A Picture Before I Go

At the request of several people, here is a picture from last night of all of us before the wedding. Cooper looked so cute in his little tuxedo, and he behaved wonderfully! :) We will have to put him in the tux again for picture purposes before he grows out of it since we didn't have time to get a ton of pictures last night, but here is one for now! Have a great week!

It Finally Caught Up With Me

I'm not quite sure how this happened and I didn't previously think it possible. But apparently the stomach bug that is going around the area can wait weeks before attacking someone. Two weeks after Austin had it (or anyone else I know for that matter), I had the joy of participating in the stomach bug as well. Luckily for me, it only took me about 24 hours to get it totally out of my system and even by yesterday evening I was feeling better but just tired. I'm praying that Cooper is still going to be in the clear! Needless to say I haven't had a very exciting past 24 hours. But it was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because Austin was able to stay home from work with us yesterday and got to spend the entire day with Cooper which he hasn't really gotten to do since he was born. Since I didn't want to breathe on him while I was still feverish, Austin got to play Mr. Mom all day long. And since Cooper and I leave on Saturday to go to Florida, it was good timing for him to have a little daddy/baby time.

Today we are taking it easy. We went to the mall to get a baby tuxedo for Cooper for the wedding we are going to tomorrow night and had to pick up a few other little outfits that were on sale! He is so well dressed - lol! :) We are going to spend the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating, have some yummy dinner tonight, and get a good night sleep so tomorrow we can get a lot done. We have to start with one last load of laundry for anything I want to bring for me or him that we have worn recently, pack everything up except for the few things that will have to be done Saturday morning, and get everyone ready to head to the wedding tomorrow night. Then Saturday morning we will get up, have a good breakfast, and head to the airport for our flight at 1:15.

All that to say that since tomorrow will probably be a pretty busy day making sure I have everything we need, this will probably be my last post until possibly after we get back from Florida. I might try to post once or so while I'm in Florida, but we'll just have to see! Hope you all have a great weekend, week and Memorial Day weekend and talk to you on the 31st! :)

Mother's Day and 2 Months

Cooper's 2 month birthday coincided with Mother's Day yesterday so it was a big day for celebrating! I had a wonderful day thanks to my loving husband and cute little son. It was kind of weird to have a holiday like that to celebrate this year for me and not just about sending cards and flowers and things to my mom and grandmother, but very cool and I can't wait until Father's Day in June to help Cooper celebrate his daddy's day!

I woke up yesterday morning and went out into the family room where Austin was holding Cooper in his lap on the couch. I looked down and in Cooper's hand was a card. I took the card from him and opened it up and it was a cute Snoopy card from Cooper to his mommy. The funny part was that I looked down at Cooper after I read it and Cooper was sitting there with the HUGEST smile on his face. It was like he was so proud of his card and that he knew that the card was supposed to be from him. I asked him if he had helped his daddy pick it out and he just kept smiling and laughing. It was so cute and made my morning. After that, Austin gave me a card as well and then took me to see my gifts. The first gift was a gorgeous flower arrangement that he had done with hydrangeas (my favorites) and some other really pretty flowers in a huge periwinkle pot that was our wedding color. It was so awesome! Here's a picture of it on our front porch - Austin is quite talented at this - I can't wait to come back from Florida because he is going to work on our flower beds next weekend while we're gone and he's home alone!



Cooper and Austin also got me the cutest little charm to add to my charm bracelet. It is in the shape of a diaper and has blue sapphires in it with a little silver heart. It is beautiful! Austin's parents also gave me a really cute silver charm of a little boy with a tiny diamond in it. Here's a picture of them both (although the picture doesn't really do them justice) - the one from his parents is on the left, the one from Cooper and Austin is on the right.



