(un)Happy Halloween!

As to be expected, today was not the happiest day for Nadia. Thankfully there were a few minutes here and there where I managed to get some photos of her (when she wasn't crying, nursing, or sleeping which is mostly what she did all day). It was fun taking my little bumblebee to the grocery store this afternoon. :-) Did any of you guess the right costume? Paul narrowed it down to either pumpkin or bumblebee, and then he let me pick between those two. Yesterday, Nadia received her very first card in the mail. Paul's mom sent her a Halloween card. :-)

Ouch!

Nadia had her four month shots today. She screamed of course and gushed blood again (even got on my shirt). I wish all of them could be given like the rotovirus one (oral suspension). She finally fell asleep at 7pm after crying A LOT. I probably should have gone to bed already so I am going to keep this brief as I've been up since 5:45am and didn't get a lot of sleep last night even though I went to bed at 7:45pm. I am not sure what tonight will be like in terms of sleep for Nadia & I. I really was hoping to sleep in this morning since Thursday is my "day off," but as Paul said she takes after Mommy and is a morning person, LOL. Thankfully I did get her down for two 45 minute naps in her crib this morning. Anyhow to summarize her doctor appt today this doctor disagrees with having her on Zyrtec. Instead she suggested the congestion might be from reflux and said that thickening her diet might solve the problem. She suggested adding rice cereal to her bottles (of breastmilk or formula) and also starting to give her solid foods by spoon as well (first cereal and then fruits and veggies). Nadia is now 24 inches long (two feet!) and hasn't quite hit 13 lbs yet without her clothes on (12lb 8 1/4 ounces). The most shocking thing was that they took her temp rectally and she kept smiling away (whereas when they take it under her arm she screams her head off). Go figure, LOL! For weight she is in the 21st %ile and for length in the 35th %ile which is a huge jump as she was less than 10th %ile for both 2 months ago (unless you use a chart adjusted for her coming almost 4 weeks early). So we will start the rice cereal this weekend. I am not sure about the fruit and veggies. This seems kind of early???

The photos here are from Walmart that I picked up today. The first ones were age 5 weeks at Sears and these were from 2 weeks ago at Walmart. In about a month we plan to get ones of the three of us (and of her by herself) with a Christmas dress on. I hope she smiles for those! I hadn't planned to dress Nadia up for Halloween this year since she hasn't a clue about what she's wearing. I thought I'd wait until next year when she could have a little say in picking out what she wants to be for Halloween, but when I was at Walmart I changed my mind and bought a costume that also is a footed sleeper. I called Paul on the cell phone and asked him if he wanted her to be a pumpkin, horse, cow, bee, cat, or dog. You will find out tomorrow which he picked. How's that for a little suspense, LOL! I figure when the kids come to our house they will enjoy seeing Nadia in her costume. Hopefully I got enough candy. We haven't had trick or treaters the last few years when we lived in a really rural area with a long driveway and long walks in between the houses.

Under the weather

Yesterday as the day progressed I started to come down with something - sore throat, headache, etc. Because of how I was feeling I decided not to go to handbells last night. Nadia went down at 7:00 (and only cried for 5 minutes before she fell asleep), and I was in bed by 7:30. Unfortunately she woke up at 9:45 which is VERY early for a first feeding (usually it's around midnight at the earliest). The next stretch was 4 hours but then she woke up at 3:00 only 45 minutes after she had gone down last. I was very frustrated as usually the stretches are at least 2 hours long these days. It's been many weeks since she got up that soon in the middle of the night. I checked her diaper to make sure that wasn't the problem, nursed her for 5 minutes, and put her down again and thankfully after crying 5 minutes she fell back asleep. Normally she goes down without crying during the middle of the night, but I was too tired to do another feeding such a short time later. She got up for the day at 5:30 which was earlier than I was hoping. I was determined to take naps when she went down but unfortunately today has been a tough day as far as napping in the crib even though yesterday I got her down easily for two naps (plus Paul had her down for an hour yesterday morning). I am torn whether I should go to the doctor or not. It might just be a virus. I do feel lousy that is for certain. On top of that we have had rain and very strong winds today, but east of us it has been snow and freezing rain so I am concerned about driving to and from school tonight. It's only October for Pete's sake!!

