Being a young mom means we met a little early, but I get to love them longer.


Here are some links to helpful posts I have done in the past :)

Learn about car seat safety HERE!

Need breastfeeding advice? Click HERE for lots of helpful tips!

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Breastfeeding tickers

Monday, January 31, 2011

Some great deals!!

I was looking on craigslist today to see how much people were selling their dressers for (for the new baby). I just wanted to get an idea of prices, but I found something I cannot resist.. It is a bed, dresser, and changing table for $150. They are in great condition!! They were at the girls mom's house for when the baby went over there. They have barely been used. If we bought a new bed alone it would be at least $150, and a dresser another $75. I wasn't even going to get a changing table because I can just change the baby on my bed, but this changing table is on top of the dresser so it doesn't even take up any room.

I called the lady and we are going to go look at it Thursday. We can keep it in my moms basement until the baby comes.

Now our other great deal.. one of my good friends texted me today and told me that her mom is getting married, so they are moving into the guys house. Her uncle is going to move into her old house, and he is going to have a place open. It's a 3 br, 2 ba, and he would only charge us $325 a month for it (because he wouldn't have to pay anything in Ashley's old house)!! We haven't seen it yet, but Ashley says it's pretty nice. I am kind of apprehensive though. Her mom isn't getting married until March, which means it won't be open until March. I know that is only a month away, but a lot can happen in a month. We haven't seen the place yet either. I don't think Ashley would talk it up if it wasn't that nice, so I'm guessing it's as nice asshe says it is. She gave me his number and we are calling him tomorrow. Another thing I am worried about is that since he still lives there he may not want us to come look, and I don't want to make any commitments without seeing it, but then again I don't want to miss out on a great opportunity. If this works out for us it would be great!!!
Both of our babies would have a room, and we won't have to pay any more a month.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

I just can't help myself..

I get myself so excited about the thought of having a boy.. it is all new to me. Everything seems so different then with a girl. The clothes are so cute in their own way. Chris and I also picked out what his room will look like. Chris loves working on cars, and since I pretty much just took over in how I wanted Grace's room to look I figured I would let him have some say here..

This is what we have come up with..

This bedding set is only $65 and it comes with ten pieces!! It comes with the bumper, the dust ruffle, the diaper stacker, a comforter, a crib sheet, two window valences, the mobile, a decorative pillow, and a matching birth certficate holder. And it is just too precious! Exactly what we were looking for and a great price! Grace's set was $85 and it only came with the comforter, dust ruffle, sheet, and bumper.


This is the bouncer we want.. I know it's not cars, but I couldn't find one with cars. It is just like the one Grace had, but for a boy, and Grace loved hers, so we figure we'll go with this one.


This would be his baby book. I love it!



And then this. I know he would be no where near ready for it when he is born, but it matches the room so well. Chris always wanted to get the pink one for Grace and we never got to, so I am determined that he has it for his little boy.

I also found some burp cloths, bibs, hats, and outfits with cars on them. I am really getting excited. But watch, this one will be a girl just because I am so prepared :p If it is a girl I know exactly what to go for though, so it won't be a big deal.

I am ten weeks today!! 1/4 of the way there. We have a definite name for a boy. Christopher Brentley, and we would call him Brentley. I named my baby-think-it-over Brentley back in 10th grade. I love that name.. I came up with it on my own. I used to babysit a boy named Brent and my cousin was dating a guy named Brantley, so I put them together to get Brentley.. just recently found out it was already a name before I came up with it :p
And then obviously Christopher is after Chris. Plus it takes care of his name having a Christian meaning. I really love this name. And to think we couldn't come up with a boy name when I was pregnant with Grace. Now we can't come up with a girl name.. that is one of the reasons why I feel like it is a boy this time.

I hate starting a new semester..

I always feel so overwhelmed. I really feel like school is going to kick my butt this semester. I have music appreciation as one of my classes, and I have absolutely no musical background. I feel absolutely lost in that class!! Rhythm, tone, remembering the names of composers and the titles of their peices.. It's hard! This class is required for my major, but what the heck for? Where I interned there was a music teacher separate from the normal teacher. It was like a once a week thing, and besides that I am not going to be teaching my preschoolers about Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Reed Pipes. But okay.. what really makes me upset is that my instructor somehow got approval to require us to go to three concerts.. these concerts are outside of our class time. How can she require us to go to something not during class time?? Even high school couldn't do that. Now I have to take my free time and money to go to these dumb concerts. It really makes me mad.
We have our first test on Tuesday, and there is 80+ questions on it!! Just for the study guide I took 6 pages of notes!

And then I have Biology, which I am good at, but there is just so much work! We have 4 tests, 8 labs, 10 quizzes, a research paper, and a speech all in one semester!! The research paper and speech are due Feb. 14th, and we have to have a powerpoint to present with the speech. At first I was totally hating my topic, but the more I read about it, the more comfortable I get with it (genetically modified foods). I know I can do it, but it's going  to be hard. I am not used to having that much work for just one class. It's usually 4 tests and a few quizzes.

I like my English 1102 class. The only complaint I have is that amazon sent me the wrong edition of my text book (9th instead of 10th), and if I send it back I will have no book for two weeks. I would fail because we read from it every class and between every class. The short stories in the book are what the class is based off of. At first the page numbers were just a little off, but as I went to do my reading yesterday I realized that one of the stories I was supposed to read is not in this edition. I am going to have to sparknotes it or something.

And my other class is American Gov. I really love this class! The professor is hilarious and really good at holding my attention! I have no compaints about this class whatsoever.

I don't know.. I guess I'm just really stressing like I did last semester, and I ended up making all A's last semester. I always do this though. I have a major fear of failure. In high school I made all A's, so I feel like if I get a B I didn't try hard enough and a C is failing to me, which at my college a D is failing, not F, so making anything less than a C is not an option, but I really wouldn't even be happy making a B.

