Nolan had another follow-up visit to the dr. on Tuesday. He is done with the walking cast, and we're just going to monitor his walking, particularly his right foot, to see how he improves. He gets a little stiff legged by the end of the night, and his right foot is angled out a little more than before the break. If it's not better in a month then we'll take him back in. Please, please be better - it's at about the same time as when new baby will arrive!

The bedtime routine is still going well, except the whole "he needs us to be in the room until he falls asleep" thing. I'm much stronger than Adam and can let him cry it out, to a point. The poor kid starts coughing after a while, and he has been known to hold his breath until he starts to turn purple. The longest I've let him cry is about 6 minutes. I'm not sure what we're going to do about this, but we need some resolution soon! Oh, and I took him in for a haircut that same day. He did great - because he had his blanket in his lap and part of a breakfast cereal bar in each hand!

Nolan is talking quite a bit more, and he's actually saying more words we can understand. Tonight Adam asked Nolan if he was ready to put his pj's on, and Nolan looked at him and said "no". So funny to hear that come out of his mouth! Over the last week he's said "I'm stuck" after he shut our bedroom door and couldn't get it open, kitty, blanket, inside (when he was outside with Adam on one of the many hot days we've had recently) and milk. He's really, really good at shaking his head yes and no, and doing it exactly when he's supposed to do it! He's very adament about showing us what he needs, usually by pointing and then getting frusterated (screaming and/or hitting himself usually follow). We can tell he's trying to be more independent, which is good and bad!

Last night I took Nolan to Adam's last regular season softball game. I really don't mind the heat, but the humidity these days is awful (pregnant or not). Poor Nolan sweats more than any kid I've ever seen! His hair was pretty wet from sweat (and quite curly), he had sweat beaded up on his face, and his clothes were even getting wet! We really need to watch him to make sure he's drinking enough water. The game was well past his bedtime, and in a fit of anger (because I wouldn't let him walk by a mud puddle) Nolan hit me, but instead of really hitting me a fingernail on his right hand marked up my chin and neck. I have a very red, and pretty long scratch mark on the front of my neck, and 2 little ones on my chin. Nothing feels better than having to tell people you got "hit" by your 16 month old, to the point where it leaves a visible mark!

Baby planning and prep is going great. The list has been a lifesaver! We finalized the Nolan duty plans yesterday for when we're at the hospital. He'll be in daycare during the day - we don't want to mess up his routine too much. We had our 36 week appointment on Monday. Baby is good, and there is nothing to report as far as progress. I don't get my hopes up - I didn't really have any progress with Nolan, either! I also picked up a girl outfit and boy outfit to take to the hospital with us. Now I just need to wash it!

Last weekend Nolan and I spent Saturday in Mankato, celebrating Lalayna's 4th birthday. He did pretty well, but always seems a little overwhelmed by the older 3 girls. Paulette was kind enough to keep him overnight down there so Adam and I could enjoy his 15 year class reunion. It was awesome to have a night out, and to be able to sleep in until 10 on Sunday morning! This weekend we're headed up to Albertville for Pool Party 2.0 - at the same place we were at over the 4th of July. We are very much looking forward to it, and will be camping out in their backyard Saturday night so we don't have to drive home. It's not supposed to be as hot or humid, so Adam and I are both excited to test out this whole camping thing with Nolan.

Adaptability

I am so proud to share that Nolan has had 2 successful nights in his new bed, and is on his way to a 3rd! I really didn't see this transition going as smoothly as it has gone - what a great surprise! The only adjustment to his bedtime routine we've had to make is that he wants us to sit next to him while he falls asleep, which takes somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. We're going to roll with that for probably another week, and then start to let him figure it out on his own. He hasn't woken up in the middle of the night since Sunday, and we've had to wake him up the last 2 mornings to get him to daycare! We really are quite proud parent's to have such an adaptable kid.

Today was Nolan's first day at daycare without a cast or walking brace. The highlight of his day was walking outside with Jane this morning, and realizing he was walking over to play in the sandbox. He LOVES the sandbox, and hasn't been able to play in it for 3 weeks. Jane told me that they got about half way there and he started giggling and getting really excited. She said he smiled and played for an hour and half!

