Fun at Cathedral Square

**It's been a rough weekend in our little corner of the world, so I'm behind in my NaBloPoMo posting. I haven't given up, though!**

Saturday we decided to take the kids down to Cathedral Square in the downtown area. It was a beautiful November day here along the Gulf Coast so we took advantage of the weather!

Googie getting a ride on Daddy

Soupy got in on the action, too.

Googie "hugging" the light post

Soupy giving me "a look"

We had a fantastic time and will definitely head back soon. Especially with our wonderful weather (low 70's, light breeze and beautiful blue skies!).

Gonna go back in time!

Ok. So pretend you are in a time machine.

And we've set the date to November 1, 2007.

Wow. We're in the past. Freaky huh?

Now I can post the obligatory Halloween pics of Googie and Soupy!

It was The Hub's idea to dress Mr. Soupy up as Indiana Jones in honor of the new movie currently being filmed.

Now, obviously I'm quite biased... but I think he makes quite the handsome Indy, don't you? Maybe I should get him an agent and get in touch with Spielberg's people?

Then there was my precious little Googie. She has long been my lil' ladybug, so this costume just seemed appropriate.

After hitting about 6 houses or so, she was ready to trade in her costume for her pajamas and an evening curled up in my recliner, watching cartoons and eating chickenfriesketchup.

It didn't help that both Soupy and Googie were fighting some pretty serious colds. So Halloween wasn't the grandest of times for them this year.

Word to Your Mutha!

Neglect

It's a sad, sad thing to see my blog sitting here so lonely. No updating. Nothing new posted since early August.

I think of great topics every day. And yet, I don't write. I need to work on that, for me. I promise I will. Just tell Googie and Soupy to give me a moment's peace, will ya?

To make up for my horrible lack of writing... check out this gratitious pic of my cuties, ridin' in style at the grocery store.

Sunday Sprinkler Fun

What's better on a hot, sunny afternoon than a nice cool soak in the sprinkler?

Googie had a blast enjoying the cool water.

It WAS a little cold, which prompted some pretty funny looking faces.

She loved running in and out of the spray of water...

And cheesing for the camera.

Soupy didn't play in the sprinkler. He was chilling in his bouncy seat in the shade on the patio.

He did get hit with a little of the mist from the sprinkler. He didn't like that much.

Hence the serious look!

Random, Early Morning Thoughts

#1. Why did I take this shift change? I'm miserable. I'm always tired. I never see my friends anymore. Heck, I never see The Hub anymore. I DO get to see my kids, and for that I'm thankful. I guess I have to keep reminding myself I'm doing it for them.

#2. Why is one of my managers an asshat? Seriously. I got called out for something I admit I was doing. I don't resent that. I resent the very obvious double-standard that is now in play. I resent the "tone" of the call out. I resent what I feel is the insinuation that I'm a lazy producer. I'm not. I've been here for almost 7 years. I'm a damn good employee. This person has been here for 2 months.

#3. I'm worried people here think my shift change is a demotion. It wasn't. At least, I don't think it was. Do you get demoted but still get a big pay increase? Seriously, from prime time producer to overnight producer? Sometimes I think it was a demotion. It makes me sad. And depressed. And resentful. Which takes us back to #1 and then #2.

#4. I wish May sweeps was already over. Yes, it just started last week. I don't care. I'm over it.

#5. I need a vacation from this place. The events of the last 4 days have put me in a horribly negative mood (see #2). I hate feeling this way. I hate it even more when I take out my negativity on my family, specifically The Hub. He doesn't deserve it.

#6. Why do I have to tell someone what I want for Mother's Day? Why is there seemingly no advance thought put into it? Seriously. I don't mind making suggestions. But don't act shocked to learn it's coming this weekend. It's been on the calendar since the day you bought the darn thing for me for Christmas. It's not like I "penciled" it in.

#7. I'm glad my friend Mel has decided to get back in the blogging game. I miss her. Meeting her once a week for breakfast at Chik-Fil-A is not doing it for me. I want more attention. Yes, I'm a needy bitch that way.

#8. Soupy is growing like a weed. Seriously. He is the chunkiest monkey I know.

