Sewing Advice Needed

Also needed, better post titles. I mean, yikes!

I've had the hankering for a new skirt but I don't want to cut into my nice fabric until my body stabilizes. So I found this pair of pants in my "Clothes to Recon" box that look like they'll fit the bill. They're a size 22W, have a partially elastic waistband, and are 41" (104 cm for those on the metric system) at the waist, unstretched. As I want to make a pencil skirt there will be plenty of fabric.

So this is my somewhat-dilemma: Should I cut a new waistband or use the one with the elastic in it? I'm leaning to using the elastic so the band will shrink with my body, but will that make the skirt look, I dunno, too homemade if I tuck in my shirts? Just so you know, since I don't have an pictures to go with this post, the elastic is only in the back, the front waistband is smooth.

Thoughts?

THE Question

BuggaBoo finally asked me The Question today.
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"Where did your penis go?"

So, How DID We Get That Bobby Pin Out?

Like this!

We arrived at the Doernbecher ER at 9:00am. BuggaBoo hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything since midnight, when he nursed to sleep. It made me very grateful to have breast milk for him so that he could have something in his tummy. We were admitted and BuggaBoo was given another x-ray to confirm the bobby pin was still in his stomach and hadn't started down the intestines. It was still there.

We then talked to the gastrointestinal doctor who was going to perform the procedure. The plan was to go down his esophagus with an endoscope, find the bobby pin, and grab it with a small claw on the end of the scope. This required BuggaBoo to be under anesthesia.

The ER doctor came in and put a numbing gel on BuggaBoo's hand to make the whole IV process go smoother. It takes 20 minutes to work. At this point I had to leave the room because all BuggaBoo wanted to do was nurse and he was getting quite worked up that he couldn't. The Hubby stayed with him while I was in the waiting room reading "Julie of the Wolves".

Well, the IV process was a bust. The nurse couldn't get the vein in his hand. It's not her fault, he's two and has little veins. So they had to put the IV in his elbow. But he didn't have any numbing gel there so it hurt. BuggaBoo hasn't had any shots so he's never had to deal with needle pain before. The Hubby told me a large male nurse had to wrap BuggaBoo up in a sheet like a burrito so they could put the IV in.

More unhappiness from Doozer, so more of the story later.

All's Crazy on the Western Front

Yup, that about sums it up. BuggaBoo was in the hospital the 11th due to a swallowed bobby pin. Talk about scary! The best I can figure, since I didn't see it happen, is he was laying on his back playing with the bobby pin and it fell down his throat.

What I DID see was his choking and grabbing at something in this throat, his face all red and scared. Yeah, I started crying. He was still coughing so I was just waiting to see what would happen. Eventually he swallowed it down and started crying. He then vomited just a bit but there was blood in it. The Hubby, my older sister, and I were trying to figure out what he had choked on when my sister noticed that the bobby pin that had been on the floor was gone. I REALLY started freaking out and The Hubby tried to make me feel better by telling me BuggaBoo would just poop it out. I wasn't so sure about that.

I called the ER to see if I needed to take BuggaBoo in. I mean, what do you DO for a bobby pin? They didn't cover this in birth class. The ER lady said she couldn't give me medical advice over the phone. So helpful. I then called my mom and she told me to go in. Which, to my credit, I would have probably figured that out on my own but it's nice to have mommies to push you in the right direction.

We took BuggaBoo in, which was a ton of fun. He got an x-ray done, and indeedy he had a bobby pin in his stomach. The doctor wanted to let us go home and let him pass it, but at this point I was thinking more clearly and I knew I didn't want that to happen. I told the doctor that bobby pins can be very sharp if the rubber tips come off. She then said she didn't really know what a bobby pin looked like. Um, really? Thankfully she called Doernbecher to ask their opinion. Doernbecher set up an appointment for us to go in the next day to have the bobby pin removed.

The rest of the story later, it's time for a little girl to go to bed. Goodnight!

The Rest of the Story

It's tomorrow, right?

Doozer and I were transferred by ambulance while The Hubby went home to pack for the night. No, we didn't drive there wildly, sirens blazing and lights flashing. The ambulance took it nice and easy. Doozer was in her car seat which was strapped on the stretcher. She also had a cool red light on her big toe that reminded me of E.T.'s glowing finger. They had it plugged into a machine on the ambulance to keep an eye on her oxygen saturation, which is the whole reason we were in an ambulance.

