August 15, 2015

On August 15, Matt and I celebrated our sixth anniversary! Crazy to think that we have been married for six years. Looking back, we have had a lot happen in our lives over these six years, and I'm glad that Matt was by my side for everything. Together, we've gone through five different jobs, lived in four cities, had four major hospital visits, spent a year building our home and have now lived in our home for a year, and had our first baby. I'm really lucky that I tricked this guy into marrying me!

For our anniversary celebration this year, we talked Jenny into watching Ben so we could golf 18 holes at the Preston golf course. Then we joined her and the kids for a BBQ and some fresh corn out of the garden. We went shopping and had dinner at Olive Garden. After dinner, we watched the RSL game. It was such a great day!

This year we both have been looking at some big ticket items and we used our anniversary and Ben's birth to justify buying them! I have wanted a little diamond band to go with my set for a while. I thought it would be fun to get a new one with each new baby. It was just a fantasy until Matt won some gift certificates at Needham Jewelers in a golf tournament, and we ended up getting my "Ben Band" for like half price! I love it!

Matt has been saving up his money for some new fancy binoculars and found some while we were shopping on our anniversary for a great deal. He didn't have enough saved up, so we're calling them his "Ben-oculars" and making them an anniversary/birth present!

We had an amazing anniversary and I look forward to many, many more and all the adventures that we'll have over the years! I love you Matt!

The Many Faces of Ben

I can't believe that Ben is already a month old! We went in for his 4 week checkup last Friday and he now weighs 10 pounds 4 ounces, and is just under 22.5 inches long! 2 pounds and 2 inches in 4 weeks. Definitely not having a problem growing! Ben is starting to become more vocal and is getting better at tracking people with his eyes. Matt and I both have gotten one genuine smile out of him and can't wait for more! He eats every 2-3 hours during the day, and sleeps about 3-4 hours between feedings at night. He is exclusively eating formula now. I love spending every minute of every day with him!

Ben somehow inherited the Fischer furrow. I feel like I have to take pictures of his cute outfits because he is always wrapped in a blanket, or we don't leave the house at all, whenever we see people.

Ben LOVES the carseat. As long as he isn't hungry, he is great in the car and falls asleep quickly.

Ben is a binkie baby! That big binkie covers most of his face but he is almost always soothed by it.

I loved watching him curl himself up to get comfy in his swing!

He likes to spread out too! He slept like this in the stroller for a few hours while I helped Matt with electrical at his dad's house.

Matt needed a sports buddy. He set Ben up like this to watch the RSL game and Ben was perfectly happy with the set up.

Harrison was so excited to hold Ben. He kept laughing whenever Ben would move or open his eyes.

Ben's first work meeting also was his first diaper blowout! He was quite calm after the blowout.

At the park with the kids. So long and skinny.

Ben's eyes are all clear from the broken blood vessels! He is awake for usually an hour after he eats during the day, so I see those big eyes all the time!

Another happy and calm moment after a blowout.

His great aunt Denise gave him this cute baseball outfit, which he wore to Matt's softball game!

My mom and Jeff came for a visit. I love this picture because I just want to squish his face all the time! The look on his face is priceless!

He finds the funniest ways to sleep.

Ben hates the bath. I don't know if it isn't comfortable or scary or what, but he hates it. I took this picture after I pulled him out and he was happy again.

Ben is growing out of his newborn clothes! For roughly the past two weeks, he has been wearing some of his 3 month stuff! The tops are a little loose and the bottoms are pretty loose, but the newborn size is definitely too small!

Ben likes sleeping in the stroller and will fall asleep in the stroller if we walk in the road. The uneven, bumpy ground is calming for him. He's not in love with the stroller while he's awake.

Another carseat picture. People always gawk when they see these tiny little feet sticking out of his carseat when we're out running errands.

Naughty boy gets caught sucking on his fingers every once in a while

I just want to squish his face!

Couldn't resist!

Blakelee liked looking at Ben while he was sleeping. She would point at him and laugh. It was so cute! They are going to be good friends.

Matt and I celebrated our sixth anniversary on August 15. Ben spent the morning with Jenny and slept the whole time! The kids were glad when we came back over and he was awake.

We tried the shower with Ben and he loved it! He goes limp and calm and will sit happily in the swing for a few minutes while I finish showering.

