Baby 3

Think pink!

A big day

Tomorrow is a big day for our family.  We find out if Baby #3 is going to be wearing pink or blue; and looking good/healthy/normal in the ultrasound.  Paige is going to go with Cowboy and I; and Cooper gets to have his nap at daycare since my appointment is right during his crabby time.  I felt bad for about  2 minutes and then realized he won't quite understand and its a long time for a 2 year old to sit and be still!  Paige is hoping for a girl and my aunt is having dreams we have a boy; so we will see who is going to be happy. I'm only at 18 weeks and having it; so I hope the baby cooperates as this OCD momma wants to start picking colors and going through tubs to get organized.

Cooper had his follow up for his tubes as its been a month--and he's doing really well.  He had a cold for about 10 days and we got to experience just a normal cold and not an ear infection for the first time.  Fortunately everyone is recovering from the Feb. ick and starting to feel better--myself included. 

A recap

I find sometimes its easier to remember what's going on in our lives with a summary list; so these are some of the things going on.

• Cooper goes in for surgery to put tubes in his ears on Wednesday morning at 6:30 am; we are supposed to be done by 9--I am hoping he comes out of anesthia really easily!
• Cooper has been sleeping much better and we are back to sort of our normal sleeping pattern--back in the crib.  He is going to sleep much better and generally sleeping longer at night.  Some nights he is sleeping all night; others he is up.  I'm taking it as baby steps and its getting better.
• He is acting and playing much better since he has been without an ear infection and is just a super busy boy. 
• Miss Paige is just getting too big and growing up too fast.  I didn't know at the age of 6 we would have BFF necklaces, such playground/friend drama of this person did this. . ., such a desire to sing at the top of her lungs all the time, and such a general grown up awareness of what's going on.  She's all ears and anything that is said, she's going to absorb and question.
• Cowboy has a birthday this week and is old on Thursday! 
• So with a surgery, a birthday, volleyball, girl scouts, homework and just trying to contain the chaos; we will have a busy week. 

Christmas

Christmas is pretty easy to sum up this year. . .a sort of long weekend with lots of family, presents, and a tired family.  Cooper's ears made it a challenge but he tried to have fun.  This is the two of them opening up one of their joint presents--they both loved the panels and chute for the bulls and horses.  It caused squeals from both.  I think its been 10 days since Christmas and we are still recovering as we finally got the tree down, the glitter vacuumed up, and most of the mess put away.  Oh the toys, what fun and what a pain :)

New Year's Resolution. . .to sleep!

So Cooper is finally feeling better and now we have a new problem--to break all the bad sleep habits we developed in the month of December, including. . .sleeping in Mom & Dad's bed.  Those who know me are shocked that I allow this.  Cooper is our second child and only he has spent time in our bed.  With Paige I had the fear that she would never get out if we let her in, so the poor kid knows its okay to climb in during the morning hours and cuddle and watch cartoons, and that's it.  I gave in about week 2 or 3 with Cooper in December and realized I could not sleep in the rocker in his room anymore and brought him in.  We have a king size bed, should be room for one small boy.  WRONG!  It worked well for a day or two and then he started moving and rolling sideways, etc.  I realized we created a monster.  Friday night I decided he could tough it out in his crib as he was feeling better and infection was gone.  He screamed and broke the crib latch on the side that drops down so it won't stay up; and he was going to bail over.  Sigh.  Next day the toddle race car bed came out.  Moderate success with sleeping until 4am, and then a mom cuddle.   A few days later and Ryan or I are sleeping on the floor beside the toddler bed.  Not a solution.  So I had a momentary temper tantrum last night and put his crib mattress back in his crib, tied up the side railing with a dishtowel (it was 3am) and let him cry for 20 minutes and then enjoyed 3.5 hours of sleep.  I just hope it only takes a few days of him screaming to realize this used to be the normal routine and he likes his bed :)

Poor Cooper

Poor little Cooper. . .and his ears.  Since December 3rd, he has been battling a double ear infection.  He has been fortunate and this is only his 2nd one of the year; but its a big one.  He has had two different prescriptions, one shot of Rosephrin, and now that none of that is working, we are onto the sequence of 3 daily shots of Rosephrin.  I'm told this will make him better but its sure not fun having him get the shots.  He got the first one on Wed midmorning and Wed. night he had a fever higher than he was supposed to--thankfully the Motrin got it down.  But we are at home again hanging out today and he got his second shot, and we are waiting to see if a fever develops this afternoon.  I'm hoping he and Mom each get a really long nap this afternoon.   3 plus weeks of not sleeping is starting to wear down this lady.  Tubes are scheduled for January 16th--hopefully we can stay healthy until then and can get all this yuck behind us!

Helper elves

The good weather allowed us to get lights on the house and the kiddos and I got the tree decorated and ready to go today.  Bless Ryan who spent Friday night getting my prelit tree to be 100% lit instead of 75%, and who handled outside light duty.