Busy Day

Aidyn had a busy day today. After getting up, we spent the morning and afternoon just being lazy. When Ben got home from school, I asked him to watch Aidyn for a few minutes so I could take a shower. Afterwards I was going to run his suit to the dry cleaners. Instead, Ben offered to just take Aidyn on with him to weighlifting practice for football. Ofcourse I said, sure!

After being at weighlifting for about 45 minutes, Aidyn came home and took a nap. Then he spent some time outside in his swing while I worked on pulling weeds and cutting down some bushes in the front yard.

Next, after a nice long nap Aidyn's Mom-mom (my mom) came over for dinner and a visit. Aidyn slept through our entire dinner. My mom was disappointed that he was asleep when she arrived, but luckily he woke up once we had the kitchen cleaned up.

Ben has been working on a project for his principal and needed a picture of the school. So, after dinner we put Aidyn in his stroller and we all walked up to the school - a little less than a mile from our house probably.


Aidyn did really well until we got to the school. He got the hiccups so Ben and I ended up taking turns carrying him while the other pushed the stroller. We put him back in the stroller on the way home, but he ended up getting fussy so my mom carried him the rest of the way.

Once home, we had about 30 minutes until it was time for him to eat. I gave Aidyn a bath while my mom took some pictures. He loves his baths! Then it was time for his bottle and bed time. Whew, what a day!

3 Months Old

Aidyn turned 3 months old yesterday, April 26th. Here are a few pics to show how much he's grown since January.

All handsome and ready for church in his Tommy Hilfiger shirt and Old Navy khakis. Both of these pieces are 3-6 month sizes. He has definately outgrown ALL of his clothes that were 0-3 months!

Going for a walk around the park while Daddy practices softball. The men in our church play in a softball league every year. The first game is tomorrow (Tuesday) and so they thought they might atleast need a little batting practice lastnight after church. They were the league champs last year! We cannot wait for this season to begin! This outfit says, "I watch ESPN with my Daddy!" Ben bought it in Disney World lastyear. It's a 6month piece...a little big, but fits better than some of the other 3 months things we've put on him lately.

Earlier last week before it got HOOOOT outside. Since about Wednesday or Thursday it's been in the upper 70s to 80s here in East Tennessee. What happened to Spring? I think it missed us completely! We went from snow 2 weeks ago to upper 80s yesterday! Hope the warm weather is here to stay!

Pump Free...Yay!!!

I am officially "pump free"! Since I am planning on starting my master's in May, I went ahead and began gradually switching Aidyn to formula. Up until this point he has been eating breastmilk that I've been pumping - every 3 hours, every day. Ugh!

I had decided before Aidyn was born I was going to breastfeed for many reasons. It's better for babies, easier to digest, has anitbodies in it that help their immune system, its "always ready", and definately cheaper than formula. It's free, ha. After trying for 2 weeks to get Aidyn to nurse and being unsuccessful, I quit trying and just committed to pumping. I would feed Aidyn a bottle, pump for 15 minutes, pour that milk into his next bottle, and then wait for the cycle to continue. After 2 months of this, I decided that was enough.

Had Aidyn been able to latch on successfully, I do think I would have continued longer. But talk to anyone that's had to pump...whether it be a few times or every time like me...and they'll tell you it's no fun. I started gradually with formula because I was afraid he would not like it. Amazingly, he acted like he didn't even know a difference. I don't think he did. I think he probably would have been ok if I just switched him over without doing it gradually, but it made me feel better. Also, during this time, I had to work on "weaning" my body and training it to stop producing milk.

I started by changing his 12noon feeding to formula and I wouldn't pump at that time. I did that for 3 days. Then, I switched the 12 midnight needing and quit pumping at that time. I did that for 3 days. Then I dropped the 3pm feeding, then the 3am feeding, then 6pm and 6am, and finally 9pm and 9am. With each feeding, we would go 3-4 days before switching to another. This gave my body time to realize I didn't need the milk at those times. And eventually, when I would have "leaked" or been sore for skipping a time...I suddenly wasn't even the slightest bit sore. Plus, not to mention the extra time I had.

I no longer had to spend 30 min after each feeding on pumping, preparing the next bottle, and cleaning the pump equipment. This also meant that at night when Aidyn woke up, I could feed, burp, and change him, and usually be back to bed within 15-20 minutes...not 45. Yay!

I have successfully been "pump free" since last Wednesday...5 days. I only became a little sore on Friday afternoon. I called the lactation consultant who said I'd done everything great by doing it slowly over a 3 week period. To help with tenderness and to dry up what was left of any milk production, I could take 2 sudafed (sp?) a day if I wanted. Sudafed can only be bought at a pharmacy, and you have to sign for it...because people use it to make Meth.

