Yes I am that mother.

I am that mother.. you know that one that co-sleeps, baby wears and uses cloth diapers. I am also that mother who will work a 12 hour shift come home and cook that same sweet innocent child; turkey bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Which is probably why at 10 months old my son started saying bacon.

Out with the old...

... and in with the new... Classes that is. I finish the current snooze fest (learning and cognition) on Sunday and on Monday I start..... Creative Writing YAY and Pre Algebra BOOO...  So here's to hoping that August will bring me, and you, more entertainment, laughter, fun, whatever it is that makes you keep coming back.


May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Ok.. thats a little dramatic, but if you don't hear from me in a while its not my fault blame college. I promise I will try to be better. And soon Spiky will be walking so I'm sure that will be noteworthy.

another year another surgery...

A few months ago I told Jason I wanted to make it till at least January before I had another surgery. I missed the mark. You might think.. Oh you just had a c-section in October so another surgery isn't that bad. Well I've had surgery every year since 2005. But now I am out of useless organs so hopefully I will be able to go surgery-less for another year, or whenever I get pregnant again. And if you are wondering what all I've had done here is the list.

2005- Knee surgery, Right knee lateral release

2006- D & C

2007- Emergency Appendectomy (gangrene and all sorts of fun complications)

2008- Knee Surgery, Right knee lateral release & medial reefing

2009- exploratory laproscopy 

2010- c-section

2011- lap chole (aka I no longer have a gallbladder)

I had my gallbladder out on June 24th, on June 30th I was back in the hospital with pneumonia. On July 5th I was back in the hospital I still had pneumonia but was having increased difficulty breathing. 

Today is July 12th. Yesterday J took the girls and Spike to the dr. the girls have tonsilitis, and Spike has a right ear infection; and yay for me I have tonsilitis too but I'm stubborn and refuse to go to the dr. The girls went back to their mom's house last night so its just me and wonderbaby at home today. And on top of his ear infection the dr said that his top two teeth will be coming in "any day now" 

 I have been hoping to get some stuff done but since he doesn't feel good he wont let me do anything without him laying on me. So I might catch up with my blogging. I've tried some new diapers that I love and that I need to do a review on. So that might be next up :) I hope everybody is having a wonderful July! 

I love his laugh

I love his laugh! Spike spent the afternoon with his Aunt AshLeigh and his Oma. He came home covered in food and cranky. But after a bath he was a much happier guy and we actually got to play! 

8 months ago...

8 months ago I had a wonder baby named Spiky. The last 8 months have had their ups and downs, mostly ups and its been the most wonderful 8 months of my life! I can't imagine my life without this little guy.

Last night Spiky stood up without holding onto anything. Well he stood up and then fell forward and grabbed Jason. But in my mind it still counts. I'm wondering how much longer it is going to be until he just starts walking. And he finally called me mommy yesterday, which is a pleasant change from Amber.

There are only 4 short months until his first birthday. I already know what I am going to do for his birthday. I don't want to wish the next 4 months away but I am getting really excited for his first birthday!

Another semester....

or I should say another class since I am pretty sure that the semester started 8 weeks ago. This 8 weeks I am taking Learning and Cognition. I'm thinking major snooze fest which is probably why its a requirement for my degree. Nobody said psychology is exciting.

I am some what thinking about changing my major. I'm not sure though; maybe I'll be one of those students that changes majors so many times I never graduate I just keeping going to school forever. G~d I hope not.

Next Semester: More math and Creative writing (somewhat excited about creative writing)

In Spiky news he is cruising around the furniture, legs, really anything he can hold onto and walk. He also has started taking off his diaper anytime it is wet. Thankfully he doesn't do that for poop diapers but I'm sure at some point he will and it will be messy. Right now he just screams at us until we change poop diapers. Not like we could mistake him standing still and his face turning red while he is preparing the poop diaper for us to change. He also has decided to call me by my first name. Jason is of course Dad because the other 3 call him dad and I call him dad to Spike.

