I have not been blogging much lately, and I'm way behind. I think the reason, besides general busy-ness, is that I'm pregnant(!), and have had to stop pumping, which was the reason I had so much computer time. Here's the story: When Peter had surgery a few months ago, we needed to go in for some x-rays and I knew they'd ask me if I was pregnant, and I usually can say a definite, "no" but I couldn't remember...and I'd been feeling really tired and not interested in food...So I wheeled Peter downstairs in his wagon with his IV pole and everything and bought a test in the PCMC pharmacy. Lo and behold, we were expecting! We find out the gender on Tuesday, I'll be sure to post about it. It was quite the shocker, and I admit very overwhelming. Peter was still on breastmilk and I was still pumping about 26 oz a day, even though it wasn't enough and I was supplementing with friends milk (thanks again!). So, I had to pretty much just stop and one night after we were home we just ran out of BM and didn't know what to do, and just tried giving Peter another formula (which we'd tried before to no avail) since it was too late to do anything else. Miraculously, he tolerated it and even though he threw up every so often and had to be on about 1/2 of what he really needed for his size, he was accepting it. Little by little since then, we've gotten over the throwing up and lots of gagging and worked him up to a higher amount per hour so he can stop losing weight. [sorry this is soo much info here, I'm just doing a little journaling]
This surgery was a much harder road than I was expecting. I'm glad I didn't know that because I would not have chosen it, and it has led to some great miracles. There were days where we were trying to be normal again and going out in public, but Peter would have something happen that would cause him to cry or we would be trying to up his feeds which was always hard on him, and he would throw up, just saliva since nothing is in his stomach anymore since surgery, but still after he was done, the area was cleared out and all the worried mothers would be giving me the look, all the kids would be nervous or grossed out. It was so emotional for me, I felt like an outcast, I was embarrassed and mad that people didn't understand. I was just waiting for someone to come yell at me for bringing my sick kid in public and exposing everyone to his germs. I almost wanted it to happen so I could unleash the fury and let her have it for judging wrongly.
He's also been sleeping poorly and for a while I did nothing but sing praises to my washer and dryer for having a sanitary cycle. All I did was laundry, clean up throw up and other stinky messes. The smell of changing his bandage while pregnant was almost more than I could bear. We still change it every night but I'm past the really sensitive part of my pregnancy and Ben changed it a ton over the Christmas break which was heavenly.
Here's a picture of Peter enjoying a king-size bed all to himself:
That looks nice, doesn't it? His wound is still pretty sensitive so he sleeps like that instead of on his stomach. We haven't been able to get him out of our room since surgery. You can see the pack 'n play that we eventually brought in on the right there. We'd try to move him over once he was asleep. He's sleeping a little better now and I even put him in his crib for two naps this week.
Peter has also fallen in love with the carousel at South Towne Mall, he knows when we're close, due to all the Christmas shopping I did with him in tow. And now for a major back flash, this is a hike we took in October or November, I can't remember which, but is a fun picture of Peter laughing.
All the Durham cousins in town for Halloween and a funeral, missing the Ricks.
Another outing while everyone was in town.
They let Peter get on the bull...
Ben and his family ran a race on Thanksgiving morning. That morning his brother Mark decided they all needed to run in suits. I love that they did it. Ben was the only one in a suit coat. When he got close to the finish line, I started to run with him and he gave me a piggy back running over the line. It was humorously romantic, love this man.
Later that weekend at the annual Messiah Sing-In with my family. This music is more meaningful to me every year, the words blossom before me a little more every year.
Picture with Santa at the Busath work party. Peter wouldn't take one by himself so we just all jumped in.
That's all I have in me now! I'll start posting more regularly again soon, I hope!
