Couch Potato

Superman is forbidden to watch ANY television. Everything that I've read about infant exposure to television says that he shouldn't see any TV until he is at least two years old. However, we've already noticed that he loves TV. We have to be really careful when we are feeding him and when we lay him down in his swing or bouncer. If we don't keep an eye on him, he will turn his little neck and stare like a zombie at the TV. This is particularly distressing because I HATE it when someone zones out in front of the TV and ignores everyone in the room and can't hold a conversation because their head is "stuck in the TV". Hubby, III, and Rosy all get fussed at because of their TV addictions.

The pictures on today's post were taken last night. Before we went to Prayer Meeting, I was feeding Superman while I watched an episode of Scrubs . I had to sit him down for a second and run to the kitchen. (By the way, I can see the couch from the kitchen, so I had my eye on him.) I didn't realize that I had propped him facing the TV until Hubby came into the living room and asked Superman if he was enjoying Scrubs. Hubby couldn't see me and I guess it looked to him like Superman was just kicked back enjoying his show. I took the pics because with his little short t-shirt, bloated milk belly, wet diaper, and glazed over eyes he reminds me of a beer-bellied redneck kicked back on the couch staring at the TV. These are not flattering pics but maybe I can use them later to show him what he doesn't want to grow up to be.

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary, and it was probably one of my favorite days of our marriage. Things were so relaxed. Because it was Wednesday and Hubby is a pastor, he sort of has to work unless we are going to be out of town. He and I stayed up the night before until midnight so that we could have the first minutes of our anniversary. Superman let me sleep until 8AM. Then, it was time to get rolling because we had a portrait appt. We got some great shots of all three of the kids. Hubby came home and we all had lunch together. I got to take a short nap after lunch. Then, III and Rosy went to the their mom's house for her visitation. I came back and worked on prepping for school and cooking for our Family Dinner at church. Hubby came home a few minutes early from work so that we could be together at 4PM which was the time of our wedding. We went to church and then came home and played with the baby. We had intended to watch a movie, but Superman was more fun! We ended the evening having giant bowls of ice cream! It was all so simple, but it fit us perfectly!

Relax!

Sunday was a great day for our family! Uncle Joe and Aunt Darlene showed up for the 11AM church service and spent the afternoon with us. Aunt Darlene made Superman a cute Peter Rabbit quilt with his name embroidered on it. It's the kind of thing that he will have forever. Everybody needs an aunt or grandma who will make them their own "blankie".

I also had a second great treat. Mrs. Alma called me and I got to share baby stories with her and catch up on how everybody is doing. She gave me some wisdom on how to get a baby to sleep, so we're trying a little rearranging to our schedule tonight. Superman got his bath at 9:30, his bottle at 9:50, and was laid down at 10:00. Wish us luck!

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Last night after church, Hubby and I loaded up Superman and we headed to the Wal-Mart across town. We have decided that Superman is ready for an ExerSaucer / Jumperoo and I had shopped around and decided on the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo. He has the Rainforest Swing and the Rainforest Mobile and he is very attached to the characters that are repeated on each item. When we were in the store Tuesday looking at the jumpers, he got very excited when he saw the little toad and toucan on the Rainforest Jumperoo.

After we came home, I did a price comparison online, and found out that Wal-Mart sells it for $70 and Target sells it for $76. I then used Walmart.com to see which Wal-Mart store had it in stock. Thus, we head across town last night to get our Jumperoo. When we get there, the price is $87! We use Hubby's phone which has internet access to confirm the online price and to confirm that we can get free shipping to the store of our choice. Then we approach the Customer Service Manager to see if they can match their price in the store to the online with free shipping price. They can't! I ask him if he understands that it is going to cost Wal-Mart a lot more to ship one of these across the country to me for free rather than to just let me pick one up off the shelves. He says that he understands it clearly and wishes that someone who makes those policies understood it. We then call Target and their in-store price is $89. So, even though I wish I was strong enough to boycott Wal-Mart, I came home and immediately ordered a Jumperoo online.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight! Psyche!

When I sat down to type this blog entry, it was a great night at our house. Superman had his bath around 10 and followed that up with a bottle. By 11PM he was passed out and in his Pack N Play ready for a good night's rest. Hubby and I were each sitting at our computers working on our projects and had decided to be in bed by 12:30. And, then, for no reason that we can determine, Superman woke up and begin screaming. Now it is 12:05 and Hubby is feeding Superman yet another bottle and we are going to try to get him back to sleep. So much for an early night for us.

Superman has really gotten more active lately. He can sit up when you prop him on pillows. He has found his tongue and is really excited to stick it out at people. It's like a little lizardy "hello".

Anyway, we think he is particularly cute in hooded towels after his bath, so we are sharing his lion photos tonight. I was telling him to wave at Gram Sam when we were taking the pictures. He lifted his hands, but I'm pretty sure it's because he thought he was falling. But, I'm just going to pretend he was waving at Gram Sam.

Wall-E

III has really surprised me this summer!

For years he has bumfuzzled me with his style of play. We would buy him a building toy. He would build the toy that was shown on the box and he would done with it. This applied to Legos, Lincoln Logs, Gearz, Magnetix, Tinker Toys, and anything else we could get. This summer he has been creating really cool things with his Tinker Toys. His latest creation was Wall-E. When he showed it to us, Rosy asked him to make her a little sister for Wall-E. So, the pic is of Wall-E and Moll-E.

I think this new creativity was sparked by two things. After we moved to our smaller house this spring, we purchased a twin bed for III. He always had a queen bed at the other house and it took up most of his room. (His dad wanted it so that people who came to speak at the church could stay with us and not cost the church a hotel room.) Now, even though his room is smaller, his play area is much larger. We have also reduced our TV this summer. Now, TV is an earned privelage rather than an automatic passtime that might be taken away for poor behavior. Our new system has reduced their dependance on TV and has really increased the traditional play that I see the two of them involved in.

