Reason to Rejoice

Okay, it is 5:15 in the morning, I am tired...no, I am exhausted. After getting up at this time yesterday and then just getting ready for work, working all day, going to Target and spending A BUNCH of money (explanation later), going to bed at 11:00 and then getting back up this morning to do it all over again...yep, I am exhausted!!! I am going to post until I am done pumping. Hopefully I can get everything in and up to date before going back to bed.... So...last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) Brice's brother, Brannan, came to visit us from Little Rock. RACHEL LOVES HIM!!!! I mean, LOVES him! It may actually be her favorite person (aside from her Daddy)! He plays with her and picks on her and is essentially the only person that can throw her in the air and hang her upside down more than once without getting exhausted! =) She refused to take any pictures with him, though. I got some of Uncle B meeting Lauren for the first time. She, of course, will love him too. This pas...

not a lot of time to post...need to be sleeping, but look at this picture of my baby that I took today outside! I just love her!!! AND, I really hope that her eyes stay blue!

I have been working on another entry but can't seem to finish it.....more to come, I promise!

Here she is...I think she is beautiful!!!

Krista had her baby!!! I am so super excited to announce that my best friend, her husband, and their first daughter have welcome Baby Melody Elise into the world!!! She was born at 11:15 PM May 22nd and weighed 6 lbs, 11 oz, 18 inches long!!! From what I hear mom and baby are doing well and I will go to the hospital later today to see them. Pictures to come. Is it weird that I am sitting here bawling like a big BABY (no pun intended)!!!!

I had to call some "tree guys" to come and cut down our only tree in the front yard. And...they did. It is gone. I am sad. About 6 or 7 months ago (I guess) we had a large branch crack and break off our Bradford Pear tree in the front yard. Since then, it has had a crack down the center of the trunk. It has gotten worse and worse. The tree was still growing green foliage and was still as beautiful as ever. I love the tree. Now, if you will recall, I posted about "Stinky Trees" while I was in the hospital on bed rest and it was talking about this very tree. They are beautiful but do not smell good. Anyway, the tree was going to damage something or someone if we didn't have it cut down. So...our only shade tree is gone. This tree that was gorgeous (but stinky) and towered over our house; that grew for 14 good, long years....gone. It is going to make our house so much hotter in the morning because it won't be blocking the sun. I think we are going ...

I haven't experienced a great deal of death in my life and for that, I am glad. The past 3 years have been the worst that I have had to deal with - losing my grandfather, uncle, and my grandmother. But, the loss of a child....I can't imagine. I have said before that it has to be the worst pain and although I don't know this first hand, I would say it again. It seems as though in the blogger world that, for some reason, I gravitate toward blogs with sick babies or babies that have died, etc. It is so incredibly sad. I usually just happen upon these stories that are so heartbreaking. I have read of so many illnesses and loss of babies since I have been blogging. Sometimes it makes you wonder if healthy babies are even born anymore....well, I know they are because I have two!!!! Two babies that I thank God for everyday...that they are healthy and that they are alive and with me. When I hear these stories, I feel a knot in the pit of my stomach as I think of all the ti...

From blogging....BUT I AM BACK!!! Actually, the break was not planned or intentional; I am just a mommy of two little girls and I got busy!! As an update to my last post....work was good...not much going on. AND, I was not late, I was actually 5 minutes early! Well, what have we been doing? Um...let's see... Lauren's first official day of church was May 17th! (OUCH...for some unknown reason, Rachel just came and bit my arm!!!! She has never done that before!) Anyway, Lauren did really well. I actually missed the sermon because I had to go feed her...we will get schedules figured out eventually! =) Here is a picture from that day...yes, I know my face is shiny - I need to switch my face wash back to combination to oily skin - my skin changes so much when I am pregnant...anyway, here is the picture.... Rachel has been sick. She woke up on Monday Tuesday morning with 103 temperature. She was complaining of her back hurting. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she has...

Welp, it is 6:27 am, Saturday, May 16th (but you already know that because the date and times show up on posts, duh!) and I am sitting here, pumping and thinking about how late I am going to be to work today. I just know that the first day is going to be difficult trying to get all of the timing down. Lauren hasn't woken up yet and so I haven't been able to feed her. I set my alarm for a decent time but thought that I would already be awake feeding Lauren since she has never slept past the time my alarm was set for. Not the case; I woke up and she was still snoozing in her little swaddle blanket in her bed. She was stirring but I decided to go ahead and pump since it is faster than feeding her and I am already running short on time. I really hope that I am not too late because that would suck being late my first day back. I guess I can only do so much and I will time it better next time. So, I have all of the frozen milk packets set out to thaw and there is a bottle warm...

My sweet baby girl is 2 months old!!! She is such a joy as is my first born! I love my girls. We went to the doctor today and Lauren is healthy as can be! She weighed 12 lbs, 6 oz (80th percentile) and was 23.5 inches long (90th percentile)! She is a big girl but that is expected...she came out big! =) She has an umbilical hernia but Dr. Hull said she will likely outgrow it and it should correct itself but sometimes it takes several years. Basically her belly button looks kinda funny. She screamed the ENTIRE time we were at the doctor's office. It wasn't very pleasant and it had the doctor feeling kinda sorry for me! We go back for another checkup on July 9th which is 4 days before our pedi will have a c-section to deliver her 2nd baby!! So, have I ever told you how much we LOVE our pediatrician!?? Well, I DO! Life is rocking right along for us. Brice started his new job on Tuesday and seems to like it pretty well. I think he feels pretty important which is alway...

