Mmmmmm.... Wedding Cake - And a Rose!

Rose - my girlfriend from High School came by to visit today. She brought my absolute favorite thing... wedding cake!!!

I guess it's really just "cake" - - but it's the REALLY good kind of cake. Long story short, her son's grandmother (Peggy) makes fabulous cakes and was the one who made the cake for our wedding reception. I really started craving her cake around my baby shower (and every other birthday and anniversary worthy of a cake). Well, Rose surprised me with one of Peggy's cakes when she came to visit!

Unfortunately, the cake is almost gone... not good for my weight loss, I'm sure. Oh well.... it's wedding cake!! It's a good thing Peggy doesn't live near me. I'd be in some serious trouble.

It was nice to visit with Rose. It's hard to image that she and I have been friends for 17 years now. That's a LONG time - and she's been a great friend. :)

Look Ma! No Hands!

The last couple weeks at home with Ryan have been great! My biggest challenge has been the ability to be mobile throughout the day because Ryan has been a better napper while being held. I've attempted to let him cry to see if he would eventually cry himself to sleep, but he doesn't... and it's too heart breaking to hear him catch his breath and whimper to calm himself from all the crying he's done....only to fall back asleep while I hold him.

When you hold a baby all day long, you don't have the ability to do anything around the house but sit. Even taking a phone call has not easy. By the end of the day, my back is shot and I have done absolutely NOTHING all day long. I couldn't take it anymore - I broke down and ordered a Baby Bjorn carrier.

Hello... why didn't I get this contraption 3 weeks ago??? This carrier holds Ryan at my chest and feels comfortable to my back. For the first time, I am able to get around the house and get small things accomplished while Ryan sleeps at my chest. It's a WIN WIN situation for both of us. He gets to be close to me and I regain the use of my hands - even if just to pour myself a glass of water! (I definitely don't need another kidney infection now, do I?)

I ordered a baby sling carrier, too - - but it hasn't yet arrived. I can't wait to see if the sling is equally functional.

Not too much else has been going on. My good friend Sarena came today from Del Mar to visit with Ryan. Sarena and I have been friends for about 10 years... and amazingly she had never met Jeff until this morning. Crazy! As always, it's always great to get visitors so that I have interaction with people other than the boys in this house. Sarena treated us this morning with coffee and bagels. What a great treat!

Our kitchen cabinets will start getting delivered this weekend - but Jeff and I have decided to slow down the installation process for sake of our own sanity. With our need to get our rental property "rent ready" and then balancing the next few weeks of Jeff's class reunion, a drag race work weekend and (2) back-to-back motorcycle club work weekends (for Dylan).... it makes sense to hold off on installation until November. If nothing else, delaying the install will give me time to make decisions on sinks, faucets, knobs/handles, granite and tile.... which has not been decided in all the chaos of life since Ryan has been born. I'll cross my fingers that our kitchen will be done by Thanksgiving!!

What's With the Projectile?

WARNING: This blog discusses bodily functions and motherly acts . If that weirds you out, please do not read this posting of our blog. If you are a parent, though, I'm sure you've already experienced this and can relate. ...but I don't want to hear your comments about what I posted on a blog if you decide to keep reading on - so do so at your own risk!

Although I am not completely sure of when it all began, I know it was right around the time that I got sick with my kidney infection. Because I stopped eating and drinking over a few days time, my milk supply went down substantially. (Not to mention that I was so ill, I didn't even want to nurse). During this time we depleted all of the breast milk storage we had accumulated during Ryan's hospital stay and moved on to feeding Ryan formula to make sure that he was getting all of the food that he needed.

