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

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Cheli On Saturday, July 26, 2008
I want another one!

That's right. I said it. I want another baby. Journey is only 5 1/2 months old and I want another baby already.

I want 3 children and then I want to be done. I want them close in age so I can be done with the stages as we get through them. I want Doug to still be young enough to enjoy them as they grow.

I want another baby.

But convincing Doug that we should start trying soon is turning into a PITA. He is flipping ADD or something because I'll try and have a conversation with him about it and it takes an hour just to get an answer to a question and then another hour to get anything else going. He SUCKS at communication.

I'm frustrated. He won't talk to me, he won't take me seriously. I don't know if he thinks I'm joking or if he thinks he can just push it off and maybe it will go away but damn it I want another baby and I wish he'd truely discuss it with me.
Cheli On Friday, July 25, 2008
I really am just not sure there is much to update on this week as I pretty much updated as it happened... LOL

I weighed in today and the scale was down another 2 lbs. Which brings my weight to 172.0. I've lost 45 lbs total.
Cheli On Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Approx 3 months old


7 months old?

2 or 3 years old

3 or 4 years old

5 years old

1st or 2nd grade--8 years old?


5th or 6th grade-- 11 years old
Cheli On
So Journey went to the Cardiologisst today because I spoke with them earlier this week and told them about the weight loss that we discovered at the doctors. They wanted to see him, just to make sure it wasn't heart related. His heart is FINE! He still has the Pulmonary Valve Stenosis but it is a mild case. Sounds great he said. He couldn't be happier with how he sounds, he didn't even see the point in doing an echo because he could tell it was fine WOOO HOOOO. They did do an EKG which came back basically showing what the doctor heard, mild stenosis. The weighed and measured him and according to their scale he was 13 lbs 6 oz. Back up to his 4 month weight but I don't go by that as it's a different scale and all. They also measured him out in length. 59 cm. The doctor came in and looked at the measurement and made them do it again.. apparently 59cm or 23 1/2 inches is very small for a 5 month old. That is his biggest concern. If he's gaining sooo slowly then maybe there is something more going on inside him than we know. He wants us to take Journey to see an endocrinologist to get checked out. I'll talk with the pediatrician about it when we go for his weight check next week.


While we were talking with the doctor he asked how much formula Journey was getting. When I told him that we were still breast feeding with 1 bottle of supplemented formula a day he seemed surprised. I told him the Journey seems to have issues nursing for any length of time most of the day, he'll latch on and nurse for a minute or 2 and then latch off and lay there for a second and then latch back etc.. almost like he's tired. He said well does he do that with a bottle. I told him not really but bottles are much easier to nurse from. And he tells me well if you want to go ahead and put him on formula he'd be fine. There really is no nutritional value in breast milk after 3 months and 3-6 months is really iffy. WHAT???? Right..... that's why the AAP and every other health organization recommends at least a year if not 2 of breast feeding.. because there is no nutritional value. Stupid doctor.


Then he asks me if we are giving him solids.. which as you've read below we did attempt but he's just not ready for them yet. They are giving him tummy issues etc so we stopped them (tummy issues are gone). And he asked what we tried, I told him pears and he asked if we tried cereal. I told him that we don't do cereal as there is virtually no nutrional value and he looked at me like I sprouted 3 heads. Okie dokie... I realize I'm not the "normal main stream mom" but geez...


So anyway.. Journey looks great heart wise. he goes back at 9 months for a recheck. November something.
Daddy offered Journey a taste of a Lime popsicle

Journey was totally impressed (must have felt great on his gums)

Mommy styling River's hair in the bathtub tonight..

It wouldn't stay standing up long enough to get the picture but it was hella cute.

Cheli On Tuesday, July 22, 2008
OK for those who might stumble upon my little piece of blogspace.. I figured I'd go ahead and introduce myself and my family so that you have a better idea of what your are getting yourself into.. I mean what you reading..

