Emi is on new medication ... Prilosec, replacing her Zantac. This also means Emi is eating her first solid food, applesauce! It consists of time-release granules that can't be crushed and should be given in a mildly acidic food; the pediatrician okayed applesauce for this purpose though normally babies don't start "solids" until five or six months these days. I practiced giving her a little bit of applesauce off a spoon for two days before switching meds to make sure it wouldn't be a fiasco -- normally giving the cherry Zantac liquid involves a lot of spitting up and drooling and estimating how much to re-dose her. I now get why parents do all that stuff about the airplane flying into the hanger ... infants this young have a reflex to push out any solid material with their tongues, which is useful if the material happens to be vomit. If their mouths are open, it is a lot easier to bypass that reflex. Until now I always thought those babies spitting food out were just picky. Many things are now becoming clearer to me in this world.

I see that I haven't posted in more than a week -- that should give a clue as to what kind of week it's been. Over the weekend we had a visit from James's parents. They were suitably impressed by the size and babbliness of the babies, but unfortunately also got to see up close what I mean when I report that Emi has had a really tough day, because she had several while they were here. Lots of crying leading into shrieking/screaming, crunching up (a common behavior among reflux babies, a kind of hunching over while crying), fussing while drinking -- and lots of fussing by us over exactly how much thickener to add to her milk and over exactly how much Zantac she probably got down at her last dosing, etc. The pediatrician had told us to try maxing out the possible dose of Zantac for a week, which we did and those were the results. I am really hoping that the Prilosec will help her more.

In a sense it was lucky that they were here when they were because I was truly sick for the first time since the babies were born, and James's mom was able to help out a lot. Otherwise it was just poor James taking care of the babies almost all weekend! I was having a lot of really excruciating sinus pain that just kept getting worse and worse. On the proverbial scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you can possibly imagine, it reached 8 or 9 at several points. It was absolutely worse than labor and worse than recovery from the C-section. Tylenol did not put a dent in it. I had already been to see my primary care doctor, who had told me to take allergy medication and to irrigate my nose with salt water, but it just continued to get worse. I made it through the weekend, figuring I would try to get in to see an ear, nose, throat doctor on Monday, but the first appointment I could get was May 5! At UWMC the ENT dept. told me to go to the ER instead. So, feeling silly, I went. It turns out it was a sinus infection, just a weird one because I did not have any congestion or drainage in my nose. And it's good I went because it had already spread to one ear.

Interesting thing I learned from the ER doc -- that facial pain is very resistant to analgesics because your facial nerves go directly into your brain through openings in your skull, i.e. not via your spinal cord. This means that they transmit the message before the Tylenol or what-have-you in your bloodstream gets a chance to take effect, I guess.

The high point of the weekend was dinner with James's parents at the Herb Farm to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. That is a very over-the-top restaurant in an area outside of Seattle where a lot of wineries are located. The Herb Farm serves elaborate 9-course meals made mostly from fresh native Northwestern ingredients. They also serve 9 different types of wine to go with the 9 courses. One thing that was unusual is that for non-drinkers, they had an equally interesting set of non-alcoholic drinks -- unusual ciders, blended juices, etc. -- that complemented the flavors of every course just like the wines did. My favorite was Norfolk punch, something brewed by Benedictine monks in England from dozens of herbs and three kinds of juice. It tasted a lot like the 1910 Madeira that was the alcoholic option served with dessert. Needless to say, the babies stayed home with Chrissy during this five-hour meal. We were glad to hear later that they slept the entire time. Here is a somewhat blurry photo of Chrissy with one of the babies.


I finally got to taste fiddlehead ferns at this meal. They were like a cross between green beans, asparagus, and okra, with the slightly slimy texture of the okra. I also got to eat stewed nettles, which was a tasty revenge since I have been stung by them many times while letterboxing with James in state parks out here.

Thanks to friends: The women in my moms' group (tentatively called Babes with Babes), a spinoff from First Weeks, which met for the first time yesterday at our house. Everyone lent a hand with Tuck and Emi, who were having a crabby morning, and tidied up after themselves, which was a help to me. The theme of the group is problem-solving and helping each other find resources. So far the group is a success -- yesterday one person got babysitter referrals, two people got answers to questions about baby care, two other people tried out each other's gear (a baby sling and a toy), two people borrowed books/videos, and everyone took turns putting their baby into one of the Exersaucers I got at the twin sale to see if their baby liked it.