We tried out the Ergo Baby carrier when we visited Nate and Jenni's camp last weekend. Ben slept good in the carrier, but Matt said he was like a little heater! Perfect for cold football games!

Caught one of the elusive sleep smiles on camera!

Such a happy boy!

Sorry for the picture overload! We love this boy of ours!

Back to the Land of the Living... Maybe

I apologize to people who still read this... all two of you. I use this blog as a journal so I can sometimes get a little wordy. Sorry. I'll put some pictures in my next post.

The past month has been a whirlwind. After going to the ER for my headache and working through all of our feeding issues, we were starting to get into a routine. Ben is sleeping about 3 hours between feedings at night. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but 3 is a good average. During the day he likes to eat more often, usually every 2 hours. Again, sometimes he'll go longer or shorter. We usually get out for a couple errands every day. When August hit, we started to have meetings to go to and he always did great. He even was so happy for work meetings that he had a blowout at every single one! We were able to go to park day a couple times and get to school for some prep work. The days were ticking by until school started.

Then, Tuesday, August 18, decided to change everything. I blame the day. The next day (August 19) was Cassie's 21st birthday. On my 21st birthday, I spent the day in the ER with kidney stones. Well, someone is watching out for Cass and decided to give her birthday kidney stones to me. I woke up feeling fine, Ben and I got ready and were relaxing and then I started to have some back pain. I didn't think much of it but it didn't go away. In fact it just got worse. And worse. To the point that after a few hours I couldn't even pick up Ben without feeling a lot of pain. Matt was at work, so I decided to call Jenny and have her help me with Ben. I hadn't really decided what I wanted her to help me with- I guess just to calm him down since he was crying and I couldn't pick him up. She came over and immediately got Ben calm and then suggested we go to the hospital. She guessed that I had kidney stones. I agreed and while she was getting Ben ready I just laid on the floor in a ball. I was shaking and felt nauseous, and ended up throwing up before we left.

We got to the hospital and they had me do a urine test and get into a gown. I saw a couple nurses and a PA before they decided to put in an IV. I got poked twice before the IV was in and they could draw blood for testing, and luckily they were pretty quick at getting some pain meds in the IV. I think they could tell something was going on and I was in real pain. I also had a fever so they had to give me something for that. Around this time, Matt came and Jenny took Ben for a while. No one would let me have anything to drink just in case I needed surgery, and my mouth and throat were way dry. They finally got my blood work back, and said I had a pretty bad kidney infection. They said I had blood in my urine but wanted to do a CT scan to see if it was kidney stones. The scan confirmed a 4mm stone just at the top of my bladder and a 1mm stone in my kidney. The head doctor at the ER came in, along with two urologists, who all said they were concerned about the larger stone getting infected (the fever ended up being the reason I got such good care) and wanted to take it out. They said it could pass on its own, but were worried about the infection. We opted to get it out! The surgeon said he could get me into the operating room within a couple hours.

Jenny brought Ben back and Matt watched him while we waited to go to the OR. They got me prepped for surgery and put me under. They were going to go in and pull out the stone and then get me ready to go home. They ended up finding two stones in the same place and pulled them both out and put a stent in place to help drain everything out. Everything else went as planned and we headed home that night. The next day, my doctor called and said that I had a blood infection, which helped explain why I was so tired and sore everywhere. I had a terrible night the second night- my back was killing me, I had a headache, and a 102 degree fever. I called the doctor again and he said that all that was normal but called in another medicine.

I am slowly feeling better. Still weak, still sore, still bothered when I use the bathroom, but mostly okay. A couple days after surgery, I went in to the office to have the stent removed. That was a lot easier than I expected. The doctor told me that he thinks my kidney infection was from the urinary tract infection I got after I had Ben. He said that I was lucky that I came in to the ER when I did, and even luckier that the head doctor called the urology department. He said that I could have been very sick. So yes, I am very happy that I didn't get more sick than I did. However, I am frustrated that I was finally getting back to normal and then I got really sick. I missed back to school night and the first day of school. There's no way I could have gone in feeling how I did (Matt wouldn't let me), but I still was sad and watching the clock thinking about what they were doing.

What a crazy couple days. Please everyone cross your fingers that I can start getting healthy and get back to normal! No more hospital visits!