Thursday, August 30, 2007

Such a lifesaver...

Since Alyson is getting bigger, I figured I'd try out her new bouncer. I had a lot to get done this morning, so I was looking for ANYTHING that would keep her attention for awhile. She's getting too big to just lean back in her boppy... she's a wiggle worm now, and so she slides right down it. Plus, I think she gets a little bored staring at the couch cushion!

So this morning I put her in her bouncer figuring she'd probably just start crying, and to my surprise, she LOVED it! She just sat there in awe staring at the toys hanging down, and I think she enjoyed looking in the mirror at the baby staring back at her :-) Here is a picture of her discovering the little toys!



She wore herself out and decided to take a little nap. Ahhh, at last, I had some 'me time.....'





Bouncers.... every mommy should have one.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Pittsburgh, here we come... or maybe not...

Sooo.... did everyone have a good weekend?

Was Monday as wonderful as ever? (sense the sarcasm there...)

My weekend wasn't bad. Saturday I just relaxed. I really didn't have any other option since I didn't feel that well, so I just kinda lounged around the house like a bum. I was hoping I'd feel better by Sunday though, because Russ and I had made plans to go to Pittsburgh. Thankfully I felt better by then!

Saturday night, Russ told me, "You know hun, we're gonna have to leave the house early in order to have enough time to spend there before coming back home." (We were going there in the boat to meet up with some friends.) By "early", I figured he meant 8, maybe 9am... but no. He wanted to be out of the house by 6:30am. 6:30! Aaaah! I am SO not a morning person!

This wouldn't have been SO bad, except for the fact that, like I said, I wasn't feeling so hot Saturday. My stomach was just majorly upset and I was, uh, "tossing my cookies" throughout the day. (And NO, I am NOT pregnant again...lol... I know some of you were just thinking that!) I just ate something that wasn't so agreeable to my stomach.

Anyway... as I was saying. I didn't feel well Saturday, which led to me staying up late-- as in 2am on Sunday late. I had set my alarm for 5:30am so I could 'wake up' a bit and then grab a quick shower. Lemme tell ya... when I finally fell asleep, it didn't seem like I slept but an hour, and my alarm was going off. I SO did not want to wake up. I think I remember saying a few choice words to the alarm clock, as I covered up my head with my pillow. The only thing that kept me awake was the fact that my husband (who had gotten, like, 8 hours of sleep...) kept pushing and poking me, saying "Honey... hey honey... hun... HUN! Get up! Wake up! We gotta be out of here at 6:30." To which I replied "Hmmmph... mrrrhfpp... mmmmm.... I don't wanna goooooooooo.....don't want to get up....sooooo tiiiiiiiiiiiired......" (This led to more poking and pushing from my husband...)

FINALLY, I drug my tired butt out of bed and made my way out in the kitchen to get a drink. Still rubbing my eyes, I look up to see one of the pillows from our couch sitting on the floor in front of the kitchen door. (We usually leave the door open since we have a doggy door in it, so the dogs are free to go in and out during the night.)

I picked up the pillow and immediately went in the living room to inspect the couches and do a pillow count. (The dogs have a very extensive history of pillow-chewing.) First of all, let me say that NORMALLY we have 3 pillows on each couch. But when I did the pillow count, there was a total of ONE pillow on both couches combined, plus the one I had just picked up. Already cranky and SO not in the mood for anything like that, I shouted "Those @$$holes! All the pillows were there 3 hours ago when I went to bed!!" I hear my husband say, "What? What happened?" and I told him, shouting some more expletives on my way out the kitchen door. I found one pillow on the deck right before the steps, and one on the steps. (Thankfully both in one piece.) THe other two were goners... out in the yard torn into a gazillion pieces. The pillows are stuffed with that poly-fill type stuffing, so it looked like it had snowed out in the backyard. Russ had a wonderful time picking it all up shortly after, and the dogs got a nice butt-whooping out of it.

So that started out Sunday morning with a bang.

Russ's mom came over around 7am to watch the baby, and we left the house about 7:15am. Once I had gotten a shower and was awake for awhile, I must say that I was actually looking forward to our little day trip.

We went through a nearby Lock and Dam (which was actually pretty neat, I must say!) then had another 20 miles to go before we had to go through the next lock. Russ called ahead to the next one to let them know we were on our way (makes the process a WHOLE lot quicker that way, if they can get the lock ready), and when they answered us, they said the lock was SHUT DOWN for repairs, and that it could either be a few hours or an all-day thing. Barges were tied up all over the place waiting to get through, so we knew it was going to be a long time before it'd be our turn. So there went our trip to Pittsburgh... we couldn't go any further down the river.

