Cold in the eye

Evan has pink eye. :-( This is the first time he's ever been sick with anything other than a cold. And he's only had a cold once.

I thought he had a clogged tear duct like he did when he was a newborn, but both eyes were affected so I called the nurse this afternoon and she said to come see the doctor. She prescribed eye drops to put in his eyes 6 times a day! Apparently they expect us to wake him up because I'm supposed to do it every 4 hours. So I will call again tomorrow to ask about that because I don't want to have to wake him up twice a night for a week to give him the drops.

The pediatrician said he has a "cold in the eye." So I didn't think he had pink eye. But when I googled it it seems like this phrase is the same thing as pink eye. I was confused about where he could have received this virus from (if it is a virus, sometimes it isn't, but the doctor said there's no way to know how he got it) since none of his friends have ever had it. However, I just remembered the fact that Evan was in the nursery at a church we went to for a funeral on Sunday. Ugg! I knew I shouldn't have left him in there! The only reason I did was because my MIL was working in it and wanted to keep Evan. I bet that's where he picked it up. It's the first time in a long time that he's been in a nursery since we haven't been going to church much recently because of traveling for Easter and having such bad allergies. Because other than that I can't remember the last time he's played with another child's toys or even touched another child since he doesn't physically interact with other kids and their stuff when we do stuff with friends since we usually just go walking.

The worst thing about this is having to message 2 of Evan's friends' moms that he's played with the past 2 days to tell them because Evan was playing with their toys. I kind of feel like keeping this a secret, but I know I'd want to know if there was a chance Evan's toys were contaminated by one of his friends. I wouldn't be mad if Evan picked something up from another kid, but I'd just want to know so I could have a chance to clean his toys.

Oh well, it's late and I'm not feeling great (allergies) and I have to clean the house tomorrow since Matt and my FIL are installing new windows!

6-7 month schedule

I've changed Evan's schedule since the last time I posted about it way back in November. At the end of February Evan didn't have his dream feed since Matt and i were out and my sister was babysitting. He ended up sleeping a lot longer and I decided to just stop the dream feed completely. He also went to a 4 hour schedule which put his last feeding at 8:00 pm and then he went straight to bed. However, he started waking up early (6:30 am) every morning so we decided to move his last feeding (and bedtime) to an earlier time. So this is working for now and we'll probably stick with this schedule until he's old enough to go down to one nap a day (can't remember when that is).

7:30 - 8:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (1/4 cup of rice cereal mixed with fruit - usually apple sauce or bananas).

8:30 - 9:00: Nap (he will take a longer nap if I put him to bed about exactly an hour after he eats. I've tried extending his morning wake time several times and it never works.)

11:30 - 12:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (3 cubes of veggies, rice cereal mixed with fruit).

1:00 - 1:30: Nap

3:30 - 4:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (3 cubes of veggies, additional fruit if he still seems hungry).

6:30 - 7:00: Nurse, immediately to bed (we have a bedtime routine of nursing, family prayer time, read a book, sing a song, rock for a couple of minutes, and then he goes down in his crib).


Today is actually the first time I've given him rice cereal for his midday meal. He doesn't always eat much at his last meal (when he just nurses) and I think it's because I overfeed him at the 4:00 feeding. So now I'm going to try the cereal at the first 2 solid feedings so he won't eat as much so close to bedtime.

It's sad to put him to bed so early (I miss him so much after a couple of hours!), but it's really better for him and us. We all get more sleep and are happier people in the morning! Matt is still able to spend time with him in the evenings after he comes home from work (that was my biggest concern). It isn't enough time, but at least he gets an hour to an hour and a half with him on the weekday evenings. Plus, he sometimes comes home for lunch and is able to see Evan for about an hour then too.

So this schedule makes it look like he always takes 2.5 to 3 hour naps. I wish! lol Some days he does take naps that long, but usually it's an hour and a half in the morning and then 1.5 - 2.5 hours in the afternoon. Sometimes he still does a 45 minute nap like he used to, but thankfully since cutting out the third late afternoon nap he's been sleeping longer for the other two. If he wakes early I just let him whine in his crib (or talk to himself or play, depending on his mood). Sometimes I put him in his swing and see if he'll fall back to sleep or at least lay there quietly). Sometimes I let him play on the floor for awhile. It just depends on his mood and my mood. But I try not to feed him too much earlier unless he's acting hungry or really cranky.

