We share because we care!

This week has been going by like a whirlwind. I was supposed to do a cute Dr. Seuss activity this week with Baby X and friends. However, disaster struck!

A friend of mine at church posted how both of her little ones ended up with RSV because someone brought a child with "Just a cold" to church. I then heard of another little one who got RSV from church, and I was not sweating it because Baby X didn't seem to have any symptoms and I didn't think he caught the bug. Wishful thinking my friends.... wishful thinking.

On Tuesday he started showing mild signs of a cold, and I was OK with that, "I can handle just a minor cold" I thought to myself. Then Wednesday happened and he was having an eternal waterfall of goobers coming out of his nose and kind of a wheezing sound when he started breathing hard. Thursday, I called his Doctor first thing in the morning because he started having a mild fever.

When I get there, I explained to one of the staff that he had all the symptoms but one that fell in line with RSV and she told me that she doubted that Baby X had RSV because his Oxygen intake level was so high. However when the doctor came in she started listening to his breathing and had us test him for RSV. Guess who was right? Mother intuition strikes again!

So, this week was exhausting! It's the first time he's been REALLY sick and I'm kind of glad he doesn't do it that often because I don't know if we can handle the lack of sleep and the constant clinging, I like cuddles but, I don't want the heat of a fevered body on my chest. But when all is said and done, he handled it really well! He is still happy most of the time and he will still play with all of his might!

Oh! And, I should mention this, Baby X is almost into crawling mode! He's now getting up on his knees with ease and almost has the motion figured out for going forward! Yay!!!

Anyway, if you think your little one has RSV keep them inside and please refrain from bringing them to group functions, I know misery loves company but that's misery, you can get company from not being sick :)

-TBC

Somewhere, there was a Rainbow Day!

I had a lot of good stuff happen this week. On Monday, it was President's Day so I got to spend a lot of time with the Hubby. It was really fun! We went to the BYU Art Museum and saw some really pretty Japanese Deco art pieces, we also saw and exhibit on origami and how it's being used in technology today. Really neat stuff. Hubby and I went to high school with one of the people being featured and the exhibit. So, we were pretty proud of that.

The rest of the week was pretty ho-hum and not much really happened. I tackled our never ending pile of dishes almost everyday. How I wish we could have a dishwasher. Such a luxury would be so much nicer than washing every little thing by hand every day. *Sigh* But, the weather has been warm enough this week that Baby X and I have gone outside and played for a couple hours basically once a day all week long. It's been nice, I get a chance to socialize with some of the other moms who are out there at that time and it feels good to talk to adults that aren't just my Hubby. I love talking to my Hubby, but he doesn't talk about girly things well, I don't blame him. After all, he is a dude, so, he is allowed.

Yesterday, I had went to a Women's Conference and I learned some new stuff about practical food storage and basic meal plans that help rotate your food storage. It was really neat! Like: don't store your cans by what is in the can, you can keep track of what you'll actually use if you store it by meal. So in a basket you can have all the things you'll need (can wise) for Chili: Beans, chicken, cream of mushroom, etc. Apparently that is a trick also used in a lot of restaurant kitchens as well! Who knew? I also got to listen to a women's great insight on raising a family in the gospel and how to help children have good habits towards the basic principles of the gospel. One of the things I liked is she said that the goal we should have as a family on Sunday afternoons is to go to a church building, specifically a temple if possible. I really thought that that was a good idea, and since we live right by a temple it's a worthy activity for our Sundays.

After I came home from that, Hubby and I had the wonderful chance to  go to the temple. Baby X was baby sat by his Aunt and we went to the temple by her house because we had yet to visit it for other than a wedding. It was really pretty and we always feel good when we are done with our visit to the temple.  It was fantastic :)

Ok, I know you're wondering what any of this has to do with the title? Well, since nothing really happened this week, I wanted to tell you about the Rainbow Day that Baby X and I had a while ago!

 I made spaghetti and dyed it different colors in cold water with food coloring to help it cool and change colors at the same time!

I also made edible paint out of cornstarch, hot water and food coloring. At first Baby X didn't know what  to do, but then I made him put his hand in things and then the fun began!

Look at that face! Isn't that just the best?

 When all was said and done, I took my messy boy into the bathroom and took some glamor shots before giving him a much needed bath!

 We had a lot of fun! I love spending time with my Baby!

-TBC

Say "Hello" to.... Baby's First Snow

Where I am, we are have incredibly warm weather. But on Christmas day until the beginning of January we actually had snow on the ground! It was so nice to have a white Christmas, but one of the things I was most excited about was Baby X trying out snow for the first time.