The getting ready for new baby plan is in full force. I picked up diapers at Target today. What a strange feeling it was to pick up diapers for Nolan and the teeny little newborn diapers for baby - talk about a reality check! Tonight I'm going to weed through all of Nolan's clothes and pack away what doesn't fit him. His clothes and anything else of his in the nursery are being moved over to his new room this weekend. Slowly but surely we'll get everything accomplished in the next few weeks!

The new bed

Estimated timeline of Nolan’s first night in his big boy bed (twin mattress on the floor in his new room, our former office):

6:25 – start the bedtime process in his new room
6:40 – after reading 3 books and saying prayers, Adam puts Nolan in bed
6:40:05 – Nolan starts crying
6:40:06 – Adam stays in the room so Nolan stops crying and falls asleep
7:10 – Adam makes it out of Nolan’s room after 3 tries. Nolan is sleeping.
7:20 – Adam is heading out the door to mow, and Nolan wakes up crying. I try and let him cry it out, but he won’t stop. I peek my head in the hallway and there Nolan lays on the carpet, half way in his room and half way in the hallway, wimpering.
7:23 – Put Nolan back in bed. Spend about 20 minutes sitting on the floor next to him, waiting for him to fall asleep.
9:10 – Peek in on Nolan and discover he’s sleeping on the floor next to his bed – apparently he fell out and we didn’t hear him.
9:10:10 – I go downstairs to ask Adam if I should leave him on the floor or put him back in bed. The decision is made to put him back in bed.
9:13 – I try and open the door to put Nolan back in bed, but in the 3 minutes I was downstairs he rolled himself in front of the door to his room and I can no longer open it. I call for reinforcements.
9:13:30 – Adam comes upstairs and we decide to leave him until he moves away from the door.
9:40 – I peek on him one last time before going to bed and he is now head first in the corner of this bed, next to the door, with his butt in the air. I have just enough room to open the door. I pick him up and put him in bed, and he starts crying.
9:41 – Spend the next 15 minutes watching him fall asleep so he doesn’t cry. Mission accomplished – I’m off to bed.
10:20 – Adam checks on Nolan before coming to bed. Nolan is sound asleep, so Adam puts the gate in front of the bedroom door, in case he wakes up and thinks it’s okay to walk around in the middle of the night.
11:10 – Nolan wakes up crying. Adam doesn’t hear him, so I get up and rub his back. 5 minutes later I’m back in bed.
11:23 – Nolan wakes up crying, again. I nudge Adam and he goes in the room. Nolan has fallen out of bed again. Adam tries to sneak out 3 times, but Nolan wakes up and cries every time. Taps me on the shoulder to take a turn.
11:40 – I head in to try and get him to sleep. I sit on the floor next to him and put my hand on his back.
11:48 – He appears to be sleeping, so I walk out. He starts crying as soon as I get in our room, so I turn around and head back (walking over the gate each time). I bring my pillows so I can lay on the floor. I don’t know how long I’ll be in there.
11:57 – He appears to be sleeping, so I leave. Not so fast – he’s crying again. I throw my pillows over the gate and put my hand on his back, again. I contemplate putting him back in his crib so I can sleep, but decide against it. I need to be strong.
12:14 – I did it! Nolan is sleeping and I can go back to bed.
6:10 – Nolan lets us know he’s up by talking up a storm.
6:20 – I go to get him and he’s actually laying on his bed! For the first time in his new room, it didn’t go too badly.

Adam went to Once Upon a Child at lunch today and bought a bed rail to put next to the mattress. Hopefully it will keep Nolan from falling out of bed! Tonight I did his bedtime routine with him, and put him in bed at 6:40. I sat on the floor next to him for 3 or 4 minutes and tried to make my way out of the room. He started crying, so I sat back down. By 6:50 he was sound asleep and he’s been sleeping ever since. It can only get better!

We had a great time in Moose Lake this weekend. Jackson and Nolan had fun together at the park, in the swimming pool in the backyard, and in the house, playing with toys. Oh, and we also went on 2 long walks with the boys. We are so lucky to have such relaxed kids!

Adam and I also had a wonderful time hanging out with Chris and Sasha. We played a mean game of Skipbo on Saturday night - until almost midnight! Adam and I had planned to keep Nolan in his walking boot over the weekend, but we felt so bad for Nolan that we didn’t put it on him like we should have. [SIDEBAR: Nolan’s cast came off last Wednesday, and he was given a walking boot to wear on his right leg for 1 week for sure, 2 if he needed it. He can’t really walk on it, so it makes things especially difficult – for both him and us!] At the end of the evening he was limping a little, but his walking improved so much from Saturday to Sunday. We can tell he needs to build up muscle in his leg again, but that will comes with time. He sure is enjoying the freedom of walking again!