...and I don't mean in a good way. First of all, last night Rachel got up at 3:00 and decided that she didn't want to go back to sleep. She was up until 4:00. Lauren got up at 4:30 to eat. After feeding her, pumping, etc, I was back to bed at 5:30. Rachel was up at 8:00 and actually I was 30 minutes past needing to feed Lauren anyway. So, my only hope for the day was the anticipation of a nap. Lauren woke up in a good mood and was fine until about noon. Everything went down hill from there. Brice did a little shopping this morning and then we ate lunch and I put Rachel down for a nap. She slept for MAYBE an hour...MAYBE. This is my child who takes 2 1/2-3 hour naps...when she slept fine the night before. I tried to feed Lauren and put her down for a nap...she was protesting the breast...why, not sure!! Yesterday she had some diarrhea but I think it was from me taking the Fenugreek...or perhaps, Cipro...not sure. So, I quit taking the Fenugreek thinking that my mil...

I couldn't resist the title of this post. We are back in business. My milk supply is sufficient for the nursing baby in my life! It isn't back to what it was but it is better...we didn't even supplement with any expressed milk yesterday...it was all me! =) I am not sure if it was the marathon feeding/pumping day or the fenugreek or both but we are doing good again. I can tell it isn't what it was prior to the illness because I am not pumping as much as I used to after feedings. I only pump after the early morning feeding because I am usually so engorged but I wasn't this morning. O'well...as long as she is getting enough during each feeding...that's all that matters. I am happy. We are planning a trip to the zoo on Friday! YAY!

I am working like a crazy woman to get my milk supply back up. After being sick and not eating for 2 days it has decreased really bad. Yesterday (it is 2:00 in the morning) was marathon feeding/pumping. I fed Lauren every 2 hours and pumped right behind it in order to get my body to produce more milk. I ate just about all day long and drank a lot of water. I also went and got some Fenugreek to boost supply...it tastes like maple syrup...but not as good. Anyway, I am going to take that tomorrow and continue the supply/demand and if it doesn't work, Dr. Parrill's nurse said that she could call in some Reglan. I am hoping this works because I really don't want to take any prescription medication for it. I also set my timer to wake up and pump during the night (why I am up right now). Lauren is still asleep and I didn't want to wake her but I did want my body to continue producing milk. I won't get up again until she wakes me...this time getting up was hard es...

Neither of the girls have the flu! We visited the pediatrician today and both of the girls tested negative. That is great news! I guess I am the only sicko in our house!! Brice has no symptoms at all....yeah! After thought, discussion with the husband, research and talking with my nurse friend I have decided to not take the Tamiflu. The benefits are that is decreases flu symptoms and the main side effect is nausea and diarrhea. The only symptoms I am having is nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and some weakness...feeling run down and tired. So, I can live with feeling tired and if the medicine is going to make my other symptoms worse, I decided that it wasn't work it to quit breastfeeding. My supply has already decreased over the past couple of days just because I haven't been eating and drinking well and I was dehydrated. I will be pumping and feeding like a crazy woman over the next few days until my appetite is back to normal and I am off the antibiotic which is supposed ...

I haven't blogged in a couple of days because I have been ill! I was so sick yesterday...woke up at 2:30 throwing up. My first thought was that I caught what Rachel had. The only difference, that I could tell, was that Rachel's was over very quickly. After she was done throwing up, she starting eating little things and did not act sick AT ALL! She never had a fever or anything. Well, when I took my temperature yesterday it was 101.8. After laying in bed all day and just feeling lousy, I decided to go to the ER. Now, I work in the ER and I would not normally go for nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea but I have a 7 week at home and I am breastfeeding. My biggest fear was that I would get dehydrated and my milk supply would diminish. So, I went. My pulse rate was 131 which clearly indicated that, yes, I was dehydrated. So, they gave me two liters of fluid and some Zofran to help with the nausea. I complained of a headache which I had all day and he wanted to retake my tem...

I knew that I wouldn't go Rachel's entire childhood without her getting a tummy bug but I certainly would have preferred it to happen AFTER Lauren gets a little bigger. Last night we had a rough night. It began at about 11:00 when Rachel started SCREAMING from her bedroom. I was feeding Lauren and so Brice attended to her. I saw the light in the hallway on and I heard her talking but I wasn't sure what was going on. Rachel has been having a hard time going to bed but I knew she was tired last night and didn't figure she would give us any problems. So...Brice comes in the bedroom and tells me that she just threw up her entire dinner. Rachel has never thrown up before. She was a HORRIBLE spitter as a baby but has never actually thrown up. So, I went in to check on her and she was laying down and trying to go back to sleep. I held her and cuddled for a little while a little leary as I didn't want to catch whatever this is and especially didn't want to pas...