So, um, the top floor of our apartment building burned down early this morning/late last night. We were awakened about 3am but people running and knocking at our back door. Our house is a double house (two rooms wide, three stories tall) divided into six apartments, two to a floor. The top two apartments are gutted along with the attic. The middle two apartments are full of water and smoke. Our apartment, on the first floor, has no fire damage, but has quite a bit of water and smoke--our furniture is ruined but we're all ok and the red cross is putting us up in hotel for two days...after that we have to find somewhere to live in the long and short term. The building is ruined, so we have to pack everything up and find a new apartment post-haste. I'm not sure that's fully sunken in yet.

Oh, and it's Acey's BD today.

Alistair has another bladder infection. They gave us meds on Thurs at the Children's ER and sent us home. Today, we get a frantic call from the ER--the culture came back and the bacteria isn't what they thought--no oral antibiotics for this. Taking him back into the ER shortly for another culture and probably to be admitted and have IV antibiotics. I'm just hoping that it's not another 10 or worse 14 days of IV meds. :( And he has awful veins, like his mom and gramdma, so it takes them forever to do the IV and then it goes bad after a few days and they have to redo it...

I keep thinking about all the worse things he could have, and on one hand I'm grateful this is it, but OTOH, it still sucks.

Wow, so I have the chance to post but I'm balking...where to even start! Maybe bullet points are my friend, or subject headings:
Alistair:
Did I mention he almost died? I still haven't fully processed that--we never even had a close scare with Royce--he's never even been to the doctor for more than some of his shots and a check up or two, but now Alistair has had the full workup. It was terrifying and heartbreaking and strange and we are so so lucky. There were kids on his floor who had been there for weeks and weeks and kids whose parents left them alone for hours, either because they had to or wanted to (sadly) and kids who weren't getting any better. As awful as it was to watch them spinal tap him or redo his IV or take his blood over and over, we knew he was getting better and we would be out within two weeks. Honestly, I don't think either of us realized how serious it was until we saw how relieved the doctors were that he was getting better and noticed how much they were checking on him those first few days---by the end, we barely saw anyone other than vitals checks a couple of times a day and rounds in the mornings.

But he's been home since Sun and it was lovely to hang out with him in the big bed (I hadn't slept laying down in over a week, so it was heavenly to get back to our bed and cosleep). He had a pediatrician appt on Tues which was just a followup and then he has some yucky testing tomorrow am (we have to get up super early, bleah)--he has an ultrasound of his kidneys and urinary system and then a VGUC which is a test that involves a catheter, dye and watching where urine goes in his system to see if it's flushing the wrong way. Once our medicaid gets approved (fingers crossed) he gets a urology appt and we'll see if they want to do anything else to prevent this from happening again--they may want to test Royce too since sometimes it runs in families. Oh, and have I said what it is? Can't remember. His ureters (sp?) are swollen and may be flushing urine back into his kidneys or something like that. Makes him super prone to urinary tract infections. As he gets older, the infections will be less dangerous than this one was, but they want to make sure that his kidneys aren't being damaged.

In non-illness related news, he was 12 lbs 4 oz on Tues and 7 weeks old, so he had gained an ounce a day for the last 18 days ( his last pediatrician appt). Perfect! He eats all the time, when he's not pooping or kicking. :) He's very happy and makes the cutest squirmiest faces when he's sleeping and when he's laughing. He's in 3-6 month clothes for a while anyway and we had to upsize his diapers and get new covers in a larger size--the little newborn cloth diapers barely fit on his enormous butt. I will post some more pics when I have a minute--my MIL brought us her digital camera since she got a new tiny one, so yay, I can take pictures again!

Acey:
Doing great! Accepting his new role at work, getting a much better schedule where he actually has days off every week (3!), and very happy with his two sons. :)

Royce:
Still adorable. Says the best stuff very day. Has gotten used to the fact that Alistair is here to stay and likes to kiss him. I barely saw him while Alistair was in the hospital and it was awful--was so glad to get home and be with all my guys. He's barely let me out of his sight since then. Can't believe he's about to be 4! Will be going to playdates this next week to try to start finding him some friends.

