The Romaezis

Week 23: Earthquaaaaaake!

Just yesterday I thought to myself, “Wow, nothing interesting to blog about this week. Going to have to get creative.” Mother nature decided to step in and deliver Kamran’s first earthquake…and my second.

I have been pretty vague about where I live and work on this blog. A keen detective could figure it out. Our family resides in the DC metro area and as the news reports have told you by now, we had a pretty substantial earthquake in our area today. It was a 5.8 on the Richter scale with an epicenter in Mineral, VA–out in the mountains.

I came back from lunch, sat my things down on my desk, put my laptop on it’s doc, put my things in the fridge and as I started to sit down felt the building shake. I’ve felt my floor jiggle before when I worked down on the 6th floor. In a big building, I just assumed it happens. This time, however was VERY different. Everyone started to rumble, “what IS that?” I have never been in a significant earthquake before but it was pretty self explanitory. My supervisor’s door was the closest to me so started to move to her doorway. She was on a call with a client, stood up and said “What’s happening?” All I saw were things starting to topple off of her shelves behind her so I told her to come stand in the doorway. As I remembered an article I just read that you shouldn’t stand in the doorway during an earthquake. I just couldn’t remember what the article said you SHOULD do. The shaking subsided and one of our execs started waving everyone to the stairwell.

I grabbed my keys, phone and breastpump, left my laptop and headed for the stairs. I work on the 9th floor…the top of our tower. On the way down I decided that I picked a hell of a time to move to the top floor. I tried to text Kayvan on my way down and not fall down the stairs. He beat me to it and texted “earthquake?” My response was “Ya, Kam?” He confirmed that daycare evacuated the baby. That made me relax a little bit. My department finally made it to our outdoor rally point and stood in the sun for what seemed like forever. It was probably close to 45 minutes while the building engineer’s inspected the damage and determined if it was safe for us to return. As it turns out, it wasn’t. Security eventually announced that our building was closed but that if necessary, we could return to our offices via the stairwell for personal items should we need them. They also announced that we should check the company website tomorrow about the status of our office tomorrow. I mentioned that I left my laptop. So I hiked my butt all the way back up 9 flights of stairs. My boss and I took the wrong stairwell and as we began she informed me that there were 202 steps. Information I did not need to know.

I saw video outside that one of our executives took of one area on our floor. The cieling had fallen and a pipe burst. I didn’t think about this climbing the stairs until we hit the 9th floor. When I realized, figured I wouldn’t be able to open the door, but I could. It was nuts. The floor was flooded and we couldn’t get to our floor from that door. So down a flight of stairs and across the hall we went to climb to the 9th floor again. The photos hardly do the damage justice. See them at the bottom of this post.

I grabbed my things, used the restroom in preparation for terrible traffic and headed back down the stairs yet again. I have to say, the worst part of the traffic was in the garage at work. It took me about 20 minutes to get out due to the traffic headed toward DC. Once I made it out, the drive was essentially a breeze. Kayvan was bringing the babe home so I logged back on to work and caught up on e-mails from the 3 hours of work I missed.

Kamran fell asleep on the way home and must be worn out from the drama of the day. He is still asleep. It’s been 2 hours and still going strong. This week he is a big fan of rolling back to side, still loves singing and is teething hardcore. No teeth just yet but I’m hoping it isn’t much longer before those bad boys pop though. Poor boy has been chewing his little fingers like crazy. He turns them bright red.

I have concluded. This year is just abnormal.

Week 22: Sookie’s New Tricks

So Kam is a ball. He is doing well, laughing, singing, cooing, rolling over, not sleeping through the night. You know, awesome baby things. He’s a pretty lazy roller I put him on his tummy in the crib in the morning, he watches his soother as he pushes up on his arms then he lays his head to the side, still on his tummy and finishes watching the soother. It cracks me up, once the soother turns off, then and only then will he roll to his back. Daycare informed Kayvan last Friday that Kam had rolled back to belly. I freaked. We have still been swaddling and needed to know this information so we don’t swaddle anymore. I also want to know about all milestones when they happen. It’s bad enough when I’m not there to see them. Kam also likes sleeping on his side now. It’s so stinking cute.

Anyway, let’s talk about my other baby, Sookie. Sookie is good with Kamran. She has learned not to lick but that rule in her mind does not apply to other children. Other giggly little babies are fair game. Sook stayed with our friends and their twins while I was in the hospital. This is something we are forever grateful for. Sookie grew from a puppy to a full fledged dog under their care. She turned the big “1” with them. Sook also learned a lot of new things like people food and how babies are people food dispensers. Sookie sits under Kam’s chair when I feed him just waiting for me to drop something. Sook now barks at the door. When we left her before, we would get a frenchie scream on occasion and it was cute. Now she barks incessantly when we get home and it makes me want to hurt her. It’s so loud. I never would of course. Methinks it was a contest with their pug. Sookie also gets into sparring matches with the vacuum and broom. It’s hysterical. Of course, this is a habit I want to break so I’m not allowed to giggle when she bites my cleaning utensils. Sookie also loooooves ice cubes. Whenever I open the freezer, girl is at my side for a “treat.”

