Spin Baby Spin

He's not crawling forward, but he loves to spin in circles.

Cut From the Same Cloth

These were Cory's words this morning as Mariah and I were yelling at each other...

Mariah was yelling at Ethan, so I yelled at Mariah.  Mariah yelled back at me and went outside to sit in my van.  Oh the joys of parenting a teenage daughter that is just as headstrong as I am...

I told my dad the other day that Mariah can be a real handful.  His reaction: Ha, Good!  Thanks dad... guess I wasn't a walk in the park either. 

Oh I love her dearly, but we sure can bump heads.  We are, as Cory put it, cut from the same cloth.

I Can't Sleep

It is horrible.  I can't sleep.  I am so tired.  I yawn all day.  I'm in a fog.  I can't focus, but when I lay down in bed at night... I can't sleep.  I can't turn off.  My mind keeps going.  I lay wide awake until midnight every night.  I'm lucky if I get to sleep until 3 or 4am uninterrupted.  Then by 5am I am wide awake again.  Why is this happening?  Last night Carter was in bed by 7pm, Ethan was in bed by 8pm, and there I was wide awake, trying to sleep, but not actually falling asleep until around midnight.  I just need to sleep.  This lack of sleep is causing anxiety.  I have bags under my eyes.  I am getting irritable.  I really need to sleep. 

Any recommendations?  Herbs?  Medications?  Relaxation techniques?  I am guessing some of this is related to my post partum anxiety.  I am hoping it passes soon, but I need to find a way to get through it.  I need to function. 

Farts

Haha, childish yes, but I love this.  Carter loves to make fart noises by blowing on things with his mouth.  Cory started this with Carter when he was just a couple months old.  Cory would blow on Carter's tummy and get the biggest smile out of Carter.  Carter has since caught on how to copy daddy. 

X 4

Pink Eye, Double Ear Infection, RSV, and Pneumonia

That is what Carter was diagnosed with on Monday, February 13.  I couldn't believe my poor little not-even-8-month-old-baby had all these illnesses going on at once.  I was shocked, scared, and felt completely helpless.  He was so sick that he didn't even want to nurse from me.  That is how I knew things were really bad and what he had wasn't just a cold. 

The week before Carter came down with all these illnesses, I had dropped him off at daycare and heard another kid coughing.  I was frightened by the sound of the cough, but what choice did I have?  I had to work... and someone needed to care for Carter.  By Friday evening Carter had that same frightening cough that I heard from the kid at daycare earlier that week.  Friday night Carter's cough sounded like croup.  We ran a steamy shower and kept him in our room over night.  By Saturday night he was sounding very congested and gurgly so Cory took him to the ER, because the walk-in's had already closed.  The ER gave him an oral steroid, checked him for RSV, said it was negative, and sent him home with no meds.  All day Sunday I knew he wasn't well, but figured it was a cold because he was just at the ER the night before.  Sunday night Carter was so irritable and by Monday morning he no longer wanted to nurse from me.  That is when I knew that we needed to get back in to see the doctor quickly. 

On Monday morning Carter's pediatrician confirmed that he had RSV by putting a tube up his nose and testing the mucus.  He sent us for chest x-rays which confirmed the pneumonia.  And, just a simple look at both Carter's ears and his left eye were enough to confirm he had a double ear infection and the start of pink eye.  Carter started on augmentin, eye drops, and albuterol through a neubulizer.  The doctor said the cough could last a couple weeks.  Cory and I decided to keep Carter home from daycare for the week.  We wanted to do everything we could to keep from having to hospitalize him.  Fortunately we were successful.  He is getting much better and returned to daycare yesterday.  He is still not back to normal and has a bit of congestion, a cough, and a smaller-than-normal appetite, but he's getting better. 

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers while we were doing all that we could to get our little Carter-Monkey on the mend back to health.  RSV and pneumonia can be seriously threatening in small children.  We are so happy were were able to catch this and get it under control as quickly as we did. 

Evening with Pinterest

Last night we had a pinteresting evening.  I started working on some wreaths, while the boys sat and played with bubbles.  All thanks to pinterest.com.  Man I love that idea site. 

Wreath pinspiration / Bubble pinspiration

Eight Feet

...of shelf.  That is what we built this weekend. 

I had been struggling with decorating this wall for... umm, six years.  Then it came to me out of nowhere (well okay: pinterest, houzz, and blogging) that I could build my own shelf!  Some husband convincing, a trip to Menards, and $20 later.  Hello mighty shelf!

Here is the wall before the mighty shelf.  Someday the entire wall will be one color.  Just haven't gotten to that yet.  We need to put in our archways and do some drywall blending first...

 Building the shelf: We glued the pieces first and then screwed them together.

 Cory predrilled the holes to make them easier to hide with wood putty.

We added brackets to what we thought was going to be the underneath of the shelf.  I changed my mind after it was all painted.  My next shelf will have the brackets on the opposite side.  The way the shelf ended up makes the brackets kind of pointless, but they can be hidden.  Still learning DIY...

All painted

And hung above the couch.  Doesn't that fit better?  The items on the shelf are just for height ideas.  I've only purchased one thing for the shelf and I'm waiting it to arrive.  I'll take down the candle holder that you see on the left.  It never really had much business being there anyway.  Just one of my past random thoughts that didn't quite work.  ;-?

Whatcha think?