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January 27, 2003
WARNING: There are pregnancy updates at the beginning and end (it took me a couple of days to write this) and there is an update on Ethan at the end. The rest is a blow-by-blow of my trip home. It's probably more information than anyone would EVER want to read, but I wanted to detail this trip for my own records and for my family. Sorry for all the details... most of it will probably be boring!
20 weeks!
The Pregnancy
Well, I have to admit here that I’ve been a bit worried about the jellybean this week, though I probably have no need to be. I am concerned about the lack of fetal movements that I am feeling. With Ethan, I felt some very profound movements at 19 weeks. With this baby, I feel a VERY occasional movement (not even daily), but it’s so light and so subtle, that I often wonder if it’s really the baby that I’m feeling or just some GI gas, etc. I know that every baby and every pregnancy is different, but it still makes me worry a bit. I’m still getting bigger, so that is a positive sign. I just wish that this jellybean would make his/her presence more obvious by moving a bit more. My mom said that with her boys, the fetal movements were constant and even reached a point where they hurt. When she was pregnant with me, she said that I NEVER kicked. She never, ever felt ONE SINGLE kick the entire pregnancy… only rolls once I got big enough for her to feel them. She said the doctor had her in constantly to check things because of the lack of movements she felt. So maybe this baby is similar. I have my next appointment this Tuesday and we will be listening for fetal heart tones, as always. It always makes me feel better just to hear the swooshing heart beat of my baby. I’ll write more about that after the appointment!
Our Big Hawaiian Adventure!
Well, we made it to Hawaii and back! We had the time of our lives and can’t wait to get back there. This will be a long section but I want to record as much as I can remember here!
We had to prepare for this trip by finding a temporary home for our dog. We ended up leaving her with my in-laws. I worried about her but we didn’t have a choice, other than putting her in a kennel, which we didn’t want to do. We got back yesterday and will be picking up our dog this evening. My mother-in-law said that all in all, she did pretty well. She got a little angry at their dog. I think it was because she was competing for attention, but overall was okay. I was so glad to hear that.
The trip didn’t start out so fun, to be honest. We flew Delta Airlines. While I had no problems with the airline itself, I was frustrated because they don’t fly direct to Honolulu from Seattle. We had to backtrack and fly in to Salt Lake City (SLC). In case I didn’t mention it, we had to fly stand-by, which always adds a special twist to things. Don’t get me wrong, I was EVER so grateful that we even got the tickets and the travel was absolutely worth it. The first leg of the trip was great, actually. The flight was WIDE open (like 100 open seats). They upgraded me to first class. Mike sat in coach with Ethan. Because it was so wide open, they allowed us to take his car seat on board. That was heaven-sent. He knows his seat and is used to it and comfortable in it. That flight was only an hour and a half and he slept the entire time.
We had a two-hour layover in SLC. I have some friends who moved to SLC a couple of years ago and I haven’t seen them since I was home in the summer of 2000. I say friends because technically, that is what they are. But really, I consider them family. They are a second set of parents to me and their kids are like my siblings (of course we’re all grown up now). Anyway, they knew that we had a layover there and came to the airport and met us in the baggage claim! It was WONDERFUL to see them. I was so thrilled to be able to show off my baby to them, whom they’ve never met yet. Two of their kids came as well. I haven’t seen one of them in probably 6 years. It was GREAT little reunion. They brought us donuts, orange juice, and milk and it was heaven sent! We only got to spend about an hour with them and then we had to go through all the security checks again to get back to the gate to catch our flight out. The security checks weren’t bad, I must say. Maybe we just got lucky. I made the detectors beep every single time I went through them, so I always had to go through an extended search, but it’s okay. After the terrorist attacks in 2001, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, we had prepared ourselves that it might happen and weren’t put out by it at all. This was my first flight since the attacks and I really was surprised to see how differently the airports are set up. It amazed me to see all the armed guards and the increased number of security personnel. It also amazed me at the rudeness that some people displayed because they were told they needed to be searched. I mean, come on. I just don’t understand how people can NOT expect this anymore. Anyway… back to the story…
