Waking up to Vacation...and hospital bracelets

We arrived at the beach house a little before dinner time on Thursday night. Mom beat us there and was waiting for us. We got everything situated and then headed out to check out the pool and beach while waiting for Kelli, Scott, and baby Joseph to arrive. The area was beautiful (i'm just now realizing that I didn't take any pictures of the actual beach house). It was literally across the street from the beach, with a pool at the bottom of our balcony stairs. What a great set-up for us!! After Kelli's family arrived and we got things settled, we had some fried chicken for dinner, hung out for a bit, and headed up to bed. It had been a long day of travel for all of us.

Before going to bed, David told me that his back was starting to hurt and that he thought it might be another kidney stone. He's had one once before - when Callie was 5 weeks old. The pain felt familiar, although more mild. I immediately groaned - felt bad for David, but also didn't want our vacation to be ruined!!! (I know, how selfish of me). He wasn't in terrible pain, so we hoped it was going to be much less painful this time around. Well, in the next hour or so, the pain definitely began to intensify and get worse. We had put the kids in bed, and I was getting ready for bed myself. I had finished feeding Caleb and put him down for the night and then laid down myself. It was about 11 pm, and David took a hot shower which helped some of his pain. The next thing I know, it was 3:45 AM and Caleb was waking up for a feeding. I got up and started feeding Caleb, when David walks into our bedroom....with HOSPITAL bracelets on and a bandage from an IV!!! I said "did you go to the hospital???" What in the world!! He did in fact!! The pain got really bad, and by 1am, decided he had to go to the ER to get some pain medication to get through it. Oh my word. So he looked up in the phone book where the hospital was, and then DROVE himself to the ER, and DROVE himself back home (yes, after being on an IV of pain narcotics!!) Good grief. I will say that while I was thankful that I didn't have to take my newborn into a hospital ER and instead we stayed home and slept, my family was so mad that he didn't wake someone up to drive him there!!

The crazy thing is that this is the 2nd time that he's had a kidney stone - and both times it was right after I had a baby. Callie was 5 weeks old last time, and now Caleb was 5 weeks! What are they doing at the hospital to my husband!!!

a new toy AND a new trick!

We've always borrowed these little "activity gyms" in the past with the other kids, but Caleb got a brand new one of his very own!! He loves it! :)
There's a LOT to see!! (and I thought the "zoo" theme was fitting, since we were AT the zoo while I was in labor with him!)

That night (Sept. 1) we gave Caleb his first bottle. David wasn't very excited about it, because my kids tend to throw a bit of a fit about it. I tried to tell him that the babies took it fine until they hit 4-5 months...when they were old enough to know the difference. But then Caleb made me out to be a liar and threw a fit when David tried to give it to him.

I took over, held him really close (the way only a mom does), got the bottle good and warm, and he took it just fine.

All Eyes on Mom

Photo Shoot

Thumbs up dude!
This is BORING, Mom!

Trying to get the "right" picture for his baby announcements...a few previews for you in the meantime...

Off We Go!!

We're leaving in 5 minutes to pick up Josiah from school and then head to Myrtle Beach for a long holiday weekend! My mom, Kristen & Chris (her boyfriend), and Kelli, Scott, and Baby Joseph will be joining us there - i can't wait! Our little family will be driving back to be here for Sunday, and then back to myrtle beach to finish up the long holiday weekend - coming home on Tuesday. So excited!!! :)

David got it all packed...although he initially told me we'd have to take 2 cars we had so much stuff!! It's a full van for sure! I'll be in touch next week when we return!!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday to everyone!! It's been a happy one here so far! It started off very exciting since Caleb slept 6 hours last night - then woke up, ate, and slept for another 4 hours. Hooray! :) He technically wasn't supposed to be allowed to go past 5 hours until tomorrow (when he'll be 4 weeks old), but I decided one day wouldn't kill him. He was SO tired because we were at church ALL day yesterday - all morning for "normal" church services, and then home for an hour before heading back for a seminar from 3- 8 pm. Great seminar, but tired kids. The other 3 were in their classes, but Caleb was with us in the sanctuary. So he didn't ever get a REAL nap yesterday- lots of cat naps in people's arms, etc. So he was good and tired! He also started "batting" at a toy over his face yesterday...and I SWEAR he's trying to smile at me! Why's he getting so BIG already! :)

I spent most of the morning today talking with my sister Kelli as we prepare for our family weekend in Myrtle Beach. 3 of the 4 sisters will be there, and my Mom is coming too so it is going to be a fun long weekend. Our family will be driving back on Saturday night to be at church on Sunday for the services and then a church-wide picnic that David has been heading up. Then we'll return back for the rest of the holiday weekend. SO looking forward to getting away for a few days - for ALL of our sakes. So I've been making menu plans, grocery lists, packing lists, laundry - all that fun stuff! :)

Packing and Unpacking

It's been a great weekend so far. Feeling good, happy kids, sleeping baby. Love it! I've been packing and unpacking today - packing up maternity clothes to return, and unpacking my "regular" clothes. It's very exciting....fun to see all the "new" clothes that haven't been seen in SO long, but will be very depressing once I realize that they really don't quite fit the same yet. Oh well - one small step at a time.

I just put a meatloaf in the oven, David has the older 3 kids at the pool (since when did Callie become one of the "older" ones), making plans to leave on thursday afternoon for Myrtle Beach for a few days, aahhhh. We're good here.

Success!

One more success!! Lunch went just fine for Josiah - he very much enjoyed it, and Mrs. Bickley said everything went very smoothly. Whew!!

Nervous for him...

10:45 am is Josiah's lunch time. He had decided earlier in the week that he wanted to buy lunch today. I told him that was fine. But he was anxious about it this morning, David said. David got up with him and let me sleep a bit while he took him to school. He said he was really nervous. David let his teacher know that this would be the first time for Josiah to buy lunch, and she said she'd help him. I hope it goes well! Praying that no calamity strikes.... :)

Cleaning the house today. I feel bad that that's how I'm spending David's day off, but I just can't do it yet on a normal day without real sleep! So not a very exciting morning here!

itching...

I'm itching to run again. I'm relieved...and scared all at the same time. I stopped running when I got to about 26 weeks (i'd have to go back and check), but stayed active up until we moved away from VA and my precious YMCA. I still did elliptical and weights and all that good stuff. I had ambitions of keeping up with walking once we moved, but frankly I was so exhausted from the previous several months, that I just didn't. I had enough activity in regular old life that I just couldn't and didn't want any more. But now I am anxious. I still have 3 weeks to go before my check up, but I am getting really anxious to run again. I'm REALLY going to miss having the Y right around the corner, because it will mean lots of EARLY morning runs. But i'm getting excited. It's probably mostly because I'm so "squishy" these days. But I'm thinking towards a February race....trying to convince David and Kelli to do it with me....so we'll see!