Sunday, January 13, 2013

Spit Up and Mud Butt

Woo Wee it has been a long time since I have had time to sit down and write an entry.  It has been a crazy month with moving, trying to unpack with a very curious 2 year old, a hungry newborn and all the visitors we have had, and not to mention the holidays.  I will try and sum up what has been going on and try not to leave out the good stuff.

My title to this blog was my week.  Willow had this crazy pooping issue going on.  As Tim so elequintly put it, she had mud butt.  Some days it would just ooze out of her diaper. Yes, I know you wanted to know that.  Many times I just threw her in the tub to wash her off.  It would frustrate me when she would not go to the bathroom to get changed she would fight me on it.  There was no way I could spank her because it might make the poop explode out the diaper.  Thank goodness after 3 days of the BRAT diet it cleared up.  It is a good thing Willow loves rice since that is mainly what she ate.

The spit up was Charlee's contribution.  I don't know why but she was spitting up everything she ate.  She seems to be really gassy and burps a lot though it has gotten better.  I have been pumping and then feeding her since she seems to be an ineffective eater on the breast.  So I think the bottle was getting her more air in her tummy.  When I tried her back on the milk tap she didn't spit up nearly as much; she has been gaining weight and doing great.  We have had many nights she sleeps all the way through.  She sleeps a lot still during the day.  I have had to break her from being held all the time.  My visitors didn't like the crying and picked her up against my wishes.  So now we have to hear her cry even harder because we won't pick her up.  All in all she is a good baby.

So when we got all moved in I didn't think I was ever going to get anything unpacked.  Willow was always into something and just being her curious self.  It was a slow process but I can say it is done.  I can't say that everything is organized though.

My advice to anyone is don't have a baby, move 2 weeks after, and then try to unpack with a toddler around.  There were times I seriously lost it.  Willow acted out and didn't listen.  She is getting better at it though.  We have started her at a preschool 2 times a week.  I know it will be good for her to interact with other children and maybe work a little on her behavior.  I know the break will be nice for me too.  We tried her on potty training before Charlee got here but it didn't fly at all.  Then after we moved we tried again and that was horrible.  I thought it would be successful once when she saw the potty chair unpacked and asked to go potty 3 different times on her own.  Well that is all it was.  It was and seems to be on her own time.  The child care lady said she will work with her on it once she settles and gets used to her new surroundings. She did surprise me yesterday and went potty on her own will in the potty but that has been the only time.  Another thing we really need to work on is getting her to stay in her bed once we put her down for bed or even nap.  She will repeatedly get up and come out to the living room.  I refuse to lay with her every time til she falls asleep.  Once in awhile is okay.  The other day i just got fed up with her getting up for nap that I locked her door.  When I went in to check on her this is what I found. She had put on a dress and jacket over her clothes.  Put on some shoes and then passed out right at the door.  It looks like a murder scene.  I wonder where she thought she was going?




While we had some visitors we got 4 rooms painted. I don't think that would have ever gotten done if Chris and Carol, our friends from Colorado were not here.  Carol did most of the painting since someone had to look after the toddler and keep the baby fed.  Tim even got his garage floor painted.  There is still some things that need to be done around here though.  Tim's garage is a pit, but that is his room to organize until I can't take it anymore.  We are getting window coverings for the family room and master bedroom right away since the sun shines in those rooms.  I didn't want to wait too long to get those done since the sun tends to fade things around here.

The yard is a whole new area to tackle.  It is just this big open flat piece of dirt.  It is not bad if it is not windy or raining.  When we had the windows open for awhile it would just get everything dusty.  Then it rained for like 3 days and that was not fun with 2 dogs.  We would have to go out to the rocked front yard so they wouldn't get muddy.  Tim decided to get 6 ton of rock to lay down in the back but that did not go far at all.  Right now is the time people around here start planting their garden.  The hardware stores are selling the vegetable plants and all.  There is no way we are going to get anything in right now.  We have to build some raised beds due to the bad rocky soil here.  At least I know we have the space for it in our yard though.

