Attempting to Catch Up

I am only blogging today because I am afraid if I don't, my parents are going to revolt against me. They don't seem to understand that this blog is what falls by the wayside when other things need to be done, including caring for a baby! Things here are going pretty good I have to say. We have had some minor setbacks in the past few weeks but I am working at overcoming them. The weekend before last Deaner and I decided it would be a fun trip to take Evans to Brugges. Since Deaner had that Monday off of work our plan was to leave for Brugges on Sunday morning and spend Sunday afternoon and all day Monday there. From Brugges we were to head to Brussels on Tuesday morning for Deaner to work there for the day and then Wednesday morning we were going to head to Mons for a big work meeting before heading home on Friday morning. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong. We got to Brugges LATE on Sunday. Why does everything take so much longer with a baby?? And here is what our car looked like. UNREAL.Who knew we would require SO much stuff. But don't worry, we did end up taking out one of those strollers and adding a playgym. It doesn't appear that all this stuff bothered Evans one bit. Sunday night in Brugges we just found a restaurant to have dinner in and then pretty much hit the hay. Monday morning we were up bright and early to do some sight seeing. The only problem was that I was not really feeling very good. I felt pretty queasy and pretty much just yuck. More on that later. Brugges is honestly one of the prettiest cities we have visited. They had gorgeous canals, buildings, churches and delicious beer, french fries and steak! I would have been in heaven had I been feeling a bit better. Here are some shots from our sightseeing. The weather was beautiful and sunny and we even got to take a canal tour.It was a really great trip and I can't wait to go back again next time Deaner has some work in Brussels. He is not so sure he is going to be bringing me back anytime soon though! Back to feeling bad. My c-section incision had really been bothering me and was still really sore. I thought this was weird because at this point in the game, I felt like I should have been completely healed. Everything was supposedly fine at my 6 week postpartum so I just didn't understand it. Well, Tuesday morning I woke up and felt a very swollen area on my abdomen. It was very red and something was definitely wrong. When we got to Brussels I called my doctors office and she said that I needed to either go to the ER there or come home first thing in the morning to see her. UGH! Last time I went to Brussels with Deaner he had to miss a meeting to bring him home because I was sick. I couldn't believe this was happening again. That night my incision ruptured and we left first thing in the morning to get home. My doctor's office was closed but she met me there to take a look. It was pretty much the worst case scenario that we could have been thinking. I had a massive abdomenal infection and it didn't look good. My doctor said that she would do everything she could to keep me out of the hospital but that if it got worse I would have to go. Despite her office being closed for two weeks of vacation, she agreed to meet me there EVERY SINGLE DAY to treat me in order to keep me out of the hospital. The other part to the agreement was that Richard not go back to work until TODAY. She told him that he had to stay home and pretty much do everything while I worked on getting better. I have LOVED having him home the past two weeks. Recovery has been SLOW and not very comfortable but we are getting there. This Wednesday will mark two weeks of treatment and two weeks of being on antibiotics. The first one my body did not respond to at all but this second one has been working better. I am finally down to going to the doctor every other day now and Deaner went back to work today. It has been a LONG day. My doctor is seeing me before all her other patients in the mornings now that the office is open again but that means that I have to get to her office by 8:45am. No small feat with an 8 week old! SO, that is the update on me. I am VERY thankful to have such a great doctor who was willing not to pawn me off to the hospital since it was her vacation after all. I know for a fact that my doctor in Atlanta would not have done this for me!

Besides all this other garbage going on, things have been good. Evans continues to be the dream baby. He started sleeping thru the night around 6 weeks and last night he went down at 10:00pm and I had to wake him up at 7:30 to go to the doctor with me. I can't ask for much more than that! He isn't the best napper during the day but I'd rather him sleep at night than during the day so you won't hear me complaining! He is such a happy baby and laughs all the time. He especially loves talking to my parents on Skype. Deaner and I made the decision a few days ago that I am going to return to the States with his dad and stepmom after their visit at Thanksgiving instead of waiting to fly with him home on December 15th. Originally I thought 3 weeks would be plenty of time at home but I have so many people that I want to see and so many events planned that it just makes sense for me to go early. So Evans and I will fly home with Dick and Maggie on November 27th. Needless to say that my parents are out of their minds with excitement and Evans and I are worried about missing Daddy while we are away so long! I know Deaner will miss us too but he might not mind sleeping in a quiet house and it will give him some time to make up on traveling that he has missed.

