Birth mom visits, Tinea, playdates and more!

I KNOW i'm WAY lame in my updating. And I'm sorry oh blogosphere. My hit counter has never been so low, and here I am on the PRECIPICE of 100,000 hits! (zoink, zowie and all of that)! SEE, lookie there! WOW.

And I thank you for reading, I really do. And because you've been reading, or at least "hitting," I feel that I owe some updates. But it's kinda hard when one has a full time job AND a very "smooshable" baby at home, AND a very "smooshable" partner at home, AND two senior citizen cats that need medication and a watchfull eye, AND a spastic 3 year old cat that need stimulation, AND an apartment that needs cleaning and de-cluttering due to said "smooshable" baby.

So due to complete lack of time, here's the "cliff's notes" of the above mentioned items:

-Our meeting with Malka' birth mom was FANTASTIC! She held her, told us how great we are doing, shared that Malka's eczema was the same as her other daughter's (which, bless her heart, it's not, because it's a fungus, and not eczema) but that's OK, gave us some clothes for her, and we hung out for about an hour and a half. We agreed to hang out again in December, and it was at the agency, so that's good. We aren't sure how we ultimately want this relationship to develop, but we DO want her to be a part of Malka's life. We refer to her with Malka as "Birth mama V____" We got lots of great pictures, as well.

-Malka has (or at least they "think" she has) Tinea. When they did a culture for fungus at her ped's office (ring worm) it came back negative. (PHEW - again another cat issue that we are safe from)! But her Ped STILL thought it was "a-typical" eczema, and that it looked fungal. So off to the allergist we went. She's allergic to NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH, ZIP. (Baruch Ha'Shem)! So we went off to the Dermatologist. Our Ped. decided to send us to an "academic" dermatologist, instead of a "botox and acne" dermatologist, which is good. But she forgot to mention that Malka would be seen by a gaggle of interms who were more fascinated with diagnosing her than by her. Malka just kept giggling at them all, and elicited a grin or two from some of the on-lookers, and the actual dermatologist was more keen on us holding her down so he could scrape her for a microscopic slide than he was on alleviating our fears. He just kept saying that it wasn't hurting her, that she just didn't like being held down. (DUH). So after the gaggle of interms peered at Malka, they came up with "tinea." (although I will admit that at least ONE of the interns was smitten with her cuteness, and couldn't help cooing at her...)

Malka is on a new prescription anti-fungal cream once a day, at bedtime, slathered all over her body. She is on hycortisone for her facial "hyperpigmentation" (body's stress reaction to the eczema is to produce more pigment) three times per week, and a clear caladryl on her little neck folds to clear up the heat rash. We are now ONLY to use Cetaphil to bathe her, and we don't have to be so aggressive with the aquaphor. Although it had kept the fungus at bay so that it didn't flare up completely. It bothers me a bit that now that we aren't slathering her with moisturizer so much, that the fungus is looking more dry-skin and scaley, but she has a follow up with the *oh so friendly* Dermatologist on Tuesday. They did another culture that takes a month or so to develop, and that's for the tinea, but they all suspect that that is indeed what it is.

I am relieved to actually know what is happening to my poor baby, although, to be honest, she doesn't seem the least bit bothered by any of it, thank goodness. I'm just frustrated that there is no magic "poof and it's all better" button for her. We have to endure a few weeks of this new cream, and watch the fungus get worse before it gets better. I just hope it will continue not to bother her.

At least we KNOW it's not really contagious, as we touch her ALL over, ALL the time (see above "smooshable" comment) and seem to be fungal-free, again, Baruch Ha'Shem.

-On the bright and exciting part of the title of today's post, Malka will have a fun, yet exhausing, I'm sure, weekend with none other than Natalie from Addition Problems!. The last time we saw Jen and Cait, we were all still waiting for our babies to arrive. And now they get to meet, and we're terribly excited. We also get to see another old F*rtility Fri*nd pal from way back, and their son, who is a full fledged walker by now. It will be a very fun weekend, and if we can get six lesbian moms to agree on a few select pictures, you'll be sure to see them here soon.

So much for the "Cliff's notes," I never was good at the short version of things.