Aidyn has been successfully eating formula now for all means since last Friday and we're both doing great! My only regret about not being on breastmilk is the nasty formula diapers (and cost ofcourse). Not fun! Even the absolute worst of the breastmilk diapers will never even compare, haha.

As far as costs goes, before we were paying $75/month for the pump. I am not taking into acccount the cost of the bottles or bags I used to store the milk. Now, we are going through about 1 container of formula a week. So $25 x 4 = about $100/month now. For the cost to only increase by $25 per month, I figure that isn't no where near the increase I thought we'd see.

Mean Mommy

Well, it's official. I'm a mean mommy, hahaha.

On Wednesday night (last week) my right eye started to hurt. When I woke up Thursday morning the corner of my eyelid was red and a little swollen. Uh-oh...pink eye? My brother had pink eye about 2 weeks ago and so I was afraid that maybe I had caught it from him when we were all at my parents' house. Or...my mom mentioned that because it can be a bacterial infection, they're very easy to get (pink eyes) as a mom because of all the diaper changes going on. Gross!

I decided to wait and see what happened with it, but it continued to hurt and itch. So, Friday morning I got up to feed Aidyn at 9:30am and decided I was going to call the dr. Luckily, none of the doctors in my group had appointments available. The receptionists suggested going to the "Walk-In Clinic" supported by the doctor's office. She called and they hadn't seen anyone in over an hour. Sounded good to me since I could just go then and not have to wait all day and sit in a waiting room.

I called my dad to see if he could keep Aidyn while I ran to the dr. I didn't want to take him into a waiting room full of sick people should it get busy before I got there. He said sure. So I tried feeding Aidyn, but apparently he wasn't hungry. He's been doing that lately about once a day. So I went ahead and showered and got us ready.

In my hussle and quick running around to get ready ASAP and get to the dr, I forgot to give Aidyn his reflux meds. Yep...totally forgot! I usually give it to him around 8-9am after he eats. Since he didn't eat and I was worried about having pink eye and Aidyn getting it...I totally forgot to give him the medicine before we left. And when do you think I finally realized?

At about 7:30pm that night when he wouldn't eat and just screamed and cried. He hadn't had one of these "episodes" in probably 2 weeks and Ben and I were trying to figure out what was wrong. I felt HORRIBLE when I realized what I'd done....or hadn't done actually. I went to get the meds and gave it to him then. He still wouldn't eat, but within ten minutes he calmed down and went to sleep.

Luckily, I don't have pink eye though. I was in and out of the Walk-In Clinic within 30 minutes and the dr thinks I just have a stye. Since I was exposed to pink eye earlier, she went ahead and gave me drops. My eye is already feeling better and I haven't forgotten the meds again!

Sun Hat

Aidyn went with his Nonnie (Ben's mom) and Bubba (Ben's dad) to a family picnic this afternoon. I had bought him a sun hat because I thought they were going to be outside. It actually ended up being at a church, but here is a picture of his way too big hat, haha. Maybe it will fit a little better before the end of the summer...I hope.

Dressed and ready for the picnic.

His sun hat that is just too big right now, haha. He cracks me up!

More Tummy Time

Aidyn loves to sit in his Boppy pillow and just relax. Sometimes I will lay him across the Boppy to work on tummy time. He will usually hold his head up a few minutes before just laying back down and hanging out.

Boppy tummy time...he's recently found his hands. He LOVES to hold them together and "play" with them. Another favorite...trying to eat them. He is trying his best to figure out how to get his whole hand in his mouth. :)

Relaxing in the Boppy pillow.


More Tummy time on the couch and talking to mom.

Aidyn has also started kicking with his feet, almost like he's trying to move...but not really. This morning I layed him across the Boppy for his tummy time when all of a sudden he kicked himself right over the front of it. Next thing I knew he was bent totally over it, laying on his head, with his feet hanging over the top. Haha... good thing I was there. He didn't cry or anything, but I ended up moving the pillow and just putting him on his stomach on the couch. Crazy kid!

Big Boy Chair

I bought Aidyn a Bumbo chair. I read many reviews online before doing so and felt like maybe he would enjoy this. He is currently working on holding his head up (even though you can't tell from this picture) and he LOVES to sit up so he can check everything out.

The seat is made of soft rubber and supports him up to his shoulders in the back. We put him in the seat the night I brought it home and he did great. The next morning I tried again and he would only hold his head up a second. So...we're still working on tummy time each day to practice holding his head up and a minute or two in the Bumbo seat. When he sits in this seat, I am always right there with him, usually with my hand behind his head to help support it just incase.

