Chicago updates, and other such things.

Well, Miss Sunshine and I made the trek back to Shriner's for her post-op check this week. On the positive front, we made the trip there and back relatively in once piece. I had forgotten what an absolute nightmare traveling alone with a small child is. Sheesh.

So, quick summary of the first day of our trip - drive three hours to the airport. Spend nearly half an hour trying to find a parking place that is under cover due to predicted snow. Nearly miss flight. Have to carry baby, backpack and car seat that weighs roughly 3000 pounds (or at least that is how much it FELT like it weighed!) onto the plane. Nice flight attendant carries the car seat down the aisle for me. Miss Sunshine does well on the flight, but the airline only has apple juice that is appropriate for her to drink. Nothing to dilute it with. Wind up giving Miss Sunshine straight apple juice because she is getting fussy and I want to avoid an all out fit. Arrive in Chicago. Take Miss Sunshine out of her car seat to exit the plane and realize she is SOAKED through all of her clothing. Change her into jammies because that is my only option other than her clothes for the next day. Stop in airport to buy one of those little metal wheeled racks to wheel the car seat on because carrying it is SO not working out. Drive to hotel. Check in, get settled in the hotel, change Miss Sunshine because her diaper is on the verge of leaking again. Not 30 seconds after changing her, get AUDIBLE poop. Roll eyes, sigh, and change diaper again. Not a full minute after THAT, yet another round of pooping. Decide I'm going to wait her out for a few minutes so as not to waste any more diapers... Less than five minutes after that decision, we have had countless audible poops, and Miss Sunshine has now leaked POOP onto her jammies - you know, the only other clothing I have for her besides for her clothes for the next day... Give a quick sigh of relief that I had the foresight to rent a car so we could drive to a nearby Target to purchase more jammies for Miss Sunshine, as well as grab dinner. Pick up some jammies, decide last minute to also get a cheap pair of leggings and a t-shirt. Drive back to hotel, feed Miss Sunshine, stick her in travel crib so I can eat, take her out of travel crib and realize she is now soaking wet through her clothes. Say a REAL prayer of thanks that I had the foresight to get that extra outfit so she has clothing to wear to her doctor's appointment. Take Miss Sunshine swimming in the indoor pool. Upon getting back to the room, let her run around naked while I run a bath for her. Miss Sunshine face plants on the HARD hotel room floor and gives herself a bloody nose. Have I mentioned how much it sucks traveling alone with a small child? Finally get her calmed down, give her a cup of milk and get her to sleep. She wakes up several times through the night thanks to sleeping in a strange place. But day two went much better for the most part...

Summary of Day Two: Get up, get dressed, get Miss Sunshine dressed and head to Shriner's for her appointment. She is healing PERFECTLY according to the surgeon (YAY). Speech is going well, they want us to concentrate on B, P and D sounds with her now. Some concern about her weight, they do not feel her weight gain issues are related to her cleft, contrary to pretty much everything I have read, researched or been told about cleft palate. They are going to recommend to our primary care doctor that he refer us to an endocrinologist to test her growth hormone levels. That upset me pretty badly. We then meet up with my cousin's for a late lunch, and head back to the airport. I get turned around in unfamiliar Chicago and have to back track. What took me five minutes to travel in the WRONG direction takes over 20 to travel in the RIGHT one. Not to mention hitting EVERY POSSIBLE traffic delay on the way to the airport. Very nearly missed our flight - thank god it was delayed 20 minutes! (I told the girl at the counter I was probably the only person she ever met who was HAPPY their flight was delayed!). Because I am running so late, I did not have time to put Miss Sunshine in my wrap to walk through the airport. So I am carrying her, my backpack, another bag I bought to contain all the extra clothing I had to purchase thanks to our adventure the day before, and the car seat. Struggle through security. Pick her back up on after reloading and realize - Yep, she has soaked through yet another diaper (have I mentioned how much I hate disposables now that I use cloth?). Luckily, due to the flight delay, I have JUST enough time to stop and change her diaper at least. She's going to have to tough it out in her wet pants because I have nothing else to put her in at this point - she has peed or pooped on every article of clothing I brought and/or bought for her with the exception of a pair of pajama shorts - and its in the teens where we are heading so that won't work. Struggle my way on the plane with the assistance of some VERY nice gentlemen, where Miss Sunshine proceeds to fuss or cry or scream for nearly the entire flight. Said nice gentlemen then help me off the plane with Miss Sunshine (an hour later than scheduled and I am now DRAINED) where I have a three hour drive home. I'm still trying to catch back up!

During our trip, Miss Sunshine developed a slight cough, which turned into a ridiculously runny nose, wet cough and low-grade fever yesterday, so now we get to have antibiotics on top of everything else!

We have many other happenings in our house as well, but since this took so much space, I'm going to leave them for another time!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

So THIS is what happens when you let a one year old feed themselves oatmeal with a spoon, for future reference! She actually did pretty well for a while, and then decided she was full and would rather use the spoon as a paintbrush...

