Long Week

I can't believe it was only last Thursday that I posted last...it's been a long six days! I've got lots to post and lots of pictures. All taken with my point and shoot camera - so glad I have that to capture the everyday stuff! Let's see, where to begin.

Last Thursday we had the final walk-through on our house. Everything looked great, but Will was super fussy the entire time. Not to mention the fact that he screamed bloody murder the entire 15 minute drive over to the house. SCREAMED. I've never heard him like that before - it was awful! When we got there, my mom took him and he still wouldn't really calm down. He didn't want a bottle, he didn't want his paci. We went to dinner and this continued. When we got home (lots of screaming and fussing on the way) I took his temperature because it was so unlike him to cry like that. It was 99.9. Since he'd been crying so hard, I decided to give him a bath and see if he'd calm down some. He did, so after he was all dried off, I took it again. It'd gone up to 100.4...our pediatrician had said we needed to call for anything above 100.4 and this was right at it, so I called. Since he was so little, they wanted us to be seen right away, but of course, it was 8:30 by that time...so we had to go to the ER.

We arrived at S&W and were taken back to an exam room. They took his temp (it had gone down some...I think it was around 99?), checked his heartrate and oxygen levels. His oxygen and heartrate were a little off. We waited around and finally some nurses came in and did a catheter to take urine. We waited around some more, they came back in and did a chest x-ray. They never once listened to his chest and I never mentioned coughing or wheezing, but apparently a chest x-ray was necessary.(I got kicked out of the room, but Greg got to stay). We did some more waiting before FINALLY seeing the on-call doctor. This was around 12am. She wanted to draw blood and do a spinal tap. I declined the spinal tap and she went to get a second opinion on everything. She came back around 1 and said that as long as we followed up with our pediatrician in the morning we didn't have to do the spinal, but they did need to draw blood. Fine, whatever. (Can you tell I was kind of ticked off at the hospital at this point?) The blood draw was probably one of the most traumatic things I've experienced in awhile - same for Will. They blew out his vein and he screamed :( I hated not being able to comfort him! Finally around 2am we were sent home with strict instructions to follow up with the pediatrician in the morning. All three of us were beyond exhausted.

The next morning we followed up at the pediatricians. His fever had gone back up to 100.4. We talked a lot and Dr. Travis said that he figured it was probably viral. We decided to watch him closely for the weekend and wait for the cultures on the blood and urine to come back from Scott & White.

I came home after the pediatrician's, Will ate, and then took a long nap on our bed. Poor thing was so tired from all the poking and prodding :( My mom came over around 12:30 to watch him because I had to go close on our house! In all the craziness of the night before, closing had kind of lost the exciting-ness that it had held before the ER visit. But it was great to sign all those papers and realize that the house was finally ours!

The weekend held lots of running around shopping for appliances, paint, and furniture. Everyone was having GREAT deals because it was Memorial Day weekend so we got a fridge and a microwave for an awesome price and got all our paint for $5 off a gallon! We decided to wait on furniture, even though we found a bedroom set and a dining set at Ashley that we absolutely loved...we'll save up and get it soon :)

Sunday night we had dinner at my parent's house. Yummy grilled chicken and shrimp (thanks Matt!) and then Monday my Aunt Gena flew in from Albuquerque so she could watch Will this week...Today was my first day back at work and it was hard. I was alright as long as I was busy - recess, lunch, planning, and all those little in between moments where I didn't have a lot going on were really tough for me. I missed him like crazy and my heart ached to be home cuddling with him, nursing him instead of pumping, and watching his cute little smiles. The only thing that got me through the day was repeating to myself "seven more days." I'll be honest, though...seven days seems like a LONG time to me right now. :( Will has been nursing non-stop since I got home, which in a weird way makes me feel good. I feel bad for Greg though - he doesn't want to leave his Mama at all!

I'll try to post another update later this week, but it's going to be hard with teaching and all...Seven more days :)

We're About to be Homeowners!

