Pneumonia woes.

The way Micah has slept for the past 4 days...in the arms of his mommy.

Over the past few days, our family has been having some difficulties, which have kept me from the blogging circuit. Micah has had a cough for a while, and it developed into something more around Wednesday. It sent me to CareNow late at night on Thursday, which was truly an act of desperation because you never really if those doctors actually know what they’re doing! Leon had worship band practice so I was there by myself, holding my lethargic child, singing worship songs to keep him calm, while doctors and nurses poked and prodded, trying to determine the problem.

One nurse came in, took his vitals, and after she timed his pulse, she immediately left the room and another nurse came in, telling me Nurse #1 wanted her to take his pulse too. [Alarming moment #1] Nurse #2 said that his heart rate was pretty high, and the first nurse wanted a second opinion. So when Nurse #2 confirmed Nurse #1’s analysis, they realized something was not right. Then once they took his temperature and it was 103, they immediately gave him 50% more of a dosage of Tylenol than I ever give him for fever. [Alarming moment #2].

To make a long story short, the doctor came in, examined him, thought it sounded bad, and ordered a chest x-ray. The x-ray confirmed pneumonia, and they immediately gave him a horrible, painful shot of a very powerful antibiotic, and then basically freaked me out with instructions for what to watch out for, and when to go immediately to the ER because he could crash and stop breathing.....etc.

So as I hear all this, I start freaking out, crying hysterically, all while trying to keep Micah calm. He requested I sing “Oh My Soul,” to him, which of course is Matt Redman’s Ten Thousand Reasons, and one of Micah’s favorite songs. So I sit, not able to carry on any normal conversation without sobbing, cuddling my sick baby, trying to sing a song that already reduces me to tears....it was not pretty. Humorous maybe, but not pretty. 

So after several sleepless nights, holding Micah in my arms, making sure he was breathing, watching every movie on the HBO movie rotation while he rests, force-feeding the little guy, and constantly refilling cups of Pedialyte, I think we are on the mend. We finally have some energy around our house, and are ready to get back to life as usual. So thanks for the patience....several blog posts on the horizon that you won’t want to miss!

Our little pumpkin

We took a family trip down to Austin last weekend, and helped my mom set up her signature Fall pumpkin display while we were there. That of course gave Leon an artistic idea for pictures and yet another way to torture Micah as it turns out. It turned out pretty cute, and here are some of the pictures of our little pumpkin..

Helping carve the pumpkin

This tastes pretty good!

Ok, I'm over it....get me outa here!

Ok Dad is still taking pictures so I better make the most out of it.

The money shot :)

 We never figured out how to put the stem piece on his head without him freaking out, so these are the best shots we could get, given his attitude at the time. We did rescue him and feed him his bottle after these, so he was all better. But he better get used to these random pictures because he has a lifetime of them ahead of him! :)

Our little rock star

We took this video a couple weeks ago, but Micah has recently developed a love of singing with his dad. I think we have a little musician on our hands!

The horror of public restroom changing tables!

The other day I did something I swore my whole entire life I would NEVER do....I used the little changing table thingy in a public restroom!

*pause for reaction*

Those of you who know me, and are well aware of the fact that I rarely use public restrooms myself, will appreciate this story all the more. And for those of you who do not know me all that well, I will take this time to give you a little insight into my somewhat neurotic personality (and I use the word "somewhat" loosely)...

In a nutshell, I am a complete germophobe. I am a freak about hand sanitizer (and especially since Micah was born), insanely long road trips and emergencies are the only things that can even make me enter a public restroom. I grew up never wanting to smell like "outside," or get dirty. And when I go to the restroom, I am that weird person who never touches anything (faucet, door handle, etc.), except with a dry paper towel....literally, I am a freak about germs.

And yet, I found myself at Chuy's hatch chili festival....

(we had a photo op in the "Peace, Love and Green Chilis" picture board)

...having fun with a bunch of our friends, when all of a sudden Micah decided to have a dirty diaper right in the middle of our happy hour! (The nerve!)

I was in a bind. I could go all the way out to the car, suffer heat exhaustion, and bend Micah in weird ways because he is too big to be changed on the seat anymore, or I could slip into the bathroom that is 10 feet away, and change him really quickly. So I traipsed into the bathroom, Micah and diaper bag in hand, and attempted to make a nasty changing table a germ-free diaper change for the both of us.

