Back to work

Today is J's first day back at work. She was on vacation last week and I know she was dreading going in today. Not only is she still uncomfortable from the procedure on Friday, she also has to deal with telling the couple of people that knew about the baby.

N and I went to work on Thursday as we thought sticking to the routine would be good for him. He'd have chance to hang with his best buddy and have some fun. It wasn't really the best plan for me.........bawling my eyes out in the sporting goods store trying to get soccer cleats for a three year old was definitely not fun :-(

Not surprisingly N has been extra clingy during the day and for some reason he's sleeping better at night. He needs just as much extra love as we do right now. He also seems to need to have both of us around. If he's with one of us and the other one is somewhere else, he asks for the one that is not there. So with J back at work he's really going to miss her. We are off to work too and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous so I'm thinking it's a good day for the park, just got to fit it in around the big boy's dentist appointment and N's nap.

This moment

Thanks for the love. xoxo

Crap

Our OB appointment today didn't go as we expected. To say that we are heartbroken doesn't even begin to cover it.

Little footprints

How very softly you tiptoed into our world, almost silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint your footsteps have left upon our hearts. -- Dorothy Ferguson

Easter

My sister arrived just over a week ago. N is totally in love with her! From the moment we met her at the airport he has been her number 1 fan. I'm not sure if he remembers her from her last visit, over 6 months ago, but he hasn't been shy with her at all. Which is so unlike him.

She went to SC for a couple of days and N missed her so much. She was the first thing that he asked for when he woke up and every time he heard a noise he thought she was coming. He's going to be so excited to see her when they both get up this morning.

An Easter visit meant that my sister brought chocolate with her. YUM! I think that chocolate is still the only thing that I really miss from home. N is not a big fan of chocolate, but he did eat some of his white chocolate egg.

The Easter bunny has been very busy this year. N had 2 different egg hunts, one organised by our neighbourhood and the other by the MOMS club. It didn't take him long to get the egg collecting down. For our neighbourhood egg hunt there was a toddler area for N and 1 other girl as they are the youngest kids on our street and the organiser didn't want them getting crushed by the big kids. The other girl isn't walking yet so N went to town picking up eggs and we had him give some to the other girl too. Then he enjoyed chocolate milk and a cookie with the kids.

The second egg hunt was held at a local playground. The weather was sunny but a little windy, a big improvement on the day before when it was freezing. He played with the kids and had a great time collecting his eggs. By this time he'd figured out that there was 'andy' in them and ate a few jelly beans and opened the chocolate before handing it over to me. I think we were there for over 2 hrs before we headed home for dinner.

Easter Sunday saw us headed to PA for Sesame Street Live! We had a great time and I think the thing that we both loved the most was how much N loved it. He was totally mesmerized! He loved meeting the characters and totally got into it. He waved and called out to the characters, danced and jumped up and down. He had the best time! We had great seats for the show - guess going on Easter Sunday had some advantages :-) He was so in awe of the show and joined in and followed the directions is was so cute! He was so good and sat really well for the first half of the show - barely moving form his seat. After the interval it was a little harder for him to stay in his seat, but he still did a great job. There was enough action both on the stage and right in front of our seats to keep him occupied.

Poor J is having a horrible time with her allergies, especially at night, so isn't sleeping well. She doesn't really want to take anything, but may have to if it keeps going like this. We meet with our OB for the first time tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. She's off work this week so hopefully that will give her chance to rest and catch up on some sleep! I'm working at the end of the week, it'll be strange being there without N. I'm sure that the kids will really miss him and things will be much quieter for me!

Discharged

We are officially discharged from our RE. We expected to go back next week and I was hoping to go as my sis will be in town so can watch N. But insurance only allows 4 ultrasounds and we've reached that number. On Tuesday the baby's heartbeat was 158bpm and it measured 7w6d.
Being discharged also means no more PIO shots. I'm not sure which one of us is more excited. J as she doesn't have to get them or me because I don't have to give them!!!
We meet with our OB in two weeks after finally deciding where to deliver and who to use. Our first choice hospital is an hour away and I was worried about driving backwards and forwards between the hospital and home to be with N. So we are going with another one that's 25 mins away. We are still undecided about when or if we want N at the hospital but luckily we don't have to decide that now.

