Laura sure has a lot of gall...

in her gall bladder that's infected and hanging with a gall stone. Seriously. Today Laura was diagnosed with an infected gallbladder and gallstone and has a surgery consult on Monday. Uh huh. That's right. Laura probably needs surgery. Next week.

For cryin' out loud.

I started laughing hysterically tonight when the doctor called back after getting the ultrasound results. Here's what Laura's end of the conversation sounded like:

"You want me to go to the ER tonight and be ADMITTED?"

*Pause*

"Uh huh"

*Pause*

"You're worried about it rupturing?"

*Pause*

"Okay but I'd really rather not"

A long pause while she listened

"Okay, then I'll do the surgery consult Monday and if I'm in severe pain, we'll go right to the ER".

We then filled her prescription for 2 antibiotics and pain meds. The vicodin she had taken a few days ago didn't touch it so they gave her something stronger.

Laura is not writing because we don't want to offend your delicate eyes with the expletives that might come out.

Simon, by the way, is awesome and is now over 18 pounds and can barely see his feet over his huge gut.

After his G-tube surgery, he and Laura can have matching scars on their bellies.

How sweet.

Good 1st Day of 2009

I got to be the parent I planned to be today. It was awesome. Laura went to go visit her sister who is visiting and Simon and I were on our own. He woke up and I make the snap decision to walk about a mile to our friend's house to go to their brunch. I grabbed him, the stroller, the pump and food and we were off. It was brilliant. We're settling into a new normal, in a lot of ways.

On another front, Laura has been having really intense stomach cramping, only at night, that sometimes lasts ALL NIGHT, meaning she gets no sleep. This is a problem. She's going to the doctor on Friday to rule out something physiological and then we're going to figure out how to tackle the stress that is most likely causing it.

Tonight I was saying that I wonder if now that things have settled down and we're not in constant crisis mode if her body is trying to re-create the cortisol/adrenaline experience. That's often what happens to me- I'm awesome in the middle of whatever hell is breaking loose but when it's over, I'm a mess. Seems like so far I'm doing okay, but I also bear so much less of the brunt of all this. It's been very sweet to have lots of time with Simon while Laura is out of commission, but it is definitely a lot of work. I can only imagine how much more so if he's symptomatic and/or there are places to go and things to do.

Simon is so much fun right now. He really hardly ever cries- when waking up and sometimes if something is uncomfortable and other than that, hardly ever. What a change from the inconsolable 4 month old who went into the hospital. He's got personality but we don't have to chase him or worry about baby proofing yet. Soon. That's coming soon. He's starting to look like he's going to crawl and he's getting really wiggly and wants to stand a lot. I think he's going to be a mover.

This is so much harder and so much more fun than I thought it would be. Ultimate parenting cliche, right? It's true though. I just keep saying to Laura, "I really LIKE Simon." He's a very cool little guy with a ton of personality...

Laura is trying to sleep through some stomach cramps and I'm back to obessively trolling Facebook for people I know. I've created a monster by getting on Facebook. Seriously.