New Job and House!!

Today I got a phone call from UNC and I received a job offer!!! I am really excited because it is the telephone position I was hoping for. I have a lot of training to do since I do not have Peds experience but I am really excited to learn something new. I am also excited that I do not have to leave Wade much. I am going to work every weekend for awhile just to get the hang of it and get the experience then I will change my schedule around some to have some weekend time off. The nice part is I can work 3pm-11pm and not have to leave Wade for 12hrs all day or have to work 12 hours during the night. I have to do one day of hospital orientation on Dec 14th and then I will start at Healthlink. Hopefully I will get a few shifts in before Christmas. Wade is asleep in his bed and did not cry tonight. This is the first in quite a few nights. He is still pulling at his ears but he is exhausted from not sleeping much. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in in a few days.

We got to go to our rental house tonight and see it. My parents own it and the guy who had been living there moved out today. Surprisingly it did not look so bad. They had not seen it in 4 years. It actually felt bigger than I remembered. I guess anything would feel big since we do not have our own space except for our bedroom here. It has so be painted and a couple of things have to be fixed but we are hoping to be moving in in two weeks. I don't thing we will sleep there before Christmas because that is a lot of work to decorate for a few days but we will at least get everything in and un packed except for Wade's furniture so we can start sleeping there after Christmas. My goal is to have everything unpacked and organized and have pictures hung etc before we move in. Josh is off for 10 days after Christmas eve so it will be nice to get settled and just enjoy our new place after that. We are so grateful to my parents for letting us stay here for the last 3 1/2 months but we are excited to now have our own place.

Thanksgiving

We headed to Greensboro Thursday for Thanksgiving. We went and ate at Ashley's for lunch and had a great time. We stayed a few hours and then headed to Nana/Poppy's for Thanksgiving dinner. We were sad that Matt, Kendal, & Peyton couldn't join us. Kendal is now on bedrest for 10 weeks due to a placenta previa which we are hoping will resolve itself soon. Since she is having twins you have to be extra careful. She is doing great though even though it is no fun "resting" all day. Oh I forgot since I did not have my computer last week that we went to Winston for Peyton's 2nd birthday last weekend and found out they are having twin boys!!!! How fun, Wade is going to have so much fun with all of his cousins. Peyton is 18months older than Wade and Wade will be one year older than the twins. It is so nice having our kids close in age. Friday morning Josh and I got up and went shopping early. We actually went for Josh's mom. She is so sweet and lets us pick out our own Christmas present and we decided on the Nikon 3000 camera. It was on sale at best buy and we got there in time to get one. It is so nice and we are so excited. I feel like I miss so many cute pictures because my camera is so slow. Friday Peyton stayed with us while Matt went to work and we all had so much fun. She is really starting to talk now and loved saying "Josh" all day. He loved it too. Wade and her are starting to "play" together. We had a relaxing weekend and got to visit all of the great grandparents as well. What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. The only bad thing is that Wade got my cold and did not sleep well at night. Saturday he started grabbing his ears and sure enough I took him in today and we have ear infection # 3. This poor child. We are trying a different antibiotic and hopefully this one will work. I am so tired of him being sick. It is pitiful. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I added lots of new pictures since I finally have my computer back.

Little "Hugh" in his robe Taking a bath at Nana's house

Cousins (Peyton is thrilled about having her picture taken)

Thanksgiving Day- Wade is ready to eat... he now bangs on the table to let us know

Thanks "Aunt E" for my Thanksgiving hat

More pictures!

Thanksgiving- Wade & Charlie Wade's silly face- 7 months old

So sleepy

Peyton's 2nd Birthday(Peyton, Nana & Wade)

Mommy, Wade & Charlie

Pictures!

Here are some pictures I can finally post now that my computer is back!!

So tired from the hockey game

Watching the game
the boys

Braden, Andrea, Me and Wade

This was our date night before we left to go out!