My name is Cheli. I'm 24 years old and I currently live in Jacksonville, FL. I have been married to my husband Doug for almost 3 years. We are Pagan/Wiccan. I have 2 children. River Drake was born Feb 11th, 2006 and Journey Kai was born Feb 15th, 2008. I had a daughter who was born Feb 11th, 1997 but she passed away at birth, her name was Ciena Rose. I am a licensed practical nurse although I'm not currently working as I've chosen to stay home with my youngest. And my husband is a newly licensed massage therapist.

I am slowly going to start transferring my entries from my old blog... bare with me.. I'll also update as new stuff happens. Enjoy..
Cheli On Sunday, July 20, 2008
So we tried solids for the first time yesterday. Some pears. Because we were going to use them to supplement Journey rather than giving him formula to try and help him gain weight. He wanted nothing to do with them yesterday. I would bring the spoon to his mouth and he'd just gring and grin but never open his mouth so I dipped my finger in them and rubbed it on his lips and he gave me this very "WTH was that for" look so we decided to not try anymore..

Then this morning he seemed to be in a better mood so we decided to try again... He was a bit more receptive but not quite ready yet. Although he was very interested in getting the spoon into his mouth I think he was more interested in the spoon than what was actually on it. LOL





Cheli On Friday, July 18, 2008
It's already Friday again... someone slow time down please.
Today was weigh in day like usual I was 174.0 that is a 1.6 lb lost this week. Brings the grand total to 43 lbs. YAY! I am 17 lbs away from my first major goal (157). I took a new picture this week for my weight loss documenting...

I went for my rescheduled oral surgery appt on Monday. I do need 6 teeth pulled. Fun fun. My surgery has been scheduled for August 7th at 8:45 am. He gave me 2 valium to take the before and morning of and 2 prescriptions for afterwards. And he also informed me that they will be knocking me out for the procedure. THANK THE GODS! My back and head seem to be better this week YAY. My back acts up occasionally with sharp pains etc much the same as it did after my epidural with River. But it's nothing I can't handle.

Doug got sick this week with a sinus infection and was out of commission for a few days. He did manage to get his liability insurance application in the mail though so now we're just waiting on that to come back so he can start working. Once he gets the insurance he's going to give his work a call and see whether they want him to start now or to wait for after my surgery as he will have to take that time off to help me out. We took him into the express care at the hospital to be seen because when he called his doctor to make an appointment we were informed that his doctor no longer is in private practice.. nice.. would have been kind of them to let their patients know. He can find a new doctor but it will take a week or 2 to get the new card etc and until then he wasn't able to see anyone. So he was put on an antibiotic and with in 48 hours was feeling much better. YAY.

River seems to have won against the lice. We started treating it with tea tree oil and olive oil mixed together plus we put a few drops of tea tree oil in his shampoo for prevention and combed through his hair every day for a few days. Seems to have worked. We did have to take him to the doctor this week because he had a bad looking rash in his diaper area and it wasn't going away with A&D ointment. He also had a raw area on top of his ear so we got that checked out too. The ear patch thing is what she thinks is impetigo and the diaper rash is caused by same underlying infection so we were given 2 different creams to treat him with and he's starting to look better in both areas. Luckily neither one seems to be bothering him at all. He was weighed while he was there. He still weighs the same as he weighed when he turned 2 so he has decided to slow weigh down on the weight gain which is a good thing. He hasn't been measured height wise but I think he's still growing like a weed there. He can now sing his ABCs and count to 15 in english and 10 in Spanish. We're working on teaching him how to get dressed in the morning but so far he's just flat out not interested in doing it himself. He has been helping to pick out his clothes lately though so that's a good start. His new favorite book to read at bedtime is some of the Curious George books. So we're going to try and pick him up some of those today when we go to the used book store.

Journey is now 5 months old officially.. Updated about him a few days ago so check out the previous post for more info on him :)

Now here are some pictures :)














Cheli On Wednesday, July 16, 2008
So Journey turned 5 months old yesterday. ( I know, 5 months! Can you believe it???) We took him today to the pediatrican (we had to go for something for River anyway) and got him weighed and measured so we'd have it for the baby books. When we weighed him he was fully clothed (cloth diaper and onesie) and he was 13 lbs 5 oz. He had been 13 lbs 6 oz at 4 months, so when the nurse practitioner came in I mentioned it to her and she wanted to reweigh him naked with her there to make sure it was accurate as possible. We weighed him again he is 12 lbs 10 oz. He has lost 12 oz in a 3 weeks (6/26 to today). That's not cool. So he has to go back on July 30th for a weight check and we'll go from there.

