WFMW - Trimming Baby Nails

It's always been easiest for me to trim my babies' fingernails (and toenails) while I am nursing them. I just make sure that their heads are propped up sufficiently using a boppy or a pillow (or the arm of a big recliner) and I trim away while they are busy nursing. While I'm trimming I usually say "It's your job to be very still and mommy's job to be very careful". After I do it this way for about a year I don't have trouble trimming their nails even if I'm not nursing them at the same time. When they start talking they can even say the instructions along with me. I've done this with all four of my babies and I haven't drawn blood yet. ( I hope I haven't jinxed myself!)

Check out other tips at Shannon's blog, Rocks In My Dryer.

Watching the clouds roll by

My husband and my son

"Looking for the sun,
Two loving hearts are better than one.
We'll have lots of fun
Watching the clouds roll by.

Cares don't mean a thing,
Whether it's winter, whether it's spring,
While two hearts can sing
Watching the clouds roll by."

from Watching The Clouds Roll By
by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

I stole this post from my daughter!

Oh my goodness!

This. Is. So. Sweet.

What the enemy meant for evil...

...the Lord can use for good. (cf. Gen.50:20)

I'm so glad I stumbled across this story. What an opportunity to see God at work through His people.

Chris and Jenni are real life friends of MamaK. Their house burned down on July 12, and they lost nearly all of their possessions.
There has been an outpouring of donations to replace what they lost, but surely circumstances like this will bring many unforseen expenses as well. Please check out their blog and the Help Page they have set up, and consider donating financially as well. Their email address is provided on their Help Page.

I copied this post from Kim at Life in a Shoe. I was too tired to type it out but I wanted to pass it on to those that read my blog.


As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Genesis 50:20

Nothing But Net - Autistic Teen's Hoop Dreams

Wow! You really should go and view the video referenced here at Blest With Sons.

Five Things Meme

The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room didn't want to be the last one to do this meme so I said I'd bail her out...

5 Things in my Refrigerator:

1. leftover salmon that I forgot was there. It's too old to eat now and I'm very bummed!
2. salsa
3. milk
4. eggs
5. fried rice

5 Things in my Closet:

1. my 8 y.o. son's tattered baby blanket
2. a fire truck (my 2 y.o.'s - he like to play there)
3. a package of MD toilet paper from years ago. (I had a strange attack of nostalgia when they changed the packaging!!) (BTW, I got the picture from The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum - no kidding!! I didn't know it existed before today...)
4. belts
5. a box of travel information that I've collected about places that I want to go someday

5 Things in my Purse:

1. a baby teething toy
2. a brass heart paper weight that a friend gave me when she discoved my kinesthetic nature (it IS very nice to handle - it's been in my purse for 12 years!)
3. Tic Tacs
4. a back-breaking wallet
5. Sunglasses

5 Things in my Car:

1. strollers, two of them
2. a tattered map of Oregon - God's Country - where I want to be...
3. Trivial Pursuit cards - for those drives to Oregon
4. CD's & kids' music tapes
5. Wet-Ones - for the grubby ones!

I think it's very much in my nature to say that a Five Things Meme should have five things on five subjects, so I'm adding one (if I can think of one!). :-)

5 Things in my Junk Drawer:

1. shoe polish
2. caulking
3. oil lamp wicks
4. stud finder
5. the knob for adjusting the water heater temp. (little ones kept adjusting it)

Your turn to do the meme... you know you want to.
BTW, if you don't have a junk drawer, I don't want to hear about it!

Works For Me Wednesday

I've decided to join in the fun (even if I only do it sporadically) over at Rocks In My Dryer.

