What a week!

Things have been a little beyond crazy around here this last week. Starting from last Wed. We ended up in the ER that night for Andy's newest kidney stone. We knew this was a stone he had several of his classic symptoms but no pain. Still we needed to be sure. Without health insurance it was a tough decision but the hospital worked out a deal with us and I think it'll be OK.

He has only one stone, thankfully, usually it has been 3, and it wasn't stuck anywhere like the last time when we had to have emergency surgery same day! This one is small and on the move out so hopefully he'll pass it on his own no problem.

It was a super late night however and Andrew was up until about 230am. Then the days that followed left him with little Daddy time. I should say Daddy's special play time that Andrew usually gets daily. Daddy is really the good rough houser, not Mommy, though I do my best! ;) Andrew and I have a lot of fun playing together too but Daddy is a much better wrestler. And Andy did what he could to keep up but it is more important for him to take care of his body so he can get that sucker out.

Daddy always does bath times. Most always, and tonight was the first night he's been able to give Andrew his bath since the attack. It has also been his first day symptom free. Which is good and bad. Mostly hard to read because the way we figure it if the stone is in the ureter moving, he can feel it, if it stops moving, it backs up his kidneys and causes severe flank pain and bleeding. He's had none of the above. This could be good because it could mean it is in the bladder and ready to come out! But we won't know until it either comes out or some sensations return.

Without Daddy doing bath times and our late night hospital visit left Andrew with quite a shaken up bed time routine. Like no routine! I would shower with him and we'd play but we do that during the day sometimes right now because I get so hot, so it wasn't like a definite, 'Oh it's bed time' trigger for him. One night he even stayed up until 530am! Last night we got him to sleep a little after 4am. But tonight with Daddy back in the tub and a very short nap today he was out a little after midnight! I am so glad we have a bedtime routine. But it is nice to lead the sort of lives that can be flexible too. If we had to get up early for anything this last week would have been miserable for us all. As it is, it's been nice!

We've stayed home for about 5 days straight now. We haven't done that since moving way out here! And with gas prices it's been extra nice. I have had time and energy to relax and read and play and watch movies with Andrew, AND clean up! Usually cleaning up was sacrificed to the Andrew time. And running all over the place driving here and there taking 30 minutes each way, really wears me and Andy out. It left little energy for anything else but playing with Andrew when we were home.

So for me it almost seems like this stone was a wake up call to us to slow it down a bit. We really don't need to be out of the house 5-6 days a week going to see this person or that person or this place or that place. 1-2 days a week is plenty. And there's plenty to do in Sanger that we don't need to go to Denton (or Aubry or Gainsville or Krum or wherever our day took us!) every time we want to do something.

I think it was a bit of an adjustment for Andrew too. He's used to all the going going going! And that may have made it harder for him to sleep too. We'll see.

We have plans to go to Denton on Wed this week, it will have been an entire week since we have last been. We need some more groceries from the old Walmart and we have a play group we're meeting up with. It should be fun. And as long as Andy isn't in pain we can go and enjoy ourselves. I still hold out hope that he'll have passed it by then!

Our new little peanut seems to be doing well in there. I feel it moving all the time now! I didn't feel Andrew this much this soon! It's so cool. And there's a lot of room still so it's like a big swimming pool with room to groove. It won't start getting too cramped for another month. Then the movements start to feel more like stretching motions. Now it feels like someone is playing in my belly! I love it!

Andy felt it the other night. I was sitting at my desk with my hand on my belly and I felt some movement. I thought it was worth a shot though you know how it is when as soon as you ask someone else to feel, the moving stops! At least that's how Andrew was, he was always so shy! :D Well that started to happen again and Andy persisted. he started talking to my belly. "Hey in there it's your daddy can you hear me." Stuff like that. And the fetus can hear external noises at this age. And it worked! It started going crazy! The most movement I had felt yet actually. Must like the sound of Daddy's voice, guess someone may be called upon to sing the old Hey Song again!

And speaking of growing, our first born is quite the big boy! His vocabulary is really growing though it isn't all easy to understand unless you are with him all the time. He says go, up... I know there's more that i can't remember right now - little sleep deprived! But a lot of them sound very similar so you have to pay attention to what he is doing. he also picks up the sign language after about one time being shown. I wish I knew more!

He is also getting the big motor skills more under control Sure he still bumps his head a lot and falls down sometimes (sometimes on purpose to be funny!) but he can now climb things he never could before. he did it a few weeks ago on a jungle gym at our local park and the other night he climbed straight up a chain ladder on the jungle gym at our apartments!
Here he is climbing and sliding a couple of weekends ago.


Here we are at Andy's Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa's for their daughter's birthday. Lori loves to play with the kids and was probably happier to play with Andrew than us though she's my age! He shows off some sign language skills here.


Remember to scroll down and catch him doing monsters if you missed it from last night!