September goes out with a bang. Literally.

Ahhh, good times these days of my life.
The mornings especially.

Getting everyone up and out the door for school is always a fun experience.  Ok, it's not always actually fun, but it's certainly never boring.

This morning everyone was up and ready to go and the house was mostly clean.  I had this great plan to shuffle people out the door, then bond with The Beast to knock off the last few miles of my September Challenge.

Kids ready-check!
Morning devotional-check!
Kids out the door-check!
Kids returning to front door after leaving....uh....that was not on my list.

Not two minutes after they all ran off, Alaina came back in the front door announcing "Dallin crashed into the fire hydrant and his head is bleeding!"

Well gee, that's exactly what we wanted to do this morning!  A hole in the head!

Poor Dallin.  Dallin is accident prone.  This is the kid that holds the record for stitches in our family.  This is the kid who cut the bottom of his nose off his face.  (no, unfortunately I'm not kidding about that)
So sadly, it was not all that surprising.

But really-how do you crash into a fire hydrant?  With your head?  You are taller than the hydrant!

Apparently he tripped while running to school and hit it.  Not sure how he managed that still, but it put a nice little hole in his forehead, right about at his hairline.
Ok, let's be honest, it made us laugh when he tried to explain it.

It was small enough that it would have required just one, maybe two stitches, and despite the fact that we have already met our deductible and out of pocket max this year so stitches will now cost us nothing (yay!  Also what do you want to bet that someone needs some horrifically expensive procedure within days of the new year?),  I really didn't want to have to spend the morning at Instacare.  And Dallin was bugged that he was going to be late for school.

We held it together for a while, and it was pretty cooperative about sticking together, so we went the home healing route.

Super Glue.

Our pediatrician has offered us a bunch of dermabond just to keep on hand (he also has 8 children, he understands), but we have just never remembered to ask for it when we are at his office.

The good news is that the super glue didn't sting, it did the job, and after laying around for a while,

Dallin made it back to school less than an hour after it started.

He was very happy to report when he got home that he didn't pop his head back open.
And that his hair was still a little red from the blood this morning.
Awesome.

So I had this dream the other night....

Which is weird because I usually don't remember my dreams.  Except when I'm pregnant, then I get all sorts of weird dreams that are super vivid and I wake up thinking "what was that about?!".  And no, I am not pregnant.  thanks.

Anyway,  it struck me as odd that I had a dream that I remembered, and that apparently I have bigger body issues than I realized.  ha!

In my dream I was at some event sponsored by The Biggest Loser.  A race or something...I don't remember specifically.  I think this must have been triggered by a blog post I read this week by someone I follow who volunteered at a 5K sponsored by TBL.  She was assigned to help keep crowds away from Bob.  Good old Bob.
(Who is that age named Bob anyway?  No one.  Unless you live in the deep South and Bob is only half of your name, like Jo-Bob or something.)

So, back to the dream.

For some reason I met Bob, and he was less than kind about the current state of my midsection.  I tried to kindly explain to him that I had 8 children and my youngest wasn't even two months old yet.  For that I received a very condescending glare, a "that's no excuse", and he walked away.  I was baffled that he worked with all these huge people all the time and he was picking on my current state.
I don't remember much else about the dream except that we kept crossing paths at this event, and every time I saw him I would yell at him "Eight Kids!  EIGHT!!  EIGHT!!  And my baby is 2 months old!"

(Which now makes me think "say eight!  say eight!"  Brian Regan anyone?)

Gosh, everyone is afraid of Jillian, who I knew I had issues with Bob?  Apparently my subconscious and Bob do not get along.  Sorry Bob.

Wednesdays

It's funny how when you have a big event, suddenly the day of the week on which that event happens becomes prominent.  My days may all blur together, I may find myself asking "what day is it again?", but I know when it's Wednesday for now.

Sam was born on a Wednesday.
Eight weeks ago today.

Wow, it's been eight weeks!!

Coincidentally at this moment eight weeks ago I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting.....

 My hair was sticking out funny on the side too apparently.

