Saturday, April 29, 2006

I'm back on the wagon...

As of Monday morning I'll be back on Weight Watchers. I'm so excited. I am doing the online program since I don't have enough time or money to do the meetings right now. I had some credited time after I got pregnant and had to stop the program early last year.

So counting points and moving my body are the plan. I've set up another blog tracking my journey and my thought process, so that I'm not boring ya'll out of your skull about yet another topic. SO check it out if you are so inclined.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Dan has a job...

So as of Monday morning - Dan is heading off to work.

His almost 5 month vacation is coming to an end - with a 60 hour work week.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan is also graduating with his MBA on May 13. Dan with job and an MBA.

GO Dan!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Shake it baby...

I love that my husband loves me. I'm fat. He loves me - and I mean LOVES me.

As I mentioned in my "I'm weird" post below - Due to the fact that I'm hot all the time - I'm rarely fully dressed in the privacy of my own home. Bra and undies are the norm - which on a 300 lb body like mine is hardly seductive. He likes it for some reason.

I was just in the kitchen making dinner. I was dancing a bit (ummm, yeah - to Radio Disney's little High School Musical Marathon, so what??) and he was enjoying it.

He says "Nice, those hips don't lie" (ummm for those of you with the "wha??" face, it's the title of a Shakira song).

My response, "yeah, these hips say 'I had three kids'".

Thursday, April 20, 2006

First borns are STUPID

Anna B has been showing off her freaking genius lately. She can pretty much count to 11 (occasionally leaving one or two numbers out) and now she knows about 1/2 of her alphabet in terms of their phonic sound. I'm not kidding. See - she's brilliant. THEN - this weekend she freaked us out again while playing with her letters on the fridge - she knew about 10 of them by sight.

Yeah - I'm impressed - but I'm her mom. I'm always impressed.

Other people - not so much.

Anna brought my friend an H fridge magnet and showed her "H" then made the aitchy sound. :) My friend says - "Gotta love those 2nd kids, they learn things so much faster, it has to be because she has a big sister showing her"

This is about the 20th time I've heard this. "Oh, she's sitting early because she's the 2nd" "she standing in her crib at 7 months because she's 2nd" ...

This leads me to believe that first born children are just slacking dumb butts. So what people are saying is that my 5 year old daughter is a better teacher than I am??? That's just great.

Bitter? who me?

NO, I'm not.

I'm just a first born, I don't understand the question.

;)

Bigguns all around

Emma Leigh had to go back into the ped since I felt there was a question about her Zantac doseage being too low. Turns out I was right. Zantac doseages are highly weight sensitive. So - what's the issue? Emma Leigh gained 1lb 4oz in just over a week! WOW! She's now 10lb8 oz.

We have decided to switch her to Prevacid for now. I sure hope that offers her some relief. Last night she screamed for over threee hours. It was horrid to hear. She would fall asleep and wake up 10 minutes later just screeching. Of course our good friends at that Pharmacy on Every Single Corner of America called to say they would only have a partial fill of her prescription. Then when Dan went to pick it up - they said they didn't have ANY so we'd have to wait until tonight to get it.

Then of course there is Anna Bella. She is 30 lbs now! She's not super chunky - my dad jokes around that she needs a density test. She is going to make a great linebacker someday!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Life with reflux

I've heard over the years of parents "suffering" with their children through reflux. My daughter Anna had reflux. She spit up - A LOT. I thought - well - so I have to do more laundry, but what's the big deal with reflux?

I have since learned what the big deal is with reflux. Anna had reflux but was what I now know as a Happy Spitter. It means that she wasn't bothered by all of it. Emma Leigh IS.

She's been fussy since birth. She was super fussy the first week of her life - but we attributed it to the jaundice and all the chaos around her for that. Then we worried she had colic. The gripe water treatment was a miracle, but it only worked some of the time. Then you could no longer call her "fussy". Miserable was more like it. Then at her 4 week check up we took her to the pediatrician and was handed down a possible diagnosis of reflux.

So after much research and reading - she has GER, which has been confirmed by her pediatrician. At this point we are still going to try and keep her comfortable with medication and not put her through the diagnostic testing process - YET.

She is miserable. We are miserable. I am amazed every single day what the impact is on our family. Some days are better than others, but we never know which we're going to get. Some nights involve a decent amount of sleep - others involve NONE. She can scream on and off all day long, or scream for 3-4 hours straight and sleep contentedly (or passed out) for hours. We rarely leave the house since we don't know what we'll get. Will she sleep? Will she scream?

The only thing that silences the screaming is to nurse. The milk calms her fiery throat, but only temporarily. And even then it's a double edged sword - the frequent nursing will fill her little belly and make her more likely to reflux again - causing more pain. She screams and sometimes shrieks in pain. It's one of the most horrid things a parent should have to listen to.

She is currently on a regimine of Zantac and Mylanta - it's helped. Some. Unfortunately the best you can hope for is to keep her "less pained".

Our lives consist of either Dan or I on Emma Leigh patrol and the other in charge of everything else. That includes the other girls, errands, cooking, cleaning, lots of laundry... not to mention applying for jobs and sometimes subbing. So really, nothing much is getting done well. Hopefully soon she'll tolerate the sling better and both of us will be able to be useful.

