Tracheomalacia

I know, right?  Tracheomalacia is a word that makes you want to say "gesundheit," and you wouldn't be too far off.  This word of the day is brought to you by the doctor at Carolina Allergy & Asthma, and it is his diagnosis for David's chronic cough.  He's pretty confident that's the case, but went ahead and tested David for asthma and allergies just so we could rule those out, and David tested negative on both counts.  The doc advised me to Google tracheomalacia, and that there wasn't any "bad information" on it.  Okay...?  So I did, and came up with a variety of medical sites, but I think this one describes it best, in spite of all the medical terminology.  The other sites I looked at all made it sound scary, but the doc didn't seem overly concerned.

The short explanation, if I understand it correctly, is that the trachea has bands of cartilage around it to keep it rigid and prevent it from collapsing.  David's are softened, however, so whenever he gets a cough associated with a virus, such as a cold, his trachea flaps and he gets a loud, bronchial, brassy cough that hangs on for weeks and weeks after the offending virus has fled, and then just stops spontaneously.  The cough is not contagious and the condition is something he should grow out of.  

They x-rayed his chest to see if his aorta is leaning against his trachea to contribute to the collapsing.  David is excited to tell his classmates that he got an X-Ray since they always learn that word when studying the letter X.  The doc will review those images and open a dialogue with David's pediatrician to come up with a treatment plan.  That's all I've got for now, but at least I feel better that I wasn't blowing smoke as I got frustrated over the years with the pediatricians giving me a wide variety of guess-planations and ineffective treatments for what sounded to me like, and now I'm sure has been, the same cough.

House Feedback!

We got feedback from our showing on Sunday.  Hooray!  I won't inundate y'all with details from every showing, but I'm excited for my first:  

"Great home - well staged and immaculate. Client loved everything but the yard and the price is more than he wants to pay, but it is still on his list. Thank you for the cookies."

Picky, picky, picky.  That is a bummer about showing it this time of year.  Our Zoysia grass looks pretty thin in the back and pathetically yellow all around over the winter.  It will green up and fill out soon.  I guess another down side that I'd kind of wondered about is it looks especially bare in the back since we rake up all our pine straw beds back there each spring to encourage the grass to extend its boundaries.  We'd toyed with the idea of planting grass all the way to the fence but have never gotten around to it.  How bad would it be to just lay fresh ground cover and see what he says?  At least he liked the house and cookies.  Who wouldn't love cookies?  Our agent responded asking if the buyer would place an offer if we seeded or did lawn treatment.  Here's hoping we're at the top of his short list and he feels generous.

We also got a new garbage disposal installed yesterday.  It purrs so nicely!  Much better than the cacophony the old one made before it went projectile on us.

On a completely different note, Isaac has started smiling and it just made my day to have him beaming at me first thing this morning.

Just Keep Swimming...

Four years ago we moved cross country, bought a house, had a baby, and potty trained. All within 4 months. We knew it was crazy and laughed about whether it was possible for us to make our lives any harder. Somehow, in spite of that experience, we're doing it again, albeit in a slightly different order.  I'm trying to laugh through this time too, but I must admit it's harder this go-round.  

#1: Wrinkles
As you know, Isaac was born on February 9. Fortunately, he is a very good baby and a marathon sleeper, for which I am immensely thankful, as it generally allows me to work on all the other chaos in our lives at the moment. The boys have received him well and are very attentive to his needs. David loves to hold him. Daniel complains that Isaac is too heavy to hold, but he likes to look at him, plug the binky in, and occasionally pat his head.

By the way, we're blessing him on Saturday April 16.

#2: Extra Pounds 
Nathan has decided he's done dealing with big-boy diapers and has been trying to potty train Daniel for months now. Really what this means is we have lots of M&Ms in the house.  Unfortunately I'm not good about following through with Daniel during the day because frankly, I'm not ready to focus on that right now, and I don't think Daniel is really ready, either. But we did enjoy two consecutive days of solid business in the potty last week.  And I've enjoyed walking past the M&M bowl.

#3: Hernias 
We're moving to California the first week or so of July. We wanted to wait for David to finish school (June 30), but we also want to get to Cali, drop off our stuff, and then drive back to Utah in time for Nathan's sister's wedding on July 15. We've decided to rent an apartment on the other end for a few months while we get to know the community we're interested in, and test out the 80-minute commute before we're locked into it with a mortgage. Incidentally, David announced to me this morning that there are exactly 100 days until we move (which he decided will be at 4 pm on the last day of school).  Which makes me think that maybe I should start filling the stack of boxes sitting in our garage.