Yesterday I finally took two videos of Nadia. It's taken me long enough! I've been planning to video her cooing for two months. I took another this morning and posted one of the ones from yesterday and also today's here on the blog. The next video I want to make is of her laughing, but I need Paul's help with that as I can't get her to laugh while I'm holding the camera. I want to start videoing her at least once a month as I know I'll treasure these in the months and years ahead. I'm already kicking myself that I didn't take any the first four months. Well at least I took lots of pictures. :-)

Photos Galore!

Let me start out by saying that last Thursday night was a GREAT night for Nadia as she slept 7 1/2 hours the first stretch and 2:45 the second which means she slept 10:15 total which was greatly appreciated by her Mommy!!! That had been the norm for a few weeks awhile back but hadn't been the norm lately. I didn't expect Friday night to be a good night, and it wasn't. She cried about 40 minutes of the first 2 hours of our trip and then thankfully slept the last 2 hours. However this threw her off of her schedule that she slept over 3 hours between 4:15 and 8pm. She was up from 8:00-9:30pm and then got up once to nurse about 4 hours later and then was up for good at 4:15am. Momma was tired on Saturday as that is too early to get up particularly after I had been driving for so long. When we arrived Adam was already in bed, but Susie did get to meet Nadia before she went to bed. We went to bed before Wendy got home from rehearsal so she didn't meet her until Saturday.

Saturday we met one of my friends at IHOP for breakfast at 7:30 so she could meet Nadia, and then we came back to my parents and spent the rest of the day with my family. It was such fun to hear Susie play the violin and read, paint her finger and toenails MANY colors, tickle Adam, etc. Also it was wonderful to see Wendy, Maurice, and my parents enjoying my little girl. :-) Thankfully she slept pretty well on Saturday night even though she was in a pack n play (rather than her usual crib).

Sunday I debated whether to put her in the nursery or not at my parent's church. At my church most parents keep their babies with them when they're this young even though they do have two nurseries. At my parent's church though almost everyone uses the nursery (although there was an 8 day old baby with her parents in the service). So I put Nadia in the nursery which worked out fine for most of the church service (she napped) but when she woke up she wanted fed so they paged me (they have those devices like restaurants give you while you're waiting that light up and vibrate). They commented on how she arches her back. Yes she does! I nursed her and left her for Sunday School but they quickly paged me again as they said she suddenly "erupted." She wasn't hungry but just wanted Mommy so I took her back and kept her with me in Sunday School. She slept on my shoulder so that worked out just fine. :-)

Sunday afternoon we watched football as the Giants beat the Steelers. I had gone with the Steelers on my fantasy team. If I had played the Giants defense instead, my Groundhogs would have won. I went with my heart and so both my teams lost. :-( Well there's a VERY slim chance my Groundhogs could win as I have one player playing tonight but I highly doubt that will happen. I really get too emotionally involved in this stuff. It's just a game, right? Well at least Paul is happy. If my team has to lose I guess it should be to my hubby's team.

We left when the game was over and Nadia slept the entire time. Wow! It was so nice to not have any screaming during our 3+ hour trip. That was the reason we left when we did as Paul & I would rather have gotten back earlier (we got home a little before 11pm). So Momma is tired today as well since I got up to feed Nadia in the middle of the night and then got up a little before 6am as I have to be out the door by 6:40am. Thankfully though Nadia did well. If you don't count her brief waking period when we moved her from the car to her crib at 11pm she really slept a very nice long stretch and again slept around 10 hours total. Hopefully that will become the norm again! She's also getting better at taking naps in her crib as she often cries only about 5 minutes and usually no more than 15 minutes. I think as far as driving goes, we will travel in the evening as much as possible when we have to make a long trip which won't happen again until Christmas.

Enjoy the photos! The teddy bear one was taken on Friday (the day she turned 4 months old), and the others were taken on Saturday and Sunday in MD. As you can see, she's not the only child in our family who sucks her thumb. :-)

Four Months Old!

