Coats and Clark is trying to get enough scarves for every Special Olympian in the 2009 Winter Games, and you can help! The scarves can be any design, knit or crochet, but must be in delft blue (885) and white (311) Red Heart Super Saver yarn. More information can be found at the Coats and Clark website.
I think we can manage at least one, with three knitters in the house – Abby learned too!
I’m a milk donor and you can be too.
I am pumping and donating directly to a family in need and many (many!) more such families can be found through Milk Share, a list which connects donors and recipients. We are cash-poor and spare time is also hard to come by around here so it’s not often that I get to really help someone. It’s just a wonderful feeling.
Another option is to donate to a milk bank. There’s a controversy as to whether you should donate to a HMBANA bank, the nonprofit organization that collects freely donated milk and only charges a very minimal processing fee to hospitals, or to a Prolacta bank, which collects freely donated milk and resells it for up to $45 an ounce. You can google, decide for yourself. Personally, if I wasn’t donating directly to a family I would donate to HMBANA.
So go on, get pumping!
It went very well. We’re going to go weekly. In a small world kind of way, the office manager there is my old nice boss from the bookstore I worked at about 16 years ago.
So I’ve been changing diapers for eight and a half years. Most of the time I’ve had two kids in diapers and frequently three. What I’m saying is I know my way around, folks.
By the time Gloria is toilet trained I’ll have changed something like fifty thousand diapers. Well, 49,998, I forgot what Sean has contributed.
Regular readers of my blog will remember that I have always used cloth diapers. I’ve used old-school flat diapers with pins and high-tech polyester and microfiber pocket diapers and everything in between. Right now I’m using fitted diapers for Gloria and pocket diapers for Trixie and I am loving our diaper system, hence this post.
Trixie is in Fuzzi Bunz, size L. Recently Fuzzi Bunz redesigned their diapers and so everyone clearanced the old models. Like cars! But I like the old design just fine so I got them at an absolute steal, I tell you. About half what they’d usually be. I bought them over about a two month period, and I have a dozen – that’s enough for an older baby like Trixie if I wash every day. Trixie has eczema somethng fierce and even the softest wool + itchy tummy = sad panda. I was resigned to waterproofed nylon over prefolds, but then she started having breakthrough rashes on her bum too. Hence the move to Fuzzi Bunz with their moisture wicking inner that keeps her skin dry. Love!
Gloria is in Snug to Fit Supreme fitted diapers, snap close. I had used them with Bede and Abby until my stash fell apart. They’re great workhorse diapers, and they are a one-size – they adjust in the rise to fit from about twelve to about thirty five pounds. My mother made me some stay dry liners for them and they are just great. Over them she needs a waterproof cover, and I use wool soakers or the aforementioned nylon ones. I got them at a HUGE discount when a retailer switched hands recently. Again, love!
I’m not giving up my prefolds and pins but it sure is nice to have some quick britches to change. These diapers go on just like paper diapers, zip, zap, zoom. Yay!
Came. We’ll be at the OU Health Science (Sciences?) Center. Sposed to be good.
Sigh. Therapy stuff makes me melancholy because of the focus on his ‘cant do’s vs. my usual attitude. Not looking forward to intake forms. It’s not fun to see your kid described as deficits.
Will update as news presents. How bout that Michael Phelps though, huh?
I’m going to be off the internets for a while. I’ll be checking email if you need me, fee bee glee at g mail dot com.
Ta!
I found out recently that our insurance will cover occupational therapy with a referral from our primary physician. I was pleased to learn that because Bede’s never had professional therapists beyond our yearly consult with his psych. But getting the referral required us to go to the doctor. Hmm.
My mom has been very busy for the last month so I waited for her to become available again and then made my call.
Phone lady: Has he been seen here before?
Me: No, you’ve seen his siblings.
PL: OK, we can see you at 3:30 on…
Me: Could you give us a time where we don’t have to wait as much? I mean, I know nobody wants to wait but he’s autistic and he’s going to be screaming pretty much the entire time he’s there.
PL: (nonplussed) Well, um, how about 1:30 on (several weeks away)? And that will be Dr. Name’s first appointment that day, he does afternoons.
Me: Excellent!
So today was the day. Sean went and got the new patient paperwork beforehand and we just handed it in when we got there. Then we waited. Bede tried to turn the tv off and on. He tried to take every magazine out of the rack. He tried to take off his shoes and clothes.
And he yelled the whooole time.
It’s the looks that get you. I understand people looking. Hell, I’d look, hear a kid scream “NOOOOO!! DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE CAR? DO YOU WANT TO LET’S GO HOME? OKAY SURE I GETCHOO LET’S GO HOME!! NOOOOOO!!” but the continual weight of the stares, the shock and disgust and the not looking away part. Well. Urgh.
Then after about 5 minutes in the waiting room we went back to the exam room. Bede was unable to be weighed because he wouldn’t stand on the scale. He’s very tactile defensive especially about his ears so no go on the temperature reading. When we got to the room he climbed up on the exam table and started taking the disposable otoscope covers out of the dispenser. When dissuaded from this he became upset. More yelling. The nurse left and said the doctor would be right in.
When he came in his eyes widened a bit at Bede and he said, over the din “I’m Dave. Nice to meet you!” He sat down (as I detached Bede from the dispenser again) and said “I understand you’re here for a referral for OT. You’ve got it.”
Yay!
Then he wanted to talk about Bede, who was at this point basically insane. He was amazed that Bede could read and write yet not converse and said “He’s like a savant!” He took a history and then left, somewhat shell-shocked. He came back in to ask “Do you immunize?” I got the same general impression I have always gotten from that clinic: no problem, let us know what you’ve decided. We think vaccines are good and safe but it’s up to you. (Regular readers of my blog will recall that we vaccinate very selectively on a highly delayed schedule.) So that was nice to not feel bullied. They also have the individual vaccines there, the nurse told me, for those who want single shots vs. multidisease ones.
Then we left. Bede declared that he wanted McDonald’s so that’s what we got. And that brings you up to date, OT here we come!
First of all, thanks for all the comments on that. It was great to get everyone’s different ideas and tips.
Here’s what we did.
I printed out the graph paper I mentioned in the first post. I cut out ten single squares, ten ten-square strips and ten hundred-square squares. After I put bandages on my blistered hands (ha ha, it was a lot of cutting!) I sat down with Abby the next morning, equipped with my bits of paper and a Magna Doodle.
She was intrigued and got it almost immediately. We counted ten single squares and lay them down on the ten strip. She saw that it was indeed ten ones long. Then we lay ten ten strips on the hundred square, showing that it was equivalent to ten tens. Then I said “How many do I have?” and lay down 3 tens and 4 ones. “Thirty-four!” came the cry. I wrote 3 over the word tens and 4 over the word ones and lay the papers under the words. I asked “How many tens do I have? How many ones?”
I swear you could see the lightbulb appear over her head.
It was nothing then to extend it to hundreds as well, and we played with them for a few minutes more before she lit off with a gleam in her eyes, paper in her fists and headed for the markers.
So that’s that!
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