First Month, First X-Ray

I took Andrew in for his one month check-up yesterday. The nurse must have thought I was a brand-new mom, since I had about five things I was concerned about. He's had a lot of trouble with spitting up (just reflux) and congestion (nothing major). I was also a little worried about his head shape. It seems like he has a ridge running across the top of his head from front to back, but I figured I noticed it because the poor kid is bald. The Dr. was a little more worried. They said there's a chance that his skull bones have fused early since his forehead and the back of his head bulge a little. It's called craniosynostosis. So they wanted me to take him over to Children's Health to have his head x-rayed. After today, I think I'm the one that needs my head examined, but that's another topic! So after trying the orthopedic clinic close to me fifty times only to have no one answer the phone, and finding out that the Benefits office at the school system didn't turn in my paperwork on time so he had no insurance, I was finally able to get everything straightened out and get to the hospital for the x-rays. Unfortunately, it was after 5, so I won't hear anything from the Dr.'s office until Monday at the earliest. We keep joking that he's going to be our high maintenence one, and it looks like it's turning out that way!

Merry Christmas!!

It's a fairly quiet Christmas day at our house. We don't have any family in town, so we're taking the day pretty slow. Jeremy and Matthew are at Alvin and the Chipmunks right now. I was planning to take the boys during break, but Nathan was adament about not going, so we decided on this instead. Nathan's playing with his toys, and Andrew's trying to sleep.

Here are the boys in their Christmas pajamas. I started a new tradition this year of buying them each new pajamas and having them open them after we got back from our Christmas Eve service. Andrew didn't get any this year, but I'm already planning a trip to Old Navy for next year since their prices before Christmas couldn't be beat. I went over on Friday and had to force myself out of the store, or I would've bought their entire winter wardrobe for next year.

It looked like I had gotten a ton of gifts, and the pile was bigger than I had planned, but looking at them last night I realized that the only gift I spent more than $20 for was Jeremy's. He got a cordless drill. I know, it's a little boring, but we needed it. He bought me new glasses since the ones we have in the cupboard are wedding gifts. I even went discount on their stockings. I went to Dollar Tree last week and spent $15 to fill their stockings. I probably won't be able to do that for much longer, but right now they were thrilled. They seemed pretty happy with this year's gifts. Nothing really needs to be assembled, and the only things that needs batteries is Matthew's digital camera (so he can stop using mine!). I even bought gifts for Andrew. The boys had a great time opening them for him.

All in all, it's been a good Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church along with 2000 of our closest friends. The place was packed. They actually had to put chairs up in the foyer which is where we sat. Nathan lasted through most of it until the sermon, then Jeremy took him downstairs to walk around. Matthew did pretty well, too. Andrew slept through most of it, so he was the easiest. We want to try and do this every year. Now that they're getting older, I want to start some of these traditions that we can continue year after year.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Say Hello to Andrew Michael!

Our third baby joined the family two weeks ago Friday. Yes, he was about three weeks early! Needless to say, we were very surprised. We had gone over to my uncle's for Thanksgiving dinner and came home about 7 or so that evening. After we put the boys to bed, we sat on the couch for a while and watched the Colts try their hardest to lose to the pathetic Atlanta Falcons. (And I should know just how bad the Falcons are, I have to hear about it every day here in Atlanta.) Anyway, after the Colts finally won, we went to bed about 11:30. My cousin Stephanie and I were planning to do some shopping on Friday since it is, after all, Black Friday. I woke up about 1:30 am and had to go to the bathroom. My pajamas were kind of damp, but I didn't really think anything about it until I got to the bathroom and realized that my water had broken. I woke Jeremy up with the words, "You're not going to believe what just happened." Then, I called the doctor and he, of course, told us to go right to the hospital. Only one little problem (actually two). I had two boys that had nowhere to go. So after debating, we woke them up and decided to take them with us. This happened after I spent a half-hour packing and panicking at the same time. First, because we had nothing ready for the baby. I mean, no crib, no bottles, no diapers, nothing. Secondly, I had a list of about 100 things I was going to accomplish my last two weeks of school. I had my plans with me, my grading sheets, everything. I certainly wasn't ready for a sub. Jeremy finally convinced me that freaking out wasn't really helping, and we headed off to the hospital.

The nurses were great at the hospital. I was a little afraid that they would be leery of us showing up with two boys, but they took it right in stride. I think my nurse actually convinced the doctor to hold off on the c-section until the morning. Unfortunately, that meant I had to go through about five hours of labor. Not a lot, I know, but there is a reason why I like c-sections. I called my uncle at about 5:30 in the morning, and my cousin Laura came over to the house at about 6 to watch the boys. (That's a huge sacrifice for her since she's 14 and loves to sleep in!) Andrew arrived at 8:19 am. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

Andrew right after birth.

Everything seemed fine until we got back to the room. The nurse was getting ready to take him to the nursery when she noticed he was a little sweaty. She checked his blood sugar, and it was about half of where it should be. So he headed off to the NICU. There, they started an IV and gave him glucose. I finally saw him again Friday evening, and it looks like he has veins like mine. The nurse told me I had to be careful of his IV since it was the fourth one they had put in. He kept blowing the other ones out. Poor kid. Saturday, he came off of the glucose, and he was able to spend the rest of the time in my room with me. It was quite an adventerous start for him!

Matthew and Nathan think he is just wonderful. Everyday when they come home, they have to "pet the baby". Nathan did tell us right after he was born that the baby was a girl, and he was going to call her Mark. I think we've finally got him convinced that the baby is a boy, and we're calling him Andrew. Except for some trouble adjusting to sleeping in his bassinet, he's doing great. He likes to sleep everywhere else, he just is not crazy about his bassinet. He's also not nursing very well. The nurse at the hospital told me it would probably take 2 - 3 weeks for him to figure out how to nurse. I had to rent a pump, and I've been looking on ebay for a pump. I tried to get one last night, and I got outbid in the last five minutes by $10. They retail for about $200, and the one I wanted was sold for $60, so I should be able to find one fairly cheap.

