Turkey Pants

Ha. This picture belw was taken on Thanksgiving Day...Jason called his pants "turkey pants"...he was precious that day :)

So I went to write this post the day after Thanksgiving, but having a tiny tiny little one at your hip will delay things drastically, I'm coming to realize! I posted the pictures and then don't remember what happened as to why I was never able to finish the post, but I'm guessing it was either picking up screaming Lincoln cause his gas was bothering him (or cause he's just spoiled!), desperately search for the Mylecon, feed Lincoln one of his 8 thanksgiving dinners for the day, or change an icky diaper - nonetheless, I'm finishing the post now.

Thanksgiving was great!! Lincoln was very fussy that morning and we couldn't figure out what was wrong, but we thought it was going to be a LONG day at the grandparents house! But don't you know, that when we went over there (early - so they could take a shot a their soothing techniques!), he immediately stopped, and was angelic the rest of the day and night! Oh Lincoln. :)

The next day we went to my dad's side in the ole Fort...afterwards we took on the frantic crowds at the mall where my parents bought a beautiful coat for me for my birthday!!! It's red and I'm super excited about it! Jason and I went shopping at Pinnacle on Saturday and let em tell ya that Lincoln is quite the shopper! He just sleeps throughout the day and after we feed him he'll sit in his stroller and look at you wide eyed while making adorable noises! Love it. :)

Lincoln's seems to be getting somewhat better...we've figured out some tricks to help him get calm and reduce his gas problem that vary from positions when holding him to burping techniques. My favorite trick, however is Jason's invention that works like a charm!! He puts a drop of Mylecon on Lincoln's pacifier and he'll calm down IMMEDIATELY - literally. And it will usually last, too. Do all infants like medicine like this? He must be bored with drinking the same milk everyday - I would be.

Below are some pics from Thanksgiving...I also decorated my house yesterday wth my mom's help - it looks so pretty!! I'll post some pictures later.

Anyone Up For a "Baby Book Burning" Party??

Cause I think one of these would truly help my sanity and prevent any further damage from being done to my psyche (unless the damage is already too great beyond repair - Lord I hope not!). You see ever since I found out I was pregnant I was penciling advice given by friends, reading random parenting blogs, buying and borrowing any and every baby advice book I could get my hands on, then staying up to insane hours reading them in detail...all the while thinking "what's really so hard about putting your baby on a schedule? Surely we'll be able to figure this out and have a relatively "easy" baby...we're good with consistency...how hard can all this be???"
Then Melissa, the new mom, was given a brutal shot of reality - the reality more than anything, however is that I think I read too many books and now they're all running together and what one says, the other contradicts, and I feel like I'm in this never-ending circular mess of advice that really is now made a pile of mush out my brain that used to function fairly well (I thought at least). HOLY CRAP THE BOOKS ARE PUSHING ME TO THE BRINK OF INSANITY!!!!!!

Lincoln has had a difficult time this week transitioning to his crib and he's had really bad gas problems which result in hours of screaming bloody murder- not joking. So what do I do? I go to my trusty books....and I try everything they suggest - nothing works. So how do I eel? Like a terrible mom who can't figure out her child and is ailing because things aren't working like the books said they should. So by the end of the day yesterday, I had succeeded in to running in circles, plopping down on the couch and literally feeling like a complete failure. I mean, what would they say ("they" being the books!) if they knew my child still slept in a cradle swing at night because it was the only place where we could all 3 get sleep all through the night??? The SIDS police would be all over my butt and the books would put me in their "what not to do" book edition...or how the "wake time"?? Yeah, this work sometimes, but below is a classic example of our "awake time" yesterday after one of the feedings:

Put Lincoln on play mat for "awake time"....

5 minutes into "awake time"...

I know I'm not a bad mom and I don't want any books making me feel that way anymore...it's funny because things were going great until a few days ago when I busted out these books again and started feeling like I wasn't doing things right...why ix it when it wasn't broken at all!!! So instead of busting out the books last night, I prayed that God would help me not be frustrated and to trust my own instincts and to rely on Him versus freaking books.

Okay - I feel better. Now some more precious pictures from yesterday...I'll post about Thanksgiving tomorrow and put those pictures up. :)

Precious

I had to get up earlier than Jason this morning b/c Lincoln had a very early dosctor's appointment (I'll get to that in a minute). When I got out of the shower, Jason had gotten Lincoln and they had fallen asleep together...oh my gosh, the most precious thing EVER! I was scrambling all over the house for the camera and had a hard time remembering where I put it last, but thank goodness I finally found it to get the shots below...so freaking cute!!!

