A day at the park, feeding the ducks and playing on the playground.
Good Friday
Another day at the park, feeding the ducks and playing on the playground.
Can you see a pattern? I’m feeling really disconnected from the whole Lent thing. Lent came, Lent went. So while Mary Rene was napping I checked my facebook account and noticed that Dr. Gosser would be praying outside Planned Parenthood from 2-4 a.m. Holy Saturday. He was asking for people to join him to pray during this 24 hour vigil for the last day of 40 Days For Life.
(Have I mentioned yet that I have a pretty darn cool OB/GYN?)
As I mentioned, I was feeling really disconnected from Lent and saw a calling in that status update. I asked Frank if he would go for us. He didn’t seem too thrilled. I mean really, it would be standing for two hours outside, at a time we should be sleeping. A few hours passed and the conversation didn’t come up again.
While Frank was putting Mary Rene to bed, I checked my email and noticed Dr. Gosser wrote another message about it. When Frank came out I showed him what Dr. Gosser wrote and asked him if he wanted to go. I told him to invite his mom. He called his mom and she said she would come over and sleep at our house while we both went together. So, on a whim, we went.
For two hours in the rain, we stood outside Planned Parenthood peacefully praying. People were driving by, on their way home from the bar. And we were huddled in our rain jackets, umbrellas holding our rosaries as we prayed for life.
It was a really good way to end Lent. And my disconnected feeling vanished and celebrating the Resurrection of Christ today felt a million times better.
So much has happened since the last time I wrote a Mary Rene update that I’m afraid I will forget some important milestones and events! But I’ll try my best.
Mary Rene turned 18 months (1.5 years) last Tuesday! How time files. She has grown up so much in the last six months that I can’t believe it. I remember going to St. Ferdinand Park when she was about 12 or 13 months old and I had to help her up all the steps and go down the slides with her. Now, she can walk up the steps by herself (some of the steps) and go down the slides alone! It was so neat to watch her do it alone, although I was one step behind her the entire way, but it was also sad to see her being all independent and growing up.
Last time we went to West County Mall she couldn’t get up the steps on the slide without falling. Now…
Sure the independence is sad, but then again, it makes for some lazy parenting! Frank and I were able to sit and watch her play for an entire 45 minutes without helping her. It was a very relaxing day at the mall.
I haven’t checked the internet to confirm if there is an 18 month growth spurt but I think she is going through one right now. Her appetite has increased, although that could be due to my lack of milk production. On St. Patrick’s Day, for the first time we ordered Mary Rene her own meal off the kid’s menu. She ate both chicken strips (they were adult sized) and half of her fries! Seriously that girl can put down some food. Sunday at lunch, she ate two thin slices of pizza. Okay, don’t worry, we feed her healthy food too.
On top of eating more, she is starting to outgrow some of her 18 month onesie. She could still wear them with disposable diapers but the cloth diapers are so big that I can’t button a few of them anymore.
In the last two weeks, Mary Rene has added the following words to her vocabulary:
Clap
Bird
Puppy
Book
Eat
Out
Ball
Mary
Pray
Mine
Grandma (maw maw)
Water
Beads
Please
There are a few other words that she is saying but I can’t figure out what they are yet. Also, she is starting to try and repeat after me. If I say, ‘book’ then she tries to say ‘book.’ I’ll try four or five new words each day and she’ll try her best to say them.
She is also starting to say two words together to form a sentence. The first time she did it she grabbed a ball from my mom’s hands and said, “MY BALL.” Well, little miss thing, take your ball. But I’ll also give her some props here because she is saying, “More please,” when she wants another bite to eat.
Mary Rene really enjoys looking in the mirror and seeing how she is dressed. If she likes the way she looks…
She’ll give herself a kiss.
She likes using the mirror to put on hats, ribbons and other hair accessories.
But sometimes she decides that the accessories look better on someone else.
We ran in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Run a couple weekends ago.
We got to mile three and Mary Rene decided she was done with the stroller. So we decided to carry her. That was one long mile. When we got to mile four I decided to cut over two blocks to the place we were going to watch the parade with our friends. Baby girl was crabby and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. It was pretty darn cold outside but it turned out she was tired. I sat on a cooler and rocked her in my arms and she fell asleep in minutes.
