AUTHOR - A Very Blessed Wife & Mother

Thursday, June 25, 2009

OUCH

I do believe this is my favorite picture of Gage so far. Look at that baby, isn’t he gorgeous or am I looking through the my child is the cutest glasses?


OH you agree, GREAT!

Moving on….

Gage’s sleeping habits were painfully (on me) interrupted for the last month or more. First was his nasty two week long stomach virus, then we had 3 glorious days until he caught another little stomach bug complete with fever and 7 more days of yuck. After that a couple days of mostly uninterrupted brain rest and SMACK, complete disruption, which has been going on for about 6 days now. By disruption I mean waking up 15-20 times (not joking) during my 5-6 hours of allotted sleep a night, fitful sleeping, and crying awake, I will admit I have been perplexed as to its cause. Well I should say was perplexed because the mystery was solved last night when Gage gave my finger a bite and it hurt.

Poor baby has been in pain from a pearly white jagged object erupting through his innocent previously unscathed gums. His very first tooth, we can say he is now on the fairy's rooster for future payment.

This tooth to be exact.
(bottom front left)

Gage would not let me touch it again, he is and has been sucking his lips, tongue, and fingers for the last week, and my finger is not on his suck list so he waves his hands furiously when I try to touch it.

Last night I gave him Motrin and Oragel before bed and he did sleep better, not great but better.

In other news Gage is a water baby, this past Sunday he had his first real pool time and he loved it. He splashed manically and so wiggly it was like trying to keep a greased baby piggy above water. Since the pool adventure his bath time has gotten more interesting, there is as much water on the floor, walls, and myself than in the tub when he is through (ok a bit over represented but you get it). He does not care how much water hits his face or goes down his throat and sometimes lets out a giggle after the initial face splash.

After bath time is a very cute burrito baby


In other other news….KOLLEN is here and we are excited (even though his visit began with a bunch of selfish baby momma drama, missed flights, ignorance, wasted vacation day, did I say inconsiderate baby momma drama yet, and Pappy, Sarah, and Andy picking him up 12 hours later than planned, did I say ignorant or inconsiderate drama yet). He is an amazing child and we are so happy he is here for 6 weeks.

In other other other (but no less important) news, Sarah (youngest sister in-law) and Andy are to be marriaged Saturday and we will be heading to M&Ps tomorrow for rehearsal, dinner, bachelor and ette parties, a bit of sleep and the blessed day of marriage festivities. This is the first time I will be in a wedding not as the bride that is. We are very excited and happy for SANDY (yanno Sarah and Andy)!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

COME ON!!!!

What a month (not calendar but as in the last 30 days)! Our house has been consumed by snot, coughs, vomit, diarrhea, fussing, and too many viruses. As per my last post, my throat was killing me, after 2 days of fever and golf ball size lymph nodes I decided that maybe I did not have what the baby just got over but a new nasty bug instead, so I went to the doc.

Strep throat is its name and agony is its game.
I am better now, but wow, the last time I had strep I was about 8 years old and had my tonsils removed. Being I am a bit older and a lot larger I guess the strep bug must have improved also. This streptococcal bug body slammed me to the mat and I tried to tap out several times. I do believe I have taken over the lead and may even win the battle seeing that my lymph nodes seem to be taking on the activity of a grape in the Texas sun, they may soon even be normal again.

During my internal wrestling match Gage started to get better for a few days until a sinus infection took over. I know you have to be thinking what I am/was “COME ON, REALLY?”. He was tested for strep as a precaution (negative), and then given antibiotics for the infection.

HA you think that is the end of the story huh?

NOPE

Gage is allergic to Zithromiacin (antibiotic), OF COURSE!!! Why did we not think of that, he has been allergic to everything else so far? Poor baby has a swollen bumpy tongue, can’t suck on his pacifier (which is sooooo much fun), head to toe rash, and is sulking in a Benadryl induced stupor.
Please pass the Benadryl.

Better days soon, I Hope!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Swords For Dinner

My poor swollen, scratchy, red hot colored throat is making it hard to put on my big girl panties and continue the daily work, home, work routine. You see about 2 days ago I started to feel terrible, best way I can describe it is with a picture….

That is right, imagine, I am a talented sword swallower as shown above (except my waist is not that small), during my professional swallowing act I coughed, one of those take your breath away, instant headache, pee your pants kind of cough, before I took the swords out, that is how my throat feels.

