Today DD1 had a follow up dental appointment with the same dental office that we originally scheduled her surgery. Remember, that’s the one we canceled because they said they weren’t able to use tooth colored caps. Anyway, the dentist I saw today is the one that specializes in the new “kit.” He examined her mouth and ran new X-Rays.

He said her teeth didn’t look nearly as bad as he’d imagined, given what was written on the report. There is a remote possibility that one of the upper front teeth may need to be pulled rather than capped. Guess it depends on the extent of the damage.

He reassured me that they would only use tooth-colored caps and that they would not put steel in the front teeth. He seemed like a really like-able guy and he talked to me directly and answered all my questions. He’s also the first dentist to ever address nutrition as it correlates to cavities. AND he’s the first dentist I’ve ran into in IRL that called the cavities an “infection.” Which IMO is a more accurate description of early childhood caries.

I’m feeling so much better after todays visit.

Surgery is scheduled for December 12th. It’s a Wednesday. Which, it turns out, Dh has to work. I think I’m going to have to talk my mom into coming with me to the hospital.

What do you think?

Sorry about the long absence. Last week we had the coolest time off as we vacationed with Dh’s family in Denver. The girls had a total blast flying in the airplane and on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving it SNOWED.

The only downside was that DD3 ended up in the ER with a 103.4 temp. The docs did a blood and urine draw and then started the process for a spinal tap and hospital admission before the labs came back. Thankfully, the results came back fast enough that we didn’t have to do the spinal tap. (eek.) Turns out DD3 had a “raging” UTI from intestinal e-coli.

We’re supposed to take DD3 into our family doctor and have her checked for reflux. (The urine kind, not the gassy milk kind.) My sister could do a much better job of explaining everything. Her daughter delt with the same things.

Hospitalizations aside, we really enjoyed our stay. I took a million pictures. So, be sure and check out flickr. I’ll be updating it throughout the week.

In unrelated news, Dh had a dentist appointment today and Friday morning DD1 goes in at 10:00 for another check up. Her surgery on the 5th has been postponed until we can get her in with a dentist that does tooth coloured crowns. (sigh, more delays.) Dh also has another follow up dental visit on the 16th and we have DD3 scheduled for a check up on Monday.

The doctor visits never cease around here.

Meanwhile DD2 will be two on Saturday. Anybody else as stunned as I am?

A little over a year ago I decided to post my faux babylegs tutorial on Flickr. I couldn’t afford the real ones and after reading a discussion on TBW about different ideas to make your own, I sat down and decided to give it a go. All the online directions I could find either had you serge the ends of tube socks or add ribbing. Neither option was all that ideal for me. Instead I improvised and used remnants from the foot to make a finished cuff.

The faux babylegs were an instant hit in this house, and I got some great feedback on the idea. Along with the feedback, I got a host of emails from people who needed help. Rather than write everyone individually and hope to explain myself properly, I decided to write up a tutorial; complete with step by step pictures.

Several times a month I get emails from people who have used the tutorial and who have found ways to clarify it, or who just want to thank me for putting the info out there. Every once in a while I get someone who complains about the instructions or someone who wants to sell their creations by posting a link on the tutorial. I try to handle the complaints and I diligently delete spamming.

In over a year the tutorial has received over 27,105 views.

The funny thing is that faux babylegs are a simple project. It’s not rocket science. But I do ask that if you (general non-specific “you”) use the instructions to create babylegs, that you do it for personal use only.

All this leads to my real point:
Today someone sent me a heads up that someone is selling the tutorial on ebay. As far as I can tell, she’s taken her own step-by-step photos. (At least the image she uses on ebay is not an image of any babylegs I’ve ever made.) She’s selling the instructions for $2.99 and emailing them out as a word document.

First of all, who in their right mind is going to PAY for instructions when they’re available online for FREE?

Second, where does a person get off making money from something someone else has done? *scratches head in annoyance.* I guess folks will make a buck any chance they get?

Aargh. It really doesn’t matter.

Does it?

Because you know you want to, and because we all need a giggle.

Follow the link

I’m still waiting for a reply from CiCi’s. I emailed them a letter and haven’t heard back. I don’t know how long I should wait before enough is enough. I guess I don’t know what a reasonable time frame would be? A week? Three days? Two weeks?

Sigh.

