We're still here...

I have managed to actually be online and check bloglines and email about every other day but I have had a serious lapse in writing... sorry about that! I've been getting in a bit of driving which is good for saving my sanity! I've gone to the office a couple times, brought my angora baby dress out to the fair for competition (fingers crossed), and the grocery store. And although it does hurt just a bit on the incision spot in the evenings I think it's ok.

Jake has been spending a lot of time at the in-laws which is nice, but since Sean doesnt let me sleep more than 3 hours in a row at night, it still leaves me pretty tired. He does enjoy his brother somewhat, but I think he's looking more forward to playing with him, and I think he's rather disappointed that he cant really do that yet.

I finished Stacy's sweater, and I even took a picture but am too lazy now to show you. I hope to get a pic of her actually wearing it. I hope she likes it. I put it on me, and even though it's a medium and I'm, well, not, it fit-ish. It was a bit short on me but should be perfect on her. I do like it a lot and may make myself one too.

I had been working on a scarf too, but it's slow going. I think because it's pretty wide - wider than I like. It's easy crochet, double/single across, then single double across so its a nice looking pattern, but boring I think. I'd really like to finish it up before I start something else, and since I dont have a next project in mind, it just may work.

BTW, trying to type one handed isnt the easiest thing, let me tell you! Thats it for now, more when I can use both my hands!

Baby baby baby. And a sleeve.

Well, things are going pretty well, Sean has a schedule pretty well down, but I am trying to change it! He sleeps from 4-8pm, up until 11, then up at 1:30 then 4ish, then 6am but those are for short ones, then up at 9:30 for a while. If I can get him to wake up around 6pm and keep him up for a while, maybe I can get him to sleep longer at night, but with dinner and getting Jake ready for bed, it's actually handy to have Sean sleeping.

Travis has been sick, and pretty bad - his coughing actually wakes the baby up! Sounds like an upper respiratory infection or some such thing. If he's not better by Tuesday (his day off) he's going to the doc... weather he likes it or not! I've had some coughing but thats about it, and dayquil has been pretty helpful. I just pray that Sean doesnt get sick!

Want some pics? Of course you do!

And... a sleeve! Well, half a sleeve has been completed today during my outing at Tracie's house. Half to go, then to sew it together. I have about 2 weeks to get it done, and since I feel like I've had such a huge lack of knitting that I might as well be UNknitting, wish me luck! I would show you a pic but yeah, I'm to lazy for that right now. When it's done, I'll show you. I will even try really hard to show it to you actually ON Stacy.

That's it for now, have a good one.

We're BAAAAACK!

Well, actually we got back on Wednesday night but this is the first time I've had the chance to get on here.

Sean Joseph Fondren got here on 1.8.07 at 2:15pm. He was 6 pounds, 5 ounces and 19 inches long.

Here's the blog I wrote on Myspace on Thursday because I'm lazy, I'll also post some pics and new commentary (sorry to the folks that already read that one!).

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Elvis has left the building... well, Sean has left his womb, but same diff, right - especially since Sean was born on Big E's b-day. I promise to write more later and you'll have to excuse any weird bits. It's 6am, I am on happy pills, running on a fraction of normal sleep (mostly not even Sean's fault, I just cant find a comfy position) and my head is too busy with the list of crap to do that's 3 miles long to formulate other thoughts. But anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way, here goes...
We got to the hospital at 11:30 on Monday for our 1:30 c-section. The very odd boy nurse (no, I forgot to take a pic, but I think trav may have it on video and I can steal a still from there, we'll see) had problems putting in my iv thing - apparently the perfectly good vein in my left hand was too pretty for him so he had to mess it up, then move on to the right hand which did much better. The right hand had the iv thing in it from 12:30 Monday to 2pm on Wednesday and all I see is the puncture mark. The left hand that had the thingie in it for 2 minutes is still purple. No, I'm not pleased. It hurts. URG! Oh, and speaking of not pleased, No sooner do I get my hospital gown on and get ready to get hooked to the fetal monitors - I start getting contractions. Like every 5 minutes. Who does that? Hrm. Moving on.

