Quick Update (Crawling and Hospital)

Is it seriously 11 days till Christmas?  How is time possibly going by this fast?? Please slow down life.  Pretty please.  My dad would probably smile at that because he tried to tell me to enjoy the now while I was a bit younger, but I wanted to get to this point.  I knew I would love it as much as I do.  And now that it is here and I am living it, it's flying by.  I have been married 5.5 years, two kids- and I just love it.  I love not having a perfect marriage and working hard to be a better wife and know my husband better- I love being a mom and practicing putting creativity into our days and spending quality time versus absent time with my kiddos.  Life is nice.  It's work and nice work.

Oliver is crawling starting the first of the month!  It's an army crawl and we totally count that all the way.  He's quite fast, loves electrical outlets, cords, and sister's toys.  He eats play-doh and pretzels pieces off the floor, leaves a spit up trail down the hall (which I secretly adore when I see all those dried spots down the hallway), and has already pulled down my curling iron which was on.  Luckily no boo-boos yet and my baby-proofing is being tested every minute of the day.  Way to go Oliver! Still no babbling.  Although he's not talkative he does have a voice.  He laughs at his sister and screams when she yanks him up and over and forward or backwards.  He squeals when he wants something.  He's quite charming.  And a pretty good sleeper.  I think.  I just say that because he sleeps in his crib and I put him down awake.  It's amazing.  I am still just not use to it.  Haha- I guess by the time he is 2 or 3 I will be.

A week ago, Lola was admitted to the hospital which to our surprise was asthma.  Originally she was admitted for pneumonia, but the doctors really felt like she didn't have that or it was minimal after being there overnight and it was all about asthma.  I knew she had allergy induced asthma but I didn't realize this was going on.  It certainly made sense once we got all the information.  She has been sick a lot and never seemed to recover each time and now I know asthma was a big factor in that.  She was so big and brave at the hospital but her Nonna wasn't! Lol!  She couldn't stand her getting upset, her IV and would leave the room and leave little ol' me in there!  I had to certainly put on my big momma panties and stay strong.  I wanted to seriously bawl.  She was so tired, sick, breathing horribly, and really wanting to go home.  We started the Friday at the pediatrician and she was horrible.  It wasn't our normal pediatrician and she had to get blood and pee in a cup.  She screamed so loud over and over.  The last thing I wanted to do was then go to the ER.  He sent us straight there.  At some point, she got brave and did her thing like a trooper.  After a day with the IV in, she decided she would go home with it in.  I knew she was scared for them to take it out.  I was very honest with her about what would hurt, who would do what, etc... The scariest part of anything is not knowing and the wait.  We stayed Friday through Sunday and were so excited to go home!!!!  It was actually the first time I was away from Oliver for more than a few hours.  It was so weird and hard, but easier knowing Clay was getting some great boy time with Oliver and learning how night shifts work for the first time ;)  I snuck home while Lola napped Saturday to see him and he was honestly so excited to see me!  It's weird balancing time when one child needs you much more than the other.  I felt like it was Lola's time to need me though.  We did have some great quality time if that's weird to say.

Okay- so it's almost eleven and I have been staying up way too late so I am going to try and go to sleep now.  I'll hopefully post a better post soon with pictures!  Before Christmas!!

I wished I blogged more...

Two things: I wished I blogged twice a week.  And- I wished I knew how to work a nice camera.  Sometimes I think if I had a super nice camera, then I would have to learn how to use it.  Not reality though.  One day I will know and one day I will blog more.

Until then- this is what ya' get.  iPhone pictures and once a month blogging. :)

So the latest is- Thanksgiving barely happened and we missed the Swartz side thanks to sick kids.  Really sick.  Lola had the flu and I didn't know it.  Took her to doctor after being sick for 5 days and still not getting better and she had the flu!  I totally had "I'm-being-like-my-mother moment" by skipping out on the doctor visit thinking she'll get better soon, it's probably no big deal then BAM! Flu! And sick for another few days, then a week of trying to recover- despite no fever, everything else wasn't well.  She just now seems better, finally eating again, but still gets real weak and tired looking.  The Oliver came down with croup, which I wasn't familiar with and we were in the ER the night-er-moring of Swartz Thanksgiving.  Then a week later he comes down with horrible congestion and fever and decided not to chance it (I am a good mom and learn from my mistakes) and took him in to find out he had an ear infection.  Was put on a antibiotic and HIVES!  Everywhere, horrible, yucky hives.  He's allergic.  He's on a different med now and still taking benadryl every day to fight those damn hives.  He had taken 2/3rds of the azithromycin before I really knew- and the nurse explained that stays in his system a while so he may keep having hives for several more days.  They wanted me to bring him in, but I told her I am pretty much a pro at hives around here.  It's too common.  Along with allergies, eczema, breathing treatments, ear infections, colic, and fevers.   :)  My kids are giving me a nursing degree.  But please, no blood.  And less throw up.