#4: Gray Hair 
Moving cross country means sell the house. Which, I've decided, is one-hundred times more stressful than buying one, especially with active little boys. And the economy stinks, so we're losing what little equity we have and then some to get out of this house.  Our Realtor did not have a particularly aggressive list of things to do to get the house ready (yay!), but it still took me a week and a half to get everything done between kids' demands.  As much as I like this house, at this point I just want out so I don't have to worry so much about spills, dings, and messes that come from kids having fun.  And that's after only being on the market for 3 days.

We had our first showing yesterday.  I wish I could have glowing reports on how that went, or any reports for that matter.  We haven't heard a whisper of feedback, and it's making us crazy.  Or crazier, I guess, is more a appropriate description.

#5: Migraines 
The day before Isaac was born, David started coughing and complained that his throat hurt.  Long story short, he's been on three different antibiotics over the past six weeks and he's still coughing.  We've been to the pediatrician a couple times and the ENT, all without any conclusive diagnoses.  Meanwhile I keep having teachers telling me in carpool that he has a bad cough.  Like I hadn't noticed for the past month?  And the poor Primary children are besides themselves when he has a coughing fit.  I guess he had a particularly bad spell his first Sunday back after Isaac was born.  I'm told you couldn't even hear Sharing Time over his cough, and kids were crying "please make him stop!"  He got to spend 3rd hour in the foyer with Nathan.  I've been told by several moms that their kids came home and prayed for "the boy that coughs." I suspect allergies are the underlying cause of the cough and several other little issues he has.  We're going to a pulmonologist (asthma & allergy specialist) this week to see what we can find out.

Almost as stressful as listening to the cough is trying to deal with the insurance company.  His allergy test is covered, but I can't nail down a dollar amount in advance that we'll be responsible to pay.  I keep getting a run-around.  The pulmonologist says they don't have contracted amounts in their computer, and it can vary each time they submit the same code, so call the insurance company.  Our insurance is through Blue Cross in Washington.  They say the contract price is determined in the State of service, so I need to call the provider (lot of good that did) or the local BCBS office.  The NC office says it's processed through the home office, I need to call Washington.  You'd think I asked them for Permit #838.

Meanwhile I'm still having issues with a fractured tooth that got crowned last fall, I'm supposed to go see a periodontist about another tooth but that will probably wait until California, and oh yeah, Isaac gets to see a pediatric urologist.  Who needs money, anyway?

And because we needed a few things to laugh about:
Our baby swing died.
Our washing machine decided it will only do the spin cycle if Nathan loads it.
Our garbage disposal objected to a few of its parts and literally spit them out at us.
...All in the last three days.

I think I'll go eat some cookie dough.

Meet Isaac

Hello all!

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday the 11th, but when I went in for my checkup yesterday, I was dilated to a 5/6 and the doc said, "Why wait? Let's just break your water and have a baby." Woohoo! So I went straight from my doctor's office and checked myself into Labor &; Delivery at the hospital. I arrived around 11:30; it was around noon by the time I was all settled in my bed, IV, etc and waited around for the attending doc (who happened to be the same one who delivered Daniel) to come in and start my labor by breaking the water sac. He didn't come in until around 2:30 or 3:00 (think Jeopardy theme song), but once he broke my water, things moved pretty quickly... as in, Isaac was born 2.5 hours later. Sooo, announcing:

Brent Isaac Nash
born 2/9/11, 5:30 pm
8 lb 15 oz, 21.5 inches
lots of dark blonde hair
he looks just like his brothers.

He and I are both doing great and expect to be discharged tomorrow morning. Thanks everyone for your well wishes! We're glad to finally have Isaac in arms.

New-ish Software

A while back friends and family would ask me what program I use for digital scrapbooking.  Several years ago (2007?) I got a new program, and although I tinkered with it a bit, life happened I never got around to using it.  Or my old program, for that matter.  No scrapbooking since January 2008.  *sigh*  Determined to catch up as much as I can before Baby Isaac appears, I sat down tonight to start the repentance process.

So I'm now using My Memories Suite by Polaroid.  And while the interface is a little different than I'm used to with my old program, I'm getting used to it and I like what I can do.  What's killing me is the program keeps crashing!  I wish it weren't so buggy.  I pretty much have to save my work after any change I make, or I'll have to start over.  And six pages and probably a dozen crashes later, I've started over plenty of times tonight.  Good thing it's New Year's Eve and I'm staying up late on purpose.

An hour later...
Golly gee whiz, it might help if I actually installed the latest version that I bought 6 months after I bought the program!  Installed it now and hoping that helps.

Now if only I could get the yellow ink nozzle on my photo printer unclogged so I could actually print these works of art...