This was the first time I ever got to actually walk into an OR. It was the strangest thing, but very very cool. There was a surgical tech student that had me as her first sugery, she was very excited, and I thought it was neat to listen in on all the info the other lady was giving her - explaining instruments to her, teaching her how to scrub in propperly, telling her that my doc calls this one type of tool the "skinny scissors".
They did my spinal, it felt strange to feel my arse go numb! Once I was all prepped, they let Travis in, then they started. Apparently Sean was not wanting to come out because the had a hard time maneuvering him out - he was very sardine like. Once he was out, he cried for the sum total of about 30 seconds, thats it. He fell asleep when they were taking his temp. Taking his temp THERE! He doesnt cry much (or at least he didnt until we came home and tried to go to sleep, but thats for another post), which is a good thing, and when he does it never lasts for more than a minute.
My anestesiologist (I know I spelt that wrong, but what do you want) was very cool. She sounded just like a friend of a friend, and looked like one of the ladies from amc (livia for anyone that watches), very strange. But I lliked her a lot. When they were doing my tubal and Travis was over filming Sean, she and I chatted about a bunch of different things - I was far from freaking out about the surgery, but she made me really relaxed. I liked her bunches.

Um, after they were done, Travis headed to the room with Sean while the doc sewed me up, and when I got back to my room my Mom and aunt were waiting and Travis was rocking the baby. It was so nice, they stayed for a few miutes then it was a Noah style cavalcade to see the baby - two by two.

Jake got to hold him, he was very excited for about two minutes then said "Can you take it from me?". It's been Sean or baby brother for 4 months, but now it's It. He's so funny.
But all in all everything went well. My first thoughts when I saw him were 1) is it still a boy? and 2) he has red curly hair! Turns out it's mostly blond like my Mom's but in the light its got red in it, and the curls were just from being wet, it's pretty straight and fine now. He is very very tiny. Jake was 7lbs, 12 oz, and with this one a pound and a half smaller, it's just strange. Nothing fits him - we had to get newborn clothes for him.

You can see pics at picasaweb.google.com/believerndragons or go here to see the hospital pics: https://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babylogin.asp?URLID=5N0F2M4N4A - choose Sean F. and the password is fondren. That shirt is a newborn size. Not even 0-3 mos... Newborn. It eats him whole. too funny.
Anyway, we left the hospital Wed around 3, dropped off the script for happy pills then went to the in-laws for a bit, left Jake there to spend the night then home by way of Walgreens to pick up the pills.
I got to see the new room almost done - it looks so nice, but that is for another post. I want to go to sleep now, let me think if there's anything I'm forgetting, nope, thats it for now. Good night, er morning and I'll post more later on.

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A few new things to report - we went to the doc Friday and he was 6 lbs, 3 ozs, and 19.5 inches. So he's growing longer but weigs less - weird weird. I'm still pretty sore a lot of the time, and I only have about 7 or 8 more percocets left. In the hospital the nurse would give me 1 of those with 1 motrin (which is just IB like Advil) so I've been doing the same - 1 percoct and 1 advil. That seems to be doing ok for me... and stretching out the stash of drugs since I'm not taking the perscribed 2 at a time. And also, the engorgement, while giving me great porn star boobs hurts a LOT. Hopefully that will go away in a day or two because, yeah OWWW!

Sean pretty much has his day and night backwards. During the day he will wake up (and I use the term wake pretty loosly) just to eat, but at night he actually wants to stay awake. Today we are going to start trying to keep him awake during the day more, and we'll see how that goes.

Here's a few more pics, then I need to go pass out. Percoet may use drowsiness and/or dizziness. Yep, it doesnt lie.

My 3 boys:

Gnombert helping me order lunch (mac n cheese & chicken fingers)

The newest crocheter!

Ok, thats it, I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. More later on, I promise!

Too late to change my mind

Well, it's Sunday at 8:20. In 3 hours and 40 minutes I will not be able to eat anything more. In 14 hours and 10 minutes I need to be at the hospital. 2 hours after that I shall be the mother of 2 (if all goes as planned). Kinda cool, I think!

We're pretty ready. Sean's room is ready, the den - not so much. It has floors and walls and paint and cabinets and shelves and a toybox built in. It also has a garage door and no opening into the dining room. Please pray that comes tomorrow! Actually as long as it's done when I get home I'm fine - but I do know it's freaking Travis out, so I hope it gets done quickly.

I had to go to the hospital today to pre-register. The vampires stole 4 vials of blood and gave me 2 nifty id bracelets that I am not supposed to take off. Good thing I got that shower out of the way first!

Also I hear tell that the hospital has the internets so I should be able to post pics and such. Travis will be putting all the pics he takes on our gmail photo thing and I'll be sure to let you know what it is. Wish me luck!

