Author: A Mama's Blog

Categories
Breastfeeding Cole Health

This is Getting Ridiculous!

On Tuesday, just short of a week from my last bout of sickness, I started getting some pain in my breast.  I thought maybe my bra was too tight.  Later in the evening,  I realized I had a plugged milk duct, but by then my breast was burning and turning red.  I knew I had mastitis.

I had mastitis at the beginning of the year, and even though that had been the first time I had it, I didn’t call the doctor right away.  I tried some natural remedies to cure it over the weekend.  For me, that was a HUGE mistake.  By Monday, I was so sick, I could barely get out of bed.  It felt like the worst flu I had ever had, and my breast had swollen to about 4 times it normal size, and I was in extreme pain from it.

So this time, no messing around with it!  On Wednesday morning, I called my doctor and left them a message before I had to go to work.  At 9am the receptionist called me and said the doctor had a prescription for me!  I went right after work and got it, and took the first dose.  I am so happy that I never got that flu feeling, and my breast didn’t get any more swollen, or painful.

Yesterday I felt under the weather, but I rested in the morning until it was time to get ready to go to the relatives for Thanksgiving.  I felt OK- not great, but I have certainly felt worse.

As we were leaving my uncle’s house at 8, to come home, Cole started this deep, chest coughing, and he was burning up!  By the time we got home, he could barely breathe from the congestion, and he had a very high fever.  We thought he could have croup, but he wasn’t “barking,” and if we held him upright, he could breathe much better.  

 He did not have a good night.  He tossed and turned and woke up about once every hour.  At one point he was just crying, saying, “mama, mama,” over and over again.  I felt so bad for him.  He finally fell asleep on me, and we both slept for about 3 hours. 

Today he was pretty cranky, still had a fever, but his breathing sounded better.  Then this afternoon, Joe took him to sit down stairs with him, so I could rest, and he threw up.  Right after that, Cole seemed a lot better.  He started pointing at food, and he ate a lot!  He didn’t vomit again, and I think it is the congestion is all piling up in his stomach as well.

So I am listening to him breath while he sleeps, to make sure he doesn’t have any problems, but he still has a fever, and is having some congestion in his chest.

I am SO, SO, tired of us being sick!  I don’t know what else to do. I have started taking some Emergen-C, and an immunity builder herb, since I think that is what brought on my mastitis- I am sure my immune system is weak, since I am still recovering from my last sickness.

Oh yea- Joe caught that same stomach bug I had last week, on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Please send us some healthy thoughts- we sure need them!

Categories
Cole Mothering

Cole at 18 Months

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Cole is exactly 18 months old today!  I can hardly believe it-where has the time gone?

Cole’s personality is really starting to shine.  I noticed a few months ago, he is a little comedian.  He loves to make people laugh.  If he hears one of us laughing he’ll try to copy whatever we were just doing, to keep us laughing.  One of the big ways he gets laughs is he’ll take the kitchen towel off the oven rack, cover his head with it, and then walk around the house, until we say, “Who is that little ghost?” or “Where’s Coley?”  Then he’ll rip the towel off his head, giggles abounding. 

He also loves books.  He’ll sit and look at books for fifteen minutes at a time, no one reading to him- he’ll just study the pictures.

Like most 18-month old, he adores Thomas.  Whenever we turn on a Thomas DVD, he starts bouncing around and dancing.  He also likes music, and songs, and sings along in his own little babbling, to most songs.

Cole can say, Da-da,” and “Mama” right now.  I have heard him say, “no,” “bye,” and “water,” but he doesn’t say those consistently yet.

He certainly has a mind of his own.  His grandmother pointed out the other day, that when he doesn’t want to do something, he is as stubborn as they come!  That is so true! 

As much as he is stubborn though, he gives at least 100% more back in his love.  He will hug us constantly throughout the day, for no reason.  He’ll just come up to me and want a hug and a kiss, and then he’ll be back off to whatever he was doing.  He absolutely lights up when he sees the people he loves, and he starts shrieking with joy and excitement.  His love and attitude rubs off on me.  I find when I am away from Cole for a few hours, I really start to miss him, and I need a hug from him. 

I was thinking about how much love Cole has in his heart the other day, and it dawned on me that no one has ever shown me that much open affection in my entire life.  My parents were pretty affectionate and always told us they loved us, and Joe and I are affectionate, but Cole can take his affection and love, and just run with it, and he doesn’t hold anything back. 

During the first year of his life, which was difficult since he was a high-needs baby, sitting up with him at all hours of the night, I often wondered why I had this particular child, what was he here to teach me, and what was I supposed to learn from him? 

I am sure I will keep discovering more answers to these questions, but after having my Coley for a year and a half, I know I had him to teach me about love- he teaches me that it is okay to be open and free with affection and love, every day. He teaches me that even during the hardest, darkest times, the sun will shine again, and it comes out even brighter and more beautiful than before.

I believe that we are all born with that free, unrestricted love, but because of what life throws at us, it gets buried in us, and can be very hard to find again.  Cole has taught me that it is worth the effort to find that- after all, he shows it to me every day in his smile, his hugs, and kisses.  He truly is a special gift- a gift of love.

