5 Months Old

While we were in MS Bo turned 5 months old, I cannot believe it!! Also while we were gone he rolled over from back to tummy for the first time. Mom and I actually watched him on the monitor as he did it. It was midnight, but that didn't stop me from calling daddy to tell him! I had forgotten he was getting up at 4:00am for a flight to LA, oops! He's knocking out baby food so far he loves everything...green beans are his favorite. He also likes peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, turkey, and chicken. I think the meats may be upsetting his reflux so we're probably going to hold off on those for a little longer. According to our scale, which isn't a true weighing, but we think he's about 17.4 lbs and getting bigger by the minute. It's funny while I was home I pulled out my baby book to see when I did things like got my first tooth, crawled, etc... Under comments it said "loves to sit up and look at what's going on, loves people, and when music is on will bounce up and down, especially in the johnny jump up". I felt like I was reading a description about Bo. It's so funny how he truly is my child!! I also must add that I found some of my baby pictures where my expressions look identical to some of Bo's. He may look more like daddy, but he definitely has me in there too!

Bo's First Trip

Bo's First Trip

Well we made it back from MS late Wednesday night. Our trip was wonderful! It was so hard to leave. The trip started with daddy helping us to the gate at the airport. Jarrod was able to get an "escort" pass which was great because the Austin airport was very busy and it would have been hard for me to do it on my own. Bo did wonderful on the flights, everyone commented on what a great baby he was. I was very lucky and sat next to a new dad, a grandmother, and a mom and her 13 month old on the different flights. I knew that if he did have a meltdown they would all understand!

Once we got to my parent's house Bo was ready to play he didn't realize it was 12:00AM! My parent's were so excited to see him so I think we all stayed up until 1:00am, oh well I quickly learned baby's schedules don't work on vacation! Since he's the first grandchild my parents don't have names yet so I think we're going to try Pop and BeBe, until they change their mind again.

We were so busy our entire stay. Bo got to meet so many people, every day we were introducing him to someone new and of course they all thought he was adorable!! We had sushi with Uncle Barney and Emily, lunch with my friends John, Neeli, and their new baby Jamison, we went swimming a few times, cooked out at my brother's one night, had family over for dinner at my parent's house, took Bo to where my mother works to show him to everyone there, took him to all the neighbors, and then to my grandmother's neighbors! We didn't stop!!! Bo absolutely loved everyone and did great with all of the new people. He definitely takes after mommy being a little social butterfly!

The best part was to watch my parents with him! It's so amazing to watch your parents become grandparents. My aunt once said "You love your children, but you're in love with your grandchildren" and my mom will tell you that's exactly true. When we first got off the plane mom was already in tears she was so excited to see him...I don't think I even got a hug!! She fed him every meal, every bottle, changed his diapers, helped with baths, got him dressed, played with him, would watch him on the monitor while he slept, watched Sesame Street with him...didn't leave his side. My dad was the same way! I was like...who are these people??? It's amazing what a grandchild will bring out in someone. They have that deep down, gut wrenching, I would give my life for you love for him. Friday night mom was rocking him to sleep and she started crying so I asked what was wrong and she said she didn't want us to leave (we didn't leave until Wednesday)! So after 3 nights of watching that I started putting him to bed. Wednesday was one of the hardest days ever. My mom was devastated when it was time to leave, as was I. Thank you Pop and BeBe for a wonderful stay, we love you both so much. Thank you too for all the clothes and cute books (my child would have no clothes if it weren't for my mom constantly shopping for him). We miss you already!!

Father's Day Poem

A few people have asked me to post the Father's Day poem that I did for Jarrod. I found it on the internet, not sure who wrote it.

Footprints

“Walk a little slower daddy,” said a child so
small. “I’m following in your footsteps
and I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they’re hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grown up,
You’re what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you.”

And we're off...

Bo and I leave tonight for MS! This will be his first trip ever, his first time in MS, and his first airplane ride. I'm a little nervous since I'll be doing this alone. Unfortunately Jarrod has to work and isn't able to go with us. Since my parent's house hasn't seen a baby since my brother, 26 years ago I had to pack our entire house into 2 suitcases. His suitcase consist of... his johnny-jump-up (yes i packed it), numerous outfits, pj's, bath supplies, tons of burp cloths, hats, baby monitor, noisemaker, small cd player, a bag of small toys, 6 bottles, 3 dvds, a bottle drying rack, and a partridge in a pear tree! Jarrod thinks I'm nuts, but he has no idea...I've got to keep things as familiar as possible!!! We'll be gone for 9 days and that's a long time for a baby to be away from home.

