Happy 2005... a little late. Good riddance to 2004. Isaac's birth was the only redeeming part of 2004. The year was filled with one tragedy after another. Before Isaac was 7 months old, he'd already been to 6 funerals. We couldn't attend 3 of them.

Anyway, I had a small amount of time before Isaac wakes up again so I thought I'd check in really quick. I'm typing on my new laptop that M gave me for Christmas. We have a wireless network so I'm typing while also watching cable t.v. Nice!

There's really no new news here. I'm still sleep deprived. Isaac is still waking several times a night. We bought a sleep video from a pediatrician in Georgia but we can't really put the methods into practice until he's sleeping in his own bed in his own bedroom.

The video pediatrician guarantees that Isaac will be sleeping 10 hours straight within 10 days of starting the program. Fortunately, this method does not include "crying it out". I don't think I could tolerate that.

For the record, Isaac's bedroom still isn't complete. It's close... very close, but we're not quite there yet. There's a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling in his bedroom and he still doesn't have a bookcase, knobs for his dresser, curtains, or any wall hangings.

We've moved our stuff into our new bedroom and began sleeping in our new room about a week ago. It's so nice! There are still some things we need for our bedroom but since we were so desperate for the extra space, we jumped the gun and moved in already. We also don't have any wall hangings or a ceiling light fixture... and we also don't have a rug.

In other news, I return to work part-time in a couple weeks. Honestly, I'm looking forward to it. While I love being able to spend so much time with Isaac, I don't enjoy being at home every day. It's isolating and pretty stressful trying to keep a demanding 8 month old entertained every minute.

I seem to have caught the flu bug from my cousin via her message on the answering machine. I heard her message on Thursday. She said she couldn't email me back because all of them were really sick for the past couple weeks. I felt so sorry for her and could only imagine what caring for a sick infant is like when you're sick yourself.

Well, I found out first-hand that night, unfortunately. I was attacked by an aggressive flu bug. I got about 4 hours of sleep total that night, spent the next day in bed sobbing because I couldn't lift myself up from the bed, let alone lift a screaming Isaac to change/feed him. I'd really like to forget that day.

Yesterday I felt pretty good and even did errands with M and Isaac. We went to this fabulous discount fabric store downtown and bought fabric to make curtains for Isaac's bedroom. Last night, however, I felt like dirt once again. The virus has settled in my lungs. My lymph nodes are the size of golf balls. I seem to have lost my voice, too. I slept about 2 hours total last night. Lovely.

And we had to make an emergency call to Isaac's doctor's office last night because he's had bad earaches. He was screaming inconsolably and grabbing at his ears. My poor, poor sweet boy!

I hope all of you are well. I hope to check in again real soon.

p.s. - It's sad to come back here after so long and discover that many of my favorite diaries are now password protected. Criminy!