Sickness #2

We just got back from the doctor. I had to take off early because Ethan has been snotty and congested and it has gotten worse. We suction his nose all day long and he's been sleeping with a humidifier but it hasn't seemed to help much. Good thing he isn't addicted to paci's or night time might equal less sleep. He can't breath through his nose. I didn't know if I was just being an anal first time mom, but I wanted to take him to the Dr. because we've tried everything and he seems to be getting worse. Well he has a bacterial infection in his sinuses. His sinuses are very small because he's an infant, but the doctor said his nose is all swollen in the inside and all his snot and mucus is causing infection and inflamation. So he is starting an antibiotic today and will hopefully be getting better soon. I can deal with a sick baby, but not when they look at you and you can just tell they don't feel good. The past two days he's been so sad looking. Hopefully this winter won't be a sick one for him, because he's been real healthy overall since he's been born. He got the flu shot, so we'll see. Off to go wipe his nose because I just heard him sneeze and lately sneeze=LOTS OF SNOT! (Sorry to gross you out!)

I'm in love!

ELF PARTY

Tonight we went over to our friend's house to watch ELF. This is the 3rd annual ELF party if I remember correctly. Last year I was very pregnant and I remember watching all the kids playing and thinking of how this year would be different.... and it was! Ethan was crawling around and we even dressed him for the occasion. (Thanks grammy and papa for the cute outfit) We enjoyed hanging out with our friends Chip and Christy and their daughters Anna Kate and Emily. We also loved spending time with Jamie and Stacy and their son Nate as well as Jen and Jason and their daughters Claire and Ava. It was a full house! We ate pizza and yummy sweet treats and enjoyed watching our families interact. If you haven't seen ELF yet, you need to! It is quite funny.

I think I found a potential Christmas gift for Ethan- he LOVED this book!
Pictured left to right: Ethan, Nate, Emily, Anna Kate, Claire, and Ava. Note sweet little Anna Kate is a month older than Ethan, but she is quite petite. Nate is almost 2 and Emily, Claire and Ava are almost 3.
Our little elf
Claire enjoying the movie from the toy basket.

17 hours and counting

I've now been awake for 17 hours and needless to say I am heading to bed very soon! I wanted to post some pictures of Ethan's latest and greatest. We had a good lunch with my parents. They made us Thanksgiving leftovers. There is nothing better than turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving! We also had a great visit with Ethan's Great Granddaddy who turned 90 today. We are so blessed with such wonderful family! Praise the Lord.

Thanksgiving day with Grandmother
Granddaddy's 90th birthday
Grandmama loves Ethan!
I cannot believe how old Ethan looks in this picture-his first time playing with a car and he loved it-thanks Erin for the cute shirt!
Random picture of Ethan discovering his shadow- he talked to the wall for 20 minutes!
Yum-nothing like sticks of processed meat from a jar!
"I LOVE MY TURKEY STICKS!"
Tupperware fun- I have to say that daddy staged this picture.
Now here's my ham playing!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I LOVE Thanksgiving and Christmas time. The next two months will be filled with great times with family and friends. We will eat, drink (sweet tea), and be merry! Yesterday we drove to Rocky Mount to spend the day with Matt's mom's family. We had a great time of catching up with family and it was BEAUTIFUL! This morning my mom and I were up shopping with all of the other nuts at 4:00a.m.! WE LOVE IT! We love having fun together and getting great deals. We were done shopping by 8:00 a.m. This afternoon we are driving about 2 hours to go visit Matt's Granddaddy who is turning 90 today! Sunday we will be going to the 3rd annual ELF party with some friends of ours. We all get together and watch the movie ELF, although now it consists of watching our children run and crawl around while ELF plays in the background! Before I know it this weekend will be gone! We're trying to figure out how to decorate with having a child now. I know my sister-in-law put a baby gate around her tree when her son was young. But not sure what we're going to do. Ethan is such a beast, he might just pull the whole gate down! HA! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Take time to stop and reflect on your life and Thank God for all your blessings! Because we truly don't deserve any of it!