I do believe my precious little boy may have passed these germs to me because are symptoms are similar, all the way down to the fever and fussiness. I have to admit I have thought about sticking out my lower lip and whimpering for someone to hold me and the thought of drooling instead of swallowing has crossed my mind. Am I to old for a bib?

On another note…..Gage will be 6 months old next week, so under the circumstances I will be combining his 5 & 6 month letter of tricks as one. Off to eat some chloraseptic spray for dinner.

Monday, June 8, 2009

We are alive (mostly)

Sorry I have not posted in awhile, I will explain. We had a wonderful week long visit from Vic (guy that helped raise me) & Deb (his wife). It was a great visit, we have not seen them in 10 years so it was well over due (more on that visit in another post). Then it was Daimen’s Birthday Party, I will also be posting about that soon. After that we had another visitor, of the unwelcomed type, he probably looked like this.

You got it, Gage got a new stomach virus and it has been a long 8 days and going. In the middle of fever, missed work, Tylenol, pedialyte, and tons of fussing/crying I said ENOUGH with the virus ridden, no sleeping, and smelly daycare, raised my search for a better institution for my precious package. I have been searching for some weeks now but this just made me get more aggressive in my search.

I am happy to announce that he started his new summer experience today with a wonderful, quiet spoken, Christian mom of a 4, 7, and 10 year old, we will call her M for the sake of blog discretion. The kids were so excited to have a new addition this morning; it was delightful leaving him there. The sticky part of this new situation is this mom works TUE, WED, and THURS at a Mother’s Day Out (MDO) program at a local church in the 2 year old room. I also explored that place and it was just Amazing. I found M and the program by tracking down a teacher who use to be in Gage’s daycare class and quit because the center did her wrong. I only had her first name but used some great detective skills and found her, lets call her P. P is the infant teacher at the MDO and urged me to come by and see the difference between where he was at and where she is now.
Pros:

  • The place was huge and did not smell like a daycare
  • I walked into the infant room and they had 8 babies ages 0-12months and I am not kidding you, ALL of them were sleeping. The lights were turned off, lullibys playing in the background and the two staff were whispering in respect of the sleepy lumps of preciousness, a baby napping paradise I tell ya. (Gage never gets sleep at daycare because it is always loud; the infant room is connected to the toddler room, so there is never peace, dim lights, or quiet staff.
  • When one of the little ones woke up, he got rocked by a staff member until he drifted back to sleep. Yes that is right people, they actually hold the babies there.
  • Finger paint with Jello projects lined the walls
  • The room was 3 times the size so no walking over babies
  • They sanitize the toys every night (I found out that his daycare only does it once a week, if that, no wonder he is virus ridden)
  • The directors were very helpful and spoke with me for an hour
  • It is a drop in facility, so if the baby is not there, you do not pay. (so far I have paid a months worth of daycare bills because Gage has been to virus riddin to attend school, HA, and school is where he got the stinking bugs from.


Ok we all know there are going to be CONS right?
CONS:

  • Baby paradise is about 25% more expensive
  • It is only 3 days a week in the summer
  • Is only 830am until 230pm every day (which is difficult when I have to be at work at 7:30am


It seemed worth finding solutions to the cons and so we did. The extra cost will just have to be delt with, I am paying a ton in doctors’ bills and missed work that the extra cost is just that extra and well worth the peace of mind that he is being taking care off. P referred us to M for daycare on Mondays and Fridays and to bring Gage to work with her the rest of the week. I met with M that day and decided that she is greatness and set up a time to see her house and meet the rest of her family. We had our meeting yesterday and loved it, she is so sweet and seemed extra caring. We had to purchase a bunch of baby stuff for her house but it will be well worth it.

Today was his first day, Jer just picked him up and had to call me. He said “ wow what a difference, Gage was asleep when I got there and had been for an hour and a half, he also took a long nap this morning and went swimming in the kiddie pool, he seemed upset that I was taking him home.” Can we ask for anything more? I think not. (ok maybe we could ask that M decides to stay home after the summer and becomes Gage’s full time caregiver, she is thinking about it)

I will be posting Gage’s 5 month letter tomorrow, (late) but it will not be very positive for it has been a rough month on the little guy.