The Sock exchange and Christmas Gifts!

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me lots of prayers and sweet comments about my Nanny! I appreciate them so much! I realized last night that the last few posts I have done have been kinda sad....so I wanted to do a little bit of a happier post this time!

It Is Well With My Soul

I'm so sorry I have been MIA! It has been a very hectic and emotional past few weeks, and I have literally had no time to blog. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Promises

Well, I have made it through my first 3 weeks of work! I really like my job, and I have been doing very well. I have finished all my initial trainings (except for one which I will finish that one Monday-Tuesday) so last week I got my own case load; I was very excited about that! Thankfully, all of my co-workers seem nice, and they help me out with any questions I have. Trying to fit in with new co-workers was actually what I was most nervous about, because in my line of work, it's mostly women-you know how catty and mean some women are! But, so-far-so-good!

Panicking

Well, I have had an eventful couple of days that have left me with some serious mixed emotions. Remember the job interview I had about 2 weeks ago? It went really well, and the guy interviewing me pretty much told me in so many words that if my background check came back okay, then I had the job. They had me come in a few days later and "shadow" for an hour to see if I liked the job- I loved it! Working with developmentally disabled people is just such a rewarding, fun job! All the people and my soon-to-be co-workers seemed to like me right from the start. So, as I was driving home after shadowing, I was feeling excited about starting a new job, and making some extra money for my family.

Miss Independent

I can't believe my little girl is 20 months old! My babies are getting way too big way too fast! At 20 months old Jackie's personality is coming out more and more every day. As an infant she was always kinda quiet and laid back, but as a toddler, she is the complete opposite. She has sooo much energy that my husband and I often joke that she has to be ran outside everyday like a pitbull. If we don't she won't nap and she will stay up until 10 or 11pm! I wish I had that kind of energy!

Worst Haircut EVER!

So I'm almost 3 months post-partum and my hair is falling out like crazy. The same exact thing happened after I had Jackie, so I knew what to expect this time. I stayed on my gummy prenatals, I started taking biotin, and I use all sulfate free products in my hair. So far none of these precautions I took this time have made any difference.I feel like I'm going bald. Especially around my hairline. So I decided the only way to hide all this hair loss until my hormones stop freaking out is to get a haircut with bangs.

Heartbroken

Please pray for my sister-in-law, Angie.

She recently shared the news that she is pregnant with friends and family. My brother messaged me early yesterday to tell me they had just received the terrible news that Angie had lost the baby. She had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago, and the baby looked perfect. She went in for a regular OB appointment yesterday, and when they did the ultrasound, there was no heartbeat. The OB said that from looking at the ultrasound, the baby passed about a week ago.

This would have been their 6th child, and while some people may say, why is she acting so upset? She has 5 other children! No matter how many children you have a miscarriage is still heartbreaking. Before she had my first niece, Anna, she suffered from recurrent losses, but it has been years since she has had any trouble with that. Please God give her peace, and comfort her through this difficult time!

Twisted Neck

As soon as I brought Levi home from the hospital I could tell something was wrong with his neck. He would always have his head turned to the left, and whenever he fell asleep in his bouncy chair his head would go completely sideways. My husband looked at me one day and asked me if his neck was broken because it was that crooked! At first I just thought he was being lazy, so I would turn his head every time I noticed him favoring his left side. But by the time he was a month old I was really starting to get concerned, at that point he would never turn his head to the right, and when I tried to turn his head for him he would fight it and cry! My poor baby! Of course I googled what could be going on and everything I read said he most likely had torticollis, or twisted neck. Torticollis is just that your child may favor one side more than the other, and usually their head will tilt to one side. There are two kinds of torticollis, congenital or acquired. Congenital torticollis means your baby was born with the condition, and acquired means it happened some time after birth. I don't know why but it seems like every time I google something only the absolute worst case scenarios come up in my search. Basically, after googling infant torticollis for 30 minutes I frantically called my pediatrician because I was convinced Levi was gonna need surgery, and he was probably gonna have to wear a helmet. The nurses at my pediatrician's office are so sweet, they let me bring in Levi right away!

