Return from my Blog Hiatus

As you may have noticed, I went on a blog hiatus in October and my hiatus unfortunately lasted a bit longer than I intended. The days leading up to the election were absolute madness. In addition to my job and other volunteer activities, my political responsibilities began to take over my life. I was on 10-15 conference calls/week and spent about 30+ hours/week working on the Democratic legal steering committee for the state party. I am grateful that the general counsel trusts me with an increasing amount of responsibility to ensure that election day runs smoothly from a legal perspective – but at times I felt like I was drowning.

I’m normally a night owl and easily stay up working on various projects for work and my volunteer activities into the wee hours of the night. But, a challenging pregnancy + life with a very active toddler takes its toll on me and I’ve been working hard to be in bed by 11pm.  I never realized how crucial those extra few hours were to my productivity until I no longer had them b/c I was trying to sleep.

I will be the first to admit that I’m overextended with my commitments and have a very hard time saying “no” when someone asks me to help with something, but I can usually manage the balance. My mom always says “if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.”  Unfortunately this year I made the dumb mistake of agreeing to serve as a committee chair for a charity auction for the Federal Communications Bar Association. The auction was Oct 28, the week before the election. Why oh why did I not realize how stupid this would be to do two big volunteer projects that came to culmination at about the same time? I have no idea.

After a lot of hard work by so many people, the charity auction raised over $130,000 for a non-profit organization called Project Wait No Longer which helps foster children find a “forever” home (an amazing organization!). And, despite the miserable results on election day and the loss of 3 Democratic House seats in Virginia, the election legal system ran reasonably well and my own Congressman won re-election (barely). We hosted a fundraiser for him at our home in September and raised about $15,000 for his campaign – his victory was the silver lining in an otherwise gloomy day for Democrats.

Anyway, after the craziness of late Oct/early Nov, I spent much of November catching up on other parts of my life. Brad and I enjoyed a wonderful long weekend in Las Vegas while Sam spent the weekend with my parents.

Watching La Reve (Cirque De Soleil show) at the Wynn in Vegas

I’m not sure who had more fun -- us, Sam, or my parents? Brad had a work trip to LV which we turned into a much needed mini vacation. I read 3 books, slept a lot, we ate great food, explored, and only ended up $10 down after gambling. We returned home well rested and rejuvenated. After spending 4 days with my parents, Sam learned how to say the words dirty, poop, tushy and how to burp on command. Lovely. They also fed farm animals at Maymont Park, played at Deep Run Park, had multiple playdates, ate lots of Indian food and played and played and played!

Cooking with Grandpa



Seesaw with Melissa, London & Grandpa

Feeding goats at Maymont Park

Stomping in Leaves


What a weekend! We are SOOO grateful for his wonderful Mimi and Grandpa Geller.  They also gave him his new favorite toy:

He is completely obsessed with this car.  He now has one car to play with at Mimi & Grandpa's and one car to play with at our house.  Thank you Mimi & Grandpa! 

As usual, we’ve had a lot going on in the past few weeks but I’ll save that for future postings. I’ve really enjoyed blogging, it’s a way to memorialize the important and not so important happenings in my life and share them with my friends and family. It’s been an interesting experience and I love receiving feedback on the posts. So with that, I’m back and ready to begin regularly blogging once again! Happy reading!

My love & hate relationship with Potbelly's hot peppers

I love spicy food.  Spicy food + pregnancy related heartburn = bad bad bad idea.  I normally do not have heartburn, except when I'm pregnant.  It is not fun and I try to tone down some of my favorite dishes (Thai, Mexican, Indian, etc).

But, I have such a weakness for Potbelly's hot peppers.  Potbelly's is a chain of sandwich shops - like Subway, but so much better. The sandwiches are already pretty darn great....and then you add a TON of Potbelly's own hot peppers onto the sandwich.  OMG.  AH-MAZING.

When I was pregnant with Sam, I bought an entire jar of Potbelly's hot peppers to make sandwiches at home on the weekends.  The peppers are seriously craveable, even though I know they will wreak havoc on my heartburn.  Unfortunately there is a Potbelly's across the street from my office and my firm loves to order their sandwiches to serve at meetings...and a big bowl of the hot peppers comes along with the sandwiches.  How can I possibly resist the amazing peppers?  I just can't.  I have given up sushi, alchohol, caffeine, I only eat seafood 1x/week (as per my dr orders), smoked fish, soft cheeses, etc.  But giving up hot peppers? Hec no!  They're worth the miserable heartburn that I know will follow.  Hence, my love/hate relationship with these wonderfully dangerous peppers.

Remembering Papi with Annual Chocolate Ice Cream

My grandfather, my mom's father, who we called Papi, died 3 years ago yesterday (October 26, 2007).  He grew up in Germany and fled to the U.S. during the Holocaust.  Years ago he created a huge family tree and drew a red swastika next to the name of every relative killed in the Holocaust.  The entire page was covered in dozens, possibly hundreds of swastikas.  After he came to the U.S., he enlisted in the American military and was sent back to Germany as a spy for the U.S. because he was fluent in Germany, knew the culture, and knew the country.  Of course, this was incredibly dangerous being Jewish.  About 10 years ago, he was interviewed for a documentary about people like him, called "Enemy Aliens"...about German Jews who came to the U.S. and went back to Germany on behalf of the U.S. military.

Papi taught me some invaluable life lessons.  Because Nazi Germany prohibited Jewish children from attending school in the 1930s, my brilliant grandfather never finished high school, much less college.  I think he would have been an architect if he'd had access to an education.  Instead, he started a very successful men's shirt business in the 1950s and did very well for himself.  But, he never forgot how he was deprived of an education.  He always taught me over and over again "All of your worldly possession can be taken from you.  Your money.  Your house.  Your family.  It can all vanish in an instant.  But what you have in your head, what you learn in school...that can never be taken away from you."  Because of him, my cousins and I have all attended college and all went on to receive graduate degrees.  Education is a very important value in my family.

Papi was also a huge fan of FDR and a lifelong Democrat.  Having arrived in the U.S. with literally nothing  other than the clothes on his back, he truly built his own fortune.  He also gave away a lot of his wealth to those less fortunate.  I will never forget his mantra that "Paying a lot of taxes is a sign that you've had a good year and the government will therefore have enough money to take care of the poor people who need help from the government."  He never complained about having to pay high taxes.  I wish that our tax system and government expenditures was as simple as his perspective made it sound, but perhaps this is where I get my Democratic ideals from.

Sam is named after my Papi.  It's a Jewish tradition to name a child using the first letter of the first name of a relative who had passed away.  Sam was named for my grandfather, Steven.  Normally, Hebrew names closely resemble the English names.  My Hebrew name is Rivkah, which is the Hebrew translation for Rebecca.  My brother David's Hebrew name is David (but pronounced like Dah-veed).

When it was time for Sam's bris, I was surprised to learn that Papi's Hebrew name was Avraham.  He was given this name because his German name was Verner - and Avraham is very close to Verner.  When he came to Ellis Island, he wanted to shed all of his German heritage and become as American as possible...hence, his chosen name of Steven.  So Sam's Hebrew name is Avraham, after his great-grandfather.

Papi's favorite food in the world was chocolate ice cream.  My mom recalls him eating chocolate ice cream for dessert every night of her childhood.  I think he probably ate a bowl of chocolate ice cream every night for 50 years.   It's no wonder why I love chocolate so much!

In his honor, my family and I always enjoy chocolate ice cream on the anniversary of his death.  Although Sam never met Papi, he shares many of Papi's qualities - his fabulous sense of humor, his deep hearty laugh, and his curiosity about how things work (and how they can come apart).

Last night, Sam joined us in devouring a bowl of chocolate ice cream to celebrate my beloved Papi.   I forgot to mention that Sam also shares Papi's deep love for chocolate ice cream.

 

Papi would have loved this one, Sam eating ice cream double-handed!

