February 2012
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Nov
	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29

Parenting

Baby #3 Coming in June

October 23, 2011

I announced a couple of weeks ago on my personal Facebook page, we are expecting our third child on June 4th. We’re so very very excited and are very much looking forward to adding to our family. We learned the news just a couple of days before we flew out to California a little over 2 weeks ago for our friends’ wedding. At that point all we’d seen is a pregnancy test, but since it was still really early on we didn’t want to announce until we’d at least seen a sonogram or heard the heartbeat. Also, a wedding is no place to announce a pregnancy, stealing the spotlight from our friends would have been pretty darn rude on a day that’s supposed to be all about them. So, we kept it to ourselves the whole trip and then once we got home went to see my doctor. He confirmed everything for us again and we got to have an ultrasound to check the due date and make sure everything looked as it was supposed to. At this point we’re just 8 weeks into the pregnancy making our due date June 4th. Looking back at my other two pregnancies,...

Wean Me Gently

June 1, 2011

by Cathy Cardall _______________________________________________________________ I know I look so big to you, Maybe I seem too big for the needs I have. But no matter how big we get, We still have needs that are important to us. I know that our relationship is growing and changing, But I still need you. I need your warmth and closeness, Especially at the end of the day When we snuggle up in bed. Please don’t get too busy for us to nurse. I know you think I can be patient, Or find something to take the place of a nursing; A book, a glass of something, But nothing can take your place when I need you. Sometimes just cuddling with you, Having you near me is enough. I guess I am growing and becoming independent, But please be there. This bond we have is so strong and so important to me, Please don’t break it abruptly. Wean me gently, Because I am your mother, And my heart is tender. _______________________________________________________________ I really needed to read this poem. A fellow breastfeeding mom posted it on a forum that I belong to online. I’ve never met her, but boy am I ever grateful...

Smack in the Middle Kind of Day

January 18, 2011

Today was a tough one… Forgive my brash phrasing, but I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put away wet. From the moment the kids woke up this morning I’ve been “on” without a break and now I’m exhausted. 5:30 am . . . . . Jesse wakes up hungry. I sit up in bed and feed the baby, browsing Facebook and Google Reader on my phone to stay awake. 6:30 . . . . . Put the baby back to bed, try to catch another couple of Zzzz. 7:00 . . . . . Jeremy comes in the room and everyone’s up now. 7 – 9 . . . . . Shower, dress both kids, feed both kids, do my hair and get dressed, re-dress Jesse because he drenched his first outfit in spit-up. Run around the house looking for baby shoes, don’t find any. 9:15 . . . . . Leave the house 15 minutes late, head for our Tuesday playgroup. 9:30 – 11:30ish . . . . . PLAY PLAY PLAY. Well, I wrastled Jesse a bit, tried to keep an eye on Jeremy, tried to carry on several conversations with my friends as they...

Jeremy’s Homework

October 23, 2010

This is our first year of homeschool for Jeremy. I was really nervous at first because I didn’t finish college and wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep to any school schedule with my preschooler while also caring for an infant. In preparing for this school year I did a lot of research into what I wanted to work on with Jeremy. I can only remember snippets of my own year in preschool and those are only memories of reading during naptime, the play yard, my teachers, and going to my great-grandmother’s house after school with my cousins. What on earth am I supposed to teach my 4-year old? Lots of people think that a formal curriculum isn’t necessary for preschool or even kindergarten, and I’m sure it isn’t. However, having something written down helps me to know what we’re covering, is he “getting it”, what we need to work on more, and have something to show for our efforts by the end of the year. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on preschool curriculum and I didn’t want to sort through a bunch of things and make lesson plans. As I said, I didn’t finish...

Can I Give It Up?

October 9, 2010

I’m addicted. I don’t know if I can break this habit. What will life be like without it? I don’t know if I’m ready to let go. Can I just do it a little longer? Breastfeeding has me hooked. I’ve written before about my nursing junky, but now I’m the one who can’t seem to adjust. Jesse’s growing so fast and developing so well, I really have nothing to complain about. There is no problem with Jesse at all. His doctor was very pleased with him when we saw her for Jesse’s 6-month check-up last week. He’s doing better at sitting up, continues to be very engaging and talks (babbles) nonstop, and he’s been trying to grab the food from our plates for probably two months now. Jason and I have given him small samples of applesauce, mashed carrots, and peas, but not enough at any one time to replace a full meal. Lately we’ve been thinking about really starting him on meals of baby food. I thought, “Absolutely! Jeremy was eating full mashed meals by this age and did great!” Jeremy was also a formula fed baby, so everything was different. By 6-months of age Jeremy was sucking...

