30.10.13

Update from the wife

This blog has gotten super boring, and all the nagging in the world isn't getting my (admittedly, very busy) husband back to it, so I (the wife) am popping in to give a quick update. Things are changing rapidly around our house!

Two weeks ago, we accepted placement of an 8 year old girl. She is very funny, and very mature for her age, but does not sleep through the night. Like, ever. Like... our 3 month old sleeps better than she does. It has been rough, friends. We are extremely tired, especially now that I'm back to work.

My husband would never admit it, because he wouldn't want to make me look bad, but he is a MUCH better night-time parent than I am. Like... no comparison, not even in the same ballpark, better. It is all I can do to muster up the energy to feed the baby, and I mainly do that laying down. So this is kicking my ass. And by this, I mean... it's kicking my ass when my HUSBAND gets up to go deal with her. Sneak peak of our night last night, and it was one of the better ones...

7:30pm: Baby goes to bed.
8:00pm: 8 year old goes to bed.
9:30pm: Husband and wife go to bed. (Yes, we go to bed this early to deal with all of the nightwaking!)
1:00am: Baby wakes up to eat, wife mostly cheerfully pulls out boob, goes back to sleep.
1:30am: Knock knock knock. Husband goes to deal with 8 year old.
2:15am: Wife shakes husband awake. "8 year old is crying loudly, go deal with it."
3:30am: Baby wakes up to eat, wife moans loudly, protestingly pulls out boob, goes back to sleep.
4:45am: Baby wakes up for no discernible reason, wife pulls out boob, does not pacify baby, shakes husband awake. "Baby is awake. Will not go back to sleep. Holy hell, I'm so tired. Whinewhinewhinecakes."
4:45am: Husband and sleepy whiny baby retire to the nursery, where husband will rock baby while watching Netflix until 6am.
6:00am: Husband wakes wife as requested, hands her hungry baby. Wife moans about lack of sleep. Husband promises to do as much as possible tomorrow night.

I realize this does not make me seem like a super delightful person, or parent. Yet it is the bitter, bitter truth. My husband is a saint.

Anyway, this will be a short term placement. Background checks have cleared and house walk-throughs are being accomplished to move her to a relative placement. She is delightful during the daytime, but we will not be super sad to see her go. Sleep is important.

Baby update: Baby has started daycare with my sister-in-law. He spends his days hanging out with his two year old cousin. He is almost 14 pounds, teething, and mostly very smiley. We are very pleased with our progeny.

Home update: Remember how I mentioned daycare? Like... last paragraph? That's not going to be lasting very long. I don't know how you people who work full time with small children do it, but it is making us Insane. Capital I. I will be working out the end of the year, and becoming a full-time Parent, Housekeeper, Errand Runner Extraordinaire. I have promised the husband that I will get up with the baby every single time, as soon as I stay at home, and he works a million hours to make this possible.

I hope the baby sleeps through the night by then, or I'm screwed.

26.9.13

It's Been A Long Time...

Shouldn't-uh left you.

That was just for The Wife.  And anyone else that recognizes mid to late 90s girl rap music I suppose.

It has been brought to my attention that I have really been slacking on the blog.  That may be because I've posted about four things since May, but who knows really.


The Boy is doing very well these days.  He's up to 12.4 pounds and just keeps gaining.  Today he's 2 months old.  That's not to say he wasn't doing well before, but he had the IV antibiotics in the hospital for the mystery illness that didn't really exist.  At this point, I don't even remember what it was called, but I was told by a nurse that lots of babies get it and then they take the medicine and it goes away.  Every time.  So that didn't really make sense to me, but he's good now and they let us leave after a few extra days to complete the week, so we'll call that a win.

His hair fell out one day.  Seriously... in one day.  Weirdest thing ever.   We thought that we had gotten past the hair falling out and then all of a sudden it was gone.  He does still have a patch that seems to be sticking around for a while at the bottom of the back of his head.  It happened around the five week mark.  It's starting to come back in dark and fast.  He went from completely bald (minus the patch) to having basically full coverage, albeit thin, on his whole head.

