TGIF

Thank goodness for the weekend!  The past couple of days, Connor has been super fussy and fighting sleep during the day.  He has worn me out!  Every minute I wasn't tending to him I was sleeping.  Maybe I can get caught up this weekend.
When Saturday rolls around, I'm going to be...

• sleeping!  I'll be doing a lot of that.
• posting a tutorial on here.  
• making more bandana bibs and putting them on etsy.  We'll see how this goes.  I want to start making things to sell for extra money while I'm home with Connor.

What will you be doing this weekend?

We are wonderfully made!

Connor and I were watching Veggie Tales earlier.  Well, I was watching Veggie Tales, and he was asleep.  But I pretended he was watching so I wouldn't feel silly ;)
The episode I we watched was called A Snoodle's Tale.  It was about a little "snoodle" that felt inferior to the other snoodles because he wasn't as big as them.  He goes and talks to the creator of the snoodles, and he tells him that he made everything, including the little snoodle.  He was wonderfully made, and he had made him exactly the way he wanted him to be.  He even picked out special talents he wanted him to have.  The little snoodle took a picture out of his pack that he drew for his creator.  It was mainly scribbles, but the creator was so proud of it, he hung it on his refrigerator!
That's how I see God...He made us exactly the way he wanted us to be and is so proud of the works we do to honor him!  Why, I bet there's a giant refrigerator in Heaven with all of our pictures on it!
Doesn't it make you happy to know that?
I can't wait to see my son grow up into the man God wants him to be. :)
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well:  Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

Now, here are my Connor's Top 5 Veggie Tales Silly Songs:
5. Dance of the Cucumber

4. Bellybutton

3. His Cheeseburger

2. Love My Lips

1. Song of the Cebu

Do the Creep

  My best friend Ashley came over today to bounce ideas off me for a paper she's writing.  Here she is...

She was the Maid of Honor at my wedding...

Yeah.  She didn't do a very good job ;)
Before we worked on the paper, we went to ALDI because we both needed groceries.  They had these great looking pork chops, and Ash showed me how to cook them.  They were so good!  We ended up having pork chops, mashed potatoes, and caesar salad.  I got all of this for under $10!  How sweet is that?

But anyway, Ashley's paper.  She's an English major in her final semester of college.  She is having to write a huge paper before she can graduate.  She's decent awesome with the technical stuff, but with the creativity?  Not so much.  That's where I step in.  We are an awesome team, and to be honest, all of the papers we both wrote in college were co-wrote edited by the other.

She decided to write her paper on the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  Never heard of it?  Neither had I.  I read a lot, so that's saying something.  It is such a good story!  If you want to read it (which you do,) click on this link
Then, return here to discuss.

Can you believe how good that was?  Super awesome, right?
For those of you slackers who didn't read it, here's the quick and dirty version:
First of all, this was written in 1899, so when you're picturing it in your head, make sure everyone has on long dresses and handlebar mustaches ;)
This woman and her husband move into a rental house.  Her husband is a doctor and has diagnosed her with a nervous condition (which is really post-partum depression), so they moved into the house so she can have fresh air and whatnot.  They take the room at the top of the house (which used to be a nursery) as their bedroom.  The room has this horrible yellow wallpaper covering every bit of the walls.  Her husband has told her to basically sit in the room and do nothing.  She isn't even supposed to write, which she enjoys, and someone else is taking care of her baby.  She slowly starts having a mental breakdown which has her studying the wallpaper incessantly.  Apparently it's really interesting wallpaper.  After a while, she starts to see a woman in the wallpaper, and eventually she sees the woman creeping around outside.  She becomes obsessed with freeing the woman from the wallpaper.  This whole time, her clueless husband thinks she's getting better.  But no, she's only crazy behind closed doors.  Right before they move out of the house, she decides to rip all of the wallpaper off the walls so her husband can't put her in the wallpaper (by now, she's gone so far off the deep end, she thinks she is the woman from the wallpaper).  Her husband comes to collect her and sees her "creeping" around the room rubbing her shoulder in the wall.  He faints like a little girl, and she continues creeping around the room, crawling over him as she goes.  This is how it ends.  "Creepy," right?
This is the stuff that good horror movies are made of.  I bet you're sorry you didn't go read it now, aren't you?  I thought so.
Ashley and I were talking about the woman creeping while we were in the car today.  I imagined the woman army crawling on her stomach with one arm laying against her side, rubbing her shoulder in the wall, and pulling herself with her free arm.  Ashley imagined her squatting on the floor, slowly moving forward while pulling herself forward with the arm rubbing the wall.  Either way is pretty freaking scary.
This is how artist Jonathan Sutton creeps:

The Yellow Wallpaper I:  I Always Lock the Door When I Creep by Daylight

The Yellow Wallpaper II:  I Quite Enjoy the Room Now It is Bare Again
If you notice in the second one, she's in a straightjacket :S

Here's how The Lonely Island does the creep:

How do you do the creep?

Bandana Bibs! (And Grover's new do)

Connor is a messy eater.  I think half his bottles end up on his shirt instead of in his tummy.  So, I decided to make...
THE BANDANA BIB!

Isn't it cute?  It's adjustable, too.  That way I can put it right up against his chin and his shirt won't get all wet!
Best of all, it looks like it's part of his outfit and not a bib. :)
Doesn't he make a cute little cowboy?
I made a blue one, too...

They are lined with fleece, so they are super soft and absorbent.

So that's what I did with half my day...What did I do with the other half?

I cut off all of Grover's hair :(  It was all matted up and just had to go.  Mama's got to step up on her brushing.  He kind of looks cute like this, though...

I love ALDI, or Why I Hate Wal-Mart

I adored the assistant principal at the school I worked at last year.  In fact, I adored everything about that place. It was a small system, they had great support, and the superintendent took the time to get to know all of his employees.  He even visited me in my classroom a couple of times.  If I could send Connor there and go back to work there, I would.  Unfortunately, it's 45 minutes away from where we live know.  If it was just me, I would drive it in a heartbeat.  But anyway, I digress.  Back to the assistant principal.

She looked just like Diane Lane and was super cheerful.  It was impossible to be in a bad mood around her.  She was fabulous.  She hated Wal-Mart.  With a passion.  She called it the "Big, Evil Giant" and hadn't been there in over five years.  I tell you, it takes guts to stand up to the man like that. ;)

Anyway, the whole point of this story was that I had to go to the Big Evil Giant today.  Let me tell you, it was extra bad today.  For starters, they were having a "Hunting Expo" in the parking lot which involved roping off half the parking lot so they could park a bunch of motors homes to show off.  So that means everyone has to park a mile away from the door.  Then, I get inside and people have apparently decided it was okay to stand in the middle of the aisles with their buggies blocking traffic and stand there and talk.  They wouldn't even move when I said "excuse me."  I know, how rude of me, right?

I have gotten so frustrated with Wal-Mart lately that my dad and I have started doing our grocery shopping at ALDI.  I LOVE that store.  I wish they sold everything.  I would marry ALDI if I could.  If you have never heard of ALDI, it's basically a no frills grocery store.  They carry their own brands (sometimes they have name brand stuff), and they always have good looking meat and vegetables.

So, here are my Top 5 reasons why ALDI kicks Wal-Mart's butt:

1.  Nobody tries to run you over with a shopping buggy.

     Admit it, we've all been the victim of an old lady looking to start something.  When I was pregnant, I got run over all the time.  I guess I was a bigger target ;)

2.  Everyone puts their buggies back.

     ALDI has a great system.  All the buggies are locked together, and you have to insert a quarter into a little box on the buggy to unlock one.  When you're done with the buggy, you go lock it back and get your quarter back!  Why doesn't everyone do this?  This means there aren't any buggies rolling everywhere hitting cars or blocking spaces.  When I first starting going there, I figured there would be some people who wouldn't care about getting their quarter back, but no.  That quarter is apparently a big deal.

