Joshua is still so excited to become a big brother.  He keeps asking when Tiny will come out & he wants to show him all of his toys.  He says they’re going to be best friends & kisses & hugs my (huge) belly all the time.  Hopefully the novelty of having a little brother will last longer than the next 2 weeks, although I have a feeling that sibling rivalry will kick in before too long.  Since I had my hospital stay & especially after he got sick, Joshua has been more clingy & wants Mommy to do everything for him, so I don’t think he’s going to like to share me with another kid all the time.  My dad’s back & is great at taking care of Joshua in my place, & I do what I can.  Mom comes back on Monday & Joshua says he’s looking forward to playing trains with Grandma.  She’ll be here for a month or so, which will be a wonderful help as I transition to being a mother of 2.  There is a LOT to get done in the next 12 days, so hopefully enough of it gets done that we can manage the rest of the stuff with baby here.  I can’t wait to meet you, little guy!!!

Then last weekend, Joshua started to develop a little cough that progressively worsened.  He seemed OK for school on Monday & did OK according to his teachers, but by the end of the evening, the little guy was coughing up a storm & had a fever.  I cancelled his appointments for Tuesday & we headed to Madigan for him to get checked out & see if any meds could help.  What happened next was not expected.  The attending prescribed a nebulizer treatment which ended up not doing any good & his O2 sats stayed in the low 90s (they’re usually where they should be, in the upper 90s to 100%), & then he went for a chest x-ray.  I was amused at the docs’ medical terminology to describe the findings—his lungs were a bit “shmooshy” & “fluffy.”  Not sure what exactly that means, but it wasn’t great (but apparently not horrible).  So it was decided to admit Joshua overnight for observation & treatment.  This was his first time hospitalized overnight since he came home after his heart surgery when he was born!  He did not necessarily enjoy all the attention, especially from those who tried to give him medicine or breathing treatments.  And he HATED having the pulse oximeter stuck on his finger—on top of him just feeling crumby in general & having a bad cough, he had this little red lighted thing stuck on him.  I got him to agree to keep it on while we watched cartoons, & in between movies, we’d take it off to walk around the room & go potty.  For the whole afternoon & evening, all we did was cuddle up on his bed to watch old-school VHS movies/cartoons, eat picnic-style, color, & rest.  The entire staff was amazing & took such good care of us.  One of the medics even gave Joshua a Thomas the Train blanket he could keep—that made Joshua’s day & he actually managed a big smile (a rarity for the previous couple of days).

Erick had the day off work the following day, so once he was done for the day, he was able to stay overnight at the hospital with Joshua so I could go home to try to rest.  I was happy that Joshua’s hysterical crying as I left the room went away & he started to enjoy the cartoons again with daddy (although I don’t think Erick really enjoyed watching “Blues Clues” over & over again!).  Our house was very quiet that evening—no noise coming from Joshua’s monitor for the first time in over 3 ½ years & no snoring from Erick.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep without them at home with me, but I eventually passed out from being up pretty much every half hour throughout the previous night with a sick little kid.  After morning rounds, it was decided that Joshua could be discharged home.  It turned out that Joshua had RSV (respiratory syncicial virus), which is what he’d gotten monthly shots to prevent in his first two winters.  Back then, we were threatened with a 6-week automatic hospital stay for heavy-duty meds & oxygen if he got RSV before he turned 2, so thankfully this didn’t happen until now (& also good that he should have plenty of time to recover before Tiny comes, since he’d be pretty high-risk for awhile himself!).  Although he’s still not completely over this bug, his energy & strength have mostly returned.  Joshua does not enjoy getting the nasal spray or inhaler treatments that we need to keep giving him, although when we’re done, he does admit that he feels better & that they weren’t as bad as he was expecting.  Yet the next time, he does not remember that, so it’s quite a battle each time.  We’ll get things all set up & then Joshua will say “ready, set, go,” & we’ll squirt/spray the meds.  It’s really very cute.  With all of the close contact we’ve had in the past week & cuddling we’ve done, it isn’t surprising that Joshua shared his germs with me.  Now we’re both sniffling & coughing.  Between the two of us, we’ve gone through an entire large box of Kleenex in the past couple of days!  Sigh…