:(

It was inevitable. With a brick fireplace and a mobile baby boy, we knew he would get hurt sooner or later. I was just hoping it would be later. Tonight he was crawling towards the fireplace and I went to stop him before he would get hurt and bam... he hit his head on the brick. He started screaming and crying and it immediately swole up and bruised a little. Matt and I were frantically deciding what to do. We grabbed ice and watched him. After a quick call to my mom and asking her advice, we think he'll be ok. It still made my heart sink. I hate that I can't put him in a bubble and keep him safe the rest of his life. This little thing reminded me to pray for him more often and his future. I know that God never promised us that bad things wouldn't happen, but I just need to let go and entrust Ethan to Him.
On a lighter note, if it bruises bad, i'll definitely get a picture to post. I have his whole life on camera, so no worries! ha ha.

18 months old

Today my son has been alive for as much time outside of my stomach as he was inside of my stomach. The past 18 months have been life changing for Matt and I. I praise the Lord for his work in our family's life! On Father's day 2006 we found out that we were going to be parents! It was an exciting day because we didn't know if we would be able to conceive children because of past medical procedures. I woke Matt up at 3:30a.m. to tell him I was pregnant after taking a test, we then drove to Walmart at 4:00a.m. to buy another test to be sure. My pregnancy (although filled with a trip to the hospital in the beginning, gestational diabetes, and finding out I had a blod clotting disorder) was a GREAT one! I LOVED being pregnant. Praise the Lord for creating our bodies in ways that we can feel our precious baby growing inside us before they ever come into our world. The little hiccups and the not-so-little kicks are amazing! I could tell early on that my boy was going to be strong and big. He always measured 3-4 weeks bigger than he was supposed to be in my stomach. A blessing in disguise was that due to my blod clotting disorder, I had to have ultra sounds monthly to make sure a clot was not in the placenta or the umbilical cord. I LOVED having this because we got to see him grow every month! We were happy to find out that we were having a boy.

The day Ethan was born was unexpected. Because of his large size my doctor's highly recommended that I have a C-section. So we scheduled a c-section for the 19th of February although his due date was the 24th. I went in for a check up on Friday the 16th and found out I was in "labor". Because I had braxton hicks contractions so frequently, I didn't think anything of the contractions that were being read on the screen. The Dr. informed me that I was having contractions every 6 minutes and she wanted to check my cervix. Lo' and behold I was 4 centimeters dialated and had no clue! I was sent immediately to labor and delivery. I called my husband who was at work to tell him I was in labor. He thought I was joking, but after repeating it again, he knew I was serious! I LOVED hearing the excitement in his voice! Today was the day we would be meeting our baby boy! He made it to the hospital in record timing. I was sent to the triage like area. Apparently everybody picked that day to have a baby because the hospital was SO busy they were delivering babies in the pediatrics ward and even some ICU rooms! I went in at 11:30a.m.. Family came to the hospital waiting in excitement! I remember hearing the poor girl next to me who was yelling during contractions. I remember laughing in my heart and praising God that I wasn't going through that! We found out that they were going to be performing my c-section around 4:30p.m.. Because the hospital was so busy they didn't have a room for me, so they were waiting for some to clear out. I didn't mind. The afternoon quickly went by and they came to prepare me for surgery. Matt walked along my bedside until we entered the operating room. I remember laying there and them walking me through hallways and hallways feeling like we were going to a secret room or something. It seemed like it took forever, as soon as we got to the door, I kissed Matt goodbye. The doctors wanted to get me stabilized and get my spinal block done and the curtain up before Matt could come sit by me. As soon as I was rolled through the door, I remember the cool air hitting me. I felt like I was in a movie where I was greeted by like 8 people, I could only see their eyes because of the operating masks. I loved seeing their eyes smiling. I felt like mine was the first baby they were ever going to deliver because they just all had a happy demeanor. I got my spinal block and immediately my legs went numb. They laid me out on the table and I could feel them move my legs and cover me in blankets. As soon as they got me stabilized I heard them tell Matt it was ok to come in. He sat by my head and held my hand. It was strange to feel all sorts of tugging and hearing certain sounds, but not feeling the pain at all. They told me that I might feel some pressure and before I could even think about it, they had brought my sweet precious baby into this world. I heard suctioning and then a loud cry! Here was our 9 lb 5 oz, 21 inch long baby! Matt and I just looked at each other, told each other we loved each other and the tears began to flow from both of us! Matt got to take Ethan and hold him up to me. I barely got to see him before they wanted to carry him to the nursery. Later I found out that he was having some hard time breathing although his apgar score was a 9! Matt kissed me and left the room while they sewed me up. It all happened so fast! Now I was officially a mommy and I remember excitement and nervousness sweeping over my heart!

