Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes you just pass out wherever you are, no matter what you are doing, even in your own bed!

Doctor's Day 2011

Today is Doctor's Day and it is the day where you get to thank your doctors for all that they do!  I am very blessed to work for two wonderful surgeons that are not only very gifted, excellent surgeons, but also great men.  Dr. Barker and Dr. Smith are nothing but great to work for and I am honored to be their nurse.  God blessed them both with a talent to help people when they are critically ill or injured and it has been amazing to watch them work.  He gave them skills to create new ways to care for those patients and in turn save many lives.  They work sometime 36-48 hours without going home.  They miss important moments in their own lives to make sure those that are hurt or sick get the care they need.  I rarely see them recognized for what they do and believe it or not, rarely thanked for what they do.  That bothers me a lot when I know how hard they work and the time they spend doing it.  So, please, next time you see a physician, not just today, say thank you!  It means more than you know!

Rainy Saturday Fun

Today was a very, very rainy, cold day in Chattanooga, but we decided to make the best of it anyway.  I had planned all week to go back to JBF this morning for the last day/half off presale from 8-10am, so the boys rode with me and stayed in the car while I shopped for a few minutes.  I ended up with three sleepers, two Carter's rompers, and a pair of almost new New Balances for $14.20!!! I love getting good deals on Nicholas's clothes!

Someone isn't too sure what think about his new shoes

Nicholas slept for about an hour and a half in the car while I shopped and on the way home, so he was ready to play at full speed!  This picture should give you an idea of how the rest of our morning went! Ha!

We knew if we were going to stay sane and make it through the day with this wild boy, we needed to go somewhere fun that he could get some energy out at.  We are very fortunate to have a very family friendly city.  About fifteen years ago a museum for children opened and it is awesome, so we decided to use a coupon we had and try it out.  Inside there was a special area just for children under four.  Inside that area was another special place just for kids 17 months and younger. Nicholas loved it!

His favorite part was probably the garage and the red convertible inside!  We think he might be practicing washing cars!  Haha!

 He also enjoyed the dog house and stuffed puppies.

 The infant garden is the part geared for young babies.  It was perfect!  It was all soft and had a lot of great ways to explore new things.  He especially loved the slide!

 We also walked around the museum because Michael had never been there and wanted to look around. They played some instruments in the music room.

 Seeing the dinosaur exhibit.

 Nicholas thought the magnetic exhibit was pretty cool.  He was fascinated with the lights on the inside.

We were there about an hour and it was fun.  It is always fun to watch him explore new things and to play hard.  Mommy and Daddy were starving by that point, so we went over to Hixson to Buffalo Wild Wings and played some trivia and ate lunch.  Nicholas hung out in his stroller and just people watched.  Daddy also let him have his first taste of water from a straw.  Ha!

We are just having a quiet night in tonight and enjoying each other.  It is very stormy and pretty cool out, so we have had chili and now watching some TV.  It is supposed to rain pretty much all week, so not sure what tomorrow will bring.

Nicholas's New Tubes

Today was the day that Nicholas got tubes in his ears.  We saw our ENT (who actually did my tonsils 13 years ago!) on Monday and after failing a pressure test and looking into his ears, it was decided he had a very significant amount of fluid in his ears.  His ENT described it to me this morning that it looked as if someone had poured glue into both of his ears and that his eardrums were on the verge of rupture due to all the pressure on them.  We were very fortunate that we got in his office quickly and on his OR schedule as quickly as we did. 

We were scheduled to arrive at 6:30, so I got up at 1:45 to feed him one last 8 oz bottle.  He was very pleasant for the first hour and half that he was up thanks to that bottle!  We got into our same day surgery room around 7 and Nicholas did so good while they got him ready.  They brought him a couple of toys to play with and he was happy playing with Daddy! 

 After they came in and put his bracelet on his ankle and got his vitals, I could tell he was getting hungry and fussy.  We ended up walking around a little bit and cuddling with our paci and we were happy until we got Versed and Tylenol 3 for sedation, then we were quickly asleep rocking in the rocking chair with Mommy!