We close on our house on Friday and I am SO excited! We found exactly what we were wanting in an awesome neighborhood for a great price...I can't wait to paint, arrange all our furniture, and watch Will grow up there :)

I'll have more pictures to come in the next few weeks. It's getting a new roof today, then we do the walk-through tomorrow after Greg gets off work, and then we're closing at 2:00 on Friday!

I'm super excited for Friday to come because of the closing...but I'm also dreading it because it's my last weekday off of work :( I know I only have to go back for 8 school days, but I am not happy about leaving Will. It doesn't make it any better that I'm not going into a great situation at school and I have no clue what state my classroom or kids will be in...things have been incredibly "inconsistent" (their words) since I've been out on maternity leave. I have a feeling I'm going to come back to a group of 90 terrors. I worked so hard to get them trained and on their best behavior before I left and I'm pretty sure they're going to make me want to pull my hair out again. Eight days...I can do it for eight days!

Will has been sleeping so well at night...which makes for a much happier Mommy! We generally get him down around 10 and he slept until 5 last night...that's 7 whole hours! I woke up and actually felt okay. I mean, I was still tired, but I wasn't falling asleep nursing him! He usually won't sleep for more than an hour and a half more after he gets up to nurse, so I just leave him in the bed with us and snuggle with him. I get some of the best smiles at that time :) He seems just thrilled that he doesn't have to go back into his stupid bassinet and that he can cuddle with Mommy. It makes my heart melt! :)

Poor Boy

Will has acid reflux. We've thought something was up for awhile - he gets fussy right after eating, he spits up a ton, he pulls his knees into his tummy and arches his back, he fusses if he's laid down flat, etc...Yesterday we went to the doctor to get his belly button checked out (it was oozing some stuff, but everything looks fine), and I mentioned to the doctor that he's been really fussy and seems uncomfortable at night. Our conversation went like this:

DR: How do you know he's uncomfortable?
ME: Well, he cried from 12am-6am last night. And he pulls his knees into his chest and screams.
DR: -chuckles- Wow, 12-6? I bet your tired.
ME: You have no idea.

He gave us some Prevacid to try with Will to see if it'll neutralize the acids in his stomach. It won't stop the spitting up, but it will keep it from being painful when he does spit up. Unfortunately for me, the Prevacid takes 3-5 days to see results. I could tell it helped a little last night, but I was still up with him from 1am-5am last night...Greg stayed up for awhile too, but he had to go to work today, so I told him to go to bed. Today has been rough too - if I can get him to sleep (and that's a BIG if, he's been fighting it a lot lately), he'll stop crying...but unless he's eating or sleeping, he's been crying all day. And it's a poor, pathetic little cry :( Nothing I do seems to make it better and I feel so bad knowing he's hurting and knowing that I can't help.

So send some thoughts and prayers our way...All three of us are just plain exhausted (actually, Sammy and Riley are too!) and poor Will is in pain, which is just awful. We're crossing our fingers that the medicine works and Will will be feeling better in no time!

Edit: In my tired stupor, I forgot to add our great news! Greg and I got a house :) Not the short sale, but a different one in a great neighborhood. I'll add details later - off to try to nap now.

Edit #2: (I swear, I am going to go nap) Will now weighs 9 pounds 13.5 ounces! He's really doing great on his weight gain - that's a pound in 11 days. They didn't measure him, but I suspect he's grown a little length wise too.

Three Weeks Already?

Sorry it's been almost an entire week since I've updated...life is definitely more complicated when you throw an almost-3-week-old into the mix! :) Speaking of that, has it already almost been 3 weeks? I seriously can't believe it. It's a strange feeling - it seems like yesterday that we were in the hospital getting ready to meet Will, but at the same time I have a hard time remembering what life was like before him. He's changed our lives so much (all for the better) and I don't know how we ever got by without him. :) He brings so many smiles to our faces and so much joy to our lives.

