I have been sucking lately

I have to apologize for my crappy non blog posting of late. Between going to visit my mom for two weeks with the kids and dealing with Skyla's seperation anxiety and dealing with my own PPD I just haven't been up to posting.

I will try to do much better.

I am feeling way better about myself. I am working out, I went on a diet, Charles sent me on a shopping spree for some new clothes and such ( I got 3 tops, 2 pairs of jeans, a nightie, a pair of kick ass boots, and a necklace all for like 150$ go me!) and I am starting to feel like a new mama. Oh yeah and I got my hair cut and styled some. I am thinking of getting highlights done too.

The weight is starting to come off too. I right now weight less than I have in about 11 years!!! Charles and I were snuggling in bed last night and he said "wow baby you are really losing because I keep going to grab for something and there's nothing there" LOL .. MEN!

Skyla is doing great. She just got her ears peirced a week and a half ago. She did soooooo good with it. She cried less getting her ears peirced than she does getting her shots. She looks like a little princess with her little "diamond" earrings. My mom bought her a pink and denim purse with a little dog Sticking it's head out she holds on to it all the time now. I keep teasing Skyla that she's going for the Paris Hilton look. Any day now I expect her to say "That's hot!". LOL .. j/k.

Chip is doing great. He's 3.5 and soooo cute. He went to see the Wiggles in Concert with his Nana and her neighbors (Lisa my age and her daughter Jordan whose 2.5).

Oh and did I mention the fact my baby boy is IN LOVE??? WAH!!! I thought we'd atleast make it to 10 before this happened. Every day he tells me "Mama I'm going to marry Jordan." I can't say I blame his taste .. Jordan is gorgeous and sooooo sweet. They are well matched. If they do grow up and get married I am going to have the cutest grandbabies EVAH!!!

Seperation Anxiety anyone?

My darling adorable daughter will not let me put her down or leave the room for more than 5-10 minutes before screaming her bloody head off. We spent a week at my mil's and I just knew nana could spoil her and I could get a break. AS IF!!!

Miss Skyla would let nana hold her as long as I sat by them and only for a few minutes at a time!!!

Nana did atleast get to spend lots of time with Chip and they actually went on a couple of by themselves outtings just the 2 of them which seemed to do well.

Oh and my darling son has a GIRLFRIEND!!! He's only 3.5 !!! She is a much younger woman she's 2.5. Her name is Jordan and she is absolutely beautiful and she lives across the street from my MIL with her mom Lisa (who is sooooo awesome I wished she lived closer we would be best friends). Jordan is very blonde and has these huge hazel eyes and she and Chip get along great .. hehe okay when they aren't acting like an old married couple and aggrivating each other.

We took Chip and Jordan to pump it up ( a play place that has the big blow up houses that have slides and climbing walls and such) two times and Chucky Cheese twice. They had a BALL!!! Skyla enjoyed watching all the big kids play. Unfortunately somewhere we picked up a bug and we all woke up snotty yesterday. I seem to have it the worst ... I feel like death. The kids seem to be fine other than runny nose.

Preschooler ESP?

Ok last week Chip and Skyla were playing and Skyla fell on Chip and he looked at me and Charles and said " Skyla broke my spleen!" Charles and I cracked up laughing and then looked at each other and were like .. where in the world did he learn the fact that even had a spleen much less that it could be broken and where it was located. Chip is not like Stella and fascinated with body parts so this was totally out of the blue. I called my mother and asked her if she knew where Chip would have learned the word spleen and she said she had no idea and that they had never used it around him. Well I forgot about it until yesterday when I found out from my MIL that Charles's cousin Brian had been in a serious head on collision the very day that Chip said this and his spleen had been ruptured and had ended up spending several days in ICU (he now thankfully is out of ICU and they think he is going to be fine .. THANK GOD!). I just find it really weird that Chip would mention breaking his spleen which as far as we know no one ever even told him he even had one .. on the exact same day his cousin Brian actually did "break" his spleen. Doo Doo Doo Doo .. freaky huh.

