Soon Enough

I just gave Finn a bath.  (he is now sleeping soundly in his swing.)  He really likes the bath.  Getting "dressed" afterwards, not so much.  He enjoys lounging in the little blue tub, letting me squeeze the water out of the tiny soft washcloth onto his belly and legs, and he really likes getting his big round head scrubbed.  Finn takes his baths in our big bathroom, in our big tub.  The kids bath in the hall is too small and has too much other kid clutter for mommy, so our bath it is.  We have a LARGE jetted tub in our bathroom, that is up off the ground quite a bit, so I can't just lean over and wash him like I would with a regular tub.  So, the blue infant tub goes in the end by the spigot, then I have a little one step Rubbermaid step stool (that is older than dirt and has about 10 colors of paint on it) that I put in the other end for me to sit on so I can reach Finn.  (I learned this method from my husband.  It's how he used to bathe our dog, Einstein. *tear*)  It's really pretty comfy and gives me quite a nice vantage point for the bath.  I like it!  But, when the bath is over, neither one of us likes it.  It is a bit of a gymnastics feat to get OUT of this tub like this while holding a wet baby wrapped in a towel (MUCH easier this week without the oxygen support, but still a challenge).  And once I get out, I transfer him to the changing table, where I have the monitor belt, leads, wires and Velcro closure all set out and ready (pictured) - along with a clean diaper and change of clothes.  This is when the waterworks begin!  He hates getting dressed!  I remember when he was brand new at home he was so STIFF and I was worried about it and talked to our SoonerStart Child Development Specialist.  She said we would watch it and hopefully it would get better.  The stiffness has dissipated, but he still hates getting dressed.  First, I slather him up with smell good baby lotion - being careful to avoid all parts of the body that come in contact with the monitor belt and leads (ugh).  Then, I put the clean diaper on (sometimes I'm a little too slow on this step).  Then, I have to get the monitor parts together: attach the wires to the leads, put the belt under the baby, put the lead with the white wire under right arm, black under the left, pull the belt securely around baby's chest, affix the little band aid shaped Velcro tab.  All on a wriggling, crying baby.  THEN, clothes.  We've had a heat wave of sorts the last few days, so for now that's a short sleeved onesie and some socks.  MUCH better than earlier in the winter when I actually had to do layers and keep him warm!

Our bathtub set up. You can see my feet/ankles outside the top of the tub.

But, VERY SOON we will be done with the heart and apnea monitor.  It has not alarmed in weeks, unless one of us forgets to plug it in and the battery goes down, or we step on the blue cord and the leads come unplugged (the final step of the bath/get dressed precess when I bring him back to the living room is plugging the 2 lead wires into the blue patient cable that goes to the machine).  The home health company representative usually comes to Stillwater on Tuesdays.  We hope to be able to call this coming Monday and tell them to pick up all the oxygen tanks, the concentrator, AND the monitoring equipment.  It feels like we have been doing this forever, but soon enough, Finn will be FREE and off of all of his "leashes" that have been confining us for weeks.  It can't come soon enough for me.

Friday Musings

It’s Friday, and I have no drama to dwell on at the moment, so I thought I would post some end of the week fluff.  One of the common conversation starters in my house is the question “What was your favorite thing you did today?”  Hubby and I ask each other, we ask the kids, sometimes even the kids ask each other.  We don’t do it every day, and there is no rhyme or reason to it, it just started when he and I were dating, and it has grown from there.  I can honestly say, my favorite thing of the day happened early this morning!  (Get your head out of the gutter!)  My sweet, precious, 4 year old bundle of energy got out of bed a good half hour before he usually does.  I was in the living room sitting in my recliner, and I had just finished up my quiet time.  He climbed up on my lap, and I held him and we cuddled for about 45 minutes.  I had things I needed to be doing (Don’t mind my non-washed styled hair today), but this time was precious to me.  He wanted me to rub his back, and lightly tickle him.  He told me all about what he did at swim lessons last night, and he told me this: 

I just love him so much and he melts my heart when he does stuff like this!  Makes up for the CONSTANT chatter and questions from last night when I really just wanted him to go to bed early and leave me alone because it was 106 outside and 83 inside!  UGH!  

In other news, Oklahoma State Cowboy Football released the images of their new uniforms for this season from Nike.  My buddy Kyle Porter first blogged about it late Wednesday night.  He got so many hits, fans crashed his site during the day on Thursday.  He got a lot of local press Thursday, too!  Good job, Kyle!  The OSU Athletics site didn’t put them up until late Thursday evening, but I digress.  My point is, they have been THE TALK of Cowboys fans on both Facebook and Twitter (and message boards, too, I am sure!) for the past 36 hours or so.  In my best assessment of the posts I have seen, Guys LOVE them, Women are split down the middle! LOL!  My opinion (which if you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, you already know), is that gray is NOT an OSU color and it looks drab and dirty, I have never been a fan of all black, and I LOATHE Evil Phantom Pete.  My first choice would be white helmet, orange jersey, orange pants.  Second choice is white helmet (the gray and the black are both “flat” (not shiny) and I just don’t like ‘em), black jersey, orange pants.  Whatever they wear, it doesn’t matter.  It’s just going to be super fun to watch my ‘Boys have an AMAZING season and to see Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon (whom I helped recruit and was there for his signing day when I worked in football) leave it all out on the field and put some wins on the scoreboard.  GO POKES!  (and PLEASE leave Evil Phantom Pete to die off. So disturbing…)

 

And finally, the weather.  What. The. HEAT!!!!!  It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t even matter.  It’s so hot, and there is nothing more to say about it, and DEFINITELY nothing we can do about it.  People posting pics of the thermometer in their car are completely ignored.  The fact that everyone we know is going into cardiac arrest when they open their electric bill is not even fazing us anymore.  Weather used to be the go-to topic when a conversation hit a lull, but it’s so hot and boring to talk about, people just stare at each other.  Our governor is asking up to pray for rain.  There are burn bans, water rationing schedules, and swimming pools across the state are closing because the water is too warm to safely swim in.  We are tying or breaking heat records every day.  AND THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT!  It's not even August yet.  My dad always talks about the summer of 1980 because it was so hot.  (I don’t remember, I was 5.)  Well, Dad, I think we may beat that one by quite a bit the way it looks.  We are actually CHEERING for tropical storm Don in the Gulf of Mexico to hit Texas and bring some moisture our way.  How sad is that?  When was the last time we BEGGED for a storm?

So, on that happy note, I will say – enjoy your weekend!  We are taking the Jakester back to school shopping a bit tomorrow, and enjoying a block party put on by a church near our neighborhood, and waiting patiently for our girls to come back home (they will be back Monday night).  Should be a good (hot) day.  Hope you have one, too!