Worship his Chunky Monkey-ness. You know you want to! And who can resist that smile? No one, that's who!

#9. Soupy may not be the Chunkiest Monkey I've known. I think Googie may have that title under her belt. Check out her pic at 3 months old back in October '05.

#10. I love my babies!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blog....

for this brief public service announcement.

From here forward, the infant formerly known as BB will go by a new nickname. Don't worry, it won't be an unpronounceable syllable a la' Prince, back in the day. We've just struggled here at home with a good nickname for him. The Hub has had his heart set on "Soupy" and if you know our boy's real name, you'll get the connection. Of course, The Hub doesn't get credit for the "witty tie-in" as he stole it from a player on our local minor league hockey team.

So, at least for now, BB or Little Man is now "Soupy".

That is all.

Déjà vu

August 2005
Mom and Googie


April 2007
Mom and BB

Eating My Words

It wasn't long ago I remember complaining to some of my friends how disappointed I was in the selection of clothes for baby boys. Everything, in my opinion, was too "cutesy"... baby blue, with little doggies or bears or cartoonish dinosaurs.

I wasn't going to dress my baby in that.

No Sir.

Nun uh.

No way.

Nevah.

If it hadn't been for my wonderful friends and the surprise shower they threw for me about a month before BB was born, the poor child probably wouldn't have had any clothes!

Well, that is not entirely true. I found some adorable things at Old Navy, sans the cutesy puppy dogs or dinosaurs.

Then BB was born. I took some gowns and onesies to the hospital for him because he was outgrowing the hospital outfits. One in particular, from Her Highness over at Queen of Shake-Shake, was a blue gown with little doggies on it.

Yes, one of the aforementioned things I thought was "too cutesy".

Only, when I put it on BB, he looked ADORABLE. PRECIOUS. So, of course, what did I do? Well, I went right out and bought more onesies and gowns with doggies and dinos!

So yes, I'm eating my words. I should have deferred to Her Highness, a mother of two boys, when it came to cute boy clothing. She knew what she was talking about.

That doesn't mean BB doesn't have some non-cutesy stuff. He does. I bought him an adorable pin stripe button down and khaki cargo pants from Old Navy. He looks like an itty bitty man when he wears that outfit. ADORABLE.

But, I still love the doggies!

Hippity Hoppity....

... Easter's on it's way...

Googie is IN LOVE with the Easter Bunny. He is her new best friend. BabyBrother could have cared less.

I love the picture! I love how Googie is looking over at BB. The photolady wanted to "toss it", but The Hub and I are huge fans of the "more natural" photos. Googie was doing her own thing, ignoring the sqeaking toy the photolady was using to catch her attention.

*If you look closely, you'll see Googie's attire is complimented with some lovely bandaids on each knee (Dora the Explorer to be exact). That's another blog all together... but, it explains why I often hate OPKs!

And Introducing...

It's been more than 6 weeks since BabyBrother joined our family. I've only just realized that though I have mentioned him a few times here, I haven't actually introduced him. So here goes.

This is BB and I in the operating room just minutes after he was born the morning of Thursday, February 8.

Check out his chubby little cheeks just a few days after birth. You'd never know from this photo that BB had to stay in the hospital for a week. Like his older sister, he developed pneumonia shortly after birth. BB didn't have as severe a case as Googie did, however. His illness only required 7 days of IV antibiotics.









I think he's pretty cute, but then I AM biased... being his mom and all. But I'm not the only one who finds him irresistible.

Googie loves being a big sister. I don't think she ever passes up a chance to give him a smooch and she's great at letting me know the SECOND he starts crying.

Playing Doctor

Google is a great tool. Heck, any good search engine is great! Google just happens to be my search enging of choice. But sometimes, these great little search engines and the information available online can be a very dangerous or scary thing.

Take for example what happened today. BB has been home with us now for almost 2 weeks. After having to leave him at the hospital every day for a week, it was so nice to get him home and in comfortable surroundings.

