Blech!

I was a little nervous to learn that Similac was recalling a mass quantity of formula as I bought some cans to have on hand in case I was out and didn't leave milk for my husband or oldest daughter to feed the baby. I almost didn't want to check, I really didn't want to know but didn't want to not know. After all I had one opened can and three other cans, I could have just thrown them out but the frugal lady in me added up the $ and I couldn't.

So after 90 minutes of trying and continually refreshing the Similac web site I found out that they were all recalled. Including the opened can that my son drank from two weeks ago. The real kicker is I'm nursing and could have pumped a bottle that day, I didn't because I was lazy and well, running late. So because of my laziness my baby ingested beetle bug parts and/or larva. How disgusting! We are supposed to be able to have full confidence in the manufacturers of products, you would think they would be even more proactive for baby products.

Similac stated that the issue was with one of their plants. We don't even know where this "plant" is that had the issue. I read all of the packaging and no where on them does it say where it is produced or packaged. The only thing I could find was the address to the Similac headquarters in Ohio.

How could this happen? I know that there are certain amounts of bugs in everything that we eat, heck we even ingest 8 bugs a year while we sleep, but this is my baby and this is something that was put into their mouth by me/us. They didn't choose to eat it, we fed it to them. I think the FDA needs to use this as an opportunity to step up and put stiffer regulations on baby formula and food in general. And Similac, come on, get it together!

Wordless Wednesday - You make me smile.

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Wordless Wednesday - Seven months.

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Wordless Wednesday - Six months

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Love this face he makes!

.:Sheila:.

Holy hairballs.

After 8 pregnancies and 7 children you would think that I would be used to this by now. What is it that I am talking about? Postpartum hair loss. It has gotten ridiculous for me the past few weeks. We are talking enough hair in one day to give any Barbie a nice wig. My hair is EVERYWHERE! I have had to untangle it from the vacuum brush, my poor baby has it all over him. The poor guy is always with me and my hair so he sees the most of it. I was trying to grow my hair out but gave up on that after cleaning my hair off of every surface of my house.

I finally went and got a cute shoulder length cut with layers. I am still loosing hair but at least the amount of hair seems to be less because it is shorter. I will buy my time with my shorter 'do and try to grow it out again after this shedding has stopped. I pray that its soon or I am sure to go bald :).

Wordless Wednesday - Four months.

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Fail!

I couldn't do it. I tried, I really tried. I got everything ready, was even starting to get a little excited about going. Then my husband dropped the bomb....he gave me an option of staying home. Don't get me wrong, the option was always there but raising a family our size is not cheap. I was ready and willing to do my part in helping with the bills. After going over the numbers again, we realized that after daycare, gas and worst case scenario of taxes and health insurance rates I would be making about $100-150 a week. This would not even make my car payment. How could I leave my two babies for that amount? Toby at that point stated that I could stay home, we could find a way to cut back. How could I say no to that?

I now get to spend my morning making two little people smile and laugh, I couldn't be happier.

Count down begins.

Four more days until I return to work. I am more than a bit nervous, it's not that I am worried about Kira and the baby. We have a great sitter and I know she will care for them well. It's just that it has been a long time since I have had to leave a baby this young. Well ok, I worked one day when Kaly was 12 weeks old. Since then it was Haley, I went back to work when she was 4 almost 5 weeks old.

Right now we are nursing and mixing in formula here and there for a few reasons. The first is to build up the supply that I have here and the second to get him used to it in case the sitter runs out of milk. I have never left him with someone for 10 hours before. I really have no idea the amount that he will drink in that time span.

Another thing that really makes me nervous is having to get everyone up and ready by 7am and out the door. This will give me just enough time to drop the kids off and get to work. I can do this, I can do this. Can I do this?

One month (and then some)!

