Mumbo Jumbo

Have you ever seen that movie The Saint with Val Kilmer?  I have NO idea why I had that part in my head about the "cold fusion mumbo jumbo," I love that movie and I love that part!

I have a bunch of little things I wanted to post about and just thought Id make a rambing bunch of mumbo jumbo and get it all out in one post. So here goes nothing......

The other day I had to call the Ped to give the update on Brynlee's meds. My exact words were "she seems slightly better, but Im not ready to pursue anything further at this time." As in I didnt want to jump right in with an ultrasound or any other tests. The doc was fine with that and urged me to give the meds a few more days. And Im glad I did. She has been better and better each day. It is getting easier and easier to give her the meds. Dont get me wrong, she still HATES taking it, but thankfully it is once a day and I have my side kick (AKA best big sister ever/Kaylee) to help me each morning. She hasnt had any of her ridiculous screaming fits for hours at a time like she was having and she nurses almost without any problems at just about every feeding! So YAY for that!!! Back to the 1st sentence of this paragraph......I had to call the Ped and give that update and after the receptionist took my info about Brynlee she attempted to get off the phone, as she would usually do. i quickly stopped her and asked her if I could go ahead and book my 3 year old for her 3 year checkup. She checked for available appointments and we settled on a day and time. She again tried to get off the phone as she would usually and I stopped her again. I asked her if I needed to book an out-patient appointment for my 5 year old to get her 2nd of her 3 Kindergarten shots. She explained that i DID need an appointment and I asked for the same day/time as Ainslee's checkup. We got all of that straightened out and before she attempted to get off the phone a third time I said "I think Im done now, I dont have any other kids that need anything." She laughed and that was that. I love killing two birds with one stone!

Besides those appointments we have 2 dentist appointments (myself and Ainslee) in the coming weeks, and before you know it Brynlee will have another checkup appointment. i cant wait to see how much weight she has gained, she is a little fatty! And Kaylee will be due for her 3rd round of Kindergarten shots. I guess the more kids you have the more time you spend at the doctors.

Now I have to say (for my own record) and I hope I dont jinx anything, but my baby has started to extend her sleeping at night. Just when I am about to become completely exhausted with the every 3-4 hour schedule at night, she ups it to a minimum of 5 hours between feedings. And I couldnt be more thankful! Not only that, but she has given up pooping at night, which makes diaper changes SOOOO much easier when you are completely delirious. Oh and on top of all that she has gained complete control during diaper changes and no longer poos or pees in the middle of a change. Yippee Skippee!
We started a new project today for Ainslee's upcoming birthday. I got a crazy idea to make a pinata for her birthday. I decided on Minnie Mouse. FYI I didnt even give the child a choice I figured it was going to be the easiest to make, and she LOVES Minnie so I went with it. We gathered our materials**, watched a couple YouTube videos as part of our research/prep and got to work. MAN was it MESSY! I had NO idea how messy of a project it was going to be! I decided that it is going to have to be a project we complete only when there is another adult around to help, because I cant grow any extra arms, and if i am needed it takes a good while to get cleaned up before I am able to tend to the children. Today we successfully got our 1st layer on, and the videos we watched and the things I read said you need a minimum of 3 layers. I am SO glad I started early! Oh and after about 8 seconds into the project Ainslee decided it was ENTIRELY too messy of a project for her to participate in so she enjoyed watching from the sidelines. She got really good at telling us which parts needed more newspapers. And now her Minnie Mouse is drying in the bathroom and will most likely receive her second coat tomorrow when my friend Bethany and her daughters come over to play. She will be in charge of the little ones and taking pictures, while I am elbow deep in the flour/water mixture dipping endless pieces of newpapers with the big girls. OH the joys of homeschooling and projects.