The night before last, Erick did his best to copy Joshua & me in needing to go to Madigan.  For some unknown reason (possibly a run-down body from a crazy intern schedule perhaps?), he started throwing up pretty much non-stop for hours on end.  In the morning, we called the after-hours physician on call & were advised to take him to the emergency department to get checked out.  Thankfully, Erick didn’t need to be admitted, unlike the surprise admissions Joshua & I had in the previous week & a half!  He got some IV fluids & meds, & was discharged back home with orders to rest for the day.  He was cleared to return to work this morning so hopefully he’ll have the strength to do the 30-hour shift he’s scheduled for today!  My dad went back home yesterday morning after making one last trip to the store to stock our house with groceries for the next few days.  Joshua & I are still battling our illnesses but hopefully all of us will have plenty of time to fully recover before Tiny is born.  Less than a week until we should find out when his birthday will be!  Please cross your fingers that the OBs say that baby can stay put inside until the end of this month.  As much as I’m dying to meet the little guy, I want him to have plenty of time to grow & develop safely in my belly before he comes out.  No more ICU stays for us—I hope we can go straight home from the hospital like what is “supposed” to happen.

One more amazing thing for us—our Maryland house is finally sold!  Our stupid bank took almost a year to finalize the sale but it’s finally over (other than one minor repair that we’re taking care of, thanks to the bank hiring a company who damaged one of the bathroom sinks).  It’s hard to believe that we put it on the market back in April & only now is this mess over with—it only took a couple of days to get a good offer, & those buyers waited until September before justifyingly backing out, & then another 2 days for a second buyer who held in until the end.  She’s getting a great deal on the place, but I’m just happy we don’t have to deal with being homeowners from across the country any longer!  Now, we’re waiting to be reimbursed for some of our losses by the military’s homeowners assistance program & we’ll be completely done.  Yeah!!!

Since he was off on Friday, Erick went with me to Madigan for my latest ultrasound to see if there was any improvement with my condition.  There wasn’t.   So the latest plan is for me to back on March 11th for another ultrasound & then they’ll let me know when for me to go in for an amniocentesis to check for Tiny’s lung development.  If his lungs are sufficiently matured, then they’ll probably do the c-section that same day.  I mentioned my hope of waiting to have the little guy until the end of March just to make sure he’s big & strong enough, but they’re thinking he’ll have to come in the middle of the month instead.  So it’s pretty much official that my little April baby is now going to be a March baby.  At least we have that much less of a wait to meet him!

My good friend from high school, Shaya, & her family came up to visit us for the weekend.  Joshua & I have visited her place when we’ve been down in Oregon visiting Dad but now they came up to see us!  Joshua & her 3-year-old daughter Camille have a great time playing together—they’re interested enough in each others’ toys that they like to play together but aren’t so interested in them that they fight over the same ones all the time.  Perfect!  And Shaya’s older daughter, Lillie, seemed amused to watch my crazy little boy playing.  Since Erick was able to get Friday off work, he was even able to visit with all of us for awhile in between studying sessions at home.  The big plan was for all of us to go to the Port Defiance Zoo & Aquarium on Saturday, complete with a picnic lunch on the grass, but my darn car didn’t start so we had to scrap that plan.  Fortunately, Shaya’s husband, Michael, knows a lot about cars so he helped me figure out what we thought was wrong & dealt with the tow truck guy from AAA.  Once my car was back from the shop (where strangely enough, they couldn’t find a good reason for it not starting in the first place), we took the kiddos to the Fircrest Tot Lot & had a great time.  On Sunday, we hit the zoo for a shorter visit before they headed back home.  Michael got quite a work-out from pushing me all over the place in a wheelchair (with Joshua or Camille on my lap for most of the way).