In other news, DD1’s surgery has been canceled. We have her wait-listed for another dentist within the same practice who supposedly knows how to do the new “kit” that has tooth colored crowns for anterior teeth. Initially they tried to insist that no such thing existed. Then they argued that the cost was exorbitant. It wasn’t until they heard my husband declare, “Then we won’t do it. We’ll just let these teeth fall out. I won’t have my daughter walking around with steel teeth in her smile.” that they suddenly remembered they had a dentist on staff who was capable of doing tooth-colored crowns on children.

Sigh.

We walked into that dentist office today hoping we would walk out feeling encouraged. And instead I feel even more conflicted. In fact, they got me so befuddled and anxious about the color of the crowns that I forgot to confirm that they’d be using a tooth colored mercury free filling. I hate that they aren’t scheduling us for a pre-surgery appointment. What about all the questions I have?

Tomorrow I’m going to do something I’ve been meaning to do for months. I’m going to fax all of the documentation we have, over to the dentist in Fort Worth. He is a mercury free ped’s dentist. I have a feeling he’s going to be expensive. But maybe, he can tell us if he concurs with their assessment, and maybe he can give us some direction.

Please be praying about that. I hate that I’ve given over $2,000 to DD1’s dentist. I wish I had done more research before handing that money over.

Anybody that knows our family well, understands that we have a love affair with Cici’s. DD1 and DD2 love their noodles and alfredo sauce and I’m addicted to their sticky buns. Dh likes them because we can all eat there for around $10.00. So yesterday, after doing some Christmas shopping in Waxahachie, TX, Dh proposed we stop by the local CiCi’s for a quick bite before heading home.

Eating at CiCi’s is my husband’s way of treating his family to a nice night out. We had no reason to believe it would be anything but a pleasant evening at our favorite restaurant chain.

Dh paid for two adult meals, one adult soda (I’m trying to drink more water these days) and two children’s buffets. I dished the girls up, got my food, and then sat down to nurse DD3 while Dh went through the buffet and sat down to eat.

At 8 weeks old, DD3 doesn’t go much longer than an hour and half before needing to nurse again. I was content to sit and nurse her quietly while my family enjoyed their meal. Things were going fairly smoothly and had no reason to believe that anything was amiss when the store manager approached me. A large statured man in a bright blue shirt, he stopped right behind my right shoulder.

He looked down over me at my nursing baby and told my husband, “I’m am going to have to tell you to cover up. Cici’s is a family establishment and we have children running around who don’t need to see that. If you nurse in Cici’s you need to be covered up.”

I was stunned. His instructions had caught me off guard. I certainly wasn’t expecting it. In fact, I had thought he came over to ask us how our meal was. Apparently not. Instead he’d come over to tell me that my breastfeeding wasn’t appropriate around children?

Seriously?

He walked away while Dh and I just stared at each other in surprise. Part of me wanted to cry, the other part of me wanted to rage. I felt so betrayed. So angry. All I kept thinking about was the scores of women who struggle with nursing, who have to fight to establish their breastfeeding. All those women who are already self conscious about nursing in public. What if I had been one of them? Someone who was already insecure? I’ve nursed three girls and still felt the creeping redness of embarrassment rise up my neck. I felt exposed and overwhelmed.

My embarrassment quickly turned to outrage. Dh, just as flabbergasted as I was, reached over and squeezed my hand. Unabashedly telling me to keep nursing. To not cover up with a blanket. “No. You won’t be bullied into covering up. You continue doing what is best for our daughter.”

Ironically, my youngest was actually finished with nursing and unlatched right at that point. I clipped my bra together and smoothed my shirt down. Wishing to a small degree that she wasn’t finished. I wanted to know what the manager would have done had I not finished. What was the next step? When he’d told me to cover up, he hadn’t kicked us out. He didn’t even tell us what would happen if we didn’t cover. He just didn’t leave any room in his instructions for the option to not cover.

Dh went up to the counter and asked for the manager’s name and store number. He also asked him, “Is it your store policy to support the harassment of breastfeeding mothers or not to support it?”

The store manager replied, “I was not harassing her. But it is our policy to create a family friendly environment.”

My husband asked to see the policy in writing, which the manager couldn’t produce. The manager did say, “Texas law protects my right to create a family friendly restaurant environment. Your wife exposing her breasts is not family friendly. Besides, I did not ask you to leave. I asked her to cover herself up.”

Side Note: I’m guessing that’s why he stood behind my shoulder? So that he could look straight down at my breast to determine if he could see skin?