That is about all I have to update I believe. I know I promise all the time that I will be better about blogging and I promise I will try. Once I am home I should have more time since I will have extra hands to help out. I just can't wait for my family to meet Evans! My sister and brother still haven't seen him! I hope that everyone has been doing great and will try and stick with me until I get into a better routine!!!!! Happy Monday!

You Learn Something New Every Day

I am definitely a believer in the above statement, especially since I had Evans. Things here in Germany are going well. Evans and I are adjusting to each other and to not having any company in our house for the first time in a month. It is bittersweet for sure. I LOVED having extra sets of hands around to help out and to keep me company but I know it was time for us to get on a routine and settle into each other. We are doing well and Evans continues to be the best baby ever. He isn't much of a crier and is generally pretty happy. He played by himself on his playmat yesterday morning for over 40 minutes! Last night was his first night in his own crib and he slept 6 hours straight. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. Leaves me wondering if my next child will be the devil?? So back to the above statement.....this morning I sterilized all Evans' bottles and bottle parts by dipping them in a pot of hot hot water on the stove. Fast forward. Got Evans up from his nap and started to feed him. He was acting very weird after about 5 minutes and really wasn't eating his bottle. I didn't know what was wrong with him so I burped him. Still wouldn't eat. Gave him some gas drops, just in case, and he still wouldn't eat. Then I realized that not ONE DROP of formula had come out of the bottle. Turned bottle upside down........nothing. Apparently I sterilized in a little bit to warm of water because the nipple was glued shut! What a dummy! Nothing that my earring couldn't fix but poor baby was sucking for like 15 minutes and not getting a thing! So, note to self, my child eats like a hog, if it appears he is not eating at all, something is preventing him from eating. Lesson learned.

The picture above makes me smile. Evans loves getting a bath at night and he has the cutest towels. It is just hard to keep the camera around all the time if it is just me watching him. I had to bring him upstairs and prop him up on my bed for this one. He is also in love with the swing that my sister and brother in law gave him. I've gotten lots of emails sent thanks to this swing.Saturday we had people over to watch football and made the first big pot of chili for the year. It was delicious (thanks Deaner!) and Ole Miss beat Kentucky so overall it was a good day. And I got to enjoy some adult beverages! Evans and Deaner dressed for the UVA v. FSU game. While UVA didn't fair very well, they still looked really cute dressed alike!I know that this is one random post but I picked out the pictures that I wanted to share and now I realize that they don't really flow very well. We tried Evans new jogging stroller this past weekend and he LOVES it. He loves being outside in general, which frightens me with the approaching weather that I know is coming, but we have been trying to enjoy as much time outside as possible. Sunday we took him up into the vineyards for a wine event you can tell how much he enjoyed it.Please don't freak that he isn't supposed to be in the BOB yet because he is too small. We aren't jogging him in it and we have a head support insert that keeps him steady. Plus, this version of the BOB reclines pretty far back so he is fine. Much better for him on the cobblestones than the Snap 'N Go which pretty much rattles his brain.

And last but not least I had to post the picture that makes me laugh every time I see it. I took this after a bath while he was playing on our bed. He just looks so goofy.Nice tongue Evans! Anyways, I have been trying to be better about blogging but it is hard. It is hard trying to decide between a nap (where I know I will never fall asleep) and playing on the computer. Maybe the computer will start winning more. We are taking Evans to Brugges, Belgium this weekend, then onto Brussels and then onto Mons and will be back on Thursday. Since I'll be stuck in a hotel Tuesday thru Thursday, perhaps I will have more time to blog!! Happy Thursday everyone!