6.5 months

Wow how time flies.

Max is 6.5 months. I can't believe it!

I've added some recent favorite pics. I re- read some of my initial posts and boy life is different. I've been back at work since January. I enjoy getting out of the house and adult interaction but I miss Max too. He's gotten to be so much fun, I truly love all my time with him :)

Health related, things aren't as rosy as they were. I can slowly feel things changing, like dull pain in my hands, knees, and toes. Sharp pains in my hips. Not all the time, mostly at night and in the mornings. This has brought about tough decisions for me. Get on top of the pain now? Go back on heavy duty drugs? Or try and manage with some Advil most nights? I've chosen the second for now in hopes it is temporary. I'm choosing optimism for now :)

Hope the blogger world is well. More to come, maybe ;)

Sick

Today I'm sick to my stomach hearing the news out of CT. This news hit me particularly hard as I spent all day cuddling my sick baby. As a new parent, I think everyone's deepest darkest fear is that something will happen to their child. Honestly, i spend hours watching the baby video monitor making sure my baby is ok. As I looked at my sick but alive son, I quietly weeped for those parents, friends, and families that lost dear loved ones today. No child should fear going to school- but how can these children not? Innocence was lost today. How can those parents go back to their houses and see their lost child's clothing, favorite toy, artwork, shoes, presents under the tree. I believe God will be the judge of us when we die but frankly, I hope there is a special place in hell for those who kill children.

My heart goes out to all who were affected. I pray that this recent string of random acts of violence stops. I pray for the moms and dads who lost sons and daughters. I pray for children who lost their parents. And I pray for the ones left behind and such young eyes that witnessed this today, please comfort them, help them feel safe and loved. Amen.

I'm also sick that Gizmo, after being a part of the family for 6 years, will be spending the weekend and then staying if it works out at his new home. We had a scary incident that made us aware he wasn't getting enough attention and acting out in ways we couldn't risk with Max here now.

So tonight, sadness and tears. Tomorrow brings a new day, hopefully a brighter one than today. Hug your loved ones, tell them you love them, all the time.

You know you are a new mom when

You've changed your outfit and little ones outfit 4 times in one day due to bodily fluids

You realize there is a use for radio static

Its taken you 30 minutes to just get to the target store that's 5 minutes from your house

It takes 30 minutes to get out of the house and you still forget something

You celebrate when you get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep...in a ROW!

You will do anything to keep you little one from crying including holding your own bladder while bouncing him up and down with the bathroom fan going

You are amazed at how many nursery rhymes and kid songs you actually know

You are never on time, anywhere

You realize you don't look that bad without makeup

You enjoy talking with new moms more than ever before about poop, spit up, circumscion, and child birth and it no longer makes you squeamish

Styling your hair means putting in a ponytail and getting to use hairspray!

Purse? What's that? Oh, You mean a diaper bag

You really honestly don't care what's for dinner as long as you get to eat, bonus if its still is the right temperature!

What are your mom-isms, new moms?

December

This December is bittersweet for me. I love the holiday season even though it causes stress for me. Between gifts, baking , cooking, cleaning, decorating, parties, and now an infant there's a lot going on.

It's Max's first Christmas and we are establishing a few traditions! Like new Christmas pjs, opening presents just us on Christmas morning, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, and some others yet to be decided. But in the back of my mind, I realize what the month of December is- my last month home with my Max. I'm so lucky to be able to take 16 weeks off but I'm so sad already at the thought of not being with him all day. While I know I couldn't be (both financially and for my sanity) a stay at home mom, I'm going to miss him like crazy.

I'm sure what I am feeling is normal, one moment wanting to stay home and the next soo ready to have an adult conversation and be back at work. I feel like I'm already between two worlds, and I'm not officially working again. My little guy will be taken care of so well by Grandma and daycare but its hard to think about someone else getting to see his smiles all day and not me. I know it will get easier, and right now I'm enjoying every moment and cuddle. :)

From my family to yours, I wish you a calm and happy Christmas season.

