I need to get better at this!

I know it is almost a month after I updated last. But life has a tendency to get in the way, if you know what I mean. :) So I had my eye surgery on April 13th and everything, as of right now, looks good! I go back to see the doctor on May 12th and we will know for sure how well it worked. I am hoping that the surgery fixed everything but I have a sinking feeling that it didn't. My right eye still wonders off from time to time. I am hoping that it will just get better as my muscles get stronger. Just have to keep praying that it will get fixed.
Our little man is growing so quickly! He is 18lbs 2oz right now and about 28.5in. He is a crawling and almost walking crazy man! I can't keep him still for 2 seconds and he "talks" all the time!! Alan can say mama, dada, ru-ru (for Tater since Tater says ruff ruff), baba and some other random sounds. I can't believe that in a few months he is going to be a (gasp) walker!!! And in a month, my little boy will be one!!! :( I am very sad about that. I don't know where the past year has gone. I still remember, like it was yesterday, when he was born and going to the hospital every day to see him. Can you believe that almost a year ago my little boy looked like this??? Now he is a big boy that is VERY independent! He doesn't like Mommy helping him get his toys out. He wants to be able to feed himself, although I won't let him do that yet. What happened to my little preemie sized baby boy? I know that in a few years I will be saying the same thing again. It truly is amazing how quickly time flies and it makes me cherish each and every moment more. On that note, Matt started back to work a week ago. Adjusting to the 12+ hour work day has been a little trying for Alan and me. Alan wakes up at 5:00am so he can see Matt before he goes to work. I personally don't enjoy having to get up that early but I know that Matt and Alan enjoy having a little time to spend together.
Alan will go back to sleep after he gets some food and he sleeps until 9:30 -10:00am. Then we do lunch and back down for a nap until 2:00pm. Then up for dinner/snack and back down again for another nap until about 7:00pm. Yes I know my kid spends most of his day sleeping now but it is what he has to do to be able to stay up until Matt gets home. Alan has his real dinner around 7:00-7:30pm and then has play time with Matt until he gets tired which is usually around 9:00pm. I hate that he goes to bed so late because then I am up until all hours of the night finishing up things for the next day. But with Matt coming home after 7:30pm it is kind of hard to get Alan to go to bed for the night at an earlier time. We are hoping in a few weeks, that Matt can get on reduced hours so he can come home a little earlier. That would make my life soooo much easier! :) Alan really does love his Daddy so much! That might be the reason that he said Dada first. I know that Dada is easier to say than Mama but I still think he just likes his Daddy more. ;)
We also just bought a new vehicle. :) We had come to the realization a little bit ago that Matt would not be able to ride his motorcycle in the snow in Groton, CT. That just doesn't work too well. So we were looking into getting a used Honda Civic like the one we had before. We really loved the new body style and we really enjoyed the Civic a lot! But while we were looking, we noticed that the USED Civics cost almost as much as a brand NEW Insight. The Insight gets better gas mileage and we can put Tater in the "trunk." The Insight is a hatchback so Tater can roam around back there and we don't have to worry about him getting all worried....or having Tater fur all over the place!! So we bought an Insight on Saturday! It will be ready for us today to pick up. It is the same color as our Accord too. :) We have his and hers vehicles now! Matt doesn't care too much about that but I really like the color of the cars. The only other one I would have gotten is the pretty burgundy Insight...but it was an LX and we wanted an EX and the only EX was the Polished Metal Metallic that we have on both cars. Once we get it home, I will try to take some pictures of it and post them. I am so excited about it and you can't beat 50+MPG! So that is the excitement of this past month. Oh and I am seriously thinking about making our blog private. I have it set up so I can see who comes to view the blog and there have been some people reading from places I know I don't know anyone from. I am going to do some research on how it works for those of you without a Gmail/Google account and I will get back to you.

We're Done!!! We're Done!!!

Well at least for almost 3 weeks!! Matt took his comprehensive final today and passed wonderfully! I am so very proud of him and glad that we now have the next few weeks to spend some time together. He grads on Friday morning and then done for 2 full weeks. :) YAY!

What a week!

Sorry I haven't updated from Alan's surgery but Thursday was crazy and today was better but I was exhausted until now.

