Saturday, August 4, 2012

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!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

We're Four Months Old!

Yo yo yo!

We found our feet, dude. Nothing like some good ole' fashioned toe jam in the mouths. This, combined with our spit bubbles, is deeeeeelicious goodness.

We also got to hang out with Daddy for his first ever Father's Day. Mommy already told you about that day, but I bet she left out one tiny detail. She CUT Anderson's fingertip while trying to saw off these long fingernails, yo. There were a lot of tears shed by both of us. Mommy said she's going to have to hire a new fingernail cutter person because she can't muster up the courage anymore. Yesssssssss. Anderson 1 - Mommy 0.

It healed up okay, though. Slap on a bandaid and he was back to batting at the toys hanging from our floor gym. We loooove that thing. Our Mimi gave it to us when we were born. Workin' on the triceps and biceps has never been easier. We can even grab hold of the toys and put them in our mouths! We think we're starting to get those teeth-y things so we want to put everything in our mouths, including our thumbs. Gotta keep those fingers hidden from Mommy so she won't cut them off.

Mommy got us a jumperbouncerthingie and a red Mustang. We're pretty fly for some white guys. We spend most of our time jumping and driving around the living room looking for chicks. She said that we're not allowed to date yet, but we can still look. As a matter of fact, she said we can't ever date. >eye roll< Whatevs.

A also learned how to climb over his boppy during tummy time. He can also roll from his tummy to back. B is still lifting weights teething rings and working on his upper body/core strength.

We wore our Boom Boom & Pow outfits on the Fourth of July and got to celebrate our transfer. Mommy said that they watched us slide down a tube into her uterus a year ago. We don't really remember that, but bet it was one heck of a water slide.

Mommy and Daddy give us a bath every night and make us go to bed around 7:30 after we tell them about our day, say our prayers, and get our milk drunk on. A still likes to get up for a snack around 4am, while B prefers to stay in LaLa land, that is if A's screams don't wake him up. We drink about 7-8 ounces of breast milk each at 8a, 12p, 4p, and 7:30p. Sometimes we like to snack in-between feedings so we just cry and they come running. Haha. Ha. They usually give us formula for our snacks because we're impatient and don't want to wait for the boobie stuff to warm up. Our favorite time of day is when we nap from 9ish to 12ish, 2ish to 330ish, and 6ish to 630. They give us these things called head rubs which makes falling asleep prettttty sweet.

We caught another cold from daycare this month. Blahhhh. Hopefully we'll be immune to most germs by the time school starts!

We had to go to the doctorrrrr for our four month checkup. They made us drink some crazy syrup, dug wax out of our ears, and stuck needles in our legs! In hindsight, we think our meltdowns were a little dramatic, but still. Put.the.needles.down. Sheesh. He told us to start eating some rice cereal in our bowls at dinnertime, so we showed Mommy and Daddy how it's done. Of course, we have to get baths afterwards. Next month we get to try veggies!

Anderson weighed 15 lb 3 oz (51%) and was 26" long (88%). Head circumference 17" (75%).

Baney weighed 16lb 13 oz (85%) and was 25.5" long (75%). Head circumference 17" (75%).

We are some big & tall boys, considering we were born 2 weeks early!

Here are crazy camera lady's pictures from this past month.

Our Aunt KK, Uncle B, and Morganism came to visit!


On a mission for chicks.

A cooking lesson from Daddy

Baney's first 4th

Our first 4th...wearing our onesies from Aunt KK!
Anderson's first 4th

Love

Having fun with Daddy!

Happy Transfer Day Boom Boom & Pow!
Chillin' in the glider

Time to eat

What the heck is this crap?

Oh.My.Gah.
Well, I guess it's okay.


Interesting.
I love my Daddy

Baney

Giggles

BFF's for life

Cuteness

Enough of this being serious stuff

Anderson

Love.Them.

See ya next month!!!
















Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Boom Boom and Pow Day!



Because, I think it's fun to make myself cry. 





To view the full resolution video on YouTube, click here.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Conception

Most people don't know when their children were conceived. We knew the exact minute. 

One year ago today, Boom Boom and Pow (along with all of their siblings) were created! It is absolutely amazing how they went from two cells each in a petri dish to the precious boys we are holding today. Unbelievable. I went back and read the post that I wrote exactly one year ago, and it gives me chills. If our donor wasn't anonymous, I would find her and give her the biggest hug. She was a selfless rockstar and gave us the greatest gifts ever.

We spent that week in Charleston, and ended up transferring Boom Boom and Pow on the Fourth of July...hence, their nicknames. So, the Fourth is going to be a pretty big day for us this year. We plan on having a little celebration for our miracle boys and I can't wait!

I just can't believe it's already been a year. I wish I would have known then what I know now...the future has turned out to be much better than we could have ever imagined! Thank you God for giving our doctors the knowledge to help us become parents!

Weekend before the transfer...hanging out with my sis and our friends!

The looooong five day wait while our embabies grew..nothing like the beach to get rid of some nervous energy!

Weekend before our transfer...ice cream date!

Waffle cones rock.

Little did we know that five days later, we would become Mommy & Daddy! So grateful!

Yep, we were partying in the petri dish this time last year. Woohoo!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

First Baby Daddy Day

No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before.
- Lafcadio Hearn

One hundred and eighty degrees. 

The past fourteen years of our relationship have been turned around, flipped upside down, dumped into a blender, and thrown in fifty different directions. The last three and a half months have trumped all of those years. We don't know how we ever lived without these two precious men! I'll say it a million times...we definitely have been blessed with more than we deserve.

I tried to get Andy to write a post about his first Father's Day, but he wasn't having it. He said that he would spend three days erasing things and telling himself that he sounded stupid, and it just wasn't worth it. Awesomeballs! One day I WILL convince him to be a guest blogger. I'm sure that it would be entertaining to say the least!

Yeah, Andy...you read that right. Get to thinking.

I hope that I made his first Father's day special...I really, really tried! It's sooooo hard trying to buy things for a man. I definitely didn't want to get the generic wallet or tie...I wanted him to look back and remember this day.

I started out by cooking him breakfast in bed. I'm so creative....no joke. I made heart-shaped cowboy eggs, an entire plate of grease-slathered bacon, complete with a bowl of Reese's Pieces and Miller Light on the side. Man + Meat + Candy + Beer in the AM = Score.

We started out by making the boys their own stepping stones complete with footprints! This gift led up to Sunday, when I surprised him with two baby Japanese Maple trees. I thought that it would be so cool to watch these trees grow up with A & B! We had a planting party Sunday afternoon and placed the stepping stones in front of each boy's respective tree. If we ever move, I'm not leaving without having them transplanted.

I hope that Andy enjoyed his weekend...there is nothing like watching the joy on his face when he's with Boom Boom and Pow. I can't even begin to describe how it feels seeing this side of him. I'm so glad that I could finally give him the gift of fatherhood! He has been such a good father and I don't know what we would ever do without him. I can only pray that they will grow up to be just like their daddy...without the smell!


Cuddle time with daddy
Love

Being silly


Heart shaped cowboy eggs


Breakfast in Bed, complete with Reese's Pieces and washed down with a beer;)

Telling secrets...shhh!
Time to make our stepping stones!

Messy stuff

Putting our footprints on the stepping stones!

More interested in the chandelier

Baney's stepping stone

Anderson's stepping stone
Boom Boom and Pow left this message for Daddy:)
Daddy, his boys, and their baby trees

Who's yo daddy?
Baby Japanese Maples and their stepping stones

Can't wait to watch them grow with our babies!
Can't forget hose time with the firstborn...

Happy Father's Day Andy, finally! You deserve every minute of it!