Yesterday when we got home we went outside for a little bit, and only a little bit because it was (and still is) super muggy outside. I don’t mind the heat, but like most Minnesotan’s, I hate the real heavy humidity. Nolan finally got to sit at his new picnic table and check out his new playhouse. He was impressed with both!

This week we have plans to finalize our list of things to do/buy before new baby arrives. I started to panic a little last night, about the exact same stuff I did with Nolan – the bottles aren’t clean and ready to go, we don’t have diapers in the house, we still need to move the rest of Nolan’s stuff out of the nursery and in to his new room, I don’t have my list ready at work. I know it will all get done, but what if for some reason I go in to labor early? I’m a planner, and I need things to be planned!

The Growler

This past weekend Tricia surprised me with a nice day of golf and a stay at the St. James Hotel in Red Wing. We had dropped off Nolan Friday evening at Grandma and Grandpa Bleck's, and then we got to enjoy sleeping in Saturday morning-which is going to be a thing of the past here in a couple of weeks! Tricia was a great caddie (a.k.a. golf cart driver) while she watched me play my first round of golf this summer at Mississippi National Golf Course. After a great round we played tourist for a while in downtown Red Wing, had supper, and got to watch the sunset from bench swing on the riverfront. Then Tricia got to watch me drink a couple of beers at the pub connected to the hotel before we retired for the night in our circa 1870's hotel room-which was pretty cool. On the way back home Sunday morning we stopped off at IKEA to do a little looking at mattresses for Nolan. Of course we end up with everything but...a plush soccer ball, kid's table and chair set, and a set of hot pads. Then we found a twin mattress in Shakopee...sheesh.

Our little boy continues to grow up every day. Tomorrow we have an appointment to find out about the healing progression with his leg-hopefully we'll get some good news and Nolan can get back to being the speedy little guy he was three weeks ago! He's been trying to walk around, and when he does he sounds like a pirate walking around on a peg-leg! The latest activities that have been making us laugh started last night and this morning; Nolan has started to growl. Yes, growl, a lot! He'll growl at his yogurt and his sippy cup. He growls at his toys while he's playing. He growls at the couch while he tries to burrow into the cushions. This morning, he was growling at his plush soccer ball and Curious George in his crib. I got to peek in on him for awhile this morning, and I have to admit, I had to try really hard to keep from bursting out laughing as he played.
Eating is a treat as well. The only constant foods that we've been able to get him to eat lately are yogurt, cheerios w/ milk, and pasta. Vegetables are still a garnish in his eyes, so we're working on ways to be more creative. Of course, there's the graham crackers and animal crackers that work well as a snack. (Apparently, he was exposed to pop-sicles at Grandma's and was quite the fan!)

Nolan's "Big-Boy" baseball room is basically complete, so now we're working on transitioning Nolan into a twin-sized bed on the floor. We're going to try putting a water Noodle (floaty) under the bed sheet to see if that will keep him from rolling onto the floor...but we're not holding our breath! He seems to do jumping-jacks or something every night. Lately it's been his cast thumping the sides of his crib as he moves around!

Our upcoming plans include heading to Moose Lake to hang out with Chris, Sasha, and Jackson-hopefully a cast-free Nolan will get to flounder in the kiddie-pool! The rest of August looks busy as well, but the planning and fun surrounding our second arrival is definitely looming!

Add on from Tricia: We had our 34 week check-up on Monday. Our NP finally determined the baby is head down, facing the right direction! Now it only needs to stay in for another 7 weeks, max! Adam and I were looking at pics from my pregnancy with Nolan to see how big I was at 34 weeks. Funny enough, the only pics we could find were the ones of my terrible bloated feet! What a trip down memory that was. Sure glad not to have that problem this time! Just for at trip down memory lane I included a current pic of me, my feet, and my nasty Shrek feet. Thank goodness for low blood pressure!

