Projects and a New Venture

Now that Camden is here and I am no longer pregnant, I feel fantastic! Even though I'm really tired most of the time, I still feel like I could take on the world. So apparently I am! Here's what I've been up to:

1) The laundry room. I've removed most of the old shelves, painted and put in a small cubby unit for shoes and such, and I've bought several wall cabinets. The last few steps are to remove the final shelf, install the cabinets, and purchase and put in a tall cabinet for the mop & broom, etc. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm excited for how great (and organized!!!) it's going to be!

2) The living room. This one is a little tougher. I have the paint, and plan to get started this week. I've got a referral for an electrician, and will be getting an estimate to wire for the TV to be mounted above the fireplace. That's the tough part - I want to move the TV up there, and Mark doesn't. I simply want to get the TV up off the floor so we can open up the room a little more. Mark is agreeable to getting the estimate, so we'll see what it is and decide from there. Otherwise, it's just paint and curtains... and probably someday soon replacing the carpet as well. That room certainly sees a lot of traffic!

3) The master closet. This will be physically the most difficult. I'll be removing all of the shelving the builder installed, painting, and putting in a new custom configuration of shelves, rods, and drawers. This project will go in stages, and I'll start once the laundry room is completely done.

I'm really excited to complete these projects. As one friend said, it's so much easier to motivate yourself to keep your home clean and organized when you've put hard work into it!

Aside from all of that, I've also become a stylist for Stella & Dot. This is a jewelry company for whom I'll do home-based trunk shows. I LOVE this jewelry! It's amazing how much more put together I feel when I'm wearing a really pretty piece of jewelry, and this company has a LOT of pretty jewelry. I'm not looking to make any money, really, just have some fun, make some friends, and earn some jewelry. In fact, if I were hoping to earn a true income from it, I wouldn't have joined. I simply don't want to put that kind of pressure on myself (especially right now!) But I think I'm going to have a lot of fun doing it, and I'm really looking forward to an excuse to spend time with other grown-ups and make some new friends in the area. I haven't been great about that since we moved.

So now that you know all about me, what are the kids up to? Well, Owen is doing SO MANY exciting things! He's actually starting to talk, which is just amazing. He's also doing more with his mobility. He's *almost* crawling on his hands and knees vs. his army crawl that he's always done. He's also pulling up to kneel much more often and easily. It's so great to see him feeling good.

I think Gavin is having a little baby sister-induced anxiety. He's a bit clingier than he had been, and wants me to hold him and cuddle him a lot. I, of course, LOVE cuddling with him (Owen is not really a cuddler) but I obviously can't do it as much now that the baby's here and I'm nursing her. So I'm just trying to fit in extra cuddles and kisses between nursing and chores, and I'm hoping that will be enough for now. Gavin's also getting really good at shape sorters and puzzles, and he can count to ten.

Baby Camden is already changing so much! She's more awake and alert, and she's just starting to smile at us. I'm just in awe of her.

We're having a busy month of January, but life is great and we couldn't be happier to have these three precious children in our home!

-Adrienne

Happy December!

Can I just say, I'm so excited December is here?! It's such a fun month! While Christmas shopping and preparations can be stressful, I truly enjoy the challenge of finding that great gift for each special person in my life. It's especially fun when I can get creative and surprise them with something they really love! I usually put a lot of thought and care into choosing and wrapping Christmas gifts, and it's that much more fun to watch people unwrap them.

Santa already has a list for the kids, and most of our Christmas cards went out today. There are still a few people I need addresses for (if you are one of my friends who has moved within the past 6 months, I'm talking to you!) Our Christmas decorations are up, and I love turning on the Christmas tree lights and relaxing in the living room. I started making Christmas cookies yesterday, and I hope I have the energy to make lots this year! This is the year I plan to tackle my granny's famous nut rolls, finally!

Mark and his dad painted the baby's room last weekend. I'm still getting used to calling it the baby's room instead of the guest room. Mark put together the crib (yes, we now have THREE cribs in our house) and my friend Andrea helped me get the mattress in it. I washed all of the 0-3 mos. clothes, and I think we have enough, depending on how much she spits up!