Next weekend we are having visitors again, Tim's brother Brian and his girlfriend, whom we have yet to met.  Then at the end of February Tim's mom will be back.   We are going to have to lay down the law with her, no way is anyone getting fruit snacks and juice.  It has been hard breaking Willow of the bad foods for her teeth. 




Charlee with grandma Polson.  Look at how scrawny she was.

Willow at swim lessons.

Willow with her bite mark from Frankie.  She is just asking for more when she kicks and pushes them.

Charlee does not care for bath time for now.

Willow loves her bath.

Willow and Charlee

Making Christmas cookies with cousin Carter.




Charlee with "grandma" Carol.

Our Christmas photo
Charlee in Willow's doll stroller.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Beautiful Mess

I have heard this so many times but this is my beautiful mess.  I am so thankful that I no longer have a foot in my rib but along with that comes other things that are not so fun.
We welcomed Charlee Paige to this world on the 20th.  We didn't really have a name picked out definitely until that day.  We were set on Stella Pearl for a REALLY long time but it got changed when i was joking around with the name Charlee.  Tim liked that name a lot and it served 2 purposes for him.  His dad's middle name was Lee and it wanted to incorporate it somewhere in the name.  Tim's pseudo good friend is Charles.  So we killed 2 birds with one stone by changing the spelling to "lee" on the end.  The middle name was the hardest part.  Trying to come up with something that flowed well.  I had seen Charlee Paige and liked the sound of it but Tim was really leery of it.  I am surprised he let me use it because when I liked a name he poo poo'd it because so and so's dog was named that.  Paige is the name of our good friend's daughter.  I guess he decided I could pick the name since I agreed to Charlee. 
I had a c-section again with Charlee and the experience was really different.  The spinal was a different feeling then the epidural from last time.  It really wasn't something that I liked.  I felt like someone was sitting on my chest the whole time, and I just wanted to go to sleep.  It didn't help that I was already tired when we went in.  After it was all over i knew I would be cold with the chills and be experiencing itching like last time.  I just didn't think the shivering would start as soon as I walked into the surgery room; I hate that feeling.
Charlee's APGAR scores were all 9's which is really good.  Kind of proud of that one.  She did have a lower temp in the recovery room which held us back there for awhile.  We then went to our room for the next two days.
I have to say I was disappointed in the hospital and I could not help comparing it to the hospital Willow was born at, Methodist Women's Hospital. The recovery room was for everyone unlike the private one I had with Willow.  When they moved me to my real room I commented that it was small and they laughed at me and said that it was one of the bigger ones and at least I had a private room.  Really?  They still have double rooms especially with a mom and new baby?!  The cot Tim slept on was a joke.  it was so low to the ground he might as well been sleeping on the floor; the nurses were really nice though. 
Charlee didn't latch on that good right away.  She wouldn't wake up enough to do anything.  The second day she did the cluster feeding thing and it was really making my uterus hurt.  It hurt so bad I asked if we could give her formula to satisfy her.  She ate like 40ml, which is double what a normal newborn would eat.  Sent her off to the nursery and they didn't bring her back to me until 5am.  That formula really filled her up I guess.  When we got home I tried feeding her and it was impossible.  I tried pumping so it would get the udders going.  I was so frustrated because my milk was not in yet, no wonder the babe wasn't interested in my boobs.
It is not like I am a new mom so I kind of knew what was going on but every child is different.  Willow took right away and went with it.  I have to say everything is really different.  My pain is worse it seems.  The breastfeeding things is not as easy as before. My crotch looks as though someone kicked me with this huge bruise there.  Yes I know you wanted to know this info. I had to start taking steroids a week before delivery to get my platelets up.  With taking them my immune system became suppressed and I got a cold sore.  So I started taking meds right away in hopes to keep that at bay.  Unfortunately I started to get one and another and another and another.  Yes I got 4 different spots of those little F@#$(^s.  It was bad and to top it all of the next day was newborn/family photos!  Thank God up in heaven for photoshop!!!
Willow has been really good with her but I think she acts out  little more then usually.  I look at her and she is so big to me now. Her hands and feet are huge.  It is crazy how I see her differently.  I feel bad how I can't give her the attention I used too. 
I am sooooo thankful my mom is here to help with Willow.  She has been a life saver.  I think I would be curled up in a corner crying.  She has helped a ton with everything too like laundry, cleaning and cooking. 
Charlee has been a really good baby thus far.  Her nights and days are mixed up, which is to be expected but she rarely cries.  I know the next 2 weeks are going to change but I am hoping for good changes.
So I will leave you with pics of me, the beautiful little mess, and our new daughter.