I took him to the doctor this morning b/c for the last three days he has been screaming (I mean the kind where whoever was walking by would swear I was abusing the poor child) after I feed him. He curls his knees up to his chest and I just can't stand to watch him do it! I know it's probably just gas and there's not much doc can do about it but I wanted to make sure. Well, he's fine...doc just gave us some tips on how to help his little tummy. He said it was more than likely due tot he fact that we've started giving him one bottle a day of breastmilk to get him used to a bottle for when I go to work. So the little sucker's fine...and still gaining weight - he's 8lbs 8 oz. :)

And today he has been angelic!!! Taking his naps and not being fussy at all! We're going to watch the Panthers again tonight - very excited about that!!!

And Bruce - just b/c he's pretty :)

Guess Who's Back??!!!

Oh yeah - Jack's back. It was last year at about this time that I was a pathetic loser and watched seasons 1-5 of "24"...that's 120 hours (hours, people) of Jack Bauer...and the REAL pathetic part is that I accomplished this amazing feat in a matter of about 1.5 months.

So SUPER EXCITED for the start of a new season tonight - especially after waiting, oh so patiently, for an entire YEAR for this return. And I think they wrote the new season for me - Africa, refugee camps, civil war, fighting international injustice???? Yeah, Jack's back and I'm excited.

In other news, Jason's parents came down for the weekend to see Lincoln and watch some Panther basketball. It was fun having them visit and Jason's mother gave us great gift of sleep last night!! She stayed up with Lincoln and we slept a whole entire 6 hours STRAIGHT. SOOO exciting! Especially since I had to get up super early to sing in church. What a blessing!!!!

Lincoln's doing good. He has been having a real gassy tummy lately...I think it's because we've been introducing a bottle a day...maybe?? I think it's getting better though cause he is sleeping right now for (what seems like at least) the first time since Thursday. :)

My Husband...part 2

So last night was the start of Panther Basketball 2008-2009...so naturally it brought back memories of last year which literally was a Cinderella story and such an amazing accomplishment. To back up, for those of you who don't know, the Panther's were State Champs and definitely the underdogs who had NUMEROUS upsets throughout the season! I give lots of credit to the amazing head coach and his coaching staff. Hey - I can do that cause I write this blog - not Jason :) Jason and that brain of his seriously AMAZED me last season. The guy's brilliant when it comes to basketball...seriously. Again, I know I'm his wife, but a state championship in your second year as head coach doesn't lie!!
So here we go, starting a new season, losing a chunk of last year's team - and last night we played Springdale which has some pretty good talent!! Throughout the game they were beating us, sometimes as much as 15 points. We didn't have the lead until the last couple of minutes, and were truly out-talented - but not out-coached. :) So here comes the brains of my brilliant husband, shuffling his cards around, and low and behold we freaking WON the game. I don't know how the hell he does it to be honest!!!!! I've stopped trying to figure it out and just enjoy the fact that I'm married to one hell of a coach!!!
In all seriousness, God has truly blessed Jason as a coach - it's unbelievable how hard that guy works and I know God recognizes that and honors him for it. I really am excited to see what God has in store for Jason's career...I love just sitting back and watching him utilize his gifts of communication, of leadership, of connecting with young kids and creating passion within them - as I've said before, Jason definitely doesn't lack in the passion arena. :)

Here are some press pics from last year's championship....what an amazing time! And we had just found out we were pregnant the week before the state finals...crazy times!!!

Visit to Nana's (Lincoln's Great G-Ma)

Just some pictures of our visit yesterday...and some other ones cause he's just so stinking cute.

Papi's Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cannot even express how crazy excited we are!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in Ft. Smith visiting my grandmother tonight and I got a call from a man saying he thinks he found my dog...turns out, Papi had wandered into an empty swimming pool at a house that was for sale and had no one living in it...he got stuck in the pool and couldn't get out!! The neighbors (the man who called) heard something moaning next door and went over to check it out and found Papi in the pool. The man said he was terrified and wouldn't come to him, but we told him his name and when the man said "Papi"...he came right to him. That's when I knew we really had found the little guy!! The man said that when he found the dog, he remembered a flyer he had gotten in his mailbox Sunday and called the number...the flyers worked!! The miracle about it is that we only put flyers on malboxes in one small neighborhood for some reason (and it wasn't even our own neighborhood!). We prayed over the flyers before we passed them out Sunday and God answered our prayers - they landed in the right hands!

