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Friday, April 26, 2013

Surgery?

I have zero experience with surgery. I did visit Ally after her surgery, but that's the extend of my personal experience. I have a consult with a surgeon on Wednesday and I'm nervous! We will find out if I need my gallbladder out and when. I'm not having current problems with it but do if I'm not careful about what I eat. It's more a precautionary thing. Carter is quickly approaching 2 and we would like to have another baby when he's around 3-3.5. I really don't want to have gallbladder problems while pregnant. I know how bad they are not pregnant, I can't imagine them with a womb-babe in there squishing everything up even more.

I also am going to have surgery to have my wisdom teeth removed. I'm more worried about that one, the most dental work I've ever had done, beyond a cleaning, is sealant. The thought of them cutting my gums open and pulling out my (sideways) wisdom teeth scares the scarecrows out of me!

Deep breaths, it'll all be worth it in the end and I can't wait to get all these health things behind me and add to our family. My consult with the endocrinologist is at the end of May, still a bit away but I'm hoping to get some advice and help and learn how to better work with my body. I have a weight loss goal for then and am really trying hard to make it.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

So Tired Of Moving

So, circumstances have come together to allow us to move home! As excited as I am and as happy as I know I will be to be home, I hate this stage of moving! We are starting in Carter's room and selling his crib and other baby things. We also took down all his monkey decals. It makes me sad. He's growing up!

We still have three weeks before we move, so no rush but this is the most notice we've ever had before a move and the most organized. I am going to miss living down here, no, I'm going to miss some of the people we've gotten to know. Wish we would have gotten to know them a bit better!

Fortunately, we are moving to a house! We've only rented one house before, in our 7+ years of renting. We've never had a two bathroom or three bedroom, we've never had a garage or shed or two separate fenced yards. We are fortunate to be moving into Max's mom's house. It's due to unfortunate circumstances for them but I'm happy we'll be able to help them out and that it will help us out as well. It's a great set up for puppy raising and our little man to have room to run and play.

We also have full permission to do what we want, as far as decorating. So Carter's going to get an awesome bedroom and we are really going to make this house our own. It's going to take some work since all the bedrooms and kitchen have wallpaper that needs removed but it'll be so rewarding and worth it!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Breast feeding Update

I think my boy may be night-weaning, all on his own! The last two nights he has slept in his bed, the one in our room, for 8+ hours straight! Him not nursing through the night also means he's sleeping through the night! I'm so happy we didn't do any sleep training with him! I hope this keeps up though, I'm enjoying being able to sleep through the night, and not getting pushed off the bed!


We will see how him night-weaning affects his nursing in general. He has still been nursing before bed and in the morning and sometimes once during the day. I'm so happy and proud that we've made it this far, there were many times I wanted to give up but I didn't and knowing I gave my boy the best start I could and fought through all the problems makes me one proud mommy!

Carter had a dentist appointment and we found out he has an upper lip tie. I honestly never looked but now so many things make sense. It could explain the slow weight gain, my supply issues and his refusal to nurse from one side. We will be looking into getting it corrected so it doesn't impact his adult teeth or any other area of his life.

We are also working on weaning him off the pacifier. The dentist said it is causing his overbite, which I wholeheartedly disagree with for so many reasons, but regardless, it is time to get rid of them. Today he's only had it for his nap. He threw a little tiny tantrum when I took it from him after he woke up but quickly found something to get into and forgot why he was mad.

I have so much hope now that I will be able to exclusively breastfeed our future babies and will be looking for a lip tie on our newborns from now on!

Carter-Carter at 19 months

I say it all the time but I can't believe how fast time has flown. I can't believe my little guy went from being a cuddly, tiny little floppy legged newborn to being a walking, running, jabbering, opinionated 19 month old. In just over 4 months he'll be two years old!

So where to begin to try and describe what this little boy is like today? I suppose I could tell you all our challenges, new things and things he loves. 

Challenges:
This child has a problem with sleeping. I mean, a real problem. I *refuse* to leave him in his bed crying. It may be how some parents choose to address sleep issues but I am not one of them. I'm a cryer, it's how I handle stressful situations, anxiety and sometimes I just need a good cry to release my emotions, good or bad. If I get to the point where I'm crying so hard I can't breath and to the point of exhaustion, I don't sleep well, I don't feel better when I wake up and if I'm just ignored, I feel betrayed and abandoned. These are feelings I do not want my son to have. I want him to know that I will always be there for him, no matter what.

I think part of the sleep problem is that he still nurses at night. Since that's when he does that majority of his nursing and I'm in no way ready for another pregnancy, we've chosen to not night wean him yet. I feel that if we night wean, he may wean completely and I'm not ready. So, we just sort of deal with the sleep problems. He usually wants to fall asleep on me for nap, which is where babywearing comes in real handy. I can wrap him on my back, at home or away, and he's asleep before too long. I can either leave him up there and go about my day or lay him down. For night time, he falls asleep next to me. He doesn't fall asleep nursing but he usually is curled up pretty close. I don't mind so much, he's not going to want to cuddle with me forever and I'm trying to cherish this time. We usually move him to his bed, either his crib, the full bed in his room or the crib mattress in our room and he moves back to our bed when he gets thirsty, anywhere from 2-8 hours later. 

