Or in my case, having a baby around!

I was looking at my calendar today and had to take a step back. I know it is not already October? It cannot be! I thought we just started this year! Three more months and this year will be over and done with! Ahhhhhhh!

The weather has notice (finally) how late it is in the year and now it is starting to get cooler! Last two days I actually had to put on a jacket! It also has been raining on and off so our grass is green! Fall is my favorite season plus my favorite holiday is coming up! Thanksgiving!!! You thought I was going to say Christmas eh? :) 

    

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday since I was very little. I love the smell of food baking in the kitchen, the wind blowing the golden leaves outside, my dad yelling at the TV because his sport team made a bad move. 

This year we get to share it with our sweet boy! He will still just get milk but I am sure he will enjoy the holiday as well! I am still planning on what he will wear that day!

So what have we been up to? Last Friday Matthew and I went on a date. I am discovering how annoying it is to try and eat out when you have to avoid a certain food or in my case a whole food group. 

On our date we ate out then went to the movies and saw Hotel Transylvania! We really did not expect that movie to be as funny as it was but Matthew and I were rolling in our seats the whole time!

Matthew and I were shocked at how many parents had their little ones at the movie theater at 11 o'clock at night! There was even a tiny baby in front of us! I know we would never have our babies out that late! 

Our parents watched Samuel for us, after him not sleeping all day and being cranky because of it, Samuel slept the whole five hours were were gone! He slept until we brought him home! I wished I knew that he would just sleep the whole time because then I would have not bothered to pack anything for him! It would have made leaving much easier and quicker!

Saturday Matthew and I went shopping all day and we got presents for Samuel's grandparents.

(Picture below is us at a deli on Saturday, see the blonde kid in the mirror? He got all excited about seeing a baby and then his parents were asking if he would like a baby too ;)   )

The presents are thank-you presents for watching him for us. We got them three pictures (the first picture of this blog is one of them and the others are below) with picture frames. I have to say the one of my Mom and Samuel made me laugh! They turned out pretty good I think!

On Monday (yesterday) my Mom took Samuel and I out for the day to go dress shopping for Cherilyn's and Ben's wedding! Samuel and I took a nice nap in the car while my Mom visited a daycare center for her job. Samuel was up and fed by the time she got back. 

Then we went to Denny's for lunch. All the waitresses were talking to Samuel telling him what a good baby he was. I love when other people brag about their kids! You can really see how much they love their kids and it is too cute!

After that we went dress shopping! I tried on 20 dresses and finally found the one! It looks amazing on me! I am excited to try it on again soon! I shall have to post a picture later! 

Since it took a long time to find the dress we drove home from Waco to our house where Matthew was waiting for us.. He cooked some really yummy steaks! And that was our Monday!

Today I am on a cleaning frenzy while Samuel is taking a nice long nap. I love cleaning! Love a clean house and love when Samuel takes long naps ha ha ha. 

Later tonight we are going running! I am excited, we have not ran in two weeks! I am trying to get back down to my goal weight so I am starting to eat healthier and hopefully exercise more! 

See how blue my son's eyes are?! I hope they stay blue! They are the same color as his Papaw's, my dad's, eye color.

So that is what happened last week and yesterday. 

How is Samuel doing with his reflex and breast milk? Reflex wise he is still throwing up a lot. I forgot to give him his meds in the morning and he was throwing up a lot. Last night he soaked us while we watched TV! But screaming wise he is still has not done his pain crying! Whoot!

He is still trying to figure out this whole breast feeding but he is nursing half the time and the other half he is taking a bottle. I am hoping a visit from the lactation consultant will help us to only nurse!  

He he he, my son is doing the "duh!" face! Or Face palm.... he looks cute ha ha ha!

Well, I better get back to cleaning before my little guy wakes up! Hopefully Matthew will post soon! I keep on bugging him to post but he keeps on forgetting ;)

(Saturday, September 29th 2012.)

The title says it all! Our little boy went off of formula yesterday evening and he has had about 15 ounces of just breast milk! So far, so good. Only thing different we have notice is he has been more awake.... which is a good thing and a bad thing. It is always good to see your sweet baby smiling, even if it means waking up at 3am and staying up (bad for our sleep). 



