Tales from my life as a mom of 2 sons and 2 daughters

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Cheli On Friday, June 27, 2008
It's already Friday again, time for an update.

I weighed in this morning at 178.8 lbs. Only a loss of .8 lbs for the week but it's double what I lost last week and probably woulda been higher but I went to McDonalds yesterday and had double cheeseburger.. oops. Oh well. We are getting an eliptical machine today that someone from Freecycle is GIVING us and someone else from freecycle is helping us pick up. I LOVE it :) hehe I hope having the eliptical will kick my butt back into gear because I've gotten lazy on exercising because it's so dang hot outside.

Doug got a call from his instructor earlier this week saying that the application had been received by the state so now it's just a matter of waiting for the state to process his application which he said could take a week or two. Hopefully closer to the week. We are in desperate need of him working. And I know he's eager to get working again.

We both made appointments to go to the dentist next week. Neither one of us is very fond of going to the dentist *yeah I know, who is* but we're going because we need it. My appt is for Wednesday and his is for Thursday. We are going this morning to get massages at his school from some of his former classmates. Should be enjoyable :)

River is doing great. We went last night to Wally world and bought him a ton of new clothes. 16 shirts, 8 pairs of shorts, and 3 under shirts (wife beaters) for bed time. He looked so handsome this morning dressed in his new outfit.. hopefully it doesn't come home destroyed. We also bought him a new toy motorcycle because he is obsessed with them lately. His whole face lit up when he saw it this morning and kept saying motorcycle, motorcycle. I tried to get him to leave it here when I took him to school but he wouldn't have it. So I let him bring it in the car and told him he had to leave it in the card when we got to school which he very hestinately did once we got there. He now insist on bringing 2 or 3 cars with him to bed every evening and if you try and get him to go to bed with out the cars he will cry until he gets them. LOL He is so much fun.

Journey is feeling better finally. He is finishing up a 10 day dose of Ceron drops for his coughing but hasn't coughed in a few days. We were given a crib and crib mattress in half a dozen crib sheets from Freecycle this week so we put the crib together and now it's in the corner of our bedroom and he sleeps in it every night. He looks so unbelievablely tiny in that thing. The last 3 nights he has slept from 8:30 or so until 7am with out waking up. Occasionally he'll fuss for his pacifier but once he has it back in his mouth he goes still. He is definately a pacifier baby. He has built an attachment to holding things in his hands (he has a dish rag in the car that he has to hold while we're driving or he gets upset). So yesterday when we went to the store we found this awesome soft microfiber and silk taggie blanket for him. I want to keep it for me, it's so soft. He went to the pediatrician yesterday for his shots. We got him the next dose of DTaP and Polio amd denied everything else once again. The pediatrician never gives us a hard time about it.. YAY. She gave us the go ahead to start him on cereal if we want.. we don't. He's gaining weight just fine with out and he's no where near ready for solids yet. So we'll keep plugging along. He is 13 lbs 10 oz now but they are using the 13 lbs 6 oz as his official weight because it was taken the day after he turned 4 months and they remeasured him and he was only 24 inches not 24 3/4 inches. So he is in the 11th for weight 8th for height and his head is in the 29th percentile. His head is now the circumfrence that his brother's was at birth LOL. She said he is doing WONDERFUL. The only thing he isnt' doing that most babies are by this point is rolling over but she said she has no doubt he could if he wanted to. YAY. So he goes back August 26th for his 6 month and goes back to the cardiologist on August 19th.

I never got around to putting pictures up.. I'll try and do that this week.. oops.
Cheli On Friday, June 20, 2008
It's Friday so it's update time.. not much to update this week though LOL

I weighed in today and was 179.6. I only lost .4 lbs this week. I had a really hard week. I was sick for 3 days and we went out to eat twice so oh well. At least I didn't gain. I'm going to do better this week. We put an ad on the local craigslist for a barter for a treadmill or eliptical macine in exchange for free massages. Someone wrote us back so we are in the process of ironing out the details and seeing if it will work out. I hope it does.. it would be awesome to be able to exercise at the house instead of having to go outside and the damn humidity.