My husband interrupted him. Took the man’s business card. And we left.

Now what? The manager maintains he was in his rights to ask me to cover up. He never apologized to me for embarrassing me. He did not make it clear what he would have done had I continued to breastfeed and NOT cover up. The implication was “cover up, or else.” BTW, I didn’t even have my diaper bag with me. Let alone a blanket. I’m not sure what he expected me to use? A bunch of CiCi’s paper napkins?

Besides, am I the only educated mother who has genuine concerns about the re-breathing aspects of blanket nursing? Hello! Heard of carbon dioxide anyone? Or the link between the toxicity of re-breathing and SIDS?

AARRGH!

I’ve composed a letter that I am sending to the men above the manager Dh spoke to yesterday. I will be carbon copying the manager the letter, but don’t feel like it’s necessary to write him directly. We’ve already approached him in person and he maintains he is within his rights to treat us in the manner in which he did. I’m currently re-writing the rough draft and have a target of noon-ish today for when I’ll mail the letter. I believe the faster I follow up on this, the better.

Wow, we’re quite the family this week. Yesterday Dh had a follow up appointment. He’s now on antibiotics and stronger pain meds. The poor man is recovering, albiet slowly. The doctor continues to insist that this is inside the “realm of normal.” So we’re running with that, and Dh is taking it easy.

Today at 8:00 a.m. (in a little over an hour) I go into the dentist to have my front left tooth (lateral incisor) checked out. When I called the dentist to tell them that the tooth cracked while I was flossing it, I accidentally called the wrong dentist office. Apparently a doctor by the exact same name has moved in across the street from my doctor. Consequently I spent a good chunk of time on the phone insisting that “Yes, I’m an established patient. I’ve been there a number of times. I was just there a couple months ago!” It took a while to figure out that I’d called the wrong place. By the time I called the correct dentist I was flustered and stammered to the receptionist, when she asked why I needed the appointment, “The other day I was flossing my tooth and it cracked. Errr, I was flossing my TEETH, I mean, and this one tooth cracked.”

Dh, who had witnessed the whole exchange, nearly choked on his own saliva and burst into gales of laughter at the thought of me with a singular tooth in my mouth. Diligently flossing it until it cracked.

He may think the thought of me, with only one tooth, is funny. But I find it a horrifying possibility at this rate.

Needless to say today I have a dentist appointment. Tomorrow I have to pick up my parents at the airport, after which I have an appointment to have my knees checked out. I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but I started the couch to 5k program and promptly hurt my knees. To such a point were, by the end of the day, I’m a virtual cripple. I’ve really done some damage, it appears.

My left knee in particular hurts. I’ve never had knee problems before. I mean EVER. So the idea of having a knee injury really bothers me. I can’t help but wonder if this injury isn’t somehow related to the accident and the stress that caused on that entire leg.

Thursday Dh goes back to work, and Friday he has a final follow up appointment with his doctor.

Then Monday DD3 has her two month well-baby and we leave straight from the doctors office to the airport where we’ll catch a flight to Denver.

Needless to say, we’re up to the eyeballs in doctor visits for the next week! *shakes head* Wish us good health. Apparently we need it!

I’ve been trying to pin-point what it is about the Keating O’Gara case that has me so riled. I mean riled. As in my blood boils, my stomach churns, and I literally want to cry. Do you think it’s because I’m so newly postpartum? My 8 week old daughter is snuggled up in a bouncer at my feet. Her golden hair all soft and fuzzy and her chubby baby cheeks so very kissable. The thought of a sheriff barging through my front door and taking her away… it leaves me feeling sick to my stomach.

And more than a bit alarmed.

Maybe the situation bothers me because it happened in Nebraska? Next to Texas, I consider Nebraska home. It’s where my Mother’s roots are. It’s where I went to college. I like to imagine Nebraska as a good country kinda place to live. But obviously things are seriously flawed with the Nebraska newborn screening laws.

Probably, though, my reaction stems from my own anti-mainstream choices. It is not easy to make a decision for your child that is not “standard.” A lot of thought and research goes into the choice. The very idea that a person could toss aside every effort I’ve made to protect my child, and instead impose THEIR idea of care onto her… it’s a scary thought.

