Before and...In Progress: Back Deck

One of the things we knew we were going to have to replace when we bought our house was the back deck. The wood was extremely weathered and splintering, some of the spindles were loose and in general, it was old. We solved the problem temporarily last summer by putting down a big outdoor rug that covered a lot of the area:

It made it so we didn't have to worry as much about wood spikes in bare feet. But as spring approached this year (actually what spring? It's 40 degrees today!) we knew it was time to tackle it. Luckily, my handy brother-in-law (of kitchen fame) and my dad offered to come down from VT and help. If you ask me, it was really that they were looking for an excuse to use their tools. Same with Jason. But anyway, we picked a weekend in April (which was last weekend/Easter weekend) and Jason started the prep.

The week before, he and Berg tackled the demo.

All ready for new planks.

One of the nice bonuses of this deck project has been that it has turned into a complete backyard makeover. You can see Jason is taking down the old swingset that came with our house. We originally thought it would be great to have but parts of it were broken and it wasn't in great shape. So, buh-bye swingset!

Just yesterday Jason seeded and watered so hopefully that backyard will be green in no time. In his words, "I'm going to grow grass back there if it's the last thing I do!"

Where was I. Oh the deck. After the demo, Home Depot came to deliver the wood. We went with the pressure-treated stuff vs. composite, basically because it was half the cost and we don't plan to be in this house until the end of time.

Jason moved all the wood into the backyard until build day. Which looked like this, in no particular order.

 So where does all this leave us. It's not quite finished - Jason needs to put the spindles up and we want to lattice the sides (not pictured). We also have to wait to stain it or paint it for, like, months. Until it has had enough exposure to the elements or something? I could look up the reason but don't care enough. So without further ado...here is where we are at.

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

And some stairs shots, not the same angle but you get it.

A couple other highlights besides the death of the swingset. Behold, this awful picture from before we moved in.

Arrow denotes the "Before" area. It looks like this now.

Jason used the old weathered deck wood to build up a bed, plant trees, and mulch it. We are thinking about doing this around the perimeter of the entire yard to hide the fence instead of replacing it (it's in worse shape than the deck was). But it's a significant investment in trees so we will see. 

Jason also repurposed the old deck wood to add some character to the back basement entrance of our house. He laid the planks over the existing bumpy cement to create a new walkway.

It looks pretty neat and we talked about chipping all the moss out and painting the little stone retaining walls on each side. 

So the moral of this post is, we've done a lot but there is still a lot left!

6 Weeks PP

Well I am officially 6 weeks PP (that's "postpartum" for the layperson). I motored on over Newton-Wellesley this morning for my final followup appointment. Honestly, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I've been in non-maternity jeans for awhile now and even though things are still pretty squishy under there, I get a lot of compliments at how I look considering I've "just" had a baby.

Not so fast, Kristen, not so fast.

So there I am in the waiting room and my name is called. They take my blood pressure and ask me to step on the scale. I said, "You really make women do this after only six weeks?" like half-jokingly. I wasn't worried until the scale registered my poundage. 140, which is still a solid 10 pounds from where I started. Hmmm. This was...unexpected. Listen, I have the sense to know that the reason some of my old clothes don't fit isn't because they shrunk in the dryer. But I didn't think I was that far off.

I glanced over at the nurse who was looking at my chart, comparing the numbers and realizing what I had just realized. 

"You'd be surprised how many women at back at their fighting weight by this appointment," she said. It should be noted that "like you" or any other words that would imply my inclusion were not added. Humpf. I could say that I came home and did not have a brownie after lunch, but that would be a lie. I guess I'm hoping the last 10 pounds will magically take care of themselves. Because that happens, right? ;)

Alex is about 80% better that he was last week. He still has trouble with mucous sometimes and it drives me crazy because I just want to say "Cough!" so he will clear it. Instead he just rasps and I find myself coughing FOR him haha. Poor baby. He also still keeps me up all night with his grunting and farm animal noises. Jason finally slept in the guest room last night because I told him at least one of us should get some sleep. What else...results from dairy elimination are unclear. This is likely due to my relapse when we were in the hospital so I've had to start all over. But is this the reason for the nighttime discomfort and resulting noises? According to my baby sleep book (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - I swear by it), fussiness and crying peaks at 6 weeks of age. So the answer is, who the heck knows. But also at this age, I should start to get four to six hour sleep stretches at night from Alex so anytime he wants to show me this is fine. Anytime at all, really :)

Easter Weekend (aka "My kids just looooove to get sick")

We did not have a traditional Easter. No we did not.

It did start out that way. It started out great, actually. The weather was gorgeous, we had the VT crew in town to re-do our deck, and it was my sister's 30th birthday. I had been looking forward to the visitors and the long weekend for awhile. On Saturday morning, Ashton, Kari and I went over to Belmont for their annual kids' egg hunt. I use the word "hunt" loosely as the eggs basically formed a carpet over the field. Impossible to "not find" ;) Thankfully they had a toddler-only area in the fenced playground because those big kids meant business.

The hunt began at 10:00 am. It was over by 10:06 am.

Ready, go!

At approximately 10:04 am, we hit a small speedbump. A little girl picked up Ashton's basket. 

You can actually see him saying, "Nooooo!!" 

When 3.5 seconds passed and she was still grasping the handle, he ran out to find me. Emotions were high.

He walked around for awhile, blinded by his tears. Little did he know, there were more to come: the egg limit per kid was 10. He had collected at least 40. The return process was not easy.

= more sobs.

But once I persuaded him to open the eggs he still had, things were better.

Mini tootsie rolls to the rescue! So that was the egg hunt. It was a cute event, they had balloons, music, facepainting, etc. and any parent within a 5 mile radius was there. That's a lot - we live a family-dense area. But it was a good way to spend 6 minutes so we will likely do it again next year.