I just MIGHT be crazy...

but, lately, I've been thinking that MAYBE I want another baby. Oh God. Did I really just say that out loud? SHHHH - Don't tell Daddy Mac - I'm pretty sure he's solidly on the other side of that fence, as I myself thought I was just a few short months ago. But I look at Monster Boy, all grown up and ready to start "real" school (as he calls it) just a few short months from now, and Little Miss Sunshine, who is walking and "talking" and no longer my little baby anymore, and I MISS THAT. Oh, how I miss that. I miss cuddling with a teeny-tiny infant who cannot worm their way out of your arms, who is contented to just sleep there while you hold them. I miss the little high pitched squeaks of a newborn, now that I have a fit-throwing toddler... I just miss BABY.

So I try to remind myself of all the CONS of having a baby. Namely, being pregnant again. I DESPISE pregnancy. I do not make a good pregnant person - I am miserable pretty much from the moment of conception to the moment of delivery. Then I remember that I have to go through major surgery and recovery, since I have to have c-sections for my babies. And then I remember the sleepless nights, the worry, the fact that while they come out as teeny tiny little babies, they don't STAY babies. They turn in to what I already have... And there is always the underlying fear of having to go through what we have been through with Miss Sunshine again... and the fact that there is really no way to know until the baby is born whether or not we will have to deal with those things...

Maybe I don't want to have another baby...

Guess what time it is... again!

Yep - it's giveaway time again! I just can't get enough of giveaways - and ONE of these years, I swear I'm going to win something! Ha ha.

Most of you already know I cloth diaper Little Miss Sunshine. I've tried out several different kinds of cloth diapers, and my (so far) favorite type is an All-In-One diaper. I like these for their ease of use - you just put it on and you are done - no stuffing a pocket, no putting a cover on - you just go. I also use a LOT of All-In-Twos - very similar to all in ones except that the absorbent part is separate from the rest of the diaper so you have to put it in yourself...

Well, The Cloth Diaper Whisperer is giving away a NEW kind of All-In-One diaper, called the Easy Fit... The reviews are in, and they are great. So you should go HERE and enter yourself to win one!

Birthday parties and other such fun...

Well, we survived Miss Sunshine's first birthday party. My house is in wreckage right now... LOL. But we had a sufficiently good time at her party! Here is some photographic evidence - we didn't get pictures of her opening gifts, because we couldn't interest her in actually opening them - I wound up opening them for her!

It's that time again...

Time for another giveaway, that is! I LOVE me some giveaways!

This one is for a bag of Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergent. I already use this in my everyday life. I LOVE Rockin' Green. It smells SO good, it gets my diapers SO clean, and a bag lasts for forever - I bought my first bag in November and am still using it (although I am starting to get a bit low!)

You can find the giveaway for the rocking green detergent HERE at Getting Kinda Crunchy, one of my new favorite blogs!

Happy Birthday Litle Miss Sunshine!

My baby girl turned ONE yesterday. I don't know how that happened! Where in the world did the time go? I didn't cry, amazingly enough, although I thought I would. We aren't having her actual party until next week, so maybe it's in reserve right now.

I am happy to report that Miss Sunshine has been doing WONDERFULLY post-surgery. She is taking a sippy cup now. I cannot describe to you the unbelievable feeling of hearing her sucking on a cup. Only a Mommy who has been there can really understand, but it's akin to watching them take their first steps, or say their first words.

Speaking of speaking, haha, the speech therapist paid us a visit last week. She said that Miss Sunshine really isn't too far behind in speech (Yay!) so our goals will be to work on getting her to say the consonants that she currently doesn't, and keeping her on track. Our six month plan that we wrote up was to have her at age appropriate speech (approximately ten words at 18 months) and saying Mama and Dada in reference to Daddy Mac and I. She will come roughly every third week to work with Miss Sunshine, more if we feel it necessary but she does not think it will be necessary.

Miss Sunshine is walking, walking, walking around everywhere. She is also now signing for "more". Which she signs for in reference to everything, not just food. If she has a toy that she isn't supposed to and you take it away, she will follow behind you signing "more" to get it back! It's so very cute. The problem now being that the WORD "more" is one of the words the speech therapist recommended we work on because she already makes most of the sounds needed for the word, and she flat out won't say it, if you say it to her, she just signs it back! We'll have to figure out a way around that.

Her appetite has continued to stay about triple of what it was before. She has gained roughly half a pound since surgery, which is great considering how slowly she has gained weight prior to surgery. I hope she continues to do so well.

Monster Boy has a field trip to the art museum tomorrow, so Daddy Mac gets to take Little Miss Sunshine to her doctor's appointment. I certainly hope it goes well. I've made a list of questions that I know he would never think to ask the doctor. And I know Monster Boy is going to have a ton of fun at the art museum. He asked me to go with him and I agreed before I realized she had a doctors appointment. It will be the first time either child has had a doctors appointment I haven't gone to, but I am sure things will be just fine. Let Daddy get his feet wet, right?