What an exciting day today is! First of all, my little sweetheart turns four months old today. Wow! She has changed and grown SO much!!! It's exciting to see her grow, but it's also a little sad too. Thankfully she still likes to snuggle (I hope she always is a girl who likes to cuddle!), but she doesn't like to do things like say take a nap lying on me anymore. I wish I had savored those moments more. It is a good reminder to me now to really treasure each moment as certain types of experiences will quickly go away. Here are a few things Nadia loves as well as things I love about Nadia.

1. She has such soft skin. Of course all babies do, but I just really enjoy touching her sweet little cheeks and such.
2. Nadia loves it when I look at her and say "hi." She just LIGHTS UP if this happens after she hasn't seen me for awhile (which could be just a couple of minutes).
3. Of course I love her smile. It just makes my day!!! I also love her laughter!!!!
4. I love how she likes to grab on to one of my fingers. I always hold her hand while nursing her in bedroom to warm her sweet little hands.
5. She likes the song "You're a cutie" that I made up to the tune of "Oh my Darling" (Clementine).
6. She likes to be bounced on the boppy, given airplane rides, etc. Grandpa will have fun with her this weekend!
7. She often goes to sleep to another song I made up to the tune of "Jesus Loves the Little Children."
8. She loves seeing Mommy and Nadia in the bathroom mirror.
9. She likes it when I put her face up to Daddy or Grandma's cheek to give them a kiss. She usually smiles after she's given the "kiss."
10. She loves it when Mommy eats her belly!
11. She likes to sit on Mommy's lap while Mommy plays the piano.
12. She likes to go outside; sometimes if she's upset this will calm her down.

I am also REALLY excited because we're driving to MD today. I am not looking forward to the drive, but I am so looking forward to seeing Susie, Adam, and Wendy as I haven't seen them in 7 months (which is a LONG time to go without seeing little children as they change so quickly), and of course they get to meet Nadia for the first time! It's been a little bummer for me to have to wait so long for my sisters to meet my girl. I have to wait quite a while longer for Yvonne to meet her. So I am looking forward to seeing my family interact with my sweetheart (my parents and brother also), and I am also looking forward to painting Susie's nails, hearing Susie read (she's up to the 3rd grade level and is not quite 4 1/2 years old), hearing Adam's greatly expanded vocabulary, etc. I hope to take a lot of good pictures this weekend that I can post upon our return (Sunday night). At least Patches ( my mom's cat) has nothing to fear since Nadia's not mobile yet. :-)

I was wishing we could get in the car this morning right after I got back from teaching, but Paul won't get home until about 3:45 so we can't leave until then. So I went to a local bank and set up an account (only 1.3 miles from our house). I am glad I didn't try to do this yesterday after going to the grocery store as it took a lot longer than I expected it would. I also got gas for the car so we have a full tank for our trip. On my way home from work I saw gas for $2.69 at a Sunoco. I paid more than that when I got it today with Nadia, but I've learned with a baby that sometimes convenience matters more than price. I am happy to see the gas prices going down. I hope they STAY down and that this isn't a really temporary thing. Also I hope that this leads to other prices (such as food) going down since the reason they went up was because of the gas prices. I wonder if that will actually happen?

Time to go pack. This is my first time packing for THREE!!! :-) Of course her clothes won't take up much room, LOL. This will be the fifth house she will have been inside of. So far she's been in our old house and new house, Donna's house, and her cousin Holly (& Quentin)'s house. This fifth house will be Grandma and Grandpa's house!!! If I have time, I will be adding the traditional photos to this post (with the Steeler snuggle ball and the teddy bear). The snuggle ball photos are from July 10, August 24, September 25, and October 24. She now weighs 13 lbs with her clothes on!

Thumbs are Yummy!

Nadia sucked her thumb for the first time yesterday. Paul was the first one to notice it. That's a perk for him (and a little bummer for me) that since he spends more time with her than probably most dads spend with their babies, he will get to discover more "firsts" than probably most dads do. I witnessed the behavior this morning. She looks so cute! I know it won't be cute if she's sucking her thumb years from now, but it's cute for a 3 month old. She used to put her fists in her mouth - her knuckles in particular were what she seemed to be sucking on. This morning it was her right thumb. I am curious to see if she will favor one thumb over the other. Hopefully I'll get a good pic of it and be able to post it sometime. I am definitely taking photos today as I didn't take any the last 2 days. Such a long time to go without a photo, LOL! I will take lots of photos this weekend as she will be meeting Aunt Wendy, Susie, and Adam for the first time while we're in MD (and also seeing Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Maurice).

