Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Nicholas didn't want to sit still long enough to get his picture taken this morning, but here he is on his First St. Patrick's Day!

My Little McCutie

We do not live in an area that really does anything for St. Patrick's Day, but Rock City (if you remember we went there for Oktoberfest and Christmas) has Shamrock City for the weekend before.  It was fun.  We went straight to the pavilion instead of doing the trail since we have already been there, done that a thousand times in our lives and enjoyed an Irish band, corned beef and cabbage, and Irish beer!  Our little Leprechaun sure got into the spirit!

 I loved this outfit on him.  It made me laugh.  I wish you could see his pants a little better, but they are green and navy stripped.  So funny!  This next picture is one of my new favorites.

 We had such a fun weekend and I am really, seriously planning on getting this blog updated very soon! I still need to blog about Nicholas's very sick February (that happened again last week) and just a few things going on lately.

Feeding Nicholas

Nicholas has been eating solid baby food for almost three months.  Last week we moved up to stage 2 and he LOVES his new entrees.  The question that I have is that he doesn't seem full on just one jar at dinner, so I've been feeding him 2 jars (1 meat and 1 fruit/veggie).  When he eats more than 4oz, I cannot get him to eat a bottle of milk, therefore, not getting enough formula in him a day.
This is an example of his daily menu:
7:00 am jar of cinnamon raisin oatmeal, 6 oz bottle
11:00 am jar of mixed veggies, jar of apples, 6 oz bottle
3:00 pm 8 oz bottle
6:30pm jar of sweet potatoes and chicken, jar of pears (he gets a meat, fruit, and veggie in that meal)
7:30 pm at bedtime 4 oz bottle
Is that ok or any other suggestions on what amount to feed him at each meal?

Yesterday while I was at Babies 'R Us picked up some of their brand Puffs.  He loves them!  It is hard to find some that are both dairy and soy free, but luckily their brand is!  He has also decided he likes apple juice in his sippy cup, but he isn't too sure how to drink it.

I am glad I bought an extra one to take to school with him tomorrow!

For all of you moms out there that feed your baby Beech-Nut stage 2, there is an AWESOME sale at Bi-Lo this week!  They have all stage 2 buy one get one, so it is like paying only $0.29/jar!  I bought 64! Haha!

I haven't given you a coupon update in awhile, so I need to work on that.  One day I will get to it.  This is what I bought today for $40, with a savings of $29!

64 jars Beech-Nut stage 2 food
4 Smartone's meals
2-1 lb ground hamburger

With all of my stockpiles of food I've been buying, that is all I had to buy this week for all three of us to eat without eating out all week!  Not to bad, if I say so myself!

Wordless Wednesday

Teething biscuits are yummy Mommy!  I'm so happy that we FINALLY found dairy and soy free!

My First Valentine's Day Recap

 Poor, sweet, Nicholas had a rough first Valentine's Day.  As you might remember from my Valentine's Day post, he was sick when I picked him up and we went to see Dr. Spraggins the next morning...double ear infection.  :-(  He had a hard time going to sleep and had a rough night up a few times (even thought just for a few minutes each time).  This picture makes me sad, but it is how he was that day.  Bless his heart.

Mommy and Daddy got him a box of teething biscuits (yay for Bi-Lo for carrying soy and dairy free!) and Grandpa and Gigi stopped by for a minute to see their favorite little Valentine.  They brought him a couple of books and a card.

Michael had the day off from work and this is what I saw wen I came in the door!  I was so excited to see the table set with my china and crystal, but even more excited to see the roses!

When I FINALLY got the baby to sleep, we had an amazing meal!  Michael went on Saturday before and bought steaks and lobster to cook and it was soooooo tasty!  He is an amazing cook, even though he rarely cooks during the week because he gets home so late, but I love when he cooks for me on the weekends!

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day!  I cannot believe it is March and I am just now blogging about it, but oh well, I'm hoping to do better and not be such a blog slacker!  :-)  Be sure to look at the posts below for two more new posts!

Happy 8 Months Nicholas, 500th Post!

We had Nicholas' 8 month cake pics just the three of us on Saturday.  He had the flu (can't you tell! Haha!) so we didn't want to infect everyone.  First, let me just say that it is next to impossible to photograph my wild child with his cake.  This was our first, and best attempt.  It ended with a messed up cake, green dye all over both of us and his glider, and a bath for Nicholas.  Ha!  I decided to try it again with his St. Patrick's Day shirt.  Here is how that went... Hahahaha! 