After her 30 minute snooze, she was ready to party again.
A few days later on St. Patrick’s Day, my parents joined us and we went to Dogtown to watch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was gorgeous outside (what a difference a few days can make!) and we watched the parade at the very beginning near the zoo.
Mary Rene was having so much fun collecting all her beads.
All the kids around us were chanting, “BEADS BEADS BEADS” whenever someone in the parade walked by with a handful of beads. Soon, Mary Rene was joining in and started chanting, “Beads Beads Beads” with them. On the way home, she was still chanting her Bead song. It was so cute.
As an early Easter present, my parents got Mary Rene her own table and chair set.
Mary Rene loves to color so I set up her coloring books and crayons and she went to work. The top of the table comes off and underneath is a lego table top.
I let her play with these for a few minutes but decided to hide them until she gets a little older. I’m still afraid she will try to eat them! I’ll replace them with big legos instead.
My friend Nicole C and I went to a consignment sale on Friday and I bought some early Easter gifts for Mary Rene.
How cool is that? Her very own lawn chair!
She’s been having fun pushing around her baby doll, Bobby, a cat magnet and a piece of toy bacon in her new stroller.
She got some other toys as well and is in early Easter toy heaven.
Frank has been teaching Mary Rene new dance moves. She already can bop her head to a beat, shake her legs, tap her feet and wiggle her arms. Now when Frank says “shake your butt” she will squat and put her hands on her knees and move her butt a little. When Frank says “spin in a circle” she will start spinning in a circle. She loves spinning in a circle and doesn’t know how to stop. When she finally does stop she is so dizzy that she keeps falling. Sometimes she will start spinning even though there is no music playing and we have to make her stop so she doesn’t keep falling. Baby girl is so darn funny sometimes!
When Frank and I were planning our wedding we decided we wanted to have his wedding band and my engagement ring engraved with something very special. We looked at many different phrases and decided to have Solomon 6:3 engraved in the rings. The inside of Frank’s ring says, “I am my beloved” and the inside of mine says, “and my beloved is mine.” You put the two together and we are a beautiful Bible verse.
Which brings me to where I have been the last week or so. Marriage can be tough. And well, lately, it has been for us. Basically the last two or more weeks we haven’t been treating each other as “our beloved” and we have been constantly quarrelling and allowing outside matters to come before our marriage. We did a good job of avoiding each other for awhile there and were able to push the issue under the rug but that didn’t get us anywhere. When we did talk about the issue both of our voices were elevated and we didn’t get anything accomplished. I just got depressed about the whole situation and was tired of it.
So I decided to give in. I just wanted to stop quarrelling with my husband and was to the point that I just didn’t care anymore. But my loving husband knew that I was just giving in and wasn’t entirely happy. And when it really boiled down to it, my happiness was more important to him than anyone else’s happiness. So we worked together and came up with a solution that will work the best for our family. And we settled everything last week and I feel so much better.
Marriage can be tough and it is even toughier when you don’t work together as a team. We’ve always had an open line of communication and honesty I can say that we will tell each other anything, no holds bar. But the problem we encountered was that we were allowing the feelings of other people to come between our marriage. We both were guilty of doing this and we both share the blame.
But this was a good thing for us to go through. Because at the end of the day we have learned that after our relationship with God, our relationship comes next. Not any other relationship. Not any other person, including Mary Rene or Sweet Pea. Our marriage is the foundation of our family and our family can’t function properly if our marriage isn’t. So lesson learned.
We resolved our issue on Thursday or Friday, I don’t even remember when, and were able to have a really great weekend together. I must say, this past weekend was one of the best that I have had in a long time. And it is all thanks to my wonderful, loving husband.
I took a two week break from these 7 Quick Takes because I was just overwhelmed with work and life. And well, I’ve had an exhausting week, thanks to pregnancy, and I really wasn’t planning on being here again this week. So these will be…quick.
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God reads my blog and Mary Rene had an amazing three hour nap on Wednesday so we were able to attend the Ash Wednesday Mass. Mary Rene usually only naps for an hour or an hour and a half. Occasionally we’ll get a two hour or 2.5 hour nap but I have never had a three hour nap. So that was my sign from God. Unfortunately she was very high maintenance during Mass and would not sit still. But we are very glad we went.