Snoogle Pillow

I am SO excited that the amazing Snoogle pregnancy pillow has once again re-joined our bed.  Brad is not such a fan, but then again, he isn't pregnant.  If you don't know what a snoogle pillow is, this is what it looks like:

It is terrific because it can provide support to your back and tummy, help align the spine, relieve pressure on ankles, can be used in many different positions and can later be helpful with breastfeeding.  A friend suggested it to me when I was pregnant with Sam and I fell in love immediately.  I love sleeping with a lot of pillows already (even when I'm not pregnant), it makes me feel like I'm building a nest in the bed. 

A few months after Sam was born, Brad made it clear that the Snoogle pillow had outlived its welcome and it was time to retire the pillow to the basement storage room...for now.  Perhaps I neglected to mention that the Snoogle pillow is HUGE.  Like enormous. We have a king-sized bed and the Snoogle pillow takes over about half of the bed.  You can only imagine Brad's enthusiasm when I requested that he bring it upstairs from the basement.  It's very unwieldy and quite heavy - therefore Brad's job to carry up 2 flights of stairs.

And then, I reminded him that the pillowcase needed to be washed.  This only added to Brad's joy about the Snoogle pillow.  Getting the pillowcase on and off the Snoogle pillow is ridiculously impossible.  The first time we tried to get the pillowcase on, it took both of us working together and we struggled for about 10 minutes. 

But, it is SO worth it.  I HIGHLY recommend the snoogle pillow to any pregnant lady..or really anyone who loves pillows!

Comparing 17 weeks with Sam and baby boy #2

I recently posted my blog entry from when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Sam and thought it would be interesting to compare it to what things are like for me now, at 18 weeks with baby boy #2. 

It's funny to read that I tried taking zantac to help with my heartburn when I was pregnant with Sam.  I had never even heard of zantac before and had to write it down when my ob suggested I take it.  Now, zantac is a household word because Sam had pretty bad reflux from birth until about 10 months.  He regularly took prescription zantac 2-3x/day for 10 months...we were intimately familiar with zantac. 

I have heartburn again with this pregnancy, but apparently I'm carrying the baby low - rather than high which is how I carried Sam.  So interesting. 

I am particularly interested in how I tried to compare bringing Lucy (our dog) home from the shelter to what it would be like bringing the baby home from the hospital.  We adopted Lucy, our wonderful lab, in 2004, a few months after we got married.  For the 4.5 years we had her before Sam's birth, she was truly our baby.  We took her everywhere with us, we planned Burke Lake Park outtings for her to swim in the lake, we'd cuddle with her, talk to her constantly, etc.  I still talk to her, but it's amazing how much she has changed in our eyes. 

When we first brought Sam home from the hospital, we both were amazed at how quickly the dog transformed from being our baby to quickly becoming a dog (now that we have a human baby).  We still love her and talk to her and take her with us to the park (sometimes), but her role in our house has certainly changed and we spend much less time with her than we used to.  Sam, however, is completely in love with the dog and thinks it's hilarious to throw food to her.  Lovely.

Anyway, going back to the 17 week pregnancy comparisons - I still love eating pizza and berries.  When I read about my previous poptart and popcorn cravings, I immediately thought YUM, those both sound terrific right about now!  Guess what will be added to our grocery list this week? 

I feel much more knowledgeable about baby items and have a few additional items that I discovered from other people that I think would have been helpful with Sam.  I have come to love Buy Buy Baby and no longer feel overwhelmed by it the way I used to.  Whenever I see pregnant women in the store, I recall that sense of fear and panic of "what the hec are bumbos and how do I know if I need one?"

I think that my emotions have been somewhat more in check now than during the pregnancy with Sam, but Brad seems to disagree (shocking).  There have been a few crying at nothing moments, and there are some commercials that I can't watch without tearing up.  Or maybe I'm in denial and Brad should do a posting on this....

The biggest difference is that now I know what I'm doing as a mom.  I made some mistakes with Sam that I will not repeat (like waiting for him to fall asleep before putting him into the crib.  Now I know that it's actually a good thing for infants to learn to fall asleep on their own) - although I know I'll probably make other mistakes too.  But, I feel so much more prepared and know what to expect, along with some healthy fear about how to handle a very active 2 year old plus a newborn. 

Although my life will certainly change, the changes won't be nearly as dramatic as the changes from before/after we had Sam.  Long gone are my days of sleeping in until 10am and having "lazy" days.  But, before Sam, I never knew how sweet it sounds to hear your child say (or shout) "Mommy."

Powerless

Last night our whole neighborhood lost electricity right as we were about to give Sam a bath.  Sam was across the room from me when the power went out, and he was so quiet that I had NO idea where he was.  I called out his name and searched for him in the dark.  He thought we were playing hide and seek and quietly hid behind his crib.  Terrific. 

After I found him, we went into another bedroom that was lit up by the full moon shining moonlight into the room.  The dog, freaking out, joined us and we all played together while Brad searched for the flashlight (I now know to keep the flashlight in an easy to find location!).  Unsuccessful in locating the flashlight, Brad began lighting candles everywhere.  Our house looked very Halloween-y!

I suggested that Brad go to CVS down the street to buy flashlights and he reminded me that our garage doors are electric and weigh a TON to open with the emergency handle.  Right.  I forgot how much electricity rules my life!  We quickly abandoned the bath idea and searched for Sam's warmest pajamas in case the heat didn't come back on (it was supposed to get down to 39 degrees last night!). 

Once we got Sam to bed around 8pm, Brad and I had no idea what to make for dinner other than cereal or sandwiches (our stove is electric).  Pizza Hut to the rescue! YUM.  My friend has since accused me of causing the power outage so that I could have my beloved pizza.  Not a bad idea for future pizza cravings!

Other than playing with our blackberries, we were like - what are we doing to do now?  It's hard to read a book or magazine without a flashlight.  As much as I love going to bed at 830pm (I LOVE my sleep during pregnancy), I have learned that I can't really sleep more than 8 or 9 hours because I then wake up at 5am which is not so fun.  

Missing my Thursday night tv shows, I asked Brad if the tivo will still record my prgorams?  Isn't it connected to the satellites or whatever? Maybe there's a battery back-up that will work without electricity? 

He cracked up and immediately began making fun of me.  In a facebook posting, he wrote "our power went out. my wife just asked me "will tivo still record?" I'm going to ignore that question."  This of course elicited MANY comments by friends laughing at me.  Today at work, I told two of my colleagues who are both very smart attorneys about this incident and they both asked in complete seriousness, "the DVR won't record the shows without electricity???" One even went online to look it up!  I'm not the only one who doesn't understand DVR technology!  Brad's response was "OMG - they are electronics.  They require...wait for it....electricity!" You can only imagine where I told him to shove it.

I then asked if we could use the laptop on battery power and access the Internet through it?  Hulu.com, here I come!  This promptly led to more eye rolling and another facebook status making fun of me.  Lovely.  Others saw his status update about it - and asked me, why wouldn't it work?  Again, I'm not the only electricity moron!

Bored, I began worrying that Sam wouldn't be warm enough in his crib with only his fleece sleep sack on him since the heat is electric.  I'm normally not a fan of co-sleeping, but decided that he would be joining us in bed if the power wasn't back on before we went to bed....

Entertained by our blackberries, I noticed that several of my neighbors were also on facebook posting about the power outage and we began communicating back and forth on FB through our smartphones about which number to call at Dominion Power and what Dominion Power was saying about the outage.  Gotta love technology that can operate on a battery!

Thankfully, the power came back on shortly before we went to bed.  It's amazing that we survived the 2009-2010 snowmaggedon storms and this summer's crazy thunder/lightning storms without losing power AT ALL - and yet now, on a clear, beautiful fall night - we lose power? What's up with that?  I seriously have no idea how my friends survived days on end without electricity during the snow and summer storms.  Hopefully, I won't have to find out!  An evening without power was enough for me.

17 weeks from my pregnancy with Sam

When I was pregnant with Sam, I began a pregnancy blog on carepages.com.  I stopped the blog after he was born and remembered about it the other day.  My first blog entry was December 4, 2008 - when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Sam.  Now that I'm 17.5 weeks pregnant with baby boy #2, I was fascinated reading back on my thoughts and feelings at the same point in time during my pregnancy with Sam.  It's pretty entertaining to remember my anxiety about baby items and the overwhelming questions we had about being parents - and how our life would change.  The comments at the end are pretty funny too! 

