NaNoWriMo Win!

I just pulled off a come-from-behind, 8.5 k words in the last 5 hours of November, exhausting National Novel Writing Month win! Huzzah! I can't write any more about it though, because I have no more words. More later, hopefully.

Halloween 2010

Yesterday we dressed Gwena up and went to some Halloween (sorry, "Harvoween") festivities at Jon's family's church. She didn't have any idea what was going on, but got really excited by all the people and commotion. We had our hands full keeping her from landing face-first on the asphalt, since her desire to run around seems to have outstripped her balancing abilities. She didn't eat any candy, but she did pig out on bunny graham cookies, or "crack bunnies" as we like to call them.

Gwena was dressed as Ponyo this year. When Jon and I watched the movie a few weeks ago I knew that would be the perfect costume for her!





The costume consisted of a red Christmas dress and large white bloomers from Children's Orchard and a green bucket from Party City. In total I paid about $13 for the costume, and every piece of it gets to be reused!

Last year, in honor of Gwena being born on Talk Like a Pirate Day, we dressed her up as a little pirate baby.



Red and white striped onesie and black pants from Children's Orchard, plus red and black cloth scraps to make the sash and bandanna. About $4 total and the clothing was reused for months to come!

Quitting Caffeine, Again

My body is very sensitive to caffeine. A few weeks ago, I had a cup of coffee one day, a coke the next, and an Excedrin the day after that. Ever since then it's been a daily choice between caffeine or a withdrawal headache, so I've been drinking a lot of tea.

My husband never has this problem, because caffeine never has the slightest effect on him. He can drink it every day and not become addicted, and he can drink a large cup full of espresso shots and then go right to sleep. This was a problem for him in college, since he could never stay up late to write a paper.

But back to me and my addiction. I've decided that it's now time to quit, again. I've quit caffeine many times in my life, and it's actually much easier than many people think. I always cringe when I hear about people quitting cold turkey. There is an easier and far less painful way! Yesterday I had a cup of tea, today I'm having 3/4 of a cup of tea. In a few days I'll be down to a couple of sips, and then I'll be free.

Don't get me wrong, I love coffee, tea, coke, and other caffeinated beverages. I even love caffeine itself, for staying up late or for mornings when I haven't gotten enough sleep. But I hate being addicted, I hate being a slave to it. Dropping everything and running to the kitchen to make tea because I forgot and I've started to feel the beginnings of that withdrawal headache coming on. Drinking beverages not for enjoyment, but for their drug content. I prefer not to live that way.

I just have to be careful when November rolls around to not get re-addicted! NaNoWriMo usually makes for a more caffeinated month than most, but I just have to watch that I don't have it more than two days in a row.

Fall??

Now that it's fall, the weather is cooling off... NOT! It is 109° F today! Why exactly the other moms from church decided to pick this particular day for a playdate I don't know, but we went anyway and we had lots of fun. Gwena got all her toys and her stroller stolen by older babies, she ate an entire peanut butter and butter sandwich, we ran through the sprinklers a little, and she wasn't quite as terrified of grass as usual and actually crawled on it without crying!

On the way home I was daydreaming about going in the swimming pool of our apartment complex, but now that I'm home, I don't want to leave the air conditioning.

And Many More

Yesterday was Gwena's birthday! I can't believe my baby is 1 year old now. Once I get more pictures, I'll make another post about her baby luau. For now I just want to say how very happy I am that her first year has gone so well. She is happy and healthy, is on (the very bottom of) the growth chart, has never had a lung infection, and is still nursing despite a rough start to breastfeeding in the beginning. Her pancreatic insufficiency is severe, and I am fully convinced that without the enzymes she takes whenever she eats, she would not have lived to see this first birthday.

I am so thankful for her good health, and for Gwena herself and all the joy she has brought me. When we sang to her yesterday and at the end of the song everyone sang, "and many more!" it caught me so off guard I almost cried. Those words have never meant so much to me before, but I know that Gwena will have many more birthdays, and each time we will celebrate the blessing of another year of life, and wish her many more!

Baby's First X-ray

Gwena had her first x-ray today, a routine yearly CF chest x-ray. Things started out well enough, she was happy and playing in the waiting room, too fast to get a clear shot on my phone.

Things took a turn for the worse when they put her into this medieval torture device!

She sat on the little green seat with her legs dangling, I held her arms up over her head and the tech closed the clear plastic shell around her. She screamed her head off while the tech took two pictures. We got her out but had to put her back in because we had to retake one of the pictures! She screamed even worse the second time. This is a blurry shot of the teary-eyed baby this procedure resulted in.

But she was fine after a while, especially once I nursed her!

I got copies of the films, so here are Gwena's lungs:


I always get copies of her medical records to keep in our personal files. Having worked in medical records... well, I just feel safer that way.

What happened to August?

Ack! 7 weeks without a post? I knew it wouldn't be long before I started neglecting this blog.

In that time we've struggled with Gwena's weight gain (or lack thereof), Gwena has acquired 4 teeth, I have laundered a cockroach, my mom has started chemo for breast cancer, I've been working a little from home for my mom's business, the apartment is now a complete mess again, and we've taken a trip to Stanford for Gwena's clinical trial.

Perhaps some of these things will be elaborated on in future posts. For now, I have to go try to get this mess under control!