In the last few days, we have actually been getting some sleep.  He likes to sleep on us, which isn't a big deal... except for the fact that he's THE LOUDEST BABY (OR MAYBE PERSON) EVER.  He lets out giant sighs in his sleep and occasionally he barks like a puppy.  We don't have a dog, so he's doing this all on his own and hasn't heard it elsewhere to imitate.

He also is super smiley in the mornings and actually enjoys getting his diaper changed... even at 4am sometimes.  Other times he screams, but the majority of the time, he just smiles away.  It's a lot to take in at the crack of dawn... but we love him anyway.


















We consider ourselves very lucky to have such a happy and healthy baby and we can't wait to see what he does next.  He'd really like to sit up, stand up, and crawl all over the place... but his coordination and motor skills are not quite up to where they need to be for those things.  All in good time friend.... all in good time.






2.8.13

Window Shopping

Is expressly forbidden in the NICU.

You can ask Rachel.  Here's a picture of her and Scott the night that they met The Boy.  She was back the next day and was helping The Wife with some feeding tips and the nurse informed her that she was not allowed to touch the baby.  Clearly there was some sort of missing link in the communication chain.

Maybe she isn't touching him in this picture... camera angles are tricky
I'm not saying that it's not important for the NICU to have their rules and guidelines to follow, but when a perfectly healthy baby is there just because he needs IV antibiotics for some mystery infection (I'll get to that in a later post), I think there are some rules that could be adjusted.  Same thing as when parents are allowed to pick up their baby when the baby is a healthy weight, but then they aren't allowed to if the baby is super small (or sick) and in an incubator.

Luckily, none of the nurses heard us joking about how Rachel was there to see which baby she wanted to take home.

28.7.13

He's Here

The boy, scheduled to make his grand appearance on Thursday (the 25th), decided that he just didn't like that date and took it upon himself to push his birthday back a day.  Here is a quick breakdown of our last few days...

4:15am - Alarm goes off

4:30am - Leave the house

4:35am - Retrieve and consume breakfast from QuikTrip

4:55am - Arrive at hospital to find the main door locked

4:58am - Find that the emergency room is the only way in the hospital before 7am

5am - Check in, get assigned a room, wait

6am - Still waiting because they didn't have the "orders" for what was supposed to be happening, even though we were there for a scheduled induction

7am - Pitocin gets started (she was at about 2cm)

9:30am - The doctor came in and decided that it was just as good of a time as any to break The Wife's water

12pm - She's at 5cm!!!

4pm - She's at 6cm!!! But the pain was coming on and the need/time for an epidural was quickly approaching

4:30pm - I left the room.  I have no problems not being the hero that can see a giant needle inserted in a loved one's spine

5pm - No pain whatsoever... up to 7cm

8pm - Clearly the progress has slowed down, discussion of pros and cons of c-sections start occurring

9pm - Suddenly she jumps to 8cm and the nurse and doctor say that things are about to start happening soon

2am - "Soon" turns out to mean "five hours later"... but it's time to push

3am - Still pushing, nurse says that The Wife is doing a good job, but she can't feel it and all we can do is take the nurse's word for it

4am - Doctor comes in, pushing has essentially stopped with no further progress being made

4:10am - The Wife leaves the room to head to the operating room for the c-section

4:25am - I leave to go join her

4:44am - The Boy makes his appearance, weighing in at a healthy 9 pounds, 10.2 ounces and 20 3/4" long


It was such a long day/night and very stressful on everyone involved, particularly The Wife, but we finally got to meet him almost 24 hours after we arrived at the hospital.  While The Wife was being stitched up, I went to the incubator to start taking pictures and to see how he was doing.  There was some meconium in the amniotic fluid when the doctor had broken her water, so the NICU was on hand to make sure that he didn't aspirate on the meconium.  Luckily, he did not.  He hardly needed any suctioning and came out mostly just needing a bath.  I went to the NICU with The Boy and The Wife went to recovery, where her mom was waiting.  We didn't think the first thing that the baby should have happen is that he's whisked away to be poked and prodded by a bunch of people with no one around that he "knows".  For now, I can say that both The Wife and The Boy are healthy and happy and things are going fairly well for having a brand new life to watch out for.