WFMW:
For several years now before I freeze it I cook most of my ground beef (with diced onion, salt, and pepper). THEN I divvy it up into ziploc bags and freeze it "flat and smooth". That precooked meat is then really quick to use for spaghetti, tacos, stroganoff, pizza, sloppy joes, or whatever. I just add whatever other spices it's needs and voila! I'm done. It also takes up less space in the freezer if it's precooked. (It's good for 2-3 months in a big freezer)

I also premake porcupine meatballs and hamburger patties and freeze them on cookie sheets. I transfer them to ziploc bag when they are totally frozen. The patties go straight to the grill from the freezer and cook in just a few minutes. The meatballs go straight into a casserole with sauce and into the oven. Cooks in about 1 1/4 hours. It saves me so much time in the end to "do up" the meat all at once.

Oh, I also premake and freeze meatloaf, but I thaw it before cooking it.

My Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 3

Part 1
Part 2
(again, the disclaimer: if you are easily grossed out, read at your own risk)

---

My (so far) Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 3 A nurse brought in a gurney and asked me to get off of the exam table and onto the gurney for transport to my hospital room. I wasn’t sure I could get off that table. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad that I was sure I would have an accident trying to dismount. I did manage to get down and over to the gurney. At this point, I mentioned to the nurse that it was of dire importance that I get to a bathroom. (Without telling me about it, they had decided that they really didn’t need a urine sample after all) She followed me down the hall pushing my IV cart. She stood outside, I went inside, and my IV’s snaked under the door. I don’t think I could possibly describe the level of relief I experienced at that moment.

Back in the exam room the nurse instructed me to hoist myself onto the gurney. I was still hurting some. The pain medication in the IV hadn’t reached it’s full potential yet. I stood there a moment envisioning myself, back to the gurney, lifting myself up with my arms and scooting backward. I asked the nurse if, perhaps, there might be a step stool I could use. She said, “Oh, sure”, and left to get one. I remember thinking that she should have thought of that on her own. Anyway, I soon was on my way through the hall to the 6th floor of the hospital.

Into my room they brought a bassinet for Rebecca and a cot for Lorry. Since Jim had to work the next day and Jaymarie had to fly back to New Jersey the next day also, Lorry decided to stay the night with me to help take care of  Rebecca. When I got to my room I was all ready for them to perform an “ER”-like maneuver, sliding me from the gurney onto my bed. No such luck. I had to scoot and slide on my own... again, to get situated. As luck would have it, I had to go to the bathroom again. After I had done that, I asked the (male) nurse if I could please have some underwear and pads (My originals had been thrown away in the ER), and a nursing gown. They went to the 8th floor (Maternity) and got the things I needed. Thinking back, I wish they had just put me in the maternity ward. I would have felt a little more comfortable. At that point, however, the Vicodin had really kicked in and I was feeling pretty good about things. I was able to joke around with the nurse a little.

At 1 am, the pharmacist called up to my room and told me that I WOULD be able to nurse while taking the antibiotics. When I hung up the phone, Rebecca woke up. Right on cue. She hadn’t eaten and had stayed asleep for four hours! God was working. Jim went home and slept in our new bed alone. I stayed in the hospital for two days. My sister, Junelle arrived and stayed with me the second night and Lorry had to go home. The only explanation for my illness was that it was a non-specific, post-partum, uterine infection. I guess it just happens sometimes and I was a lucky recipient of this mysterious infection. I continued with oral antibiotics when I returned home.*

That is the story of my most traumatic night ever. It's quite alright with me if that's as traumatic as it ever gets!

* p.s. My doctor ignored my complaints of continued pain with normal activity for the next 3 months and upon the advice of a girlfriend who said that this kind of prolonged pain wasn't normal, I went to a second doctor who examined me and found me "full of infecton". I went on a 14-day course of strong antibiotics which finally cleared up the infection. My suspicion is that the original infection never went completely away and that I had an ongoing infection for 3 months. I also suspect that had something to do with my body's eventual rejection of my thyroid. Hashimoto's thyroiditus (sp?) is an auto-immune issue and I think that the root of it for me was that prolonged infection. I'll never know....

The Size of Our World

You really must check out this post by Bruggie Tales. It's most amazing!

Backyard Water Fun

Padawan and his cousin are home now from church camp and cooling off!!



BonusBoy is having his fun as well.

Solitare

"So, it's a fun way to organize cards?"