I have to tell you something that happened the other day that brought a tear to my eye. I have mentioned before how Kaylee is like the all time most stellar big sister ever......well just the other mmornng Brynlee was having a rough time. She was inconsolable, wanted to go down for a nap but wanted me to HOLD her during said nap. I have entirely too much to do during the day to hold her for naps. So this meant the crying ensued. Id get her settled, put her down, and she would cry. Finally Kaylee said "Mommy just give her to me!" as she climbed onto the couch. I handed a screaming crying baby to my 5 year old and within 45 seconds Kaylee had her settled. I continued to do what I was doing in the kitchen (with a clear view of them) and I hear Kaylee start to talk to Bryn about all the things they are giong to do when she gets bigger. Kaylee said "you can take baths with me and AZ, I can teach you how to ride a 2 wheeled bike (this is a skill Kaylee hasnt even mastered yet), I can show you how to do the monkey dance (like on Dora), you can wear my clothes when I get too big," etc. I cant even remember all the things Kaylee was telling her she was going to get to do. Meanwhile I am nearly in tears trying to figure out if i should get the camera or try to soak in the moment and remember all that was said and exactly how it happened. All I know was I was frozen, I couldnt move to get the camera as one tear ran down my face I stood there SO thankful for that moment. There are so many times throughout the day that I think to myself I couldnt make it without Kaylee. So then that night as I put Kaylee to bed it was time to nurse Brynlee. I had put her off too long as I was trying to get the big girls down. As I walked out of Kaylee's room, and Brynlee is crying out in starvation (clearly she is starving to death, if you havent seen her cheeks lately it looks as if she has 2 baseballs in her mouth!) Kaylee says "its ok Bryn I will hold you again in the morning." Again I nearly lost it!

While on the subject of the 5 year old I have to tell you how ridiculously proud i am when it comes to school too. We have had some AWESOME school days lately. She is grasping the concepts and loving her work. She is so proud of what she accomplishes and I think everyday that if she was in school I would miss all of those "light bulb" moments. I would miss getting to see the joy in her face. I am SO glad we chose this route, even though it seems impossible at times. Anyways, so my sister got her this game for her birthday. Basically she has to finish a 3 letter word by filling in a blank. We played the 1st time cooperatively. She would say the letter sounds and I would basically blend the sounds until she figured out the word. By the second time we played she was blending the sounds by herself and reading the words. I was amazed! Now she got ANOTHER game from a friend and she gets to spell words with the tiles by herself. Today she wanted 3 skittles I had laying on the counter. So I told her if she spelled 5 words she could have the skittles. She spelled RED, TOP, BIB, BUG, and MAP all by herself. On top of that we are working on color sight words that she is "reading".  Can you tell I am proud of my girl? I know many of you reading have genius children who also do amazing things some (no most) at younger ages than Kaylee. Kids they amaze me at what they can do!



**all we needed was a balloon (already had), cardboard (due to my obsession with shoppiong online we have an abundance), newspapers (donated by a friend of my moms), flour (I had 3/4 c left that expired over a year ago in my pantry, but borrowed the rest from my mom. I just cant bring myself to buy that poison, and my dad keeps ridiculous amounts of stuff like that anyways), and paint (already have that too). So far I havent spent a thing on this project and besides the mess, this paper mache thing is going to be a great project. Not only is it super cheap to make it is fun and has more than one skill involved. After we get all the newspaper on we are going to paint it to look like Minnie. I am super excited about this project and cant wait to see how it turns out. I am, however, a bit nervous to see how Ainslee feels about the smashing of Minnie when the time comes. Maybe the candy she gets in return will ease the pain!

Back in the saddle again...

Well folks we have hit the ground running again. We have been successfully doing our "school" for the past week and a half (or so). I have decided to cut our school week down to 4 (sometimes 3) days. I figure this is PREschool and I just cant fit 5 days of school into our schedule right now. With that said we have been working, and Im trying to find the time to get more activities planned for the girls. It makes me sad that i have so so SO many ideas of things I could be doing with them, but dont have the time to get them ready. I need an extra 4 hours a week to plan and prepare, maybe I need to make more sacrifices on the weekends to get this accomplished.

anyways here are a few pictures of what we have been doing.

she made the letter "Aa" out of one of her Christmas gifts. My sister gave the girls a BUNCH of bendaroos. They are like wikki stix (was covered, bendable thingys). 

I have been trying to emphasize correct letter formation and placement and was STOKED when I saw her complete this assignment. We are working on color and number sight words, she had to copy the word yellow and write it 2 times. Kaylee is not one to take her time with anything, and until lately she could care less about her handwriting. I am going to ride this train as long as she will let me.....we have been working diligently on correct letter formation, hope it sinks in!

Here was an activity that she requested I take a picture of to show you. She had to fill in the missing letters on the page. (it is hard to see, but there WERE letters missing)

One day she chose water coloring for her "free time". She worked for a solid 25 minutes on this page. And once again, if you know Kaylee you know that 25 minutes spent doing anything is an accomplishment. I might have a budding artist on my hands (wink). 

More handwriting. She had to copy my letters. The next day I had her write her alphabet by herself. Oh and ignore the "my name" on the top, it was a printable page from confessions of a homeschooler. It is the only paper I have with 3 lines on it. I need to make my own printable pages with the red and blue lines lines.