More entries to come, as a lot has happened in his 59 hours of life up to this point.

19.7.13

The Phoebot

Happy Birthday to our niece!  Today, she is 2 years old.

Tomorrow, The Girl, The Wife, and myself will head on over to her (ugh) Barney birthday party.  Unless, of course, The Boy decides to come before then... which would be ideal.


She loves the shirt that we got her for Christmas


16.7.13

Preparations

As of right now, next Thursday (at 5am) is the day.

Our bags are packed as much as they can be, since we still have to do things like brush our teeth and shower and such.  We have the list ready to go and just have some more things to throw in the bag(s) the night before we go to the hospital.  Good news is that we only live about five blocks from the hospital, so if I have to make a run back home for anything we forget, I can be there and back in less than ten minutes.  The Wife spent a little while compiling a playlist for the room, since they have speakers built in that you are able to hook your iPhone, iPad, etc into.

Some of the songs that she added:

Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
Bob Dylan - Forever Young
Death Cab for Cutie - Stay Young Go Dancing
The Decemberists - Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
Jukebox the Ghost - Empire 
REM - At My Most Beautiful
U2 - Beautiful Day
Emeli Sande - Next to Me
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
John Lennon - Beautiful Boy

A few of the songs that I suggested that were shot down, probably for good reason:

Nelly - Hot in Herre
Jenny Owens Young - The Fuck Was I
Salt 'n Pepa - Push It (this was a from a website, but was still shot down)
Multiple Eminem songs were suggested

While they may not be "labor appropriate", I would really like to see the look on the faces of the nurses and doctor when one of those come on over the speakers.

The Wife has a call into the doctor's office today to see if we can move up the date at all, due to some concerns that come into play in the last week of pregnancies, as a result of the gestational diabetes and SUA.  We have no reason, based on this pregnancy, to be worried, but it sure would be nice to not have to think about it for a week.  Hopefully we'll at least get some news of a few days earlier than we are scheduled... or a few days from now.  

8.7.13

16 Days

We're down to the last 16 days of waiting for The Boy to arrive.  Not much has changed in the last few weeks.  At 2cm and 40% effaced, we're just hoping that one of those numbers jumps up quickly and we can get him here faster than the scheduled induction.  The Wife was at the doctor today for her weekly appointment and when she said, "see you next week", the doctor responded with "maybe".  He seems to think that it could happen at anytime now.

We spent yesterday cleaning and getting final preparations done.  We re-arranged some furniture and cleaned every single room in the house.  The goal was to be able to leave for a few days and come back to a clean house.  Now we just have to maintain our cleanliness.  So really, the faster he comes, the easier that will be on us.  Later this afternoon would be awesome.  

2.7.13

The Homestretch

home-stretch
n.
1. The portion of a racetrack from the last turn to the finish line
2. Informal The final stages of an undertaking

We're in it.  Three weeks from tomorrow is the due date.  Three weeks from tomorrow night, the induction will "start" at 8pm with the overnight dosing of Cervidil.  The actual induction will be taking place on the 25th... at 5am... with the Pitocin drip.

The Wife was at the doctor for her weekly check yesterday and he informed her that she was almost at two centimeters dilation and 30% effaced.  He is at approximately 6 pounds, 6 ounces as of yesterday and everything was looking good. The doctor is also "relatively certain" that she would not be induced in three weeks and that The Boy would be here before that time came.