The Royston’s have taught our girl so much and I’m so grateful for the comedy!!!

Weeks 20 & 21: Finding a Work/Life Balance

Howdy folks, sorry I didn’t update you last week. I’m sure the blog is much more boring now that I’m no longer in the hospital, Kamran is no longer in the NICU and doesn’t need surgery and his reflux is no longer figuratively killing all of us via lack of sleep. In all honesty, I’m glad I could entertain for some time but I’m VERY happy to be back to boring. I may miss a week or two here and there but I will do my best to keep everyone up to date. These days, the blog is for me to remember all of the important milestones but also to share them with you since I feel, Kamran’s milestones (big and small) are worth celebrating. I’m sure some of you think “oh what a first time mom.” but I often think about the very real possibility that we could have lost Kamran and smile at his milestones quite a lot.

I have been back to work for a month and a half. The transition was actually easier than I thought. Now that I’m back into the full swing of things I’m trying my very best to keep a good work/life balance. Going to work when I’m supposed to, doing my very best while I’m there and leaving on time so that I can come home and spend as much time as possible with my family. The leaving on time part has always been a challenge for me. I’ll work until the wee hours of the night if you let me. This is the reason I thought I would for sure fail at hospital life. Life in the hospital taught me that there is more to life than just working all the time–lately I have found myself forgetting that message and at times leaving 20, 30 or at times an hour late. My boss is actually really great at just telling me to leave. (I’m not brown nosing.) I’ve been told that I cannot stay later than her. We will see how I do with this rule. So far, I’m doing much better about leaving work on time than I did pre-Kamran. However, work has been super busy the past few weeks and I’m just so drained when I get home that I want to change into PJs, and snuggle before giving Kamran his bath and putting him into bed.

Last week I vowed to blog on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Of course, neither happened. Kamran had his 4 month pediatrician appointment and immunizations last week. He is still a little guy for his age but HE’S ON THE CHARTS! This has always been true for his head. Boy has a big noggin but he is now on the charts for height and weight. Last Wednesday, 8/3 Kamran was 13 lbs 8 oz, 22 3/4 inches long and had a 16.5 inch head circumference. (That’s 10th percentile, 5th percentile and 25th percentile respectively.) The doc was quite pleased with his progress thus far.

Two days after his two month shots, I noticed Kamran had a rash. I thought it was normal and brushed it off at first. It got worse and so I called the nurses line at the pediatrician to be told rashes are NOT a normal reaction to shots and that he had to come in. When I saw the doctor I was told he had heat rash and not to worry. Welllllll….2 days after his 4 month shots he got the same rash. It is NOT heat rash but does look like it. I’m thinking we are going to have to figure this out before his 6 month shots. I’ll talk to the doctor about it but I’m thinking we may need to stagger the shots or something.

This past weekend was filled with babies and BBQs. It was fun to see all of the little ones growing up. There are 5 babies who were born in 2010, 4 of which are all a week or two apart and are starting to toddle around. We had some hair pulling which resulted in screaming and just all around innocent learning and fun. By the way Kamran was not the one pulling hair or having his hair pulled. I did get some fun photos of all of the kiddos. http://theromaezis.smugmug.com/Friends/Babies/18475591_ZPJ8CR/1425476748_92KWfMc/1425477764_wmqFz4c#1425477764_wmqFz4c
(Kam’s photos are still going here–http://theromaezis.smugmug.com/Family/Kamran/16237032_y3GA4#1219759764_CqUXn–I have added some from this weekend as well.)

I decided to stick Kamran’s feet in the baby pool at our friend’s house. He HAAAATED it. Child only likes warm water. I also don’t think he likes blondes much. Kristin, a blonde family friend always ends up with a screaming baby on her hands when she holds Kamran. He did the same to Jeane’, another blondie, this weekend. We shall see how my theory pans out as he meets more of my lighter haired friends.

The doctor did say that we can start feeding Kamran solids whenever we are ready. I both can and can’t wait for solids. I can’t wait to see how he reacts to new flavors, texture and of course, eating from a spoon. I CAN wait for any tummy upset solids may cause. Hopefully it won’t be a problem for him. A friend of ours is lending her baby cook to us. I can’t wait to start making the boy food. No making fun of me for not just going straight to gerber or the pre-made food. The control freak in me has to at least TRY making baby food. I did get some good advice from a friend before I start making his food–buy a few jars to see what he likes before cooking up a whole slew of it. Of course, it will be a good while before we introduce baby food. I will probably start him on rice cereal this Friday to see how he does. I want to wait until he is at least 4 months adjusted before making the jump.

I can’t believe he is getting so big so fast. Just looking at Kamran in his swing or bouncy seat., the car seat or the tub makes me realize how much he has grown.

Car Seat on the ride home at 5 weeks: http://theromaezis.smugmug.com/Family/Kamran/16237032_y3GA4#1257117458_PK7nPrt

Car Seat now at 20 weeks (ignore the fact that I didn’t button his clothes back up–kid was sweaty): http://theromaezis.smugmug.com/Family/Kamran/16237032_y3GA4#1425488395_LRTfz4b