We must be insane!!!

We are pretty sure we are getting Chip a drumset for Christmas. On Saterday Charles took him with him to the music store because he wanted to check on some stuff for his guitar. Well Chip totally fell in love with playing the drums at the store. Charles said he played until he literally worked up a sweat. Charles's family is really big into music and they pretty much all play multiple instruments and so I think we have decided to get him a junior drum set for Christmas (bring on the ear plugs!). I will keep ya posted when we end up finding the right one and getting it.

The big problem will be in convincing Charles to not give it to him early. His family was always the kind that they never made it to Christmas before getting their Christmas presents and he can't stand waiting to give people their gifts.

Skyla sleeping in her new crib. See I told you it was huge .. she looks so tiny in it.

What a sweetie!!!
 

Skyla's Crib

Skyla's new crib. It's HUGE!!! But gorgeous (I might be a tad biased)

 

Bye bye cradle

Skyla has been napping and half way sleeping in her cradle for the past 6 months .. but last night I caught her standing up in her pack n play (it's up high in the bassinet phase) so now we have dismantled the cradle, and Charles is putting her crib together in our bedroom right now and I have to lower the pack and play to the lowest setting. When I turned around last night and saw her standing (arms and legs locked) with half of her body above the rail of her pack and play I about had a heart attack.

Skyla's 6 month appt.

She did great. She's still tiny .. dr. said she looks great but he wants to see her back in a month to see how her growth is doing. He's not the same ped we had with Chip so I explained that he did the same thing Skyla is doing and explained how everyone on Charles is side of the family is skinny. He said it was probably just genetics and that his daughter did the exact same thing as a baby and is still petite now at 13. He said he wasn't going to be an alarmist but he didn't want to wait 3 months to see how her growth is doing .. so we go back at 7 months to do another growth check. I told him I was expecting it. He said she is perfectly proportionate though 12lbs 8oz and 25" long and her head is 40 centimeters around. He said since she is doing so great eating and nursing not to do anything different. He also said her waking up at night meant a choice for us .. whether we think we want to keep getting up at night .. or whether we want to force her to figure out the sleeping issue on her own. He said at this point its a habit and if we decide we want her to break it the earlier the better because the older she gets the harder it will be on both us and her but he said it was totally our choice. He said she was totally precious .. she was totally flirting with him!!! The shots sucked she got 4 of them .. and she held her breath and turned purple and then let out this heart breaking scream. It was awful but she was fine by the time I got her dressed and she fell asleep in the car and is sleeping it off.

6 months ago today

I was in a lot of freaking pain right about now. I had labored (induced) all night long and had been throwing up from the pain of the foley bulb catheter and the pitocin. Tonight at 11:04pm Skyla will be exactly 6 months old! She was born by c-section after a 25 hour labor. I remember it all like it was yesterday. I don't know how it's possible that she is already 6 months old! As of 2 am tonight she will have been nursing for 6 months (they wouldn't let me have her in recovery so I didn't get to hold her and nurse her until 2 am). She hasn't had a drop of formula which is so big for me! I had supply issues with my son and had to start supplimenting with formula at 5.5 months. He ended up deciding at 9 months that he no longer wanted to nurse and that broke my heart. Skyla is the exact opposite. She refuses a bottle (we are trying to talk her into taking ebm from a sippy cup) but really I would prefer this to the other. I totally see Skyla being a late weaner and that is totally okay with me!!!

Happy 1/2 birthday Skyla!!!

