My little black book

I started writing in a book.  A small black book -- and no it doesn't have boys phone numbers in it that I use to date (thank goodness).  It has a few words, a few sentences, just thoughts of mine that I randomly write down.  I won't write everyday but when I feel the need, I have a place to write.  I will write of things for that I am thankful.  Things like coffee, toilet paper, Oaks smile, he belly laugh that makes me so happy I could cry, or when Cory takes out the trash without me asking.  I just want something, one thing that I can go to when I feel like everything is terrible, we all know we have those days.  I want something to read that I have written of things I am thankful for so that I will snap out of my fog and see how truly blessed I am. 

I hope that when Oaks is older and I'm not longer on this Earth he can read my little black book(s) and say, "My Mom was amazing - she was funny, kind, thankful, graceful, and Godly." 

Try it out!  I got my little black book on sale at the ASU Bookstore for under $5!


Happy hhhhumpppp day, friends!

Catching Up

Hello friends, it has been a long time.  I apologize for my slacking the past few months.  I have said so many times lately -- I really need to blog about that but I just haven't found the time.  Oaks is now on the move and keeping us very busy.  I forgot what it was like to lay him in the floor and him not move.  Having a mobile infant is definitely a life changer.

Oaks is 9 months old now.  I can't believe it, 3/4 of a year.  It doesn't even seem possible that my baby is growing so quickly.  I now understand why so many people tell you to take it all in because it really does fly by.  I miss my sweet baby who was so small and cuddly.  Oaks will cuddle with me at night and on occasion when he is nursing or tired but he would rather be throwing toys, standing up, or crawling. 

I am hoping to get back into the blogging routine.  I need to be better about it, I have a lot of things to say and talk about that I haven't had the chance to blog on.  I write myself Notes often in my phone about topics, silly things that happen, or random facts that I want to include on my blog.  I'm back though, I'm here and I'm going to try to let all of know what is going on in my mind.  Well, not all but some.

Case of the Mondays? No, Case of the past week.

A little run down.  I've done something really bad to someone and Karma is out to get me.  Someone has a voodoo doll and they are out to make things very difficult on me.  Well, it's working!  I need a strong drink.

Two Friday's ago Oaks fell out of his bouncy seat and landed on the hardwood.  (Please do not call CPS on me).  We spent the evening in the ER where they told us his brain was fine but he had fluid behind his ears.  We didn't start the antibiotics they gave us because he showed no signs of an ear infection. 

Two Saturday's ago my Grandma fell on her steps going into her house and shattered her elbow.  She spent 3 days in the hospital, then home until Friday when she had surgery.  She is home now and has been told that she will no longer have use of her right arm.  Heartbreaking, to say the least.

On Wednesday of last week, Oaks started pulling at his ears.  So an afternoon off work and a script for antibiotics, hoping his ears would drain and the fear of keeping ear infections would go away.


This past Friday Cory discovered at 7:30am that all the water that we had used while taking showers that morning didn't drain into the sewage system but rather in the basement bathroom.  Water in the bathroom and the guest bedroom.  Most of the day off work but I got the water mostly cleaned up.  Friday night we had a friend come help us unclog the drain to our main sewage line.  My hardwood is now buckling, it wasn't a good day.

Friday night Oaks bit me three times while eating.  It hurt!  Oaks didn't sleep that night.  I couldn't figure out if it was his belly, his teeth, his ear.  He just didn't sleep.

Saturday we snuggled most of the day.  Fussy but still smiles until nighttime.  I noticed when nursing him there was a sudden pain in my right side, a sharp pain then a burn.  Clogged duct I thought?  Fantastic!  I thought I would check to see if his top tooth had came thru since he had bit me three times the night before.  That's when I noticed the white.  Oh no, the dreaded thrush.  The inside of his lips were white and there was white patches on the roof of his mouth.  That's why it hurt, I had it too.  So Saturday night, we didn't sleep either.  He wouldn't take a paci, he only wanted to comfort nurse, he tossed and turn in discomfort.  My poor baby.

Sunday, I am desperate.  I call the Children's Clinic for help where I am told by the on call nurse to take him to Urgent Care, that she wouldn't call anything in for the thrush.  She then gave me advice I didn't ask her for regarding breastfeeding and comfort nursing.  She told me that Oaks should only be eating every two hours and he needs to learn to soothe himself with a paci.  Which when Oaks is feeling happy and healthy, we have no issue with him self soothing but when he is cutting a tooth and has stuff growing in his mouth, he wants his Mom.  I was too tired to listen to her and her crap.  So, I started my research on natural ways of curing thrush, for both of us.  I go to Walgreens in search of various vitamins, etc. of course to find out they had nothing.  How lovely.  So Sunday, we tough it out and hope for medicine on Monday.