*Update* 

Well, my baby woke up and I forgot to finish this blog entry! I call my forgetfulness my "Mommy moments". 

So Samuel has been on breast milk for 4 whole days now and so far he is doing fantastic! He has been more awake and more clingy to Matthew and I.
 I try putting him down and he cries but as soon as we pick him back up he is a happy camper.

A couple of people have commented that he looks like me her.e 

I think he at least looks like we are related to each other ; )

 On Sunday we went to Austin to shop at Costco. I have not been to a Costco in forever (since I lived in Washington State over 7 years ago). To say that it is confusing shopping place is an understatement! I had no idea where anything was and I could not tell what they had to offer because it seemed that you were on a manhunt the whole time! They did not have their aisles labeled other than it being aisle 1,2,3 ext.

I did notice that their prices were cheaper than our local food market and I like the fact that we could buy in bulk. We spent more than I wanted to but I think we saved some money. I had Samuel dressed as a pirate (see two photos up) and we got a ton of comments on his "I've got a loaded booty" saying on his butt. 

While we were there a little girl saw Samuel and scream "Baby, baby, baby!" and ran up to Samuel ( we were sitting down at the time) and gave him a hug. I thought it was rather cute and almost laughed when the father told her not to hug stranger's babies! Samuel seemed to enjoy the hug as well :)

Then we went to eat at a taco place. Samuel was giggling the whole time we were there. I know he will be labeled as the loud baby soon! Ha ha ha! We swear he can already say "mum" and "oh?". 

After that, we went to David's Bridal to look at dresses for Ben's and Cherilyn's wedding that is coming up soon! I found a dress that was pretty but it was not the one. I am trying to find a black dress with no bling on it (because it is Cherilyn's day to shine!), which is hard to do, I am finding out. Matthew said we shall try again in a couple of weeks without Samuel (gives me more time to loose weight!). We were the only people in the store because it was 10 mins till closing and the ladies were making pirate jokes because of Samuel. 

Our pirate fell asleep while waiting for us to finish up (Don't worry, his straps are loose because he is not in the car and we wanted him comfy for a moment) 

Over all our trip was very fun and I think it wore Samuel out because he went to bed at ten and stayed asleep till 7! Which I was so thankful for because I stayed up till 1 am. I was behind on my work and needed to catch up. I hope that him sleeping till 7 am stays a trend! Matthew and I need the extra sleep when we can get it!

Now onto today.... (this is what happens when you get stopped mid-blogged)


Samuel has been nursing for two days now! Ahhhhh! I am so happy! All I have to do is nurse him! No bottles, no pumps, no heating up milk or formula, no measuring, no crying baby while I am getting food ready. I just sat down and gave him straight from the tap! 

                       (Aren't my kid's feet cute?)


Just to let you all know, if you have not notice, I also use my blog spot as a journal for Samuel's reflex issues as well ;-)

So, today we are going to start mixing breast milk and formula together to see if we still get a happy baby. A couple of people suggested this to help ease Samuel back onto breast milk and to stretch the formula out a bit more to make sure he gets the least amount of dairy (if any is left in my system). We are going to try this for the next four days and I am hoping on Sunday evening he will have his first whole bottle of breast milk! 

Samuel has a doctors appointment on Tuesday and I hope I can report that his is back on breast milk and doing great! Also hoping my little guy is back on his growth chart! And have not gained too much weight since being on formula.  

I am so looking forward to not pumping as much! It really is a pain... have I complained about the pump in the last couple of blog posts? Ha ha ha. 

So far he had 3 ounces of breast milk and is still a happy camper. One of those ounces I gave to him without formula and he just closed his eyes as if to say: " This is the life". Glad he still has a thing for Momma's milk! 

One thing I hate about formula is the smelly baby poo's and farts! Breast milk fed babies usually don't have too smelly of poo/farts. Samuel has cleared the room many times since being on formula. Plus I really don't like the smell of formula either! Breast milk has a sweet smell to it formula has this weird dental smell to it. 