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Yesterday our church was on duty for the 40 Days for Life at the local abortion clinic. On Valentine’s Day they had the rally to kick off the event and we planned on going but the snow held us back. I was so bummed out because I was looking forward to it for weeks. So I wanted to badly to make our church’s peaceful protest day. But when I got home from work I was exhausted. Frank called and I planned on telling him that we could go another day but he sweetly talked me into it, without even being pushy. And I’m so glad we went. We didn’t stay entirely too long because it started to get cold and we didn’t want Mary Rene to get sick. But it was very nice to be there and support the cause. Mary Rene was having fun standing against the fence and looking in the, thankfully, empty parking lot. We met a lovely family, mother with her four young children. They were all praying the rosary and standing so peacefully as a family that it just melted my heart.
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I am looking forward to Fish Fry Fridays again! Are you?
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Awhile back I did a guest post on loyal reader Rae’s blog. If you are interested check out her blog sometime. She is a great reader and has very interesting things to say. I love to read a post that really “gets you thinking” and that’s what she does a lot.
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I haven’t sewn in two weeks! I’ve been so busy with work and life ya know. So today I am going over my parent’s house so they can hang out with Mary Rene and I can sew. I am in the middle of making a shopping cart cover for a baby shower in two weeks, three bibs and two baby slings. I really need to get moving.
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Mary Rene adores her papa. She likes for him to carry her around, maybe because he is so tall and she can see more, and she likes to sit on his lap. On Wednesday, the two of them sat in front of the computer for a good 15-20 minutes listening to music and watching Barney short videos. I love this picture because she is just so relaxed on his lap and clearly let’s him know that she owns the place.
Tomorrow is my mom’s 58th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! I could say that I’ve always been close with my mom but I think that isn’t necessary true. Becoming a mother myself has made me closer to her. I’ve always loved my mom and had a great respect for what she did for us growing up. But now, as a mother myself, that level of respect has only soared. I realize now the daily sacrifice she made for us kids, sacrifices that were not spoken of but became a part of life. Sacrifices that any good mom would do for her children. But when you are a child, you can’t fully grasp it. And then you become a parent yourself and you realize how selfish you had been all those years.
So thank you mom, for everything. The many, many, sleepless nights. The months of dealing with teething symptoms, with three kids. The many times you probably gave us your dinner because we weren’t eating our own. Diaper change after diaper change after diaper change. Another diaper change. Washing clothes over and over again. Changing our clothes over and over again. All the little things that seemed so mundane but were an important part of the day.
Last year my mom taught me how to sew and now I’m building sewing into a nice little hobby. I’m so thankful for learning to sew because it gives me something to do while Mary Rene is sleeping besides watch tv or play on the computer. I get to use my creative side and get something accomplished. Sewing is great!
But I’ve learned so much more than sewing from my mom. Without even trying, my mom has taught me a lot about marriage.
My mom and dad are ying and yang and they tell each other everything. Sometimes I’ll tell her “don’t tell dad,” but she does anyway. Because, you tell your spouse everything, no secrets. I’ve implemented that into my own life and it has become very important in establishing trust. She also taught me, “make your husband think that it was his idea” when you want something. She is really good at this game and always finds a way to get her way without my dad realizing she is. I’m still trying to learn how to do that and hopefully someday I will be as clever as her.
My mom loves being a grandma and looks forward to seeing her little pumpkin every chance she gets. When I pull up in my parent’s driveway my mom usually comes out to greet us. Mary Rene’s face lights up and she starts laughing and waving when she sees my mom. My mom and her laugh really good together with their special little games they play.
Mary Rene is spoiled to say the least. Even though my mom lost her jobs months ago she is still buying Mary Rene gifts like a working woman. I keep telling her to save her money, but she insist, “it is my granddaughter and I want her to have it.” Mary Rene is taking grandma’s side on that one. She loves going to grandma’s house and seeing the new snack or toy that grandma and grandpa got her.