Well, this is it....

For work anyway. In 3 days I shall be the mom of 2, and that is terribly exciting for me. I feel like work is going to survive 2 months without me, and all is right with the world. My desk is realatively clean, I've left instructions for the 2 or 3 people that will be being me when I'm gone and I have faith in them, and their ability to call me if something wonky happens. I havent tried to post to this thing from home with pictures yet, so that will be an interesting challenge, but thats fine, I'm sure I can figure it out.
The den is coming along swimmingly, but I forgot to take pics today or yesterday. Yesterday when I got home, all of the walls and the ceiling was primed. Then, after dinner Dad painted. The whole thing. The ceiling and trim is a pail tan and the walls a nice slatey blue. Today when I get home I should have a floor in there. Hopefully in the next day or so there will be a wall where the garage door is and no wall (or at least the door cut out) between the dining room and the new den.
Sean's room is doing well too. His dresser has all his stuff in it, diapers, wipes, etc check. The bed is together and has linens on it. I need to hang the curtain and get the chair in there and the lamp cleaned and put up. I think thats about it. Soon Travis will get the rest of his stuff out of the closet in there and into the new den, and after that he'll hang a bar so we can put in there what little hangup clothes an infant has!
That's about it on progress. I probably wont be posting until after I'm home from the hospital which should be Wednesday-ish. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

5 days, 23 hours and 4 minutes to go....

hehehe. Sorry, but to me that wont get old! Lots of progress at Chez Chaos! I have pictures:

When I went to work on Friday, my garage looked like a garage - with stuff in it, and a ceiling and a concrete floor, etc. When I came home on Friday, it looked like this:

That's Dad talking to my other-mother Joanne. That is a sub-floor he's sitting on and that pile-o-stuff is, er, was my ceiling. I expected no ceiling, I did not expect a floor.

This morning it looked like this:

That is all framed, there's insulation on all the walls (except for where the garage door is but wont be for long), and insulation on the ceiling. that wall on the right there is the cubby that the freezer (on the left) will now live in. Where the freezer is currently is going to be a u-shaped bunch of shelves for... wait for it... YARN STORAGE!! :):):):):). That means that I can get rid of a dresser in my room and have use of parts of my closet floor! Imagine that! Moving on. Today they are sheetrocking the ceiling and starting on the walls. And the they that are doing it is my Dad, my husband, my father-in-law and Jake. Boy do I wish I could be there to capture the moment on film, er, memory card. Also today they will be picking up Jake's new dresser.

His old dresser is now:

In Sean's room as a changing table.

Mom came over on Saturday to paint the room, I really should have had a before picture so you could see how dark the blue was, but I forgot.

This is the after. Here is a closeup:

It's got this linen type texture to it which feels really neat. It definatly tones down that blue which is a very good thing! Next up is to put the crib together, get the curtains from my MIL's house and get those up, plus wash a few more things. We fished the baby carseat out of the in-laws attic (whew, I was worried there a minute that someone had gotten rid of it), I need to wash the cover on that, plus the new boppy covers, bouncy seat cover, etc.

Tonight I shall move Jake's clothes to the new dresser, put the stepstool in there (the underwear and sock drawers are too high) and start putting some of Sean's clothes away. I need to get diapers and a diaper genie refill thing from the in-laws (can you tell their house is storage central?), and get them set and in place. I have already washed all the bottles and put them away, we have some formula all ready. I have the diaper bag together, and my hospital bag is in the trunk. Would you like to know the problem with my hospital bag?

Let me show you in pictures:

+

= Need to find something else for him to come home in.

Speaking of weird weather... IN JANUARY(!!), this is my peach tree:

It's not supposed to have flowers until February. It's a little confused.

I'm making good progress on Stacy's sweater. Here's the back all done:

And I'm about 6 inches up on the front. I really hope that I can get it done before Sean comes... because Stacy needs such a nice warm sweater for the arctic air we're having - right?

Anyway, that's it for now. OH, babyville: 38 wks LMP, Sean weighs 6.80 lbs or 3083 grams and is 19.61 inches or 49.8 cm long. He might begin to drop farther towards the cervix and I'll be able to walk easier but have to go potty more often (yeah, except it is more difficult now to walk then before AND I have to go potty more. Oh well... Only 5 days 22 hours and 6 minutes to go.)