Yesterday's surgery went well. Thankfully. It was my first surgery ever and I was somewhat excited to get the whole ordeal over and done with. And to be free from the pain. It turns out that I was more nervous after the operation than before. I woke up shivering so badly that the nurse had to cover my body with three hot blankets and my head with a warm towel. I was afraid to move and more afraid to look at my belly. My throat was sore from the breathing tube and my bottom was oddly numb. When they brought me to my room, I was hoping my husband would be there, but alas, no one bothered to call his cellphone. I remember dozing off several times but only for short periods. I'm guessing it was due to my nervousness or maybe it was because the nurses outside my room would constantly yap loudly about all the patients. They were even discussing concerns over my heart rate. Just the reassurance I needed! Instead of the Tylenol III I was told they were going to give me, they prescribed Percocet, which is apparently 10 times as strong. Soon after the first dose, I had to go to the bathroom, only to return green with nausea. The two incisions in the centre of my belly began to ooze and that nearly sent me hurling. But I resisted. I can't stand the thought of throwing up. Breathing deeply seemed to help, although it was hard to breathe abdominally. They kept me in the hospital for a couple of hours longer than expected to ensure that the primary effects of the anesthetic had worn off. If I had to lay down any longer in that uncomfortable bed, I would have most definitely hurled!

All the while, my mother-in-law was taking care of my daughter. I am very grateful she was able to take care of her. She also came over bright and early today to help out, seeing as I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting for a few days. This afternoon, my mother came down from Hamilton to stay for a couple of days. She cancelled her jobs for the rest of the week (she's a cleaning lady) and brought plenty of food, including her delicious chicken soup. Having her here has been very therapeutic already. I've missed her so much. And there's nothing like some Tender Mothering Care...

Tomorrow is the day that I undergo my operation. I will be having my galbladder removed and then I can finally return to eating whatever I want and drinking coffee to my heart's content. I'm also looking forward to a couple of hours of deep, uninterrupted shuteye...

Here are some pictures of my little babe, eating and drinking to her heart's content.
(Okay, so she's not really drinking beer. She's still cute!)

A round of applause for my darling Madeleine. She is now an expert at getting to a standing position by pulling herself up. My little baby is growing up and reaching for the sky. She's happy about it and oh so proud. I can't believe she's hit this delightful milestone. Granted, I have to be right by her every second now to make sure she doesn't pull herself up on something unstable or flip over her Mega Bloks. But the feeling of pride I get by watching Madeleine acheive her goals on her own is worth it. Now I have to lower her matress. That should be fun!

Anyway, I've been snapping shots as much as I can, especially now that Maddie has her first pair of walking boots. She's wearing out the floor from travelling endlessly in circles in her Exersaucer. I downloaded almost 100 pictures onto our iMac and played them in a slideshow with sappy music to accompany it. I had to hold back the tears watching the captures moments of her precious life. I don't ever want to forget a single detail...

Weird Bon from The Mama tagged me for this meme.

1. I can blow little bubbles using my tongue.
2. I don't like it when different foods that are on the same plate touch each other.
3. My family is Portuguese but I speak French, Italian and Spanish a lot better than I speak Portuguese.
4. I chew on my tongue while concentrating hard, like when I'm cutting out something for a craft.
5. I like to salsa dance by myself when no one is looking.
6. I hate writing and yet I've become addicted to blogging...

Let's see... Who can I tag now?

Dawnyel
Rachelle
Snickers

Wow, it's been a long time since I last left a post. I've been a little lazy, yes. But also lacking much sleep.

Last Wednesday, Madeleine came down with her first fever. She woke up at midnight, which is very unusual, and she felt very warm. I took her into our bed to nurse her back to sleep but each time I would take her back to her crib and lay her down, she would wake up and fuss some more.

The following night, it was worse. She was hotter than ever. I took her underarm temperature as best I could, considering her arms were flailing, and I got 101.8 Fahrenheit and 38.5 Celsius. We gave her some Tylenol but she was still feverish and very bothered. My husband and I decided to take her to the hospital where she had been born, only to be told at the triage desk that it was an adult only hospital. The nurse recommended that next time we should take her to SickKids, located right across the street, seeing as this hospital didn't have the proper equipment to measure a baby's blood pressure or temperature. The nurse also mentioned that going to the adult hospital would only delay treatment since they would have to transfer her if treatment was necessary. I offered to just go there at that point and not bother to register but she said since we were there, we needed to at least let the doctor look at her. Now that makes sense. My daughter could have been seriously ill but because we went to the wrong hospital, we risked delaying treatment. Try and figure that one out.