Please excuse the lateness of the posting of this post, but better late than never! Right? :)

 

Here he is seeing snow up close and personal for the first time. I couldn't get a good shot of him from this angle so I flipped him over and  he gave me the face of seriousness. 

(Sorry for the jumping "videos" I can't figure out how to make my .avi footage into something that can actually be seen and played. Any help in that department would be greatly appreciated)

 Eventually I decided that he would have more fun sitting up and poking the snow, his balance wasn't the best while sitting up at the time so I had my legs beside him helping him out. But, I still wanted to take a picture of his cute self. So I stretched out my arm and tilted the camera down and upside down and pressed the button.
Please, let us all admire my photo taking skills:

 Isn't that just perfect? He's got the perfect face! Ah, I just love my baby. He makes me happy :)

However, the snow days were short lived, because the next week is when it all melted away. Perfect timing? I think so!

Next time: Rainbow Day!

-TBC

PS Family members: If you would like the videos they transfer well over email and I can send you them, so shoot me a message and I can send you the little guy in action!

PPS It may show that Hubby is the one always logging in but that isn't the case, it's always me... so yeah.

Library Day!

This has been a very busy couple of weeks. I wasn’t feeling very good last week and this week I was feeling the repercussions of not feeling well last week by feeling tired and having way too many things to clean. But I’m not going to go into boring things…. That’s not why you’re here,  right?

LIBRARY DAY!

Baby X and I had so much fun at the library! One of our local libraries has a really amazing child’s corner that has quiet toys and is perfectly located next to a very nice selection of books!

We were able to find a fun ABC introduction book and we looked through that together. We also read a book about an otter and a fish falling in love. Baby X didn’t care for that one too much, it was a little high for his cognitive level but I like to have to have him have exposure to things he doesn’t know how to do yet.

After we looked at our books for a bit I let Baby X play with some of the toys that they have for kids to come and play with. It was really fun watching him figure things out! He’s getting so good at problem solving and he just keeps getting bigger every day!

He really had fun and was super friendly to everyone who came up to him.

So, library day was super fun. What other fun things do you recommend for little babies who can’t walk or crawl yet?

-TBC

Time... it flies!

Wow! I can't believe it's been seven months already since my little man has graced our lives! One of the most questions I've been getting is. Why do I call my little guy Baby X? They are like: Is it a gender thing? Is it because you couldn't decide what his name was going to be? No to all. "X" is his first initial. I was being clever people!!! See? I am clever :) One thing everyone can be sure of is the fact that nothing about him was undecided or unplanned. I knew his name long before he was born and I knew he was going to be loads of fun! And a lot of hard work!

He is flopping all over the place now. When I was in church, I put him on the floor and he was flopping all across the floor. It was very entertaining. Also embarrassing for me because I may have chortled during one of the lessons because he was just SO CUTE!

He has two pearly whites on his bottom gums.Which helps to make his smile absolutely adorable!

He also is wearing 12 Mo. clothes now! He is fitting them perfectly right now, height wise! Who said he could get so big? Definitely not me! It's actually pretty hard finding clothes for him that will last him more than a couple months. I have to rely on Grandmas buying him clothing, thrift stores, or charity events.

We've been having a lot of fun together now that I've made a career change! I'm now a stay at home mom and I love being there for my Baby X! I also like how before, when I was working, I never really got into the swing of cleaning, keeping house, cooking things or really anything. I was just surviving. Now, I have a new system. I use a planner everyday and I do:
a) one thing with Xander everyday that we don't always do: i.e. edible finger paints, water play, adventures to free events, etc.. Even if it's something silly like: playing with him on the floor or letting him chew on something he's never seen before.
b) I pick up and spot clean one room a day (Doing laundry counts as a room, we have to use a laundry mat so it's an involved event)
c) make something from scratch (I have a bread day, I make chicken stock if I'm going to be using it later in the week, or anything I feel like making)  
d) I do dishes every other day
e) I keep a digital menu that I update every Sunday with meals and how many calories they are and my grocery list of things I need to make the meals possible.

There you go that is how I've been happy and maintaining my sanity. Yay for technology and planners!! I've also noticed that with my new system that I'm loosing weight, my husband is happy when he comes home, and -most importantly - we have more time together as a family and get to love each other more.

I have been doing pretty good on keeping my new plan, I'm currently on week four of doing it. I'm determined to make it stick! I like being organized and on top of things.

