13 Months Old

My son is 13 months today! He's been celebrating by doing all kinds of exciting growing up things.

For the last week his first molar has been breaking through. He had his flu shot a week ago and had a fever that night. Then the next couple of days didn't eat as much. It wasn't until he started jerking his head away when I'd give him a sippy cup or put my hand near my face that I realized he was teething since I thought those symptoms were a side effect of the shot. I'm still not sure about the fever. He did have a teething fever of 101 a couple of months ago, but this was even higher (103). So maybe it was a combination of the shot AND teething.

He WALKED the other day!!! I said "come here" while he was standing holding on to the door jamb. He took a step, then looked down and deliberately took another step, then another step, then another. By then he was to me! I made a big deal about it and immediately went to change my facebook status, bragging about his accomplishment. I didn't think he'd do it again but I got right back down on the floor and stood him up a few feet away. He walked right to me! He did it several times. I think the most steps he took in a row were about 7. He did really well too, he didn't wobble much or fall down. He would always make it to me! I'm so proud of him, you'd think this was something only he does and not every single baby in the world, but he did such a great job!!

My mom said that when I was a baby I walked a couple of times when I was almost 1. I fell down and she said I didn't walk again for a couple of months, then when I did start I walked perfectly and never fell. I guess I was a perfectionist even then! But Evan is 13 months and just walked for the first time. He hasn't walked since then. I couldn't get him to yesterday or so far today. However, he did this same thing with crawling and a lot of the words he says. He'll do it a few times in a row, then stop doing it for weeks and then suddenly start again.

He also said 2 words together for the first time this morning! He said "Hey Kitty." He said it several times after Matt said it. SO cool!! He's just been all around more vocal today, saying words that he's been able to say for months, but usually doesn't say. He said "da" (daddy), "bye bye," "okay," "kitty," and "hey kitty" this morning.

He also got scratched by our cat Serenity this morning, shortly after saying "Hey kitty" to her. Evil cat. Her claw covers fell off weeks ago but we haven't had many problems with her scratching him so we didn't replace them. But tonight we will definitely put them back on her! She scratched his face, about half an inch under his eye. It bled and now there's a scab there and it's looking a little puffy around it. I washed it after it happened, but I'm going to watch it to make sure it doesn't get infected.

That's all for Evan's 13 month update. I think I still have yet to post his 12 month stats from his doctor's visit a month ago....I will have to do that soon!

crazy cats continued

Thanks for all of the honest and supportive comments on my last post! A lot of new things have come up on this subject....and I am still undecided on what to do.

We took Firefly to the vet last week because we suspected she had another bladder infection (she also had one in January). Matt took her and told the vet how aggressive she's become in the last year. She immediately said she thought Firefly should go on "kitty prozac" because of the sudden change in personality! She then asked if there's been any stress in her life. Matt told her we have a 9 month old son. He told her more details and she's pretty certain that Firefly just isn't adjusting to Evan and probably won't without some help -- in the form of "kitty prozac" that costs $20 a month (figures). It's also "convenient" that it comes in the form of a capsule pill that we have to give her EVERY DAY. The first 3 nights we gave it to her we spent about 30 minutes each night trying to force it down her throat (last night was the 4th and it only took 5 very painful stressful minutes). She then spends the entire night and most of the next day hiding under the bed pouting. One of Matt's co-workers summed it up nicely - "so you are forcing pills down her throat every day to make her like you more?" lol

It should take effect in about 3 weeks. The vet said we should notice a huge difference in her personality. She will have to be on the meds about 4 months before going to every other day, then another few months before weaning off them altogether. The vet said that if she reverts back to her aggressive behavior after that we should definitely find a new home for her for her health and Evan's safety. The stress of having Evan in the house is causing her aggression, causing her to stop grooming herself, and causing the recurring bladder infections. The doctor did a complete physical exam and a urine test just to make sure there wasn't bacteria or some other pain causing the problems and sure enough, it was all clear, meaning that it is stress causing these problems. The vet said she wouldn't be surprised if she lost some of the excess weight after being on the meds too. I'm not even going to say what all of this cost us (not including the monthly payments for the meds). Well...I'll just say it was over $300. Over $350. Over....nah, it wasn't over $400 thankfully!!!

