Finding a New Home in Oxford & A Joint Birthday Party for Two Cute Cousins

Samantha: 36 Months, Week 3
Aedan: Week 5

On Tuesday this week, Daddy worked on campus all day.  Aedan took a nap in the swing that morning, giving Samantha and I special time to play outside in the sandbox and out on the patio.  We even took a little trip to the doctor to weigh Aedan to see how much his weight was at around one month old.  He was 10 pounds, 15 ounces.  I didn't get his height, but I can tell he has grown because he is no longer fitting in his newborn clothes anymore and when I lay him down in the bassinet at night, he takes up much more space than he did before.

Samantha loves her little brother.  Every morning when he wakes up and we bring him downstairs, she is so excited to see him.  She will squeal, say his name over and over again, and come to give him lots of hugs, kisses, and squeezes.

After Ben's phone call with Miami University on Monday, we decided that it would be a good idea to visit Oxford, to look at places to live, and to get a feel for the city.  There really was no reason for Ben not to take the job, unless for some reason I didn't want him to.  At first, thinking about moving was a bit overwhelming to me so I didn't know what I thought.  I was excited because we were hoping for something like this for Ben for next year, and Miami is a really good school, plus it's close by, so it's not like we would have to move far away from family.  However, after the other couple of interviews he had earlier this year, nothing else much had come up, so I switched my state of mind to planning on being in Bloomington another year.  Everything with the position at Miami was so sudden that it took me awhile to wrap my mind around it, around the fact that we would be leaving Bloomington at the end of the summer, leaving the one place that we have actually enjoyed living and will miss when we leave.  So, on Tuesday afternoon we made plans for our trip to Oxford, booking a hotel for a couple nights and contacting as many places as we could to start looking for possible places to live.  We were planning on going to Upland for the weekend anyways for a joint birthday party for Samantha and Alaina, so we figured we would just leave a couple days early, and leave Samantha with Upland Grandpa and Grandma so we would be better able to look around for places to live without a 3 year old and a newborn along with us.

Since we decided so much at the last minute to go to Oxford to look for a place to live, it was a bit of a hectic morning on Wednesday getting packed up and out the door.  Aedan had taken a good nap in his swing that morning, and I tried to transfer him to the car seat and keep him asleep, hoping that he would continue sleeping long enough to get us to Martinsville where we could stop for lunch while I nursed Aedan.  Well, that was wishful thinking, and we had to stop sooner than that because Aedan was just not a happy camper.  He woke up hungry and the pacifier just wasn't doing it for him.  Ben took Samantha into the gas station to go potty and get a snack while I stayed in the car and nursed Aedan.  After that, we got on the road, got Aedan to fall asleep pretty quickly, went through a drive through Wendy's for lunch, and continued on our way to Upland.  Aedan slept the rest of the way, and Samantha did a really good job in the back seat looking at books and playing with toys quietly while Aedan slept next to her.  (I knew it was a good idea to bring all 35 of our library books in the car with us!  Looking through each book in the bag took up at least an hour of our trip.)

We got to Upland right in the middle of Samantha's nap time, so we knew a nap was not going to happen that day, but we figured she could survive one day without a nap as long as she was put to bed a little earlier that night.  Aedan kept sleeping for quite a while in his car seat.  Once he finally woke up, I nursed him, changed his diaper, and Ben and I hit the road, on our way to Oxford, Ohio.  For being a one month old baby, he did pretty well in the car, but you could tell he was tired of being in his car seat.  We had to stop once on our way to Ohio to nurse him, but other than that we had a pretty quiet, peaceful car trip.  Traveling with a sleeping newborn is much more relaxing than traveling with a chatty 3 year old.

Our first stop when we got to Oxford was a rental office where we could get a blueprint of some houses we were interested in.  The office was part of a laundromat and the lady we talked to didn't seem to know what she was talking about, but it didn't matter anyways because we found out someone else already had an application in for the houses, so there was no point in us even filling out an application.