Hubby and I have been very blessed lately to have more financial stability than we've had in a while and we've been enjoying going on dates. One of our most recent ones was to see "Big Hero 6". LOADS. OF. CUTE! Hubby's cousin worked on the film and so we were really excited to see it. I really had fun with the quirky cuteness of it all. It tugged on my heart stings a bit too. Not as much as "UP" but close. We also have fun with the quotability of the script in our house, "Hairy BABY! Hairy baby..." :)

Also, we did had an adventure and went to our Sprouts Grocery Store and tried some of their bulk food that we've never had before. We tried chocolate covered honeycomb, it was so yummy! I recommend it!

Anyway, loads posts are soon to follow. Coming soon: Rainbow Day! and Snow Day! But until then, enjoy the cuteness of my Baby:

-TBC

He's here!...

My sweet Baby X has been here for a month! Even though his due date was May 24 he wasn't able to make my body contract and make the trip out on his own. So Hubby and I went to the hospital on our 1 year anniversary, June 1st and I got induced.

The contractions didn't start to hurt for a while, but then I ate some lunch... bad idea! After getting sick with the food I started having severe pain with the contractions. I got an epidural to make it more manageable. After about 5 hours though, I started feeling all of my contractions in all their glory! At first the nurse and anesthesiologist thought I just wasn't pressing my button enough or I was just super sensitive. So they kept giving me stronger stuff through my main line with my epidural. I felt really light headed and they weren't really concerned, except for the fact that none of it took away the pain. At all.

The next 5-6 hours I was in constant pain, begging and pleading for it to stop. When the anesthesiologist got back from helping with a C-section, he gave me the "strongest stuff [he] had". I blacked out. Hubby says that I was out for a while and the nurse said, "That isn't supposed to happen". All I can remember is being able to hear Hubby's voice and feeling pain. When I finally was able to function somewhat they found out that my epidural was not in the proper spot anymore. It had wiggled out when I moved or something and they had to do it again. When they finally got it in the right spot I only got to enjoy 2 hours of my labor before starting to push.

I pushed for 2 hours. With the help of my doctor manually turning him face down and a vacuum extraction we discovered that my little guy had a hard time coming out because his umbilical cord was wrapped his neck 3 times. They immediately checked his respiratory and he was perfectly fine. And he had fantastic RED hair!!! He came out 21" long and 8lbs!

We are so proud of him being such a trooper! I loved meeting him for the first time.

However, his blood sugar started to drop and no matter how much I nursed him, he wasn't getting any higher. So they gave him formula. Nothing. So they admitted him into the NICU. I pumped with all my might and they fed him through a series of tubes and put him on antibiotics. Slowly but surely over the next 3 days we got him off the machines but he still had his IV in his head.

 

Then he turned extremely yellow that day. His jaundice was pretty high. They put him under the billi-lights for two days and I finally got to take him home! As long as I put billi-lights on him at home.

I wish I was a glowworm. A glowworm's never glum. 'Cause how can you be grumpy when the sun shines out your bum!?

 Look at him with the billi-lights on! He was a cute little glow worm his first week home. With the cutest hiccups!

Having him home we've been adjusting and figuring each other. Also, I've been finding out that Baby X is a really sweet boy. Most of the time at night he will wake up only once if at all. For that I'm extremely thankful!

So fast forward through all the diapers and screaming and bottle pumping. He was blessed two Sundays ago at our church. I've worked for a few months on his out fit. 100% hand sewn or crocheted:

Look at how charming he is!

Our first picture together as a family outside of the hospital.

He was so well mannered the whole day! Hubby also did a fantastic job in blessing him. It was a great experience to have.

In the family pic, do you see his had in his mouth? That boy will suck on anything and everything. He doesn't care if it's a binki, me, a bottle, or your chin; it's his to suck on!

He is so funny. I love his guts!

Now, Baby X is officially 1 month old! I can't believe that it was a month ago that I gave birth to his sweet soul! He is such a blessing into our lives already. I find that Hubby and I are try more actively to love and respect each other. We are quicker to forgive flaws and try to make improvements in our lives. I find it's easier to love my Hubby when he comes home after taking care of a baby all day. I may be tired but I appreciate him working and supporting us.

Baby X is growing so well too! Check out his recent milestone:

I'm so proud of him! I made his do it about 4 or 5 times in row to make sure it wasn't a fluke! He's getting so big!

Sorry this was such a long post, I needed to catch up :) But you got to see cute baby pics so it's all worth it! :)

Have an awesome day!
-TBC

March! We are getting closer!

I don't think I shared Baby X's first picture on here yet. Here it is:

Look at the cute little guy! This was him at 20 weeks.

