I distracted myself with my camera while waiting for Hayley to be ready to come home. This was taken from the tenth floor of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, while I paced the family room outside the recovery room. Her surgery was supposed to start at 9:45 but began about 20 minutes late because they really took their time in explaining the procedure to Hayley before leading her to the operating room. It took roughly an hour and a half, finishing at almost 12:30. It then took another hour and a half or so for her to be ready to leave.

She was obviously disoriented and upset when she woke up but overall she handled it well. The eyes look straighter now and we go in next week for a follow up appointment to see how things went for sure. I’m glad it was done but I’m mostly glad it’s over and hopefully this will be the last time.

I know it’s just an operation on her eyes and nothing life-threatening, but it doesn’t change how nerve-wracking it is to sit around waiting while your child is put to sleep and operated on. I had a nice long conversation with a really nice girl around my age who was waiting for her seven-month old son to wake up; his condition was far worse than Hayley’s. His liver had perforated his diaphragm, causing daily vomiting, and his intestines were S-shaped rather than a tube shape so he had to have both those things taken care of. Clearly that is worst than just having your eyes fixed. However, we both agreed that knowing others are far worse off doesn’t offer any comfort when it’s YOUR child who is in surgery, whether it’s for a broken bone, broken eyes, broken intestines, or a (literal) broken heart. Surgery is surgery, and it’s scary. I’m glad Hayley’s okay now and I hope her son is fine too.

Today she was slow to start and slept in, but by afternoon she was back to playing and being herself, so recovery is going very well. Recovery is a good thing.

Hayley insists that George must put her up on the counter every day, either to sit or to look in the cupboards. This time, Breanna got in on the game.

There are so many things I love about this picture, from Hayley’s crazy expression to both Breanna’s Alfalfa hair and her “what the heck is going on here?” face, not to mention the fact that Hayley’s sippy cup is sitting in front of a bottle of Barbados rum. Silly girls. Some days I dread the thought of what Hayley is going to “teach” her sister in the future… “Psst, Breanna! Come try this, it gives Mommy a heart attack!”

You know what happens when you’re tired enough that you’re mildly delirious but you’re still up because every time you’ve put your baby down her eyes have popped open? You do silly things like make a new 404 page while holding her.

(That picture was an attempt to photograph how cute she looks in her hats after her bath, but she was just really ticked off about the whole thing.)

Dear Breanna,

Mommy’s going to put you to bed AGAIN. Please stay asleep this time since I know you’re tired too. It’s very cute and endearing when you smile up at me but it will be even moreso in the daytime!

Love, Mommy
xoxoxo

There’s a new entry up in the journal. And now I’m getting a glass of water and going to bed.

No, not standards relating to web design and browsers. Standards in clothing. In other words, I’m wondering what crackheads determine sizing on baby clothing and why it is that there can’t just be ONE size no matter who designed it.

Breanna is almost eight weeks. She’ll be two months old in eight more days. She got some nice fuzzy pajamas for Christmas that I washed the other day. They’re all size 0-3 months. I put the first pair on tonight and then had to remove them because I couldn’t snap them all the way up and Breanna couldn’t even completely straighten her legs and looked like she had been horseback riding all day when I held her up.

My favorite clothes for babies are the ones that indicate weight instead of months since not all babies will grow the same. Still, even those don’t always scream accuracy. More than once I had to toss aside something that I tried to put on Hayley as a baby that should have theoretically fit based on her weight but really didn’t even come close.

This goes beyond actual clothes too, because I’ve found that diaper weight guidelines are nothing more than a very generous guess. I found Hayley would outgrow her diapers when she was as much as two pounds below the suggested weight limit, as evidenced by frequent leaking, and though Breanna is still in size one diapers she did outgrow the newborns before hitting the limit too.

