My Father

Today my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. We started noticing something was wrong about a week ago when he began showing signs of confusion and loss of balance. The outcome doesn't look good, but we are keeping our hopes up, he is a strong man. Please keep him in your thoughts.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Today we made daddy french toast for breakfast and went swimming for the very first time...Haley loved the pool!

Cousins

Today Haley got to meet her cousins on my dad's side of the family. She had a great time.

Feeding Dilemma

Before I even found out I was pregnant I planned on breastfeeding my baby. I know Mother's Milk is best for baby and there is nothing better. I am glad that she didn't have any problem latching on from day one. But, by the time day two rolled around (around 2am at the hospital) I was so tired and in so much pain I sent her to the nursery and asked the nurse to give her a bottle. Until yesterday she had only had one ounce of formula. I've been mostly pumping my milk with a Medela double breast pump and feeding her milk from a bottle, and occasionally letting her take it directly from the source. As she is nearing 3 months in age, my milk supply is starting to decrease. Since she drinks from the bottle rather than the breast, my body is unsure of how much milk to make, hence the decrease. I realized it was time to start supplementing with formula, so I have been giving her about one bottle a day of formula, and breastmilk the rest of her feedings. After doing this little experiment, I really want to discontinue with all of my efforts to give her breastmilk. Making a bottle of formula is so quick and easy, versus the hours I spend pumping just to make sure she has enough to eat for the day (and worrying if I am going to be able to meet her quota each day.) I am seriously contemplating weaning from the breastmilk and switching to formula only. The main reason I am so okay with this decision is because I do not eat right. I drink caffeine and eat all kinds of junk, I rarely eat my healthy fruits and veggies. I think both my daughter and myself would be much happier (and less stressed out) if I didn't have to worry about making a 6oz bottle of breastmilk and then her deciding she wants to go to sleep, and I have to dump it all out. And don't even let me get started about the time I spilled an entire bottle of breastmilk on the counter. I cried for hours. Haley seems to like the formula just fine, and she is digesting it great. I wanted to give my daughter breastmilk for at least a year old, until she can have regular cows milk. As of today, I doubt I am going to make it to six months. I still feel strongly about not giving her solids (i.e. cereal) until she is 6 months old. She is just not ready for that yet. I appreciate everyone who supports my decision to formula feed my daughter. I can't wait until I can enjoy my life again and hold my daughter in my arms without the agonizing pain radiating from my breasts.

The Beginning

I'm new at this "blogging" stuff so give me some time to get the hang of it :) First off, I'm a mother, a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a niece, an aunt, and a cousin. I love my family, they are my life. My daughter's name is Haley Jay, she was born March 24, 2009 and in the last 3 months she has become my life. There are no words to describe how much I love this little girl my husband and I have created. I love being a mom and wouldn't trade it for anything.
I guess since she is the reason I have decided to record my life on the Internet, I will start with her entrance to this world. I was anticipating the day for 9 months but didn't even expect it. I was used to sleeping until around 12pm everyday during my late pregnancy so when I woke up at 10am that Tuesday morning, I knew something was up. I had some weird kind of pains, didn't even realize they were contractions. After about 30 minutes of trying to count my contractions using contractionmaster.com I realized I couldn't. I called my mom who kept telling my to call the dr. (who for some reason the phone line kept saying they were busy and I couldn't get through). So I called Brian and told him he needs to be on standby because I'm having contractions. Nothing really even felt concrete at this point. So, I took a shower and before I was done I couldn't hardly stand anymore. As soon as I got out of the shower I called Brian back and told him he needs to come home now. Again, still didn't feel like I was going to become a mom on this ordinary Tuesday. Brian gets home and changes out of his work clothes. We start gathering everything that I had on my list to bring to the hospital and headed out the door to drop Dusty off at my mom's around 12:30pm. By this time I am in so much pain I really didn't think I would make it to the hospital. We get to the hospital and start filling out the paperwork at 1:30pm and they hook me up to the monitors and check everything out. I was literally the woman on the TV screaming and making all the moaning and groaning. LOL. I kept saying something is going to come out. I didn't have much pain, all I could say was PRESSURE!!! They said I was 4cm dilated and that they were going to keep me. I thought to myself (DUH!!!!) So I had Brian call my mom and let her know. They asked me if I wanted to walk up to the room or be wheeled up, I just looked at the nurse like she must have just popped out of the coo-koo clock. I could hardly breath and she wanted me to walk. CRAZY! We get up to the Labor and Delivery room and all set up. The hook up the IV's as soon as we got there so they could get the epidural sooner. I was still acting like the ladies on TV and demand they check me again. I was at 6cm. As soon as the epidural lady walked in they checked me again and I was 8cm. By now pretty much everyone had made it to the hospital. Soon after they put the epidural in they checked again and I was already 10cm...time to start pushing. I gave several pushes but then needed a break (I was kind of scared because my midwife hadn't even came into my room to see me yet. I wait about an hour, and visit with the 2 people they let in the room at a time and then started feeling pressure again and said I was ready to start pushing again. At this time everyone was taking bets on when she would be born. My guess was 7:33pm...I don't think Brian even got to see or experience anything because he was running back and forth to the bathroom every minutes to re-wet the washcloth to keep me cool. Such a great husband. Soon my midwife finally made it to my room and as soon as she got there she dropped the table and suited everything up. LOL. I thought some emergency was going on or something. She kept saying "OK, next contraction you can push" I wouldn't wait for the next contraction for the life of me and told her I will push when I'm good and ready, I can't wait lol. About 5 minutes later my mom leaned over and told me "4 more good pushes and she will be here" I didn't believe her. Needless to say after 3 pushes, the midwife said "one more push" I pushed with all my strength and there was her beautiful head. She was finally here and I was so relieved. It wasn't too bad after all.