So for her we're wondering should we keep her and hope that the meds work? For all we know in 7-8 months we might be back at square one. Plus if she can't handle Evan how is she going to handle a second baby addition and possibly a third in the future? How is she going to handle it when Evan is older and has friends over on a regular basis? How is she going to handle moving to a new house someday? I just feel like it would really be best for her to live with an older person/people who are established and not going to go through any big changes. I'm wondering how I'm going to continue her medicine when Matt is out of town. It's hard enough giving it to her with both of us working at it. And what are we going to do when we both go out of town next month?? It's way too hard to ask my sister or a friend to do that for us. But we'll see, we still haven't made any decisions.

Serenity....*sigh* She has become even worse with Evan. He has scratches all up and down his arms. One was especially nasty (bleeding) and he cried after she did it (he rarely cries when she scratches him). I've taken to locking her up the entire time he's awake. He knows that she'll hurt him now and ignores her until she continually positions herself to be right in front of him. She'll even go up and rub her head all over him until he grabs her fur (then she immediately hisses and scratches him). I have been especially vigilant with watching him lately. The other day she was in the room with us and I had to run to the next room to grab my brush. I started out and looked to see where Serenity was. She was following me. Great! I don't have to lock her up just to go grab something. I grab it and return to the room about 10 seconds later. She's laying next to him. Huh? She must have turned around and ran back in after I saw her following me. Oh well. Look at Evan's arm. New scratch. Wow. I can't even leave him alone for 10 seconds if she's on the loose.

Every time I see Evan's arms I make the decision to find a new home for her. But then at night or during nap time I think, "nooo, I can't get rid of her. She's my favorite." At this point I'm still undecided. We ordered Soft Paws for her and will try them out again. We tried them when she was a kitten and within 2 days half of them had fallen off. Another 2 days and they had all fallen off. But maybe now that she isn't as active they will stay on and will work.

To be honest, part of me wants to get rid of them just because of the messes they make. The hair, the cat food all over the living room, the pieces of cat litter all over the house. So with all of the real problems added to that, it makes me want to get rid of them. *sigh* Oh well....I just don't know what to do. Last night I had made the firm decision to go ahead and try to find a home for them (we'd probably have to separate them which I doubt will bother them at this point since they rarely hang out together). We don't have to give them up if we aren't comfortable with the home they would be going to. But now I'm not so sure... ahhhH!!!!!

crazy cats

These cats are seriously driving me insane. I know I haven't talked much about them since having Evan. They've been bothering me for a little over a year now for various reasons, but things seem to be getting worse now.

I'll start with Firefly. When we moved in 2 years ago she probably weighed about 9 pounds (and we thought she was big then!). She was beautiful and friendly and everyone who came over loved her and she loved them.

Serenity was the bad and shy cat. Weird combination, I know! She was a little demon in our apartment, constantly tearing things up (including 2 leather couches). However, she is scared of everyone who comes in the house (except my brother, oddly enough). She's always been high maintenance, but it's better the past year since she "grew up."

Now Firefly is a huge (she got up to 15.5 pounds), mean, grumpy cat who doesn't clean herself properly. Her fur is tangled and has clumps that we're always having to cut out. We took her to the vet back in January and the vet said she is too overweight which is why she can't reach several areas on her body to clean (including one area that you really want a cat to clean, especially an indoor cat...). We started giving both cats senior cat food which apparently has less calories or something and we restricted how much we give them. We took her back to the vet 2 weeks later and she had already lost 1 pound. To be honest I had no clue that she was unhealthily overweight. My parents have a HUGE cat (19 pounds) that I grew up with and so I just compare mine to theirs....Firefly didn't seem so big then. lol Anyway, I was excited about her losing weight. I thought maybe that's why she's become so aggressive and mean the past year and a half, because she isn't healthy and is uncomfortable. Unfortunately she hasn't lost any more weight (that I can tell) and she still isn't grooming herself properly and she's still mean. She will scratch anyone who touches her and has even gone out of her way to attack me when I was sitting down on the couch beside her.