One more exciting piece of news to share—we recently found out that Erick passed his licensing exam!  Yeah!!!   He’s had three of them overall in the last several years, the first was just over one entire day but the last two were all-day long affairs lasting two days each.  While he’s still got a lot of studying he’ll have to do for work, at least he won’t have any major exams like these ones until closer to the end of his residency when he’ll take the peds boards.

During the echo, Joshua sat nice & still on my lap, pointing out the different Thomas trains that he saw inside his heart (the images of his heart on the echo monitor).  Whenever Dr. Puntel turned on the sound to listen to the heartbeat, Joshua got excited that he could hear the trains puffing down the track.  What can I say?  Our little boy is pretty obsessed with trains right now.  After the echo, we had to go to the adult cardiology clinic for an EKG.  Joshua had gone with me a couple of months ago when I had one done so he knew what to expect & didn’t want all the “stickers” put on his tummy.  The nurse was great & let me put the stickers & leads on him, & Joshua did great.  He even sat still enough for her to run the thing twice.  He was rewarded for his good performance at the appointment with a few Thomas stickers, so all was fine & he left with a smile (& therefore, so did my Dad & I).

For those of you familiar with cardiology terminology, Dr. Puntel couldn’t see any evidence of Joshua’s VSD & thought that the possible PDA is most likely just a collateral vessel after all.  The aortic insufficiency & pulmonary stenosis are still considered mild, & he didn’t see any need for any other treatments in the near future.  Whew!  Rather than waiting until July like usual, Joshua will go back in a few months when Erick will be doing a cardiology rotation with Dr. Puntel, which will be nice (especially since I’ll have a little newborn tagging along & it will be more difficult for me to hold Joshua still by myself!).

On the baby front, the docs think that the subchorionic hematoma that was so problematic early on in my pregnancy is pretty much gone, although when the ultrasound tech did a more extensive scan, they found out that my other problem was a lot worse than they’d thought.  I’ve now been official diagnosed as having complete placenta previa, which at this point in the pregnancy, isn’t likely resolve enough for Tiny to stay put until his due date.  There’s still a chance, so I go back in another month to see, but if not, then he’ll probably be delivered around mid-March (as opposed to waiting for his due date in mid-April).  On the very positive side, he’s growing nicely & they still see the beautiful cross-over in his heart as the blood leaves (which means no transposition!), so that’s encouraging.  Instead of lightening up on my activity restrictions, they’re a little worse.  Before, I was allowed to walk slowly to my tolerance, but now they say I really need to limit my walking to very short distances.  So that means that if I go grocery shopping or wherever, I’m supposed to use one of those electric carts, which I really don’t want to have to do.  But if that’s what it takes for this little guy to be safe, that’s what I’ll do.  These next couple of months will go by so slowly…

My mom came back to help out some more while Rock & his brother did some remodeling work on their house in Texas.  She’ll be here for a couple of more weeks which we’re excited about.  These past couple of visits have been more than we’ve seen each other since I left for college, so it’s nice to get to catch up in person again.  And despite our vastly opposite political differences, we’re managing not to kill each other.  Joshua will really miss her when she leaves, as I imagine she won’t be able to come back until around when Tiny comes in April.  A week before Christmas, the two of us took Joshua to the mall to see Santa.  I wasn’t sure how he’d do since the last few years did not go well at all, ending with Joshua in hysterics whenever we’d get close to Santa.  But not this year!  Josh was so excited to ask Santa for his Thomas train tables & trains.  He had the biggest grin on his face & gave Santa such a big hug.  It didn’t hurt that Santa was bribing the kids with candy canes & stickers!

On Christmas Eve, we went to mass with Erick’s family & then had a great dinner at one of his aunt’s houses.  Joshua loved playing with Erick’s little cousins Bailey & Dawson (& all their toys!), as usual.  That night, we read the Christmas story that my dad wrote for Joshua, our annual Christmas Eve bedtime tradition, & Joshua fell fast asleep in preparation for Santa’s arrival.  Santa’s elves (a.k.a. both of us & with the help of my mom) set up Joshua’s big gift—the prized Thomas the Tank Engine train table, complete with a bunch of trains & tracks.