We have been slowly but surely moving right along through our lessons. And I am so excited about registering for a homeschool conference that is coming in April. I cant wait to get ideas for curriculums for our upcoming school year. As always, I will keep you guys posted.

Wordless Wednesday - 1st Photo Shoot

My friend Bethany did it AGAIN!

Here are a few of the shots she got at Brynlee's 1st Photo Shoot

Birthday Girl

Kaylee turned FIVE!!!

I can NOT believe I am the mommy of a 5 year old, where has the time gone? I still have vivid memories of the day she was born, and I hope that those memories stay with me forever!

Kaylee had quite the birthday weekend
We opted for a simple family party, but instead it turned into a huge weekend FULL of activities
It all started at the mall, because Kaylee had decided months ago that she wanted to get her ears pierced, and even after I told her exactly what was going to happen (including the pain part) she still wanted them pierced.  She was hardly phased by the pain, she was more concerned by all the commotion going on around her. We had a total of 12 people there who came to watch, plus all the other people in the mall that stopped to watch as well.  It was quite an ordeal.
She barely even flinched after they pierced them, while I was about to cry, she was sitting there brave as can be even after one of the guns got stuck and the lady had to pull the trigger again.  Oh and I let her pick out her earrings and she picked the PINK daisies. (how did I end up with girly girls???)

After the ear piercing we all made our way to the trampolines. Kaylee, Ainslee, and their friend Bella all had a turn bouncing high. I dont think Ainslee's smile could get any bigger!

After the trampoline came the carousel rides, then Kaylee, Ainslee, Bella, Johnny, and B (Mary's boyfriend) piled into a hurricane simulator and let the wind blow them around, then we all left and went to eat. Kaylee picked Shogun for her birthday dinner. And we had a BLAST eating, singing, opening gifts, and enjoying each others company.

The next day we all went to the zoo to go ice skating. The girls were SUPER excited about this, and while Marcus and I werent sure if we were going to allow Ainslee to participate, she knew she was going to get to show her stuff. Im so glad that we let her have a try, it was so fun watching her and she surprised the heck out of me with her natural ability.

This is a video of one of the ice workers pushing Kaylee around in a chair. That was her favorite part! Lets just say Kaylee wasnt too thrilled about the whole ice skating adventure, she wanted to get off the ice almost from the moment she stepped onto it.  But she was a trooper and suffered through it, holding the wall, my hand, Aunt Mary's hand, or Uncle Johnny's hand.

After the man pushed Kaylee in the chair he told us a way they teach children how to skate is by pushing people in a chair. So he showed Kaylee what to do and off we went. Kaylee actually did quite well pushing Ainslee around the ice.

Here is Kaylee skating in between Uncle Johnny and me

Watch towards the end of this clip, Ainslee decided she wanted to skate by herself without holding any ones hand. I was entirely too scared to try this, so I just barely held her hand and was there to grab it when she started to fall. She did WAY better than I expected. She was able to balance and move on her own with little/no assistance from me. She was also able to catch herself when she started to fall. And she LOVED every minute of it!

After the zoo we took the girls to bubble tea for the final treat of the weekend. I have to say that everyone had such a fantastic time and I enjoyed seeing the girls so happy to have everyone together and doing all the fun activities.

THANK YOU!

I want to thank all of you who took the time to comment, call, FB, or text about my last post. I can't believe I even wrote that post, and seriously considered deleting after I did. But I didn't, and I'm glad that I got to get some advise from you guys. It has really helped reading and hearing what you guys had to say. So thank you for taking the time to help me out. And I have taken what you guys have said to heart.

Update on the little one....
She took the mylanta for a day (Thursday to Friday), and I couldn't stand to see her in pain so I took her in to see her pediatrician on Friday, even though they said to wait a week for the mylanta to work. She was due for a feeding during our visit so the doctor got to see a little sampling of what she does during a feeding. So after seeing what happened when Bryn tried to nurse the doc confirmed my suspicion of reflux and prescribed Nexium. Thankfully it is an extended release so it only needs to be given once a day. She said it would take about a week to build up in her system and if I don't see a drastic change by next Friday then we would ultrasound her belly to see if there was any anatomical issues causing the problem. So now we are 4 days into the meds and I'm seeing a slight improvement. Sometimes it is better and sometimes it is the same crazy screaming fits. She still seems to be at her worst in the evening before bedtime and she still is not affected in the middle of the night (THANK GOD!). So our nights are going as well as can be expected. Oh except she thinks there is a party in mommy's room about 4am every morning. That is the feeding she thinks its cool to stay awake for a couple hours. But I do have to report that she has made the transition into her bassinet without a problem. I have elevated her bassinet to help with the reflux which I think has helped. While I do miss having her in the bed to snuggle with, it has been nice to get more solid sleep. That's about all I can report, well except for the fact that I think that she is looking more and more like Kaylee as an infant. When she was born, and until now I've totally seen the similarities between her and Ainslee, but now she looks more like Kaylee. Oh and she weighs a whopping 10lb 6oz (with clothes and diaper on), I sure can fatten my babies up!