So that is the plan for now. Hoping it will work! Wish us luck?

It has been almost a week since we started the formula and let me tell you... Samuel has been a much happier baby! Today he did not scream once in pain! Our ears are also much happier since he is screaming less! Now all he does is a normal baby cry. The end of this week we are going to try breast milk again, I have been super diligent with my diet, I so hope it paid off! I am super excited to get him on breast milk again because life with formula has not been easy at all... plus I hate washing bottles! 

Like the Wii version of our son? (pokes above picture), that was when he was two weeks old! He now weighs around 12lbs. 

I am a milk making machine! I keep having this horrible nightmare that my milk will dry up but I did inventory on my freezer stash and I have over 80 ounces of milk in there! In a day and a half I pumped 36 ounces! Much better than 14 ounces a day so my pumping has been paying off. I am sure Samuel will love the fact that he gets more milk per nursing session.

Samuel is still spiting/throwing up still but not as often as he use to. I know this will never go away but the amount he was throwing up was crazy!! Poor little guy!

Today was his best day yet. He slept peacefully in his swing for a couple of hours then we played the rest of the day. I was glad it was a calm day because Matthew was off cutting wood so it was just Samuel and I for the day. 

Last week was pretty boring, just me taking care of Samuel. I am hoping once he gets bigger I will be more adventurous and go and do things with him. I think once we figure out this feeding issue we shall do it! 

A lot of people keep on asking if I miss being pregnant.... There are somethings I do miss, those sweet kicks, my belly occasionally... But, I am so glad not to be pregnant anymore! I love having my body back, I love that Samuel is here on the outside! I also love to be able to look down and see my toes again! 

When I was pregnant I had nightmares every night and so far (knock on wood) I have not had any bad dreams since Samuel has been born! The nightmares were so bad I woke up a couple of times crying! I also don't miss sleeping on my side with a body pillow! Matthew and I have so much more space on the bed since we put up the big old body pillow! I am sure if Matthew ever goes away, I shall use the body pillow to cuddle with... or just bring Samuel in the bed with me (because everyone knows Samuel will not go anywhere without his Mummy! ;-)  )

Another question people ask us if we want more kids in the future, I know I want more, Matthew wanted more before Samuel came, but now, not so sure ha ha ha! I have time to convince him that he wants more kids and this newborn phrase will sadly only last a little while. I know Matthew is afraid that he will hurt Samuel because he is so tiny but in a year or two I can see them both rough housing and rolling on the floor together!

The last question people wonder if we had any gender disappointments. We had none! I so wanted a boy and Matthew wanted a boy to be the eldest, to take care of his younger siblings. I knew Samuel was a boy from the moment I first saw him as a 10 week fetus! If we end up with all boys, I would be a happy Momma! But, if we do end up with a few girls I would be just as happy! If I could magically choose the amount of boys and the amount of girls we could have, I would choose three boys and a girl. The girl being the second youngest. I am scared to think of what might happen if we end up with Samuel and three girls! Ha ha ha! Just kidding, I am sure we would be very please with whatever God gives us! For now, we feel very blessed to have this little boy in our lives and call him our own!

Well, that is it for now! Ta ta! 

Cannot believe it has been two months since our baby boy has entered our lives! I could have sworn that I was just writing about being pregnant?! These last two months have been crazy! Both good and bad. Matthew and I are getting use to less sleep even though Samuel has been sleeping from 11pm-ish to 4:30 am-ish. I add the "ish" because as anyone knows babies tend to be all over the place with their sleeping schedule. He usually hits/misses these times by 30mins! 

I have been trying to come up with nicknames for Samuel. I usually call him Samuel-san. I blame hours of reading Manga for this nickname! I also tend to call him bud because he is just a bud trying to grow up. Matthew sometimes calls him Muel, like Emanuel but without the E.. Another nickname of his is Monkey because he has a ton... and I mean a ton of monkey stuff! I have no idea where all this monkey stuff came from, I never said.... I want him to have monkey but people just gave us monkey stuff! Which I do not mind one bit because being year of the monkey I tend to be fond of those little critters!

