I’m on the road to recovery, but I feel the need to thank some wonderful people who helped me through.

Kat and Josh, the world’s best friends, who dropped their Sat plans on a moment’s notice for a marathon 5 hour babysitting fest.

Vicki, whose relaxing grandma visit turned into a major child care weekend.

Jerry & Carla, my guardian angels, who sat at my hospital bed before and after a horrifically tough recovery from surgery. They were my light at the end of the tunnel.

My mom, who hopped on the first Alaska flight to Portland and has done all my heavy lifting and cleaning these last few days.

And, of course, Kevin, who managed to keep his cool even after he found me curled into a whimpering ball on the living room floor at 2am.

But I’m feeling pretty good now. Turns out your gallbladder is mostly decorative and tends to malfunction after you have a kid or two. Mine has been acting up for a few months but I had decided to take the “grin and bear” it path rather than the “go to the doctor and have it taken care of before it gets worse” road. In retrospect, I should’ve gone to the doctor. But that’s all spilled milk.

Last Sat, I awoke with a familiar stomach ache at 1:30am. I headed downstairs thinking the ache would pass in a few minutes. About an hour later, Kevin realized I was still out of bed and came looking for me. He found me curled into a ball on the living room floor, moaning and clutching my stomach. The pain wouldn’t go away. I was also vomiting which was a new twist. Lucky me!

Kevin wanted to head for the ER right then and there but I just couldn’t bring myself to wake Leina and lug her to an ER room in the wee hours of the morning. I spend the next four (very long) hours waiting for her to wake. For the first time since she was born, I was actually happy when she awoke at 6am. We changed her, packed a breakfast for her and headed to the hospital. It was my first ER visit and, after the morphine shot, it was quite fun. I got an ultrasound which confirmed the doc’s diagnosis of gallbladder problems and was scheduled for emergency surgery that afternoon.

This is when the world’s best support team kicked in.

I was pretty out of it at the hospital so Kevin whipped everything into gear all on his own. Kat and Josh headed to our house, Jerry and Carla to the hospital, and Vicki was on her way for overnight backup. Meanwhile, I lay in my very revealing hospital gown and chatted away until the big cut.

Don’t remember much of the surgery (a good thing). I remember saying good-bye to Kevin and then. Nada. When I came too, I was one organ lighter. The surgery is all done lapiscopically (sp?) so all I had were three holes in my tummy and some cool color pics of my gallbladder and kidney area. I’ll see if I can convince Kevin to scan them online. Didn’t get to keep my gallstones which was a bummer.

Turns out, for the surgery, they pumped my tummy full of gas to give them room to work. This seems harmless enough, right? Wrong. All that gas gets trapped inside with no way out so it just sits on your organs, excerting pressure and pain! Pain like you wouldn’t believe! It was just below the pain of child-birth. Jerry and Carla kept hounding the nurses to give me more demerol and until they did, I didn’t think I was going to make it. It was a horrific four hour recovery while I waited for all that gas to get out of my body. Once it did, I felt much better. So much so that they released me Sunday morning and my mom arrived that night. I spent most of Sunday and Monday knocked out on pain pills but that was ok since my mom had munchie duty. Tues and Wed I started to wean myself off of them and today I went the whole day pain med free. That Vicodin is good at stopping pain but it just puts me to sleep. I’m glad I don’t need it any more.

I’m back at about 90%. Good enough that I’m heading out tomorrow morning to meet a realtor and look at some home while Tutu babysits the kid. I’m beginning to get very excited about a new home. Having owned a home, I now have a very good idea of what I want and what isn’t necessary. I just hope something good is out there waiting for me!

Ok, that’s enough of my gallbladder adventure.

Let me just sum up by saying doctors, sometimes you can save yourself a lot of pain if you go to them. Trust me.

Leina went on a giggle fest this afternoon. Don’t know why exactly. She was just happy. And as she sat on my lap and laughed at the dog, I snuggled her close and whispered…

“I love you so much baby girl.”

She didn’t pay much attention to me. Instead, she began waving at the dog, a hug smile on her face so I whispered….

“Do you love me too?”

The dog decided to investigate whether or not the waving baby hand held a cheerio or (even better) a bit of mashed meat stick. Leina, delighted at the doggie attention, burst into a stream of baby babble. As she chattered to the dog, I whispered….

“I hope so ’cause when I’m old, I’m gonna come live with you.”

And my darling daughter looked at me, patted my check with her dog slobbery hand, and smiled.

Baby girl had her 9 month check up on Wed and she now clocks in at a nice 20lbs. Carrying her around is a real work out, let me tell you! Unfortunately, part of her check up included the dreaded shots. Only one but it was a doozie.