The mom of two minus one

One of my little ones, namely Chip the 3 year old is visiting his mema and papa right now in Georgia. It's amazing when you have your first child the infant stage seems so hard!!! Then you have a 3 year old and in infant and you learn about hard. Then you send your 3 year old to visit relatives and just have the infant to take care (well and your first baby .. namely your DH) and it feels like you are on vacation. This infant stuff is so EASY compared to taking care of a 3 year old AND an infant. I miss Chip , but at the same time, I think this break is good for both him, Skyla and myself. Me because he's EXHAUSTING (he is more energetic than 3 average kids put together .. just ask all my friends who ask "How do you do it?") and I needed a break. Good for him because my mother and stepfather, aka Mema and Papa, are spoiling him ROTTEN! But only in a good way. He is getting lots of attention right now which he is eating up. And Skyla is really loving being an "only child" for just a little bit and getting some one on one mommy time and lots of floor time to crawl and roll with out me having to worry that her brother is going to run over her or leave a toy in her path she can choke on.

Anyone who says "It's just as easy to have 2 kids as to have one" LIED!!!! Not that I don't love every minute of it, but goodness it takes alot of physical, mental and emotional energy.

I have no freaking clue how moms of like 4 or more kids do it .. but my hats are off to them!!!

Tantalizing Tuesday (and yes I realize it's actually Thursday)

So this weeks assignment from Jen *Three shades of Blue in my blog roll* is football food. Here is my contribution

Steff's sweet and spicy meatballs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion chopped
1 large green bell pepper chopped
black pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
1 16oz bag of frozen meatballs
1/4 cup Texas Pete Hot wing sauce
1/4 cup Hunts Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Kraft Thick N Spicy Honey BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup grape jelly
1/4 cup orange juice
1 can of diced tomatoes

Saute your onion and bell pepper in the olive oil in a large skillet until soft. Sprinkle with garlic powder and black pepper. Add frozen meatballs and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Bring to a boil for a miute or two then lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve over white rice.

Skyla's first hair clip. Grow hair Grow!!!

Skyla 

This was just too sweet not to post. 

Baby feet! 

He looks so grown up to me in this pic!!! My baby boy is growing up way to fast. 

Up Close and Personal! 

Such a good big Brother!!! 

Holding hands 

Like Brother Like Sister 

They love each other so much. 

Don't they look so much alike ???  

Chip 

She really loves to crawl these days. It's still an army crawl at this point but she gets where she needs to go. 

She's getting sooooo big!!! 

Skyla's New Magnolia headband 

A puzzle for you!

Need a good cry?

My friend Jill is married to Kristian Bush (guitar and mandolin player for Sugarland) and they have done an amazing tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The song was written by Kristian and Kristin (the female guitar player) for the lead singer Jennifer when she was going through a rough spot in her life .. but it totally works perfectly with the stuff going on in LA and Mississipi.

You can view it here.
http://www.standbackup.com/


If you haven't heard Sugarland yet you are totally missing out!!! Here's a link to their website.
http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/start.asp

Kudos to Sugarland!!!!

Hurricane Ophelia

Toni you are so sweet to worry about me, especially since your are taking care of a newborn and a toddler. We are fine for the moment. We are about 2 hours from the coast of NC. We are getting plenty of rain but so far not really not much wind. Charles got sent home from work (he installs cable east of here) and the c omppany won't let their guys out in this weather until the storm is over. When it's over the real fun will begin because they will be fixing downed lines and such but they can't get started until the power companies give them the all clear.

Tantalizing Tuesday Assignment : Chicken

So my friend Jennifer http://jenadk.blogspot.com/ assigned us the task of coming up with a chicken recipe to share for this Tuesday. I posted mine over on her board .. but wanted to share here too.

Stephanie's Salsa Chicken and Rice (crockpot)

Place an entire pack of boneless chicken breasts in your crock pot.

throw in a whole large yellow onion diced.

add a whole green or red (really any color) bell pepper cut up into hunks.

a small jar of your favorite salsa.

add a cup or so of water how ever much it takes to cover up the chicken and veggies.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours until the chicken is just falling apart

about 30-45 minutes before you are ready to eat add in a cup of dried rice and stir the dish up and cook until the rice is done.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream and sliced black olives for garnish. It's AWESOME and very little work. throw it together in the morning and that night you have a no fuss dinner.

Feel free to post your favorite Chicken dinners here too. I would love the recipes as I love to cook.