Here is the ugly part of our trip (and really the ONLY ugly part). It was a SEVEN hour flight! Our friend who gave us the tickets told us that this flight was also wide open. Well, we didn’t anticipate that it would fill up. There were 70 open seats and believe it or not, all 70 seats got filled. I am not positive what happened, but I know that there is another flight to Honolulu that stops in L.A. after leaving SLC. I think that a lot of people from that flight listed themselves on our flight because it’s direct. It was a nightmare for us. We could not take the car seat on board. We also sat in coach, which means SMALL seats. We sat in the middle of the plane, in a three-seat section. Mike was on one end, I was in the middle, and a jerk was sitting next to me. Yes, I said a jerk. He made sure that he spread his legs out the entire time. He also made sure that he kept putting his foot over on top of mine, making me move. To top it off, he was chewing tobacco and SPITTING it into an empty Coke bottle! YUCK! I was so disgusted by this. We later found out from the flight attendant that that is not allowed and we should have said something. Anyway, I should also mention that it was about 80 degrees on that aircraft, the entire time we were on it. Usually, I freeze on airplanes, needing socks and a blanket to stay warm. Not this time. My shoes were off the entire time and we kept fanning each other. I looked around and not a single person was using a blanket… it was horrible. At one point, the “fasten seatbelt” sign was on for a long time (we had quite a bit of turbulence) but we still called the attendant and asked for water because it was so sweltering. No sooner had we done that, we noticed quite a few other people doing the same.
Anyway… all that aside, it was HARD work with Ethan. It was a day flight that left at 1130am. Plus, we were traveling west, which means that we chased the sun and it never got dark. The plane was brightly lit the entire time. Ethan was not very happy. He had to sit on our laps… a mighty difficult task for a very active one-year-old. All he wanted to do was get down and play. He cried. We had an arsenal of snacks and juice with us, but that only lasts so long. He was tired but couldn’t sleep. At one point, Mike got up and walked with him near the bathrooms for over an hour until he fell asleep. Eureka! He slept a few hours, but it was still a challenge. He slept part of the time on Mike. During that time, the meal came around. We had two meals sitting on my tray and I actually hand-fed Mike his whole meal while he held the baby. Once we ate and cleared the trays off, we opened them both and put a pillow on one end and Ethan slept on our trays for a while. Once he went to sleep, things got better. We were still crammed and REALLY uncomfortable, but at least he was asleep. He did better once he had a nap under his belt! Even though he fussed, a lot of passengers around us commented on how good he was, considering how little he was. We were never so happy to hear the words: “Ladies and gentleman, we are beginning our initial decent into the Honolulu area…” Oh what joy… this flight was coming to an end!
We landed and quickly put Ethan into shorts and a t-shirt. Mike was so funny. He asked if we should maybe leave his socks on. I said, “No way. You’ll get laughed at. Trust me, he won’t need them.” We got off the plane and I took one whiff of the air and felt like I had never left. I was home and it felt so good. I told Mike that if we had had to turn around at that very moment and go back to Seattle, the flight would have been worth it just to smell the air! We got our bags and called my mom, who showed up very quickly. She drove us over to the rental car agency. We decided to rent a car because we knew that we wanted to go to a lot of places and I didn’t want to put excessive wear and tear or mileage on my mom’s car. While it runs well, her is 12 years old and I know she doesn’t want it breaking down. We got a GREAT deal on a car. We arranged it through a friend before we left (she is a travel agent). She got us a subcompact car for the whole time we were there with unlimited miles, for about $85. You really can’t beat it.