Big Decision

Well the decision has been made and I have decided to go back to work. Now if you ask my husband it really doesn't count calling it "going back to work" because I am mostly interviewing for PRN positions and would just be working one to two days a week. My goal when I had Wade was to stay home with him at least 6 months. I feel like that is so important!! Well he is almost 8 months and I am so happy we have never had to leave him with anyone. I had an interview last week at UNC on the mother/baby floor and I should be hearing something back next week. They need help on weekends so that is a great option for us. I also have another interview on Monday...please pray it goes well because it is something I am really interested in. It is a pediatric phone nurse position and I could work every other weekend and only work 3pm-11pm and if I wanted more time I could pick it up during the week. I do not have Peds experience but she sounded like they may be willing to work with me and teach me what I would need to know. Of course I am sure they have many people to interview and someone with that experience would get the job before I would. Basically you are the after hours phone nurse when parents have a question about what to do with their child. I LOVE the fact that I would not be bringing germs home to Wade and..... here is the best news, after 6 months you can work from home!!! Now I am trying not to get too excited but I just hope everything goes well. I am just happy to have an interview. This job is also through UNC. I have enjoyed keeping Elizabeth so much and it has been a great way to stay home and make a little extra money. But I am looking foward to having a lot of free time during the week with Wade. This is the best thing about nursing, there is so much flexibility. I will let you know how it goes.

Computer issues and Hockey game!

Well I hate to say I was the dumb one to click on a link someone sent me on facebook and now my computer has this wonderful virus. One of my dad's friends has it and is going to be working on it for me to see if he can remove it. Until then I am without a computer. However it has been nice to go to bed earlier and catch up on some reading. Of course we always seem to have something going on and Wade has ended up sleeping with me most of the week. I am praying it is not his ears again. However we are pretty sure we know what it is. His front two top teeth are coming in... the little corner of both teeth has popped through and it seems to make him miserable at night. Motrin helped a little last night and he slept about half of the night in his bed. He is still napping ok it just seems like it hurts him at night. We go back to the doctor Tuesday to check his ears so hopefully they are clear. This poor child is going to forget what it is like to sleep all night.
Last Friday Josh got tickets from work to the Hurricanes game. Well of course mom and dad wanted to keep Wade for us but Josh really wanted to take him. He is loving having a little boy to start taking to sporting events. Well I am the negative one and I was really worried about how he would do because it didn't even start until 7pm and he is always in bed by 8pm. Of course he proved me wrong and he did great. We stayed the entire time and he did not get in bed until 11pm. He was amazed by all the bright lights and noises. We went with Andrea and Brad and their boys and had a great time. I also got to meet some of Josh's friends from work and it was good to finally meet them. So needless to say Josh is all ready to try another game or a football game. We were so glad Wade was so happy. Every time he would try to close his eyes something would happen and wake him up so he just gave up on sleeping and enjoyed the game. Of course we lost in over time. Josh was hoping to see a shoot out. Maybe next time!

We are sick again...

For a child who has never been to daycare poor wade is having a hard time fighting the germs off. My only guess is that it is preschool germs that he is getting. We took him in today and his second ear infection is almost gone but he has somehow picked up some type of virus. Yesterday he threw up 4 times... once on me, once on Josh and twice on the bed. Needless to say we have done tons of laundry. Luckily he has been fine since yesterday morning but he has this pitiful cough. Last night we had to put him in the bathroom with just a diaper on and run the hot water because it was starting to sound like "croup". It seemed to really help; he slept a little while in his car seat because he cannot lie down flat or he starts coughing again. I ended up holding him most of the night because he was not thrilled about the car seat. He has two days left on his antibiotics and hopefully the ear infection and whatever viral is going on will both be gone. It is just heartbreaking to see him sick and not be able to do much about it. What is everyone doing about getting the H1N1 vaccine???? We have it at our doctors office and they have set one aside for wade to get when we go back for the next dose of the flu shot but I am just not sure what to do about getting it? Hopefully this will be our last illness for a little bit.

Wade's newest thing

So here is Wade' s new thing. He makes this silly face and then laughs at himself. He was laughing so hard but of course once I got the camera out he would only laugh a couple of times... but he does the silly face quite a few times. He has Josh's crazy personality.