We still have everything ready and waiting for him.  We even bought a new coming home outfit for him, upon the realization that the newborn size that we had was probably not going to be big enough.  It's made out of bamboo and it's so soft.  I don't have a picture, so here's one of something completely unrelated to anything in this post:


The view that he will enjoy in his swing

24.6.13

A Place for Everything

And everything in its place.

The nursery is done.  It took some arranging and rearranging (and maybe even some more rearranging), but it is now complete.  We have a lamp on back-order, but we don't know where that is going in the room, so it doesn't count.

Helpful tip to any future painters... don't paint the doorknob when you paint the door.  It's not nearly as easy to wipe off as you'd like it to be.

We decided to go the extra (cute) step and get matching letters for the kids' bedroom doors.

No... the next one will not start with "I"



Some pictures of the completed project:














21.6.13

Big Bang of a Gift

Hands down, the coolest baby gift we could possibly get.  It came from a fellow giant geek and co-worker of The Wife.  He stood in line for 90 minutes and didn't even get a picture for himself. 


19.6.13

Nursery Fun

We have nearly finished the nursery.  Short of some curtain tie-backs and scraping the paint off of the doorknob that was easier to paint over than around, it's complete.  The crib is together, the sheet is on, the dresser, bookshelf, dresser and glider are in place.  We have some pictures and shelves hung, with a few books strategically placed on display.  We even have the diapers washed and ready to go, as well as all of his tiny clothes.  Tom Petty was right when he said, "the waiting is the hardest part".

Here are a few preview pictures.  I'll be sure to post some more once we're settled on where everything is going to be in the room.

Curtains

Wall Art
Bedding
Push Toys/Decoration


Mobile

Wall Art




18.6.13

My Special Day

This morning, one of my co-workers told me that I needed to come to the breakroom at 12:30.  Naturally, I assumed that she had an in on some free food.  When I walked in, there was a cake on the table and an envelope with my name on it.  My first thought was that it was some sort of late celebration for my birthday that passed a few weeks ago.  Apparently it was their version of a baby shower for me.  It was a complete surprise.


Inside the card were two very generous gift cards.  One was for Target and one was for Babies R Us.  Not only was the whole "party" unexpected, but the gift cards were more than a surprise.  There were signatures on the card from people on my side (administration) of the office, as well as a couple of people from our office in Iowa.  When I came back, I shared the news of the party and gifts with The Wife and we decided that the baby was going to have the coolest swing ever.    We thought we were done with the shopping... but it looks like we've got a little bit more to do!!!
















11.6.13

Maybe We'll Move to a Commune


Because we're taking the hippie route and cloth diapering.  But really, saving the environment doesn't have anything to do with it.  We know that, while we may have spent a decent amount of money up front, we are done spending anything on diapers.  Plus... LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!!!  

That said, there will definitely be a learning process for tending to the diapering needs of the baby.  The Wife has some experience with them, whereas, I have none.  Neither of us have experience in the "fumbling around trying to cloth diaper a baby in the middle of the night" department.  Messes and hilarity will surely ensue.




Gettin' There

I keep saying that I'm going to start writing more... and I keep not writing more.  Or at all.

We have crossed the six week threshold on the baby watch.  All is well and his growth is right on track.  Ok... technically he's about two weeks ahead.  He's just an overachiever like that I guess.  The doctor informed The Wife that he would like to induce at about 39 weeks.  Of course, the 39 week mark according to his information is actually only two days before what the actual due date should be, according to charts and figures and such that The Wife has kept a close eye on.  Pfft... doctors.  We have the Internet... we don't need doctors.  Except for the actual delivery of a baby... but I'm sure there are plenty of YouTube videos about that.

We have the nursery almost entirely done and it looks amazing.  We went with a grey, white and yellow theme, so it's not the same ol' nursery of pastels and strong gender specific colors.  Now that's living on the edge.

