My Dentist is My New Best Friend

Back when I was still on maternity leave one of my teeth broke, so I called my new dentist and set up an appointment to have it taken care of. I've never had a cavity in my life so I wasn't too worried about the visit until I was informed that I have little cavities on like all my teeth!!!

He said it was probably caused by pregnancy since my body re-allocated the calcium away from my teeth and to my baby. Not cool, and I had no idea that could happen. I assumed you couldn't go to the dentist while pregnant what with the x-rays and all, guess next time I won't assume! I'm not going to say that all of it was caused by pregnancy because I hadn't been to the dentist in a year (I know, I know) due to my horrible experience having my wisdom teeth pulled.

Currently I've been in probably close to 10 times in the past 2 1/2 months. My initial visit, cleaning, 2 appointments for my crown, and 5 appointments for cavities. I had to go in so many times for the fillings because he only likes to do one section at a time, so like my first visit was the upper right teeth, and so on.

Here's where the fun part comes in. I had veneers put on my front 6 upper teeth almost 10 years ago. One popped off and I just never got it put back on because I grind my teeth, so once it popped off twice I just said forget it! They look pretty bad, and now one is cracked from when I was put under for my c-section so lucky for me, those have cavities too and need to be replaced. I am super excited about this, even though it means sitting a super long time in the chair, because I have always been self conscious about my teeth and they are finally going to be fixed! My dentist is even going to do crowns so I don't think they will ever need to be replaced, unlike my veneers that pretty much max out at 10 years. The downside? It's going to cost right at $2,500.00 for all this work! Some how, some way, it will get paid for and I can't wait to have a new smile!

I need a manual!

For this whole 'solid food' thing! I've seriously never been more confused in. my. life. So please, if you have any insight... share :)

Ok, here we go...

We have been feeding the oatmeal cereal for a few weeks now and she loves it! I feed her when I get home from work and it's a pretty substantial amount. I haven't actually measured it exactly but it's about 2 oz of water, 1 scoop of formula and probably 4 scoops of cereal. She eats the whole bowl and acts like she could still eat more!

Here's my dilemma... I don't know what to do next! The plan was bump up and feed cereal twice a day, once in the morning and then again when I get home from work. I was going to do that for a couple weeks and then start on baby food. (Still haven't fully decided if I'm going to make my own or not. While I like the idea, I'm afraid of taking on something I know nothing about.)

I feel like I have 100 questions. Once we start on baby food, how often does she get that a day? Does she get the whole jar? Do you mix the baby food with cereal?

She doesn't act hungry between feedings. We can normally get 4-5 hours in between 6 oz bottles, so do we not need to start on food yet until she is acting hungry between feedings? We tried green beans this weekend and I noticed that it was way more runny than how I make her cereal so I'm thinking that might be a factor of why she wasn't the biggest fan?

Seriously people, am I the only one that is so confused by all this??? Please help!!!

Mini Vaca

This past weekend we went to see a couple of my favorite people, Jon and Rae. We were supposed to be going to watch Jon play baseball, however, the games were cancelled, and I must say I was not upset by this! We hung out with them all weekend, it was pretty fantastic! I actually got to (finally) spend some time with Rae getting to know her. I've only seen her a handful of times for short visits so it was nice to be able to just talk to her.

We got to Ottawa, KS Friday around 5, checked into our hotel room and they came over. We fed Kimber and then took her swimming in the hotel pool! I was super excited to see her reaction since she LOVES bath time, but this was obviously less than thrilling for her.

We decided to call it quits with the pool and headed back to the room to get dinner and put Miss to bed. She wanted no part in that and she stayed up two hours past her bedtime to play with Jon and Rae. She has been on this weird 'I'm afraid of strangers' kick lately so I was super relieved that she was excited to see them!

Saturday we went to town and bought a crap ton of baby clothes at Babies R Us. We got $180 worth of clothes (and a humidifier) for $100. Not bad, huh? They took us to this BBQ place, and even though I'm not the biggest BBQ fan I will admit it was pretty good. We then decided that we would give green beans to Kimber, as her facial expressions to new things are priceless, so we headed to Walmart, grabbed some green beans and went back to the hotel.

Please note the ridiculous amount of green beans on her pants... oh and face! And then it was time to swim again. Pat got her pool balls and she seemed to enjoy her new toy.

