I have disappeared from here for a while, and now I’m back. This past week was super busy. Last Saturday afternoon I took off for DeForest. The original plan was for me to go down on Monday and come back Friday. Then I decided I wanted an extra day with Mom since she works Tuesdays and Thursdays. The plan switched so that I would go down on Sunday after church. Then Saturday I decided that I didn’t want to just sit around waiting to go and left Satruday afternoon. The trip down wasn’t wonderful, but not terrible. I drove in rain the entire way. At Eau Claire it was really bad. Laura decided she needed a diaper change and dinner at Black River Falls. She had her diaper changed at McD’s, but didn’t want food there. I got back on the road, and 5 minutes later at the rest area she decided to eat. This is where I also go locked in the car. I sat in the back seat to feed her. Unbeknownst to me, the child safety lock on the door got switched on. I went to open the door to get out, and I couldn’t. There was a carseat and a pile of bags on the other side of the carseat so I couldn’t just crawl out that way. Fortunately, I am skinny enough that I was able to crawl into the front seat from the back (not an easy thing to do with a big carseat in the middle of the back seat). I wasn’t sure what my next plan of attack would be if that didn’t work. So we get back on the road and make it the rest of the way without stops. Laura started crying 20 miles from DeForest, and I just kept going. I really didn’t want to stop again so close to being done. She was very happy to get out of her seat.
Sunday at home was a bit of a long day. Laura was way out of sorts being in a new place and all. She did *a lot* of comfort nursing and crying. Sunday night Tamara, John, and Jonah came over to visit for a bit. It was good to see them again. Jonah wasn’t real sure he wants to share Mom with Laura. He kept wanting her attention whenever she had Laura. Mom and I both escaped to the basement several times when we needed a break from the activity upstairs. We had the tv on pretty loud so we could hear it, Jonah asking lots of questions about the movie that was on, Radar was hyper and barking lots, and we were trying to socialize at the same time. Just wasn’t working well and Laura didn’t handle all the comotion.
Monday we did “Show and Tell” with Laura. First stop was with Lisa, who used to cut my hair, and still cuts Mom and Dad’s hair. Then we went into Madison to show her off to my mom’s boss and co-worker. They were totally taken with her. Right when we were leaving she started to get fussy. We made a quick stop at Kohl’s so I could try to find a pair of shoes that I wanted that the Kohl’s in Woodbury didn’t carry. I didn’t find the exact pair, but I did find a pair that works. The rest of Monday was quiet and the goal was to get some sort of routine going again.
Tuesday Dad had off so the plan was to go to Portage so he could have “Show and Tell” at his place of employment. We learned that if she gets a good morning nap in, she is much more pleasant the rest of the day. So we let her get her morning nap in. Then Mom called saying she was leaving work early so we waited for her to get home so she could join us for “Show and Tell”. She got groceries while Dad and I walked around with Laura. Tuesday night we went to John and Tamara’s for dinner. It was a make your own pizza meal. Laura did great again. She was smiling and pleasant for a bit, then slept in the pack-n-play for the rest of the evening so I could eat and socialize. 
Wednesday I was able to get away for a little bit on my own. Well, I call Whit and we went shopping in Madison while Mom babysat Laura. We didn’t have a very long trip, but it was good to get out. It was also a good thing it wasn’t a long trip because Mom was having trouble getting Laura to sleep. Laura would fall asleep on Mom, but as soon as Mom laid her down in the pack-n-play, she screamed. This scream was almost as if something was physically hurting her. Mom checked the pack-n-play to see if there was something poking her or what. We couldn’t find anything. Laura ended up sleeping on her blanket on Mom and Dad’s bed. Our theory is Laura was just so sick of sleeping in the pack-n-play. She was wanting something different. Wednesday night she slept on some blankets on the floor. There was no way she would go back in the pack-n-play.
Thursday morning both Mom and Dad had to work. I decided to come back home then. Robert was really missing us. Plus, I wanted to get back and have Friday to be a day of adjustment before trekking up to Duluth on Saturday. I pulled out of the driveway at 8:20 and got home at 12:21. Not too bad. We had 2 stops on the way home, both before Tomah. Then she slept the rest of the way.
Friday I was hoping for a day at home and re-establishing a routine. However, I ended up going to Baby & Me instead. We left at 10, got back at 1:30 or so. We ate lunch with Robert. The rest of the day, I let her take the lead for the most part. She slept when she wanted and ate when she wanted.
Saturday (yesterday) started at 5:30 am. The alarm was set for 6, but she didn’t care about our plans. We got up, fed her, dressed her, and pack our bags. We were going to head up to Robert’s parent’s for breakfast and then all 5 of us were going to go to Duluth to meet up with a friend (she lives in Thunder Bay). After breakfast, Robert wasn’t feeling 100%, and Laura was not settling down. As hard as it was, Robert made the call that we weren’t going to Duluth. We called Danni to let her know. She called back maybe 5 minutes later to say that she was going to drive all the way so she could meet Laura. So we hung around Dallas for the day. Robert was able to get in some much needed sleep as was Laura. I tried to nap, but just couldn’t fall asleep. Danni got there around 2. We visited for a bit, then she headed back at 4:45. Shortly after that, I fed Laura one more time, and we headed home.
Today I made the decision that we weren’t going to go to church. Pastor John wasn’t there today, and Laura needed to get in her morning nap. We had Talie’s first birthday party this afternoon. We got home around 3:30. I fed Laura and put her to bed. I went to bed myself. While the women of the household were napping, Robert was out mowing the yard. He finished in 2 hours, which is really good time for him. The little girl decided to get up around 6. I fed her, played a bit, bathed her, and she is sleeping again. Meanwhile, Robert has vacuumed the living room and the stairs, swept up cricket corpses downstairs, vacuumed the pantry, and is now washing dishes while I write this huge update. He is so good to me.
Not sure what the plan is for the rest of the night. I know I should eat at some point, but I am actually not hungry yet. This is amazing because I don’t remember the last time I was actually full for more than 2 hours.
Looking ahead to next week, the only thing I have planned is to go to SCC to visit some of the teachers there and Baby & Me on Friday since it will be our last week. Other than that, I am going to try to stay close to home to get Laura back into a routine. I can’t call it a schedule yet since we don’t have times that things are done at, but she does have an order to her day.
On an unrelated note, we have gotten some no-so-good news from some friends of ours. Their son who just turned 4 is in the PICU at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. He has had health problems since birht, but things are not going so well for him at this point. According the email updates I get things are improving very slightly, but still aren’t good. I don’t want to put lots of details here. If you could keep them in your thoughts and prayers, that would be much appreciated. Makes me very thankful that I have a healthy baby girl.
Time to get going. Hopefully I’ll update a little more regularly. BTW, Laura is getting baptized on September 9. If anyone
is interested in coming, leave a comment and I’ll get you more info.