Here are some "before" pictures:

Um... a huge mess.
The boxes that overtook our living room while the room was painted

The dresser and the letters that would be painted as decoration








13.5.13

The Last Day

I dropped Leonard and Penny at daycare for the last time this morning.  It wasn't much different than any other day really.  I carried in their last bag of things (stuffed animals and the last load of their clean clothes) and sat them in the front office.  I walked in and talked to the teacher for a few minutes, giving her their parents' phone numbers and thanking her for her help over the last (almost) ten months.  I gave Penny a hug and told her to keep an eye on her brother and to be good.  I gave Leonard a hug and told him to be nice to his sister (and everyone else) and to be a big boy like I know he can be.  They yelled goodbye as I left and that was that.

I could say that we're sad for their departure... but that wouldn't be entirely true.  The case worked out in the best possible way for them.  They get to alternate between their parents' houses and that's about as good as this one was going to get.  We're happy that they got to go back to their families who truly did miss them and love them.  At the same time, it was time for them to go... WE HAVE A BABY COMING IN 10 WEEKS AND HIS ROOM HAS NOTHING THAT BELONGS TO HIM IN IT!!!

Tonight begins the transformation.  The Kid and I are painting this weekend while she's over, but for now, we have to get all of the holes patched and the remaining things out of the room that are non-baby related.  On Saturday, we did a little bit of work switching our living room to the old playroom and making the former living room into a craft room for The Wife and The Kid.  It was a whole big thing.  Hopefully we will be able to reclaim our closets in the next couple of days, since they have been jammed full of baby stuff for about three months.  Seriously though... three closets... packed.  The process starts in about an hour and we could not be more excited.  If it weren't for the whole "we need PTO for when the baby actually comes", The Wife and I would both be at home right now getting everything done.

1.5.13

May is Upon Us

We are down to twelve days with Leonard & Penny.  Everything seems to be going pretty well with visits, including both of their parents following the schedule that we follow... naps, meals, sleep, etc.  At this point, we could not have possibly expected that things would go this well.  It seems as though eight or nine months without your kids will really kickstart some people.  Or the judge told them to get over themselves and do something.  Either way works.  This week is a short one for us with the kids.  Their mom will pick them up from daycare tomorrow afternoon and they will stay with her until Saturday afternoon/evening.  They come back to our house, but only for bedtime.  Sunday morning, we will drop them off with their dad and they will stay with him until he drops them off at daycare on Tuesday morning.  We are responsible for them for roughly thirty hours out of the next 150 or so.

23.4.13

Baby Update

The Wife had her last monthly appointment, before moving to every two weeks, yesterday.  She knew the ever exciting and always popular gestational diabetes test would be coming up, so she was overly joyed for that.  As it turns out, she gets to start going every single week and she gets to have monthly ultrasounds from here on out.  I don't know if I mentioned this on the blog before, but there is this thing called a "single umbilical artery", where the umbilical cord has one artery and one vein instead of the regular two arteries and one vein.  The SUA has the potential for complications, but as long as the baby is growing, they just monitor it and make sure things are proceeding correctly.  So far everything is looking perfectly normal, so the SUA just means more ultrasounds and baby pictures for us... which is awesome.

The Wife read something a few weeks ago about how, once you get to the 26th or 27th week, sometimes you can hear the baby's heartbeat by just putting your ear on the belly.  I have now tried it twice, but I still haven't heard anything.  I have been kicked in the head twice by the baby for my trouble though... so that's something.

We also have the 3D ultrasound coming up in the middle of May, so that's sure to be amazing.  I have no idea how it works, but it does, and that's all that really matters.  Pictures will be up immediately on that.

We are down to less than three weeks until the re-decorating of the nursery will take place.  IT JUST WON'T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH!!!

Week Three

This past weekend, the kids had longer visits with each parent.  It was 8am-4pm with mom on Saturday and the same with dad on Sunday.  Both parents were on time for picking up and dropping off, which is an accomplishment on its own... or at least surprising to us.