This post is going to be a bit picture heavy! I have not written a blog post in forever so thought to catch up on it!


Samuel got his two month shots last week. To say that I was a nervous wreck was an understatement! I almost cried leading up to the shots! I felt like I was giving them to him! I knew they are needed because of different illnesses so I just kept calm and held him as he got three shots and a drink. He loved the drink! Slurped it right down! The nurse said he would spit it out but he made sure not to spill a drop! Then came the three shots! She was super fast with them and he cried for a minuet then settle right down! I nursed him afterwards to help with the pain. The sweet nurse gave him a rattle that fits perfectly in his hand! He was super excited to have it and carried it out of the clinic then fell asleep with it!  

Bless his little heart! The next couple of days were no fun... he ran a low grade fever and was fussy. He got the shots on Tuesday (His two month birthday) and he was not himself again till Saturday. 

His reflex has gotten really bad... :(   (Super sad face!). He just screams in pain all day. We took him back to the doctors (because he lost weight within a couple of days) to do a weight check and talk about his reflex. The plan is to feed him some super hypoallergenic formula, in the mean time, I get rid of dairy out of my system so I can feed him breast milk again. I hate giving him formula but I also hate him being in pain! It makes me cry! Hopefully this will help him and we don't have to see a GI doctor. 

I have to say pumping every three hours, preparing formula and putting him down while I pump has not been easy! But I am just going to do this for two weeks then he will go back to breast milk! 

To say I am excited to nurse him again is an understatement! I have a calendar up and I am putting X's on the days that we have been on Formula. 

The first bottle of formula I had my mom give it to him while pumped/cried. Oh I hate pumping with a passion! I so give momma's who pumped the whole time a ton of credit! Plus bonus points! I don't know how they do it with other kids running around! 

I hate pumping so much I have a plan to stop diary when I am 7 months pregnant with our next little one so I don't have to do formula while dairy leaves my system.

Our Lactation Consultant, Terri, will help us to get him back to nurses when our two week trial is up. 

  

We started going to a new church, we got all dressed up, which has been a long time since I did, Matthew has worn his suit a couple of times since Samuel has been born. We all match! I match Samuel with his Daddy's dress shirt and my dress matched his jacket/pants. Samuel had a matching black diaper on but he got that dirty before we could take a picture. Hey, I know the diaper was a bit much but it was the first time we all matched!

Aren't we cute? :)


Some not baby news:

Like I said, we started to go to a new church, it has a cry room which is awesome for Samuel and I. It is almost like watching TV when we are in there. Only gone to the church once. I met a sweet lady who had a 3 month old name Rowen! Loved his name and he was a cutie pie. It was nice chatting with her.

Matthew and I are looking to move to Georgetown. Hopefully we stay there until Matthew is done with schooling. 

Matthew is still working a lot. Most days he does not come home till after 6:30 and he is gone by 5am the next day. I miss him and his helpfulness. Two nights during the week he has school so that means he is gone till 11 at night! Gah! These days I feel like a single parent      :(

My running has been going great! I was running a two miler at 30 mins now I am down to 23 mins! First mile I can run in 10 mins easily, second mile is the hard one and of course it does not help that the road we run on is super hilly!

I am going to try and start playing the piano again. I can only practice 3 times a week before or after we go running., We do not own a piano so using the parent. If I get good I shall post a video of me playing one of my favorite songs!! And maybe Benny ( my cousin, the one in the swimming pool) or I singing while I play ;-)

Matthew's and I favorite show is back on! We are HUGE Doctor Who fans!! We are so far still trying to figure out the theme for season 7. We think it has to do with the Doctor becoming more violent. We are so enjoying it being back on!


Well, I should go so this is not a super long post plus Samuel-san is up!

(Cake made by Matthew)


I've been craving cake so Matthew made me a super yummy cake! I sometimes feel like I am still pregnant because I get these food craving like I did when I was pregnant! 



