The fiasco of not having heat in the house with a 10 month old baby.

We woke up Tuesday morning to a bad, baaaad burning smell.  The heater, kaput.  Not good when the night prior it got down to 18 degrees. We turned off the heater.  The temperature slowly descended to about 45 degrees.  I believe the high that day was 33 degrees outside.

We call Skip The Furnace Guy.  Voicemail is full.  Not a good sign.  Call a little later and able to leave a pleading, begging message.  

I call back 4 hours later after not hearing anything.  Voicemail is full, again. Meanwhile Austin and I are losing feeling in our extremities. We finally reach our landlord who says he has Skip's number.  He was able to reach him via his private number.  Skip has 26 houses to service.  Fudge.

We end up hunkering down for the night with 3 space heaters.  If we turned on the TV and ran the three space heaters we tripped the breaker.  So, no TV or microwave.  I didn't like leaving the space heaters on overnight, so we ran Austin's in his room until we went to bed and made sure to wrap him in two blankets then turned off the his heater before we went to bed.  

The next morning was freezing cold.  I went in to get Austin and his hands and feet were so cold that I was sure CPS would come after me for not co-sleeping that night.  

We spent the 2nd day with no heat and it was miserable.  Thankfully, our neighbor Michelle offered for us to come over anytime to hang out and have a playdate.  We did.  We also decided to stay in a hotel that night because at that point I was just bitchy due to the freezingness in the house, trying to keep Austin warm and trying to find a furnace service company that wasn't booked out with a million houses to service.  

Austin did surprisingly well in the hotel, fell asleep on his own in the hotel's pack-n-play.  

The following three nights we checked in and out of two other different hotels trying to get a decent rate for our landlord as he was covering our stays.  What sucked was that Austin's nap time always landed in the middle of when we needed to check out of the hotel so he never got his two hour late morning naps.  He still did pretty well and he had a tooth come in.  

Finally, yesterday, Sunday at around 5pm we had heat.  After a two day installation and spending Sunday night in the freezing cold house (we were so tired of hotels) we had glorious heat.  Although, the smell from a new furnace isn't pleasant (we actually had to leave for a few hours and leave all the windows open in the house until it died down).  

Thank you to everyone that offered help and those we took help from!  May you never have to go without heat during the winter.

I'm seriously thinking of building a fire right here in our living room.

I love our neighborhood.  Hate the house.  It's not insulated, the heater is sucky and we have single-pane windows.  So, if you take away the heater what is one left with?  They're left with freezing coldness.  And since it's so damn cold, every furnace/heater service company is booked, booked, booked.  All of this doesn't couple well with 18 degrees at night along with a baby who's fingers and toes get cold so easily.  Luckily, we have someone coming today and thank GOD because last night wasn't too bad, but this morning - yikes, icy, freezingness.  

Ok, my coffee just now turned into an iced coffee (who needs Starbucks?!) in about 4 minutes.  It's currently 51 degrees in our house.

And so the hectic-ness begins!

Every year I vow to have my act together and get cards out by Black Friday (after Thanksgiving) but never do.  And this year is no different.  The only thing we have done on time is getting Austin's picture taken with Santa.  Our tree will most likely not go up, but instead we'll have a table tree with lights and maybe 3 ornaments hanging from it (including Austin's first Christmas ornament) so we have some place to put the gifts.  With us leaving in 10 days I really can't see us getting the tree up with all the trimmings and then coming back to pack up the house AND unpack from our trip.  

I just began shopping today for Christmas and have barely put a dent on my list.  Aye.  I'd like to thank whoever invented the internet and Amazon.com for providing a bit less stress to this household this year.

The good news for this week:  Austin is back on his sleep schedule and falling asleep on his own again, whew.  I was truly worried we'd be there rocking him to sleep until he went off to college.  The only time he does need to be rocked to sleep is for his afternoon nap around 4:00pm. 

Can't wait to get to my parents so that I can sleep for like 3 days straight.  That is on my list this year: sleep. 

P.S.  I still don't know what to get my husband for Christmas.   Any ideas?

The Santa that bit (not literally).

This Santa seriously needed some happy pills or whiskey.

This Christmas I'm having a very difficult time with what to get my husband and perhaps because I'm more into thinking of what to get Austin as the holiday has always seemed to center around the kids more.  The holidays just get more exciting when there's kids involved especially with it being Austin's first Christmas and we're heading down to San Antonio to my parents' house where my mom tends to Martha-Stewart-Out which is nice because I never do for the holidays.  

I want to put up a tree even though we're moving and it's just one other thing we'd have to pack up.  Mainly because it's Austin's first Christmas and he should have a tree with his first ornament and a stocking which, I'm sure, he'd want filled with pumpkin pie. 

If anyone has any ideas for "husband gifts" let me know.  I'm so tempted to buy these and put "Marisa's Property" on them, but there's no way he'd where them to the gym, or out of the house...or even in the house.   Aren't they fun looking though??  I need help.

Sleep deprivation is the last true way to torture another human.

Austin was doing so well napping.  So well that I knew it wouldn't last long.  He was falling asleep on his own for naps (with the help of his light show) then he got sick and was having a tooth break through at the same time - it all went tumbling down hill from there. 

When he got sick it was bad.  Really bad to where he would not sleep unless we were there holding him or (and only sometimes) if he was in our bed.  And since he was sick we rocked him, cuddled him and let him sleep with us in bed because poor baby wasn't well at all.  

