Torticollis

Earlier this month, the lady that keeps A&B while I work mentioned that A may have torticollis, or wry neck. Torticollis is a twisted neck in which the head is tipped to one side, while the chin is turned to the other. It can be inherited or caused by birth trauma to the long muscle that runs down the neck. It is typically resolved by physical therapy, or by wearing a specially fitted helmet around twenty three hours a day for a few months. If it doesn't resolve after those measures, then surgery may be recommended.

After looking back through pictures, I noticed that his head does kind of tilt to his left side. I took him to see our pediatrician who checked his range of motion and evaluated his head shape. He can turn his head to the right without any problems, but when he tries to go left his chin goes down towards his left shoulder. If that makes any sense. The back of his head is head is a little lop-sided, but it is getting better since he is sleeping on his stomach now.

Our pediatrician said that it is mild, and that it should work itself out since he is becoming more mobile. He didn't want to do a physical therapy referral at this time. He said that he would reevaluate at his six month checkup.

After some research, I have read that the sooner you catch it, the easier it is to treat. I have been trying to do some neck stretches a few times a day, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

Does anybody have any experience with this? Should I tell my pediatrician that I want him referred to a physical therapist anyway? I've pretty much learned over the last few years that you really have to be your own advocate.

I'm a little peeved at my pediatrician's on-call nurse anyway. Anderson spiked a fever of 102 earlier this month and I had to call them at night. The nurse basically determined that he had a little cold and was teething. She said that I didn't need to call back unless his fever reached 104. Mmmmmmk. The fever went away, but he was sooooooo fussy, wouldn't sleep/eat, and would let out wails all day and night. The fever came back and I noticed drainage coming from his ear, so I called and told them that I wanted him to be seen anyway. Turns out he has a double ear infection and one of his eardrums PERFORATED. Seriously?? Bless my sweet little baby's heart. I felt like a horrible mommy. That was something that could have easily been prevented.

Let it be known that from here on out, I will be taking him to get his ears checked every time his temperature gets over 100...not 104. Bump that. I don't care if I get on their nerves. Not to mention the fact that both Andy and my sister had febrile seizures when they were babies.

He is on antibiotics now and is doing MUCH better. I have my happy baby back:)

You can't really tell in this picture, but he can't really extend his neck and look to the left. His head kind of stays "cocked" like this. Will it work itself out? Any advice will be appreciated!

We're Five Months Old!

July 5 - August 5

The Itsy Bitsy Spider ain't got nothin' on our skills.

Mommy calls us spider monkeys because we like to climb all over peeps, bounce in laps, and do 180s in our cribs. We can grab our feet and alllllmost eat them. Almost. We're so adventurous that she told us we would get in trouble if caught climbing back and forth between cribs. Hmph. We'll see about that.

That ceiling fan looks mighty fun too.

We have strong necks now, and like to do push-ups for the babes. Well, if you count mom as a babe. She still won't let any girls near us. We also like to reach out and touch faces. Our favorite is daddy's because it's stubbly. He said that we would have beards and staches one day too, and he would teach us how to scrape our faces with that stick thingy. He made us promise that we'd never grow mud flaps. No parties in the back for us. Sike.

We're getting better at this solid food hoopla. We take whole grain rice cereal mixed with breast milk in a bowl or in our night night bottles. Mommy tried to give us some oatmeal for breakfast, but it made our tummies hurt so we'll have to try that again later. We even got to try peas for our 5 month birthday! They were ouuuutstanding. Daddy purees three day batches of fresh peas with our nifty Baby Bullet and we gobble it all up. Mmmmmmgood.

The 'rents like to keep us on the same schedule. We don't know why, gah. We are still sippin' on 7-8 oz of boobie juice at 8, 12, 4, and 7:30. We still nap from 930ish-12ish, 2ish-4ish, and 6ish-630ish. We sometimes take shots of boobie juice or formula in-between meals when we've been burning calories jumpin' in our bouncers, exersaucers, and cruising in the 'stang. It ain't easy being this physically fit. Well, under the baby fat anyway.

We started recognizing that plastic thing that puts boobie juice in our mouths. We can spot one from a mile away. When it gets close to us, we can reach out and pull it to our mouths. We can allllllmost hold it without any help. Yep. We're that coordinated.

