Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Big Boy Bed

  We have had our share of sleep problems with Owen over the past few months.  When Owen wasn’t feeling well a while back, we let him sleep with us.  I know, I know.   I can hear you all groaning and judging me!  I now realize that I made a total rookie parenting mistake.  One that I have been paying for by the way.  As you have probably guessed….Owen has been sleeping with us for about 2 months straight now.

There was a lot of laziness on Dan and I’s part.  At first we were able to get him to bed in his crib, then he would wake up in the middle of the night crying.  It was so much easier to just bring him in to bed with us (clearly what Owen wanted) than to stay up and struggle to get him back to sleep.   On top of that, we liked being able to cuddle him at night, something he doesn’t really allow us to do during waking hours (he does have a reputation to uphold). 

Over the course of his mommy and daddy bed vacation, he started becoming not so fun to sleep with.  He kicks!  Dan and I would wake up in our king  sized bed each on the far edges with Owen sprawled out in the middle.  The last straw was when a rogue toenail left Dan’s back a mess.  I haven’t seen Dan’s back that scratched up since…well…um…I suppose that’s not appropriate….Moving on!

Anyways, we figured a big boy bed may help our plight although we had managed to get Owen into his crib for 3 nights previously. We decided on a toddler bed vs. moving right to a twin just for the transition factor.  Plus the smaller bed means Owen can get in and out all by himself without a stool.  The bed was only $60 at Wal-Mart and uses his crib mattress so we can still keep all his sheets and bedding for now.  One drawback – we just realized that it carries a max weight of 50 lbs. Ooops! I laid in it with him last night to help him get to sleep.  You’d think they’d account for that huh?

Owen’s first night was last night and HE FELL OUT!  I felt so bad!  We didn’t even think to put pillows on the ground because we thought the rails would stop him!.  It’s worth mentioning that I have hardwood floors.  Poor kid! Now come to think of it, I guess he’s used to sleeping on a huge bed with 5 and half foot human guard rails so maybe it’s not that big of a surprise.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Shout out to Katie (Yes that's you Katie Johnson!)

I'm adding Katie's "Polka Dot Pig" button to my site. She does amazing handmade crafts and I want to be one of the ones to say she knew her before she went all Martha Stewart on us (uhhhh...not the insider trading and jail stuff...just the famous crafty home goddess stuff...I hope).

Ahem, anyways...Visit her site The Polka Dot Pig.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Big News!

I am pregnant!   Or if you prefer….knocked  up, with child, bun in the oven, in a family way, embarazado, or in the pudding club (that’s for my British friends, Sharon, Clare and Andy).

Fittingly, I found out on Mother’s Day that I was going to be have another baby.  Dan was happy, because I couldn’t accuse him of not getting me anything. 

Let’s see – details.  How did it happen?  Well, you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much….oh, I suppose you know that part already.  Seriously, not to be gross, but after Dan and I…uh..ahem….you know….I just knew that I was pregnant. It sounds unbelievable but it’s true.  I even said to him “Honey, I think you just knocked me up!” 

According to the Baby Center’s Due Date Calculator I am due on Jan 19th, however, I know the exact date of conception so the Amazing Pregnancy Due Date Calculator says January 14th.  Either way, I’m going with about 5 or 6 weeks along right now.   I obviously am not abiding by the “wait to tell everyone until the 1st trimester rule”.   I don’t think I could hide it for 12 weeks anyway.  I am showing already!  I heard that you get bigger faster for the 2nd one but geeze!  I already had to tell people solely for vanity’s sake.  I didn’t want them to think I was getting fat!

I didn’t blog about this, but I was pregnant in November also and lost it.  I wasn’t very far along,  only about 3 or 4 weeks.  I believe what happened was I had a chemical pregnancy.  The reason I didn’t blog about it is because it happened on the day of my sister Anne’s wedding and I didn’t want to take away from her.  (I wasn’t going to tell anyone I was pregnant until after the wedding).  By the time it was appropriate, the moment to talk about it had passed and it would have been awkward to bring it up.   It was sad but we handled it. 

So suffice to say, I’ve been a little worried that the same thing would happen this time, but I think I’m out of the clear (at least for the chemical pregnancy scenario). 

As far as symptoms go, I’m actually pretty good.  I’m very tired sometimes, and my boobs feel like 10 lb bowling balls (TMI??), but other than that, nothing.  I didn’t get sick with Owen and my general symptoms were pretty mild, so I hope to get the same thing with this new little bugger.

I have absolutely no preference as to girl or boy.  As long as my docs don’t misdiagnose him/her with lethal skeletal dysplasia, I’m good.  On that note, I will be going to a new OB/GYN who comes highly recommended and I will see him on June 4th.

I of course will keep everyone updated along the way.  Here are pictures of when I was preggo with Owen.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Totally Tube-ular

Yup!  You guessed it!  Owen is about to embark on a journey that seems to be every young achondroplasics rite of passage….he needs tubes!

Owen had his first ear infection at the end of January.  We had his ears tested by my sister-in-law Linda who is an audiologist (her practice is Advanced Audiology in DeWitt, MI) and there seemed to be a lot of fluid in his ears.  His tympanogram report was flat in one ear and almost flat in another.  A look around showed quite a bit of fluid and even some blood. His pediatrician put him on Claritin for a month to see if that would dry up the fluid and we got a referral to an ENT.

While on the Claritin, he seemed to be doing better.  He was imitating whatever we said, which he previously wouldn’t really do.  He was talking much more and was saying new words everyday.  However, today the latest typanogram test show no improvement!

We don’t have a date scheduled yet but we’ll see.  My nephew Drew had tubes and apparently the procedure is relatively easy. I know this is the right thing though.  Hell, at this point, I think he’s one of the only kids, short statured or average, who doesn’t have tubes. 

Here’s how random my subconscious is.  When the doc told me Owen needed tubes, the song “She’s a Beauty” popped into my head and I had no idea why.  Turns out it’s a song by…The Tubes!  Hahaha!  How in the hell did I file that away in my mental Rolodex when I was 5?!  Don’t think  I’d leave you hanging on this either.   Here’s the video.  The Tubes “She’s a Beauty” 

 

Owen and  his best buddy George

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Here’s Mud in Your Eye!

First off, thank you Katie for removing me from my Blogger misery. Windows Live Writer rocks! 

I’m still not finding the picture uploading as easy so maybe someone can give me some tips.  I want to upload like Facebook where you can click on the pictures and they all upload at one time.  I don’t see that you can do that here unless I’m missing it?  Still have to upload one at a time?

Anyway…here’s what I found when I came home from work yesterday.IMG_3545

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