Heart on my sleeve

I'll admit it, I'm effing lonely. My husband works his "dream" job that takes him away from his family on a regular, very regular basis. I've been couped up in this house for days with a sick sick baby and I'm actually happy that he's finally getting tubes so that these ear infections (which in 2 short months have already caused moderate scar tissue.) Really, I'm happy that my son is having surgery, that's just twisted. Said ear infections have definitely strained my marriage. I mean seriously do I really want to have sex after being up all night with a baby? I think not. Not to mention here in SC when we get winter weather life shuts down and due to aforementioned winter weather I haven't seen my husband in 36 hours plus...which just downright sucks.

I've been super slack!

I've been super slack with pictures and videos of D, so I'm going to just overload you really quick and get them out of the way!

Several months ago, Dawson learned this!

and I never thought to get a video of it, until I was reminded!

I can't make this stuff up...

Auditing a practice today. Lady comes in with her infant child and her other slightly older kid. Older kid has a brain tumor (not relevant but factual.) Another lady with 2 children come in.Just so happens that the first lady's infant is the product of an affair. Mom slept with a married man, eh none of my business, but in all honesty nothing is private between the healthcare workers. Anyway there's mom number two, with her adorable children...and in walks dad. Dad to 3 of the four children we are seeing. Dad who has NO clue that both his ex girlfriend and future ex wife are in the same building. And here we are attempting to keep our selves together...since we are "professionals." Not quite. *I've often said that the behind the scenes of medical practices should be a reality show...things like this happen ALL the time.*

ERIN!

Erin, you had a pretty big day yesterday and I keep waiting on the official count, let us know!!

Car Seat Safety.

*D is sleeping much better these last few days, but that’s not why I’m writing this post.*


I think when a woman becomes a mom, she has one thing that she becomes obsessed with. For some it’s cloth diapers, organic foods, living completely green, etc. For me it’s car seat safety. If you knew me in real life or if we’re really comfortable over the internets than you know my view on car seat safety. Extended Rear Facing is the BEST, period. Not only is ERF best, but proper installation is too. If you need to know that your seat is in the RIGHT way and not just in…go by your local fire department or police department, they can check it. They take classes for that. Or go by your local hospital, I can guarantee you that they have staff that are trained on this. Or if you live near me, call me up. I’ll put it in for you. Even if it takes 60 minutes of installation time, it’s worth EVERY SINGLE SECOND. Not only is installation that important, having the five point harness in the correct position at the right place on the body is just as important. And spending upwards of 300.00 isn’t necessary but the right fit for your car and your child is. Yes I have an expensive convertible car seat. I did find it on sale, but even if I hadn’t I would have paid the almost $300.00 for it. I love it. D is comfortable in it and if fits our lifestyle. Daniel has a cheaper $150.00 car seat in his car for D, but I love it just as much as my more expensive model. Anyway that’s not the point of this post. The point is if you can do one thing that can truly and literally save your child’s life, you wouldn’t put a price tag on it. And you wouldn’t skimp on doing it b/c your child’s safety is way more important than cutting corners for ease, right? Watch this video and many others like it. Read the statistics. Then tell me if it’s worth turning your child around at one and putting them in their seat inappropriately.





For me, it’s not. Obviously from my last post, I don’t let D cry, BUT if D cried from sitting rear facing in his car seat , he’d just have to tough it out. Just like many of you won’t feed your child anything less than organic, I won’t put him forward facing until he’s reached the ERF limit. Please think about it. Do your research and then make your decision. And if you’ve already turned your baby around, still think about it and research and then maybe just maybe you’ll reconsider and turn him/her back to rear facing. I hope you will anyway.

Oh, and if your car seat has been involved in ANY accident, even a tiny fender bender. REPLACE IT!

Headed down "losing it" road...

If you have a young child, let me preface this by saying this probably won't happen to you, apparently I was blessed (cursed) with the child who never sleeps....

I need advice because I’m seriously this close to losing it. Last night I got a total of 1.5 hours of sleep. Dawson got about the same. He screamed all night. So let’s start from the beginning.


