Of Pools and Puke: A Mother's Tale

Here is a timeline of my last 12 hours:

7:00 p.m. - Lendel picks me up for the company pool party
7:30 p.m. - The gates open at the pool and we rush in to get free Costa Vida
7:45 p.m. - Our stomachs are full, and we go change into swimsuits
8:00 p.m. - We are having a blast in the water! Lendel decides to go on the water slides
8:15 p.m. - Nash is freezing cold, so I decide to take him out of the water
8:16 p.m. - Nash spits up a little, so I head to the edge of the pool
8:17 p.m. - Nash starts blowing chunks all over me and him
8:18 p.m. - I book it to the locker room, trying to hide the fact that my face is covered in vomit
8:20 p.m. - I'm still trying to get all the vomit off of Nash and myself, while chunks start to clog the drain
8:22 p.m. - Nash is naked and shivering while I try to get us both dressed
8:25 p.m. - We meet Lendel outside, who has no clue what has transpired over the last 10 minutes
8:26 p.m. - Nash starts puking again, luckily next to a garbage can
8:30 p.m. - On our way home, I'm in the back seat with Nash in case he pukes again.... he does
8:40 p.m. - Lendel has Nash by the toilet since he keeps puking
8:42 p.m. - I bathe Nash to get the puke smell off
8:45 p.m. - I follow protocol when it comes to situations like this:
                                1. Call Mom
                                2. Google "what to do if my 1 year old is vomiting"
                                3. Call aunt with young kids to verify what above sources have said
9:00 p.m. - I am at Wal-Mart, grabbing the Pedialyte popsicles, my hair still smells like vomit
9:15 p.m. - I get home and find Nash asleep in Lendel's arms
9:20 p.m. - We make a bed for Nash in our room and put him down for the night
11:00 p.m. - I finally get to take a shower to get rid of the puke smell in my hair
1:30 a.m. - Nash wakes up crying, so we give him some Pedialyte in a syringe
5:30 a.m. - I'm exhausted and delusional, and realize Nash is starving so I give him a bottle... of milk
5:35 a.m. - Nash vomits ALL over his own head and the bed we made for him
5:40 a.m. - Bath time again, this time it takes a while to get the puke out of his hair
6:00 a.m. - Make a bed for Nash on the couch, and give him a bottle of Pedialyte, he chugs it
6:05 a.m. - Nash pukes up the Pedialyte he just chugged, luckily it only gets on his shirt
7:00 a.m. - Nash has been sleeping better for the last hour than at any point in the night
7:30 a.m. - Lendel goes to Wal-Mart to buy saltines so the poor kid can eat something
8:00 a.m. - I wash a load of laundry consisting of puke-covered goodies:

• 3 towels
• my beach towel
• his swimsuit
• my swimsuit
• 1 pillowcase
• 1 crib sheet
• 1 crib mattress protector
• 1 blanket
• 3 pairs of jammies
• 2 washcloths

Now he is happy as can be and running around the living room causing trouble.
Oh the joys of motherhood!
                         

A Little Bit of Everything

Since I'm so bad at this, here are some Nash updates!

1.  He can finally crawl!
2.  His head is now measuring at a 2 (3 is average) so he's almost done!
3.  His neck has improved soooo much since he started pulling up on things, so no more Botox!
4.  He's been getting hurt A LOT lately. Bad Mom Moment of the Day: He fell off the changing table :( He cried for a good 5 minutes but luckily his books distracted him.
5.  He LOVES books! I have 3 bins in his room for him to play with whatever he wants. One is books, another is soft toys, and the other is hard toys. He ALWAYS goes for the books. That could also be because they are easier to eat.....
6. He has started throwing fits when you take something away from him. His scream is quite unbearable.
7. He weighs more than three times as much as he did when he was born :(
8. He fits into 12 month clothes perfectly right now (at 11 months)
9. He will take his 1st Airplane ride in less than 3 weeks!
10. He is falls asleep in his stroller every time we go for a walk.
11. He LOVES the computer. Every time we have it out (like now) he comes up to it and tries to touch the keys. If he feels them, he gets this huge smile on his face and starts breathing really heavy.
12. He sleeps from 9 or 10 at night until 7 or 8 in the morning, with at least one 2-3 hour nap in the day. #luckymomma #isleepgooooood
13. Recently we had to take our car in to the shop so we brought everything in from the trunk. His new favorite toy is the windshield scraper. He won't put it down. What a goof....
14. He is super curious and has started pointing at things. It's pretty cute :)
15. He has 8 TEETH! (Good thing I stopped nursing him a while ago eh?) *shudder*

And here are some pics!

Crawling up the Stairs

He LOVES Strawberries

His cute new summer clothes from Target!

Playing with the packaging

Love my Boy :)

Cheesefest

The Scraper

It's the Mom Life!

