Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

It’s Eli’s first Halloween. I remember seeing a baby Gus Gus on the internet ages ago and thought I just had to do that if I had a baby who was a couple months old by the time his first Halloween came around. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a costume since he’s not going trick or treating or anything. It’s mainly just for answering the door for the trick or treaters and for photos. So without further ado….Heeeeerrre’s Gus Gus from Cinderella:
 This costume was super easy to make. Nothing to it really. I made the ears out of felt, and flannel for the pink part. I  just sewed black stitches for the inner ear “creases”. I obviously just wung the general shape of the ear. The booties I made using my thumb-less mitten pattern with elastic around the ankle and the hat was 2 triangle shaped pieces sewn together (using my step dad’s t-shirt, thanks Ter!) Finally, I just pinched the top part of the ear inside the hat and sewed across. Oh and some felt bangs, can’t forget those. Easy peasy. (The shirt I just cut the snaps off a 5-8lb newborn onesie that he never fit into from the get-go.) It cost me nothing to make since I already had all the supplies on hand. Saa-weet!
I’m sure most of you already saw my costume on facebook. Steph suggested we go as the twins from “The Shining”, last minute. I’ve never seen a costume for this (not that’d I’d be willing to pay for it anyway) so we first thought of going to goodwill to get the blue dresses but then it dawned on us, what are the odds of finding the style dress we wanted, in our size and then TWO of them??? Slim to none. So we made the decision to just make them from scratch. I measured Steph to make our pattern and since we’re the same size and body shape, just used that to make both our dresses. The craziest part for me was that we wanted 4 yrds of fabric but they only had a little over 3 yrds, and just guestimated how much lace to buy and it was all JUST ENOUGH! The fabric is so lightweight and a little see-through so they are even lined, and we still had enough fabric for that! I can’t quite figure out how all that was possible. I had absolutely nothing to spare in any of the fabric and lace. This was my first crack at drafting my own pattern too so I was pretty proud of myself. The dresses are a little shorter than I would have liked because I simply just didn’t have enough fabric to make them any longer, but then again, the shortness really did give it a child-like quality. Everyone at the party we went to thought we were the host’s 16year old daughter’s friends! Ha ha. Nobody believed we were out of high school. Job well done then I guess :)
Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!
-Linds

Eli’s new ride…

So a little while back my friend Belinda gave me her sister’s kid’s walker (say THAT 3 times fast! Thanks Belinda, and send my thanks to your sister too!) for Eli. He’s just now getting old enough to show interest in it and see all that it can do. He sure is cute in it. I can’t help but sing that song “ridin’ dirty” when I see him in it! Ha ha. Aaron disagrees and says it’s more like Weird Al’s version of “white and nerdy.” He’s so mean I know, and I apologize in advance for getting this song stuck in your head. well, not really ...mom, you should be fine, they don’t play it on the 60’s channel ;)

Hi Punkin :)

Here he is in action:

Ha ha.
-Linds

What time is happy hour again??

Gah! Another growth spurt in the works. Top that with some major teething action and you’ll find me tethered to my child. I’ll either be shoving holding his teether in his mouth for him (since he’s too young and uncoordinated to do it himself yet) or sticking my boob in his mouth to shut him up sooth his voracious appetite (because after all he only ate 5 seconds ago, wouldn’t want the kid to think he’s starving!)

My chill, sweet, giggly baby can come back aaaaanytime now. Mommy misses you. Aaron said it perfectly though. It’s times like these that make you truly appreciate how good/awesome he usually is, and at least there is a reason for it. Thanks honey. You keep me sane :)

Oh how I love my boys even when they are whiny :)

-Linds

Which is worse, kidney stone or labor?