When we arrived at the rental agency, we were helped by a very nice guy. He took one look at us (big people) and said, “Don’t tell me you are seriously gonna drive a subcompact car for a week. You know this is the smallest car on the planet right?” We admitted that although we did know this, we wanted something with good gas mileage (the average price of gas on O’ahu right now is $1.77/gallon). He laughed and we continued talking. He asked us some questions and then said to me, “You’re local aren’t you?” I smiled and said, “How did you know?” (I’m not dark skinned or anything like that.) He laughed and said, “I just know. I can tell by your demeanor. You know how it is… you can spot a local a mile away.” I admitted that he was right. He smiled at me and said, “Don’t worry. From one local to another, I’ll hook you up here.” He then proceeded to upgrade our TINY subcompact car to a Chevy Tracker for the entire week FREE of charge. I was floored. It really pays to be nice to people. This was Mike’s first encounter with local people and he was also floored… I told him that this is how people are in Hawaii… this is what we call “Aloha spirit.” So, when it was all said and done, taxes and all, out the door, we paid $101 for a Chevy Tracker for an entire week. Talk about a SCORE!
We took off and went to my mom’s house. We dropped off our luggage, changed out of our clothes (into shorts!) and took off. My mom, husband, baby, cousin and I went to a little dive that I LOVE to eat at when I’m home. We ordered really yummy curry and headed down to the beach to eat and watch the sun set. It was SO nice. Mike was just so happy to be doing that. We talked, got caught up on a lot of things with my cousin, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was sunny, breezy and cool the whole time we were there. It never got above 80 degrees during our vacation. Nice! We left and went home at that point.
My mom moved since the last time I was home, so she gave us a little tour of her new house, which is very, very nice. It’s a hundred times better than the tiny apartment that I grew up in. Our really, really good friends live behind her on the same property and we talked with them for awhile and got caught up with them. They too are like family. I’ve known them most of my life. I used to take care of their older daughter from the time she was born (she’s nearly 14 now!) She’s all grown up! We made plans for the next day and just relaxed.
My friend Lynne (the one who lives behind them with her husband and two daughters), let us use her Pack-and-Play to allow Ethan to sleep in. It was truly a blessing. Mike and I each slept on twin beds. Ethan generally would go to sleep in the Pack-and-Play and wind up in bed with his dad at some point in the night. That is okay. Overall, he did really well. He continued to take two naps a day and sleep long hours at night. The only hard part was that our room wasn’t as dark or as quiet as he is used to at home (and it was a lot warmer). But I must say that he transitioned really well!
On Monday morning, we got up and got ready for a day at the beach. Lynne and my mom got sandwich fixings and packed up a cooler full of food. We were headed out to my aunt’s house on the other side of the island. She has a house on the beach and it’s just heaven.
I need to talk about my aunt’s house here for a moment before I talk about the day itself. This house and the beach that she lives on are very, very special to me. I spent many, many weekends at her home and the beach there growing up. It is a beautiful beach and is very often deserted. It’s a residential area, so there are homes all along the beach, but there really are no tourists there at all. There have been days when I’ve gone to that beach and not seen a single person on either side, as far as I could see. I always feel like I’m truly in paradise when I’m there. I call this beach my “happy place”. I may have mentioned this before in my journal, but I am going to talk about it once again. When I am in a lot of pain, mainly from migraine headaches, I often go to my “happy place.” I will turn off all the lights in my room, turn on a fan, find a comfortable position on the bed, and then go there. In my mind, I imagine that I am in that happy spot. I work through my five senses, very slowly, one by one. I think about all of the things that I can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. As I do this, I imagine the waves coming up to touch my feet and as they recede back into the ocean, I imagine that they take my pain away with them. I can honestly say that no medication has ever truly taken a migraine headache away from me… but going to my happy place and using visualization has worked EVERY time. It is better than any drug. I spent a lot of time here (in my head of course) while I was in labor with Ethan and I think this is what helped me to endure labor pain for as long as I did. Having said all that…
Monday was our big day at my happy place… this beautiful, paradisical piece of heaven on earth. We stopped at a bakery and got a chocolate cake to take to my aunt and then we made the scenic drive over to her house. As soon as we arrived, before we even got the gate open, I could smell the salty air and it was as though I had never left. We piled out of our cars and greeted my aunt and uncle. It was good to be back there. We sat and talked for awhile and then we headed out her back gate and down the path to the water. Oh, it was so joyful. I had been waiting for so long to take Mike and Ethan there. This was Ethan’s first real ocean trip. We all slathered ourselves in sunscreen and then Mike took Ethan down to the water while I rolled the video camera. They both seemed to be in heaven and absolutely loved the water. Ethan really, really enjoyed himself! After frolicking in the waves and the sand for awhile, we all headed back up to the house to eat lunch. Then we chatted for awhile and got caught up on the news of our extended family. It was so nice. I put Ethan to sleep and he slept on a quilt on the floor for nearly two hours. Mike and I took a walk on the beach during this time and really had a nice time. Then we said our goodbyes and piled back into our cars and headed home.
