“I Sick”, Chattanooga Babymoon, and Other Happenings…

The past week has been an interesting one, for sure! Rough in a lot of ways, but great in other ways. Since I’m behind (yet again!) on blogging, I will do my best to catch you up…

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago…little did I know what it was foreshadowing ;)

About a week ago (last Sunday night), I heard Brooklyn coughing during the middle of the night. It sounded like a “wet” cough, and it was strange because I hadn’t noticed her coughing at all before she went to bed. Monday, she continued coughing, but otherwise acted pretty normal. Monday afternoon, Travis called me and told me he was thinking about getting Brooklyn an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen on his way home from work because it was “Free Cone Day.” Such a thoughtful daddy…this was all his idea! :) So, we ate supper that night on the back patio because it was such a nice evening, and Brooklyn enjoyed her ice cream after supper…

Yum yum!

By Tuesday morning, Brooklyn was running a low-grade fever and still had a cough accompanied by a really runny nose, so I decided to take her to the doctor. I figured they would just tell me it was a “virus” and there wasn’t anything to do. Well, I was mostly right. It was a virus…RSV! Unfortunately, that meant she was contagious for 7 days, so that made the rest of our week pretty interesting trying to still go places but keep her at home too. Tuesday and Wednesday were probably her worst days. I have never seen so much snot come out of one nose before. If we could have taped a Kleenex under her nose, I think we would have! It was insane. Not only was she coughing, sneezing, and had a runny nose, but she also wasn’t sleeping or eating very well. One day, the only thing she ate was watermelon and grapes all day. She ended up sleeping with us several nights last week, which meant that no one got any sleep. So, by the end of the week, Travis and I were exhausted! Brooklyn enjoyed saying “I sick” to Paw and Rae Rae on the phone for several days few days in a row, and so Rae Rae came up here on Thursday to help out and let me get some rest. It was very nice to have some help that day…thank you, Mom!! :)

I wouldn’t wish RSV on her at any time, but last week happened to be especially unfortunate timing. Travis and I had a one night “babymoon” booked in Chattanooga on Friday night, and by Wednesday I was afraid we were going to have to cancel it and stay home. We were so looking forward to it and hated not to go though! Thankfully, by Thursday Brooklyn was feeling well enough that we felt like we could leave her without feeling too guilty, so we went ahead and stuck with the original plan. So, Friday afternoon Cici picked up Brooklyn from our house (Travis stayed home with her while I worked), and as soon as I got off, we hit the road.

I cannot stress how much we enjoyed those 24 hours with just the two of us. It was absolutely wonderful! It’s not that we don’t enjoy having Brooklyn around, but it’s much harder to have real conversations about anything other than bath time, picking up toys, and discipline with her here. It was almost like we were dating again! We could do whatever we wanted to on our own schedule, talk without interruptions, SLEEP without interruptions, and just relax. And boy, after that week…we needed a little R&R! So, thank you Cici for making that possible for us!!! We really, really, REALLY appreciate it :)

This was our 2nd bed and breakfast to stay in, and this one was called the Chanticleer Inn. It was technically in Lookout Mountain, GA, and it was actually right across the street from Rock City Gardens. You could literally walk there if you wanted to! We enjoyed our stay at the Chanticleer. It was much bigger than Hearthstone Lodge, the only other B&B we’ve been to. Chanticleer has 16 or 17 rooms, and they are set up in a few separate “cottages”. We stayed in Room 6 on the end!

Our room had a king size bed and a huge Jacuzzi tub. It also had a mini fridge stocked with drinks, which was a nice touch!

This little rooster was a cute addition to our room ;)

After we checked in to our room, we headed out to eat for supper. We tried out the Canyon Grill about 25 minutes away after seeing that it was highly recommended by Chanticleer. It did not disappoint!! I didn’t get any pictures, but Travis said his steak was the best he’s ever eaten. I tried a bite, and it practically melted in my mouth. I had grilled shrimp, and our sides were excellent also. The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside, but they definitely know how to cook! We’d love to go back there next time we are in the area.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the main inn before checking out. It was good too! They had an area set up with cereal, fruit, coffee cake, and yogurt that you could help yourself to as much as you wanted. Then, they would bring around the hot entree to your table. That morning’s entree was ham and cheese enchiladas with salsa and sour cream. Very yummy and filling! Although we agreed that Hearthstone Lodge’s breakfast was better, this one was really good too.

