answers, part 2

Katie - HELLO! Of course Superman would win. He had super powers. Batman was just a rich boy with cool toys. Superman would open up a can of woop-butt on Batman. But Matt says to tell you that they would never fight anyway. After all, they are both in the Justice League. (And he says to say, "What if the Batmobile was made of Kryptonite?")


Question 1: What is a normal day like for us?
I'm not sure we have any concept of "normal" or "consistent" around here. Every day is different, but always very, very busy. I usually get up between 7:30 and 8:00 (after being up with him for an hour and a half around 3 or 4) with Jonah, and give him his first bottle of the day. (Feeding Jonah takes an hour - this can include preparing his bottle, drawing up his meds, one to two diaper changes, rebandaging (if he pees or poops on his leg dressings), saline drops, picking the boogies out of his nose so he can breathe to eat, burping, and oh yeah, feeding him his bottle. It's quite the ordeal, and those visions you may have of sweet, calm bonding time that is quiet and peaceful... er, um, not at our house). So anyway, that takes a while. Then I usually rock him back to sleep, put him in his chair or swing and check my blogs and email. Then I take a shower and pump. By that time, it's time for Jonah to eat again or he's spit up everywhere or peed out of his diaper or puked all over his chest and arm bandages. There's also LOTS of laundry to do, washing of bottles and syringes, and other household chores. I'm also working on finding addresses and addressing envelopes to send out birth announcements. I'm so behind. (Don't even get me started on thank you notes. I wouldn't advise holding your breath.) No day is ever the same, but lately I've been trying to get out at least once every other day, just so I don't go nuts. And usually, you guessed it, I go to Target. Man, that doesn't sound like as much as it is, but it is. (Note: I do usually have daily help who do many of the above things - I usually do all the diaper changing and bandaging.)


That leads me to...
Question 2: What's a diaper change like for us?
We have found that FuzziBunz work best for Jonah's skin while still keeping the pee and poop in (for the most part). We get a diaper, slather Aquaphor all over the elastic, and when he has breakdown on his bottom (like now), we take a vaseline gauze, fold it in half, aquaphor both sides, cover the side that will be touching him in Polysporin, put it on his bottom, put the diaper on, slather his legs all the way around with Aquaphor and snap the diaper. Voila! (Unless he's leaked out of his diaper onto his bandages in which case we have to rewrap at least the tops of his legs). All of this Aquaphor on his diapers makes them lose their absorbency after a while, so today I "stripped" them, washing them using Dawn dish detergent, vinegar in the rinse cycle, and then rewashed them using Dreft. I have only 15 FuzziBunz, and Jonah potties A LOT, so we have to wash diapers often.


Question 3: Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, do I find myself with free time and if so, what new hobbies have I picked up?
I definitely have less free time than I used to. Blogging is the only "hobby" I get to do, and even this doesn't get done sometimes until late late. (Like tonight.) My only free time is basically from 10:00pm to midnight. I used to read and scrapbook. I like going to the beach and camping. If I ever get more free time, I hope to be able to continue my Admin job for Young Life from home.


And last question for now:
What are our chances of having another child with EB? How will this affect our decision to have more kids? Would we consider in vitro/adoption?
This question is hard to answer. Not because I don't have opinions or Matt and I haven't talked about it, but just because I know our plans aren't necessarily God's plans, and it's hard to put something like that into writing when you know in six months, you could have changed your mind (or God could have changed it for you). We have a 25% chance of having another kid with EB. But Gabe had it too, so we consider that 100%. At this point, all we know for sure is that all of our time and focus is on Jonah, and I don't think we'd consider more kids for two to three years. However, it makes me very sad to think that this was my last pregnancy, and I know we both would like more kids. Matt and I have talked, and I think, at this point, we are both leaning toward adoption. Right now we feel like we wouldn't want to spend all that money on in vitro when it might not work, and when there are already plenty of kids who need loving families. I feel God calling us to this option. As far as "donation of product," we are SURE that if it's not a baby that is a combination of the two of us, we are not interested. (Except adoption, of course). But like I said, God could have a different plan, and if He surprises us with an unplanned pregnancy, we'll be thankful, prayerful, and will love, care for, and glorify God for whatever child He may give us.


Okay, off to bed. Matt and I are going to attempt church tomorrow for the first time since before Jonah was born. We'll go for at least Sunday school and then see how it goes. We were going to try it the last couple weeks, but his face was so bad, I was worried about germs with so many open, unbandaged wounds. Please pray for a good night for Jonah and a successful attempt tomorrow. I'm so excited and completely anxious at the same time. I know Church is about God and not about me, but man, I'm pumped for me. I know I have suffered spiritually because of all we've been through along with missing our weekly rejuvenation time of praising God along with our family. I can't wait. Please also pray that God will protect Jonah from infection. It will be the first time we are taking him somewhere where people will be in such close quarters, and I'm a little concerned about germs. Thanks for continuing to pray for our family. We appreciate it so, so much.

Oh, and Katherine, I ALWAYS have spacing issues with blogger when I post pictures. Drives. Me. NUTS.