The Many Faces of Rosemary

Rosemary has been watching toys for a while now... she doesn't really play with them yet, but she'll stare at the mobile on her swing for 20 minutes at a time, and her face goes through all kinds of different expressions as she watches. Lately, she has also started making happy noises while she watches her mobile go around. I'm convinced that she is talking to her friends as they circle her head. It is incredibly cute.

We spent the last four days at my parents' house while our hardwood floors were being refinished, and during that time Rosemary got to know the new toy at Grandma's house. This morning, her Grandma took (literally) 100 pictures of her as she watched the frog (on her left) and beach ball (on her right). Unfortunately, you don't get to hear how cute she is, but at least you can see it. I managed to narrow it down to just 11 pictures (I know! It's still a lot... but she's just so gosh darn cute!!)... and now, I present to you... the many faces of Rosemary:



















Uh oh... looks like play time is over...


Grandma! Stop taking my picture and get me out of here!

Fixing up the nursery

I was still in the process of sorting through the boxes stacked in Rosemary's room when our girl surprised us with her early arrival... And my mom saved the day by moving most of the boxes to my parents' garage, disassembling the bunk bed, and setting up a corner of the room to be ready for baby, all while we were still in the hospital. When we came home, we found a nicely cleared space with baby's armoire, a borrowed changing table (thank you, Silvas!) and a new garbage can and diaper pail. Everything was ready for being able to change diapers and dress the baby, and keep most of baby's stuff organized. This is how the nursery has remained until a few weeks ago, when I decided it was time to get her room "finished."

Since then, our house has been in a state of upheaval... We moved almost everything out of her room and into the living room, with the exception of a few pieces of furniture, so we could remove the old wallpaper and then paint. Our plan was to remove the carpeting in chunks so that we wouldn't have to move the remaining furniture out of the room... This plan didn't stick, as we didn't count on my parents (our landlords) insisting that the hardwood floor get refinished. It was a bit of extra work, but we got the rest of the furniture out of the nursery, and stashed it in the living room with the rest of the stuff - by this time, the living room was quite full. Removing the carpet was not too tough; it only took an hour or so. When the flooring guy came to look at the space and give us a bid, he recommended that we also do the hallway and living room because it would be more cost effective.

So now here we are, three weeks into the project, and spending our second day at my parents' house while half the floors in our house are being refinished. Todd is being a real trooper, especially because I know this is a lot more than he bargained for when he agreed to this whole project! It's been pretty fun for Rosemary and I, getting to hang out with her grandma and her cousin Emma for two days, but it will be nice when we can be back in our own house. And even though Pokey and Henrietta Pussycat seem to be acclimating to our temporary lodgings, I'm sure they'll be happy to return to familiar surroundings as well.

I'll post some pictures of our progress later - I can't get to our pictures until we are allowed back in our house!

Baby needs surgery

How to stress out new parents:

1. Tell them their 7-week-old baby needs surgery. (What? Yikes!)

2. Let them sweat it out for a week trying to schedule a consultation visit with an unresponsive surgeon's office.

3. Get their appointment scheduled for the soonest possible time (with a big push from the pediatrician), and tell them it will be in THREE WEEKS.

4. Give them a list of things to watch for in the meantime that would necessitate an immediate trip to the Emergency Room.

Trust me, this works.

I had noticed some strange swelling just below Rosemary's abdomen a few weeks ago, and was not sure what to think about it, but kept an eye on it at each diaper change. Sometimes it was there, sometimes not...and sometimes it was two swollen lumps, sometimes just one. Last Sunday, she had two very swollen lumps, and I asked Todd and mom to look and see what they thought. The three of us agreed that it would be best to take her to the pediatrician ASAP. We took her in on Monday and found out that Rosemary has a hernia, probably a double hernia, and the solution for that is surgery. (Surgery?? This is not something I had expected to hear!! Yikes!)

I called the surgeon's office on Tuesday morning to schedule a consult (per the pediatrician's instructions), and was told they were working on the schedules and would have to call me back. I hadn't heard anything by Wednesday, so called back and asked when I should expect to hear from them. Their response? "By the end of the week." (umm... Ok... What? Are you kidding me?) So Friday rolled around, and Todd had taken the day off work and we were heading out to run errands, so I called the surgeon's office to give them my cell number... At which time they told me they'd probably call me by the middle of the next week. What?? By this time I am quietly freaking out. Our girl needs surgery, and I can't even get them to call me back to schedule an appointment for the consultation!!! Aaaaaaargh.

On Monday, the bulge looked and felt esprcially bad, so I called the pediatrician's office and they asked me to bring her on in. By the time we got there, Rosemary looked normal as can be... So no real cause for alarm, but the doctor was surprised to hear of our scheduling difficulties and asked her assistant to make some phone calls. Apparently, we were on page four of a list of people to schedule. Thanks to the pediatrician's intervention, we were moved to page one and are scheduled for a consult on June 14. This still seems like a long time to wait - I hate to think how long we would have had to wait if we'd stayed on page four!

So for now we wait. And keep an eye out for the indications that she needs to go to the Emergency Room (if the bulge looks red or purple, or feels hot to the touch, or if Rosemary has a fever). We don't think it's causing her pain right now, but it's kind of hard to tell since she can't really tell us what hurts or why she's crying. The good news is that she doesn't cry ALL the time, so even if it is painful once in a while, it is not a constant pain.