Oh and I also combined this appointment with Kaylee's 5 year check up where she got one of her Kindergarten vaccinations. Kaylee got a clean bill of health and is growing perfectly. She weighs 47lbs which is the 85th percentile and she is 46 1/2 inches tall which puts her at the top of the chart for height. I cant believe she is 1 1/2 inches from 4 FEET!!! Isnt that where you can ride like ALL the rides at water and amusements parks? Seriously?!?

Helpless

I feel like I am drowning. I feel like no matter how much I do I'm never above water (with everything, school, housework, everything). I feel like I've been stretched so thin I'm about to break.

And then it happened, my perfect little "easy" baby, while still perfect, has developed a problem that has truly broken me. She has reflux it started out of the blue, it came on mildly, the symptoms and severity built up over a couple of days. But it is real now and it is REALLY bad. I can't nurse her when she wants to eat because of how much pain she is in. She screams (and I mean screams like I'm chopping her head off very slowly and using the most painful method ever to do so) she screams when I hold her and when I don't hold her. She screams when I touch her, when she is hungry but can't eat because of the pain, and she screams cause she is tired but can't sleep. I thought I was strong I thought I could deal with it, that maybe SOMETHING I did would help my poor baby. But nothing worked and I became weaker and weaker until I broke! All my emotions came out and we both just sat there and cried helplessly. She cried out in pain while I cried out because I couldn't help her I couldn't stop her pain I wanted to lean on someone, I wanted someone there to help me to take her for just a few minutes so I could regroup myself, I wanted someone to tell me I was doing all I could do for her, I wanted someone to reassure me, but there was no one. The big girls were in bed and marcus was in class and at work. Brynlee depends on me to feed and protect her and I failed and am still failing miserably. I can't do either and that hurts me! And now we were both sitting there upset in a world of hurt!

How do you mommas out there do it? How do you deal with the inconsolable baby as well as the bigger kids? How do you work in your school and household responsibilities when there aren't enough hours in the day? How do you cope with the lack of sleep or lack of "good" sleep? I need help! I'm drowning here and need to figure something out. Any advise or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

And as I sit here and type this I realize that I should start by being more thankful. I should be thankful it is JUST reflux (there are 100 million worse things she could suffer from), I should be thankful for an otherwise healthy baby, thankful for 2 big sisters who try to help, are healthy and excellent sleepers/eaters, thankful for the opportunity to homeschool, thankful my husband has a job and supports us, thankful we have food to put on the table, thankful we have clothes to wear, thankful I get ANY sleep, and thankful that I have a beautiful baby that is all mine! I should count my blessings instead of always worrying about the other things. And I need to remember what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger! And stronger is what I have become!

Wordless Wednesday

Here are the 1st pictures from the photo time lapse project Im attempting for the first year of her life, I hope week 1 is the only time I forget

forgot the 2 week sign

3 weeks

Kaylee flying her new kite form Santa with Uncle Johnny

I have MANY more pics and videos I need to get uploaded but for some reason I cant seem to find the time! I dont know what it could be........the 3 girls begging for my time and attention, the homeschool stuff that needs to get done, the sleep that I'm about 40 hours behind on, the mountains of laundry that seem insurmountable, or the house that looks like a bomb seriously went off (actually more like 5 bombs). Between those things I cant figure out why I have no time for this forgotten blog. I need a clone!

Brynlee -- the early days

What I've learned in the first two THREE weeks as a mommy of 3 little girls.

I've been compiling this post for some time now, it was supposed to be my post last week, but obviously that didnt happen, so here it is now........a week late.

First of all I would like to note that as expected my brain cells have NOT returned after the birth of Brynlee. In fact, more and more keep slipping away, therefore Im becoming more and more forgetful (I didnt want to use a harsher word to describe myself, even though it is probably more appropriate).

I decided I wanted to take the time lapse photos of our growing girl but I seemed to get off on the wrong foot and forgot the FIRST week picture! I remembered with week #2 and am planning on taking week 3 shot today.

We've been doing a whole lotta running errands staying out late and spending time with family

Loving cosleeping but sure now much marcus loves "hanging off the edge of bed" but I enjoy all the snuggle time with her right next to me or on top of me

We have mastered the whole nursing thing. Thankfully again I have been given a willing and patient baby to work with.

