Hodge Podge

This week has gone by fast.  I can't believe tomorrow is Friday!!  We had rain off and on Monday, and then Tuesday we got ice!  It started during the day, but by Tuesday evening we were getting sleet.  By Wednesday morning, most of North Texas was shut down.  Jeff stayed here for a 8am conference call and then tried to go to work.  He was gone about 30 minutes, and he probably made it about 5 miles or less before he turned around and came home.  He said it wasn't worth it!  However, by yesterday afternoon the sun came out and most everything had melted.  It was around 50 when I was out at lunch today, and it is supposed to be near 70 on Saturday!

I made teething biscuits this past Saturday.  I got the recipe out of a magazine, and they seemed simple to make.  She loved her first one she had, but after that she will either eat half of it or take one bite and throw it.  She throws whatever she doesn't want.  I don't know how to stop her from doing this.  We tell her no, but I don't think it really sinks in!

Here she is chowing down on the teething biscuit!

And, Madison is really pulling herself up on her chair.  She does it a lot now, but doesn't stand up all the way yet, and once she gets up, she doesn't know how to get down!  Hopefully, we are one step closer to walking!

Here she is after pulling up...

And, here she is after getting her toy out of the seat...

We usually really try to keep the cat and dog toys up and out of Madison's reach, but sometimes we aren't successful.  JJ had been playing with one of the "sticks" as we call them.  It's basically a stick with some sort of feather thing at the end.  Well, I told Jeff to watch Madison because she was headed towards one, but he was too busy looking at his blackberry (which he is totally addicted too!).  The next thing we know we hear this belly laugh.  We look, and Madison is flipping the "stick" around and JJ is chasing it.  It was really cute, but I worried that JJ would claw her.  We got a few pics before we took it away from her.

And, yesterday when Jeff was working from home, he got a delivery!  He saw a man coming to the door with flowers!  I was a little surprised to say the least.  They were for him from RIM for donating the bone marrow!  They are really pretty.

So, this is kinda what has been going on!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Bone Marrow Recovery

I finally have time to post about everything that has happened in regards to the bone marrow donation on Thursday. 

We arrived at the Baylor Hospital in downtown Dallas @ 5:45 am. I got checked in and then we had to wait until they called me to check my vital signs and then take me to holding area for surgery. My Coordinator, Jennifer, arrived a few minutes after 6 and stayed with us the whole time until I was rolled in for surgery and then kept Jen company while I was having the procedure done. I donned the fashionable hospital gown and waited to be asked the same questions over and over by doctors and nurses. Finally 7:30 came and I had my IV in and a nice drug cocktail flowing through me and it was time to go into the operating room. I only remember a minute or 2 of the operating room. The next thing I know I was awakened in the Recovery Room (the actual procedure only took a half hour). I was in recovery for a few hours because they didn't have a room ready for me. I really didn't feel a lot of pain (I was expecting a lot worse), but they did give me some drugs through the IV. 

I was eventually taken to a regular room where I would be the rest of the day.  I wasn't allowed to get out of bed until 2:00. So I just laid there and ate ice chips, drank water and eventually ate some cheese and crackers. I pretty much just talked with Jen, the hospital staff to pass the time. Finally, 2:00 came and I was allowed to get out of bed, but we decided that we better have the hospital staff be there in case I decided to fall. I was able to stand up for a while, but then I started feeling light-headed and had to sit back down. Long story short, my blood pressure was running low partially because of the loss of fluid as well as me taking my blood pressure medication that morning. We ended up being at the hospital longer than the doctor originally had expected because we had to wait until my lightheadedness went away.

I have 2 small incisions near my waist line on my back that are about 1/4" long. The incisions are so small that they didn't require stitches.

I haven't done a whole lot since Thursday, but I haven't been in a lot of pain (again, I prepared myself for the worse). They did provide me with some pain medicine, but I have only taken Tylenol. We did get out and go to Wal-Mart yesterday and I over did it because I was in some pain from walking. So, going to work tomorrow will be rather interesting. It's been difficult to not help with Madison, but I am following the doctors orders of not lifting 10 lbs for a week.

I talked with my coordinator tonight because she wanted to see how I was doing. She told me that my marrow did make it to where it needed to go on Friday night. The doctor told me that the marrow left the hospital about noon Thursday, so it definitely went far far away. They told us that it would be 30 days before the recipient will start to see signs if the marrow donation is working. Jen learned from talking with the coordinator that everything that I am allergic to the recipient will now be allergic to as well as since I have already had chicken pox he will be immune from them as well. We thought that was pretty interesting. 