After checking out, we headed to Rock City since it was right across the road. I had been there as a child with my family, but Travis didn’t remember ever going before. We enjoyed walking around there for about 2 hours. The weather couldn’t have been better that day….we really got lucky :) I think we hit it about 2 or 3 weeks too early though because most of the trees and flowers weren’t in bloom yet. It was still pretty, but I’m sure it would have been even prettier to see it later in the spring.

I made it through Fat Man’s Squeeze…haha! After being called “fat” directly to my face recently (which didn’t hurt my feelings, but it took me by surprise that someone would actually say that and think it was acceptable), I was pretty proud that I fit through such a tight space ;)

After leaving Rock City, we decided to try out the Incline Railway which wasn’t too far away either. We weren’t expecting it to take so long, but we actually waited probably 45 minutes just to board the cable car the first time. Then it takes you down the mountain (a one mile track), and then you get BACK in line to board the car to go up to the top again. It just took longer than we thought it would, and it was a lot of standing in line for two 10 minute rides. We thought the ride on the way up was the best one of the two. It gets pretty steep at the top!

If you look closely, you can see the track and the station at the top of the mountain…

After that, we headed to downtown Chattanooga to grab a late lunch/early supper. It was about 4 PM by this point I guess. We ended up eating at Sticky Fingers, a BBQ restaurant. It was good food, and Travis was happy because they had TVs where he could keep up with March Madness ;) After eating, it was time to head home and see our girl! She apparently was pretty well behaved for Cici, which we were very thankful for. She even slept through the night (go figure–the only night we AREN’T with her) and ate well too.

Cici texted me this picture on Friday night…looks like she was having fun!! Thanks again, Cici!! :)

Back at home…

33 weeks

34 weeks

So, I’ll be 35 weeks this Wednesday! Pretty crazy!! I still feel like we have so much to do! At the top of the list is painting Savannah’s chest of drawers and getting Brooklyn’s newborn clothes down from the attic and washing them. I’d also like to get Savannah’s closet painted (it doesn’t look like it’s ever been repainted, and it’s REALLY scuffed and still has the original pink-beige trim color), but that may not happen if we run out of time. We also need to hang pictures on the walls of both Brooklyn’s and Savannah’s rooms.

I finished painting the letters to hang above Savannah’s crib! :)

Speaking of Brooklyn’s new room, she’s sleeping pretty good in her big girl bed, other than last week. She has slept through the night in it several times, although she has woken up at least once the past two nights and tried to get in our bed. Both nights, we took her back to her room, and she went back to sleep in her bed (after putting up a little bit of a fuss). So, she is doing pretty well overall! She takes good naps in her bed also, which has been nice. It’s still a little strange that she can get out of bed all by herself (vs. being stuck in her crib), but I guess we’re getting used to that.

As for me, I’m still not sleeping great, but I guess my body is adjusting to that. Maybe one day I will sleep again!? It’s definitely getting harder to get around, but I’m managing. I’m still able to get down on the floor to play with Brooklyn, and I’m still picking her up and holding her as much as ever. I can tell I don’t have quite as much stamina or energy though! Now that the weather is nicer, I’m trying to take Brooklyn for walks around the neighborhood several times a week. Miss Savannah is really moving around a lot these days! For a while, I thought she might be “less active” than Brooklyn was in the womb, but now I’m thinking it’s the opposite. Hopefully that’s not an indicator of how active she’ll be outside of the womb…eek! :)

Yesterday, I went to Maggie’s baby shower at Athens State. Her due date is 4/28, one day before mine! Such a crazy coincidence for Travis and Matt (who grew up as really close friends) to both be expecting little girls due so close together. We could even end up in the hospital at the same time…who knows! We’re very excited for Matt and Maggie! Hopefully Korah and Savannah will grow up to be great friends just like their daddies are :)

I’ll leave you with a picture of Gabby and Felix that I took last week. Hopefully, they are taking advantage of the weeks of snoozing they have left before it gets REALLY chaotic and loud around here…hehe. That’s not to say that Brooklyn doesn’t harass them mercilessly…because she does. But, with Brooklyn and a newborn around, I’m afraid they’re going to just want to run away and never come back! ;)