He's a stubborn one though, just like his mama ;) He refused to go to sleep (even though he was exhausted) and stayed awake from about 3:00 this afternoon to 8:00pm. Babies are not supposed to stay awake that long! Greg and I went to dinner with our good friends, Kasey and Shelby, and seriously thought he'd pass out in the car on the way to the restaurant. He dozed off and on, but decided to wake up once we got there. He took 3oz from a bottle and then fussed until we decided to leave. He was SO tired and SO cranky, but he refused to close his eyes and just let himself fall asleep. We got back home and I nursed him and he FINALLY fell asleep, after fighting it for awhile longer...I felt so bad for him, but none of the usual tricks were working to put him to sleep.

He's becoming so much more alert and fun during the day! He follows objects with his eyes and has his "excited face" when he sees something he likes. His eyes get all wide, he puckers his lips into an O-shape and raises his eyebrows. It's precious and I totally need to get a picture of it! He's learning how to control his head more and more everyday...we're going to start doing tummy-time next week on the boppy. So far, tummy time has consisted of him being on Mommy or Daddy's chest and lifting his little head up to try to look around. I think he'll like it on the boppy, but we shall see :)

Thank you for all your prayers in the past couple weeks. Greg and I have had quite the time since Will has been born. First, we bought a new car just a couple days before he arrived. Then we got him home and started looking for a house! I told Greg that we're never allowed to have this many huge, life-altering events at once again. It's hard enough recovering from the c-section and learning how to be a mom...not to mention adding in the stress of looking for a house! We put an offer in on a house on Wednesday. It's a short sale, so we're not sure if it'll work out or not (and we won't know for awhile), but it would be a HUGE blessing if it did!

We're also taking a huge leap of faith and trusting God to provide for us with me staying at home with Will. This is what I was asking for prayers about last week...and I've finally come to peace with the decision. There have been so many things that have fallen into place (or out of place, actually!) that have solidified this decision. I am completely and totally at peace with the decision and I am so excited to raise my little boy the way that God wants him to be raised. I know that we are going to struggle more financially...but there is nothing that money can buy that will be worth more to us than investing time in our family. I'm going to look into watching a couple of children from our house and really start pursuing photography full time to help make ends meet. And I know that God will take care of us, no matter what.

Houston We've...

...progressed backwards. Ugh :( I went in today and Dr. Hancock said that I was barely 1cm dilated and 30-40% effaced. (His actual words were, "Well, I guess you could call that 1cm. Hey, that's better than being totally closed up though!") So in two weeks my body has gone backwards? What is that! Definitely not the way it's supposed to happen. After doing some research, I've learned that internal checks are a very subjective thing. So chances are, I'm exactly the same as I was two weeks ago. Which is not what I wanted to hear either, but better than my body going backwards!

Greg and I talked tonight and if Will doesn't come this week (which I don't think he will), I'll go back to school next week and that will be my last week. My due date will be the following Tuesday and if I haven't had him by then, I'll be induced by the end of the week. I'm getting so uncomfortable, swollen, and just not pretty feeling in general! I SO don't want to go back to school, especially after spring break, but I keep trying to remind myself that I'm going to want all the time with him that I can after he comes.

We've made tentative plans to make our first big family outing the Weenie Dog Races in Buda at the end of April. My parents are going to take their dachshund, Gracie, and I think it'd be a lot of fun to take Will out and enjoy the day, as long as it's nice out! Thinking about having my baby here and going somewhere fun in a little more than a month definitely makes the waiting time between now and my delivery sound a little more bearable. I think it's kind of funny, actually...you spend 37 weeks of your pregnancy praying that you won't have contractions and praying that your baby will not come early. Then you spend the last 3 weeks of your pregnancy praying that God will get that baby the heck out of you! But time is still flying fast (spring break is almost over!) and I know the big day will be here before I know it.

Greg and I drove around tonight and looked at some houses we're interested in. And we got a call on the truck that sounded sort of promising - although the guy lives up near Lubbock somewhere, so he wasn't sure he wanted to make the drive down here. But it was the first call that actually had the potential to go somewhere instead of wanting us to trade for a mini-van or wanting us to take significantly less than we're asking ;) It's a crazy, busy, but very fun and exciting time!