We're not sure if he has been stuck in this pool for the whole week, but he is very tired and has lost weight, and REAL skiddish - but he's home and were gonna be okay. :)

Thanks to allwho have looked and prayed for our little guy!!!

Quick Update

We're just going to do this in outline form :)



1. Lincoln is 3 weeks old TODAY!!! Went for a weight check and he is a pound heavier than when he was born.



2. Lincoln's getting more into a routine (sort of) with his feeding and sleeping. He's doing quite well at it, too!!



3. He was awake for his first basketball game last night...we had fun hanging out w/ Jason while he ran the tournament last night.



4. Papi is still missing. An add was run in the paper today and we decided to offer a $100 cash reward for him - yeah, so not joking either. We both agreed it would come out of our Christmas money for each other b/c there's no present either of us would rather have than out Mr. Papi back.



5. I'm about to go to Ft. Smith w/ mom and Amy to let my grandma meet her new great grandson...she's excited and so are we!



6. I started pumping today (and not weights!)...yeah - this could get exhausting. But I'm excited that Jason gets to start giving him bottles sometimes!



7. I'm going to start exercising next week, I think...gonna try at least. I've got some firming up to do! I'm gonna start doing a strength class with Bethany but will have to wait a while to do that one...



8. I'm LOVING not working and DREADING going back...looking at part-time options after this fiscal year possibly



And I guess that's all for now :)

All Clean

Tonight we gave Lincoln his first "tub" bath since his little cord stump finally fell off. We also started him on somewhat of a schedule today...feeding every three hours, playtime, then nap time for about an hour and a half. It went so-so. :) Hopefully we can get better!! His bath went great - he was so precious (see pictures below) and didn't cry at all! As I'm writing this, though, he's screaming his head off in his crib. This whole "cry it out" thing gets tough :( But it works...he does eventually fall asleep (well, he did this morning, but I'm kind of doubting it right now!).

Today Jason and I spent the day putting flyers all over Siloam for Papi. We've prayed a lot for him today and really put forth a crazy effort to try and find the little guy. I know some of you might think it's trivial, but we really have been distraught that he's missing. Jason said finding him would actually produce better feelings than winning state last year even - gosh we just love that little man. Thanks to everyone that has been helping us find him!!!!

This weekend was Vicki Dee's women's conference...it was such a blessing and I truly enjoyed hearing what god as laid on this amazing woman's heart!!! Those who don't already, you should read her blog. Her link is on my page. One of the points was on praying for your children and it really touched my heart. I plan on writing more about that later.

Another point was about how God is in ultimate control of literally everything. Obviously us Christians know that but how often do we truly believe and practice that?? I know I struggle with this. And again, though this may sound trite, it reminded me (and I was able to share with Jason) that God is in ultimate control of Papi's situation right now and has a greater plan.

I also loved the emphasis on how our children are lent to us from God...they are not our own. Anyway, it was a great conference and like I said, I plan on talking about it more later.

Well, off to hang out with Lincoln. :) He's been a trooper today!

1440 Minutes...and Counting

That's how many minutes I've had to agonize through wondering where precious Papi is. :( About 1/10th of those minutes have been spent in tears, and about 1/3rd have been sent driving around this city aimlessly - to some parts I never even knew existed. The worst part is that you spend that many minutes thinking and imagining the absolute worst. So instead - while I anxiously await a call from the pound saying they have him, or hear feet puttering up to the front door, I thought I'd focus on the things I love about Mr. Papi and what makes him so special to us (this is more for my own therapy and sanity right now so feel free to check out of this post at any time):

1. We love all our dogs, but Papi could possibly be our favorite because of his sweet spirit. We joke that Papi actually has a heart and soul b/c he is overly caring and sweet

2. He's seemingly all tough and is our "warning bell" when someone's here who's not suppose to be, BUT:

3. He's TERRIFIED of vacuum cleaners, tape measures, lawn mowers, and most of Lincoln's toys

4. He loves to snuggle...up tight and close. He jumps in the bed every morning when the alarm goes off and gets right up under your neck

5. He loves to play and his new best friend is Bruce Wayne

6. I have to drag him out of bed on Saturdays, sometimes as late as 2:00pm!!!!

7. His favorite foods are grapes and watermelon

8. He's an AMAZING catcher...he's also our athletic one

9. He's extremely loyal - way more than any other dog I've ever owned

10. He loves to sit in the kitchen with me when I cook

We miss you Papi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Papi Come Home!!!!!!!!!

