We survived the week, however....

Mercer woke up with the runs. (You know... the "D" word... but I don't want to have to say it -- plus I can't spell it!) So, we called the on-call nurse this (Sunday) morning. She mentioned that it's not uncommon for babies to get this b/c of the antibiotic that he's been taking. We were reminded that it kills the bad bacteria as well as the good. His system doesn't have a chance right now.

Boy - I'm learning a lot. His system is messed up because of the antibiotic. He's on the antibiotic because of his ear infection. He has an ear infection because (according to some middle-of-the-night research I did on Web MD) babies have really small tubes connecting their ears to the nasal passages and they have a tendency to get clogged with fluid & drainage when they have colds. He suffered from a cold because of the snotty kid at daycare two weeks ago. What a cycle! Another thing I learned on Web MD was that doctor's like to put babies on antibiotics when they have an ear infection b/c if the fluid sits in there too long, it can cause deafness. Interesting. We don't want that of course -- but we don't want little M to be thrown into the antibiotics too soon either. It seems like I remember something in my reading about putting tubes in the ears to drain the fluid. There's so much to learn!

Todd & I picked up the nastiest cold we've ever had from Mercer. He & I are both almost over it finally. This time last week, we were both starting to feel rough. One thing that has really helped us out is that Mercer's been sleeping in his room for the past 4 or 5 nights... and has mostly been sleeping 'til 6 am +/-. I think he likes it in there! I've been waking up several times a night to check the monitor -- so I'm still not getting a full-night's sleep, but it's definitely more restful overall. yay!


Work was ok. I worked Monday, Tuesday & Friday at the office and Wednesday / Thursday from home. The goal was to work about 8 hours each day at the office and about 4 hours each day at home. I didn't quite get there last week. not far from it, but didn't quite make my 32 hours. I'll be honest... I REALLY enjoyed the working from home part of the week! I hung out with him / played with him in the morning 'til he took his nap & then got a couple of hours worth of work done. We'd have a large chunk of the day together in the middle of the day 'til I could get him to sleep a bit in the afternoon. I would get less than a couple of hours done in the afternoon, but I worked each night a little when Todd came home to get between 4 - 5 hours in both days. It seems pretty ideal, honestly as long as it works for my office mates!

In general here, things have been low-key. I think one great thing about parenthood for us: we've learned to slow down a bit & enjoy the small things... the huge toothless smiles... sitting by the pond for Mercer's feedings and noticing new flowers blooming on the water lilies & hyacinths... savoring each giggle and trying to duplicate what we did to evoke it. It's been wonderful so far.

Yesterday, we worked in the yard / cleaned it up because we created a putt-putt golf hole back there around the pond for our annual neighborhood golf tourney. We made a simple hole with a really elaborate "water hazard" -- the pond! It was so blazing hot that not as many people made it to the tourney as we expected, but we still had a great time. We noticed more than ever that there has definitely been a baby explosion on the street. One of the February '08 baby boys was there... as well as a 4 month old baby girl and a 6 month old baby girl. The 4 month old girl's name was Edith. That's my grandma's name! She was named after a grandmother named Eidth too. I've never known another Edith, but we look forward to hanging out with her and her parents (about our age / maybe a couple of years younger), as they were a nice couple.

Today was more serious: we had to work on cleaning because the social worker comes Thursday morning for her final post-placement visit. Todd leaves for Asheville in the morning and won't get back 'til late Tuesday, so we'll be doing a lot of cleaning / cramming Wednesday night to finish what we didn't get done today.


This is the only picture we took this week -- and it was to have something to post, honestly. This is Saturday night after the golf tourney & socializing was done -- Mercer and I are posing by the rules of hole # 7 (which we called "A drop in the Bucket" b/c literally - you knocked the ball into a bucket in the back yard from the top terrace of the yard). Nothing too exciting to see. Oh well!

It's late. I should go. Have a good week. Candice