Let me be blatantly honest for a moment: I'm having a hard time staying motivated to keep up with this blog. It's not that I don't enjoy writing it when I actually sit down and put my mind to it, because I really do. The problem is that I'm either too busy to sit down and write anything, or things are too quiet to have anything to write about - by which point I've lost to impetus to write about what was going on when I was busy! I had promised myself that I would buckle down and post an update before this past weekend was over, but the Blizzard had to go and announce an open beta for Diablo III during that time, so that was shot. Coincidentally, Diablo III is pretty sweet, assuming you like to play games centered around the wholesale slaughter of the undead and/or demonic forces. But I digress...
I think part of my apathy lately stems from not knowing my audience. Part of this blog is about catharsis, just getting my thoughts down for my own sake from time to time. In that regard, if I don't particularly feel like writing anything down then I won't write anything. No harm, no foul if it's just about me venting and thinking "out loud." However, I also know from the site stats that other people are looking at the blog as well - I just don't know who. So I have a request: If you are reading this blog on any kind of regular basis, or even if you just check on it sporadically, let me know. Leave a comment here, post a comment or send a message on Facebook, drop me or Denine an email.....carrier pigeon will even work, provided he knows his way back home, I'm not feeding any more pets. No smoke signals please, we're still a little dry from this past summer.
Okay, on to catching up!
We survived another LTC, which was in ways both more and less crazy than in the past. Denine's focus this year was to just keep up with Ren and Asher and not worrying too much about getting to events and wearing herself out. She ended up missing most of Jamie's events because they ended up being when either Asher or herself needed a nap, but I've got them on video - not the same, I know, but you have to make compromises sometimes. Jamie did good, ended up getting four gold awards (chorus, drama, puppets, and Bible bowl team score) and one bronze award (Bible bowl individual score). He's added an event every year thus far, but he's up to doing all the team events now so I'm not sure if he'll try and cram anything else in next year. We're already trying to think about the logistics of how things will work next year with Ren competing as well. Hopefully it will work out were we each take one kid and one baby to events, but that may depend on how much overlap we have; Denine may just end up getting stuck with both babies while I take both kids to their events. Not sure which arrangement would be worse for her...
I think part of my apathy lately stems from not knowing my audience. Part of this blog is about catharsis, just getting my thoughts down for my own sake from time to time. In that regard, if I don't particularly feel like writing anything down then I won't write anything. No harm, no foul if it's just about me venting and thinking "out loud." However, I also know from the site stats that other people are looking at the blog as well - I just don't know who. So I have a request: If you are reading this blog on any kind of regular basis, or even if you just check on it sporadically, let me know. Leave a comment here, post a comment or send a message on Facebook, drop me or Denine an email.....carrier pigeon will even work, provided he knows his way back home, I'm not feeding any more pets. No smoke signals please, we're still a little dry from this past summer.
Okay, on to catching up!
We survived another LTC, which was in ways both more and less crazy than in the past. Denine's focus this year was to just keep up with Ren and Asher and not worrying too much about getting to events and wearing herself out. She ended up missing most of Jamie's events because they ended up being when either Asher or herself needed a nap, but I've got them on video - not the same, I know, but you have to make compromises sometimes. Jamie did good, ended up getting four gold awards (chorus, drama, puppets, and Bible bowl team score) and one bronze award (Bible bowl individual score). He's added an event every year thus far, but he's up to doing all the team events now so I'm not sure if he'll try and cram anything else in next year. We're already trying to think about the logistics of how things will work next year with Ren competing as well. Hopefully it will work out were we each take one kid and one baby to events, but that may depend on how much overlap we have; Denine may just end up getting stuck with both babies while I take both kids to their events. Not sure which arrangement would be worse for her...
(I only shot one pic at LTC, and it's really bad; I need to start using YouTube or something so I can link videos on here.)
Still working on getting Jamie's seizure medication right. He is still not completely of off the old stuff, but his doc is now raising the new one. It seems to be working for the most part, but he actually had a pretty bad seizure Saturday night while we were at LTC. He and I were eating in a room down the hall from where our congregation had the food set up, and he had gone to get more food. I went to throw away my trash and looked down the hall to see him lying in the floor. By the time I got to him, a handful of other people from our life group who had heard something that tipped them off that he was having a seizure were right there with me, asking what they could do. When it was over, one of the couples whose room was in that hallway told us to bring him to their room until he was okay to move. It was really touching to have so many people caring for us in that time; a couple of Jamie's friends even heard something was going on and went from room to room looking for him to make sure he was alright. (As an aside: Ren also got sick while we were in the Millers' room waiting for Jamie to recover. That evening gets a gold star for bonding moments!) Jamie was groggy through the award ceremony and ice cream social that night, and at one point I found him lying in the floor of the bathroom, so we're pretty sure he had another seizure at some point. Then he fell out of the shower when he tried to adjust the water temperature while avoiding the water- after telling me he was okay to be in the bathroom by himself! Note to self: In the future, insist on staying with him for the rest of the evening whenever he has a gran mal, no matter how embarrassing it may be. Needless to say, it was a pretty rough night. He was fine the next day, however, and hadn't had any seizures again until this Thursday night. We determined after the fact in both cases that he forgot his medication that morning. That, coupled with being really stressed at LTC (tired, rushed, over stimulated), is pretty much a guaranteed seizure for him at this point. Once he is up to the correct dosage missing one dose shouldn't be as big a deal, but for the time being we will have to be more diligent.