I had a job interview for a job working with profoundly mentally handicapped children. I was really excited about the job but they pay just wasn't worth it so I ended up turning down the position. *sigh*

Doug got a call from his instructor 2 days ago saying that they FINALLY mailed out his application and check to the state so hopefully some time next week he will have a license number and can start working. We are eager for him to begin work.

Journey is feeling a bit better. He had 4 days of Prednisone, 4 days of breathing treatments, and is almost done with 10 days of amoxicillin. I think it was the antibiotic that did it. He still hasn't had his 4 month shots. He goes next Thursday. We are only getting two of them anyway so it's not a major deal. We got him weighed and measured earlier in the week (as per post below) so I'm not in any rush. In other big news. On Wednesday (18th) Journey rolled over for the first time (twice). He hasn't done it since but he did it LOL. He has been alot better about letting us put him down. He is alot more interested in his toys finally and he is such a smiley boy. We have stopped co-sleeping. We built him a little pallet on the floor until we can get a crib in there. He was keeping Doug up and Doug was waking him up because both are wild sleepers. I miss having my baby in bed with me. 4 months and we're still breastfeeding. I am loving the bonding that it offers. I love knowing that he's growing big and strong because of me :)

River is having a better week too. No accidents at school this week YAY! He is totally into Thomas the Train now which is awesome. The other day I got a video of him counting to 14 in English and 10 in Spanish. He's such a smart little guy. He has been insisting on going to bed with about 8 different cars LOL he's so silly.

Like I said, not much to report this week... I'll try and get some pictures up here for you all in the next few days.
Cheli On Monday, June 16, 2008
Journey went back to the doctor today. Ended up being a sick visit not a well baby visit. Yep he's still sick. They went ahead and measured him and weighed him though for his official 4 month stats..
Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz (diapered)-- 11th percentile
Height: 24 3/4 inches-- 29th percentile
He's a little man. We were back in the doctors office on Saturday and they put him on Prednisone (a steroid) to try and help move some of the stuff outta his chest. He has had 3 doses so far. And they bumped his nebulizer treatments up to 6 a day. Fun fun times. The prednisone is disgusting and he hates the mask of the nebulizer.Today when we went in they were concerned because he was showing some retractions when he was breathing (meaning his chest caves in with each breath because he's having to work hard to breathe). So they got a pulse ox on him to see what his oxygen level is at (98%) and decided to back down on the nebulizer treatments to 3 times a day instead of the 6 because they aren't doing anything for him. She said his ear is red and prescribed an antibiotic (sound familiar??) and also gave us some Ceron DM drops (antihistmine, decongestant, cough suppressant all in one). He'll go back on Thursday for his well baby shots and assessment.
When we went to fill the prescriptions at Publix the pharmacist said that in his record and shows that he is allergic to Morphine/codeine. She wantedx to know what kind of reaction he had, when I told her it was anaphalatic she said that she needed to call the pediatrician because the Ceron DM has codeine like properties and has been found to cause reactions in those sensitive to morphine. Ummm shouldn't the doctor have known that??? Anyway.. the doctor said dont' give him that one and only give him the regular Ceron which alleviates that link. Stupid Doc. Then the pharmacist says they don't have the regular Ceron in stock so she had to order it. We'll get it tomorrow. *sigh*
Cheli On Sunday, June 15, 2008
My sweet boy is 4 months old today... when the heck did that happen????
Cheli On Friday, June 13, 2008
It's Friday again... time to update :)
Today was weigh in day again. I weigh 180.0 lbs. Which is a 3.6 lb loss this week. YAY!! I was worried that I wouldn't loss this week because I went to Olive Garden with Linda and Doug yesterday and thought for sure I ate too much but apparently not :) I went today and got my hair cut as a reward. And I also took another full body picture to show myself how far I've come. The last full bod y pic I took was when I was about 2 1/2 months post partum. It's been another month and a half now..


Before my hair cut



After the hair cut




And before and now shots of me with the weight loss.