Let me tell ya..... being a Mom can have some ups and downs like crazy. I'm not just talking about the big ones, but the little things that change every single day. Some of the downs I've experienced lately? Well for starters how about the huge scrape I had on my cheek from the little man getting over-excited about who knows what. Or it could be the fact that in the last month we have found a rubberband, a leaf, and one of those little stickers from an apple in our son's DIAPER. Yikes! I swear I'm going to have to put a muzzle on the kid soon if he doesn't stop shoving everything in his mouth. It's giving him some awful diapers, and it's also scary! My kid's not even old enough to make stupid decisions and I'm already worrying constantly about him. However, aside from all the worries and stresses of being a parent, there are some pretty cool things.

Like the fact that the top rack of my dishwasher now looks like this:

 And my kitchen cupboard look like this:

And this corner of my living room will NEVER match the decorations

And I now have a shelf in the bathroom that looks like this:

And my purse looks like this most of the time:

And I get to have a nursery in my house!

And we get to share meals with this cuteness :)

And look at those beautiful blue eyes

And that perfect little face

And have memories like this:

And this:

 I've come to realize that it's the small things that make motherhood so wonderful. Who cares if my house is messy? It's messy because I'm busy playing with my little boy. Who cares if I don't get to do a million crafts that I see on Pinterest? I don't get to because I'm working to support our family while my husband finishes school. I love my little family. I cherish those rare moments when Nash snuggles with me. I have learned to love this situation that we are in right now. I wouldn't have it any other way.

NASH UPDATE!

My little man was 6 months old on Monday! I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like yesterday I was just waddling around with that kid pushing on my sciatic nerve and kicking the heck out of me. I guess I'll start with his stats:

Weight- 17.5 lbs (49th %ile)
Height- 25.5 in (85th %ile)
Head..................................................... 93rd %ile

It's a good thing Nash is stinkin adorable with that big ol' jug head of his. I'm not sure how many of you know this, but he's had some issues with his neck and head. He was born with Congenital Torticollis. His right SCM (sternocleidomastoid) muscle in his neck is much too strong. Basically, one side of his neck is stronger than the other....like....way stronger. The SCM is supposed to be like a ribbon, but the one on Nash's right side is more tube like because he was positioned weird in the womb. The fix for this one is actually botox to relax the muscle, and allow the other side to strengthen. Unfortunately this condition also affected his head because when he was born he had a massive  flat spot on the back left side of his head. Fancy term for that one: Plagiocephaly

We have been taking him to Physical Therapy for about 4 months now to work on his neck. About a month ago we went in and his head measurements had been reduced to a measurement of 3mm, which is generally the end goal for working with Plagiocephaly. This number represents the difference between two angular measures on his head. The Physical Therapist told us to keep stretching him and hopefully the next appointment would be our last.

Well, it wasn't. We showed up again and his measurement was back up to 6 mm (insurance usually pays for a helmet at 8mm). Since his head has gotten worse, we are going to meet with some specialists to see if he will qualify for a helmet to fix his head.

This is how my week looks next week:

Monday: Physical Therapy (a.k.a. Nash screaming while we stretch his neck)
Tuesday: Meeting with Rocky Mountain Artificial Limb and Brace for a helmet consultation
Wednesday: Trip to Salt Lake for a consultation with Utah Neuro Rehabilitation about the botox

None of this is super serious, but it's definitely taken up some of our time. I'm just glad my little man won't remember being in an embarrassing helmet for a few months :)

Here are some other happenings in my little man's life:
-Nash sleeps for about 10 hours every night (he goes down super easy)
-He takes 2 naps a day for an average of about 1.5 hrs each
-He had his first baby food last week! (he LOVES sweet potatoes)
-He has two super sharp teeth! (We didn't even know he was teething until we saw them in his mouth)
-He can roll over and almost sit up (still no army crawling yet)
-Nash loves people with dark skin! I know that sounds weird, but any time he sees someone with darker
      skin he just smiles and smiles while my blonde friends just get blank stares. Maybe he'll marry a girl with
      beautiful dark skin and I'll have gorgeous grandchildren?

A Little Tree

As I cuddled with my little boy at 3:00 am, I couldn't help but stare at him in awe. What a miracle he is, and to think it all started from little more than a couple of cells. I stared at him for a long time, carefully examining his features: his chunky cheeks, his little nose, and his slightly stuffy breathing. It made me realize, how could anybody not love something so pure?

My mind then jumped to the oh-so-controversial debates these days about when a human actually becomes a human. I immediately pictured a tree in my mind.

Trees are not always big and beautiful. They take years and years to grow into something magnificent. They can become shade, a place to study, a place to play, a place to build on, and even a home for many creatures; but how do they start out? As a seed. They start as nothing but a simple, tiny seed. If we took that seed and crushed it, did we just kill a tree? Maybe by definition we did not, but we did kill it's potential. We killed that little seeds potential to enrich somebody's life, to provide shade in the heat of day, to look gorgeous in a back yard. More importantly, we killed the opportunity that seed had to become something living and growing. We took away the most precious gift we could; the gift of life.