Today is my due date for Tucker and it's hard to believe that he is five weeks old already! This picture was taken at one month old. If you are long time reader of the blog then you know that for the first year this blue smiley guy gets to have his picture taken with the baby every month to show how much they grow. This was taken on 3/7 and he has already grown even more. They grow so quickly and it's just too hard to imagine that I will have to leave him next Sunday and return to work :(. I can't wait to see how much he's grown at his apt tomorrow, I'm going to guess that he's near the 10lb mark.

Tucker's Birth Story.

I had been contracting every 12 min or so since Friday, they weren't getting closer but they were getting stronger. We were doing our Saturday chores and was having a lot of back pain but I thought that was due to cleaning. By 3pm I had to sit down and leave the rest unfinished. When I sat down the contractions remained the same, tried taking a shower and that helped but didn't make them go away. As I was getting dried off and putting on lotion and doing my hair and stuff in the bathroom my water broke. Toby was in Seward that day and it is over an hour from there to our house so I was kind of freaking out. About that time he called me to say that he was nearly back to Lincoln and was telling me how our neighbors called wanting him to look after their dogs as they were in labor lol! That's about the time I let him know that we were too. It's so funny because he gets all in a panic and is freaking out thinking the baby is going to come right then. In his defense we have had that happen, when I was in labor w/Loryn they broke my water at 4cm and she was born an hour later BUT I was in labor for 4 hours at that time AND on pitocen.

He stopped and got his mom to help w/the kids, honestly this was a shocker but it was much appreciated. Haley is great w/her siblings and would have done fine but she would have been overwhelmed at times. I made Toby eat and shower as I knew things weren't going that fast and I wasn't sure how long it would be and my hubby is a bit of a germaphobe and would not have been comfy w/o the shower.

We got to the hospital about 8pm which was 2 hours after my water broke. The contractions were about 6 min apart at this time. They got us to our room and changed and hooked up. I was thinking that I would have made a bit of progress from my apt on Friday but nope, when the nurse checked me I was *maybe* 5cm and about 75% effaced, went backwards on effacement, didn't get that but oh well lol. She made us walk the halls for an hour where we ran into our neighbor. He was excited that his wife was already at 7cm and was thinking it would be soon. After the hour I was rechecked and I was effaced more but still only maybe a 5. They still let me just labor on my own until about 11pm when I was hooked up to pitocen.

I have no idea what the heck this nurse was trying to do to me but she must have been cranking the juice big time. My labor went from 4-5 min apart contx that were manageable to 1-2 min apart unbearable pain. I hung on until 12:45am when I asked for anti-nausea meds and pain meds. I couldn't manage it this time, Toby knew that it was bad as I had labored the last three kids no prob w/no meds but nausea meds. At that time I started getting the shakes and told the nurse that I don't feel like I have to push now but it is going to be very soon (it was about 1am when I said this and I told Toby that I was hoping to have the baby by 2am lol). Neighbor check, they still had not delivered and race was on LOL!

The nurse checked me and I was only 6cm but completely effaced and I told her that I go very fast and to call the dr. Thankfully she listened, had some issues w/nurses not listening and then trying to get me to "breathe thru the contraction" umm yeah right LOL. It would be easier to stop a train wreck w/my bare hands! So about 2 min before the dr got there I was ready to push and the nurse kept telling me to wait he was coming up and just had to change. She was really trying to say anything to get me to not push and at one point had said once he got in there all I had to do was push once and the baby would come right out.

So when the dr got there and I was able to push for one contraction I was able to relax and calm down and manage better. After that contraction I looked at the nurse and started laughing and told her she lied, he didn't come out in one push. Had the whole room cracking up and poor Dr Millius didn't know what to think of someone w/o an epi laughing and joking as they start to push thru another contraction lol! I finally got his head out w/the second contraction, third push and before he could be suctioned my body went nutty and pushed him out the rest of the way. All I remember about that was Toby and the nurse grabbing my shoulders telling me not to back away from the dr, I guess I was pushing up on the bed and pushing him out. So odd lol I blame it on the over cranking of pit.

Tucker came out pink and screaming and was doing good but breathing fast and pulling in when breathing. He weighed 6lbs 2oz and was 19in long.