Mirror, Mirror...

I bought Aidyn a mirror for his crib the other day. Only problem is it won't tie to his crib because of the slats. Our crib is beautiful, but definately not made to fit "standard" items such as mirrors, mobiles, bumper pads, you name it.

Instead, I've propped the mirror up next to Aidyn's changing table. He loves to look at himself while I change his diaper.

Bird Attacks!

I've decided we've got an infestation of birds (barn swallows is what I call them) outside between our house and our neighbors. Since buying our house in October 2006, we have yet to cap the chimney. Hence our "bird" problems we've had at least once a year since.

This winter, Ben pushed a huge piece of insulation up in our fireplace/chimney. Obviously we don't use it. We have gas logs but they are in the basement and haven't been installed yet. So, anyways, the other night we were watching TV and I told Ben I could hear birds in the chimney. He muted the TV and sure enough they were loud and clear. He ran outside and got a piece of plywood we had on the side porch to cover the fireplace. We pushed one of our couch ottaman's up against it to hold the board in place.

2-3 days passed and we didn't hear the birds anymore. So as we were watching TV, again, Ben pulled the ottoman over to the couch so he could prop up his feet. We left the board where it was...bad idea. As I was sitting there feeding Aidyn, the board fell over before we could catch it. Scared the crap out of Aidyn and he screamed for about 5 minutes until I got him calmed down. Ben just pushed the board to the side.

THEN....came the fun part. At midnight I heard Aidyn fussing. As I got up to go check on him I heard a bird flying around downstairs. I went closer to the stairs to see if I could hear any better and about the time I did...SMACK - right into the window it flew! I "quietly" ran into our room to wake up Ben.

Needless to say we spent the next 20-30 minutes trying to "catch" and chase two birds outside. Ugh! Here is our fireplace, once again...with a board infront.

Lastnight we thought we heard ANOTHER bird (or birds) in the fireplace. After waiting a while, we didn't hear them anymore so I hope we were wrong. We've GOT to get our chimney capped!

Nature Sights

I took some pictures on our walk of some of the sites we saw and forgot to add them to the previous post. Anyhow...here they are.

There were 4 turtles on this log as we approached, but the closer I got to take a picture...2 of the smaller ones jumped off. You should be able to see the big one closer to the water and a smaller baby turtle on up about a foot. You can't see its head, just the shell.

Here is a HUGE fish that was in one of the ponds It's the dark shadow in the middle of the picture if you can't tell. It was probably 2-3ft long. I'm not really sure. I just know it was big!

Just some running water heading down the creek...

Here is a duck we saw as it was bathing itself. Every time I tried taking its picture, it would hide its head...however, I swear its there somewhere!

Cool Dude!

I bought Aidyn his first pair of sunglasses at Target the other day and this past week was the perfect time to try them out. Here in East Tennessee its been sunny with temps in the upper 70s to low 80s for the past 5 days or so. I hope it continues! However, being how the past 2 times it's been nice like this and is snowed 3 days later...I'm not holding my breath yet.

Here's Aidyn getting ready to leave the house to go walk. We have a walking trail less than a mile from our house. On the nature trail there is a creek that runs parallel as you walk as well as a pond or two and other pretty sites.

Here is Aidyn ready for his stroll in the sun. hehe - isn't he cute?!?! I actually ended up taking the sunglasses off of him and just using the "visor" thing on his stroller.

We walked 3.5 miles on Thursday before I dropped him off with Ben (who was still at school) so I could go eat dinner with some friends. I really wish this weather would stick around for good!

Weight Doubled!

Aidyn was born on Monday, Januar 26, 2009. He weighed 7lbs.

We weighed him on our scale at home a few days ago...14 lbs!

He will be 3 months old tomorrow and he has already doubled his birth weight...which according to "all the books", most babies double their weight between 4-6 months. Aidyn is a little ahead of the game in this department. :)

S - P - O - I - L - E - D !

We are going to have to start "working" on putting Aidyn down and just letting him cry. For his first month or two, he would be content laying on a blanket or on our bed while we were getting ready, eating dinner, or doing something that required us to put him down.

Not anymore! haha

Here is a picture from about ten minutes ago. Aidyn woke up at 4:00pm to eat. Afterwards he played on his playmat while I cut his fingernails and then sat in his bouncy seat while I cleaned up his bottle and updated some of our blog. We have to be at church in 30 minutes and so when I went to lay him on the bed so I could get dressed...here's what happened:

He was NOT happy to be put down! As soon as I would walk over to him to tell him I was almost ready, he would quieten (sp?) down. Seriously, all I did was put jeans on and a tshirt...not like I was re-doing makeup, "fixing" my hair, or anything like that, haha. He literally went into scream mode within seconds.