Thank goodness for the distraction of that glorious place called Facebook.
(and for better hair)

I was trying to convince myself that it was ok that this was now my longest induction ever.  That it was ok that every. single. person. had told me that they were sure baby would just fall right out after a little jump start since this was number eight.   I took comfort in telling myself that if this baby needed to go slow and take all day to make it through birth and be able to tolerate labor, then he could take all day.  Whatever he needed.  I could wait.

And boy, was he worth the wait.

Happy 8 weeks my little number 8.

I hope your Wednesday is as shockingly wonderful as ours. 

My new best Frenemy

The bane of my existence and my favorite recent addition.

I give you the beast:

Duh-Duh-DUUUUUUH!!
(Please excuse the half carpeted floor.  One day we will finish finishing the basement and put real flooring down.  Though I am convinced it may not be worth the investment until the kids are past the uber-messy stage....)

Thanks to this beautiful contraption I was able to knock off 3 1/2 miles before the kids went to school.

I have never run on a treadmill before this.  Well, technically I have-trying out shoes at running stores, and test-running the ones we looked at once we decided we were going to bring one home.  But anything longer than a few minutes...nope.

Thanks to someone in a rush to free up their spare bedroom for a new baby we were able to pick this baby up for a fraction of the cost of everything else we had looked at.  Perfect price, perfect timing.

I was so excited the first time I jumped on for a run.  All those people who complain about the "dreadmill"-bah!  Just a bunch of whiners!  This will be fun! It will be great!

Yeah, that lasted about 3 minutes.

Oh my word, treadmill running is hard!  No wonder people hate running!
It was a fight to get through 2 miles.
I got off feeling discouraged and frustrated and wondering why I ever thought running was a good idea.

As I stared ahead at the walls for 20 minutes, all I could think was "They say taupe is very soothing".  Not so much.  But I was glad that there is not longer a mirror at the end of the hall in front of the treadmill so I didn't have to watch myself.
Yes, there is a tv down there, but I find that I drift to the right when I watch anything while I'm running.  Considering my history of being one of the least coordinated people in the world, I do not need any more fuel for a treadmill accident.

But-
We've had some better moments since then, the beast and I.
(apparently my treadmill is named "The Beast")

This morning I think I finally found my groove.
Mile 1 was awful.  And then I had to go wrap my knee and make sure kids were actually getting ready for school.  But with my knee wrapped, and my determination back in place (along with a desire to avoid a grumpy preteen who is even less of a morning person than I am), I hopped back on.  And the next 2.5 miles were great.
Fabulous.
Wonderful.
Really really sweaty and warm, but definitely a much better option than not running at all!

Good enough that I'm hoping to get in another couple of miles tonight.

I realized that I just can't run my normal pace on the treadmill for now.  That's ok.  If a little slower makes it doable, it is totally worth it.  I'll just save my "speed" for when I'm out really running.

The good news is that I should be able to actually get OUT to run on Saturday.  Aaron is slowly gaining more coherence and functionality, almost to the point where I'd trust leaving him here with all the kids and not worry about him wandering around in a drug-induced stupor while I'm gone.  He still has just one arm, and will be in the sling for another 4 weeks, but if we work things right, I can get the baby napping or safely placed with a friend and hit the trail for an hour.

Which is a good thing, because today is 10 days till the 10K.

Today at the hospital

Was a long day.  Almost as long as this post.  (you've been warned)
(also, my apologies for the picture quality.  I left the camera home, so these are from my phone.)
It started bright and early.
Actually dark and early.  We were there before the staff that mans the front desk at Imaging was even there.
The bonus to that is that when you have the first (630am) appointment of the day, there is no waiting!  Well, except for the office staff to get there to get you all signed in.  But that's ok.

Aaron was a serious trooper and came with me.  He probably should have stayed home in bed since he had surgery 3 days ago and is in excrutiating pain.  Pain meds are not helping.  He's all sorts of uncomfortable right now.  Trying another new Rx for him today, hopefully we'll get some results so he can rest.  Poor guy.

After initially being told Sam would have to fast for 12 hours (really), we finally got his age cleared up and he was given the ok to nurse until 230am.  Alarm #1 went off at 200 so I could feed him.  The next alarm went off at 400 to get up and going.  Unfortunately there wasn't much sleep going on between 3 and 4, so I was up when that alarm went off.  Oh well.  Early bedtime tonight, right?