I had already mentioned in a previous blog that Ryan had an episode of projectile vomit during Dylan's school meeting. That incident was probably the 2nd or 3rd incident of projectile vomiting. Since then, there have been others:

Saturday - Jeff and I needed to run over to our rental property so that we could determine what needed be done in order to get it listed for rent once again. We fed Ryan a bottle of formula and spent an additional 15-20 minutes getting him burped so that we could feel comfortable about avoiding a projectile incident. We put Ryan in his car seat and got him situated in the car. Jeff did a little more running around to make sure that he had a measuring tape and other items that we would need for the rental walk-through. As I sat down in the front seat of the car, I heard a splat! I got out of the car and to the back seat to realize that Ryan had spit up all over the back seat of the GX (so much for my ingenious "burp him for 15-20 minutes" plan). Luckily most of the vomit had cleared the inside of the car seat and his body - - but the mittens on his hands and his socks were soaked. The leather was more of a casualty in this case. Jeff had to unstrap the car seat and the base to clean up the puddle left behind (I can not imagine if I had CLOTH seats....all that sour milk soaking into the foam of a hot car - ack!). We rinsed the mittens and the socks and put them in the windshield to dry - and went on about our day.What if this had happened while I was driving on the freeway in traffic? What would I have done? Would I have even known anything happened?

Sunday - Jeff's parents brought us dinner. While we ate, Grandma Norton fed Ryan a bottle of formula. We warned that he needed to be burped during and after his feeding and I even took over the task of burping trying to get anything to come up out of Ryan. Nothing ever came up. This could not possibly end up good.

After his parents had left and Dylan's friend Randi was here to visit with Dylan. As Ryan lay on his back on our couch and as Randi and I hovered over Ryan adoring him - PROJECTILE! - he vomited straight up into the air and back down on to his own face. I quickly grabbed him and turned him on his side and pat his back to keep him breathing. At least the episode was over... I knew it was coming... but it is still not an easy feeling knowing that vomit is always right around the corner.

Monday - I fed Ryan a bottle of formula this morning, got him burped and held him upright for 30 minutes before laying him down in his port-a-crib for his morning nap. No sooner did I walk into the kitchen to grab a bite.... and I heard a splat! I rushed over to the crib and poor little Ryan was choking and gasping for air. Vomit was miraculously sprayed all over the bed of the crib. I quickly grabbed him, wiped his mouth and made sure he was breathing and thanked my lucky stars that I was nearby to hear him. What if I were in another room - or in the shower and didn't hear him gagging? Would he have choked to death?

Completely freaked out, I made an appointment with his pediatrician to make sure there wasn't anything serious going on - like Pyloric Stenosis. Ryan's pediatrician says that Ryan is gaining weight and continues to have an appetite - therefore he thinks that the projectile vomit is all related to formula feeding... which means breast milk ONLY if I want the projectile to stop.

For now, I will still be hawking over Ryan while he sleeps to make sure that there aren't any issues with gagging or vomit. So much for getting anything accomplished during the day.

Time flies!

It's been kind of a crazy week.
We had Jeff's Aunt and Uncle (Nancy & Ken) over for dinner on Monday night. Nancy cooked for us and we really enjoyed a personal visit.

As part of Dylan's success at the high school we arranged to have regular meetings with his teachers and his counselor to make sure that Dylan is on track. His Junior and Senior year will both be packed with 7 periods. He will not be able to fail any of his classes if he wants to graduate. We had our first meeting with Dylan's teachers on Tuesday. I was brave enough to bring Ryan to this meeting. Ryan started to get fussy in the middle of the meeting and I pulled him out of his stroller to hold him. Moments later he had projectile vomit in three intermittent spurts - down my chest, down my leg and off on to the floor of the conference room. I could have died.   Needless to say, Dylan is doing a great job so far this year and we had some great feedback from the school in our meeting.

Jeff left on Tuesday night for his first overnight since Ryan was born. My Aunt Dorothy came to stay with me for two nights to help out. She graciously took Dylan to school in the morning (he starts at 6:45) and then helped me out throughout the day.

Aunt Dorothy and I took Ryan to get his first professional photos on Wednesday. (see slideshow) I was so anxious to share them on the blog, but wanted to surprise Jeff with them when he got home tonight. Now that he has seen them, I have posted them to share with our family and friends.

It's hard to believe that it's been 29 days since Ryan has been born. In my mind all I see is how quickly the time is passing and how quickly I will be returning to work. I still have the task of finding daycare for Ryan - which I am dreading. I hope the process is quick and painless but I know that there are going to be some real doozies out there!

Until next time...

Nana's Rule

Some people have Grandma's and some people have Nana's. I always believed that Nana's were a little more special - especially because not everyone has a "Nana". (Ryan and Dylan both have "Grandma's" - - see.... rather common.....not that it's a bad thing.... just that it's common).

