Weekly roundup

I haven't done a Differences post in a while, so I thought it's be good to do that, for posterity if nothing else.

Naps: Theo loves his routine, and so he naps from 9-10am and 12-1 or 1-2 every day. I just put him down in his crib, he finds his thumb to suck on, and he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. Beckett, on the other hand, resists most attempts at napping and prefers to fall asleep while in motion--stroller, carseat, carrier, arms. He will eventually fall asleep if put in his crib but will sometimes moan and giggle and fuss for up to 20 minutes before falling asleep. Both really need a late-afternoon nap so that they can make it through the grumpy time of 5-7pm before bedtime, but they both resist being put down then. Some days we go for a walk for them to mellow out, sometimes we walk around the house, and sometimes we struggle through a very grumpy early evening together because they are overtired.

Play: Beckett loves everything physical. If we put him down on his belly, he rolls over to his back almost immediately, or he pushes way up and giggles and laughs. He scoots on his belly to some degree forward and sideways, and he is very adept at grabbing for things, transferring them from one hand to the other and holding them with both hands. Beckett enjoys being read to for a short period of time but then gets bored and starts trying to eat the book or turn the pages or he arches his back and tries to scoot away. Theo, on the other hand, could be read to for hours. He loves looking at the pictures and often "talks" back as I am reading to him. He smiles and looks very eager and alert in front of a book.

Nighttime sleep: Theo, again, is happy to be put down in his crib at 6:30 or 7pm, and he just finds his thumb, starts sucking, and goes to sleep. He wakes up once between 7pm and 7am to eat, but other than that, he is asleep. Beckett resists being put down and wakes up more during the night. He also almost immediately hooks his fingers through the crocheted blanket we put over them in their cribs, and pulls it over his head. Beckett is also more likely to wake up before 7am, sometimes as early as 5am, but can usually be coaxed back to sleep if he is cuddled in with one of us in our bed.

Similarities: Both Beckett and Theo smile and laugh a lot. They both love the "full body examination" game, where I start at their toes and work up to their foreheads, massaging and naming every part of their bodies. They usually start giggling by the time I make it to their ankles. They also love the "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" song and classical music on the radio in the car. They also have the same favorite toy, a handmedown from Kate and Aaron (and Dylan and Ollie) which is four rings connected by a hard plastic piece with a mirror on one side and moving balls in a window on the other. When the rings move, they make a mechanical clicking sound. This is the toy that Beckett steals from Theo when he is within striking distance.

Brief mama medical update: I go back to the endocrinologist for followup and blood testing in three weeks, but I'm done with everything else. I went to the surgeon yesterday for him to check out the incision, and everything looks good. It is simply amazing how good it looks after only ten days. He says I will have no perceptible scar within a few months. He described more about the surgery and why I still have neck stiffness, which is because my thyroid was quite vascular and thus difficult to extract. He likened it to an orange with a difficult-to-remove peel, where as you go to remove the peel, you dig your thumb into the flesh of the orange a little bit (ouch). Interestingly, the surgeon said that he had no doubt that the vascularness (?) of the thyroid was related to my having taken Tapazole, the thyroid drug I had been on, as that is a known but uncommon side effect of the drug. I questioned, then, whether he thought the Tapazole had anything to do with my lung event in September. He said that he had no doubt that the Tapazole exacerbated the bleeding, but that he did not know whether it caused the bleeding.

In other lung news, I saw Pulmonologist No. 1 again for a followup Tuesday. I was up-front with him about having seen another pulmonologist for a second opinion, and about the fact that Pulmonologist No. 2 believed I had some upper respiratory tract bleeding that drained into my lungs rather than a lung hemorrhage, none of which was related to Tapazole. Dr No. 1 said that because he had done the scope of my lungs, he was the only one in a position to determine where the bleeding had originated, and that he is positive that I was bleeding (massively) in my lungs. He said it was impossible for that much blood to have drained to my lungs from somewhere else, as the bleeding was massive and in both lungs, and because it continued to bleed as he performed the scope. He said he has no doubt at all that the Tapazole caused the hemorrhage. So we are left with the opinions of two doctors which differ significantly, with no room for common ground. I guess all I can do is be grateful they agree that I am fundamentally healthy and that this will never happen again. There's still so much we don't know, but we're moving on....