Last night she slept 5 hours then 2 1/2 hours then 1 hour. So she got up at 5:30am which was too early. She went down at 8:30pm so I was hoping a later bedtime would help, but it didn't. For weeks she was getting 10 hours a night (at least) but the last few nights only about 8 hours a night. I hope we get back to 10 soon and also have some longer stretches soon as the longest I've gotten lately is 4 hours which isn't enough! This morning she wouldn't nap for Paul more than 20 minutes so I decided to let her sleep on the boppy as I figure that she gets a nice long nap is more important than where it is taken.

The hematologist's office called today and said I am still slightly anemic. They said I should check with Nadia's pediatrician, but if she approved he wants me to take one iron pill a day (less than I was on while pg) and have bloodwork again in 3 months. When I had the appointment I asked him about why I wasn't allowed to have an epidural or spinal or anything during labor or the c-section. He said they were being overly cautious and that he wouldn't have said I couldn't have one, but he said now that I passed the ultimate bleeding test (the c-section) that I could definitely have one in the future. I really would like to avoid general anesthesia if I am ever giving birth again so I am glad to know this. Of course I may never be pg again, but I figured I might as well ask him while I was there so I wouldn't have to see him again if I was pg again.

Discouraged

Well yesterday was a long day. It was too long really. I wasn't feeling well at all part way through handbells. I had a splitting headache for one thing. Mostly I just felt like I needed to be in bed at that very moment. Two weeks ago I left rehearsal at 8pm, but last night I was trying to stay until the end since I had missed the rehearsal the week before. I left at 8:15 because I knew I just couldn't stay one more minute. When I got home I took off my coat and immediately climbed in bed. Paul had told me that Nadia went down at 7pm so I was going to bed 2 hours after her which I knew wasn't a good thing. I decided last night not to go to Bible study this morning as I realized that if I did I would be home about 90 minutes between 8:30am and 8:15pm, and I knew I didn't want two long days in a row. I had worked really hard yesterday to finish my Bible study lessons so I was ready for the study today, and I had rated the applicants for 4 jobs at my university (19 of them) yesterday so I'd be ready for my search and screen meeting that will start at 2pm today. I really did intend to go to the study this morning until I realized how tired I was last night.

Well there proved to be other reasons not to go to study this morning such as Nadia woke up at 4:30am (the previous feeding had been from 1:30-2:00). I nursed her from 4:30-5:00. She cried from 5:00-5:15. I nursed her from 5:15-5:30. She cried from 5:30-5:45 and so I brought her to bed and let her nurse in bed until 6:30, and then I got up. Although I was horizontal for part of that time, really I have been up since 4:30am which means I got 7 hours of sleep total. I know that is a lot compared to back when she was less than 12 weeks old, but it's just not enough for me. I am tired.

So I sit down at my computer at 6:30am while eating breakfast as I hadn't be on it for 12 hours (long time for me, LOL), and found a really, really harsh anonymous email from a student (who was to be representing several students) that had been sent not only to me but also my chair and Dean. I have never received such an email or anything close to it before. My student evals since I started teaching at the college level in January 2003 have been very positive. It's very frustrating when a student doesn't come to you (and I think I'm a very approachable person) and then goes right straight above you (first time this happened to me). The person admitted the stimulus for the email was their frustration over one quiz. I wish they had just come to me about that. Instead they got all worked up and proceeded to critique every aspect of the course and give their input whether an assignment was a good one or not and whether it should be worth more points or whatever. It was all done in a VERY harsh tone. I wish I had read the email last night. The reason I say that is that when something upsetting happens to me it takes me a little while to process it and get over it emotionally. I teach this class tonight. I am feeling very emotional at the moment. I did respond to a FEW of the concerns in an email to the whole class (since I have no idea who wrote the email) and sent that to my dept chair and Dean as well. The Dean is away. The dept chair wrote back that he thought my email was good and he wasn't concerned as he has never heard anything negative about me before and said sometimes these things happen. Well I don't want to dwell on this or I'll just get more upset.