We were out the door by 5.

Once we got signed in there was only a few minutes of a wait before we went back to get things going.

Sam was a gem and slept the whole ride up and through most of the rest of the prep as well.

Poor Aaron tried to sleep through the prep too.

I think he caught a few minutes here and there.

He did have a weigh-in today; 10lbs 8oz.
He's becoming quite the chunky little boy.  I love it.

After getting him out of his cute jammies and into the hospital tee (no snaps, I can't believe I didn't think of that), we wrapped him up in blankets straight from the warmer and he zonked out again.

Between another warm blanket and his binky, he even slept through getting the IV.  It was great.

(notice his legs are sticking out straight.  Crazy kid.)

We got to walk him back to the machine, though we had to wait at the door at that point.

And then it was time for us to walk away for a while.

We hit the cafe for some deliciously fatty pastry.  There is very little that sugar won't help.

Before we knew it, time was up and we headed back to sedation recovery where Sam had just arrived.
It was a little odd to see him so very still.

It took about an hour before he started stirring, and another 30 minutes or so for him to start waking up, at which point I could attempt to feed him.

He did quite well coming out of the sedation, but nursing was interesting.  His mouth wouldn't quite cooperate at first, so it was a process to get him to latch (over and over and over again!), but he ended up eating quite well in the end, and with a ginormous burp that I swear shook the floor, he met all the requirements to be released.

And then it was off to neurosurgery.

First things first, head measurement.  Growing along steadily on the same growth curve.  Woo-hoo!
Check soft spots....looking good, no concerns.  Woo-hoo!
And then down to the business of pulling up the images and the radiology report.

Moment of truth.

While we found some things out today, there are still others that we don't know too much about.
Hydrocephalus is the reason we were seeing the neurosurgeon instead of a neurologist, because if we end up needing to have shunt surgery, he's the man for the job.  So that is his main focus when looking at everything going on in Sam's head.
Fabulous news on the hydro, everything seems to be staying steady.  No increase of pressure present, no increase of size of ventricles....everything is just kind of hanging out where it has been for the past two months.  Yes, there is still more fluid than there should be.  Yes, it is taking up precious space that would normally be filled with brain matter.  But his brain tissue isn't as compressed as it was prior to birth.  The Dr felt that if anything had changed, it looked to him as though the brain mass had increased.  That my friends is AMAZING!  The gray matter of Sam's brain looks great, though he has less white matter than one would normally have.  His (the dr's) opinion is that the reason he is lacking white matter is simply because the fluid is taking up space that would otherwise be occupied with white matter, so there just isn't room for it to be there.  As far as what that means for Sam in the future.....we don't know.

We all know the drill now, say it with me, "We'll just have to wait and see"....
That's ok, there is certainly room in my life to learn to be more patient.

Next follow up appointment-get this-NEXT YEAR!  Can you believe it?  How wonderful is that?
Dr suggested an appointment around 6 months to check his head size and make sure it is staying on the same growth curve, but our pediatrician is monitoring that anyway, so we will return when Sam is approaching a year old for another scan, either an MRI or CT.  One. Year. Old.  ONE YEAR OLD!!
Be still my heart!

As for the rest of the stuff going on in the noggin, there is much to learn.  The neurosurgeon was very up front about the fact that he really isn't terribly familiar with it all.  Since it is not something that would ever be operated on, it isn't something he works with.  He did go over the radiology report with us, and spent some time going over images and pointing things out for us, giving us his thoughts and speculation, but being very encouraging (and I think relieved) about us sending the scans to the National Holoprosencephaly Research Center for a good in-depth evaluation.