Oh and the best part is Clay is now sick.  Double ear infection, bad sinus infection.  See where you kids get it from??  NOT your momma!  Now if you start to have horrible stomach problems and think you need to be rushed to the emergency room every few days, that's from me.  Sorry.  Sick husbands are worse than sick kids by a long shot, so it's time everyone gets well and we enjoy DECEMBER!!

Can't believe it's Christmas time.  I am LOVING our fireplace now that the couch faces it and it's wood burning!!  Can't wait to share pictures.  From my iPhone.

I normally know the topics of the next 5 paragraphs before I get to them because so much thought is running through my head.  But tonight I am blank.  Been staying up way too late, then sleeping twenty minutes to be awakened by a hungry baby, then awakened again just three hours later by the same hungry baby then waken again one hour later by a sweet 3 year old who already has something very important to tell me if she didn't sneak in my bed before then to tell me and cuddle.  So why am I staying up late?  I'M GANGSTA'.   But not tonight.  Good night world.

{One month- geeze.} My love for my babies.

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last went on about something. Well, I'm back.


Halloween was yucky this year.  I just don't like the holiday too much, but I do like that kids get to use their imaginations and pretend to be something different for the day... but my sweet 3 year old does that everyday!  And quite well.  So it's nothing new and as always- she never has just one costume.  Mermaid, then monkey, then princess/barbie/fairy.  And Oliver's first Halloween wasn't yucky too because he was getting sick.  Unfortunately I didn't realize how sick he would be the next few days following.  He got whatever his sister had a week or two prior. Oliver went as Oliver for Halloween.  I have myself on videotape asking him if he will hate me and need therapy when he is older for not dressing him up for his first halloween.  Does this make me a horrible mom?  Nah.  And now that I think about it, considering he had fever and what not, I might have been a horrible mom for making him dress up!  There.  Reasoned it all out.

So when I see my kids throughout the day doing normal stuff, I really am amazed at how much I love them.  Lola couldn't be sweeter.  At least 25 times yesterday, she said "I love you Mom."  All random and all so genuine.  It's amazing.  Today I was getting us some Chick-fil-A and she had found a table already- and I heard her sweet voice yell "I love you Mom" from across the dining room.  I thought for a split second to tell her to "shhhh..." but I proudly smiled as I walked toward her and said "I love you too Lola."  And then we looked at Oliver and said "And we love you bubbie."  Bubbie is the name Lola uses and it's stuck.  Not sure where it came from. But it's so darn sweet hearing her say.  Except every once in awhile she says "boobie."  Hahahaha- it's horribly funny.   Don't worry Oliver, I correct her.

You know when I look at my kids sweet eyes, I really think- time to have more!  They need more, I need more- more the merrier.  But then I look deeper, and I really have my heart torn apart- I do need more.  But what about all the sweet eyes that don't have unconditional love and cozy rooms and paper galore to color on and trucks to push down hallways and popcorn movie nights and just a warm, clean bed?  What about perfectly created children who are born in imperfect circumstances?  If I won the lottery, I would buy a bigger home, but only so perfectly deserving babies from a far could come be mine.  

I think it's funny because my mom always said "I love you all the same" referring to me and my siblings.  Not true.  She may admit that now or maybe it's true for her.  I don't love my babies the same.  I don't think I do.  Do you?  I love them so much,  I loose count and there's no point trying to figure how much I love them because it's unmeasurable, but each is different.  I love one harder, tighter, gentler, funnier than other and vice versa.  I know at times one will be my friend and one will side with the aliens, but in the end, they will always be loved unconditionally by me.  I know not everyone feels their heart being tugged to love another baby, rather biologically or through adoption, and that's okay, but I do.  And I don't doubt for a second the love I have for my two kids now, won't exists for more babies to come.  My heart cries out for orphans.  Sucks the obstacles and challenges adoption presents, but I feel confident it's on my timeline in life.  Am I allowed to say this Clay?  Just pouring out my heart.  No set plans in place... just me always talking about how I can't believe sweet faces like Oliver and Lola don't have a mattress to sleep on and someone to take them to the doctor, and to Target to get surprises and to family birthday parties.  And since I want a big family and more children, why wouldn't I want a sweet baby who needs us.  