Owen saw his regular pediatrician today. He didn't have to get any shots, but the doctor is very concerned about his continued vomiting. So she's going to contact his developmental pediatrician to discuss a trial of Reglan. Years ago, I would have been against this for him, but now I'm open to it. SOMETHING has to change for this child; he simply cannot go on vomiting like this, several times a day, forever. Not to mention the fact that this is something our growing family cannot continue to handle, either.

Owen also had a great therapy session with his OT and DT earlier this week. He did fabulously and was so fun for them to work with. I wish every session could go that well! We are getting re-started with speech tomorrow and PT on Monday. I hope he is the sunny version of himself for them, too!

Baby Girl hasn't shown any new signs of arriving anytime soon, so we're still looking at December 12th for my induction. Gavin is still as cuddly and talkative as ever, though we're starting to work on not hitting. In all, we're having a good week, though I sort of wish I could fast forward to the 12th!

These Days...

These days... I have at least a dozen contractions a day. Sometimes they're spread way out, and sometimes they're right on top of each other.

These days... Baby Girl has DROPPED! She's down so low that the nurse often has trouble getting a steady reading of her heartbeat for the NSTs. I have to lie almost flat on my back for her to find it.

These days... The Christmas decorations are up at our house! The shopping is almost done! I'm excited to enter the holiday season with a new life in our house!

These days... Owen feels more and more like himself. He sings songs with us (or rather, he does the motions). He laughs and plays. He crawls around. He's making more vocal sounds. And he's willing to taste food.

These days... Gavin is a clingy, snuggly little guy. He does NOT like us to walk away from him, and has reverted to demanding that I carry him up and down the stairs (he can, and used to, do this perfectly fine on his own a couple of weeks ago). He has so many words! He says "more, peas" (more, please), "ah done" (all done), and his favorite: "no." He pats Owen lovingly on the head, but he also steals his toys. Today he spilled some milk on the floor, walked over and got one of Owen's cloths, and bent down to wipe the carpet. In many ways, he will be our oldest child, and I know he'll be a fantastic brother to Owen.

These days... I don't know what to pray for when it comes to Owen. His surgeries are over; there is not much more that can be done for his heart. Do I pray for a long life? Or a life with minimal pain and procedures, even if it means he leaves us sooner? I get the impression that he won't be able to have both, and as his mommy it sometimes makes me yearn to place him in Jesus' arms to receive His healing and be free of all this. Then I feel guilty for even considering that Heaven may be the best place for him.

So I guess these days, as always, we could really use prayer that God will guide us in the right direction as a family, that He will make it clear what decisions we should make to follow His path. After all, Owen WILL be in Heaven someday. Mark and I have a responsibility to continue to follow God's will so we can get there, too.

Whew...

It's been a long couple of weeks, and yet somehow still a whirlwind. Owen is home from the hospital. He came home last Wednesday on oral antibiotics and with his same post-op heart meds. We follow up with cardiology next week. Overall, his operations were successful. The problem now is that we simply can't control his pain. We were told when we left the hospital that we should keep him on scheduled Lortab/Motrin for the first 24 hours, then go to Motrin only with Lortab as he needs it. Well, he has continued to need it up to and including today, and we only have about 1 dose left. The poor kid is just in pain, and he usually is not calmed by Mom and Dad or any of his favorite toys. We're definitely getting him weaned off the medication; it's just taking longer than we had anticipated.

As we settle back into our routine, Gavin has changed a bit too. Although I know he loved his time away with Mimi, he definitely is more clingy since he's been back. He cries more readily if we walk away from him, or if we're holding Owen instead of him. It's going to be even more of a shock to him once the baby comes. We'll just have to make sure to give him lots of hugs and kisses, even more than we already do.

And speaking of Baby Girl, the NSTs are going fine. She is always reactive and looking great. As of last Sunday, though, I have been having contractions. I'm sure they're just Braxton-Hicks, but they're still uncomfortable. Actually, I'm having one right now. Goodness, am I ever ready for this baby to be born!

Since being home, I've felt like I'm able to make more progress on getting ready for the baby and Christmas. I have my Christmas shopping about halfway done. And the truth is, we have almost all the supplies we need for Baby Girl, so we're ready in the most basic sense. But of course I'm nesting, and I want to make sure the room is just so, and the house is clean, etc. I might need not to expect so much of myself, but it's driving me crazy that everything isn't done and perfect around here.

And that's just sort of where we are, with less than 4 weeks to go before Baby Girl joins us!