Dawson has NEVER been a sleep through the night kind of baby. I did get him down to waking basically once a night, but that’s when he was still co sleeping with me. Once he got the hang of that I moved him to his crib, which he was doing FANTASTIC with. This was November. He got a cold. It turned into a 45 day ear infection complete with 4 different antibiotic courses. He’s over that now. I think he’s teething again because of the way he’s chewing and slobbering, like he did when he was 4 months old and cutting teeth. He did okay until about a week ago, and now he is literally acting like a newborn. He is up ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I’m drowning in exhaustion and it’s not an option for me to send him to the sitters and stay home and sleep. I have to work. I don’t know what to do. We tried CIO when D was about 6 or 7 or 8 months old, can’t remember exactly when. And he would cry until he threw up. Hardest 3 days of my life. Swore I’d never do it again. And now I think he’d get so upset that that he would either hurt himself by trying to get out of the crib or make himself throw up. So that’s not an option. I repeat, CIO is NOT an option. I won’t do it.

Really the sleep issue has become much worse since he came off of formula. Dawson was still getting a night time bottle and I decided that we would just cold turkey cut the night time formula bottle out when me made the transition to milk. So he still gets a night time bottle, of water. He probably only drinks about 4 oz throughout the night, so I know he doesn’t really need it. I’m trying to make sure he eats enough throughout the day and a late evening snack to keep him full throughout the night.

I’ve given him Tylenol and motrin for his teeth, it may help for about 2 hours and then he’s back at it. Most of time putting him in the bed with me doesn’t console him, so I’m not sure what the problem is. But I know I’m losing my sanity and I’m ready to kill my husband every time he looks at me. The problems above have seriously made him not want any more children. And that breaks my heart. I don’t look forward to the night time. I stayed awake with D last night and cried as much as he did. I need help.

He wasn’t doing this before the damn ear infection, but his ears are not infected right now. There is still fluid, but that takes a while to drain off. In the mean time I may have committed suicide due to lack of sleep.

In all actuality I know this is a phase and we’ll get through it, but that’s hard to realize at 3 in the morning when I’ve been up since 12 and only have 3 hours til I have to get up to go to work. This blows.

Glorious Day!!

So remember at D’s one year appointment they told me he didn’t weigh enough and had crashed his curve and he had to come back in 6 weeks for a weight check…well low and behold we had to go back today for an ear infection check, which is gone THANK GOD!! We were looking at an ENT and rocephin shots next and I was not looking forward to that. If we can make it 3 more months into warm weather, I think we’ll be good…anyway I had the doctor look at his last visit. Well the nurse had put his weight into the system as a pound less than he actually was. He didn’t crash his curve he was/is just fine! No more stressing, no more weight check worries!!! YAYAYAAYAYAY!!!

Diets and ear infections suck...that is all.

What you probably dont know about me...

I'm incedibly shy. Seriously, meeting new people is really stressful for me because my anxiety gets the best of me. Also I was raised in a very religious house, and then my mom lost an infant when he was a few months old and her faith wavered causing our church goings to end. Then when I was a teen she found her faith again, but by this time my shyness caused a significant strain on my church going. So that being said, I believe in Him, I worship Him in m daily life but I don't live the chrisitian life that I should. This has really bothered me over the last couple of years, I want to make those changes and I need to. I've got to just suck it up, find a church home that I feel comfortable in and get my faith back up to where it should be. Problem? I was raised in a strong baptist household and I think I'd rather not be in a Baptist church home. I'm more nondenomonational and while we have "megachurches" around here, I worry that isn't for me either. Daniel prefers a much smaller church where everyone knows everyone and I'm the exact opposite. Since I'm terrified of new people I prefer not to know anyone. Also I've never left D with anyone other than family and his babysitter who's had him since 2 months old. I'm scared to leave him in the nursery or childrens church...but I really want him to have these experiences and build his faith. My question is how do I get past the above and find the right church home? I really want to jump in and build our family on a foundation of Christ and Christianity, but I'm seriously terrified of the church experience.

What I'm doing to cut back...

In October I made a challenge for myself and that was to make as many feasible cut backs financially as possible. First thing to go was the movie channels, and I don't miss them AT all. Secondly was the eating out. We're eating healthier and spending less. Switched from directv to dish tv and saved a bundle. Shopping much less. And lastly no home internet. This started when I lost the laptop charger, and at first it was rough to be so disconnected from the internet world. Well I found the charger and had no real interest to connect again. I was spending more time with my 2 favorite guys and wasting less time surfing for junk online. I discovered that my blackberry let's me do most of what I want anyway. So, the plan is in October 2011 to take a fabulous disney vacay using only the savings from cutting back. I can't wait!