Joshua didn’t sleep in as late as we were hoping on Christmas morning (although what kid does?), but at least he slept past the crack of dawn.  When he walked down the stairs & saw the train table waiting for him in front of the tree, he had a huge smile & almost knocked us over to get to it.  Joshua played with the trains for pretty much the entire day.  Most of the time, he didn’t even really care to open the other presents in his stocking or under the tree!  After eating my traditional sticky rolls for breakfast, my mom watched Josh while Erick & I took a nap.  When we came back downstairs, he was just as we left him—running around & around the table driving the trains.  He’d refused to stop when we ate breakfast, & he also refused when my mom offered to give him something to eat later.  At around 1:00, I took him—literally kicking & screaming—to the bathroom to go potty & then to the dining table to have something to eat for the first time since the night before (& even then, he didn’t eat much since he preferred to play with the toys instead!).  Talk about priorities in life.  After he had a short nap, we went to Erick’s other aunt’s home for dinner & present-opening.  It was really nice having family around to celebrate with this year, since we’d really missed out on that the previous two years!

Amazingly, our Christmas tree lasted until today.  Joshua did great for the most part not touching it & no ornaments were broken.  My mom & I ended up taking it down this morning because it started getting dried out, although we were hoping it could stay up for another week to last through until 2010.  At least now we’ve got a lot more room for all of Joshua’s new toys, which is much needed with all he got this year!

My friend Winnie & her family are coming for a short visit next week & I’m sooo excited to finally be able to meet her little guy Avery.  Joshua has seen photos & videos of “baby Avery” growing up & is looking forward to playing with him.  He’s even said that he will share his trains with Avery—all of them except Thomas.  With my pregnancy restrictions, I doubt I can do too much fun stuff while they’re here, but it will be so nice to catch up in person for a change & to see our kiddos play together.  Mom will be here for a couple of weeks more & then she heads back to Texas until baby arrives.

Joshua was able to feel Tiny kick starting a few days ago.  I didn’t want to phrase it that the baby kicked (I can just picture something horrible if Josh decided to get revenge by kicking back or something like that!), so I told him that the baby was giving him a high five.  I was not quite prepared for his response:  Joshua lifted up my shirt & smacked my belly, saying he was giving Tiny a high five right back.  I should’ve known…  Joshua seems to be accepting that the baby is a boy now & he frequently says that he & his little brother are going to be best friends, which melts my heart.  I can’t wait for that!

Adam & his girlfriend Adriana stayed with us for the long weekend & it was great catching up, especially since Joshua & I had to cancel our plans to visit Southern California last month because I wasn’t able to travel.  We got our first Christmas tree after two years of not having one (I was afraid Joshua would destroy it—& still am this year, actually!)  It’s got a big baby gate around it & Joshua’s been lectured that he needs to leave it alone, so hopefully the tree & its ornaments will survive for another month.  I’d really wanted to get a tree from a Christmas tree farm but we couldn’t find one when we went out the day after Thanksgiving so we ended up at Lowes, but it was a pretty tree so that was OK.  Maybe we’ll go to a tree farm next year with the boys for the full holiday experience!  Joshua had so much fun decorating the tree, wearing a cute felt elf hat when he put the “ormanits” all over (with slight position modifications by Mommy & Daddy).  Even though we didn’t unpack most of the breakable ornaments, our 7’ tree was packed!  Cross your fingers that it lasts until the New Year without any catastrophes!  Joshua is so excited for Christmas & was happy to see all the holiday books, toys, & decorations we’d packed away at the end of last year.  He knows just what to ask from Santa this year—as he puts it every time he’s asked, he wants “two Thomas the train tables with Thomas & his friends” (he seems to think that by asking for two train tables, at least he’ll be guaranteed to get one!).  Joshua’s even decided that Tiny should get his own train table, & since Tiny will get one, then he should get another one on top of his original two he was asking for.  What logic…

When we got home from preschool following our appointment, I broke the big news to Joshua that he was going to have a baby brother.  At first, he refused to believe it & said “no, Tiny’s a girl, & SHE’s sooo cute!”  I kept telling him that the doctors think it’s really going to be a boy & he kept saying no.  He’ll come around soon, I’m sure.  No clue why he really seemed to think the baby is a girl since we keep saying “it” or fluctuating between the genders, but he was pretty darn certain & will need some more reminding before he agrees that his future “sister” is really a brother.  I’m sure he’ll be so excited soon that he’s going to have a little brother to play with instead, especially when the boy toys come back out.