SUPER Chip to the rescue!

Chip decided yesterday he is a SUPER hero. He started calling me SUPER Mama and Skyla is SUPER Skyla and Daddy of course is SUPERDaddy.Everything at our house is apparently SUPER. The water, the cheese even down to the peanut butter is just plain SUPER. Oh and Peanut butter gives him Powers he informed me. When I asked what his SUPER Power was he told me with glee it was painting. (This would definitely explain the crayon on my walls). Everything was going along just fine until I gave him a kiss and he told me, "SUPER Mama your kisses are SUPER gross!"

My dearest Stella

It seems its been 2 years ago today since we sent you to Heaven. How that's possible I don't even know. It still feels like yesterday to me. I promise you that while our family has had to move on, and we even added your baby sister to the family, I think about you every day. I wonder what you look like, although looking at your big brother and your baby sister I can pretty much guess since they both look so much alike that you probably look quite a bit like them. You should be almost 18 months old right now and I swear sometimes I can imagine you toddling along beside your big brother, or petting your little sister's head and saying "baby". I miss you so much Stella. You may have left this earth but you will never leave my heart. I carried you in my body for such a short time, one day shy of 12 weeks but I loved you from the moment the stick had two lines. Actually even before then, with your pregnancy some how I knew I was pregnant with you from the moment you were conceived. Your daddy thought I was crazy when I cride for two hours after the first test said I wasn't pregnant. I knew better though. You were and will always be my little fire cracker, conceived on the 4th of July. I know though that you are in a wondrrful place and are well loved by both your Grandpas. I never got to your grandpa Charlie because dided when your daddy was just 13 but I hear he was a really great guy and I am sure he loves you very much. Your Grandpa Jamie is probably spoiling you rotten! He was the most wonderful father a girl could ask for so I know he is an amazing grandpa to you and will keep you company until we finally met one day. When your brother and sister are old enough to understand we will tell the about their sister Stella and how she is a special guardian angel watching over them.

Love and kisses
Mama

Stella Rhiannon Haynes - Heaven Sent 9-12-2003

I had to do it :(

Turn on word confirmation for comments. I hate it but the spammers were driving me CRAZY! I don't have acne, or irritable bowel sydrome nor do I need a loan at this time, or any other thing they are selling!

She's crawling!

Ack .. it's an army crawl at this point ..She's on her knees and elbows, but I am sure it won't be long and she will be up on her hands and knees. She's 5.5 months (almost) so I did get one extra month this time seeing as she waited longer before crawling than Chip did.

Update on the formula companies

Called and talked with the companies

Ross is sending over 2 million dollars of products to the affected areas.
They said they are very involved with the recovery effort.

Nestle is providing both financial and formula to the America's Harvest year round. They wouldn't tell an ammount though.

Enfamil has sent over 100,000's of ready to feed bottles, cans of formula and bottles nipples and and other feeding accessories and their parent company has sent alot of medicines and their first truck load left the day after the hurricane hit. she said they will continue to help the america's harvest or whatever the name of that organization is.

A friend of mine also suggested calling the diaper companies .. couldn't find the phone number to any except for Huggies and they let me know that they are sending diapers, wipes, training pants and their parent company Kimberly Clark is sending medicines. OH and a monetary donation as well. Not sure how much.

Give Formula makers a call

And let's ask them to donate free formula to help the babies that have been victims of Katrina!!!

Here are some #s

Ross



Have questions? We have answers! To find those answers quickly and easily, use the search function on the navigation bar to do a keyword search.

If you don't find what you're looking for, call us at 1-800-227-5767, Monday-Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, EST/EDT; or email us.



Nestle Carnation
You can also reach us toll-free at (800) 284-9488. Our Baby Experts are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Contact Enfamil Resource Center

Thank you for your interest in the Enfamil Family of Formulas. Use this form anytime to send us an e-mail with a question or comment about our products, company or services. We'll respond as quickly as we can. Please be sure to provide your name and e-mail address.