Here it is, enjoy:

17 Week Update & Welcome!

Posted Dec 4, 2008 1:54pm

Hi everyone, welcome to the Geller-Cheney Pregnancy Blog! We are deeply touched that so many people have asked to be included in updates about this amazing journey in our lives, so we thought that this would be a great way to keep you all informed about the many changes that pregnancy has brought to our lives. We've included a recent picture (December 3, 2008) of my growing belly - which the dog finds to be fascinating as evident in this picture.  

We are now 17 weeks along and enjoying the 2nd trimester MUCH better than the first. Gone are the days of vomiting and all-day nausea. I'm not as tired as I was in first trimester, but the previous nights of getting 4-5 hours of sleep and being fine the next day are long gone. However, I'm apparently carrying the baby rather high (and having a giant) which is causing some quite unpleasant heartburn. Anyone have any tricks for dealing with heartburn? I've tried Zantac - it doesn't help at all.
I started feeling the baby move about a week ago. At first it felt like bubbles, but now it is more like a butterfly fluttering around in there! It still doesn't feel quite real yet - when we have ultrasounds and see the baby moving all over the place, I'm still surprised to see how big it is and how much it moves. Its body is now about the size of a grapefruit or small melon and measures about 5 inches from head to rump. I suppose when I begin to feel a sharp kick to my ribs it will become more real, but I still can't quite wrap my head around the idea that there really is a baby in my ever-growing tummy. It's so different from any other experience that I don't really have other things in my life to draw upon or other experiences to compare it to. Bringing our dog Lucy home from the animal shelter was not quite the same. :) But, we're excited and beginning to make plans for the May 15, 2009 arrival.

I've received MANY questions about weird food cravings, especially since my normal eating habits are already quite odd. (yes, my chick pea obsession continues...and I really miss my tuna fish, cottage cheese, french dressing salad since I can't eat tuna while I'm pregnant) I've been very into apple-related things - apple juice, applesauce, apples, etc. I've also been very easily swayed into eating things by watching people on tv eat something and I MUST eat that too. Lately those items have included pizza, popcorn, poptarts, and berries. I've been eating all sorts of berries like crazy. I just started getting hungrier than usual about 2 weeks ago. I've worked hard to make the calories count and eat healthy, but sometimes the baby just needs to have some chocolate peanut butter ice cream!

Our friend Dana Graham accompanied us to Buy Buy Baby to begin a baby registry. Thank GOODNESS she came with us! Brad and I were quite overwhelmed. Who knew that there were 75 kinds of strollers! We had no clue which baby contraptions were necessities and which were just ridiculous. We're starting to think about the nursery, we want to paint the walls a warm yellow and do a nautical/beach/ocean theme.
The mood swings are here full force. The other night Brad was helping me search through the unpacked boxes in our new house to find a pair of shoes that I wanted to wear to my firm's holiday party. Frustrated, I gave up and he kept looking until he found the shoes - and then I burst into tears with gratitude and appreciation of his perseverance. This is much better than the October ginger ale episode. Ginger ale has been my staple anti-nausea panacea during the pregnancy. After opening the LAST bottle of ginger ale in the house, Brad forgot to screw on the top and left it slightly open over night. Feeling quite nauseous and in need of bubbly ginger ale, I discovered the flat ginger ale - and promptly began sobbing hysterically and yelling at Brad "Why are you doing this to me?!?!? Why do you hate me so much!?!?"
As I'm sure you all know, Brad has patience of a saint. He has been an amazing husband over the past few months. It's been quite a roller coaster between the pregnancy, closing on our house, moving, the election, our busy jobs, and continuing to volunteer in our "free" time. But, we're happy, healthy, nervous, and excited for whatever adventures cross our paths in the next few months as we count down to May 15, 2009.

Thanks to all of you who have provided much love and support during the many changes in our lives. We look forward to keeping you all posted about this new chapter in the Geller-Cheney house and re-connecting with folks we may have lost touch with. Love to you all!

by Faith Leonard
Thanks for including me in all of this excitement! You are bringing back decades-old memories - good ones! Hmmm...heartburn. I remember that vividly from my first pregnancy when I "carried high" - small meals helped, as did the turning and dropping baby two weeks before delivery. And as for that out of body experience (or, more aptly, the invasion of the body snatcher), I remember sitting back and going along for the ride - a thrill a minute. So have fun! With hugs, Faith

by heather rose

so, strange eating habits and mood swings...sounds like not much has changed for you! glad you're feeling better. looking forward to your updates and stories...and have some ice cream for me! baby wants it, i can tell!

by Elizabeth Kanick

Guys, this is a FABULOUS idea!!! We are so excited for you and so glad that we will be able to count on you to be a version of guinea pigs! Much love to you both and we will eagerly await more updates!

by Erin Taylor
Wow...I'm very excited for you!! I hope the next few months are full of joy as both you and Brad transition into the important roles of Mom and a Dad!! I'm be thinking of you...
by David Geller
Brad has the patience of a saint, but a questionable taste in women . . .
Also, last night I had a dream that y'all had brought a duck into your house (why a duck? I don't know), and Lucy was not happy about it. She went to smell it and was trying to be nice to it, but it bit her and started chasing her. So I ran to protect her and she stood next to me as I continually had to shoo it away since it continued pursuit. I wonder if this has to do with our conversation the other night about how I was going to make sure Lucy wasn't too hurt by the attention being taken from her and given to the baby (which you have said is a puppy anyhow . . .)
And who is this Sandy person talking about multiple wives? Did she lose some of her few remaining brain cells in Israel?

by Karen Cheney
Such an exciting time in your lives. Enjoy and savor each moment. It was awesome to feel the "baby bump" just a week ago. Keep up your good work nurturing my grandchild!!!

by lisa plotkin
YAY FOR UPDATES! love you both :-)

by sandy weiner

I think that it is great that we are not in a country that believes a man should have more than one wife at a time. Can you imagine what Brad or Tyler, or any other guy out there would have to deal with if they had more than 1 Becca or Melissa pregnant at one time? Yikes!, it's bad enough when they go thru they're monthly stuff , regular ASB (attention seeking behavior)and hystreonics. Only joking------the guys have no idea what us woman go thru when pregnant and we deserve to have their full attentionand all our wants met continually! Love , MeMe andy

by Melissa Hart

LOL... I like how you are acting like your mood swings are something new... hehe:) Oh, and wait until you start crying over toothpaste commercials! Then you really start to feel like a crazy person... I mean, more so than usual...

The picture of Lucy eyeing your belly is great!I wonder if they are having some sort of secret dog-baby telepathic conversation that none of us understand.

XOXO, Emmy :)

by Norm Geller

I guess it's easy to be patient with such a "delight." As for "sainthood" I would guess his clenched jaws of restraint would not necessarily agree. Fathers and grandfathers have very special ways of coping.

by Dana Graham

The Buy Buy Baby adventure was a ton of fun...although I learned that you can forget a lot in 3 years! So, keep blogging!! It will be fun for you to be able to go back and relive the moments...especially since it flies by so quickly! Be healthy & happy! XOXO

by Sue Geller

As your ever loving mother I need to make a correction to what you wrote. Brad hasn't been a saint just these past few months -- how about these past few years??? But seriously, this is such an exciting time for you and for us. We're all so glad you're feeling better. Hard to believe you're almost at the half-way point of the pregnancy. Keep eating right and take good care of my growing grandchild.

No more catastrophizing

Despite my day of catastrophizing and worrying, everything is fine. The appointment went very well and the baby is growing beautifully. He weighs 7 oz and is about 7.5 inches long. Like Sam, his head is huge (85th percentile). I love the 4D ultrasounds! The dr said that my 4lb weight loss is nothing to worry about because the baby is getting what he needs and is measuring perfectly. Whew! Time to stop catastrophizing!

