New posts coming soon

Apparently it has been 5 months since I posted last. I'll try and fill in the details of Nolans first year soon.

Epic Fail

We are spending the weekend at young life's breakaway lodge. It is in seaside Oregon, and as you can imagine,the coast is not at it's finest in February. I decided I needed to go for a walk and get a mocha and take nolan to see the sand and the waves before we leave in a couple of hours. There was a light mist (other places might call this rain). We had a nice walk to the coffee shop and as we left the rain picked up and kept getting worse, and worse, and worse. I do want to say that Nolan was in his "bubble" waterproof stroller cover so he wasn't experiencing the elements quite like I did. We did find the water, or a path that led to the water. I could see the waves a couple hundred yards away. They were pretty enough. At this point the wind was howling and my "winter" pants were soaked through. I walked down the road that I thought would take us back to the lodge, but we were on the wrong street. Luckily Keith pulled up in the car after a few minutes of walking and gave us a lift back.

Epic fail trying to see the waves.

Hopefully when we are here for a month in June the weather will be a little nicer.

Back Update

I am six weeks out from having back surgery, and I would love to report that I feel 100%, but I can't quite yet.  I was doing great, incredibly well up to 4 weeks out, but then, like everyone who has had a surgery, I tried to do too much and spent an entire day at work then went to coach a soccer game and kicker a few balls at the goalkeepers (by a few I mean 5)  It didn't hurt right away, but I have been fairly stiff ever since.  The Doctor said that everyone does that and to take it easy for the next four weeks as well.
Keith is still doing as much as he can, and as much as I ask him to do.  The for me is just to ask, I am a do it my self type of person.
Today i am going to go and re-join the gym we belong to so I can start swimming Yeah!  I am very excited to get back into the pool, swimsuit not so much.  Rebuilding my core strength gradually is important, and swimming is a great way to start off slow. 

Nolans half birthday

I can't believe that six months have gone by already. What an amazing adventure parenting has been. I've learned, loved, and grown more in the last six months than any other time in my life. Being a mom had definitely changed my perspective on life. Happy half birthday Nolan!

The scariest moment as a parent so far

Tonight just like every night we put Nolan to bed in his crib. I wasn't very tired so I was still awake looking at facebook on my phone exile Keith was asleep. Nolan had been in bed for about 2 hours when he started screaming, not crying, screaming. I rushed in there to try and calm him but realized right away that there would be no calming here I scooped him up and immediately stared a shushing rock but he screamed and screamed. I couldn't get him to wake up he was crying so hard almost to the point of hyperventilating. Keith can running in he must have heard me saying "wake up Nolan wake up" through the monitor. I set him on the changing table and started to quickly take off his pajamas, now trying not to start crying myself I felt very helpless. My mind started to think about the emergency room and all the possibilities. I took off his diaper that had just ben wet and that seemed to help. That's when we realize that he has a small cut or crack on his (sorry to be crude) sack. He is still sobbing. I ran and found the aquaphor while Keith held comforted him and shushed him. What could we do? We found a spare of the old kind of diaper we used on him since we just switched to a new brand today. As I was running around looking for the diaper bag he peed again all over him pajamas but settled down a bit.
We are all in bed now. Keith asleep Nolan asleep. I'm wide awake terrified he's going to wake up in that pain again and knowing there really isn't anything I can do about it. Is this what they meant when he was born, " congratulations, you'll never get a good nights sleep again"

Montana Trip Day 1

We had a great drive yesterday.  10 hours in the car all the way from Arlington to Helena, MT.  Nolan slept from arlington to Moses Lake where I fed him, then I sat in back with him from Moses Lake to Courdalene, ID and kept him awake and entertained.  Then He ate again there and went to sleep all the way to Helena.  What a great little traveler.  He even had a great visit with Great Grandma Petrino at 2:30am he was a happy boy.

There was a great thunderstorm as we came over the pass last night, it was really neat to see.  I always forget how beautiful it is here.  Pure blue skies and 85 degree temps, there is nothing to complain about.  Tonight we are going to dinner with Keith's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jeff.  I know that Nolan will have fun with that.
Tomorrow we are heading to Big Sky!!!  Another of Montana's most beautiful places, we might even take a quick detour through Yellowstone.  I lived here for 4 years and never went through it so that is exciting for me as well.  Then "Uncle" Karl will meet up with us as well as Grandma Jojo and Grandpa Ken.

Sleeping like a baby...

When we got back from Washington family ranch we decided it was time for Nolan to sleep in his own bed. I was very sad the first night because I enjoy our in bed snuggles, but I did, reluctantly, lay him down in his crib. I woke up plenty of times that night straining to listen to the monitor, not trusting that it would really alert me to his cries. There were no cries. Nolan slept all the way through the night until 6:30am. That was a little over a week ago and he has been sleeping all the way through the night every night. When he does wake up Keith or I bring him back to bed for some cuddle time. Now, it's just matter of retraining myself to sleep all the way through the might. It's been a really long time since I've done that.