But on Saturday, poor little BB started puking. Everything. In. His. Stomach. For those of you with little or no experience with little ones, think about Linda Blair in "The Exorcist"... but imagine her as a 9 pound newborn and instead of split pea soup it's milk.

I figured the little man must have a stomach virus, as did the nurse who called me back Saturday. So, BB spent 24 hours drinking Pedialyte to fight dehydration. On Sunday, all seemed ok so he went back to enjoying his milk, with only a few "spit up" issues on Sunday and Monday.
But today, it was "The Exorcist Revisited" in our home.

This time, I felt sure BB had no stomach virus... but he was allergic to his formula. After all, I was allergic as a newborn... so was The Hub. Googie had to be on Soy Formula for a few months. I figured the apple didn't fall far from the tree in BB's case.

But the phone conversation I had with a nurse today was anything but reassuring when she said two words. Pyloric Stenosis. I was given an appointment to see the pediatrician almost immediately. But there was plenty of time for me to Google PS.

If you haven't already Googled the term by now, it's essentially a thickening of the muscles at the top of the stomach. Symptoms generaly start showing up by the 3rd week of life (BB is 18 days old as we speak). It affects caucasians, particularly firstborn males. And to remedy the problem, surgery is required.

So, a little knowedge can be a dangerous thing. I had about an hour and a half to mull all that over in my head before seeing a doctor. I was brought to tears before I even closed my laptop. Everything Cam seemed to be experiencing was all spelled out on the webpage Google had found for me. I was so scared.

I cried the whole way to the doctor's office, sobbing over the phone to a wonderful friend.

Was BB just trying to trump his big sister's 10 day stay in the NICU? Did he decide his 7 day stay in the hospital wasn't enough drama for him Mom and Dad? He was going to have to have surgery?

Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case. Given the family history, it seems to be a milk allergy (much as I suspected... thank you maternal instinct!). BB also has a bit of stridor (go ahead and Google that... I'm too tired to explain and it's after 1am...) and that, the doctor believes, is also contributing to reflux.

So the little man is on a super duper hypoallergenic formula and medicine to help with his reflux. It may take a week before we really notice a difference... but hopefully this will make everything better!

Just remember this little story the next time you hear some medical jargon and decide to play DotCom Doctor yourself. You could give yourself a heart attack!

Bringing Home Baby!

It's finally here! In just a few hours, BB will be home with us! He finished his last round of antibiotics this morning at 3am and we could have brought him home then... but it's so cold outside, I wanted to give it a bit of a chance to warm up!

So, The Hub is in the shower, I am about to put on makeup and fix my hair (have to look pretty for my little man) and then we're heading out!

A photographer from the station is meeting us there and will shoot video to run on the news this afternoon/evening, like we always do for our station babies!

I am so nervous/excited I can hardly stand it! Ok... no more typing! I must get ready... the sooner I'm ready the sooner we can leave... and the sooner we can bring our man home!

Healing

I was released from the hospital Sunday evening. The little man was born Thursday morning at 7:39 am and was a chunker at 9 pounds, 5 ounces. His resp. rate was pretty high (around 100, normal is about 60) so they ordered a chest x-ray and put him under an oxygen hood.

On Friday they repeated the x-ray and ran some blood tests. There was fluid in his left lung and the blood tests indicated an infection. A neonatalogist was called in for a second opinion and it was determined Baby Brother had pneumonia. Incidentally, the same thing happened to Googie after she was born, but she was much worse and was rushed to the NICU for 10 days.

So obviously normal and birth experience do not belong together for me. Well, I guess actually maybe this is the normal birth experience for me... having a baby, never having the baby come to your room, waiting 24 hours or so after birth before ever even being able to hold your baby, having very few visitors or phone calls... I experienced severe depression when Googie was born.

I realize when a baby is born, it's really the baby people come to see in the hospital... not the mother... and boy, when your baby can't be held by anyone, people evidently just don't even bother coming. When you are at possibly one of the lowest points of your life, with hormones raging, emotions running high because you are scared for the life of your child... you are alone. I lived it with Googie... and I got to re-live it this weekend with BB. I had several family members and very close friends who didn't bother to visit or even call to check on me. I'm definitely hurting a lot about that right now. It's like being kicked when you are down and damn if it doesn't hurt.