How I spend my days

Holding, feeding, and changing my adorable baby boy :)

Love that blogger updated their iPhone / iPad apps- you can now post pics- very cool! I may actually blog more now as I hold him a lot during the day since he sleeps on his crib at night. Don't get me wrong, he loves his crib but I want him to get held too :)

I've never been one for politics...

But after stumbling upon this I might!

Drug companies are trying to put biologic drugs that treat RA into special high tiers that wouldn't be just a normal co-pay but split the cost with the patient anywhere from 20-50%. Now this doesn't sound too bad until you think about what a ONE month supply costs, 3000-4000 dollars! 1500 a month is my mortgage payment which I'd no longer be able to afford should the insurance companies put this into place.

Arthritis.org has a website where you can be an e-advocate. You just sign up with your name and email address and then they pre write letters for you on legislation, etc. that affects arthritis. There is a lot out there that I never knew about. You can edit and personalize the letter telling your story or just a concerned citizen.

So please, for me, I urge you to go to the website below, sign up to be an e-advocate, and send a letter to your member of congress for their support to ensure we continue to have access to these vital drugs that make our "normal" a bit closer to healthy people's normal. Please. Do this.

http://www.arthritis.org/inside-advocacy.php

Here is some additional info:


Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2012
in·sur·ance, noun \in-ˈshu̇r-ən(t)s alsoˈin-ˌ\
a: the business of insuring persons or property
b: coverage by contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by a specified contingency or peril
c: a means of guaranteeing protection or safety
(source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Health insurance has always been your safety net. It promises to protect your savings and your future in the event of an accident or illness. Today, thousands of Americans dependent on biologic drugs for the treatment of rheumatic disease are finding this promise empty.

Many commercial insurance plans have placed the costliest drugs, like biologics, in "specialty tiers." Insurers pay only a small percent of specialty tier drug costs, leaving patients to pick up the tab. Drugs that were formerly covered with $30 or $50 co-pays now cost patients hundreds or thousands of dollars each month to access.


The Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2012 (PATA) restores insurance to its founding principles: a system of protection for people in their time of need. If enacted, PATA will limit commercial health insurers from charging more for biologic treatments than they do for other non-preferred brand drugs.

Ask your Member of Congress for their support and help us ensure access to vital drugs.


Why is this so important to me? Because at 26 years od when my biggest concern should hve been on what flowers to have for my wedding or how pages my grad school paper should be, I was diagnosed with RA after being in crippling pain for over a year. Buttoning buttons was dang near impossible, opening a jar is still difficult for me some days. After 9 months of trying to find the right drug that I didn't have a severe allergic reaction to or that worked for me to stop the progression of this life long disease, I ended up on a biologic drug called Enbrel. This drug gave me back my "normal" and as allowed me to finish my masters degree(almost) work full time and start a family. Without it, I'd be the person who can barely get out of bed instead of the superwoman described above. Please, I urge you- act and send a letter to encourage Congress to enact PATA today!

What to really get new Moms

When we got home from the hospital we were so unprepared and didn't even know we were. Here are a list of things I will buy new Moms. And no, I am not advertising for anyone, these were our must-haves, both right away and now.

Random must haves:  These items helped us soothe our baby or take care of him when illness/gas was the issue. I really recommend the Happiest Baby book, it helped us understand him and these early months and what to do to soothe him. 

Max has real issues burping, these really help for when he  has bad gas pain and he can't get it out. 

While no pedi will give you a dose typically under 3 mos without having them come in, good to have on hand in case of high fever to give right away due to shots, sickness, etc. 

Babies love being held in your arms and bouncing on the ball, reminds them of movement in the womb. Also good for pregnancy and birth!

I'm a pacifier believer after Max was born with such a strong sucking reflex. These worked well for the first  6 weeks or so, now he's found his hands and thumb. 