Sunday night Oaks didn't sleep terrible but not great.  Up often - I'm sure due to discomfort in his mouth.  He cried most of the time I was getting ready this morning for work.  We make it out of the door on time at 7:30 with bottles and coffee - most important things.  Go into daycare, love on him to tell him by, and back out to my car I go.  Then my day gets worse.  My car won't start.  Cory is out of pocket and not able to help.  Luckily one of the girls from work was willing to come give me a ride.

So that's where I'm out.  My car is at daycare with my pump parts, I'm at work without my pump parts.  I need to get medicine for the thrush as fast as possible.  So my friend Amy offers me some advice, "Just give up and go home....or you could always blog about this...it will make you feel better and then get a Snickers."

So, a Snickers for breakfast it is. 

Half A Year

Happy Half Birthday Son.  Has it already been half of a year?  It seems like you were just born but yet again, I don't remember my life without you.  You have filled my heart with so much happiness that most days, I feel like it is going to explode.  I have to admit to you, you were a surprise to your Dad and I.  You were a shock of a lifetime for us, something we didn't plan or expect.  The day I found out I was having you, I knew that I would never be alone.  I had you with me, physically, for 38 weeks and 5 days.  You heard my heartbeat from the inside, you were alive because I nourished you, you depended on me to live, I was your world -- and now you are mine.

From the very beginning I was so scared.  Your Dad was scared too.  How were we going to be able to do this?  Raise a child?  We were use to our dogs who we could leave for the night as long as they had food and water.  Often times the dogs seemed like a lot of work so we couldn't begin to wrap our minds around being the parents of a baby, of a little tiny baby human.  We weren't sure what to expect, what we would do, or how much we could possibly love you.

The moment you were born seems like a blur.  With my delivery, the medicine, the pain, the exhaustion - it is such a blur.  I didn't cry when I first saw you, I was in shock of what was happening and I didn't cry.  I have felt so guilty about that since the day you were born.  Since that day though, I have cried a lot.  Thinking about you, your smile, your giggle, your smell - everything about it brings me to tears of joy.  I have one running down my face right now.

What's going on with YOU:
YOU HAVE TWO BOTTOM TEETH!!

(You like to bite Mom sometimes too -- Ouchy!)
You are smiling and laughing at everythin
As of last Friday you weighed 15lbs and 11 ounces
YUMS:  rice cereal, bananas,  sweet potatoes, and carrots.  YUCKS:  avocado and sweet peas
Trying apples tonight, I know you will love it!
You are trying to learn to sit up but you are a bit wobbly still.
You are rolling over both ways!  Yippeee!  
Wearing some 3-6 and some 6-9 month clothing, big boy.
You're best friend is Banjo.
Favorite time of day is the morning.  You are so full of life!
Oh, you have been to the ER once for a bump on your head, that story can be told later.

The past 6 months we have had several ups and downs, bumps in the road.  Raising you has been difficult at times but absolutely perfect.  I'm tired, you're tired, you're hungry and I didn't drink enough water that day, you want to snuggle and I need to take a shower.  It's been a test of patience for sure!  Day by day we make it though.  We make it through the sleepless nights, the tummy aches, those mean ol' teeth, Mommy not drinking enough water or eating enough food that day (low supply), growth spurts, and more.  I'm pretty proud of us, all three of us.  We have done things that I didn't think I would ever be able to do - I have kept a tiny little human baby alive, healthy, and safe for 6 months.  YAY Mom and Dad!



I can't believe your first year is halfway over.  It has been the best half year of my life.  You are incredible and I'm so lucky to be able to call myself your Mom.

I love you my little Oaks Cupcake!
Momma

Squirrel went Berserk!

Our night seemed to be like any other night in The Meadors household....  Oaks was eating before his bedtime with the lights off in the living room.  Both dogs were sleeping on their beds and Cory was watching tv.  Nothing new.  Nothing exciting.

THEN... I noticed something moving at the corner of the room near the hallway, the light caught it and I thought it was a mouse.  Great.  We have brought the mice to Jonesboro from highway 34.  Then, suddenly, I saw a very bushy tail.  I screamed "There's SOMETHING!" - Cory and Banjo saw the furry creature at the same time.  Cory yells, "A SQUIRREL!!"  Banjo chases it down the hallway, turns it back around and runs it back into the living room/kitchen.  Cory the entire time is trying to keep Banjo away in fear he would kill it.  The squirrel runs next the refrigerator and that was the last time we saw it.