We leave Austin tonight at 7pm and have a 2 hour layover in Houston. We get to Jackson at 11pm. I'm praying that since I chose a night flight he'll sleep...maybe??? I was either really smart or really nuts for booking a night flight, guess we'll see! His diaper bag is also packed with bottles, food, diapers, toys, and his favorite blanket. The airline said that Jarrod can get an escort pass to go with me to the gate since I'll also have his car seat and stroller with me. Please say lots of prayers for us and for the other people on the flight with us! I'll be back in touch when we return!

Jarrod's First Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the daddy's out there. I hope you all had a wonderful day! Jarrod really seemed to enjoy his. It started out with him sleeping in while I took care of Bo and got him down for his morning nap. While he was napping I made breakfast for Jarrod and I. I made a great breakfast casserole and monkey bread. It was delicious, if I do say so myself! Once breakfast was ready and Bo had woken up, I had Jarrod go in the next room while I brought out his gifts and some balloons I had gotten. I bought him some new shirts for work from Banana Republic, they actually had XXL in the store, which is very rare so I had to snatch them up! Bo gave him a "Hello Smokey" book for them to read at night. It's a book that follows Smokey, the Univ of TN mascot, through campus and to a football game! Then the best gift was a poem that I had found about a child following his daddy's footprints. I printed it out and put Bo's footprints on the bottom. It turned out SO cute! It really touched him and I think it was his favorite gift. He also received many cards from family, even some of them were filled with little surprises too!

After Bo's nap we loaded up and headed to the neighborhood pool. I am sick I forgot my camera but I'll try to give you a description...We bought Bo a float for him to sit in that has a shade on top. He's not sitting up on his own yet so while he was in it we had to hold his hands to keep him sitting up. However...he quickly learned that he could lean back and relax! After about 15 mintues of playing with mom and dad, I looked up and noticed his eyes were getting heavier and heavier and heavier. Next thing we know he's out! He totally had the look of "this is the life" all over his adorable little face! He slept in his float for almost an hour!!!!!! It was perfect mom was able to get some sun, while Bo stayed in the shade floating and snoozing!

Then it was home for a bath, Bo & Daddy watched a little US Open, then the whole family took a nap! Jarrod's day ended with lasagna for dinner (his favorite meal) and one of my favorite desserts that includes ice cream sandwiches, cool whip, and m&ms! Needless to say we'll be on serious diets after this weekend! But you only have your first Father's Day once! I have the most wonderful husband anyone could ask for and more importantly the most amazing father! He works so hard and give us 110% in everything he does. I am so blessed and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for blessing me with such an amazing husband! Happy Father's Day honey, we love you!

Gifts for daddy!

This is monkey bread if you are wondering!

Daddy and his favorite little man.

Gifts from Bo!

Are those not the most adorable little footprints you've ever seen!!!

Balloons are fun mom!

Trying hard to get to daddy.

Mom please stop taking pictures of me!!!

Now I Remember

Yes...that is a picture of our 7 day forecast!!! It's been 2 years since I've been back down south for a summer! NOW I remember what I enjoyed about the northeast...the summers!!!!!!!!! We are on our 26th straight day of temps 98 degrees or higher!! Growing up in MS I should be used to this, not to mention the summers there are worse because of all the humidity which we don't have here in TX, but I can't take an entire summer of this. I've tried to get Bo out for early morning walks, but the past few days have even been too hot for that. It doesn't help that the area we live in has no shade. It's a new development and there are absolutely no trees to help shade the area. Guess this just means we'll have to spend our days in air conditioned places like the mall!!!! Mmmm- that's not such a bad idea actually!

Random Pics

Here are a few new pics I thought I'd post...

Has to have his feet no matter where he is!

Bathtime with Daddy

I promise he really is my child even though he looks nothing like me!

We literally have to keep the tv turned off because this is what he'd do all day.

Great Reports

Bo survived all of his doctor appointments and passed with flying colors! I reported on his first two appointments earlier this week. Thursday we went for shots and 4 month official checkup. In one week he went from 15 lbs 10 oz to 16 lbs 6 oz! He's a growing boy!!! He got 3 shots and one oral vaccination and was so good, only cried when he was actually getting stuck and a few seconds after. Last shots were at 2 months and he wasn't into mommy as much as he is now. This time in the middle of his crying he opened his eyes a little and looked up at me with pure terror in his eyes. It was heartbreaking! Even Jarrod was like...wow did you see that look you got? It really got to Jarrod. He did great that day didn't run a temp mainly just wanted to be held and snuggle with mommy so that's what we did all day.

