January 22

We arrived safely at my in-laws place! The movers were supposed to get to our place the 11th or 12th and didn't arrive until after 10 pm on the 12th so had to return the morning of the 13th when we were planning on leaving. It took them 8 hours to load the truck in 6 degree weather. Every winter our pipes there froze for a couple days, we put space heaters in the basement and the pump house to supplement the built in ones and it would thaw out in a day or two. This year no such luck, we had no running water the last couple days in the house so weren't able to do as much cleaning as I wanted to - or shower or anything. Ick.

We left Spokane about 4 pm on the 13th and arrived in Seattle about 11. I was looking forward to a chance for my family to meet Will but we arrived far too late for that. We spent the night in a hotel and had breakfast with my mother, brother and sister before heading south. We were aiming for Sacramento the evening of the 14th but Justin decided to drive as far as he was able and drove straight through the night. We made Seattle to San Diego in 21 hours. Will was very good for the trip and slept most ofthe way or enjoyed looking out the window. He doesn't like the dark so I had to use a keychain light to keep him happy when he was awake at night. It was a little odd pumping in the car and very cramped but I managed, we only stopped to use the restroom. We got to my in-laws place about 8-9 am on the 15th. The movers got here the 17th with everything pretty muci n-tact, and we're still in the process of getting settled in. Cleaning and sterilizing everything for Will and arranging furniture. We have our own fridge, half the kitchen, the livingroom, a bathroom and 2 bedrooms with a total space that is probably larger than our house was.

We put the house on the market right before we left and it had a lot of activity right away. We discovered the water problem hadn't resolved itself and sent a pump repair person out who found out that the pressure tank was destroyed and some pipes in the pump house ruptured so he repaired that. Over $1000, ouch. We got a lowball offer on the house, countered and got another back that we accepted so if all goes well then the house is sold. We got close to what we were asking and the buyers pay all costs, it will pay off everything we owe on the house, our credit cards and leave us with around $6000 to put into savings which is good. The buyers went back out to the house with the agent and went into the cellar where they found 3-4 feet of standing water. The pump was shut back off and the water went down again, now it's just mud down there and we're sending another repair person out to see what damage is going on down there. I'm not sorry we're not going to have to deal with one do it yourself job after another failing anymore with that house.

Will was supposed to get his Synagis shot on the 19th, I've had more trouble dealing with the same home care company we were using already. I've been trying to arrange for him to get the shot for 3 weeks, I made it clear from the start who his doctors were, their contact info, who I was, my contact info, his insurance info and when he needed the shot. Like dealing with a bunch of complete morons, every time I talk to them it's like they've never spoken to a customer before let alone me! So they dropped the ball again, they recieved the fax of his prescription, I called and confirmed they had it, but the name was illegible on it so they forgot who it went with and disregarded it. When I called again to see when I should bring him in they claimed to have no record I contacted them at all. Not happy. So I spoke to a supervisor again and they magically found his records and figured out what they were doing, and had to run it through insurance again. He'll be getting the shot tomorrow, he was due on Friday. It sounds like they'll send a nurse out to the house instead of me having to drive him 30+ miles each way like before which should be nice.

He saw his new pediatrician today. Turns out I was correct in being concerned about the lopsided testicles, he has some long complicated word that means fluid is draining from his abdomen into one side. The testicle itself is fine, there's just excess fluid around it. His previous doctor said it was just normal to have them be lopsided, and I agree one usually hangs lower than the other but they shouldn't be that different in size. I researched doctors carefully this time and found him a pediatrician with 18 years experience who has lots of experience with preemies and works with Children's Hospital, she seems to know what she's doing much better. She said it should hopefully resolve itself by 10 months, and if it hasn't by then it may need to be corrected surgically. In the meantime if it gets all big, red, swollen and painful I should bring him into urgent care (duh). He's had a little diarrhea the last few days, she thinks he has some kind of minor infection that should clear up and agreed with the doc on call to give extra feedings whenever possible but as long as he's not vomiting or having bloody stool he should clear up on his own. His umbilical hernia is looking much better. He appears to be doing very well developmentally, she did a test holding his hands having him sit up and then stand up from laying on his back - I play with him doing that so he's very good at it. It's one of the things the physical therapist suggested. She said he's very strong but we knew that already. He's up to 26 inches tall, he grew 3 inches since his last doctor's appointment and 10 inches since birth. Weight 14 lb 12 oz. He's reached the 25th percentile for height for his birth age, and the 5th percentile for weight. For his corrected age (his gestational age is almost 4 months, his birth age is almost 7 months) he's in the 75th percentile for height and 34th percentile for weight. He's wearing mostly size 6 months clothes now and we've had to buy him a few new items since much of what he has is intended for cold weather and it's definitely not cold here.

We think it's very funny actually when we're out in the evening, it's in the 50s or 60s and people are wearing heavy coats or parkas. That's flannel weather for us, not quite t-shirt weather. A little culture shock too, everything is bigger, louder, faster, trendier and more expensive. We both grew up here but we've been gone 2 1/2 years and got used to a small town environment so we feel like country bumpkins dumped in the big city. He got 2 shots for his 6 month shots and had blood drawn to check his alk/phos levels again to see if we can start weaning him off of the supplements yet. She suggested waiting until the diarrhea clears up and starting solids with rice cereal next week if he'll tollerate it since he's showing definite interest watching us eat and chewing on his fists. Will is really loving having his Granny and Papa John here to play with and all the attention. He got to meet his Aunt Janna and Uncle Ben and seems pretty charmed with them, but hasn't gotten to meet the rest of the family yet since we hear they're sick. Hopefully next week. Guess that's about it for now, hope this finds you all well!