It still ended up being a nice day though... we anchored near a marina somewhere in PA (don't know WHERE we were though...)and just relaxed for a few hours, ate some lunch, and drank a few beers in the process. It was nice just to spend time alone with my husband, not having any distractions! Here are some pictures...

My hubby :-)



I was just trying to uh, take a picture of the scenery. Yeah, that's it...


View from the boat. I was trying to pretend the water was turquoise and we were surrounded by palm trees, but it didn't work...lol. Oh well, it was still a beautiful day!


Another shot of Russ...


Pulling up the anchor (which he had some trouble with because it was dug pretty deep! We thought we were gonna have to cut the rope and leave the anchor there!)


Me!


We got back to the marina in the early afternoon, and then some of Russ's buddies came down to hang out for awhile. After that, Russ and I had dinner with my parents. All in all, it was a great day, but I was never so happy to get home and GO TO BED!

So now we're planning another attempt at a trip to Pittsburgh, probably within the next few weeks. A bunch of people want to go, so it'll be nice to make a day out of it and just hang out, have a few drinks and RELAX! Not many more weeks of boating left, so we gotta enjoy it while we can. Next year it'll be nice since Aly will be older and we'll be able to take her with us :-)

Well, that's all for now. Have a great Tuesday!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Laughing my @$$ off.

So tonight my husband and I were sitting around watching the football game on tv. He turned the opposite way on the couch and was cuddling with our dog Lucy. Shortly after that, I heard him yawning and saying how tired he was, and that he was heading to bed.

WELL. He didn't make it back to bed. He fell asleep on the couch, alongside Lucy... and evidentally she didn't care that he was invading her couch space, because she was more than content hanging halfway off.

I was never so happy to have my camera right within arms reach:



Ahh, so priceless. And to think, both of them were SOUND ASLEEP like this.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Under construction...

Morning, all. Hey, I just wanted to let you know that if you are checking out my blog only to find some crazy colors and/or layout, don't think I'm nuts. I'm messing around with things... I just felt like changing my layout, so I'm 'experimenting.' I get bored easily, so I needed a change. So for now, this blog is undergoing some, uh, routine maintenance.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The doctor, the appraisor, and some KY! Woo hoo!

Yes, it's me again! Twice in one week...who would have thought. :-)

Well, I had my post-partum doctor's appointment today and everything went really well. I had to take my mom with me so she could watch Aly while I was being seen by the doctor...they don't allow kids in the exam rooms.

Anyway, I am 6 pounds above my pre-prego weight...ugh. I thought I was closer than that, but what are you gonna do. I'm just upset because I've been watching what I eat for the past month and I've only lost about 5 pounds. I know I need to exercise more though... it's just been hard to get it in during the day. I figured, "Heck, I'm home all day right now, I'll have PLENTY of time to exercise." HA! Lately, I've had Aly in her bouncer or swing, put my exercise DVD in...and JUST when I start the warm up stuff, she starts screaming her head off. It never fails. I might get 5, maybe 10 minutes in and that's it. And I've learned to forget even THINKING about getting on the floor to do any exercises, unless I have the dogs outside. As soon as I get down on the floor to do leg lifts or something, I have two dogs right in my face thinking it's playtime! I tried laying down and doing crunches one day and looked up to find Cody with his big head staring down at me. I can't win! Needless to say, the exercise has taken a backseat lately.

Anyway, back to my appointment.... like i said, things went well. I was just a little upset about the weight thing. And to top it off, they give you this chart with your height and weight on it, with your calculated BMI. That was the icing on the cake...haha.

Oh, and I talked with the doctor about getting on some BC. I'm gonna try the Nuva Ring and see how that goes. After my appointment, my mom was asking if I'm getting on anything, and I told her about the nuvaring... she got this weird look on her face and said (and I totally cracked up at this--) "Well, won't Russ feel that when his, uh, Mr. Happy goes in there?" LOL. Leave it to my mom to ask me that. I'm 27 years old and I still think she's embarrassed to talk about sex stuff with me.
Too funny....gotta love her.