Snuggle Time

Because Hubby and I were both teens in the late '80s and still somewhat aware of pop culture in the early '90s, the song Hammer Time by MC Hammer is ingrained in our conscience. Almost anytime I hear someone say that it's time for something by saying, "It's ____ time," I automatically sing it to the tune of Hammer Time in my head. This works for "shower time", "supper time", and pretty much any two syllable word that needs to fit in there. My favorite of these is "snuggle time."

Rosy is the snuggliest kid ever. She would probably explode if she had to go an entire day without hugs. She gets twitchy if you don't sit down and hold her by lunchtime each day. Lately her favorite snuggle buddy is Superman. Thankfully, he loves it also.

The photos are of him helping us tuck her in one night this week. He was actually wiggling and trying to get closer to her as the lay there.

Ice, Ice Baby

I think that Superman is teething! He refuses to sleep, drools everywhere, whimpers if no one is holding him, and has started "urping" stuff up on us. We got the bright idea yesterday to give him a teething ring. He loved it, but he doesn't have the hand coordination yet to bring it to his mouth. This means that you have to stand there and hold it for him.

To solve this problem, I froze all of his pacifiers! He loves it! Each frozen pacifier gets me about 20 minutes of peace before it loses its coldness and he starts crying again.

I weighed him this week and he is over 15 lbs now! He is 23.75" long. I am really glad that he did this extreme growing AFTER he was born. I am beginning to think that he is going to be built like my brother. Right now, he looks like you took my husband's face and pasted it onto my brother's head. His eyes and mouth are duplicates of Hubby, but the shape of his head and the hairline are straight from my brother. He's quite the combo. I just hope that eventually a little bit of me shows up.

I took this photo this morning to show how tall he's getting. When we first tried to put him in the swing, he was so little that you couldn't get the straps small enough to fit him. Now, with his legs extended, his feet hang off the edge!

Welcome to the Jungle!

Superman took his first nap in his crib yesterday!!! Hubby is out of town so Gram Sam came to stay with me and help with the kids. She had noticed that he didn't have a mobile, so one of our projects for yesterday was to go select one for him. He really likes the Fisher Price Jungle Swing which has a little mobile on it, so she got him the big crib mobile that matches it. He loves it! He stayed in his crib for about 45 minutes playing with it and talking to it!! Then, for the first time ever, he fell asleep in his crib! This is a big help for me because our video monitor is hooked up now and I can go to other parts of the house and see him when he's in his crib.

III's big weekend trip to St. Stephens is coming up. He and Gram Sam are leaving tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go well, but we are prepared to go and get him if he gets homesick. Homesick is a pretty awful feeling. Of course, we suspect that he will be so relieved to be away from Rosy that he won't miss us at all.

Rosy has really turned into an amazing baby sitter. She has learned to give bottles and to comfortably hold Superman. I was finally able to finish my thank you notes this week because she could sit on the love seat and hold Superman while I sat on the sofa and wrote. That baby loves his big sister sooo much. I usually take him with me to their rooms in the mornings to wake them up and she is always ready to scoot over and make room for him to snuggle for a minute. (Of course, I watch them and don't let her squish him!)

Psycho

Superman had his two month check-up this week. He is now 23" long and he weights 11lb. 2oz. He was in the 5th percentile for weight when he was born. (No one told me that until this week.) He is now right on target for height and weight in the 50th percentile.

We are heading to St. Stephens this weekend. We plan to leave Thursday afternoon and stay with my parents Thursday night. We'll do 4th of July with them (Superman has a new outfit!) and head back home Friday night.

The big kids are at the beach with their mom this week.

Next week is a crazy week for us, so keep us in your prayers. The big kids will be with us until Wednesday afternoon and then they go to their mom. She has something that weekend, so they will come back to me on Thursday night. Hubby is leaving Wednesday morning to go on a business trip. My mom is coming Thursday to help out with all the kids. Then Friday, my mom and III are leaving to go to her house and leaving me with Rosy and Superman. Hubby should be home late Friday night. Then we will go pick III up at Gram Sam's on Sunday or Monday! I may be a PSYCHO by the time it's all over!

Miracle on Portobella Place

As most of you know, when Hubby and I decided for me to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler, we made a conscience decision that we would have less income and would have to change our lifestyle. Sometimes this is easy (when the children are playing harmoniously and seem to be thriving in their learning) and sometimes it is difficult (when others seem to have more "stuff" than our kids).



Well, it turns out that having a baby is one of those times when it is tough. I expected my big bill to come from the hospital where you can finance it over a year, but my doctor's office filed on the insurance first so I owe them the big bill. I went in their office last week and found out that we owe them $2200 and they will only finance it over 3 months!!!! Everybody has an extra $733.33 sitting around to pay on a bill each month, don't they? Then, we went to the pediatrician's office yesterday and discovered that they had our address wrong and had not been able to bill us correctly. We owed them $230 from previous visits and $310 for the shots that Superman got that day. Needless to say, these sorts of things are extremely stressful.



Hubby has an attitude concerning these things that amazes me. He told me to do the best I could and not to worry because "What are they going to do? Come and eat us?" Certainly we plan to pay our obligations on time, but news like that out of the blue is discouraging.



Last night I sat down to balance the checkbook and to sort through the stack of mail that had accumulated. In our mail was an envelope from our insurance provider. When I opened it, it contained the escrow refund from our home owner's insurance. We sold our house a few months ago as part of our sizing down initiative, and I had no idea that there would be a refund. It doesn't cover all of the medical bills, but it helps out a ton. Even though we don't have to tithe on it because it is not income, we decided to give the Lord the 10% he asks for as a Praise Offering.



It's amazing to me just how good God is! Everytime He throws a miracle my way, I am surprised by it. You would think that I would remember how much He loves me and would understand that He will provide for me if I am faithful to Him.

Feels Like Home

This past weekend I took Superman and Rosy to my parents' home for the weekend. We had a wonderful time and got to see lots of our family. I think our kids may be the most well connected kids in that town. They are related to so many people that they had 4 Great Uncles and 4 Great Aunts with them at church Sunday. I was related through blood or marriage to 8 of the 10 people in my Sunday School class. Rosy was related to 4 of the 7 kids in her class!

