Mother!

My mom just got a new job last week and found out pretty immediately that she wasn't going to have to work at her other job anymore. So she was left with a 2 week period with nothing to do :) I had 5 days off and she gets to fly free on stand by thanks to my awesome aunt Shirley...so all the stars aligned and she flew up last minute last Wednesday. It was HEAVENLY. Oh man, I loved having her here so much. Flights into Williston the day she wanted to come were iffy, but Minot was good so I told her I'd pick her up there because I'd rather drive there and get her a day earlier than wait a day and pick her up here.  So Harv and I got her Wednesday afternoon. We stopped at my favorite restaurant up here, Ebenezer's, for lunch and then headed back to Williston.

 That was Harv's first time in a high chair. I still keep thinking of him as too small for that kind of thing. How did he get so grown up??
We kept it pretty real while she was here. Lots of grandma/Harvey bonding time. We played games and watched Harvey eat food.  Very entertaining! We're just getting going on this solid food thing and it's pretty fun/funny.

 We did some walking and swinging. Harvey REALLY likes his bjorn.

 Tanner got to take his MDO that Friday, conveniently, and the North Dakota State Fair was going on in Minot, so we thought it would be a fun outing for everyone so we headed back to Minot Friday morning. We hit the Scandinavian Heritage Center first.

 

 It was such a beautiful day. The fair was a lot of fun. We watched some Xpogo (extreme pogo stick people) which was pretty cool. They did some sweet tricks and flips. We also watched a frisbee dog show which I always love. They had one like that last year. Dogs are so cool.  We did plenty of walking and observing the fascinating fair sights. And I finally got the indian fry bread I've been craving since the fair in Williston :)

 After the fair we checked into our hotel and then went and got some dinner. Harvey didn't seem too interested in sleep after several attempts, so we went and wandered around the mall for awhile. Never knew I could love me some mall time.  Williston will do that to a person.

 The hotel had 2 queen beds and that pull out bed. It sunk down in the middle so I set Harvey in the middle and put up some cushions at the bottom of the bed. When he finally did go to sleep - he slept AWFULLY. He woke up like every 1-2 hrs. Each time he was smack dab in the middle of the bed. About 5:30am rolls around and we all wake up to SCREAMING. The poor little guy had rolled off the SIDE of the bed - where I hadn't barricaded - right onto his face. It was awful. I felt SOOO bad. He screamed and screamed and screamed. It took so long to get him calmed down. We should have taken him out a lot sooner...our poor neighbors. Eventually Tanner and I did take him down to this hall that connects the hotel to the mall and he finally did relax. About an hr and a half later we were back in our room and we all fell asleep again. NOT fun!
The hotel has a sweet pool area that I really wanted to take the water loving baby, so when we all woke up, my mom and I suited up and headed down. Tanner still isn't supposed to be soaking his wounds so he came down a little later to watch and video. The water was really warm and so was the room so it was PERFECT. So much fun.  I think he really liked it.  He's starting to splash around a lot more and acts like he likes being in deeper water. They had 3 big water slides - 2 that were open top and one was a tube. I took Harvey down both of the open ones. Tanner took some video's of us coming out the bottom. Harvey was nothing but stoic. He didn't cry or laugh or squeal or anything. It was fast and pretty side to side all the way down and I really don't know what the heck he thought about it. Silly kid.
After that we came home and hung out more at home.

More games and picture taking of the child. He had a couple good blow outs which ended him up in the sink. I think he does it on purpose so he can get to play in the water. Just look at that face...

 And a little more grub...

 Like I said - it was so great having her be able to visit! So grateful Shirley made it possible for us to get a quick Grammy fix. Love her so much!

Appendectomy

This is how it began...

Tanner was feeling sick last Tuesday. He was complaining of belly pain kind of all day. I honestly didn't think too much of it. Every now and again he'll get a little stomach thing and he wasn't complaining any really so I just figured it would go away. I think he did too. So then Wednesday he said he was going to the bathroom a lot at work and came home again saying he didn't feel good. I got Harvey to sleep and he went and laid down. I thought, great! I can lay down and we can both go to bed early and life will be good. He kept saying his stomach was hurting a lot and seemed to be getting a little worse. So we took his temp and he had a legit fever and I pushed around on his belly. Definitely the most sore in his right lower side. Nuts. I told him it very well could be his darn appendix but he should tell me when he felt like he needed to go in. Not too much later he decided we should go. Checked his temp again and it was higher. So then I started trying to find someone to come stay with Harvey. That was a process but finally we got a girl from our ward to come over and Tanner and I headed to the hospital. 

I tried not to be obnoxious and like, hey I work here, get us back immediately and do this and do that. But they were pretty good to us and got things going about as fast as they could. 

He got some good meds that he said made him pretty loopy but killed the pain so he was happy. We're gonna have to add him to our drug seeker list I bet - now that he's tasted the good stuff ;) 

The doc came in and examined him and said pretty confidently that he had appendicitis but we still got the CT scan. Results obviously came back positive for that. So I had talked to our babysitter and she said Harv had woken up and didn't want to take his bottle or go back to sleep. So I went and picked him and her up and we came back to the hospital. Her dad and another guy from our ward came to the hospital to give Tanner a blessing and then took Jessica home. Harvey was wide awake looking at all the gadgets and gizmos all over the place. Then surgeon and anesthesiologist came in to do all the pre op stuff. Then around 12:45am they wheeled him to surgery. 

