la petite maman.

I feel like I’m just going and going and going, and I don’t really stop to relax and process feelings much lately.

So here’s what is up:

• Our TV died on Mother’s Day. This has surprisingly has been REALLY awful; although I don’t really WATCH the TV, I like the noise instead of silence. :|
• The baby is now “army crawling” to get places, and occasionally gets up on his hands and knees. He also eats HappyBaby organic melts. Other than that, he’s still pretty much on donor boob juice thanks to several amazing moms throughout California. Lucas is also teething BADLY and has been for a couple weeks. This makes for one EXHAUSTED and cranky baby… and momma.
• I am still reeling from how amazing God is. I shared my story on Thursday and Friday night on KXEN1010 on the Mercy Multiplied programme. And uhm, dang, everytime I tell the story of where I’ve been and where I am now, I just get fired up for Jesus even more.
• Remember the lady from BabyCenter who I met up with a few times? Uhm yeah, she is now one of my best buddies here in town. We probably hang out twice a week, and… she invited me to her wedding in July! Lake Tahoe, here we come! :D
• I love the Boba 3G and pretty much wear Lucas everywhere. I also convinced my mom friend above to get a Boba 3G too, so when we go places together, we get a lot of attention for our “backpack babies”! Haha, so cute. :) (My friend is also now cloth diapering, and that’s AWESOME.) :D
• The new kitten is extremely fiesty and wild. We took her to the vet and she was tested for FIV and leukemia- thankfully, both tests were negative. However, she did have bad fleas, so we immediately bought Frontline for our big cat, and since she is too young to have flea treatment still, we are bathing her once everyday. :\ Kinda sucks, but oh well. She also poops a LOT, and if I’m not careful, she sneaks behind furniture to poop. GROSS. She is plumping up quite a bit, which is good because she was emaciated and on the brink of death when my friend found her just a week ago. That being said, it is really not easy to have essentially two babies to take care of! Also, her name is now Mercy! Fitting, am I right?
• I am planning on becoming vegan again. Kevin is REALLY unhappy about this, especially since I don’t like eating soy products much- they aren’t good for the body. He is sure that I will end up starving myself. This time, I want to be sure I get enough nutrients without obsessing about it. Can I do it? We’ll find out!
• On 30 June I am doing the Color Me Rad 5K. On 14 October, I am doing the Nike Women’s Half-Marathon. I’m not quite sure how, considering I have done NO running lately and have lost a lot of my motivation. :( It’s just TOO HARD for me to get out without the baby… and he just won’t chill in the stroller. :\ Man, I need to let go a little!

Uhm… so… any questions? How is everyone else out in Tumblrland doing?

So, I thaw Lucas’ donor milk in a bowl in the fridge. Once I completely thaw the milk, I gently run warm water over the bags to get the fat off the sides of them. I pour the milk into bottles and keep them in the fridge for no more than 24 hours. Yeah, I get that…

But Lucas doesn’t like cold milk, so I leave his bottles out for awhile so they’ll get to room temperature- we keep our house at 70-72 degrees. Everything I was reading said that breastmilk can be left out for 4-10 hours (at max).

And then I realised they were referring to fresh breastmilk. At least… I think so? :( He never seems to get sick from it, though. But am I totally doing something risky by leaving Lucas’ previously-frozen milk out?

BREAK OUT THE PARADE FLOATS, CONFETTI, MARCHING BAND, AND RICK ASTLEY!

LUCAS FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!

First of all, on Wednesday, my friend Angela (the one I met off BabyCenter), her son Landon, Lucas, and I went to a huge consignment sale called Little Feet Repeats that only happens twice a year. We enjoyed breakfast at a local cafe first, where Lucas terrified Landon with his loud chattering and babbling. Oops, my baby is already a “bully.” Haha. Let’s just say, we all got a lot of looks and the evil eye from other cranky folks at the cafe. Ugh. At the consignment sale, I got Lucas a new soft book, a little Lamaze snake plushy, some new clothes, some socks, and some breastmilk storage bags that were way cheaper than what I’d get at Target. I also got my sister-in-law a couple cute classic Pooh receiving blankets (good as burp cloths), since her daughter’s nursery theme is Pooh. Haha. (I’m only posting this photo since Landon is looking down, because I haven’t asked permission to post a photo of him.)