 Right before he fell asleep our GI dr stopped by.  He saw our name and wanted to come by to say hello and that he hoped Nicholas felt better soon.  We are so blessed with awesome drs that care for Nicholas. I really, really love our GI dr and our pediatrician.  They were such a blessing when we were having so much trouble early on before we knew about is milk allergy.

The ENT got there a little before 8:00 and we took him down the hall to preop holding.  We talked with him there and then they started surgery promptly at 8.  By 8:15 he was on the phone telling us Nicholas did well and that we definitely made the best decision for him.  I was glad to hear that.  I needed to know that it was necessary.  He also told us that his hearing had been very bad because of all the fluid.  He was basically hearing as if he was in a tin can or under water.  Bless his sweet heart!

We met him in recovery around 8:30 and after a 8 oz bottle of watered down juice, we were on our way home by 9:00!  I am amazed how fast and easy it seemed to be for him.  The ENT told us that he would be 100% better soon and if the next hour wasn't a good indication of that, I'm not sure what is!  He has been on fullspeed mode since we got home (can't you tell by all the toys behind him!)!

Hopefully our sweet boy will make a quick recovery and we've been told that he should start really talking soon and hopefully walk (he has been pulling up for almost 2 months).  We are going to be lazy the rest of the day and maybe even take a couple of naps!  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him.  I know this isn't a major surgery, but it was a big deal to us.  It has been so long since he has been 100% well, I'm not sure what I'll do when he is all better! Ha!

Wordless Wednesday

The shirt and pictures speak for themselves...

Thinking About A Big Birthday, I Need Ideas!

Last week on Kelly's Show Us Your Life, she is asking everyone to show their child's birthday parties.  Perfect timing because I am just starting to get things together for Nicholas's first birthday party this summer.  I am doing a safari/giraffe print party.  Nicholas's room is a giraffe/safari theme and I want to echo this for his party.  It will probably be the last year I can get away with doing it my way, without cheesy character themes for a long time.  Here are my ideas and inspirations so far...

• Giraffe print with lime green and turquoise accents everywhere! 

• I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do it, but I'm also going to make a birthday banner using all of Nicholas's monthly pictures.  I'm trying to decide how that is going to look now.
• Lime green, turquoise, and yellow tubs with ice and different drinks and a drink dispenser on the food table with lemonade. 
• I'm still deciding about food, so any advice would be great!  It will be a midafternoon party.
• A bounce house or slide for the older kids since there will be a lot here (we were pretty much the last to have kids thanks to IF)
• And now for the BIG showpiece...

I have some ideas to make it a little different, but overall this is what you can expect to see at our party in July!

Now, here is what I want from my awesome readers, please comment and tell me any ideas you have to make his party fabulous!!!

It's JBF Time Again!

It was time for Just Between Friends again this past weekend and this time I was a consignor and volunteer for the first time. I spent hours just getting my stuff I was consigning perfect and then volunteered on Sunday where I worked with my good friend Nicole.  It was a lot of work all the way around, but a lot of fun at the same time!  I started working on the items I wanted to consign about a month ago, but really started working on them last weekend.

I ended up consigning about 65 outfits (they were all stacked here by sizes, but you get the idea) and a few things Nicholas has outgrown that I don't want to store for later.  As of last night I had already made about $70!  I was happy considering the only high dollar item I had was $25 (and that is NOT high dollar!).

Saturday I went to the presale and scored a TON and I mean TON of cute things!  Here is everything I bought!

  I found 4 cute swimsuits for him since we have a community pool and going to the beach this summer.

 A UTC onesie!!!

 I also found three super cute shortalls!  The tractor one is also reversible!

I found these two toys.  I had been looking at both at TRU, so I went ahead and got them here instead.

I ended up with I forget how many outfits, two toys, a few bibs, and a towel set for under $130!  Not bad for an afternoon of shopping!  Now, hopefully I'll at least make that much if not more!  :-)  

Spring Fever

We have had some serious Spring Fever at our house lately.  The past few weekends have been awesome!  A couple of weeks ago Michael took Nicholas to a park on his day off and they sent me this picture on my cell.  I loved it, but almost cried at how big he looked!