Doozer promptly fell asleep after protesting for a bit. So I chatted it up with Paramedic Chad, and he made me feel much better. He had a perfect blend of humor and concern, exactly what I needed. We were able to talk the whole way to the hospital. So, Paramedic Chad, if you're reading this, thank you for helping me stay sane.

Once we arrived at Doernbecher they showed us to our room and tried to suction her nose. Not much came out. At this point I told our nurse that I would be co-sleeping with Doozer and I asked if I needed to sign a waiver. The nurse's response was the best. She told me that she could set up the monitor closer to the "parent bed" so Doozer's wires would reach. She also told me that technically the hospital discouraged co-sleeping, she had to inform me of that, and that she personally agreed 100% with me on the whole co-sleeping thing.

So started my stay in the hospital with my baby. It was a wonderful and awful experience. The nurses were great, very understanding and sweet. The sick baby, however, not so great.

The Hubby then showed up fortified with a pair of sweatpants for me and a sack of Taco Bell burritos. A different nurse came in at this point and did a swab for RSV. Which came back positive. Which made us even more anxious. See, babies can die from RSV, which my little sister almost did when she was just three months old. I grew up with my mother telling us all how dangerous RSV is. Her advice for every new mom is "Little babies don't cough. If they cough something is wrong." Thankfully Doozer never coughed, she just had a lot of trouble breathing.

She also had an eye infection and a yeast diaper rash on top of everything. The doctor at the hospital told us this was because her body was trying so hard to fight off the RSV that it just couldn't fight the other stuff.

And, quite frankly, there's not much else to say. We stayed nearly 24 hours in the hospital and left with the eye ointment that we came with and new diaper rash cream they gave us. We also had our baby girl. And although I know I wasn't even close to losing her I feel like I was. I had a feeling of "That really could have happened!" It could have been worse and it wasn't.

I just love my little girl.

Bump in the Road

What? I have a blog? Hmm, must have forgotten...

I'm still working on Doozer's birth story. But in the meantime I'll bring you an exciting story. It's titled "Doozer's Stay in the Hospital".

Starting the 19th of March Doozer has had a horribly stuffy nose. Sleeping wasn't going well and nursing was the pits. The little blue bulb syringe became our best friend. We learned that breast milk squirted up the nose worked better than saline at breaking up snot blockage. We saw her pediatrician that Monday for her well-baby check up and went to my midwife for my postpartum. They both told us it was a cold. And we settled in to waiting for the cold to be over.

Well, the cold didn't get any better. Family started trickling into town on Thursday to attend her baby blessing. By Saturday I had a suspicion this wasn't a simple cold. However, I needed a lot of prompting from my mother and mother-in-law to see that. See, for whatever stupid reason I feel embarrassed to take my kids into urgent care because it always seems to turn out to be nothing. But when Doozer had some not-breathing episodes and she started having retraction I decided to take her to the ER. I chose to walk her there because it's only ten minutes away from my house, walking distance. Doozer hates her carseat and I did not feel comfortable having her scream the whole way there, even in it would have been only five minutes.

Being in the fresh air helped her breathing out, and by the time we were taken back she was breathing better. The nurse also gave her an Albuterol treatment, so when the doctor came in she was breathing well. I'm not sure he believed me, but he ordered a chest x-ray, which came back clear. TO be on the safe side, however, he decided to have us transferred to Doernbecher Children's Hospital for an overnight observation.

Part Two tomorrow, I have a very cranky baby right now.

Welcome!

To all my many followers: Hello! Most of you know where I've been, but for those who don't, lemmie tell ya.

Baby (finally!) found her way into this world on March 1st. And from here on out on this blog she will be known as Doozer, due to the fact that my sister thinks she looks like a Doozer from Fraggle Rock.

So, I'm posting some really fast statistics and then I need to run because Doozer is still very intimate with my breast. Early labor started around midnight Monday morning. Active labor started at around 6:00 pm Monday evening. After six hours of very intense labor she was born in the water into The Hubby's hands. She was 7 pounds 15 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long. Her head was 13 3/4 inches around and perfectly round (ouch). She nurses like a champ and really loves the boobie milk.

BuggaBoo loves his little sister but is having a bit of a time adjusting to sharing his mother. We're tandem nursing but still having to figure out boundaries. It's really helping to have my sister, The Hubby's sister, and The Hubby at home. The Hubby is taking two weeks off! Thank goodness.

Okay, when I have more time I'll be posting a birth story. Stay tuned!