Last week, I was able to start feeling Tiny move around, which is always reassuring.  Right now, it’s just the nice, tickly movements, but hopefully he doesn’t end up with the sharp, painful movements that Joshua did for so long.  For now, I’m really enjoying his company.  Joshua & I spent last week at my dad’s house in Oregon while Erick was on leave & studying for the big board exam that he’s taking next month.  We had fun visiting with some of my old friends from high school.  We had a great morning one day playing with my friends Shaya & Aleta & their girls on Aleta’s farm.  Joshua enjoyed being the only little boy amongst five girls.  The kiddos even went outside to watch the chickens, which I don’t think Joshua’s ever done before.  The next morning, we went to another friend Anne Marie’s house to play with her girls.  Joshua loved all their toys (especially the trains that the girls couldn’t care less about!).  He was having so much fun until it was time to go home & I wouldn’t let him take a few of the trains home as souvenirs.  He screamed his head off pretty much the entire drive back to Dad’s!  Before she left, my mom had bought Joshua a new Tag book, “The Little Engine That Could,” & I gave it to him right before we drove down to Oregon—so glad I waited!  For nearly the entire four hour drive, Joshua played with that one book.  It was almost irritating to hear it over & over, but it was so much better than having him be bored & fussy.  He’s spent more time reading that book repeatedly than all of his other books or toys put together.  That kid is really fascinated with all things related to trains.  Erick & I aren’t big fans of Thomas the Tank Engine, so it’s nice that he can satisfy his train fixation with other kinds of non-Thomas trains.  Wonder when he’ll move on to something new & what that will be.  He used to be obsessed with Dora & Diego, then it was Thomas, then Mickey Mouse, then Hot Wheels, & now he’s back to trains.

On the baby front, I’m now 16 weeks along, & I am more than ready to start feeling better & end this whole “morning” sickness thing that seems to last 24/7!  I still have activity restrictions but hopefully that won’t last much longer either.  The only good thing about my not feeling well is that I’m not up to doing the things my docs don’t want me doing.  Joshua is so excited about becoming a big brother & says that he & Tiny “will be both [best] friends.”  Joshua even says that he’s going to share his toys with the baby—now that’s love!

Joshua seems to be excited about a future sibling & likes to put his eye up to my belly button to try to see the baby (although he seems confused why he can’t actually see it, which is hilarious!).  He will give my already-growing tummy kisses & tell his future sibling that he will be a good big brother.  Hopefully in another 7 months, he’ll still feel the same way!  Yesterday, Joshua announced that the baby needed a name so I asked him what he thought it should be called.  Then he said it didn’t need a name until it came at the hospital (quite astute for a 3-year-old!).  I said that he could give it a name in the meantime & he came up with “Tiny.”  Joshua said that he thinks Tiny is a little sister but I’ve warned him that we don’t know if it will be a boy or girl yet.  He keeps telling Tiny that he loves it & can’t wait to see it.  How cute.

