Debe's pictures

David's Aunt Debe takes the sweetest pictures of the kids. Here are a few:











Poor Adeline has been a little under the weather with a stomach bug, but I think she's feeling better today. She and Seth are going to stay with my Mom and Dad this weekend. Adeline LOVES Nana's house, and I can't blame her, it's one of the many places where what she says goes.

My finger is better. Thank you all for the emails. My sweet friends : ). I'm so happy the antibiotic worked. I have learned a lesson here, though I think I got the MRSA from the catheter in the hospital, this stuff is everywhere...on the shopping carts at Wal-mart, door knobs, public restrooms, so it's kind of scary. I have washed my hands so often lately that they are chapped, but I will continue to be super-vigilent! I don't want to ever deal with this again. So...my own little public service announcement: if you will be in the hospital for anything (especially having a baby) watch the nurses carefully! Make sure they wash their hands everytime they come in your room. And, in your daily life, keep a little bottle of Purell with you at all times. (they make great ones with aloe that aren't as drying). I'm something of a germ-a-phobe, and I still ended up with this. You can't be too careful. And I understand kids are especially at risk for this infection.

On a happier note, we are mere days from Melissa's wedding! I'm so excited! I know she will have a wonderful weekend planned, and I can't wait to be part of it!

Super-bug

I've had a run of bad luck lately. Two Saturdays ago, I was rummaging around in my sewing box, and I was stuck by a safety pin. No big deal, right? Well, a week and a half later, I've been through 4 antibiotics and a minor surgical procedure. After the initial incident, my thumb kept swelling and swelling and became unbearably painful by last Thursday. Two antibiotics had no effect, so I went to Corinth to see one of my mom's doctors. He prescribed antibiotic #3, but overnight the pain became so bad, I wanted to cut my own finger open to relieve the pressure. I went back to the doctor the next day, and he sent me to an a surgeon, who did in fact cut it open. Gross, I know. By the next morning, I was feeling so much better. I thought the worst was over. So, I go back for a follow-up appointment on Monday. They had sent samples from my thumb to a lab to be cultured, and it comes back as MRSA. Methicillin-resistant staph. The super-bug. It's a very serious form of staph that is resistant to most antibiotics. The doctor handed me a prescription for the only drug known to still work, and said, "I hope you have great prescription drug coverage." Why? Because this medicine costs $100/pill. Yep, I have $1200 worth of pills sitting on my counter (14 pills).

We have no idea where I could have gotten this. It's rampant in hospitals, so maybe when I had Seth? Who knows. But, this is certainly not as bad as it could have been. I had already started to run a fever when the doctor did the surgery, so within another 24 hours, this would have been in my bloodstream and I would have been hospitalized. So, thank the Lord for that! I just have to be soooo careful around the kids. This could be fatal for a baby, so I have to keep it covered with bandages at all times. That makes taking care of little ones challenging.

The antibiotic I'm on now is super strong, and I've had to discontinue nursing Seth. The drug is so new, they can't be sure it wouldn't hurt him. And, believe it or not, this has been a blessing. Seth has been a fussy baby since he got here. I mentioned I had tried to eliminate things from my diet, but nothing seemed to help. Now, on the formula, he's the most content baby ever! David fed him at 9:30 last night (which was a wonderful change for me) and he didn't wake up again until 4:30 this morning! So, now I've got to decide if I want to try resuming nursing once I'm off this antibiotic or stick with the formula. I feel so guilty since I nursed Adeline for 10 months, but I honestly think he's doing better like this.

So, pray that this antibiotic will work. I'm not sure what happens next if it doesn't. But, God has a reason for everything, and maybe this happened to help me find a way to get more rest and take better care of myself. You mommies out there know how you tend to come last when it comes to everyone else's needs!

Here are a couple of new pictures. I've mentioned before that Adeline loves her animals (we've been in Corinth since last Thursday and she was missing them so bad!) Last week I found her sticking them in the vent. She does such curious little things. Children are a joy : )

One Month!

