Full On Insanity

I must be crazy, because I adopted another dog!!! This time the dog is much larger and older than my others. My dad called me last week asking me if I wanted a big dog and I told him no, but asked about it anyway. He explained to me that there was a dog up by where he buys his wheels for his cars that had been roaming around and the business owners up there were telling him they were going to call the pound, because the owner neglected him. He thought it was a boxer/lab mix and he said it was a really sweet dog. So after rejecting the idea for a good 4 -5 hours, I gave in and said I would foster it so it didn't have to go to the pound and risk being put to sleep.

So the next day we went up there to pick him up. When we got there we began trying to load him up and he wasn't cooperating. Several guys from the surrounding businesses said they all really liked him and they were the ones that fed him everyday and even kept up with his heartworm medicine. One of the guys said he tried to take him home a couple weeks prior, but he couldn't get him in the car. They explained that he had been around there for about 5 years and his owner never cared for him. He never let him inside, never did anything to care for him, and didn't even feed him. So the guys up there all fed him people food.

We finally got him loaded up and headed to the house. We took him to my house and let him in the back yard. He was a little freaked out, but after about 30 mins and a warm piece of pizza, he eventually came around. Of course, he would smash up against whoever was closest and didn't want to leave their side. That night we left him in his kennel in the garage to sleep and let him process the big move.

A couple of the guys that had been watching after him had mentioned that they thought he had a little pitbull in him and that instantly got me wondering. So after doing some research and looking at pictures online, I've pretty much determined he's a pit bull/lab mix instead of boxer/lab. For so long I have said how I thought pit bulls should be exterminated and now here I had one in my house. He is such a sweet dog and shows absolutely no signs of agression, but I just wasn't sure about him with having a baby in the house.

But regardless, I cleaned him up (loading all 80 lbs or so of him into the bathtub by myself), de-wormed him and got him a bed, toys and some real dog food. My heart was already growing attached to him, but my head was saying "he's a freaking pit bull!!!!!!!!!!!". Then my heart would jump back in and say "but he's also a lab and he's so sweet". So I gave him a trial run to determine whether or not he would become a permanent part of our family. After doing much research on pit/lab mixes and talking to lots of people that have owned pit mixes and observing how he plays with my dogs and my dad's dogs....I have decided to keep him. I think he will make a super great guard dog and he needs us as much as we need him. He already acts protective of us and I like the idea of having a gentle giant in our house in case anyone gets stupid enough to break in.

So allow me to introduce you to the newest member of our family:

Chubs

Big Boy

Well I'm a little late on this, because Carter turned 2 months old a week ago, but better late than never. We went for his 2 month check up last Thursday and he proved to be a growing boy. He was 13 lbs. 10 oz. and 24 1/4 inches long!!! His weight and length are above average, but his head has finally caught up some and is up to just average (it was a bit undersized at birth). This wasn't a surprise because he is now wearing 3-6 month size clothes and some of those are even snug on him. Don't tell anyone, but a PJ set he got from Brett's mom at Christmas that is a 6-9 month size fits him very well and is NOT too big. I think he's destined to be a linebacker.

The Dr. gave me a new formula to try and help with his spitting up, but it didn't help and it cost twice as much as any other formula, so I grabbed some Enfamil Gentlease and that's what I'm sticking with. I think he's tried about a hundred formulas and I'm sick of switching. I've come to terms with the fact that he will spit up no matter what and I'm just going to have to deal with it. It's obviously not hurting his growth any.

He will be starting physical therapy next Tuesday to try and correct his Torticollis, because we've done everything to fix it ourselves and it's just not getting well. It has improved drastically, but he's still favoring one side to turn his head and his he's got a serious case of mishaped skull. I try to think positive about the fact that his head will reshape its self once we get his neck better, but it's hard to imagine when I look at the craziness that is his noggin.