I guess it's just all of this happening at once.
We are still looking at houses, and I have a question for you guys.. one of them I found is a double wide trailer, but it is on a private lot (not a trailer park), has a fire place, a front and back porch, it's a 3 br. I have always said that I would never want to live in a trailer, and especially not make my children live in a trailer, but what if it is just as nice as a house, and not in a trailer park? Now I haven't seen it yet.. if it is completely run down it will not be an option, but the way the guy talked about it was like it was really nice. I do know that it is only 5 years old, so it can't be too bad. It's in our price range, so what do you guys think? Would I be horrible moving my family into a trailer? At least my kids would have their own rooms, a yard to play in, no noisy people underneath us, no smoke smell due to the 6 smokers in our building (I promise our apartment smells like we smoke because of them, and I know that is not good for us), and the fact that we now see the occasional roach in our apartment (I have no doubt that this is due to the fact that the people under us do not clean, and I know it's only going to get worse from here). So I feel like the stigma of a trailer is better than the actually harmful things present in our apartment, plus it's got more room.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Mall play place..

Brittany and I took the girls to the mall play place together today.. it was nice to get out of the house and hve someone to talk to, and the girls seemed to have a lot of fun. They played for almost two hours on the play ground!






Grace did such a good job playing by herself! There weren't many peope there this time, so I was more comfortable with letting her go.

And then they both crashed on the way home lol. I love this picture!!


We stayed at Brittany's and played for awhile. Brittany and Sami gave Grace a book and she told them "thank you." It was so precious!!

Chris took us out to eat tonight too. He just randomely wanted too. It was sweet because he usually doesn't do stuff like that. We went to Ryan's and I got Grace her own plate. That was the first time.. I usually just share with her from my plate, but she was free so I let her have her own. She set there and ate so well. SHe even wanted to try to use her spoon. She is really big on using her spoon.. she is just not great at keeping the food on the spoon because she turns the spoon upsidedown on the way to her mouth. We are working on it though :) She is growing up on me so fast now! Just the other day she was trying to sing her a b c's. She will mimic their sounds.. It's precious.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sooo excited!!

I never realized that we could have custom clothes made for Grace, but since Grace was born I have discovered the world of embroidery. We really want to get the new baby a personalized outfits for it's coming home outift, but I was feeling kind of guilty because Grace didn't have one of her own. Well I figured out a way to make it fair!




Of course we would have their names out on there, but I think these are just precious!! And they really aren't that expensive. They will match :):) We will have the babies new born pictures made with them in one of these two outfits. And yes, I know.. we don't know for sure that it's a boy, but all of these have girl options too. I just think these are too cute! Found them all on Etsy.com. Definitely my new favorite website :)

And on the pink and black one you can customize not only the names, but the characters and color's as well. I really love that one!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Nine weeks..

So as of Sunday I was 9 weeks! One more week and I will be one-fourth of the way there!
Funny thing is, I was talking to my dad about how we wanted a boy and he made a really good point. His uncle had a girl and then a boy, his dad had a girl and then a boy, both of his sisters had a girl and then a boy, he had me and then my brother, and his neice had a girl and then a boy. I have no idea if that means anything or not.. maybe we have some sort of weird jeans or something, but it is looking pretty good for us having a boy this time!

Here is what I look like at nine weeks.. no change really even though I already feel huge. I know it's coming though. Hopefully I don't show until between 5 and 6 months like I did with Grace, but I kind of doubt that due to me being bigger already, and especially if it's a boy. I want to try to post a pic every few weeks so I can keep up with my tummy growing. I have tons of pics from when I was pregnant with Grace.


Speaking of Grace, she is learning more and more everyday. Now when I ask her if something is yummy she will go "mm mmm mmmm" but only if she likes it. And when she gets excited about something sometimes she will start stomping her feet and other times she will go "oh wow, wow!" It is just too cute. Also, today she bumped her head and she looked at me and said, "ow." That was her first time saying that.
She is also beginning to show signs of being ready to potty train. When I tell her I have to go peepee she will follow me to the bathroom and sit on her potty. She pulls at her diaper when she pees in it, and if I asked her if she poopied she will looked down and pull at her diaper if she did. I know she isn't ready yet because she can't tell us if she has to go, but we are getting there.
Last thing.. we did her first finger painting the other day. She seemed to enjoy it. She did manage to stick her finger in her mouth once, so she got a nice taste :p It was Crayola, non-toxic, so I didn't worry. Just wiped her mouth out. When she got done it sort of looked like she made flowers.




And then I thought you guys would like this.. Presenting, the funny faces of Grace!
















And then one of mommy and Gracy to finish it off :)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

My decision to be a Special Education Teacher..

There are many things that influenced my decision. It was definitely not my first choice.. I wanted to be in the medical field for the longest time, but then I realized I wasn't good with blood or vomit, so I am definitely not cut out for the medical field. I was kind of in lala land as far as a career choice goes. I have always liked working with little kids. So I started thinking about teaching. My mom was a special education teacher herself, but no longer is because she gave that up when she had me. She has been a stay at home mom since then. I never really talked to her about it much though. I was in an Early Childhood Education class at my high school, and in 11th grade we went to the schools to intern. As we were having our classes figured out for us my teacher asked the class if anyone would be willing to be placed in a special education class. I was apprehensive at first because I had never been in a setting with a bunch of tiny kids with special needs. But no one raised their hand.. I literally mean no one. I knew that I would be comfortable in the setting even if it was more difficult than a traditional classroom, so I raised my hand.