Then, on Thursday, my mom, Lucas, and I drove several hours to meet up with Donna (Lucas’ last donor mom that I talked about) and April (a new donor mom!)… Let’s just say: I FEEL INCREDIBLY BLESSED. I am so thankful for these women who take the time to meet up with me and who share their milk with Lucas so he is able to eat what is natural for a baby. :) We ended up with our entire freezer full of milk, and some of it (about a grocery bag full) had to go to my mom’s house to be stored in her freezer.

On Friday, I was starting to feel sick… or at least, run down. I woke up totally exhausted for some reason, and felt like I just couldn’t get started. Well, by that evening, I was definitely all stuffed up and my throat hurt badly. I was just hoping I could go to sleep, and things would go back to normal. (Speaking of sleep, I am so amazed, but ever since Lucas got over his little cold, he has been only waking up once or twice a night! HURRAH!)

Ah, but no… On Saturday morning, I woke up around 545 AM after having a HORRIBLE dream (don’t really wanna talk about it since it was THAT awful), and I couldn’t breathe and my throat was throbbing. I sucked it up, and forced myself out of bed. I had been looking forward to The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2012 for months, and I wasn’t going to miss it! I had volunteered to help set-up before the event, so I had to be at the event location by 8 AM. Well, since it was the day before my birthday, guess who came to help me out?! Kevin! I was so amazed- this was the guy who was against me cloth diapering in the beginning, and now here he was, supporting me with this!!! He even ended up being one of the official witnesses of the event! I am a proud momma and wife! :) It turned out to be a really fun event, and since I was one of the first 25 pre-registered people to be there, I got a goodie bag full of all sorts of neat stuff. In total, there were 43 babies changed this year!

Before the change started though (at 930), one of Lucas’ donor moms and my friend Melissa surprised me with a birthday cake she had her sister (an amazing baker) make me! She sang me “Happy Birthday” and I was just so blown away! (I tried it the next day, and OMG, so good!)

On Sunday (my actual birthday and EARTH DAY!), I was full-blown SICK. I was REALLY bummed about that, because we had planned to go to my friend (and also, donor mom!) Alicia’s daughter’s 1st birthday party!!! Well, she encouraged me to come, “but just don’t sneeze all over the food, okay?” Haha. Supposedly, there was a record high temperature- 98 degrees- on my birthday. ACK. It was nice going and celebrating with Alicia and her little Gracie. I still cannot believe she’s already a year old. I first met Alicia and Grace when she was only around 6.5 months old (at the beginning of last November)! It has amazed me that Alicia STILL pumps around 6 ounces everyday for Lucas. It is a HUGE blessing. Lord, what do I do to deserve all this kindness?! (I am not posting a photo of Grace here, only because I haven’t asked permission from Alicia… but here is our family at her birthday party!)

I lost my voice on Monday. Well, it was incredibly raspy and hoarse and came out sounding like a pre-pubescent boy. Ack. Kevin said his birthday present to me this year would be to stay home with me (take a “sick day” from work), so that he would watch the baby when I went to the doctor. I went to the doctor at 1130- not because I was sick with this cold/flu/whatever this is, but because my left wrist and left knee joints have been popping. And when they pop, I just get this searing white hot pain. It’s awful. Well, because she also noticed that I was sick, and because I mentioned that I have been sick 5 times in the last 7 months, she decided to get blood/urine tests done to rule out any auto-immune issues, as well as x-rays for my wrist and knee. BLEEEHHHH! Let’s hope everything is fine.

Anyway, today is Tuesday, and mentally I’m feeling a little better- a little more energy and I don’t feel so gross. But I still have hardly any voice and my nose is clogged up (creating a horrible headache). I just need to get better, eh? :P