Onto another topic... I was a bit upset with Russ yesterday. Not for anything he DID, but what he DIDN'T do! Evidentally he made an appointment with our realtor guy to get our house reappraised...this was right before the weekend. WELL. He just tells me lastnight that, "Oh yeah, honey... we're getting our house appraised tomorrow." "TOMORROW? What time? You know I'm going to be gone for awhile," I said.
Then he tells me "4pm." (Mind you, when he broke this news to me, it was almost 8pm.) I just laughed it off in front of him, but I was TICKED! I mean, I've been keeping up with the housework as best as I can, but there are things that I've been letting go for awhile, and I knew an appraisor had to see EVERYTHING. Which meant I couldn't use one room to put a bunch of junk in! I know an appraisor just looks at what you have in the house, but I still wanted it to be clean! So I spent last evening scrubbing floors, pledging and windexing things until 12:30am. I was so mad... I hate when he tells me things at the last minute. Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave around and make the house spotless. Life would be so much easier....lol.

So when the appraisor got here today, I wasn't home yet... on the way home I was thinking about all the things I didn't get to clean, and things like, "I hope this isn't sitting out... I hope that's put away...I hope the shower is clean..." (I mean, he looked in every shower and all that... thank GOD I've been in a cleaning mood lately!) When I got home, they were in the kitchen, and I suddenly remembered that I didn't make our bed, and that I had clothes strewn on the floor in there. I slipped in the bedroom and closed the door, and tried to tidy up a bit. Next thing I know, Russ and the appraisor walk in and start looking around and talking about what new things we had added in there. I thought I had things looking half decent, then was embarrassed when I looked on the dresser and saw something, uh, 'sexual' left sitting out. (Ok, ok...it was KY...I just had a baby, darnit... I need some help!) LOL. It was at this point that I REALLY wished Russ had let me know this guy was coming a little sooner than the night before. I could have been prepared, dammit! Oh well... we have a baby. I think people know we have sex. :-)

(Have my posts been a little TMI lately? If so, sorry... just saying what's on my mind!)

So that was my afternoon. Exciting, I know.

Well, I'm going to try and lay down again... I was trying to fall asleep and just layed there staring at the ceiling. It doesn't help that Russ has half the bed and I'm sharing my side with two huge boxers who insist on laying horizontally across where my legs SHOULD be. If they DO give me room to lay, they steal my covers instead, so it sucks either way.

Alright...nighty night. I'll post again soon, and I promise it won't be about periods, or birth control, or KY. Maybe.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

To work, or not to work...that is the question!

I know, I know... I am LONG overdue for a new post!

My parents have Aly tonight, so I have some quiet time now. You would think my husband and I would be out doing something fun (or staying IN doing 'something fun'...lol), but no... my husband has fallen fast asleep on the couch. *Sigh* I was looking forward to going in our hot tub tonight, but that didn't happen...so what better thing to do than get on here and post, right?!

OH...get this. Before and during my pregnancy, I went on a website called Fertility Friend. Some of you might be familiar with it? Anyway, I was reading some of the message boards tonight and one of the June mommies is pregnant AGAIN!She just found out! Her child is only a few weeks older than Alyson. She's very excited about it though. She was even on birth control and it still happened, but she said "It must have been God's will." I agree! That's just one great big reminder that these things happen all in God's time, regardless of what we might be doing to cause OR prevent it.

I just don't know WHAT I'd do if I got pregnant again this soon. I can't even think about that yet. I mean, I definitely want another child (or two), but I keep telling people, "I want Aly to be walking, talking, feeding herself, potty trained, and able to help Mommy out!" LOL. Ultimately I'd like to wait a few years, but we'll see. This girl's getting on some BC ASAP! :-P I'm discussing such things with my OB on Tuesday...yay!

I have what SHOULD have been my 6 week post-partum checkup on Tuesday, though technically I'm already 8 weeks PP. Things have just been pretty hectic lately, not to mention (TMI alert...) I wouldn't stop bleeding! I was waiting for things to stop so I wouldn't feel so 'yucky' at my appointment. The bleeding wasn't anything major, but enough to annoy me because I felt like I was on some huge gigundo monster of a period for 7 weeks. And not to mention, I HATE pads! LOL.

Ok... new subject. I'm sure you don't want to hear about bleeding and pads. Blech.

Anywho...

I have about 3 weeks left of leave, then it's back to work for this chick. My clinical manager called me last week and asked if I was coming back full time/part time/etc, and WHEN I was planning on coming back. I used 2 weeks of maternity leave back in December when I was spotting, so I had 10 left, which puts me back to work the week of September 2nd, so that's what I told her.

