Stomach Virus

I had what I thought was bad morning sickness yesterday morning. Somewhere along the line I figured out that it was a stomach virus. I laid on the couch all day yesterday between throwing up. I was basically an absentee mom because Tyler just came and went as he pleased (in the house). He was making all kinds of messes (so would I if I were a toddler who was given free reign). The TV was on PBS all morning and he would 'check in with me' every so often. I kept thinking, "It's almost nap time for him. It's almost nap time for him" He went to sleep at 2pm and I was able to get some good sleep. He woke up at 4:30pm which was coincidentally when I started to get worse and worse. I was throwing up and felt so badly for him because he was screaming. He gets scared when I throw up.

Rick was supposed to come home at 6pm but I knew I needed him sooner. I called and said, "Rick, I'm sorry but I need you to come home right now." He did. He took Tyler out of the house for about 2 hours. I was glad because Tyler had been home bound all day. I couldn't keep any fluids down and was hoping that I wouldn't get dehydrated. I took an Ambien at 8pm, was able to keep it down, and slept until midnight. I woke up hungry. I ate an apple as was thrilled to keep it down. I slept more until 8am. I am over the virus but am totally drained. We're home bound again today. Poor Tyler.

Thanks to Rick for being so helpful, as usual. :-)

Glad It's Over!

This is what I have to say about Christmas.....we will not be going out of town next year or for many years to come! At least not by airplane. Now I finally understand why most of my mommy friends have mini-vans, pack their kids and bags in it, and drive to where they need to go! Tyler was very well behaved on our plane ride to and from NY but the poor kid threw up mid-flight! We got back into Charlotte at 12:30am this morning, struggled with all of the luggage, and when when we got to our car the battery was dead. Luckily there was a staff member working in long term parking who have us a jump start. We made it home at 2am. I'll spare you all of the other details of our interesting Christmas!

Fetus, Sweet Fetus

I'm 11 1/2 weeks along now and had an ultrasound today. The fetus was really active and it was fun to watch. The ultrasound took a LONG time because the tech was trying to get certain specific measurements. I will start progesterone shots in five weeks and will have them every week until I give birth. Are you jealous? hee hee. The shots will help to prevent preterm labor like I had with Tyler. I feel comfortable at this point telling all family and friends about the pregnancy. I still have quite a bit of nausea in the late afternoon/early evening. The midwife said that I need to make sure I have a tiny snack a few hours after lunch to help prevent the nausea. Here are the name we have picked out:
boy - Kevin Joshua
girl - Shaylee Jordan (the same name we would have used if Tyler would have been a girl)

If you will please say a prayer that the little fetus continues to thrive, I would appreciate it. :-)

The Past Few Days

Photos will be posted ASAP but here is what we've been doing over the past two days. Rick, Tyler and I drove uptown to see the Bearstein Bears at Founders Hall. Rick and I thought it was lame and Tyler seemed indifferent. However, we did see several kids who seemed to love it. We walked around uptown and then drove around. It was kind of a mini-adventure.

That evening we went to the Billy Graham Library for their Celebration of Christmas. I HIGHLY recommend this. The lights were beautiful and there were free old fashioned horse drawn carriage rides. We walked around the inside of the Graham home that was once on Park Rd but was recently relocated to the Library grounds. There is a prayer garden on the property but I couldn't get a good look at it since it was dark. The thing that touched my heart the most was the live Nativity Scene, complete with one donkey, goats, and a camel who just rested on the grass as if he were waiting for the 3 wise men. This scene of pure hope and beauty made tears flow from my eyes. I felt like I was back in time like a fly on a wall witnessing something I cannot find the words to describe them with. Maybe I'm sensitive because I'm pregnant but that Nativity Scene was so incredibly meaningfully for me. Even though Christmas is over a week away, being near that nativity scene was my Christmas moment of clarity. I think anyone reading this blog would love going to that event. I think it's going on until the 23rd and is from 6-9pm.

Today Rick and I took Ty to Monkey Joe's. We met my friend Joni there with her little boy, Jacob. Rick was so nice. He played with Tyler a lot (I think Rick enjoys bouncing as much as Tyler does. Jacob would join Rick and Ty sometimes and they all had fun. Joni and I got some good chunks of time to talk and catch up.

My dad arrives from Ohio tomorrow so I have to kick it in gear and clean, shop, and so forth so that everything is ready when he gets here at 3pm. Leave it to me to leave all of this to the last minute!