And if you were wondering, yes we beat the neighbors by about two hours. It will not be hard to remember their daughter's birthday :).

Wordless Wednesday - Welcome Tucker Jonas!

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Success at failing?

So after my reg Dr apt on Thursday I was thinking about birth control and what we would use after. I know that I am done, my body knows that I am done. We have used many forms and from the 8 little blessings we've had only one, that's right ONE, was planned. We did have success with both the copper and the Mirena IUDs but that was mostly due to forced abstinence due to it causing irritation for either Toby (copper) or me (Mirena). We have used four different pills, all eventually failed, patch- fail, condoms-fail. We have great success with failure lol!

So after trying all pregnancy to convince Toby to have his nutties cut and him not complying, I set up my tubal. I would have had it done right after delivery but the hospital I am delivering at does not perform them (darn!). So now I will have to go back about a month postpartum and have it done out patient. I am very nervous, the most I've been put under for was to have my wisdom teeth pulled and I doubt I was tubed for that. Do they leave the tube in until you wake up or is it out by that time? I know I will freak out if I wake up and it's in.

I would love to have some of my fears put to rest like how much pain is it immediately after? How long are you in pain? What is the recovery time? How long does the procedure take?

Tackle it Tuesday - Found it!

So I had two goals today, the first was to go through the tub of baby clothes that we had from Jake and organize it so that I had all the newborn - 9m out and put away. The second was to tackle the storage room again to find that dang preemie outfit that Toby organized lost.

I actually did it all and then some! I started with the tub since that was the least amount of work, I had already had that hauled upstairs and it was sitting in my room. I dug out all the 0-9m clothes as well as some 12m clothes. Then I went and cleared out some drawers in my dresser to put them away. Since I had those, I went through what I had bought as well to decide what to bring to the hospital. This led to me picking out the pjs that I was taking to the hospital. So I also got my bag 3/4 packed and a list together of what else needs to be tossed in when the time comes!

(Hard to believe that Jake fit into this!)

Then I moved down stairs turns out this time I started on the right side of the closet. After going through three other bins I found it on the fourth one. I am so excited to finally have it, I thought for sure that it wouldn't be found until the baby long out grew it. Once it gets out of the wash it will be packed in the bag as well.

Now we have the space in the room cleared and waiting for the baby gear to get here to set up then the baby can show up anytime after that.

What's in a name?

So as you all may know we are still nameless here. It's not that we are totally without name options, we simply do not agree. I am stuck on the name Jonas while Toby is constantly thinking of names and likes a few such as Brody and the latest names to the list Tobias and Jarret. He thinks that Jonas will have issues with being referred the the pop group The Jonas Brothers, I say that they wont even be remembered when Jonas gets to school (yes did you notice that? We've been calling the baby Jonas almost from finding out we were expecting). He thinks Tobias would be good but if we were going to do a Jr, or Jr like name it really should have been done w/Jacob, not with the second boy. He thinks that Jarret is a good strong name, all I can think of is it reminds me of the weight loss phenom from Subway. I know it's not EXACTLY the same name, but close enough! Brody is an ok name it's actually the name Toby and I agreed on for Jake before he changed his mind minutes before I started pushing, but if we do use it then we wont use MY name at all. No way can we have another child with weird initials BJS would not be good, we already have a PMS, why, you ask? Because Toby had to have Paige as a first name instead of the name I picked-Madison. See a trend? I sure do!

So here I sit with a baby name book trying to find a name. I am currently 33 weeks pregnant, for the average person that would leave PLENTY of time to find a name but for me it means I could go into labor at any time. My last two were born at 34 weeks 2 days and 34 weeks exactly, the two before that were 37 and 36 weeks.

I am looking through the book and see all of these really great boy GIRL names in the boy section. Really was Abby ever a boy name? I know Alexis, Loren, Jordon and Leslie were actually boy names before they were picked up as girl names, but Kalyn, Kali and Ashley?