Tough call. I can’t even say for sure. My Saturday morning 2 days ago started off in a creepy déjà vu of a Saturday morning back in July when my son arrived. I’m not even kidding. I woke my hubby up, again saying “Babe I’m uncomfortable, I don’t feel right.” My hubby probably thought I was over reacting and didn’t see why I woke him but I ended up calling my mom to get her 2 cents because the pain was getting progressively worse. It was she who suggested I go to the hospital. For being a nurse, I am a horrible patient. I never know what I should do for me.
So at about 4:50am I feel this sharp shooting pain low in my pelvis that wakes me up. I thought “that’s weird”, got up to pee to see if that would make a difference and nothing. I get back into bed and now I feel the pain/discomfort coming in cycles and I have a pressure sensation like I have to pee again (or like a baby dropping low and getting ready to come out!) What the heck?? “Babe, I’m really uncomfortable and I have this pain that’s shooting through my groin.” He’s like “why?” ummm, I don’t know. Then the pain moves to my left flank and now it’s like  I got kicked there but the pain just lingers and lingers without getting any better, in fact I’m sure its getting worse. Is this back labor?? I kid you not, I recalculated in my head just how old Eli was because I actually felt like I was in labor again! I get up to pee one more time but still feel like crap and still no relief. Now I have the chills and can’t get warm and I’m pretty sure I’m about to vomit (nope, I waited until about 2 minutes from the hospital when I made my hubby pull over so I could dry heave in traffic). That’s when I call my mom because my hubby, bless his heart, doesn’t know what to do for me.
Sure enough, the ride to the hospital was just as bad as back in July. I even yelled at Aaron to step on the gas and then told him not to get pulled over because I was sure I would die in the meantime. I just.couldn’t.get.comfortable. To me, that’s the worst kind of pain—that dull, intense, diffuse ache that no repositioning relieves. Thank GOD the ER was dead at that time (7am) because I started to cry thinking of waiting hours in the waiting area before even being seen, let alone getting some pain relief. (I find this interesting in retrospect because I knew I was going to do labor au natural, and did, yet I couldn’t WAIT to get pain meds this time. Maybe it was because I knew there was an end in sight with labor…? and that I’d get an awesome little gift…? What was I going to get with a kidney stone? And how long was I going to have to endure this?? GIVE ME THE DRUGS!
A dose of toradol and a CT scan later, they confirmed what we all suspected—a kidney stone. It was 4mm and stuck right above the bladder. The doc said once it hits the bladder the pain would subside and that hopefully with it being almost there, I’d pass it pretty quickly. He sent me home with norco, toradol and cardura (a men’s prostate med shown to help women pass stones. Heh.) Well I decided against taking the man pill because I’m nursing a little man and I was concerned it could affect his man parts. I’m a mommy, I can’t help it and the doc admitted it being so long since he had to worry about prescribing a med for a nursing mom. Anyone out there need a months worth of Cardura? :/
I truly believe all your prayers helped me. My pain went away from 3pm on saturday, through the night until about 4pm on sunday when It started back up, but a norco took care of that and I was pain free again until I passed the stone this morning. God is good :) I realize how bad it could have been with some people dealing with stones for months! EEEEk! Shoot me now.
Here it is, the little bastard (pardon me) :

(smack dab in the center of this pic, to the left inside of the cup,  see it?)

Who’d a thought that something so little could cause soooo much pain???
Well that’s my story. Hope none of you can relate.
-Linds

A little person robe…

My friend Leslie came over today and we sewed all day while daddy had baby duty. The boys watched football and we labored over the ca-uutest hooded bath robes for the little ones in our lives. Thanks Leslie for a fun day and for the awesome turquoise towel! Drum roll please…….

It’s a 9month-18month sized robe so I have his sleeves rolled up half way and his little arms were still nowhere to be found! Ha ha. Oh well, he’ll grow into it. The hood is lined in a cute monkey flannel. 

Ta da! Definitely a little big at the moment. This made me think of having him go as a boxer for Halloween, (or Hugh Hefner).

-Linds

I caught Eli giggling!

Week 16

And we mark another week down! He is the best part of my day. Being just shy of 4 months now, he is actively teething (munchin’ on EVERYTHING in sight, and drooling like a maniac) and using his hands more to grab and hold on to things. He’s able to hold onto the teether thingy (Thanks to my friend from work, Nicole Jushka who got it for us! It is pretty great) but just barely. He usually shows promise by getting a good grasp on it but it’s short lived when his poor coordination leads to him wonking himself on his little noggin. Poor thing. Its obvious that they are definitely designed for a 6 month old since that is the typical age of teething so I find myself tethered to him, holding it for him. I don’t mind though, we bond :)

I mentioned on facebook that grandma got him to giggle last night but he stopped before I was able to get my phone out to capture it. Not tooodaaayyy :D Daddy had just finished changing him and was giving him kisses and he started giggling like crazy! My heart melted to see my 2 boys having such a great time. I told Aaron to stop until I could get my camera and yay, he delivered!

Check’em out!

Love it! He’s so stinkin fun.

Alrighty folks, that’s all for now. It’s been a long, painful, exhausting day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you about my ER visit this morning as I dealt with my first kidney stone. Fun times!

Na Night

-Linds

Warning: this post is loooong and involves the words “hostile cervical fluid”!

