Dog Island 2012 notes

* Stayed with Luke's brother and our sister in law to break up our drive down, they have cats and we learned Micah is probably allergic due to a swollen face upon being around said cat. But enjoyed our time with them all the same.

* Being at the beach is wonderful.

* We had a 4 bdr. house all to ourselves.

* I realized how badly I missed a king sized bed.

* My children tired themselves out so well that they went to bed without issues all week.

* Micah slept like a champ. I however did not. What gives?!

* Walking on the beach every night after dinner should be a regular event in my book. Too bad we live so far from the ocean.

* Going with a set of Grandparents makes it even better. I enjoyed naps, finished a book(Water for Elephants, don't recommend due to some trash up in there!),had plenty of hammock time all to myself and went fishing thanks to her playing with them.

* My mother in law and I split the cooking. Pretty sure I got the better end of the deal on that one.

* My 14 year old sister in law is so awesome and sweet.

* Dog Island has shells. Like real big ones that aren't broken.

* It stormed on our way there and we had a choppy boat ride over. Noah freaked. Thankful our ride back wasn't so crazy.

* It feels nice having a tan.

* Forgetting to pack your bathingsuit will make you have to detour through Tallahassee to pick one up.

* We saw sharks, sting rays and crabs. No jelly fish thankfully.

* No one got burned the whole week. Score one for Me and sunscreen.

* On our way back home, we saw my sweet friend Patti, who made Micah his very own blankie because my kids love their Aunt Patti blankies, and she's been a gem crocheting 4 for us!! Also saw my Grandmother, ate dinner with her, saw my two youngest cousins and my aunt and uncle while there. Long travel times, but soo amazingly thankful for our time away. 9 days with my family is more then I can ask for!

Imperfect.

There are days where I feel like super woman. My kids act ok, my house is clean and there is a warm dinner waiting for my Husband when he comes home. 

There are days when I'm just ok. Had to discipline the kids more, laundry is washed but waiting to be folded and dinner gets cooked after Hubby is home and I can pass off baby. 

Then there are days like today. I yelled. Loudly. No part of my house got clean, my children played video games all day, and I sobbed when Hubby came home because I was simply overwhelmed. 

It would be easy to say that I am always looking to the Lord for strength, but that is not the case. Sometimes we fall and crash and burn, and are reminded how deeply flawed the flesh is.

Sometimes it takes your husband telling you to go to Starbucks to sit and remember to take the time to just ask.  Ask for Him. For a double portion of all that He is. Walking by His life is so easy, too easy really. Thankful that He promised that His fullness lives in me , just need to remind my flesh that it has been crucified with Christ and no longer lives so that He can be revealed even more clearly me.

News you can use.

Ok, so not really. Just me typing out random stuff on my iPad. :) So Olivia and Noah will be getting registered for school hopefully this week or next. The school they are going to just got charter status so that's exciting! Thankfully we are zoned for there and won't have to apply. Kate has been going in the potty a lot more, though I still feel leagues away from having her potty trained. If she doesn't potty train before the kids go back to school, I'll focus on it then when I can devote more time to her and the process. Micah is adorable. Seriously. While I still am not getting a ton done during the day, he has gotten a lot better. Happily sitting in the bouncy seat for short periods and letting the kids give him a paci if need be till I can get him. He has also been sleeping great at night the past 4 nights averaging 6+ hours and then going back Dow. For a couple more after eating. Such a sweetie. Luke found out this week that they want to offer Luke a week of paid vacation. Something we were told we wouldn't probably get, but Luke's bosses really love him and are really nice and I guess decided he earned it..haha. Trying to decide what to do, tried looking into the beach, but we can't afford $850+ for a condo/hotel room, so we are trying to look into other options. We'll see. We haven't seen the beach in 2 years, and haven't had a vacation for 4..it's time! I've been on a baking binge lately. I REALLY love baking..it's a stress relief for more, just need to find healthier recipes so when I eat said baked goods, I won't put on 50lbs...still below what I was when I got pregnant, but know that I need to be more careful and make healthier choices. Body is finally back to feeling good and as soon as I have more then 5 minutes to myself I plan on picking running back up, cause surprisingly I actually miss it..:)

Poor Micah..

He's had a rough go of things. He's seen more Dr's and nurses then some of my kids combined. 2 visits to the pediatricians office in a month, 2 visits to the hospital for blood work and several conversations with his Ped and Midwife about his rapid breathing(which is slowing down, thank the Lord!).

We noticed he had thrush the other day and like most people sought out the most common treatment(which I was told would have been his Pediatricians recommendation had I called him.)...so for 3+ days my baby had a purple mouth due to Gentian Violet(it stains everything!). Well he was getting fussier and fussier during treatment. On Sunday morning I realized when I wiped Micah's mouth that there was blood on my rag and once the purple faded some over the course of the day, I realized his poor little mouth was covered in sores. I read that the Gentian Violet can do that in rare occasions. Sucks we were in the small minority that reacted to it. Thankfully it did its job and he doesn't have thrush anymore, but now we are having to treat the sores which is just by treating pain till they go away on their own. Its pitiful cause he doesn't want to nurse much cause it hurts and thus has been very crabby. After seeing our ped. yesterday I believe he is finally getting some relief. He slept 2- 4 hr. chunks last night, nursed well, and was content all morning(and by content, I mean he wasn't screaming while I was holding him.) and even let me finish breakfast while he sat in a bouncy seat which I haven't ever been able to to. Thankful the pain relief regimen is helping and he's feeling somewhat better.

Hoping we are on the up swing and that poor Micah won't have to worry about Dr's or anything else any time soon.

Good news is my baby is a few oz. shy of 13 lbs. and his Dr was pleased with how he looked and everything(despite the mouth stuff).

BzzCampaigns..