We had nothing else scheduled until the next day, so we got dinner at Skyline Chili, and went back to the hotel to eat and relax.  All three of us were pretty tired from a long day of traveling and dealing with two kids.  However, just as we ate dinner and got settled in, we found out that we had to evacuate the hotel because someone smelled gas, and they had to get the gas company to come check it out.  So, we loaded Aedan back up in the car and drove around Oxford while he slept, writing down a few more websites and phone numbers to check out for places that had "For Rent" signs up that were not listed anywhere online.  After about an hour  of driving around Oxford, we went back and were able to get back into our hotel, so we settled in for the night and went to bed pretty quickly.  Being in a new place, sleeping in a pack and play rather than his bassinet, and traveling so much that day, made our first night in the hotel not very restful.  Aedan did okay falling asleep at the beginning of the night, but then after waking up to nurse, he had a hard time falling back asleep, squirming and grunting as soon as I would lay him in the pack and play.  I was getting a bit frustrated because I was so tired and just wanted to go to sleep, so Ben graciously took Aedan and walked back and forth in the hotel room until he fell asleep, then laying him in the pack and play.  He stayed asleep that time and the rest of the night went much better.

Thursday morning was a little bit of a relaxed morning as we didn't have any scheduled appointments to get to.  Plus, it's amazing how long it takes to get ready when you have a little baby to take care of and get ready.  There's a lot of tag teaming involved just to get Mommy and Daddy both showered, dressed, and eating breakfast.

Our first stop was a house out in Hamilton, which as we drove, we discovered was farther from campus than we really would like to be.  Our Saturn is not the most reliable car to drive a considerable distance every day, and we really don't want to have to buy a new car right now just so Ben can drive to campus safely every day.  The lay out of the house was also rather odd.  Things were clean and new, but you could tell it was just an old house with new skin.  It would work, but we (I) weren't particularly impressed. After that we drove around to a few apartments, just to check them out, but there was no way we wanted to live all the way in Hamilton and just live in an apartment.  We were hopeful that the town homes we were scheduled to see on Friday morning would be promising because we were really hoping to find a place that we like that we would want to live in next year while we were here on this visit.  And so far, we were feeling pretty discouraged with the way things looked and the availability of houses in our price range.

After getting some lunch at Kroger, we went to see Ben's building, met the office staff, got a tour of his building, and saw his choice of two different offices.  (Wow, he's a real professor now, he gets his own office, and it even has a window!)  After a full morning of driving around and a lot of information to take in, we went back to the hotel to rest, discuss what we thought, and let Aedan take a good nap out of his car seat.  Ben and I were both pretty tired as well, so I wrapped Aedan up in a swaddler wrap and laid him in the pack and play for his nap so we could get some rest as well.  Ben was unable to sleep, so he just rested and watched TV while Aedan and I both took good, long naps.  I felt much better afterwards, with a much clearer mind to think, process, and make decisions about where we might want to live when we move to Oxford in August.

Here is a little video of Aedan in the car from Thursday afternoon.  I know it is a video of him crying, but it was my attempt to get a video of his cute little cry that almost sounds like a laugh.  We think it's pretty cute, even though it's kind of pathetic sounding at the same time.  It's funny how each baby's cry is so unique and distinctive.

We got to Skype with Samantha that evening, and it was good to talk to her and see her, hear about all the mischief she's been up to with Grandpa and Grandma.  We are so glad that we live close enough to grandparents so that they can help us out in these ways.  It wouldn't be too easy going house hunting with a 3 year old and a 1 month old in tow, not to mention sleeping arrangements in the hotel being difficult as well.

Here are a couple pictures from Samantha's time with Grandpa and Grandma: climbing a tree and hugging the wind turbine.

After talking with Samantha on Skype and nursing Aedan, Ben and I went out to get some dinner and go for a walk on the Miami campus.  It had rained that afternoon, taking a lot of humidity out of the air and making it a pleasant evening for a walk.  It was lovely pushing our sleeping little boy in the stroller, walking around campus together, and talking.  It was like the good old days before we had a very chatty little girl who doesn't allow for much adult conversation. :)  

Since we were out of town, I forgot to make up a sign to document a picture of what Aedan looked like when he was 1 month old, like we did for Samantha.  So, this picture is the best that we can do.  This is Aedan at 1 month!

This is a picture of the outside of Ben's building, called Harrison Hall.  The building is pretty much all for political science, so this is where Ben's office and classrooms will be.  This is where he will be spending his days come next fall.

And here I am with Aedan in his stroller.  The campus was beautiful to walk around, and we can't wait to show Samantha around once we move here in August.