But my mom doesn’t just shower Mary Rene with love and gifts. She does the same to me…and others. Every time I tell my mom that one of my friends is pregnant she whips up a baby afghan in a heartbeat. When I mentioned that my friend wanted to learn to sew, she quickly offered to show her. She always has Frank’s favorite soda and beer at the house when we come over. She gives her heart to everyone.
I hope someday these are qualities that Mary Rene sees in her grandma and falls in love with as well. And I hope someday these are qualities that I can take from my mom as well.
Today is my dad’s last day of work at Chrysler. With the failing economy, the St. Louis plant was closed a few months ago (maybe close to six months ago?) He was lucky enough to hold on to his job a few months longer since he worked in the water treatment plant for Chrysler. But starting today he starts his forced retirement. Remember how he was excited to start watching Mary Rene and he wanted to take her up and down the street in a wagon? My mom, Frank and myself went in together and got him a wagon as a retirement gift.
The moment I took it out of the box to assemble, nosey Mary Rene came over to help.
She found the wheels and decided to put them in the wagon.
Once it was finally assembled, she jumped right in and has enjoyed being pushed around the front room throughout the day.
But what fun is a wagon without your friends, Baby Jesus
and Violet.
Isn’t that wagon great? It has two seats with seat belts. Plenty of room for Sweet Pea someday!
Seriously, everyday she has been playing in the wagon, see the new outfit-different day.
She likes to take her blanket and pillow inside so she can lay down for a cat nap.
Mary Rene and my dad are going to have so much fun with that wagon.
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Month one down with the new budget and I am proud to say that I stayed on budget for groceries! I really did not think it was possible to do it but I did with $4 remaining. The key was staying away from Target. Target has such good deals but whoever goes there and buys only want they need? I only allowed myself to go in there once because with a coupon and the sale, I got regularly $4.99 soda for $2. Unfortunately we didn’t stay on budget with our utilities (colder weather spiked our gas bill,) medical bills (yeah, I think I have talked about this enough,) dentist (we both went the same month,) and charity (Haiti pushed us over, but completely worth it!) So on to next month!
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Speaking of budgets, we met with a new financial advisor on Tuesday night. He is the son of a friend from church. If anyone in the St. Louis area is looking for a financial advisor call Michael Disalvo at 314-932-4300. Frank and I feel much better about our pending deductible because now we see we have other resources for money, if needed. We are still praying that we won’t need it but it is nice to have a safety net.
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I finished “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations” by Stephanie Cave, M.D., F.A.A.F.P. I will be writing a cliff note’s version of the book on a post next week. When I say cliff note’s version, it will be long. It is a very informative book, eye opening that is for sure. I highly recommend expecting mothers to read this book. The only issue with the book is that is was last updated in 2000. Ten years have gone by and there have been many changes to vaccines. One change includes the rotavirus. It is back in the line of shots and it wasn’t at the time of publication. When I finished the book I was absolutely disgusted to look back at Mary Rene’s vaccination chart and see what was given to her. I am so blessed that the only reaction she has had were two minor ear infections. I say, “has had” because I learned from the book that side effects can appear years later, in the form of learning disabilities. I am praying that other side effects don’t come up later though. So many people talk about the autism debate with vaccinations but it is more than just autism. Shooting your baby’s, already weak, immune system, with so many different viruses at the same time can cause strokes, seizures, learning disabilities and even death. Okay, I’ll stop now. I will be writing more about this next week. The post is taking me awhile to construct properly but look for it next week.
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I have two new projects at work and have been, and will be, working my little tail off. Working part-time can be hard when most of your hours are done at home. Which means, you stay up late. Lack of sleep means…lack of sleep.
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Two days after they decided to stop searching for survivors, more survivors are still being found. I get goose bumps every time I hear another story about someone surviving. The latest, a 16 year old girl was rescued 15 days after the earthquake. Amazing. I told Frank that I wanted to fly down there and nurse those poor babies. Well, I also told him if I wasn’t pregnant then I would be convincing him to foster a child. He really didn’t respond to that statement.
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I’ve been doing these Quick Takes for over a year now, hence the #54. Has a year really gone by that fast?