The night of July 16, Anderson woke mommy and daddy up screaming bloody murder! Sure enough, he had rolled to his belly and couldn't figure out how to get back! The next night, he rolled from one end of the crib to the other. He haaaaates sleeping on his back now....it's belly down and butt up every night!

Baney on the other hand...can roll from his belly to back, but has only rolled from back to belly once. He still prefers his back or side at night!

We love to gnaw on everything in sight. Fingers...be it ours or someone else's...are the best. We saw mommy slip on one of our puddles of drool the other day. Ha ha. Ha. We like to surprise her with booby traps. She can be a liiiiiitle clumsy.

We also got to see both sides of our family on the way to the mountains and ocean for their family vacations. Aunt Ebeth even came alllll the way from Chicago to babysit us! We haven't seen her since we were born. We were sooooo confused because she looks like mommy...but we really love her for figuring out how to take care of us for a whole day! We didn't get to go on family vacations, but maybe mommy and daddy can let us see what the mountains and ocean look like next year.

Annnndd...here we go with another round of crazy camera lady's pictures.

Wearing our Auburn Polo rompers from Uncle Bill and Aunt Lynn

A (Rico Suave)

It's our Aunt Bizbet from Chicago!!!

We looooove her. She told us all about the big buildings and choo choo trains.

Baney loves to talk to his bumpers.

No man, I'm serious. She's craaazy.

Our cousin Morgan and Aunt KK came to visit us!

We love our Mmmmie K.

We're sexy and we know it. We work out.

Our Paw Paw and Granny B came from Alabama to visit!

A kiss from Caroline

B

B

A

Oh, just monkeying around.

I'm so good at push-ups now!

Bounce competition

Baney, 5 months

B

Anderson, 5 months

A

Whyyyyy do you make me doooo this every month??

Okay. I'll cooperate. You're still crazy, though.

Yeahhhh baby! I get me some peas!

Holy peas Batman!

Um.

That wasn't so bad

Give me anything and I'll eat it. Chomp.

Best friends for life

We had a hard time being serious for our pictures this month.

Yeah baby

See ya next month!

There's a Fungus Among Us

Add this to my last post. The Fungus has now traveled to...my cleavage. That is all.

Postpartum Party...The Science of Jessica

I haven't really written a post about my postpartum experience, so I thought that I would enlighten you all with an update on my redonkulated body! It has been just about as crazy as my pregnancy was. I would go through everything a billion times over again if it meant holding my boys in the end. However, I'm just amazed at the toll it took on my body!

Let us start with Exhibit A. Raging fungal infection. I noticed that my nipples were extremely painful, bright red, peeling, cracking, and bleeding into the milk I was pumping. Come to find out, I have a fungal infection. On my nipples. It ended up spreading to the ring finger on my right hand and the corners of my mouth. As of this week...it has spread to my pinky finger. It hurts to extend my finger because it cracks and bleeds. I have tried every antifungal cream imaginable, popped acidophilis pills like they're crack, taken a round of Diflucan, and even attempted Gentian Violet. Purple...everywhere. It dyed my hand...and everything I touched...purple for an entire week. I'm afraid to do something as simple as rub lotion on the boys out of fear of spreading it to them. Guess my next stop is the dermatologist.

Exhibit A. I'll spare you the nipple shot.

Gentian Violet Fail. Don't try this at home.

Exhibit B. This is very disgusting so skip this Exhibit if you have a weak stomach. Remember the pilonidal abscess that came out of nowhere on my bungcrack whilst I was six months preggo? Many of you probably remember that I had to have it drained and packed again the day after we brought the boys home from the hospital. Welp, about three weeks ago I had to have it drained and packed again. I haven't even recovered from that flare up when it abscessed AGAIN on the opposite side of my bungcrack this week! My surgeon had to filet my ass open again yesterday. He said it was on the other side because it has tunneled from my left inner cheek, underneath my bungcrack, and through my right cheek right underneath my tailbone. He said that surgery will be needed to excise it sooner rather than later because it was the biggest and deepest one he's ever seen.

Ever seen.