Snapshot Monday

It's been a very busy Monday around here! Just wanted to stop in really quick with a few adorable photos from the weekend.

Jackie trying to feed Levi her baby doll's bottle, haha. She is definitely Momma's helper!

He gives the biggest smiles to his momma!

The Virtuous Woman

About a month ago I started looking for a job. I really love being a stay at home mom but with the holidays coming up, it would be really nice to have some extra money. But it's been hard to find anything because before opening my home daycare in 2008, I worked in nursing, which usually requires flexible hours, and right now my schedule is anything but flexible.

Breastfeeding Failure

When I had Jackie I always struggled with my milk supply. She was so little that her suck wasn't strong enough to breastfeed. I would pump every 2 hours but I would only get maybe half an ounce from each breast, it was beyond frustrating. The lactation consultant I had basically made me feel like I wasn't trying hard enough, and she scolded me for giving Jackie formula in the hospital. I know you aren't supposed to give a new baby pacifiers and bottles, but I didn't have a choice. Jackie was barely 5 lbs at birth and because I was diabetic she had to have formula to keep her glucose levels okay. If I had chosen to withhold formula like the lactation lady suggested, what if something happened to Jackie? I would never have been able to forgive myself. After a month of pumping and going crazy with guilt over not being able to give my baby what's best for her, I finally decided to give up breastfeeding. I tried not to let it bother me, but deep down it did. I just felt like my body failed me once again. I struggled getting pregnant, then my entire pregnancy was miserable, I had to be induced at 37 weeks after being I the hospital for over a week, so what made me think breastfeeding was gonna be easy?

Why Should I Worry?

I am finally starting to get into a good routine with my babies, and Levi is finally starting to sleep for longer stretches at night, which is definitely helping me have more energy to do things like blogging. Right now both Jackie and Levi are taking their afternoon nap, yay for kids sleeping at the same time!  That usually never happens, haha! Anyway, I thought I'd take this time to give an update on my friend k, I'm sad to say the last few months have been extremely hard on her.

Momma's boy

Levi was born Saturday August 3rd, at 5:52am. He was 8 lbs 3oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He looks just like his big sister!

My induction was about 14 hours and it was such a better experience this time! Here are the details:

God is so good!

We finally got internet in our apartment, so I thought i would stop by for an update.Well I am 38 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow! I had my high risk dr's appt yesterday and Levi and I are doing great! So great that my dr does not want to induce me until I hit 39 weeks, so I saw my regular o.b. dr today, and I was shocked to find out I am 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. My o.b. told me that she thinks I will just go into labor on my own, but just In case, she has scheduled me for induction next Friday at 7am! I'm so thankful I have made it this far in my pregnancy, this time I feel ready and prepared to have a baby, the apartment is clean, all the laundry is done and our hospital bags are packed, we can't wait to meet our little man!

Almost there!

Hi everyone! Again I am so sorry for not being able to stop in and give updates more often. As of right now we still do not have internet in our apartment because we are just trying to cut down on monthly expenses and we just decided we can live without having the internet for right now. Here are some updates!

Big Changes going on!

Just wanted to give a quick update! I'm so sorry I haven't been able to blog in a while, I have had so much going on!

Roger and I have some very exciting news!

Our first year as parents

I wanted to do a post to just kinda update everyone on how our past year has been. Becoming parents has been the best thing that has ever happened to us, we love Jackie so very much! She will be 1 in 2 weeks and she has been walking since she turned 11 months old, we are so proud! So here's some highlights from this year...

Here Jackie was at just 3 weeks old! She was so tiny, it was like holding a baby doll.

Wow! Jackie is almost 1 years old!

Wow! I cannot believe how quickly the past year has gone by! I am so sorry that I haven't been blogging, life has been so busy! Here lately I have been noticing more and more people stopping by my page and so I thought maybe some people would like to see a birth story and some highlights of Jackie's first year!