One very interesting thing we learned today is that things aren't exactly what they were thought to be from the fetal MRI we did.  We were told previously that Sam has no Corpus Callosum, but today's scan shows that he DOES.   It is very thin, but it is there!  As was determined by that first scan, he is missing his Septum Pellucidum.  His optic nerves look great, and he has olfactory tracts that look perfect as well.  This means good things for vision, and sense of smell-something that I have been told that kids with HPE frequently don't have.   There was something caught regarding his Cerebellum-a slight fusion at the top that hadn't been noticed before, and the Dr was surprised was caught, mentioning that it was so slight he would have missed it had he not read it was there and looked closely for it.  There were a few other things, I remember something about the Pituitary gland specifically, but I can't remember what.  I need to pull up the report and read over it again and take a few minutes more to digest and research the few things we didn't cover with the dr.

What the heck does all that mean?  I don't know.  I am hoping that the Research Center will be able to provide a nice in-depth "what to expect" for us, though it will take about 6-10 weeks to hear back from them, so I don't expect to hear anything for a while.
(running theme of learning patience anyone?)

Honestly, even when they can give us a general expectation guideline, it is only that.  If nothing else, we have learned over the past 7 weeks and 5 days that expectations don't dictate potential.

We never would have imagined that we would have a nearly two month old beautifully healthy boy who is smiling at us, and starting to vocalize and coo at us as well.

Life is good, Samuel is great.  I was so worried about him being sedated this morning, and he did better than we could have asked for.  Even his nurse commented "this could not have gone any better!".  He did not even need the full sedation dose to go out since he was nice and sleepy already.

Now it's time for me to stop worrying (as much) and take a (longer) break from scheduling dr appointments.  It's time to let Sam shine, and let him show us just how much he will be capable of.
I can't wait to see.....

MRI

MRI went well this morning. I'll update on appointments and results when I get home.

Changes

For the most part, I'm not a big fan of change.

Blogger has made some changes.
I don't mind most of it.  It seems to make uploading pictures easier.

But it has changed the way you can save and then publish posts.  Like I just went back to proof read and publish a post from Friday morning.  And then I realized it posted dated today.  Sunday.
I used to be able to to save them and it would post in the order it was drafted, labeled with the day upon which it was drafted.
So yes, I do know that today is Sunday and not Friday.

Hmmmm.
Not loving that change.
If anyone knows of a way to fix that, I'd love to know.

Friday morning

It's Friday morning.

I went to wake Malia up to get ready for school.  She asked me for five more minutes to go back to sleep and finish her dream.
I told her she was nuts.
She tried to convince me that she had "figured out how to do it" and could indeed go back to sleep for five minutes to finish her dream.
I told her she was nuts.
Aaron then told me that he can do that and she's not nuts.
I think they're both nuts.

At breakfast, Lincoln told me that he is allergic to people.  Not all people, "like not you Mom, just strangers".  Ok.

Aaron has surgery in a few hours.  He got up this morning and asked for Comet and a scrub brush.  In a great act of chivalry he scrubbed out the tub and shower while he still has both arms.  He told me that this way if he dies in surgery I can tell everyone that he was so wonderful that even his last act was that of heroically scrubbing our bathroom.
He is wonderful.  I don't love scrubbing the bathroom.
Also he'd better not die.

Rain Gutter Regatta

We are fully entrenched into Cub Scouts here.  Taylor is in his third year (it starts at 8yrs old here), and we are gearing up for lots of years ahead with our herd full of boys.

Each time I give birth to a boy I am reminded by one of or sometimes both of my parents-in-law, "This means __ more merit badges!"  Yep.  I know.  Good thing they have an awesome Dad who enjoyed Scouting!

We are just embarking on years of dozens of Pinewood Derby cars and Rain Gutter Regatta boats.
This part I don't mind so much.  If I were smart I would just go buy a dozen of the kits for each now so we have them on hand.
I love how much fun the kids have at these races!  And I love that Aaron makes the kids (well, thus far just Taylor) actually do the vast majority of the making of the cars and boats.  Really and truly.  And contrary to past rumor.

The Rain Gutter Regatta was last week.  

Our cute friend Ashley was there since her oldest son is in Scouts now.

heehee
(sorry, I couldn't resist)

Taylor had a blast making his boat, even though it was a last minute creation.  We went with the same catamaran design as last year (yes, it meets all the requirements, despite it looking different!), and gave it a Pirate twist.