It took me and Ethan a while to recover. Because he was in a body that had high blood sugar a lot, he was dependant on me. When he was born his blood sugar dropped and he needed to be fed a few bottles of the glucose water. My legs weren't regaining feeling as fast as was expected so although he was born at 5:10p.m, I did not get to hold or see him until around 9:30 that night. I kept telling Matt that I wanted to be the first to hold him. The family got to watch Ethan being washed and fed the glucose bottles. We knew he was going to have a content personality when he didn't scream and cry during or after his bath. My heart skipped a beat when I heard the door open and they rolled my sweet baby into the room. He was swaddled in a baby blanket and had a yellow warm baby cap on. Here was the pride and joy of our hearts!

The next 2 days seemed to go by quickly. My recovery room was on the pediatric floor because the maternity ward was full. I was up and walking the next day which truly helped with my recovery. We even left the hospital a day earlier than expected because we were ready to get home with our son! I remember sitting in the backseat and holding onto his carseat like a hawk protecting her babies. Matt has never gone the speed limit until that day, ha ha! We had precious cargo to care for!!! Life hasn't been the same since that day! I just never fully realized how much I could love someone the way I do when I look at him. Matt and I are so proud of our baby boy! He is such a happy and sweet little guy. There's so much I could say about Ethan. My mind just can't even grasp the fact that if I love this little person SO much, how much MORE does the God of this universe love us?! Having a child is a blessing and I pray that Matt and I would raise him up knowing and learning about the God who loves us. Happy 9 months, son! I pray and hope that I will get to experience this feeling again...but maybe in a few years ;)

Dental Hygiene

I talked before about my son brushing his teeth so I wanted to post some pictures of my boy in action. He LOVES it! It still amazes me that he went from having 3 teeth to having 6! He has another on the way. Once their teeth start coming in they come in full force!

Shocking kiss

You know it is winter time when there is static in the air. Well as I was leaving for CPR training tonight I went to give my husband a kiss on the lips and we both shocked each other. It was a loud zap and it was so shocking that it made my eyes water! I knew our relationship was electric, but not THAT electric ;)

Sunday night

It's Sunday night and I feel like my husband and I are just now resting for the weekend. Friday night we had a staff dinner for church. We then left early Saturday morning to drive down to Charlotte to visit my brother and his family. We were there all day and had our yummy Thanksgiving dinner with them since they are spending the real Thanksgiving date with my sister-in-laws parents. I enjoyed playing with my 2.5 year old niece and snuggling with my other precious 2 month old niece. We put Ethan in the car after his bottle at 8:00p.m. that night and drove back home. We went to church this morning, out to lunch with a couple from church, then i've been cleaning and doing laundry all afternoon. Ethan was in rare form this evening. He was SO fussy for him. He hasn't been like this ever. It wasn't all that bad, it was just constant whining. Nothing would make him happy. Well one thing eventually made him happy...brushing his teeth! He loves it when we brush his teeth, then we give him the brush to chew on so he can brush his own teeth. So anyhow, all that to say, I feel like i'm just now resting and I have to get up again tomorrow to start the work week all over again. Oh well, such is life! I praise God for family and a job because that means I am blessed with love and His provision!
Other fun news, I am really getting into running. My running partner and I have started running 4 mornings a week. Last week I strained my calf muscle so i've been resting it and I almost hate not running because I feel like I will be behind when I start again this coming week. One thing I would like for Christmas is new nice running shoes. You really have to get good shoes if you're going to run. I am finding this out very quickly. I am debating on trying to run a half marithon next year. I mean I would love to do it for many reasons: lose weight, stay in shape, bragging rights, ha ha. But I want to be realistic and know that it is going to be really hard. So we'll see. Well I am getting sleepy and might head to bed soon. I know i'm not blogging as much as I used to, but i'm not at home that much anymore. I have to admit that it has been hard reading all my friend's blogs who are stay-at-home moms because I really miss that. But I know this is where God wants our family right now and knowing that my husband gets to have precious time with our son like I did the first 8 months makes me really happy! Off to bed!