We finally got our new screen door installed! Before Christmas, there was a bad windstorm and our door blew off the hinges and shattered into pieces. We got a new screen door for Christmas but opted to save the $98 installation fee and do it ourselves. Do it ourselves means, beg my dad. My dad came over on Saturday and Frank and him spent nearly the entire day working on the door.
Frank said the door would have been installed much sooner but they kept misplacing tools. I find this humorous because we live in a matchbox and all the tools were in the front room. Regardless, the new door is nice and it will be even better once spring gets here. It hasn’t been up a week and Sophie B and Mary Rene are already fighting over who gets to look outside.
They both would stand there all day if they had their wish.
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Thanks for the prayers on Monday. A few of you emailed me privately and said you would pray as well and I really appreciate that. Monday’s prayers were answered But I continue to ask for prayers. This will be a long process, I am prayerful that it will, so prayers will be needed for months.
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When I was pregnant with Mary Rene, I asked the girls in my Bible Study Group for their recommendations on a pediatrician. I took the names they gave me, did research and found the one that I really liked. He was right by my house too which was even nicer. Unfortunately he was not covered under our insurance so I had to go searching again. A friend of mine recommended the pediatrician we selected and I must say, I was very pleased. However, the whole time Frank questioned her and I found myself always sticking up for the doctor. When Mary Rene went in for her 12 month appointment, her doctor wasn’t available so we had the other doctor. I’ve always liked the other doctor but this particular visit went back. He did his evaluation and then told me that Mary Rene would be getting four shots. I asked why she needed four, and he looked me dead in the eye and said, “That’s what she is due for.” I asked why four? She has never had that many at once. He picked up his file, looked me straight in the eyes again, and said this time was different and she had to get four. As he walked away, he told me a nurse would be in right away. My heart just stopped because of the way he treated me but I was frozen in fear and let the nurse shot Mary Rene up. What happened? She screamed, she ended up getting a runny nose, she ended up getting an ear infection. I was so mad. When her 15 month appointment came, her doctor was available. This time she was getting less shots but I still wasn’t happy. We left the office and I just started to get this bad feeling in my heart. I was supposed to be my daughter’s advocate and I wasn’t doing a good job advocating. I let these professionals walk on me because I allowed myself to think that they knew what was best for my daughter. And it wasn’t. Every time she got more than two shots, she would get crabby and a runny nose. January came and so did our new insurance. I remembered the name of the pediatrician I had wanted in the beginning, and it turned out some ladies in my La Leche League used him. I had Frank see if he was in-network and…he was! So on Monday, I switched pediatricians. The problem for me is that I have learned I am all talk, and as much as I want to back down to the doctors, I couldn’t. I had already started down the path of full vaccinations and I was too much of a coward to slow down the pace. But with a new pediatrician I can start fresh. Mary Rene will be going in for a 18 month check-up and my plan is to have a delayed schedule set up and show him on our first visit. I will also have this set up ahead of time for Sweet Pea. Starting off fresh is so much easier for me to do then stand up to authority figures. And besides, I didn’t feel comfortable with the other doctor and I was paying him a lot of money. Frank and I don’t have much money left at the end of the month and it came down to-spending my money wisely. And I realized, I needed to invest my money wiser when it came to health care. Okay, that wasn’t really a quick thought.
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I’ve been doing a lot of research this week about switching to organic products. I mostly was thinking about genetically modified foods, such as meat and chicken. But the further I went into my research I realized that GMO also effect milk, eggs, vegetables, fruit and even canned foods. So if there is anyone who reads this and only eats organic, explain please. Also, how much more does it cost? Now that we are on a grocery budget I’m wondering if I can afford to go organic.
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Mary Rene went on a playdate Monday with her friend Elaine, who is two. They aren’t that far apart in age but they didn’t interact too much. Mary Rene wanted to sit on her momma’s lap the whole time while Elaine had fun running back in forth. On Wednesday, we had a playdate with my friend Laura and her 2 month old son, Cole.
Mary Rene was in absolutely heaven and loved him to pieces.
Laura was so kind and let Mary Rene hold Cole in her lap. Mary Rene felt like such a big girl and was beaming with pride. When we put Cole in the bouncy seat, Mary Rene kept trying to sit with him. Poor little guy was getting squished by a 23 pound baby!