She looked like a little thumb head. The cheeks have gone down some since we came home. 








Sunday, November 11, 2012

Short and Sweet

My intent for this entry is to be short and have more pics then anything. 
As of today I have 9 more days until the little one gets here.  I am so ready.  I seem to get more headaches now and the uncomfortable thing is so high right now I want it out.  On the other hand I don't because we don't have someone to watch Willow while we are at the hospital.  My mom will be here next weekend to help us with Willow then.  I have been told I look small for being about ready to give birth.  Kind words I must say but I don't feel that way. 
My planning for when we would be in our new home and when the new baby would be here was off, so 2 weeks after the babe arrives I will have to continue wear maternity clothes.  I am super bummed because I only have one pair of pants.  It is getting cooler here and I find myself wanting long pants.  I don't even have a pair of long workout pants. 
I pulled out some baby things to get ready, like the pack n play.  Willow thinks it is hers and that is where she wants to sleep.  She also thinks the boppy is hers and must play with it.  We keep reminding her that it is the baby's.  I am kind of nervous to see how she handles all of this new baby thing. 
We have decided to enroll Willow in a daycare/preschool after the first of the year.  It will be only 2 days a week to start.  I think she will get a lot from this socially and educationally.  The lady was recommended by my pilates instructor.  Her son is attending there and she has noticed a significant difference in his attention span and how much he has learned in such a short amount of time.  Yes I know I am a stay at home mom, but this gives me some time alone with the new one.  Plus I don't think Willow listens as well to Tim or I when it comes to new things.  The swimming lessons proved this to be true.  She will do what ever for the instructor but when we try to get her to do it, she will not.  Who knows maybe she will meet her forever best friend there just like I did.  I can proudly say I met my best friend in preschool and we are still best friends today. 
The house is coming along now and it seems we should be moving in it before the scheduled date but we won't be.  I am just counting the days till we have our forever home here in Phoenix and all of our stuff!
37 weeks


Portal to front door

Entry way

Dining room

Kitchen

Butlers pantry off kitchen to garage

Powder room

Master bath

Jack n Jill bathroom

Guest bathroom

Looking down to master bed.  Living room on the right.



Master bath.  I hate the position of the tub!

Bad pic of the walk in shower
My baby girl being cute.

At the Light the night cancer walk.  She was attached to the is bear she got there.

Monday, November 5, 2012

LIVE for one night only, Tim (me) will be a guest blogger!

   Yes, that's right, I was invited to guest blog, either Heidi didn't want to type, or figured ya'll needed a good laugh rather than the downers of being prego and living in the desert, so your stuck with me for the next little stretch, hopefully you're not thinking you just wasted "X" number of minutes off your life at the end.