Samuel is almost two months old (already!) and it seems like he has always meant to be in our lives. He was one of the pieces missing from our lives! Has the time gone by quickly these last two months? As the saying goes.... the year was short but the days are long! Oh we had some long days but I would not trade those two months for anything!

Samuel has indeed turn our lives upside down since he has been born. I feel like he has also taken over our house! There is not a room in our house that does not have a piece of Samuel in it. 

And yes I know the dishwasher is not a room but it was the only spot that was lit up at the moment! Samuel was sleeping and we had all the lights out.


So our little guy has been sleeping from 10:30pm (more closer to 11pm) to 4:30am! Go Samuel go! 

Matthew took this picture while Samuel and I were taking a nap. I love to cuddle with this guy! Almost as much as cuddling with Matthew. 

I have to go but I shall leave  you with this super cute picture of someone(s) else cuddling!

Why cannot I not be a Mom and still go towards my dreams?

Why should I not try and work harder so my little Samuel will see me as a great, successful person and not someone who did nothing with their life?

I want it all....

I want to be a runner and run marathons! I love running, it is one of my many passions. Why cannot I not be a mother and a runner?


I want it all.

I want to be a photographer. I want to freeze a life moment forever and be able to re-live that moment every time I look at that picture.

I want it all.

I want to go to college and become a vet. Something I dreamed about since I first saw what a vet did. I want to help save animals lives, to give people their animal back when they are at death door.

I want it all.

I want to be the best Mom I can be. I want to watch my little boy grow up into an amazing man and see him succeed on this earth. 

I want it ALL.

Raining days make me miss Washington state so much! I really enjoyed living there. People kept on saying how much they hated the rain and how much it rained there. But for me, I enjoyed sitting on my back porch in my hammock swing just watching the rain pour down. The rain made Washington such a beautiful state with all it greens, blue, yellows and many other colors that the rain bought with it. And the smell! Oh the smell! The rain smell made everything smell so fresh and clean! You just wanted to live outside and breathe in the fresh air! At least that is what I did. I really wish I was a running back in Washington, I would have loved to run in the rain!

Another great thing about raining days is it makes everyone sleepy and peaceful! 

Yesterday Samuel, Matthew and I went to a birthday party for my great aunt Maggie! It was nice seeing that side of the family. I wish I brought my swim suit because the water look fantastic! (My cousin Benny is showing us how nice the pool is)

The only down side to the party was it was really hot outside and I kept on getting bit by bugs! But over all we all had a blast!

Last Friday, My mom picked Samuel and I up so we could go see his doctor to get a picture of him and Samuel together! I really hope that Doctor Kwan will be around to deliver our next baby! 

Thank you Doctor Kwan for taking such good care of Samuel and I during our pregnancy! We really felt at ease in your care!

Labor day is coming up and I have to admit that I am so looking forward to having Matthew stay home and help out with Samuel for the three day weekend! Something I am not looking forward to is the nights Matthew goes to school and won't be coming home till late (very late) in the evening! I know him and I will both be very tired from our jobs! 

Darn, the rain stopped!

Samuel turned 6 weeks on Saturday! I cannot believe I had him six weeks ago!!! Time just flies by! I wish I had taken more pictures of him being a brand spankin new baby though! So I am making up for it by taking a ton of pictures of him everyday! 

Well, that is pretty much it for now.... I shall leave you all with Samuel's party outfit! Which he got dirty before we went to the party.

This is what I look forward to everyday, story time with my boys. 

We are reading the series "Magical Kingdom for Sale" By Terry Brooks

As Matthew reads the story I am usually bouncing, nursing, rocking (not all at once) a.k.a trying to put our Mister Samuel to sleep. If you are looking for a great book to read, pick up a copy of this book!

The book is about the lawyer, Ben Holiday, who lost his wife and kid to an accident. He has been trying to get back to a "normal" life for some time but then he finds an ad for a magical kingdom for sale that has castles, fairies, dragons and.... well, you shall have to read the series to find out more! 

I love that the way Terry Brooks writes that it just draws you into the book and he is so good about the details you feel like your watching a movie rather than reading a book! 

Saturday, Aug 11th, Samuel turned one month old! 