She just kept looking at him and smiling away. Love? Oh, I just think she likes babies a lot-which is a good thing. It was really cute because she kept getting really close to him and jibber jabbing away. She had to be saying something really important to him because her face was very serious and she would not stop talking.
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On Wednesday, I was able to cross off #95 on my list: get re-certified in CPR. Well, I didn’t get certification because the class I registered for didn’t offer it. But I am counting it because I learned Adult, Child and Infant CPR. It was a three hour long class and I took it with one of my co-workers, Laurie. (She had it on her list too.) I feel so much better now that I know infant CPR. It is so scary to think of, and I pray I never have to use it, but I feel more confident as a parent now.
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Last, but definitely not least, today is the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. As my amazing OB/GYN put it on facebook, “Lord forgive those of us who have had one of the 50+ million abortions and forgive the rest of us for not speaking up as much as we should to protect your innocent.”
This has been an exciting week and there is so much to talk about. I couldn’t decide which was the most exciting so these are in no particular order.
Mary Rene said “pa pa” this week which is the name she calls my dad. She hasn’t called him ‘pa pa’ in person yet but she repeated it after I referred to him. So besides dada and mama/mom/ma, this is the third person’s name she has said.
My milk supply is starting to go down. I only know this because Mary Rene has decided to start double nursing in the morning and at night. She used to be content nursing from one breast at a feeding but now she needs both. I’ve also noticed that she is nursing more frequently which makes me think that she needs more milk to keep her satisfied during the day.
On Friday I noticed that Mary Rene was having a problem nursing and she kept repositioning her mouth until she found a comfortable spot. At first I thought it was related to my pregnancy. But when it happened again on Saturday, her mouth felt different to me. I instantly realized that Mary Rene’s problem was she didn’t know how to nurse with her new teeth!!! So Sunday morning on the way to Mass, I had her open her mouth really wide and to my surprise, three new teeth! Her new teeth are one top cuspid and the two bottom first molars! Those suckers are huge. No wonder she had a runny nose all week and felt like crud. Can’t blame her at all. (Oh, and I must say, I was right and she was teething and it wasn’t a cold.) When I saw the molars I noticed that they were only partially through so we probably have at least another two weeks until they are completely through her gums. Which means, two more weeks of being clingy, crabby and upset.
Mary Rene hasn’t been falling asleep nursing lately, probably due to the lower milk supply. In addition, we moved the rocking chair out of our bedroom about two weeks ago so we have had to put Mary Rene to bed differently. These two factors have created a much, much, much better sleeping situation for us. I must say, I wish we would have moved the rocking chair out of the room months ago! Now all we have to do is lay Mary Rene down in the bed and she will roll around for about 20-45 minutes until she gets comfortable before falling asleep. Approximately 15-20 minutes of that time she is nursing so it really is only about 20-30 minutes that she is trying to put herself to sleep. Yes, I said it, she is putting herself to sleep. It may sound like a long time, but before we were rocking her for nearly 20-30 minutes to put her to bed. So laying next to her and watching her do it herself is much easier. Eventually we hope that we can leave the room and she will put herself to sleep without us being next to her. Baby steps people. Baby steps.
I am happy to report that Mary Rene slept through the night four times this past week. It would have been five nights but she woke up at 6 a.m. so I can’t really count that night. I think changing the way we approach dinner has really changed her sleeping habits. It is so nice to wake up the next morning and realize that you were able to sleep through the night. (Minus my two trips to the bathroom.)
Mary Rene has the cutest little curls and they are even more adorable when she gets out of the bath.
I call that Crazy Lady hair. I brush it in all different directions when she gets out of the bath so I can see what that hair will do. Too cute for words.
Finally, Mary Rene has a new pediatrician! I am so excited and she gets to meet him on March 3rd. I’ll devote a whole post to this and why I made the decision to change doctors.
Something I thought I would never do: rub Vick’s on my chest and aim my daughter’s nose towards it while she nursed. Well I did it. She stopped to sniff but then went ahead and nursed. I also rubbed it on her chest before she went to bed and she woke up feeling so much better. Thanks Melissa for the suggestion!