After Saturday's visit with their mom, Leonard and Penny came home, but didn't have a ton to say about what they had done.  They ate breakfast at their mom's house and they went to one of those places for kids with all of the trampolines and bouncy things.  Then they went out to eat for lunch.  Neither one of them took naps, but the important thing is that she did have them lay down for an hour or so of "rest time"... even if they couldn't sleep.

Sunday's visit with their dad was much more fun this week.  There was a NASCAR race in town this weekend, so after church, they went out to the racetrack and the kids got to see a bunch of the cars up close.  After they were done there, they went back to his house and watched the race on television.  They were super excited to see them on tv, since they had just seen the very same cars in person.  They were even tired enough to take a nap at his house.

Overall, they seemed to have a good weekend and their parents proved (at least to us) that perhaps things will be ok when they go home.  Obviously, the continual outings will come to an end, because they are not in a position to keep those expenses up, but it could still be alright.  It's definitely going to be a shock to the system the first time the kids are with them for an entire weekend and they can't afford to go anywhere and everywhere all weekend, but that's just part of the deal.

19.4.13

And So It Begins...

It's like she knew I posted a blog about how well things went from last weekend.  This morning, Penny was up crying at the crack of dawn... or over an hour before dawn... either way.  I got up, got dressed, then went in and told them it was time to get up and get dressed.  Almost immediately upon my entering the room, the crying subsided.  She thought that she was getting the attention that she was going for... turns out, it was just time to get up.   It's not the first time she has woken up crying, but the crying usually means that she woke herself up by peeing her pants, the bed and, in one instance, the floor.  The last time was last Saturday morning.  There is nothing better than getting up at 5am on a Saturday morning to change sheets and such.  She likes to play it off by saying that her stomach hurts or her ear hurts or something.  Today, she didn't even try to make an excuse.  Keep in mind, the body aches really are excuses, because once it's time to get up for the day, she's fine.  We've known for a long time that these two, Leonard and Penny, were master manipulators, but we haven't seen it that much in person.  Generally we hear about it from daycare and just put the pieces together.  Last weekend, Penny had a stomachache about ten minutes after her mom picked them up and then immediately when their dad picked them up.  After they each asked us if she had been sick, to which we said "no... not at all", she made an amazing recovery and was herself the rest of the day with them.  As long as they get called on their manipulations, they will both stop.  

The problem will come when they are no longer with us in a few weeks and they are back with the people who taught them these behaviors.

18.4.13

Our First Respite Call

Well... we had to say no, but hey... we still got a call.

They were looking for placement for a 5 year old girl, 7 year old boy, and 9 year old girl.  Unfortunately, they needed a place from tomorrow through the 29th.  Not only is that a fairly long respite placement, but they are all in a school that isn't close to us by any means.  We didn't even get to the part where there aren't enough beds in our house for three kids, in addition to Leonard and Penny and The Kid (for the weekend).  They were willing to split the kids up, but we just couldn't make it work.

The lady at the agency said that she would keep us on the top of her list for any other respite that may come up.  

17.4.13

Observations

As I sat there watching Dora with the kids last night, I had a few thoughts:

1. Maybe Dora and Boots should fail from time to time... sure, it's better to try and fail than to never try at all... and all of that... but seriously... a six year old and a monkey could never have the success rate that they seem to have.

2. A "we tried real hard" song is just as good as a "we did it" song.

3. Why doesn't Swiper get away with anything?  He should probably look for another line of work.

4. Since he always gets caught, why doesn't Swiper get in more trouble?  The Mexican authorities are nothing to mess with... plus he can't even sell the stuff he steals for money for bail... see #3.

5. The map should get a vacation every now and then.  Maybe he doesn't want to always know the way to go.

6. Can backpack not produce a GPS to give the map a break?  They can pull an inflatable raft out of there, but a GPS is too much to ask?

7. They're in Mexico... how has Dora not been mugged?  I know she's a kid, but she has some stuff to take. Plus she has the previously mentioned backpack that can carry all kinds of things.


16.4.13

Hmm... Really?