I can't believe it but, I'm now 31 weeks along... do you know what that means??  9 WEEKS LEFT! SINGLE DIGITS!!!!! Yes. :) I'm extremely happy about being in the single digits. I'm so excited sometimes that I can't even handle it! Hubby has to remind me though, "If you were able to wait 9 weeks for us to get married then you can wait 9 weeks for our baby to come". So, I can do this.

Something that has been happening for the last couple of months in my pregnancy that I'm not the biggest fan of. I've been getting sick constantly.  During President's Day weekend I got really ill, it was a cough that made it into my chest and really got to the point where I was coughing every time I breathed out. So, I went to the doctor, and I got some cough syrup and antibiotics to get the nasty-ness out of my system. It worked! Now, 2 days ago, I've caught the same nasty cold like thing that I got during President's Day. So before it gets worse, I'm taking a break to knock it out of my system before going to work so it doesn't just get worse. Luckily it's just in my sinuses right now and a little bit in my throat. I'm hoping I can knock it out enough for me to go to work tomorrow. Crossing fingers!

Baby X is getting really big! Hubby has a picture of me on his camera of me a couple of weeks ago, I'll see if I can get him to send it to me (his camera hates my computer, it never wants to export for me) and then I'll post the BUMP. Anyway, back to Baby X, he is quite the wiggler! I hardly ever get sleep at night anymore because it's his favorite time to be awake! From 8PM-ish until about 4AM he is kicking me and letting me know he is alive. I try to go to bed when I'm exhausted hoping that I can just sleep through the kicks and pushes, but it doesn't work. The pregnancy wedge helped calm him down for a while, but now he is getting used to it, so it doesn't calm him down anymore. But, he's still cute! When I tap my tummy, he gets after me by wiggling away from me or pushing me away. He is a major bum wiggler, his bum is what moves across my stomach the most. I'm able to tell because it's the biggest thing that does move across my stomach, I'm also getting to the point where I can distinguish some of his body parts! Mostly just his feet, bum, and elbows. But still really cool!

I'm almost done sewing Baby X's coming home outfit/ newborn pic outfit. He's going to look so charming! I've also made out 3 burp cloths out of some Winnie the Pooh fabric that I was going to use to make him a blanket, however the fabric got a huge dye stain in it from the wash that I couldn't get out, so burp cloths they became! They are really cute.  Next on the list is a Winnie the Pooh blanket that  I want to be with him in his Newborn pics, it has really nice color contrasts to his outfit. Next after that is his blessing suit. Luckily his blanket won't take long.

Nesting. Let me tell you about nesting! Our apartment isn't that big (it's bigger than most 1 bedroom apartments, but bear with me), and I had a lot of stuff that we hid in the back of our bedroom where there is a small storage closet. Well, I went to a Relief Society activity where we were able to attend some classes where speakers talked to us about strengthening our home, ourselves, and our family. Well, I attended one class that has changed my outlook on cleaning for forever! It was about organizing your life and why to do it. Well, it made such an impact on me that nesting took over my life for about a month! So, I started in the bedroom and worked my way into the back storage area. I have 10 15-gallon garbage bags full of stuff I'm getting rid of! I threw away about 3-4 garbage bags of trash as well. Now this is only my stuff from before Hubby and I got married that I went through. 10 BAGS! I haven't even touched the bathroom or any other rooms with this technique! The basic thing about the organizing class is the questions she said we need to ask ourselves when going through things.

1. Do I need this?

2. Do I want this?

3. Do I have space?

If you say no to one of these, they need to leave and need to go into trash or charity bags/containers. Also, she said before you start organizing you need to ask yourself, "What is this space going to be used for?" And the key to keeping it organized long term is keeping the space's job simple. For instance, our desk was being used for everything that we didn't know if it had a spot or not in our house so receipts were scattered all over, along with books, batteries, papers, etc. So, I looked at it, and gave it this job. Electronics and school supplies are the only things this desk is going to be used for the most, so that's what will stay on here. I asked the 3 questions as I was cleaning and everything that didn't apply to the space's job I put in a goes-somewhere-else box and labeled boxes so it's not just me who can put stuff away, like art and sewing supplies. Now my Hubby knows where the batteries go, all of our pencils, stationary, etc. 

Our house has never stayed this clean for this long! I'm so happy!

To get rid of those 10 bags of stuff, I'm hosting a community swap where everyone brings their stuff to a central location and can go through other's stuff and see if there is something they want or don't have to bring stuff to look through, or can bring stuff and don't look through, and it's just going to be a day where it's a free for all. Anything leftover at the end of the day we are going to take to a thrift store and donate the whole load. I hope it ends up being successful!

So, other than being sick, it's been a really productive month! Hubby is happy and well, and we are getting excited!

-TBC