Even though Nadia was awake since 4:30am, she didn't want to take much of a nap in her crib. The first attempt at 9:00 lasted 15 minutes, and the second attempt at 9:50 lasted 25 minutes. So she is now sleeping on my lap on the boppy as Momma is too stressed out to try to get her to take a nap in the crib right now. Well I leave for work in 3 hours and hopefully can get myself together before then. I think a good cry would help. I also need to make dinner so Paul has something to eat (he'll be watching Nadia from 1-8pm today since I have a committee meeting at 2pm before my office hours and class) and finish grading some papers.

Hematologist

Last night Nadia was tired really early. I was trying to keep her awake as I was afraid if she went to bed earlier she'd get up even earlier. At 6:45 I decided to just let her go to sleep. She slept 45 minutes and then after I nursed her she went back down at 8:15pm. I was in bed by 8:30pm and thankfully she didn't wake me up until about 3:15am! She then slept from 3:50-6:45am. Yahoo!! I was SO glad for the 7 hour stretch!!! Then she performed an even more impressive feat this morning when she napped for Paul from 8:15-9:55 am which is a new record for her!!! I put her down again at 11:25 as she was acting tired and she took a 45 minute nap. Wonderful! She hadn't taken any naps in her crib on Sat or Sunday (yesterday because she was in the church nursery) so this was great!!!

The longer nap was well timed as I was at work longer than usual as I taught the 8:00 and 9:00 classes as the prof who took over the 9:00 class was speaking at a conference today. So it was helpful for Paul that she slept so much while I was away. Today is a long day for me. In addition to spending an extra hour at work, I am spending about 3 1/4 hours on the road today. Not Fun. I have a hematologist appt as a follow up to make sure the anemia was just pregnancy induced. I have a bloodwork appt at 2:20 and then see the doctor at 3:00. Nadia will be with me. Then I'll come back home and be home for a couple of hours before I return back to the same town for handbell rehearsal. I'll be really glad when Thursday rolls around as I don't need to drive anywhere that day!

At least the gas prices have dropped. I paid only $2.89 today which was much appreciated (of course that price would have been considered very high not THAT long ago). I keep track of our expenses rather carefully and from 2001-2007 the most we spent in any one month on gas was in the $290's (for two cars). Well two months ago we spent over $400 on gas, and then last month we spent over $500 on gas. Oi vey! I can only imagine what our totals would have been the last two months if the gas prices hadn't been dropping. It should improve in a couple of months when first of all I'll have a break from going to school for one month and then I'll only be going twice a week instead of four times a week.

Nadia's congestion seemed to be getting worse so Paul thought we should get her back on the Zrytec. So she had some last night. We shall see what the new pediatrician says. I contacted them last week to get the long overdue results on the bloodwork, and they said Nadia isn't allergic to milk. It's good to know I don't have to give up dairy products, but it means we don't know how to help her!

Carpal Tunnel

For a few weeks I've had a lot of pain in my left wrist. I was going to ask my sister (who used to be an OT at Hopkins) about it 2 weeks ago, but it didn't seem important at all compared to her son having a seizure! The pain has increased since then so I asked her about it yesterday and after I answered the questions she asked me she diagnosed it as carpal tunnel and suggested I take an anti-inflamatory and wear a brace at least during the night. She said probably the "trauma" occurred during labor (makes sense since I was pulling for hours with all my might during the "pushing" stage of L&D) and that over time as Nadia has grown heavier the inflammation has gotten to the point that it's painful. So I went to CVS (thankfully there is one less than 5 minutes away) and got one last night. Hopefully in time it will improve as with Nadia gaining weight it's becoming more painful as I usually carry her with my left arm so I have my right arm free to do stuff like make myself breakfast or whatever. The pain is so bad that certain times when I do something very simple like put my fingers through my hair I scream in pain. I dropped Nadia (in the crib so she was fine) once a couple of weeks ago the pain was so intense. Of course that scared me! I should have brought the brace to church this morning as it hurt to play handbells. Thankfully Carol had me playing the very smallest (lightest) bells. I have a friend whose wife is a PT so if it doesn't improve I might also ask her for advice as obviously it will be easier to help me in person than for Yvonne to help me from across the ocean. :-) If any of you have had carpal tunnel and have any suggestions, I am all ears. Having a baby is definitely tough on the body, but of course Nadia is worth all the pain and discomfort!!!