Hello, My name is Amber and I'm addicted ....

to cloth diapers. Now I know that I am not spending as much on cloth as I would on disposables. But I am still spending more money than I am comfortable with. I was just using covers which I like because, well because I have everything I need to CD for 2 days without the necessity to do laundry. J has decided that he LOVES AIOs and as you might know those get expensive and I do not have enough AIO that I like to get through more than a day. Ok even using the ones I don't really like I don't have enough to go through a day. Well, my mom sews, not just oh my mom can do a straight stitch, my mom can actually sew. She made all of my clothes when I was a baby and makes pajamas for everybody every year. so she is going to figure out how to sew a cloth diaper. After some research I have found the fabrics, snaps and velcro that she needs. She is going to design a pattern taking into consideration the quality of my favorite diapers and combining them into one. I am super excited!

Spiky- the amazing standing baby!

Mid last week Spiky decided that he was going to start pulling up on stuff and standing
  *as pictured here*
This has made me a super nervous mama. I thought that he would only do it when on the floor; by pulling up on the laundry basket, the couch, his bouncy seat etc but nooooo, this morning he did it in his crib and almost fell out! So after the Easter festivities there will probably be pictures later and I got my school work done I lowered the mattress on his crib. I lowered it to the next level which I hope is enough. If he wasn't napping on his daddy right now I would put him in there to check. I guess Ill find out later and have to go through lowering it again if I'm wrong. I still plan to do another CD'ing post soon. I am currently doing some research on wipe solution and where to buy cloth wipes at a reasonable price. Hopefully I am able to get this done in the next couple of weeks! 

A few more..

Here are a few more pictures from Spiky's photoshoot! I can't wait to see the rest of them. Im hoping to get them next week.

The slacking continues.....

I feel really bad for not keeping up with my posts, I was doing so well there for a while.
As far as I can tell Spiky has been unlabeled failure to thrive. We don't have to go back to the Dr until his 6 month check up in April. I have been spending less and less time on Baby Center; just too much drama. I do still go on the cloth diaper swap because, well I'm addicted to cloth diapers. My most recent purchase was 2 cow prints from swaddlebees. They are so precious. I do think the cow print Baby legs was a bit much but my husband wanted me to take the picture.

Spiky has his first "real" photo shoot in a few hours with Holasz Photography. I am super excited. Its going to be nice not being the one behind the camera for once. I really hope he behaves himself.

Slacking...

I promise I haven't been trying to slack on posting I have just had a lot going on.
In Spiky news the pediatrician labeled him as "failure to thrive" Which is a really mean way of saying that he isn't gaining enough weight. At his 4 month appointment he was 11lbs 2oz and 2 weeks later he was 11lbs 3oz. He has been started on high calorie formula which seems to be doing the trick and according to my digital infant scale he weighs 11lbs 12 oz as of this afternoon. He has another weight check on Thursday so fingers are crossed that he has gained enough so he  can be unlabeled. Until then we are continuing the supplementing about 1/2 of his feedings are JUST breast milk the other 1/2 are both. I let him nurse and then fix him a bottle if he still acts hungry; and sometimes in between feedings I fix him a 2 ounce bottle sometimes he eats it sometimes he doesn't. But that extra seems to be helping. Also in the midst of all of this we both caught the flu. Which was miserable! We are both feeling better but we both still have the cough which I've been told stays around for a while.
On Friday when I took him to the Dr for a weigh check/ flu check he sent us to the hospital with orders for blood work; they did a CBC, CMP, SED rate and thyroid function. Also, at the Dr's office they did an urinalysis but somehow that got contaminated so it has to be redone on Thursday at his next weigh in. It wasn't that bad, the first stick Spiky screamed his little head off but we were trying to hold him and he didn't like that, the 2nd stick I let him watch and he didn't even cry. He is so my child. After that we went to get the bigger kids and I got a call from the hospital and the blood they had drawn had clotted prior to 2 of the test and they didn't have enough for another one of the tests so I had to take him back to the hospital and it took 4 sticks to get enough blood and he screamed the entire time. I got the results from the blood work on Monday, everything came back good except for something with his liver but that was so borderline they are chalking it up to the flu.

new diaper covers!