Nicholas, you are a live wire these days!  You are giving us a run for our money!  In the past two weeks you have grown up so much!  You started army crawling and crawling backwards really well about three weeks ago, then last Sunday, you just took off!  You haven't stopped since!  You are also pulling up on anything and everything you can.  I haven't had a chance to get your picture because I've been too busy chasing after you, but I hope to get some video and picture soon.

You are eating stage 2 foods now.  We started that on Sunday.  You eat a "morning" jar with a bottle when you get up (and you are STARVING, so we have to have it ready before we get you out of bed!), a veggie and fruit and lunch with a bottle, then an "entree" type jar (a meat combo) and a veggie or fruit with a bottle at dinner.  You have become such a good eater!  You LOVE your new foods and I am so happy about that!  The only thing you are not a fan of seems to be green beans.  You also eat an 8 oz bottle mid afternoon.

You are become a slightly decent napper.  You have gotten to where you will FINALLY nap in your bed at home and school for a short morning and afternoon nap.  I'll take what I can get.  You still sleep great at night.  You were sick for 36 days this month and not one time were we up longer than just a few minutes at a time during the night.  I know that could change at any time, but you've been sleeping at least 12 hrs a night since you were 11 weeks old and I love.  You have now had 2 ear infections, pink eye, and the flu...all in one month!  You might have slept through it, but mommy sure didn't!  You coughed all night for about 2 weeks and tossed and turned in your crib on the monitor the other nights.  We are finally starting to get back into a good routine this week. PTL!  Dr. Spraggins told us that you get  to visit with an ENT if you get another ear infection.  We are hoping that is behind us for a little while.

You have TWO teeth!  You also got these in the past two weeks!  They appeared on Thursday, February 17.  You did great teething.  You only fussed a little bit, but you tried to teeth for months before they finally broke through.  Now we are waiting on your top two that seem to be getting close!

You were 17 pounds and 14 ounces on Friday and you are still mostly in 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.  You are also in a size 4 shoe!

We LOVE you more than you can ever know and we are so blessed to have you.  You were definitely, without a doubt worth every second of our wait to have you in our lives!

This is the 500th post for my blog.  I went back a few weeks ago when I was recovering from my injection and read back through the first year of it and our family has come so far.  It was such a sad first year of posts, then my happy and anxious pregnancy posts, and now it is all about Nicholas.  I hope that my blog has given hope to those of you waiting on a baby or having a hard time in life and I hope the rest of you have enjoyed reading about our rather boring life.  I am so thankful for all of my readers.  You all have helped me through some very dark times, helped me celebrate some fabulous times, and gave me great advice as I have figured out motherhood.  I am still amazed at what an awesome community blogging is.  I have made some great friends and met some wonderful people that I never would have without blogging.  If you are considering starting a blog, do it.  It is worth it...when you have time to actually blog!  :-)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Yes, I am majorly behind on my blog, so I am going to get caught up over the next few nights a post at a time.  On February 10 we celebrated my Dad (Nicholas' Grandpa) 58th birthday!  I made a sign for Nicholas to tell him Happy Birthday that morning, but I'll let you decide for yourself how well that went! Haha!

After work and school we went over to their house for dinner.   My mom got Sticky Fingers BBQ, ribs, and sides.  It was so good!  Nicholas wore his camo onesie to match the cake!  Hey, I love themes, I can't help it!

My friend Becky made us another CUTE cake!  We LOVE her and her cakes! 

Happy Birthday Grandpa!  Hope you had a great first Birthday as a Grandpa!  Nicholas sure did enjoy spending it with you!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our sick little boy (I LOVE his Valentine's shirt!  It makes me laugh!).  Yes, he had to come home AGAIN from school late this afternoon with a 101 fever.  We will be going to see our pediatrician in the morning.  Please pray that his RSV is getting better and that this is something that can be treated.  We had to go to the pediatric urgent care last week and were told it is still "running it's course".  I'm ready for it's course to be ran and out of our house!

Happy 7 Months Nicholas!

This post is SO late, but we have been SICK at our house.  It has taken over three weeks for RSV to run it's course and I am just now really getting over my two injections (just in time for the next one this Friday).  Nicholas has also been working on FOUR teeth, so needless to say, there just hasn't been any time for blogging.  However, we had his 7 month birthday on Sunday, January 30 (since Tuesday was the 1st).  This month I had Becky make him a chocolate/chocolate cake and I think I know what flavor I want for his big birthday now! It was FABULOUS!!!!!

