy with the stubbed toe, cry out periodically that life is so very unfair.
Friday, December 12, 2008
We made it home!
We made it home yesterday around 5pm after a loooooong time at the hospital. Everything went very smoothly - getting up at 4am, getting Jonah in the car, getting to the hotel, doing pre-op, sending him off to surgery. That all went great, the surgery took the expected 3-4 hours (in at 7:30, talked to surgeon at just after 11AM).
But then we spent nearly 6 hours in recovery. Jonah was miserable in recovery, in a lot of pain, and was doing pretty well up until a nearby child had a reaction coming out of anesthesia and was really hysterical. That really affected Jonah and he was very unsettled after that. He took a lot of morphine to get comfortable, and eventually we got him arranged in his bed there (more comfortable than daddy's or my chest, apparently) and he went off to serious la-la-land about 3pm. Tom left shortly thereafter to get home and relieve our babysitter. He was going to spend the night in the hospital with Jonah because my back has been bothering me, but I was too worried about Jonah and the fact that we hadn't seen him settled into a room yet that we changed plans and I stayed.
We waited until nearly 5:30pm to get shipped up to a room, which turned out to be four families in one room. It was loud and crowded and miserable. And neither Jonah nor I got hardly any sleep, with all the buzzers going off constantly all night long (why DO they have alarms on equipment if the nurses are just going to ignore them anyway?? I mean, what's the point besides waking up the patient and the parents??) It was a pretty miserable experience for both of us, and then Jonah was so tired he just wanted to sleep constantly the next day and they were threatening that he'd have to stay ANOTHER night if he didn't drink anything (he'd eaten pudding but apparently they wanted to see liquids go down) so I basically force-fed the little guy 10ml of water and they called that good and let us leave about 3:30pm yesterday. Jonah fell asleep on the drive home, barely woke up when we got home at 5pm and so we ended up just putting him to bed early.
BUT the good night's sleep obviously did the trick and he was eager for his formula-and-rice-cereal gruel this morning and rapidly consumed the whole 8oz of that!! Yippee! And he was mostly back to his usual self today, although by the end of the day he was running a bit of a fever. 101.8 and our instructions say call if it goes over 102F. So we gave him his medicine and put him down, and I just had to help him roll over. He has arm restraints on at night because he tends to suck his fingers in his sleep - he's been good about staying away from his mouth during the day - so it was either that or someone has to sit and watch him sleep all night! But he couldn't figure out how to roll over just now and cried a little bit poor baby.
I feel a little better with a good night's sleep under my belt, but I still feel a bit like a truck ran over me this week.
But then we spent nearly 6 hours in recovery. Jonah was miserable in recovery, in a lot of pain, and was doing pretty well up until a nearby child had a reaction coming out of anesthesia and was really hysterical. That really affected Jonah and he was very unsettled after that. He took a lot of morphine to get comfortable, and eventually we got him arranged in his bed there (more comfortable than daddy's or my chest, apparently) and he went off to serious la-la-land about 3pm. Tom left shortly thereafter to get home and relieve our babysitter. He was going to spend the night in the hospital with Jonah because my back has been bothering me, but I was too worried about Jonah and the fact that we hadn't seen him settled into a room yet that we changed plans and I stayed.
We waited until nearly 5:30pm to get shipped up to a room, which turned out to be four families in one room. It was loud and crowded and miserable. And neither Jonah nor I got hardly any sleep, with all the buzzers going off constantly all night long (why DO they have alarms on equipment if the nurses are just going to ignore them anyway?? I mean, what's the point besides waking up the patient and the parents??) It was a pretty miserable experience for both of us, and then Jonah was so tired he just wanted to sleep constantly the next day and they were threatening that he'd have to stay ANOTHER night if he didn't drink anything (he'd eaten pudding but apparently they wanted to see liquids go down) so I basically force-fed the little guy 10ml of water and they called that good and let us leave about 3:30pm yesterday. Jonah fell asleep on the drive home, barely woke up when we got home at 5pm and so we ended up just putting him to bed early.
BUT the good night's sleep obviously did the trick and he was eager for his formula-and-rice-cereal gruel this morning and rapidly consumed the whole 8oz of that!! Yippee! And he was mostly back to his usual self today, although by the end of the day he was running a bit of a fever. 101.8 and our instructions say call if it goes over 102F. So we gave him his medicine and put him down, and I just had to help him roll over. He has arm restraints on at night because he tends to suck his fingers in his sleep - he's been good about staying away from his mouth during the day - so it was either that or someone has to sit and watch him sleep all night! But he couldn't figure out how to roll over just now and cried a little bit poor baby.
I feel a little better with a good night's sleep under my belt, but I still feel a bit like a truck ran over me this week.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Oh MY!
For review: Jonah saw the surgeon on November 20 and they said he was a priority to schedule due to his age. Normally children with cleft palates have them surgically closed between 9-12 months of age, so at almost 23 months old, now, Jonah is a "old man" for this surgery.
So, this explains how I just got off the phone with the patient coordinator at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and found out that they had a cancellation for surgery and immediately thought of Jonah. My heart started pounding in my chest as she said "December 10th". My mind raced. "HOLY COW!! That is a week from tomorrow!! I'm not ready! My baby's not ready! I don't know if I can do this to him!" I was kind of surprised, given that we've already been through surgery with both Joshua and Noah. Really surprised, actually. And now I feel a little bit weepy.
But I know it's the right thing to do... and I need to get cracking getting everything in order! Jonah needs a pre-op physical at his pediatrician. We have an appointment scheduled for December 8, but that might need to go to the ENT instead. The ENT needs to see Jonah to see if he needs tubes in his ears during the palate surgery. He probably does. The ENT office originally offered us an opening on December 8, but it conflicted with the long-ago scheduled well-baby visit with Jonah's pediatrician. But now that it's turned into a pre-op appointment, I know the pediatrician will fit us in. Now I'm just waiting for the ENT to call me back and see if they have something on the 8th, and if they do, then I call the pediatrician and get him scheduled for his pre-op this week sometime. Jonah just had all his bloodwork done November 20 so hopefully he's covered and doesn't need to do any of that again.
My, oh my...
So, this explains how I just got off the phone with the patient coordinator at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and found out that they had a cancellation for surgery and immediately thought of Jonah. My heart started pounding in my chest as she said "December 10th". My mind raced. "HOLY COW!! That is a week from tomorrow!! I'm not ready! My baby's not ready! I don't know if I can do this to him!" I was kind of surprised, given that we've already been through surgery with both Joshua and Noah. Really surprised, actually. And now I feel a little bit weepy.
But I know it's the right thing to do... and I need to get cracking getting everything in order! Jonah needs a pre-op physical at his pediatrician. We have an appointment scheduled for December 8, but that might need to go to the ENT instead. The ENT needs to see Jonah to see if he needs tubes in his ears during the palate surgery. He probably does. The ENT office originally offered us an opening on December 8, but it conflicted with the long-ago scheduled well-baby visit with Jonah's pediatrician. But now that it's turned into a pre-op appointment, I know the pediatrician will fit us in. Now I'm just waiting for the ENT to call me back and see if they have something on the 8th, and if they do, then I call the pediatrician and get him scheduled for his pre-op this week sometime. Jonah just had all his bloodwork done November 20 so hopefully he's covered and doesn't need to do any of that again.
My, oh my...
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