I tried getting a picture since most people are always saying, "I really have never heard him cry or get upset. Are you sure he does? Maybe he just fusses or gets whiney." So I tried getting "proof", haha...but even when I got close enough for a picture he calmed down because he thought I was going to pick him up. He is definately S-P-O-I-L-E-D.

As I type this, we are in our "comptuer" position. I am sitting with my legs crossed, feet propped up on the desk, and him sitting in my lap against my legs. He now has fallen asleep. He's rotten to the core! :)

Medicine Suggestions???

Here is a picture of Aidyn's reflux medicine - Prevacid. It's a small pill. I placed it next to a dime so you could get a good idea of the size. Our "instructions" are to place the pill in a teaspoon of water for it to disolve, and then give to Aidyn. It actually tastes fruity...or smells fruity, I haven't tasted it, haha. But anyhow - he likes the taste.


I have been disolving the pill and then using the dropper to suck up the water. I give it to Aidyn in the morning after he eats a little at a time. Unfortunately, the meds doesn't complete disolve. It really actually just breaks down into VERY small pieces, like salt almost. Because of this, some of the meds gets stuck in the top (blue part) of the dropper. So.....I tried the "spoon" it came with. When you do this, the meds gets stuck in the bottom. He gets quite a bit, but there is usually a good amount left over either in the dropper top or spoon bottom. Ugh!

A friend of mine, whose daughter is 10 months old, also uses the same meds. Because of the quick disolving time, she just places the pill in her daughter's mouth. Obviously, Aidyn is quite old enough to do that...yet. But I'm wondering if maybe I couldn't break it up and try giving to him that way? But that worries me still.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated...THANKS! :)

Burning Building

Here are some "after" shots of the old building I posted about a few weeks ago. It's about 4 blocks from our house, maybe 5...not sure exactly. Either way its waaaaay close and our house smelled like smoke for 2 days!

Sleeping "Mix-Ups"

I think Aidyn has his nights and mornings mixed up. Not DAYS and NIGHTS, just the mornings. Here is his sleep "schedule" from lastnight:

9:45pm (Ate and went to bed)
*After putting him in bed, we let Aidyn wake up on his own during the night.

1:45am (Ate)

4:00am (Woke up, but wouldn't eat so Ben changed him and put him back to bed.)

6:00am (Woke up, but wouldn't eat again. I figured by now he'd be hungry, guess not. So after rocking him about 5 min I put him back to bed.)

7:30am (Woke up, wasn't interested in eating...again. This time I went ahead and brough his bottle and him to bed with us.)

Aidyn sleeps in his own bed, but in the early mornings when I'm still in need of sleep...I sometimes bring him and lay him on one of Ben's pillows between us. For whatever reason, he sleeps like 2 more hours.

9:45am (Woke up HUNGRY and ate - yay!)

So, essentially, he went from 1:45am until 9:45am this morning without eating or wanting to eat. I think he woke himself up the first time ( at 4) using the bathroom. He tends to do that. I'm not sure what woke him up the times afterwards since he wasn't hungry. Now...if only I could get him to go 8 hours WITHOUT waking up, we'd be doing wonderful! :) Hopefully he'll get this all straightened ou soon. :)

Contagious Curiosity

I ate lunch with a friend of mine today, Kathryn, and her mom. We met at the park and enjoyed the beautiful 70 degree weather and sun. Boy, was it nice!!! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish working in our flower beds down infront of the house. We are getting ready to order a new front door and shutters for the windows...I can't wait!

But anyways...my curiosity has gotten the best of me. It's contagious I think, ha. Many of you have probably noticed "My Blog List" that I follow on the left side of this blog. One of them, The Muellers, has posted a survey for people to complete about her blog. I do not know Crystal, but came across her blog through other blogs that I read. She is a 4th grade teacher, like me, and new mom...so I find it neat and interesting to read her comments about these same experiences.

I was telling my friend, Kathryn, about my blog today. She and her mom read it, along with other friends and family members of mine. To my surprise, she began telling me that some of her friends and "co-workers" in her nursing program at school also follow my blog...and have been since I was pregnant. That's pretty neat, I think. I would think it was weird that people I don't know read my blog and follow along, but I do the same to other people I don't know, haha.

Because of this "news", I also (like Crystal) have decided to post a survey on the top left of my blog to see how many people follow and read about our family. I have left the survey "open" for a month since I know some people check daily and others just every once in a while. I'll be curious to see the results come in.