Couponing and bathtime

So I started couponing as a way to save a little bit of money now that I am staying home. At first I thought it was a waste of time and that you could only save a little bit of money but... Josh and I took a coupon class and we loved it. If you are in the Raleigh area I highly recommend it. A lady named Su teaches it and she is amazing and so funny. We had a great time. I am just getting started and here is my first purchase. It takes a little bit of time to get started but the nice thing is I only shop at Harris Teeter and CVS. Now if I have to have something that is not on sale or if I don't have a coupon then Walmart is the better choice. Today Harris Teeter started Triple coupons but the trick is you have to buy what is on sale and what you have a coupon for. So... I bought 3 rolls of paper towels, a box of cereal, minute rice, 3 toothbrushes, 4 things of deodorant, ketchup, syrup, dial hand soap, 3 packs of gum, and organic peanut butter. I got all of this for $13.00 and saved $30.00. I thought it was a good buy for my first real couponing trip. Let me know if anyone is interested in the coupon class and I can send you her information. We finally got the duck out now that Wade is sitting better and he absolutely loved it. This is a must for babies... I am going to start giving this for gifts. He played for 15 minutes. We also just started giving him toys in the bathtub and he thought this was so fun. Here are a couple of cute pictures.

Playtime

7 Months Cont.

This is why I have no clue when this child is sick. This was the day before we went to the doctors... he was supposed to be napping and instead I heard laughing and squealing so I went upstairs and found him pulling his bumper off the side of the bed and putting his arms and head underneath it!! This was by far the hardest month to get a picture because he was moving non -stop. I am amazed I was able to get the sign in the picture because he was grabbing it and trying to eat it. I had to give him his blankie to get him to finally look up at me. I think he is going to be active!

trying to pull the back bumper off the railings

trying to get away

such a mess

7 Months Old!!!

Tomorrow Wade will be 7 months old... I know I say this every time but where does time go? Tomorrow we will take his monthly pictures but here are a couple of new cute ones. Of course there is no smiling going on but they are still cute!

Our big boyThanks mimi and pops for the new chair

almost had a good smile!
Here is what he has been up to:

-He weighs around 19lbs (his last visit two weeks ago he was 18lbs 9oz)

-He is still chubby but has really started to slim down some since he has gotten so much longer

-He is wearing size 3 diapers still

-He is wearing 6-9 and 9-12 month clothes

-He is on a really good schedule these days...he takes a 1hr morning nap and a 2 hr afternoon nap (sometimes takes a 30 min evening nap as well but is starting to grow out of it)

-He goes to bed at 8pm every night and wakes up between 5-6am to eat and goes back to sleep until 8am

-He eats oatmeal for breakfast, a vegetable for lunch, and a vegetable & rice cereal with fruit for dinner

-He is still nursing and eats at 6am, 11am, 3pm, & 7pm (he still has never had formula)

-He loves water in his sippy cup but has not mastered holding it completely by himself

-He loves morning time and bath time (we have now grown out of his old tub and use his duck tub and have added some toys to bath time and he LOVES it)

-He is rolling Everywhere!!!

-He grabs everything and will roll or turn to get something he wants

-He is doing great at sitting especially in the bathtub (I still don't leave him sitting alone yet because he likes to throw his head back and lie down when he gets tired)

-He is so active and is moving all the time (his legs kick all the time)

-He is not crawling but is starting to like being on his stomach more and more each day

-He can walk a few steps backwards in his walker

-He loves to shake his toys and rattles and does the cutest thing where he shakes with his right hand and then switches and shakes it with his left hand. (he is so proud when he does it with both hands)

-He loves to go for walks and being outside

-He "babbles" all the time

-He has realized that we have dogs and he LOVES them- he laughs and wants to grab them all the time

-He loves anything plastic or anything that makes noise

-He is the happiest and sweetest little boy. I am so thankful I have been able to stay home with him for the last 7 months. He is such a joy to be around and we are so blessed that he is our little boy.

Unfortunately today he had to go to the doctor because the last few nights he started waking up screaming again and sure enough we have our second ear infection... the doctor did not seem to concerned he said if it was his 3rd or 4th we would be going to the ENT doctor. Hopefully this will be the last one for awhile. He was pitiful last night and almost made me cry he was screaming and crying so hard. I knew something was wrong much sooner this time. The doctor said we caught it early so hopefully the antibiotics will start working soon.