If you prefer, you can e-mail us directly at EnfamilResourceCenter@Enfamil.com or call 1-800-BABY123

I am ashamed

I have to get this off my chest. I am so ashamed to see how some of the folks down there in NO are acting. It's just abissmal and makes the jobs of the resue workers that much more dangerous.

In the superdome there have been rapes and murders and when the drs. got in to start treating the sick and the injured they were putting their lives at stake. It's awful and I have never heard of people acting like this after a natural disaster any where else and it really makes me humilated that other people across the world are probably thinking yet again what sorry excuses Americans are yet again.

I am so worried that these hooligans are preventing other people from getting treatment they need.

People have tried to take nurses hostage so they can get rides on medical helicopters transporting the sick. It's just insane. The shooting all night at police officers .. the city is under siege. It's just horrific.

A friend of mine told me she saw a report about a man who shot his own sister over a bag of ice.

Now some of the NO police are handing in their badges because they just can't take any more (and can you even blame them?)

Oh and now there are fires .. fires so bad that if they can't get them stopped the whole damned city may burn. It's like a hell on earth. WTF if going on with these people?

Praying for all the good people in that area that are being sieged by not only the flood waters and destruction but now the criminal element and hoodlums. It's a sad and dark day for American history. I am praying especially hard for the babies and small children going hungry right now. This is all just so horrific I can't stop crying over it.

Being that my brother is a police officer I am also praying for all of the polie, rescue workers and military personel trying to save these people and this city.

Louisiana Governor calls for a day of prayer

I think we will all be praying for the victims of hurricane Katrina for quite some time. The devistation is just mind boggling. I dread to hear what the final death toll will be. I fear its way higher than the 100 the news is reporting. Two of the women from Skyla's birth board are unaccounted for and were in some of the hardest hit areas and I am praying for them and their families. on Chip's birth board all of my friends are accounted for but two of the ladies have family members that are missing. One of which is a 7 months pregnant woman.

If you can spare the cash there are people who need so much right now so please donate what you can spare.
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

Such a sad time :(

She thinks she is grown

Yesterday at 5 months and 1 day old she started getting up on her hands and knees. I figure crawling is in the near future. (Chip crawled at 4.5 months.. thankfully Skyla hasn't been quite so speedy) Oh and diaper changes are getting difficult. Soon as I get the diaper off she rolls off and starts scooting away. Oh and now when she eats her baby food she jerks the spoon away from me and tries to feed herself, and she's getting good at it.

My baby is growing up so fast!!!

I am trying to appreciate and enjoy every day because it goes too fast.

Prayers for all in Katrina's path

I am so worried about everyone around Louisianna and Mississippi and even some parts of Florida are still getting severe winds and flooding.

Being a NC resident for all but 7 months of my life I have weathered quite a few Hurricanes and know how freightening and devistating they can be. I know the property damage is going to be up there because of the strength of this hurricane and the low lieing nature of the area it's hitting. Property can be replaced though .. I am really praying that there will be little to no lives lost.

There are several women on Skyla's birth board that live within an hour of NO and they have babies her age (one woman has twins) and I am so worried about them since they weren't able to evacuate.

Everyone needs to start thinking what they can start donating .. can goods, bottles of water, toiletries, clothes, blood, money .. I know the Red Cross will be ramping up to help everyone effected by this hurricane.

The blogging world is both happy and crushed all by the same blow.

Have wonderful time off Getupgrrl. Without Getupgrrl I would have probably never been inspired to start this blog.

In a blogging funk

Please forgive me for being a crappy blogger. I am just in a funk and haven't been very interesting lately. I do want to post one thing and see if my readers can help me with something.

There is an important petition going around that I would really love for all my readers to sign and pass around. This is very important to me. Thanks for taking a few minutes of your time for signing it if you do!!!


It's a petition for the Presidential Proclomation of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day.