Catastrophizing

Recently Brad and I were watching one of our new favorite shows "Parenthood" and I was struck by how much I could relate to one of the characters, Christina.  She is a soccer mom of two kids and she was teaching her 16 year old daughter Haddie how to drive.  Christina kept freaking out and wouldn't let Haddie drive out of the parking lot.  Both frustrated, mom and daughter get into a huge fight.  Later in the episode, Christina tries to explain to her daughter why she worries so much about Haddie driving.  She said that Adam (her husband/Haddie's dad) created a term for her worrying years ago.  She catastrophizes things because she worries and worries and lets her imagination run away and imagines the worst possible catastrophes occuring...ie, catastrophizing (even though it's not a real world).

Brad and I both looked at each other and immediatley realized that this is EXACTLY what I do.  I catastrophize too.  If Brad tells me he is on his way home and it is taking him a lot longer to get home than it normally would (usually traffic is the culprit) and he isn't answering his phone (usually it's on silent and he didn't see me calling), I begin to convince myself that he has been in a horrible car accident.  If Sam sleeps in much later than he normally does and I don't see him moving on the baby video monitor and I can't hear him breathing, I begin to worry whether or not he is breathing.  When I am awake late at night and hear weird sounds outside, I conjure up images of someone breaking into the house and have woken up Brad to make him go downstairs "and check things out" (really, what's he going to do if someone's there? I have no idea, but it makes me feel better).

One of my resolutions at Rosh Hashanah was to try to worry less.  I told a few close friends about this pledge and they lovingly laughed at me and said "good luck with that," knowing full well that me trying to not worry is like saying "I think I want to be a NBA basketball player when I grow up."  Not going to happen. 

But, I've worked hard at it especially with this pregnancy and tried to reduce the worrying.  Except, for the 24 hours before a obstetrician appointment - then I begin to freak out.  I think it's because I can't feel the baby REALLY kicking hard yet and it's not consistent movement (which is very normal for this stage in the pregnancy - 17.5 wks).  Having had a miscarriage with a pregnancy before Sam and delivering Sam at 32 weeks, I don't feel like I "enjoy" pregnancy the way some of my friends do.  I worry...and catastrophize...and try not to worry...and try not to catastrophize. 

I have an ob appointment this afternoon and last night I had a terrible dream that I went to the appointment and something was terribly wrong and I had to have immediate surgery and would be in the hospital for 2 weeks.  In the dream Brad was laughing and making dumb jokes about something and I got really upset and dumped water on his lap.  But it was SO real and convinced me that something was wrong when I woke up.

Trying to keep tabs on my weight gain with the pregnancy, I've been weighing myself a lot (probably too much) so I don't gain too much weight.  In the past 2 days, I've lost 4 pounds.  LOST 4 pounds!??! I shouldn't be losing weight at this stage of the pregnancy.. And the catastrophizing immediately began after getting off the scale this morning. 

Brad began to rationalize it and try to make me feel better...I threw up a lot yesterday from another poopy diaper/vomiting incident...I've had really bad heartburn lately and haven't been eating as much....I've been exercising more.  Even if he was an obstetrician offering me these perfectly reasonable explanations, his logic would be totally lost on me - I am completely in my head today and worrying like crazy.  Until I see the baby on the ultrasound at 230 and know that everything is fine, I'm going to worry.  It's almost easier to allow myself a day of worrying every now and then, rather than try to fight it off and keep the worrying at bay. 

So if I seem a little tightly wound today, you now know why.  I'm very busy worrying and catastrophizing (and doing other lawyerly stuff at work of course!). 

Oops!

The other night Brad and I were discussing travel plans for next summer.  Brad was thinking about going on a trip with Sam just the two of them in August.  He suggested that I go to Richmond and stay at my parents' house for a few days while they're gone. 

I said, "eh, I don't know if I want to do that. I mean, if I had Sam with me then I would definitely go down there so my parents could help take care of him while you're away.  But I don't want to go by myself and just hang out alone at my parents' house with them." 

Brad paused for a moment, trying to discern whether or not I was joking...and realized I wasn't. 

"You're going to have the new BABY with you!!!"  he said. 

My jaw dropped and I replied, "RIGHT!!! Shoot, I totally forgot that we'll have another baby then!" Bear in mind that the baby will be born in March - so I should definitely be aware of the fact that we'll have another baby all of next summer.  I can't believe that I forgot!  We both cracked up at my "oops" moment.  Wow - sometimes a pregnancy brain will amaze you!

Sam's new tricks

Sam is going through incredible developmental growth right now and is amazing us with new things every day.  For months we've sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and made the spider with our fingers and he's happily watched.  The other day we were in the car and the song came on and I noticed in the mirror that he was sitting in his carseat making the spider with his fingers!  Now he's obsessed with it and starts the spider on his own with his fingers to get us to sing the song.

One of his other favorite songs is "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands."  He knows the clapping and stomp your feet parts, but we've also been working on "if you're happy and you know it, say hurray" and raising his arms above his head when we say hurray.  Last night in the bath, we sang the song and all of a sudden he started raising his arms above his heads for the "Hurray" part of the song. 

It just amazes me how connections form in his brain.  There are things that we work on for months with him, like saying "please", "thank you", "up", etc.  He has said "thank you" one time and that was a few months ago.  And then out of nowhere at Little Gym last week, we were doing bubble time and he started saying "bubbles" which is his new favorite word.  We say the word "bubbles" probably 100x less than we say "thank you" - and yet he picks up the word bubbles??? I'm thrilled that he has so many new words, but it is always such a surprise and it feels like there's no rhyme or reason to it. 

His words now include: Mommy, Daddy, No (his favorite), Ok, dog, down, clean up, sure, bubbles, water, shoe, hi, hello (always while he's talking into something shaped like a phone), and a bunch of animal sounds.

His favorite activity is to blow kisses to anyone or anything. He blows kisses to strangers on the street, cars driving by, dogs, the slide, Mimi & Grandpa over the phone, etc.

He also loves to imitate the phone.  The other day we were walking on the sidewalk and saw a teenager holding a cellphone to his ear.  Sam took his hand and put it between his ear and his mouth and said "hello? hello?  hi!" right as we were walking by the kid on his cell.  So funny!  

It's a Boy!

It’s probably not news that we’re having a boy – since I posted it on my FB status, but it’s such a big announcement I wanted to do a blog post about it too.  At 12.5 weeks we had a high resolution ultrasound and the ultrasound tech turned to us and said “Do you want to know the sex?” We were surprised that she could know the sex so early (we didn't find out with Sam until 20 weeks) and we said “yes, do you KNOW the sex?” She said "yes…pretty sure it’s a boy. As if on cue, the baby spread its legs wide open and showed off his private parts. Yup, that’s my boy. We were shocked that we could tell so early. The tech said she wasn’t entirely positive, but pretty sure.


Because of my history of delivering Sam at 32 weeks, I’m being monitored very closely and have to get high resolution ultrasounds every few weeks. At 15.5 weeks we went back and she confirmed without a doubt that we are definitely having a boy!

Once we found out we’re having a boy, Brad turned to me and said “so, I guess this means that we’re going to go for a third baby for a girl?” I was like, “can we PLEASE get through this pregnancy before we start thinking about a third!?!?” I’m not opposed to the idea of three kids, but I can’t even wrap my head around life with 2 right now..much less with three.

People keep asking me if I’m disappointed that I won’t have a girl. I’ll admit that I do love the girl clothes (I’m sorry but they are so stinking cute – so much cuter than the boy clothes). But, after everything we went through with Sam’s premature delivery and spending 3 weeks in a NICU – all I want is a healthy baby and a “normal” pregnancy. I know so many people who have had kids with various health challenges and I am so grateful that Sam is amazingly healthy and developmentally normal (in addition to being sweet, smart, loving, and overall wonderful) considering his very early arrival.