Alan did WONDERFUL!!! He was such a good boy while they were getting him ready for surgery and the doctors came in to talk to me about everything that would happen. He was the first of many little kids waiting to get tubes put in Wednesday morning. Meaning he was already in getting his put in before 7am. It was a VERY early morning and Alan didn't sleep well the night before. But he had a lot of fluid in his middle ear area and also had some puss so Dr. Scarlett got it all cleaned out and tubes went in easily. Alan was really fussy after he woke up from the laughing gas but after some food he felt a little better, still not happy but better. We got home and he had some cereal and took a long nap and then was happy! We noticed right away that he could hear better and his balance was much better! He does not look like he is drunk anymore when he crawls!

My pre-op appointment went really well. We had some craziness trying to get down to the doctors but once we were there things went better. The doctor is planning on just doing surgery on my right eye now which is a huge blessing. She also said that since I am going to just have one eye done, she doesn't have to put me out for the operation. They will just knock me out long enough to do a local on my eye muscle and then just hang out in la-la land while they work. The big perk to that is that it doesn't take as long for me to come back to reality and I won't feel as sick as I would when I wake up from general anestesia. Considering that I really am not too excited about general anestesia anyway, this seems like a much better option.

Matt finished his last final on Thursday with a 3.4, I believe. All that is left is his comprehensive exam and then graduation! We are very excited because Matt's dad is coming down for graduation and his sister Leslie and her family are coming up too! I know Alan is excited to see his cousins again! I have a feeling that our living room might just be all toys by the end of the weekend! :) But I am totally ok with that.

Good news/bad news???

I guess that is the best way to title this post. We got some good news and some bad news today. So what do you want first? The good or the bad? Good you say...OK! We went to the ENT today and they can fix Alan's ear infection problem! Also I was able to get Matt's new suit fixed and the new shirt I got, that super shrank, I was able to return for 2 new shirts! How great is that! We had a wonderfully productive day!! Oh what is that you say....what is the bad news??? Oh yes I forgot about that. :) Bad news is Alan's eardrums are so full of fluid that they are non responsive to air pressure. His hearing is within the "normal" range but at the very bottom of that range. I was talking to a friend of mine that is a Speech Pathologist and she said that at 25 decibels, which is where Alan is at, you can't hear much. But our ENT recommended getting tubes put in Alan's ears and we were able to schedule surgery for Wednesday April 1st. I am so thankful that we were able to get in so quickly. They wanted him to get in fast because the ENT said that Alan will probably have another ear infection in about 2 weeks if we can't get the fluid out of his ears. So that is the good news/bad news for the day. I haven't decided if surgery is good or bad yet. I think it might fall under both categories. Just pray for our little man that everything goes well! They did say that we should see a significant improvement as soon as the fluid starts to drain!! :) Well have a great night! We are off to bed and going to spend tomorrow resting before the craziness of the rest of the week starts. Surgery on Wednesday and my pre-op eye appointment is on Thursday. Fun fun!

What a blessing.

After what had to be the craziest morning of my life, we got news of a wonderful blessing. Our pediatrician gave us a referral for Alan to see an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor)! She also put in the recommendation for tubes to be highly considered. I get to make the appointment with the ENT next Wednesday. I feel so bad for Alan because I know he does not feel well and he keeps getting ear infections over and over again. Alan also let Mommy sleep for a LONG time last night! The past few days I have been running on minimal amounts of sleep...like 2 hours or so. But last night I got to sleep for ALMOST 11 hours. Wow was that necessary and it felt great! Alan even sat quitely in his crib for about 30 minutes just playing with his "uh oh", his little ducky/blanket/toy thing.

If you could just keep Alan in your prayers that the doctors will make the right decision about his little ears and that he would FINALLY get healthy! Pray for me too that I can keep up with him! :) Little man is starting to walk and is VERY independent. He doesn't like me helping him out with his toys or anything. One day at a time right?

I spoke too soon.

Alan started running a fever on Saturday and had a bad cough, congestion and runny nose so we took him to urgent care on Sunday because the fever would not break. Come to find out he has another ear infection. I was so hoping that we would be done with those. But we go to see the doctor on Wednesday and I am hoping to get some answers. This much antibiotics can't be good for him.