Some of you know my brother, and I have mentioned him in passing on here a few times, but I have never really talked about him. He is the reason I knew I would be comfortable in a special education classroom. My brother is only 13 months younger than me, and he was born with Down Syndrome (I don't think I ever spell that right). 1 out of every 1000 people has this. It is a genetic abnormality that prevents him from ever having a "normal" life from the beginning. I think most people know what Down Syndrome is and probably even know someone with it because it is fairly common. Now to me this was my brother that I grew up with, and I didn't even realize he was any different from me or anyone else. Then, when he was about 6 his ability to walk started to deteriorate. Now he was always a little bit behind, but once he mastered a motor skill he never lost that ability. My parents knew something was wrong.. they took him to doctor after doctor. Finally the answer was found.. he was diagnosed with Legg Perthes Disease. 1 in every 1200 people are affected by this. It is a disease which causes the ball of the femur to begin to deteriorate. This then allows the femur to slip out of socket from the pelvis. They scheduled surgery for my brother, but it wasn't just a simple surgery that could be done right away. They had to schedule it with T.C. Thompsin Children's hospital in Atlanta. Before he could have the surgery he quit walking all together. When he was seven he had the surgery. The put the leg back into place with a ton of metal skrews and plates. Then he was put into an almost full bdy cast. It started at his chest and ran to his knee on one leg and his ankle on the other. He was in this cast for six months unable to move. Once he finally got the cast off he was not out of the woods yet. He was still no where near walking again. He was confined to a wheelchair while induring months of physical therapy.
During all of this something changed in my brother. He was not the loving playful brother I used to have. At first we all assumed it was because of the surgery, but he wouldn't give hugs anymore, wouldn't make eye contact, wouldn't say the words he could say before. It was like he regressed into a shell. I am no exactly sure when, but at some point we found out that he had developed Autism. I cannot explain how dramatically different Autism makes a person. It was like my brother had been replaced. It really took some getting used to. He rarely shows affection, wants to be left alone, cannot be subject to loud noises (and if he is he will go into a rage.. hitting, punching, kicking, throwing things, screaming). It is to the point now that going in public is a rare thing for him. I have been hit numerous times.. when I was pregnant kicked me in the stomach once, and another time he grabbed me an hit me in the middle of Best Buy then threw himself out of his wheel chair kicking and screaming. He used to do this sort of stuff to my mom a lot, but the last time (several months ago) he started hitting my mom she accidentally ended up knocking him down. He hasn't touched her since. I cannot trust him around my daughter either.. when my sister was about Grace's age my step-father was supposed to be watching them play on the trampoline, but he didn't and my brother threw my sister off the trampoline. On Thanksgiving they were getting ready to leave, the little boy from down stairs screamed and Cody kicked Grace knocking her down. I think it scared her more than anything, but it was still pitiful.
Now with all of this being said.. he is still my brother. For some reason he was delt an awful hand in life. I often wonder why him? Or why not just Down Syndrome, just Legg Perthes Disease, or just Autism? The combonation of the three has taken my brother from me. He is trapped inside of his own body.. barely able to speak, walk, or control himself. No one should have to live a life like that.
Luckily he can walk some, but not for long distances. Maybe 15 minutes at the most. And the leg the the surgery was performed on is not growing properly now. It is about an inch shorter than the other, so he has to have special shoes to help him keep his balance. Because of all of these things he mostly rides in a wheel chair when he is out in public. It is also easier to control him when he is in a wheel chair.
I didn't mean to make him sound psycho.. he really is a sweet boy. It's just loud noises that send him into a rage. If we keep the loud noises away from him he is fine. He loves to play on the computer, and watch movies, but only certain movies. Annie and Peter Pan are his favorites. He talk some, but he is not capable of carrying a conversation. I would give just about anything to have just one conversation with my brother.

One crutial thing I learned from my brother is that people with disabilities are people too. I would never make fun of a person with a disbility. This is why I knew I would feel comfortable in setting with children who have disabilities.. What I did not anticipate was loving being in that setting! I absolutely loved those children. There were different ranges of disabilities from speach impediments (this was the majority of the class), behavior problems, Down Syndrome, Autism, blindness, and the most severe was a little girl named Shayna.. she had contracted menegitis at birth. It spread to her brain and she could not sit up, walk, or talk. They also said she has been diagnosed as blind, but I never believed that (an neither did the lady I was iterning for). At first I was very standoff-ish around Shayna because I didn't know anything about her condition, but I would talk to her, and try to play with her. One day she was out ofher chair and laying on a bean bag. I was talking to her and the teacher told me to pick her up. I did and from that moment on I knew I wanted to an early childhood special education teacher. When I would talk to her she would look at me. Blind people will naturally turn their ear to you. I brought this up to the teacher and she said that she didn't believe she was completey blind either. One day Shayna wasn't there, and I never saw her again after that.. she had taken a turn for the worse. At one point they said they didn't think she was going to make it. Last I know she was improving and still alive, but I don't know if she is now or not. I really wish I did. There was also one little girl, named Fernanda, who never talked. I took a special interest in her as well. And one day we were looking out the window together and she said "rain" (it was raining). She also said "bus." It was amazing to know that I was the one who got her to talk. Mrs. Butler told me that I was a natural, and that she thought I would be an amazing special ed teacher. I miss that class so much. I cannot wait to have a class of my own! I want to help children like my brother, Shayna, and Fernanda.

I have pictures of the kids from my class somewhere. If I can find them I will post them on here..

My secret is out..

Well Chris told my dad today. He took him to lunch to tell him. He actually took it a lot better than I thought. After they ate he wanted to come talk to me.. He basically tol me he wasn't thrilled with the news, but that he would support us through this. I am glad to have my dad.. I didn't have him when I was pregnant with Grace, and in the months since Grace was born our relationship has grown. I was afraid this would send us back to square one, but I am glad to know it doesn't. I am also glad to know that I no longer have to keep this secret. A lot of stress has now been taken off of me.
I'm still nervous to post it on my facebook.. I don't want the negative reactions, but I guess they will come sooner or later.

Aside from that.. I went to my friend's baby shower today. It really got me excited about the new baby. I want to know what it is sooooo bad!!! :p She is having a little boy and she was getting some really cute stuff. Brittany and Sami were there too. It was so cute because Sami and Grace can actually play together now. They were so precious following each other around.. they even gave each other a kiss once. And Sami is just too precious Brittany! She really has a way with words. I can't believe it had been so long since we got together. Can't wait for Friday :)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Our plans..

So we have made a decision about our car ordeal. We decided to sale Chris' car, and use the money from it to have mine fixed. It will save us $100 a month in car insuance by not having is car on there (he has several tickets), which brings me to my next point.. Chris is prone to tickets. From the simplest things like a tag light out, to speeding. We don't need that extra expense on our hands, and we will be fine with just one car. We have someone coming to look at his car tomorrow.. hopefully he'll buy it. We're selling it for $1300.
We got my tires fixed today with my Pell grant.. $422! I hated spending that much, but we need a reliable car. Tomorrow we have to get my alingment fixed, which can be anywhere from $75-$200 depending on whats is causing the alignment problem. I think this is best though.

