What a tease.

So I mentioned last time that Patrick was sleeping for most of the night for about a month now. Well, I guess I just had to jinx myself!! The last three nights have been rough. He got up several times Saturday night for Matt. Then he was up at 1:30am Sunday night and when I brought him to bed with me, he wanted to eat about once an hour. Then last night, he was up at 10:30 and again, wanted to eat every hour or so. Maybe it's a growth spurt...I think they have one around 4 months. I'm sure he'll start sleeping better soon...he's proven to me that it can be done!
I have to work the next couple of nights then it's off to Cary for a long weekend to celebrate my dad's 50th!!! I'm really excited, although slightly scared. This is my first time travelling with both kids by myself (Matt's on call Friday). I think Jack is going to spend the day, Friday, with Matt's parents, so I'm sure he'll have a great time.
Yesterday we went to a cookout at one of the other resident's house. They have a baby that was born just 2 days before Patrick. Olly was also an early bird (about 4 weeks before his due date) but he's doing great and so cute!! The two bald little Cabbage Patch kids just stared at each other and drooled. Jack had a great time playing with their little girl, Lily, age 3 1/2.

Why requiring a license to procreate is more important than one to drive...

CASE AND POINT!! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24594248&GT1=43001

Probably happens more often than imaginable here in rural SC.

Don't say the word...

"TACKLE" around Jack. Or else this is what will happen: Don't worry...they were just horsin' around:And of course, Patrick can't do cute things like tackle yet, but he looks very angelic in photos: Everybody has been doing great lately. I haven't updated about Patrick's sleeping habits in a while. We're still working on the napping thing. He will rest for maybe 45mins-1.5hrs in the moring in his crib for a nap, but otherwise just sleeps in the car or in my arms for his other naps. Which is really strange because he loves his crib at night. Both boys go to bed between 7pm-8pm and of course Jack sleeps until morning. For about 3 weeks now, Patrick has been getting up ONCE between 4am-5am! I can't believe how lucky I am!! At that point I change his diaper, and he gives me the silliest little smiles through the glow of his night light, and then I bring him to bed with me to eat and sleep until Jack gets up around 7:30 or 8am. So, his nighttime behavior completely makes up for his lack of sleep during the day.

I have the next week off from work, but I'm on call Monday night. There are only two nurses scheduled after 11pm so I'll probably have to work from 11-7. No biggie. It's amazing how you get used to being up all night that it hardly phases you anymore. I mean, I have to sleep after work, but usually only 4-5hrs and I'm good.

Matt's on call tonight...only two more after tonight for this hard rotation (he's up all night), and then he begins his last month of commuting to Anderson. Starting July, he'll be working at the same hospital that I do and will have home-call ONLY!!!

Upgrade!

So I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my digital camera. Mine was about 6 years old and although I was still impressed by the pics it took, I have developed a pretty serious hobby of taking pics and wanted some new technology. So I've gone from 3.2 megapixels to 8.4. I love my new camera, but it's going to take a while to learn how to use all of the features. Here are a couple of pics of the kids from my new camera:

Not that either of them could take a bad picture, but I thought that the quality of these was pretty good.

Here's Jack swinging on the big boy swing in the backyard the other day - he's such a goof:

This was taken with my old camera...I think you can tell a difference.

Last night I got called into work from 7pm-1am to work in the nursery. We had 7 babies...TWO sets of twins, which is just crazy for our tiny little community hospital. I had a good time...a break from the norm...plus time-and-a-half call pay, woohoo!!!
In response to my last post...I apologize again for the negativity...but the van and the computer are now running smoothly, in case you were wondering!

Work, work, work...

So Matt and I have seen each other a total of probably 5 minutes in the last couple of weeks (of course I'm exaggerating, but it seems like it.) Matt's back in Anderson and taking call every 4th night. He's got some very sick patients on his service right now, so he's definitely not getting any sleep when he's on call. Otherwise, he's at home helping me with the house and the boys. He gets no break - so I give him my props.

I'm also working up a storm. I am working 2 nights/week and taking call for work up to 3 times a week. (We have a nurse out on leave for the last half of her pregancy, so we have to be on call in case we are busy.) I love being at work...the people I work with are awesome and so much fun! Unfortunately, I have been branded with the Labor and Delivery "black cloud" as of late. I have only been back in L&D twice since coming back from maternity leave and the first night, there were only 2 of us OB nurses on the floor and I delivered a baby without a Dr - thankfully the baby was okay even though it was a little early. The 2nd time, which was last week, a woman came in at 1am abrupted (bleeding) and we had to do a stat c-section. The baby had a rough go at it - he was only about 35 weeks and had a hard time transitioning. Luckily his shell-shock wore off after a couple of hours so we didn't have to transfer him to Greenville.

Stress, stress, and more stress. I have found myself venting, so for that I must apologize. But it feels darn good, so I'm going to keep going!!! Some of you may have known that I traded in my CR-V about 2 1/2 weeks ago to get a *gasp* Odyssey (minivan). As much as I hated to get rid of my car, the Odyssey is about as cool as it gets for a minivan, plus I got a great deal on my trade-in. It's been awesome until this Saturday afternoon - now it won't crank. So I've gone around and around with the dealership folks to get it fixed (it's amazing how once they have your $$, they are way less willing to help you!!) Anyways, that won't get fixed until Monday. Not to mention that the garbage disposal bit the dust earlier this week and Matt just called me at work to tell me that the computer was on the fritz.

Okay, now to the wonderful part of my life, my boys!!

This is the two of them lovin' it up on the couch this morning:

And Patrick just loungin':

Jack's 2nd Birthday - a blog a month in the making!

I have completely broke my promise of posting at least once a week, but I left my camera charger in Greenville when we had Jack's birthday party and couldn't bear to post w/out any pictures - I just got it back today and it's back to the grindstone!!

Jack's birthday party was in Raleigh at Matt's grandparent's house on April 19 hosted by the Higgins. Complete with Elmo theme, it was a party indeed. I was so happy to get to see some of our family that we haven't seen in a while. I even got to visit with my Great-Grandma Wilson. It was very neat that her and Patrick were born 99 years and 1 day apart. How incredible!!! With that said, here is the "Grandmas" picture that was taken (all of Jack and Patrick's grandmas, great-grandmas, and great-great grandma in one pic!):

We had pizza, fruit salad, and goldfish - and don't forget Elmo cake! This is the one that I decorated as Jack's smash cake. I was pretty proud considering how non-artistic I am. Jennifer created a huge masterpiece that is a bigger version of this one:

Jack got a TON of presents...in fact, we had to rearrange the entire house when we got home just to arrange them all in an orderly fashion. Here he is sitting at his new table and chairs with cousin Andrew:

Eerily enough...here's what the 2 looked like about a year ago when they got together:

They have grown so much!!

And opening the greatest present of all (problem was, after opening this one, he wasn't really interested in the others!):

He really loved this little wagon that came with a sock monkey in it - at home he enjoys carting around his juice and blankie and whatever else he feels like in it:

A picture of Patrick and Mommy - please just look at Patrick!!!:

A picture of Mommy and Jack on his actual birthday after opening a big box of presents from the Higgins:

He loves his new ECU football, but it seems that the balloons are the biggest hit!All in all, it was a great party...everyone had a blast...I think that Jack may have been a little overwhelmed by all the people and presents but he still had fun!