7 Months

Dear Colin,
   You are now a 7 month old. The time has just flown by with you. I can't believe it has already been that long. You now weigh 21 lbs and 6 ounces. You are 28 inches long. In the last month you have grown an inch taller but  gained less than a pound. You are still wearing 12 month clothes and they are still a little big on you so I'm hoping you will stay in them for a while longer.
   You can sit up on your own and love to sit and play with toys and watch what is going on.  You can roll but only do it in your bed or on my bed. I have seen you do it a few times on the floor but you don't do it often. If you fuss long enough you have found someone will bring you the toy then you don't have to roll. When on your stomach you will get your legs up under you and push up on your arms but I still think you are a few months away from crawling.
  For almost a week now you have been sleeping through the night. You go to bed about 7:30 and sleep until sometime in the 4 o clock hour then you wake up eat really quick and go back to sleep until a little after 6. I LOVE it. It is so nice to get to sleep through the night.
   For food you are eating between 1.5 and 2 jars of food a day. You like almost everything now. Your favorites are banana's and sweet potatos. You are on half formula and half breastmilk. You still don't care for formula all that much but will take it. Your breast milk you suck it down faster than a fire truck going to a fire.
   You are a mommies boy. You love your mommy and don't go to many other people. You will let daddy hold you but you don't like anyone else to really hold you for long. You love your sister to pieces. Any time see pays any attention to you your face lights up and you get so excited.
   You also love to be outside. You enjoy the nice weather and playing with dirt and other things that you find laying around out there.
   We had to move you out of your baby car seat because you were just getting too big. You now have a big car seat like your sister and you enjoy sitting in it and looking out the window or watching your sister.
   In the last month you took your first airplane ride to California.  You did fantastic while out in California and the family loved getting to meet you.
   You are still trying to get over the RSV and we still do at least two breathing treatments a day. You wake up in the morning coughing a lot but for the most part during the day you are okay, just breathing a little harder and faster. We have an appointment with a doctor on Sept. 8
   I love you big boy. You light up my life. I enjoy snuggling with you and listening to you "talk". I am one lucky mommy to have such amazing children in my life.
Thank you for all your smiles and laughs.

Love,


Mommy

A Mother's Work is never Done

A mother's work is never done. It is like laundry or dishes once you put the last piece away something new gets dirty. No matter how many things I cross off my to do list 3 more pop up. What makes my list grow even more is when you add the daycare stuff on top of it.
Before when I worked outside of the home if I didn't feel like vacuuming the floor or putting dishes away I could leave it. It wouldn't be done when I got home from work but it wasn't that big of deal. Now if I don't put the dishes away then we have no place to put all the new dishes we create throughout the day. If I don't do laundry then we don't have bibs for the day.
  I have kids 7:30 am to 8pm. Then I have to make sure everything is done for the day. My down time for myself is from 8:30-9:45 then it is to bed because my kids are up at 6:00-6:15 in the morning.
   I have dreams of checking into a hotel and laying in bed watching TV without worrying about what is going on and taking a nice LONG shower and enjoying the shower instead of hurrying because I'm not sure who is going to wake up while I'm in there.
   I love being a mom and I love running my own business. But I would really really love a nice drink, a place to put my feet up and no to do list for about 12 hours!

Sleeping through the night

Since Friday Colin has been sleeping through the night. He goes to bed between 7 and 8 and gets up at 4 to eat and then sleeps until a little after 6. I will take it! This is 10 months sooner than his sister. He also takes better naps than his sister ever did, so lets hope he keeps it up!

RSV SUCKS

I miss my Colin that was only crabby when he was tired or hungry. I miss my baby that would sit and play by himself and I miss my baby that would wake up eat and go back to sleep.

  I see that baby every once in a while but for the last 3 days it has been lots of tears, lots of hour long wake ups at night and all around miserable Mommy and Baby. Tomorrow I go see the people that are doing the research on RSV. I am praying to God that they can give me some insight on how I can help Colin breath a little better and maybe just maybe I can have my baby back. 

Obstacles

When I decided to stay home and open my own daycare I knew that I wanted to make it as legal as possible.  So I took the proper steps to get my state license and all the proper steps to make my home safe. From the beginning how I needed to go about getting all the paperwork kept changing. It depended on who you talked to and what time of day it was. 
   This is still the case. Today I got my stuff from the food program telling me that I was over my numbers. I went back re-read the rule book and then called the food program to explain that no I was not over I was just fine. They inform me that is not what state has said.  So I have to call my state guy. He is known for not calling me back.  So I will call him again next week and try to get this all straightened out.
   I could have done this under the table and not by the book, and really all a license does is give me a piece of paper saying the state knows about me, but I didn't and now all the hassle is getting frustrating. It is a good thing I love my daycare kids and am happy with what I am doing otherwise I might be tempted to just throw in the towel.
In other news I just sat down and worked on my up to date budget and I am very happy the way my business is going and hope to see the numbers continue to go the way I want them to.

Cough

While in California I started not feeling good. I kept brushing it off, telling myself that I was just tired and that I was fine.

I woke up Monday morning with needles in my throat and a horrible rash all over my body. I called my assistant Jenni and asked her to bring a friend and come work for the day. I knew I had to go to the doctor and get better.

The doctor told me it was just a cold and my body was run down and gave me some steriods for my rash. I came home and took a nap and started to feel better.

Today Colin is feeling horrible. Chris took him to the doctor who also said that it was just a cold and to keep doing what we are doing.

I feel so bad for Colin because I know he can't breath and he is miserable. He hasn't eaten much today and has cried most of the day. I am so at a loss as to what I can do to make him better. We go see the research team for RSV on Friday. I am praying that they might have another option for me to try with Colin. I want so badly for him to feel better. We are now past the two month mark of when he got sick.

When Alyssa was sick it was with ear infections and so we would give medicine and at least for a few days she would feel better. With Colin there has been no relief. Every now and then we get a day here or there where he doesn't cough very much but by the next day he is coughing badly again.

I hope by the three month mark he feels better and can breath again.

Meeting People

In California Colin got to meet a lot of new people. However, I was not able to get pictures with everyone.

He did get to meet his great-grandma Shirley.

His Uncle Michael.

His Aunt Lauren

He saw again his Grandpa and Nana

He also met his Great Uncle Gary and Great Aunt Carolyn, second cousins Katie and Kelly, my great Uncle Larry and many more people that have no relation to the family but are very close with the family.

He was the hit with everyone. I got so many complements on how well he was behaved, and how cute he was. He was mostly smiles but even his tears where far and few between.