Another challenge is he sometimes gets frustrated and will strike whatever it is he's frustrated with. Say he trips and bumps into the wall. If he's cranky, he will turn around and hit the wall. He's not too bad about hitting people but when he does hit, we warn him and if he does it again he goes in time-out. Time-outs have been great for him, he really seems to understand that if he stops the behavior he won't be sitting against the wall.

This kid can get undressed so quickly! Thankfully he is not to the point of taking his diaper off, yet, but I'm sure it's coming. He just started taking his pants off and pulling at his diaper when it's dirty. I've gotten his potty chair down and he's sat on it once. He's really interested in the toilet and flushing and wiping and washing hands but I'm not sure he's quite there yet for potty training. He only acknowledges the dirty diaper after he's gone, not before. I think it's time to start reading him some potty books and we'll go from there.

New Things:
I love watching him grow and learn! He's hilarious at this age and so entertaining. He's learning animals sounds and the differences between animals. He loves to hold the vacuum extension up to his mouth and be an "elephant" and he thinks every bird is a duck so will start quacking anytime he sees a bird.

He's recently started trying to jump. It's so cute how much effort he puts into jumping, he gets this sly smile on his face, bends his knees and jumps up onto his tip-toes real quick. He's yet to get air-born but he tries so hard.

He's working really hard on learning the alphabet. He loves his alphabet magnets and other letter toys and games. We are working on shapes and colors but he seems to like the alphabet more.

He is talking so much! We really have to be careful about what we say in front of him, you never know when he'll choose to repeat a word or phrase! Yesterday, Max and I were talking and I said "duh" to myself about something and Carter starts saying it over and over again. *facepalm*

Things He Loves:
I generally hate gender stereotypes for such young kids. Carter is a boy but he loves to play dress up and carry around buckets and play cook and take care of his mickey doll. On the other hand, he loves to get dirty, eat mud, play at the park, collect rocks, run outside and climb. 

Now that the weather is getting warmer and slightly less wet (we do live in Oregon, afterall) he wants to be outside all the time. Our apartment backyard isn't quite ready for summer time, we are planting grass this week and plan on buying him so toys for outside, but regardless, he wants to be out there every minute of everyday. He hates it when I bring him back inside, for whatever reason. 

He is obsessed with babies. He sees a baby and is mesmerized. He is a bit weary of them but he likes to look.

I will add pictures soon!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Blood Results - #1

I didn't get a prescription for met.formin because my primary care doesn't have any experience treating PCOS with this particular drug and I'm already referred to an expert to manage my PCOS. She did, however, go over my blood test results with me. The GREAT news is that I'm not diabetic! I never got retested after my pregnancy and since I was considered to have GD, I should have been when Carter was around a year old. My insulin was fine and most of my hormones were within normal range. My free testosterone was above the normal range but not a lot.

Since I'm still waiting to even schedule an appointment with the endocrinologist, Monday will be three weeks, I'm going to go back on birth control. We plan on me being on birth control for several months anyway, so might as well start it now and start the getting the benefits.

That's all I've got for now, on the health front. I hope to lose about 50 pounds before we have our next baby, so it will take some times but I'm determined to get there. I will have to get a post up on Carter here soon, he's changing so much and growing so fast, it's hard to believe!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Moving On Up

We got word yesterday that there is a three bedroom coming available! I can't tell you how excited this makes me, I just hope we get it! We love our apartments and the manager and area and by getting a three bedroom, we would also gain another bathroom and have plenty of space for a new baby (when the time comes).

School started yesterday, I'm retaking two classes I got A's in in Roseburg so it will likely be an easy term and the workload doesn't look too bad. I think the hardest part will just be keeping Carter occupied while I do my schoolwork and scheduling myself between school, spiritual, family, visiting our home town, moving, doctor appointments, etc.

We have a serious lacking of any decor in our home and it's a problem that really bugs me. I want pictures of my son on the walls and art I enjoy and curtains, etc. So we are going to be getting Carter's pictures taken and print out more that we have taken over his last 19 months of life. I'm excited!

I have a doctor appointment today with a primary care physician. I decided I needed to get in and see one for my gallbladder and celiac and general health. I have a referral for an endocrinologist for my PCOS and hormone problems and a dentist appointment next week to get my teeth cleaned, cavities filled and talk about my wisdom teeth. I may ask today if the PCP will prescribe me met.formin for my PCOS/hormone issues since it's already been over two weeks that I've been waiting and will likely be another month or more until I get in to see the endocrinologist and I want to start it sooner than that. If she's not willing, I'm going to have to call my gyno to see if she's prescribe it for me. She said before she wanted to leave it to the endocrinologist but eh, I'm tired of waiting for my body to work right and my hormones to level out.

Anyway, I should probably go eat some breakfast and do some reading and take care of my little guy. Hope my appointment today goes well!