For Pet Owners

WHAT PETS WRITE IN THEIR DIARIES

Excerpts from a Dog's Diary......
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!


Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary...
Day 983 of my captivity...My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards.There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now ...

Weekly Winners January 18-24

Birthday Suit

"What are you?"

Little hands, but big hold on my heart

Yes, she is!

"Are You My Mother?"

Check out more Weekly Winners over at Lotus’ blog.

Row Your Boat

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The Week in Review

Alright, so a little update on this week, in no particular order:

1- Mastitis

Yes, I woke up Tuesday morning with Mastitis..ugh...it's awful! For those you don't know what Mastitis it's "an infection of the breast tissue that causes pain, swelling and redness of the breast. Mastitis most commonly affects women who are breast-feeding, although in rare circumstances this condition can occur outside of lactation." The symptoms of Mastitis are:
Breast tenderness or warmth to the touch
General malaise or feeling ill
Swelling of the breast
Pain or a burning sensation continuously or while breast-feeding
Skin redness, often in a wedge-shaped pattern
Fever of 101 F or greater

Sounds fun right! It's so painful and I just feel awful, luckily Cole stayed home with me the last 2 days to help with Grace. It feels like you have the flu with an unbelievably sore breast. The few things that help it are antibiotics and stimulating the breast every 2 hours. So I've been having Grace feed off that side every 2 hours, god it hurts to even look at, let alone nurse her. Here's a picture of a cow with Mastitis:

Yup, it's as painful as it looks! It is finally starting to feel better tonight, thankfully. Grace has been very sweet and has been giving me extra cuddles.2- Boot camp
We've been sort of lax about Lily's training lately, so we've started Boot camp for her. She actually enjoys training, but it wears her outShe didn't even flinch while Grace played on her.

3- SmartMom

I ordered a SmartMom necklace, which is a teething necklace the mom wears and it's made from a food-safe, phthalate-free, federally-approved silicone, so it's okay for her to chew on it.

Grace hasn't really mouthed it to much yet, but she loves to hold it, which helps a lot during feedings. Since Grace has become more aware of her surroundings she is easily distracted by everything, this necklace has helped her to stay focused on feeding, but gives her something to play with. It's great to because instead of pinching my skin while feeding she holds the necklace.

4- Naked Time

For Grace, not us! We started giving Grace naked time, she has such sensitive skin and just needs to air out her bottom sometime. Now before baths we get her naked and let her roll around on the bathroom floor for a while, she loves it!

Grace getting ready for naked time!

rolling all around

she made it onto her belly, all by herself!

5- Sitting!

Yes, Grace has been practicing sitting.

First with the boppy

then all by herself!

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We are so proud of Miss Grace!

Just look how much these two love each other!

They have my heart!

Cousins

Since Grace and Jacob are only 6 1/2 weeks apart they are often placed together for photos. Here's the recent photos:

And of course a video to

Weekly Weigh In

Okay, so it's the weekly weigh in and I am very excited! So I was a little disappointed after last week, but I increased my calories this week, taking the advice of Cole, and surprising it actually worked! I have finally reached my 10 pound goal and I reached my 6 pound a month goal. I figure if I can lose 6 pounds a month, then I'll be on pace to lose 70 pounds this year!

On to the numbers:
4.1 pounds lost this week
13 pounds lost since 12/12
29 pounds lost since before I got pregnant
33 pounds lost since I had Grace
0 more pounds until I reach my first goal (10 pounds by 1/12, a week late)
0 more pounds until I reach next goal (6 pounds a month)
61.4 more pounds until I reach my main goal (70 pounds in the year 2009)

A Year Ago Today

A year ago today started out like any normal day. I babysat Jackson in the morning and when my sister came home she asked me if I had tested yet this month. (She knew we were trying to get pregnant and she knew we had similar cycles). I told I haven't because I wasn't even due yet.

Well I went home and was checking my email and stuff and found out that overstock was having a HUGE sale on baby cribs, so what did I do, I bought one! Oh no! I couldn't believe I had actually done that, it was such an impulse buy. I called Cole, who was on his way home from work, and told him what I had done, we both laughed and I hung up.

I then realized I hadn't peed in a few hours and I had one pregnancy test left from last month, so I might as well just get the negative test over with. Now, as a back story, we had been trying to get pregnant since September, so I was getting pretty use to seeing negatives ALL the time!