So our lovely beagle (Benny) decided to lead the way again, under the fence and into the big wide world...taking Papi w/ him. For those of you who don't know Benny, he has dug out at least 100 times in the past three years - no exaggeration. So after a few hour, Benny (as always) shows up at the front door - but this time without Papi!! And now it's been about 8 hours since they've been out and still no Papi!!! Usually he comes back, but usually before now.

So I'm crazy worried right now. And to make matters worse, just the other day, bruce and papi were fighting and they bit each others collars off...so he has no collar on. :(

If you see Papi roaming around, bring him home!!! I don't even think I'll be able to sleep tonight till he comes home...I love that little sucker. Papi - come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praying For Lincoln's Soul!

So we're REAL concerned cause already Lincoln doesn't like church!!! Ha. We were excited to go back to CCF yesterday morning, got up, fed Lincoln (twice), gave him a bath, dressed him all up cute and got ready to load him up in the car to go to church. Wouldn't you know that about 5 minutes before we were to leave, he starts crying. No panic - he LOVES the car and we'll just drive around the neighborhood a few times to get him quiet and asleep. Yeah - plan didn't work - AT ALL. We made it to the church parking lot and Jason sat in the back seat with him to try and help him calm down, but the little booger was wide-eyed and NOT HAVING the whole church thing! So we ended up having to turn around and come back home. Of course, within the minute of us walking in the door, he fell asleep. Little stinker. :)
So we'll try church again next week! With lots of prayer and a full tummy, maybe he'll be interested in learning about Jesus next week. :)
He has been pretty good these past few days! He'll stay awake at least 4 hours usually throughout the day where he is just wide-eyed and curious - not crying - which is always fun. He has VERY strong hands (and very large) and is already trying hard to roll himself over and support his head even. He likes to hold his own pacifier in his hand and will rip it out with his hand when he doesn't want it anymore. Pretty cute and I think the little man's gonna be smart and strong. :) Jason keeps eyeing which hand he uses and gets SUPER excited everytime he's sees him using his left hand (apparently this is good for sports??).
He's also sleeping well at night. None of his "wide-eyed" awake moments are at night which means he has it figured out that night time is when we all sleep! Thank goodness!
Tonight i the start of Jason's basketball season - we're gonna try and go watch a little of the scrimmage...I am so excited for Panther Basketball! Obviously last year was a phenomenal year and it would be so exciting to have another repeat state championship. My husband is the best high school coach in the state (I swear I'm not biased - he won the award!!!), so we have a chance, right??
Off to wake a sleeping baby...aren't I brave??

Mr. Fussy Pants

That's Jason's new name for Lincoln the past 24-hours. Poor guy. Lincoln has been doing exceptionally well adjusting to his new home...until today :) The poor little guy just can't seem to get happy and when he's not screaming bloody murder, he has a look on his face that says "don't mess with me lady - I'm in a very bad mood!!" In fact, he's starting to get fussy again right now so I'm gonna have to save this post and finish it up later...I'll be back. :)

Okay..the boy must be going through a growth spurt or something b/c he has gone from eating every 2-3 hours to ON the hour! It's EXHAUSTING. But I love it...I really do. It's one of my favorite things. :) So he just finished his 10th meal of the day (okay - a little exaggerated) and is finally sleeping...any bets on how long it will last??? I must have eaten something he's not fond of cause this fussiness is quite uncharacteristic of the little man!

We went up to the school to eat lunch w/ Daddy today cause I had to show Jason Mr. Fussy Pant's true colors while he was gone away at work. :) Daddy was able to calm him down briefly, but that didn't last. The world obviously ran on Lincoln-time today!

Tonight mom is coming over to watch Mr. Fussy Pants while Jason and I go to the football game. I'm kind of excited to get out and it will be fun to see friends for a bit. We probably won't stay the whole time cause it's hard to be away from the little guy - even if he is Mr. Fussy Pants.

Tomorrow night the parentals are having the family over for dinner. My dad is giddy excited to introduce Lincoln to their home - he's cute. Other than that we have a pretty low-key weekend planned.

I will say one thing I've been amazed at through this whole pregnancy thing is how FAST your body reshapes and gets back to normal! That means internally and externally...it's phenomenal how fast everything is healing (healed in most cases) and also how fast my body has shrunk back! I still have about 8 lbs. to go before I'm where I was pre-pregnancy, but it's only been a week! I really thought that would take a lot longer...weird, but no complaints here. It's probably those last 8 that take 9 months, though, huh? Joke's on me.

Below is Lincoln 98% of the day today...second picture is after I fed him for the 100th time...