I am not sure if I have talked about my plans for school or not on here, but we have made a definite plan. I am going to go full time during the summer (4 classes), and I will finish those classes a month before the baby gets here. Then I am going to take the fall semester off because I would fail from missing so much if I even tried to take fall classes. Then I will go back in Spring of 2012. The baby will be just a little over 4 months old. We will already know our routine, so the transition back to school will be easier. Plus it will be easier on Chris because the baby won't be a newborn. I think it will be easier for him to watch both of them that way.

We have come up with some other plans as well. We want to have a lot of outings with Grace before the new baby comes. We want to take her to the Aquarium, the Creative Discovery Museum, Coolidge Park, an some other places. We don't want to spoil her with toys or clothes or anything.. just spend as much time with her as our only child before she no longer is our only child.
Also, the day that we find out what the baby is we want to go to Build-A-Bear and make it a bear. We did the same thing when we found out that Grace was a girl. Only this time we want Grace to help us make the bear, ad we want to get Grace a new outfit for her bear. It is still dressed in baby clothes, but she is not a baby anymore, she is a big girl. Then after that we are going to go to the Carter's Outlet and get some clothes for the new baby, but I also want to get a shirt for Grace that says "I'm the big sister." Or something along those lines. She can wear it at the baby shower, and at the hospital when the baby is born.
I also just discovered that they make Sperry's for babies and toddlers. I love Sperry's (have my own pair), so I want to get both the new baby and Grace a pair. I am probably going to get a bigger size for the new baby so it can actually walk in them, but I still think it will be adorable.
I want to include Grace in as much as possible about the baby. We want to get her a big sister book too. I am thinking of getting that as her Valentine's Day present. She loves books, and I think it will be a great way to introduce the concept to her.
Any other ideas you guys have? Things you did or wish you did with your first before the new baby came?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

So annoying!

Okay, so we have never gotten Grace's actual birth certificate, and that is one of the things that I wanted to get with my Pell grant this time. Grace was born in TN, so I went to the TN vital records website to order it, but apparently they are lazy and they use an outside company called vitalchek. I have been filling out information for an hour with this company only for them to tell me that they cannot verify my identity, so now I have to print out some form, sign and date it, and then scan it back into my computer along with a scan of my driver's liscence, so they can verify that I am who I say I am. Now I understand they are trying to keep people from getting the birth cetificates if they aren't supposed to, but the reason I am complaining is because it asked me all sorts of identity questions, and I answered all of them truly. I also know it knew who I was because it asked me my previous city and Ringgold was a choice. Then it asked me my prevous street and Peters Ln was an option (my moms st.), so I know it knew exactly who I was, but for some reason it said it didn't. Now I have to go through all this extra hassle. We don't have any ink in the printer, so I had to send the form to my email, and I am going to have to go to my school's library tomorrow and print it off. And if they can't verify my identity through this then they won't send it to me, but they keep the money ($30!).
All this just for a birth certificate.. so annoying!
I'm done venting now lol.

Monday, January 17, 2011

I just don't understand some parents..

We went to a birthday party for the little boy downstairs today, and his uncle lives across the hall from him. The uncle and his wife have a five month old baby. The uncle is in his early 20's and his wife is 19, so they are young like a lot of us on here, but that is just no excuse.
If I remember correctly it's 4 months - rice cereal/oatmeal cereal, 6 months - stage 1 baby foods, juice in moderation (unless instructed otherwise by doctor).
So all this baby should be having is formula and cereal. Well they fed a five month old baby a cupcake with icing and ice cream, red Gatoraid, and sweet tea!! This is the baby I've talked about before that at 4 months as left in a high chair, put in a swing made for a 12 month old (Grace's castle gym swing), and left by herself to cry for 15 minutes straight.
Well here we are a month later, and it doesn't appear that anything is improving. I feel for this baby. At five months old she can't sit up, which may not be behind (it's beind Grace, but Grace has always been ahead.. not bragging, just true), but since she can't sit up she shouldn't be left unsupported right? Well they put her in a walker and left her there. She was bobbing all around trying her hardest to keep herself up straight. It was pitiful.
Another thing about the party.. Grace was playing with some of the older kids there.. one of the boys was around seven, and I swear he was showing Grace his privates.. Grace was sitting on the floor across the room facing me, and he was in front of her with his back to me. I could tell he was messing with his pants, and went I walked over there he was holding them down.. it looked like he was putting it back in. I was so disgusted. I am so thankful that she doesn't understand that yet, but I know one thing.. Grace will NEVER go around him again. I am not taking any chances of anything like that happening to her. He's seven.. if he was showing her that, he knew what he was doing.. And with the type of family he comes from I wouldn't doubt that he had intentions behind it. Not to mention everyone was smoking the whole time. I hated being there and left after 30 minutes saying I had to go to the store.



Also, my little girl is officially a toddler now. I went to the mall with my friend Morgan and her son Christian the other day, and we took them to the play place they have. It's closed off with only one way in and out, so it's safe from any potential predators, but it's very small, and even though bigger kids aren't supposed to be in there, they are. I always follow Grace around in there, but this time I didn't. I let her go by herself. I was terrified the whole time that she was going to get trampled or picked on (she was one of the smallest there), but she held her ground. She played and seemed to really be having fun. She even climbed up and went down the slide by herself two times! Such a big girl now!! It makes me sad to see her growing so fast though. I don't have my little baby girl anymore :(

Saturday, January 15, 2011

8 weeks today!!