Happy 18 months, Coley!  I can’t wait to keep learning from you, and I love you with all my heart!

Categories
Activities Family & Friends

Happy Thanksgiving

Joe and I both have family in state, so we are spending half the day with Joe’s family, and then the other half with my family.  The good thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  The bad thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  We are so stuffed by the end of the day, we never want to eat again.  🙂

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy spending time with family, and of course the food is wonderful, and usually only made once a year.  So we can’t help but enjoy it.  My favorite dish is my Uncle Mike’s turkey.  He has the most wonderful brine, and starts is several days before Thanksgiving.  It is the most juicy, and moist turkey ever- it melts in your mouth. 

I hope everyone has a Happy and safe Thanksgiving, and you get to enjoy all of your holiday traditions too!

Categories
Activities Cole Family & Friends Ryan

Brothers

Here are two pictures that I love from our photo session on Sunday:

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I was really impressed with the studio- my sister did a great job in convincing me to try the studio out. 

I thought it was going to be a disaster though, because no sooner was our session was ready to start, Cole decided he was having NONE of it.  Nothing the photographer, my sister, my sister-in-law, Ryan, or I, did or said could get Cole to stop frowning, and crying, as soon as he saw the camera.  Needless to say, the first 15 minutes was very frustrating!

Our photographer took some extra time, even though the studio was really busy, and she finally got some shots with Ryan and Cole together, both boys separately, (I’ll be posting those pictures on their own posts), both boys with their cousin, and both boys for their Christmas card picture (if you know me in real-life, you’ll have to wait to see that on your Christmas card.  I’ll post a picture of it though, after the cards go out).

The studio was very professional, and they never rushed us.  With my sister and I sharing the photo shoot, it was very economical, and they had the pictures done and printed in under an hour (we went and ate lunch, while waiting for the pictures to be printed).  

 The best part is they give you ALL shots (even ones you don’t end up choosing for pictures) on a CD, to do with what you want.  They said that is their equivalent of giving you the negatives (from the old days.)  So, any pictures I have in color, I can get reprinted in any size, or make black and white, etc.  I love having all shots, because even now, a day later, I am finding I like some pictures that I didn’t like yesterday, and the individual picture I chose for Cole yesterday, I am not liking it so much now.  I really like the flexibility of having the “negatives/CD.”  I even selected our wedding photographer largely in part (I of course liked his work), but he let us keep the negatives. 

The only bad part, was the drive for me.  It was an hour away, but that is a small price to pay.  I have been so bad about getting the boys’ pictures taken, I hope this will motivate me to keep up with it more regularly now.  Since my niece’s first birthday, and Cole’s second birthday are a month apart, I think we are going to go back and share a session again in the spring.

If you know me in real-life and want the name of the studio, send me an e-mail, and I’ll be happy to pass their information along. 

Categories
Household

A Whole Lota’ Laundry

I don’t mind doing laundry, except for when I am behind on it.

Today, as I was putting some of it away, I started to think about how much laundry I really do:

4 people in our house, X 7 shirts (a day at a minimum; not counting all the days the boys, or myself, goes through more than one shirt) =28 shirts.  Joe wears a t-shirt under his dress shirt, 5 days a week, so that is total of 33 shirts a week.

Same formula as above for pants (but, I know several times a week, the boys go through 2 or even 3 pairs of pants in a day, so I’m rounding to 30) =30 pants

Socks- I literally have been going crazy with trying to sort Ryan and Cole’s socks.  There are so many in different sizes, it’s hard to tell what is a three-year old sock, and what is an 18-month sock.  The sizes are very slight.  I finally had an idea:  after they are done wearing them, before they go into the hamper, I safety pin them together.  This has saved me SO much time in trying to sort them.  Not to mention, saves me from those dreaded lost socks, that just disappear in the wash.    Now when I put them away, I just take the pin out, and fold them up! 

Back to the math.  Two boys X 7 pairs a day =14 pairs of socks.  I’m adding in another 6, because it is a rare day, that one or both boys only wear one pair the entire day.  Then Joe wears 1 pair, 5 X a week (when he works out) =5 pairs, plus his other pairs he wears 7 days a week= 7 more pairs.

Then I wear 7 pairs during the week, so that =7 more pairs, for a total of 39 pairs of socks.  Now if you break this down out of the pairs, that is no less than 78 individual socks going through my wash every week.  No wonder the sorting was getting to me!

Now on to undies- pretty basic here.  Cole is still in diapers, so with Joe and I, 7 pairs a week, X 2 of us = 14 pairs.  Add in Ryan, who uses about 12 pairs a week, and that equals 26 pairs of undies.

Miscellaneous wash for the week: I wash about 25 washcloths a week, 5 kitchen towels, 7 kitchen sink cloths, 15 bath towels, and on average about 65 pieces for Cole’s diapers, counting the inserts and the diapers themselves. 

Grand total of all items I wash per week: 284 items! I also try to line-dry as much as I can, so that means extra time, hanging them out, and taking them down.  Let alone folding, and putting them away. 

I guess I won’t feel so bad if I am a few days behind on putting the clothes away.  The next time Joe wonders why he doesn’t have a clean pair of pants, I’ll print this post out for him.  🙂