You can do it; We can help.

How cool is this car rug?

Got it at Home Depot.
Gage loves it.



So now, he's got a car rug, and a train rug. AAAAND, I found the Thomas take-along trains (thanks for the suggestions on that!) at Target. Seriously, some of those little trains were on clearance for 3-bucks & some change. SWWWWWEEEEET!

Yesterday morning:


Gage still had his stitches, and was doing his "adapted crawl", so as not to disturb his bandage or hurt his stitches!

But, yesterday he got the stitches out.
I tried to take them out at home by myself with a suture removal kit (yes, I work in a hospital!)....but, I couldn't! It was too hard, and he was not cooperative. It just was not a good plan. Take him back to Doctor's ER & pay out of network cost? I don't think so. Called the pediatrician. Well....they couldn't work me in b/c it's not an emergency, and I should have scheduled the appt. sooner than the DAY that they are due to be removed. WHATEVER. I thought I could take them out myself! Hello.
(okay....maybe that's where my ignorance starts....but oh well.)
So, I ended up bringing him up here to the ER where I work. It certainly is not the CLOSEST facility to my home, but we were in & out & didn't have to pay any out-of-network charges.

But...let's see....it took me, a tech, a nurse, and a sheet to all hold Gage down for the stitch removal. Yes, a coworker used a sheet as a baby-straight-jacket to keep Gage's arms locked down, and I draped my chest across his chest to keep him laying on the stretcher. Seriously-----getting the stitches out was just as big of an ordeal as getting them put in!
And, the nurse even had a difficult time getting to the correct place to snip these specialty stitches, so at least I wasn't totally crazy at home thinking it was kind of difficult!

After that....we headed over to Tera & Aubri's for lunch. Yummmmmmm Pizza.
Chatted with Leslie & Tera while Gage & Aubri played. Got to hold Sadie for a while. Compared to Gage, she just feels so tiny in my arms.
And, I forget how it is to have a baby that small, and when you cradle them in your arms---if they are a breastfed baby they will often start to root & try sucking. Yes, I forgot about that. Sadie started sucking on the inside of my arm, and it was funny & sweet & tickly all at the same time.
:)

Did I post about Gage's sleeping arrangements lately?

Back when he was sick....ear infections sick....he took to sleeping on his sleeping bag on his floor in his room.... Well, we have hardwood floors, and he would demand cartoons to be on...and then it really kind of got to the point that he was up & down 2 & 3 times a night, and he wouldn't take a nap....but he didn't want the crib to be taken down.

Whatever.
We've powered through.

No more TV at night. Period.
The TV goes "night-night" & needs to rest.
Gage must go "night-night", because he needs to rest too.

Sleeping bag is up off the floor. What helped us with that? The fact that Gage spilled some sticky beverage all over it & it was exiled to the laundry room.
The crib has been re-converted into the toddler bed/daybed thing. I typed "re-converted" b/c remember we tried this a while ago, put the rail back on, and now we're back to the rail being off.

He's now slept 2 nights in a row in his bed.
No cartoons.
Only woke up once, night before last, and he wanted to be rocked. I did that (which I had been missing....), and put him back in his bed. He went right back to sleep.

I really think that we have to stick with this sleeping arrangement.
The only thing......... he hasn't been taking daytime naps. That MAY have something to do with the "sleeping all night"....and as much as I've been in denial about it---it seems that my little guy is phasing out the whole nap thing...

Wish us luck for tonight!