Totally Tubular

Michael got his tubes put in on Friday and we are already seeing a huge difference in our little guy. The kid who said nothing but dadadada 24 hours before was saying Mommy, Daddy and Bailey by Saturday morning.

It was an early morning, but I think Michael helped to brighten every one's day with his monster jams, Magilla Gorilla and of course, the all important frog boots. They are THE must have boot for spring.



We were called back to pre-op and Michael charmed the nurses, anesthetists and doctors with his good lucks and frog boots. Then came the moment when we needed to remove his boots and things went downhill very quickly as Michael was not pleased with the thought of being bootless. Fortunately we were blessed with very understanding nurses so once he was in his "scrubs" the boots went right back on.



We met with our ENT and anesthesiologist who reviewed the procedure with me one more time before we went back to the OR. Both doctors agreed that there are certain battles not worth fighting, so Michael walked back to the OR holding his Mom's hand and still rocking the frog boots. I set him on the table and held his hand while they but him under, which was the worst part for me. Even though I knew he was in great hands, seeing his eyes roll back in his head before closing was a gut wrenching moment. I just kept reminding myself that in this moment I was all Michael had (the hubs wasn't able to get away for the surgery) and that I needed to keep it together for his sake.

I waited for Michael in the recovery room and 20 minutes later they rolled my still sleeping baby back to me. He woke up a few minutes after that and after about a 2 minute hissy fit he was happily drinking from his sippy, eating cheerios and watching the Today show. His surgery started at 8am and by 8:45 I was strapping him back into his car seat so we could head home.

Recovery has been a breeze and our biggest issue so far has been that Michael can suddenly hear all the little noises he's been missing all this time. So the sound of the heater turning on, our neighbors walking around upstairs and the other million and one little noises we take for granted were completely over stimulating him for the first few days. There were lots of tears and crappy sleep but he seems to have worked his way through things now and is doing great. Now the hubs and I just need to work on watching we say around him since there is a good chance anything we say could come back to haunt us.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I think these boots are one of my better Target purchases :)

What's in a name?

The Hubs and I spent A LOT of time coming up with Michael's name. It was a long and lengthy debate but in the end we were able to come up with a name that we love.

The name Michael has many meanings. Both of his grandfathers are named Michael so it was kind of a given that if we had a boy that the name Michael would be in there somewhere. What sealed the deal for me is that Michael the Archangel is one of the patron saints of the military and given that the Hubs was going to be in Iraq when Michael was born I liked the idea of having that connection.

Michael's middle name, August, was the no brainer part of our name discussion. Growing up, one of the Hubs's best friends was named Augie. They went to school and were in the boys scouts together from the time they were six until they graduated high school. Following graduation, Augie's family moved to Ohio where he went to college and joined the Marine Reserves after 9/11. The Hubs and Augie kept in touch through the occasional email and AIM chat which doesn't sound like much but if you knew my husband you'd realize just how much effort that was.

In 2005, Augie's reserve unit was sent to Iraq. "Lucky Lima" as they were called suffered major casualties throughout their entire deployment. That spring, the Hubs's unit was asked to send Marines to augment Lima Co and he seriously considered going but after some thought and talking to Augie he decided to stay home and focus on school. On August 3, 2005 Augie and 13 other Marines were killed when an IED exploded underneath their transport vehicle. It's impossible to even begin to explain the Hubs's devastation over the loss of his friend but I can say that without a doubt he would not be a Marine Officer today if it were not for that experience.

Currently, there is a traveling display in the National Museum of the Marine Corps honoring the 22 Marines and Navy Corpsman from Lima Co who were killed during that summer. We took MIchael today so the Hubs could "introduce" MIchael to Augie and we also took some pictures to share with Augie's parents.


The Hubs, Michael and Augie (rockin the "warstache")

While I love Michael's name, and the meaning behind it I hope that next time around we can choose a name we love without so much emotion behind it.

Confession

My kid eats hot dogs. A lot.

When he started out on solids, I was determined that my child was going to eat right, right from the start. I made all his baby food, everything was organic and I loved it. I would spend Sunday afternoon and evening with my husband, chopping, steaming and pureeing. Life was good.

When Michael first made the transition to finger foods, I continued to make all his food for him. Sweet potato fries, broccoli bites and chicken nuggets were recipes frequently on the menu and the Hubs and I got quite good at preparing foods for our son that were homemade, unprocessed, organic...you get the picture.

Then Hubs went to OCS, accepted his commission and started TBS all in a three month period and I was thrown back into life as a single Mom. Sure he was home on the weekends but that needed to be used for reviewing bills and budgets and shopping and getting his laundry taken care of and uniforms ready for the next week. He didn't have time to help me in the kitchen and I didn't have time to spend in the kitchen on my own because I needed to prioritize things that needed to be done while the Hubs was home.

And so long gone were the days of homemade chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries. I found myself on a first name basis with the "crew" at my local Trader Joe's where I was able to buy pre-made and frozen sweet potato fries, organic string cheese and organic, all natural, uncured, nitrate free hot dogs among other convenience foods that Michael would eat. Each time one of those packages landed in my cart I felt like there was one more tick in the crappy Mom column with my name on it. Sure, I was doing the best I could but what if my best wasn't good enough?

I thought about this tonight as Michael inhaled a hot dog and string cheese for dinner. Sure, it wasn't the "quality" meal I wanted to serve my son but he is happy and healthy and eating. There is some small victory in that. And today, and in many days ahead, I am going to have to take those small victories and celebrate them for all they are worth.