As much as I love going to our current church and sharing with our congregation, there was something very magical about taking Superman to Hubby's and my home church. I walked with Superman to the place where Hubby and I were standing when he kissed me for the last time before we separated for 15 years. I got to see the place where we stood on New Year's Eve 2007 when we found out that we were expecting a boy. All in all, it reminds me of the song that we used at our wedding, "Feels Like Home". We are so blessed that it amazes me!

In other news...it's VBS week. Rosy and III are really enjoying themselves. We went to the movies this afternoon and we saw Nim's Island. It's terrible! I actually went to sleep several times with my head leaning against the stroller.

One Day at a Time

When I first started my blog, I was only going to title my posts with entertainment related titles. After a week or two, I was too tired to fool with that any more and it fell by the wayside. Things have settled down now and so I'm going to try again.

A bit of news about Baby Boy - His new blog name is Superman! One of my real life friends who is also a blog reader asked my mom if we were going to be calling him Baby Boy in real life. I am horrified that my blog might stick him with a very uncool nickname with our family and friends, so I am changing his blog name. In real life, Superman will go by his first and middle names, but I'm swapping his blog name as a precaution. Hubby and I call him Superman because he often stretches one arm above his head and puts the other arm down by his side like Superman in flight.

We have put Superman on a schedule! All of the experienced moms in our church kept asking me if he was on a schedule. I had no idea what a baby's schedule would look like and had no idea how to get him on a schedule. I would just laugh and say that he sleeps when he's sleepy and eats when he's hungry - that's his schedule. Little did I know!

Superman slept during church Wed. night and then took a nap when we got home. He woke up about 9PM. When we tried to put him down at 11PM, he wasn't sleepy. He NEVER went to sleep that night. Hubby had a breakfast meeting that required him to leave the house at 5AM Thursday morning. I had fallen asleep on the couch, and Superman was still crying. He dosed off at some point because he was asleep when I woke up later. I decided at that point that a schedule was necessary. We put him on it Thursday and he did very well. He went down at 11PM Thursday night and woke up at 5AM. He stayed up for about an hour and then went back down until 9AM. This is the most sleep we've gotten since he was born!! We kept him on schedule all day Friday (today) and we laid him down at 11PM. I'm hoping that it will be another good night!

Rosy, Superman, and I are heading to my hometown tomorrow. If you are in our home area, we would love to see you. We'll be at my mom and dad's house, so give us a call!

Fed Ex

Baby Boy is really growing. He now weighs around 9 lbs.

I had to go to Fed Ex today and while I was waiting at the counter I noticed that they had a large, very accurate looking, digital scale. I asked the Fed Ex guy how much their scale would weigh and he told me up to 150 lbs. I quickly took Baby Boy out of his car seat and plopped him on the scale. He weighed 9.75 lbs. which translates to 9 lbs. 12 oz. Of course, he had on socks, a onesie, and a potentially wet diaper so I'm not sure exactly how much he weighs.

He has gained aboout 3 or 3 1/2 lbs. since he was born 7 weeks ago. The doctor said that he will double his birth weight in 6 months. We are well on our "weigh" to meeting that goal.

So, we'll be heading to Fed Ex every month now so that I can weigh him.

One last note on Fed Ex...Hubby is obsessed with the arrow in the Fed Ex logo. He had never seen it until someone pointed it out to him. Now, everytime we see a Fed Ex truck, he is compelled to mention the arrow to me. I had also never noticed it before, but I'm not really excited about it. I'm not even sure that it is there on purpose.

Mini Me

People are often quick to speculate concerning who they think a baby resembles. We pick apart individual features and the overall look and try to find a similarity to someone in the family. It's just human nature.

Almost everyone agreed for a long time that Baby Boy looked just like Hubby, but a few people are beginning to see a slight resemblance to me.

Baby Boy seems to have some of his Dad's behavior. Check out the pics of Hubby's "Mini Me".

Sharp Dressed Man

Baby Boy has recently grown big enough to start wearing some of his outfits that he was given. When he was first born, he had to have preemie clothes, so it is very exciting for Rosy and I to get to look through his clothes and pick out his ensembles.

We saved the outfit from Aunt RoseAnn for Father's Day because we wanted him to have something from Hubby's side of the family to wear that day.

Gram Sam to the Rescue

After a rough start to our week, things improved and then "de-proved" (if that were the opposite of improved) rapidly.

We had a great day Tuesday. Towards the end of my pregnancy Hubby and I went out to dinner to celebrate the sale of our house. There was a nice girl and her baby boy at the table next to us, and we struck up conversation. It turns out that she lives less than a mile from us and she is only working part time. We exchanged phone numbers and she called to check on me several times during the bed rest at the very end of the pregnancy. She and I were able to get together for lunch with the kids at Chik-Fil-A. Chik-Fil-A on Nine Mile Road has a soundproofed play area so that you can see your kids playing, but you can't hear them. I think that makes it the nicest restaurant in town. Baby Boy slept through the whole thing and the two big kids did very well. I was even able to take the whole crew to Target afterward and buy Rosy some new shorts (50% off).

Wednesday was all right. III had a doctor's appt to be evaluated to determine whether or not he has ADD and the whole family gathered for it. The big kids were with us Wednesday night and got to go to church with us.

Thursday, Friday, and the first part of Saturday were great. My mom came to stay with us for a few days. Since I got pregnant last year she has been visiting more. I think she either felt bad for how pitiful I was or she has finally found a route to my house that she is comfortable driving ( no interstate!) or maybe it just helps that my dad is retired now and things can be a little more flexible. When we first brought Baby Boy home from the hospital he didn't really know the difference between my mom, Hubby, and me. He knew that we were all his caretakers. It is really important to me that he be very close to my mom so I whine at her to come visit regularly. I really don't ever want him to go more than 2 or 3 weeks without seeing my parents. It didn't take him long to remember his Gram Sam! His only complaint was that she refuses to breastfeed. He quickly realized that she would hold him constantly and he took advantage of it.