After a long couple hours trying to put her to bed we gave up, Jon and Rae left, and we all went to sleep in our nice king size bed. We no sooner fell asleep and we hear 'click click' 'click click' so Pat get's up and some old man is trying to get in our room with his room key. Now the old man is knocking while trying to get his card to work so Pat bangs on the door and tells him the room is occupied. It took a few bangs for the old man to realize he was not at his room but finally said sorry and wandered off.

Sunday morning we woke up to a note from the old man apologizing for the night before! We packed up, checked out and met Jon and Rae for lunch before heading back to St. Louis. Not going to lie, I was not looking forward to leaving. Hopefully they come home for Easter like Jon said, guess Rae and I will need to start another countdown till we see each other again :)

Firsts

First...

Day outside the womb: 9/24/10

Night away from Mommy (when I had to go back in the hospital for the infection): 10/1/10
Walk around the subdivision: 10/5/10
Doctor's appointment: 10/7/10
Road trip (to Ottawa to see Uncle Jon play baseball & Aunt Rae play soccer): 10/16/10
Night spent at Grandma's (my mom's): 10/30/10
Set of shots:11/24/10
Time she slept through the night: 12/13/10 (didn't make a habit of it though)
Cold: 1/1/11
Day at the babysitter's: 1/5/11
Time she rolled over: 1/21/11
Time she had cereal: 1/25/11

Time she played in the snow: 2/2/11

Owie: 2/11/11

Time she reached for Mommy: 2/18/11
Time she went swimming: 2/25/11

Time she had green beans: 2/26/11

Looking back...

I cannot get over what a difference just 5 months makes! When you think about it now, as an adult, five months is nothing. You would consider yourself the same age as someone 5 months older/younger than you, but even just one month as a newborn is completely different then the next. She is learning something new practically every day and I love being her mom and watching her grow!

Sleep at 5 months

Is definitely NOT what I thought it would be like.

It's funny how you think you have everything planned out as an expecting mother. I was going to have her on a set schedule and she would for sure be sleeping through the night by the time I went back to work. She would never sleep in our bed with us and her naps would be at set times throughout the day. I had it all figured out.

And then she came... And my whole world was turned upside down.

I don't remember much of the first month regarding her sleeping. I was on a nice combination of pain meds plus lack of sleep resulted in me being in robot mode. I do remember a couple times waking up to her crying and I was all tangled up in my wound vac cord and the charger plugged into the wall and crying from frustration at the situation. It sucked!

Things got a little better and she was falling into a groove. We would wake up twice a night to eat. Not too shabby since I was able to sleep in, as long as she allowed, of course. Then maternity leave was over and I dreaded having to function at work on broken sleep. At that time she was getting up around 2 am or so to eat but it would take us quite a while to get her down for the night. We bumped up her bedtime to 7 pm and that helped with the struggle of getting her to go to sleep.

Currently things have totally changed. We put her to bed at 7 and she wakes up between 9 and 10 to eat again, then she wakes up between 2 and 4 and we bring her in bed with us and she sleeps until I wake her up to get ready. If we are really super lucky, all the planets are aligned, and we wish on a shooting star she will sleep from the 9/10 pm feeding all the way through the night.

I'm constantly torn on what is the 'right' thing to do. Should I bring her in bed? Should I let her cry for a few minutes? Should I go in and rock her back to sleep? Should I go ahead and feed her again? If I bring her in bed with us will she be sleeping with us still when she's 5? If I let her cry for a few minutes does she feel abandoned? If I rock her to sleep will she know when she cries I will come pick her up? If I feed her again will she ever sleep through the night? These questions play in my head every night and I don't think there is one right answer. In the end, you do what you have to do, what you think is right, and what works for your family.

Before & After - Master Bedroom

Here are some before and after pictures of the bedroom.

Master Bedroom - Before

AND AFTER:

After

After

After
(Those wall decorations are going to eventually be centered on the walls on either side of the window.)

After
(Ugh, I must do something with dresser decorations! They are currently AWFUL!)

We are going to be buying some art off etsy from yellena to hang above the bed and I cannot wait!

Here's a sample of what we're looking at:

Ahh Love!

Obviously our entire house is a work in progress, but at least the bedroom is almost done and just needs a few finishing touches!

So Thankful

I am so thankful for this:

wearing her  Daddy's OU hat

It was time for Kimber to eat when I picked her up at the sitter's so I fed her there instead of crossing my fingers that we wouldn't have a melt down in the car. As I was sitting there the sitter was talking to a little boy's grandma about another kids mom.