Other than his weight he is doing great.He is rolling now all the time. Whenever he gets put on his belly he goes over onto his back immediately. LOL He also has started scooting. We'll put him down on his activity mat and he'll scoot right off of it. LOL Crazy kid. He's back to getting up at night now. Wakes up once a night to nurse and wakes up 2 or 3 times to have the paci put back in his mouth (I will be happy when he learns how to get it back in his own mouth).
He loves his jumperoo and likes to sit in it and watch his brother run around like a loon. He has shown some interest in Baby Einstein videos so when I'm desperate to get something done I'll put him in the jumperoo and let him bounce and watch a video. (I know bad mommy).

So there ya have a little update on my 5 month old little man.. now here are some pictures.




Cheli On Saturday, July 5, 2008
Time seems to move faster every week.

I weighed in this morning at 175.6 which is a 2 lb loss from last week. YAY!! I am really surprised I lost anything this week as it's been a rough rough week for me. Saturday night I felt really fatigued and went to bed. Sunday I woke up with a bad headache and by Sunday evening I had a 103 fever and a stiff neck. I was concerned that I might have contracted meningitis from somewhere so I went to the local ER to get checked out. The only way to rule out meningitis is a spinal tap so I had one done. It took the doctor 5 or 6 tries to get it done. It came back negative and I was sent home and told to rest. Monday I woke up with the worst headache of my entire life. I went back up to OPMC and they gave me a shot of Demerol and sent me home. Tuesday the headache was still there so I went to Baptist hospital downtown for a second opinion. I was given Diladid and Morphine while in the ER as well as an infusion of caffine. And was sent home with a perscription for percocet and instructions to come back if the headache came back in the next 24 hours. By Wednesday morning it was back so I went back to the hospital and they put me back on Diladid while we waited for 13 hours for them to decide to do what's called a blood patch. It's where they take 20cc's of blood from my hand and inject it into my back in the same spot that the spinal tap was done. This is supposed to form a patch over the hole where the spinal fluid is leaking out of the spinal column causing a headache. Well due to the fact that Doctor #1 did the spinal tap in the wrong part of my spine they had to do the patch above the spinal tap location and hope that it would drift down to the hole. I was sent home with a prescription for Demoral and pretty much told if that didn't help me we'd just have to wait it out. *sigh* Luckily It's Friday and I don't have a headache so it seems to have worked. Thank goodness.

Due to the headache and ER drama that insued I had to rescheduled both my oral surgeon appointment and my dentist appointment that I was supposed to have Tuesday and Wednesday. And Doug had to reschedule his appointment that he was supposed to have today because I am not allowed to lift anything (including Journey). We were both really looking forward to the dentist and getting our teeth fixed finally, but I guess it will happen just not as soon as we thought.

Doug finally got his license. Sometime between the visits to the hospital we checked the mail and there it was :) Now we are trying to come up with the funds to get him his liability insurance because that is the only thing holding him back from being able to work. At least now he is officially licensed. Thank goodness that's over with. *sigh*

River is still battling lice. We have been doing treatemnts and going through his hair with the nit comb. I think we might end up having to cut his hair.. I wont' shave it. I refuse. But I will cut it if I have to to make it easier to go through it etc.. we'll see. He's been a real trooper about letting us mess with his hair. He is back to absolutely no dairy because every time he has dairy he ends up with nasty diapers and who wants that? He will officially be 2 1/2 years old next month.. where is the time going?

Journey is 21 weeks old this week. He'll be 5 months old on Tuesday. I'm going to try and swing by the pediatricians office on Tuesday to weigh him for our records. He is growing like a weed. He's rolling over pretty consistantly now but still won't do it for me to get on camera. He is still exclusively breastfed and hasn't started solids.. probablhy won't for another 2 or 3 months yet at least. He smiles all the time and is very vocal which is a big change from River who never really cooed or babbled. I love it. It's amazing how fast time is going.. I want him to stay my little baby just a bit longer... too bad they never listen.