We got lots of work done around the house and it was nice to have a backup during those night feedings when he wouldn't go back to sleep. I was sad to see her go on Saturday afternoon.

The good news is that Rosy and I are taking him to St. Stephens this weekend. I hate that Hubby can't go with us, but as he is a pastor, he needs to be in his pulpit this Sunday. We considered waiting until Hubby could be with us, but I didn't want to wait that long. Soon Baby Boy will get to go back to where Mommy and Daddy met.

I have managed to get lots of cute pics of Baby Boy this last week and will put many of them up on the blog in the next few days. I am working on birth announcements this week and so many of you will be getting pics in the mail soon.

Of course, this leaves you wondering what the "de-proved" part of the week is. The two older children had a series of poor decision making at the mom's house that was stunning in its scope and seriousness. Parts of the situation came to light while they were with their mom and the rest of the story was revealed at our house. We have had to take some fairly drastic measures with punishing both of them. As hubby told me last night - when he signed on for parenting he knew that not all of the seasons would be good. Well, it seems like one of our children is perpetually in a rainy season due to poor choices and it is starting to "trickle down".

But, to end on a positive note, my mom made me TWO blackberry cobblers while she was here!!!

Fire, Mommy, Fire

You can tell by the title of this post that is going to be a rough one. "Fire, Mommy, Fire" were the words I heard at around 7:15 Monday morning. Sunday night was another relatively sleepless night with 4 1/2 hours of sleep divided into two segments. Hubby had to leave early Monday morning to be with a friend who was having surgery at the Navy Hospital across town. At 7AM, I told III and Rosy that I was going to take Baby Boy (who was finally back asleep) to my room and take a nap for an hour. A few minutes later, I hear III and Rosy screaming and beating on my door. "Fire, Mommy, Fire".

It turns out that I had turned on the pot to sterilize some bottles before I went to lay down. Actually I have no idea when I turned the pot on. I think I had been giving Baby Boy bottles and pacifiers non-stop since 3 AM. At some point, the water evaporated and the bottles melted and caught fire. (I'm considering a McDonald's coffee type lawsuit because none of the bottles are labeled "flammable".)

I don't know if I handled it correctly or not, but here's what I did. As soon as I heard the kids, I jumped up and immediately knew what I had done. I sent III and Rosy to the front porch so that I could put out the fire. Thankfully it was still contained in the pot, but it was about 3 feet tall. I ran to the laundry room and grabbed the fire extinguisher. I ran toward the stove and then it hit me. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO OPERATE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER! I know there is something about pulling a pin. Where is the pin? What does a pin look like? What do you do after you pull the pin? These are questions that you want to answer ahead of time. Trust me!

As I stood there with my (useless) fire extinguisher aimed at the fire, I frantically looked around. There was a 2 liter bottle of lemonade on the counter, so I grabbed it and poured it on the fire. Thankfully, lemonade is not explosive or flammable and it put out the fire. Then, it was just a matter of getting the smoke detectors to stop beeping and of getting the smoke out of the house. It took about an hour to get everything back to normal and then I still had to clean the stove area. Baby Boy slept through the whole thing. He spent most of the morning in his bouncer seat on top of the picnic table in the back yard hanging out with Twinkle in her cage and III and Rosy. We have found soot all in the kitchen and tonight we found some in the living room.

Thankfully, my mom is coming Thursday and she and I can work on de-sooting the house.

God is certainly gracious to us and is often watching out for us when we can't watch out for ourselves. I'm thinking that I may suggest a family motto for our family - "We Believe."

Big Days or Big Daze

We are still so tired at our house that we can hardly function at times. I went to have 1 month pics taken of Baby Boy this week and I had to ask the photographer what year it was.

We've had some great firsts this week. I cleaned out Baby Boy's crib and he is learning to lay in it and play with his kick -start musical farm toy and to play with some of his other toys. This has really been his first interest in toys other than the mirror on his tummy time mat. He really seems to enjoy looking at the baby in the mirror.

I finally broke out the video camera this week. I had "prep the camera" on my list of things to take care of in the weeks before he was born, but then he came early and some things didn't get taken care of. We are sad that we missed his first month on video, but we can shoot lots of film now to make up for it.

And, in some very exciting news, Baby Boy rolled over tonight. He was hanging out on his tummy time mat laying on his tummy. Then he rolled to his side and then to his back! Of course, we are very excited!

Our sleeplessness is leading to a Big Daze, but Baby Boy's growth is leading to Big Days.

When the baby cryde

This is a piece of art the Rosy made in Sunday School this week. It says, "When the baby cryde I whende to go get the pacie" There is a picture of me on our love seat holding Baby Boy and of her bringing me a pacifier. As a home schooling mom, I am somewhat concerned about the spelling in the art, but I really love the use of color and perspective. Don't worry about the handwriting - she does her schoolwork in cursive and has not been taught all of her print alphabet. That is a project for this summer.

Rosy is learning to measure water and mix formula, and we are trying to teach her to give him a bottle without a lot of spillage and air gulping. (Baby Boy is about 50%/50% breastmilk and formula now.) She adores her baby brother and is very gentle and sweet with him.

Visit to Gram Sam and Papa Deet

We made this visit back on May 23rd, but I'm just now finding the time to post photos. My mom, Gram Sam, has a Winnie the Pooh pack and play set up for Baby Boy. It's soooo cute!

Magic Carpet Ride

We had our first Sunday at church together yesterday. Baby Boy was well received by everyone. As a new mommy, I have learned an interesting thing about compliments. Even though I think my baby is extremely attractive, he is probably really only as attractive as all other babies. They are all, for the most part, squirmy, squishy, pink reminders of the greatness and gentleness of God. However, it feels incredibly good when people compliment him. I don't value him for his physical appearance, but it feels good when people say nice things. So, I now understand a little of the communication of mom-hood. So, if I didn't tell you how beautiful your child was when he or she was born, I'm telling you now. And, later on, if you have a child, let me go ahead and tell you that he or she will be beautiful.