Cory tells me it went back outside, not to worry, blah blah blah blah.  So, I put Oaks to bed and we go to bed for the night.

Around 2:30am that morning Oaks begins to stir around (WILL HE EVER SLEEP??) so I get up to try to calm him down. [Yes, he is still in my room, yes I know he needs to be in his crib.  No, I don't care what you think about it.]  Anyway, I'm soothing Oaks, Cory gets up to use the bathroom.  He flips on the bathroom light in the bedroom and I see movement in the floor.  The squirrel had made it's way into the bedroom.  Cory screams, I scream.....then Oaks screams.  Fantastic, we woke the baby.  Cory chases the squirrel around the room.  Under the bed, in my closet, out my closet, UP MY CURTAINS.  That's when I nearly lost it, there is an animal climbing up my curtains.  Cory finally gets it cornered in the closet, using a t-shirt, he tries to catch it.  He misses, under the door the squirrel goes.  Mind you, Cory is running around his underwear this entire time chasing this squirrel.  I wish I could have videoed it.  Cory shoves dirty clothes from the laundry basket under the door and says let's go back to sleep since who knows where it is now and we will find it tomorrow.  Being sleep deprived, I agreed.

Around 4:30am Oaks wakes up for his feeding.  I have him in bed with us so he can eat and maybe I can catch a few Zzzz's before time for work.  Cory gets up to turn his alarm off on his phone that is on the chest in our room and the squirrel runs right by his feet!  It is back.  Cory starts his chase again.  Up the curtains, down the curtains.  The squirrel was running along my curtain rod, through the metal rings on my curtains.  I'm sitting in bed feeding Oaks trying to figure out how in the world I'm going to move, without unlatching, to avoid this squirrel.  If it would have jumped on the bed I would have pooped my pants.

Finally Cory got closet enough to him to catch him.  He was using a tshirt to act as a barrier between him and the squirrel.  Cory said as soon as he grabbed a hold of him he started biting.  After looking at pictures I got of the squirrel we have come to the conclusion that this was not a baby squirrel in our house but a flying squirrel.  If they thing would have jumped off my curtain rods and glided around my room Cory and I would have both died.

We are the Criswolds.

Eating Fun

Oaks has recently started eating cereal.  Well, rice actually.  It has been called "cereal" by so many people that is what we call it.  Many Moms buy a box of rice cereal and that is the first food they feed their child.  Well, of course I have to do something different worried about all the extras they put into that stuff.  I actually bought brown long grain rice and ground it up myself.  Cooked 1/2 cup of rice to 1 cup of water on low heat.  Then puree the rice once it is soft and mushy using my baby bullet to make Oaks his "cereal."

He loves his rice some days and other days would prefer to nurse or have a bottle.  It really is hit or miss with him.  Watching him sit up either in his Bumbo or his Booster seat is hilarious though.  Such a big boy. 

I typically feed Oaks.  There has been a few times though that Cory has given it a whirl.  I am going to record them one day just so everyone else can hear their conversation.

"Oaks, look at Dad.  Bite"
"Oaks, Oaks, Oaks, look at Dad."
 "You can't have the spoon Oaks."
"Give Dad the spoon Oaks."
"Don't scream at me, you can't feed yourself."
"Shh, shh, shh here take a bite.  Don't get mad."
"Here (puts cereal on the tray), Here feed yourself then."
"Oaks, ugh, you have it all over you.  Do you not want a bite?"
"Ughhh I don't think I can do this.  Oaks, here take a bite."

Needless to say, it is hilarious.  Oaks does like to feed himself with the spoon (Dr. Matthews said he was a child genius) so it makes it difficult of course to get the cereal in his mouth without it covering his hands and face.  We tried fresh avocado this week, it didn't go over well.  We will be moving onto other foods sometime soon, no rush for him to grow up! 

Stay tuned.

I'm a Cow

If you don't want to read about boobs or milk - stop now.

Yesterday I forgot my pump parts at home.  Yesterday I couldn't leave work to go get them because I was leaving early for Oaks 4 month shots.  Yesterday I thought my boobs were going to explode.  Yesterday I milked myself like a cow.

Yes, I said that -- Milked Myself Like a Cow.  It really happened.  If you are a breastfeeding Mom or have breastfed before you understand the pain when you are so full that you may burst.  Not having my pump parts with me, I knew I was going to have to do something to relieve some pressure and to avoid a major leakage.  So I sterilized a plastic up and I went to town.

All I can say is OUCH!  Poor cows.  Not only were my arms sore from the pushing and pulling but it hurt.  I did my best and got an ounce which helped my pain level some.  Note to self:  Never forget your pump parts again.

Happy Friday Folks ---  Moooooooooo