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| Sorry, this is the only photo I have to put up at the moment. Don't you just wish you were sleeping this peacefully right now? I always just want to climb into his crib and snuggle with him. :) |
Wow, it has been a busy month (I feel like all my blog posts start out that way or very similar. . .sorry)!
For starters, poor Finn has had such a rough time. He had finally gotten over his 3rd ear infection (2nd and 3rd were only a month apart), when a few weeks later he came down with a croupy cough. We took him to the doctor and they gave him a dose of steroids for his lungs (which were tight), and said he had croup. Well, a little more than a week later he was still coughing and very very runny-nosed, so we took him back to the doctor. He sent us to the hospital to get Finn tested for Pertussis aka Whooping Cough, and it was not a fun process. They laid him down and had to swaddle him, then stuck a coffee straw sized tube WAY the heck up his nose to suck out mucus to test. I swear that thing went so far up, they sucked out a little bit of brain! Needless to say Finn was screaming and flailing while Gideon and I just tried to hold him down. Luckily the tech was super nice and they even had a bag full of toys for him to take home (which contained some of what are his new favorite toys).
So the test results came back and guess what? He had Pertussis! It was surprisingly not as scary as it sounds. I was just so surprised that he could get it, since he has had every singe vaccine on time, including pertussis, and Gideon and I were both vaccinated for Pertussis before we ever even took him home from the hospital when he was born. But apparently only 80% of people who receive the vaccine become immune, and children don't even get the full dose of the vaccine until they're about 5 (it's given in a series). So we all had to do a round of antibiotics (Finn to get him better, Gideon and I just to be safe). The doctor is required to report it to the health department, who then called me and asked me a bunch of questions about who we had been in contact with since Finn started showing symptoms, where we think he could have gotten it, blah blah blah. They even sent a letter to the bishop of our church to read to the congregation to let people know there had been a case of Pertussis in the ward (we renamed nameless) and to urge people to vaccinate. It's really good that they are keeping up on all of that stuff, but it was just a little overwhelming.
Finn still has a very slight cough, even though he is no longer contagious (none of us are thanks to those handy dandy antibiotics). Once you've contracted Pertussis you can cough for up to 100 days even after you've received treatment. Crazy. When it was at it's worst, Finn would cough so hard he would throw up everywhere. It was not pretty. I'm sad to report a casualty from all of it, one newly sewn pillow. Oh well. I'm just glad my sweet little boy is feeling better and back to being the little ham that he is!
Speaking of that, he really is such a silly little boy. He just makes us laugh out loud all day long! He makes the funniest noises, laughs when we laugh, gets himself into the silliest predicaments, and gets annoyed at the funniest things. He is still a very picky eater, and we're trying to get him off of the pureed only diet. . . not much luck so far. He is entering the tantrum throwing phase- which I thought came later? He must have my fiery personality. I'm scared to see where that will take us! We just love this little guy so much and are so happy and blessed that he is healthy and doing ok.
I am getting so so excited to see him interact with his new little brother when he gets here. We've taught him how to sign "baby", and now at the grocery store or when he sees babies on TV or is around his cousins, he signs "baby." It's so cute. I just hope he doesn't get too curious and poke Mason's eyes out or beat him over the head with a toy! It would be all out of love, but we'll have to keep a close eye on those two. :)
And when is this new baby boy supposed to arrive, you ask? That is the question of the day around here. I have been feeling SO MUCH PRESSURE around where babies typically enter the world, to avoid being graphic, and I've been having a LOT of really painful / fairly frequent braxton hicks contractions. So at my 32 week appointment last week, I told my midwife all about it and she decided to check me just to be sure. Well, I am 1cm and 50% (if you are reading this and don't know what that means, I won't explain it to you. Google it). Also, his head is "a lot lower than it needs to be at this point," to quote my midwife.
Bottom line, this kid is on his way out! Slowly but surely, progress is being made. My midwife pretty much said that we only had a few more weeks where it would be really bad for him to be born. The vibe I got from what she was saying is that after 34 weeks, it's game on! I really hope that this little boy stays in there until I am at least 37 weeks, but we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully at my 34 week appointment I won't have made very much progress. In the meantime, I have been sort of doing a mad dash (as much as you can dash with a bowling ball between your legs) to get things ready around here for our little Mason, since I have no clue when he'll show up. I got the fridge cleaned out, washed the baby clothes (I forgot how tiny newborn stuff is!!), and bought the bathtub and bouncer (we bought really crappy ones for finn that didn't work).
We're almost ready for you Mason, so stay in there a little while longer and get fat!