I also really like the idea of 2 brothers being close in age and hopefully playing well together and being close friends. Sam has some adjusting to do before the baby arrives – he doesn’t share very well and gets very anxious seeing me hold a baby. It will be a big adjustment for the whole family, but we’re excited and beginning to think about names, nursery colors, furniture, etc. I know some people don’t like to find out the sex of the baby until the birth b/c they don’t want to ruin the surprise. I feel like it is a surprise no matter when you find out. Knowing the sex helps me to envision the baby and the baby begins to have more of an identity in my mind…it becomes more real to say “he is moving” rather than “it is moving.”

The due date is now March 27 and things are progressing well! The ultrasound tech saw the baby’s face and saw “aww, he’s so cute!” Personally, I think he looks like an alien on the ultrasound – but apparently he’s cute! Can’t wait to meet him!

Egg Creams Take II

To follow-up on yesterday's post about food cravings, today I NEEDED a good old fashioned egg cream.  For those who don't know what an egg cream is - I MUST introduce you to this fabulous drink.  Even though I was raised in the south, my New York parents and family indoctrinated me with this wonderful concotion from a very young age.

It's basically a chocolate soda.  There are NO eggs in it.  Don't ask me why it's called an egg cream, I have no idea.  Here's what it looks like:

It is DELICIOUS.  You just mix chocolate syrup, seltzer water, and milk n a tall glass.  I have no idea how much of each, I don't measure at all when I cook (which is why I'm a lousy baker).  Just pour in some of each, stir, taste, and usually I then add more chocolate syrup.  It can never be too chocolatey!

But, today, I realized we have no chocolate syrup in the house.  So I attempted to improvise by melting some chocolate chips to replace the chocolate syrup.  I got it really hot and liquidy, hoping it would mix into the drink quickly before it hardened.  No such luck.  I ended up with some very clumpy chocolate chunks in the milk soda.  I took one taste.  YUCK.

So, on Brad's way home from work, guess what he was asked to pick up at the lovely CVS down the road from us?  You got it - chocolate syrup!  Egg cream Take II turned out fabulously!  Yum! 

Cravings

I'm always fascinated by the cravings of pregnant women.  One friend ate cases and cases of pickled herring during hre pregnancy.  Another friend couldn't get enough watermelon.  When I was pregnant with Sam I practically became vegetarian.  I also discovered the amazing snack of tater tots dipped in chocolate sauce and began putting honey on burritos.  Even when I wasn't pregnant, I still think those are good culinary creations!

So far this pregnancy has been somewhat similar - I can barely tolerate red meat.  I don't mind it too much if it is disguised in something like a sandwich or spaghetti sauce.  Brad suggested making steaks for dinner the other night...soooo not happening. 

Last week at 11pm Wednesday night, I NEEDED mandarin oranges.  Like whoa.  There was no way I could go to sleep without mandarin oranges.  So off Brad went to CVS (the only place open nearby) to buy all of their mandarin oranges.  And ever since then I've been going through mandarin oranges like nobody's business.

I'm also really into pizza and find new and creative ways to make "healthy" pizza practically every day.  Today's creation was a whole wheat English muffin with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  Yum!  What's not to love about about pizza?

Unfortunately the pregnancy heartburn has returned in full force and I have to be careful eating some of my favorite spicy dishes (Indian, Thai, etc).  I feel so bad for people who suffer from heartburn regularly.  Thankfully, I don't have heartburn except when I'm pregnant.  I'm trying to drink a lot of milk to increase my calcium intake, so that helps with the heartburn (chocolate pudding also helps too!). 

I'm trying hard to be healthy and eat lots of fruits and vegetables...on my pizza.  Just kidding, I'm being very balanced in my diet along with my many pizza creations!  That's all for now, more to come.

Travels in Traffic with a Toddler

Friday we went to Richmond to be the first house guests at my parents' brand new house! They bought land about a year ago and custom-built a gorgeous home. We absolutely love it and are so happy for them!

We gave them a lawnmower and needed to drive 2 cars to bring it down since we couldn't fit the lawnmower, dog, Sam, suitcases, and us in one car. So I travelled down to Richmond with Sam and the dog Friday by myself. Driving on I-95South the Friday before a 3 day weekend was my first mistake, and we hit major traffic delays. The 90 minute drive took almost 3 hours.

My decision to drive Brad's car (Honda Accord) with the dog so that she could sit in the backseat and entertain Sam was my second mistake. Sam is head over heels in love with the dog. But, he's not always gentle with the dog.

 Sam still sits backwards in his carseat - check out his hand reaching out and petting the dog's back.  (Yes I was in traffic not moving while I took this picture).  My brilliant idea of having the dog sit in the back with him quickly backfired.  Sam flipped out every time the dog moved away and was out of arm's reach.  Terrific.

After 2 hours of being harassed by Sam, the poor dog began to freak out.  She tried to climb into the front seat with me and began shaking and panting.  I thought maybe she was thirsty? I had brought some plastic measuring cups as toys for Sam, but poured some of my water into one of the measuring cups and offered it to the dog over my shoulder as she was perched up on the console in between the seats.  Of COURSE, the traffic opened up and I had to begin driving again as soon as the dog began thirstily lapping up the water.  Great.  But, at least she calmed down!

Hours later, we finally made it to Richmond and fell in love with my parents' new house!  We brought them a dogwood as a housewarming gift. Dogwoods are the Virginia state flower and tree (At this point, Brad always starts in on the lines from one of our favorite movies, American President, and begins quoting the conversation between Michael Douglas (President in the movie) and the florist trying to order dogwoods for his girlfriend played by Annette Benning).  My grandparents gave my parents a dogwood when they first bought their home in Richmond 30 years ago.  When we bought our house, my parents gave us a dogwood.  It only seemed fitting that they needed a dogwood for their new home.

The house is terrific and HUGE! 4 BR, 4 and 1/2 baths (I tried all of them out when we were there!), a terrific sunroom, enormous family room, and an amazing screened in porch which is my favorite room in the house.

Sam fell in love with the kitchen and thoroughly enjoyed the empty cabinets - they make excellent hiding places for a toddler!

Can't wait for many more future visits!

Top 5 WORST Mommy Moments

Yesterday morning began with Brad leaving way too early for a breakfast meeting so I got Sam up, dressed, we had breakfast and were about to leave the house…and then as usual, he pooped right before we were about to walk out the door. So we went upstairs to his room to change his diaper. I don’t know what was different about yesterday morning, but I opened the diaper, and my pregnancy-heightened sense of smell just lost it. With one hand holding Sam on the changing table, I grabbed the trashcan next to me and began vomiting. Hearing my scary hurling sounds, Sam began to cry hysterically and wiggle around…still in the open, poopy diaper.

I began to think of my options (as I kept puking) – can I just close up the diaper and bring him to the babysitter and let her deal with it? No, I can’t do that. Desperate, I wondered if I could call a neighbor to come deal with this? No…that would be ridiculous. I can do this, I think. Cursing Brad’s early breakfast meeting and my utter misery, I just took a deep breath and dealt with the poopy diaper between hurling into the trash can. Holding Sam with one hand and the trash can with the other hand, I tried to calm my screaming toddler…Mommy’s ok (puke into trash can)…Mommy’s ok Sam (puke again).

After I finally got him cleaned up and the new diaper on, we both sat on the ground and had a good cry together for about 30 seconds. Then the dog walked in the room and he was instantly happy (the dog is our secret weapon for all times of tears!).

Needless to say, I was a little late to work yesterday and have told Brad that I’m taking a break from poopy diapers for the next few days. Oh the joys of being a Mommy!

Money Money Money....MONEY!

One of the main reasons we fell in love with our terrific house that we bought in 2008 was because of the open floor plan that was designed for hosting parties. Being the political dorks that we are, we of course envisioned hosting big political events at our house. We moved into the house the week of the 2008 election and had our Democratic yard signs up before we even got the mezuzah on the door (mostly because the mezuzah was packed in a box). Our neighbors new that the Democrats have arrived on the street!

In 2009 we hosted a house party for a state rep candidate and this year we decided to go even bigger and use our home to raise money for our Congressional candidate, Gerry Connolly.