    So my hubby just got back from a work conference in Florida, Disney world to be exact. I was so jealous because he took me along last year, (hence my most valued and best souvenir EVER, Eli. It truly IS a magical place, ha ha) but since Eli is still so young, we decided I would stay home with the baby. Most of you who know me, know my conception story because I’ve been very open about my fertility issues but I thought I’d share the complete story with those of you who take the time to read my blog and haven’t heard the story yet. So here goes. (Warning: lots of medical and “girl” talk so stop here if ignorance is bliss for you)

    Again, those of you who really “know” me, know that I’m obsessed in LOVE with all things “baby”. Babies are truly my weakness in life, so naturally I’ve wanted to have babies ever since I was a baby. (The quickest, surest way to piss me off as a child was to mishandle my cabbage patch doll and not treat her like a real live baby). Much to my husband’s dismay, I turn EVERY inanimate object into a “he/she” and they all have personalities. (Hey, he CHOSE to marry me!)…The best part was when he would start referring to my pillow as “she” too, ha ha. I digress…

   Anyways, shortly after Aaron and I got married, my sister informed me she was getting off birth control to start trying to get pregnant (she got married a year before me) and I immediately panicked because my dream was to get pregnant at the same time and I still had 3 months worth of birth control! So I told my hubby my plan to start trying immediately (he didn’t need a say in this, ha!) and we began our journey…a.very.long.one.

     A little back ground on me: Ever since I got my very first period (which was the same day as my sister incidentally, crazy huh?!) they were never “regular”. Now when I say “regular” I mean nothing even resembling a cycle. We’re talking maaaaybe 1 period every 6-9 months people. It was AWESOME as a teenager and early twenties being in sports and what not, but when trying to get pregnant it was obviously a nightmare! I even went on birth control to regulate my cycle at 19 years old and my doctor casually mentioned how we would “cross that bridge when we get there” in reference to pregnancy.

     Fast forward to 3 years ago, and I set out to figure out what my body’s deal was. Steph has the same issues with her period so she had her own set of doctors and I had mine and we had hoped that someone would figure this all out. Nope. We stumped them all. Grrr**shaking fists in air**. Long story short, they labeled us “a rare, atypical PCOS” (poly cystic ovarian syndrome). For those of you who know about this disease, Steph and I don’t really fit the profile but the lack of periods and abnormal follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone ratio sealed the diagnosis for us. They said without periods and therefore without ovulating, we would have a very hard time getting pregnant on our own.

    My sister decided to continue trying on her own and read the book "Take charge of your fertility" (HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone struggling to conceive. I owe my success entirely to this book) along with both of us trying acupuncture. After I read this book I had a renewed excitement about conceiving! I suddenly felt optimistic and like it WAS going to happen, and soon! I just had to be patient.

     I didn’t do any fertility drugs. I told my doctor I was going to start “charting” (see above link.) and she said it was a moot point and wouldn’t work for someone not ovulating. I argued that I DID ovulate, even if it was only once a year and I WAS going to take advantage of it  when I did! So I set out to prove her wrong. EVERY SINGLE morning, I woke up to take my temperature at 5:15am (if you read the book, you’d understand that you have to take your temperature the same time every day for it to be accurate and the earliest I’d wake up on work days was 5:15, hence the magic number..boo, hiss!) For a FULL YEAR I did this. I remember ovulating last July and my hubby and I did everything right (I’ll spare you details, ha ha) and my charting proved I did ovulate but it didn’t happen. Talk about a major downer! But I was undeterred! In the book it talked about people (ok, about to get graphic here so don’t say I didn’t warn you) having “hostile cervical fluid” meaning not ideal for little spermies to swim through to fertilize an egg--that it actually hinders them. Soooo I determined this to be my problem (again I’ll spare you my personal details but if you have more questions just ask) and decided that the next time I showed my signs of ovulation I would use Mucinex….wait, what?! Yes you just read that right. The cough expectorant, yep. Let me explain. Mucinex loosens the secretions by thinning them so you can cough that junk up. It not only thins the secretions in your lungs, but everywhere else, including, ahem, down “there.” Again, by reading the book, one can tell if it applies to them or not. I am by no means saying Mucinex is the end all be all way to conceive and that everyone should try it! I’ve heard people repeating my story to others struggling and then hearing that person going out and buying Mucinex thinking it’s a miracle drug! It can be, only if you have the problem mentioned above. I’m just sayin’.