Rosy and I made an important discovery today. The stroller puts Baby Boy to sleep. We are working on ways to cut down on his marathon feeding sessions. After church today, I fed him before she and I had lunch. We were tired of waiting on him to finish his cuddling session after his belly was full, so we put him in the stroller and took him for a walk. In less than 1/2 a block, he was sound asleep. Hubby and I used this same trick when Baby Boy woke from his afternoon nap. About 10 minutes riding in the stroller and he's out for several hours.

Church went pretty well this morning. We made it all the way through the first service. Hubby was not preaching today, so he actually got to hold our baby for part of the service! We tried to go to Sunday School, but a dirty diaper cut that short. Baby Boy managed to tee-tee his outfit between early service and Sunday School, so many people missed seeing his cute outfit. He only has one formal outfit that fits right now, so I will probably let him wear it again next week. Hubby wants us to go to the second service next week so that crowd can meet him. It is a neat thing to have so many people interested in meeting and loving my baby.

To Poop or Not To Poop? That is the question

Many of you know that poop is my last favorite substance in the universe. If I walk into a bathroom that smells bad, I often say, "It smells like death in here." Conversations about poop can make me gag and almost throw up. Other people changing baby diapers near me can make me sick, and I often did gag when I had to wipe Rosy's heiney. I've never even understood the charm of birthday cards that referenced poop. Well, here I am now measuring my entire success as a mother by what's happening in the diaper.

For a breast feeding mommy, diaper contents are critical. You need a certain amount of poopies each day and they should look a certain way (which looks more like cooked squash than any poop I had ever seen before). We were doing really well until yesterday. We took Baby Boy to our home town Friday and he managed to talk my mom into feeding him tons of formula. He is usually limited to one bottle of formula (3 oz.) at his 4 AM feeding. He is such a slow breast feeder (he can take up to 2 1/2 hours) that we decided to take formula for him to eat during the visit and I would pump milk. This would let other family members give him bottles and would only take about 30 minutes for each feeding. This seemed to work very well! He loved it and would cry for more formula after each bottle. We thought he was on a growth spurt, so we let him have it. I am blaming my mom because you know that grandmother's always let the kids do whatever they want.

Baby Boy woke up around 3 AM Saturday morning and was miserable. We gave him some Mylecon and tried to go back to sleep. No such luck! Baby Boy was constipated! By Saturday afternoon, he had cried and cried. We had rubbed his tummy, rubbed his back, "bicycled" his legs, and any other remedy we could find online. Finally we called the pediatricain and they gave us some hints. Neither of their ideas were pleasant for any of us, but around 7:30PM (22 hours after the last poopie diaper) we had our first poopie diaper. And another at 7:40. And another at 7:50. And that went on for a little while.

Thank heavens for a wise pediatrician and a wise friend who recommended that we use that particular doctor group. We are also thankful that we survived our first medical crisis with no real trauma!

Next post: Our first Sunday at church

2 Weeks Old

Today is Baby Boy's two week birthday! We had a busy day. He had an early doctor's appt. and then we ran one or two errands. The doctor's appt. went well. She said that he is "developmentally advanced" for his age and size. She was also pleased that he is gained back up to and exceeded his birth weight. As a breast feeding mommy, I take that as a personal accomplishment. On the down side, he did manage to pee on his doctor.

We spent the afternoon taking naps and hiding from bad weather. Hubby had a funeral that he needed to attend, but our area was put under tornado watch just as he got ready to leave for the funeral. He decided that I was not really in any shape to be at home alone with the baby in tornado prone weather, so he stayed home with us. Thankfully the weather subsided, but it was nice to have that feeling of protection.

I also packed up the maternity clothes this afternoon because my friend Cinda has announced that she is expecting again. Now these last 8 pounds have to come on off so that I can wear regular clothes again! We will be taking our first trip to St. Stephens with Baby Boy next week because my regular clothes are in storage at my parent's house.

John and I spent some time taking pics of Baby Boy today. The photo at the top is one that I think I will be using on his birth announcement. It really looks good in black and white. We have discovered that Baby Boy, like the rest of this family, is not particularly photogenic. Or, maybe I am just a bad photographer. The blanket in the photo background is a hand knit blanket from Jana, a wonderful lady at our church.

2 AM has gotten worse & world's worst diaper change ever!

For the last few nights, Baby Boy has refused to sleep. He sleeps all day and then wakes up around 1 or 2 AM for a feeding and refuses to go back to sleep until about 4 or 5 AM. Gram Sam came and stayed with us over the weekend to help our with his sleep schedule. We have all agreed that he is too little to just let cry because his cry, at this point, just indicates that he feels insecure. So, we have to pick him up and comfort him when he gets upset. We have tried all different kinds of stimulating activities during the day and soothing activities during the night, but so far nothing is doing the trick. Last night, Hubby and I finally hit on the magic number - 90 minutes. If we rotate in 90 minute shifts, we each get enough sleep to function and we are able to hold Baby Boy without falling asleep.

We have started taking Baby Boy out for daily walks in his stroller (Thanks again to the world's greatest Aunt and Uncle!). Rosy and I get very excited about the excursion, and we love getting him ready for his foray into the world. Baby Boy, however, gets very tired from the preparation and quickly falls to sleep before we've gone 100 feet. He wakes up when we bring him in the house and he always looks confused as to how he got in the car seat and why he's dressed in different clothes. He may never understand some of the things that his sister and I do!

Today I changed a really hideous diaper and managed to let him pee on the floor and on one of his diaper bags! I never knew that baby poop could be so sticky! I thought we were going to have get an SOS pad to clean his butt. And, while I had his feet up in the air and was working on brillo-ing his butt with a baby wipe, he peed everywhere. "Everywhere" includes his own head and face!!! Of course, this required me to stop work on the sticky poop butt and to hurriedly clean the pee off of his face, head, and chest. I eventually wrapped him in a lap pad and hurried to the kitchen to wet a washcloth to further clean the pee. Upon my return to the nursery, I realized that the changing table pad was flooded with pee and some flecks of sticky poop. The only way I knew of to get the rest of the poop off of him was to hold him upright in a semi-standing position and to clean as best as I could. This worked well until he peed again - this time from the standing position and managed to get the floor and the diaper bag. Thankfully, none of that pee actually got on him and I was able to get him to the glider on a lap pad and get a diaper on him! Of course, then I had to get him dressed, collect up all the items that had pee and poop on them, and clean the floor and diaper bag. Let me tell you that life was a lot more simple 2 weeks ago! But, it wasn't nearly as much fun.

