Chevaliers de la table ronde . . .

"Chevaliers de la table ronde . . .", it's an old French drinking song. Some of my mom's French buddies taught it to me long before I knew the difference between cabernet sauvignon and riesling. Not that I didn't know my colors at the age of 4, but when you're a little half-breed traipsing across the European continent in a 20-year old Peugot with an equally aged tent to you wine is just wine, regardless of the color.
Mostly these days, I'm trying to drink more wine. It's better for my heart, it's better for my initial 2-3 hours of sleep and night, and it's better for my husband that I'm cross-eyed when I swat at him for farting on me.
Tovey doesn't mind it. But what I really should be drinking is dark beer because my breastmilk supply is pitiful. Heineken Dark and a couple of tabs of fenugreek.
I just wanted to check in, say hi and tell you to come back for a visit soon. I'm working on some thoughts, trying to figure out how they'll sound on "paper".
Much love from your glass-is-half-full, hen-loving, mother of four but wantin' more,
Kelly

Cow Girls

There's nothing like watching your babies shed their down and grow feathers.

They're doing a great job at scratching in the dirt, pecking in the grass and they just love to roost.

Nothing like an old rusty Radio Flyer to get a cow girl in the mood to get her roost on.

Now if we could only get the coop finished, er . . . started, and get them out of our dining room.

For Reals

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, so I suppose I'll tell ya anyway. A couple of weeks ago, Tova was supposed to have her delayed surgery to fix her ears. It ended up not happening because she got a fever and ear infection. It was disappointing and frustrating. Not that I was looking forward to it, but because I really needed that chapter of my life closed forever and ever. I hadn't been sleeping or eating well in anticipation of it, up late at night worrying about Tova's hearing, complications with the scalpel, adverse reactions to the anesthesia and so on. There was a lot of strife associated with the cancellation of the surgery. Dumb stuff, but when you're told your baby could go deaf then you imagine every bad scenario and grit your teeth with each passing moment that goes by.
Her surgery was rescheduled for today. Dr P had recognized that we were stressed, so he got us a much earlier time than the failed May 18th surgery.
At about 5:50 this morning, our poor nanny stumbled into the house to take over with the big kids. Lars and I stole jammied Tovey from her bed and then strapped her into her car seat in our heated car for the drive all the way down to the children's hospital in the city. Tova woke briefly, uttered some confusing remarks and then flopped back to sleep.

Huh?

The walk from the parking lot to the surgical center felt like the walk to the electric chair.

She walked off the elevator all by herself. Note to self: stop using the aperture setting in a dark building on a moving object.

The waiting room was so much fun! She met a friend for life, or at least during the pre-operative wait. Cute little Cole's surgery was about 1-hour before Tova's.

Fun and games . . .

at first . . .

but soon the hunger set in, and that was awful for all of us. We had to keep her with an empty stomach since midnight. She kept doing the sign for milk, which means she wants to breastfeed, clawing at my shirt and screaming. She was jittery and kept falling to the floor. This was by far the worst part. She started having a hard time around 8am, the surgery was scheduled at 9am, but then got delayed 50-minutes due to an emergency. Needless to say, I was in tears.

Reunited! Dr P said the surgery went really well. When we went into the PACU they had her in a crib (which is very new for her), strapped in with a big Velcro seat belt. She was sitting up, looking around the room through narrowed eyes. The nurse gave her to us right away and encouraged us to breastfeed her at that moment. Then she brought Tova a grape popsicle (above). After she was discharged from the hospital, we came home whereupon I had a sudden urge to sleep for a year. All that stress lifted off of me and holy mother of pearl was I tired. Tova and I both fell asleep for hours, but we've made it through the day and for that I'm rather thankful.

Leaving.

Leaving for the hospital in a few moments. Tova doesn't have a fever. Her nose isn't even running. Surgery is this morning, for real, this time. Please send positive thoughts Tova's way.