May 2012 - Portraits of my kids

We had a Memorial Day Barbecue with Husband's parents and his brother's family on the Saturday before Memorial Day. That evening, my sister-in-law took these pictures of my kids. (We're still trying to convince Jeric to smile normally for pictures.)

May 2012

In May, Husband finished his last semester at the community college and [finally] finished his associate's degree. The poor guy has had a rough time getting done because of moving and moving and moving again, but I'm so proud of him for sticking it out. We were beginning to make preparations to move sometime during the summer, because he had been accepted to a state university to finish the rest of his undergraduate degree. We took a couple of trips to look for a job for him in our new city. We weren't very concerned about it at first, because he had a job working nights in our old city, so we figured we had all summer. 

We started looking more in earnest beginning the last week of May, because he lost his job. It wasn't his fault, and it wasn't the company owners' fault. Circumstances beyond anyone's control caused a drop-off in business, and they simply couldn't afford to let all the employees keep working. Because they knew that we were moving that summer anyway, Husband was one of those let go. He put in more than a dozen applications for jobs in our new city, but we didn't hear anything for a long time.

I almost forgot something else that happened in May: I had my very first [very mild] anaphylactic reaction. I reacted to, of all things, the baked apples at a restaurant while out to eat with my mom, dad, and sister (it was kind of a joint anniversary celebration, because our anniversary is two days before my mom and dad's). I still don't know what it was that was in the apples that I'm allergic to (it wasn't the apples, the sugar, or the cinnamon, so there must have been something else) but it was definitely the baked apples that caused the reaction. We were just finishing up and on our way out the door anyway, and the reaction was very very mild. My tongue felt like it was blistered, and my throat felt raw, but I could breathe just fine, so we didn't go to the hospital. Instead, we went to the Walmart pharmacy because it was 7:30 on a Saturday evening. Because I'm breastfeeding, I wasn't sure what was and was not okay to take (I didn't think any of them were unsafe, but I wasn't sure). So, I called the midwife! I called the number that you call when you're in labor, because I had it saved in my phone. :) Marcia answered and apparently had my number saved in her phone, because she knew who I was before I told her. I told her what was going on, and she said I could take Benadryl, but to be aware that it might cause a temporary drop in milk production. We bought the liquid kind because we thought it would take effect more quickly. I took it while we pulled out of the parking lot and felt fine by the time we got home. albeit a bit drowsy from the Benadryl. So that was an exciting weekend. Haha.

Also in May, Rosebud and I continued to have difficulty with nursing (again, if you don't want to read about it, scroll down to the pictures). By the time she turned three months old on May 6, I was fairly sure she had a posterior tongue-tie, because no one had noticed it (they are difficult to spot) but she had all the symptoms of tongue-tie. (Google tongue-tie and breastfeeding if you're curious.) I felt like such an idiot that I'd noticed all the signs but hadn't put them together for three months. We went to an open house at the birth center (Rosebud had been born at the temporary location, and I wanted to see the new place!) where I asked the midwives if they'd be able to confirm my suspicions. Nicole looked at Rosebud's tongue and said yes, she was definitely tongue-tied. 

Some tongue-ties don't cause any problems for breastfeeding or speech, some cause problems for both, some only cause problems for one or the other. Some initially cause problems for breastfeeding but stretch out o n their own with time. Because Rosebud was already three months old and the problems were only getting worse, I knew she'd need to have it clipped. I called my pediatrician the next day for an appointment so I could get a referral to an ENT who could perform the procedure. Rosebud was still gaining weight fairly well despite our issues, so I was glad for that. But, I knew that she'd have gained more quickly to that point had she not been tongue-tied. (She was 9lb 2oz at birth, 10lb 0oz at two weeks, 12lb 10oz at two months, and 14lb 0oz at this appointment at three months.) 

I got my referral, but had to wait until the last week of May for the appointment. Those weeks were awful. I sought the help of a couple of lactation consultants to help minimize the pain I was feeling in the meantime, but I would just cry in pain every time poor Rosebud latched on to nurse. When I finally took her in to see the ENT, we learned that our insurance wouldn't pay for the frenulectomy, which would need to be performed under anesthesia (similar to when Jeric had tubes put in his ears). We certainly couldn't afford to pay for it out-of-pocket! I was devastated. The ENT took pity on me and did a full check-up of her ears, as well, and found that she already had a lot of fluid in her ears (though it wasn't infected at the time). He knew our family history (tubes, tubes, tubes for everyone!) and recommended based on those two things that we go ahead and have tubes inserted, and that he would simply clip her tongue while she was under anesthesia for the tubes, and we could just pay for the tongue-clip itself. We were able to afford that! We scheduled the procedure for June 13th. I wasn't happy about having to wait that long, but was excited to have it done! And that concluded Chapter 2 in The Saga of the Tongue-Tie. :)

Helping Papa in the yard. 

Cuddle cousins. 

Being sweet. 

Neither of my kids have ever taken a pacifier consistently, but Jeric knows what they are for and thought Rosebud should use this one. She wasn't too thrilled.

So he just stuck it in his own mouth. 

Wish he hadn't moved so his face was cut off, but I still think it's cute. 

Tummy time. 

Napping with the blanket Nene made for her. 

 

Playing with Papa outside.

Washing his dirty feet. 

Imitating Daddy. Wish it wasn't blurry, but the child never holds still.

Fell asleep again. 

My sister.  

 Rosebud meeting Great-Grandma H (my dad's mom).  

 Jeric and Grandpa (twins, haha).

Sneak Peek

We took family pictures with my side of the family a couple of weeks ago before my youngest brother left for his church mission (he'll be gone for two years to Chihuahua, Mexico). So far these are the only two I've seen, but they're pretty cute.

Picture of Grandpa

One of the gifts Jeric got for his birthday was a small magnadoodle (it is awesome for church). Last night he was playing with it. He scribbled something and brought it to me and said "picture Grandpa!" Evidently the scribble was a picture of my dad. So I had to take a picture of it, and we called Grandpa to tell him about it.

He then erased it and drew pictures of Uncle Daniel, Aunt Anna, Grandma, Uncle Bob (what he calls my brother Robert)... It was too funny!

Yes, I know it has been more than two months. Again.

Last week.

Anybody out there? Probably gave up on me a long, long time ago. I don't know why I have such a hard time blogging consistently.

A few things:

1. Jeric is a nut and he makes me giggle.
2. Husband is glad it's summer break from school.
3. I have had two gray hairs in the last week. Blah.



And now, some pictures from my phone (ok, so not all of them are from my phone; a few are from my dad's or my brother's).

I apologize for several things about the pictures:

1. They are extremely fuzzy and poor-quality.
2. They are mostly reverse-order, and often without-order.
3. I cannot get blogger to let me put the first picture under the writing. I don't know what is up with that and I'm too lazy to try for another 5 minutes to get it to work.
4. Lack of captions, or even dates for the pictures.
5. My ridiculous son, who really is a very cute boy, refuses to smile for the camera. Instead, we get this weird grimace-y thing. We're working on it.

Hey, at least I posted!

This is my father-in-law's mother, who is not doing well at all. She has Alzheimer's Disease and is in a nursing home. We took Jeric to meet her recently. He did SO well being there and was calm and happy and talked to her. She doesn't talk much anymore and has no idea who anyone is, but she seemed to enjoy watching Jeric -- her eyes lit up and she focused on him as long as he was in her range of vision.