This woman is pregnant, due in a couple weeks and her baby has no skull. The baby won't survive very long, maybe a couple hours and my heart breaks for her, her husband and their son. 

My mind raced, putting myself in her situation. Obviously she's known for a while now but I would imagine you could never prepare yourself to deal with the loss of a newborn. I could not even grasp the amount of pain you would be in when your child is kicking and rolling around in your belly one minute, and the next you are holding her counting the precious minutes you have left. 

She walked in today to pick up her son, all glowing at 8 1/2 months pregnant, and you would have no idea the situation she's in. And here I am, holding my happy and healthy 4 1/2 month old baby girl and I felt guilty. It's one thing to hear about horrible things that can happen to babies, but when you actually meet the people who are going through it, it makes it so much more real.

I spent quite a few minutes when I got home today just enjoying my daughter, praying for this woman, and being truly thankful for my family. It's scary to think that could of been me, that could of been my little girl and my family going through that. I have never had such a wake up call in my life to really value what I have.

more for me

(This post is really more for me, as I've been told you will forget the cute small things your baby does. Well I don't want to forget so I am going to randomly post cute things that Kimber is doing so I can look back and never forget.)


Kimber-

Tonight we started our bedtime routine like normal. I ran your bath water while you sat on my lap, knowing what was coming next. I laid you in your bed and sang the 'nakie baby' song I made up for bath time, and we make our way to the bathroom.

First of all I must tell you how much you love bath time. You splash so hard you almost always give me a shower. Your new favorite game is to lift your butt up over the little hump in the bottom of the baby tub so it looks like your whole head is going to go under water. I swear you do this to give me a mini heart attack!

This bath night was different from the others. As soon as I took the washcloth to wet your hair you started to scream. I finished wetting your hair and got shampoo in my hands and you were fine until I, again, grabbed the washcloth to rinse your hair off. I finally figured out that you thought that washcloth was your toy and how dare I take that from you! Once I caught on I asked Daddy to get me another washcloth so I could bathe you while you played with the original one. This did not go over so well because as soon as you spotted my new washcloth you wanted that one too! I gave in and gave you my washcloth and you dropped the one you first had, I picked it up and then that's the one you wanted. As soon as I gave it to you, you dropped the other one. This game went on for a good 5 minutes while I just laughed at how funny you were being. I will never understand why you had to have the one I was using (they were even the same color for crying out loud!) but I thought it was cute. At one point you had one in each hand and shoved them both in your mouth! That's another thing you enjoy, chewing on washcloths... and pretty much anything else you can get your hands on.

I wanted so badly to get this on my phone but every other time you've done something cute as soon as I get my phone out you are immediately more interested in my phone than doing the cute thing that I wanted to record. Maybe next time I will be more prepared!

Also another cute thing you are doing is trying to blow bubbles. Some days you do it all day long. While eating cereal this usually results in me being covered in cereal blown on me but I can't help but laugh at your cuteness. This may sound mean but sometimes when you get really worked up and there is nothing I can do to calm you down you start trying to blow bubbles out of no where and I laugh. Big tears in your eyes and you start blowing bubbles and laughing... sometimes I just don't get you kid!

Thanks for all the smiles and laughs Boobaloo. Mommy loves you!

Time

I feel like my life has been on fast forward the past couple years, especially these past few months. I wish I could just push pause and enjoy a little time with my little girl before she is no longer 'little'. I'm not sure where all my time is going but I'd really like to find it so I can have some to do things I enjoy.

I really want to start reading. Since we are supposed to take a mandatory 30 minute lunch break at work, I think that can be my reading time. I also want to start crocheting again. Now that I have a cute little baby to put cute little hats on I finally have a reason to pick up a hook again.

Less selfishly, I need to find time to finish painting our doors. (Yes, that's right, we are coming up on a year of having them installed and I still have not painted them. Oh and since I haven't painted them, they don't have knobs on them... I know, totally hoosier!) Let's see, I need to clean out the bedroom downstairs and finish putting things away in the laundry room. I need to clean out the garage that was turned into a bedroom so this spring we can turn it back into a garage again.