Special Lunch Visitor

Aidyn went to lunch today with his Great-Nana and his 3rd cousin, Kelsey. Kelsey was born with muscular dystrophy and some mental developmental delays. She is 7 years old, in kindergarten, and LOVES every minute of it! She had an appointment with the lung specialist today for a check up. Afterwards, she was picked up by my grandmother (my Nana) and we all went to lunch. It was a great afternoon!

Aidyn's BIG Friend

In high school, I met the greatest friend ever, Aimee. Since then, she and I have been very close. We were in each other's weddings, have shared many life "lessons" and experiences together, and now will be sharing "mommy-hood" together as well.

She and her husband, Matt, live in Nashville now, but were in town visiting for Easter with their dog, Agnus. Agnus is a Mastiff and weighs 180 lbs! Being 7 months pregnant, Aimee has began preparing her daughter's nursery and their home for her June arrival.

Today, I left Aidyn with my dad while I went to lunch with Aimee and her husband. Afterwards they took me to a pottery place where we all painted pottery. It was a very fun afternoon and much needed "mommy break" for me. When we were finishing up painting our pottery, Matt began talking about how they are worried about how Agnus will react when Mattilda (their daughter) is born and comes home. Without even thinking twice about it, I said, "Bring Agnus over to meet Aidyn." So they did.

I had met Agnus before and have heard many stories about how she's a big "chicken". Well, she did GREAT with Aidyn today. She didn't even care about him. She was however, scared of the stroller and bouncy seat. As Aidyn moved and squirmed around, ate his bottle and burped, and even cried a little after...she would just turn her head towards him and then look away. When Matt moved Aidyn's stroller around the room and when I brought the bouncy seat downstairs, she growled at them and tried to hide behind our couch ottamans.

I'm sure you can imagine this 180lbs dog trying to hide behind an ottoman, but she wouldn't go near the things...until we put Aidyn in them. Then she would. As Aimee pointed out, it was like she was thinking, "Well...if they put the little guy in there, they can't be too scary," and she would sniff them out.

Here is a picture of me holding Aidyn while we were trying to get him closer to Agnus. She still didn't care one bit. I think she is going to be a wonderful BIG sister to Mattilda!

Happy Easter!

Today was a busy, beautiful, and sunny day. Aidyn spent his first Easter making his "holiday rounds" with both families - Ben's family and mine. We started our day at church where Ben's family attends and Ben is the youth minster. That is where Aidyn got his picture taken with Haley and Laurel.

After church, we went to Ben's parents house for lunch. While there, Aidyn also got his picture taken with Bella, a little Yorkshire Terrier puppy. She was just the perfect size for him...if onle she woudn't grow any bigger.

After lunch, we headed to my aunt's house. After we all ate lunch, or everyone else did...we had already eaten, it was time for a little softball. All my cousins are really big into sports and had brought their softball gloves, bats, and balls. I think it ended up being 6 on 6. The teams went from my 9yr old cousin Chase, to my grandmother's husband who is a minster and probably in his 60s. Needless to say, we had some good laughs.

Due to my lack of athletic abilities, I was a sidelines cheer leader and jumped on the trampoline with my younger cousin, Joni. Fortunately I was successful in my bladder control! Apparently you "aren't the same" after having a baby and my mom and two aunts couldn't wait for me to try out the trampoline. Luckily, I was able to diappoint them. :)

Baby Line-Up

If you have been following my blog since December, you may remember the pictures I posted entitled "Mommy Line-Up". If not here is the photo one more time. It was taken in December 2008 at our church during a baby shower.

Kara, Sarah, Me

Here we are, a little over 3 months later, all with our new babies. Aidyn (middle) was born on January 26th. Laurel (right) was born on January 29th. Haley (left) was born the week of March 9th...I think.

Here we are all lined up for a group photo after our morning Easter service at church.

Tired...

Being a mom is GREAT! However, the past week or so has been very tiresome and I'm finding myself more and more "tired" of different things.

So, after watching the WONDERFUL Oprah episode on Monday entitled "Moms' Secret Truths"...I've decided to just be upfront about some of my feelings. I know that for some people, they will agree or relate to some of the things I'm tired of. For others, you may think I'm awful...but here are my "secret truths".

If you didn't get to see that Oprah episode, you really missed a good one, seriously. Ben refers to Oprah is the "anti-christ", haha...but even he watched it with me when he got home from school. And (I thought about not saying this, but I'm going to)...if you aren't a mom, please don't judge my "truths". Some things are a lot harder than they seem.

It is hard to believe that Aidyn will be 11 weeks old tomorrow! Wow, how time flies! And in these 11 weeks I have grown tired of...