Sleepover at Nana's

Carter is having his second sleepover at Nana Clark's tonight. My mom has once again been gracious enough to offer to keep him for the night so Brett and I can get some good sleep. The last time Carter spent the night over there, I was in the middle of enjoying a wonderful night's sleep when Brett woke up with horrible heartburn and he started gagging and coughing and woke me up. Instead of being a concerned wife and asking if he was okay, I yelled at him for ruining what was supposed to be a night full of uninterrupted sleep. He thought I was being a jerk (and I was) but I hadn't had a solid night's sleep without waking for months and months. Let's see how he'd feel if he were in my shoes. So tonight I think I'll make sure he doesn't eat anything that will give him heartburn and I'll force like 10 Pepcid Completes down his throat before bed. Sounds like a good plan to me. Now most people our age would take advantage of a night without the baby by going out to the bar or a late movie, but instead, we celebrate the occasion by going to bed at like 8:00pm. There is nothing more attractive sounding to me than at least 8 hours of sleep (all in one night, I might add). There for a few days Carter was having some bad tummy issues and he was only sleeping for about 2 hours at a time and I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. When he doesn't go to bed until 11 and wakes up several times and I have to get up at 5:30, it doesn't make for a good morning. But....the other night he slept from 10-5 making it the longest stretch he's ever done and I was so happy I could have cried. But he was back to 4 hours last night. So anyway, I am telling you all this to say...don't call my house tonight or in the morning unless you want me to hunt you down and hurt you. Does that sound too harsh? I think all the new moms out there understand where I'm coming from........right?

Gripe Water

Gripe water is a miracle drug - or miracle non-drug. It's all natural. Carter has proved to be a rather fussy baby and has had tummy issues since he was about 3 or 4 weeks old. After trying every formula under the sun to keep him from spitting up, I have gone back to Enfamil Lipil with 2 scoops of rice cereal to thicken it up. A lot of people and doctors suggest not feeding rice cereal to a baby so young because it can cause bowel problems and food allergies, but it's that or Carter will never keep his food down. I switched to this combination after trying Soy formula and Enfamil A.R. The A.R. stopped the spitting up, but it constipated him so bad because it was too thick. This combo that he's on now was really working well at first, but it started to constipate him again and I thought I was going to pull my hair out. I thought I had finally found something that would keep my baby's food moving in only one direction, but now he was getting plugged up again!!! Thursday night after an entire evening of crying and fussing I told Brett to run to the store to get some Gripe Water. I had seen it on the shelves, but had never tried it with Carter. Well, after I gave it to him it took about 15 mins and he was comfortable and no longer fussy. Then the following morning he had a REALLY large dirty diaper and I almost jumped for joy. You never think you'd be so happy about changing such a nasty diaper until your baby stops having them for a while. Then the entire next day he didn't fuss at all.

The bottle says I can give him 6 doses a day, but I've only been doing about 2 to 3 doses and it's keeping him regular. It's really great because it's made up of Ginger and Fennel extract along with other natural extracts, so I don't feel as though I'm medicating my baby all the time. The only kicker is that it's not exactly cheap (as if any baby stuff is cheap). For a 4 oz. bottle it's about $13 (another reason I'm only giving him 2 to 3 doses a day). But I think at this point I would pay $50 a bottle to make the fussing stop. It's the best pacifier money can buy.

Speaking of the pacifier. Let me just say...I hate it!!! I thought pacifiers were supposed to be mom and baby's best friend, but so far it has proven to be nothing but a pain in my rear. Carter has yet to learn how to keep it in his mouth for long periods of time and when it falls out, he gets all fussy. I know he's only 8 1/2 weeks old, but I'm considering taking that stupid thing away already. It doesn't seem to help him too much and if he's being fussy about something else, the pacifier isn't going to change that. Plus I'm really not looking forward to the day he gets super attached to it and the fight we will have when I take it away. And the last couple of weeks I've seen a handful of toddlers running around with them in their mouths (while trying to speak, I might add) and it makes me just want to yank it out of their mouths. Now, I say it's fair to give each mother their own amount of time to take it away from their child (especially if it's actually working like it should), but I think once they are nearing 2 years old, it no longer needs to be in their mouths; especially if they are needing it during the day and not just at bedtime. But as for Carter and I, it hasn't ever seemed to help much, so I'm really starting to wonder what the point of it is. He doesn't even need it to go to sleep....so what's the point? I'm just trying to find a good couple of days that I don't have to work the next morning where I can afford to lose my mind and some sleep.