Yesterday we went to Cranial Technologies to have his head evaluated for the band/helmet. We met with a girl named Amy who was fabulous! She was very honest and told us that he did have some asymmetry, but it wasn't enough to justify putting him in a band. There is some flattening on the right side of his head, but the larger flat spot on the back of his head that we were really concerned about we learned is actually the way his head should be. Everyone has one and if you feel the back of your head you can probably find yours. Who knew!! His is just much more noticeable since he doesn't have a lick of hair...his is on backorder! Waiting any day to get it! Amy took measurements and 2-4mm is the normal range for asymmetry and his measured 2mm! She pointed out he had great head control, said it was probably better than 90% of kids his age!! So we were thrilled. We were glad to get an official verdict from someone who specializes in it. Little man had a very busy week so he plans on relaxing this weekend...oh wait maybe that's mommy!

One Year Ago Today...

...our lives changed forever! One year ago today we were vacationing in Hilton Head with some of our dear friends...enjoying the beach, doing what we wanted when we wanted, observing all of our friends, as we were the only ones without kids and realizing how lucky we were to just relax and not deal with naps, bottles, diapers, etc... One year ago today we knew something was a little off so we decided to take a pregnancy, knowing there was NO possible way we could be pregnant, but it would ease our minds and I could go back to enjoying my margaritas. One year ago today...the PLUS SIGN+

Let me rewind a little...last March/April we decided to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist, Dr. Bergh. We went to see him because at the time I was having problems with my endometriosis. I was hoping we'd just do a quick surgery and all would be better, however since I was married now I had to consider the ability to have children. I had already had 4 surgeries for my endo and I didn't want to risk causing more damage. Dr. Bergh decided to run tests on both Jarrod and myself. I was a little confused because we were not ready to start our family, I simply just wanted to feel better. So after weeks of tests we find out...I had lost egg potential due to my previous surgeries, Jarrod (sorry honey) after not one, but two tests had less than a 5% chance to reproduce naturally, the verdict...we would not be able to get pregnant on our own, we would have to pursue in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and according to the doctor we needed to do it within the year. Our world came crashing down as we sat there and listened to this. How would we afford IVF? Our timeline for having a family was being moved up tremendously, and the emotional dissapointment of not being able to have a child on our own...it was so hard to hear. We decided to get off of birth control as the doctor assured us there was "nothing for it to prevent". One month later...SURPRISE!!!! I guess God decided he would show them who really is the boss!

For some really weird reason, I'll never understand I decided to throw a pregnancy test in my suitcase when I was packing. I knew I was late, but figured it was my body adjusting to being off of birth control. We woke up on Wed, June 6th about 7:30 and we both were like...let's just take the test and be done with it so we can enjoy our vacation. I remember telling Jarrod to let me know when 3 minutes was up. As he lay on the bed about 10 seconds later I walked out and all I could say was "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!!!" Jarrod was like...it hasn't been 3 minutes! I said GET IN HERE NOW! Jarrod said "what does this mean" and my response "I think this means we're pregnant". Jarrod being the "no grey area" kind of person was like "What do you mean you THINK we're pregnant?" At the time all common sense went out the window as I just stared at the plus sign. He asked for the directions...guess what I hadn't packed? I had just taken the test out of the box and thrown it in my suitcase. So we ran to get the keys to a friend's car and headed off to the nearest drug store where we bought not one, not two, but THREE more pregnancy tests. All we could think was how is this possible??? We went back to the house and took the digital test that said--Pregnant/Not Pregnant...again no grey area! I'll never forget us standing there in this tiny bathroom staring at this little stick while it blinked to show it was working. It was the longest few seconds of my life. Next thing we see..PREGNANT!!! All we could think was how did this happen, it isn't possible??? I called my nurse explained what was going on and I kept saying how did this happen? Her response "you weren't stressed out about it" I laughed and said that was NOT in the diagnosis, Dr. Bergh said we'd never get pregnant on our own! She had us come in the next Monday, June 11th where we got to see our little guy for the first time. Of course it was more like a black dot, but there it was...a baby, the impossible, the greatest gift from God.