As always, someone wanted to dive in!  Not sure how I am going to keep doing this for the next four months!  Any ideas...Jennifer Francis, help, how did you keep Brody out of his cakes?!

We had chocolate all over us, him, and his chair, so we let him lick it off my hand! Haha!

 Then, he decided it was so good, he would keep going!  Too cute!

"YUMMY Mommy!  When do we do this again?!"

 And the aftermath!  Hahahaha!

This month has really been a big month for you!  You have started sitting up, rolling over all the time without working to do so, crawling, and you laugh all the time!  You have really started playing with your toys and you LOVE and I mean LOVE your jeep!  It is definitely your favorite toy. 

You now eat a fruit at breakfast (usually bananas), a veggie at lunch, and one of each at dinner.  You have liked everything except green beans, which is ok, you still love peas.  You take a 8oz bottle in the mid afternoon and 6 oz with your meals.  We still add 1 tsp of cereal per oz of formula because you still spit up, but just as Dr. DeVoid told us, it is getting better now that you sit up.

You are almost 18 pounds and 27 inches.  You are in size 6 months clothes and we just moved up to size 3 diapers.

You have had your first major illness.  After only missing one day of school in almost four months because of illness, you got RSV.  You were pretty sick, but never really cried except for the first night you were sick.  You continued to be the happiest baby I've ever seen!

Speaking of being happy, no one at your daycare believes that you were ever a fussy or difficult baby.  I even had one random teacher that I had never seen before stop me one afternoon last week to ask if you are always happy.  I was pleased to say that yes, you are!

Nicholas, Mommy and Daddy love you so much and we cannot believe you are 7 months old!  Please slow down!  I'm not ready for you to turn one!  :-)

Update

I had my procedure yesterday and it was NOT fun (BTW, no one told it would be extremely PAINFUL!), but I am feeling a little better today.  I ended up with two injections on the left side at the L5 and S1.  I was told complete bed rest last night and through today, light activity tomorrow, and as little lifting as possible on Monday and Tuesday before my follow up on Tuesday.  My nerves were very angry and inflamed, so he wants to do a second round in two weeks.

I am very grateful to my mom and Michael for all of their help.  I couldn't do it without them!  I'll write more tomorrow.  Just wanted to update everyone that had emailed or asked how I was doing.

All Better...Almost

It has continued to be another long few days, but it looks like we are FINALLY on the mend.  Nicholas went back to school on Thursday, but I that is when I got it.  I spent the next four days trying to get rid of it.  He continued to have a nasty cough and runny nose, but his pediatrician assured me that was just part of the RSV running it's course and that it would not be contagious at this point.  Today was really the first day he hasn't had a breathing treatment in over 10 days!  I *THINK* we have made it!

I did go see the neurosurgeon last week.  It wasn't as easy of a fix as I was hoping for.  I thought that it was probably just a herniated disc from the strain of having Nicholas and carrying him around, but it is actually a result of pregnancy on my spina bifida.  My nerves are strained and very inflamed.  I am having a spinal injection tomorrow, but we are not sure if it will help 100%.  It is possible that I will have to have surgery to release the pressure due to a condition that I have related to the spina bifida, but we won't know until a few weeks after we try the injection.  So, I am going to have to spend the next three days off my feet, unable to lift Nicholas, and virtually completely helpless.  Thank goodness for my mom and Michael being so helpful! 

I have taken some pretty cute pictures over the past week I wanted to share with you.  Last Thursday night SOMEONE was supposed to be lying down trying to go to sleep when I heard a funny noise, so I went in his room to find this...

Needless to say, we have now lowered his mattress and bought a teething protector for his rail!

Saturday I gave him a sippy cup for the first time with a little diluted apple juice.  I think someone forgot to give him the memo about drinking and driving!  :-)

 Sunday Nicholas discovered the joy of sitting like a big boy in the bathtub and playing with his toys.

 He also sat in a restaurant high chair for the first time on Sunday!  It was a beautiful day here so we went downtown to Mellow Mushroom and he did really well!  He played with his Sophie and enjoyed looking around.

Our little piggy LOVES his food.  I mean REALLY LOVES his food!  If you are not careful he will try to take the bowl or spoon and help himself.  Well, tonight I decided to give him the empty bowl and see what he would do with it.  He licked the bowl!  It was too funny!

He also had his 7 month cake this week, but I'll write about that later.  Just wanted to update everyone that he is doing much better and hopefully after this week I can get back to blogging more regularly.

Where Have We Been?

This may give you some idea...