Me:
So glad to be home, sleeping in our bed, with a healthy family. Doing some major spring cleaning which is about as fun as you might imagine with the kids, but it's going pretty well--am just working on one section at a time. School is going ok--we're on spring break so I've got a chance to catch up on things, thankfully.

Whoops, he's up! off to snag him out of the swing!

Alistair is definitely doing better. He's almost like a normal baby again--pink and sleeping and crying and pooping without unnatural distress. It turns out that he has an E Coli infection that started as a UTI and spread to his blood--luckily they caught it before it colonized his spinal fluid. He's on one kind of antibiotic now and half of his IV fluids--if he stays hydrated, he'll come off the fluids entirely tonight and be free range except when it's time for meds. He went off the monitors aleady, yay--no more beeping.

We may not be going home though untl the meds are finished--turns out that to put in the IV port for home use, he'd have to not eat for 12 hours and then go under sedation. My 5 week old baby who eats every 1-2 hours when he's sick, is not going to not breastfeed for 12 hours. And I'm not sure comfortable with the idea of sedation either. Especially since we wouldn't be going home before Tues at this point and that would be 5 days of meds right there out of 7-10

Thank you all for the well wishes--we all appreciate them and I will update with any changes!

I will post more fully about this when I have time but wanted to get this out there while I had a chance. Alistair went into the MUSC children's emergency room yesterday about 5am with a 104 F fever. After a battery of tests, some of which are still on going, they've determined he has a bacterial infection in his urine and blood, which they are fighting with IV antibiotics and fluids, plus tylenol for the fever. He's got an IV (obviously) and several monitoring devices attached to him. He'll have an ultrasound today to check his kidneys and then tomorrow an unpleasant procedure in which they will catheterize him, inject dye into somewhere and watch where his urine goes to make sure it's not flowing anywhere it's not supposed to. He'll also have more bloodwork tomorrow--if the urine and the blood from tomorrow come back clear, and he's fever free we'll get to take him home, after getting lessons on from the home health people because he'll have to have 14 days of IV antibiotics at home.

He's really sick. I don't think I realized how sick he was yesterday--I was so focused on the spinal tap and catheter and IV insertion that I wasn't thinking about the rest of it. (took them four attempts to get the spinal tap and three to get the IV in) But now that he's not grey anymore and no longer whimpering, I can be scared and relieved.

Will be taking the laptop back to the hospital--ran home for shower and clean clothes--and will update if anything changes. Healing thoughts would be highly appreciated!

So we were all cuddled up on the little bed watching videos on the laptop yesterday when Royce saw Spider-Man cartoons on the netflix instant download queue. We chose one and started watching it and he asked questions like "can I put on my Spider-Man costume now?" and "Why is Spider-Man's mouth invisible?" But then he asked the best one yet..."How does Peter Parker have time to pick all those peppers and save the day?"

If you search youtube for charlottezweb1971, you can see some videos of Xmas and of the newbie. The site is still processing some of them, but they're all uploaded finally.

Hey All! I'm getting ready to pick up the birth announcements and then hopefully get them in the mail...(I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought birth annoucement for Royce, got them in envelopes and never mailed them--they are still in a drawer somewhere)...but I realized as i was making my list that I don't have any of your addresses...

And by your, I mean you...yes, you. :)

Would you mind commenting here (I will lock comments for privacy) or emailing me with your address, if you would enjoy receiving a birth announcement for Alistair?

Thanks!!!

If I sent you any pics when Royce was born (I know that was forever ago) please email me copies!! When my hardrive crashed, I lost all of them. :( I have the ones from his first month in general but not the ones from the hospital and from those first few days...

Tendered my resignation to my boss today. Since Alistair would only be 3.5 weeks old at the end of my maternity leave, I tried to see if I could get an extension, but no luck. So, turning in my office key shortly. Was a decent year anyway. And the boys are happy I'll be home more. :)

Oh, and I meant to add that Alistair measured still 23in at 2 weeks and weighed 10 lbs 10 oz, so he's heading back to his birth weight--less than 1 lb to go. 9 lbs 15 oz was the lowest recorded, followed by 10 lbs 5 oz at 1 week and now 10 lbs 10 oz at 2 weeks.