I wouldn't set the diaper bag down because of all the nastiness that would get on it, so I kept it on my shoulder the whole time. I of course didn't want to just set Micah down on the changer, so I got my little foldable changing pad out of the bag. And I didn't want to just set the changing pad down on the nasty public changer, so I had the brilliant idea to douse the changer in hand sanitizer, and wipe down every edge, crack and crevice with a couple paper towels. It already started to look and smell cleaner. I put the pad down, put Micah down, and changed his dirty diaper, realizing that I have a new irrational fear that I never would have known I have without this experience...that the changer will break and fall to the ground, taking Micah with it...so when I say I changed his diaper, I mean that I did it on one foot, with my other knee supporting it from underneath, all the while keeping his hands (and mine) from touching anything else in that restroom. And the act of washing my hands with an infant in my arms is in itself worthy of another blog post altogether!

It was definitely an experience. But I did it, Micah survived and doesn't seem to be sick from all the nastiness, and I was able to return to happy hour virtually unscathed. Do I want to do it again? Of course not! But do I feel like a strong, super-mommy for making it as germ-free as is humanly possible? You bet ya!

Micah is 3!

3 months that is! Today our baby has officially crossed into the 3 month zone, and I still find myself in awe that he has been here for 3 months already. On one hand, it feels like we just got home from the hospital, and on the other hand, it feels like I cannot even remember life without him. The greatest joy (and also the saddest thing) of mommyhood is watching your baby turn into a little man with every passing day.

Last week, he woke up one day and it was just like he said to himself "today is the day I will start cooing." He just started really cooing all the time, and everyday since then, he has cooed and cooed and talked, and sang all day, and Leon and I are completely mesmerized by him (not that we weren't already).




Then just yesterday, we had a big diaper blowout in the car on the way to the lake, and I had to change his diaper in the front seat of the car, which was pretty awkward. And when I didn't have enough space to change his clothes without bending his neck weirdly against the seat, I just stood him up, leaned him against the back of the seat, and he just stood there while I changed his clothes.

He is now eating rice cereal like a champ (which according to pediatricians today, he shouldn't start that until 6 months now....but I cheated because he was so big, just to see how he would handle it, and it was a breeze!), and can hold his own bottle for a little while...

oops, I mean this bottle....

He sits really well all by himself in his bumbo seat,

we just switched the baby swing out for the exersaucer, which he loves,

and he constantly chews on his fingers now that he has discovered them.

All in all, I would say he is probably the best 3 month old anyone could have ever ask for! :) So today, on September 4, 2010, I want to wish my cute precious amazing baby boy a very happy 3 month birthday!!! We love you, Micah!

Vote for Micah's Nursery!

Some of you have seen our video of how we decorated Micah's room:




We wanted to create something abstract, artsy, and just not your standard baby blue nursery. Our fabric choice has been criticized, colors made fun of, and no one really pictured it like we did until they saw the finished product.

We recently emailed our nursery to the webmaster of a baby decor website, and they decided to put us up on their site for parents to look at and get ideas from. There is also a contest as to who gets the highest ratings. I am not sure what the prize is, but of course I want to win just for bragging rights :) ...so visit our page on the site at http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/abstract-modern-nursery-design.html and add a comment and give us a good rating!

Sleeping patterns

Helping a newborn sleep through the night is always a topic of conversation among parents. Babies are all different, so it is hard to say when they should start sleeping through the night or how we can help them do that. But I know Micah has it in him to sleep at least 5 hours at night. He did it the second day he was home from the hospital, it just happened to be at 2:00 in the afternoon. So in an effort to re-arrange his schedule to where he sleeps those 5 hours at night, we have been making sure we wake him up every 3 hours during the day so he gets all his feedings in and will hopefully sleep more at night. It is working, but it is definitely not the easiest thing to do! Sometimes the little man just doesn't want to wake up....it does provide good entertainment, but it does not make things easy on us! Check out this adorable video of our little man.... 

 


Any tips out there from you parents will be welcomed with open arms. But until then, we will keep doing what we are doing, because it seems to be working! Now he is going between 4-5 hours every night...yay!!! Now if we could just get to 8 hours, I might get myself a good night's sleep!

A month feels like a day...

How can it be possible that our baby boy is already a month old?! Even he can't believe it!

 

It seems like only yesterday that we were in the hospital just getting to know our little man, and on the 4th of July, he had his 1 month birthday! I am completely dumbfounded at how fast time has flown, but have been loving every minute!

Leon and I recently reconnected with an old friend who loves deep, personal conversations as much as we do. After she recovered from the initial shock of seeing us with a baby, she asked us a great question that I think bears repeating...what was the most surprising thing about having a baby for us?