Add to that the anxiety and feeling of inadaquecy when you pump and pump and pump to get colostrum and milk going for your baby and you get nothing. So I feel like a failure at childbirth and a failure at breastfeeding. However, I now have a prescription for Reglan to help my milk come in and my feelings of general anxiety are getting better since I'm home and BB is doing so well. I know the anxiety will be resolved once he's home with me.

Well enough of that... I am working through those issues and dealing with my depression and moving on.

BB's x-ray was clear and his blood work was normal. That means, when his antibiotics are finished up on Thursday he should be coming home with us. For now, we go down to the hospital every morning for a few hours and The Hub is going back to work in the evenings for a few days to save his vacation time for when BB is home.

So Googie and I have some one on one time.

As for me, my epidural WORKED during this c-section. I am healing physically, and not anywhere near as sore as I was after my first c-section. I am sore and physically tired, but I really feel great. Mentally and emotionally will take some time, but I also have medication for that and a great doctor who listens to me.

Today is the day!!!!

It's just after 1am on Thursday, February 8, 2007. I'm supposed to be sleeping right now. I'm sleepy... but it ain't happening. In just less than 3 hours, my alarm will go off and I will get in the shower, finish packing my suitcase and we'll head to the hospital.

I am hours away from holding my son in my arms for the first time. Shortly after 7:30am, we expect BB to be delivered by c-section. I can't believe it's really here. I can't believe our happy family is almost complete. I can't believe I actually expected myself to be able to type something "profound" right now!

I'm hoping to be home sometime Sunday, if all goes well. Then I can get some pics posted of the little man.

Ok, time for me to try and take a nap!

A Change is coming!

It's hard to believe. TWA (aka Googie) is growing up so fast. It seems like only yesterday she was my Buddha-bellied little tub of goo, laughing, drooling and just being a baby.

Googie November 2005

Now she's walking, running and talking. Sometimes she speaks English and other times, it's that weird, but cute, baby speak adults can only dream of understanding.

Googie Christmas Eve 2006

Life will soon change again for all of us. TWA's (Googie) baby brother will be born in about 3.5 weeks. Now, Baby Brother doesn't have a nickname yet, though we've picked out his name. I'm saving the nickname for when I see him.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, I'm starting to transition from calling my girl TWA to Googie. Googie is a nickname we use here around the house and it just seems a little more personal. That doesn't mean she's no longer a TWA... she definitely is!!! Googie is just... cuter!

So change is coming for our family. Googie will turn 18 months old next Sunday. And, if things go well, in about 4 weeks we'll be home from the hospital with Baby Brother, our family complete.

I've tried to prepare Googie for Baby Brother's arrival. But how do you prepare such a young toddler for such a change? She's constantly rubbing and kissing my pregnant belly, saying "baby". If you ask her where Baby Brother is, she instantly rubs my belly. Of course, she also runs up to the Hub and rubs his belly and emphatically announces "Baby". He is less than thrilled, but it is funny!

She'll see a photo of a little baby or a commercial on tv and she gets excited, saying "Baby, baby, baby" over and over. So does she get it? No. I don't think so. Will it rock her world when Baby Brother is born? Well, yeah. But it's going to rock our world too, I imagine.

The ride may be bumpy, but it's the whole journey that matters.

News Release Rogers Incorporated

Rogers Inc. is proud to announce the company is in the development stages of a new release.Baby Rogers, version 2.0 is set to make it's debut in early February 2007. The initial release date was set as February 15, 2007. But we've heard from the head of labor it will probably be released on February 7th or 8th.

When asked about the upcoming release from Rogers Inc., Baby Rogers, version 1.0, also known as Googie said, "Na na ba ba digum."

Baby Rogers, version 1.0 has been available for 11 months and will celebrate her 1 year anniversary on July 21. Baby Rogers, version 2.0 is predicted to be the final release from Rogers, Inc.

"We will be ending production of this line sometime in mid-2007," said Rogers Inc., CEO The Hub.

Rogers Inc., is a privately held company located in Mobile, Alabama.