3.  They have super quick check out lines.

    You can swipe your card while the checker is scanning your groceries, then you take them over to a table and bag them yourself (which is great in itself because if you're like me, you want your groceries bagged a certain way.  You know, cold stuff together, bread and chips alone...Apparently some people think its okay to bag your hamburger buns and put a jug of milk on top of it.  Go figure).  Plus, they don't take coupons so you don't get stuck behind someone with 20 transactions and 800 coupons.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that.  It's a good way to save money.  But ALDI has such good deals, you don't even need the coupons).

4.  They have good prices, and everything takes just like name brands.

     I don't think I have ever spent more than $70, and I always fill my cart to the brim.  Sometimes, I even have to hold stuff on.

5.  They have a small parking lot.

     Why is this good you ask?  Well, every spot is close to the door, and there is no room to park motor homes in it :)

6. (Because five just wasn't enough)  Apparently, their brand of dog food contains crack.

     Grover eats everything, so food doesn't really matter to him, if he can put it in his mouth, he eats it.  My dad's dogs on the other hand are super picky.  They eat that stuff like it is going out of style.  You would think they were eating filet mignon.

So by now, I'm sure your mouth is watering at the idea of shopping at ALDI.  I'll do you a favor and end this post so you can run (not walk) to your nearest location. :D

     

How Connor Came to Be and Stupid Mail

Being pregnant is rough.  I don't see how Michelle Duggar has done it 17 times.  Maybe it was just especially hard on me.  I'm a Type 1 diabetic and that made things rough from the start.  I had to take enough insulin to give me the blood sugar levels of someone who was not diabetic.  This caused me to have extremely low blood sugars four or five times a day.  I mean, they were so bad, I felt like I was drunk.  (On a side note, I carry a card in my purse that says, "I am a diabetic.  I am not intoxicated."  Apparently low blood sugar and being drunk feel remarkably similar.  I have a hard time understanding why anyone would voluntarily make themselves feel that way, but to each his own).  I was working as a sub then, and I had to stop because I was scared to be left in charge of a group of kids.  I was deathly afraid of falling out on the floor.  But you know, they might just have thought I was drunk.  Wouldn't that be a nice conversation..."Our sub was drunk today...It was awesome!"

If that wasn't bad enough, I started having blood pressure problems at 14 weeks.  I had to start taking medicine and had to go on a horrible special diet.  I could only eat fish, chicken, turkey, fruits, and veggies.  I could only drink water or milk.  The diet might not have been so bad except for my cravings and needing the carbs I wasn't supposed to have in order to raise my blood sugar.

Then came the swelling that wouldn't go away.  In the two weeks before I had Connor, I gained thirty pounds from all of the swelling.  It was ridiculous!  The only shoes I could fit into were a pair of men's size 10 flip flops, and they barely even fit.

The Tuesday before I gave birth (I had Connor the next Monday), I was admitted to the hospital for a non-stress test.  My blood pressure was through the roof.  They kept me overnight to do a 24 hour urine test to see if there was protein in my pee, which is a sign of preeclampsia (the high blood pressure and excessive swelling were other signs).  I'm still not sure exactly what preeclampsia is, but I do know that Connor was in danger because my high blood pressure could restrict blood flow to him, and I was in danger of kidney or liver damage.  If the preeclampsia turned into eclampsia, I could have had a seizure, and we both would have been in trouble.

Two days later (Thursday) I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and started on an IV of magnesium sulfate.  Ugh.  I told Brian one day that the government should just stop waterboarding and start giving suspected terrorists a mag IV.  That would make anyone talk.  Before they started the IV, this old shriveled up nurse told me I would feel extremely hot for 15 minutes and like I had the flu for the duration of the medicine.  That was the biggest understatement of the century.  While I was on the mag, I was so hot, the thermostat in the room was set on 50, and I still burnt up.  Mag is a muscle relaxer, too, which they conveniently forgot to mention.  I had to google it to find out.  So, that meant, I couldn't take a full breath, my eyes wouldn't focus, I got choked every time I ate, and I didn't have enough strength to even roll over in bed by myself.  Worst of all, that nasty stuff seemed like it was seeping out of my pores.  I felt gritty and slimy, and I had a funny smell. Brian said I just didn't smell like me, but I thought I smelled like my mom did right before she died.  It was a "death" smell.  That scared me.  Plus, Connor stopped moving.  Apparently the mag was doing the same thing to him that it was doing to me.  They would only hook me up to the fetal monitor once a day, so for the rest of the time, I was never sure whether he was still alive.

