Overwhelmed

As eloquent as this post is in my mind, I know I won’t possibly be able to convey these feelings adequately into words.

I think the title sums it up.

Before you go thinking, oh, those poor parents, we’re not THAT overwhelmed.  It’s an ebb and flow.  

We are overwhelmed with…

Constant sickness.  Connor cannot seem to catch break this cold and flu season.  He is sick every week or two.  Some sicknesses we can manage at home, some take us to the pediatrician, and some take us to the ER.  It is draining.  I can't even count the various illnesses we've had just since January.

Scheduling.  We both work full time and it is becoming a bear to schedule appointments.  For example, when we were in the hospital for his pneumonia, the pulmonologist recommended a pH probe and swallow study for Connor prior to his surgery (which by the way got canceled AGAIN…that’s 3 times for those who are counting).  Well, we left on Sunday and tried All. Week. Long to get him scheduled for Monday the 16^th since I would be off.  We couldn’t get GI to put the orders in.  A bed was ready for us, insurance had pre-approved it, but without orders, we couldn’t go in.  We finally got in touch with them today and we’re hoping to do it on a Friday when he’s better so I’ll only have to take one day off (this is an admission so we’ll be there for 2 days). 

            We have also rescheduled his therapist visit for attempting his stander twice this week because Connor was sick.  It’s close to impossible to get anything scheduled for a late enough time for me to work a full day so it’s just overwhelming.

Lack of Sleep.  We are still getting limited sleep, despite Connor now being an official big boy (2 years old means you’re a big boy).  At best, we can hope to get a solid night of sleep every other night.  At worst?  We’re both up every night.  Don’t even get me started on our parameters for that either.  As I type this, I’m wiped because I’ve been up since 2:30 because Matt too is under the weather.

However, and this almost cancels everything else out, we are overwhelmed with these things as well:

Love.  If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about.  My heart is so full of love for this sweet boy.  His smile and laugh can literally make every concern go away.  How can you not love this?

Support.  Living closer to our families has been great, although we really don’t see them much more than when we lived in Ladson (see #3 above).  All of my coworkers have been great, including when I had to leave Friday because Connor got sick at daycare.

            I’m also part of a special group of women on Facebook.  We originally “got together” back when we were all expecting…we were (and still are) February 2013 First Time Moms.  While there’s a lot of topics I really can’t comment on, these women are always there to help pick me up when I’m feeling down (I often feel a bit like Debbie Downer!).   

Last Wednesday, I got home late and it had been a crazy day.  I had 2 meetings first thing, one a conference that I literally had to sprint through the school to make it to, my principal observed me, I found out Connor had pink eye and an ear infection, I had a meeting afterschool, and then I stayed until after 5:00 preparing for a sub the next day.

I came home to a FedEx box containing probably the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received.  A scrapbook put together by many of the moms in my Facebook group.  I began sobbing immediately when I saw what it was.  Drawings from other sweet 2 year olds, letter written to Connor, and letters written to Matt and me filled the pages. 

Amazed.  Overwhelmed.  These wonderful ladies will never understand how much their gift meant.  How much taking 5-10 minutes out of their day meant the whole world to my family. 

This.  This is what Matt and I need.  This makes everything else seem to fade away (although being covered in puke the past 6 days I’m not sure much can fade that smell away ;). 

For those of you who read this blog, we cannot thank you enough for your constant love and support.  It helps more than you know.  So, please excuse us if it takes a while to get a thank you note to you, if we seem distracted, or can't make it to a function...sometimes we are literally dragging to get to the weekend.

True Love

When I was a little kid, I used to think about when I grew up.  I thought about my future husband and thought true love looked something like this:

 In all honesty, I probably never thought this, but it is sweet, ha!

So now that I'm an adult, what does true love mean?  What does it mean when you have a sweet little boy who takes a lot of sleep from you?  Here's what I've deemed true love the past couple of weeks.