The problem is that she comes and sits right next to you...but when you move she'll scratch you. I just wish that if she was going to be so mean she would stay out of our way. Also, we'll have visitors come by and she'll come right up to them and rub against them but if they pet her she'll scratch them and hiss. I now have to warn everyone not to touch her even though she seems friendly. For awhile I thought maybe she was in pain and that explained it, but the vet seemed to think everything was good except for her being overweight.

Serenity is too smart for her own good and always has been. She now knows that she can get away with anything since I can't yell at her or run after her while taking care of Evan. She waits until I'm rocking or feeding him or until just after I've put him in his crib and he is about to go to sleep. She'll start tearing up the couch or clothes hamper or something else she shouldn't be scratching. If I'm feeding Evan, giving him a bath, or rocking him I can't do anything. I can't run after her and if I yell it scares Evan and he starts to cry. She's too far away to spray with water and that doesn't work anyway (that actually encourages her to do bad things because it becomes a game).

Now that Evan is moving she will go and lay down right in front of him. He'll pull her fur or her tail and she'll hiss and swipe at him. If I'm around I'll make him stop and keep him away from her, but she gets into his gated play area with him. The reason I put that gate up was so that he can play and I don't have to constantly watch him. Well the other day she scratched him on the head....big time. You can see 4 scratch marks where all of her claws dug into him. It bled pretty badly too. She also got him on the other side of his head, but not as bad. Now what if she had scratched him 2 inches lower? She would have scratched his eye. It's bad enough having those marks on his head, but what if they were on his face? I was getting ready for church when it happened and I wasn't able to make it on time because I had to clean the cuts. Plus I didn't want him to go to church looking all beat up. I'm now trying to shut her up in the office when I am busy and put him in his play area. But that's hard to do when I'm in a hurry getting ready because I don't want to waste time chasing her around to put her in the room and I don't want to forget and leave her in there in my hurry to get out of the house.

*sigh* I know this is so long but I just don't know what to do about these cats. Part of me wants to try to find another home for them where they can't hurt Evan or another little baby. Firefly has never scratched him but that's because she doesn't follow him around and we don't let him near her. But I'm afraid one day I won't be watching and he'll get close to her. And obviously Serenity puts herself right in front of him and follows him everywhere he goes, but will still scratch him if he hurts or scares her.

And then another part thinks we should keep them. We took on a responsibility when we adopted them. They were like our children at one point. They helped me so much when I wanted a baby but couldn't have one. And when I couldn't find a job and was so depressed being in the apartment all day...they gave me something to do and kept me company. And it would be so hard for them to adjust to another place and other people.

So what would you do if you had a mean cat that could possibly do a lot of damage to your baby and a bad cat that tears up your furniture and scratches your baby on a daily basis??

4 month appointment

4 month stats:
Weight: 14 lbs, 4 oz (25-50%)
Height: 26.5 inches (90-95%)

We have one tall baby!! Everything else is great with him. I was concerned about his back because his spine seems curved, but the doctor said it's the muscles and he'll outgrow it. If it's not better by his 6 month appointment he said he can do x-rays to make sure it isn't scoliosis, but he's pretty much positive it isn't at this point. That's a big relief to me because I was really worried that Evan had it, especially since I do. But infant scoliosis is very rare, only 1% of babies have it.

I'm not sure what I'm doing with my blog these days. Obviously I haven't been posting! I'm wondering if I should keep trying to post, if I should just quit but leave it up for others to see, or if I should completely take it offline. I don't know...

I enjoy blogging, but I don't have time anymore. I'm super super busy. I joined a playgroup back at the end of November and since then I've been meeting with them a couple of times a week. I've made some great friends through the group that I also get together with a couple of times a week. Then I have things like appointments, shopping, hanging out with our families, etc, that also take up my time. I can't remember the last time that I spent a day at home (I thought that I would on Wednesday, but then my mom called and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her, so I ended up going out for a couple of hours then too).

I mostly enjoy being so busy, but sometimes I wonder if I should slow down. My house is a wreck. When I come home in the evenings I have no energy to clean. If I have free time at home that's the last thing I want to do. I've noticed the past couple of weeks that I feel really down in the evenings once we're home. I wonder if I'm burned out and it doesn't set in until I'm at home. I don't know.... So part of me wonders if I should stop doing so much and then once I have more time at home I can blog regularly again.