After walking for awhile, we headed back to the hotel, watched a little TV, gave Aedan a bath in the hotel sink, and got to bed early.  We had a much better night that night, with Aedan staying asleep until 2:30 from when we put him to bed.  He also went back to sleep much easier than the night before, making it a much more restful night for the three of us.

Ben and I had to get up a little earlier than normal on Friday because we had a few showings scheduled for 9:30.  We were so hoping that we would like these town homes because nothing of much promise had revealed itself yet, and we were running out of time to try and find something, as we planned on leaving that afternoon.  College town rental markets are difficult, as it seems good places get snatched up early.  We knew that if we waited longer into the summer, there would possibly be even less available, and we weren't going to have the opportunity to come back and visit again.  We saw two town homes that morning.  One was cheaper and a bit smaller than the other, so we were anxious to see what the difference was between the two.  But, oh my, were we in for a surprise.  The town homes were occupied and the tenants were TOTAL slobs.  There were clothes, food, trash, you name it, everywhere.  The carpets were totally stained and even ripped up in places.  I felt disgusting just walking through on the floor, let alone touching anything in their house.  I could not believe that there are people, families with small kids even, that actually live in places like this.  

Anyways, here are some pictures I pulled from the management's website, of what our place will look like when we move into it, all cleaned, repaired, with new carpet installed.  Our town home will be the one on the right, so we only share walls with one neighbor, which is nice.  Also, we are all the way down at the end of the small road where these town homes are located, so we have grass around the front, side, and back that will pretty much be ours to use and play on.  These town homes back up to a golf course, and in front of them, across the street, is farm land.  So, we have plenty of open, quiet space around us, and not too many neighbors like we have now in our apartment complex in Bloomington.  We even have a one car garage as you can see in this picture.  We have never had a garage before, and this house has slightly less storage than what we have in our apartment now, so we'll see if we end up using the garage for storage or to park a car.

I tried to get the floor plans posted on the blog, but wasn't able to, so I'll just describe what it looks like, along with the pictures that go along with each room.

So, right when you walk in the front door, there's a small entryway and then the stairs that go up to the second floor.  The front room with the two windows you can see in the picture is the living room.  This first picture is taken from the front door, looking into the living room.  As you can see, it will have plenty of space for our two couches and our TV stand.  It's nice that there is an overhead light with a fan.

And here is another view of the living room, looking back the other way, standing in the hallway that goes past the bathroom and into the kitchen and dining room.

Here is a picture of the full bathroom that is downstairs.  It is off the hallway that leads to the kitchen, along with a coat closet.  On the opposite side of the hallway is the furnace and water heater, as well as the entrance into the house from the garage.  (However, I am only telling you this from looking at the floor plan.  The tenants that lived in this place had so much junk piled up that we couldn't even see into the utility room or the bonus room off the dining room.)  It's nice that there are two full baths in this town home, so that way when we have guests stay over, they have their own bathroom to use to shower and get ready in the morning.  It's nice to have a "guest bathroom."

As you continue down the little hallway, it opens up into the kitchen and dining room, which are connected.  However, it's not just an eat-in kitchen really, because the dining room area is rather big, with plenty of space for our table.  And hey, we may even be able to have it pulled out rather than pushed up against the wall like we've had to do in our apartments in Bloomington due to lack of space in the dining room area.  Also, you may look at this picture and think the kitchen looks small, but believe it or not, compared to what we've been using for the last four years as a kitchen, this looks downright spacious, with much more cupboard space than we have now, a full size dishwasher, and window that looks out to the backyard and golf course behind.  The picture is taken standing in the dining room area, you can see the light fixture that would be above the dining room table.  To the left of this picture would be the door leading to the utility room and behind the person taking this picture would be the door to the bonus room.

This is a picture from the doorway into the bonus room.  It is behind the one car garage.  And really, this room is what sold us on this place, because it is listed as a 3 bedroom, 2 bath town home, but has this great bonus room.  We are going to use this as Samantha's (and eventually Aedan's) play room.  It will be a great place to keep all her toys so that we can keep the living room clean and free of toy clutter.  Plus, the room is right off the kitchen/dining room, so she will close by where we are so we can keep our eye on her while she plays.  The other places we were considering had basements that could have been play rooms.  However, I couldn't picture Samantha going down to a basement to play all by herself with her toys.  She is too social and wouldn't want to be secluded from the rest of the house like that.  Plus, we would have no idea what she was doing if she was that far away from us, and I'm not too keen on the idea of hanging out in the basement all the time.  This room has more than enough space for the toys that we have in our living room right now; plus, we can use it as a guest room when people come to visit us.  It can easily fit an air mattress in it so our guests will have ample space, their own room, a full bathroom across the hall, and all of us can stay in our normal bedrooms upstairs.  It works out perfectly!