Other than that, we spent most of the day packing up my maternity clothes and Austin's winter clothes and getting out our summer clothes. I can wear the shirts for sure and most of the skirts and things. I am slowly trying on some of the pants/skirts to see, but even though I've already lost over 30 pounds and am only 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, the place where it is left is right around the tummy so stuff that zips and buttons is still a little tight. I'm not worried about it though because it's only been 2 months, and I'm proud of how much I have already lost and know that I will continue to lose more because I started a walking program that I'm hoping will help (and now that we have a treadmill I have no excuse!).

Then we went to P.F. Chang's in downtown Fort Worth for dinner last night with Austin's parents and brother. It was SO yummy - we hadn't been there in a LONG time and it tasted so good. :) Cooper was the best and slept the entire time through dinner even through his normal scheduled feeding time (we fed him when we got home and he was just fine!). We took a few pictures, and I thought I would share this one of Cooper and his mommy!



Today, we went to see the pediatrician for Cooper's 2 month checkup. He got his first round of shots (other than the Hepatitis shot he had in the hospital already). He got 5 vaccines in 4 shots. He didn't like it much, but he wasn't as bad as I thought he might be and I handled it well so that was good! The good news is that he seems to be doing great and is very healthy. He weighs 13 pounds 9 ounces (no I'm not kidding), and the craziest part is that he is 25.5 inches long!!!!!!! Our pediatrician predicts that based on Austin and my height plus the family history that he will probably be anywhere between 6 foot 4 inches to 6 foot 7 inches when he is grown up! We are going to have one tall boy! And since we are big Mavs fans, Austin says he is putting a basketball in Cooper's hands as soon as he'll take it so that he can prepare him for the future - I'm still rooting for professional golf although professional basketball wouldn't hurt either! LOL

Sorry for the long post, but I had a lot to say! Cooper is laughing now every so often which is AWESOME and smiling like crazy which he has been for a few weeks now. Such a cutie but I'm biased! That's all for now - we leave on Saturday for Florida so I have a lot to get done this week before we go, but I'll definitely post again soon! :) GO MAVS - BEAT THE SPURS!

Thanks Jes!

Thanks to Jes for updating my banner for me. I really appreciate it! :)

No real news to report for now - we had a good weekend, everyone is feeling better now, and we even managed to sneak in a viewing of MI3 (which despite my recent hatred for Tom Cruise. the movie was great - JJ Abrams rocks!). I'll update more later! :)

Sunny Outlook for the Weekend

After a few days of storms (real and otherwise), it looks like this weekend may turn out okay after all! Austin's parents were able to leave for their trip this morning so hopefully they can enjoy themselves. Cooper and I are doing well - so far so good and I'm hoping since we are still feeling good at this point, we have hopefully dodged the bullet. My pain in my breasts is getting much better and after strapping them in hard-core for the past few days and through the weekend, I will hopefully be back to normal (or at least close) by Monday. At least now I can pick up Cooper and hold him again without too much pain. Austin is feeling better too. Yesterday afternoon, after it had been over 24 hours since he had had a fever, I told him he was allowed to see us again (LOL). So I had him wipe down the bathroom and the phone and the bedroom with that Clorox Anywhere stuff to kill the germs, we stripped the bed and washed the sheets and comforter in warm water, and sprayed Lysol around the room. He was able to eat dinner with me last night and watch TV for awhile and then I sent him to bed around 9:30 although he woke up when I got in bed around 11 after Cooper's last feeding. This morning he was still feeling a little woozy, but he went to work anyways and luckily he seems to be feeling better as the day goes on and he gets more fluids in his system. I think he'll be able to make his 8 hours at least so that will help!

I am a little sad because this week went by so quickly and was so rough, and I realize now that I only have four more weeks with Cooper before I have to go back to work. Austin thinks I should talk to my boss when I get back about possibly working only until 4 each day, drive home before traffic gets too bad, and then work from home in the late afternoon/early evening so that at least I can be home with Cooper, hopefully get dinner ready, and be able to work the hours I need to without having to sit up in my office for so many hours a day. I could easily do it because my job really doesn't require that I be in the office (there are only a few rare occasions where I really need to be there actually), but I don't want to push my luck so we'll see how it goes in the beginning and then go from there I guess. I'm just going to cherish each and every second with Cooper from now until June 5th!