So where to start.....we have a countdown!!  15 days till the baby is here 30 days till we move in, and neither can get here fast enough!!  Heidi is getting bigger and bigger by the day, which I know is easy to say "she's prego, what do you expect...." but NO, literally, we took 'bump' pictures a week apart, and she is HUGE!  She went to the doc last week and was telling him how the baby keeps kicking her in the ribs (she has a bruise across the top of the bump from the baby kicking), and the doc looked her over, figured out where the head, butt, and feet were, and then proceeded to tell her "you have a LONG baby in there!"  not quite sure where "it" gets that gene!  Willow has been running her ragged around the house, A) Willow is getting fast and playful B) momma is getting slow and irritable; bad combo, I never know if I'm going to come home to happy to see me prego wife and happy daughter, or The Exorcism Part VIII: GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME AND THE 2 YEAR OLD TOO! We are practicing being that 90 year old couple right now since we just have the "little" queen bed, and prego needs 47 pillows to make a nest to sleep in.  Seriously, she has 6 pillows and 4 couch cushions arranged just perfectly so she can get comfortable, the baby doesn't rest on her guts wrong and make it hard to sleep, and she can actually get up when it is time too.  Last week (and the week prior) she made this nest on the couch, I traded this week, and must say, other than hanging off from my knees down, it's pretty comfortable (a problem Heidi would know nothing about).  The down side to the couch is you can't lock people out!  Willow has this internal 0500 alarm clock and wants to share the morning with EVERYBODY so she'll creep up to the couch, get right in your face, and stare at you for a while until you open your eyes and jump cause she's 4 inches from your face, or she'll eventually smack ya with a shoe or her hand; the later not being a cool way to wake up.  We can't complain too much though, she goes down (or at least to bed) at 2000; sometimes doesn't fall asleep for 2 hours, but usually stays down for the whole night.  Needless to say everybody is ready for nap time on the weekends when she does this, momma often takes naps with the babies during the week, daddy goes to bed by 2030 or 2100 often.  We're old!

We went to a new church this weekend.  We had been seeing window stickers all around the desert "C.C.V." and kept wondering what it was?  Was it the new Body by Vi cult?  The next pyrmid scheme?  Some political clique that we weren't aware of?  So anyways I was having a conversation at work with a few people and somehow we crossed into religion (one of two taboo subjects I rarely discuss with co-workers next to politics) but we did anyway.  Come to find out C.C.V. is a big church around here.  We had just been talking about how we didn't know if we fit in at the church we had been going to, it just didn't feel like OUR church, and we got kinda tired of hearing about money this, money that, give give give give give every week.  Heidi made fun of me for knocking it at first cause we were in a converted gym, it echoed, the band was kinda corny, no pews, no hymnals, no stained glass.  We went to the "Fall Festival" on Halloween with Willow which was a blast, they did put on a good gig for this, half a dozen blow up bounce houses and giant slides, "Trunk or Treat" for the kids, games, cupcake walk, music, food, and fun for all.  Willow figured out this candy thing REAAAALL fast!  She had a 1 gallon ice cream bucket decorated for Christmas to go with her Desert Snowman costume with her pink boots.  Every now and then we tried to sneak a piece out of her bucket and she immediately felt the weight difference or something and turned around yelling at is "NO, NO, NO, NO, NOOOO...." until we put it back; leaving was not cool.  We tried to hold her bucket so she could play games.....no chance, so just muscled that bucket, full bucket, around but she was not going to let loose the death grip for one second.  So anyways, we went to the new church this weekend and were both very impressed, it felt like home, people talked to us, the kids area was great!, I'm pretty sure L.L. Cool J was the leader of the band, and they started out by singing a Police song (S.O.S.), they had a Starbucks in the church (not the selling point, but it was pretty funny), and a full service deli that they treated us to lunch at after the service, again not the selling point, but was still pretty cool.  No, the sermon, as my friend at work was telling me, was taking a story from the Bible, and relating it to current events; this weekend it was the story of Elijah, it was very uplifting, and neat to hear in this perspective.  There still weren't any pews, hymnals, or stained glass, but it felt right, the people were nice, we got a call from the pastor, and they didn't mention money or politics once.