That evening, we had a big barbeque. Lynne’s husband had barbequed a bunch of really good steak and chicken. We had that with potato salad, green salad, corn, and I can’t remember what else… I just know it was good. Afterwards, Lynne’s husband played with guitar while he and their daughter entertained us with some songs. It was such a nice evening. We then all hit the hay, tired after a long day of playing in the sun!
On Tuesday morning, we woke up and my mom had already gone to work. She arranged to work from 6am to 2pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so that she could have the afternoons with us. Mike and I got up and dressed Ethan. After his morning nap, we went down to where my mother works so that she could introduce her grandson to all of her coworkers. I could tell she was so proud of him. I used to work with some of the people on her office, so it was really nice for me to be able to see some of them after so many years. We didn’t stay too long. After that, we went to Costco. They have a lot of different things at the Costco in Hawaii and we wanted to check them out. We bought some candy to bring home to friends and family and a couple of other things. It was fun to see all the local goodies that they can get there. After this, we stopped a favorite and popular bakery so that I could share one of my favorite desserts with him. That was fun. We also went back to the little dive we had eaten at on Sunday and got more good food and brought it home for lunch.
When I got home, Lynne’s husband called me and asked what we were doing. I said we were just shopping and then relaxing. He was so sweet… he got us tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center. He didn’t just get any tickets either, he got tickets that included everything. The PCC is a very large center that has exhibits of many different Polynesian cultures (Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, Maori, Fijian, Tahitian, and others). The tickets included seeing the exhibits, having a beautiful dinner, going to the IMAX theater there, and attending a night show (where each culture showcases dancing, music, etc.). It is a BIG deal and the tickets are pretty pricey. He made the reservations for that night. We were excited.
We left Ethan with my mom and were happy to have a night out all to ourselves! We got in the car and headed out! The drive to that side of the island is very beautiful. I went to school on that side of the island over ten years ago and I never, ever got tired of that drive. It is long, since much of it is on a 2-lane highway, but it is beautiful and often within arms’ reach of the ocean. Mike really enjoyed it. When we rounded the corner, just past Kahana Bay, we knew something was up. Traffic stopped. We crept and crawled for quite some time. Just before reaching Hau’ula (a short distance from our eventual destination), we had to turn the car around. A water main had broken, flooding the road and we were told that the road would be closed for at least 12-24 hours. Talk about major disappointment. We could have gone back around to the other side of the island, but that would have taken well over 2 hours and we would have missed most of the show. We also would have had to drive home that way and it would have been very long and late. Even if we HAD tried to go around, I know it would have taken twice as long as usual. News reports had already gone out about the road closure and everyone working in town had already begun heading in that same direction to get to their homes on that side of the island. My heart sank. Luckily, Mike kept a really good attitude. He said that even though we didn’t get to go, he still enjoyed the drive and having some “alone time” without Ethan there. I had to agree. We stopped in Kane’ohe and did some shopping, had some ice cream, and just enjoyed the evening. We got home in time to watch the first night of American Idol!