Boat Parade on Lake Wylie

We went to the Boat Light Parade on Lake Wylie last night. It was so cool. I could kick myself for not bringing my camera! Ugggg! We will go again for sure next year. We walked around the boats before they left for the parade while we were waiting for our table at T-Bones. We got an AWESOME view from our booth at T-Bones right near the boats and we watched them leave for the parade. Santa was at the parade but Tyler didn't care for him! What a nice evening. :-)

Preschool Update

I have more details regarding Tyler's preschool. The school is called Amay James and is about 11 miles away from our house. Rick will be able to take him in the morning sometimes as it is only slightly out of his way to work. The school hours are 9:15am-3:15pm and I'm happy about that. The other choice at a different school is 7:30am-1:45pm. As most of you know, Tyler is not an early bird. He will receive a free snack and lunch each day. I'm assuming it's at least semi-healthy food?

I plan on being quite involved in his schooling. I will offer to volunteer in the classroom. I'd like many opportunities to observe him and the other kiddos. He'll start school in January. The only thing I don't know yet is which days of the week he'll attend. I know I said I was excited to have a lot of time to clean and organize but I think it will be hard to be away from my baby for such an extended period of time on his school days.

Great News

I received some news yesterday that has been making me jump for joy! Tyler qualifies for free preschool through CMS. Let me first say that our first preference would be that Tyler does not need any special needs services. But since this isn't the case, I am grateful that he will be receiving help.

He's been getting services ever since he came home from the NICU. He's had PT, OT, Speech, and other things. He has come a long way however, there are things we need to continue to work on. I didn't know how this would all pan out once Tyler turned 3
because his service provider switched from the Early Intervention Program to CMS. Fewer kiddos qualify for services through CMS. I knew that there were some delays in Ty's development but I didn't know if CMS felt that they were 'significant enough'.

He qualifies for Speech therapy and free preschool. He'll get Speech during the school day. On the positive side, Tyler has some significant strengths and he is quite intelligent. CMS feels that he needs to be in their preschool to foster his social skills, transitioning skills, so on and so on.

I became teary-eyed when I got all of this news. On the one hand, I am sad that Tyler needs any of this help. On the other hand, I am grateful that these services are available to him. I am choosing to focus on the positive as opposed to the negative.

He qualifies for preschool until he reaches Kindergarten! He will be in a program called Bright Beginnings which is a 5 day a week preschool when he's 4 years old. Now, he'll start off going 2 days a week with an option to increase the days if needed.

This is the part that was extra icing on the cake......the school day is 6 hours. I will get about 5 hours to myself on those 2 days a week. I CANNOT GET OVER THAT! I have visions of totally organizing EVERYTHING in my house and I may even get a part-time job. I can go to the doctor without bugging one of my friends to watch Tyler.

I sure do feel blessed.

Breathing is Good

Hello, my name is Jen and I'm addicted to OTC nasal spray. But not for long.

I guess it doesn't take much to make me ecstatic. I just got back from Dr. Clyne, the ENT Dr. because I was concerned about my sinuses. I've been using OTC nasal spray several times a day for over four weeks! (The bottle says not to use it for more than 3 days in a row.)I have received conflicting information regarding the safety of OTC nasal spray during pregnancy. The OB says it's okay in moderation. I've read online that it is totally not okay to use it. Therefore, I was worried about my fetus and my sinuses. I cannot tell you how guilty I've felt using it. But what is a person supposed to do? I have tried the alternatives: saline spray, Vicks, saline washes, so forth.

Then ENT gave me great news. While he said that it is important for me to not keep using the nasal spray, my sinuses have suffered no damage except for being a bit inflamed. More importantly, my fetus was/is in no danger from the spray. He's starting me on Nasonex and I'm even allowed to keep using the OTC nasal spray (very sparingly) until the Nasonex fully kicks in (5-7 days). While it is a category C medication, he feels very comfortable putting pregnant women on it.

I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS!

First Sentences

Tyler said three sentences in a row just a little while ago. He's never said a full sentence, let alone three. Tyler was sitting in bed with me and the cat. Rick was also there as he has today off. Anyway, Tyler said, "It's a big cat. It's a fat cat. It's a black cat." (For the record, the cat isn't fat, he's pretty skinny but has a ton of poofy fur.)

Ty's speech has been rather delayed but it seems that in the past few months he's saying more and more. His favorite word is "no" which I'm sure you can imagine Rick and I are estatic about. Not!