Do You Hear The Baby Crying?

Well I didn't last night. My alarm went off this morning at 5:30 and I realized that I had slept through the night. I was astonished, had Carter actually slept through the night? It was too good to be true...and it was. I glanced over at the monitor and saw that the light bar on it was going crazy indicating that my baby was screaming, but I heard nothing. I flipped it over to on rather than voice activated and I still heard nothing. Then I realized the volume was turned down. Oh no!!!! Had I really let my baby cry for God knows how many hours without even knowing? I felt terrible and bolted to his nursery. I got to his crib and he was still nestled nicely in his swaddle, but he was crying and his eyes were puffy. It broke my heart to know he may have been up there crying for several hours with a hungry tummy and dirty diaper and I did nothing about it. I grabbed him up and comforted him and then laid him on the changing table to change his diaper while Brett got a bottle ready. Carter instantly stopped crying and just laid there looking pretty worn out. I quickly changed him and Brett fed him. Then he was out like a light bulb.

Please tell me I'm not the only one that has ever done this. I swear I'm going to make sure that monitor is on blast every night before I go to sleep. This is not something I want to put my baby through again. Poor little guy...

I popped my exercise ball.

Well, I didn't exactly pop my exercise ball but it did deflate. I've been trying to get back on the working out band wagon and have been doing pretty well with it, but I swear some force is trying to stop me. I haven't put any new air in it since I bought the thing like 4 years ago and it was in need of a refill. So as I stuck the pump nozzle in it and began to blow it up, the nozzle end broke off in it and the ball deflated. I'm not sure if that's some kind of sign, but I won't let it stop me. I've been feeling like a big fat pile of mashed potatoes ever since I had Carter and I'd really like to shake that feeling and all this fat. I used to be in really really good shape and worked out like a maniac, but I'm tired of saying "I used to..." and I'm ready to say "I am...". So I've been working out on the elliptical and WAS doing at least 100 crunches on my ball every evening, plus doing some weight lifting. Despite the scale not showing any progress, my legs and arms are beginning to feel firmer. Now I'll have you know I was born with legs of steel and in high school (when I was in really bad shape) I could still leg press 500 lbs. and do 120 lbs. on leg extensions. I may have been a puff ball, but I had lots of muscle under all my puffiness. Then in college I decided to get in shape and I dropped tons of weight and got in super good shape. I added boxing to my routine and my arms became firmer than they had ever been and I was confident in being able to defend my self with my swift upper cut.

Then.......I had a baby and was unable to do any major lifting or straining and I turned into a cream puff again...but worse. For the first time in my whole life I couldn't lift heavy objects and strain my body like I was so used to doing my whole life. My legs had never been so soft, but with a little workout they are starting to feel hard again. I just gotta get rid of this jelly belly. Good God!!!

So here is my New Year's resolution...I need to get healthy again and lose 35 - 40 lbs and I plan on doing it! There ya go...I put it out there.

I want to go from this:

To this:

The Rollover

So I was pretty sure babies were at least 3 or 4 months before they tried rolling over, but Carter dispelled that theory last night when he rolled over from tummy to back at a whopping 6 weeks old. At first I thought he may have done it by accident and was upset I didn't get it on camera, but the he kept doing it and I was able to get it on camera a couple of times. Brett and I were so excited the first time he did it that we yelled and I think we startled him. Brett called his mom right away to tell her and then we realized it was 10:30p.m. and she didn't answer, so I decided to wait until this morning to tell my parents! Should I be this excited about something so little? Well, I am! So here's the video.