 I thought these pictures were cute.  This was about five weeks ago when it first got warm outside.  It was the first time he sat in the grass.

 He wasn't too sure!

He also got a new stroller last weekend.  I LOVE my travel system and my big Chicco stroller, but we also needed something a little smaller for traveling and just running around town.  Here he is in his new stroller getting ready for his first walk around the subdivision in months.  Again, he looks like such a big boy (don't look at his too short pants, they were just for playing outside)!!!

Also last weekend, we bought a swing for our patio and needless to say, the kid LOVES it!  Judge for yourself!

 He swings almost every night when we get home before dinner and seems to really enjoy it and being outside.  Last night we spent some time outside and he was just so sweet.  I love spending all of my time with him!

 Still not really sure about the grass, but getting there.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!  We sure did!

The Past Two Months of Illness

We APPEAR to be on the downhill side of a very sick, hard two months.  My sweet boy was sick pretty much continuously from January 22 until well, this week.  We had a week or two in the middle that he seemed to be better, but then he would just get sick again.

If you recall, I posted about his week with RSV here.  Well, that was just the beginning.  He never seemed to quite kick it and after two weeks and both his teacher and I knowing something just wasn't right, I took him to a pediatric urgent care on February 9.  I told the dr I felt that he had an ear infection, but he blew it off and said he thought it was just the RSV running it's course.  It wasn't.  On Valentine's Day I picked him up and he had a 101.6 fever.  We went to the dr the next morning and he had his 2nd double ear infection in three weeks.  He was put on omnicef and we thought he would be better soon.

 This was taken three days later.  Obviously he wasn't better.  He threw up and didn't want to eat.  On Friday, February 18 I had my 2nd epidural injection and when my mom went in to get him knew something was wrong.  He was just lying on the floor and his teacher said he had been like that for about an hour.  We took him to the pedi immediately and his ears were both about to have ruptured ear drums they were so full of pus!  I felt terrible that I let it get that bad, but honestly I thought it was just his medicine making his appetite so bad.  Guess not.  :-(  He got two rocephin injections that weekend and on Monday.

I thought this was cute.  My mom fixed him some real potatoes (without butter or milk of course!) and carrots after his appointment and shot on Saturday.  He loved it and played it for a while.  So cute!  He was starting to feel a lot better already.

By Friday he was all better, but had a random fever when we went to the pedi so she checked him for the flu, guess what, it was POSITIVE!!!  I wanted to cry and so did she!  We spent ANOTHER weekend in the house and he played and played and played.  We couldn't even tell that he was sick.  Judge for yourself...

Pretty sure we swabbed him for his flu test at the end instead of the beginning of his virus.  He did great by Monday and had a good week.  I thought this outfit was adorable and just HAD to show you our healthy boy playing in between illnesses a couple weeks ago.  So sweet!

He did so good for two weeks, then last Thursday I walked out with a new nurse at work and was telling her all about our long two months and made the comment "I think we are FINALLY better".  Well, we weren't.  As soon as I walked in to daycare they were telling me he had been lethargic since his afternoon nap, but no fever.  I got him home and within an hour had a temp of 102.6!  I called the on call nurse and she said to give him tylenol and watch him over night.  He was a little better feverwise by morning, but we still went to see Dr. Spraggins and sure enough, ANOTHER double ear infection!!!  We have an appointment to see the ENT on Monday.  Hopefully we can get tubes very soon and not get yet another infection waiting for surgery.

Now you are pretty much caught up on the L-O-N-G two months we have had.  I am completely and utterly exhausted.  Poor baby still coughs during the night and wakes me up when I hear him over the monitor.  He has slept all night throughout all of this, but we haven't.  At one point I had gone 36 days without a full nights sleep!  Between that, work, and just trying to stay afloat at home, the poor blog has suffered.  I'm hoping to get back on track, but can't promise.  I'll be honest with you, I just don't have the motivation to blog that often anymore.  I want to spend more time with my family and by the time Nicholas goes to bed, I am not far behind him.  We'll see, but hopefully I'll get caught up soon!  I have lots of cute pictures and even a couple videos to show you!