First, before we go there, let me backup and recap last week (since this is our scrapbook and I don't want to forget any of it).  Last Sunday the three of us had a lazy day and Aunt Melissa came to see Nicholas.  We are always happy to see her and excited that she came over.

 Nicholas had a fabulous week at school.  He was the only baby there most of the week and he loves his new teacher.  He was loving being the only baby there and I just had to show you this picture of him before school on Wednesday.  He has ALMOST outgrown his bouncy.  **tears**

Thursday when I picked him up he was alseep in his teacher's arms (highly unusual for my wild child) and I noticed his eye was looking a little pink and he had a lot of goop in it.  His teacher told me that he had been pulling on his ear a lot and his eye was getting worse as the day went on.  GREAT!  I knew immediately that he had pink eye.  However, just like my happy baby, he never acted like he didn't feel good.  Thursday night while I cooked dinner, he drove around in his jeep.  

Well, that was all good, because at 10:15 he woke up...mad!  I went in his room to get him and his left eye was stuck together due to the nastiness in it.  Poor baby DEFINITELY had pink eye.  He went back to bed about an hour later and we decided he would be staying home on Friday.

Friday morning I went on to work to finish up a few things and Michael stayed home.  They met me at the pedi office at 11:30 and this is what greeted me.  Bless it!  He wasn't feeling too good.

 Until he rediscovered the table paper!  I think I am just going to get him some table paper for his birthday!  Haha!

Dr. Spraggins came in and as soon as she saw him she knew that he had pink eye and also found an ear infection on the right.  We were sent home with amoxicillin and eye drops and told he should be good to go on Monday.  His chest was clear as was his throat.

Saturday we had a lazy day.  He stayed with my dad for an hour while I ran out and picked up some baby food, diapers, and this cool thing.  After reorganizing my pantry I realized I needed a baby food carousel.  I love it!  Yes, I am a dork and I even labeled each one according to day and meal.  ha!

I had been trying to find something cute on etsy for Valentine's Day and I found these super cute onesies.  They arrived on Saturday.  I think he is going to wear them for a few of his 6 month pics this weekend!

We also said goodbye to our snowfriend on Saturday.  This was around 5:00 Saturday afternoon.  He made it a lot longer than I expected!

Sunday things started to change.  When Nicholas woke up he sounded hoarse and wraspy.  I immediately thought RSV, but I convinced myself that couldn't be it since his chest seemed fine on Friday.  He was very lazy and slept a lot, including two hours with me in the bed (he FINALLY started rolling over in his sleep this weekend too!).

Well, that leads us to Sunday night.  Poor baby wouldn't eat, had a fever, and sounded terrible.  I just knew it had to RSV by then.  My mom offered to stay home yesterday and keep him so she took him back to Dr. Spraggins in the afternoon.  Again, she immediately knew it was RSV when she saw him.  He was using his abdomen to breath (a sign of RSV) and he was very wheezy.  The good news was that his ear and eye looked much better, but a swab showed that he did have RSV.  

She explained to her that normally this equals a trip to the hospital, but since he was happy, not in any obvious distress, good oxygen profusion, and was eating (he will eat a bottle slowly, just not his solids, which is ok right now).  She explained how dangerous RSV can be and what we needed to watch for and to keep him at home for the next two days.  We are hoping sweet boy will be able to return to school on Thursday, but tonight I'm not so sure.  His fever was back up to 100.4 and he sounded terrible.  So, what are these contraptions...

We are having to use a battery powered nasal aspirator (the bulb wasn't getting it because it is so thick) with saline at least hourly, an inhaler (that sure is fun for us all, not!), our awesome digital thermometer (all families need this!  Got it at Target for $40 and it has interchangeable ends, LOVE it!), Amoxicillin, and tylenol.  We are also making great use of our friend, Boogie Wipes.  After this is all over, I have a review to write on the nasal aspirator and Boogie Wipes.  Ha!

Please pray that sweet Nicholas has a better day tomorrow, no fever for 24 hours, and is able to return to school Thursday.  Also, I don't think I have mentioned it on here, but another reason I have been MIA is that I have been having a LOT of pain and numbness from my sciatic nerve.  I have pretty much gone to work, home, hot bath, and bed.  I have an appointment in the morning with a neurosurgeon.  I am hoping that everything is ok and it is an easy fix.  I will try to find the time to update again tomorrow night.  Thanks for all of the emails, comments, and tweets asking how we are and wondering where we've been.  Now you know!  It has just been a rough couple of weeks.