Speaking of feeling "down," I realize I never really updated about my anxiety that I posted about in November HERE. It's a lot better now! I still have attacks every once in awhile, but not as often and they aren't as bad. I talked to my chiropractor about it and he wasn't as helpful as I had hoped. He didn't seem to get that I had this problem before pregnancy and childbirth. I told him that, but all he said is that I should make "me time" and relax and let someone else watch Evan while I go out shopping or read a book or something. I said that Matt does watch Evan most evenings and I get a break, but he said I need to completely get away a couple of times a week. haha. Anyway, not so helpful. My bad dreams have also declined, thank God. I still have them every once in awhile, but not every night like I was a couple of months ago.

We started Evan on rice cereal today! He was such a good baby! He did really well with eating it. Towards the end he started getting a little antsy like, "okay, let's get back to the real food," but he ate more than I expected. He also wasn't as messy as I thought. He only spit some out a couple of times and I think it's just because he had too much in his mouth. Anyway, this coming up Friday I'm going to start making baby food for him. I've decided to mostly use organic homemade food for him. I'll still use jarred food sometimes for when we're out or I don't have enough time to heat up the homemade food. I'm excited about it! I'll definitely write a post about that after we try it next week.

Firefly hasn't been doing so well and last night we finally discovered the source (I won't go into details, it's kind of gross). Matt took her to the vet this morning and she has a UTI. She's on antibiotics. We also need to restrict her diet because the vet said she's overweight. She weighs 14 pounds, 6 ounces! More than Evan! Anyway, I'm hoping the medicine will work and that she'll be okay.

Little things

Not much has been happening around here over the weekend. My brother was home and so we went over to my family's house a couple of times. Last week we took the loveseat out of the office and gave it to my brother. So yesterday Matt moved the entertainment center out of the nursery and moved it into the office. It looks good in there and soon we'll have to find a smaller TV to go in there so that it can be a game station for Matt's Nintendo and stuff. Haha, I never thought we'd be a 2 TV house, but it will be nice to have a separate TV for when Matt has his friends over. I usually read on the couch in the living room, but I don't like doing that when it's full of guys playing video games.

We're talking about nursery plans. I'm pretty sure we'll just leave the walls the light tan color instead of painting. For awhile I thought about putting a chair rail up and then maybe painting underneath another color, but now I think we'll use that money to put shelves in the closet instead. I want some nicer wood shelves that fit perfectly. Too bad my brother won't be home over the summer, I'd hire him to build them if I could. We're also planning on buying a dresser. We're thinking about buying the dresser that matches the crib now. It's reduced in price. It only has 2 drawers, but we don't have room for a wider dresser and I want it to be short so it can be used as a changing table as well. Matt wants them to match and I'm willing to pay more in order to skip all of the shopping around we'd have to do to find another that matches.

I've started doing stretches every day along with some light exercises. I'm also starting to lift hand weights again. I'm using lighter weights than I was since I've gone so long without doing any lifting and I'm lifting at a lower intensity (mainly because it doesn't require as much laying on my back). I didn't ask the midwife for her approval, but I'm taking it easy and so far, so good. If I ever feel uncomfortable I'll stop. I don't really know what to do as far as cardio. I walk whenever I can, but I don't know if I can do my aerobics DVDs. I'll have to look in my pregnancy book to see if there's anything they recommend besides walking, swimming, and stationary biking (it seems like that's all I ever see in recommended exercises for pregnant women!). If I had a membership to the Y I'd be all set, but oh well. I'm just now feeling energetic enough to exercise. I wish it would last, but I'm sure when I get really big I won't want to be doing all of this!

Serenity is fascinated by the clock in Evan's room. We ordered one off of Ebay that was made in the Lil Dino theme that we're using. You can't see in the picture, but it's personalized with Evan's name! The ticking is loud and every time Serenity goes in the room she stares at it. Right now the clock is above the glider and the other day she climbed up the back of the glider, jumped onto the top of Matt's guitar case, and then started batting at the second hand of the clock. lol Needless to say we moved the guitar case so she won't be doing this anymore (leave it to her to find another way though).