The house is feeling more like a house now that drywall is up and painted, the stucco on the exterior is up and painted, cabinets and light fixtures are in, and the roof is on, the only problem now is they lock it at the end of the day so nobody can go in and mess anything up (is what I like to think vs. trying to keep us out so we can't poke around and bitch about things we find as they're doing it.)  While I like that they committed to a done date finally (not as soon as we had hoped, but it's something), I am still conflicted with, and have voiced my bitches, about our salesman, our design center ^%D$$!*, and the lack of craftsmanship.  I won't go into detail as it will only get me fired up again, but unfortunately or fortunately (depending on which side of the fence your on) I know just enough to be dangerous about some of this stuff.  Trim, cabinetry, doors, windows, etc.  Whatever, they'll fix some things when we walk through, they probably won't get an advertisement worthy glowing review from me, and they will be back OFTEN once we're in to fix things for as long as I am told our initial warranty is good for.  We went last weekend to a pool company to discuss plans for a pool; bad idea with Heidi and a 2 year old.  3 hours later we got out of there knowing this was not who we were going to use.  Lame salesman, I won't get into that, I could rant for another 4 pages about that cro-mag with a bad moustache and hair coloring.  The equipment was not as good as one company I spoke with, he wasn't listening to anything we said about "...keep chuggin' on working on the pool, we can worry about the yard later..." no, he wanted to plot out the whole yard like he was playing Farmville, with fruit trees and all (and yes, we know they were fruit trees cause he actually farted around putting oranges on them in his autocad, despite telling him, "...yeah yeah yeah, let's get back to the pool..."

Going to the store the other night we're in the center turn lane of an island waiting to turn into a shopping center (left), and the car facing us has his brights on.  I turn slightly to target him a little better and bright him, and the ol' fart flips ME off!!  Heidi didn't tell me that part till it was too late to go tell him what dusty hole he could put that finger in, and it kinda stuck in my craw the rest of the night that somebody got a flip up on me.

Last week we thought our fridge here died; called the landlord and he had one on order and being delivered before I could assess it.  Old one just needed a good thawing and cleaning, but it was too late to cancel the order.  New Uncle Bill (Landlord) was fine with it; this one is old anyways, and if it is still working he's cool cause he's always wanted a fridge for his garage.  We got a new fridge with a working ice maker and water dispenser, which is uber cool since water out of the tap is about 85 degrees on cold here in the desert.  On that note Heidi has been shrinking all my clothes washing them with warm to hot water :(

Willow is starting to realize a baby is coming, she knows where the baby is, she has been feeding and taking her baby doll for walks, and trying to suck every ounce of our attention now, like she knows that she's going to have to share it in a few weeks.  She use to be very independent and entertain herself; now she has to be on our hip 24/7.  Bath's here with glass tub doors suck; needless to say she has learned (like it or not) how to take showers with us.  We also started swimming lessons a few weeks ago with her, Heidi had been doing it up until this week at which point I took over; something about Heidi not being able to move in the pool with a 2 year old.  It's fun, but she's SOOOOoooo independent that she wants to have fun rather than do the lessons that she's suppose too.  She does love the water and for that I am grateful, I just want to make sure she can swim before we get a pool or go to the lake, or whatever.

Paid off the truck this month  WHOOOO HOooooOOOOOOO! So now momma has a little extra dough to furnish, paint, design, etc. around the new pad, or daddy gets a pool and a Mini Cooper, jury still out on this.

Went to a co-workers Saturday night for hangin' by the pool with a nice cigar, watchin' some football, enjoyin' some food, and having fun.  Heidi and Willow enjoyed themselves too, some other kids there, lots of new people to meet and get to know the area from for Heidi; very refreshing camaraderie and good people that I/we can hang out with at work and outside of work, and people Heidi can ahgn with and have something to talk about too (kids, the desert, food, homes, gyms, churches, etc.)  They lived in a gated community in North Scottsdale (Fountain Hills I think), pulled up the the guard shack and the name placard posted for the guy on duty was Mr. Schart, I ain't schartin' ya, it really was!!

Saw a '57 Chevy golf cart, VW Beetle, Hummer, John Deere, Jeep, Cadilac, and many other humorous golf carts running around here lately; the Snow Birds are here!!!!!

Well, I think I'm finally about out of things to say for now, if I'm lucky, or if by popular demand, maybe I'll get called back for an encore guest appearance, if not, you all need to stay on Heidi to blog more often!