We got home and had lunch on our new deck (not quite complete so I'm not ready for my before-and-after post on that) and Kari and I went off to get pedicures in honor of her birthday. When we got back, I scooped up Alex and he felt warm to me. I took his temp, it was 100.2. 45 minutes later, it was 100.4, which is the magic fever-number for babies and I called the pediatrician's answering service (these things always happen on nights, weekends and holidays!!). By the time they called me back, it was 100.5 and before I knew it, I had been referred to the emergency room. Luckily Newton-Wellesley has a phenomenal pediatric ER so, off I went with Alex. How could I not? But it was JUST when it was time for cocktails on a gorgeous sunny afternoon. Sigh.

I could make the next 48 hours into a super long post in and of itself, how we were admitted, the tests they ran (OH the tests!!), the ups and downs, but basically, for two days they monitored Alex's temperature and oxygen levels, and we waited for blood cultures to come back to make sure whatever was making him sick was not bacterial and therefore would require antibiotics. It was a long, long wait. This is the room that Alex and I lived in:

He had a little baby IV and spent most of the time sleeping.

But when he was awake, he was mostly his happy little self. Doesn't he look so big??

 At one point, Alex was really alert and kept glancing around so they brought in a mobile for him to look at.

I don't know why but this made my emotional-basketcase-of-a-self cry sooo much. For my own situation but also for so many other parents whose kids are way sicker and who have to stay in hospitals way longer. It's almost too much to take.

Anyway, so that is where I spent my Easter. Once they were certain the cultures were negative and it was a viral respiratory infection (which I knew it was - Ashton coughed right in Alex's face every chance he got), we got to go home. It was Marathon Monday, Patriots Day in Massachusetts and the 7 year anniversary of my first date with Jason :) It was another beautiful day and a reminder that while my life had virtually stopped for the past two days, the world had gone on like it always does. 

Today, two days later, Alex is actually sicker, his cough has worsened (like I was told it would) and he struggles a lot with mucous. He doesn't nurse that well so I've been pumping and in general, just anxious for this to pass. Ashton, for his part, was so glad to have Alex home that he piled toys on his head the first time Alex made the mistake of taking a nap.

I can't tell you how many calls, texts and emails I've gotten from people who are worried about Alex. It really helps to know he has so many people that love him and are sending him good thoughts! Thank you so so much. xoxo

One month old

Alex is, like, a month old! Whoaaaa. We had his well-visit this morning and he weighs 10 pounds 7 ounces, which is 60th percentile and almost exactly what Ashton was. Oh and he is 21.5 inches long, which is 50th percentile. I didn't ask what his head measurement was (how's that for second child syndrome) but was told it is 80th percentile. So, all good except...he has tons of little baby acne. The breakout is official. It spreads from his cheeks down to his shoulders and arms so while I still think he is adorable, I'm probably the only person on the planet that does haha. But that's ok :) There's not much to report, lately I have been feeding him around 10 pm and putting him to bed by 10:30 pm, he is up for one feeding at 3 am and then again at 6-6:30 am, at which point he usually sleeps on my chest or next to me in bed because he is at his gassiest (haha) at that time. He still is so grunty but not like he was before I gave up dairy so...maybe it's working? I'm going to give it another few days and then gorge myself on some cheese or something and see what happens.

Things have been much more eventful with Ashton, who ALSO had a pediatrician visit this morning. It was a followup to this past Tuesday, when I was forced to take him in for the same respiratory illness he had three weeks ago. Another two hour afternoon, missed nap, two nebulizers, oxygen tests, etc. before they sent us up to Lexington Children's Hospital for a chest x-ray. They were worried about pneumonia, which thankfully he does not have, but we've been on four nebulizers a day with a steroid inhalant plus albuterol and well, Ashton has been the tasmanian devil. It's been a really trying few days, he literally spins around destroying the house. And of course it hasn't been above 40 degrees since Monday so we've been inside. But today was much better and we are going to scale back the nebulizers ("tubes") as Ashton calls them, and hopefully be outside a lot this weekend. We have quite a team coming into town to rebuild our back deck so watch for that before and after post next week!

Besides the pediatrician, we've had some better outings. Last week we went to Drumlin Farms to see the baby animals with my friend Kathleen and her twin boys Jackson and Adrian, who turned 3 in January (fun fact: Kathleen's husband is the chef at Anthem, where Jason worked for a couple years before the Lenox, which was before Brae Burn). They live in Watertown too. So we packed up and it was a beautiful day. You can imagine with three boys that never stop moving, you don't get great pictures. These were my best shots.

While we are on animals, Jason had the Barnyard Babies at Brae Burn last weekend for their annual kids' Bunny Brunch (whoa how is that for some B's!). It was pouring and a crappy day but Ashton Alex and I made the trip over and the babies were so cute - weeks old, just like Alex :) 

The Easter Bunny was also there, Ashton was not so into that. I find that most small kids aren't. Those costumes are scary! 

In between all the animal action in the past week, there was some gardening...

Some living room picnicking...

Outdoor napping...

And general brotherly love.

I also have some really good news...I was officially approved to go back to work part time, two days a week, once my maternity leave ends (June 2) through the end of the summer. I am breathing a big sigh of relief! More time at home with Alex and also more time to figure out what our full time childcare situation is going to be. Lots of options (and lots of $$$!) but I'm so happy and reminded how lucky I am to have such a great job.

Let's see what else...Jason and I are taking the plunge on some big house projects this month, so hopefully that will make for some good posts! And of course we've got Easter on Sunday, the Marathon on Monday, and lots more fun things on the calendar. Busy busy busy...should be a good Spring (ahem, Mother Nature, that was a hint - please raise the temps, I've got boys that need to get outside)!