I successfully talked my husband into letting me go back PRN(as needed)---YAY!--- so I am starting back 1 day a week for the first schedule, then we'll take it from there. Unfortunately due to the babysitting situation, I am still going to do nights, but only 11pm-7am instead of 7pm-7am. I figure that way, I'll have Alyson pretty much settled down for the night before I leave for work, and Russ might only have to wake up once with her for a feeding.

I'm just kinda worried about this whole 'back to work' thing. Don't get me wrong, my husband is a great dad, but I'm just worried about him being all alone with Alyson! Basically I've been doing everything, since he's now become the sole breadwinner in the family for the time being. He's had majorly long days lately, leaving the house at 6am and getting home in the evenings, usually 6pm. When he gets home, we eat dinner, then he heads down to his office to return phone calls and do paperwork. By the time he gets back upstairs, it's 9pm or so, and he's getting tired. He'll hold Aly for awhile, then falls asleep shortly after that. I guess I just get irritated sometimes because I wish he could help me out a little more... like on days when he gets home early, it would be nice if he'd feed her for me, or change her, or what not. If he does something, it's because I ASK him to. He can tell I get irritated because sometimes I'll just need a BREAK, so I'll hand her to him and say "Here, why don't you hold your daughter for awhile?!" I don't mean to get crappy with him, but it bugs me sometimes. We were talking the other night and basically he just told me, "I don't know what to do with a baby!" He was talking to ALy and said, "Daddy's scared of you! You're so little! When you get bigger daddy will take you everywhere, but for now he doesn't know what to do with you." *sigh*

So this is what worries me. My husband, who admits he is scared of taking care of a baby, who won't change a diaper unless he KNOWS it's only pee, who can't stand the crying....is going to be taking care of our child ALL BY HIMSELF, ALL NIGHT. I asked him, "What are you going to do if she poops and you HAVE to clean her up?" and he joked and said, "I'll just bring her to the hospital and you can do it." I then said, "So....uh... what if she starts crying? What are you gonna do?" and he said, "I guess I'll just have to deal with it." Ugh.

Like I said, don't get me wrong... he's a great daddy and a very responsible person... I don't want to make it seem like he's a horrible dad who wants nothing to do with our child. I'm just being a worrywort mommy because I've been the one caring for Aly basically 24-7. I'm just worried that he's going to fall asleep and not hear her crying or something. I've thought of it all. LOL.

This whole "work situation" has been the main topic of our conversation during my maternity leave due to the above said things. Russ wants me working at least 2 12-hour days per week, and I just don't see how that's going to happen right now. So, as a test.... (evil laugh), I picked weekdays for the nights I'm working, just so he can TRULY experience what it's like to have me back at work. For any of you who don't know or remember, my husband owns his own business. One of the perks? He can make his own hours. The downside? If something happens and he's the only one who can take care of it, he has to leave asap. During the weekdays, he leaves the house anywhere between 6-7am (7am if he accidentally sleeps in.) The problem? When I work, I don't get home until AT LEAST 7:45am. So if he has to go down to the garage and get his guys started for the day (let them know what jobs they are doing, etc), he's going to have the baby, so he'll either have to take her wherever he goes or wait until I get home.

I purposely picked weekdays so he'll know what the situation is going to be like, and just so he can't--for lack of better words-- "shove Alyson off on our parents." He hasn't participated much in her care, and he really needs to. I want him to experience what I go through 24-7. I already told him that I'm not working every weekend just because it's 'convenient' and just so he'll be able to have my parents or his mom babysit her every night I work. I mean, I don't mind them watching her once in awhile when I work, but Russ needs to learn to take care of her too. So the coming month will be his test, then we'll see how it goes.

So there's my vent for the night. I think I'll head to bed now, being that it IS almost 2am. It's wonderful to know that I can sleep in and not wake up to a crying baby in the morning. I do miss my baby though, but my parents absolutely LOVE having her over there, so who am I to argue? It's nice to have a night to myself once in awhile. Hopefully Russ and I can have a nice relaxing day together...we'll be picking little Aly up in the evening sometime.

Well, that's about all the typing I have the energy for right now...lol. I'll try not to let almost 2 weeks go by before the next post!! Have a good rest of the weekend!

***Here are some pictures of my little princess...she's getting so big! She was 10 pounds 12 ounces on 7/30, so I'm sure she's pushing 13 pounds or so now!***

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Before I Was A Mom...

***I found this poem online, and just thought it was too cute not to share.** I'll be posting soon, I promise! :-)

Before I was a Mom…
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom…
I slept as late as I wanted.
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth every day.