The thing is that NONE of my girls have ever received vitamin K at birth or antibiotic eye ointment. Only DD1 has ever received any vaccinations. So the truth is, if I didn’t live in TX, I could very well be facing the same situation that this mother is facing. (I should add that all of my girls have received the PKU screening. Although, DD1 only ever endured the first screening and not the follow up.)

I was reading about the story and ran across something the mother said about how her baby was taken.

On the morning of October 11th just after I had gotten Joel up from his morning nap, my doorbell rang. When I answered the door, an armed sheriff’s deputy came barging into my house yelling that he had a court order for Joel Anaya. I was screaming that I had not given him permission to enter my home. He said that he had a court order. I said that I wanted to call my lawyer. He said, “There’s no time.” There were 2 other deputies with guns and clubs guarding my doorways. He heard my children downstairs and ran downstairs where all my young children were. He snatched Joel out of my son’s arms and headed for the door. Joel was fussing and I knew he hadn’t eaten in 3 hours. I begged to be allowed to nurse him. The deputy told me, “There is no time. He will be cared for by professionals.” He ran out the door with my baby leaving me begging to nurse my baby and yelling for my son to call the lawyer. It was a cold day and the CPS people were not there yet to hand the baby over to, so the weather forced him back inside. I was crying and pleading to nurse.

My husband came home from the store just then. The sheriff deputies blocked him from entering our home. The way our rights were trampled by the sheriff deputies and the Department of Health still astounds me.

Thankfully the social worker was more compassionate. Allowing the mother to nurse her son for the first day and a half. Until a Judge ordered her to stop. Declaring that “9 times in one day” to be excessive nursing for a newborn.

As soon as I can wrap my mind around a coherent letter, that Judge will be receiving a letter from me.

Hall of Justice
1701 Farnam Street, 6th Floor
Attn: Honorable Elizabeth G. Crnkovich
Omaha, NE 68183
(402) 444-7121

This judge is the one who also insisted that the child remain in foster care (Despite objections from social workers) until the screening results were back. Thereby forcing the child to spend 6 days in care foster care. SIX long days away from his mother, his father, and all of his siblings. I could not imagine someone taking DD3 away from me. Not for an hour. Most definitely not for a week!

Another person worth contacting is:

Nicole Goaley
Deputy County Attorney
Juvenile Division

ngoaley@co.douglas.ne.us

She’s the one who “made the decision to seize custody and refused to dismiss the case until the test results came back.”

sigh.

It really is time to do some serious praying. We live in a country founded on religious freedoms. But in this situation this families religious choices were more than trompled. If you feel compelled, go ahead and write a letter. Situations like this cannot be allowed to occur without serious outcry from the mass population.

DD1’s dental surgery is scheduled for December 5th, 2007. The day before I turn 28 and 4 days after DD2 turns two. I think, this year, I’m going to have ice cream instead of cake for my birthday. I’m certain that her little mouth will be too sore for cake, and I don’t think she needs to go through anymore pain than necessary.

I’ll admit that I’m feeling all kinds of anxiousness in my heart over this decision. Not just the financial end of things, but also because this is surgery. The very real kind. Complete with general anesthesia. Makes me want to cry every time I think about it.

We’re squeezing her into this year because we don’t want to roll over to January and lose the insurance help we’ve got set up. Having the baby, the accident, and Dh’s work done has meant that we’ve more than met and exceeded our deductible for the year.

As a side note. We have spent upwards of around $15,000 in the last 12 months on medical stuff. Yes. That’s fifteen THOUSAND. No wonder I always feel broke…

We’re loosing our Raw Milk supply. I don’t know what we’re going to do. It took me forever just locating that supplier! Grrr… Everyone else is easily an hours drive away. No joke.

I’d love to continue to co-op with people. Maybe do one milk run every few months. But at this point I can’t drive an hour to get milk. Even if it was just a once a month milk run. (Assuming I had enough freezer space to store 8 gallons of milk!)

I’m going to post on the Dallas native-nutrition group as well as the DFW homebirth network to see if anyone has any suggestions or local milk co-ops I can join. I hate being back at square one!

I know the woman who has led our current co-op is trying to work out another solution. But I can’t just expect her to figure it out. I need to be proactive. The really crazy thing is that there is a HUGE demand for Raw Milk in this section of the metroplex. I have no idea how many gallons of milk our co-op was buying. I do know we were getting over 40 dozen eggs.

Sigh.

This means not only do I need to find a new supplier for my milk, but I have to find a new supplier for my free-range eggs and raw butter.

Hrmph.