It's nerve wrecking to think you'll have to use this, but when he/she seems sick you'll have to do it. Rectal thermometer. We have one like this and it works quick and he doesn't even cry when we take it.

Diapering

Forget all the traditional diaper rash creams, this is good  to use when baby is first born and less harsh. Our pedi recommended it. 

Love Pampers, Hate Huggies. There is a strip on the middle of the diaper that turns blue when yet, yellow when not. LOVE. 

We tried using store brand wipes and he got such bad rash we had to go with name brand. These don't bother him if we rinse them before hand and keep them in a container that keeps them moist still. 

Useful to put over boys so they don't pee on you during diaper change. It at least deflects it. I use these in peepee teepes sometimes (Max pees a lot)

A must for moms with boys. It took my getting peed on 3 times before deciding I needed to use something EVERY diaper change!

If your boy is being circumcised (not looking to debate this here, just a tip) have these three things on hand, what they sent us home from the hospital with was NOT enough for us and we had to go buy more supplies to keep over it. (Use craft stick to put Vaseline on gauze and cover)

 Clothing: Unless she is supermom, her baby will most likely live in pjs. Getting clothes over newborns heads is scary and uncomfortable for parents and for baby. Here are the clothes we loved until he got to be a little older.

Onesies with side snaps- no over the head! Bonus if they have the fold over mitten cuffs!! The full length ones like the one at the back are best, stay down much easier in a sleep sack or with pants. 

Zip up sleep n plays that have the fabric over the zipper so it doesn't scratch baby. Max lived in these, both cotton, fleece, or terry depending upon layers/temp outside solely until about 2 weeks ago. We now finally put him in other clothes. These are easy, no socks to worry about and so great for diaper changes and NO over the head! LOVE!!

Bath time: With Max having more sensitive skin, we skipped using any soap except on his head. Skip the smelly stuff (I know, hard to do for some, but it really is better for them not to be exposed to perfume/dye/etc.) We love this one by CA Baby. We also use this lotion. Also, use the blue hard plastic tub. We got one of those and a cool seat thing, turns out he was too young right away to use the cool seat thing. Maybe in another month or two, so get the annoyingly huge blue plastic tub. And Youtube/Babycenter have a lot of videos on how to wash baby- helpful to watch during first bath which is only after cord stump falls off. 

Bedtime: Establish a routine, never to early!! We didn't until he was 5 weeks or so and I wish we would've started sooner. Max started sleeping long bouts once we used the white noise machine (this one or we bought a fan CD on amazon, love it!!) and swaddle him. Without these, 2.5 hours in a row if we were lucky. With, 6-7 hours in a row. AMAZING!! 

Sound machine we bought at Target, it's a projector for when he gets older too

We used Swaddle Me's until he could get out of it at 8 weeks (STINKER! Too strong for his own good) 

Now we use the woombie- LOVE this for older babies! It allows some movement so took a few nights to get used to it, but it is safe (he can't get out, and we tried other ones like miracle blanket and halo and he got out of both of those which was scary), and he loves it! He most nights calms at the sight of it and sleeps so well in it. He's in the big bay size right now, starts at 14 lbs. but the other was too small length wise for him and he's almost there. 

 TOYS:

Bright Stars Playmat- love this thing! The kitty above is how we get such good pics, he just loves that thing. It plays music that isn't too annoying and has bright lights. We often put his boppy pillow underneath him now that he's 2 months and he lays and plays. We add our own favorite toys on the rings. 

This space saver swing/vibrating seat is a lfesaver from fisher price. We have a small house so this fits perfect for us, is portable from kitchen/bathroom/living room/nursery/etc. He often falls asleep in here after a few minutes if he fusses in our arms and seems tired, put him in here and he'll nap for an hour or so. I only use once/day as a last resort if rocking/bouncing/etc. didn't put him to sleep. 

 And, if you don't want to buy any of these things, bring food. Dinner is the last thing on a new parents minds and it's nice to have food brought or ordered to you!!