Heard This Quote Today...

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children can fly..."

Just thought I'd share :)

44th President of the USA: Can You Believe It?!

Congratulations to our new President!!!! Now it's no secret that I personally favored Obama from the beginning and have had many conversations/debates with some of you as to my convictions for him as President...so I am excited and ready to see what God has in store for our country. It's also no secret that I live in an area that is pretty much anti-Obama and not afraid to voice that opinion.

This by no means pertains to everyone, but I will say a HUGE pet peeve of mine this morning was to look on facebook and talk to people throughout the morning who have extremely negative attitudes and are posting horrendous comments about how our country is now doomed to hell b/c of Obama's elected state. One lady actually made the comment "I don't know how I can even call him 'President Obama' - it just sounds so Middle Eastern!" Seriously people? At least have a valid argument for the disappointment of the elected President. For instance, those that are complaining about the "road to socialism" could have some validity and I personally don't have a problem w/ people being upset for that reason...personal preference in my opinion. But regardless, he is now our President and it is our duty to pray for his leadership. I appreciate one comment of an avid McCain supporter that stated, "Today I am praying for our new President."

The fact is that record voters turned out to participate in this election, Obama won, and there's no way people can argue with results of the majority of the country. I truly appreciate McCain's speech and think strongly that we should pray for our new President. I'm excited to see what God has in store for our country...

Is This Normal??

Sleeping and feeling rested, that is? Everyone told us we wouldn't get sleep, and I'm SURE that day is coming, but right now we're truly cherishing being able to get about 8, yes, I said EIGHT hours of sleep...crazy. Praise the Lord, cause we definitely need it! Now it's not all at the same time, of course, but we got up twice last night to feed him (Jason's the burper), and then down he went to sleep for the next 4 hours. It's wonderful!

This is making up for the awful 1st night home we had. I haven't written about that night/day yet, but a quick re-cap - Lincoln all the sudden started refusing to eat and he was having no bowl action down there. This started our first night home before bedtime. I didn't think anything about it and thought he was just tired. But then hours would pass and he still wasn't eating and then I just got scared and couldn't sleep. Then he got extremely fussy and we couldn't calm him (cause the poor thing was starving!) and long story short, but it ended up being about 13 hours and he had refused to eat the entire time!!! I went into sheer panic mode, had zero sleep and was was at a loss of what to do. It was Saturday and I tried calling our medical clinic where our doctor was and they rudely told me that the clinic was busy and a nurse would not be able to get back to me till Monday! I just wanted to ball my eyes out and felt so helpless...Jason convinced me just to call up to the hospital and ask for lactation consultants. So I did, and the head RN at the shift answered and offered for us to just come up there (we live about .2 miles away) and she would try and help us...ANSWERED PRAYER!!!!!!! All that nurse was required to do was give us lactation consultant numbers, but she literally took 30 minutes from her shift and patients and worked with us and GAVE us about 5 bottles of glucose formula to make sure he was at least keeping hydrated. What she taught us was how to "trick" Lincoln...I would try to get him to latch on and while I was doing that, Jason had a syringe where he gave a shot of sugar water into Lincoln's mouth...he didn't latch on at the hospital but we were able to feed him the glucose water and he IMMEDIATELY stopped crying (had also been screaming for past 13 hours), and immediately had an EXTREMELY poopy diaper! It was funny cause both of us almost started crying tears of joy at the nasty diaper!

So the amazing nurse (Danielle is her name) sent us home w/ syringes, glucose water, and other stuff to use until Lincoln started latching on again. But we only had to use it once and ever since then, Lincoln has been feeding PERFECTLY. Danielle is our angel. We had such an amazing hospital experience. If any of you live in Siloam and are wondering where to have your child, Siloam hospital is PHENOMENAL.

So since that night, the past two days have been so fun!! Lincoln rarely cries, is awake a great portion of the day making hilarious faces...and bath time is the most fun!!! i posted pictures below of last night's bath. Jason and I had him ALL CLEAN...and then he started crapping everywhere and literally spitting up all over himself!! We just died out laughing and I actually peed my pants a little bit (yeah i guess I need the diapers, too!) cause he just looked so funny doing it all after we had really given him a thorough bath...he's too cute.

Oh yeah - Mr. Bruce Wayne LOVES Lincoln. He has been precious to watch with him...he's Lincoln's little protector, for sure. e sleeps by him and always checks on him. It's so freaking cute. When I get up in the middle of the night to feed him, he comes too. :)

Just Some Pictures...

Look at our little irresistable bundle :)