Since the handbells were playing 3 songs today I needed to put Nadia in the nursery for the first time. I admit it wasn't easy to leave her especially as I didn't know the people who were working in the nursery during the SS hour. Nadia had gone to bed at 7:20pm and slept until about 12:30am and then after nursing her for 30 minutes she slept from 1:00-4:30am. At 5:10 am I put her down, and she cried a little. I could tell when I went in at 4:30 that she thought it was time to get up. So I did the same as the day before and shut our door so I wouldn't hear her cry. Well I woke up at 5:55 and she was still crying. :-( So I went and got her. This is two nights in a row of her getting up between 4-4:30am and only getting 8- 8 1/2 hours of sleep. I stayed up 2 hours after she went down so I am tired. For a few weeks she was having one stretch that was at least 6 hours and it was averaging about 7 hours. I am frustrated that the last 2 nights the longest stretch has been 5 hours especially since that has meant the longest stretch for me has been 3-4 hours. Hopefully soon she'll get back to having one stretch that's 7-8 hours long. I also hope she stops getting up so early! She used to get up between 6-7am and that was much better. We aren't putting her to bed any earlier. She has been going down between 7-8pm because that's when she gets tired and is ready for bed. Any suggestions are appreciated. Maybe this is just a temporary thing and she'll get back on the right track soon. Momma is tired though! Her early wakeup time proved helpful for the nursery workers as after they fed her a bottle she slept through the rest of the time in a swing in the nursery. It was nice to play with the handbells today. One of the songs we played while the choir sang, and it was gorgeous. I had goosebumps (the good kind) for that one (Rejoice the Lord is King).

Wallpaper and Wish lists

Well yesterday I put up 90% of the wallpaper border in Nadia's room, and this morning I finished that project. The photo on BRU showed it being placed in the middle of the wall (like where a chair rail would go), and although I thought that would like a little better than at the top, I didn't trust myself to be able to keep a straight line. It's easy when you have the edge of the wall/ceiling to use as a guide! After I was done I inspected my work and found only 3 places where you can tell that one piece stops and another starts. Not bad considering I was putting up small pieces at a time. I hadn't put up any wall border in the last house, but in the first house I bought (2001) I did put up wallpaper border in the nursery (that was never used), our bedroom, and the kitchen. There was no wallpaper or border in this house so it's not like there's an excess of it now. Actually I found some of the kind I used on that first house in the kitchen, and it would match here so I am trying to decide if I'll use it or not. I need to see if I have enough first of all.

Yesterday I also worked on our Christmas wish list. 99% of it relates to Nadia, LOL. My family exchanges wish lists which I greatly appreciate. It's always special when you think of a good idea on your own, but sometimes that's really hard and it's nice to know what books Drayton wants or what computer games Maurice wants or whatever. So I will throw it out there for suggestions before I send off our list to my family, what toys do you recommend for a child ages 6-12 months? It is nice that Nadia's birthday is 6 months away from Christmas so we can just ask for clothing that will fit in the next several months and toys for now and then for her bday we can ask for the next 6 months. Of course when she gets bigger it won't be as big of a deal, but kids change SO quickly at this stage of life! Paul assembled the johnny jump up today, and she seemed to like it although she wasn't jumping in it yet.

This morning I planned to mow the lawn while she napped. Well unfortunately she only slept in her crib 15 minutes, and I didn't know it. So I kept mowing while Paul was caring for her, and I assumed she was sleeping. The lawn hadn't been mowed in 2 weeks, and we had a lot of rain so it needed mowed. We are supposed to start getting a frost at night so I think the grass shouldn't grow as quickly. It took me 55 minutes to mow 95% of the lawn. I wasn't quite done when it ran out of gas. It would be faster if we had kept our riding mower, but this is much better exercise! I prefer productive exercise rather than just doing exercise for the sake of exercise although I do need to start doing that as well since I don't get enough in my daily routine. I hadn't asked Paul to do anything around the house over the last week in light of his midterm exams, so it's been nice to have him doing a few projects around the house today like installing a towel ring in our bathroom for a hand towel and doing some spackling.