Online Nursery

The online nursery link for Baby Boy is our365.com.

Our customer number is 5806-10292. This is also used as the password. In some places you enter it with the dash in place and in other places it is entered without the dash, so try it both ways.

It will also ask for the first 4 letters of my last name.

First Bath

John Stephens had his first bath Tuesday. It was not his favorite experience, but at least he didn't pee on us.

In Just One Week

Time has really flown. This time last week, John Stephens was still in utero and I was in agony. The details of the labor (28 hours with most of it with no epidural or with the epidural at 25% strength) are horrible, but are beginning to fade from memory. I have lost 29 lbs. since delivery. This is also very tiring, but is a good thing. I still have a ways to go with the fluid and weight. I had only gained 13 lbs. through the first of March and then gained about 30 lbs. in the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy.

John Stephens is a good eater and has firmly established that his favorite place in the world is Mommy's chest. We refer to this as "Booby World" and a visit is always his treat after something upsetting like a bath or a diaper change. He doesn't necessarily want to nurse, he just wants to lay down on Mommy. He will give a token effort to nurse if he thinks you are going to move him away. He prefers to eat from his bottles and that works for us. We can keep him on a better schedule and know more about what he is ingesting when we bottle feed.

He is now sleeping about 3 or 4 hours after each good feeding. This is really helping us get through the nights. The first few nights we were home, he cried everytime he was put down, so we had to work in shifts to get any rest.

Yesterday was a landmark day for me. I changed my first ever diaper and then I got to change about 5 more. Also, John went to Wal-mart last night and I kept John Stephens by myself for 3 hours. That was a huge step for us!

My surgery is healing nicely. I hardly ever feel it anymore.

The photo at the top was taken today on his one week birthday.

He's here

I will post more later when we have rested. John Stephens arrived Thursday night, May 1st at 10:31PM. He weighed 6lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. Thanks for your prayers.

We are at home, but feeding is difficult so we aren't sleeping very much at all.

More Whining about Lack of Sleep

Here it is 2AM again and I can't sleep. This is either excellent preparation for when the baby comes, or I am just crazy.

Sunday was a great sleep day for me. I got up at 5:30 AM because Sammie was still here to help me finish the laundry and putting away the last of the boxes. We had already decided that church was not an option for me after looking at my feet Saturday night. Sam and I had a great game plan where I basically sat in the floor and she put away things. However, by 11:30AM my feet were painfully swollen and red. I crashed on the love seat (with my feet elevated) until 12:30 when the boys got home from church. Then I laid down for a nap and slept until 6:30PM. That is about 6 hours of naps once you subtract the pee breaks. However, there was no problem going to bed. We laid down around 1AM and I slept until 6AM this morning when I woke up with tummy problems again.

It took about 20 minutes to decide if these were contractions or just gastro-intestinal issues. Needless to say, it was GI. I laid back down and except for getting up to feed Shelby, I slept until 11:30AM. I took a short nap this afternoon and thought I would be ready for bed tonight. Boy, was I wrong! Physically I'm exhausted, but I can't shut my mind off. It whirls and whirls! I remember being in college and 2 AM was a whole lot more fun than this!

On the plus side, I made the floor-length skirt for Baby Boy's bassinet today. I had originally planned on a bassinet and everytime I discussed it with Hubby he mentally pictured a wooden cradle. When I got ready to purchase one, he wanted to know why the were all wicker. We eventually settled on the idea of a Moses Basket in a stand. So, last week during my confinement I selected a Moses Basket and ordered it from Wal-mart only to realize that neither of the 2 stands available on the market fit the Wal-mart Moses Basket ($34). They only fit the "custom bedding" Moses Baskets ($189 and up). Needless to say, we were back to square one. So, I asked my mom to go to Wal-mart Saturday morning and pick up a bassinet they had in stock. It is not heirloom quality, but it is functional. Also, it is in our budget. However, the bedding on it was really cheap looking, so one of our errands Saturday was to get new fabric for the bedding. Now, my bassinet has a floor length skirt and a pretty baby blue bow. Now, he has a pretty place to lay his little head when he comes home.

Overdone

Once again, indigestion has woken me up so I'll catch everyone up on my life.

Wednesday's doctor appt. was fabulous. I got upgraded from "bedrest" to "moderate activity / modified bedrest". I decided that it meant I could do what I wanted to do as long as I felt good.

I was wrong!

I was pretty good Thursday, mainly because I didn't sleep at all Wednesday night and slept on and off all day Thursday. But, then my Mom got here Friday morning and I took that as an excuse to do all of the things that I had been wanting to do. We worked at the house for several hours preparing the nursery. Then, we decided it was time to tackle Target and Wal-mart. By the end of the trip, I was sitting on a display stack of cases of Coke waiting on her to pick up a few items for us while all the Wal-Mart team members eased by hoping that I wasn't in labor and that my water wasn't about to break.

I think I've made my last big trip out until after Baby Boy is here.

We have to go as far as Toys R Us tomorrow to look at a swing set for the kids. Hubby is going to drive for us and we are not going to stay long. I hate to admit it, but maybe "modified bedrest" means that I am going to have to focus on the "bedrest" part and not the "modified" part.

My Mom is supposed to leave Saturday afternoon, but she looked at me Friday tonight and said that I looked really bad and that maybe she should stay another day. Normally, I would resent the "looked really bad" part, but I don't care right now. All I want is for her to stay and help me get everything caught up. She commented that I looked "markedly" worse than when she saw me two weeks ago. Again, I don't care how bad I look if it is causing her to have sympathy and want to stay and help.