So, that is all and I may or may not ever hear how the little boy does, but at least I have done my part and given him a chance to be able to survive.

Catching Up...

Things have been pretty crazy around here.  Madison started getting sick on Monday.  She just started throwing up.  Then she acted fine, but the next day she had diarrhea off and on.  By Wednesday morning, she had it pretty bad.  I called the doctor, and they said it was just a stomach bug that would last 2 to 3 days.  And, we needed to modify her diet until she was over it.  We had to cut out all the milk and dairy in her diet.  She was supposed to go on the BRAT diet, which was bread, rice, apple sauce, and toast.  So, basically just give her really bland stuff, and to get as much pedialyte down her as possible.  Her food wasn't really an issue, but not having her milk was.  She HATED the pedialyte, and would get furious when we tried to give it to her.  I tried to give it to her in a bottle and various sippy cups to no avail.  I finally told Jeff that we were going to have to get a syringe, which is what we did.  We forced it down her.  Sometimes she would be fine taking it, but other times it was pure HELL!  She was about 90% by Thursday afternoon.  However, I got it really bad on Wednesday.  I was getting so bad that I BBM'd Jeff, and told him to come home ASAP.  Then Thursday morning Jeff got it!!  So, we've just been really, really sick here.  I still feel really fatigued, and my appetite still isn't normal yet.  I lost 6.5 pounds, and Jeff lost 8 pounds!!  Like I said, it was bad!

However, in the midst of all this, Miss Madison is FINALLY starting to try and pull up.  She wants to climb all over everything, and she can pull herself to a stand on her chair, but she doesn't stand up all the way.  She bends at the waist and lays her head in the seat.  It's cute.  I've been calling her monkey.  She LOVES it when I call her that.  She just give me this HUGE smile when I call her that.  It always reminds me of my uncle calling me that.  I remember when I was really little, and he drove by and yelled, "Monkey, Monkey, Monkey!" at me, and I was sooooo upset.  I went inside almost in tears with my lip out and told my mom that "Tommy drove by and yelled Monkey, Monkey, Monkey at me!!"  It's one of our favorite stories!

So, here is our little monkey climbing all over her Daddy!

In other news, Jeff is still scheduled for her bone marrow donation on Thursday.  My mom is coming down tomorrow to help out with everything.  Jeff is actually taking off on Wednesday so that we can go and FINALLY get our tags and licenses.  I hope we can get it all done in one day, but I'm beginning to wonder.  The process so far has been a long one.  Anyway, then we have to be at the hospital before 4 for Jeff's pre-op.  Then be back again at the hospital at 6am.  The procedure will last about an hour and a half, and then he will go to recovery.  Then once he can get up and walk by himself and go to the bathroom by himself he should be released.  They said probably around dinner time.  So, who knows when that will be.  It's going to be a long day!  So, I probably won't be posting anything for awhile until things settle down again!

New Furniture

On New Year's Day, we went to look for furniture for the game room and for the sitting room off the master bedroom.  We didn't find any thing for the game room.  We are really wanting a sleeper sofa that is NOT microfiber, and it's incredibly hard to find that combo!  But, we did find an armless chair and a loveseat that we both really liked.

Here they are, and Annie checking them out.

And, I tried and tried, but I couldn't get a shot without a cat butt in it!  But, this is an up close shot of the loveseat.

And, here is a close up of the armless chair.

We need to find some end tables.  I think it's going to be hard to find them though, because it will need to kinda match our bedroom furniture.  And, way before we moved, Jeff told me to buy a new duvet cover.  Of course, I never did.  It was probably because I was a tad bit busy!!  So, now I need to find something that will coordinate with them too!

And, just because I haven't posted a pic of Miss Madison in awhile...here she is in her chair watching one of her Baby Einstein videos!

Life Without Paci & Gymboree!

