NaBloPoMo---and i got the job!

i found out a few days ago, but chose to post about my nephew first since it was his birthday ( i love that kid!) it's a long post but worth reading!

so this new position on the same floor will start on 12/10, i'm a little nervous but feeling good about it. we have had lots of manadation lately, and that won't be a problem for me anymore, i don't love 7am, but i know i can do it, i have before, and i won't be so tired all the time cause i will be home by 8pm! i will see my husband every night! so mostly excited i guess.

also i have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. you can go to this link http://www.fussy.org/nablopomo.html to find out more, but essentially i will blog everyday in the month of november...it sounds like a fun challange! so starting tomorrow stop by and check out what i come up with...be sure to leave me lots of comments to encourage me!

happy birthday to my favorite nephew!

today was my nephews 1st birthday party. he is an amazing little boy and i want to share his story with my friends out there in blogging land.

Weston was born last october 2005. my brother and sister in law already had one child a little girl named ella, and they knew they were ready for another baby. they got pregnant, went for the ultrasound, and were unable to find out what they were going to have cause he didn't cooperate.

we all waited at the hospital for him to make his arrival, as we do for all new babies in my family, he was finally born around 9pm, but once he was here it was apparent something was wrong. he was taking a while to get pink and his abdomen was very distended. there was a slew of xrays, we heard they were watching gas bubbles in his stomach and intestines to see if they moved all the way through his bowel. they started talking about moving him to a larger childrens hospital, and they did at 1 am. i was with my mom and sister in law in the delivery room when they brought him in to say goodbye, they had him in a "moon box" a clear box as long as a gurney with lots of equipment on it beeping and flashing.

he ended up having his first surgery at 9 hours old, my brother at the pediatric hospital, my sister in law at the hospital she gave birth in. he came out of surgery with a colostomy and feeding tube in his abdomen.

for the next few months he lived in the hospital, had several surgies, and hovered around his birth weight, he was becoming a failure to thrive, he wasn't growing, it wasn't until he was 4 months old that he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and lactose intolerance. they started him on enzymes, changed his formula and watched him blossom.

he is now a little heavier than my son(and six months younger) he is starting to crawl and pull up on things, he has a few words, in other words developing normally. he still has a feeding tube but his colostomy was reversed months ago.

he is not out of the woods, cystic fibrosis is a disease that will take it's toll on him over time. it causes all bodily secretions to be thickened, so mucus and lung secretions, digestive secretions, and so on and so forth. people with cf end up needing organ transplants, and the average life expectancy is 30, with people living much longer or much less.

today was a day to be greatful for what we have, a baby who is not currently in the hospital ( to be honest i lost track of how many admissions, but the last one was two weeks ago)who is sweet and smiley and a chunky little love bug. we don't know how hard this disease will be for him, but to be honest i try not to think about it because it is just disturbing.

we do lots of fundraising as a family, the cf walks, whiffle ball tournaments, bike races, whatever, because that is what my brother and sister in law need to do. just to throw this out there you can purchase cf greeting cards for the holidays as well as other great gifts here http://www.cff.org/GetInvolved/ShopTheMarketplace/
and here
https://www.cff.org/GetInvolved/LimitedCollectibles/limited_collectibles.cfm
they also have those rubber bracelets everyone wears , it's a deep blue, i wear mine everyday.

so happy birthday weston! we love you!

car seat safety-check this out!

just saw this post over at the constant gardners corner of the net, if you have children under 30 lbs, or are close too small children take a look:



http://growingspuds.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-safety-moment.html

adventures in genetic screening part I

aka whatever is wrong with you people isn't genetic....

so yesterday was genetic screening day, my mother had called the office and added an appt for my little brother at the same time. ( by little i mean 25, the kid is at least six feet) anyway he works in construction and had forgotten about the appt, so did not bring his car to the job site. i had to pick him up, pick up my husband at home and then go to hospital for the appt. William didn't get his nap cause all this was happening when he should have been napping. after about two hours of driving around following school buses that kept stopping and blocking the road off we finally get there, we have to go to one building to check in then back outside and across a parking lot to another building for the appt.

we go to check in and an older woman at the desk says " i have to check in all of you" we tell her not the baby but the three adults we have an appt next door...she says well let me just call over there and make sure i have to check in all of you...we need to be there in like 5 mins so i'm ready to jump her.. but i behave myself while she calls and gets told, yes all of us... so she pawns off my brother on one of her coworkers and takes forever to check in me and my husband..