Gosh.. when I was pregnant with Grace I had just found out at this point, and I didn't even see her first ultrasound until 10 weeks. It's weird knowing I'm pregnant so early along. I almost hate it lol. I wish it was closer to time to knowing if it is a boy or a girl. I often find myself calling it "him." I don't even realize it until after I've done it :p
At this point I get nauseated a lot.. still no morning sickness, but a lot of nausea all throughout the day. Grace and I went to the mall todaywith Morgan and Christian and she wanted to go to McDonalds before we went to the mall... no exacly my pick, but I got some fries and a snack wrap. I could barely eat anything. I didn't even take a bite of my snack wrap, and ate a few fries. Then afterwards I felt nauseated.. that's pretty much an everyday thing for me.
For the most part I have no appetite. Pretty much everything disgusts me, and the things that don't are things I'm not supposed to eat like lunch meats, fish, and feta cheese. Does anyone know if fish is okay as long as it's cooked? I haved looked it up online, but I get conflicting answers.
I do get spontaneous cravings.. I don't crave anything specific.. it's usually something someone mentions or something I see on tv. This is new to me too. With Grace it was ice all nine months, and french fries for the first two months. Nothing else.
I get irritated easy.. it seems like everything Chris does irritates me lol. For the most part Grace doesn't irritate me. If she is really fussy I can feel myself getting irritated, and I'll ask Chris to watch her for a minute so I can cool off. I do not want to take anything out on her.
I am starting to have to pee a lot lol. This is normal for me. With Grace very early on I started having to get up once a night.. I have stated this again :( Which means that when I get bigger it will become two times, three times, to the point where it's four to six times a night :(
I can't really think of any more symptoms right now, but I know there are more.. I have a ton!

I have been trying to get Grace to understand that there is a baby in there. I ask her where the baby in mommy's tummy is and she will pat my tummy. I can also ask her to kiss it and she will, but I really don't feel that she understands it. I think she does it just to hear the "good girl!"
We are going to keep working on it though.

12 weeks until we find out the gender!! My next appointment is February 4th, but I think I am going to change it to February 7th. The lady I call my doctor on here is actually a midwife. I'm just so used to calling her my doctor. My doctor is actually Anderson, but I have only seen him twice, and he has only done external exams. I have to have another internal exam when I go back, and Juanita isn't there that week. I am not sure what it is, but I am really just not comfortable with a man rooting around down there. That's why I want to change my appointment from Friday of that week to Monday of the next week (I may have already mentioned this, so if I did just ignore it lol).
On a side note.. Grace was walking with her blanket yesterday, and she tripped over it. She didn't hit anything, but I guess she bit her lip because she started screaming, and when I ran over to her I noticed she was bleeding. She busted her lip pretty bad. It bled for about 5 minutes straight. It doesn't seem to be bothering her today. She has been eating and drinking fine, but her lip is purple and sort of swollen. She has never had a booboo that bled before. It made me sad :(

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Jessika got me thinking about hospitals.. need some advice.

Let me start offby saying that we have a really nice hospital about five minutes from our place, and my doctor doesn't go there :( Iam using the same doctor I used with Grace and she is in Ringgold. She only goes to Hutcheson, Parkridge East, and (possibly)Women's East.. all of these hospitals are about 30 minutes from where I live.
I am sort of worried about that distance first off.. 30 minutes is a long drive for someone in labor.
So my first question is.. do you guys think I should try to find a new doctor who goes to the hospital down the street? As far as I'm concerned that is the only perk to finding a new doctor because I love the doctor I have now! She is so sweet, I am comfortable with her, and she is wonder at being a doctor. I really don't want to change, but I also don't want to end up delivering a baby in a car..

My second question..
I delivered Grace at Parkridge East.. this is where all of my siblings and I were delivered. But the last time my mom delivered there was 4 years before I did and she had one of her good friends as her nurse.. I suppose lots of things change in 4 years..
The first nurse I had was wonderful.. she was there with me for the first six hours, and she administered my pitocin just before she left. The next nurse I had was pretty good as well. She was there with me when I got my epidural.. this is where things started to go bad.. They broke my water and after that my pain went from 0-10 in about 15 minutes. I started having back to back contractions.. I could barely even breathe in between before another one started, so at 4 and a half cms I asked for an epidural. 30 minutes later the anesthisiologist arrived to administer it. By this time my pain was unbarable! I was in the middle of a contraction when he walked in and I was crying.. Not hysterically or anything.. just crying. He looked at my nurse and said, "Are you sure her contractions are that bad?" Seriously??? I'd like to see him in labor for five minutes! If I would have been capable of speaking I believe he would have been the only person I have ever cusssed out lol. My nurse defended me and said that I was in pain and needed an epidural.
We get me in position, and Chris is in front of me supporting me. I literally could not hold my head up on my own.. that is how bad my contractions were exhausting me! Finally he got me all prepped and he said I was going to feel a stick (which I never did because I was having a contraction when he did it). Then the next thing I hear him saying is, "That blood is coming out because I hit a vain." WHAT?? I still couldn't move or say anything, but I know that Chris looked like he was furious. Despite this, he leaves the line in and says it "should" be fine, and that I should start feeling numb in about 5 minutes. 5 minutes go by and all I am feeling is stronger contractions. The nurse tells me to give it another 10 minutes and then we would call him back.
10 minutes goes by with no relief, so she call the anesthisiologist back. When he comes in he looks annoyed (I think he thought I was just a dramatic teenager or something), but gives me another shot of the epidural medicine in my line. 15 minutes later.. nothing. He comes back and gives me another shot. 15 minutes later.. still nothing except a TON of pain. So this time when he comes back in he says that he "guesses" he'll have to redo the line. They get me up, and as they are prepping me I see my nurse talking to another nurse. They are talking about how my pitocin is turned up way too high. My nurse then reaches over and lowers the number of drips per minute.. this doesn't sound like that big of a deal.. so I'll explain it this way.. On a scale of 1-10 my pain was about a 15 at this point. When they lowered the pitocin there were actually breaks between my contractions and my pain level lowered to about an 8. Keep in mind, they never once actually told me about the pitocin..
Right after this they redo my epidural, and within 5 minutes I can feel my feet tingling.. 10 minutes later I am number from the chest down! Such a relief! In all of this time I only dilated half of a cm, so I was afraid I was going to be in labor for hours, but at this point I really didn't care. I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep for 2 hours lol. Everything was fine from here until about an hour after I had Grace..
It as time for them to move me from the birthing room to a regular room, but my nurse wanted to do a catheter first (since I couldn't feel when I had to pee, much less get up and go lol). I had 1000cc's of urine in my bladder. She looked a little concerned when she was doing it and asked when I had had my last one.. I told her they never did one. Come to find out they were supposed to have done one about 5 hours earlier and never did! I know from anatomy that 600 cc's is the most an average person can hold before they pee on themselves, and 1000 cc's is the most a bladder can hold before it bursts! And if a bladder burst the person will die.. these people almost killed me!
Nothing else really happened until it was time to leave.. and I didn't even know it until a week later. They left Grace's cord clamp on.. I had no idea that they were not supposed to do this. Grace's doctor told me when we went for her one week check up. So I decided to look back at the discharge paper and it said that they did take it off!.. Umm I'm pretty sure that if I'm holding it they didn't take it off.
As I was lookin at the discharge papers I noticed that it also said they performed a car seat test and that they wheeled me out in a wheel chair. Neither of these things happened, so why on earth does it say they did??

