Milk Donations

I am posting again about the Mothers Milk Bank hoping to spread the word. Since Kolbie was born I had been storing my excess milk in the freezer with full intentions to donate mothers most precious gift. Because I was hospitalized with such a severe infection and mastitis of both breast and all the medication I received I am unable to donate. It is so easy for healthy Mommy's who have a surplus supply of milk for their little one to contact the Milk Bank , take a quick survey for eligibility, and begin donating. Not to mention rewarding! I know the biggest deterrent for us Houstonian Mommies is there is not a local milk bank, but The Milk Bank at Austin serves all off Texas and has several collection sites in and around the Houston area. They also accept milk through the mail at their cost. So, please spread the word to the nursing mommies you know so they can get more information to see if donating is right for them.

Expecting a Miracle!!!

A special person I was blessed to have met a few years ago when we both worked at TCH has been battling fertility (or lack there of) for a few years now. She was there for me when I was going through my rounds before I got pregnant with Kaylon. She was the 1st person I called to give the good new of a positive pregnancy test. She was there for me late at night to answer questions when we were far away in Mississippi. (In case you are wondering, She is an OB nurse.)After many, many, many test and procedures, She told me today that she is FINALLY expecting! She found out on Easter weekend, but heard the sweet sound of her baby's heart beat for the first time yesterday.
Miranda & Jeff, We are so happy to hear you were able to conceive your little miracle. We pray your Jelly Bean grows strong and healthy each and every day. The road behind you was long and dark. What lies ahead is pure sunshine!

All night Long!

I feel like I need to sing the song...All night long, ALL NIGHT, All night long!!! Kolbie Michelle, 6 weeks and 6 days old had her 1st full 8 hours of sleep! No bottles, no diaper changes from 9 pm last night until 5 am this morning. (Ahh, the energy a mommy can recoupe in just one night...) She did wake up with a nasty cough and her left eye swollen and matted shut with drainage. 'Tis the season. She has had drainage in both her eyes for a couple of weeks now. She has her 2 month check up soon, so I will have the dr check it out then.

Pure Panic!

Kaylon, Kolbie and I were watching a movie tonight while eating a well balanced meal consisting of a Lunchable, popcorn, Crasins, and Mandarin oranges. (Ridiculous, I know.) I get these really cute Oscar Meyer Lunchables for toddlers that have the ham cubed up, little slices of cheese, and the tiny Ritz looking circle crackers. He loves the heck out of them, but about 3 months ago when we 1st tried them, he would forget the chew and just try to swallow the crackers whole. This of course led to a beating almost worthy of calling CPS trying get the cracker dislodged from his throat. At that time 10 seconds of chocking seemed like forever. I pride myself on not panicking in a choking situation because he is really good at coughing whatever food it may be up and out of the way with a little coaching. Never the less, at that point, it was decided no more of the mini Lunchables.
Well, I must have forgotten how scared I got that day, because low and behold they are back in my fridge. On most occasions I would break the crackers in half before I gave them to him, but he has been much better about chewing his food. I've been coaching him to "use" his teeth. (Its so cute because then he'll come over to me and show me his chewing technique.)
So enough babbling, you can see where this is going by now I'm sure. He was standing in front of the TV when he turned and walked so patiently over to me on the couch, when I looked at him and he was BLUE! Yes, BLUE around his nose and between his eyes. Poor Kolbie got tossed to the couch while I yanked him up and started beating him on the back. That wasn't working so I tried to clear his air way with my finger only to make the situation worse by shoving the cracker further down his throat. My baby was steadily dry heaving with water pouring out of eyes and mouth. Then I started the children's version of the Heimlich maneuver. By this time his mouth was purple and I was in tears while fear was overwhelming me and started to feel the panic. I felt like I was beating my child hard enough to break his bones. Finally he was able to make himself throw up to dislodge the cracker. As calm as he could be, he just held on to my neck and I sat down and rocked us. Oh man, I rocked, and rubbed his back, and loved on him until he fell asleep. I swear, no exaggeration, he had to be chocking for a solid minute. All the training I've had didn't matter. The emotions you feel when you are in the middle of a situation like that, I don't even have the words to describe. I can't imaging how scared I would have been had I not known what to do. It should be a requirement for all parents to learn infant and child cpr. This definitely ranks high on the list with the most scared I've ever been.

Occupation

Ryan and I were having a real conversation the other day (I know...right! They are so few and far between anymore.) I don't remember how it started, but it had to do with paperwork (hospital related I'm sure) and the question came up of why paperwork of all kinds asks what is your occupation? Why is that relevant? Why do I feel like I loose IQ points when I write "Housewife?" Is it better to write "Homemaker" or maybe just "Mom?" I decided (thanks to an e-mail from Grammy) my current occupation is Child Development Specialist. I specialize in singing the ABC's, Ring Around the Rosie's,and Itsy Bitsy Spider. I also specialize in playtime. I would love to say that I specialize in laundry, house cleaning, and meal times, but lets face it, I'm just a part time laborer. That being said I can change and dispose of a dirty diaper, replace it with a nice new fresh one, and redress an infant in less than 6o seconds! Oh yes, I timed myself!
And yes Mom, that would make you an Executive in the field. A shout out to all the Great Grandmas, too. Mema and Nana, you qualify as Senior Executive Child Development Specialist with the dozens of offspring each of you have!
I don't know why any of this is relevant, just needing to give myself and all those other full times Mom's out there a little pat on the back.