1. Wearing Nursing Bras
2. Being back down to my pre-prego weight, but because of the ever so lovely "changes" to more than just one body part, still not being able to wear my pre-prego clothes
3. Leaking (Ladies, you know what I mean)
4. Aidyn screaming like crazy and not being able to make him feel better no matter what Ben or I may try.
5. Pumping every 3 hours, or at all for that matter -- I am all for breastmilk, but pumping AND feeding is exhausting, which is why we are currently working on switching to formula
6. People looking at me like I'm crazy or a horrible mom when I tell them I LOVE my job and am actually looking forward to returning to work in August.
7. Not getting more than 3-4 hrs of sleep at one time
8. Aidyn only eating half his bottle (if you burp him then) and not wanting the rest...until an hour later.
9. Being home ALLLLLL day, waiting and looking forward to Ben coming home, only to realize that he will be of some help when he gets home at 6pm...but he still must get papers graded, football materials prepared, and work on his own school assignments for his Saturday classes
10. Not having Aidyn on a schedule...as much as we've tried. This makes planning for lunches, events, visits, etc. hard since there's no telling (until the morning of) when Aidyn will eat next


Now...on a brighter note, I'm also going to tell you the things I've grown to love over the past 11 weeks. I love...

1. That breasfeeding (or pumping) has atleast gotten my weight, if not my "shape", back down to the pre-prego numbers without any "work" being necessary. The work is going to be needed though, unfortunately. :)
2. Changing Aidyn's diapers (weird I know) because while I do, we "talk". He loves to just coo and aww, and make the sweetest noises while I talk to him and he just smiles and takes it all in. Precious!
3. Watching Ben and Aidyn together, or listening to them from another room. I seem to fall in love with Ben all over again each time.
4. Watching Aidyn relax and enjoy his baths...he LOVES being in the water!
5. New friends I have gained just by becoming a mom and the support we are all able to give each other.
6. Seeing Aidyn's grandparents' and great-grandparents' faces light up just by looking at him whether it be while holding him or from across the room.
7. Observing Aidyn as he learns more and more about his environment and himself. I am fascinated by the way he "studies" his rattling toys that we hang on his play mat as he thinks about how he got them to rattle in the first place and what needs to be done to make it happen again.
8. That I can be across the room with someone else holding Aidyn or talking to him, but the moment he hears me talking...he starts turning his head to figure out where I am. Too sweet!

I am not wishing time away by any means, but I am looking forward to watching Aidyn grow and become the sweet, little man he is going to be. :)

Happy Birthday!

When I was preparing to leave my 4th grade class in December, I was VERY worried about who would be coming in and being with "my kids; my babies". Even though they are 4th graders, they are like my precious children. Obviously, it isn't the same as my love for Aidyn, but any teacher would admit that you do care about your children in your class.

Luckily, before Christmas break, an interim was hired to take my position. She was able to come and meet with me as well as spend 2 days with our class to watch our routines and get to meet the students. After those few days, I was totally relaxed and felt great about leaving my class with her (Lisa).

Well, Lisa has been great just like I knew she would be. Beginning last year, I have eaten lunch with all the other teachers that have the same planning time as me on Fridays. We always order out lunch or call in an order that one of us runs to pick up. We spend Friday afternoons (the hour of our planning) eating a great lunch while talking about students, lessons plans, family events, and anything else that may be on our minds. It's a great "close" to each week and something we look forward to. Even the kids started asking, "Ok, where are you guys eating today?"

Lisa has been so welcoming of me on the days I have gone to visit or stopped by to pick something up or meet with the principal. She has always made me feel welcomed in my classroom. She also has been great for my kids! I had a few students that are "hard to love", but ofcourse they stole my heart. Luckily, they did the same to her! My reason for explaining all of this is this...

This past Tuesday was my birthday and below is the email I got from her:

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Evely!!!
Alan says, "You're a very great teacher and I hope you had a good birthday."
Michael says, "You're my favorite teacher and I hope you had a great birthday."
Noah says, "You are a top favorite teacher in the whole wild world."
Andy says, "When am I supposed to start baby-sitting?"
Lauren says, "I miss you and hope Aidyn is doing good."
Braxton says, "Happy Birthday. You are one of my favorite teachers. And I miss you."
Sydnei says, "I miss you and you're the best teacher in the whole wild world."
Brandon says, "I hope you have a good time at home."
Drew says, "Happpy Birthday."
Nick says, "Happy Birthday. And I hope you are doing well and the baby too."
Karl says, "You're a rockin teacher. And everyone misses you."
Jennifer says, "Why can't you & Mrs. Messimer both be our teachers & baby Aidyn be our class pet?"
Lacey says, "Hope you had a great birthday and we miss you."
Jake says, "Happy Birthday"
Challie says, "If i could rate you on a scale of 1-10, you would be a 100!"
Christopher says, "Have a good spring and summer. We miss you."
Isaiah says, "It seems like you are a good teacher, and I hope you had a good birthday."
Willie says, "You are a top 10 teacher!"