True Love is letting the other person sleep when you've been up since 4 on the weekend, even though we have a designated switch time of 6.

True Love is watching your husband with your son, making him laugh, talking to him, and being an all around amazing guy.

True Love is having someone that volunteers to get Connor from daycare, just so you can go to Happy Hour with your work friends.

If you know me at all, you know this is far from the truth.  I rarely drink!

True Love is working together to help your child in any way possible.

And probably the last sign of True Love we've had these past few weeks:

Saving Connor's first official solid poop (his little poop nugget) for the other parent to see when they wake up...ha!

Halloween

Yes, I realize it's January and I'm just now getting around to posting Halloween pictures on here and on Facebook.

Truth:  I did not buy Connor a Halloween outfit.  Why?  Well...

1.  We weren't taking him trick or treating (yes, I know we technically could, but Connor can't eat any of that stuff so we'd basically be collecting candy for Matt and I.  No thanks.)
2.  Yes, it would be great to see him in a cute little outfit, but most of the stuff he can fit in is big, fluffy, and hot.  Connor is a hot natured little guy, so he doesn't need to be in a big poofy costume.

So, there ya have it.

Day care wanted them to come in their Halloween costumes and our sweet friends Jessie and Ryan gave Connor this super adorable Superman shirt with cape and all so that's what we sent him in.

He wore this cute sweatshirt over his outfit to go to daycare:

Then, when he got home, we changed into his other Halloween outfit.  Connor was really hoping to scare the trick or treaters, but he ended up falling asleep before they came :(

At least he scared me!

So there's our Halloween!  Hopefully soon I'll do Thanksgiving and Christmas (although I think I may have already covered those on here...who knows!).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

*Warning: Picture overload!*

Santa Visited!

Hanging out at NaNa & PaPa's!

No more pictures Mom!

The ladies just throw money at Connor!

Family Time at Home!

Goodnight everyone! (Mrs. Redford...Connor loves his gift!)

We had a great Christmas even though Matt was under the weather.  We hope y'all did too!

Well Then...

This post was originally titled "Finally" about finally getting to Thanksgiving Break.  Ha.  It also mentioned Connor's canceled surgery.

He was supposed to have surgery today in fact.  We took him in and everything.

But, we had to cancel.  Connor is sick with a cold and congested.  The anesthesiologist listened to him and it wasn't all upper (which means he's got some gunk down in his lungs).  We did an albuterol treatment to see if it helped, but at that point I think we had kind of both resigned to it not happening.
Not that we were really looking forward to it per se.  It's just that the timing was really nice.  Yeah, Christmas would have stunk, but Matt and I both had 2 weeks off (me a full 2 weeks and Matt about a week and a half).

It stinks too because Connor has been really good lately.  It's almost like he knew something was going to happen and he needed to get sick to get out of it!

We actually called yesterday because this weekend was rough.  Actually, rough might be an understatement.  Connor was extremely fussy and inconsolable most of the weekend.  We did have some bright spots though.  Check out this cutie eating his peas like a big boy!

So, for us, it's back to the drawing board with this surgery.  We will need to reschedule so everyone is on board like today (g-tube, ENT, Cardiology, Ophthalmology), and ideally at a time where we both won't have to miss too much work.  

We hope everyone out there who's reading this has a wonderful Christmas!  At least we'll be home for it now (unless Connor has some other sneaky plan up his sleeve!).

Something Pretty Amazing is Happenening....

Ever since Connor has come home from the hospital, he has been doing LOTS of this:

While this might not seem like a big deal to some people, this is HUGE for us.  Connor was doing it intermittently but has been doing it bigtime since we got home from the hospital.  He was even doing it a lot when he was still IN the hospital!

This simple act of lifting his head and looking around amazes us each and every time he does it.

Connor has also been eating a lot more since he came home which is fabulous news for us.  Connor has been in a fabulous mood too.  He's been cracking himself up and been super smiley. 

These are the moments Matt and I cherish so incredibly much and enjoy them as long as they last.