Six months, Surgery & School

    I haven't updated the blog in a while. Emerson's closer to 7 months than he is to 6 months now. But life has been life lately which means I've been busy busy busy.
    Little guy had his 6 month check up yesterday. He's 19 lbs and 28 in. Doctor was concerned about his eczema (it's baaaaad) so we've changed his diet in hopes that it isn't caused by allergies. We're basically not buying the cheap stuff anymore. Ha. She said we could start him on mushed up big people food as well since he's got great muscle control. We tried some yesterday. . . he didn't like it.
    He's being stubborn about not wanting to hold his own bottle lately even though he's more than capable. He also isn't interested in sitting by himself because it's so much easier to lounge around. We've got him some toys that will hopefully spark his interest that he can only play with if he is sitting up. We'll see how it goes. He's going through a phase now where he likes to scratch everything. When he's ready to get up for the day he'll scratch the sides of the pack'n'play to let us know. He also prefers to scratch his toys rather than actually play with them. What a weirdo. He also scratches his face all day and all night long. No matter how short I keep his nails he looks like Edward Scissorhands all of the time.
    He likes to cuddle with blankets. But only fleece ones. It's so cute that he has developed an attachment to the ugliest blanket he has. It came with his crib bedding but it's something I didn't like from the beginning. It's yellow with a monkey on it. I mean, he has MUCH cuter blankets I would rather he love. But it is adorable that he has a preference that I can't do anything about no matter how hard I try. He will go to sleep on his own now though. Hurray! We just have to lay him down in his bed and he'll fall asleep with his blanket without crying or making much of a fuss. I'm in heaven about this. Naptime and bedtime were always such a battle. We had to let him cry it out a couple of times and now he's absolutely great at doing it all by himself.
    What else? He loves to suck on his toes. He giggles for us all of the time. He is addicted to TV. I'm not kidding. He loves Baby Einstein so much. He'll cry if we don't have it on nearly all of the time. I'm not sure if he'll turn out to be a genius or if we're rotting his brain out extra early. We try and get him out and about or focused on other things because we are legitimately worried that we are horrible parents because he watches so much TV. And it's the same 5 or 6 episodes over and over and over. Michael and I have them practically memorized. It could be worse, right? Right?!
    Most exciting of all, Emerson cut his first tooth TODAY! It's coming in on the bottom left. Michael felt it first. I'm a little jealous. It wasn't there yesterday!

    

    Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?! Took this today while we were out on a walk. I had to take landscape pictures for my photography class and he was such a little trooper even though it was cold and windy and we were out there forever.

    Photography class, you say? Yeah. That's because I decided that being an accountant would be boring. So, I'm going to try my hand at photography and see if I have the talent to turn it into a career. With all of this hard work and sacrifice we're putting forward for Michael to have a career that he really enjoys we decided it was only fair that I get the same opportunity. I know a lot of SAHMs are photographers who start their own businesses. And I think all of those ladies are extremely talented. I'm not saying that everyone needs to go to school to learn how to take great photographs but I happen to be in a position where I can go to school for it. So I am. Not only that, I want my children to know that college is important and how better to show them than by example? I know I've said that before but I really think that it's important. So, I'm taking a photography class, an art class and a math class this quarter. I love getting to go to school in the evenings. It's so fun to do something for myself completely by myself. I've already made a few friends in the photography program. Homework is something to get used to again but I love having something productive to work towards during the day.

    Michael is also busy with school. He's taking three really hard classes this quarter and has quadruple the amount of homework that I do. He is also still working as much as he can on the weekends. We don't really get to spend a lot of time together just the two of us but we're making it work. He has been so great with the baby in the evening while I'm at school. I always come home to a clean house, a baby in bed and dinner waiting for me. He makes me look bad sometimes. I never cook for him. Ha. 

   Our lives are about to get even busier because I'll be getting surgery next week. I'm really nervous. It's going to be a lot more involved that we originally thought. And a lot more painful. When I met with the specialist last month he confirmed that I do indeed have synovial chondromatosis in addition to several other problems. After looking at the MRI he also discovered that I have a labral tear, impingement and snapping tendon syndrome. So, although the surgery will be done arthroscopically and I will have minimal incisions (4 at the most but no wider than a thumbnail) a lot will be going on under the surface that will be intensely painful. From what I can understand, the doctor will flush out all of the foreign bodies (synovial chondromatosis) and then cauterize the surrounding tissue to hopefully prevent my body from making more. Then he'll do some bone shaving on both the head of my femur and pelvic socket (impingement) to keep the bones from tearing up the surrounding tissue. Then he'll repair the labral tear by anchoring to the bone (with a metal screw). Finally he'll lengthen the snapping tendon by making small cuts into it (but not all the way through) so it won't be as tight. They're going to have me on morphine for 5 days after the surgery and a bunch of other heavy pain meds for up to an additional 3 months. I have to put my leg in a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine for 6 hours a day for 3 weeks. I'll be on crutches for at least 4 weeks. I'm not allowed to drive for at least 3 weeks. I have to do physical therapy 3 times a week for 6 months starting 3 days after surgery. It'll be a year before I'm back to 100%. 

    I'm terrified about how we'll make this work with Emerson. Michael has school all day and I can't be left alone with him because I'm not even allowed to pick him up the first couple of weeks. My mother in law will be around to help the first couple of days but then she has to go to out of town for a week. We're going to have to rely heavily on our friends and members of our church to help us out. And through all of this I still have to go to school. We thought long and hard about putting the surgery off until Christmas break. But I am in so much pain on a daily basis that we both decided it can't be put off any longer. We'll make it work somehow. 

    I've stocked up on diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, you name it to make it easier on Michael and whoever we will have around helping us out. I'm worried that Emerson will be really negatively affected by this because I won't be able to play and cuddle with him very much. I'm scared that I'll go through all of this and I won't get any better. I'm worried that my school work will suffer or even worse that Michael's school work will suffer because he'll be so consumed with taking care of both the baby and me. 

    Gotta stay positive about it all though. Happy heals, right? 

    Look at the time! Between writing this update and stopping to entertain Emerson every 5 minutes I've wasted an hour and half when I should have been doing homework!!!