So I guess I haven't blogged since Septemeber 2009! lol... nearly 2 years later I decided I wanted to blog again. I keep thinking of things & think man I should put that in writing for memories or just to feel like I said it, so here I am again. Guess we will see how long I last this time! This may just be my "naptime" fun from time to time :).
Anyway, just an update since September 2009! Chloe is now 2.5 years old, she weighs 28lbs and is 34.5 inches tall. She is average for weight and on the shorter side for her age. She is a very bright little girl. She knows how to count to 15 now, knows her colors, shapes, her ABC's from about L to Z, the sound each letter makes, and much much more. She in the past couple of months has really started to be able to communicate well to us & hold conversations with us. She amazes me all the time with the things she says and does!
We have added another daughter to our family on March 8, 2011. Her name is Courtney Jean. Jean is named after Eric's Mom's middle name. (Chloe's Jo is after my grandma's middle name). Courtney was born at 8lbs 10oz at 8:01am. She was taken by C-Section as she was larger in size and breech. The recovery for the C-section was more difficult then that of vaginal birth I did for Chloe, but I was up moving around pretty well within a week or so (even tho I did a lot I wasn't supposed to be doing). Courtney ended up having to go to the NICU for 3 days because she had taken some fluid into her lungs at birth & had some labored breathing. Most of her being there was precautionary measures. They adminstered her antibotics to keep her from getting any infections from the fluids. She did great, the hardest part was re aligning my expectations. I expected things to be just fine and have my baby in my room with me while in the hospital. It was tough at first because I wanted to see her so badly and I wasn't able to move around too much after having a c-section, so I didn't feel I got that inital bonding I would have liked to have had with her. We had Eric's parents and Eric's brother Phillip & his finace Amy there when Courtney was born.
Courtney, like Chloe, suffers from acid reflux. We feel like she actually has it a bit worse then Chloe did. We had to try a couple medicines @ different doseages to get her comfortable with it, but she is doing much better now. She spits up quite a bit more then Chloe did. She rolled over from her tummy to her back when she was 13 weeks old. She is now 18 weeks old. Today she had her 4 month well visit, which went good. She weighs 13lbs (30%) is 24.5 inches(50%) and her head is measuring in the 70% for size. I think she is a little small on the weight side from her acid reflux and how much she spits up. We are going to start putting rice cereal in her bottles to see if that will help keep her food down a little better. She smiles a lot, loves to play on her playmat, watch the tv, watch her sister, and loves her Mommy & Daddy. She has come very close to rolling from her back to her tummy a few times now, but hasn't done it just yet. She has also the past couple of days started to pull her legs up and lift her butt up a bit, she has moved forward a little bit pushing off with her legs too. We don't have her on too much of a napping schedule at this point, but are pretty good with a feeding schedule. She gets a 6oz bottle at 7,11,3,7 & we top her off with a 4oz at 10 before going to bed. She sleeps anywhere from 7-9 hours a night now.
Chloe is a great big sister to Courtney. She talks to her now and then, she will show her toys to look at. Chloe ALWAYS has to at least tell Courtney she loves her before she goes to bed. She likes to give her a hug and kiss, but when Courtney is sleeping we just tell her to say that she loves her. I think it will be interesting to see how Chloe reacts when Courtney begins to crawl and get into her toys and things. Chloe helps Mommy get things like rags, diapers, throws diapers away for Mommy. She enjoy's helping give Courtney a bath when she can. Now and then if we are playing with Courtney she will start to raise her voice or start acting a little silly to get our attention on to her. I hope they are so close as sisters, but time will tell. Im sure we will have quarrals as any siblings do as well.