Anyhow, the doctor came to the conclusion that it wasn't anything to worry about and that we weren't giving her enough acetaminophen. I was somewhat confused when he gave me a ratio of 15 milligram of medicine per kilogram of weight, knowing that I needed to convert it to millilitres. But the nurse couldn't help me out with the conversion. Whatever.

Later that evening, the fever got progressively worse. The increased dosage of Tylenol helped but we were still concerned since she wasn't eating much of her food. She did compensate by nursing. All day long. She was constantly attached to me, day and night. And then when it was time for bed, she'd be so fussy that she would get very little shuteye. We decided, at 6am on my husband's birthday, to take her to SickKids. The fever subsided and she seemed to be in a better mood. The doctor used a catheter to get a urine sample, which I regret agreeing to (my poor baby!), they determined that the fever was not due to a urinary infection. She said that it could be Roseola and that after three days of a fever, Madeleine might break out into a rash. Sure enough, she did.

Aside from a slightly diminished appetite, she's been getting better. She hasn't had a fever in three days and her rash is looking better. She is taking longer naps during the day at the expense of a more restless sleep at night. I took her to the family doctor today to get a more definitive answer to what could have caused the fever only to be more confused. He said it could possibly be the measles. And he didn't want to rule out Strep. So he gave a prescription for antibiotics. I don't know why. But I'm not giving my daughter any antibiotics. I don't feel it is necessary. Why can't we get an answer from the professionals instead of resorting to diagnosing the problem ourselves?

I did! I did tee a toot!

My darling little Madeleine has finally cut a tooth. Well, not a whole tooth, but the beginning of a tooth. Well, not a tooth, but two teeth. They have cut through the surface of her lower gums and even though I'm not thrilled at the thought of breastfeeding, I'm still very excited. She has probably had teething discomfort from the age of about 3 months now, so that's almost 6 months of constant drooling and gnawing on anything she can get her hands on, including my you-know-what. Anyway, I'm happy that we're on with the show!

On a sidebar, Madeleine didn't have a poopy diaper since yesterday morning and that was very unusual. Today she was having severe pain and I could see her face go red as she pushed with all her might. I've never seen her in so much pain before and her cry, though not piercing, was heart wrenching. She had a number of bouts of pushing followed by pain and crying until she finally succeeded in expelling the nasty culprit. Who knew constipation could be so brutally agonizing?

Thankfully, she went to sleep without much ado. Now I get to tinker around on our new iMac! Woohoo!

Thirteen Things about Diana - Teacher Mom Thirteen exercises I plan on doing with my baby: 1. Squats while holding baby 2. Speed walking while pushing stroller 3. Swimming with baby 4. Downward facing dog with baby on the ground 5. Salsa dancing with baby 6. Push-ups with baby on the ground 7. Knee lifts while bouncing baby 8. Jogging behind soon-to-be-crawling baby 9. Forward bends while bathing baby 10. Child's Pose after holding baby 11. Running after soon-to-be-walking baby 12. Relaxing in Corpse Pose with exhausting baby 13. Meditating over beautiful baby Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Dawnyel 2.(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Mama D from The Tales of Mama D has infected me with The Indie Virus. It was created by someone named Chris Pearson at Pearsonified as a type of experiment. Pearsonified describes this experiment as having the following two goals:

To bring exposure to lesser known blogs (especially those outside of Technorati’s top 100)

To explore the metrics behind a viral linking campaign launched by the “little guys” (less popular blogs)

Now, I've chosen to infect the following people but I, by no means, wish to implicate that they are "little guys". First off, they're gals. Second, they are moms with big responsibilities so I would hardly refer to them as "little." So here's who I am infecting.

Snickers from Random Thoughts of a Tired Mom has The Indie Virus

Goslyn from Wishful Thinking has The Indie Virus

Dawnyel from Tales of a RubbaUndiesLuva has The Indie Virus

So, gals, go tag someone!

On Monday, I took on my first supply teaching assignment and I survived. I survived the dozens of flights of stairs I had to climb. I survived the 1-hour drive home through rush-hour traffic. And I survived the tremendous discomfort of the shoes I once wore a couple of years ago.

When I arrived at my mother-in-law's to pick up my darling baby, who I had missed so much, my husband was already there. He told to me to call out to her before I entered the room to see if she would recognize my voice and react ecstatically, as she normally does. So I called out her name. She barely flinched. I called to her once more. Still, very little reaction. I entered the room and greeted her with a huge smile. That caught her attention for a second, then she turned back to her toys. To my utter disbelief, she didn't miss me. I was dying to see her all day long and worried that she would be missing her mother but I was apparently mistaken.

Until I picked her up. Then Madeleine went nuts! Nuts, I tell ya! She was slap-happy and grinning from ear to ear. Now that's more like it!