Other than that, not a whole lot else to report. Hoping to have a good weekend - maybe even catch Mission Impossible 3 if we can manage it. Need to pick up some cards for the moms and grandmoms in our life for next weekend and return some shoes I picked up at Dillard's last weekend before I found another pair at home that I could use instead. I'm getting lots of laundry done today at least and hopefully on Monday (if not this weekend) I can tackle the pantry to clean it out and organize it and also organize everything in the kitchen since I haven't really had the chance to do that since we moved in. Cooper and I leave two weeks from tomorrow to go to Florida for 10 days and Austin will join us three weeks from today (he has to work that week but will be with us for a long weekend over Memorial Day). My parents and grandmother (she hasn't gotten to even meet him yet) are really excited about it, and I'm hoping it will go well.

Guess that's all for now - no need to babble on unnecessarily! Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

You are Now Entering the 7th Circle of Hell

You know how they say "when it rains, it pours"? Well in our case it was coming down in bucketfuls last night! Today is a little bit better, and hopefully will continue to improve. But I need your thoughts and prayers right now to get through all of this craziness!

Here's what started it (possibly TMI but sorry):
I have posted some about the pain and suffering I have been experiencing for the past three weeks while trying to breastfeed. The weird thing is that starting by the end of our hospital stay up until these recent problems, I was completely shocked and happily surprised at how well breastfeeding was going and how much I enjoyed it. However, when I was experiencing massive amounts of pain every single feeding (6-7 times a day), it got to be a very frustrating and sad experience for me. I tried one round of antibiotics to no avail, an anti-fungal cream for thrush treatment which didn't work either, and then started a second round of a different antibiotic. Nothing was helping, there was no change, and sometimes it even felt worse. I believe the problem has something to do with a circulation issue I was having where my nipples were turning white on the ends (basically losing color and blood in the tips) which was causing the extreme pain. This is something I may run into again when we have a second child or it may be the way that Cooper was nursing as he got older. Needless to say, it was not something that could be treated except possibly with a circulation medicine which both myself and my family felt was not good for me to be having to take when I'm not having any heart/circulation problems. Because of the extreme pain I was in, I would seriously sit there STARING at the clock trying to will it to go by faster so I could at least allow him to nurse 10 minutes on each side. And as a result, Cooper was not getting as much milk as he wanted/needed at each feeding, and therefore becoming fussy from being hungry. It made me so sad to see him like that, and even more upset thinking about having to feed him yet again with the pain.

All that to say that by yesterday around noon, I just couldn't take it any more. The whole point to me of breastfeeding (besides the obvious nutrients which he hopefully got the majority of since I did nurse him for 7 weeks) is to have an emotional bonding experience with your child and provide to them. When that relationship is compromised where it is a painful and stressful experience for both me and the baby, I just don't think it is worth it any more. I know some of you may disagree with me or think I'm a horrible person because I had to stop, but it was the best decision for me and my son, and I am proud that I stuck through it as long as I did despite the pain and problems and glad that Cooper will now be getting enough milk and is a much happier boy able to sleep more often and for longer periods of time. I had wanted to breastfeed at least six months to possibly a year, but it just wasn't in the cards. Hopefully you all won't judge me, and I totally respect people that can continue it and will try again with our next one, but it just wasn't something I could justify continuing with Cooper when we were both suffering.