A few weekends ago, we went to a retreat with the Madigan pediatrics residents.  It was at the Great Wolf Lodge (a national hotel/resort chain with indoor water parks).  Needless to say, I couldn’t go on the big slides that I was looking forward to.  It was all I manage to hang out at the kiddy section since I’ve been feeling pretty crumby, to say the least.  But it was fun to watch Joshua be so excited splashing around & going on the little slides.  We all went on a medium-sized slide once but after the first turn, Joshua flipped backward & did almost the entire rest of the slide head-first on his back.  He did not enjoy it (although I don’t blame him, going in that direction!).  Unfortunately, they don’t let parents hold kids on their laps but they assured us that kids his age/size were OK on it.  I think if we had him laying down, it would’ve gone better, but I had him sitting up, so I guess he didn’t have enough mass to keep himself in position during the turns.  At one point during the weekend, I was holding a 6-month-old baby for one of Erick’s co-workers so she could go on a ride & Joshua really loved playing with her.  He kept hugging & kissing the baby, & he counted her 10 little toes.  He even asked her if she wanted to go on a slide with him!  I told him she was too little &, fortunately, he was satisfied with that answer.  I hope he keeps up his fascination with babies by the time his little sister or brother comes.  He’s promised me he’s going to be a big helper for me, which I think I’ll really need!

Erick is keeping plenty busy with work & it’s tough that it seems to take up so much of his time.  The poor guy doesn’t really get any downtime!  I feel bad for him & for Joshua, who really wants to play with Daddy when he’s home & doesn’t understand why he’s busy in the office so often.  Erick tries his best & hopefully the routine will get faster so he’ll have more time to hang out & relax—& sleep!  Erick is scheduled to go to Seattle for a month in April (since it’s 1 1/2 hours away, they put them up at a hotel near Seattle Children’s Hospital).  Hopefully, he can find a way to switch that rotation since he’s supposed to start a week before the baby is due!  But at least we’re back on the west coast (I feel like I mention that all the time—can you tell how happy I am about that?), so we’re a lot closer to family & friends for support.  I have a hard enough time with Joshua so I have a feeling I’ll be needing plenty of help when Tiny gets here!!!

My mom & step-dad have been here to visit for the last 2 weeks & they’ve been such a big help, not to mention it being an enjoyable visit (other than a rather non-enjoyable ER visit last week!).  When Mom got here, Joshua got to share the news.  He was supposed to tell her “Mommy’s having a baby” but he missed a crucial word in the sentence (which he’d practiced a lot) so he told her “Mommy’s a baby.”  She understood what he meant & of course was excited.  She called Rock to let him know later that evening (he was still in Texas at the time).  The next morning, Rock was leading a 140 soldier formation & announced that he was going to be a grandpa again, & the whole battery gave a big cheer & loud ‘hooah’ (as if he had anything to do with it!).  So much for keeping things quiet for awhile!

Joshua has been having lots of fun playing with Mom & Rock, & they really rounded out his tour of grandparents of late.  Rock was oh-so-helpful & taught Joshua which fingers are the best to use for booger-picking.  Joshua has fun listening to Rock tell stories in silly voices & they have many fun tickling sessions.  We went to the Space Needle for brunch on Sunday to celebrate my mom’s birthday & it was a really neat experience.  I hadn’t been there since I was young so it was cool to check out again.  Joshua had a fun time running around the observation deck (at least 3-4 times!) & he looked out every one of the telescopes & binoculars to check out the view.  Mom has even woken up early to take Joshua to preschool a all week, which I have REALLY appreciated so I could get more sleep.  Unfortunately, Joshua hasn’t taken well to having another person in addition to Mommy & Daddy acting as a disciplinarian so he’s taken his mad feelings out on Grandma on numerous occasions.  When she takes him to go potty, he’ll often yell “no Grandma go in bathroom!”  He gets upset that I can’t go with him like usual, but I think he’s gradually getting used to the idea that I can’t do as much right now.  When we tell him that he’s been mean to Grandma, he will run up to her & say (& sign!) “sorry” in his cute, little, apologetic voice.  Then he’ll go back to playing & all is fine.  Rock flies back home tomorrow but Mom is able to stay a couple of more weeks to help out.  Thanks, Mom!

I will keep you posted with baby updates (as well as tons of Joshua updates as usual), but please send good thoughts for a healthy pregnancy & baby.  With as complicated as things were when I was pregnant with Joshua & after he was born, I hope that these scares with #2 this past month give way to a smooth, uneventful time soon!  I want the next 6 1/2 months to fly by quickly!