I have heard some people say that it is okay to kill a young tree because the environment it would have been in was too terrible a place. No matter the conditions, that tree still has the opportunity to provide oxygen for us. It still has the opportunity to nest tiny creatures and to belong to a struggling, yet beautiful world. To take away a tree's potential is crueler than to let it live in a damaged garden.

Is it sometimes necessary to get rid of a tree? Yes. Sometimes they are planted after a fierce storm carried the seed to somewhere that it did not belong. Sometimes they can grow into the foundation of a home and destroy that home. However, why would you intentionally plant a seed if you do not want a tree? If you are not ready to water the tree, protect it from the wind and insects, trim back the branches; then do not plant the seed. Use caution as a gardener, because once you plant a seed it is yours to care for.

I came to the conclusion that it is not the here and now that matters. It is what can be, and what should be. When we look at others, we should look at their potential rather than their simpleness in the present.

8 Reasons Why Babies are Actually the Best

1. They make funny sounds

• farts
• poop
• coos
• coughs
• whistling boogers that you can do nothing about
• half-giggles
• sneezes are the best

2. They are genuine

• they don't care if their hands are in extremely awkward places
• they have double-chins most of the time
• they look incredibly hilarious when falling asleep

3. They are so sweet

• they smile all the time
• seeing Mom makes them happy
• they can't help but steal your heart
• all they really want to do is eat

4. They aren't picky

• they eat their feet
• they eat their hands
• they eat toys
• they eat clothes and blankets
• they eat electronics
• really, anything makes them happy

5. They are easily entertained

• they love hands
• they love feet
• they love Mom
• they love Dad
• they love bathtime
• they love toys

6. I doesn't take much to please them

• This is crude, and you can blame my father. He is a wise man when it comes to babies:
• "All they need is a little bit of pitty and a whole lot of titty"
• Yeah.... 

7. They make you happy

• No matter how tired I am, picking up my little boy puts a smile on my face and a peaceful feeling in my heart.

8. They make you love your spouse so much more than you did before. 

• People say they want to get to know their spouse more before having children. Well here's the truth: nothing helps you grow as a couple as much as dealing with pregnancy and a baby. A pregnant woman is not something to be trifled with, and my husband was so amazing at serving me and helping me through it all. What is even more amazing is watching my husband care for and support our child. He is so gentle with him, and helps me with whatever he can in taking care of Nash. I didn't know just how much I lucked out until I saw Lendel with my litlle boy.

Lessons Learned in Utah

I was a little nervous about moving to Utah, but I wasn't really prepared for what I've encountered. Sadly, I have discovered that Utah is not so much the land of milk and honey, but rather the land of pyramid schemes, plastic surgery, and an extreme competition for the title of "Best House-wife on the Planet".

Here are some myths that have somehow worked their way into the minds of Utah women.

#1 FAKE wins all in Utah

• I'm pretty sure Utah is right behind Hollywood when it comes to the amount of...shall we say... Fakeness? Fake eyelashes, fake body parts, fake tan, fake blonde hair, fake nails, fake EVERYTHING!!!!! Why is everyone trying to hide their natural beauty?

• I believe that women should take care of themselves. We should take care of our bodies, put on a little makeup, do our hair, and look presentable. Be careful though girls, we are meant to enhance our natural beauty, not murderously drown it.

#2 You aren't a cool kid unless you run marathons.

• Now don't get me wrong, I applaud anyone who has the guts to go run until their feet bleed; but I just don't see what the big deal is. Everyone that runs a marathon puts a big sticker on the back of their car. I mean....pregnancy is kind of like a marathon right? And the last leg of that race is not one everyone could handle. You don't see me putting a sticker on the back of my car that says, "Hey! I pushed a baby out of me! (insert completion date here)".
•  Yup....this is basically how I feel:

#3 Pyramid Schemes are the only way to make money.

• Puh-lease! I'm so tired of all this garbage. The worst one? OILS. I understand that natural remedies are amazing, and can help with tons of things. However, don't you think doctors would be using them regularly if they cured cancer? 

#4 Unless you are making EVERYTHING homemade, you fail as a wife and mother.

• Let's see who can pack the cutest lunches, make the most homemade wipes, make their own laundry soap, decorate purely from old stuff found at the DI, make the best pinterest meals, sew the greatest stuff. I mean...soon we'll all be making our make-up from household kitchen products and finding cheaper ways of wiping ourselves in the bathroom! 

• Face reality ladies, life is hectic. It's OKAY if you aren't the perfect wife and mother. Messes happen, laundry doesn't get folded, and sometimes we have to spend money on things because we just don't have enough time to make it ourselves. Life will go on.

I love Logan. This is where my family is. It is here that I have received my college education, and have made so many good friends. It just breaks my heart to see so many women succumb to the idea that unless you are the best at everything, you are worthless. We women are precious. No matter what you do, someone will always be better than you. Forget about it. Enjoy the things you do because they make you happy, not because they will make you look better than someone else.