I give you The Black Pearl:

Our troop is fairly new, and last year was our first experience with a Regatta.  Taylor's boat did really well last year, so we hoped it would do well again this year.

It killed.

Really and truly I believe that these events are about the experience of making your boat (or car in the case of the Derby), and the fun of racing it.  But it is also fun to watch your kid do well.

He took first place again this year, and was very excited about it, especially since next year he will be 11 and officially a Boy Scout and no longer in the Regatta running.

Taylor also received his Bear that night.

 
Awww....pinning his proud mom.

hope you can enjoy your victory with one freakin' eye!

We throw around movie lines a lot in our house.
We randomly throw this one around lately.

It came to mind today when I got a phone call from my eight year old daughter.
Because she had something in her eye for a minute.
A kid's fist.

Sweet.

Every parent wants a call from their kids saying they got punched in the eye, right?
Ugh.

Apparently at recess a kid was taking caution tape down from the relocatable classrooms that are in the process of being removed from the school.  Alaina, knowing that the tape was there for a reason and that it should stay there, tried to convince him to put it back.  When that didn't work she tried to put it back herself.  He then got ticked and punched her in the face.

They both got hauled off to the office when the boy proceed to tell the principal that Alaina had punched him first.  Thankfully that got all cleared up quickly, because she didn't.
Although I do have to admit that there is a part of me that would have LOVED for her to have punched him second.  That immature part of me would have been thrilled to see my shrimpy little daughter clock and take out the obnoxious kid that punched her in the eye.  I guess it's a good thing that we've taught our kids to be respectful no matter what happens.  Especially since retaliation would have just made it worse I'm sure.

Alls well that ends well-I expected her to come home with a nice black eye, but all it was is a bit red and puffy.  No biggie.

For those that have asked, I trust that the principal handled it appropriately.  We have a friend who is a neighbor of ours that works in the school office who gave me a decent run down and I trust her judgement of the situation.  The boy spent some good time in with the principal discussing things and then got to do his work in the office instead of going back to class.  No, I don't know if his parents were called, but I would assume so.  As long as nothing else happens with this kid and my daughter, I'm not worried about it.  If it continues, mama bear just might show up to take care of things.

I do have to say though that the highlight of her relating the whole story to me after she got home from school was what happened after the principal talked to both of them together and then took the boy back to his office.  "The principal asked if I hit T first and I told him I didn't.  So then they went back to the principals office.  But Mom, as they were walking away, he swore at me with his finger behind the principal's back!!"  She was seriously appalled.
I was too, but it still made me laugh just a little at her phrasing.

Capturing Charlotte

We have many pictures that capture this child, her craziness, her moodiness, he wild streak....but one showed up on the camera the other night that really captures her energy.
Her constant on-the-go-ness.
(yes, I am creating my own dictionary.  thankyouverymuch.)

Never. sits. still.

And just for good measure, there was some spinning along with the jumping.

And then she got tired

and sat down.

The end.

The end

Finished.

Gone.

The last of the newborn diapers, shown here gracing my baby's bottom.

Happy 7 weeks Sam, welcome to size one.

Can I just say how much I love that size ones look huge on him? Makes me smile.

Smile

We've been seeing a little peek here and there at what might be a smile.

Aaron got one days ago.

On Sunday night I was pretty sure he was trying as hard as he could to give me one, but it was just on the edge of a smile.

This morning, his sweet blissfully beautiful little face greeted me with a smile. Still kind of a half smile, but a smile.

Tonight I got a full body, shining eyes, face lit up, without a doubt big fat smile from my baby boy.

While he was holding his head up.

You know, that baby who wasn't expected to hit either of these milestones for quite some time, if at all.

Today I feel like the most blessed mama in the whole world.

And though this isn't a picture of today's smile, here is a sleep smile until I can capture a waking one.....

(you should know that he is smiling here because he was about to embark on a sleepless night and apparently that is amusing)

No turning back now!

Paint the bathroom cabinet was on my list to be done before baby.

Didn't happen.

Oh well.

Aaron wasn't really on board at that point.

That all changed this week. I got the go-ahead, so I went ahead.

And now, since my lovely little bundle of baby boy is taking a nap, there is no turning back!