Mostly I miss spending time with my friends. I tried to get together with our friends in South County a couple weekends in a row and we still haven't seen them. We were supposed to go to the zoo last weekend with another couple but our heater went out so I spent the day at home hoping to get it fixed (which we did). I really miss my high school friend. She's the friend that I don't see very often but when we get together it's like we just saw each other yesterday. I feel like as a mom now I can't plan to do anything. Even if I were to set up plans, like for a lunch date, of course that's the one time that Kimber is going to want to eat when I'm trying to get out the door. Most of the things we do now are spur of the moment things and I'm not a spur of the moment person.

I need to find like a mommy play date group or something. I need to find people to hang out with that 1. have kids and 2. are closer to where we live. Please don't misinterpret that as me wanting to replace my old friends, I just need people at the same stage of life we are in that live in our area. I wish my friends lived closer but SoCo and NoCo are quite a drive, and like I said before, it's hard to make plans when you have no time!

Oreo Truffles - Mommy Improvised

I decided to do a little something fancy and sweet for Pat for dessert. A girl at work brought these in for a food day and I've been looking for a reason to make them ever since! They are melt in your mouth good, and aside from knowing I'd be sick, I could eat an entire batch by.my.self!

So here is the recipe:
1 - 16 oz package of Oreo's (don't use the double stuffed ones)
1 - 8 oz package of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 - 8 oz packages of Baker's semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

1. Crush 9 cookies into fine crumbs in a food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be crushed in a ziploc bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies into fine crumbs. Place in mixing bowl. Add cream cheese, mix until well blended. Roll cookies into 42, 1 inch balls.
2. Dip balls in chocolate; place on a wax covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with reserve cookie crumbs.
3. Place in refrigerator until firm, approx 1 hour.

And here's how I did it:

1. Strap child in safety seat as to help make truffles for Daddy:

2. Since I don't own a food processor, or a rolling pin, take a pyrex dish and use the edge to crush cookies:

3. Put cream cheese in microwave for 30 seconds to soften.
4. Mix cream cheese with crumbs:

4. Roll into balls.

5. (I used white chocolate.) Place white chocolate in the microwave and set timer for WAY too long, tend to a screaming baby and by the time you realize you set it to microwave for too long the chocolate is burnt.

6. Pack child up, run to Shop and Save to get replacement white chocolate.

7. Finally dip balls in chocolate, and since I don't own wax paper, use aluminum foil to coat cookie sheets instead. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

8. Place in fridge for a hour and enjoy one before plating and serving as a Valentine's Day treat.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY BABY! 

(And because I said I would just for him, these will now be referred to as 'Pat's Chocolate Salty Balls')

Valentine's Day

I took today off work. Thinking I would be resting after running a few errands, boy was I wrong. Here's a little look at my day:

5:30 am wake up, feed Kimber, take shower, get ready to go
7:00 am Dentist Appointment
8:45 am back home, change Kimber, pack a diaper bag, get out the door
9:00 am show up at Slackers to pick up Pat's Valentine's Day present, they are closed
9:15 am go to the lab to have my blood drawn for tests
10:00 am drop taxes off
10:30 am pick up birth certificate and feed Kimber at the Vital Records office
11:20 am go back to Slackers and finally get the presents
12:00 pm pick up stuff at the house to return to Charter
12:30 pm finally get home to start the Oreo Truffles for V-day dessert
1:00 pm burnt all the chocolate, pack Kimber up and head to Shop N Save to buy more
1:30 pm get home but Kimber is throwing a fit so I must calm her down
2:30 pm finally got the truffles done and in the fridge, feed Kimber
3:00 pm clean up kitchen
3:30 pm pack Kimber up and head to grandma's to give her some of my V-day goodies
4:15 pm back home, Kimber is sleeping so I put her in her room in her car seat and run around doing laundry and picking up the house
4:30 pm Kimber is awake, now putting dishes away, doing laundry and cooking dinner one-handed
5:20 pm Pat comes home and we start our V-Day dinner

I'm seriously exhausted today. If Kimber was awake I had to be holding her or else she would scream. That can really wear on a person! I love her so much, but man, today I wish I would of just taken her to the sitters! Anyways, here is what we gave each other:

Sapphire earrings Pat got me

Tool & Incubus cds I got for Pat

First Boo Boo

I walked into the sitters Friday and the first words out of her mouth were : She got her first owie today. I was a little scared that blood was involved but luckily it was just a few bruises.

Kimber was doing tummy time on the floor with this little snail toy. Another little girl accidently fell on the toy and it hit Kimber in the head. The other little girl started crying, thinking she was in trouble, and Kimber started crying because she was startled. The sitter even called me yesterday to make sure Kimber was ok :)

My birthday!!!