On Wednesday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at a favorite place of mine. We ate fried rice and omelets made with Portuguese sausage… yum! Afterwards, we stopped at the store and I picked up a really pretty bouquet of flowers. We then headed up to the famous national cemetery of the Pacific… more commonly known as “Punchbowl”. My grandmother is buried there with her husband. When I lived in Hawaii, I used to go there often and visit her gravesite. She died on July 17, 1995. It was an emotional day for me. As we entered the memorial grounds, I could already feel my eyes stinging. It had been way too long since I had been there. We drove around and parked near the section she was buried in. We got out of the car and made the trek up the hill to her grave site. The weather was perfect. The breezes were blowing and I could feel her spirit there more strongly than I had ever felt it before. I finally felt like I got to make some formal introductions to my husband and son. It was so quiet and peaceful there. We sat down and used the clippers to cut the grass and get the vase out of the ground. I then took it down to the faucet and rinsed it out and filled it with water. I brought it back and clipped the stems from the flowers and filled the vase with them. They were bright red and beautiful and so full of life. I said some silent words to my grandmother and thanked her for being the wonderful person that she was. I was doing okay until we stood to leave and then the flood gates opened. I cried. I miss her so much. She was really the rock of our family. She taught us well and as a result, our family is just as strong as it was before, but still, that pillar is missing and it hurts. Mike hugged me and let me cry for awhile. It was so cleansing to be there and to spend some time there. I am thrilled that I made time to do that while I was at home.
After spending time there, we headed out to Aloha Stadium to cruise around the swap meet. The swap meet is held every Wednesday and every Saturday. The one on Saturday is bigger, but there is still a lot to see and experience on Wednesdays. In some ways, it’s nicer because it isn’t as crowded and it’s easier to find parking that isn’t a mile away. We had a great time. We put Ethan in the stroller and started out around the stadium. The weather was again perfect. In fact, there were a lot of clouds in the sky, so the sun kept peeking out and then hiding, making for a really cool afternoon. We found a lot of great bargains. I bought some Hawaiian printed fabric to bring home. I got some for $2.50 a yard, which is a great price. I like to make baby blankets with it to give away to people. We found Ethan some really cute outfits that he’ll be able to wear this summer. Mike got some very comfortable shorts and an Aloha shirt that he looks great in. Plus, I finally found a RIPE papaya! The grocery stores had a ton of papayas, but they were completely green and our stay was short that I knew they wouldn’t ripen up before we had to leave. I was so happy to find a ripe one. Ethan and I enjoyed it for breakfast the next morning! My only regret was that it was not mango season! You can get mangos in Washington, but they are all imported from Mexico. They have a different taste than the Hawaiian grown mangos. When I get a craving, the Mexican mangos just don’t do the trick for me. Oh well. I can’t have it all. We also found some calendars there that were a mere dollar! We scored!
After finishing up at the swap meet, we packed up and headed back to the area that my mom lives in. We stopped at Burger King for lunch. Yes, I know that we can get Burger King at home, but I did have my reasons for going. First of all, I was simply craving it and second, they have fruit punch there. That may sound strange but the fruit punch that they sell in eateries in Hawaii is not the same fruit punch they sell here on the mainland. It isn’t the same and it’s one of those little things that I REALLY miss about Hawaii. So, I got my cravings satisfied. Ethan took a nice long nap while we ate lunch. When my mom got home in the afternoon, we headed out to do some shopping. We went to Daiei, which is a Japanese store in Hawaii. My husband has lived in Japan and speaks the language and LOVES to visit Japanese stores. I had actually taken him there the day before, but we went again so that my mom could pick up a couple of things. They had a dollar section that had some very cool stuff. We got a new chef knife for our kitchen. It’s the best knife I’ve ever owned and I got it for a buck. My mom got one as well. After going through Daiei, we headed over to another Japanese store called Shirokiya. Mike had a lot of fun in there. When we were done shopping, we went and ate at a Yakiniku restaurant and had a GREAT time. It was a lot of fun and it brought back a lot of memories for Mike of living in Japan. We then went home and we all crashed early. It had been a great day.
