The Baker's Menagerie

Friday, June 22, 2012

Adjusting...

I know it has been a very long time since I updated. Give me a break though! I am a full time mom and a full time student and a full time housekeeper. In the last couple months, we went to UT for a visit and I ended up staying for a very long time. I still am not sure why I did it, being a mom with three kids and no husband around sucked big time. I had lots of friends and family around to visit but the majority of the care fell on me regardless. That is how it is being a parent. Not complaining, as I would not trade the experience for anything! Well, except for the last weekend which I spent recovering from an evil bout of criptosporideum. My dad introduced me to 'raw' milk. Milk that has not been pasteurized is supposedly good for people with lactose intolerance. We went to a local dairy and picked up a couple jars. The first jar was so tasty, I have never had such lovely milk before. I had a bad feeling about the second jar but I took a small glass anyways right after my dad. A few days later I started shivering uncontrollably and my temperature skyrocketed. My dad came down with the same symptoms at about the same time. I went for 24 hours dealing with the horrible effects of the stupid bacteria before I finally decided to go to the hospital. My fever was at almost 104 and had been for 24 hours. I needed help fast so that I could take care of my kids. Got me some antibiotics and was told not to drink unpasteurized milk again. That is a check. My brother in law coined it well when he said, 'ya know, there is a reason they pasteurize milk!'. I said that to myself over and over as I was wracked with stomach cramps. Sheesh.

Jared spent 4 weeks without us. He worked, and worked, and worked. Played a few video games here and there, cooked a little, and spent time bonding with himself. I felt bad because we didnt even get to communicate much because of the attention I had to give to CJ. He didnt have anything really eventful going on, just beginning to gear up for a summer of TDY trips. Boo for me. For Father's Day we got him a charcoal starter and a how-to book on Dutch Ovens. My dad gave me one right before we got married and it is still in the box. A friend of ours cooked a dutch oven meal for us when we were in UT and Jared mentioned a desire to learn more. I am a little over excited about this prospect as I LOVE dutch oven food. I cannot wait for him to get his butt in gear and get learning! He is planning on building a fire pit in the back yard this weekend so that we can put the charcoal in there and not have it burn out by the never-ending El Paso winds.

As for me, I am still plowing through school. I only have a few more classes for my Associates degree and I am contemplating on whether I can handle doubling up for my Bachelors. I really want to get moving on my education and it may be worth the struggle. I will make that decision in the next few months as I graduate at the end of the year. I recently took an Algebra class that while was not necessarily hard, there was a ton of homework. Several assignments due per week and they were not small assignments either. I spent all of my free time in the evenings after the kids were asleep working on that class. Glad it is over but I know that I have one more before I am done this year.

Kayla is adjusting very well to being a big sister again. She is constantly playing with CJ and begs me to let her play when I am playing with him. She hovers and coos and nurtures him. She makes him laugh and spends hours willingly playing and entertaining. She helps me out with whatever he may need and does it quickly. She has also decided that she has a right to tell me 'no'. Needless to say, that is not going over well. We are working very hard on teaching her the difference between wrong and right decisions and that there are serious consequences. Not sure if she is getting it or not but at least we are trying.

Madison is not adjusting so well. She has always been a little clingy and it has doubled now that I am expecting her to be more independent. She is not getting attention from Kayla because she is focused on the baby and she is not getting attention from me because when I am not focused on the baby I am working on homework or housework. I give her undivided attention every day but it is not as much as she would like. She is definitely having a hard time adjusting to her new place in the family and I have to keep reminding myself that I need to be more understanding when she is whining and hanging on my leg. She is also growing and has become incredibly clumsy. Poor kid has gone through a box of bandaids in a month.

CJ is my little angel baby. He is so incredibly sweet and easy going. He sleeps for 5-7 hours at a time at night and then again for another 4. Last night he slept from 7:30 until 4:30 and woke up for the day a little after 7. I never believed people when they said they had babies who slept this well. The day naps are not going so well however, but I will take day problems over night anytime. This means that Jared and I can switch off getting up with him so that one of us always gets to sleep through the night every other night. It keeps me sane! He is not the biggest eater, nor is he my biggest baby. He is the tallest, but also the scrawniest. I am hoping he chunks up soon. He is so tall that he keeps stretching out his clothes lengthwise but definitely does not fill them out widthwise. I figure that as long as he is growing well and he is healthy and happy I will not complain. He is quick to smile and even to laugh. He loves to be tickled and is incredibly social. He does not like being startled and gets very upset when his sisters yell, especially Maddie with her overly loud voice. He is currently holding his head up by himself almost 90% of the time. He will be 3 months old on Sunday! I keep having to remind myself that he is only 2 months old and to give him time to make his adjustments. I am looking forward to the upcoming growth spurt because I want to be free of this Alimentum crap. It is costing us a fortune to feed him!

Our trip to UT was a lot of fun. We spent most of our time with Jared's family and my friend Lauren and her son Teagan. We do not normally see much of Jared's family when I visit each year so this was a nice change of pace. We saw the siblings play baseball on Tuesday nights, Kayla spent many nights over with her grandparents, and we had a few family parties that we got to attend. Lauren is currently very pregnant with her daughter Charlotte (I get to call her Charlie! LOVE IT!) and her hubby Corey has been in Afghanistan with the Air Force. She is due in 6 days, and Corey is currently en route home. I keep telling him to hurry so that he can be home for the birth! I tried to see them as much as possible as Lauren and I have been very close over the years and have been through a lot together, deployments, babies, miscarriages, etc. I also have a new nephew coming on Saturday at the latest. Braxton will likely be CJ's partner in crime as we really hope that they will be close since they are so close in age. When we move back to UT next year we plan on spending a lot of time letting the two get to know each other. So, thats about it for now because this has taken me several days to type so I better get it posted. I will get pictures on when I can but at least this is something right? RIGHT?

