Sunday, January 15, 2012

Weekend Recap And a Thank You


Guys,
Thank you so much for your comments on my last post (especially you, Cathi, YOU COMMENTED!!! :) We've tried a lot of those ideas already (using a timer, or an alarm clock, etc.) We're going to just keep experimenting and see what works. I do so cherish that alone time, so there will be SOME form of quiet time in his own room by himself. Even if it requires wailing and gnashing of teeth to get there. B isn't a compliant kid, but he isn't strong willed either, he's right in the middle. So we'll see! I'll try to remember to give a nap time up date in a few months to let y'all know what worked.

Friday morning, we drove to Corsicana, TX to visit friends of ours who recently moved out there for a new job. We know what it's like to move to a new city and to be away from friends and family. We just wanted to hang out and encourage them. We had a great time! Ate some pizza hut, watched the boys play, walked around downtown Corsicana (yes, there is a downtown :) and hung out. Here is Will and Brennan at a little park they had:


We came back Saturday after lunch, stopped at HEB for some groceries, ran home and I took off for a girls night with our life group at The Met. We went to Sam Moon, a sweeeeet jewelry/purse/shoe store in The Woodlands (Mom and Mom A, we're totally going to go there when you come visit). Then out to dinner and some window shopping at Market Street. It was a blessing to get in some girl time before la bebe arrives.

It's now bright and early Sunday morning and after church today, we have 45 tech art volunteers and families coming over to our place for lunch. Where are those 45 people going to sit? I have no idea. This shall be interesting. :) I have a house to clean, clothes to unpack, and chili to cook, so I guess that means I need to get off this thing. Just wanted to thank you all for your comments!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

I need your advice!

I kind of really hate it when people give out advice online. When it's not asked for. However, I'm asking!! So if you're a mom or dad, please respond! Here it is:

-What age did your child stop napping?
-How did you deal with the transition? (i.e. they stop napping yet are exhausted by 6pm)
-Did you continue to enforce "room time"?

Here's the scoop: Brennan will be 3 next month. I understand that 3 is an age a lot of kids stop napping. I also understand that each child is so different. Some kiddos (myself included) neeeed lots of sleep. I would come home from kindergarten and ask to take a nap (understand why having a newborn is hard for me? :) Some kiddos don't need much sleep at all. So there is no stead fast rule. I get that. I also understand that each parent has a different parenting style. Some of us are a little bit more laid back than others. Jon and I are figuring out our own parenting style and that's okay. Just wondering what your babies did, how you dealt with it, etc. And please word it in a kind way, if anyone's comment's sound as if "this is the only way to parent", I shall delete it. mmmkay? :) Thank you THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Love,
Two first time parents who are fighting the nap time fight.
XO

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Nesting?

Jon had all of last week off. It was so wonderful. We were both in the "get stuff done" mode and really feel like we accomplished a lot! Since moving from our house in Lansing, to an apartment, to a rental, to our new house, things got a little disorganized. To say the least. And it takes time to make a house your HOME, which I have to keep reminding myself. So having some time off together and possibly nesting for little babes arrival, it was a great time to ORGANIZE! And now I'm kind of addicted to organizing things. It feels so good to have a place for everything! And also, side note, I love the Container Store.

First off, we were putting all our shoes on the floor of the laundry room. Which created clutter, and meant you had to walk through shoes to get to the washing machine, it's not a large room. So my amazing hubby made a bench that I posted a while ago, and the plan was to put our shoes in the bottom of it. So I looked around and actually The Container Store had cheaper bins than other places. I wanted wicker, or something more solid than canvas bins because I knew they'd get dirty and kind of beat up with shoes inside. I bought some sweet wicker baskets, but unfortunately, when Jon made the bench, one of the cubby holes is about .25 of an inch less than 12 inches, so one of the baskets didn't fit. But we went back and ended up with this solution:

Here's the link to the baskets we bought. They are bendable enough to fit into the space and durable enough to hold our shoes.

We also have a fairly small pantry in our new house. I just pulled out all our bottles and bibs and such and realized we needed more storage space in the kitchen. We went to Walmart the day after Christmas to get new tires on our car and had a ball looking at post Christmas clearance deals. We found a great pantry system (not on sale, unfortunately) and decided to try it out. It worked great and freed up a lot of space in our pantry for bottles and baby supplies. I'm hoping to go back to Wally World and buy one for the second door. It mainly holds spices and cooking oils.


Last week, we also attempted to shop at Re:Store, but it was closed for the holidays. But we stumbled upon a huge, run down thrift store right down the road from it. It blasted Mexican music and was kind of rough on the outside, but we found a great deal! There were pull out drawers for cabinets that we scored for $6.00. We wanted to put them in the kitchen but the drawers were too wide, so we put them in our master bathroom cabinets.



The bottom of our cabinets were kind of a mess (kind of is relative. they were really a mess). So now they feel much more organized and it's easier to see what's down there now that we can pull out the drawers.

Lastly (whew), we organized some bins we had in the office. They held lots of tapes and dvd's from Jon's various side jobs. We were able to sort through them and put most of that stuff in his closet for storage. So now we have a bin for craft supplies for Brennan, a bin for miscellaneous camera and computer cords, a bin for his current side jobs and an empty bin, just waiting to be filled. :) The rest of the bookshelf needs to get organized, but for now, I'm going to drink a diet coke and relax. Adios!


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Gestational Diabetes



Before we left on our vacation to Michigan for Thanksgiving, I took the 1 hour glucose test and failed it. No biggie, I figured, a lot of people fail it and pass the 3 hour test. So at 30 weeks (two weeks later than I should have due to the trip), I took the 3 hour test. And felt awful the whole time. Between wanting to puke and getting my blood drawn 4 separate times, I was ready to sprint out of that lab. And then I got the call the next day (while at MOPS), that I did indeed have gestational diabetes.

Basically, in women who have GD, hormones from the placenta block the action of the mother's insulin in her body (insulin resistance). This makes it harder for the mama to use the insulin. GD starts when your body isn't able to make (and use) enough insulin it needs. Without the insulin, the glucose cannot be changed to energy and builds up in the blood to high levels.

Now you know, should you ever need to. :) At first, I was STRESSED. Like, seriously stressed about it. Because my midwife wanted me to be monitored for two weeks by an endocrinologist to make sure I could control my blood sugar levels and if you remember, we are paying out of pocket for everything. I felt like we had gambled and lost. We gambled that we'd have a normal, healthy pregnancy and that no crazy high expenses would arise.

Thankfully, we were able to convince my midwife that I didn't need to be monitored and that I was confident I could do it on my own. A nurse came to our house and taught me how to take my blood sugar four times a day with a glucometer and what my new diet would consist of. My midwife (so far) as been really happy with how I'm doing and how low I'm keeping my sugars. Whew. I was praying I wouldn't have to go on insulin, that I'd be able to control it by diet alone.

But honestly? I truly see this diagnosis as a blessing. A huge blessing. It's forcing me to eat healthy. To be conscious of what I eat (especially during the holidays). I haven't gained one pound since I was diagnosed. I'm sure I will as the baby gets larger towards the end, but right now, I'm encouraged! The diet is like, super duper strict. So that's hard, but I have snuck a few double dipped chocolate covered peanuts from the south bend chocolate company here and there and it hasn't effected anything so that's good. :)

So maybe you'll get some bad news in the 2012. But maybe that bad news will end up being a blessing to you. God is good. Stay encouraged.



35 weeks. St. Anthony Hotel- San Antonio, TX