The rest of the vacation we just walked around in a daze, our friends loved it as they knew what we were experiencing. Jarrod drank enough for both of us and didn't sleep for 4 nights straight. I held off on getting too excited until we went to the doctor. Thoughts of where will we live, we can't afford NJ, the cost of daycare, will I stay at home, would I mentally be able to handle staying at home, finances, freedom, career, our entire life was upside down, not to mention the fact we had only been married for 6 months! What about our time together? I've been told that even when you are trying you are still shocked when it happens...to me that's nothing compared to not trying, and even more thinking it's not even possible. God truly has a plan for each and every one of us which we have no control over. His timing is everything. We were scared to death and had no idea what we were doing or how to prepare, but as I sit here today already covered in spit up this morning and a house full of baby toys, bottles, diapers, etc I can't imagine my life without him. I've never felt a love like this before...He is my life and I am so grateful!

One Year Ago Today...

TODAY...

Comments

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Week of Doctors

By the end of this week our little man will have spent days in 4 different doctor's offices! Tuesday we had two appointments...first we met with Dr. Sanders, a Pediatric GI. We were meeting with her to discuss his reflux, make sure he was on the right medication, right dosage, formula, solids, etc... She said that we were on the right track. We will continue the Prevacid twice a day and she also said to increase his solids to 3 meals a day. She asked how much formula he was drinking and I told her he had been eating 8 oz per feeding. She suggested getting that down to 6 oz. I just laughed and thought okay YOU take the bottle out of his mouth before he's done!!

Next we met with Dr. Seremitis, pediatric urologist. If you don't know, Bo was born with something called hypospadius (you can google it if you want more details)...because of this he wasn't able to be circumcised at birth so we are having to do it when he turns 6 months. They wait until 6 months because they have to put him to sleep. There is also some "curvature" that they may have to go in and fix. We scheduled his surgery for August 29th. It sounds like a pretty simple procedure, should take an hour, possibly 2 if they need to fix the hypospadius, but the urologist feels it's pretty minor and won't need fixing. I hate he's having to have this done, but his daddy said absolutely, positively we will have it fixed! I know he'll thank us later.

Thursday we go for his 4 month shots and Friday we go to have his head evaluated to see if he is going to require a band/helmet. I will posts updates on those appointments later.

Favorite Website Ever!!!!

Okay so I'm officially admitting I'm a little nutty! I just found the most amazing website and I am absolutely ADDICTED to it!!! It's called "I'm an Organizing Junkie"-- http://www.orgjunkie.com/

I think I'm in heaven!!! I love to organize, however since Bo has come along I'm not as bad as I used to be, I just don't have the time or energy. I do on occassion have days where I will organize and re-organize for hours! My husband will tell you I have a problem. He's going to hate it when he sees this because he's going to know this means projects for him! My favorite store in the entire world...The Container Store! Not Victoria's Secret, not Gap, not Ann Taylor (although that's my second favorite), not Banana Republic...nope The Container Store! Isn't that sad? If I could afford it my entire house would look like that store. I make lists after lists after lists. Bo and I are going to MS in 2 weeks and I started making my travel list weeks ago! I don't want to forget anything since this is my first time to travel with a baby and I'm traveling alone! I hate to feel unorganized, it literally puts me in a bad mood, you can ask Jarrod. Crumbs or dirt on the floor doesn't bother me...piles of papers, bills, etc drives me nuts! Jarrod knows with me if he needs something to put it up where it belongs because I WILL throw it away. So I'm very, very excited about my new favorite website. You can guarantee I'll be on there until I read every single thing there is!

Mexican Lasagna

So I found this recipe and made it last night for dinner. It was a hit and the best part it's SOOOOO easy! I love quick, easy, and good meals. I thought I'd share this especially for all my mommy friends who have no time!

1 pkg flour tortillas

1lb ground beef

1 pkg taco seasoning

1/2 can refried beans (I used fat free and they did just fine)

Mexican shredded cheese (again I used fat free)

1 can chopped green chiles

Sour Cream

Pico de Gallo

Preheat oven to 350

Brown meat, drain, add 1/3 cup of water, taco seasoning, and green chiles

Let sauce thicken

Line 13x9 dish, sides too with tortillas

Layer beans (spread thinly)

Ground meat mixture

Cheese

Another row of tortillas

Beans

Meat

Cheese (top with more chiles optional)

Bake for 30 miuntes, until cheese bubbles

Let rest for 5 minutes out of oven. Top with sour cream and pico de gallo

It's good served with corn!