Before I was a Mom…
I cleaned my house regularly.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to lullabies.

Before I was a Mom…
I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was Mom…
I had never been puked on,
Pooped on,
Spat on,
Chewed on,
Peed on,
Or pinched by tiny fingers.

Before I was a Mom…
I had complete control of my mind,
My thoughts.
My body,
And my time.

I slept all night.


Before I was a Mom…
I never held down a screaming child,
So that doctors could do tests,
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom…
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew how much I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom…
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom…
I had never risen in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
The joy,
The love,
The heartache,
The wonderment,
Or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom!



- Author unknown -

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Weekly update!

Hey ladies :-) Time for my weekly post...lol. It sucks that I only seem to post once a week...I wish it could be more often but when I'm online I check my email, TRY to check out your blogs to catch-up a bit, and that's about it. I've been reading your blogs a few at a time, but haven't been leaving feedback...sorry!

Anyway... things have been going well. Aly's doing great. We went to the pediatrician Monday morning and she is 10 pounds 14 ounces already!! Like I said before, she's growing like a weed! She's taking 4, maybe 5 ounces of formula about 6-7 times a day. The pediatrician said her weight gain is perfect for her age, so that's good.

Aly stayed with my parents on Saturday night and most of Sunday. While it was nice to have some 'me time', I still missed my little princess. My parents took Aly to the mall Sunday afternoon, and I had been wanting to get out shopping, so I went by myself. It was so nice just to get out alone and actually go CLOTHES SHOPPING. My main goal was to get some summer clothes, and I was happy to find that mostly all the summer stuff was on clearance. Which, much to my dismay, meant that all the clothes left were in extra small, small or mediums. "The girls" just don't seem to fit in medium tops. LOL. I did manage to get some new tops, so I was happy. By the end of the afternoon, I actually bought more for Aly than I did for myself, but I had fun doing it!! I found sooooooo many cute things on clearance. JCPenney's had alot of summer things on sale for 70% off, so I bought a bunch of 12month outfits for next year, and did the same thing at Macy's. Of course, I had to buy some things for now too :-) She's gonna be stylin'.

Now for some other news. My husband has decided to buy a new boat! Right now he has a Seadoo jetboat, which had previously been his little toy to satisfy his "need for speed" out on the river. But now that the baby is here, he's opted for a more 'family-friendly' boat, which I'm very happy about! I like his jetboat because it's easy to get in and out of the water and all that, but sometimes I just don't like going all fast and looking like a windblown piece of crap with knotted hair by the end of the trip, ya know?! LOL. At least with this bigger boat we can just cruise along and RELAX.

The new boat is awesome... It's not a brand new boat by any means, so there are things that need fixing, but all in all it's in great shape. Russ and I and some other people are gonna clean it all up this week. He and his buddy are washing and waxing it, and I told him I'd help clean up the inside. :-) It just needs some good scrubbing :-) The inside has 2 different sleeping areas in it, tables, a microwave and little stove, bathroom w/shower, etc. Nothing crazy elaborate, but nice enough to make you feel at-home out on the water. I'm excited because alot of people can go out with us now and it's actually gonna be kid-friendly. Our friends all seem to have young kids, so now we can all hang out together and go boating. :-) We're all planning on going up to Lake Erie in a month or so... it should be fun!!

To get ready for the whole boating thing, we drove to a marine shop to get some supplies today, and took Aly with us. She did pretty well on the way up and slept most of the time, but OF COURSE she started crying like crazy as soon as we got up there. I had to stay in the car and feed her while Russ shopped around. Once she settled down, I took her in the store and OF COURSE she started crying again, which couldn't been consoled with a pacifier....so out in the car we went again. She settled down and slept the whole way home, right until we arrived at the restaurant to eat dinner, then OF COURSE she started crying again. I'm sensing a pattern here. LOL. I fed her before we ate, and she seemed to calm down. While waiting for our food, Russ held her and she puked right down the front of his shirt. I couldn't help but laugh, the expression on his face was priceless. I told him, "This is what happens to me EVERYDAY."

So that was our evening. Nothing majorly exciting, but it was nice to get out of the house. It's funny now, because I look forward to just getting out of the house regardless of what I'm doing. Heck, I look forward to having to go grocery shopping these days. My, how things change.

Well, I'm going to try and get some sleep now. Aly's been fast asleep, so I figured I'd just try and post while I had some time to myself. :-) Hope all of you are doing well! Take care...nighty night!