We know it's not life threatening and we count ourselves blessed that we're not faced with some of the horrors that other parents have to face. In the scheme of things - it's minor. It's just a minor thing that takes up every part of our days.

I'm lucky to have good friends who have been there with their kids and their advice and suggestions are priceless. If you are reading this because you found it from a search - I'll send you lots of hugs and give you some of the links that have been helpful to us so far. We're lucky because Emma's doctor is being very helpful and proactive. A lot of doctors aren't - so keep pushing till you find one that will take you seriously.

So - that's what we've been up to lately. Haven't had the mood to blog much... so consider yourself lucky, you'd hear a lot about vomit and not sleeping.

Here are some of the links...

Article about the stress of reflux - (definitely worth reading!)

Bundle of Misery article - very helpful for families dealing with reflux

One about symptoms of reflux

More about GER from Dr. Sears and talk about breastfeeding refluxers

Here is a guide to reflux

Another site about infant reflux

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Tag... no tag backs....

Kirdy has tagged me!

Six weird things about myself...

1. I have 9 of the exact same t-shirt but in different colors. When you are bigger and you find something that fits, wears well and works - you keep it.

2. I am always hot. I rarely wear tennis shoes because if my feet are covered I'm too hot. At home, I rarely wear anything other than a bra and undies. I was the crazy person not wearing a coat during the winter in Michigan (not for long periods of time outside - but definitely to get the mail or just run errands).

3. I can't decide whether to decorate even the simple rooms like bathrooms because I'm freakishly torn between looks - dark cabin or light, airy beach. Even colors are a problem. I guess I suffer from decorating indecisiveness, but to the extremes. For the kitchen I couldn't decide between a rustic Italian look or a crisp white/blue/yellow Delft look. Oh well. White walls are what i'm left with.

Wow - I need to think some more about this. I'm incredibly weird, but it's hard to break down.

Yes, it really happened!

Both kidlets took a nap at the same time. Dan, Julia and I were able to get a small amount of cleaning done. Small, minute, really, really tiny - but something was done! Of course all it did was set off the clean streak in me and I'm frustratingly back to nursing/chasing Anna instead of getting stuff done.

But it was good for a short while.

Love Monkey

Love, love, love the Love Monkey.

For a while I thought that Love Monkey went on hiatus for a while... but no - CBS dumped it. Dan and I both loved this show. I of course have issues because I super enjoy both Tom Cavanaugh AND Teddy Geiger an awful lot.

When I heard the news about Love Monkey it brought back all my teenage memories of when they cancelled My So Called Life.

So - Arrested Development (rent or buy the Season 1-3 DVDs)- down the drain. Love Monkey - down the drain. Dear God please hope Grey's Anatomy is safe from the evil hands of network execs.

Yes I'm being dramatic - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm now enjoying the entire season (including the episodes CBS didn't show) of Love Monkey on VH1 - so watch it. It's great. It doesn't involve police, coroners, or lawyers. No, it wasn't on NBC. Now - I do love shows that involve the above things - but it's nice to watch something that doesn't once in a while. And the music. Love it.

Oh and do visit Teddy's website - he's good in the vein of David Gray and John Mayer.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Anna has a new friend...

it's cracking us up...

She has been talking about monsters - A LOT. Although it sounds like "moncha" when she says it. It started after she watched Monsters Inc. with her sister.

She talks about Moncha at bedtime, she talks about Moncha as she plays.

It wasn't until last night that we realized that she was actually talking to Moncha as if it/they were there.

"Come on Moncha!" she says as she holds out her hand to indicate to follow her.

"Yes, Moncha" and "ok Moncha' and "Sit peeze Moncha" are also commonly heard. It dawned on us that she is PLAYING with Moncha. When she just saw something on TV with Elmo and Cookie she was all excited and started singing "moncha, moncha" as she danced around.

Apparently Moncha is a little red furry monster or a blue, cookie eating fiend. I'm guessing knowing her fondness for cakes and cookies that it's the blue one. Tonight while having an oatmeal cookie she walked around and growled "cookie" the whole time.

She also has a friend the "soccer Moncha" and when she's playing with this friend she sings the "soccer Monster" song from Backyardigans.

I love this kid. At 22 months she has a great imagination.

Friday, April 07, 2006

It's true ---- I love him!

I don't necessarily like to blog about my celebrity crushes ---- but it's time for me to come forward. I am in love. He makes me laugh harder than just about anyone ever has. He has personality X 10. He has the cutest giggle. He is just cute, cute, cute.

Yes - it's Ross the Intern.

http://www.rossmathews.net

Oh - and yes, Dan knows and he's ok with it. He thinks he's damn funny too.

Kristine at Random and Odd has given us our assignment - and I'm playing...

This Friday’s theme…Take me off AUTO!

1. Macro: take a picture of something ‘close up’. Don’t use your zoom, make sure you have good lighting and make sure you’re steady. If you have to, set your camera down on something and then take the picture.