Tick-tock

So often David lives up to his name's meaning, "Beloved."  He has such a tender heart.  The past couple of days he has shown particular interest in new baby Isaac's wellbeing.

Yesterday as everyone was bundling up to go play in the 7+ inches of snow we got (!!!) he said, "Mom should stay inside, because we don't want Isaac to get cold."  He's got a point there.  I'd better stay dry and cozy inside with a cup of hot cocoa... ;)  Seriously though, I was glad for his concern, because my midsection is rapidly making my warm outerwear gather dust on hangers.  I can get by for brief stints outdoors, but I'm not really equipped for snowball fights and snow angels.  Not that I could get down to actually make a snow angel...

But I digress...  Today David asked me at lunch time if I had eaten yet.  "Not yet," I replied.  "Mom, you need to eat because Isaac will get hungry.  He won't be thirsty now because you just had a drink."

Bedtime prayers: "...please bless Mommy and baby Isaac, and please bless Isaac when he comes out that he won't be cold, because it will be winter time..."

As I tucked him in and arranged his yellow blanket (his favorite since he was a baby), he said, "Mom, I'm getting too big for this blanket, so we can give it to Isaac."

What a precious boy!

Meanwhile the reality of the close proximity of Isaac's birth has started to sink in for Nathan and me.  I had David two weeks from this point in the pregnancy.  I've still got 5 weeks to go, but give me three more weeks to incubate this fella and then I'll be happy to push him out any time.  I'm tired of being pregnant!

So anyway, I've been thinking this past week that it's probably time pack the hospital bag (and by extension, dig out baby clothes and buy diapers), and type up the boys' schedules/routines for whomever lands them on the big day. Today Nathan was talking about how he's going to rearrange some exercise equipment in our room to make room for setting up the pack-n-play.  Which means that I also need to start thinking more seriously about how we're going to arrange all three kids' sleeping quarters once Isaac is ready for the real crib that is currently set up as Daniel's toddler bed.  I'm not sure I'm ready for David and Daniel to share a room (they'll keep each other up at night and will wake each other up pre-dawn, I guarantee it), but I'm not ready to give up my spare bedroom, either.  Okay, truthfully, I'm just not ready to give up that closet.  In the absence of much usable attic space, it's my favorite storage place in the house, and I don't want to mess with it.  But, something's gotta give, and the clock is ticking!

Christmas Panic

I woke up to Daniel hollering that he was ready to get up. I nudged Nathan and said, "Hey, the little guy is ready to come out. Shall we go down?" 
Him: "Really?!" 
Me: "Yeah, it's 7:00." 
Him: "Oh, Daniel! Be more specific next time!" (he thought I was in labor)

This 'n That

Long story short: My dad's ancestors were potters in England.  When he and my mom went to England on a family history trip in 2007, they learned that Dad has a fourth cousin, Mark Hewitt, with a kiln right here in North Carolina.  I got to thinking that it would be fun to get them a piece of Mark's pottery for Christmas.  His kiln is only open to the public three times a year, so when I saw he'd have an opening the first two weekends in December, I invited my folks to come up and check it out.  I enlisted my siblings to all pitch in and then contacted Mark about doing a custom piece for Mom and Dad to reflect our Hewitt Pottery heritage together.  We ended up having a private appointment to go see Mark the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so that we could really talk about family connections, etc, without the pressure of other customers around.  It was a lovely afternoon!  He has a delightful family and I'm so glad to have met them.  Here's the pot he made for Mom and Dad:

My paternal grandmother is a Hewitt.

NC SC on the reverse side "for balance" and to reflect our current geographic status, I guess

The sides have these pretty blue drips

JaNice, Dennis, Mark, Natalie

That weekend Mom and Dad also painted David's room for us, so the monster truck mural is all gone!  David's very excited.  We topped it off by rearranging the furniture in his room too, and he thinks it's pretty swell.  (Thanks so much Mom and Dad for your help!)

We set up our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening that Monday, and the boys were absolutely delighted that they got to put all the ornaments on.  After we got it up, Daniel declared, "It's so bootiful!"  He loves all the lights, and he asks me several times a day if it's time to open presents yet.  We have an advent calendar that my sister made where you move Mary and Joseph towards the stable, and on Christmas day you take out a baby Jesus to put in the manger.  Last week I overheard David explaining it to Daniel, telling him that at the end we'd get to open presents, and later that morning, after David was at school, Daniel called me over and showed me that he had moved Mary and Joseph to the end and pulled out baby Jesus.  "See Mommy?  It's time to open presents now!"  Bless his little heart.