On a lighter note, I worked 4-5 hours today from home with both kids and that is an accomplishment.  Nice to do stuff you love and make some money.

On a very exciting note, Lola wanted an all girl Christmas party- and honestly I couldn't resist.  She had half of it planned out before she asked me and an entire invite list, so how could I say no?  We invited all the girls from her school class and a few of her other girlfriends!

My babies.  This picture cracks me up.

Lola's first Chirstmas tree and she wrote Christmas by herself minus the "s"- I helped with that letter.

I think I'll write a separate post for the kids.  I seriously need to update you on them.  Oliver is walking. Just kidding.  Good night friends and weird, creepy people that may be reading this.  Go away.        

Cloth Diapers

So I wanted to use cloth diapers with Oliver and am glad I made that decision.  With so much going on his first few months of life, I didn't use them too much.  It also took awhile before they fit really good, without swallowing him.  They are pretty puffy.  My mom says they make his bottom look huge, and they do.  It's cute though.  I bought one size fits all and glad I did- 

Here's my routine that seems to be working good- First, the diaper I would continue to buy is the Lovely Pocket diapers, the $7 ones.  Cheap!  I also have every style of the Bum Genius and my favorite BG is the free time diaper with snaps (velcro doesn't make much sense to me), but again I would just buy Lovely Pocket diapers over those. (They wash and dry great and fast!) The LP diapers have the inserts so you have to stuff them, but that doesn't bother me a bit.  I thought it would- but it doesn't.  It's actually better because with poop, it's less messy because other diapers have layers and it gets everywhere- at least Oliver's does! The other thing I use are the Bumkins Flushable Diaper Liner... love those.  If they catch all the poop and the diaper really isn't very wet- you can just lift the liner and flush it and keep the same diaper on.  I will try a couple other brands- which I saved on my Amazon wish list to see which ones I like best.  But I think they are a must- unless you breastfeed I guess.  I change Oliver on the twin bed in his room and so under his bed or two bins- one with disposable diapers and one with cloth diapers ready to be put on.  They are stuffed, have a liner sitting in them, and laying all in the same direction.  His nightstand has a drawer and the drawer holds wipes, liners, baby powder and my favorite poop sacks from BRU. When I change him- I put the liner and wipes in the sack and throw away.  I do not actually flush them unless there's no poop.  I guess it's because I have the dirty disposable wipes with poop on them- so makes sense to tie them up in the baggy and toss.  I have finally gotten it down fast enough- that it's just maybe a few seconds longer than changing a disposable diaper.  Definitely took a system and practice though.  Not gonna lie.  I wash the wet diapers in with our loads if it's just one, maybe two.  But I have a wet bag- they all get put in and washed every 2 days.  That's the part I will change soon.  I don't like the wet bags, except for in the diaper bag when I am out and about.  I am going to switch to a pail and pail liner- seems easier and I hate unzipping the wet bag to put diapers in.  A pail would make more sense.  I'll either do this one: Odorless Cloth Diaper Pail (7 gallon: 1-2 days) or try a cheap one from lowes- the metal pails with the lids. I just can't stand smelling them- and it seems we have the odor problem regardless if we use cloth or not.  The cooler weather certainly will help a ton! I'll just use a planet wise pail liner or something similar.  I am still trying to decide which detergent I like best- typically I wash the diapers twice with the medium size wet bag.  The larger one holds too much water in the washing machine so I tend not to use it at all anymore.  I do not have a fancy washer- the most basic one you can have in fact, so the water temperature stays the same from beginning to end I believe.  Either hot, cold or warm.  :(  One day I will buy a bigger washer and dryer, but still love my roper top loaders.  And love the white :) Oh and I keep the diapers until wash time in the laundry room- not in Oliver's room.  I know people do both- but I hate to store dirty diapers in his room.  He doesn't seem to care a bit which diaper he has on, cloth or disposable.  I will admit- when he got bad allergy rashes on his bottom, enough to make him bleed, I would switch over to cloth despite them looking ridiculously too big because it really did help along with Anti-Monkey Butt baby powder.

So that's my 411 on cloth diapers.  I am not at all a pro yet, and wonder what some other brands would be like, but not enough to buy them.  What I have works great.  And they are $7!  Yooo!  Maybe soon I will order more colors in the LP diapers bc I don' t have but a couple colors since I ordered these before he was born and before we knew the sex!  Happy cloth diapering :)  (I feel ridiculously nerdy saying that! hehe) 

Week-a-roo...