I was sooo excited! I responded back to each one and told her how grateful I was. This definately was one of my favorite "gifts"! Isn't it great?

Old Building Burns

Tonight was eventful in good 'ole Erwin, TN. Apparently the old Town Hall building was seen on fire at 7:45pm. By the time fire crews arrived, the entire building was on fire.

After our youth group meeting at the house was over, around 8:30pm, Ben took one of the guys home. While he was gone, I had Aidyn in his bouncy seat while I pumped...and the power went out! Not a good situation, haha.

Apparently a "really bad" fire, the worse Ben had ever seen, had been the cause of our power going out. We live about 2 blocks from downtown. Ben came home about the time his mom arrived. She had power and we were heading to her house. Instead, we jumped in our car and went down to check out all the action. It was actually quite scary!

The building had HUGE flames shooting out the windows and smoke and flames flying high above the roof. While we sat there watching, we heard and watched part of the building collapse within itself. Here are a few pictures that I actually took from a friend's Facebook page of the fire:

I'm pretty sure the entire building ended up burning down on the inside. I do know that more of the sides collapsed.

This apparently was the oldest building in the town of Erwin and entire Unicoi County. Also, the drama club at the local high school had been renovating the place with grant money to turn it into a theater. No one is sure how it actually started.

Summer-like Temperatures

Yesterday was full of people mowing their yards, working in flower beds, and playing outside. I loved it! I was able to get half of my flower beds cleaned out down infront of our house and get mulched laid. I actually got sun burned on my back!

Today was even more BEAUTIFUL!!! The thermostat in my car today said 80!!! However, as I sit here typing this and watching the weather...I'm ready to cry. Why???

They are calling for SNOW, yes - I said SNOW tomorrow through Wednesday with a total accumulations of 2-4" depending on where you live in our region. Easter? Well, apparently the weather should be back to upper 60s by next wkend. I cannot believe this! It'll be a miracle if we aren't all sick afterwards.

Playtime

At my first baby shower back in December, at school where I teach, some of my friends bought Aidyn his Baby Einstein playmat. I hadn't really considered getting it out yet (even though he is 2 months old) until I saw pictures of other babies playing on theirs from other blogs that I follow. So on Friday morning, I decided to get Aidyn's out and see how he liked it.

Side note: before I tell you about "playtime" on Friday, let me tell you about Thursday night. Fun! Aidyn usually eats around 9-10pm and will sleep until about 2:00am. Noooot on Thursday. When I feed Aidyn, I always change his diaper afterwards, put him to bed, and then I have to pump in order to prepare his next bottle. So the whole "feeding block" usually takes about an hour. Here was Aidyn's eating schedule Thursday Night/Friday Morning:
6:00 pm
9:15 pm
12:30 am
3:15 am
5:30 am
7:30 am
11:00 am

As you can see, he was up ALL night long wanting to eat. Due to his reflux, a few of those times he wouldn't finish the whole bottle and would want to eat soon after. This meant that during those 2-3hr blocks, I was getting MAYBE 60-90 min of sleep in between.

So anyways, when Friday morning rolled around I was hopeful to see how Aidyn would like his playmat as well as hoping it would entertain him for at least a little bit. I was TOTALLY exhausted.

To my surprise, he LOVED it! It sounds funny to me to say that a 2 month old loved a "toy", but he really did. I layed him on the mat with his legs facing the corner posts. He would get excited when the lights blinked or the toys rattled and would begin kicking his legs like crazy. When he did that, the toys would rattle again, and so the process would continue. It was halarious! After about 15 minutes though, he was done. I'm not sure if he got bored or just over stimulated, but he began to fuss so we moved on to other things.

When we got home lastnight, after his bath we showed his daddy how he liked his new playmat. He did the same thing...what a funny little guy! Here are some pics of Aidyn playing with his playmat Friday morning:

Spring has sprung!

I LOVE springtime! I'm not sure if it's the sun, cool crips mornings, warm afternoons, or the beautiful flowers growing everywhere...but I'm sooo glad it's finally here! (I'm trying to pretend that I don't know about the "rumors" of snow they're calling for next week - UGH!)

Right after Aidyn was born my mom and dad came over and planted TONS of flower bulbs that I've been storing in the basement. They planted them down front next to the road in front of our house.