After two horrible days on the mag, it started messing with my calcium levels.  So, they gave me calcium.  This caused fluid to build up on my lungs, so they put me on lasix to take the fluid off.  Isn't funny how the stuff that was supposed to keep me alive was making me sick?  This happened all over again on Sunday, which was the next day.  So, they decided that Monday would be Connor's birth day.  It was just getting to be too big of a risk keeping him in.  We would both be better off with him being out.

Connor was born at 3:09 pm on June 13 via c-section.  I was 29 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  He was 10 weeks early.  Right before he was born, the neonatologist in the room told me that I would only get to see him and kiss him for just a few seconds before they took him to the NICU so they could get him warm and help him with any breathing issues he might have.  Once he was born and I heard him cry, I burst into tears, even before Brian did and he is the cry baby of the family!  I was just so happy he was okay.  I was so scared of what the mag and my preeclampsia had done to him.  The neonatologist brought him over, and I got to kiss him and look at him.  He was tiny and blue, and I could see every one of his ribs.  But he was okay.  He was perfect.

Since my blood pressure was still extremely high and I had to stay on the mag for another 24 hours, I wasn't able to see Connor until 8 the next night.  I missed the first 29 hours of his life, and my whole family got to really see him before I did.  The first day of a baby's life is supposed to be spent bonding, but we didn't get that.  We were separated.

Connor was put on a ventilator right after he was born, but he was doing so well breathing that they switched him to a Cpap machine the next day.  By Friday, he was off the Cpap and totally breathing on his own!  He was a little jaundiced, so he had to go under bright lights to help get rid of it.  The upside to that?  He got to wear the cutest sunglasses!

Other than the jaundice, Connor had no problems!  We were so lucky.  Now he just had to start taking bottles and gain to at least 4 pounds in order to go home.

The Sunday after he was born was Father's Day.  This was also the day we got to hold him for the first time!

Connor was able to come home from the hospital after 42 days in the NICU.  We are so happy to have him home with us.  We didn't feel like parents until he came home.  He will be 3 months in five days, and he weighs about 9 pounds now. If he had been born on his original due date, he would be two weeks old.  He is wonderful-he has excellent head control and coos, laughs, and smiles (especially when someone makes a joke about his daddy).

This is a dark picture, but you can see how far he has come.  God made him strong and has big things in store for him!

As for the stupid mail part of the post...
Connor got his first piece of mail today!  It was a letter from the insurance company wanting him to fill out a survey.  I want to tell them, "Sure, my three month old is going to get right on that survey just as soon as he finishes War and Peace and writing his doctoral thesis for nuclear physics."  Anybody else ever get any stupid mail like this?

Meet the family

This is just a little bit about my family.  I love to show them off ;)

I have a wonderful husband, Brian...

But he has to be.  He wouldn't be able to put up with me if he wasn't.  I'm quite a handful.

Here's the lovable, furry Grover P. Cleveland...

He's quite a handful, too.  What does the P stand for you ask?  Just like Fred G. Sanford, it varies.  Sometimes it stands for precious, other times pest.  Once, it even stood for philanderer :O

Finally, here's the newest addition, Connor...

In this picture, he's eleven weeks old and weighs about nine pounds.  Everyone says he's so small, which he is, but he's a giant compared to what he looked like when he was born...

He was born two and a half months early and weighed two pounds twelve ounces.  He spent forty-three days in the NICU.  He is smart, loves to be held, and already has a fantastic sense of humor.  He is perfect in every way.

The story behind Connor's birth is a long one, which I do intend to tell.  My whole pregnancy, I searched for someone who was going through the same thing I was, and I never found anyone.  So I'm going to tell it now, because I don't know that many people knew what all went on.  But I'll get to that tomorrow, in between diaper changes and making sure Grover isn't tearing apart the bedspread or something.