Needless to say, I am not pleased with the performance of this hospital. I know my doctor goes to Hutcheson for sure, but when I mentioned going there to Chris' mom she flat out said that I would not be going there. Now this is my body and I will go where I feel comfortable, but she swears they are worse. I don't want to go somewhere worse. I know that their ER is awful, but I've never heard anything bad about their birthing section.. Brittany, I know you went there. What did you think? Chris' mom says we should go back to Park Ridge..
I think that my doctor goes to Women's East as well.. if she does I think this is the one we will choose. I have heard nothing but good things about this hosptal.

Just let me know what you guys think :)

(Sorry about the long post)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Fun idea!!

So, I am off school again today due to the snow. I just cannot keep myself from looking at baby stuff during Grace's naps lol..

I found the neatest little idea.. it never would have worked with Grace because I wasn't getting along with Chris' mom at all, but this year we can do it!
When we find out what daywe are going to find out the gender of our baby we are going to call my mom, Chris' mom, and my dad (if all goes well when he finds out) and plan to go to dinner that night somewhere. Then when we find out I am going to go home and bake cupcakes, died blue for boy or pink for girl. I'm going to top them with white icing and sprinkle blue and pink sprinkles on them. Then when everyone gets together for dinner they all take a bite at the same time to find out what gender the baby is!!

Last time we my mom was there with us when we found out, and we gave Chris' mom a card saying "It's a girl!" This time I really hope we can get everyone together to do this. I think it will be so cute and fun for everyone.. Plus a good bonding experiece.. especially for my dad if he comes. Chris is planning on telling him next week.. I am dreading that because I know that there is going to be a major lecture immediately following. I'll keep you guys updated on that.

Teen Mom 2 tonight!! I'm excited. What do you guys think of these girls? I'm interested in all of their stories except Kail's really. I would have rather seen Lizzie in her place, but I can't wait to see Jenelle, Leah, and Chelsea (the only reason I want to see Jenelle is to see her finally realize that she is a horrible mom).

Monday, January 10, 2011

Another snow day!!

Something is definitely different around here this year.. the most snow we get around here is usually one to two inches (if even that manages to stick). We already had a white Christmas, and now we are snowed in again! Everything around here is closed, and I didn't have to go to school today. It even snowed enough to make the power go out.. for ten minutes lol. We never have enough snow to make the power go out though.
We got something like 9 inches! And it's been snowing on and off all day long.

When Grace woke up this morning I showed her the snow and she wanted to go out soooo bad! We all had to get bundled up though.. Grace had on her regular pjs, then I put footie pjs over that, then her coat over that. Plus shoes, gloves, and a hat. It took like 15 minutes to get her dressed lol.
Once we got out there I put her down and she just sort of sunk in the snow lol. She wouldn't move because of how deep it was. I had to hold her hand to get her to walk. We made a snowman on Christmas, so we didn't make one today. Instead Grace and I made snowangles and threw snowballs at Daddy. Grace was so funny because I would hand her a snowball and say "throw it at Daddy." She would turn towards him and "throw" it, and it would land at her feet. Then she would clap and say "yay!" Lol.

This is Gracejust standing there because she refused to move without help ;p

This shows how much snow we got (all piled on top of my car).

Grace and me walkig down the hill.

My snow angel even thouh you can't really see it.

Grace's snow angel.. can't really see it either.

Ollie's paw print.

Grace and Chris walking back up the hill (Chris got snow on the camera lense so it made it all blurry).

Friday, January 7, 2011

Baby stuff..

Sorry for the post explosion lately, but I want to get everything in before I really get back into school and don't have a lot of time..

So I have been looking at some baby stuff online. Mostly boy stuff for two reasons.. one: I feel that it is a boy, and two: even if it's not.. we have a TON of girl stuff from Grace still, so we won't need a lot in terms of big ticket items.

One thing I am really looking into is a double stroller. My brother and I are only 13 months apart, and my mom said she loved having a double stroller. For those of you that have more than one.. have you had a (or have) a double stroller? If you do, do you like it/think they are worth the money?

This is the stroller I have found that I really like (and believe me, I have already looked at every single one on walmart.com, target.com, and babiesrus.com).
I know it's boy-ish and I kind of feel bad for Grace, but the way I see it is Grace had her pretty pink and brown stroller and will have it until the new baby comes. She had her turn with a new stroller, now it's this baby's turn (if it's a boy). At least it's not blue with footballs or something extremely boy-ish.


This is the print on the back of the seats.

I really like it! Chris and I both are thinking jungle themed bedding if it's a boy, and this would go with it well. 

Plus this is one of the few double strollers that is car seat compatible (without having to buy some sort of attachment) and has a car seat that actually matches.


The stroller is $160, and the car seat(with the base) is $110. It's sort of pricey, but not compared to some of them I saw. It's actually pretty cheap for everything we would be getting! And Graco is what Grace had.. so I definitely trust it.

If it is a girl I still want to get a double stroller, but aparently no one in the baby gear industry has figured out that people can have two girls. The only pink double strollers were the side by side ones, and they are expensive! Plus you have to buy an attachment for a car seat to fit with it!
The only double stroller I could find like the one above (seats in a row) that will work for girls is a plain black one, and then a car seat that is pink and black to go with it. The car seat is cute, the stroller.. not so much. Not even worth pictures. AND both the stroller and car seat are more expensive :( But if it's a girl we'll have to go with it.