Little did I know that I apparently was making quite a lot of milk, and with the sudden stopping of having the milk taken out, by last night, my breasts were so sore I was in tears yet again. They were rock hard and so painful all the time with throbbing and aching pain shooting through. It was miserable. It was worse than any pain I suffered from the c-section because at least with the c-section pain, the medicine helped and as long as I stayed still in bed, I could get in a comfortable position to watch TV or sleep or just relax. With this, I couldn't get comfortable AT ALL, and as a result, I slept a total of one hour last night. I have since taken about three hours in naps today and plan to get a good night sleep tonight because I am feeling a little better. I talked to my doctor's nurse today about it, and she recommended 4-5 days with the following wrapped around me 24-7: green cabbage leaf (there is something in cabbage that helps with engorgement and drying up milk if left on for a long time), sports bra, ace bandage, second sports bra. Since doing this around lunchtime today, I have managed to alleviate some of the pain, and I can function now at least. It was so hard because I couldn't hold Cooper near me or burp him or rock him, but I have managed today to find ways to accomplish all of this, and I know things will get better from here with that.

If you thought that was all, I am not done unfortunately! In addition to the chaos that was me last night, Austin started with a stomach ache after dinner. He was trying hard to help me, but didn't feel well at all. It was a terrible situation because I was so worthless because of my pain and inability to hold Cooper against me, and he was sick. Of course at about midnight or so as we were trying to fall asleep, Austin got sick to his stomach. It happened again an hour later, and through tears of desperation, I got up and went into the family room to try to rest on the futon so that I could try to avoid the germs. Apparently there is a stomach bug going around here - Austin's brother had it Saturday night and we have purposely been avoiding his family since then so as not to be exposed to the germs. Of course, it had to bite us in the butt because two people in Austin's work had the stomach bug too so he must have picked it up from them on Monday (one of the most frustrating things about where he works is that it is a lot of men that work there and men typically do not go to the doctor when they should and come to work sick even when they shouldn't only to pass it along to others especially Austin because of his weakened immune system due to his diabetes but that's another story).

So far (knock on wood), I am feeling okay other than the boob pain! But I am just hoping and praying that I will not get sick, not for purely selfish reasons but because I have no idea who would take care of Cooper then because Austin's parents who usually babysit for us have also been exposed to it (although neither of them have got it so I'm hoping I will be so lucky) and also are leaving on Friday morning for their anniversary trip to Santa Fe. Above that, I am hoping and praying that Cooper does not pick it up because he is so little, and it would be so hard on him. I'm hoping we dodge the bullet on this one, but we'll see! Austin had a low fever this morning, but luckily did not get sick again since 1:30 last night so that's a good thing. I picked up a prescription for him today and he seems to be feeling better although the medicine makes him tired. But it's good so that he can just get rest and hopefully fight off the bugs in his system. I have been washing my hands like crazy and spraying Lysol and Clorox Anywhere all around the house so I'm hoping that will help.

Tonight I am going to sleep in our guest bedroom so I can hopefully get a good night's sleep and avoid germs. The doctor told Austin to rest for two days so he'll be home from work again tomorrow (grr, and he gets NO sick days so his paycheck next time will be lower), but hopefully he can go back to work on Friday and as good as he was doing today for being sick just last night, he can hopefully function more tomorrow. It's just lonely for me because I'm used to him coming home and spending time with Cooper and me in the evenings, but I don't want to expose either of us to any more germs than necessary so I have pretty much left him be in the bedroom all day other than to bring him drinks occasionally and medicine.

Sorry for the long post! I told you I was lonely! LOL Hope you all had a better evening and day than me, and here's to hoping things get BETTER instead of worse. At least there is a new Lost on tonight to keep me company! :)

Go Mavs!

The weekend was good although I am still having troubles with pain. I started a new antibiotic this morning so we'll see how that goes. I'm supposed to wait until Wednesday morning to see how I'm feeling, and if it is still not working, I have to go back in to see her either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. Hopefully this will work, and we can move on!!! :)

The Mavs won in overtime on Saturday, and we're hoping they will go ahead and sweep Memphis tonight! Here's the Mavs newest fan! :)