Here's the ">link. The links not working so here's the url .. just copy and paste it http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/557217746?ltl=1123900412

Reading through the list it gives me the chills because most of the signers are female and I wonder just how many have experienced the loss of a baby either through miscarriage, stillbirth, or SIDS. I figured I could count on my readers since so many of you have suffered loss(es) like myself to sign this petition. Sign it and spread the word.

Skyla's 4 month appt.

It went great :) She weighs 11lbs and is 23 1/2 inches long with her head being 38 1/2 centimeters. She's a little peanut still but I'm not surprised by that. The Dr. was super impressed with how well she was doing with sitting up and stuff. She and I went through the list of stuff they want to see babies doing by 6 months and Skyla is already doing them. She said since Skyla was doing so good with the cereal that we could start veggies whenever we wanted and then fruits just limit it to 1 new food a week. The shots sucked as usual but then she nursed and was fine. She slept the whole way home.

Holding hands  

Chip doing his Elvis impression 

Skyla chewing on her fish teething toy (it vibrates) 

Skyla's Hippie Shirt from Nana 

My New Do 

Did you know? (For those of you who have suffered a miscarriage)

My friend says she knew something was wrong before they found out the baby's heart had stopped. She said deep down she knew something was wrong even though she tried to convince her self everything was okay.

I know alot of my readers have been through one or more miscarriages. Did you know ahead of time something was wrong?

I think I did. For a month before my miscarriage I had dreams of losing the baby or I guess you would call them nightmares. I would wake up in a sweat and be all panic-y (is that even a word?).

It's gone!

My hair that is.


I got tired of 3ft long red hair falling out by the handfulls and being all over the house and the baby and everything so last night it went bye bye. It's not really short, it hits my shoulder in the back and slopes to be a little bit longer in the front and is still long enough to put in a baby ponytail but for me it's short !!! I think it's about 15 or 16" shorter now. When I can I will try to take a pic and post it.

Please say a prayer or send good thoughts for my friend

My dear friend Rina found out yesterday that her baby's heart had stopped beating about a week ago. She was 11wks pregnant. My sweet friend has two beautiful healthy boys, but has for some reason miscarried her last 3 pregnancies in the late 1st trimester or early in the 2nd trimester. I am so devistated for Rina. This baby she lost was conceived via IVF so she went through the ringer to get this baby only to lose yet another little angel. It's killing me knowing how bad she must be hurting right now.
I am so mad and sad that so many of my dear friends have faced loss after loss. I have only (haha only) lost one baby and it was the most agonizingly painful experience of my life, I can't even fathom going through it again and again. I am grieving today, for Rina and all of my other dear friends who have battled through hell and back because of infertility (whether primary or secondary).

Oh and today is the one year anniversary of my granddaddy Calvin's death :( So I am quite down and depressed today. I found out about being pregnant with Skyla a year ago yesterday but by that time my grandfather had already slipped into a coma and he never knew about her.

Happy 28th Birthday to me :)

I swear it doesn't feel possible that I am really 28!!! I stil feel like 21 on the inside!!! I hear that it's pretty common to not "feel" your age.

So readers .. tell me .. how old are you really? and How old do you "feel" on the inside.

Skyla had her first rice cereal today!

And she seemed to like it She will be 16 weeks old on Monday so I figured that was close enough to 4 months for me and she has really been interested in food lately.

I nursed her first then I mixed 1 Tbsp of rice to 2 Tbsp of breastmilk and nuked it real quick and she ate about half of it. The first bite she took she didn't act real impressed with it, but then she started going at it with a gusto.

The best thing of all is after the cereal she nursed again and then fell asleep and slept for 2 straight hours!!! This is the kid who normally naps for only 30-45 minutes at a time!!!

I'm going to give it another try tonight and pray that just maybe it might help her sleep longer at night too.

Lot's of photos today!!! Hope you enjoy :) I am enjoying showing off my babies and my adorable little nephew ! 

Bath time :)  

My teething girl. Her little fist is crammed in her mouth constantly these days. 

Skyla all smiles 

Chip eating (wearing) my brownie batter blizzard