Mama Needs Water

September 14, 2010

I woke up at 6:30 this morning with a raging headache brought on by being slightly dehydrated yesterday. When I felt the headache coming on as I made a batch of cupcakes last night, I realized that I had only drank three glasses of liquids all day. A little glass of juice with breakfast, some iced tea when we got home from running errands, and another glass of tea with dinner. To try to combat the headache, I downed a big glass of orange juice before bed, thinking that the sugar would keep my head from hurting too bad while I tried to sleep. Well, it worked all night, but by the time the alarm went off this morning my head was hurting pretty bad and I was a little dizzy as I sat up. The boys and I took it easy this morning watching a couple movies and playing with Jeremy’s new toys from his birthday. I’m feeling mostly better now, but still dragging. I managed to get breakfast and lunch on the table but I haven’t accomplished any laundry or dishes. The cupcakes we made last night were intended to be shared with our friends at the...

Snack Genius

September 3, 2010

Sometimes when you’re being weighed down by some heavy grown-up struggles, you really just need a giggle to lighten the load. Kids are the perfect medium to give you such spontaneous giggles. Jeremy came in to the laundry room to find me and said “Mom, I need your help.” I follow him into my kitchen and saw… I asked Jeremy, “Why is my flour out of the pantry?” He opened the door and showed me… “I need a place for my stool.” Before I could get the next question out of my mouth, he showed me why his stool needed to be in the pantry… He needed the extra height to reach the M&Ms. Then Jeremy said to me (I swear this is as close to word-for-word as I can remember) “I wanted M&Ms, but remembered to ask you first. Mom, is it okay for me to get the M&Ms?” How do you argue with a question like that when an almost-4 year old gets everything ready and could have easily sneaked some chocolate, but then confesses that he remembered to ask first. Sure, it was only 10 am, but I had to reward his good behavior with a small handful...

Breastfeeding Gurus

August 14, 2010

Yesterday I woke up with my left breast being swollen bigger than it’s ever been (bigger even than the week after birth and my milk came in *like whoa*). I latched on my boy and was surprised by some searing pain as he fed ravenously for the first time in 8 hours. When he let go I noticed a little white bump on my nipple and since he deflated the left side some I could feel a big hard painful lump in the underside. I mashed around softly and could feel that lump taking up at least a third of my breast and going all the way back to my chest wall. Commence 6 am freakout! I dealt with double mastitis early after Jeremy was born almost four years ago and I really particularly didn’t want to have to go through that again. Anyway, Jesse went back to sleep as he always does after gorging himself on his early morning pre-breakfast. I began scouring the Breastfeeding sub-forum on Coastie Chicks to find some answers. It was so bad that I couldn’t even rest my left arm against my body. I had to hold it out to the side a little...

Jesse’s Game

August 5, 2010

We’re playing a little game this week. It’s called “Starving Baby”. Usually Jesse will eat for a solid 10-15 minutes, unlatch, and we’ll pop him into his swing or highchair to hang out while I do stuff. Every now and then though, he’ll fall asleep but continue dream-feeding for a while. Normally I relish in the 30 minutes to an hour that it sometimes takes to feed my boy; sometimes I fall asleep too and we take a little nap together. Nice! However, we just moved into a new house. About 75% of what we own is still in boxes throughout the house. I haven’t gotten to do much unpacking because my sweet little baby has decided that he is absolutely starving yet very sleepy. He is convinced that he is starving every hour or two and then falls asleep and dream-feeds each time I nurse him. Basically that means I’m sitting on my butt on my couch for half the day. Another quarter of the day is spent cooking and attempting to keep my half-boxed kitchen clean. And the last quarter of the day is spent sleeping and bathing and occasionally leaving the house. Dear Jesse, I really...

Plans for Fall 2010

July 23, 2010

Jeremy is coming home in a few weeks and I, of course, can hardly wait. As I did a few months ago, I’ve started compiling my list of things to make sure we do while he’s here before he goes back to California again at the end of October. We didn’t get to a couple of the things on our prior list, but I’m excited for the new list. Head to the Mobile Zoo. I didn’t even realize, until today, that we have a zoo right here in town! It looks small but it’s inexpensive and we love going to zoos. We can pack a lunch in the picnic basket that Nana & Papa gave us for Christmas and make a nice day of it. Get to a baseball game. We’ve got a minor league team, the Bay Bears, right here in Mobile. I purchased tickets through a fundraiser from a friend at church and we never got to see a game before Jeremy left at the end of May. The season isn’t quite over yet and we’re going to take in one of the last games of the summer. We never did get to the Exploreum in the...

Page 1 of 312 3 »

Calendar

Recommended Reading