I know I know.

I promise I am trying to keep up with my blog. I know that I haven't updated it in over a month now but I do have a good reason. PROMISE! So Alan finally got over his, what seemed like, never ending ear infections! Praise the Lord for that one! We were not too far away from the "tubes" discussion because he had already had 2 ear infections in 2 months. That being said, 2 days before his check up to see if the last infection cleared up, I got the flu. We caught it within the 48 hour time frame that I could get the anti-viral vaccine but it is not ok for breastfeeding mothers to take. :( So for the next 3 days I fought a retched fever, chills and cough/congestion and could only take Tylenol, cough medicine and Mucinex. Needless to say I was off in left field until the fever broke. Poor little Alan was so crabby because I would not play with him but I didn't have the strenght to do anything but lay on the couch. I started getting a little better by about Thursday that week but come Friday, Alan was burning up. He even got his flu shot this year! Poor little baby was full of medicine to help break his fever but he was still on fire! For the past 2 weeks we have been dealing with the leftovers from the flu. We both have good days and bad days. Good days you couldn't tell that we have been sick nonstop all winter. Bad days you would think we still had the flu. But with all the craziness and sickness, our little boy has grown soooo much!
Alan has started crawling! YIKES! He is so mobile right now and never ceases to amaze me where he can end up. He also has learned to stand up on his own and does get from one toy to another doing a little side stepping. I am sooo proud of him but worried about his head!! He has already had his first couple of "good" spills. He has a small patch of skin missing from his forhead from the crib and a couple of other bumps from the toys, couch, and coffee table. I guess that is to be expected with him learning to walk. No matter how hard I try, I can't be there every second and even if I am, I'm not always fast enough to catch him.
Now about my other little boy. :) Matt is doing very well in school right now. We just found out that we will be staying in Charleston, SC for his next school. I am VERY excited about that. Matt is also sitting about 22nd in his class of 92. We have 3 weeks left of school and we are so ready for him to be done. I know that I would love to have my husband home and Alan would love to see his Daddy. Not going to sugar coat it but it is a drag with Matt leaving for work before anyone wakes up and getting home well after Alan has gone to bed. Some days he does get to see Alan for a few minutes before bedtime but most days that isn't the case. We know that this is one of those "necessary evils" that we have to deal with and it is apart of his job, so I don't complain too much. ;) Matt graduates from Power School on April 10th and has off until the 26th of April. That will be really nice! Our little vacation that includes me having surgery on April 13th. Yep that is right. My eye surgery has finally been scheduled for April 13th. I am excited and scared all at the same time.

I am trying to get Matt prepared to take care of his little boy by himself and he is doing really well! Matt has learned how to make Alan's breakfast and dinner, like how much food he gets and what kinds and what medicines he gets at what meals. Matt is also getting much better at bath time too. Since Alan is such a mover and shaker now, bath time has been VERY interesting. We can't seem to keep him in one spot for longer than 10 seconds!!! Alan likes to roll around in the bathtub which is very scary. He also likes to drink the water but doesn't quite understand that you can't drink it without getting your nose in the water. We will work on that one at a later date.
So a quick explanation of the pictures. The first one is little Alan standing up in bed. That was one of the first times that he stood up and let go with one hand. He is a little daredevil! The next one is him helping me do laundry. I wrapped him up in our mattress pad and carried him into the laundry room. Oh and the hair, yes it is crazy but that is what happens when you let Mommy blow dry your hair! :) The next one is Alan doing his "I can walk from one toy to the other". The following one is Alan holding his "uh oh" from Mrs. Holly and her family. I can't get that thing away from him now! He takes it everywhere and sleeps with it. Oh and it is constantly wet because he is always chewing on it. The last one is Alan wearing Daddy's mickey mouse ears for work. We finally went out at got Matt's ear protection for prototype and Alan's eyes got HUGE when he saw Matt wearing them. So we tested them out on Alan and he is SUCH A CUTIE! I just love this little man sooo much! God really has blessed us with a wonderful child and a wonderful family. So that is my update for now. Hopefully with spring right around the corner I can update more, pending I don't come down with some other crazy illness. UGH! I hope that all is well with everyone else and hopefully next time I will post some videos of Alan!