I'll admit, I was nervous that it wasn't going to pull together in time. I like to have things planned out in detail far in advance, whereas Brad is more of a "closer to the event" kind of planner (which drives me bonkers). I'm delighted to announce that our hard work paid off and the event was FABULOUS!

We had 40+ people in attendance with speeches by Congressman Gerry Connolly, State Senator George Barker, and our dear friend State Rep. Eileen Filler-Corn (first Jewish woman elected to the state legislature!). So far we have raised about $13,000 which was TRIPLE the goal that the campaign set for the event! Woo hoo!

Money is still pouring in online and we welcome ALL donations! The Wall Street Journal considers this race the bellwether race in the country - if Connolly wins, then the Democrats will keep the House. If Connolly loses....let's just say, I'm moving to Canada if Boehner becomes House Speaker. I shudder at the thought.

So, if you'd like to support our fundraiser and make a donation, just go to https://secure.swift-cpa.com/gerryconnolly/ and let us know that you made a contribution so that it can be counted as part of our event's fundraising. :) Every dollar makes a difference in this very competitive race.

BIG thank you to my amazing brother David who babysat for Sam in the playroom during the event. Several of our guests brought their kids and seemed to think that David was there to babysit their kids too! So, David started a terrific game of Little Tykes basketball game in the basement with 5 kids - what a great uncle! Congressman Connolly said that David was a mensch (how cute is that).

Here's hoping for a BLUE election day!

Scary morning at the dr office

Sam gave us quite a scare Wednesday morning, but thankfully everything turned out to be fine! He woke up with a cold and was wheezing pretty badly. We gave him two breathing treatments which helped for about 5-10 minutes and then his wheezing worsened as he raced around (still with plenty of energy and playfulness!). When he was sitting in the highchair eating breakfast, not moving around, and I could hear him wheezing from across the kitchen, I decided it was time to bring him in. We got a 8:15am appointment and raced on over. In the car on the way over, I burst into tears fearing the worst. I began to mentally prepare myself for another visit to the ER and hospitalization because his symptoms were so similar to the respiratory virus that attacked his lungs 2 months ago.

The doctor saw us almost immediately and took his pulsox (which measures the amount of oxygen in his blood). A "great" number is above 95, but he must be above 90. When he went to the ER in July, his number was 82 which was very scary. On Wednesday, his pulsox was 96!!! We were overjoyed! The doctor listened to his lungs and concluded that the wheezing was due to mucus in his throat and was NOT related to his breathing nor was there any problem in his lungs. However, she assured us that there's no way we can differentiate the cause of the wheezing without a stethoscope and we were correct for bringing him in. He had just seen the pediatric pulmonologist 48 hours ago and his lungs were perfect then, so we all felt great that he was breathing fine and he was not in danger.

Throughout all of this, Sam couldn't understand what the big deal was because he was playful, energetic, trying to destroy everything in the dr office, and his normal happy self.

Brad and I were so relieved that everything went well. I wonder how many times he'll have to get sick with a normal cold before we start freaking out that we will end up in the ER again. After a scare like that, I think it might be a while.

The passage of time

Last night we went furniture shopping with Sam. As we have slowly furnished our house, we've periodically gone back to the same stores by dulles to buy furniture. We went twice while Rebecca was pregnant with Sam, once last winter when we was an infant and then today. It was interesting to reflect back on how much our lives, and he, in between each of our visits to the store.

Sam is an expert shopper

He confuses the shopping cart with the monkey bars and loves to hang!

Trying to escape

Sam learns to stand in his high chair, time to put the straps on it! He is so proud of his new accomplishment.

New Addition to Geller-Cheney Family

Ch-Ch-Ch-Change is coming to the Geller-Cheney Family! We are delighted to share that we are expecting a baby March 28, 2011, which is 4 days after Sam’s second birthday. We had hoped to have kids 2 years apart and are thrilled that the timing worked out so well.

First trimester was pretty tough and I was much sicker than I was with Sam. Thankfully I’m starting to feel better! But it always seems like the days when I’m the most exhausted are the days when Sam has the most energy! Why is that? :) Brad is still trying to adjust to my new 9pm bedtime (we are normally night owls and go to bed around 1130-12).

The beginning of the pregnancy was quite intense. I found out I was pregnant in July when Sam was in the hospital for 4 days with a scary virus. It was quite the contrast of different parts of my life to take a home pregnancy test in my toddler son’s hospital bathroom. I had a feeling I was pregnant (since we had just started trying) so it wasn’t a total surprise when the test came back positive but it felt very overwhelming to receive the news in the midst of Sam’s hospital crisis.

My tummy is already beginning to show a bit which I hear is normal with a second pregnancy, something about your muscles already being stretched out from a previous baby that makes you show much earlier with a second kid. Every morning is a challenge as I try to figure out what fits me and what doesn’t! I’m trying to be very careful to not gain much weight since I had just lost over 50 pounds (80 pounds if you include the pregnancy weight!). I seem to only want to eat carbs which doesn’t help much :) I’m pretty disgusted by red meat (much to Brad’s dismay since he would be happy eating steak every night of the week) and my sense of smell has changed significantly.

The first few months of a pregnancy are challenging on a number of levels. We were very excited, but cautiously optimistic because you never know what can happen in the early stages of a pregnancy. We told a few people, but it was so hard to keep it a secret for so long! As you can see from the blog, we’re not private people and were bursting to share our news! It feels great to be able to share this exciting chapter of our life.

We welcome your thoughts, comments, etc on this blog and look forward to experiencing this next stage with so many wonderful people. If you’d like, you sign up to receive emails notifying you each time we update it.

To our Jewish friends – we hope that you have an easy and meaningful fast over Yom Kippur and l’shana tovah!

Discipline help?

Lately Sam has started to test every limit to see what he's allowed to get away with and what he is not allowed to do. This has resulted in some very repetitive conversations about "no hitting" and "no biting" and "no throwing." The biting has subsided, but the hitting and throwing have increased. He doesn't hit out of anger or frustration - it is very playful, and we work on being gentle (showing him how to gently pet the dog, etc) - but it still hurts!

This week we were at Friendly's with my friend Melissa and her daughter London. Sam was frustrated that I wouldn't let him play with the knife, so he took his sippy cup and threw it across the table and almost hit London! I immediately picked him up and he had a time-out in the lobby of Friendly's. I couldn't believe he was acting out like this!

Time-outs and stern conversations have been helping, but this process is so frustrating. We work hard on being consistent, but there are times when it's just exhausting to continue saying it over and over again. I can't help but wonder if the time-outs and stern conversations are working? And it doesn't help matters that I'm not the most patient person in the world...

Anyone have advice on teaching a 17 month old that we don't hit, bite, or throw things at people?

Where's Sam's nose?

Yesterday at The Little Gym, the instructor said at the end of class that next week we are going to work on learning and identifying various body parts. Sam happened to be standing in front of her and she said, "for example, does anyone know where their nose is?"

Sam demonstrated to the entire class that he knows where his nose is - he put both hands on his nose, laughed...and then began picking his nose. Lovely. All of the parents and the instructor burst out laughing watching him, there's a very fine line between "where's your nose" and "please don't pick your nose."

Oh, the things that kids do!

Search & Destroy

The theme of this week was "search and destroy." Sam's favorite activity is to figure out how to pull something apart, break it, pull it off the wall, or tear it into a million pieces. It's amazing to watch the way his brain works as he vigorously pulls ALL of the pots and pans out of the cabinet. I love his determination trying to figure out how to pull the a/c deflector off the vent (he has now broken 3 of them).

One of his favorite things to destroy is Brad's wallet or my purse by pulling everything out of it and throwing it on the ground, as evidenced by this picture:

Sam's first time out

The last few weeks I've been struggling to deal with Sam's newfound interest in biting. However, he doesn't bite anyone else except me. While I'm relieved that he's not biting other kids, etc - it is extremely frustrating to play with him and then yelp in pain from his sharp teeth!

I've tried talking to him sternly and touching my finger to his lips and saying "NO BITING." I pull him off of me and sit him on the floor and playtime is over as soon as he bites. But, this is not really working.