On Thursday morning, I woke up not feeling well at all. I had a sore throat and I just knew that something was brewing. I was frustrated because I knew we had a very, very long day and night ahead of us (we caught the red-eye flight out that night). I threw in a couple of loads of laundry. I washed all the linens we had used and then washed all of our clothes. I was so thankful I took the time to do it because we were absolutely dead when we got home and it was nice to have clean clothes. We didn’t do much of anything on Thursday morning. We just relaxed, enjoyed the morning at home, finished up the laundry, and waited for my mom to get home from work (she finished up early at 1pm). By the time she got home, all of us were starving so we packed up and headed over to a favorite Korean barbeque place for lunch. GOOD food! We then went to Costco again and looked around some more and picked up a few more local goodies that we can’t get at home. That same afternoon, we headed up to the Pali Lookout so that I could show Mike that famous landmark. We got some really cool pictures up there. When we got home, my friend Lynne had made all of us dinner. It was so sweet of her. By then the clock was ticking and we didn’t have much time. We had to unfortunately eat and run. When we finished dinner, it was 7:30pm. We had one hour to get all packed and get our rental car cleaned out and returned (by 9pm). My mom told us that we didn’t have to vacuum the car but there was a notice on our agreement that if the car was returned dirty (with sand or other debris in it), they would charge a $50 cleaning fee to our card! Yikes! We were so busy and while we were packing up (and washing bottles, I might add), Lynne got out her vacuum cleaner and cleaned out our car completely. It was so nice. She made the car look brand new. After this was all done, we piled our bags and Ethan (in his car seat) into my mom’s car. Mike and I got into the rental and headed over to turn in the car. As soon as we got finished up, my mom pulled in and picked us up. Lynne was with her. They drove us over to the ticketing area and dropped us off. It was hard to say goodbye. I know that it’s going to be a very long time until we get back there.
I’ll be having another baby in June. The flight over to Honolulu was so hard with a one-year-old. I know that it’ll be awhile before Mike and I agree to do this with two children. Besides, it’ll be a LONG time before we will be able to afford a trip like that. I’m really, really glad that we went!
We got all checked in and then headed over to the gate to play the waiting game… hoping and praying that we’d all get on the flight… hoping and praying that we could take the car seat on the flight. As soon as the airline personnel showed up at the gate, we begged and told them of our plight. They were really nice to us. Not only did they let us take the seat on the plane, but they upgraded us to Medallion class (it’s like business class and the seats are bigger). We had a row to ourselves. I think that that row tends to fill up last because the bathrooms are on either side of it. No worries. It was worth it to have the car seat on board. My little angel bug slept the ENTIRE flight! Because we had the trade winds in our favor, the flight back to SLC was a very short 5 hours, instead of the 7 it took us in the opposite direction. Admittedly, he did need to sleep on Mike for part of the trip, but we were okay with that. Mike and I tried to sleep but absolutely could not get comfortable. It was hard because we were both exhausted. When we touched down in SLC, Ethan woke up, smiled at us, and closed his eyes again. We waited until everyone got off the plane and then disembarked last. Ethan STILL didn’t wake up. We were starving and headed over to the Burger King in the airport and got breakfast. We sat there, ate breakfast, read the paper, and Ethan STILL didn’t wake up. He was completely in his routine and even the airport didn’t bother him. When we got over to the gate to wait for our flight back to Seattle, he woke up. It was another two hours until departure. He played, walked around the terminal, got into everything and expended a lot of energy. It was great. The flight back to Seattle was nearly full. A man sitting next to us offered to go and sit elsewhere so that we could keep our car seat on board and sit together. It was so nice of him. As the plane was taxiing down the runway, Ethan fell asleep for his morning nap and didn’t wake up until just before we landed. He even slept through the turbulence, which was bad enough that the pilot suspended beverage service and the flight attendants had to remain belted during the flight. What an angel my baby was!