Peace Out!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Not Much to Say

We had a busy weekend, which means virtually no nap for Willow or Mommy.  We went to a free even at a Railway Railfair on Saturday and then Oktoberfest for Daddy on Sunday.  Things have been better for me around here.  The neighbors/snowbirds are coming around and my doorbell seems to be ringing more.  I have been going to the MOMS club events as much as I can.  I have yet to still meet all of them but the ones that I have met are really nice and so helpful with just getting to know things around here. 
Willow had her second week of swimming class.  It didn't go as well as I wanted.  I couldn't get her to do the things she was suppose to be doing.  She just cried.  The instructor took her from me and she was doing everything for her.  Frustrating how kids will do so well for others but not for their parents. 
The house is moving a long well.  We are right on track for our closing date of December 6th.  I am also on track for delivering on November 19th.  So much happening so close together and it is not just little things either. 


I will leave you with pics from this weekend.

You would have thought it was going fast with the way Willow's hair is blowing back.

Did NOT like the bounce house this time and it had nothing to do with the little guy behind her.

Mommy and Willow on the train.

Oktoberfest with the Popp's. 

Willow and Addie putting the "apples" on the trees.

She always puts the sunglasses on upside down.  At least she wears them though.

Another day of riding a merry go round. 

Addie

Free activity of painting the maze.

Willow getting in her art skills with Whitney.

The girls and their master pieces. 

Monday, October 8, 2012

No Time to Cry

Man last week was a busy week for me and I got a lot of windshield time in.  I put 400 miles on my car in just 3 days! I had a friend in town from Nebraska, a date night with the husband and a doctors appointment plus starting swim lessons with Willow. 

We had an appointment to "pick" out our granite, so they say.  That was really not the case.  It was more like here are the 5 slabs of the granite color you wanted do you like?  Good, sign here.  It was such a waste of a trip to the East Valley but to make it worth it we got to see my good friend Russ.  He was in Scottsdale for a convention.  It was so good to see him and he always knows how to make me laugh.  He brought me a little bit of home to me, which was himself. 

Tim had got me concert tickets to Jason Mraz for my birthday on the 2nd.  I had signed up to find a babysitter for us since we have no family here to watch the beast while we tried to have adult only time.  I thought I had one all lined up and then last minute she said she couldn't make it.  I was so frustrated!  Who was I going to call then, I know no one.  I should have seen it coming when she was suppose to come over to meet us and Willow the week before and she called and said she was sick and couldn't make it.  Thankfully, a co-worker of Tim's said she would watch Willow.  She lives like blocks from where the concert was, so that was convenient but Willow didn't go to bed there.  She immediately fell asleep when she got in the car to go home about 11:15 that night. 

Willow started her first day of swimming lessons.  It was  good, but she has a lot to work on.  On the way there she puked and on the way home she puked again.  Man I am a pro at washing and putting the car seat back together.  

We did a walk through on the house with our realtor and foreman before they put the drywall up.  There was a lot of things missing that we paid for and some things that I am glad we caught now.  We paid for some extra outlets that were not there and some in the wrong spots.  Some good things that came out of it is I got the door from the bonus room to the garage taken out and then a door put in the laundry room to the master closet.  YEAH!  That is huge to me.  I am very thankful that our realtor was there.  She asked why we didn't have overhead lighting in the bedrooms and I said we didn't want the ceiling fan pre wire.  Well little did we know because no one told us was that it also meant wiring for ceiling lights.  Um no we are not going to light the rooms with a lamp.  So all that pre wiring was extra.  Who does that?  Really you are going to charge us more just to have overhead lighting?  We want it though so they have us there.  We decided if they are going to do it they might as well do it for the fan also.  It just amazes me what I think should go into a house they call it an option.   We did get a final closing date of December 7th, so we can move in.  Yes!  It is not the exact time frame I was wanting but what can I do?

We also have a date when the little one will be here too.  Either November 19th or 20th.  Tim wants to work it around his work a little so he can get the most out of his days off.  So we have a busy couple weeks there for us.  I am thankful my mom will be here for a couple weeks to help with Willow when the baby gets here and then Tim's mom will be here for a week.   

32 weeks

Quick bath in the sink.

Pink EXPLOSION!  She picked out the shoes, according to dad.