(This is all assuming that you guys think double strollers are worth it)

Another question.. Grace always loved her Boppy chair. It was super soft, played music, and gently vibrated. What did your babies like? Especially the boys? Grace never really cared for a swing, but I know every baby is different. We can only really afford one thing like that, so we want to know what you guys recommend.. bouncer, vibrating chair, swing, etc. I know we have months, but to be able to afford it all we are going to have to start buying the big things early (like with tax returns and Pell checks).

Also (not pertaining to baby stuff).. one of my tires blew out today. I am now going to have to ride with a donut until my Pell comes in so we can get new ones :( At least we didn't wreck. It blew in our driveway. I got out of the car and heard a weird noise.. it was the air rushing out of my tire, and we looked and there was a two inch hole! The rest of the tire is fine, so it must have gotten punctured somehow. Chris said ifwe had been going fast (like on the interstate or something) when that happened it probably would have shredded the tire, then we easily could have wrecked. And we had just came from being on the interstate. Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe!!

Homeschooling info for Brittany

I decided to just go ahead and do it on here because I was reading stuff on here.

When my mom put me in public school I was excited because I wanted to go. So may just homeschool her until she expresses the want to go to school. If you feel you can't homeschool her past a certain point then putting her in school may scare her if she's not ready, but it won't hurt her.
One thing I will tell you is that I was in gymnastics, soft ball, church groups, soccer, co-ops, one day a week classes, dance classes, pretty much anything you can think of all throughout the time I was being homeschooled, so you would think I had plenty of social skills.. But no. I didn't. I'm not sure if it was being under my mom's wing or what, but when I got in high school I had no clue about how to approach someone and talk to them. I waited for people to approach me and ended up with friends like Pristine and Kevin. It took me two years to shake the reputation I got from hanging out with them.
So if you are going to homeschool her you are going to have to refrain from sheltering her, and that is going to be hard to do if she is pretty much with you 24/7 and basically learning everything from you.
Also, one of two things has to be done.. If you want to let her join sports teams and church groups outside of homeschooling you are going to have to be prepared for her to want to go to school because she is going to talk to peope who do and probably want to experience the things they do. On the other hand, you can keep her out of those things, but then you are going to have to be prepared for her to have no social skills outside of those that she learns from the other homeschool kids (which usually aren't very advanced).

I honestly reccomend allowing her to go to high school. I do not think I woul be thriving in college right now if I had not gone to high school. I needed those social skills and knowledge of how to talk to teachers and how to participate in class. So many of my classes base grades on in-class participation.. It also took me two years of high school to get to a point where I felt comfortable talking in class or asking questions. She is always going to be comfortable asking you questions, but if she doesn't get that skill somewhere else it is going to be a hard transition for her.

I can tell you that Catoosa County School Systems are some of the most sought after schools in the area. People move from hours away to have their children in the school system, and I can also tell you from interning at the primary school that it is not just testing there. They still have recess, they can still talk at lunch, they still take a couple of days off for field days, they still have games and fun things for learning, arts and crafts, and things like that. So while some schools may be going off the deep end, Sami would not be at one of those.
I am not trying to convince you one way or the other. I think that homeschooling during elementary and even middle school is fine, I even loved it when I was in my elementary years, but I really feel that children should go to a public (or private) high school. It is also easier to get into colleges with a public school diploma vs. a home school diploma. Sami could be valedictorian in a public high school, but places like Harvard or Yale would never consider her if she was homeschooled because they know that if a child is homeschooled the parents can make the grades look any way they want. Not saying you would do that.. just saying that's how they look at it.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions or something I said was confusing just ask :)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Update on the house and life.

Well we got to go look at it during the day today.. it was VERY outdated. Everything was old.. the walls were panelled and the boarder around the top looked 60 years old, there was a huge stain in the living room (like we thought), there was no mirror in the bathroom and paint all over the bathroom sink, the closets were tiny, the porch was worse in the day light, the windows were so old they still has wooden panels and looked like they hardly closed, the bedrooms were no bigger than what we have now, and there was a trailer in the back yard! Like literally a trailer that someone lived in, and it looked really run down. We just don't think it would be a good place to raise the babies. We decided it was not for us. We are going to continue to look though. At least we have until the end of August. But I'm hoping sooner than that, so we can be all moved in before the baby comes.

In other news.. I started school back yesterday. So far I think I will like all my classes. I ordered 3 of my four books off Amazon.com because I signed up for Amazon Student.. well I got one of them today and it is the instructor's edition. I looked back at the post.. no where did it say anything about it being the instructor edition! It is still the right book though, so I am going to go talk to my instructor on Monday and see what he says about it. And one of my books didn't even come today like it was supposed to.
One good thing is that I made friends with a girl last semester, she has a little boy, and she is in one of my classes again this semester. We even sat together today, and we have been trying to find each other on facebook, but that's not going well for some reason. I have never told her this, but she taught me that you really cannot judge a book by it's cover (so to speak).. when I first started talking to her she told me she was a single mom.. so of course I automaically assumed that the guy just took off or they had issues or something. As I got to know her better I found out that she was married and both her and her husband were in the Marine's. She got discharged for medical reasons and later became pregnant with their son. We were sitting in history waiting for our instructor when she was telling me this.. when her son was 19 months old she got a knock at her door. She had been sick with kidney stones and was laying on the couch, so the two men at the door came in. They were Marine's in uniform and they knelt down beside the couch and one of them said, "Ma'am we regret to inform you that your husband has been killed in action." She started crying as she was telling me this and made me cry too.. It was so sad! I hate that I judged her.. it wasn't a bad type of judging, but I just assumed that she was a single mom because of something in the relationship. I never stopped to consider that the father might be dead. It has taught me a valuable lesson though, and I now try to see the bigger picture in things.

