So Sweet It'll Make Your Teeth Hurt

We did it (and by we I mean Mike)! We finished painting the nursery this weekend. I'll be honest there were times I doubted that it would get done. There are always snafus that are really hard to take into account plus work and kid schedules that don't always work out the way you want them to but I kept Mike focused and we pushed through and now my mom has a place to sleep tonight. Whew! I bet she'll be glad about that. The dogs get a little possessive of their beds.









Of course there was more riding on this room being done then just a bedroom for my mom to sleep in. We also had the cleaning ladies coming Monday morning to desperately get the house clean before we had company. Of course before they could clean we had to get the furniture out of the hallway and gets the totes and totes of clothes (Rooney's old clothes up for sale) into a centralized place. Needless to say it was getting a little stressful over here. I don't think as much for Mike as myself. It's very frustrating not to be able to do anything. From time to time Mike will catch me when I don't think I'm really doing anything or not realizing I'm doing something. That happened this weekend. Although this has happened before I think I'm a bit more emotional now and it made me really sad when Mike said something about it.

When Rooney caught me crying about it later he was so sweet. The whole time he was smiling at me. I wonder if he was really happy because it wasn't him causing me to cry? Anyway, he first touched my tears as if to make sure they were real then all of sudden he jumped off our bed and started heading out the door (still smiling). This seemed a little weird so Mike and I asked where he was going. He said "I'm going to get a towel to dry Momma's tears". That sentence made me feel so happy and proud and was in one quick second proof that we raised a caring and compassionate son that really loves his Momma. Plus it was just about the sweetest thing I ever heard.

Rooney ran into his bathroom and grabbed one of the two towels he had available. There was the hand towel that we use for drying our hands after washing them and then there was the floor towel. The floor towel is used for drying the floor after Roon's bath. I had a 50/50 chance but I knew he was going to grab the floor towel...and he did. Mike said to me "Do not let him touch your face with that towel" as a warning but it was too late. After the sweetness of the gesture how could I stop him from dabbing Momma's tears? So he smashed the towel in my face a couple of times then looked at me to make sure I was all better. Of course my tears had dried the second he said he was getting the towel and we were all laughing by the time the towel first smashed me in the face.

I was definitely all better.

How Do You Spell Big Boy? R-O-O-N-E-Y

I want to stress that we are not those parents that want their 6 month old to read, or plan on hiring a tutor for Kindergarten! Mike started doing a fun thing for him and Rooney each day. He decided to teach him how to spell a word a day. This video is a list of the words that Mike taught Rooney last week (other than his name, he already knew that). Roon definitely has a huge interest in learning how to read. Sometimes he'll tell me how much he wants to know how to read and other times he is insisting to me he knows how. Of course he also will correct me if he thinks I read something wrong.

We might be giving this kid a big head.

Favre Got Nothing On This Kid

Now that Mike's hand has healed and he is slowly regaining full use we felt it was safe again for him to play football...with Rooney. Summer is winding down and although Roon has been able to enjoy alot of outside time, Mom and Dad, feel like we missed out a little. Our yard has definitely suffered, our social calendar has suffered, the blog has suffered and the dogs have suffered but Mike has been trying to eek out whatever summer fun he can over the last week or so. Last night Mike and Roon set out to play a little football in the front yard. It wasn't quite like any football I've seen but then again I'm not really much into the game. The important thing is there was alot of laughs.

In The Works

I was kind of waiting to do this post until the nursery was finished but whatever free time Mike has, this has been consuming it, so it was time to start the post. Now that I have broken the story with pictures, new posts can show dramatic updates, so really it might be better this way.











The week before last Mike took a week off of work. We thought this would be a good time to start getting the nursery together. Mike got most of the room painted the first week but we decided to do a band around the room of another color (and the trim), so Mike wanted to let the paint cure for a week before he started to paint again. It was a little tricky to do much work with Rooney here butthankfully Mike and Renae traded a day or so. However, there was still alot of work to do so Mike did alot of work at night and on the weekend where Rooney could zone out to the TV while hanging with mom. Also we were able to find little projects that Rooney could do while "helping" dad and he got to use his inner decorator and help mom with color samples.