One of the big downsides to this is that Hubby and I can't figure any way for me to go to church. I can't sit on a pew for an hour with my feet dangling down. The only other option is to sit UPSTAIRS in the "Cry Room". Usually it is just Moms and little babies up there so no one would be offended if I sat on the floor so that my feet didn't swell. But, if I do that I'm still going to be very uncomfortable and don't know how effectively I could worship. So, I don't know whether I should go so that people can see that their pastor's wife is really trying to be there, or whether I should just stay home. It seems pharisee-like to go so that others can know I'm trying, but it seems lazy not to go at all. I mean - what's a little discomfort in the face of what Christ did for me? I am, by the way accepting opinions on this one.

Hopefully, this current bout of indigestion is over. So now at 2:45 AM I am going back to bed.

Spotlight on III

Not much gets said about III on the blog because I don't spend as much time with him (because he's in public school this year) and because he and I are 180 degrees apart in personality. I almost never understand what he is doing. It is a humbling thing to love a child to whom you have little ability to relate.

He has had a newsworthy week this week. First, he was invited to a birthday party last Sunday afternoon and the invitation specified that the boys could bring "water guns or air soft guns". Hubby said that "air soft guns" meant Nerf guns. So, I thought we were prepared. Well, Saturday evening I mentioned to III that he needed to gather his things to take to the party. He told me he didn't have any guns to take and so he didn't need to pack them. After some discussion, it turns out that what he needed was a sort of plastic pellet shooting gun. Thankfully, even though III's piggy bank was empty, Hubby's stepdad had sent Christmas money to the kids that we had set aside for them. So, III and Hubby headed off to Wal-mart to invest in a new gun, pellets, and a nice face shield. We were very thankful that we did it because he had a blast. We try very hard to teach our children that "stuff" doesn't make you happy and that you don't have to buy stuff to fit in with your real friends. But, I was glad that on something small like having the "right" gun to play with at the party, we had planned ahead and put the money aside. I figure that unless there's a spiritual reason to do without something, it won't hurt my kids to have toys that other kids have.

Of course, being III, he didn't bother to tell us that he had made 2 Fs and 1 D on tests last week. He mentioned that he had some redos. Redos are papers that he has to do over because he scores less than 80%. Here's his logic. They just started a new A.R. period and his points were low, so he hurried through all of his work so that he could read. ARGGGHHH! Now, he is grounded for 2 weeks. Did I mention that his birthday is next week? This is the second year in a row that he has managed to be grounded on his birthday. We decided to lift the grounding for the day of his birthday and the day of his birthday party and just to add 2 days to the grounding. Maybe this ruins the effect of the grounding or maybe it shows grace and love.

Then, to turn it around again, he came in third place in a speech competition in his class today. We are really proud of his speech. He wrote it himself on "Tom and Jerry". He practiced and Hubby said that he used good eye contact and voice inflection in his presentation. (I was still on bed rest and could not attend.) One of the ways that III and I don't see eye to eye is in preparation of things. As his parents, we are constantly trying to find the right balance for him with his spiritual side, his academic side, his emotional side, his social side, and his physical side. My method of preparing for a speech competition would involve memorizing the whole thing. And, as a matter of fact, the 2 girls who beat him did memorize theirs. But, III is content to have spent less effort, to have had more free time, and to come in third place. This is very difficult for me to comprehend, but I am proud of his accomplishment. It showed good work and it met his needs. He feels like he did a good job and is validated.

So, if you're ever at a loss for how to pray for our family, you can always pray for our ability to sync up my expectations with goals that III feels are reasonable.

The pic at the top is from a fishing trip that III and Hubby took during Spring Break.

News from the Cervix

If you are one of those squeamish people (like I used to be) who don't want to know the details of what's happening with my cervix, then consider this a warning that there is TMI ahead. If, however, you have been pregnant and this sort of conversation is normal to you, then forge ahead for the nitty-gritty details.

Today we had an appt. with our OB. We are now starting the week to week appts. Baby Boy is head down but still has further (or farther) to drop. I am 1 cm dialated and about 50% effaced. I think I am having Braxton-Hicks pains, but until you've actually been in labor and had a contraction it is hard to diagnose whether this is Braxton-Hicks or an early contraction. Baby Boy's heart beat is still solid in the 150s.

My Blood Pressure was back down today and I have been upgraded from "bedrest" to "limited activity". That means I can move around the house and run a few errands if someone goes with me. It doesn't seem like much, but it is a big deal to me. My mom (Gram Sam) is coming to help me finish the nursery this weekend and it will be a great help to be able to run errands with her help.

Update on the CORD BLOOD POST:

The kit arrived this morning, so that prayer has been answered. I was really afraid that I would go into labor before the kit could get here.

We did not qualify for the grant because there are no studies going on right now that will us a sibling's cord blood but we still very optimistic about what they will be able to do in the future.

I talked to Bio Mom and she agreed whole heartedly for us to use her medical license to get the discount. So, if I'm ever griping about her, you can try to help me remember that usually we both have our kids best interest at heart even if we go about it in different ways.

Cord Blood Banking

Yesterday I received one of those miracle phone calls that non-Christians refer to as "coincedences". As of today, I am 35 weeks along in my pregnancy and Hubby and I have not seriously discussed cord blood banking. I had relegated it to the back of my mind and I had decided that if something happened (like winning a sweepstakes) that I would ask him about it. Otherwise, I didn't really want to ask for $2500 to do what seems like a science experiment.

Late yesterday afternoon, a rep from the cord blood bank called on my cell phone and asked for Christine. Well, that's my middle name, but I have NEVER used that name and certainly not in conjunction with my cell phone. I almost let her go and then I decided to ask if she was trying to find me. And, she was. Apparently I had registered for some free info (to enter a contest) with both my real name and phone number and with my "fake" name and cell phone number. It's a good thing I did it that way because we have since moved and the old phone number is invalid.