David is excited too, but I love how he keeps reminding all of us that we need to remember that Christmas is about baby Jesus.  My brother sent us a replica of a tradition we had growing up, with a small manger and some straw.  Every time you do service for someone else, you put a piece of straw into the manger to make Jesus' bed softer.  I haven't had it out the past couple years, but David has been very enthusiastic about being a "Secret Service Agent" (kudos to whomever came up with that Primary lesson!  He's doing little acts of service all over the place), so I got it out and showed him.  He has embraced it wholeheartedly and is excited for opportunities to make the bed softer for Baby Jesus.

I took each of the boys individually to the Dollar Store to pick out a present for each other.  They both picked exactly the same thing.  How sweet is that?  I took David second and was actually rather relieved that he picked the same gift, because Daniel REALLY liked it and I had a hard time getting him to let go of it so I could wrap it up.  :)

Last weekend I took David to the Knightdale Christmas Parade.  He was very excited about seeing Santa in the parade and all the candy that would get distributed.  He was not disappointed!  He got loads of candy (good thing we brought a goody bag!), our town has a Miracle-on-34th-Street-quality Santa (real beard, real belly, beautiful costume), and it started snowing as the parade started.  I think winter is David's favorite season, because he loves the snow.  He did NOT get that from me.  By the time we were walking back to the car, there was about half an inch on the ground.  David was a real trooper, but a stones-throw away from the car he broke down bawling about how cold he was.  Poor fella.  Of course, by the time we got home all he wanted to do was go play in the snow in the back yard.

David waiting for the parade to start

This week we got official notice that Nathan's company will be transferring him to the San Jose, CA office.  We've been planning in this direction since August, but it's nice to know it will actually happen.  Now we're just waiting for the official "when."  After talking to the COO for an hour, Nathan said it sounds like we'll have a good deal of say in that matter, but there's going to be a big meeting in January with more details, so hopefully after that we'll know better what's going on.  If it's entirely up to us, I think we'll stick around here until July so David can finish out the school year.  Who'd want to be the new kid with only two months left of school?

I made a DVD of my visit to Hewitt Pottery to share with my siblings, so they could learn about this family connection too, and also to see Mom and Dad's faces when we surprised them with the pottery.  As I was working on it I thought, "I'd love to have a small piece of Hewitt family history, too," so I talked Nathan into coming out with me and the boys to the last weekend of Mark's kiln opening (today), since I don't know if we'll be around for the next one.  I made a batch of Great-Grandma Hewitt's Lemon Cheese (our family calls it "lemon cheese" but the rest of the British Empire calls it "lemon curd") and took some to share with Mark.  I thought he'd appreciate it.  :)  He was delighted and opened it right there in the yard and stuck his finger in for a taste.  Fortunately, it was the best batch I've made in years.  I even made it in Great-Grandma Hewitt's double boiler.

The pottery I selected is on the right.  Mark gave me the mug as a thank-you for the lemon cheese.

After I'd selected my pottery we went into his workshop to check out and also enjoy hot cider and cookies.  Mark's 26-ish-y/o daughter Emma came in and when she saw the boys, she immediately asked them, "Have you seen our swings?  Come with me, I'm your cousin!  Let's go play!"  "Okay!" they both chimed and as simple as that she wooed my thus-far bashful, hide-behind-parental-legs children immediately into following her out the door without even looking back at us.  (A little scary, actually, how easily they were convinced.  Pied piper comes to mind...)  They had so much fun with her, though, and asked me the rest of the afternoon where Emma had gone.  I pulled up the Hewitt DVD project on the computer and Daniel immediately said, "We went there!"

After we got home, Nathan pulled out a big box of his old toys that he's saved.  Out came the original MicroMachines and Transformers.  Grand Slam!  The boys sat upstairs and played with them all afternoon.  I told Nathan we should have wrapped them up and put them under the tree, but he just grinned and said "They're enjoying them now."

Pregnancy is going well, aside from feeling a lot more uncomfortable than I recall feeling with the first two.  We've decided to call the baby Isaac.  Still some discussion on the rest of his name. 

I decided it's probably time to start taking profile pics for posterity.  It's not a particularly flattering angle, or time of night for that matter, but here I am.  I must be quite a sight, though, because my burgeoning belly elicits comments every time I leave the house.  The public at large is convinced I'm due any day now, even though I'm only 32 weeks.  Last time I went to the grocery store, I had four employees eye me and ask how far along I was.  I think the best (and worst) reaction I've gotten so far was today as I was checking out at Michael's.  The cashier was a young man, probably mid-twenties.

Him: When are you due?
Me: Eight weeks.
Him: Are you having twins?
Me: Nope, just one.
Him: Man, you're SO BIG!

Quite the charmer, wasn't he?