Evany, though, is in a different room. Apparently, she's in the coldest room in the NICU. She was moved to an open crib this afternoon (Monday afternoon, I'm writing this in the wee hours of Tuesday morning) and after about six hours, her body temperature was too low to stay out. She almost couldn't eat...I had to hold her skin to skin to warm her up and nurse her that way, and that raised her temperature some, but she had to go back into the incubator to warm up. I guess we'll try again tomorrow, and this time, I'm totally sticking a hat on her head. I swear that made a huge difference with Seth when he moved to an open crib.
Anyway, this afternoon the kids and I were outside playing with the neighbors. That basically means the kids ride their bikes and scooters for about five minutes, then they find lots of ways to get dirty. Today, it was throwing leaves up into the air and letting them rain down on them, and shouting "It's fall! It's fall!" Then they made up some club and gave each other silly nicknames. and decided to lay in the dirt for some unknown reason.
Anyway, Seth decided he didn't want an afternoon nap, so he was out playing as well, riding a motorcycle and hanging out. He's decided that now he doesn't crawl anymore. Every single second he was pulling up and holding his hand out to me, and then we'd just walk in circles. He's walking better now, but he likes to balance holding onto someone with one hand, and it's still rare that he strikes out on his own, but it's definitely right on the horizon. All he wants to do is walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk outside. Walk inside. Walk in the grass, walk on the driveway. Then he'll take a break and climb out of his high chair or do something else reckless. It's just so funny to see him acting like such a big boy now, and it doesn't help that he's suddenly started eating like a horse and I'm fairly certain he's put on about 10 pounds. Or at least a few, anyway. In fact, today Mara and I were looking at him, and the kid is starting to look positively chunky, in a really solid way, kind of like Jace was at his age. But eating five helpings of macaroni and cheese will do that to you, I guess.
I'm doing better with getting around than I originally thought I would. I stopped taking the Percocet on about day 3 post surgery, and now I'm just taking Ibuprofen, which has been working well. On the days I do a lot with the kids, I definitely feel sore, but I'm figuring out ways to do things so that I don't aggravate my incision. If I ever say it wasn't a big deal though, you all need to remind me of how bad the first couple of days were. It was so much worse than a natural birth...I still can't get over the first time I tried to stand up. I saw in the comments that a lot of you recommended a support binder thing, and I actually had one from after Seth was born that I started using the day after surgery. It makes a HUGE difference! After Seth, I felt like I had no core muscles and that my organs might possibly somehow fall out of my stomach, so John ran out and got me the support and this time it has been even more of a blessing. I don't feel right without having pressure on the incision. But I will say that coughing is the WORST! Well, maybe not as bad as all the throwing up I did after Evany was born thanks to two spinal headaches. But I had something stuck in my throat the other day and it was driving me crazy, but there was no way I could let myself cough.
I have to tell you guys what a dork I am. After I was discharged, I had prescriptions for roughly eleventy-four medications. Or four. One of those. My mom went to pick them up for me, and I threw the bottles for them all in my purse. I don't need them all on a regular basis, so I pulled out the two I need three times a day (antibiotic and Ibuprofen) and put them on a table in my hospital room. Then I took them every day, three times a day. It wasn't until today that I actually opened my eyes, looked at the bottles, and realized I'd been Ibuprofen and another medication that is definitely not my antibiotic.
To be honest, since you all know all kinds of slightly embarrassing things about me, the rogue medication is the anti-depressant my doctor prescribed, and so I've been taking it more often than I'm supposed to for a decent number of days now completely accidentally. Wonderful. I'll probably die of some infection and when I do, it'll be because I can't read a pill bottle and thought I was taking my antibiotic when I wasn't. The worst part is that the antibiotics are green capsules, and I've been taking white pills, and it never even occurred to me that something was off. Proof my brain is not working. But it does explain why I've been so upbeat lately, despite all the crazy hormones, so...bonus, I guess! (Sidenote: I'm on very low doses, and I've talked to my doc, and neither I nor Evany is at risk because I'm an idiot. Just because I know someone will ask.)
Tomorrow...or today, since it's after midnight, Ava is going to come up to the hospital with me after school. I think she's really in need of some one on one time and she'll love getting to hang out with Evany. She had a tough time at bedtime tonight, even though I never leave until they're in bed.
I still have a few more days with my aunt and my mom to tag team the kids, so I'm trying to take advantage of being able to stay the night up here and spend as much time as possible with Evany, although I miss the kids a ton. Luckily since both big kids are in school, the afternoons and evening are the main times they're at home anyway, so I'm mostly missing out on Seth time, but he's getting spoiled rotten and doing really well.
Wow, this was a really long relatively pointless post. I'll get some new Evany pictures tomorrow...I forgot my camera tonight. I did tweet an adorable picture of her this morning, so you can check that out if you need a fix. =)
OK. Gotta go to bed...the feedings really sneak up on you around here. Let's pray Vivi warms up and can keep on keepin' on without taking a step backwards. Night All!