That was my daughter's response to my explanation of how to play the game.

JellyBean ~ 6 Months

I got some (kid) pictures taken at WalMart today so since I won't have them back for about three weeks, I went ahead and took some pictures of JellyBean in the clothes she wore for those pics...

My Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 2

Part 1
Part 3
(again, the disclaimer: if you are easily grossed out, read at your own risk)

---

My (so far) Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 2

At the ER they gave me some regular Tylenol which unfortunately did little to stem the pain I was in. They said they suspected a bladder infection and would need a urine sample. Since I was still bleeding from delivery they would not be able to get a clean sample unless they catheterized me. (Yippee!) I was told not to go to the bathroom because they need to get a sample and I would have to wait a little while for that to happen. As a good nursing mother I had been consuming great quantities of water so to be told I couldn’t go to the bathroom caused me no little distress.

I was ushered into an examining room and told to undress, put on a cute little hospital gown, get on the table and wait. I undressed down to my hospital-issued, disposable underwear with a huge pad in it (remember, I was still bleeding so I chose to keep that article of clothing ON). I put on the fashion-plate gown and somehow got up on the exam table. This was no easy task. Hoisting my self up on a table and scooting into position was very painful. I laid on that table for an eternity. It was after eleven o’clock at night, I was freezing, in pain, and I was hearing Rebecca cry since it had been more than two hours since I had nursed her. She was nursing every 2 hours like clock-work and now she was screaming. Soon I reasoned out that Rebecca was beyond two closed doors so I really couldn’t be hearing her. However, as a new mother who has had four whole days to bond with her child I figured I must be hearing her with my new, parental ESP. Even if my ears couldn’t really hear her, my mammary glands must have. Now I was leaking all over myself with no bra or nursing pads to help absorb the mess.

After a while, Jaymarie entered and asked how I was doing. Crying, I asked how Rebecca was doing. She said that Rebecca was sleeping. So much for ESP. I thanked God that she was sleeping and prayed that she would stay asleep until we all got out of there. Jaymarie requested some blankets for me and I soon warmed up. I asked that she send Jim in and she did that. About 11:30 pm the doctor and a nurse came in to do a pelvic exam. Great, I thought, just what every recently post-partum woman wants! I still had to go to the bathroom, I was still in extreme pain, the front of my gown was now stiff and crusty where I had leaked milk all over myself, and they wanted me to scoot down to the end of the table and put my feet in stirrups. I was not having a good day! My medical record says that “on exam, she was uncomfortable and in moderate distress.” I’ll say. Although I would have called it extreme distress.

During the exam, the medical professionals were trying to get me to relax. Right. I mentioned to Jim that I would rather be pushing. The pushing during labor was much easier and less painful than what I was enduring at that point. I guess the nurse thought I was actually wanting to push and started saying, “No! Don’t push!” Whatever. She didn’t get it. During the exam they found a rather large blood clot and a lot of infection. But that is enough of that! When the doctor informed me that he wanted to start an IV with antibiotics, I started crying again. I hate IV’s. I delivered Rebecca without one because I refused to have it. When the poor guy came in to do the IV, I told him that, no offense, I probably wouldn’t like him after this.

Now it was about midnight. The doctor informed me of two more things: he wasn’t sure I would be able to nurse while taking the antibiotics and they were admitting me! At this point, I pretty much lost control of myself. In the first place, I was feeling particularly unlovely. I hadn’t done my hair and make-up, I had been crying a lot, I was in pain and then I found out that I couldn’t nurse my baby? I was devastated. And they were admitting me? What was I supposed to do with my baby? Crying, I told Jim to call my friend, Joy. She would know what to do. I couldn’t think and Jim was pretty overwhelmed and wasn’t problem-solving at this point either. I think she is the one who mentioned that Rebecca could probably stay with me in the hospital.

(to be continued)

JellyBean Eats!

JellyBean had her first experience with solid food today (rice cereal). It went without a hitch!!







Here's a 15 second video (it's a little dark, sorry!):