More strep

Poor Doug's got it now. I'll be happy to be healthy again. We take another "well visit" to the doctor's office next week. I hope that we stay "well' afterward instead of contracting something like last time.

Oh, how I long to be in two places at once...

So, I'm finishing nursing Robert and Mary calls out from the bathroom that she's finished and needs to be wiped. So, I let her know that I'll be right there. As I round the corner after putting Robert in his room, William comes up to me muttering something, but all I can see is white on his shirt mixed with some kind of crumb and a greasy coating on his hands. I start to put two and two together and walk in the kitchen. There is a crumb covered step stool in front of an open (and greasy finger printed) cardboard cake box. I peek inside to find that he's eaten one of the 2 remaining stale and crispy cake pieces that were left after our church 2:42 group threw us a surprise baby shower Saturday night. So I clean the boy up, take care of Mary, change Robert's messy pants and come back to see him staring longingly into the box again! "I didn't touch it mom!"

I hated the baby gates on our kitchen, but they are sounding better and better all the time.

Yuck.

I have strep and I don't feel good. I want to have a pitty party.

Silence

Why do I doubt the silence that's come over the house is a good thing?

Gotta figure out what they're into!!

Re-Org!

Since Lisa and I decided not to move we're trying to reorganize our house to make it more livable. This means Mary needs her own room and Lisa's stamps need a better home. The only room available for Mary's new room is the office...so everything currently in it will be displaced. This means a desk, a computer, two full bookshelves, a sewing machine, some musical instruments, and a closet full of crap has to go elsewhere. The desk, books, sewing machine, and some closet crap will go to climate-controlled storage until we move in a couple years. The computer will need to go into our bedroom, so we're on the lookout for a piece of furniture to conceal it all.

Lisa's stamps will come out of the closet and into the living room. We're also looking out for a place to store her 100+ stamp boxes, and have so far come across this cabinet. It's a little pricey, but ultimately worth it.

The house is a small disaster area, but hopefully over the next few weeks it'll come together.

Doug

More cutie pie pictures

I put up some more pics of Robert. I'd forgotten how hard it is to photograph newborns. Once they're fed and happy, they are usually gassy and squirmy or they spit up on the blanket or their shirt. So, you try to catch them sleeping, but their face is squished or shadowed. Despite the funny looks, they are still the most adorable tiny things you've ever seen.

It's official.

We've decided to stay in our house for another couple of years to save more money toward the new house.

The current plan is to move the office junk into storage and the computer into our room. Mary will move into the office to solve the sleep issues. It does still leave our nighttime potty training problem unsolved. We're looking for a nice computer cabinet. We've found a few cabinets, but the space for the tower is too small. Keep your eyes peeled for any compact computer furniture, please.

A big boy...

...or at least average. Robert is growing so much! He's a marvelous eater, so I know that's why, but I'm so surprised to have a baby who grows so quickly! Mary and William never grew this fast. Robert is 4 weeks old and is more than a pound up from birth weight. He no longer feels like a tiny little baby. He's got bulk! He's not chubby, but he doesn't feel weightless when you pick him up anymore. He's still wearing a good portion of his newborn sized clothes, but a few are too short and several 0-3 size clothes fit him! I'm just not used to this type of growth! I think it's wonderful that he's eating so well, it's very reassuring after failing with Mary and William. However, I think I've taken some pride in my tiny babies who get extended use out of their clothes and who's petite size is a perfect illustration of how marvelously helpless they are.

I love Robert. He's so fantastically different than his brother and sister. It's nice to have some fresh experiences on the third time around.

The Great Toy Clean Out

I'm shuffling, organizing and tossing toys. Anyone have ideas for places that take used toys? Most of them have obvious use, but are still in good shape. Some are just trash. There are a couple that could be sold, so I might take those to Kid to Kid.

Can't wait till everything has a home and the old stuff is g-o-n-e.

Getting better

Robert is doing better. We saw the doctor yestserday, who thinks that Mary picked up RSV in her office while there for her well visit and then passed it to her brothers. She listened to Robert's lungs and watched him breath easily. So, rather than breathing treatments to open his airways, which are obivously clear at this point, we're just going to continue with the humidifer in his room and rub some vicks on his chest at night.

He's coughing a lot more today, but it's sounding much "looser" so I think he's actually getting the bulk of his congestion cleared. He's sleeping and eating like normal again. 6 hours at night and plenty of milk during the day. He still vomits once or twice a day due to the glob of phlem stuck in his throat, but I'm hoping he clears it enough to get past that today.

We're past the contagious time frame, which is heaviest before symptoms appear. If we can press past the symptoms, I think we'll be ready to commence normal life activities, as much as is possible with a 4 week old.

Another year, another kitchen accident.

This evening I was pulling a pie from the oven. I was using a heat-shielding glove and mitt, but apparently my index finger on my left hand was out of the mitt and it touched the metal pie rack that was over 400 degrees. It hurt. Still hurts. I'm so glad I've never had a serious burn; if the pain I'm feeling in the tip of my finger were all over by body I'd probably just scream myself hoarse.

Luckily this one was small enough that it didn't require an ER visit for me. Of course the year's just beginning...

Hard day #2

Completely unrelated to the "incidents" of yesterday, we took a trip to the ER early this morning. Robert was lethargic and extra sleepy all day yesterday with a lack of appetite. When he slept 8 hours last night and then refused to eat this morning, I knew something was up. He's had a cough for a few days, so I took him in, hoping we could avoid dehydration.

After chest x-rays (clear), lots of lung listening (clear), and some vomitting (due to thick mucous gagging him), I requested an RSV swab. I'm glad I did, because that's what he's got, even though the typical symptoms aren't apparent yet. The ER doc got to talk to our pediatrician on the phone and we'll see her tomorrow. She's not looking to do a bunch of breathing treatments yet, since he's only 25 days old. I don't know what the course of action will be.

Meanwhile, since RSV is suspect in the end of William's good nursing. I'll have to be extra vigilent to pump after he eats to maintain my supply until he's up to eating again.

Thrilling.