Some quick two handed typing while Alistair is in the swing!

Two weeks post partum and things have been up and down--things are fine if I'm getting more than a couple of hours of sleep a day and decidedly not fine otherwise. Yesterday, I was exhausted because I had only and hour or so of sleep the night before but made it through the day and then actually had friends over last night for a few hours. I figured the benefit of seeing friends would outweigh my exhaustion and luckily I was right. They brought a tasty casserole and hung out for a few hours--was nice to laugh and tell stories and see someone other than my husband and the kids. Alistair slept well last night and I got almost 6 hrs of sleep! Today was all about napping and nursing after Acey got home from work and took Royce off to play for the day. Tomorrow, another friend is taking Royce and Acey's going to play with Alistair when he's not nursing so I can get some schoolwork done, since I am woefuly behind.

Interesting bits of yesterday--we ate at Sesame, this fancy burger place in North Chas where they make all the ingrediants from the ketchup to the pickles and buns. Had sliders--one with portobello mushroom and goat cheese, one with chili and cheddar and one with pimento cheese. The last one was the best, mmmmm.

We had our WIC appt also which is why we were in N Chas...Took two hours but we qualified and got our first three months of vouchers and had our various tests and interviews done. They were very excited to find out I was breastfeeding--not a lot of that around here--and called in the lactation consultant in case I had any questions and offered me a manual pump after he's three weeks old. (She was all like, "It's a manual but it's a Medela so it's nice anyway!") The food allowances are odd but will be very handy since they cover the most expensive items on our grocery list (not counting meat, which we almost never buy).

Between Royce and I (Alistair's nursing, so he doesn't get anything, but I get extras), we have monthly vouchers for:
2 lbs carrots
6 gallons skim milk
4 gallons 2% milk
24 oz tuna
4 doz eggs
72 oz approved cereals
18 oz peanut butter
2 lbs beans/peas
2 lbs cheese
12 12 oz frozen juice or 46 oz bottled juice

Seems like an odd selection, although I understand the cheap protein, etc choices, but that's a lot of juice and milk...My caseworker was Indian and she gave us a recipe for making yogurt from the excess milk...

Hmm, I think Alistair might be getting fussy...

Will be typing one handed as Alistair fell asleep on my other hand, lol. Also should probably have waited to take percocet, but wev, :)

• Nursing is going pretty darn well. We still have intermittent latch issues, usually in the middle of the night, but the sugar water trick has been working and I'm getting better at taking care of it on my own. His latch isn't perfect but no major blisters, etc for either of us.
• Had his 1st ped appt this am--in great health. Regained 6 oz already--should be back at birth weight next week. (Had dropped from 11 9 to 9 15--now at 10 lbs 5 oz, yay) Ped suggested we skip 2 week appt and just do 1 month one. Cool. Also gave us neat diaper bag w/ kids book, etc,
• Had hormonal incident afterwards--totally started crying in the car for no reason. Just felt exhausted and overwhelmed, Spent rest of day in pjs.
• Royce is being an awesome big brother--so sweet and helpful. Also going stir crazy, poor little guy, since all of our in town friends and relations either have that stomach bug or colds right now so haven't been able to take him out since Fri. Acey did get him out for a long trike ride yesterday and today at least.
• In the TMI dept, my bleeding has tapered off quite a bit, although is still an issue, my incision looks good, and I made it through the 1st post partum poop yesterday (after almost a week--ow!).
• Pain levels are much better--yesterday, I took one percocet in the am and one pm, and today just one pm. No longer excruciating to get on/off bed, for ex.
• MIL will be here Sat-Mon, she told us today, so Royce will get some more distraction/attention. Wish she would stay in a hotel but we'll deal.

All I can think of for now,,,

On coming out of the potty...

"I have a lot of pee in my penis. My penis is _big_!"