Cast away

What we thought was just a sprained foot/ankle turned in to a hairline fracture in Nolan's fibia! It's been a crazy week, and the outcome of that was just one of the things keeping me busy. Adam was in New Mexico all week for work. I took him to the airport Monday morning. Daycare Jane was also on vacation this week, so we had family watching Nolan at our house most of the week (Paulette was the first for Monday and Tuesday). I also had our 32 week appointment on Monday afternoon for new baby. Side note: everything is going really well! My BP is really low, I don't have any swelling (yet), the baby's heartbeat is strong - and boy, is he/she busy in my belly! The dr. said if she can't figure out the position at our next appointment on the 26th that she'll probably do an ultrasound to find out. Paulette's report was that Nolan was good, but he was a little fussy because his foot was bothering him. On Wednesday he still wasn't walking really well, so I decided to make an appointment for him. The nurse line at our clinic told me that the next step was to see an orthopedic physician, so off I went with him to TRIA. Poor Ellen watched Nolan at their house on Wednesday, and while he did pretty good, he still wasn't quite himself. After meeting with the dr. and taking more x-rays, it was decided that the best option for Nolan was to put a full cast on his right leg to heal it. The dr.'s opinion at this point was that she couldn't quite tell if there was anything on his x-ray, but that this course of action would stabalize the leg to heal it in case there was a fracture. On Thursday morning I received a phone call at work that the radiologist had just reviewed his x-rays, and confirmed there is a hairline fracture in his fibia! We were way off in what we thought was hurting him! The course of treatment would have been the same - full cast for 2 weeks. The only difference is they'll re-xray it on the 28th at our follow-up to see if the fracture has healed. If it hasn't, he's back in a cast for another 2 weeks. We are praying it heals up quickly. Our plan is to move him in to his new bedroom the 1st week in August so that he has time to adjust to a big kid bed before new baby shows up around Sept. 4th. If he's in a cast until mid-August that will put a bit of damper on that plan!

Back to the busy week. . . on Tuesday I took the CRV in to get repaired and picked up my rental car. Wednesday was Nolan's appointment, and yesterday I picked up the CRV and went to see Footloose at the dinner theater with my girlfriends. Thank goodness my parent's were around to watch Nolan that last few days so I could still go out! Needless to say, I'm pretty tired tonight.

Adam arrived home safely this morning (although his flight was an hour and a half late). He stopped by Ellen and Greg's to check in on Greg (same day knee surgery - and he's at home doing quite well already!). Adam and Nolan picked me up at work at 4:20 and then we picked up Nolan's new playhouse! We also went out to eat at Baker's Square. We are going to veg out in front of the tv for a while, and then get to bed pretty early so we're well rested to tackle our to do list for the weekend. The due date is sneaking up on us fast, and there's still a lot to get done!

Gimpy

Nolan is adjusting to life in the slow again. On Friday around noon Jane called to let me know he had taken 4 steps on his own - the most he had walked since Wednesday morning! She was so excited - and I was relieved. If he hadn't started taking some steps we would have had to take him in again for another check-up. The swelling has gone down quite a bit (lots of icing of his foot), but there is some bruising on the inside of his right foot, as well as his big toe. Today he's crawled almost everywhere, including when we're outside. I feel so bad for him, because he's such an active little boy. The only time he really walked today was when he saw Adam - he hobbled his way over there. He limps when he walks right now, too. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be a little more mobile. Adam is gone next week on a work trip, so we have family watching Nolan all week. They are going to be exhausted if they have to carry him around most of the time! Nolan's new thing to say this week is "what's this?". I know he picked that up from us, because we're always asking him that question! He's also started to verbalize the word "no", in addition to shaking his head no. I was so proud of myself tonight. I didn't know what to make us for dinner, so I baked some chicken nuggets and tator tots. He doesn't always eat them, so I put a little ketchup on them. He liked the ketchup, but then I introduced him to ranch dressing. He LOVED the ranch dressing! I taught him how to dip each piece in to the ranch and then eat it. It's certainly not the healthiest thing in the world for him to eat, but at least he was eating! Last night Adam painted Nolan's new bedroom - and got the 2nd coat of paint on it today. It is so crazy to think that he's moving in to his big boy room in 3 weeks! The only thing we need to buy at this point is the mattress to put on the floor. Oh, and a few wall decorations, too. We've decided to decorate with a baseball theme of some kind. I don't know exactly what we'll be doing yet, but I'm sure it will be just fine, and Nolan won't even notice! While Adam was painting last night I picked up and cleaned the house. I'm not sure how we manage to mess up the house on a daily basis, but if I'm lazy and don't stay on top of it, it turns in to a marathon session of putting things in its place. I don't suppose this is going to get any better with our 2nd child only 8 weeks away! Today I made the menu for next week - breakfast, lunch and dinner, since Nolan won't be daycare. I also typed up the "instructions" for watching him, in case anyone watching him isn't sure what to do. Nolan and I made it to the grocery store this afternoon, and I finished quite a few loads of laundry. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Nolan and I began our day with a nice, long walk. I'm exhausted! Here's a pic of me and the belly - 32 weeks. Thought I should share at least one since we shared quite a few of Nolan! More good news - the insurance adjuster "ruled" in my favor and determined I was not at fault for the car accident. The guy who hit my tried to tell her that he was sure we were both negligent, which is totally not true. What a relief to not have to pay our deductible or have the accident hit our insurance. I just had one of my two accidents drop off my insurance in December, and I only have one more to go to have a clean record again! The video post is of Nolan rockin it out on his rocking horse outside. I'm not sure where he learned to rock, but he loves it!