And it will only get worse with time. Can someone please tell my ass crack that I have twins to take care of? The surgery is pretty intense and sounds very scary. Just Google it. It basically involves coring the cyst all the way through and leaving it completely open to heal. My surgeon said that mine will involve about a 6-7 inch area of tissue removed from my tailbone. Even with the surgery, there is a 10-20% chance that it will recur. I have to have the surgery because it will continue to grow and keep flaring up. Not to mention the fact that my body has been fighting an infection since last December and it will eventually take a toll on my immune system. Antibiotics don't touch this monster. It is literally a pain in the ass. Literally.

I just want to be able to rock my babies and sit on the floor and play with them. I've waited so long for these boys and I'm being robbed of the simple things. Blech. I guess I'd rather have the surgery before they are mobile. Ugh. If anyone has any experience with this crazy ailment, please message me! I can't wait to get the entire top half of my ass cut off.

Exhibit B

Exhibit C. Receding hairline. It started coming out in clumps about four months after delivery. The literature says that I won't go bald and that it should start growing back after about six months. I have to pull it back at work, or else it will just fall out everywhere. I will be surprised if Andy ever wants to be with me again.

Exhibit C

Exhibit D. Pyogenic granuloma, or "pregnancy tumor". I lost a follower the first time I posted a picture of it. Lol. Whoops. It came out of nowhere and grew to look like a miniature penis on my hand. It was full of vessels and continuously bled, so I had to have it cut off and cauterized. It came back again after that, but has since gone down after I delivered and got rid of the hormones it was feeding off of.

Exhibit D

Exhibit E. Not only did I have the pilonidal cyst to my tailbone, another boil popped up in my groin area from an ingrown hair a couple weeks after delivery. It also abscessed and took about 3 weeks to drain and heal. Do I sound like a disgusting hot mess yet? I have a picture of it, but have a pretty good feeling you don't want to see it. Poor Andy.

Exhibit E

Exhibit F. My scalp is so dry that it is peeling off in layers, and my lips are scaly and feel like they are sunburned all of the time. I'm going to go ahead and assume that breastfeeding twins for the last 5 months is sucking all nutrients and every bit of moisture out of me. Therefore, I have resorted to chugging about 10 liters of water a day to keep up. Take that, body.

Exhibit F

Exhibit G. Speaking of breastfeeding, so far so good. My supply decreased just a little bit since I returned to work, but I seem to be keeping up for the most part. We do supplement with formula now, especially in the middle of the night when we don't feel like heating up bottles. I am trying to freeze as much as I can because I think I'm going to have to stop when I have surgery on the bungcrack. I have a feeling that I will be on a ton of pain medicines and sitting on my ass to pump will be out of the question. Hopefully my frozen supply will get them to their first birthday. Thanks again, bungcrack.

Exhibit G

Exhibit H. Baby weight. I gained about 55 pounds during my pregnancy. I lost a total of 60 pounds within three weeks of giving birth. I think most of it was fluid! I went buck wild during maternity leave because I had been deprived of sugar because of gestational diabeeeeetus. I gained twenty pounds back. I didn't think that eating a bag of white reese's cups a day would do that, but apparently so. My weight is the least of my worries right now. Besides, I will probably lose fifty pounds when my doctor cuts off half of my ass this Fall.

The weekend before my C-section! Whoa.

A couple of weeks after giving birth...Baney is all snuggled up in my Moby wrap:)

Tonight. Whatevs.

Bad.

Exhibit I. Cankles. It took about six weeks for them to deflate! I now have little purple spider veins all over my feet because they were so stretched out. Also, the nerve pain and swelling to my left leg went away immediately after delivery because Anderson was cutting off my circulation.

Exhibit I...before. Lol.

Exhibit I...after. Much better.

Exhibit J. This happened during the prime of my sleep deprivation. When I looked over at this can, I freaked out because I thought that I'd accidentally brought a beer to work. It was my Diet Sprite. Whew. They need to be careful with their packaging.

Exhibit J

Exhibit K. This makes my health problems much more tolerable.

Exhibit K

Exhibit L. These make my health problems seem nonexistent. Worth. every. second. As my best friend says, these sweet boys aren't going to let me forget what I went through to get them!

Exhibit L{ove}

We'll be 5 months old tomorrow and are working hard on our next post! Stay tuned for our latest adventures!