Really Jack Frost, can you just stop?

More snow, more school closings. This is getting really old! The snow piles on either side of our driveway are close if not higher than 4ft. I really do not know where we are going to put it. The snow drifts on our rural roads are far taller than my car.

I was supposed to have my first bpp/nst and another shot apt tomorrow. Looks like that wont be happening :(. Dang it I was really looking fwd to see this little guy and maybe getting another 3d pic of him ::sigh::. Maybe I will be lucky and get it all rescheduled for Friday. IF we are dug out by then that is lol!

So Mr. Jack Frost, go home or go back East where they are used to all this snow and leave us mid-westerners alone!

Do what?!

Lay in a bed all day?
That's right, I went to my dr on Wednesday and got my usual Thursday shot, the office was closed Christmas eve. Since he was leaving and would not be back next week he decided to check me to see if there was any change from the last week. There was and now I am off of work and on bed rest now. Bed rest is doing what it's supposed to, the contractions have slowed down a lot. I am seriously beginning to wonder if I'll make it to my goal of 36 weeks.

Gearing up.

This little guy is gearing up to show himself. He has already landed me a 5 hour stay in L&D due to contractions. I am now constantly getting them. The more I am up and moving around, the more I get. I am not sure how much longer I'll be able to work, not that I'll miss it when I am forced to stay home lol.
I have another dr apt tomorrow for a shot and I plan to talk to him about my continued contractions and see what he wants to do.

Conversation between Jake & Toby

As you read this, keep in mind that Jake knows all the Jonas Brother's names but Toby does not, nor does he like them....

Jake: What will the baby's name be?
Toby: Mom likes Jonas.
Jake: What about Nick? Nick Jonas would be good?
Toby: Nick is a good name but I like Joesph. Joesph Jonas would be ok, we could call him JJ.
Jake: Or Joe, he could be Joe Jonas.
Toby: No, I don't like Joe as a name.
Jake: Kevin is a good name. Kevin Jonas, does that sound good?
Toby: Kevin is a good name but we have a lot of K's already, we could call him KJ though. Kevin would be alright.

As you can imagine I am turning red/purple and fighting back the laughter at this point. Toby is convinced that if we name the baby Jonas (which I have like long before anyone even knew who or what a Jonas Brother was) he will be teased because of the Jonas Brothers. Then as he and Jake are talking they went through not one, not two but all three of the famous Jonas Brother's names! After they were done I informed him of such and we had a great laugh about it. He must have thought I was nuts sitting there nearly in tears from holding back my laughter.

As you can tell the name debate is still going strong at our house. I can in all certainty tell you that Nicholas (Nick), Joesph and Kevin were all X'd off of the list though ;).

Whole day is off!

So I took yesterday off to take Kira and Kaly to the dr and to stay with them since they were both sick. I make far less than Toby does in a day so it just makes sense for me to be the one at home with them. Plus Toby at a dr's office? LOL the thought alone makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe! Any way so here I am on my lunch break at work trying to reschedule all the apts that I had scheduled today (my normal day off) and I am so lost! Today feels like either a Monday or a Wednesday not a Tuesday. I actually tried to correct a lady that it was a different day when trying to reschedule :), sorry! She didn't really find the humor in it like I did while explaining-or rather trying to explain to her why I was off.

Kaly is doing much better, I wish the doctor would have given her this medicine last week. I am a little upset that she had to suffer like that before they would do anything different. Kira still looks horrible but was laughing and playing as I left today. Toby would have stayed with her, but Haley was running a fever and thought she could handle Kira. I wonder if I sat down and figured out the amount of money that I pay in unused daycare and medicine from all of Kira's illnesses with doctor copays and such how much I really make working? It can't be much, especially if you add on the gas I spend to travel all the way out to my job, the money I spend on lunch/snacks because I am always running late and can't pack things.

I suppose we will just make it until I either deliver or am pulled out of work and go from there. My guess is I will be staying at home for at least a year after this little guy shows up..........but you never know!