Just like her sisters, I could kiss her fat little cheeks ALL day long!

We have been pooed and peed on countless times (one of the countless PROS of breastfeeding....wink), but like everyting this has gotten better as the days go by

She has been gaining weight like a champ weighing in at 8lbs 14 oz at her 2 week check. By now Im convinced she is well over the 9lb mark

We gave her her 1st bath ever. When I say ever I mean EVER. She wasnt bathed in the hospital (per my request) and then upon coming home we had some umbilical cord issues that required us to refrain from bathing. But rest assured she was not out playing in the mud and by no means was she stinky, and now she is all cleaned and smelling of lavender and chamomile. Oh and she LOVED her bath, just like her big sisters.

Takes naps in swing, bouncy seat, mommy/daddy's bed, kaylee's bed, not to mention anyone and every ones arms

Sometimes when i sit back and think, i can NOT believe I have been given these 3 girls to love and raise. And in those moments I feel truly blessed and proud to be their mommy! I wouldnt trade them for anything!

She is such a noisy little sleeper she smiles and coos in her sleep, so much so that when Im talking on the phone people can hear her. It is such a sweet sound to listen to.

Loves when kaylee holds her, falls asleep almost every time. Kaylee is getting pretty good at soothing her when she is upset, and Brynlee has begun to notice the sound of Kaylee's voice. When she hears it she lifts her head and looks around to find her.

I have successfully forgotten to refill diaper bag plenty of times but even better.......I've managed to forget the entire diaper bag on occasion as well (at least I remember the baby)

I've sort of managed to keep up with the house/cooking largely due to the massive help I'm getting from my fabulous husband!

She had to have 2 rounds of silver nitrate on her belly button after the cord was removed a bit prematurely, but it has finally healed and is doing good.

She LOVES the Sleepy Wrap, I took the girls to the zoo by myself last week.  Our new stroller came in super handy and I realized just how awesome it was on this trip. I had Brynlee in the sleepy wrap almost the entire time we were at the zoo and I had both seats on the stroller for the big girls. I was planning on having my car seat adapter delivered in time for this trip, but it didnt arrive so I had to improvise. My new arrangement worked perfectly. Kaylee sat in the front seat of the stroller facing FORWARD while Ainslee sat in the back seat facing BACKWARD. This made it easier for them to get in an out by themselves. So I carried Brynlee (approx 9lbs) and pushed the 2 of them (approx 80lbs) plus the weight of the stroller and all of our "stuff" around the zoo for about 3 1/2 hours, and it wasnt a problem. Even going up hills the stroller was easy to maneuver.

Does not spit up at all! This is a huge change from Ainslee who suffered from major reflux problems. It is weird nice having a baby who can wear an outfit an entire day and it still isn't dirty from spit up or poo (kaylee would poo out of any and all diapers on a daily basis, Ainslee possessed this talent as well but not quite to the extent kaylee had)

I have successfully managed to get all 3 girls down for naps at the same time on more than one occasion. Why I didn't take a nap during that time is beyond me! Maybe next time I should take advantage of that time and catch up on some sleep.

Pumped 100+ oz before my milk finally leveled off got a good start to my frozen stash, we are trying to plan a date night for Marcus and I to go to the movies, so this stash will come in handy in the coming weeks.

Our first night home I told kaylee "brynlee's doctor said you aren't supposed to come into my room before your green light comes on" she will actually listen and sleep better for the most part. Wish I wouldve thought of that sooner. ;)

Brynlee LOVES my side of the bed best (probably because it smells like me) and she prefers sleeping on her right side. If placed on her back she will almost always roll herself to her side. I am really liking the cosleeping arrangement, but I am planning on getting my pack and play back soon so that Brynlee can take naps in it and maybe even sleep in it for a few stretches at night too. I am terrified of the idea that she will hard to transition into her own bed when the time comes.

Brynlee isnt a huge fan of the car, she does pretty good in it, but almost every time we stop she cries. Im hoping that this isnt a sign of whats to come. I would like to keep her in her in her infant seat for longer than her sisters, currently the record is like 4 1/2 months held by Ainslee.

The postpartum issues i mentioned in my last post have almost completely faded away. I still have very vivid flashbacks but they are getting better as time goes on. I'm no longer sad to be on my own, or even alone with Brynlee. I have had the opportunity to have time away from the big girls as well as limited time away from Bryn, which has been nice.


Im sure Ive learned more these past 3 weeks but due to my limited brain cells i have forgotten them.