Never could quite get the hang of Tuesdays

Today was a rough, rough day. It started out great - I spent last night with my friend Kelly in Maryland, as I was in Baltimore til late yesterday and had to be at NIH this morning for work. I had a great night with her and her family, and got to NIH with plenty of time to spare. I met my boss there so the two of us could do a training session, and it turned out that the install two weeks ago was not completed so we couldn't get the training done - neither of us were very happy. But, I had a couple of sales appointments at NIH later in the afternoon so I stuck around. About 20 minutes after my boss left, I got a call from Evan that he was taking care of it, taking him to the hospital, he'd called the pediatrician...I interrupted asking "What?!" Turns out that Henry slipped while rounding the corner at daycare today and managed to plant face-first into the corner of the wall/hallway, and did this to his beautiful face

 He really did himself a doozie, didn't he?! Just looking at that gash makes me want to cry. Luckily it stopped bleeding pretty quickly, and Henry didn't even seem that bothered by it, but looking at this I think it's fairly apparent that he needed to get it professionally looked at!

Evan called me while on the way, and said he'd keep me updated on what the ER docs said. I was completely torn over staying at NIH and coming back; we decided I'd stay until we knew for sure what was going on. I was mostly concerned about him being disoriented or possibly having a concussion, but you can see that he fairly quickly bounced back to his normal self. Here he is in the waiting room.

 And enjoying some goldfish while waiting on his bed.

 Evan took such good care of him - I'm still so upset that I wasn't there to help, but I know there really wasn't much I could do, and being an hour away I would have missed everything by the time I got there anyway.

The docs quickly ruled out a concussion (thank goodness), but confirmed that he needed stitches. I was hoping for steri-strips, but that's a pretty deep gash. So the next step was a lidocaine wrap to help numb it up - that took an hour.

 And then the actual stitches - 9 of them total. I'm torn on missing that part - I would have loved to have been there for Henry, but I'm also fine with missing seeing that. He was a trooper, according to Evan, and the pediatric department sent a helper to distract him throughout, which is awesome. Here he is after stitches and awesome super hero band aid!

 When I got home not too long after, he was doing great - out on his bike with Evan and Natalie. He's been so wonderful all evening. I wanted to give him some good mommy time (and I needed some cuddle time with him too!), so while Evan took Natalie to dance class Henry and I went out for some FroYo and a quick trip to Target. I wanted to get some Mederma for kids to try to minimize the scarring, and Henry had received $10 for his birthday from my aunt, so I thought we'd go get him a toy. He was such a great kid all evening! Chocolate FroYo really does perk you up.

So, that's our boy with his "war wound". A scary day, but it's over now and everyone is sleeping soundly. Here's hoping this won't happen again for a very long, long time...or hopefully never!

More hospital pictures

I of course am already way behind in posting pictures of Henry & Natalie from this week! So, I'm working on getting caught up.

First up, more pics from our hospital stay! The ones I posted before were from Henry's birthday (Monday, April 12), so the rest of these are from Tuesday, when we spent the whole day at the hospital.

Tuesday morning I was able to take a shower and change into my new pjs (thanks to my friend Alison for getting them for me!). I felt like a new person!

Evan headed home for a bit in the morning to shower himself, change, eat, etc, which gave me a bit of time with Henry by myself. He was awake during part of it, so I was able to take some great closeups of his beautiful face!

That night, family and then some friends came by the hospital to visit. I took pics of everyone who came with Henry, but these are a couple of my favorites of Aunt Carrie with her niece and nephew!

Evan took this one of Henry and I in our going home outfits on Wednesday morning.

It's been a heck of a week...

I know Evan and I haven't put any posts up in well over a week, and I apologize for that, as we have some great holiday pictures of Natalie! However, we had a bit of a snag this week, starting with my not feeling well Christmas night. I had really bad back pain, and difficulty breathing, followed by another attack of back pain and stomach pain Thursday night (Dec 27). We went to the doctor and ER on friday, where after many hours in the ER it was diagnosed that I had gall stones, and an inflamed gall bladder. So, I was admitted to the hospital Friday, and on Sat Dec 29 I had my first surgery ever: gall bladder removal (or lap-coly for those in the know). My surgeon was a little worried about a gall stone having moved out of the bladder, so we had to wait around until today (monday, Dec 31) to have an MRI to make sure that hadn't happened. Of course they wouldn't do the MRI on the weekend, which gave me yesterday in the hospital to rest up, and thoroughly miss my family, particularly little Natalie, although Evan did his best to get her in to see me (although in a semi-private room that was a bit difficult at times). Luckily, the MRI was clear, and this afternoon around 5pm I was able to come home!

I'm now resting up at home with my family, recovering still from the birth, and now from the surgery. But it's really nice to know I won't have any more attacks, and there's no further risk of infection. Now I can just heal up, and get back into a routine with Natalie and Evan. My mom came back to help out, as did Evan's parents over the weekend, and my sister is helping out later this week. Plus, friends (Amy, Beth, Beta, Jess, Beaker & little Zabby!) stopped by to visit me in the hospital,which was really great of everyone. Perked me up a lot, as did every time Natalie came to visit.

I am doing ok now - just some pain at the incision sites, which is bound to happen. But the surgery went well, and I should be feeling much better in a week or so. I just wanted to let everyone know what had been going on, and that I hope to put more pictures and videos up later this week!

Pictures of Natalie!

Hi everyone! We brought Natalie home from the hospital today (12/12/07) at about 1:30pm. We're all doing really well, if a bit (ok, a lot) tired. Without going into too many details, the labor and delivery went better than I ever could have expected, taking about 7.5 hours total, with only about 45 minutes of pushing. Natalie came out fairly easily, and although I am obviously sore, I am healing nicely, and I think Natalie is taking to being out in the world pretty well!

Natalie has been a wonderful baby so far - she sleeps, as all newborns do, and is taking to breastfeeding really well. Tomorrow will be her first full day at home, and we're really looking forward to it. The biggest thing today was introducing her to Calla, which went pretty well. Calla is a bit anxious and excited, and barks a bit when Natalie makes noise, but I think she'll get used to the newest member of our family.

I've included a slideshow of pictures from the first two days in the hospital, and by the end of the week I will put up some more of her from the first few days home. Thanks to you all for your concern and love, and I hope you find her as beautiful as we do! Also, if anyone wants any of these pictures, or would like to see others, simply send me or Evan an email and we can email the photos to you, but remember that it may take us a couple of days!

It's baby time...almost!

Apparently, little Conquestina has decided to be very stubborn upon entering the world. Last week, we scheduled me to be induced tomorrow (Monday, Dec 10), and it looks like we're going to need it, as things are not really progressing on their own. So, we check into the hospital by 7pm tonight, and tomorrow morning they'll start administering the pitocin (oxytocin) to start the labor process. Therefore, look tomorrow night (or Tuesday morning at the latest!) for pictures and info about the baby...and wish us luck!

Happy Due Date....or Not

Well, it's December 3...so the due date has come and (almost) passed. Unfortunately, "baby girl" Macbeth has not chosen to come on out and meet us yet, so we're still playing the waiting game. However, I did have an appointment with my OB today, and both the doctor and I feel that by Wednesday or Thursday of this week we may have a new addition to the family. I've been having contractions on and off since Friday night, but yesterday and today they've gotten a bit more constant, although still at least 30 minutes between each.

So, nothing yet, but we're hopeful that she will be here soon. Evan and I (and our family and friends) can't wait to meet her, and I am definitely done with being pregnant, as smooth as this pregnancy was. Check back in a day or two, and maybe there will be good news!