We have had a pretty rough week with the kids. Journey is SICK. Apparently the "pink eye" wasn't. It was the first sign that he was coming down with something. He has a really bad cough and is all congested sounding. We took him to the doctor yesterday and they put him on albuterol nebulizer treatments 4 times a day for the next 5 days. He was 13 lbs 6 oz at his appointment fully clothed. His official weight and height stats for the 4 month mark will be Monday when he goes for his "well baby visit". He's a little guy in comparison to other babies his age but he's growing and that's what matters. He is finally showing some interest in his activity mat and will tolerate being put down for brief period of time which is nice. Still not rolling over or anything exciting so we'll just continue to watch.. I'm sure it will happen soon enough. He got approved for SSI about 2 or 3 weeks ago and we started receiving the checks last week. It's nice to have a little extra money coming in so we don't have to feel pressured as much about fitting his appointments and what not around work etc.

River had a rough week at daycare this week. Monday he got bit by another kid in his class.. pretty hard. Left a mark and a nice bruise for a few days. None of his teachers saw it happen... Tuesday he came home with a nasty rug burn on his arm and again none of the teachers saw it happen and his main teacher even tried to say that he came in that way... No I would have noticed it if he had. Wednesday he came home with 2 accident reports. One for banging his head against the chalk rail of the chalk board when he tripped over a naptime mat and the other for running into another kid that was holding a puzzle and getting jabbed in the chest with the corner of the puzzle. We are going to be pulling him out of daycare and he'll stay home with the baby and I for a little while if we can manage the funds. By eliminating the daycare costs it will cut our monthly bills almost in half. Other than his accident full week he has been doing great. He is so smart and fun to be around (most of the time). I love him to pieces.
Cheli On Friday, June 6, 2008
Update time.. it's been a week.

Today was weigh in day. I am down to 183.6 which is a loss of 2 lbs 2 oz from last week:) YAY!!! We have stepped up our walking a great deal. We were walking a mile and a half. Now we're walking 2.5 miles in the morning and I'm walking on my own in the evenings about another 1.5 miles. 4 miles a day :) YAY!! This week someone on freecycle was getting rid of some clothes in a size a few sizes down from what I was wearing. I asked for them because I have every intention of getting into them and I was choosen to come get them. So I get home with them and start looking through them and decided to try them on. .THEY FIT!!!! Size 16 down from a size 22 YAY!! Then she sent me 2 letters saying she found more.. SO I have a whole new wardrobe of clothes! YAY!!

Doug still hasn't got his license. He called yesterday to the DOH to find out what was going on as it's been 5 weeks since he passed his exam. They told him they dont him in their system AT ALL! So we drove down to Doug's school to find out what was going on. An hour later we discover that they never sent out his application and check to apply for his license. They have no idea why. All they could say is sorry we'll send for the check now and get it in the mail and then speak with the coorespondant and see if we can get it expedited.. We asked how much longer it's going to be.. 3 weeks minimum. *sigh* I am really not impressed with this school. Meanwhile Doug still can't start school.

Journey woke up a few days ago with a "gooky" eye. I cleared away the gook and decided to watch it. During the day the skin next to his eye got really red looking so we called the doctor and had him seen on Tuesday. He has pink eye. *sigh* Thank you very much River. So they gave us a Rx of Erythrmycin ointment to put in his eye to clear it up. BLAH The good news about taking him to the doctor was we got to weigh him. Fully clothed in cloth diaper and onesie and socks he was 13 lbs 1 oz. *giggles* He's growing. He'll go back on the 16th for 2 more shots (we are delaying and selective vaxing him) and his official 4 month well baby..He still isn't rolling over or doing much of anything. It's a big change from River who rolled at 5 weeks and hasn't stopped moving since. He is still nursing and doing great and is still sleeping through the night. He co-sleeps with us and seems to love it. He's still wearing his 0-3 month outfits. I figure about the time he turns 4 months or so we'll be able to switch him to 3-6 month stuff. Hes a little guy :)
River is doing good. He is such a boy. He loves water, loves trucks and trains and cars and anything that moves. He's such an awesome little boy :)