February 2009 - Posts
So after nearly 3 weeks of quarantine, we left the house yesterday. I dropped off the two kids at my Mother-in-law’s so I could go unaccompanied to visit my best friend and her nearly month old little girl. I saw them in the hospital the day she was born, and haven’t been able to get back since because we had the plague and what kind of friend would I be to bring them a meal, a gift, and a virus that just kept on giving?
Instead, I waited until we were all healthy and I went alone to spend some quiet time with her and her beautiful daughter. Just holding a peaceful, sleeping little girl made me start to wonder if it’s time to renew THAT discussion with my husband. Of course I come into her house and after getting her dinners into the freezer and fridge notice that there’s blood running down my hand. Can I hold the baby now??
My lovely dry and cracked fingers got bumped a little too hard and one of the NuSkinned splits cracked yet again, so I walk into her home and within 5 minutes she’s offering me a bandaid. I of course have my kit in my purse and proceed to the bathroom to wash my hands…only to realize I need to cart my dripping wet hands back to her kitchen to get a paper towel. What kind of guest would I be to wipe my bloody hands on her nice bathroom towels. One more thing she’d have to deal with – a blood stained towel.
So there I am, 6 minutes in to my “quiet” visit with her, hand wrapped in a paper towel, fumbling through my emergency bandaid kit for a suitable sized wrap to make sure that it doesn’t spring another leak while I’ve got her precious bundle in my arms. Knowing how dry I am, you’d think I’d have a bottle of NuSkin in my purse. Well, that’s going to be there after this post. Just in time for us to leave and run a few weekend errands as a family.
That is, after my husband gets up. I took first duty with the boys so he could sleep in a bit this morning. We’ve been up for just about 2 hours and it’s nearly 9am. He needs his rest, week full of late nights working (1 or 2am nights…not at the office until 8 type of thing). I’m still convinced that he’s going to come home from nursery school with a note this fall asking if my husband really makes “bacon” for a living. Everytime he asks “where Daddy?” my response is usually, “at work, making bacon.”
Okay, so I’ve been reading some message boards and other thoughts about how a vitamin B12 deficiency could cause problems with “healing” and I have to wonder if this is the reason the cuts on my hand and at the corners of my mouth don’t heal…for a LONG time.
Right now I just have a few splits on my fingers, and after a few NuSkin applications I’m managing quite well. The gash on my thumb actually healed quite nicely. Split a few times before finally sealing. I have been sleeping with my gloves and thick cream, but it becomes a bit unproductive when I’m up in the middle of the night several times to change and nurse my son. Don’t want to change the diapers with the sleeping gloves on, so thankfully my husband assists with that. I also can’t feel anything too well through the gloves, so trying to nurse and navigate things like the tv remote are difficult…so I just end up taking them off after a few hours on. Guess it’s not the worst thing in the world, but I’m still hoping for more than one night a week sleeping until at least 6am.
Back to B12. I’m still taking prenatal vitamins, so I’m not sure how extra B12 is going to help. I need to do some reading up on that. I did ask the dermatologist I saw in December about things that would help my skin and although she gave me a prescription for cream that I haven’t found to be terribly better than the Burts Bees products, she didn’t mention taking any supplements.
Although I need to spend more time reading up on B12, I did learn the following thus far:
- B12 is naturally occurring in most animal products (fish, meat, milk products, etc.)
- Man made B12 is something I’d need to look into more as it’s classified as category C and I’m nursing
- The RDA is 1microgram
- Although it’s water soluble, it’s also destroyed by water (huh?)
- As it is water soluble, you can’t overdose
- Sunshine also destroys it
Now I need to go read up on my prenatal vitamin and see how much is in there. I do eat more milk products right now as I’m nursing and don’t want the calcium taken out of my bones. I believe, based on my current diet, that I should be getting enough to meet the RDA.
In the meantime, I keep a bottle of NuSkin by all of my medication. Nightly dose of healing power.
It’s been one of those weeks, the kind of week every Mom knows is in their future, but can’t plan for no matter what.
It started last weekend with a trip to my sister’s house (about an hour away) to celebrate my birthday and watch the Superbowl. I’m THAT lucky. My sister made a nice dinner, her husband had their new Wii up and ready for golf, and just as I headed up to change our youngest I realized that the bag full of clothes, medications, and other necessary items was packed…and sitting on his rocking chair.
Instead of unwinding and getting a nap in, I was calling Walgreens to get another prescription (which was nothing short of a hassle as we had just had a 3 month supply filled through mail order…and even though I explained I was on vacation…it took my arrival at the store for the pharmacist to explain that unless I needed a vacation override I wasn’t getting the prescription). At least I had some sister time on the trip. We also ran through TJMaxx to find a few pieces of clothing for the overnight…and all they had were pjs in 24 months (he’s in 12) and a “tracksuit” type of baby outfit for the daytime. Oh well. Nothing like a stress free trip, right?
Add to that a 6 month old who is teething and wouldn’t sleep anywhere but next to Mom. I had 10 minutes of Wii time the entire evening. I also had about 4 hours of sleep as nursing Moms know, sleeping next to your baby is pretty much like hanging up the sign that says “24 hour buffet.”
After a sleepless night, we (my boys and I as my husband had to get off to work) joined my parents for a short visit with my grandparents. It was nice to visit with them as they haven’t seen the boys since our youngest was just a few weeks old. During our visit, my eldest wound up in a very unpleasant situation as he filled his pant and got it nearly everywhere. Complete clothing change prior to jumping in the car for the ride home. We had a few more bad trips to the bathroom before turning in for the night. Didn’t think much of it.
Fast forward to 3am and there in our doorway is a crying, half-choking, coughing, wheezing, miserable little boy. We quick moved the warm air humidifier to his room, grabbed some Motrin and a little juice, and tucked him back into bed once a few songs and some rocking with Mom calmed him down. He woke not much better and continued to cough through the entire day…and Tuesday night. I called the pediatrician on Wednesday and learned that nearly three year olds can have Croup too. Fun is.
I’ve spent the remainder of the week trying to keep my hands washed, my oldest comfortable, and my youngest as far away from him as possible. We were supposed to have my youngest son’s baptism today. Guess what we had to cancel?
My oldest is still coughing and has a runny nose, but is seeming to feel a little bit better. He slept most of the night last night…compared to being wide awake by 3am (thanks to the medication). My youngest still hasn’t shown any signs of Croup…but is cutting his first tooth and we’re close enough we can see it coming.
In the meantime, in trying to pick up the kitchen on Thursday night, I had a run in with a vegetable mandolin…and sliced my thumb pretty good. Called my doctor first thing on Friday (as it took nearly 3 hours for the bleeding to stop), and the earliest they could see me was at 245pm. Turns out if I had gone somewhere on Thursday night, they would have stitched the wound. Since it had been so long and the wound was pretty much closed, my doctor put some butterflies/steri-strips on it and sent me home with a prescription for an antibiotic (just in case).
Great, like my cuts heal well. I’ll probably be nursing this one closed for the next month…along with the splits on my fingers that have naturally developed from all of the hand washing this week.
We’re waiting for tomorrow to come. Hopefully they’ll be no coughing, a tooth, and I’ll finally have tackled the sore throat that’s been coming on for a few days now. I’m off to nurse my son (teething makes him a light sleeper) and then tuck myself in.
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