Leon's response was that he was surprised at how close it was bringing the two of us together. We always hear how marriage gets strained with children, and I think we were expecting that to happen from the very beginning, but in our case, at least so far, it has done nothing but bring us closer together. Not only do we have this amazing child to care for, but watching each other become parents has only increased our love for one another. We are still focused on our marriage first and foremost, and then being parents to Micah. And the fact that Micah wasn't an instant wedge in between us, surprised Leon....even to the point where he coined my new favorite saying of all time: "I'd sell a kid on eBay before I let it ruin my marriage!" :)

My answer to the question was that I was most surprised by how much I loved it. I felt like everyone had only told me the downsides to having a newborn..."get ready to be exhausted," "plan on staying home for 3 months," "expect your marriage to be strained," etc.... I heard it all, from bad personal experiences, to warnings about colic, fussiness, marital problems, sleepless nights and more. Because of what everyone was telling me, I was expecting it to be completely draining, and while I am tired, and even leaving the house is more difficult than it used to be, I think that I over-prepared for the worst, and am now surprised at how amazing it is!

**So I was just curious...for all you parents out there, think back to when you first had a baby (some may have to think back further than others!). What was the most surprising thing for you? I am always interested in hearing other people's thoughts, so if you have time, comment on this post and tell us what was most surprising for you!

Micah's birth day

I finally got the video of Micah's birth day finished and up on YouTube, after only 3 weeks. I think it speaks for itself, so feel free to click here to watch it if you are interested.

Ridiculously Stubborn Cord

I have to say we are very grateful to have a healthy and happy 3 week old baby boy...he was almost 9 pounds when he was born, so we know that he was getting plenty of nutrition while in the womb. That is all well and good, but the downside is that we now have a tiny black little friend who just won't seem to go away: the umbilical cord!

It just took us going to see our friends who had a baby boy 11 days after we had Micah, who's cord has already fallen off, to make us realize that this is not normal. We have been cleaning it with alcohol every time we change his diaper, just the way the pediatrician said to, and it is still very much attached. Last Thursday, we even went in to the pediatrician's office, and he put something on it that was supposed to dry it up faster...but all we have now is a cord we are still dealing with, only this now, when we clean it, Micah screams in pain....fabulous!

This is incredibly hard for a mother to sit there and watch her baby cry because he is in so much pain, but I know that we have to dig in there to have a prayer of drying this stubborn thing out! I felt like a failure as a mother because maybe we hadn't been cleaning it well enough from the beginning, and now we have to deal with this thing that hurts him all the time...it's just no fun.

So right now, I am sitting in the glider in Micah's room, watching my wonderful husband (who has agreed to do all the cord cleanings since I have a weak stomach when it comes to this) clean the painful cord, and try and dry the remaining little thread that is still attached. Micah at this point has cried himself to sleep on the changing table, and Leon is taking this opportunity to cut the dry, outer parts of the cord off, so that the inner core can be dried by the air, and hopefully fall off asap! (Don't worry, he isn't cutting the cord itself off).

I had to take a picture because it was so cute, and now that Micah isn't screaming, I can relax and talk about my pure and total hatred for this umbilical cord!

So please pray that it will fall off tonight....we certainly are! I have never heard of anyone having this problem with the cord, but if there is anyone out there who has, please let me know so I don't feel like a total loser! :)

Pregnancy, not so much....mommyhood, HELL YEA!!

I have always heard about how everyone loves being pregnant. The feel of the baby kicking inside of you; the miracle of life right in your abdomen; the beauty of the growing baby showing itself in your ever-changing body.....I unfortunately had a different experience with pregnancy: nausea, swollen ankles, an ever-alert sense of smell, a constantly-increasing waddle, horrible back pain, and every day moving further and further from my original body shape that I had come to know and love!

Ok I know that sounds a little pessimistic of a viewpoint, but honestly, I was not good at pregnancy, nor did I enjoy it! BUT on the flip side, all I have heard of motherhood is: sleeplessness; screaming babies; marriages failing because of the added stress.....and the great news is that just as pregnancy gave me the opposite reaction than I was expecting, so has motherhood! 

Motherhood for me has been one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my whole life! Not that I am a pro at it by any stretch (I mean, it has only been 2 weeks!), but it is not only incredible to now hold this precious, perfectly healthy, beautiful baby boy (who a mere 2 weeks ago was kicking the crap out of my ribs), but to see my incredible husband step into a dad role so naturally has been one of the biggest blessings of all.

Because I hated pregnancy so much, it was hard for me to blog about it without seeming like a huge downer....but this blog will attempt to capture not only my life, and family, but it will also share my thoughts, however crazy they may be, on stumbling my way through (hopefully) becoming a Godly wife and mommy in the new dynamic of our family of 3! I am going to share my real thoughts, good and bad...and will not just be stating the politically and religiously correct ones, so I hope you stay tuned and enter into the dialogue with me and share your real thoughts. The more real we can be with each other, the better off we are all is a larger community! 

Hope you stay tuned....