    Three months later in October of last year, my hubby and I are packing for our Disney world trip and I notice my signs of impending ovulation. I immediately start taking Mucinex (well I’m cheap so I grabbed the generic cheapo stuff, guaifenisin. It’s important that there are no other ingredients besides this one if you use the Mucinex brand, just an FYI) and I didn’t tell him I was about to ovulate because I didn’t want him to feel used ;) or to feel any pressure that this could be it. Again the uh-MAZ-ing book above explains why  I did what I did. And Voila! My little blessing arrived 39 weeks and 1 day later :D

     So the key to success for me was playing the waiting game…and Mucinex. I had to wait 6-9 months every time I had a shot of conceiving. You lucky ladies who are “regular” but struggling, wouldn’t have to play the waiting game, you’d just have to figure out what your body’s issue is in the conception dance. And that’s what the book is for. Do you ovulate? (some women get periods but they are annovulatory cycles), Do you have a short luteal phase preventing implatation? (The book explains what this is.) Do you have hostile cervical fluid? If I haven’t convinced you yet to go out and buy/rent this book right this second then I don’t know what to tell you. It’s very easy reading, like your having a conversation with a friend. Just do it :)

     I hope my story helps some of you out there struggling to conceive and gives you renewed hope :)
Bravo to those of you who stuck it out to the end of this looooong, personal post. I wish I could give you a tootsie pop or something :)

    Aaaand I can’t blog without a pic of my widdle guy. Daddy brought him home a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal:

Hope you all enjoy this beautiful day!
-Linds
p.s I’m obviously very passionate about this book (hey maybe they could PAY me to promote it, wink wink…j/k) so if you have any questions at all, feel free to email me: lindsaynesler@gmail.com

What a nice fanny…

Wait, did I forget to put a diaper on this kid?!

-Linds

Can’t go by weeks anymore?

Well Eli is one week older as of yesterday. I figure I gotta stop going by weeks now and focus on months for his “milestones” since he’s past the 3 month mark.  It doesn’t sound quite right to say “My baby is FIFTY-TWO weeks old today!” Nope. Gotta go by months.

He’s so easy going! See? My baby genius is telling us he’s 3 months ;)

Hasn’t rolled over on his own yet, but close, very close.

 

But LOVES to be pulled up into a standing position. My big boy!

“Uh, mom, can you take these off now??” We were getting ready to go out into the chilly wind so I wanted him bundled :) It doesn’t have to match, it’s just gotta be warm. For those of you who know me, I’ll pick warmth over fashion ANY day. I’m pretty sure this little get up put him into a heat induced coma because he slept the entire time we were out running errands. Needless to say, he was a gem :)

Nighty night friends

-Linds

I’m a cheap smack, what can I say?

Well the time I’ve dreaded is just about here. My diaper stock pile is dwindling quickly :( Waaaaah! Please allow a moment of silence so I can collect myself…
As you may or may not know, my friend Jac uses cloth diapers  (for Parker! Jeeze, sorry Jac, I just about sent the rumor mill into over drive  on that one! Forgive me) and she loves them. I was planning on doing the cloth route myself for Eli until I got a boat load of FREE diapers from my shower, then I didn’t see the need because for me, its about being cheap  frugal (hence the major reason I breast feed—free food, what, whaaat! But noooow that my stash is down to only 3 packages, I’m back to considering cloth again :/
Have any of you noticed that joannes has a”babyville boutique” section now with all the fixins to make your own cloth diapers, including a booklet on how??  I was like a kid in the candy store when I discovered this! My wonderful mom bought me the snap applicator and snaps for my birthday (giddy I tell ya!) and I had all the other supplies I needed in my stash so I bought the book and got to work.
Ta da! Eli’s first homemade cloth diaper:
 

The book recommended different fabrics to “wick” away the moisture and it said minky was a good choice for this so it’s super soft and I’m actually considering making ME a pair. If you felt this thing, YOU’D want one too, don’t judge.

A pocket to insert a soaker. I just folded and put in a cloth diaper I already had been using as a burp cloth

And my chunky monkey  muse modeling it :)

He’ll just need a size 2T pant is all while wearing this thing.

I think I’ll experiment with different fabrics to see which absorbs best and what not. We’ll see. So as cheap as I can make these things, I figure it’s worth a try! Check out their website here.

Toodles

-Linds

Car seat Tent 2.0

I must say I DO love a good idea. I’m always looking for recommendations to make anything easier or to hear about something someone just cant live without and give it a try myself. With that said, I LOVE my car seat tent. (It’s also served as a burp rag, nursing cover and changing pad. It’s very versatile :D) I’ve noticed since having it for the whole 3 months of Eli’s life that there are some things I wish mine had. You saw in this post that I made a cover for a friend of mine and added a window because with Eli, I was always lifting the whole thing up to see if he was sleeping or not after a car ride (which 99.9% of the time he is) and the flash of brightness is enough to wake him up if he was sleeping, grrrr. So I added one to mine.

