Barking Mad

Update Coming Soon - Aftermath of 4 Days Without Power or Hot Water Due to Huge Nor'Easter

We finally have power, as of 3PM yesterday.  We spent a very cold and frustrating 4+ days with only what a generator could provide.  We mostly used it for keeping the sump pump going after having to pump out our basement which was underwater thanks to the storm. Wednesday night we were able to borrow a space heater from our close friend Stephi, which kept us nice and toasty all night long!   We were fortunate though that our neighbours and co-workers came to our rescue until we could go out and buy our own generator, and serendipitously, Gareth just happened to be at Home Depot as they were offloading a shipment of them.  Prior to that, due to the storm, you couldn't find a generator anywhere. We probably could have plugged a lot more into it, but we ran out of extension cords.

We are still without hot water and no ability to use the oven, so we're waiting for the gas company to come out and rectify that.  We also are waiting for an appliance repair-tech to come out and inspect the washer and dryer (they reside down in the basement) to assure us we can use them.

We were lucky...very lucky.  Most of our neighbours saw 4+ feet of water in their basements and they all, for the most part have gorgeous finished basements.  Ours just has drywall.  And had Gareth and Zack not busted their butts Monday afternoon, between bailing out the basement and moving all of our storage back into the garage (and unfortunately my dining room!), we would have lost a considerable amount ourselves.  We did spend one night in a hotel, but decided that we'd rather be miserable in our own home than miserable in a hotel where Gaby completely lost it.  Oh yeah, great time for her to get her first cold! And I've come down with a dual ear infection and Gareth has a cold as well.  Zack, aside from being seriously bummed that he has spent his entire spring break dealing with all of this, seems to be doing well.  He's just glad the power is back on and that we aren't all huddled in the family room at night, trying to keep warm.

Anyways, I typically keep a journal of sorts in Word and was unable to do that due to the lack of power (I completely forgot about the laptop) and used pen and paper to write while we waited out the storm and power outtage. I'll post what I wrote, later today.  Well, if I can read my handwriting that is. 

In the meantime, we're slowly trying to catch up with everything else going on in the world.   We heard bits and pieces of the VA Polytechnic tragedy and only yesterday got the full story.  How horrible.  I don't know that I have words to adequately express our shock.  I can tell you though, as a result of a certain person learning about the shootings, a huge  Poison Pen  entry is in the works.   Until then, it's back to cleaning out my fridge.  Everything went bad.  Fun fun fun!

Such a Picky Eater!

What am I going to do with this kid? 

She has texture issues, wet and dry issues, taste issues and smell issues!  Of course it goes without saying that breastmilk is still her preferred food.   Seriously though, this kid has almost no variety in her diet and what I can manage to get down her throat STILL comes out of a baby food jar.

In the beginning I made all of her baby food but as we got into newer foods it got too difficult and time consuming to keep up with steaming, pureeing, and then storing them so we started using those Earth's Best, or whatever the heck they are called, jarred organic baby foods.  And now, unless it's grilled cheese, breaded fish fillets, crab cakes, Kix, Cheerios, dried apples, bananas and strawberries or pizza, she won't eat it.  Well, she'll eat green beans and fruits out of a jar and sometimes she'll even deign to eat one of the larger jars of chunky baby food.  Her only other "consistent" are those no-sugar-added little 4oz tubs of applesauce.

This is really frustrating because when we were letting her use those mesh safe feeders the kid would eat ANYTHING we put in there.  Heck, I probably could have put Brussels sprouts (just the thought of those makes me gag) in it and she would have gnawed it to death.  We put apples, bananas, watermelon, blueberries, you name it, it went in the mesh feeder and she would pulverize it.  But try putting sliced apples or strawberries in front of her now and she won't touch them.  She picks things up - but ONLY if they aren't gooey and wet...then she sniffs it and if and only IF it passes the sniff test will she put it in her mouth! Rarely does anything new ever get beyond the sniff test. 

A few months ago she was even eating ground sirloin and grilled chicken but now she won't touch them unless we're at a restaurant. Grrrrrrr.  This is totally and completely frustrating.  Last Sunday night she devoured some roast turkey breast we had for Easter tea.  But the other day she threw it on the floor. Uhg!

I've even made sure she watches us eat a variety of foods thinking that would entice her to try something new.  Nope.   Doesn't work.

Believe me, I have read everything out there on picky eaters and trolled the message boards that deal with toddlers and picky eaters and we've tried it all.  I've even done something I said I'd never do...give her juice. I don't like juice because it's just fruit flavourred sugar water without the satiety she'd experience, nor the fiber, if she ate the fruit itself.  But I was desperate.  Nope, she really doesn't like it.  Same with cow's milk.  The cow-milk thing doesn't concern me so much because of all the crap that they give the cows, and the damage that homogenization does to milk.  But it does kinda make me wonder if I'm still gonna be a milk-mama when she's 5!!!!! Oi!

She will drink organic smoothies that I "water-down" with either soy or rice milk and sometimes cows milk.  But that's about it. 

What's a mom to do when her 15 month olds dietary repertoire is so limited and she can't get the kiddo to try anything new?

 

VCUG Day - Do Over

Here we go again. 

Once again we're getting ready to take Gaby to Maine Med for her VCUG.   It's already been nightmarish because she stopped nursing at 9am (her last solids were at 6:30AM, nothing else solid from there on out until after the procedure) and can't have anything else except clear liquids.  Well she can have clear liquids for the next 5 minutes.  She doesn't want them though, she wants to nurse.  So we decided that until we leave I'll just stay in another part of the house, therefore removing temptation.

I just want this overwith and some assurance that everything is perfectly fine wth my little girl.  Or I want to know if she actually does have this 'unrine-reflux' and that it can be treated.  Well I know it can be treated... a year or more of prophylcatic antibiotics.  I just hope we don't end up having to go down that road.

And don't even get me started on the nurse who phoned yesterday to remind us when to be in the radiology department and to once again go over dietary restrictions.  We got into a huge argument about how they once again, sent us home last week (when we had to reschedule the VCUG) with contradictory [dietary] instructions (even my pediatrician disagrees with their stance on "no breastfeeding" prior to being given a sedative). 

The nurse tried to tell me that they did NOT send me home with contradictory instructions and at that point I very calmly told her that she was going to feel pretty foolish when I brought in proof that they did send us home with instructions that were not only ambiguous but conflicted what the nurse handwrote and what was typed in by the anesthesiologist who would be administering the sedative.  And I plan on doing just that. Additionally, at the bottom of the sheet that we brought home it gives definitions of what "clear liquids" are and included among them is breastmilk!   

That same nurse was the very same one who only the week before told me it was ok to nurse up until an hour prior and she was the one who told me it was MY job to make sure Gaby's pediatrician forwarded her medical records over there to which I replied if they wanted to put me on the payroll then it would be my job and until then it wasn't my responsibility.  She hung up on me.  Sheesh....and here's Maine Med, one of the best hospitals in the nation with some of the worst radiology staff I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

Thank goodness Gaby's ped totally backed me up.  Not only that, the very same nurse had phoned them and was less than polite with the records clerk in the office. 

I tell ya, there are some people who just deserve a good old fashioned poke in the eye!