Dear sleep,

I miss you.

Since you evaded my little boy for the vast majority of yesterday, I desperately hoped you might visit last night. It was nice of you to drop by, but tonight would you maybe perhaps consider staying for more than 3 minutes at a time? I saw all sorts of numbers on the clock last night that I really have no desire to see again. And really, it's not very nice to remove my alarm clock's job. What point is an alarm if you do not in fact need to be woken up since you never went to sleep in the first place?

Also, getting the 2yr old involved in all of this was just plain mean. Toddlers are not meant to see 2:30am.

Please come back. Even if it's only for a couple of hours.

Much love,

Your old friend who can now lay flat on her stomach again and would like to do so in her nice warm bed for a time measurable in hours, not just minutes.

P.S.-

I will forgive you this one time, because the vast majority of the time I spent without you last night, I spent with this little person:

And the rest of that time was spent with this one:

September Challenge

I have been meaning to post this for weeks.

Considering it was a challenge for this month that is now two-thirds over.

But it's not too late!

My friend Trish over at Options For Life is hosting a challenge for the month of September.

Go check it out.

It was exactly the motivation I needed to really kick in with this running thing.

I love it, and I'm (almost) always happy that I got out for a run, but the number of excuses I have to stay home instead is astounding.

Let's be honest, running isn't easy. It isn't always fun. But I know that I need it to feel like me, so I was grateful for the little extra boost.

Also for the comments from a couple of people about motivation to be running.

(Marjorie (glad to finally know your name by the way) and Rachel, thank you! You have no idea how motivating your comments were to me!)

Don't be scared off if you aren't a runner, you can put plenty of miles on the books while walking too. And some of my miles have been walked!

My goal for the September Challenge is 42.08 miles.

Random number, huh?

42.08 miles is the distance from my house to University Hospital.

My life revolved around numerous appointments there for the last few months.

I thought we would practically be living there for the month of August.

I drove those miles back and forth countless times, so pounding out that distance on my own two feet seemed very appropriate.

I am happy to say that I am getting there. I WILL hit my 42.08 miles.

Go jump in with your own goal, even if it only encompasses this last week of September. A late start is better than not starting at all.

Life

Life. Lately. it's crazy.

As if to make my point, the phone just started ringing and my dogs are spazoid barking. I'll be right back.

_______

OK. I'm back.

Thankfully there was not also someone at the door, the dogs were just being obnoxious. I had no idea that dogs in heat are like teenage girls with PMS. And it was Aaron on the phone saying his test is over (final #2) and he's on his way home. A treat, as usually on school nights he isn't home until nearly 11. He passed final #1 last night (microbiology) with a B. Phew! He was really freaked out about that one. One more on Thursday night. Physiology. That ought to be fun.

I am typing one-handed, as I am holding Sam. I love holding this sweet boy, but today my arms are getting tired. Poor kid has been one unhappy camper today. He has cried almost every second he wasn't being held, save a few moments in the swing and the time in the carseat while we were at Walmart. Thank goodness he slept through Walmart. Everyone knows that Walmart trips never need any extra issues.

I have all these blog posts that I start and never get finished. It is killing me because there are so many things I have to say. If to no one but myself. Hey, blogs make for convenient journaling. Unfortunately the days whiz by at mach speed leaving little time for more than a title, a few notes so I can remember what I wanted to write about, and one more second to hit "save as draft" before my presence is needed to put out another fire. I need to write down things that are happening before I forget. I want to share more pictures of this little guy

who is growing way too fast and already changing so much.

Even pictures like this

And then I realized that I haven't even shared his birth story. And he'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow. You'd think I'm busy taking care of him all day every day or something.

Thankfully he is being a bit more peaceful tonight. Could have something to do with the fact that I am holding him. I am glad he doesn't cry when I am holding him, as it makes me worry a little less about it being something serious making him cry vs just needing a little extra love and attention today.

Scratch the 367 things on the to do list and replace with "hold baby".

Check.