Monday, April 16, 2012

A Whole New World

I figured it was about time that I updated the blog. Considering it has been over a month, I think. So, basically, nothing has changed except the completion of our little family. Crae James was born on the 24th of March at 7:22 AM. I will go into that story later as it is kinda funny. Other than that, we are just trying to get through each sleep deprived day, looking forward to the time that we get to go home for a visit.

Jared was able to take off 10 days for paternity leave. He went back to work last Thursday and has been enjoying every minute of it of course! Especially last Friday when he was only able to get 3 hours of sleep. Poor guy was not used to that because with Madison, I was the only one to get up since Jared was usually at work for her first feeding. Jared did get our orders for the next year finally. We are officially El Paso bound for one last year. Which means that we will be home by this time next year (likely anyways) due to terminal leave. It's hard to believe that we are finally at the end of this long tour. This will be 4 years, the longest we have been anywhere, and definitely the longest we have lived in one house.

As for me, I am just muddling (yes, muddling) through my days. Not really sleeping, not really functioning, just trying my best to not forget anyone or anything. As for the labor, it went smoothly. The day after my mom got into town I had not been feeling my best, but that was a given considering my advanced state of pregnancy. My mom had offered to take the kids that night so Jared and I could have a date before my delivery the next Tuesday. I started having contractions that morning but I ignored them because I had been having braxton hicks since the beginning of the pregnancy, which is why I had been on bed rest. We went to a local Japanese restaurant and enjoyed the heck out of our alone time. It was a tepanyaki place, and even though they charged $2 for water (tap water!!!) it was awesome. I was counting the contractions but still had not told Jared yet. They were about 7 minutes apart at this point. We then went to see the Hunger Games and got a big bag of popcorn. I had eaten some of it then suddenly I could not get down another bite. At that point I got worried, I knew my body was going into labor but I was still trying to convince myself otherwise. I made it through half the movie and that was it. I had to tell Jared. The contractions were about 3 minutes apart. I made it through the movie and told Jared to stop so I could get some water and go to the bathroom. It didnt help. We got home and packed up the car. We headed off to the hospital when the contractions were 2 minutes apart. We kept joking that we were going to be sent home. Well, we got to the hospital at 11 PM and by midnight, I had my epidural. I stalled a few hours later and they started pumping pitocin into me and I told them to call the doc or he would never make it. They didnt of course, and I progressed quickly. The doc barely made it and even he didnt believe me when I told him he had 5 minutes. The nurses had to search the hospital for him as he had gone to get some coffee. (it was 7 AM, come on! It wasnt that early!) CJ was born after 3 pushes and promptly peed all over me. Welcome to the family Monkey! I am doing well three weeks post partum. Back in school and trying to get my brain to remember how to do math.

Kayla is still doing well in school. She has reverted a little bit since CJ was born. She has become very crabby and melodramatic if she doesnt get her way. She is a really good helper to me though. Anything I need for the baby she is very quick to get it for me. that makes her think that she deserves an extra treat or special treatment. We are working on it. She adores her little brother though and cannot wait until she can hold him all the time instead of when he is rarely awake.

Madison has not reverted. She has just gotten more stubborn. She has learned that when I am holding the baby I am less likely to follow through on a punishment. I have had to become a little more heavy handed with her punishment because she is pushing for a little too much freedom. Luckily though, she also adores her baby brother and holds him whenever she can. She also feeds him and helps me keep him covered in blankets whether I want her to or not.

This is CJ's first update! CJ was born on Mar 24th at 7:22 AM at 20.5 inches and 7 lbs 3 oz. He came out peacefully and was forced to wake up and scream because he was too cozy sitting on mommy's chest. A few hours after birth they heard a little wheezing and he was placed under an oxygen hood while they waited for the fluid to clear his lungs. That was hard for us because they took him to the nursery at about 8:30 AM and we did not get him back until 5 PM. I was able to pump and feed him quite a bit though which may have helped in his speedy recovery. They said his quick delivery might have prevented him from getting all the fluid out of his lungs. His two week appointment showed a weight gain of 1 lb since birth, but they never gave me his height. The doc kept commenting on how fat he was. The kid was born with rolls, I make my babies big! He is not sleeping any better than any other newborn, about every 2 hours he is up chowing down, but he is so sweet. He only cries when we refuse to get up to his squeaking (which is pretty much every time) and then it is more of just a warning cry. At this point I do not see any signs of colic but I am constantly praying not to, I do not want a repeat of Madison's first 3 months. He has quickly grown out of newborn clothes and is making his way out of 0-3 month as well. I have already packed a box to be sent out to his cousin that will be here in a few months.

So that is about it. Wandering around in a sleepless state, and getting by ok. We are happy and content to finally have our family completed. It feels like this chapter of our lives is finally over and now we can move on to raising our kids instead of making them. We both feel very at peace with this. So until next time, here are some pics of us, and good luck and love to my 3 sister in laws, 1 bestie, and one cousin who are currently prego. See you all in a few weeks!