I wandered over to the surgery waiting room and tried to rest. Harvey was not having it. He kept waking up and it was just rough. Not as rough as surgery I'm sure so I don't want to complain, but it was a long few hrs. He finally came out of surgery about 2:15 and had to be in recovery another hour. They moved him into his room (on the OB floor) about 3:15 ish. After he was settled I took Harv home and we slept for a few hrs. Harvey was nice and played and then fell back asleep, all in our bed so I could sleep more. Oh man I was tired. Around 11 we made it back to the hospital and a couple hrs later we got to go home.

I was supposed to work the next couple days and instead of leaving them hanging, I worked about 8 hrs both days. We had a couple different people watch Harvey so Tanner could rest but I felt bad I wasn't around that much to take care of him. I do just have to give a shout out to Williston peeps though. We are so blessed with so many wonderful friends up here. It was amazing how many people went WAY out of their way to help - babysit, drive in the middle of the night for blessings, people bringing meals, all the nice questions and comments of concern for Tanner, etc. It's hard to be away from family but it's just wonderful how much of a family it feels like we have here. I can't really express it adequately. We are so grateful to have met all the people we have up here. 

So ya. Now he's healing up nicely and is planning on going back to work this week. 

Crazy thing. I think the worst part for him is he's been told he can't golf for 3 weeks. Shoulda got the app in winter!

5 months!

This has been a big month for Harvey. Lots of new things started happening. He got his 4 month shots during this last month. He had his first camping trip (see earlier blog), got his first two teeth, started sitting up on his own, and started rolling from back to front and vice versa more consistently and deliberately. It seems like all he wants to do now is ROLL. I've found him in some crazily different positions than how I laid him down at night - which reminds me - we got rid of his baby lounger/bed thing and he's been in his crib for most of the last month too.  That's a lot of stuff for just a wee little thing.  Maybe that's why I think this last month has been one of the hardest. We have just had some serious hard stretches - teething and shots and he also got a cold in the mix too so it was just rough.  Lots of fussiness and beyond. And I guess with all of that it has made me doubt myself and my methods of mothering more than I think I should or would like. Is it all that stuff that's making it hard, is he just kind of a more difficult kid in general, or is there something I am doing that is messing him up and making life harder for everyone??? He went through a patch there too where he was waking up and eating like every 1-2 hours for a few nights in a row. I was DYING. It was so painful. Growth spurt too?? Gosh I don't know.  And then I started thinking about sleep and how he was not even close to sleeping through the night and fighting napping more than ever, and I didn't know if I should let him cry it out (him crying things out can be a LONG time), or WHAT was I supposed to do to help this kid sleep better.  There were a few days that were really rough for me emotionally and mentally and physically too. I haven't come to a lot of conclusions about what's best.  I'm trying to get more consistency in his life because I think that will help with the inconsistency of who's watching him - Tanner, me, babysitter, etc. If we all could get on the same page maybe everyone would be happier.  I still don't know exactly how to do it but we're working on it.  He's back to waking up about 3-4 hours at night, which is doable.  And even though I am still way tired, it's not as bad, and I almost don't even mind, because I miss him so much at work that it's nice to have a few extra moments with him, even if it's at the expense of my sleep.  I'm still trying to figure it out.  Do I need more tough love or will things just work themselves out and he needs extra loving?   But in the meantime of trying to figure life out, I am trying to give myself some slack and trust my instincts.  But I still hope I'm not parenting in a way that is a disservice to him. I shouldn't make it sound like he is this awful kid that cries all the time.  He isn't at ALL. We have just had some moments :)  He really is so smiley and happy (when he's not tired or hungry) and incredibly talkative lately. It is the best. He'll get going jabbering and sometimes it is for like 5 straight minutes.  Tanner hasn't appreciated it so much when he had a few VERY early mornings and I brought him into our bed so I could still lay down and he just had stories to tell!

Some other things that he is doing that I absolutely love - When you put something in front of him that he wants, his face gets all scrunched up and serious and he flaps his arms up and down really fast before he starts reaching for it really quick/aggressive like.  He's getting really good with his precision in grabbing at things.  He's getting his opinions about stuff too.  He'll purse his lips a lot more now when he doesn't want his binky and arches his back when he doesn't want to be sitting in his car seat or laying down.  It's funny. Most of the time.  He's laughing a lot more which is the absolute best.  It's funny the things he finds funny.  You'll randomly stumble upon a face or action or sound that he finds hilarious and it's so much fun!  He still loves his baby bjorn.  When he's facing out in it when we go for walks or whatever, he randomly and frequently lets out these random giggles/squeals of delight and flaps all his extremities at the same time which is basically the coolest thing ever.  For all the difficulty this last month, his awesomeness MORE than makes up the difference.

Here are some random pictures of cuteness.

Happy at the babysitters

Another cute one from Father's Day

This baby sleeps cuter than anything I even know.

He is LOVING this thing.

This picture melts my heart.

We've taken him golfing a few times and he's actually been awesome.  Tanner and I have both been able to golf 9 holes.  He either hangs out in the car seat or we pass him off to each other.  It's a great family affair!

This doesn't look so comfortable to me.

And I tried real hard to get a picture of his teeth - and this is the best I could do with a wiggle worm who wasn't too stoked on me messing with his lip. I'm getting so excited to start giving him real food!

These last two were from just a couple days ago. Some fun tummy time on Monster Grammy's awesome quilt.  Don't mind the drool.