I spoke with Gloria yesterday, just to give her the run-down on how visits went on Sunday.  Of course, I also wanted to check and see how many emails and phone calls she got about the day.  There was not a single email or voicemail waiting for her when she got to work.  We are all in complete shock.  How is that even possible?

The kids even seem completely regulated.  We fully expected some sort of fallout from the whole day of being away, but it never happened.  At this point, we assume that the difference will be when the overnight visits start and that next weekend will be fine like this past weekend.  I'm sure we will be proved wrong in a few days, but for now, we'll just expect the worst and hope for the best.

15.4.13

Skepticism

The kids had their first extended visits with their parents yesterday.  

We met their mom at 8am and off they went.  After we got them back around 1pm, we learned that they went to her house, had some breakfast, dressed up for church, went to church, then, at some point, came back to McDonald's (where we met earlier) and had lunch.  All in all, it seemed like a fairly decent visit and they were not over-indulged in their eating.

Their dad met us a little before 1:30pm and the kids left with him.  We had brought their pjs and bath stuff with us to send, in case he had time to give them baths.  We also thought that it would be a nice thing for him to be able to do to take up some time.  In related news, we didn't have to give the kids baths last night, which was awesome.  I met up with them at 6:30pm to bring them back home.  They both ate very well, Leonard especially, and were well-behaved as far as I learned... not that their dad would tell me any differently.

The skepticism comes in where, after both parents' visits, there were no complaints at all.  So I am fully expecting to talk to Gloria today and find out what was said in each and every email that he undoubtedly sent last night.  I seriously doubt that their mom had anything bad to say, since her family is the one that sent us a thank you card with a nice note inside, just to say thanks for taking care of the kids.  We have the card... somewhere.  I should really take a picture and post it on the blog.  Their dad, on the other hand, lives to complain it seems.  About us, about the agency, about court - it doesn't matter.

We got a lot done while they were away for the day.  It was very strange having time to get things done and not having to help two kids in and out of the car at every stop.  It was also very relaxing, even though we were cleaning and working all day.  Next weekend will be eight hours of visits each day and The Kid will be with us.  We're hoping for another couple of days of preparing for the baby and getting things done that have been put off, in some cases, for far too long.

11.4.13

A Necessary Break

After some (not a lot) discussion, we have determined that we are going to take a break for a while from the fostercare scene.  After Leonard and Penny leave for good, mid-May, we are going to possibly take respite calls until the beginning of July... if there are any to be taken.  After the first of July, we'll be taking an extended break until the beginning of October or so.  We fully intend on keeping up our license/training and taking a school age placement in the fall.

For now, we have way too much to do to get ready for the little one in July and we are going to take a couple of months (minus any random respite time) to just enjoy getting ready and things of that nature.  My guess is that, at least for a little while, this blog will take more of a turn towards all things baby and will steer away from the foster talk.  We have a lot to do and a little time, all things considered, but we're super excited to get working on it.

10.4.13

BEHOLD THE GLORY

Here are the handy calendars that The Wife made for the kids to follow where they'll be on each day of the week.  We know the next few weeks may seem a bit hectic and as I've written about a few times before... they love a schedule.  We tried to keep it simple... yellow is with us, pink is with their mom, blue is with their dad.  This way, we have something for them to look at when we talk about the next day's plan.




The Birthday

Leonard's birthday, as I mentioned in a previous post, was last Friday.  He's 3 now.  In foster care terms, that means we got to take the baby gates down... which is awesome.

About a month ago, he told us that he wanted to go to the farmstead for his birthday.  He wasn't interested in a party or anything, so that's what we did.  We went for about an hour and a half and the kids were ready to go home.  It wasn't super warm out and it was very windy, so it wasn't the best day to be there, but they had fun nonetheless.

That evening, The Wife's parents came over for a little celebratory dinner and gifts.  It was a nice change of pace from having a bunch of kids (and adults) over for Penny's birthday back in October.  Had Leonard wanted it, we could have had a bigger party for him, but it's just not his style.