We were supposed to have 3 guests for dinner tonight (two profs from my university plus one was bringing her dh) however on Thursday night one called to cancel so then I asked the other one if we could postpone. Unfortunately I had purchased a whole bunch of salad stuff that morning at the grocery store and some garlic bread for our dinner. One was going to bring lasagna and the other dessert. The garlic bread is no big deal as it will keep in the freezer, but it will be a challenge for Paul & I to eat all the salad stuff before it spoils. Oh well. Ironically the same thing happened to me in June only that time my dinner guests were 3 adults and 4 kids and they cancelled the morning of so I had a lot more purchased/cooked. I am not doing well in terms of my dinner guests actually coming over. Our social life is 99% of the time just we three so I am trying to invite people over more often but it's not working out so far. The ones who were going to come in June have been rescheduled for November (but only 2 adults and 2 kids this time) so hopefully it will actually happen this time! I enjoy having people over for dinner and playing games together, but it happens only a very few times a year in part because we didn't know many people where we used to live and of course that's even more true now that we have moved. That's another factor of Nadia not being able to go to work with me. In Sept I had lunch at Applebee's with a colleague one day (with Nadia), but lunch with a friend is no longer possible. Well Nadia is a most wonderful companion even though our conversations are not very intellectually stimulating, LOL.

Getting the mail was not a very pleasant experience today as there was a bill in there for $558 for Nadia's time in the intensive care. I will be calling the insurance company about this next week that is for sure! I hope we don't really end up having to pay this. We have an HMO (by choice- we could have Blue Shield if we wanted) so I don't understand why we're getting this bill as we were in the hospital that is owned by the same company as the HMO. Of course Nadia is worth every penny, but I really felt they kept her there MANY days more than necessary. The reason she was put in there was because of her breathing issues that they thought were due to an infection. She only received treatment (CPAP) for those breathing issues for a few HOURS that is it, and she didn't have an infection. Many babies are born smaller than her and many have jaundice and aren't in NICU. I really was very seriously wanting to pull her out against the doctor's wishes while we were there, and of course getting a bill like this is just stirring all that up again within me. Well hopefully we won't have to pay, but if we do, she is of course worth it. I just will give serious consideration to switching our insurance next summer as then we can also go to a different hospital - one that is closer to where we live now. I guess it will depend on if we decide to do IVF again as this insurance does pay some of the costs of that whereas Blue Shield doesn't. I know the charges were astronomical, but we pay $1,400 a year for health insurance which is 10% of the premium so that means our premium is $14,000 a year and over the past few years aside from fertility stuff I haven't been to the doctor hardly at all, and it's not like they paid most of the fertility stuff. We paid for most of it. It's just they paid a little bit of it compared to Blue Shield wouldn't even pay for blood work. I know it's only one "problem" in our economy which seems to have bigger issues right now, but healthcare is a mess - the bills that are charged are just out of control, health insurance premiums are skyrocketing, and so many are without any health insurance at all. I think limiting the amount a doctor can be sued for would be one small way to help so that medical malpractice premiums would be lower and hopefully this would translate to lower doctor bills. I am not sure what else needs to be done, but it's a mess!

Last night is the first night since Nadia has been home from the hospital that I can't tell you how much she slept. I know the first stretch was 5 hours and the second was 3 1/4 hours, but after that I have no idea. She woke up at 4:00 and didn't want to go back to sleep after I nursed her. She was ready to get up for the day. Well that was just TOO early. So at 4:50 I threw in the towel and shut her door and shut my door so I wouldn't hear her cry. I panicked when I woke up at 6:50 as I could hear sounds from her room and I felt awful at the thought maybe she had cried for 2 hours??? I rushed in only to see she was smiling and cooing at her butterflies (mobile). Whew... so I have no idea what happened during those two hours - how long she cried or how long she slept, but I do know she didn't cry the whole time as she was happy when I went in to get her. If my door is open I hear her if she coughs or coos or cries, but if my door is shut it's very muffled. It's good to know that if I am really tired and she refuses to go back to sleep that I can just leave her be and she'll be okay. :-) Of course first I made sure she had a full belly and dry diaper, but I was not getting up for the day at 4:00am on a Saturday morning. No way, Jose! I need more sleep that that.