Also, now that he’s learning just how cool his hands are and grabbing at things, I’ve wanted to hang a toy from the handle and couldn’t, obviously with the way the tent attaches to the handles. I figured that was an easy fix and a must now that he’s older. Now he has his hangy toy just within reach:

Ta da! You can’t even tell that there are 2 new holes. (They sell these tents all over etsy so check’em out. Adding the holes is easy to do if you want me to show you)

Also I’m totally grossed out by the little pads that sit up by Eli’s chin in his car seat because he has spit up many times on them or more recently, munches’ on them, and how do you clean them?? You have to DISMANTLE the car seat straps from the back to get them off! I don’t think so! Call me lazy but No.Thank.You. Can you see how stained they are below? Guh-ross.

I decided a velcro set was in order so that I can pop them in the wash whenever he spits up on them. Here’s Eli modeling them while we were at dinner.

These are made of that soft cuddle fabric and bound with the same fabric as his tent—super comfy!

Also, did you see the folded burp rag under where his head and butt go in the previous pictures? Go on, scroll back up, I’ll wait :) Talk about a “Eureka!” moment. That fabric on the car seat does not breathe at all and during the hot summer days, the poor thing would be so sweaty and leave these huge sweat stains behind, not to mention the numerous times his poop has gone up his back and onto the car seat…see where I’m going with this? The burp cloth is just folded into a strip and it absorbs sweat and prevents poop from getting all over his seat. All I have to do is pull that puppy out and wash it. It fits PERFECTLY like it was designed for this purpose. I swear I heard angels sings when I discovered this.  A little shout out to my friend Nicole Rissman who made that one for me! I love them, thanks girlie :)

Go on, get out those burp cloths and line those car seats :)

That’s all for now

-Linds

Birthday fun!

I just celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday. It was a beautiful day with the weather being bright, sunny and warm and good times with the family. Eli and I started off our day inviting Grandma to watch his swim lessons and she came prepared with the camera. He did such a great job again and even tolerated being dunked under water for the first time :)

Getting ready to go under the water sprinkler…

  Getting instructions from the teacher…

Learning to back float…

Up close view of his back floating skills :)

Kicking off the wall with his buddy Nicholas (Eli loves kicking off anything!)

Front facing, kicking off the wall. Hi Nicholas and Jacque!

We start by using these cups to pour water over their backs (1), their necks (2) and then finally on the count of 3, their heads

At the end, the last 5 minutes or so is “play time”

I hope I’ve convinced some of you to give this a try. It seriously is sooooo much fun. Only draw back is that mommy has to get into a swim suit while baby is still too young to go by himself :/

Next we went over to Grandmas where she fed us delicious food (Eli got to “taste” it later, wink*wink), and we opened presents. Steph came with her hubby, and Jac came as well since her birthday is the 19th. Everything was scrumdiddliumpscious! Thanks mom!

Don gives us a rose for every year. This is our pageant pose :)

Another Don tradition is a lottery ticket for every year.

We’re each modeling some of the hair accessories I made Steph.

Steph’s in what I call an “Accessory phase”, so we decked her out. (Bracelet, flower watch-ring, silver ring, and feather hair clip) 

Steph and I got her this leather coat from Guess. I wanted to keep it sooooo bad!

The 29 roses brightening up my kitchen.

A “good luck” plant from my momma :)

And Eli supervising to make sure the party didn’t get out of hand

All in all I’d say I was totally spoiled rotten. Thank you all for the birthday wishes!

-Linds

10 Year High School Reunion…

Grrr. I’m so mad I can’t find the picture of me, Steph, and Jac on the first day of our senior year wearing our “Seniors 01” shirt! I found the frame I had it in for years but no picture! I have no idea where it could be so I’m doing this post without. Major bummer. I did find a couple of pics of the 3 of us I believe our senior year that I’ll post. They are pictures of pictures, (I know, I’m totally ghetto but I do not have a scanner), bear with me. Then:

Steph, Jac, Me

(and yes I purposely left this picture itty bitty, ha ha)

I’ll let you figure out who’s who, Jaci is even sporting some Maroon pride

Now:

Makeup was a wonderful invention :)

 

Best friends

With the hubbies.

I didn’t want to lug my big new camera to the reunion and I forgot to charge the battery on my little one, doh! So unfortunately I do not have anymore of the night. So sad.

Overall we had a great time catching up with people but I feel like since I have facebook, it wasn’t as exciting as it could be, you know? I’m nosey so facebook to me is the greatest thing ever! I already knew how many kids people had, if they were married and what careers they had chosen. But, with that said, I did love seeing the people I haven’t seen in years in person. Overall, I’d give it a 2 thumbs up :)

-Linds