What a year

I just realized today that almost exactly a year ago we started TTC. Matt and I were talking about it when I was driving him to work and I couldn't help but smile when I thought about how excited and happy I was about finally TTC back then. But it still makes me sad to think that the happiness only lasted a couple of months, after that it wasn't the same. I always tried to stay hopeful that I would conceive soon, but I also always had in my mind, "I should be this far along, I should be doing this, I should be feeling this..." It isn't nearly the same as TTC before a m/c. It's also crazy to think about everything that's happened in a year. A lot of bad things, but a lot of good things too. At this point I don't say that I wouldn't have changed a thing. A lot of this past year has been a living hell that I wouldn't wish on anyone, no matter how much of a character development it was. On a positive note, I think the best thing that happened was that I became even more aware of what so many other women go through. I feel that I can be even more sympathetic. And that's never a bad thing.

To completely change the subject, we did so much cleaning and organizing this weekend! Matt was amazing, he helped out a lot. I couldn't have done it without him. We completely cleaned up the office, got rid of a lot of stuff that was taking up floor space. For the past month and a half we've had 4 office chairs in there!! Matt received 2 from a giveaway his office held back in January when they got new chairs. I really wanted to get seat covers or cushions before we started using them (because they attract cat hairs more than our other chairs!). So we haven't been using the new ones, the kitties have. We finally went ahead and started using the new ones even though I haven't been able to find seat cushions (we went to 4 different stores looking for them...no luck). Needless to say, the kittens are NOT happy about this change. They liked having their own chairs when we were both at our computers! We also took out the 2 cat beds that were on the floor that the cats never use anymore. What a big difference!

We also bought a new vacuum cleaner. For the past couple of months our old one has gone downhill. It was a cheap one to begin with, more like a dorm room vacuum than a whole house vacuum. The new one was worth every penny. It cleans so much better...so this is what it's like to have really clean floors! We bought some shelves for one of the closets and have been able to straighten up the living room and utility room with the new storage space. Matt cleaned the entire utility room yesterday. Amazing difference! Once again, he got everything off the floors. Even the kitties' food and water is up on the counter in there to get it off the floor.

We still have a lot to do, especially straightening up our bedroom and the nursery, but we're going to get there! It's so encouraging to already have more room and more order. We went to Good.will yesterday and got rid of a lot of stuff that's been sitting around the past couple of months. We had to borrow my sister's SUV to haul it all off! I didn't take before pictures (mainly because I was so embarrassed at the state it was in), but I did take after pictures to show off!

The closet at the end of the hall with the new shelves:


The office:


The kitty space (know what that spray bottle is for? lol And don't ask me why the CDs are on the scratching post too... there's nowhere else to put them so for now that's where they go):



My space (I was in the middle of writing this post when I took the picture):

The utility room (with Firefly in front of the food dishes of course):

13 Weeks

Wow! I just read that my baby is the size of a peach!!! I'm absolutely amazed! I was also amazed to read that its ears are developed enough to hear me when I talk. So awesome! I don't know if I'm in the second trimester now or not. Some things I read say I am and some say it's 14 weeks. I've also heard that 13 and a half weeks is the official second trimester point. Oh well, either way, I'm really close! I have my next prenatal appointment in exactly a week. And then the appointment after that will probably be the big ultrasound! Wow, time has flown by so fast for me!

I think I seem pretty happy go lucky on here, but the truth is, I'm still so scared of something happening. Thankfully I haven't had any major scares so far, just a few times when I have sharp pains in my abdomen for a little while and it freaks me out. I still go and check for blood sometimes. It's kind of random, but suddenly I'll get this feeling of dread and run to the bathroom to see. So far nothing, no spotting or anything. I know that some spotting is normal, but I think it would freak me out so much, even if it was just a little. I think that's why God hasn't allowed that to happen to me, it would upset me and stress me out a lot. I still have a lot more to go, so hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly.