My son's two new best friends

So Ethan has made 2 friends that he loves. They play with him and make him happy. He laughs and smiles at them an enjoys their company. Let me introduce you to mr. door stopper and mr. toe! Ethan has discovered our door stopper and LOVES to play with it. He hits it and watches it go back and forth and smiles at it. I got video of him doing that for a long time. Then he's always played with his feet but he has socks on or footie Pj's on a lot. Well today he was barefoot and I was changing his diaper and he started sucking on his big toe!!!! He latched on and sucked on it with vigor. I just laughed. I had to put his paci in his mouth, after taking pictures of course, because he would have sucked his toenail off if I let him! It was so funny! He is developing such a little personality. He is so sweet and loves to snuggle and smile and "talk" to us but at the same time he is a tough boy! He is so strong and loves to crawl and stand so I know he will be active. I hope he turns out like his daddy!

Dollar Tree- Holla!

OMG! (Sorry, had to write that) I just got back from the dollar tree and i'm in love! The daycare I work for allows us a $30 a month budget. Well how much can you get for $30 these days?! Well if you go to the dollar tree you can get about 27 items!!!!! I got water color paint, packs of paint brushes, crayons, scissors, packs of pencils, pencil sharpeners, plastic bins, chalk, and so much more! It is pefect for kids toys and school supplies. There are workbooks, flash cards, toys and things that are so much cheaper than Walmart and Target and is the same quality. Now i'm not saying that everything in the store is high quality, but I am definitely not the dollar tree snob I used to be! I will definitely be going back!
p.s. I lowered Ethan's crib to the lowest setting, I was just picturing him standing up and tumbling over the rail and that can not happen to my baby! He's growing TOO FAST TOO QUICK!

A whole new ball game

Now that my son is mobile it is a whole new ball game. He is crawling a lot and pulling up on furniture. I looked away for a second while I was putting dishes away and he had crawled over to our fire place and was pulling himself up onto the brick! We just can't leave him in the living room to play while we walk into the next room for a minute like we used to. I love the fact that we can sit on the floor and he will crawl over to us and climb in our lap! I can't wait for the day that he comes running up to me yelling with excitement, "mommy!" I know that day is coming soon! He also is a teething maniac. He is getting 3 teeth on the top now! One day he has 3 on the bottom, within a week he has 3 on the top, totaling 6 teeth! I think they've all come through now, except maybe one that is right below the surface! No wonder he's been waking up a night some, because his mouth is in full speed producing teeth! Here are some pictures of our crawler going through his tunnel and pictures of him "napping". Let's just say I walked into the room to check on him thinking he was asleep and this is what I saw! Looks like I need to drop the crib on the lowest setting for sure.

Ethan's first halloween

Yesterday was a fun day. We decided to dress Ethan up (Thanks Stacy for the costume!) and take him out with his cousin Jackson. Ethan was a giraffe and Jackson made a great dragon. We had fun trick or treating with him and then we stopped by my parents house for a surprise visit. I am going to have another photo shoot with Ethan in his costume, but here are some pictures for now.
When I got home from work today and got Ethan up from his nap I was changing his diaper and noticed that he is getting 2 teeth up top! One of the middle ones has already come through and the one next to it is right there too! He is growing up TOO FAST! I love him so much and he is just changing and growing so quickly. We are really enjoying him and love him more than ever thought possible. He is pulling up on furniture and LOVES to stand. It is so fun to see him discover new things. I just never imagined loving a child like this and I praise God for him and my family!