Twenty-Six Weeks

Today Nick is twenty-six weeks old! Tomorrow he will be six months old. We can hardly believe he's halfway to a year!

This week started out great for Nick. Last weekend he went to his first UM football game! First he and mom went to a mom 2 mom sale and picked up some more pajamas and stretchy pants for him in the 6-9 months size. We also picked up a UM sweatsuit in 12-18 months for only $2! Afterward, we planned to take him to the tailgate to meet Grammie and Grandpa's friends. There ended up being extra tickets though, so we bought an extra set and all three of us headed in to the game. We figured we'd stay until Nick got fussy or needed to be changed - a quarter, maybe until halftime. He lasted the entire game! Never fussed or cried once. I did take him up to the concourse to nurse a couple times, and we walked around up there when the drizzle got a little heavier, but for the most part he was in the Big House. We still can't believe it! After such an eventful day, he slept well that night.

Sunday we got a late start to the day, then headed out to Grandma Juarez's apartment to finish up clearing it out. We had help from Lauren and Jan, Grammie and Grandpa, and Rachel and Jim - so what could have taken several hours only ended up taking about two hours. Thanks for the help guys! After that we went to Grammie and Grandpa's for a pizza dinner.

Monday it was back to work and daycare. Mom had court in Adrian in the morning, so she got to hang out with Nick at daycare a little longer than usual. Tuesday dad had to do some work from home when he got home, so mom picked Nick up from daycare. Wednesday was school picture day, so we sent his cute blue and white striped romper to daycare with him for pictures - we can't wait to see how they turned out! We hope they were able to get him to smile :)

Thursday is when Nick's week took a turn for the worse. He woke up and he was burning hot. We took his temperature both ways and both ways it was very high - 104 and 101. We called his pediatrician through the physician answering service. He said as long as Nick was acting normal otherwise to skip the ER and just come into his office at 10:30. Nick was taking a nap at 10:30, so we went in around noon. They weighed him (17 lbs 9 oz!), took his temperature (102.3) and then we took him in to be checked out by the doctor. The nurse tried to give him some tylenol but he rejected it completely. The doctor did the usual - checked his ears, checked his throat. Then he did a swine flu culture, which involved sticking a cotton swab in Nick's nose back towards his throat for five seconds. Needless to say, Nick did not enjoy that one bit and kept giving the doctor dirty looks after that! The doctor said as long as he was nursing and acting normal not to worry about him too much.

Today mom had to go to court (three times in one week, that never happens!) so dad stayed home with Nick. Since he still had his fever, and by now had begun vomiting, the doctor wanted to see him again. He sent Nick and dad to St. Joe's in Ann Arbor for some additional tests. Grammie went to help dad, and mom met them there after her hearing. They determined the illness was viral (gee, thanks, that's very helpful!) and said to try to keep him hydrated and comfortable until the illness goes away. They said he was still drooling and had tears when he cried when they drew his blood, and those were good signs.

So this weekend we are hibernating. We want Nick to rest and get better, and we don't want to expose anyone else to his illness. Hopefully he'll be better before Monday - one of the cons of both of us working is we need him to be well enough to go to daycare! We've both already taken so much time off lately, we can't really miss more time.

This weekend has been rough on me regarding working, too. Nick most likely contracted his illness at daycare. Although our daycare is great, and very clean, it's just a fact that kids in daycare get sick more often. I try to tell myself that even kids with stay at home moms get sick sometimes, but it's just so hard to see Nick uncomfortable and hating his treatments. The problem for us is not so much money, although obviously we'd have to change our lifestyle if one of us stayed home - it's that neither one of us really wants to stay home, and based on my experience during maternity leave, I really think you need to WANT to stay home to be a stay at home parent. We both love our little boy and we love spending time with him, but we both enjoy working, too, and pursuing our careers - our ambitious natures are part of what attracted us to each other. I always knew I'd be a working mom - it's just ingrained in me to try to be externally successful - and while most working moms have guilt from *having* to work, I have guilt from *wanting* to work. And on days when Nick is sick, it's twice as bad - I know he probably wants his mommy, but my job is less flexible than Jeff's, so he usually has daddy :(