Hey blog. Do you have the time to listen to me whine?

Four urine tests, three doctor visits, one urology visit, negative STD/UTI/bacterial/yeast infection, and nothing showing up on the ultrasound except a small uterine fibroid that “shouldn’t” cause any symptoms.

The urologist helpfully narrowed down my issue to two possibilities, and started me on medication for one of them. Overactive Bladder Syndrome was the one we decided to treat first. I started the med just yesterday…it has some unpleasant side effects, like HOLY MOLY dry mouth galore.

I’ve had to go from almost exclusively breastfeeding to pumping and dumping due to all of these different meds in my system, and the first week it was incredibly hard. Emotional. I cried many many times.

But…my sweet baby is drinking lots of formula, eating plenty of foods and last night even slept through the night (!), so I’m feeling less emotional and more resigned. We did last 9 whole months of breastfeeding, that was an accomplishment.

I’m feeling like a medication guinea pig right now, and hope hope hoping that someday this resolves. It has been really hard.

Due to my mysterious ailment, one baby with diarrhea and another baby with a fever, it was unanimously decided last Thursday to cancel our Saturday Halloween “baby” party that I had planned to co-host with two friends and their babies.

Okay, that’s all the negative stuff out of the way (blogging as therapy). Now let’s talk about the GOOD stuff! Like taking the baby to the fabric store and letting him touch various faux furs.

We went back to the costume shop and tried on some craaazy sunglasses!

Going for drives (with 15-30 minute potty breaks) has been immensely therapeutic.

October you are beautiful.

My mother has been on a cleaning/organizing mission with all of the old paperwork and photos for weeks now. It keeps her busy while she’s mending from her second back surgery and dealing with daily pain. She’s currently in California for her follow-up appointment, and was planning on coming to visit us afterwards. I hope she does! Here’s my high school senior yearbook photo. I remember I had a cold that day.

At least the house was fully decorated for Halloween, too. At Josh’s suggestion I made the googly eyes to go in the window. The spider spray added just the right ambiance, eh?

I’m feeeeeling the black glitter decorations against the aqua wall. Everything looks good on that wall!

Josh thought this mask worked better on Phyllis than the Frankenstein, and I’m inclined to agree.

I had such a bad day last Thursday–ongoing symptoms with little relief, no diagnosis AND sleep deprivation–that my in-laws (God Bless Fleeta and Bob) drove over from Spokane to help out. They are the sweetest in-laws a girl could hope for. I’m so, so grateful for them.

I took Fleeta on a scenic drive and showed her this blush pink house I’m weirdly obsessed with.

With their help Josh and I were able to do more prep for Halloween. Like trying to capture baby handprints on a tiny baby pumpkin…much more challenging than we expected!

Brenna and her kids hadn’t picked out their pumpkins yet, so on Sunday we met up with them at the pumpkin farm.

It was fun watching them bop on the giant inflated pumpkin.

I’m always finding hearts.

On Monday Fleeta and Bob drove back home–Fleeta had Halloween commitments and I didn’t want her to miss them–so Brenna came over and spent a couple hours with me and the baby and the dogs. And she brought donuts and Mr. Bennett!

Again, how lucky am I to have married into this sweet family?

Well, NEVER DOUBT MY COMMITMENT TO SPARKLE MOTION because even a mysterious horrible bladder problem wasn’t gonna keep me from celebrating my favorite holiday, dammit! We dressed in our full Addams Family splendor at the pumpkin farm. We had photo requests from families!

Cara Mia!

Some day I’ll look back and be deeply impressed that I went into full Morticia drag when I was feeling so bad. Hey, that rhymed.

I knew I wasn’t going to dress up again so we took the family photos on Sunday. One of Josh’s uncles suggested we use this for our Christmas card this year. I’m not against it!

Last night was Halloween and I took this self-portrait while pumping. The stickers were for flair. We handed out candy from 6:30 to 7:15 pm and then it was time to put baby to bed! Ohhhh the times, they are a changinnnnnn.

Last night’s sunset was really beautiful.

Welp. I was able to type this out because Josh took the baby to Costco tonight…he’s teething and was a hot mess all day long! Here’s hoping next time I blog I won’t be burning burning and yearning to pee constantly. Sigh.