Watch out, world!

Evan is on the move! He crawled this morning for the first time!!!!

It really came out of the blue for me. Sure, he's been moving a lot the past couple of months (rolling, squirming, and scooting), but he hasn't shown much motivation to get up and crawl. Yesterday I noticed he kind of got up on his knees while laying on his tummy, but he just went up for a second or two. This morning he was on his tummy on the bed and lifted up completely on his hands and knees. I thought, "all he has to do is slide his knees forward and he'd be crawling!" He went back down on his tummy and a few seconds later was back up and immediately crawling!!! He crawled straight for the edge of the bed and I had to make him stop so he wouldn't crawl off.

I made a huge deal about it and called Matt to tell him. I tried getting him to crawl on the living room floor, but he decided enough was enough and wanted to eat his cereal instead. After he finished eating i had to get ready to go walking with our friends (I kept peeking into his room where he was playing on the floor to see if he was moving, but he was on his back under his play gym and stayed that way). And we haven't had a chance to do it again since before breakfast. I'm hoping that after he wakes up from his nap and eats he will try again on the floor! I will also try to video tape it and post it on here. :-)

He is 7 months, 2 weeks, 6 days old.

Easter baby

yellow

The title of this post says it all! Everything is yellow here!!! Every year we see the yellow pollen from the pine trees, but this year it's ridiculous. We don't even have many pine trees around our house and yet everything is completely covered with it. The air is even covered...you can see yellow clouds floating everywhere. The sky looks hazy with yellow, the grass looks yellow, the trees look yellow, the roads are yellow, everyone has yellow cars...... gross.

My allergies were SO bad on Friday and Saturday. They were getting better, but today I've had a slight relapse. Matt's were terrible and didn't get better...now he has a cough too. He went to the doctor this morning. I haven't heard what the doctor said yet.

My dad's birthday was yesterday (he is 50 now!) and we're having a party for him on Friday night. It will be the first party we've ever had for him. A couple of years ago my mom turned 50 and Matt and I threw a party for her. This year we're not doing the party though, my mom is.

Easter was fun, but like i said earlier, it would have been better if my allergies weren't so bad. Evan "swam" in his little pool for the first time.

We skipped Spring apparently! It's been in the low 90s the past couple of days and all last week it was in the mid to high 80s. We went from 60 degrees to 90 in days!! It's great though...yesterday was a little hot, but I'm loving this weather! I just need to buy some capris and more short sleeve shirts. I went to go get my capris last week and realized...they are all maternity! I don't own any regular ones.

Evan's newest thing - saying "mamamama" and "babababa." He's done it before, but not consistently and not for long. Now it's all the time! And for the record, he said "mamamama" before "dadadada." ;-) I know he's not saying "mama" for real, but Matt and I had already bet on which sound he would make babbling first. I won! The weird thing is that he only does the "mamama" when he's upset. It just breaks my heart because I'm hearing "mama" even if he doesn't really mean ME. I'm glad that it doesn't happen very often!

Changing

So many things have been happening with Evan this week! It's crazy how he changes from one day to the next! This is definitely the most I've noticed him changing. Usually it's a little more gradual than this. Since he turned 7 months a couple of weeks ago he's like a whole different baby!

He's smiling even more. And he also started smiling at the camera. Up until a few days ago he would not smile when we had the camera out. Sometimes I could trick him into smiling for a picture by "hiding" the camera (I would hold it down low) and distracting him by acting goofy. But now he'll see me get the camera out and start grinning and look right at the camera! I'm very happy about this development. :-)

He's also started laughing more! I mentioned in THIS post how I hoped he'd start laughing more often. Although he isn't laughing a lot, he's started laughing when I do something to cause it like kissing his neck, tickling him, or holding him up in the air. Before the past couple of days, he'd sometimes laugh if I did that stuff, but it was rare, and it didn't last long. Yesterday I played "This little piggy" with him and he laughed and laughed when I did the "wee, wee, wee, all the way home!" part. So then I just started tickling him all over and he was full of giggles! :-)

Drum roll, please! He's also started....sitting up!! He's been able to sit with support up until 2 days ago, March 30. He could also "sit" on his own, but he basically just slumped forward and put his hands on the ground to brace himself. So I don't really count that. My mom was determined to get him to sit on his own so she started working with him the other day. He was doing pretty good, he could balance for a few seconds on his own. But then the next day she worked with him again, and he sat right up! He was sitting perfectly straight and staying that way on his own! We were ecstatic and he caught on to that. He was so proud of himself! He'd get all excited and start flapping his arms, which would cause him to lose his balance and fall over. lol But by the end of the afternoon he was sitting straight up on his own and playing with toys! So I count that as his first day of really sitting up. Of course I didn't have my camera, so no pictures yet.