My mother decided to have a faux Easter the following Sunday since we were out of town for Easter (as always, LTC is on Easter weekend). It was actually pretty sedate as far as Easter celebrations go - Sunday dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. We were pressed for time on the Easter egg hunt because a storm was rolling in, so Asher unfortunately did not get to hunt this year since it was during his nap. We are 0 for 2 in that regard, he couldn't hunt last year because he was less than a month old at the time. It occurred to me - and I pointed out to Mom - that Asher and GG will never have a "normal" Easter seeing as we will most likely be in Dallas for Easter from now until they graduate from high school, unless both of them forsake LTC when they get to be that age. Mom said she will have to be more deliberate about having an alternative observance in the coming years; I get the distinct impression that this year was sort of a throw down because my sister-in-law's parents were in town the following weekend rather than on Easter, so Mom decided we should get together on the spur of the moment.
Still working on getting Jamie's seizure medication right. He is still not completely of off the old stuff, but his doc is now raising the new one. It seems to be working for the most part, but he actually had a pretty bad seizure Saturday night while we were at LTC. He and I were eating in a room down the hall from where our congregation had the food set up, and he had gone to get more food. I went to throw away my trash and looked down the hall to see him lying in the floor. By the time I got to him, a handful of other people from our life group who had heard something that tipped them off that he was having a seizure were right there with me, asking what they could do. When it was over, one of the couples whose room was in that hallway told us to bring him to their room until he was okay to move. It was really touching to have so many people caring for us in that time; a couple of Jamie's friends even heard something was going on and went from room to room looking for him to make sure he was alright. (As an aside: Ren also got sick while we were in the Millers' room waiting for Jamie to recover. That evening gets a gold star for bonding moments!) Jamie was groggy through the award ceremony and ice cream social that night, and at one point I found him lying in the floor of the bathroom, so we're pretty sure he had another seizure at some point. Then he fell out of the shower when he tried to adjust the water temperature while avoiding the water- after telling me he was okay to be in the bathroom by himself! Note to self: In the future, insist on staying with him for the rest of the evening whenever he has a gran mal, no matter how embarrassing it may be. Needless to say, it was a pretty rough night. He was fine the next day, however, and hadn't had any seizures again until this Thursday night. We determined after the fact in both cases that he forgot his medication that morning. That, coupled with being really stressed at LTC (tired, rushed, over stimulated), is pretty much a guaranteed seizure for him at this point. Once he is up to the correct dosage missing one dose shouldn't be as big a deal, but for the time being we will have to be more diligent.
My mother decided to have a faux Easter the following Sunday since we were out of town for Easter (as always, LTC is on Easter weekend). It was actually pretty sedate as far as Easter celebrations go - Sunday dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. We were pressed for time on the Easter egg hunt because a storm was rolling in, so Asher unfortunately did not get to hunt this year since it was during his nap. We are 0 for 2 in that regard, he couldn't hunt last year because he was less than a month old at the time. It occurred to me - and I pointed out to Mom - that Asher and GG will never have a "normal" Easter seeing as we will most likely be in Dallas for Easter from now until they graduate from high school, unless both of them forsake LTC when they get to be that age. Mom said she will have to be more deliberate about having an alternative observance in the coming years; I get the distinct impression that this year was sort of a throw down because my sister-in-law's parents were in town the following weekend rather than on Easter, so Mom decided we should get together on the spur of the moment.
Sadly, this was the best of the group shots. It's so hard to get them all to cooperate at the same time...
This week marked the beginning of the weekly check-ups with the OB to check Denine's progress. She was further along then she was at this point with Asher, so she's pretty excited about that. I thought I had those numbers in my old posts and was going to put them up for comparison, but apparently I don't. Seeing as I spared everyone the gory details in the past, I supposed I will continue with that. Thinking back, I think she's actually more progressed right now than she was when she was admitted at 39 weeks with Asher, so that may bode well for her chances of going into labor on her own. We discussed inducing some with the doctor today, just to get a feel for her opinion on the matter since we don't have an impending trip like last time. Her comment on waiting to see if Denine goes into labor naturally rather than inducing: "Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be." So that said, the plan at this point is to induce at 39 or 40 weeks depending on when we can get people to take care of our other children so I can stay at the hospital with her. (note to self #2: Having a baby when you already have a baby is complicated!) This means we should have between two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half weeks until we have another baby in the house.
Believe it or not, she's even bigger now. Click here for comparison to last time.
Updated baby-centric to-do list:
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- refinish chest
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- assemble quilt
- rearrange/redecorate nursery
We have made a little bit of progress on the list - we have the bassinet and all the quilt fabric - but now I'm no closer to starting on the chest, and getting all the quilt fabric only spawned more items on the list. Albeit items that were really there before, just not lined out. On the up side, GG won't even be in the nursery for at least six weeks, and probably closer to three-to-six months, so it's not necessarily pressing to have all that done beforehand. Although we really do need the extra space that the dresser will create to make room for GG's clothes. The last item on this list came about a little while back when Mom asked me if I had assembled the other crib and rearranged the nursery yet. When I told her "no" she asked when I planned to do it because she couldn't come hang anything on the walls until it was done. When I told her it wouldn't be done until she came and helped me do it, she started to look at Denine with a questioning look. And then said, "Oh, yeah, I guess you can't help him move furniture, huh?" I swear, she worries me sometimes now...
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