Here are some Campaigns I'm a part of right now. Enjoying the perks of being a BzzAgent..:)

Busy weekend.

Friday I had to go back to our local hospital to have Micah's PKU screen re-done due to a non accepted first go at it, I felt soo bad for him and he had to have it taken out of his arm instead of his heel. Thankfully my Mom offered to come watch the 3 older kids so I could take him alone, which was such a blessing because I was there for an hour and a half waiting for them to get their act together.  We came back, he got fed and we went to lunch. Pretty sure we keep Chick-fil-a in business. ;) Did a little shopping in Old Navy, indulged in Starbucks then had pedicures(and an eyebrow wax for me, cause yeah...its been a LONG time and I was looking rough). A luxury I only seem to take with Mom..haha..Kate had her toes done too and was so big about sitting there in the chair perfectly still having her nails painted. Thankful for my girly girl and the time I know she and I will share treating ourselves in the future(Gotta figure out what Livvy enjoys, cause its not pedicures! haha). Managed to get home and we had a single Brother come over and hang out with us for the evening.

Saturday we went grocery shopping, then headed over to some friends house for a cookout for most of the day. Did I mention, I made brownies and cake balls to take with me, whew!

Sunday, Luke mowed our lawn(poor guy, its huge and we have a push mower!), then we went to Best Buy. We have had the same computer for 7ish years and its a 50/50 shot on it working most of the time and its memory was all used up, so we kept having to move stuff onto an external hardrive.  We decided it was finally time to upgrade...ended up getting a Gateway, which totally takes me back to my childhood and the cow printed boxes. We are enjoying it a lot and its crazy to have it work so well..:), Then we had to go get Noah a new carseat cause his was too big to sit next to Olivia's in the back seat, so he has graduated to a high back booster..such big stuff. ;) Ah, the joys of fitting 4 carseats in a minivan, then we got frozen yogurt...it really hit the spot on such a hot day and something we haven't done in forever thanks to my gestational diabetes when pregnant.

So yeah, it was busy!

Today Olivia and I finished off Phonics and Language Arts, so all we have left in school is 3 lessons of History and we are DONE for the school year. So happy and ready to enjoy some down time without school looming over me every day. We should be able to finish those all tomorrow..hooray!

We finally got a renter for our house! Our last one moved out early and we were very close to having to let the house go, but thanks to some help from a friend and the Lord, we have someone moving in June 1st. SO thankful.

Did I mention I weigh less now then I did when I got pregnant? All that eating healthy during my pregnancy paid off apparently. Giving myself 6 weeks to enjoy eating without calorie counting, then I'll be back to making much healthier choices and accounting for what I eat.  Its just amazing to me, because I haven't weighed less then Luke for a long time! haha..

Micah's birth story.

 (Some details may have been left out because I simply don't remember them..haha..Photo's by my friend Kelly Hardee)

Thursday(5-3-12) morning I woke up earlier then normal, and decided to make the most of it and get started with school..we finished super quick..during school I noticed my Braxton hicks were different feeling, but nothing that said "labor's coming". . Made the kids a nice big lunch, got my house re-cleaned since Luke and I had cleaned on Wednesday night, and played some Wii with the kiddos. As my usual routine, around 2 I laid down Kate for a nap, busied my older two, and laid down myself. Played on the iPad for a while before deciding to turn over in bed and watch whatever Baby story type show was on. I had also just talked to Luke about trying not to push getting home so late in the day.

It was 2:30 and I flipped over and went to tuck my big maternity pillow into its comfy position when I felt a pop, it started getting warm "down there" and for some reason I thought I'd peed myself, but as soon as I thought that, it started getting really wet and I realized what had happened, my water broke! I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom..it was gushing out..I had a ton of fluid so I knew it would just keep coming.

I called Olivia and asked her to retrieve my cell phone, called Luke back and told him to come on home because it was going to be baby day! Called my Mom/midwife and she just happened to be with her apprentice and said they would be on their way. Called my friend/photographer and she thankfully was wrapping up at work and was going to get her camera and come. Wasn't really having any contractions, so I wasn't sure how long it would take for those to start. I laid back down in bed and waited and around 3:30 I called both Luke and Mom back because contractions had started and they were already very painful and meant business. Luke was 15ish minutes out and Mom was getting Chick-fil-a down the road from us. Photographer friend showed up just as the rest did.

Luke immediately started up filling the pool, and Mom and apprentice started stats on me, 6 cm's fully effaced and 0 station for those that care for serious details. Labored for a while with Luke by myself waiting for the pool to fill some, finally it was deep enough and it felt sooo good to get in, but wasn't as pain relieving as I remembered it being last time, but it was better then nothing and the idea of delivering out of the water made me nervous for some reason.

I wasn't in the pool long before I noticed I had some pressure..nothing I felt a couldn't breath through, but it was there. I had this fear about pushing before I was really ready, so mom suggested I pant/breath through a few more before deciding whether to push or not. By the time those 2-3 contractions were over, my body was pushing..I pushed one good time and didn't feel like anything happened..next push and suddenly he was crowning. I heard them saying, "His ears are out, his head is out,there's one arm, there's the other".. At that point I just yelled "pull him out" as I gave one final push and he was out! The relief you feel at that moment is amazing, and I was soo happy to finally be seeing this sweet face after so many weeks of not so patiently waiting for him.

After placenta came, and having a nice shower, we weighed and measured him. Baby Micah David was born in about 2 hours(once contractions started) weighing 9 lbs. 14 oz. 22.5 inches long.
14.75 head and a 14.5 chest.

So happy to be done!

The scene in our dining room. :)

Olivia helping Daddy cut the cord.

Mom with her special role as Midwife AND Nana.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Micah with a carrot cake I'd made and froze a couple weeks before.