Another lesson I learned recently.. a boy I went to school with in high school and had talked to through mutual friends a few times died the other day. He was driving and texting (and not wearing a seat belt) when he hit a brick wall. I don't know much, but I know his lungs and heart detached because his chest hit the steering wheel and he was killed instantly. I wasn't close to him by any means.. I didn't even recognize his name at first, and had to look him up, but it is still so sad. He was only 19 years old. I always wear my seat belt (raised that way) and never text and drive and I am thankful for that. My dad's best friend was killed by someone who was texting and driving about three years ago, so I learned to not text and drive before I could even drive.
And then the next day Chris, Grace and I were on our way home from my doctor's appointment when we hit dead still traffic on the interstate. We only went about five miles in an hour literally. When we got up to the hold up all I saw was an 18-wheeler pulled over and a cop with his lights on behind him. Later I found out (from the news) that the truck was entering the interstate after being on the side of the road and a woman ran into the back of him.. killing her instantly as well. We drove right where someone had died only an hour or so before. Scary thought! Plus the woman was a teacher at the high school a block from our aptartment.
 The lesson I learned here is that life truly is short. I want to seize everything.. take my children to the park, spend more one on one time with Chris, take my dog for a walk, read my Bible more, just everything that I feel like I don't do enough. I am not even 19 yet.. my life could end tomorrow and I don't want to have any regrets.


Some good news.. Grace said "cookie" today! Lol.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Just our luck..

So I know I have talked about it some on here before, but our neighbors are pretty much the nosiest, most annoying neighbors a person can have. Every time we leave they want to know where we are going , what we are doing, who we are going to see. If we let Ollie out they claim that Ollie scatches on their door, so they bring him back to us (we know that's not true because Ollie has never scratched on our door, they just want to get in our business). They always complain about Chris playing his Kinect.. I paid $150 for that thing.. he only does it during the day, and they knew what they were getting into when they moved into an apartment.. it really gets old because they come upstairs everytime asking us to quiet down. Also they smoke so much that we can smell it in our apartment. We are just really fed up with this.. we started looking at possibly moving to a nicer apartment, but we found a small house. If we moved into it we would actually save $360 a year. It's a two bedroom, but we really can't afford a three bedroom right now. At least we wouldn't have to live in an apartment anymore, we would have a yard, and it has a screened in porch.
We called the guy today, and he said that it was unlocked so we were welcome to go look at it.

This is where the bad news starts.. we pulled up and there were two cars parked in the driveway with about six teenagers crowded around. They watched us as we pulled up and all started jumping in the car.. Chris jumped out to ask if it was the right house and one of the guys started rambling off something about their car breaking down and having to come get another one, and then they left. We went in.. it was dark, so we are going to haveto go back beause the guy failed to tell us that there was no electricity. It looked like their might be a stain in the living room floor, and there definitely was not a stove (if it's not furnished we won't even be able to get the place because we can't afford a stove, but we are hoping the are just replacing it.. I mean it is renting.. surely we wouldn't have to provide a stove in a place we were renting). Also the screened in porch wasn't the nicest, but it was still a porch. Then we moved to the first bedroom and I immediately noticed something on the floor.. it was glass.. the window was completely busted out. I immediately thought back to the suspicious teens in the drive way.. then we went to the other bedroom.. the same thing! Another busted out window. There is no way the guy would send us in there knowing about that. We called him, but he didn't answer. We are terrified that we are going to get blamed for this.. we really didn't do anything, but of course we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Aside from all that we are hoping to get to go back and look during the day. It was definitely bigger than our apartment and with the screened in porch we could have some sort of outdoor playroom and get this huge castle play gym out of Grace's room. It also appeared that the livingroom and hall walls were light brown with a boarder around the top. I like this.. no more plain white walls! The kitchen seemed a little outdated as far as the cabinets, but it was bigger than our kitchen. We'll have to find out about that stove though.
I really like the idea of this place.. having a house would be nice. No neighbors who can hear your every move or stop you in the hall to ask where you are going. And despite the kids, the neighborhood looked pretty quiet. Just some small houses.. There were a couple of trailers on the street behind it, but they didn't look too bad. Again, we want to go back during the day (if we are even allowed back). I'll keep you guys updated.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Doctor's appointment!

Well I went to the doctor today and everything looked great! They said that I am six weeks and three days along, and that my due date is Aug. 27th! My baby is the size of a grain of rice.. so small! It has a heart beat now though.. we could see and hear the tiny little heart beating. It was so precious.
The best part is that they counted this as a "problem" visit.. as if I had missed a period and wanted to find out what was wrong, so that way when I go back next time it will be my first prenatal visit and I will get another ultrasound! I am going to get an extra one with this baby :)
Also, I really loved the way I was treated. When my doctor walked in I half expected that "what were you thinking?" look, but she congratulated us, told us she was excited for us, and complimented us on how we were with Grace.
On the down side they took six viles of blood! I hate having my blood drawn.. the lady that did it this time was a lot better than last time though.
Anyway.. my blood pressure was normal, and they said the baby was doing good, so I am excited!!


Sunday, January 2, 2011

Facebook posts..

So I saw someone else do this on their blog, and I thought it was cute. I went back through all of my posts on facebook in 2010 and found all the funny ones about Grace. I think you guys will like this :)
(The go from old to new).
  • c fv b rxfc g v vvbdcv vvg ut5fdffffffff drr55SS FGTCR -Letting Grace make my status lol.
  •  hihhg mb umbnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnm dfc dbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb -Gracy's status :)
  • Someone knocked on the door below us and Grace went to our door and said kept saying "hey" because she wanted to let them in lol! 
  • Thank-God! Finally got on the website.. Grace's formula is not part of the recall :) No bug parts for my baby girl.
  • Grace just walked up to me and shoved apple pie crust in my mouth lol
  •  Grace ordered me a ring back tone?? There goes $5 down the drain lol.
  •  Grace slept through the night last night for the first time!! After 11 months it's about time lol.
  • Ohh the joys of motherood.. I just got thrown up on :(
  • Just sent off for a new phone (I hate water damage).. This one is not going anywhere near Grace's mouth lol.
  •  Tonight I realized how much Grace needs to work on the concept of sharing lol.
  •  Grace's sneeze just knocked her off her feet lol.
  • 98.1 is officially mine and Grace's new favorite station :) Grace was dancing in her car seat lol.
  •  So Selena Gomez definitely used to be on Barney! The things I learn from watching t.v. with Grace lol ;p
  • I swear that the things I put away just jump right back off the shelves, out of the toy box, and out of the drawers. It is impossible to keep things put away around here lol.
Got to love having a kid to make facebook more interesting! Lol.