This is a picture of our house when we first bought it. We have since removed the trees, replaced all the windows, doors, got a new roof, and much more inside. But if you look, there is a wall down front. Infront of that wall is where ALL my beautiful flowers will hopefully be blooming soon.

I cannot wait until they are all in full bloom! A few days ago I took Aidyn for a walk and this is all I had so far.

My plan for today, since it's supposed to be in the upper 60s outside, is to clean out all the leaves and weeds. Ben has gone to help "spring clean" the church and is going to bring home mulch when he comes back. I'm trying to decide right now the best way to take Aidyn out there with me. It's still kinda cool...but hopefully I'll get some work done on it.

Acid Reflux Update

Aidyn has now been on Zantac since last Tuesday...so about 9 days now. The Zantac has almost completely stopped the spit-up, which is great. However, he continues to scream and cry at night when we feed him. The Zantac is liquid and given twice a day. 1 mL in the mornings and 1 mL again at night.

Normally, Aidyn eats anywhere from 4-5 ounces per feeding. During the late morning, afternoon, and early evening feedings he eats the first half of his bottle, burps, and SOMETIMES will cry afterwards. The reasons he cries after burping is because of the reflux. As he burps, the acid burns his esophagus (throat) and obviously that hurts. He sometimes will cry for 15 minutes, but usually not too long before calming down. Unfortunately, the times that he does cry, he WILL NOT finish the second half of his bottle. This means we are usually feeding him again about 2 hours later.

At his night feeding around 9pm, he usually SCREAMS...not just cries. Sometimes he starts crying before we get to feed him and other times, like earlier, after he burps. The difference at night is that he screams and cries for about an hour and almost never finishes the bottle. Sometimes if we're lucky we can take a 20-30 min break and then he'll eat the rest.

When he only eats half (and sometimes finishes after a small break) it's hard to know when he'll eat again. Sometimes he actually makes it to the next 3hr feeding, but sometimes he wakes up and wants to eat within 2 hrs. This makes sense because he only eats half the regular amount.

His middle of night feedings around 1am and 4am (depending on how long he sleeps each night) go great. I think this is partly because he is hungry but still definately "groggy" and tired so he doesn't eat so fast and is more relaxed.

After his "scream fest" lastnight for over an hour, I decided I was going to call the dr back today. I called at lunch time and was referred to the lactation consultant, Gloria. I left her a message regarding the spit up stopping but screaming continuing and sometimes worse. She called back and said that he should not be screaming and crying still. She explained that the Zantac helps stop acid production but isn't doing enough to help Aidyn. For some children it does, but not all. She was able to call in a prescription for Prevacid. The Prevacid is a pill.

When Ben got home from the pharmacy and said that it was a pill I almost died. I said, "Are you kidding me? A pill ?!?!" I couldn't believe they would prescribe a pill for a 10 wk old baby. Luckily, it's a disolvable (sp?) pill that we mix with 1 teaspoon of water and then feed that "liquid" mix to Aidyn once a day in the mornings.

So we'll start the Prevacid in the morning. We'll see how it goes. Either way, once a day is definately better than twice. Hopefully he'll get the hang of "eating" water from a spoon after a few tries. :) I'll keep you posted.

Schedules Suck!

HAHA....

Ok, so you can probably guess I only gave the "schedule" thing about 2 days and have thrown it out the window! I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to get Aidyn on a schedule. However, when he sleeps 3 hours one night, 4 the next, then 3 1/2 , and 5 the next...how the heck are you supposed to use a schedule?

Ben thinks it will be easier once he starts sleeping through the night. I hope, but probably not. Anyways, for now...we're just letting him sleep "through the night", however long that may be each individual night, and then going 3 hrs for the day from that point. It's hard with each day being different, but that's easier than trying to KEEP him on the same schedule when he sleeps different amounts at night.

PLUS, he absolutely HATES his reflux medicine. We began giving it to him before he ate, knowing that by having him eat after...he's keeping it down. :) Only problem is he screams and so it takes 30 more minutes to convince him to eat. Not fun. Ben had the idea of giving him half his bottle, and after burping, giving the meds. I tried that this morning. WONDERFUL! No crying or screaming, except he still wouldn't finish the last half of his bottle. After letting him rest and trying again 15 min later and him still refusing - I just put him back to bed. And because he won't eat the whole bottle...he almost always wakes up earlier and wants to eat earlier...thus the issue arrises again with "scheduling".

Oh well. We did what we could, haha. Hopefully we will have better luck when we try next time. As long as he stays on a "3 hr schedule", even if the specific times vary, I can handle that....for now. :)