Matthew and Andrew ready to leave the hospital.

I am a terrible, horrible person

I took a bath tonight. Now, before you start laughing, we are 78 days away from the end of the (easy) water supply here in Atlanta. But I wanted a bath so badly tonight I figured what the heck. I have become anal-retentive about water in the last few months. I turn my water off when I'm brushing my teeth, when I'm washing my hands, actually pretty much all of the time. (I still haven't gotten into the habit of turning it off while soaping up in the shower, but I'm sure that's coming.) I'm forever after the boys about walking away from the sink while the water is still running, and I think Jeremy's even tired of me nagging him to turn the water off. I'm even to the point of adjusting the water in the washing machine so it doesn't go above the level of the clothes even an inch. And don't even get me started on my agonizing over the dishwasher. Am I using more water running the dishwasher (full, mind you) every three days or washing the dishes in the sink? Life in the middle of a drought is HARD. But I do have times when I blow it off, like tonight. This is probably the first bath I've taken in months. But it felt so good, and I'm three weeks away from having a baby, so I think I deserve a little bit of leeway. Who knows, if it doesn't rain soon, we'll be down to sponge baths.

By the way, if you get a chance, say a prayer for my parents tonight. They got home from Mississippi tonight and discovered that their house had been broken into. It sounds like the only thing taken was the computer, but my mom was pretty shaken up about it. It stinks that they are in Mississippi for a week helping people who still don't have their homes rebuilt two years later, and they have to come home to this.

Two Boys + One Room = Fun for All!

We went out last Sunday evening and bought a set of bunk beds for the boys. Yes, my children are sleeping in beds from Wal-Mart. But, hey, they were only $179 for solid wood beds. I really couldn't complain since the beds I was finding in the classifieds were $200, and they were used. These are really nice. Here's a picture of the boys in them.

Yes, I know it's really hard to see Nathan.

So we started putting them together on Monday night. There was not a single piece attached to another piece when we started. Even the slats on the headboards and footboards needed to be put in. We had decided to just put together Nathan's bed and get it in his room. At four and a half it's really time he moved out of the toddler bed. We had the headboard and footboard attached to the side rails when we decided we needed to move it into Nathan's room before we added the slats that the matress lays on. So, we started moving it down the hallway. Except, our hallway is to narrow for the bed. Ugh. We got it back in the living room (I knew there was a good reason I hadn't bought any living room furniture yet), and decided to wait until Tuesday to get everything together. Plus, it was 8:30, and I hadn't even eaten supper yet.

Tuesday, when I got home, I started taking Matthew's old bed apart, getting parts of his new bed put together, and taking the headboard of Nathan's bed off so we could move it into Matthew's room. When Jeremy got home, he got Matthew's old bed out of the room, and we moved Nathan's bed in. Then, we were able to finish putting his bed together and getting his mattress on the bed. So we knew that no matter what, we had a bed to put Matthew in. We were able to get his bed together, however. Plus, we were even able to get the top bunk on top of the bottom bunk!! Both of the boys were very excited when we finished. Probably too excited since it took them a little bit of time to calm down. They did finally fall asleep, but they were up again at 3:00 am having a party. We had to put Nathan in his old room. It's a good thing we kept his bed up as the ultimate threat. While he wasn't happy, they both did fall back asleep. Unfortunately, I didn't until 5:00. Last night went a little better. It took them some time to fall asleep, but they did stay asleep the whole night. We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Here's Matthew on the top bunk.

And here's Nathan on the bottom.

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a few days late, but here are some pictures from Halloween. Matthew was an emergency room doctor. He wanted to be a Ninja, but I told him tough luck about that. Nathan was a pirate. He just loved having the hat, hook, and eyepatch.

Since Wednesday is usually Awana night, our church sponsored a Fall Festival in the parking lot. There were moonwalks and games for the kids. There was also candy for the kids. The boys had a great time. Nathan's already asking about when the Fall Festival will come back!


Here's Nathan "fishing" for candy.










Matthew jumping on the moonwalk.

We Have a Date!

After playing phone tag with the doctor's office for three days, I was finally able to set a date for the c-section. This baby will enter the world on. . .(drumroll please) December 10th at 11:00 am. I was hoping to have it the next day on Tuesday, but the only time available was at 8:00 am which meant we would have to be at the hospital by 6:00 am. That wouldn't work with the boys, so we're on for Monday. Yes, I know, I've got to be the only person on the planet who is disappointed that she is going to have the baby a day earlier than she wanted. I'll probably be thankful for that by December.

Jeremy had an interview last week at a radio station in Gainesville (the one in Georgia, not Florida). They have an opening in their news department. He would work from 12pm - 7pm Monday through Friday and then 10am - 3pm on Saturday. He called the guy he interviewed with on Friday, and they had one more person to talk to. The guy also said that they were talking about revamping their news dpeartment, so they may have more openings soon. Plus, he's still in contact with the station in Athens, so he's gone from having little or no interest from stations to now having two stations interested in him! Hopefully, he'll have something set by the end of the month.

The boys are doing pretty well. Matthew was very excited on Friday, because he got to be on the morning announcements at school (the announcements are televised through closed-circuit TV). Our school uses a computer program called Successmaker for reading and math support. Every student uses the program at least once a week, and it moves them through the reading and math levels at their own pace. Well, this week, he graduated from Reading Readiness and moved into Initial Reading (which is beginning of first grade reading skills). Once a child graduates from a level, they get to go on the morning show to tell the whole school they graduated. He thought he was pretty cool.