A few friends suggested that we try a "time out." I wasn't sure he was old enough yet to understand it, but it was worth a shot. Last night, Brad and I were playing ball with him in the basement and he bit me twice. By the second time, I picked him up, brought him over to a corner of the room without toys, sat him down, and VERY VERY sternly said "No biting, you are in time out because you bit mommy. You have to stay here for a minute." He didn't really understand at first and tried to follow me. I brought him back over to the corner and sat him down and sternly re-explained time out.

This time, he understood and began sobbing uncontrollably. He stayed in the corner and threw himself on the ground crying hysterically (yes, he is SUCH a drama queen!). He stopped crying after about 20 seconds and then just watched me for permission to leave the corner. After 30 seconds, I told him he could leave the corner and he came over to us, looking SO sad and pitiful and gave me a kiss.

So far, no biting since then - we'll see if it worked! Fingers crossed!

In other news, our dog Lucy has learned to fetch a ball in the house. For years we've tried to teach her this, to no avail. She can fetch a tennis ball in the lake, but not on land (no idea why). But now that Sam likes to play ball with us, she decided she wants to as well. Sam threw a ball and the dog picked it up and brought it back over. He was totally blown away by this and gave us a look of "WHOA! I had no idea she could do that!" We didn't either! Clearly she was in need of some attention last night. Funny dog.

16 month physical

Sam had his physical last week - it was so nice to have a "normal" doctor's visit for a change. His 15 month physical was delayed a bit because of his bout of hand foot mouth disease and then the scary virus. So, we just did everything at 16 months. He is growing tall and skinny, just like his daddy. At 32 inches tall and 24 pounds, he was in the 65th percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight. His body is finally beginning to catch up with his huge head and his head is now measuring in the 85th percentile, rather than the 90/95th which it has been!

At the physical, the nurse always asks us questions about developmental milestones. This time she asked us if his behaviors mimic our behaviors around the house and she said, for example "like does he pretend to vacuum the carpet or dust the furniture or wash the windows?" Brad and I took one look at each other and laughed. He'd have to actually see us doing those things in order to be able to mimic them! I don't think he has ever even seen a vacuum, much less us using it! Our cleaning lady is a lifesaver and worth every penny.

But, we told the nurse, that he does pick up the phone and talk on it, he can type on the computer/blackberry, use the remote control for the tv, and cook at his toy kitchen (we do a lot of cooking at home). We all laughed. Sam definitely needs a college degree, because he does not have bright future as a janitor. :)

Fourth of July

I'm a few weeks late posting Fourth of July pictures, but we had such a wonderful time. We spent the weekend with my parents, brother, and his girlfriend Jenn at Bear Creek Lake State Park. Sam is such a fish in the water and loves to dig in the sand.




After the lake, we drove to Cartersville, VA where the fire department puts on a HUGE fireworks display in the middle of the field. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. I was nervous about how Sam would react to the volume of the fireworks, but he was totally mesmerized and stayed up until 11pm watching them!

Chocolate Lover

Last night at the grocery store, Sam was riding in the toy car attached to the front of the grocery cart. During the time it took Brad to move the groceries from the cart to the check-out belt, Sam reached into the candy display and helped himself to a Hershey’s chocolate bar. He managed to open the wrapper and ...start eating the chocolate before anyone noticed! That’s my boy – loving chocolate!

On another note, we are working on his fear of medical professionals after the scary hospital stay. We bought Sam a play doctor's kit and have been practicing listening to the teddy bear's heart, taking teddy's temperature, etc. It seems to have helped a lot - we had an appointment with the pediatric pulmonologist yesterday and the pediatrician today and he was totally fine with the stethoscope, thermometer, looking in his ears, etc. He's so funny though, he totally hated when they took a tape measure around his head to measure the size of his head (he also hates wearing hats, so maybe it's more related to not liking things on his head than a fear of doctors?!).

Finally, animal sounds are the theme for the week. Here's a video of him roaring like a lion!

Enjoying 16 months

Sam turned 16 months yesterday which is hard to believe. We are thoroughly enjoying this stage and his newfound independence. He's walking and very much in the "search and destroy" mode. He has so many "tricks." He's learning body parts and can identify eye, ear, nose, chin, teeth, and toes (although he thinks of toes as piggies from "this little piggy went to the market, etc"). He has a handful of words including mom, daddy, dog, keys, yogurt, water, thank you, and no.

He has so many "tricks" and cracks us up all day long. He loves to clap his hands when he hears "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands!" He plays peek-a-boo by putting his hands on his eyes and pulling them off, very surprised. He is learning animal sounds, roaring like a lion is his favorite, but he's also working on hissing like a snake, neighing like a horse, and making fish sounds. Hide-and-seek is one of his favorite games, he loves to play rough, swing upside down, and be tossed up in the air in the pool.



At the Little Gym, he is one of the strongest kids and has taught others how to hang from the bars unassisted. He is finally beginning to eat better (no more picky eating, thank goodness!) and his love affair with the dog has grown stronger (unfortunately it's one sided love, she mostly tolerates him).

His favorite activities include climbing the steps, standing up in chairs, going down the slide, swinging, playing on the rocking horse, and chasing the dog. Here are a few videos of our silly, sweet, precious boy.

Sam came home from the hospital Saturday July 17!

Meant to post this last Saturday - but here is the email we sent out Saturday July 17

WE ARE HOME! The hospital discharged Sam about an hour ago, we are beyond excited (as evidenced by the very excited Sam in the attached picture). We have a long few days ahead of us with breathing treatments and meds every 4 hours (even at night when he's asleep) and a number of follow-up appointments, but it feels wonderful to be home.

Sam walked in the door and practically threw himself onto the dog and wrapped her in a huge hug and lots of slobbery kisses. He is already more relaxed in the few minutes he's been home.

Thank you all for your never-ending support during this whole ordeal, we could not have made it through this week without knowing there were so many people there to help us and support us.

Hope you have a spectacular Saturday!

Saturday hospital update - getting closer to going home!

Hi everyone, things here are rapidly improving. Sam had a great night and they took him off the high flow oxygen and replaced it with a regular canula. This morning we met with the pediatric pulmonologist, pediatrician, respiratory tech, and nurse to figure out the next steps to prepare him for going home.

While playing with the nurse this morning, the oxygen to the canula was accidentally pulled out and he didn't miss a beat and kept playing. So, he's finally off oxygen completely for the first time in 4 days and seems to be doing fine. Hurray! They're continuing to monitor his vitals to see how his lungs respond to regular room air, especially while he naps, but we're on the right path!

We're all tired and ready to go home. Sam has a lot more energy and his "search-and-destroy" tendencies are difficult to unleash when he's attached to wires and can't move around very much. He even has learned a new word this week ("cheese") and a new animal sound ("what does snake say?" ssssss!)

It's been a long few days but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks again for all of your support!

Friday update on Sam in hospital

Hi everyone, thanks again for all of your support - it is really amazing and helped to lift our spirits through some very long days. We're hanging in there and just taking things one day at a time.

The good news is that we have convinced Sam's medical team to coordinate their exams/treatments to allow him to get as much sleep as possible. The bad news is that his heart rate dropped very low all night long and the alarms rang constantly which resulted in more tests and exams. The fun just never ends around here! We now think that the low heart rate may just be his base line when he's in a deep sleep and doesn't necessarily mean anything. So, we're now watching that too.

His breathing is improving and his struggle for air isn't nearly as bad as it was on Wednesday - bu it still requires him to use far too many muscles in his chest, neck, and back to breathe. He is still on the high flow oxygen, and they had to turn it up to 50% (yesterday it was down to 35%, our goal is to get it at 21%) and they had to turn the volume back up to 5 liters (we were down to 3.5 liters yesterday). But, they cut the dosage of the albuterol breathing treatments in 1/2 (from 10mg to 5mg) and it only takes about a minute to administer the new dosage (rather than the incredibly torturous 10 minute treatment before). We are still doing it every 3 hours - we need to be able to stretch the treatment to every 4 hours before we can go home, and we will continue giving him these treatments at home. He also needs to be off the oxygen before we can go home...so we're here definitely until Saturday, possibly longer. Not really sure at this point. Brad and I haven't left the hospital since Wednesday, we've become quite familiar with the place by now!