So yeah, my kid eats hot dogs. And if that is the worst thing that happens to him today, well then we are both way ahead of the game.

Wordless Wednesday

Rules of Engagement

I spent a large part of the weekend helping the hubs study for an exam he has tomorrow.  One of the topics was Rules of Engagement, or ROEs, while in combat.  Basically they are a set of rules or guidelines set forth by some higher authority that dictate the actions and reactions of forces in a combat zone.

After this weekend, I am finding myself wishing more and more that someone would step in and put forth some ROEs for our marriage.  It's been a struggle recently to figure out what my new role is.  I am straddling the line between working mom and stay at home mom while also stepping in a new role as a full time military wife.  A lot of changes, in a rather short period of time and I'm left wondering what the hell happened and what I am supposed to do next.

Until I get that figured out, there are going to be some growing pains as we re-negotiate who does what and when.  The best part is that once we get it figured out, I know its all going to change again.  

Catching Up

Excuse me just a second while I clear the cobwebs and dust from this little old blog of mine…

I've been busy recently and in an attempt to make my life a little less chaotic, I haven't been blogging. So if you'll give me just a few minutes, I'll give you a quick and dirty update on all of us.

Mr NoVa, or should I say 2Lt NoVa
That's right, Mr NoVa successfully completed the 10 week Officer Candidates Course he started way back in October. He graduated on 11 December and accepted his Commission as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps that same day. Here is where you expect to see a nice family picture of the three of us at the Marine Corps Museum beaming with pride and anticipation of what the future holds for our little family.

Tumbleweeds blowing through the post…

Yeah, thanks to someone having recently mastered a) running and b) sliding out the front of his stroller there are no family pictures. The most touching family picture of the day probably would have been me standing in front of the famous white bus that takes Marine recruits to boot camp on Parris Island and threatening to put Michael on there to wait the remaining 16 years, 11 months and 2 weeks until he turned 18 and could start boot camp.

The hubs is now back at Quantico getting ready to start the next phase of his training. If all goes as expected we should be finding out what his permanent duty station will be something in June or July with a move to follow shortly thereafter. We are hoping for an East Coast assignment to Camp Lejeune but on these cold winter days the warmth of Camp Pendleton or 29 Palms in Southern California sounds mighty appealing.

Michael
Michael is thoroughly enjoying life as a toddler and has mastered the art of terrorizing his Mother with his antics. There are times when I can literally see the wheels turning in his little brain – You know, I bet I could end up in the hospital for some more stitches and maybe even a concussion if I climb on the couch and then dive head first into the coffee table. Mom would really lose her shit over that – All in all though, he is becoming more and more of a joy every day. He claps and dances all the time now and gives the best kisses EVER. Seriously.

His hearing continues to be a concern however, and it looks like we are heading to the OR in a few weeks to have tubes put in. To catch you up, Michael has something called a pre-auricular pit in his left ear which has been linked to a slightly higher incidence of full or partial deafness. The health department in VA requires all newborns with pits to have hearing tests done once every six months for the first three years of the child's life. While he (barely) passed his newborn hearing screen, Michael completely failed his six month OAE, a hearing test that tests the function of the eardrum. Because of this and the fact that he was not babbling at all, we moved on to a more advanced test that tracked how sound travelled through his ear and into his brain (these are all quick and dirty explanations, let me know if you want more details). Fortunately he passed this test with flying colors and we were told that the previous failure was just a fluke.

Well a mother's intuition is a powerful thing and something just didn't seem right to me. I was proved right when Michael once again failed his one year OAE and then had an abnormal tympanogram (a test to measure pressure in the ear, usually caused by fluid). We met with an ENT shortly before Christmas who confirmed that more than likely Michael has a collection of sterile fluid in his ear (not an infection) that is preventing his ear drum from vibrating and dulls all the sounds coming into his left ear. So while his hearing is completely normal in his right ear, we sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown in his left ear. We have a follow up appointment on the 19th of January to confirm that the fluid hasn't miraculously drained on its own and then at that point we will move on to having tubes put in. While no Mom looks forward to their child being sedated and sent to an OR, we have experience since his follow up hearing test at six month required him to be put completely under sedation. I'm hopeful that once we get this issue corrected that Michael will finally start making strides with his language development and that we can't prevent any long term delays caused by his hearing issues.

NoVa
I suppose I should give a quick update on me, though I feel like I've been so wrapped up with my boys that nothing much of importance has gone on in my own life. The one major happening is that less than a year after returning from maternity leave I turned in my resignation. Of course, it's hard to call it a resignation when I agreed to stay on until they find, hire and train my replacement and since I will more than likely be staying on as some sort of part time consultant, but still, I won't be a full time employee anymore. Even while on maternity leave, I never would have seriously considered something like this as an option but as our lives have changed so too have my goals. I want to be there to support my husband and to have some additional time to spend with Michael since the days are going by much too fast. I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my personal and professional life and feel blessed that I seem to have found a close to perfect arrangement.

There is also that little matter of trying to add to our family. We've been actively trying since my second early m/c in September, but in order to have a baby you have to have sex and it has to be within a specific time frame of your cycle. Considering that I was lucky to see my husband for 24 hours once every two weeks while he was at OCS it's not at all surprising that our efforts have been unsuccessful. We are continuing to work on it though and as Mr NoVa says, practice makes perfect. We are both looking forward to what the start of 2010 has in store for us in that department.

Well, that should sufficiently catch you all up on what the past few weeks have been like here at the NoVa house. This past year has been a year of highs and lows for sure, and I am excited to see what 2010 has in store for us. And hopefully I'll do a better job of keeping the blog updated as we go.