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Since my dad is going to occasionally watch Mary Rene once he retires, we decided to start leaving her at my parent’s house for a bit while I go run errands. Usually I am always with her when we visit so this was a big adjustment. But you know what, she did fine. She loves it at my parent’s house and has so much to do there. They wore her out and she was so tired that she took a 2.5 hour nap. The nap would have been longer but I sneezed when I walked by her and she instantly woke up. I must say, going grocery shopping alone was really nice. I enjoy Mary Rene’s company, and I know she likes to be out and about, but I was able to really concentrate on the sales and my coupons. Hopefully my little shopping trips pays off and we stick to the grocery budget this week.
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Two of the gals at work are pregnant and we are having a baby shower for one of them today. This gal is having a baby girl so I decided to try and make her a pair of baby girl shoes.
This was very tedious and I’m not sure if I want to make this shoe thing a hobby. I like making taggie blankets as gifts but I don’t think I’ll be going overboard and making girl shoes as well. Although they are so cute and the finished product makes me so happy that I might do them again. Hmm.
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Having a blog is great and it gets people to do things easily. Case in point, my post yesterday about the deductible led my wonderful husband to call our insurance company again. They confirmed that I will have a $800 deductible but now they are stating that the baby won’t have to pay his/her deductible until he/she starts making regular doctor visits. They also said something about me not paying the deductible if all the stars align correctly. So, now we are praying that all this is true and we leave with a healthy baby boy or girl and a small hospital bill.
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I have decided to delay vaccinations for Sweet Pea. I’ve been doing a lot of research this week and my fantastic sister-in-law is getting books for me to read from the library, where she works. So far, I like the Dr. Sears method the best. Go figure. For the moms that read this blog, how have you handled vaccinations?
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We have this little hand-held back scratcher that is shaped like a hand and the fingers knead into your back. It an awesome little thing and I misplaced it several months ago. Somehow Mary Rene found it and has been playing with it. I showed her how it worked on her back and she started laughing so hard. Which got me thinking, I’m going to make this a tickle game. So everyday this week I have been handing it to Mary Rene and trying to get her to tickle me on the back with it. She is starting to get the hang of it and is having fun. Now I just need her to apply a little pressure and go in a circular motion while I kick back and relax during the massage.
-7-
I have tried really hard not to turn on the television much this week because I am just sickened by the disaster in Haiti. My heart just breaks for these people and all they are going through. When it comes to natural disasters, are you plugged to the tv or do you steer away?
This weather sucks. When we were kids we loved the winter because it meant snow days, snow men, snow angels and pulling out the sled. Now it means, cold, cold, cold. Oh, and shoveling, and taking off the shoes at the door so you don’t get the floor all wet. And wiping the dog’s paws each time she comes in so she doesn’t have snow stuck in there. And cold. Cold. Cold. Cold.
-2-
Speaking of such, I have not left the house since I went to work on Tuesday and I am losing my mind. Wednesday it was just too darn cold. Thursday, I skipped work because of the snow. Today, brr again.
-3-
My dad found out yesterday that his forced retirement begins Jan. 30th. He works for Chrysler and they closed the plant nearly six months ago. Luckily he works in the Water Plant and they needed his crew much longer. He was hoping to hold on until April but it looks like his retirement will be beginning much sooner. He has worked there for 32, or 33, years so it was time to retire anyways. And just think of all the fun he is going to have hanging out with Mary Rene. He is so excited that he can watch her now. He keeps talking about buying a red wagon so he can take Mary Rene for walks up and down the street. Can’t wait for that to begin!
-4-
Feeding Mary Rene a healthy, filling, fatty, protein filled dinner, didn’t work the last two nights.
-5-
Three times this week I was in bed by 9 p.m. That little Sweet Pea is wearing me out!
-6-
When you are on a budget, all you want to do is spend money. I want a bookcase for the front room. I want to hire someone to fix our basement. I want to buy this awesome double jogging stroller that has 16 different ways to put two kids in it. I want, I want, I want. Unfortunately, I can’t.
-7-
I’ve been bringing one of Frank’s drums upstairs for Mary Rene to beat on and she is having a blast.
Until she thought that Sophie would make a good drum.