Madison is in love with her paci.  She never was really that interested in it until she was in daycare.  Even though it was a brief stint, she was addicted to it!  I didn't worry too much about it until she began to get this awful rash around her mouth.  Dr. Sood, her pedi in Tulsa, had told us at her 6 month appointment that he wanted it gone by the time she was 9 months.  Well, we got her down to just having it at naps and bedtime, and we were just thinking about taking it away from her during the day when Jeff accepted the position with RIM.  She flew down here with us when we were looking for houses, and we gave her the paci during the flight.  It was all over then!  I've slowly gotten her back to just having it at naps, bedtime, when she's sick, or just really, really cranky.  When we went for her one year checkup with the new doctor, I asked him what his feelings were toward the paci.  He told me that if we can get her off of it the sooner the better.  He said the same thing about the bottle.  So, I knew that I would try to get rid of the paci after the holidays.  I decided to just go cold turkey.  I had tried in the past to do a gradual method, but it didn't work.  She always knew she could get it back.  So, I decided that yesterday would be day one without paci!  She did amazingly well.  She didn't really cry that much, and she slept fairly good.  I was really worried about bedtime.  She cried for about 30 minutes before I went in, and she had a full poopy diaper!  So, I changed her, rocked her, and put her back down.  She cried for less than 5 minutes, and then she was out!  She slept the whole night without it!  I was so proud.  Now we are on to day two, and she's still doing well without it.  Keep your fingers crossed!

I've been wanting to get her into the Gymboree Play & Music classes since we moved here.  I just really haven't had the time to sit down and do it.  Well, Jeff and I found where it was over the weekend, and I just booked her a free class.  You can come in for one free class before you sign up.  Molly, my old hair stylist, had told me that her sister-in-law does them (she moves around a lot because her husband is in the military), and she said they were wonderful and helped her meet other stay at home moms.  So, I booked the Play & Learn Level 3 class.  It is for 10 months to 16 months.  I scheduled it for next Tuesday.  I hope Madison likes it!

***And as a side note, this is our 100th post!!  WOW!!!***

New Year's Resolutions

Well, it is January 4, 2008, and I'm just now telling you all our New Year's resolutions.  We had both been saying for the past month or longer that we were ready to start working out again.  Things here have just been so hectic that we haven't had time to sit down and even think about it.  RIM will pay for Jeff's gym membership at his work, so he is just going to get up and go in at 5:30 every morning.  And, for you that think you wouldn't get up at that time, this is his normal time to get up.  So, he is just going to get up, shave, throw clothes on and go.  So, I decided that since he is getting up at 5:30 that I would too, and I would utilize our own version of the gym.  We have our treadmill and weights upstairs in the gameroom, so I will be going up there and working out for 30 minutes everyday.  We are both excited about this, and we know that it is time.

We are also going back on our "diets".  I hate the word diet.  The word just seems to set you up to fail.  When we were planning our wedding, I went on Weight Watchers.  We both lost a ton of weight, and it really changed our way of looking at food.  Once I lost the weight, we were really able to maintain it for a long time.  Then I got pregnant, and I wasn't allowed to workout.  It totally screwed us up.  I was craving anything and everything, so we got off our healthy lifestyle.  Once I had Madison, I lost all the weight, but was still really flabby.  I weighed myself this morning and I'm 5 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight and still really flabby!  So, I will be getting out all my Weight Watcher's stuff and refocusing on that healthy lifestyle we once had.  

Another reason that we want to get back to that healthy lifestyle is Madison.  She's really starting to eat more and more table foods, and we both want to set better examples for her.  Jeff and I both were chubby growing up, and we don't want Madison to be that chubby kid.  We know what it felt like, and we don't want her to experience that.  Plus, we really want her to be healthy!

So, here are our resolutions:

• Eat healthier
• Drink more water, less caffeine
• Workout at least 3 times a week 
• Lose weight (Jen-10 pounds, Jeff-30 pounds)
• Spend more time together (just Jeff and Jen)

I know these are the typical resolutions of working out and losing weight, but we are truly committed to do this!!

In regards to the last resolution, Jeff and I booked a trip to San Francisco last night.  We are going over Valentine's/President's Day weekend.  We leave February 13th and get back the 16th.  Neither of us have ever been, and we are just excited to be getting to spend some alone time together.  We have only been out alone (besides when we closed on our houses) twice since Madison was born.  Once was just a date night, and the other was for our anniversary.  So, Grammy and possibly Grampy will be coming up to watch Miss M.  So, they are excited to get to spend quality time with her, and we are excited to just get away for a quick trip.  However, I am a little nervous about leaving Madison for several days, but I think it will be good for us!