As you go up the stairs, to your right, above where the one car garage is, there is a bedroom, the smallest room of the three bedrooms.  This bedroom will be for Aedan.

As you turn to go down the hallway, there is a hall closet with a full size washer and dryer inside and plenty of storage space built in up above the washer and dryer.  At the end of the hallway is the other full bathroom.  This one has a tub in it, unlike the bathroom downstairs which just has a stand up shower.

Samantha's room is to the left from the hallway, so it is at the front of the house, above the living room, and also has two windows in it.  The room is much bigger than her room right now and has a pretty large closet for her as well.

Then, to the right of the hallway is the our bedroom, the master bedroom, which has two large closets, plenty of storage space for our stuff and a good sized room to fit our bedroom furniture well.

After seeing both town homes and another house that was too weird to even be considered, Ben and I went to Starbucks to sit, enjoy some coffee, and talk about what we wanted to do.  After much discussion, we decided that we wanted to put in an application for the smaller, cheaper town home because of the space it offered.  It has 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, plus an extra room off the kitchen/dining room which would make a great play room for Samantha.  There is also a full size washer and dryer in the hall closet upstairs, and it comes with a one car garage which would be perfect for storage or to park our car in in the winter.  The bigger town home had a basement and a little bit stranger of space inside.  We decided the extra room would be much more useful to us than a basement, and it especially wasn't worth the extra several hundred dollars.  So, before we left Oxford to head back to Upland, we stopped by the management office, filled out an application, and put a deposit down for this town home.  We were so glad that we found something we liked and that it was below our price point, meaning that we can save up some money.  We like that the town home is outside of Oxford, sort of in a country setting, but it's only 7 or 8 minutes from campus, giving Ben an easy commute every day.

The ride back to Upland was easy and relaxing.  Aedan stayed fast asleep the whole way back, giving Ben and I a chance to talk and enjoy ourselves in the quiet peace of the car.  We wore our little boy out apparently, as I was surprised he slept for so long before getting hungry.

It was great to see our little Samantha again, but much to our chagrin, we discovered that she hadn't napped at all since she'd been in Upland, so Friday was three days in a row of no nap.  To make things worse, she also hadn't slept very well at night.  In the past, Samantha had slept in the pack and play when we were out of town, but we are now using the pack and play for Aedan; plus, Samantha is too big to fit in it anyways.  We brought Samantha's sleeping bag with us, and the plan was to have her sleep on the floor in Ben's old room (the room we usually sleep in).  However, Samantha is not a big fan of sleeping in her sleeping bag.  Grandma said Samantha had a hard time calming down for sleep, saying she wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed.  So, not only had Samantha missed out on napping, but she hadn't gotten good solid sleep at night either, making for one very overtired, cranky, emotional little girl when we arrived on Friday afternoon.

We got Samantha a little Miami University shirt as a present, and she wanted to try it on right away.

On Friday evening Aunt Jeni and Alaina arrived to celebrate Samantha and Alaina's joint birthday party.  We hadn't seen them for quite awhile, so the girls were pretty excited to play together.  The other thing that made the weekend a little more interesting was that the air conditioning in the house wasn't working, making for a hot and sticky weekend with a newborn.  Also, Aedan did not have a great night.  He was rather fussy and it was difficult for me to calm him down and comfort him that evening.  After feeding him and changing him, trying to walk around with him in the stroller outside, and not knowing what else to do, I decided that maybe he was just tired and needed to go to sleep, so I took him upstairs to Ben's old room, got him ready for bed, and put him down in the pack and play to sleep.  It was so strange having him asleep upstairs as we sat downstairs with the monitor on.  However, he just kept sleeping comfortably, not waking up until around 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning.