Yikes!

Bedtime has gotten so out of control in our house and my attempts to rein it back in aren't working. It's been creeping later and later for a while, probably since he was sick and his schedule was totally off. Thankfully he's started sleeping through the night again and generally sleeps 11-12 hrs straight. So if he goes to bed at 10 he gets up around 10, which as I'm not a morning person has some advantages :-) But getting up at 10 means that he's not napping until 2 and then doesn't want to go to bed until 10 again. J is so tired with the pregnancy and working that she's often in bed before N!

On Saturday it worked to our advantage. We headed to a St Paddy's day party at J's cousins house. N had a blast running wild with his cousin and we didn't leave their place until 10. He was so wired that it was nearly 11 before he finally dropped off and then slept until 10.30 on Sunday. This is where my first attempt to get him back on track happened.

After lunch we headed out to run errands before going to J's parents for dinner. I decided that we'd try to get away with a quick car seat nap instead of putting him down at home. He stayed awake through all the errands and played happily with his grandparents while J and I ran out alone for an hr. 5pm rolls around and he's acting a little tired, but seems like he'll hold on until we go home. J and her mom are about to leave to pick up dinner and N says that he wants to go. So he heads off with them and they come back 20 mins later and he's out cold :-( We let him sleep for 30 mins and wake him up - big mistake!!! He has a major meltdown and nothing would bring him out of it. So we get in the car and start the hr ride home. Of course he falls asleep again and woke up when we got home at 7. So last night he was up until 10.30.

This morning I decided to go for another plan. I woke him up at 8.30 and we worked out in the garden all morning. Had an early lunch and I put him down for a nap at 12.30. By 1.45 he was up again and not happy. It took at good 20 mins to bring him around, but after that we headed back outside and he was fine. J even surprised us by coming home from work early. We went out to dinner and talked about stopping at the playground on the way home. I nixed that plan as he was already rubbing his eyes and didn't want him falling asleep in the car.

We got home, played outside for a while and then I gave him a bath and got him into his jammies. Around 7 he started showing signs he was ready for bed, but quickly got a second wind. At around 8.15 J took him up to bed and 10 mins later they came back down again. He told her he was hungry, so they got a snack and then went back up to bed. J tried to put him down again and this time he cried and kept crying. We have done CIO, but have a 20 minute limit on leaving him to cry. I brought him back down and he hung out until 9.30 when I took him up and he finally fell asleep around 10. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm going to wake him in the morning again or just leave him. We have a friend of mine coming for lunch, so I'd rather he wasn't a complete crank while she's here, but I also have errands that I need to get done before she gets here and I have to make lunch...after I figure out what I'm making.

J's headed to the RE's early in the morning for blood work and ultrasound. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she gets to see and hear the baby's heartbeat. We don't have anyone to watch N at 5am, so I'm not able to go this time. I'm really sad that I won't get to see our little one and probably won't until the 12 week ultrasound. It's totally different from when we were expecting N when I went to almost every appointment. We are also trying to figure out which OB we want to use and where to deliver. J will probably have a repeat c-section so we aren't going to use our midwives again, especially as they now deliver at a hospital thats an hr away. Which wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have to factor in N and how I'm going to split my time between him and being at the hospital with J and the baby....but that's a whole other story.

I just ordered the invites for N's second birthday. It's going to be here before we know it! Here is the pic that I ended up using :-) I can't wait to see the final product.

The lack of sleep was soon explained by the fever that arrived thursday morning. The poor guy has been so miserable and is proving to be a terrible patient. He wants to be held all the time and that usually means walking around with him in your arms. Think I need to start lifting weights as I'm definitely feeling it in my arms and shoulders.

The kids tested negative for strep, so we didn't take him to get tested. It's a nasty cold type bug that needs to pass. Hopefully he'll start to feel better soon and we can all catch up on some sleep!