For those who know me very well - you know that my Nana and I are very close. We have been close my whole life. In the last few years - we don't see each other very much but we do talk on our cell phones very regularly. She hasn't had the tech know-how to get onto our blog, so she has not been getting the updates that most of you that read regularly have. Until she arrived on Sunday, she had not even seen a picture of Ryan. (As a great-grandmother waiting to see her great-grandson, this was killing her!)

During her time with us, she cooked, dusted, vacuumed, swept, mopped, folded laundry, cleaned bathrooms, helped me care for Ryan, stayed by my bedside in the hospital, held down the house if I needed to run an errand and simply provided me with a lot of companionship during her week here. For those of you who have had a baby - or have ever needed assistance in any way, you know valuable all of that help truly is. I am so glad to have had my Nana here this week!! We really needed that extra help!

I will be taking Nana home tomorrow, but not before I bookmark the blog onto her laptop. I will miss having her here, we had a great time (mostly at Tanner's expense). I take her back knowing I can call her if I am ever in need and she would be here!

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING NANA!! You are always welcome here!
XOXOXO

Mama's Home

First of all -- I still give Jeff grief for proposing to me on 9-11. But I guess you have to take those moments as they come. I didn't even think about my getting admitted on 9-11 - even though we passed a group of people on the way to the hospital with their American flags and their signs "We'll Never Forget". Must have been the fever. Seriously. I was getting a little delirious. Ironic, though, the symbolism of the bronze statues outside my hospital.....

Regarding this kidney infection thing.... I didn't ever think I had a UTI. How is it possible to be this badly infected without previous signs? WTF. When I started getting the pains in the kidney area, I immediately started chugging water and juice and I did go into the doctor for antibiotics... but I was too far gone I guess. The fever was horrible. Tylenol wouldn't even touch it. The shaking was basically my body going into total shock. It only took a slight breeze for me to begin with the chattering and then it was all downhill from there. The shivering took over my whole body and then all of my muscles would clench up. My chest got sore and it got very difficult to breathe. I couldn't hold anything because my hands were shaking so much. It was almost like a little seizure. It was very scary - so hearing that we needed to "ride it out" was a little unnerving.

I survived the night in the hospital, but I didn't sleep real well. I was hot. I was cold. When I was cold it was because I had a fever - - and the nurses would strip me of blankets and make me put ice packs under my arms. When I was hot it was usually the Vicodin putting me into sweats - so then I was kicking my own covers off. But through all of that, I never even worried about whether or not Ryan was okay. I know that my Nana and Jeff had everything under control. Mostly I just missed Ryan - but I knew that I needed to take care of myself first.

As usual, the hospital food was horrible and I hardly ate anything while I was in there. When we were getting ready to get discharged, they ordered one last round of blood work to make sure that the white blood count had increased - but what they had found instead was that my hemoglobin levels had dropped since I was admitted (which would indicate a loss of blood - but I was not bleeding). I was originally told that I was going to be staying one more night. .....so I ate the food. Wouldn't you know it.... they decided to let me go home. Damn!

I need to drink LOTS of fluids, I will be taking two antibiotics and I have Vicodin for pain and fever. I promised that we would go back to the hospital if I ran a fever again or if I have any new symptoms.

I'm glad to be home. I hope for this all to pass in the next few days with my current medications. I just feel like my time at home is flying by. I'd just like to enjoy my days at home with Ryan while I have them.

9-11...what does it mean to you?

Jeff here. To most, it means a day of a horrific terrorist attack seven years ago. I will never forget that. Let's fast forward 3 years from that day and I will tell you it means a great day of building for me. It was the day Melissa accepted my wedding proposal in Washington, D.C. (on the Skyview Terrace of the Hotel Washington which boasts amazing views of the White House and the Washington Monument - see photo) Weird day to pick, just how it worked out. I didn't get the nerve up to do it on the 10th. See, something else I will never...or BETTER NEVER...forget. Lets fast forward 4 years. That puts us 2008. Yet another day I won't forget...