Last week I ordered diaper covers from Little Bee Creations They came in yesterday and I LOVE them! If I have seriously considered buying the AIO diapers that they make. Which I might do at some point. I don't have a great picture of the diapers that I ordered but I do have a picture *if you don't got pictures you don't got nothin'* What I ordered was a part of the remment sale so I did not get to choose my own fabric, I did however make a request for diapers with blue and green if possible and the diaper covers are even better than I expected! here is a link to the Little Bee Creations ebay store. I definitly recommend checking them out! I have used one of the covers today and so far no leaks or other problems.



I'm hoping to get some better pictures Monday.

Teething...

is a total nightmare! I don't know how it is for "normal" moms who work during the day and sleep at night; but working at night and have a screech owl for a baby during the day is wearing me out! I am so thankful that the most I work is 5 days a week and those days are spread apart or I would seriously lose my mind. I got 2 hours of sleep between getting off work yesterday morning at 6a and being back at work at 6p. I am hoping I can catch a short nap at my mom's when I go to pick up Spiky.
It seems the only thing that makes him feel better is ibprofen and orajel. I don't give him ibprofen more than once a day and that makes for a miserable day but I would rather under medicate than over medicate. Maybe that makes me a mean mom but I am super paranoid about giving babies medication. I am hoping I get a break in the teething process soon, this no sleep thing is for the birds.

He likes it! Spiky likes it !!

Spiky slept in the pack n'play most of the weekend. I think the key is the living room. Sometimes I just don't understand my child, and I am sure that is just going to get worse with time!
I think Spiky has decided that his first word is going to be "hey" he has said it at least 20 in the last two days. Its so cute! Does it count as a first word if they don't know what it means? Its not like when they say 'mama' or "dada" , "hey" is just a word. And I am sure its his real first word because we all say it to him so much.

I should have left the crib in the living room...

Spiky is officially 4 months old today.He still won't sleep in his crib, which is in our room so its not like he would be in a room by himself just in a bed by himself. I love co-sleeping but since I have gone back to work I am nervous about other people sleeping with him. Today I went and bought a pack n' play with a bassinet just to see if he would sleep in it. Since he sleeps in a pack n' play at my mom's i figured he might sleep in one at home. So far he seems to like it. I guess he just thinks he is going to miss something if he isn't sleeping in the living room.

Wool dryer balls

To anyone new to cloth diapering (like me) you might not know that you NEED dryer balls to dry your prefolds, or you are going to spend hours drying them. I have a dryer that dries a full load of towels in under 30 minutes; and it still takes a good 2 hours to dry 13 prefolds. After the first time of washing and drying the prefolds to prep them for use I became aware of this problem and began searching for the reason and remedy. What I found where dryer balls. You can get them in plastic or in wool. Since there were no wool ones at Wal-mart I bought 4 plastic ones. They cut the drying time from 2 hours to a mere 40 minutes. I have read that wool works even better but instead of buying them I made my own and saved some money.
On Thursday I went to Hobby Lobby and bough Fisherman's wool (Lion Brand) that said it was perfect for felting. This seemed to be the most economical option. It was 10.99 for a skein, I bought 3 skeins just to be safe. Since I had never done the project I was unsure as to how much wool it would take. I then followed the directions found here and ended up with 17 wool dryer balls. most of them are 8 inches but some of them I didnt wrap tight enough or I wrapped too tight, I'm not really sure what caused it but they shrank and are considerably smaller. But in the midst of all of my searching I found that felted wool balls are great baby toys so the smaller / irregular ones will not go to waste because Spiky will get to enjoy them.

Spiky crawled...

I missed it! My mom is keeping Spiky while I am at work and she called me a few hours ago to tell me that he crawled! He has been trying to since Christmas but has been unsuccessful and has only been able to scoot with his head down! I cannot believe that I missed him actually crawling for the first time! Plus I think he is entirely too young to be crawling, he won’t be 4 months old until Feb 9^th.

Spiky- future guitarist

Spiky decided today that he wanted to try to play the guitar. I think we should figure out what he was playing and name it Spiky's song. AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION WE HAVE NAMED THE SONG "IF I COULD ONLY REACH MY PACI"