After a day or so of watching paint dry Mike was able to take the tape down and reveal the empty band. I think he did a pretty good job keeping it even. Here's Mike showing off his should be patented tape removal system. Some of you might be wondering why we chose to go with a blue paint when we are having a little girl. All will be revealed later, but the color is really very soothing and calm. We are really happy with the results thus far.





Since I last wrote there has also been some potential bad news. I took my glucose tolerance test a week or so ago. My blood sugar levels came back slightly elevated (139 is normal, I was 144) which could be an indicator of gestational diabetes. Ugh! Really? How much more crap can be added to the top of the pile? My MD's office called me back in to take a 3 hours glucose tolerance test this Friday. For this test I had to drink more of the sugar water and then have my blood drawn every hour for three hours. In total I had 4 blood draws that day: 1 fasting when I came in then 1 every hour. I don't know the results of the test yet but I am hoping the first test was a fluke. I'm not sure if being on bedrest could be affecting the test but I have to imagine it's not helping. Other than this Ailbe and I are doing well. We're both getting bigger and I was feeling great since she went head down although I am suspecting this morning that she may have turned again. I am definitely feeling like there are little feet burrowing again.

8/17 Update: I received a call from the MD's office this morning and good news I do not have gestational diabetes. All the blood work looked really good so it looks like the first test was a fluke. Whew!

12 More To Go!

This week is a big week. I am finally 28 weeks along and that means if I went into preterm labor Ailbe would have very good chances of surviving. At 24 weeks we were told that Ailbe had a 10% and at now at 28 weeks it would be 90%. Of course I know I will go full term so those are just numbers but it's good to have those stats on our side now. We had our weekly MD appointment yesterday and Ailbe was remeasured. I was told she now weighs 2lbs 5 oz (give or take 5oz). She appears to be doing quite well. I am very happy to report that she has now gone in the head down position and that is definitely making one of us alot more comfortable.

I want to say I got bad news also but it wasn't really bad but more just not the news I wanted to hear. I am still on bedrest for the next 4 weeks at least. If things continue to be stable then at 32 weeks I'll be off. However, as the MD pointed out, all my muscle tone has probably gone by the wayside so I will probably still feel like a slug until well after the baby is born.

After 2 months I finally gave up a little pride and decided I really needed to be out of the house even if that meant Target or Costco. But to go to those places I had to ride around on an electric cart. Target went OK. Those carts are very cumbersome and I had never driven one before. There should be a little lesson before they allow you to take off. I was getting very frustrated because there were alot of spaces I couldn't get into at Target and actually got stuck in the boys clothes racks! Mike thought it was pretty funny. Costco went alot better with their huge aisles. Most of the time Mike and I could actually be side by side (he was pushing the cart while I drove a cart). So despite my embarrassment of having to drive the cart, and how unflattering sitting on one of those is on your backside, it was great to get out of the house. Oh did I mention I have a handicap placard now also?




Mike took this week off of work and he has started on the nursery. I don't think we're as far a long as we would like to be but Mike also has to watch Rooney for half of the week since Kelly is on vacation. Hopefully it will all be painted by the time my mom comes in August.

This week Rooney also started his new swimming class. He has finally graduated to the next level (he took the last class 3 times) and now this kid is fearless. I have personally been with him when he just jumped in the water without warning without floaties or anything and unfortunately Aunt Renae has taken him to our local aquatic center and Coulon Beach where he proceeded to scare the bejesus out of her. Mike recently shot some great videos of Rooney in his class. You can see how well he is progressing. Now he wants to swim all the time. I think these lessons are coming right in time for Grandma and Grandpa's annual Lake Morton visit.