We got into Seattle and it honestly felt good to FINALLY be back home. I did great all the way up until we hit the baggage claim area. Outside the baggage claim is the ONLY place at SeaTac airport that people are allowed to smoke (or so I’ve been told). Every time those doors would slide open, excessive amounts of cigarette smoke would waft into the area and I was getting sicker by the minute. The morning sickness is gone, but certain things still send me over the edge… cigarette smoke is one of them. I moved as far back as I could to avail. We finally got our bags and met our ride – outside in the smoky area. Combine that with the thick stench of airport diesel as well as my sore throat, runny nose, and cough and it was nearly a recipe for disaster. I had to breathe through my jacket and came very, very close to losing the contents of my stomach. Luckily, the car was nice. The other hard thing is that whenever I am pregnant, I cannot cough without gagging, even if I don’t feel nauseated. It makes it really tough to have a cold and NOT be able to cough. UGH.
We got home and we were absolutely dead. We had to take Ethan to the doctor a couple of hours later (we called for an appointment while we were still in the car). He has a skin tag on his bottom that has been there since birth. It’s always been fine. Well, until we went to Hawaii that is. We went to put him the shower one day and noticed it was red, doubled in size and looked nasty. I tried to express some pus out of it but there was nothing. The only thing that happened was that a layer of it flaked off. Weird. The doctor brought in a second doctor and the two of them decided it was infected even though it had no drainage. They put him on cephalexin (his very first antibiotic) and we go back Tuesday to have it rechecked. As of today (Monday) it is much better already.
Anyway, after we got home from the 4pm doctor appointment, Ethan was wiped out completely. We weren’t even able to keep him awake in the car. We took him to his room and put him in his crib and then Mike and I crashed. This was at about 5:30pm. We woke up with Ethan around 7pm. He was crying. We got him back to sleep and then none of moved until 7:30 the next morning! (Yes, I called in sick to work… I was actually supposed to go to work the night we got back… but I was so sick I just knew I’d never make it.)
It’s been nice to be home and back in a routine. We’ve been working on our house. Today alone, I’ve done 6 loads of laundry. It’s been a challenge but it needs to get done.
Update On The Jellybean
It’s taken me a couple of days to get this entry written. I wanted to say that two nights ago, I moved into the guest room to sleep because my husband’s snoring was keeping me up. It’s a much harder mattress in that room. Each time I turned over, I felt the beautiful tapping of my jellybean on my lower abdomen. I think he/she was feeling a bit cramped in there. Either way, I was so happy to be feeling it and it brought me such sweet relief. Today, I have felt some other movements. In fact, the jellybean moved into a position where I think that for the first time, I could actually feel the baby through my skin (part of my tummy was harder… there was a little bit of a ball under the skin). Again, sweet relief. I know I’m just being paranoid because it was different and earlier with Ethan. I’m a mother… I think I’ll probably be paranoid for the rest of my life!
Ethan
My angel is doing so well. He cut another tooth while we were in Hawaii. He has nearly perfected his walking skills. My mom has really hard floors and he loved being able to walk around there and even tried to run when he was excited. He is so cute and such a little man. No new vocabulary developments to speak of, but I know that will come in time. After a couple of nights of waking up several times in the night, he is finally back to his old pattern and is sleeping right through. This week, he is a different child. I know I say that a lot, but it’s true each time I say it. He has changed and matured a little more. He is so much fun to play with and interact with. You can just see the wheels in his brain spinning. He is trying harder to imitate things and I know he will be saying more words soon. He is mastering the sippy cup a lot better in the last couple of days. We are so happy about that. He still takes a bottle in the morning and at night, but I try to keep him on a sippy cup during the day. As soon as he has mastered it completely, I’ll take the bottles away and see how he does. We tried him on cold milk and he refuses to drink it. So for now, we are still heating it up… not real warm, just enough to take the chill off and he likes it better that way.
This entry is WAY too long already so I’ll end here. I have another doctor appointment tomorrow and so does Ethan. My laundry is calling to me and I should get moving and get it finished. Since it’s late afternoon, I guess I should also start thinking about dinner. Off and running now…
Christina, Ethan & the Jellybean (by the way, I had another girl dream last night... but still have no feeling either way if it's a boy or a girl!)
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