For the past few days, Melissa has been feeling VERY bad. On Tuesday, she had a lot of pain and was running a fever. The nurse had her come by the doctor's office and pick up a sample of medication that is designed to relieve the symptoms of a UTI. They could not see her that day. After the second dose, we thought she had a reaction to the sample. She suddenly got shaky chills, looked flush, blue lips, . A phone call through the medical exchange to talk to one of the doctors led us to a "You just need to ride it out" answer. We got through it, but were prepared to head to the E.R.

Wednesday, she went in to her doctor. They gave her an antibiotic to treat a kidney infection, because that's most probable, but needed to wait for lab results to confirm. Along with the antibiotic, she got something for the pain. Well, we found out the shaky chills did not come from that sample medication because she got them again. We make it through the night and in the morning she still feels under the weather.

I had taken today day off, and its a good thing. She had been taking the antibiotic as prescribed and Tylenol around the clock. None the less her temperature got up to 104.4. I got her into a cool bath to help it get back down to 100.3 and got on the phone with her doctor. Long story short...Guess who gets to spend the night in the hospital? Well, its not me 'cause I am typing this. Its not Ryan, he's in his crib sleeping. It might be Dylan, but I think he went to bed. You guessed it. Melissa was admitted to the hospital this afternoon. A combination of i.v. fluids and antibiotics, along with some more Tylenol got her temperature back to normal. They still are not sure exactly what it is as we are waiting for lab reports to come back. Her doctor stopped by and thinks its a left kidney infection.

Here is the real test....will Ryan survive the night with just Dad watching him. Stay tuned to find out.

Wanted: More Blog!

I haven't realized until lately how many people have been regularly checking our site for updates. I have been hearing that I need to post more regularly - but I fear that the posts will become about "nothing". I'd really rather save the updates for major events.

Dylan had a desert race today at Red Mountain. He went out with the Dodd's early this morning for a day trip - Red Mountain is about a 2 -1/2 hour drive. Dylan was unable to finish the race because he hit a rock and broke his shift lever. He would have had a great chance of a strong finish had he not have broke that lever. What a bummer!

Jeff goes back to work tomorrow. I can't believe how quick 3 weeks has gone by. I know that my time home with Ryan will fly by just as fast! I desperately need to get childcare lined up for me to return to work. It's really too bad that more offices don't offer on-site child care.

My grandma came to our house today and is staying with us until Friday. It will be nice to visit with her and for her to have time to spend with Ryan. It's hard to believe that it was 16 years ago that my grandma was ooohing and ahhhing over Dylan as a newborn. I just want to savor the time with Ryan - - now that I know how quick time flies.

Getting Acclimated

It's hard to believe that we brought Ryan home just 4 days ago. In these few days we have been adjusting to life at home with a newborn.

At only 16 days old - Ryan has demonstrated that he is a very good baby. He doesn't cry very much and he is a very social. He has a look that you just know is filled with curiosity and wonder. He is very laid back and calm. Ryan spends much of his time sleeping. He only wakes up twice at night and is quick to fall back to sleep. Jeff and I really enjoy Ryan. It's comforting to sit down and hold him or just gaze lovingly at him while he sleeps.

Ryan had his first follow up doctor's appointment yesterday. The surgeon showed Jeff how to use the dilaters on Ryan. I have assigned Jeff to be the "bad cop" and take on this daily task. It brings a whole new meaning to "you just wait until your father gets home!". The surgeon thinks that the dilation process will take about 6 weeks. We are hopeful that this process will correct Ryan's stinosis and that he will not require further surgery (albeit minor). It will be nice to get this past us.

Other than day-to-day life with Ryan, we haven't done too much. The Norton's sent a great dump-truck flower arrangement (see photo), the Vinci's brought over a home-cooked meal on Wednesday night and we made our first social trip out of the house last night... to sushi dinner, to Aunt Wendy's hair salon and to Grandma and Grandpa Norton's house (all in the same city block).

I will update the blog once or twice a week now.

Ryan's Home!!!!

Just a quick note that Ryan is home and got home yesterday, Labor Day, in the afternoon. Is the irony that after a day of labor, we didn't get him home until Labor Day?

We were obviously busy and I am sure Mel will post today her account of the event.

Jeff