So glad tomorrow is Friday.  It's been a terribly long week.  I am not complaining- just "p.m.s.ing"  :)  I think that may be one of my new sayings.  I like it.  And I am bringing back "as if!"  Hahaha!

Common Desk, the coworking company my brother has started up in Deep Ellum, is having their open house tomorrow!  Nick has been busting his bottom all week- well really all year, but especially all week, and Clay has been pulling some late nighters helping him- which means me and the kids have been fending for ourselves... well, Clay has snuck home here and there to help put Lola down because I have been wimpy p.m.s.ing and he is my hero.  But tonight all hands on deck, which meant no Clay.  Lola goes down great for him, not so great for anyone else.  The girl LOVES to talk, loves to play, loves to squirm- so bedtime doesn't agree with her little heart.  After she watched an ENTIRE movie (and I know good and well she was tired) she still seemed wide awake.  I wanted so badly to spank her bottom and tell her "what's wrong with you child?  why can't you sleep?  I dream about sleeping all day! You have the world's most comfortable mattress and coziest room- how could you not be asleep within two seconds?!?!"  BUT I had a proud moment and a "I'm-the-fun-parent-moment..." When I popped open her door to find her with two small dolls "talking" to each other- she quickly laid back down and I whispered "come here..." She looked very puzzled and worried but I just kept telling her to follow me. Curiosity got the best of her and she jumped out of bed and exclaimed "what are weeeeeee doing momma?"  I popped her some popcorn and had a mini movie night in the den.  Oliver was up, I was baking for the open house, and she was clearly not going to bed quite yet- so why not let her have some fun and me not stress about her not closing her eyes. After an hour or so- both kids seemed ready for bed. I gave Oliver a bottle after tucking Lola in- and Lola fell asleep on her own.  Praises to her.  Seriously.  So proud she pulled that off.  And Oliver- amazing- I laid him down in his crib- not a peep- and about twenty-five minutes later he was sleeping soundly.  Never whimpered.  I never thought this night would come and after a week and a half of crying it out, it has arrived.  I have no idea when it will happen again- and as I have learned- things are forever changing with kiddos.  Still is so cool.  And every time he sleeps in his crib, I get all giddy and proud.  It's sooo weird seeing MY baby sleep in a crib.  I love it.  Makes life so much easier.  Maybe moms that didn't have their first child sleep within them for 2.5 years don't understand how nice crib sleeping is, or maybe they do?  When Oliver wakes up in the middle of the night I really am not tempted to put him in my bed, but when Lola does- I do want to snuggle with her.  She's such a snuggler.  

So Oliver has seriously had more doctor appointments in his first 6 months than I have had in my whole life.  We finally had our cranial-facial appointment, which I believe I have left y'all in the dark on this one.  He was diagnosed with a sub mucous cleft palate by a pediatrician.  Then our pediatrician checked and said he could not say he had one, but he has the split uvula which is a sign that he could have one and then an ENT said he did not have one.  So- we were referred to the cranial facial team at Children's.  In a way, I would have been relieved if he did have it, because it would answer why he has such a weak suck.  Yet the doctor couldn't say if he did or didn't.  At Oliver's age, if they don't fully corporate it can be hard to see it and harder to properly document it.  He did say that if he does have one, he feels like it isn't a contributing factor to his sucking difficulties.  So one more thing we can cross of the list.  His feeding therapy has been going okay.  Trying to be optimistic, yet not seeing the point I guess.  They want to change his suck and bottle, but he finally adapted a way that works for him and he'll only be on a bottle for 6 more months tops hopefully so I say just let him suck his own way.  He's gaining weight doing it his way.  She is also wanting to just make sure it's a delay or weakness that isn't related to anything else.  He gets a physical therapy evaluation to make sure there are no other weaknesses or delays present.  Honestly- as much as my sweet boy has endured the first several months of life- I feel like he is just now really enjoying life.  He seems to be progressing tremendously at this point.  He is being a rock star.  The only time things are pretty hard- is when the reflux isn't under control.  Reflux is a real monster, it is.  He haves hives daily and we think it's the reflux meds, but they are finally working and I don't want to change them- doctor seemed to leave it up to me.  Back to sleeping- I can't believe he fell asleep tonight without one cry or any fighting.  :)

Lola had school today and she cracks me up.  This morning I heard Oliver just a little after 7 so got up.  Clay made him a bottle and when he peaked in to check on Lola in bed, she was on the floor quietly playing barbies.  Now how long had she been up?  No telling.  She seems to have it figured out when to come out of her room to say good morning and when not to.  When we were getting ready for school, she put on her new skirt and asked me very seriously if I thought her friends would like her new skirt?  I assured her they would.  As soon I picked her up this afternoon, she couldn't wait to tell me how much her friends LOVED her new skirt.  Hehehe- she loves compliments!