There aren't any new symptoms. I've been sleeping better the past couple of days, which feels amazing. A couple of days ago I was really moody. I think it was Monday. I couldn't help it, I would be sitting there thinking about how I sounded really stupid getting upset at the littlest things, but I would still say mean things and snap at Matt and the kittens. Everything annoyed me that day. I could barely stand the sight of Firefly during the day (I don't know why, she's the cutest thing..well it might have had something to do with the fact that I cleaned that day and there were cat hairs everywhere...mostly hers). Every time I saw her I had horrible urges to toss her out in the snow or shove her off of whatever she was sitting on at the time. Once she walked by me and I tried so hard not to get upset and ended up sighing really loud in exasperation. She stopped walking, turned around, and glared at me! I think she knew I was being mean to her the whole time. Poor baby! After we put her and Serenity in the office for the night my irritation turned to Matt. It was just the weirdest thing. I would apologize for getting annoyed at him and then he'd grin and say it was okay and I would find myself annoyed at him for forgiving me! lol All I can think is that it was hormones. Thankfully I haven't had much of a problem with that lately. No crying or anger or anything. Just that one day...

No bump progression. I still feel kind of tight and uncomfortable in there, but I don't think I've gotten any bigger since 2 weeks ago when I posted a picture. Matt tries to take a picture of me every night, he wants to put them all together in a video at the end. lol It doesn't always work that he gets one every night. I hate them all. I'm always in my pajamas by then. Most of the time I've already washed my face and put on my glasses. My hair is always ugly looking because I've messed it all up putting on my pajamas. Ugg! Once I get a bump I'm going to try to get the pictures in the evening when I'm still wearing nicer clothes although I have to admit that many days I stay in exercise/pajama pants and a sweatshirt all day. :-( So here's my 12w6d picture, I probably look better in this one than I will in tonight's, so I'll go ahead and post it. You can kinda sorta see a little belly sticking out if you look closely. It would help if I wore tighter shirts, but usually I wear baggier t-shirts when I'm not going out.

9 Weeks

My baby is now the size of a green olive and I read that my uterus is the size of a tennis ball! No wonder my ab muscles are kind of sore. They are probably already stretching. And I'm starting to wonder if some of this bloat isn't all just bloat. I don't think there's enough room for a tennis ball inside of me! I also read that this is the week where many women start gaining weight, so we'll see. My baby is also officially a fetus now and is moving around. The heartbeat could be heard with a hand held Doppler, so I'm hoping that at my appointment next Thursday we'll be able to hear it!

Today isn't a good day for me as far as my stomach goes. Neither was last night for that matter. It's still not nearly as bad as it could be and not as bad as I imagined morning sickness would be. Of course, I'm a pessimist who always expects the worse and thankfully I'm proven wrong many times. I've only thrown up once since finding out I was pregnant. Most of the time it's just gagging and feeling nauseous without losing control. It definitely helps to eat throughout the day, which I'm about to go do because I'm starving!

It snowed again last night! It was a big surprise, we woke up to find everything covered in a couple of inches of snow. I looked at the forecast online last night and it was not predicting snow and the TV weather forecast showed some snow, but no accumulation. Obviously that was wrong which was bad because the roads weren't salted ahead of time. Matt went to work late and when he left there was still some ice on the roads. My dad tried going to work, but the road he travels down was backed up for many, many miles. So he turned around and went back home. It turns out that there were several accidents on that road between where he turned around and the office, so it's a good thing he didn't try. Matt said the road he goes down was better, but still not the safest, although he didn't see any accidents.

I went outside this time around and took some pictures. Man, it was COLD! It only took about 2 minutes before I started wondering why the heck I was out there. lol It was fun seeing the kitties out in it though. Serenity doesn't like it much and Firefly was interested in it. She followed me into the backyard and even walked through the "deep" snow (2 inches). Serenity followed us out back, but I think she was coming to get us to go let her in because she ran up, meowed a few times, then ran full speed back to the door. I found her huddled in front of it when I went back that way. lol

Speaking of cats, a few minutes ago I heard a clinking noise coming from the kitchen. I knew Serenity was into something and sure enough, she was on the floor with a melted ice cube. I then looked at our table (which is glass topped) and saw water (and tea) all over. She had jumped up there and then proceeded to pull the ice cube out of my cup of sweet tea that had been sitting up there. Which obviously made a big mess. I couldn't believe she went through all of that trouble to get the ice out! And that's one more thing I need to make sure to keep out of kitty reach now. Apparently even a cup of sweet tea isn't safe.