Throughout the evening on Friday, Ben started to feel another diverticulitis attack coming on.  He called the doctor's office down in Bloomington to tell them of his symptoms, and the doctor called in some antibiotics for him to start taking.  Ben's dad took Ben to pick up the prescriptions, but I could tell that Ben was in a lot of pain that night, and I was getting worried about him.

Sleeping arrangements over the weekend were a bit tricky because we had a full house.  Uncle Timmy and his cats were in Jeni's old room.  Ben, Aedan, and I were in Ben's old room, and normally Samantha would stay in there with us, but with Aedan waking up multiple times a night crying and us having to turn on a light to change his diaper, we didn't think it was a good idea for Samantha to sleep in the same room as us, at least not when Aedan is so young.  So, the solution presented was for both Samantha and Alaina to sleep on the floor in their sleeping bags in Grandpa and Grandma's bedroom.  I didn't think this was the greatest idea, simply because Samantha is just too social and isn't used to sleeping in the room with other people.  She doesn't do too well with her routine being changed, so I was concerned with how the night would go.  It took quite awhile to get the girls calmed down and to sleep;  it was probably close to 10:00 by the time we heard no more whispering.  Again, this was WAY too late for a little girl who hadn't taken a nap for several days.

Saturday morning the girls were up before 7:00, Ben was still not feeling well so he slept in, and I got up once Aedan woke up for the morning.  However, Samantha was already acting tired first thing in the morning, so I knew it would be a long day if we didn't get her to nap that day.

Alaina was very excited to meet and hold Aedan.  In fact, one thing she wanted to make sure she did over the weekend was to rock Baby Aedan.  Saturday morning, she got her wish. :)

As Ben continued resting, the rest of us headed to the park to get some fresh air and let the girls play.  We stayed at the park for quite awhile, the girls had a wonderful time, and Aedan took a nice nap while at the park, feeling cool as we sat in the shade and had a nice breeze blowing on us.

After having our fill at the park, it was time for lunch and our celebration of Samantha's and Alaina's birthday.  We had cake and ice cream and then opened presents.  The girls were so excited to have everyone sing Happy Birthday and to blow out the candles on their butterfly cake.

Alaina got a small trampoline from Grandpa and Grandma.  (Samantha got the train set that she already opened up a couple weeks earlier when we celebrated her birthday in Bloomington.)  We got Alaina a big, cushy, yellow chair to sit on in her living room at home.  Aunt Jeni and Alaina got Samantha some Minnie Mouse pajamas, a pink tutu, and two new puzzles.  Uncle Timmy got both girls fairy dress-up dresses that came with wings as well.  Samantha's was like Tinkerbell.  However, out of all those presents, she couldn't wait to get her puzzles out and start working on putting them together.  We did get the girls to try on their fairy dresses, and they looked pretty cute in them.  It was a great gift idea and may even work as a good Halloween costume come October.

After a full, fun, birthday filled morning, it was time for the girls to take a nap.  I was determined to try and get Samantha to nap today, so even though others volunteered to put her down, I figured it would be better if I tried it.  I had her sleep in the bed we were sleeping in, tucked pillows under the sheet on either side of her so she couldn't roll out of bed, and we went through our normal nap time routine.  She fought it a little bit, being silly and wiggly in the bed, but I stayed in the room with her to make sure she at least tried to settle down for a nap.  Once she stopped moving, she fell asleep quickly.  She had her knees up in the air and she was laying on her back.  As she fell asleep, her knees kept flopping down and the popping back up until she finally fell into a deep sleep.  I left the room after she was sound asleep, feeling so glad that I got her to calm down enough to take a nap.  I knew that our evening would be much better.

That afternoon it was getting pretty warm in the house, so once the girls woke up from their naps they played outside in the sprinkler, and we spent most of our time downstairs where it was cooler.  Of course, they had to try on their matching pink tutus, dancing around the family room for us.  What a cute pair of cousins!  They always have such a good time together!

(Who knows what Samantha is doing in these pictures.  She makes some pretty silly faces for pictures sometimes.)  :)

Well, throughout the day on Saturday, even though Ben was taking antibiotics, he was not feeling much better.  In fact, he even got sick to his stomach and developed a fever and chills.  It was 82 degrees in the upstairs of the house, and he was sitting on the couch covered in a heavy blanket, complaining about being cold.  I called the doctor's office again to explain how Ben was feeling and to get advice on whether he should go to the ER or not.  I talked to Dr. Ghosh on the phone, the same doctor that saw Ben in the hospital in Bloomington, and he encouraged Ben to go to the hospital in Muncie, as well as make a follow up appointment once we got back to Bloomington.