She has been pretend playing a whole lot and her imagination seems pretty wild.  Sometimes I am just not in the mood to pretend play, but it really doesn't matter.  She doesn't let you off the hook. Nope.  No sir.  She will get you to play along one way or another and before you know it, you are the queen disguised as an old woman giving Lola Snow White an apple.  Or saying "who's there" to her 'Knock, Knock' jokes that never make any sense, or you're the mean stepsister, or person who gives us medicine (pharmacist), or you are the train, or Baby Sawyer's babysitter- the list goes on and on... :)  The great thing about her- no matter what we are pretending and/or really doing- it's always sweet and show cases her heart of gold.  Today at Target, she kept standing up in the buggy so I repeatedly asked her to stay sitting on her bottom and warned her the next time she stood up, she would get a spanking.  So when she stood up, I popped her thigh one time.  She started to rub it and said as she fought back the tears "that really hurt momma."  I told her spankings wouldn't be spankings if they didn't hurt and that's why it's important to listen the first few times... lol.  She told me she really needed something cold on it to make it feel better and I insisted it would feel better real soon- that I had gotten plenty of spankings as a kid too.  On her way home, she was just talking away to me and Ollie bear and she was happy to inform me her spanking felt much, much better.  I like that she talks about her feelings and different things.  Lola, always talk to me about your feelings.  I may not always say what you want to hear, say anything right for that matter, but I will always love and not judge.  Just listen and love.  Same goes to you Oliver.  I can't wait to see how your personality keeps developing.

Okay- I could always go on and on about my babies- but I seriously need to go to bed while I can!!

:) Natalie                

Cry It Out Night 6

Update on crying it out :)

 I feel like such a mean mom saying update on crying it out, so maybe I should rename this method- because it isn't completely true.  Update on Oliver sleeping better :)

Tonight was night 6 on teaching him to sleep better and I am so proud of him and myself.  Tonight was the first night he fell asleep without me or Clay being in the room.  We let him cry, then comfort him without picking him up, then let him cry, then comfort, etc... and normally during a comfort time he falls asleep.  Tonight I let him cry longer in between comforting (10 minutes) and then tried to comfort him- but really didn't work too well because he was so tired- so I stood at the door and "shhhh, shhhh" and he watched me for awhile and calmed down.  Then I shut the door and he did it! Fell asleep on his own while I watched on the monitor!  Now I don't really care if he falls asleep if I am in the room or out- I just want him to learn to self-soothe and know he can fall asleep on his own.  

We ran errands today and I didn't get home in time for his nap and he never sleeps while we are out, so I have to go home to allow him to nap- not today!  Fell right to sleep in his carseat in the middle of Target.  Just gave him a blanket to hold on to.  He loves having blankets to get all snuggled up on.  Scares me letting him sleep with blankets but before I go to bed, I pull it back down away from his face. 

I don't know how much longer we will feel like we are really working on the night method- I imagine a month or so- but the difference it has made in naps alone, has been so worth it.  Also, it seems to help him better sleep through the night.  A lot better.  He still wakes up for a feeding- not always- but it's normally more predictable and fast.  Hope I didn't jinx myself.  I feel like I do that on my blog at times. Update: He slept a solid 12 hours last night for the first time and woke up only once to feed at 6:00 a.m. and went back to sleep till 9:45 a.m.  Also during nap today, when he tossed and turned and briefly woke up he was able to go back to sleep on his own.  Soooooo nice. 

Upload iPhone pics- so let me dump my favorites on here :)

Thrift store dress!

Working on pictures for Lola's room- trying to figure out what to do with the long matching ones.

Really proud of her booger but no where to put it.  Gross. 

Lola dressed up bubba... he wasn't too thrilled.

 

Lola saw Ginni nursing and decided her baby Sawyer was hungry too.  :)  LOL

Before the haircut! 

All of this was after applesauce: thinking he is allergic...

 (Tummy ones got worse- all in his diaper too)

Simple handmade cards-

Playing with Kebby's cat-

 It's impossible getting a cute picture of these two being still!

My brother's new sign of Common Desk!

Lola's workspace where she pretends to be at Common Desk!

 Me always in wavy hair now.... Quick and easy-

Lola at dance practice- (blue shirt and black and white pants)

Current project:

Sweet girls-

Laura's wedding shower coming up!

Sweet kids-

 

Next post has to be on all of Lola's funny comments lately!!  I seriously need to be documenting these!