The 4th went well. We went to Moosehaven again this year. River absolutely LOVED the fireworks this year he squealed and clapped and jumped around and was totally enthralled. We left before the finale so we could beat the traffic out.. didn't quite make it before the traffic but it wasn't too bad. Only took about 30 minutes to get home. Some people were stuck in that mess for upwards of an hour or 2. YIKES. Journey wasn't really impressed or phased by the fireworks much the same as River the first year we took him. He nursed and looked around a bit and he was fine. Should be interesting next year when he isn't the little baby anymore but is a toddler. It's crazy to even think about.

River sitting on the couch after we came home from the parade before he went down for a nap for the afternoon.

Journey relaxing on the blanket waiting for the show to start.

River being an awesome big brother

Daddy and Journey getting ready to watch the show :)

River watching the fireworks :)

Cheli On Friday, July 4, 2008
River just shy of 5 months old watching his first fireworks show

Here is a shot taken the next day so you can see his face from that time

Here's River on the 4th of July of 07... he was just shy of 17 months old. Look at them teeth!


And my big boy this year... 2 1/2 years old.. i can't believe how fast it's going. *sniff*
Cheli On
It's that time again already.. so here we go...

Today was my weigh in day.. 177.6 so that's a loss of 1.2 lbs since last week. YAY! I have now lost 40 lbs since I had Journey :) YAY! We ended up getting the elliptical last Friday. It is awesome. It's brand new basically and gorgeous. I've been on it at least 6 times since then. I've been doing 15-20 minutes at a time every day pretty much. Sometimes twice a day. I am starting to really notice a difference in myself. I did my measurements yesterday as well so I can begin to see if my measurements are getting better and not just my weight. I'm so excited.

I went to the dentist on Wednesday. It was as bad I thought it was going to be. My teeth are not pretty. I need a lot of work. So I have an appointment next Tuesday with an oral surgeon because my mouth is too small for my wisdom teeth and they all need to come out along with 2 other teeth that having a tongue ring has destroyed basically (I took my tongue ring out) and I have an appointment scheduled for next Wedneday to get some fillings and then following week I'll get a cleaning and the rest of the fillings. *sigh* It's nice to be getting it all done but I'm not looking forward to it.

Doug still hasnt' received his license. We received a letter from the department of health a few days ago saying that they had received his application and processed it as incomplete because they never received proof that he had taken the test. After a bunch of calls all over the place. We found out that they do infact have his test scores so they have been sent to the appropriate person and should hopefully be the beginning of the week when he gets a license number finally. Doug's dentist appointment went well. He needs one tooth pulled and a procedure called a scaling (deep cleaning basically) and some fillings. So we're getting all that scheduled as well.

River was sent home from daycare yesterday because he has LICE I am PISSED. We took him to the pediatrician yesterday and she gave us a Rx for head lice shampoo basically a stronger form of the RID stuff. We'll see. We've already done everything else we can to get ridof them. BLAH. Not happy. While he was at the doctor we got him weighed. He was 32.2 lbs. Pretty much exactly what he weighed at 24 months. So he's grown almost 2 inches and has gained no weight. LOL He's going to be tall. He is really into music lately "mu-thick" as he says LOL. And has a really bad temper. He hates being told no or scolded for anything and once you scold him he looks for something to hit or throw and once that gets taken away because he's not allowed to throw it starts all over again. Oh the fun.

Journey is doing great. He is 20 weeks old now (4 1/2 months). He has rolled over a few times but just doesn't really seem motivated to do it. And we also got a picture of him sitting up unassisted the other day. I can't believe how much he's growing. He is so much different from River other than the fact that they look like clones. He amazes me every day.

We are taking the boys to a local fireworks show and festival this evening so hopefully I'll have lots of awesome pictures for you from that but here are few pictures to hold you over until then.

Here is the picture of Journey sitting unassisted. (My hands were right off camera)


Journey loving on his teddy bear.


Look at that pretty boy :)