Today was supposed to be super productive. Turns out all I got done were a few loads of laundry, one of dishes and a trip to the store. I did finally cave and break out the Fall decor (and scents, yay!) and get the front flower bed mostly cleaned out, so I guess that counts for something. No one died today, stories were read, children were fed, one bedroom was cleaned out, homework got done, and even if I didn't start my new projects, at least the supplies were purchased so I can get started tomorrow. Hopefully. But if nothing else, I am caught up on laundry (not ironing, surprise surprise), and the house is clean. And my bed did get made today. Even if that didn't get done until 3:00 this afternoon.

I was really looking forward to the break that Aaron has from school next week before this next quarter starts. I still am. Mostly. But now instead of looking forward to evenings with my hubby home, I am looking forward to days and nights of him drugged up and tied together. He has needed shoulder surgery for quite some time and we found out today that it will happen on Friday. Hello! Honestly, the timing is absolutely perfect (he won't miss school), but it also stinks. We were hosting a big adult cousin party here on Friday night, that obviously ain't happenin' now! Sam's MRI is on Monday, with the original plan being for Aaron to be up during most of the night before with him so I could be conscious enough to drive us to the hospital and function through the next day. We assume he will be up for most of the night as we have been told no eating for 12hrs before sedation. I'm hoping that is shortened when they realize it's a 7wk old baby and it won't take 12hrs for his little tiny stomach to be empty. Even if it's 8hrs though, that's a long time for a baby to go without nursing. Heck, it's a long time for a mom to go without nursing! Now since my husband will likely be in a drug induced stupor, it looks like it's time to pull out the cape and be Super Mom for a bit.

But hey, maybe I'll tape the hubs while drugged up. He really is quite entertaining on meds. And if your phone number is in his phone, be warned-he has known to text in the middle of the night while totally high on narcotics. Those have been fun.

Also emails. Unfortunately last time the emails went to a teacher of his (a few months ago with the spleen issues). That was great to explain.

He is still asking to go to the party on Friday night-it's still on, just relocated. That might just be more entertainment that anyone bargained for.

I need to reschedule the big extended family pictures that I finally got set up with everyone. I'd prefer not to have pictures that include Aaron in a sling. Nice.

I am plugging along dairy free. This is not easy for me. I caved and bought some almond milk today, because I just couldn't stand mixing another protein shake with water. And since cheese is decent portion of the protein I get, I for sure need the shakes. Almond milk isn't bad. It tastes like....well, almonds. Go figure. Day 4 with no dairy. 2 1/2 weeks left to go to really get a good evaluation of whether or not it is milk protein that is bothering that little tummy.

I am desperately in need of a run. I get this way on Tuesday nights. I was hoping to hop on the treadmill and knock out a couple of miles this afternoon, but that obviously didn't happen. I am skeptical of it happening tonight. Maybe. The good news is that tomorrow Aaron will be here sometime in the evening and will still be coherent and drug free with two functional arms, so I should be able to squeeze in some mileage.

I was hoping for a 7 miler on Saturday, but wasn't planning on a husband laid up in bed, strung up in a sling and floating on pain meds. Maybe I'll be brave enough to leave Sam with a good friend for an hour while everyone is sleeping and sneak out. We'll see.

Child #2 came home sick from school today. #1 was still home sick after puking her guts out last night. Can we make it through tomorrow without someone sick? My fingers are crossed.

So tomorrow? Tomorrow will be better. Not that today was bad.

Tomorrow will be more productive.

We will all get a nice good long sleep tonight. (ha!)

No one will be sick tomorrow. (pleeeeeeease?!)

I will finish painting the walls that I started yesterday.

I will redo the bathroom cabinet. (Aaron gave the thumbs up!)

I will finish sewing the 7 aprons I started last night, and get my other fabric cut. (6 weeks till the next boutique, and the Etsy shop has been on vacation mode way too long)

I will think about the ironing that I will eventually do. maybe.

I will shred all that zucchini and get it to the freezer, and bake some bread with it as well.

I will convince my almost 4yr old that he does not in fact need to wear shoes to bed.

I will paint my toenails.

Or I will hold my baby all day.

Which really wouldn't be the end of the world.

'Cause all that other stuff will still be there on Thursday too.

And keeping a baby happy is sometimes the most productive thing of all.