2. NO FLASH: try swiching the flash off and taking pictures of your stuff without it. It may take a lot of pictures to get the right shot, but open the windows and find artifical light to get it to work.

3. Perspective: get up high or down low…either way, change the perspective of your picture..tilt the camera sideways. Change the layout of the picture. Instead of having the subject framed perfectly in the middle of the picture…move it to the left or the right.

Fastest way to improve a sick baby??

Take them to the doctor!

We made an appointment for Miss Emma Leigh to go see the (new - yeah!!! and we loved her) doctor today. she was supposed to go in for a weight check and to check on her jaundice, and we asked to see the doc instead of a nurse so we could discuss her super fussiness.

of course - Emma Leigh slept like a dream last night and has been on her best behavior today - barely crying at all. She did projectile vomit on me right before we walked out the door (which of course required a change of clothes for both of us!), but other than that - she's been a peach.

So - how did the appointment go??

First of all - the good news - she's up to 9lb 4oz - so she's gained over 2 lbs in 2 1/2 weeks!! yeah (she was down to 7.1 the Thursday after she was born)!!

Other news - this doctor suspects she either has reflux or colic (as we have been thinking). She is leaning towards reflux with her symptomology. She said she feels bad since she's going to come across as a drug pusher when she's not. But she wants to start her on a low dose of Zantac and see if that helps give her some relief. If it works - then great. If in 2 weeks we haven't seen improvement they will try Prilosec - and if that doesn't work then we'll call it colic for a while unless her symptoms become more classic reflux. She just doesn't want to have to test for reflux (the barium swallow) and feels that treatment of it is less invasive then the testing.

Emma Leigh also has a heart murmur, but they feel she'll grow out of it.

So - there ya go. Oh yeah - the doctor confirmed that she's just precious - but I didn't need confirmation on that.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Freaking brilliant!

Anna Bella is heading off to college tomorrow... amazing.

Today while she was eating her "number" cookies. She was able to tell Dan 3, 4, 5 and 7 (the others were missing).

Tonight she was dancing and could could to eleven. Every once in a while she'd leave out a number but she apparently can count to 11.

Then the real brilliance began...

Anna " 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 20, 30, 50!"

yeah - at 1 years old - she's a genius.

Your eyes are feeling heavy....



Tuesday, April 04, 2006

fingers crossed

so - if you're bored - or just nice - could you take a second and send some positive vibes or cross your fingers or say a little prayer for Dan. Whatever you do to share positive juju.

We're at the end of our proverbial rope in terms of stress and finances - SO getting a job soon is imperative.

The good news is that there are 3 - 4 decent job leads out there that we're hoping one (or more) realize what a catch Dan would be and offer him a job.

We're still hoping for the Portland job to pull through too... that would be great.

So - please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send some positive job juju our way!

Dancing...

Julia and Anna are dancing around the living room to Mozart. It's kind of cool to see Julia responding to the music. From what she hears she is making up stories.

Anna's every move begins with "Yook daddy, or yook, yook mommy". awwwwwww. It's fun to watch Anna try to do splits in her jean skirt - the fabric keeping her from going much lower than a squat - but she proudly hold her hands up in triumph!

Then Julia announces that EVERYONE is watching her including God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Like a good mother I told her that she needs to stand up straight then.

Their favorite part is when their daddy gets up to dance with them because thats when the serious spins begin, they get to be dipped and the acrobatics begin.

As Anna says - "Ta da"

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles...

Did I ever mention that I watched Fiddler on the Roof during my labor? Nothing says epidural more than the dream sequence. :)

Monday, April 03, 2006

oh yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy

Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie something icecream is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good.

That's all. Carry on.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Sunday Six


All the cool kids are doing it... here's the game that's all the rage. Kelly has us playing Sunday Six. For the details check it out here...
Julia's answers...

"April Fools!"

1. What is an April Fool?
I don't know

2. Do you like to tell jokes?
yes

3. What is silly?
Umm, when you do a funny song and when you do a funny dance

4. What makes you laugh the most?
ummm, when my sister jumps up and then falls down

5. What does it mean to fool someone?
i don't know

6. Do you know any jokes? - Tell us!
yes, ummm where do cows go on a date? the Mooooovies
Did you play? Let Kelly know!

Indiana - you big fat joiner...

Indiana -

Oh Indiana, say it isn't so. We've been alone together on this continent for such a long, long time. It was nice to have a friend in lonely times. Someone else to commiserate with when all the other states were flipping their clocks around in the Fall and Spring, you were someone who understood what it was like to not have anyone else ever remember what time it was in your state. I know I'm not nearly as complicated as you are, since only two areas of my state observe while no one ever knows what time it is in your state. Is that it? Was I too simple for you?

I thought I meant something to you. You stood for something, you were different. You believed in following God's time. Now you are just like the rest of them. (sob!) The rest of them...

I will stand strong, the searing heat at 5am proves to me that I'm doing the right thing by limiting my daylight during this crucial time. I wish you could see that.

Ohhhh Indiana. I will miss you.

Yours forever,

Arizona




Dear Hawaii -

You are looking good. Damn good. Howudoin?

Call me.

Arizona