9.4.13

The Dentist

Leonard had his first (and probably last, sadly) dentist appointment today.

Well... I take that back.  He gets to go back in two weeks to get his five cavities taken care of.  Yes.... five.  The Wife took him and he was all smiles and happiness until things started.  Then he freaked out.  He got over it fairly quickly and was back to happy.  He did really well for the most part, considering this was his first ever personal experience with something that can potentially be very scary.  They recommended brushing his teeth three times a day, but short of daycare suddenly implementing a new part to the day where everyone brushes their teeth, there's really no way that can happen.  At least we'll be able to get the current cavities taken care of and he will be sent back to his parents with a healthy set of teeth.


Upside is that I guessed that he'd have six... so... that's something...




Examining his new stuff


Just hanging out... waiting....

Schedules

Penny is obsessed with them.  She wants to know every step of every day.  For us, that's great.  We have a schedule that we lay out and stick to.  It's not super rigorous or anything... just a schedule.  We learned early on that if you deviate from the schedule... bad things happen.  Meltdowns, crying in the night... all sorts of fun results ensue.  Side note... as with most things, Leonard is indifferent to knowing what is going on, but is still affected by any changes. Here is the email that I wrote to the kids' caseworker yesterday:

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Gloria,

Here are the kids’ schedules that we keep them on.  They love their schedules and we find that any variance tends to have undesirable effects.

Thanks
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We estimate this schedule will be completely dismantled over the course of the next few weeks and then the following months, once they have left our home to go back with their parents.  But who are we kidding really?  The schedule will be gone within three days of leaving our house, if not less.  It won't be our problem obviously, but that doesn't change the fact that it will really affect their behavior and well-being.  We just hope that one or both parents realize that... before it's too late to go back to it.

Here are the schedules... like I said... nothing rigorous.






5.4.13

One Down... So Many to Go

The first extended visit with Leonard and Penny's mom was yesterday.  She picked them up from daycare and then dropped them off at the end of the visit.

I asked them what they did with her and they said that they went to a restaurant and ate and then they went to the park.  That's all fine and well... except I'm reasonably certain that it was fast food and the kids just don't know the difference.  There's no way it was a real sit-down restaurant.  And, of course, there's the fact that they eat lunch at daycare at 11:30am or so... then lay down for naps/rest time at about noon... and then she picked them up at 2:30pm for the visit.  So... yeah... they had two full-blown meals in a span of three hours.

As I write this, they are with their dad for his visit and I'm sure they're about 90 minutes into a massive junk food feast.  Just think of all the blueberries, chocolate milk, fish, pretzels, bananas, random vegetables smothered in ranch, pudding, and other crap he can stuff into them with three hours instead of only one or two.  I know that sounds like good food... but it's really not when they won't stop eating it for the entire visit. It generally ends with Leonard throwing up when he gets back to daycare or when he goes to bed.

Leonard is 3 today.  We have a small celebration planned tomorrow.  He told us a while back that he would like to go to the farmstead that we visited last fall.  Tomorrow just happens to be opening day there, so we will be going to celebrate his birthday and what is supposed to be a beautiful day of mid-70 degree weather.

3.4.13

Fifteen

What is.... the number of hours it took before the news of things changing had an effect on Penny?

Correct.

The only information she had was that they would be picked up at daycare by their parents this week and visits would be a little bit longer.  We decided the best thing to do would be to take it on a week by week basis, so we don't overload her and give her a ton of stuff to process all at once.  Penny loves having a schedule and knowing it.  She always wants to know what we're doing next or how things are gonna go for the evening or day or whenever.  Even though everything is the same for this week, until Thursday and Friday, just the knowledge that things will be different affected her.  She had a little bed wetting incident last night.  It was no big deal and we knew it was coming... we just expected it after things actually changed.

Meanwhile, Leonard has no idea what's going on.  Nor does he care to know.

Can't wait to see what the next five to seven weeks have in store for us.