Well my birthday was yesterday. I, of course, didn't take any pictures... because I suck! I really didn't do anything too exciting though. Yesterday morning I went to pick Kimber up from my mom's house. She spent the night over there on Friday while we went to a going away party for a friend who is moving to China!

I spend all morning and most of the afternoon over at my mom's just hanging out with Kimber. Pat had to work so I came back home when he finally got off and we took a family nap :) Then we got up and got ready to go out. His parents came over to watch Kimber while we went to dinner. Pat had made reservations at McGurks and told me that I was not allowed to order a burger lol I have this thing about ordering the least expensive thing on the menu or just getting a burger. I just can't see spending so much money on a meal but I stuck to his rules and ordered a bowl of potato soup and fish and chips. I must say I was pretty happy that he made me order something other than my usual because that dinner was DELISH!

After dinner we came home and had dessert with his parents. I made out with 2 of the Vampire Diary books (SCORE!), Iron Man 2 (SCORE AGAIN!), and cash for a Sams membership. Love it!

I told Pat yesterday that if you would of told me I'd be wearing 'mom jeans' by the time I was 24 I would of said you're out of your mind! Funny how life has changed in the past couple years!

Kimber's First Valentine's Day Card

It was from our cousins that live in Texas. I think Kimber liked it, I know I was a fan!

More New Lights

These are in the kitchen. Pat hung them up yesterday so we only have one left to do. I went today to exchange the light for the hallway because the ring was bent, well they didn't have anymore in stock so I guess we will just have to wait to install the new hallway one. Boo!

Before

Over the sink - Before

After

Such a difference!

It really feels good to get some more things checked off our list! Next is the bathroom. We're thinking we're going to start the reno the second weekend of March. That's if we can find and hire a dry waller that quickly. I have one guy coming to give me an estimate and I'm going to call another, so fingers crossed we will have a new bathroom soon! 

Before & After - Kimber's Room

(The before picture is from my realtor from when she listed the house. The editing was done by yours truly.)


When we bought our house we couldn't move into the bedroom. It was gross and it took a lot of work on our part to get the three bedrooms done. Of course we had help from our family. Pat's dad installed ceiling fans (as mentioned in previous post), and my dad installed our doors.

Here is Kimber's room when we moved in:

Lovely, huh?

I know I've posted these before but here are the after pictures:

So to re-cap all we did.

1. Ripped up carpet, Kilz the floor, had new carpet laid. (Thanks to the in-laws for the awesome anniversary present.)

2. Painted the walls.

3. Ripped up old baseboard.

4. Painted new baseboard and installed it.

5. Had my dad caulk the crown molding since it was put up next to a popcorn ceiling and had huge gaps.

6. Had Pat's dad install ceiling lights.

7. Put in a new (fabulous) register cover.

8. Ripped out old doors.

9. Had my dad install new 6 panel doors for the room and closet, with silver hardware.

10. Painted said doors and jambs.

11. Painted the inside of the closet.

12. Pat installed a shelving unit in the closet.

13. Hung curtains.

14. Hung new blinds.

15. Switched the light switch and outlet covers from off-white/yellow to white.

16. Decorated with pictures and butterflies, put together Kimber's furniture, and organized all her stuff.

Whew, and that was just ONE room! Sooo worth it!

New Light!

There are definite pluses to having a FIL who is an electrician. When we moved in we didn't have any ceiling lights in any of the bedrooms and I refuse to have only lamps so FIL came over one day and installed ceiling fans in all the rooms. Not going to lie, those fans were amazing to use while I was pregnant in the dead of summer!

This past weekend we went to Lowes to pick up a few lights for the house. We got a chandelier for the kitchen, a kitchen light, a light for over the sink and one for the hallway. (All 4 lights, fancy energy light bulbs and a penguin night light for less than $280) The in-laws came over last night for dinner and as an added bonus I got my chandelier installed!!!

Our living room flows into our kitchen and the only light source for the whole room was this horrible eyesore over the kitchen table and 2 lamps I have in the living room. It bugged me that the house was so stinkin dark at night, well we've eliminated that problem!

Our new lights!

Horrible old light, that actually produced no light.

Working hard.

umm, nasty!

Fancy new chandelier!

You wouldn't believe how much light this thing puts out!

I can't wait to get the other lights up! I'm finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel for this 'fixer upper' we bought!