He looks a lot different than when we brought him home eh? my arms tell me that he has chunked up a whole lot.

Now that he is a month old is it getting easier? Yes and no. Now that he is older he is awake more, which means less sleep for me. I have also notice the last couple of days he has been a Momma's boy and will freak out if I am not near. How he knows I left him in a different room? Smell? Six sense? Who knows! So when he is down I have to stay near him or else he wakes right back up. 

He also decided recently that he hates being dirty, before he would be okay with being wet for a few mins, now he screams as soon as he is wet. I know this is my genes fault, I love to touch and feel everything and I notice he does as well. When I don't like a feeling, I kinda freak out. For an example; Matthew has these knife sharping blocks. I picked it up to put it away and I freaked out and dropped it. The feeling of it made my feeling senses go into shock, so much so that now I refuse to touch them Matthew finds this rather funny and leaves them where I might touch them by mistake.  

Other than those things he is a great baby! 

Matthew is getting more comfortable with handling Samuel

He really is great with him even though he sometimes thinks he is doing a bad job of handling him. Matthew has been a huge help with diaper changes, swaddling, holding him while I go potty and making us meals. At night he automatically gets up and changes him, swaddle him then hands Samuel to me to feed him. I sometimes have to tell him I can handle him and for him to go back to bed because he is getting up at 4 to go to work. I shall have to have him write a post about how his work is going and how he feels about Samuel's first month of life.

My Mom has been a huge help this past month. From watching him for a date night to coming over and cleaning our house. I know her and my Father are loving being grandparents! My grandparents are loving the fact that they have great grandchildren. 

I am doing good despite the lack of sleep. I am loving how much weight I am loosing. I don't know if it due to breast feeding or the fact that some days I cannot finish a meal without Samuel needing me. I was 175 the day I went into labor and at one month I am 142! Not bad I think! I am hoping to loose another 20lbs but I started out at 135. I am just glad my fat pregnancy face is finally going away! I retained so much water during my pregnancy! My doctor said he thought I was carrying around 15 litters of water! Dang!

It took about a month to finally feel normal, At 3 weeks I was finally able to walk around without hurting. I never imagine I would be that sore for that long after having a baby. I suppose it had to do with my size, I am what people call fun-size! Ha ha ha. 

Saturday, Aug 11th, Our friends threw us a meet the baby, baby shower. It was really nice to get out of the house and go hang out with our friends. We all had a blast and Samuel was very well behaved the whole time, I think it had to do with all the people holding him, he loves to be held. We got some really cute gifts! Samuel also got a suit! I cannot wait till he is big enough to wear it. I think he might wear it for Ms. Cheri's and Ben's wedding. 

Tomorrow Samuel and I are going on a road trip. We are getting to pick my Uncle Jr up from prison. He has been in there for over 20 years and he is finally getting out. It will be a very special time for us. I am so glad I am here to see him walk out as a free man! This will be the first time for him seeing Samuel as well. I have not visited my Uncle since 2011. I remember when we would come to Texas we would always see my Uncle Jr. We have pictures of me as a baby visiting him. I remember him always telling us to behave and never get into trouble because nothing is worth missing out on life. He had to miss out on a lot of life, he missed out on his parents growing old, marriages, births, holidays, so much! I will be sure to post pictures of the event later!

My Sister and Brother left to college. Jerome went to University of Alabama and my Sister, Gabby went to Columbia College in Missouri. I am super proud of them for going to college! I know I will miss them so much so we have to have lots of skype dates! It is hard to imagine that Samuel will be about 5 months old when they see him again. Children are a great way to see how much time has passed since you last saw each other.

I will be going back to college in the spring to finish up my agriculture degree then we shall see where I go from there. I am hoping to not put Samuel into day-care so I am trying to juggle my schedule with my parents schedule. Day-cares scares me ha ha ha.

My plan for now is to be a full-time mommy! I love that I get the opportunity to do this! I know so many moms have to work and they would rather stay home and be with their babies. 

Well, I better go and eat something before my sweet baby wakes up and wants some food as well. 

Ta ta for now!