I listened to her sales pitch and explained how we couldn't really afford to do it. She then explained to me about a grant that is available for banking cord blood if the baby has a first degree relative who has a disease that can be treated with the cord blood. Rosy has Type 1 diabetes and the University of Florida has treated at least 4 kids who have Type 1 Diabetes with their own cord blood and has either eliminated or reduced their need for insulin. This is the sort of information that is really overwhelming to the parents of a child with long-term life threatening disease.

Hubby and I talked about the situation and we decided that even if we can't get the grant, we are willing to accrue some debt to bank this cord blood. Because Baby Boy and Rosy are only half siblings the chances are not perfect that they will be a match. However, Baby Boy is her best shot. And, on the other good side, the rep told me today that our family can receive a discount because III and Rosy's Bio Mom is an RN. What a crazy blended family world this is, but my baby's cord blood banking is eligible for a discount because his 1/2 sister's Bio Mom is a medical professional!

We are asking for prayers concerning this whole situation. 1. That there will be lots of cord blood available. We need enough to use for Rosy, to set aside for Hubby (who also has Type 1 Diabetes), and to save for Baby Boy in case he needs it later. 2. That Baby Boy will be a genetic match for Rosy and for Hubby. 3. That we get approved for this grant. 4. That Bio Mom will work with us to get this discount if the grant is not approved.

This all sounds a little out there, but for our family it is the hope of a miracle that we were even afraid to dream was a possibility. For those of you who know Rosy, can you imagine just being able to give her a snack without thinking about it? And, then imagine what that would be like for us!

Congrats to Julia!

Julia has made it to the finals in her bid to become a Tennessee Titan Cheerleader for the third year in a row. Julia is an amazing friend and I want to take a minute to tell her how much I love her and how much we appreciate her. Good luck at the final tryouts! And, yes, she is that thin and I am that big!

Showers of Blessing

It has been so hectic lately that I haven't even gotten to post about my Baby Shower at our church. It was such a wild day that I was one of the last people to get to my shower. And, I am NOT that type of girl. I planned to be there about 15 minutes early to receive guests, but that is not the way it worked. The shower was at 3PM and Hubby was picking the kids up at 2PM from their biological mom. She was about 5 minutes late (which is normally something that we are very understanding with each other about), but on Baby Shower Day it was a killer. By the time Hubby got Rosy home, I had about 20 minutes to wipe her down, roll her hair and get her dressed. This would have been okay, but the temperature was expected to be dramatically lower than we had expected when she left home on Tuesday. That meant we had to find a new outfit. Well, I'm a freak and we all have to wear the same color to important occasions. So, her new outfit had to be brown because my mom and I were already dressed.

During the chaos of getting Rosy ready and finishing getting myself ready, Hubby announces that Bio Mom has forgotten III's backpack and he is going to have to go meet her again in a few minutes to pick it up. (In a blended family these things happen a lot and they happen on both sides of the fence, so you really have to roll with it. It just stinks when they happen on a day when one of us has a tight schedule.) My Jeep had a broken air conditioner and so Hubby and I were planning for me to take his truck. I am now rushing around with flat hair because of the humidity, a partaily dressed daughter, a tense mom, and no comfortable ride to the church. Hubby finally comes through the door at 2:50 and begins digging through some boxes that we haven't yet unpacked from the move last month. I go ballistic! "Can't you help me get Rosy ready to go?" "Why are you unpacking now?" "Is the truck cooling down?" Thankfully he is a gracious man and he calmly stops unpacking (where he was hunting something I had asked him to hunt for) and checks Rosy's blood sugars and packs her bag. We left a few minutes later and careened down the back roads to the church while I stripped the chipped hot pink polish off of my nails.

Here's the rest of the story...I didn't know this until much later, but Hubby had been back for a while before he came into the house. He was in the garage looking for things. I felt really bad because I thought that Bio Mom had held us up, but it was really Hubby forgetting that I was waiting on the truck. Well, that combined with the fact that I was just running about 10 minutes late. So, it isn't always the other people's fault. Sometimes you need to look closer to home.

Also, if you are 35 weeks pregnant, you should not "Satin Hands" your feet in the shower if you are in a hurry. It makes the shower floor too slippery and you have to sit on the bench for several minutes and let it dry out a little before you can stand up and rinse it. This would have been good to know before I tried it.

The shower at the church was gorgeous. It was decorated like bunnies playing in a garden. The pictures don't do it justice, but it's the best I've got.

Bed Rest

Well, last night we made our first run to the hospital for a possible baby delivery. Thankfully, Baby Boy was not on his way yet.

For the past few weeks, I have experienced extreme swelling in my feet. My doctor has monitored my blood pressure and because it was stable and normal, we have just been trying to reduce my activity and keep my feet elevated. Yesterday afternoon I had an intense bout of vomiting. I know that nausea is another of the major signs of toxemia, so we got a little worried. Hubby came home from work and checked my blood pressure. It was normal at the time and I was not running a fever, so we decided to keep an eye on things and check me again in a few hours. Hubby got a call around 8:30PM that one of our Senior Adult Ladies in our church had been rushed to the hospital. As he prepared to go to the hospital to check on her, he checked my B.P. again. This time it was high! He had to call the other lady back and let her know that he had to take me to the hospital.

We quickly threw all of our toiletries in a bag and headed for Sacred Heart. They monitored me and Baby Boy for about 2 hours and did some blood work. By 11:30PM my blood pressure was down and the blood work had come back with normal results. So, they let us go, but now I'm on bed rest.

Bed rest is the most boring thing in the world. It is possible that I have 5 more weeks of this to go. Thankfully, Hubby has hooked me up a TV and a laptop in the bedroom. That entertains me for about 1 hour each day. I have read through all my library books. And, here's the part where I really have the pity party....I have developed carpal tunnel problems in both hands which means that I can't hold a phone for more than about 5 minutes, can't hold a pen to write thank-yous, and can't play spider solitaire on the laptop because I can't "click and drag".

I think the only person who is suffering more than I am is my beloved Hubby. He is now in charge of EVERYTHING! So, remember us all in your prayers.