Where's the "urgent" in Urgent Care?

What an interesting day. It started off great - I got to work early and got a lot done before lunch. I decided to run some errands at lunch, and came back with a few great finds - a new floatie for Nolan from Babies R' Us for only $1.60, and a new mailbox from Menard's. Our current wooden mailbox is infested with boxelder bugs, to the point I hate to even go get the mail. Adam said if I picked up a mailbox he would stick it in the ground. My part of the project is done:) I also got the paint shook up again for Nolan's new room, in hopes I would be able to paint the first coat tonight. That didn't happen, and after you read this you'll understand why.

Around 11 I received a phone call from Jane. Nolan was sliding down a plastic slide on the lap of one of the older kids, and the sole of his right shoe caught on the plastic. He right foot bent back as he went down the slide, under the weight of the other kid. He cried quite a bit, and when Jane tried to put him down he wouldn't/couldn't stand on his foot. She thought it looked swollen, so she gave me a call and thought we should think about taking him to the dr. I asked her to put Nolan down for his nap and see how he did after that. He was in a good mood as long as he was being held and he wasn't standing on his right foot. It was also more swollen. I picked him up and met Adam at the Urgent Care in Chan. After an hour and a half wait (difficult with a 15-month old who loves to run around but can't because he can't put weight on his foot) we were happy to hear it's not broke, just sprained. The tough thing is there isn't a lot we can do for him, other than give him some Motrin and try to ice it. We need to keep an eye on him for the next 2 days to see if he improves, too. If he doesn't we'll need to make an appointment for him to be checked again. The good news is that kids apparantly heal pretty quickly. Let's hope that's the case for our little guy! We didn't get home until 7, and Adam had to rush out right away to get to softball on time. By the time Nolan got done eating it was 7:30 - way past his bedtime. Good thing he took a cat nap on the way home from the clinic! He fell asleep as soon as I put his pj's on, and I decided to not give him anything for his foot tonight. We'll see how he's doing in the morning.

On the way to pick up Nolan from daycare I almost got in a really bad car crash. I was driving by the Target and Byerly's near work, in the right hand lane of the 4 lane road. As I was passing the 2nd entrance to the grocery store (probably going 33 in a 30 - I know, I know), an SUV literally pulled out in front of me, in to the Byerly's entrace. Right in front of me! I swerved the best I could to avoid a major collision (on wet roads, as it had been raining throughout the afternoon), but he still managed to not stop fast enough once he saw me. The CRV was hit on the front driver's side, on the far left side of the bumper. There's a dent, scratches, the bumper seems a little loose, and the tire rim decorative thingy is loose. I'm so thankful I swerved as much as I did. He would have hit me right where I was sitting, which is a scary thought because I'm almost 8 months prego. As soon as he came over to look at the damage to my car it started downpouring! We quickly exchanged insurance info, and lucky for me he also has American Family Insurance. I called our agent and let him know what happened. Now it's the waiting game to see I'll be dinged at all for the accident. It was not my fault, really. I take complete responsibility for the 2 accidents I've caused, but this is not one of them. Hopefully I'll hear something tomorrow about how it's progressing.