The rest of the weekend was a blur with Ben going to the hospital, leaving me with Samantha and Aedan to take care of.  I was SO glad that we were in Upland for the weekend because I certainly couldn't have taken care of the two of them by myself.  As it was, even with all the extra help, I still felt overwhelmed, plus worried about what was going on with Ben.  Aedan did an excellent job for me at night, going right back to sleep after nursing, making my nights by myself not as hard to handle.  The girls went to sleep in Grandpa and Grandma's room better the second night, but they still went to bed much later than usual.

On Sunday Ben still had no idea what to expect from the hospital and what the doctors would say, so the rest of us headed out to church.  It was almost like God knew I needed some rest and rejuvenation because Aedan fell asleep in the car on the way to church and continued sleeping all through the service, even though it was a children's service and there was a lot of noise and a lot of clapping.  Samantha did a great job in the "nursery" room with Alaina, and of course, got to play with her beloved Cinderella baby.  Aedan continued to sleep all through lunch at Fazoli's, and all the way in the car ride back to Upland.  I was shocked and relieved that he was having such a good nap because it was hard enough dealing with sleepy Samantha, let alone both of them at the same time.

Aunt Jeni and Alaina went back home after lunch, but since Ben was still in the hospital, we headed back to Upland.  Samantha was very tired from having such a busy few days with less sleep than she requires.  I was really hoping she would take another nap today because we wanted to go visit Daddy at the hospital, but really couldn't go if she didn't take a nap.  It was really warm upstairs that afternoon since there was no air conditioning still, and since I was nursing Aedan, Grandma had to put Samantha down for her nap.  However, Samantha was on the floor in Grandpa and Grandma's room on her sleeping bag and was resisting her nap again.  After I was done with Aedan, I went in to talk to Samantha and try to get her to go to sleep, but she was so overtired she was hard to calm down.  She kept saying she needed to go potty, mostly as a stalling tactic.  She wouldn't lay down, saying she wasn't ready to go to bed yet.  I was getting really frustrated because nothing I did seemed to work.  I tried being stern, that didn't work, it just made her emotions escalate even further.  I tried being nice and even gave her her blankie to sleep with even though she doesn't normally get it at nap time, that didn't work either.  I tried laying with her, sitting in the room with her, anything I could think of.  Eventually, I had her come sit on my lap because she was so overtired and so upset that she was doing her hyperventilating cry.  I sat in the rocking chair in their bedroom, cuddling with her, talking to her, rocking her, and trying to calm her down.  Before I knew it, her body went limp and she had fallen asleep, curled up on my lap, leaning her head against my chest, with my arms wrapped tightly around her, almost as if she were a baby.  After making sure she was in a deep enough sleep, I picked her up and laid her down on the floor on her sleeping bag, covering her up with a sheet, and leaving my hand on her chest for comfort and to ensure that she would keep sleeping.  I was totally amazed that she fell asleep like this.  I have not rocked her to sleep since she was a little baby.

Meanwhile, when I was going through all that rigmarole to get Samantha to nap, here is what little Aedan was doing.  I laid him on the Boppy pillow for some tummy time, but he ended up getting really comfortable and falling asleep, staying asleep like this for much of the afternoon.  What a cutie!

Samantha ended up taking a really good nap that afternoon.  In fact, we had to wake her up because it was after 5:30 and she was still sleeping.  We needed to have dinner and get going if we wanted to go to Muncie to visit Daddy in the hospital.  Even though we left a lot later than we should have for the hospital, it was good to be able to see and talk to Ben.  It was good for Samantha to see and talk to her Daddy.  She has been very concerned about him.  In fact, when we were eating lunch at Fazoli's, the pastor of Ben's parents' church was there too and came to say hello to us.  Samantha started talking to him about how her Daddy was sick, that his stomach hurt, and he was in the hospital.  I think things like this impact her more than we really know.  I had driven separately from Grandpa and Grandma, so they took Samantha back to Upland to put her to bed, while I stayed at the hospital and talked with Ben for awhile.  They put him on a liquid diet for that night, so at least he got some nourishment through his mouth rather than through an IV, giving him a little bit more energy.  The next morning he was going to try and eat a normal breakfast to see if he could keep it down, and then, if his blood work came back clear, he would be discharged.  I was glad to see a little more life back in my husband, and I was so glad that there was no rupture.  However, with the severity and frequency of his attacks, we knew that something would have to be done.  We couldn't continue life like this, especially with Ben's upcoming job position.  We can't have him admitted to the hospital for several days and then still not feeling well for several more days after that.  We knew that he would have to meet with his doctor back in Bloomington as soon as possible to figure out a plan of what to do next.