(Grammy, Mema, Kaylon, Nana, and GG at Kolbie's Baby Shower)

Kolbie's Room

Following up on an earlier post. Here are pictures of Kolbie's room. Still not finished yet, but you know me, I'm never done!

Daddy and Papa Diz did a great job on her waynes coting and crown moulding

Stephen Edward Graphics did an awesome job designing and printing her name for us. I used a custom font for her name and it was printed on vinyl and stuck to the wall. It almost looks like its painted. We love it.

Her dresser didn't quite turn out they way I envisioned it to be. The idea was there, but the execution turned out to be a much more pettite version. Next time I'll pay more attention to the dimensions when ordering! Thanks to Aunt Mel for the cute diaper cake.

Here is her changing table. The circle mirrors I love as well, but again my execution some how fell short of my vision because the walls are so chocolate. I might paint some circles around them to highlight them better, or maybe paint circles behind the mirrors. Not sure yet. If you have any ideas...please leave me a comment.

Another shout out to Aunt Mel for the adorable bow holder. It was the 1st one she's made. Great job Melissa! We love it! Still working on filling it up, though.

And my super favorite thing is this painting. I bought this big blank canvas and acrylic paints to match her bed set and had Kaylon finger paint one color at a time on four different days to layer the colors. After talking to his teacher and seeing the projects he brings home I knew he could do it, but this turned out way more awesome than I could have ever expected. (I took a ton of pictures of the process, but lost them all when my memory card crashed. Huge bummer! He was so cute wearing a diaper and Daddy's t-shirt covered in paint from head to toe!) The original idea was to have her name painted in the middle of the canvas, but I am such a perfectionist that seeing any little flaw in her name would have ruined the whole thing for me so we left it just the way big brother made it. Perfect. (Cute idea, huh! I can't take credit, I totally stole the idea.)

Kolbie rolls over!!!

1st tummy time and I was recording with my cell phone to send to Daddy a video of her holding her head up when she decided to overcome another milestone a little early. The video is a little dark, bit at least its on camera...other wise I even wouldn't believe it. After I called Daddy to give him the news, I went and grabbed the video camera to catch it on tape. She did it one more time for me, 2 times total today! What a big girl!

Click here to view this video

Happy Easter!!

Oh...How come holiday's have to be soooo busy???? Seriously! I feel like we were running around all weekend! It was exhausting, but worth it.
This is Kolbie's 1st Easter and Kaylon's 2nd, but his first year to egg hunt. I was so excited to have 3 separate hunts planned for our boy.

The 1st of course was at school on Thursday. That day I was so excited for him. I got him all dressed up in a super cute outfit Mema picked out for him and had his basket ready to go. When I dropped him off at school that morning his teacher (who we love dearly and are sooo sad to find out she will not be there next year..boo whoo) said I didn't need to come to the hunt because they weren't making a big deal about it. When I left him, I got in the car to call Ryan and let him know I wasn't invited to to the egg hunt, but I could barely get the words out I was crying so much. It broke my heart to think I was going to miss his 1st egg hunt! (Daddy did a good job consoling me by saying its just practice for the big ones...but still!) Anyway, I respected the teachers wishes (surprising, I know) and when I went to pick him up Ms. Danyel informed me that all the kids did a good job putting the eggs into their baskets UNTIL the big boy in class, Deacon, got an egg open and found the prize inside. She said after that all the kiddo's were interested in was getting the eggs open. No more eggs got iput in the baskets. She did say Kaylon couldn't get his egg open even after throwing it on the ground, but was smart enough to go over and stomp on it! How cute!

Egg Hunt number 2 was with Pop and Noni, Uncle Sean, Aunt Mel, and B&C at the League City Park. It started at 10am and we almost missed it. They had a small section roped off for the 0-2 yr olds with tons of eggs every where! It was utter chaos when they opened the gate to start the hunt and crazy enough, Kaylon didn't get a single egg! We had him one we were trying to coax him to pick up, but a bigger kid came and scooped it up before he could get it. Major bummer.

Egg hunt number 3 was in Dayton. We had a reception for my cousin Joey and his new wife. This egg hunt was super awesome, because it was done just for Kaylon and my cousin's son Carter. Kaylon did such a good job. He was picking up those eggs and putting them in the basket. His Easter basket is so huge though he would just set it down and bring the eggs over to it, so I picked it up and carried it for him. He picked up most of the eggs on his side of the yard before he got bored with it. It was super cute. Mommy loved it.
I got lots of good pictures from the whole weekend, to take a look, click here.
Happy Easter everyone!

Girls Day

Good Friday was a much needed girls day in Old Town Spring. My old friend DeDe (best Maid of Honor ever!) invited us. Mama, Kolbie, and I got in some great quality time. There was lots of shopping and catching up. I met some new super nice people (friend of DeDe's from her work) and was able to visit with De's mom and sister that I hadn't seen in a VERY long time. Britt made some new friends too. All in all it was a great day. I'll be sure not to wait so long to do it again. To see a few pics from the day... click here.

Giveaways Again!

We all know about the allergies that come with being a Forey (thanks Pop). I found a blog that is giving away a Rabbit Air purifier...and man could we use that! Kaylon's nose wont stop running and both his and Kolbie's eyes are just filling up with the nasty green junk. So cross your fingers we can win this one! If you want to check it out go to www.mamahill.blogspot.com or click here.