Sam's appetite has improved and we're giving him anything he will eat right now. His meals have mostly consisted of pedialyte, yogurt, applesauce, pudding, ice cream, and crackers. But, his eating and drinking has been good enough to stay off the IV and they've now fully removed the IV from his arm. He now has full use of BOTH hands, so we are very happy. He had plastic tubes on his arm to prevent him from pulling out the IV - needless to say, he was not happy with those. He also thinks that all of the cords that are grouped together on his back and hang down behind him are his newly-found tail. He is playing with it the same way he plays with the dog's tail, he's very funny!

The oral steroids continue to make him hyper right after he gets the meds, but we enjoy these precious moments of smiles and laughter. Last night he played with a plastic cow toy for a long time while eating some crackers - he ate a few crackers and then fed the rest of his crackers to the toy cow. Here is a very cute picture of him putting crackers in the cow's mouth. :) In spite of everything, he still manages to make us laugh.

We're hanging in there, trying to get some sleep when we can. We've had some nice visits with friends and relatives who've stopped by, brought us dinner, and kept us company. My mom got Sam a terrific mylar balloon that he has used as a punching bag and loves watching it pop back up each time.

We'll continue to keep you updated. Thanks again for your support, it means so much to us. We apologize that we haven't returned a lot of your phone calls, but cell reception in here is quite spotty and it's hard to hold conversations in between Sam's crying and his many many exams/treatments. Email and texts are the easiest way to communicate right now. Thanks for understanding.

Thursday Update on Sam in hospital

Hi everyone, thanks again for your notes and calls. We're hanging in there, pretty sleep-deprived, but ok. We're learning how to convince the medical staff to coordinate their schedules so they can do their exams/treatments back to back (ie torture Sam for an hour straight) and then let him actually sleep for a few hours a a time. Last night they kept coming in and waking him up every 30-45 minutes. This morning he was very overtired and agitated from being woken up - and when he is agitated, he struggles to breathe. So, we've had a discussion with everyone and hope to coordinate things a bit more - right now we have a 2.5 hour window of no treatments/exams and are hoping he'll be able to sleep for a while now. Brad and I are sleeping overnight in the hospital with him and basically not leaving his side.

We had a very informative meeting with the pediatric pulmonologist who was quite helpful. They're going to do some tests to try to get a better handle on what has caused this (especially since it came on so suddenly) and how we can prevent this from happening again. We will definitely be in the hospital until tomorrow, most likely until Saturday or Sunday.

The good news is that they've taken him off the IV and just have the IV in his arm for medications. We hope to possibly remove the IV from his arm this afternoon. The high-flow oxygen has also been lowered. Originally we were at 100% oxygen at 10 liters. Now we're down to 35% oxygen at 3.5 liters. The goal is to be at 21% oxygen (room air).

The dosage of the albuterol breathing treatment has also been cut in 1/2 and is being given every 3 hours which we are quite happy about - the albuterol has made him hyper and then he crashes afterwards. But, during his hyper silly times, we are enjoying his playful search-and-destroy personality. He loves to throw things out of the crib and we played with golf balls for a long time on the floor.

He is still hooked up to 5 monitors and other cords which significantly limits his mobility which frustrates him. But, he's eating more (he devoured 1/2 a pancake and a big cup of applesauce this morning) and seems more alert. He continues to wheeze and use his chest/back/neck muscles to breathe, much more than we'd like.

Thanks again for all of your notes, it means so much to us to hear your words of encouragement and support.

Sam in the Hospital

Hi everyone, you have probably already heard by now but Sam is in the hospital with a terrible respiratory virus. He was up all of last night not feeling great and was wheezing this morning so we took him to the pediatrician first thing this morning. He began to get worse at the dr office and the pediatrician dialed 911 to have an ambulance take him to the ER (lights, sirens, etc).

We spent most of the day in the ER and are now settled in the Intermediate Care Unit (thankfully, we are not in the pediatric ICU). He has had a very low-grade fever (99.5-100.4) and is no longer vomiting. It is not RSV (which he had a minor case of last fall), just a bad respiratory virus. They are giving him oral steroids 1x/day, breathing treatments of albuterol every 2-3 hours, he is on a constant canula in his nose of high flow oxygen (which he keeps trying to rip out), and an IV in his arm. He is also hooked up to 5 monitors to keep track of breathing, heart rate, etc. - ie, there are a million cords everywhere.

Brad and I are staying overnight in the hospital with him - we expect he will be in the hospital at least until Friday if not longer. He's beginning to eat a bit which is encouraging. Thank you all for your messages and notes, we really appreciate your support. It has been a very long and challenging day. It breaks our hearts to see our sweet little boy in pain. Thankfully his spirits have lifted somewhat tonight and we've had some sweet moments of smiles, laughter, and playing. He has even done his great "roar like a lion," given us kisses, played with some toys, waved to everyone, and talked up a storm (not sure I've heard words quite as sweet as hearing him say "hi mama"). Attached is a picture of him waving during one of his happy moments tonight.

We are in a private room and can be reached on our direct line at 703.776.6533. We are in Room 533 at iNova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA (it has the best children's center in northern va). We also have our laptops and blackberries to keep us busy during the many hours he is sleeping. The poor little guy isn't getting much sleep. Every time he falls asleep, one of the doctors/nurses comes in and wakes him up to draw blood, do a breathing treatment, take his temp, etc.

We're hanging in there, but it's been a long day. In many ways it feels a lot like the NICU days, but it is also very different. A good friend brought us Thai takeout for dinner tonight. My mom and brother are here too. We feel so grateful to have such an amazing support system. We will keep you all updated. Thanks again for your support, it means so much to us. Love, Becca, Brad & Sam

When it rains it pours

Tonight I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Mother Theresa:

"I know G-d will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

That's pretty much been the theme in our house this past week or so. I try to count my blessings and maintain perspective, but sometimes that is easier said than done. Everything is fine here, just feeling like I have so many balls up in the air that it's only a matter of time before one drops. Sam came down with a terrible case of hand foot mouth disease last week and of course I then got sick and missed a day and half of work which I haven't done in a very long time. Between reg reform on Capitol Hill and my firm's client Cablevision buying Bresnan Communications last week, Brad and I are having the craziest weeks ever at work and are both working past midnight every night.

The lease on our townhouse is up very soon and we're in discussions with our tenants in hopes that they will re-sign for another 6 months so we won't have to worry about it. They've rented the townhouse for the past 18 months and we LOVE them! Our house is a disaster and my to do list is out of control. And of course, the dog started limping while I walked her tonight - no idea when or who will take her to the vet to figure out what's going on. On my way home from work tonight, a member of my synagogue asked me if I would serve on an advisory board for the synagogue - which of course I said yes to. I think I have "sucker" written across my forehead.

But, I'm reminded of all the wonderful things in my life and try to maintain perspective. All I need to do is look outside my window and perspective painfully smacks me in the face.

My neighbor was killed in Afghanistan last week. Ben was only 25, his 26th birthday was this week. His friends went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday and life. Ben joined the military in August and this was his first tour...and he came home in a casket to Dover Air Force Base. Our street is lined with yellow ribbons and has a looming sense of loss. I have felt so helpless and I know I have to do something to help his family through this terrible tragedy...so in my "free" I have organized many people in our neighborhood to contribute money so we can buy meals for his family from a local Korean market/restaurant. Ben is Korean and his family only eats Korean food (which is very hard to make, especially when I don't even know what it's supposed to taste like).

So, as I procrastinate from my work and yearn for my bed, I realize that in spite of everything, I can handle it all and more. As I rocked with Sam tonight, we sang our evening prayers, and our nightly "things we are thankful for," I remember how rich my life really is and treasure every moment of it. No parent should ever have to experience the living nightmare that Ben's parents are going through right now.