Eric is doing good. He now works for a company called Rest On 7, which was started by his old regional from Sofa Mart. We really want to get to Nashville (Currently in Missouri) to be closer to Eric's parents and have the girls close to them as well. We are hoping to open a Rest On 7 in the Nashville area and then we will be moving there when that happens. I so badly want to get there and be able to settle down and not have to worry about moving again (well besides probably from a rental to a home we will eventually purchase). We want to buy a nice home to raise our girls in with good schools for them to go to and grow up in without having to worry about moving them around! I know if we just keep focused on our ultimate goals and not become sidetracked with needless things we can do it! We want the girls to have a family structure around them and there to support them in their everyday lives. People to come watch them in the activities they partake in, and even to watch them so Mommy & Daddy can go enjoy a night out now and again. I have a very hard time just leaving my kids with anyone, I gotta really trust someone before I will ever leave them. Eric is a great Daddy & he is doing what he can to make our families goals become a reality for us. We could careless about having all things "material", we just want to be surrounded by those who love and care for us enough to show it to us and our girls with their time and love. Material things will only get someone so much happiness in life, more then anything most end up with a pile of bills at the end of the day that they don't need. We as humans were designed by our creator God to love one another & that is where our hearts will feel fufilled and happy while at the same time we are making others feel the same way! God didn't say go out and make yourselves "things" and be happy and fruitful. He said to go and multiply... see we as people make one another happy! Okay I got on a tanget... haha.
As for me I am doing well. I LOVE my husband and my girls so much, they fill me with so much joy and happiness! I wouldn't trade being able to stay home with my girls for ANYTHING! Yes there are days I wish I could go out and hide from them for a break, but it doesn't matter. I just have to look at their sweet faces & know it is all worth every bit of time I put into them! Probably for another blog for me to go off on this tanget, but I have such a hard time understanding how people can't see what their kids are worth. They just expect they can have a kid and the kid will do what they say when they say because they are the parent. I guess they miss the point in many aspects of it! Like I said that maybe for another day. I do have goals for my own life. When I get my girls into school I plan to get back to the workforce, not exactly sure what I may want to do just yet but I do want to work and feel like a party of the adult society ;). For now I feel like I personally want to be home with my girls raising them to be all they can be in life and all God created them to be!
I lost my Dad on May 25th 2010. He choose his life of drugs and mainly alcohol. He basically got liver disease that took his life from being so hard on himself. He had a disease that he let control his life. That is a whole nother thought too... far to many people abuse themselves, many thinking it is okay to do because they aren't full blown addicts. There are people out there worse then themselves so it's okay.
Following loosing my Dad, Papa (the man who really was my Dad) passed away on Septemeber 7th, 2010. He died from pancriatic cancer that spread to other organs. He didn't even know he had cancer until September 5th! The docotors estimated he had it for 2 years or more by how far along the cancer had progressed. Papa had suffered with diabetes since his mid 40's as well. So cancer of the pancreas (while only 5% live past 5 years with it) was espically not good for him at all. It is one of the worst most painful cancers out there, and one with a very low survival rate right now. Papa's passing has been a rollercoaster ride for me. In the beginning I felt kinda numb to it all, like it wasn't real (I suppose they call it denial). Then I went through a bout of why's... didn't understand why he had to die and leave me. Then after that I hit a wall of sadness, didn't want to do anything but lay around, almost anything would set me off to tears. I still think of Papa constantly, still cry, but I am accepting it more now. I feel I suffer a bit with insecurities of loosing everyone that I feel close too. So in many ways I put barriers up so that if I do loose someone it wouldn't hurt as bad (so I think). It's been tough loosing Papa, and my Grandma at 13. I'm sure most anyone that looses people that close to them knows what I am talking about!
Anyway, we as a family unit are doing wonderful. We try to be loving people, raise our girls to be loving girls. We don't plan to have any more kids now. We only wanted 2, so no not going to try for that boy. We are very happy and feel blessed to have our girls in our lives!
I love doing these to have to look back and remember where the girls were and where we were in life. After reading the ones I did from 2 years ago about Chloe I thought I should do that again, it was so neat to read about what was going on with us, things I didn't remember anymore!
Well I hope I can do some more "naptime" blogging later, for now naptime is over :)
Love to whoever decided to take the time to read this, & those that may think I am crazy for doing it too :). And I hope that anything I ever write doesn't offend anyone in anyway. That is not at all the purpose of this. For me it is because I enjoy writing, and sharing my feelings, and that is what they are MY feelings. Not me trying to tell anyone anything, just me expressing how I feel, may not be the same as you feel on certian subjects & I may not always have the correct wordings or meanings for things, but as I said this is just my thoughts and feelings.