I know there are some more things...when Matt came home last night I kept saying, "oh yeah, he started doing..." I felt like I started every sentence with that. I guess if I think of them I can add them later.

I hope you all have a happy Easter! We're traveling to Charleston to visit my grandparents. It'll be their first time to see Evan since he was 7 weeks old. It's also the first time we've gone on a trip with Evan since Christmas...I'm hoping it'll go smoothly!

Oh yeah, I am looking to buy a new pair of tennis shoes/sneakers, whatever you call them. I want them to provide good support (I go "power walking" a couple of times a week now) but still look good with capris and shorts. It would also be nice if they are comfortable for people who hate wearing shoes. I hate wearing shoes and socks during when it's warm outside! I get so overheated and uncomfortable. I was kind of looking at something like THIS, but they aren't really athletic shoes so I'm not sure they would provide good support. Oh yeah, Adi.das is not a good brand for me, way too wide for my feet. So recommend away!

Pray

Here it is, after midnight, and I'm sitting here crying. There's a little boy whose family goes to my old church (where my parents still go) who has cancer, neuroblastoma. He'll be 4 in June and he's had cancer since just after his second birthday.

I remember the first time I saw the little boy. It was before the cancer and he was toddling around. His family had just started going to our church. I immediately noticed him because he has bright red hair. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. It was before Matt and I were TTC, but I always dreamed about our future children even then. I looked at this little boy and thought, "that's what our future son will look like." I felt so strongly that I would have a baby like him. I remember watching the little boy after the church service. He was running around and into everything. His parents were young and chased after him with smiles on their faces. I just kept thinking how precious it was and how I couldn't wait to have a baby of my own to chase after.

And then they found out that beautiful baby boy had cancer. I've followed their journey closely, even though I've only talked to them a couple of times before. I feel like I have a connection just because of the time I watched the red headed boy playing. Not long after he was diagnosed I wrote on their support webpage guestbook. I said:

"Even though Matt and I have never officially met you, we are praying for your family everyday. We always enjoy seeing Carter in church with his beautiful red hair (Matt has red hair, too!). You are all an incredible example of trusting God and relying on His strength even though it is so hard sometimes."

That was in June 2008.

I've continued to read their journal entries on their support webpage. They update a couple of times a week at least, through the good times and the bad. I've read as Carter lost his red hair, went to Disney World, spent weeks at a time in the hospital, played with the visitor dogs, undergone surgeries and chemo, and got up out of bed time and time again to play and laugh.

Things haven't been looking too good lately though. He had a relapse last Spring, and children who have a relapse of this type of cancer have a very low survival rate. He has been in an experimental treatment plan the past few months, but a little while ago it became obvious it wasn't working, so he was removed from the program. His parents never say they are giving up though. They continue to have hope and pray for a recovery, but it is obvious that the doctors don't believe their son is going to make it.

They wrote a post a few hours ago saying they are taking their son back to the hospital because he's been doing very badly all weekend. The nurses who visited their home earlier were talking about admitting the little boy to a hospice. Things are not looking good at all. My heart is aching. No child deserves this. It's bad enough that little ones have to die, but it shouldn't be this painful, this drawn out. He's a toddler, he should be a little ball of energy that depletes his mom's energy at the end of every day. It shouldn't be his energy that is depleted after a few minutes of just sitting up.

Please, please pray for this boy!! Pray for his family, but especially pray that he will be healed!! There's no words to describe the horror of this situation, unfortunately I'm sure many of you have known people in similar situations though. I just feel like I need to share this with as many people as possible so that even if you only say one short prayer, at least that will be a few prayers more that reach the Lord and show him how his people can come together for others. How even people who aren't Christians can still pray for this child.