Then, it came back and bit us in the ass which I was somewhat expecting.  As soon as his tooth came through completely and he was better from his cold he came to expect that we would rock him to go to sleep each night and for naps.  For a few days I was sitting there for an hour trying to get him to nap (for one hour!).  Finally, I broke in front of my husband and said, "I cannot do this every day! It is driving me bonkers sitting here in the half dark trying to get him to sleep...rocking and soothing for up to 4 hours a day - when he is well!"   

That's when we went back to a book we bought a handful of months ago entitled The Sleep Easy Solution.  We bought this book when Austin was about 5 months old because, honestly, this child has never been easy to put to sleep at night. No matter what.  We do the "routine" at night, everything is consistent, the time, the PJ's, even the exact bottle each night - and nada.  Does not want to go to sleep.  I can't honestly say we put all we had into this program when we first tried it to get him to go to sleep, but this time we have to because it's just ridiculous.  It was getting to the point where he was not falling asleep until we had rocked him for 3 hours (with intermittent crying) and by then it was 10:00pm or 11:00pm. We were just all miserable.
(with a peaceful baby sleeping on the front of course). 

We started this program on Saturday night.  It is now Wednesday afternoon and for the first time Austin didn't cry for 30 minutes (or longer!) to go down for a nap.  He cried for one minute then settled in and fell asleep.  Let me tell you that he is definitely my son because he has put up a fight each night - a good fight.  I think he's starting to understand now that he knows how to put himself to sleep, finally.  This is the most difficult thing I've had to do as a parent so far, but for my sanity, my relationship with my husband and for Austin needing quality sleep it has to be done. 

And if it's good enough for Ben Stiller then it's good enough for me.

Because I believe in giving thanks... even if it's a bit late.

I'm thankful for many, many things and I do realize this post is late.  My sleep schedule has been off as Austin's has been off since he got sick last week.  (Last night at 3am it came down to Austin coming and sleeping in our bed which doesn't work well because Scooter and I end up sleeping stiff as boards, afraid that we'll roll over and crush him or something).

I'm thankful that Austin has such an attachment to Scooter and me that he can't go to sleep alone in his room now.  (Or how about I'm just thankful he has a great bond with us). 

I'm thankful that although we all came down with a bad cold this past week we all got over it pretty quickly. 

I am truly thankful for the great, wonderful friends in my life, new and old.  I seriously could not make it through these days as a stay-at-home mommy, adjusting and coping with postpartum depression without my awesome neighbors and mommy friends - THANK YOU.

Thankful to my parents for providing some serious postpartum support this year.  It's quite possible I'd be sleeping under a bench in Volunteer Park with a bottle of Boone's if they hadn't come to help directly after the birth.  

And, (I believe) Austin is thankful to have had his first Thanksgiving dinner in which he ate sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, (I think) a smashed green bean and pumpkin pie.  He loved it and it was fun to see him gobble it up. 

And now, thankful to be going to bed early...

In the "hood" last week (AKA Mother"hood")

Last week bit.  It bit hard.  

I came down with a cold last weekend that included a mild fever, body aches and a killer sore throat.

So, no playdates for Austin.

Austin came down with a fever of 104.1 on Wednesday night. 

So, no playdates for either of us last week.

The night Austin got his fever I was blanketed in worry and what-ifs.  It must be the cold I have that he caught, but a fever of 104.1??  Won't his brain fry??

A call to the insurance's registered nurse helpline calmed me down a bit and reassured us that our child's brain will not fry, quite the contrary actually - his body is fighting off yucky stuff.  Well, that's good!

We gave him ibuprofen after he cried and cried from 3:30am well into the morning.  He never went back to sleep.  I took him in to see a pediatrician at 9:50am.  

Everything looks good, but let's do a flu test just to make sure he doesn't have the flu since his fever was a bit high.

No flu.  

That night Austin cried and cried, we gave him more ibuprofen since I noticed another tooth was coming in, poor baby.  Fighting a cold and teething.  As Austin laid there crying in his crib and he wouldn't let me rock him, he wouldn't take a pacifier, I just stuck my hands through the slats of the crib feeling helpless.  What can I do for you Austin?  Mommy needs to help you.  My forehead had an imprinted line from the edge of the crib from it being pressed up against the edge peering in at him, with me willing him, wanting him to please sleep.  You need sleep.  You haven't sleep in hours and hours and hours. 

Finally at midnight he fell asleep.

A screaming cry came from Austin's room at 2am.  I went in there to feed him - he did not want to eat, again.  Did not want his pacifier and couldn't stand to be rocked.  I brought him to our room, still crying and crying.  

He passed out asleep at 4am.

Then awoke at 7am crying and uncomfortable and not wanting to eat, again.  He'd only eaten 2 ounces in over 12 hours.  

I took him back to the doctor, no problem with his ears, lungs, throat or stomach.  Let's do a UTI test.  

I sat there and watched the medical assistant place a plastic bag around my calm, laid-back (at this point) baby's testicles and wee wee and decided, he's just having a really bad cold and a new tooth coming in, sigh, it's not a UTI, but I'm no doctor so Austin and I cuddled and napped on our bed with a plastic baggy around his family jewels.  

Took the bag in - no UTI.

That night he was fussy again and not wanting to sleep unless I was in the room.  So, I stayed and stayed.  He cried a bit and then fell asleep at around 9pm.  Slept until 7am the next day.

I heard him babbling in the morning like his usual self, went in there and he smiled the biggest smile.  He ate 7 ounces and I was thrilled to have my baby back to himself again. 

Scooter and I were so frustrated and exhausted, plus me trying to get over my own cold just made for a hell of a week.  I'm proud of the way we handled it though and Austin, although completely uncomfortable and unhappy while sick, did an awesome job of pulling through.  

The next time I get a cold (or any ickiness) I'm wearing a mask!