while waiting to check in i have to use the bathroom...so i walk in to find a woman standing there looking at me funny at the sink, i say hi and turn to walk to the stalls to find there are no stalls its only a one person bathroom! she must not have locked the door! so she washes her hands and is acting funny and going kind of slow, then she says oh i know what i forgot to do...and walks back over to the toilet and flushes it, then walks to the door so i think she is leaving....but she doesn't leave...she sort of hangs near the door adjusting her clothes...while i watch her....cause i'm waiting for her to leave...... so i can lock the door and pee already....she finally leaves and i use the bathroom and get out there.... in retrospect as i type this since it is the first time i have rethought the whole thing...i pretty much stormed in there and threw her out. i was really tired and in a big hurry yesterday and it was one of those uncomfortable situations that you're just not sure how to behave in..so i am right now laughing hysterically and crying a little as i write this...i'm such a jerk! that poor woman!

anyway back to the screening...we go over to the other building and find the office is tiny, as in there is no waiting room. Me, my husband, my brother, and my baby in the umbrella stroller literally take up all the available floor space, they tell us the will put us in the big room cause there are so many of us, and i am a little relieved cause i was feeling clausterphobic...yeah the big room is not so big, actually a little smaller then the first room we were in. i fold up the stroller and shove it in the corner, we close the door and my son starts playing with the disgusting toys from the 1970's that are all broken. yeah i'm a good mom...

my brother doesn't love small places or crowds and i was already feeling like the walls might be coming in.. the lady comes in and talks for waaayyyyyy toooo looonnnnggggg about stuff we already know, leaves the room like 4 or 5 times, my toddler who did not get his nap is getting antsy...we are trying to keep him happy, we are getting giddy ourselves, the lady keeps explaining stuff we already know....everyone is tired and hungry...

a few highlights from the conversation:

lady: so why are you here today directed to my brother-
adam-so my mother can sleep at night (he says this absolutely deadpan cause he's not trying to be funny) then backtracking-i mean i know it's important and i need to know, but this isn't important to me right now, i'm not having kids yet....

after the lady goes through a very long but not at all in depth explanation of genetics adam says "yeah- i learned that in high school " rude but funny if you know adam...and mild for what i know he wanted to say...

my son trying to play with the lady's usb drive which is around her neck on a lanyard cause he thinks it's a car...

my son showing the lady his belly button....and wanting to see hers....so we pulled him away

in between all of this she just keeps giving us looks like i can't believe these people....

so after the three ring circus in a too small too hot room with the toddler getting increasingly. tired and cranky, and the adults getting a little silly in a meeting that went on far too long...we went back to the building we started in on the other side of the same waiting area for the lab work we came in for in the first place...william fell down and started wailing-he wasn't hurt more tired, so i had my blood drawn from my right arm while he wimpered in my left arm...

and then we finally got to drop off adam and go home...

we should have the results in a week or two, stay tuned for results...
8:59 AM

happy thoughts-yes i'm still alive

here are some of my recent happy thoughts:

!) dave and i have been doing some talking and in a few months we will start trying for baby #2!!!!

2) the house is completely sided and today before i went to work we hung the new shutters and painted the front door to match-i will post a pic tomorrow!

3) we go for genetic screening this week to deal with the cystic fibrosis thing, this is good because at least it will be over and done with-i am not expecting my husband to be a carrier even if i am as he is european.

4) just when i was getting upset about work and all the mandation that has been going on a new position was created, it is 24 hours same as what i am working now, but only two twelve hour shifts instead of 3 eight hour, which would end up being only two weekend days a month, and 7a-7p so i would always be home at a decent hour! no more grocery shopping at one am, or scrambling for someone to take will at 5 am if i get stuck at work overnight! 5 days off a week!! and it looks like noone above me in seniority will want it so there is a good chance i might get it, cross your fingers for me!

5)my son is the most adorable child on the planet! he is following directions, speaking in two word sentences, wanting me to read him stories, learning tons of new words everyday, feeding himself with a spoon, and he is officially 1 and 1/2!!! 18 months old a few days ago.

6) i started x-mas shopping for will and have bought him some pretty cool toys and books so far! i'll do a post about that later!

and now i'm off to bed (it's 2 am)