New pictures. I propped Seth up on the couch, but I had trouble getting him to focus on anything other than the clothes I had folded that were laying up above him.








Seth is one month old today! Thank you all for the helpful sleep suggestions - I think that's one of the best parts of blogging, a community of mommies to consult. We had a pretty good night last night, I think mostly because I finally realized he has a little bit of a milk allergy. I've already had to eliminate chocolate, and certain fruits and veggies from my diet, looks like dairy will have to go too.

I started thinking, David never gets any space on the blog! And he's certainly deserving. Really I thought about this when he said something about one of his fraternity brothers checking in with us (shout out to Smalls). I'm sure you'd rather read about something other than sleep schedules and dirty diapers! So, an update on one of my favorite men : ) First, I want to say that David was a tremendous help on my campaign. Most of you know that I ran for County Attorney here, and the election happened to fall two days before we had Seth. Needless to say, I couldn't stay out in the 100+ degree heat for very long, but my sweet little husband did. He worked so hard. I have another opponent in the November general election, and I hope Dave won't have to do as much of the hard work this time around. And belated Happy Birthday to David's friend, Ben. At the end of August, David went to Memphis to meet a bunch of his friends from college to celebrate Ben's 30th. I know he misses all you guys so much, and I do too! David has great friends.

Wow, this is difficult.

Staying home with two children that is. Especially two under two. I am SPENT these days. They are completely worth it, but I could really, really use more than two hours of sleep a night. In case you're wondering what, exactly, makes this so difficult, let me explain. Here's our average day.

Hard to decide where to start, since I pretty much live a 24 hour day, let's just start at 6:00 am.
- Seth is awake to be nursed. If I'm lucky, he's been asleep since 4:00 or so, if not, then I've been awake since 4:00.
- Finish feeding Seth, he's asleep (yes!) and I try to sneak back to bed for an hour or so.
- Adeline wakes up on cue.
- Adeline wakes Seth back up. Might as well just get up.
- It's 7:30 now, Seth decided he needs to eat again (he doesn't care that it's not time yet). Settle in to feed him.
- As soon as I get settled, Adeline announces, "I huunngry!" Since toddlers have zero patience, put Seth down to go fix Adeline's breakfast.
- Feed Adeline, clean up mess.
- Seth's demanding the rest of his meal.
- Take care of that, then everyone's diapers need changing. Change Seth, chase down Adeline, change Adeline, Seth dirties his diaper again.
- From about 10:00 - 1:00 is just a repeat of the above. Then comes naptime.
- Oh, naptime, THE hardest part of the day. Getting them to sleep at the same time is impossible. Everytime I get Adeline to sleep, Seth starts crying and wakes her back up.
- Adeline (hopefully) gets a two-hour nap to make up for the sleep she's been losing.
- David's home by 5:30 - 6:00. Turn care of Adeline over to David.
- Cook dinner, clean up kitchen. Nurse baby. David and Adeline are off to bed. I'm up til 11:00, still nursing baby.
- Put Seth down in bassinet, praying he doesn't wake back up. (He usually does.) Get up with him again at 12:00 or 1:00. Then again at 4:00. Then again at 6:00.

By the time you subtract the hour and a half it takes to feed/change him each time, I get 3-4 hours of sleep in a 24 hour day. Definitely difficult. And I've been trying to potty-train Adeline in the midst of all this. I've got my hands full : )

Over the weekend, I pulled out the Babywise book I bought while I was pregnant with Adeline.

I didn't use it with her, but since I'm scared of never sleeping again, I thought I would check it out. No thanks, we tried it for a whole day, and it was MISERABLE. Plus, it advocates the "let them cry it out" method of sleep training, and while that might work for some people, I can't stand to do that. We only tried it twice and Seth screamed way longer than the 10 minutes the book said he would. He got himself so upset I thought he might throw up. Any of you had any success with Babywise?

Oh, and we need a new name for our blog. Any suggestions? I know most of you are more creative than me. And sorry about no pictures. (See average day above). I'll work on getting some soon.