And since I’ve gone off on a diaper tangent anyway, I would like to mention that I hate Huggies diapers SO VERY MUCH that I am very tempted to write them a nasty letter just to tell them how VERY MUCH I hate them. All the leaks from other diaper brands combined couldn’t add up to the Huggies blowouts, all of which seem to happen straight up the back so that you have to remove all clothing and pretty much offer up a sponge bath to do what should have been a simple diaper change. This was true with Hayley and also with Breanna and I was so happy when we ran out of Huggies. If anyone brings me Huggies from here on out, I’m taking the package into the bathroom and setting it on fire. I’ll stick with the store brand diapers which have not caused any problems with either kid.

I have diaper rage. And I’m still disappointed that the pajamas Breanna never wore didn’t fit even once since they were nice bright colors. Alas.

By the way, don’t forget about de-lurking

I’ve really enjoyed the comments, especially from those of you who don’t usually comment at all. Honestly, if I didn’t want people to speak up, I wouldn’t have comments on this weblog to begin with, so by all means, feel free to say something.

(I was asked to answer my own questions. Favorite joke: How do you catch a unique bird? Unique up on it! Honorable mention: What do you call cheese that doesn’t belong to you? Nacho cheese! Where I would love to travel: Prague and Moscow. The color of my favorite underwear: Black, but I’ll settle for anything that fits these days. Celebrity I have a crush on: Not actually a celebrity, just the character he plays, but I’m pretty keen on Horatio Caine these days, and with that confession Amanda just disowned me as her sister.)

In lieu of actual content at this time, I’ll give you two pictures.

It’s fun to have your very own Disney Princess running around. Even if the dress leaves a metric ton of sparkles all over EVERYTHING it touches.

On Tuesday I decided to dress Breanna in real clothes just for fun. I have decided since then that I may not let her wear anything but pajamas from now on until she’s five years old because jeans make her look like a big girl instead of a little baby and I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.

This isn’t a spoiler if you haven’t seen Lost yet, because it won’t mean anything taken out of context. Best line on Lost ever?

Charlie: What if I don’t – what are you going to do? Beat me with your Jesus stick?

I came very close to choking on my tea.

A few people mentioned that at least I don’t have to deal with the boy-peeing-in-your-face thing at diaper time when I mentioned that every time Breanna’s diaper comes off she farts. I dedicate this post to those people.

Just a few minutes ago, I was changing Breanna’s diaper and as I went to put the new diaper on, she farted. And as she did so, she proceeded to crap from my fingers to my elbow, straight up my arm. Thanks, Bree!

For what it’s worth, when I looked at her, her reaction was to give me an ear-to-ear smile. Good to know I amused her. 🙂

Did you know that it’s De-lurking week? That means that you need to leave comments on the blogs you like to visit, because a lot of us don’t like to feel like we’re writing to the Great Void and appreciate knowing that you’re out there. So please, whether you’re a regular commenter, an silent reader, or just someone who passed on through by following a link from somewhere else, say something! Tell me your favorite joke, or where you would love to travel, maybe tell me what color your favorite pair of underwear is, or let me know which celebrity you have a huge crush on. Tell me anything!

(Note to spam bots: Trying to sell me Vi@gra will not be included, thanks anyway!)

Just speak up for one brief moment. And then, when you visit the next weblog on your blogroll, do the same for them!

Heard today:

The scene: I’m drying my hair and George puts Breanna on the bed.
George: I’ll just leave her here so I can… Aw.
(Inspects back of pajamas and notes the diaper blew out.)
George: Sigh. She always does that when I hold her.
Sherry: Don’t feel bad. Maybe it means that every time you hold her she just gets so excited that she craps herself with joy. It’s a good thing!

The scene: George is in the living room changing her diaper.
George: And these diapers are like a vapor lock!
Sherry: … Vapor lock?
George: Yes! Every time you take one off, she starts farting!

The scene: George is holding Breanna on the couch, looking at her little face.
George: Breebles, you have no lips.
Breanna: WAHH! WAAAAAH!
Sherry: Look, you made her cry. It’s okay, Breanna, you have lips, you have lips.
Breanna: WAH!

The funniest part is that the vapor lock statement is true. Every time her diaper is changed, she really does start farting madly, as though suddenly having air waft around gets her gas in an uproar. I don’t mind the farting, it’s when stuff comes flying out that I freak out a little.