Baby Cora Visits the Hospital

This has been a busy week!  The next few weeks should be a bit quieter and now that we finished watching Downton Abbey, we can stop staying up so late and get back to our good sleep habits :)

We met with a pediatric surgeon last week who felt that Cora should go ahead and have her umbilical hernia repaired rather than risk it causing her any further problems. I scheduled a visit with Cora's pediatrician to get her opinion and she agreed, so we scheduled Cora's hernia repair for this past Wednesday.

Baby girl did great and I was proud of team Jacob and Courtney.  Thanks to friend Sarah for hosting Jack in the early morning, for the Waldorf family who let Jack attend school for the day, for friend Katie who brought dinner by, to OR nurse friends Erin and Kate who educated me so I wouldn't be worried, and to all the other friends and family who checked in with us throughout the day.

Coincidentally, Cora was in the same room as Jack was pre-heart surgery and dressed in the same salmon gown!

Thanks brother Jack for the LEGO you sent me to play with :)

Happy Baby turned to Sleepy, Hungry Baby when surgery was delayed.

 

Missing Picture: Drowsy and extra cuddly post-surgery Cora, who nursed and slept in my arms

But after your nap, you were back to your normal, happy self

Playing with your IV

Chewing on your IV

And on the subject of babies... We were all set to have a 50-person, baby shower bash on Saturday, when the baby himself makes an unscheduled arrival the night before!  Welcome to the world Baby John Crews!  In your vegetarian parents' honor, we will be eating lots of squash this week in creative ways :)  So far: grilled squash, veggie wraps, and squash casserole :)

8 Month Update: Everyone Else

Jack

You are such a talkative child! You are a parrot if I ever met one.  If I want to know what expressions I use, I just need to listen to you.  Common Jack-speak these days:

• "Actually... (and then you insert what you think is a better idea)"
• "Suddenly..." (you have a flare for the dramatic)
• "First of all..."
• "Momma, can you please be quiet, I'm trying to think..." (Thankfully, only said one time)
• "Will that be a good plan?"
• "Let's play the biggest hide and seek in the world!!!"
• "Gracious!"  (which neither of us says!) and "Thank goodness!"
• He continues to be generous to us with his "thank yous" though we usually have to prompt him toward others

You started swimming lessons and love them.  You started Kindermusik classes and love those too.  You still read and read and read.  You continue to be very into fire books but also like Berenstain Bears a lot now too.  We let you bring books to our bed this month (trying to promote the idea that we each read our OWN book) and you think that is just too cool.  You insist on bringing at least 15 with you. 

Mardi Gras has been so much fun this year.  You can't beat living a block from the parade route and you've gotten to experience parades on foot, parades in the ladder box, and parades sitting in your wagon.  You're still young enough that we've given away everything we've caught.  Except your fire truck beads - those are special!

Me
I gave my notice at work a few weeks back that I won't be coming back next school year.  After countless hours thinking this decision to death, I came to what feels like a very "right" decision for me.  I no longer feel that my role is a good fit for a part time position.  I've been searching for project based work for next year which I feel is a better match for me right now.  I like to do good work and feel like concrete projects that I can choose to take on, do well, and complete and be done with is a better fit for the balance I'd like to strike between working and having more time for Jack and Cora.  I feel very at peace with my decision and patient with the process of finding new work.

Jacob

Athens it is!  Jacob, Cora, and I will be going to Greece and Turkey for 11 days this summer; first for Jacob's final MBA class and then for travel time!  (Jack will be going to Grammy Camp which is equally exciting for him.)  In other news, I'm really proud of the massive amount of work Jacob has done taking our disaster of a backyard and turning it into a chicken farm, garden, and play area.  He has gone through a dilapidated garage full of junk slowly making sure to recycle, sell, or donate everything that wasn't true trash.  It took a full year of effort, but for our second annual Mardi Gras party last Friday, we were able to pull our cars all the way up our clean driveway for the first time.

8 Month: Cora Update

Oh Cora-bell!  This last month means we finally need to qualify the "easiest baby ever" label!  You are still the definition of sweetness, but you certainly haven't been all that easy this last month!  It seems a long time ago now that you only woke once a night.  You've been waking 3-20 times a night in the last 4-6 weeks!  Usually, most of these wakings are in the first hour after we put you down when we truck up and down the stairs 10 times to keep settling you, but most nights we get up another 4-5 times in the night with you.  You were sick with a croupy cough a few weeks back, but all this started earlier than that.

You also have been hard to get down for naps which made for some tense days with your sitter the last two weeks.  I, for one, hate coming home to know you've been napless and in tears :(  I've rearranged my schedule a few times to get you down for your morning nap before I leave for work.  (But hey, when you are up at 5:00, you're quite willing to take your morning nap at 8!)

You also had your first trip to the ER this past week.  Your umbilical hernia has been causing you some trouble.  It has seemed to be getting smaller as of late, but this past week was quite pronounced.  It is supposed to easily retract and two days last week it wouldn't.  We had an ultrasound at Children's last Friday which showed normal blood flow in the area, but Saturday night you were fussy for hours and your hernia area was hard for the first time, so our pediatrician recommended we go to the ER.  The doctor there was able to work the protruding bowel back down through the hernia, so we were sent home, but we are meeting with a pediatric surgeon next week to see if we need to close the hernia or whether we can continue to just watch it.  Umbilical hernias are common and are okay as long as things move in and out of the area easily.  The danger comes if the bowels get caught up in the hernia area, so we are just continuing to pay close attention to Cora's belly.

You could wake us up a hundred times and we'd still feel our giddy Cora love whenever we see you (but let's not test that out.)  You bounce up and down with happiness when you see your mommy and daddy or your Jack-Jack.  You learned lots of new tricks this past month: you can clap your hands, wave, bounce to the beat of music, and you started crawling yesterday!

I love getting to know you more and more.  You are a precious gift!