So, I peed on the stick, waited the 2 minutes, and then headed back into the bathroom to throw out the test. Well, as I was throwing the test away I realized there was a line there, a pink line! HOLY CRAP! I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn't contain myself!

I immediately called Cole, our conversation went like this:
"Where are you? How far away are you?"
"Probably like 30 minutes, why?"
"I need you to look at something!"
"On your body?"
"No, I took a test"
"Yea! and..."
"I think I see a line!"
"What! Oh my god! Are you serious!?"
"Yes!"
so lots of laughter and giggles
"Okay, I'll look at it when I get home!"
"OK, I love you!"
"I love you to, see you in a little bit!"

We hang up and then the phone rings 2 seconds later.
"I don't know why I hung up! I can't just drive home like normal now!"
We continue to laugh and giggle for the next 30 minutes.

Cole comes home looks at the test, doesn't believe me, so he runs to the store to buy another test and makes me pee again!

We get more positives!

We head over to the Brennan's for our usual Friday night dinner. I try talking casually to my sister. I ask her what she did while I was gone, she tells me, but I don't think I was really listening, because all I could hear was my heart beating a mile a minute. I wait for her to ask me what I did, but she doesn't, so I say "Aren't you going to ask me what I did!"
"You tested!"
"Yup!"
"And...."
"We're pregnant!"
yeah..more laughing and giggling

My parents show up and I give my mom a gift bag with a can of chicken noodle soup. (Back story: My sister gave my parents a can of chicken noodle soup when they told them they were pregnant with Jackson, because my parents were sick). She opens it up and says " I knew it! I told your father the other day that you were going to get pregnant now!" (More back story, just 10 days prior Cole's grandmother had passed away unexpectedly, so everyone always says when one person dies another is born!"

We all continued to laugh and giggle, then we headed to Cole's family's house to show them this video

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and well the rest is history! A year ago today was one of the greatest moments of my life, I will never ever forget that day!

Weekly Winners January 11-17

Little Trooper

Toes

Bubbles


"What are those things!?"

Sleeping Beauty

Snuggle Time

Check out more Weekly Winners over at Lotus’ blog.

4 Month Stats

We went to Grace's 4 month check-up today and she's huge!

Weight: 17 lb 11.5 oz (99 percentile) which means she's gained more then 10 pounds since she was born. Which is even crazier because she didn't even weigh 10 pounds when she was born!
Length:25.5 in (95 percentile)
Head: 42.5 cm (82 percentile)

The doctor said everything looks good and was very impressed that I was still exclusively breastfeeding. The doctor also commented on what a great personality she has!

Plus some photos!

Here she is in the car staring at her elephant on the way to the appointment

Here she is naked waiting for the doctor

Passed out after her shots, poor baby!
Sporting her band-aids!

Plus a cute video from the other night!

Is It Worth It?

The past 2 weeks have been hell, absolute HELL! We've been trying to get Grace to sleep in her crib and to say it's not going well is an under statement. Every night we try to get her to sleep in her crib and every night we fail! We've tried changing the order of bed time events, changing the lighting, changing the time, changing the sounds, changing our methods, yet every time we fail. We have made no progress what so ever and in fact she is now sleeping worse then ever.

Take last night for example: so Grace woke up from her evening nap around 6, I started dinner while she played in her high chair. She sang, I danced will I cooked, then as dinner was done, she decided she was too. So I placed her in her bouncy chair while I tried to eat dinner, no go. So, I brought her into her room to start our bedtime routine, now it's 7pm. First I changed her, gave her her medicine, gave her a massage, fed her, then we read 3 books. No sign of tiredness yet, so we started a 4th book, finally some eye rubbing and yawning. So I placed her in her crib, turned on the light show, turned off her lights and left the room @740pm.

Now the fun starts, she's fine until the light show stops, then she starts to fuss(I'm okay letting her fuss it out, but not cry it out, I just don't believe in it). After 5 minutes of fussing she's now crying, so I go in place my hand on her belly, shush her, tell her it's time for bed, turn on the glo-worm and exit the room.

Again she's fine for a few minutes, but then cries. I go in repeat the above process, leave the room and she cries immediately. I wait a few minutes again, but now she's screaming, so I go in try to calm her down, this time I don't even make it to the door before she is full out screaming again. SO, once again I go back to her crib and try to calm her down, but this time she won't calm down, so I pick her up, still screaming, walk her around the room (still screaming). Finally I leave the room, still holding her, she settles down. I decide I'll feed her and try again, but first I must pee because it's 9pm already.

