Happy Halloween

He's too small to go trick-or-treating, but we couldn't resist getting him a costume. This past weekend we took D. to a Halloween party at the hospital where he was born. It was a reunion of sorts-- for other preemies and the nurses that cared for them.

Those first ten days that D. was at the hospital were some of the most stressful of my life; but they were also some of the most special. We spent so much time in the special care nursery that P. and I got to know the nurses on every shift. It felt good to see them again under less stressful circumstances.

He's so alive! now, and well! So it's a very happy Halloween around here, indeed.

Sick

Yesterday we took D. in to the pediatrician for his 4 month shots. Ouch. I nearly cried when the nurse jabbed the needle into his little thigh, and then did it again! and again!! That sadly hasn't been the last or worst of it. Last night D. woke up and started screaming. Usually I'm able to calm him down pretty quickly, but this went on for at least 20 minutes. It sounded like no cry I'd ever heard before, and I can only assume the kid was in some kind of pain. He finally fell asleep nursing and did okay through the night... but this morning he had a fever, and when I tried to give him some tylenol in the eyedropper, he emptied the contents of his stomach all over his changing table. Minutes later, he threw up again on our bed. And then he had another screaming fit. And then he threw up yet again (all over me) a few hours later. Poor baby.


I cancelled my class so I could stay home and console him (and not subject him to the ride to campus where he usually hangs out with dad in his office for an hour while I teach). He has been in my arms or on my lap all morning. And every once in a while, D. will open his eyes, look up at me, and smile.

I think we'll survive this.

staying put

So it looked like we were really going to leave this place... I was ready to do it. But then P. started getting anxious about it. We talked some more about it. If we were to leave this place for Rural College, we'd risk not being able to get back here. So we're staying put. We've essentially chosen location over career, and that feels okay too.

When I was applying to graduate school years ago, one of my professors advised that I apply to places I'd really like to live. At the time I thought her advice was very romantic but perhaps a little impractical. Now, those words seem very wise to me. I love living here. Since the baby HATES riding the car (he cries his poor heart out every time he has to ride around in it), we don't get out much, but when we do, it's heavenly. I've always been drawn to water, and right now I'm actually living just minutes away from the ocean. So what if the jobs we're able to find aren't the ideal ones? There's so much more to our lives than that.

and just because, here's another picture of D., whose good moods (thank God) are getting more and more frequent.