For the last few days, my little McNugget has been so sick. High temperature, diarreha, loss of appetite, and mad-mad-mad! There has been lots of rocking, walking, and wailing in the McLaughlin house. But yesterday the fever broke and last night she slept like a log so it seems that the munchkin has rebounded! Yes!

Leina is such a joy. She just fills me with happiness. My favorite thing in the world is when she is so giddy, she tilts her head back and laughs, laughs, laughs. I tell you, I can feel the joy pouring into my heart at moments like that. If you took all the joy that Kevin, my family, friends and even pets give me, add it up, and multiply it by 10, it still wouldn’t even come close to the happiness Leina brings me when she laughs. How is that possible? How can a mere 20 lbs of babiness complete me so? I don’t understand it but I thank God every night for it.

Just put Leina down for her nap and those few moments broke the HSN spell.

Yes, that’s right, I’ve been watching the Home Shopping Network.

I know, I know, with my impressionable mind, HSN is a very bad idea. But it’s on 24/7. The people are just so darn perky and excited. Since it’s rainy and icky out, the kid and I are stuck inside and it’s kind of nice to have some happy, perky, excited people around too.

And let me tell you, these people are GOOD. Not five minutes ago I was convinced I needed to buy a hair piece. Yes, that’s right, me. Chrissieterry. The woman with more hair than a horse was -this- close to spending 32.50 (plus shipping and handling) on some fake hair to put on top of my already massive amount of hair. I don’t know what happened but after two and a half hours of fake ponytails, clippy things with curls, and bobby bits of whispy hair, all hand made with 16-18 colors of the finest sythetic hair available on the market today, I was brainwashed. Luckily, Leina saved me with her need to nap and the spell was broken with my credit card unscathed.

Kevin was laughing at me for watching HSN this weekend but I ran to the store and when I came back, he was glued to the set and convinced we needed this convection toaster oven that could bake ribs. Or was it the juicer? All I know is that I pulled him away before they got to the electronic hour. That would have been ugly.

I’m going to head back into the living room. My plan is to grab the remote and hit the power button before my eyes can process whatever super-value they are hocking right now. Wish me luck. But if the next time you see me and I’m wearing fake hair, please have pity on my and don’t laugh too loud, ok?

Who would have thought we’d have made it this far?

Remember back to when Leina was only a few weeks old and nothing seemed to be going right? Feeding, sleeping, even a little jaundice just to add to the difficulties. Now, everything back then seems so foggy, all I remember was being in a daze for the first several months. I guess that’s the “baby-nesia” setting in. I do remember just telling myself, “make it through this week then work on next week.”

Now things couldn’t be better, Chrissie’s last few blogs speak to that. Leina has always been a joy, but now she’s pure joy. I’m both afraid and giddy for the next milestones: crawling and walking. I’m sure, as the past nine months indicate, the next nine months will be an adventure.

To mark the occasion of Liena’s 3/4 birthday here’s the latest Pooh Pic. Isn’t she getting big!

I’ve been strangely joyful lately. I caught myself whistling Zip-a-dee-do-da this morning for no apparent reason so I stopped myself and did a little mental check. Why so happy?

Simple really. My darling daughter has figured out how to sooth herself. Yes, a mere week before her 9 month birthday, Leina has crossed a major threshold. With a big grin, I feel confident announcing, she is offically sleeping through the night. (knock on wood)

Crazy, huh? I’ve gone eight long months without a full nights rest. It doesn’t really seem possible but it’s true. The baby sleep book I love warned me that some breast fed babies will require one or two night time feedings up until 9 months and guess what? Leina was one of those babies. My book also informed me that around 9 months, if baby wakes, it’s out of habit and not hunger so it’s ok not to go nurse ’em. I’m so glad Leina figured this out all on her own. I was a little worried we were going to have some night time screaming here real soon. But no, my darling daughter taught herself how to sleep. Oh, she still gets up around 11:30 and 2am but after a few minutes of mild fussing, she puts herself to sleep. Me? I’m sacked out the entire time and have even taken the very big step of sleeping without the baby monitor on. If she has a real problem, I’ll hear her just fine.

Even bigger news, Leina has finally figured out how to nap! Yesterday, for the first time in nine months, I sang her a lulliby, tucked her in and left her room. After only a minute or two of fussing, total silence. She was asleep! No more rocking, no more patting, no more rolling her over onto her belly again and again.

Is it any wonder I’m giddy with joy!!!

Sleep, wonderful sleep, how I’ve missed you!