Scary phone call

My cell phone rang around 4:45 PM yesterday and the number was our pediatrician's office. I knew the only reason they would be calling was if Audrey had an abnormal result on her repeat newborn screening, but I tried not to freak out before the nurse could tell me what was going on. She said that Audrey's PKU sample was "unsatisfactory," so we'd have to come back and get another sample. She assured me that it doesn't mean Audrey might have PKU, but I added that it doesn't mean she doesn't have it, either. In the logical, thinking nurse part of my brain, I knew that there was no reason to be concerned yet, but in the mom part of my brain, I was about to panic. I didn't remember much about PKU except that you have to avoid all artificial sweeteners, and then when I started reading about severe mental retardation and limited breastfeeding, it didn't make me feel any better! I know Audrey's in the Lord's hands and I'm trusting Him for the result, but the waiting is certainly not fun. I don't know how long the result will take.

I did find out some interesting things while doing my research on PKU. The CDC had a couple of presentations on unsatisfactory samples and it turns out that the state of Alabama is second in that nation behind West Virginia for percentages of newborn screening samples that turn out to be unsatisfactory. In addition, Alabama is second behind West Virginia for states that "run" unsatisfactory samples. So, Audrey's was so unsatisfactory that it couldn't even be run on the machine. I feel badly because I remember the nurse tried so hard at her 2 week check up to make sure that she had every little circle saturated exactly right so we could avoid this! This also marks the first time I will be out of the house by myself with both children, so it should be an adventure.

In other news, The Office was pretty funny last night. Audrey did exactly what Samuel did as an infant and started crying as soon as the show started. Needless to say, we have come to rely heavily upon closed captioning ever since having children. Anyway, I learned once again last night how naive I am/was because when I read the lyrics to "Let's Get Physical" thanks to the closed captioning, I was shocked by how "suggestive" it is! I haven't exactly ever been a huge Olivia Newton John fan, though.

We also watched the SNL Election Update after The Office and I was not surprised to hear that AIG blew a bunch of its "bail-out" money on a retreat. I know it's extremely sad that I received legitimate news from SNL, but it's the truth. I read an article that talked about how the supposed "bail-out" plan was setting companies up for this sort of behavior, because they knew that they could get more money from the stupid federal government (i.e., taxpayers - why does no one understand that?) than from anyone in the public sector. They held out on selling, which is why the stock market fell so markedly the day the first bill didn't pass, and then they go whoop it up to celebrate when the second one did! I'm sure those who supported and voted for the bill will express their shock and disgust at AIG's behavior, but again, we should not be surprised.

On a totally different note, I am so tired of dealing with the same disobedient behaviors from Samuel day in and day out. I definitely understand sin nature much more since having children. This morning I lagged behind Samuel for about 30 seconds and ended up finding Audrey's mylicon drops poured out onto the floor next to our bed. This marks the third time Samuel has done this in about two weeks. I know there are a lot of things he does not understand, but I know he understands that he is not supposed to do this. As soon as he knew he had been caught, he ran away from the scene as fast as he could and started crying. Of course the question in my mind was, "Why don't you just not do the bad behavior, and then you wouldn't have to suffer the consequence?" It made me extremely upset this morning and as I sat on the bed, holding Audrey and crying, I realized that this is exactly what I do day in and day out, and God must be thinking the same thing. It certainly makes "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," hit home a lot harder. I am so thankful for His mercy and grace; however, I also really want to do better with discipline and our children. Any tips would be appreciated. We did a study on "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp while I was pregnant with Samuel, but a lot of it didn't stick due to the fact that we didn't have a child outside of the womb in our house yet. I need to read it again, but time goes by so fast when you're working and have an infant/toddler, and now it's going by even faster!

I'm thankful to report that Audrey slept much better last night, when compared with the previous four nights. She still fussed a good bit and was quite unhappy until about 9 PM, but then she went to sleep for the night. The other nights she had been staying up until as late as midnight fussing. She still would be okay once she actually went to sleep, but it was quite a fight getting her to that point. I'm also trying very diligently to put her down while she's drowsy and not fully asleep, as "they" recommend, to try to avoid the problems we've encountered with getting Samuel to sleep. Any tips on getting him out of his crib and into his toddler bed would also be greatly appreciated.

Praying for a quick and not too painful visit for Audrey and fast turn around on the results.