I try to place her in her swing for a minute so I can pee, and she loses it, I mean absolutely loses it! She begins to scream so hard that she's not making any noise, but simply turning shades of red. She finally lets out the cries and can't stop, she now screams so hard she aggravates her reflux and pukes. I decide peeing is not that important and pick her up to calm her down. It takes a few minutes but she finally relaxes and I feed her, she falls asleep on me and sleeps for only 40 minutes and I can finally eat dinner.

Grace then decides to poop, which wakes her up. I change her and try to get her back to sleep, no go. I hand her to Daddy to see if she'll play for a a few minutes, no go! SO we start the whole bed time process again, now it's 11pm and she is still not sleeping .

We throw in the towel @ 12am with the crib and decide to walk her to sleep and then let her sleep on me, but she's so over tired and woren out from crying that this takes until 3am to work. SO, 8 HOURS after starting to put her to bed she's asleep and now I can't sleep because I'm so stressed out and we have a doctor's appointment early in the morning, which means we have to be at 730am.

So, I begin to wonder, is this worth it?
Do I really keep doing this every night?

Before we started trying to put her in her crib she was a good sleep, would sleep all night on me. And now, she's an awful sleep, has a hard time even sleeping on me!

Why did I even start this? So, she'd get a better sleep? Well that's not happening! So I'd get a better sleep? Well that's not happening either! So, I could clean my house at night? Well, I certainly don't have time for that either, because it takes 8 hours to put her to bed.

Do I just keep doing this because I that's what others think I should be doing? Is her being in her crib right now all that important?

Maybe she's just not ready yet. Maybe she needs a few more weeks. Maybe she needs some more Mommy time. Maybe she'll just be slower with letting go. Maybe she'll need me to stay a little longer than the other parents her first day of school, and maybe she'll still be a college grad living with her parents long after all her friends have moved out, just maybe. Is that really all that bad?

I'm so unsure of what to do, of what's the right thing. I know she'll eventually sleep in her crib, but I just don't know how much longer I can go on like this. This crib thing is not making me a happy mommy. I just want to be able to enjoy her at night. I'm sick of both of us spending the night crying. Is it really worth it?

Maybe we just need to take a break for a week or two, regroup, and try again

My mommy instincts tell me she's just not ready, but I feel so pressured by society to keep trying. I'm thinking I'll probably go with my Mommy instincts and give it a rest for a while.

Who knows?

Video Dump

I haven't downloaded our video camera in a while, so here it is!

4 Months

Grace,
I can't believe you are 4 months old today! It feels like I blinked my eyes and went from being 7 months pregnant to having a 4 month old. I love watching you grow, but I really do wish that time would slow down just a little bit. I feel like in the last month you really went from being a newborn to a baby. You had lots of firsts this past month:
Your first snow

your first Christmas
your first New Year's Eve
and your first tooth finally poked through!
You really found your thumb this past month and now it is hard to get a picture of you without it in your mouth!

Between teething and thumb sucking, you have become quite the drooler, we now go through at least 4-5 bibs a day!
You've been working on rolling a lot the past few weeks. You can roll from your belly to your back really well, but have a harder time rolling from your back to your belly. Oh, and you absolutely hate learning how to roll, it frustrates you to no end!
This month your smiles haven gotten even bigger and easier to get!
You've started noticing and interacting with your environment and toys so much more!
Now as far as sleep goes this past month has been difficult. We started trying to put you to bed in your crib, but you just will not stand for it. We try for at least 2 hours every night and have yet to be successful. We've tried switching the order of our bed time routine, we've tried making it earlier, and we've tried making in later, still nothing. That's okay though, I know you'll get it someday, after all I can't be that mad that you cry because you want to be close to me!

Keep growing (not to fast)! I love you to pieces

Love,

Momma

Now to those monthly photos!

Today

3 M0nths

2 Months

1 Month

Today
3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

Just some more comparisons

Grace in her newborn hat today

Grace in her hat at the hospital

Grace's hand today

Grace's hand at 1 month

Grace's feet today

Grace's feet at 1 month

and yes I do take a picture of Grace's hands and feet every month, I want to remember ever little detail!