After I left the hospital, it was pretty late, past the time that Aedan usually falls asleep for the night, so he was not too happy to get back into his car seat and into the car.  I had to reach into the back seat to hold the pacifier in his mouth while I drove until he finally gave up crying and fell asleep.  After that, it was a peaceful, quiet trip down the dark, country roads back to Upland.  When I reached the house, Samantha was still awake, carrying on and whining about not wanting to go to sleep yet and wanting to be back home in her own bed.  I ended up going in there to see if I could calm her down and talk some sense into her, as it was already past 10:00 pm.  Again, nothing seemed to work, and in fact, she was still awake in there when Grandpa and Grandma went to bed.  I think Grandpa may have rocked her to sleep again that night.  Poor girl, who knows what's going on in her little head.  She has been going through a lot lately with the birth of Aedan, having so many visitors over to our house, hearing about us moving and leaving Bloomington, being away from Mommy and Daddy for several days, having to sleep on the floor for five nights in a row, and knowing that Daddy is sick in the hospital.  That's a lot of stuff to be going on the life of a little girl all at the same time, and who knows how her little mind processes all that.  Maybe she just needed some extra cuddles and some extra reassurance.

Come Monday, I was really antsy to get back home, and so was Samantha, and so was Ben.  He was tired of being in the hospital and waiting on doctors.  He wasn't able to have a normal breakfast because the doctor didn't get the order sent in time, so they wanted him to stay through lunch, eat a normal lunch to see if he could keep the food down, and then if his blood work came back normal, they would discharge him.  (Actually, the doctor really wanted Ben to stay for a full day, so that way he would eat three meals at the hospital and go home on Tuesday.  However, none of us wanted to stay another night.  We thought it was very important just to get everyone back home.)

Samantha, Aedan, Grandpa, and I just spent the morning at the house, playing outside a little bit and just waiting for any news from Ben.  He was thinking he would be discharged sometime during Samantha's normal nap time, so I figured I'd try to get Samantha to nap if at all possible.  Aedan had fallen asleep in his car seat when we were playing and walking outside, so I was able to put Samantha down for her nap myself.  I thought that might help if it was Mommy instead of Grandpa.  I had her sleep back upstairs in the bed again since that worked fairly well the other day, and I'm sure is more comfortable than sleeping on the floor.  However, she cried, screamed, and carried on once again.  I didn't know what to do, felt so emotional with having to deal with this all by myself, and was at my wits end with how to handle Samantha's behavior.  All I wanted was for her to sleep so that she could try to catch up on some much needed rest and have a better day with us, as I knew we had our trip back to Bloomington ahead of us.  Nothing I was doing was working again until I had her come sit on my lap and cuddle with me.  And again, just like yesterday, she curled up on my lap and fell right asleep.  After awhile, I laid her down and she took a good nap in the bed that afternoon.  Aedan continued sleeping in his car seat through all of this, so I actually got some much needed time to myself that afternoon during nap time.

Ben's mom was able to pick Ben up from the hospital since she was already working in Muncie that morning.  Once he got back to the house and Samantha woke up from her nap, we got all our things packed up and loaded so we could head back to Bloomington.  A car trip with one child takes long enough, let alone with two and one of them being a newborn, so it took us much longer to get home than usual with having to stop for dinner and so that I could nurse Aedan.  We also hit some bad traffic and some pretty heavy rain, but boy, were we happy to be home in our own environment and our own beds.  Ben and I did some serious teamwork in getting all our things unpacked and put away, getting Samantha in bed, and then going to bed ourselves shortly after that.  We were gone for six days, but it felt like much longer than that.  It had been a long week with many challenging things, and we were ready for life to get back to normal again.  Whatever normal may mean these days.