A Quick Visit with Alex - Downtown Greenville

So we decided to make a last minute trip to Greenville to see Alex. He had drill April 14 and 15th so he wanted Charlotte and I to drive up to Greenville and meet him the evening of the 12th. Since Charlotte had been sick and my blood pressure had spiked, we were a bit iffy about making the drive. However, I knew that we wouldn't see him for at least a month so I knew we needed to go. We couldn't leave until the afternoon of the 12th bc I had to hand in my urine and get labs drawn in the afternoon. So Charlotte hung out with her bff's Parker and Gavin while I ran and took care of things. When I got back to pick her up, I was feeding her part of a cheeseburger when she threw up a TON of mucous/drainage. TONS. Niki is an amazing friend. She helped me clean up me, Charlotte, her kitchen floor, her kitchen table, etc. SO GROSS. My poor baby was feeling TERRIBLE. However, we moved onward and upward. She got all of her medicine including some Benadryl and she went "night night" as soon as we got in the car. She slept for over 2 hours on the way there.

We got to Greenville after 5. Charlotte and I checked into the room in downtown then we went on a walk. We were bombarded by protesters at one point and then some kind of creepy middle aged guy at another. The middle aged guy came and sat near us as we were sitting by a fountain listening to music. He asks, "May I talk to your daughter?" I was like, "Ummm, yeah, that's fine." I mean, what was she going to say back??? So weird. After that I got out of there. Alex got to the hotel around 8 so he was able to play with Charlotte a bit before she fell asleep. SHE LOVES HER DADDY. She was so happy to see him. "Da Da" is what she kept yelling when we were sitting in the lobby waiting for him to pull up. Once he got there, we went upstairs and played and read books and talked and laughed. He and I ordered pizza and Charlotte fell asleep on his lap while we ate. It was a perfect night. We were asleep by 10:30.

The next morning we were up with the sun :) Kidding... Charlotte woke up around 3 am with a 102.3 temp. We gave her some medicine and we went back to sleep. When we got up for good, we ate the continental breakfast then headed out for a walk on the town. Falls Park is a big attraction in downtown Greenville. It's a man made park with a waterfall and a suspended bridge over all of it. It's beautiful. So we walked down to see it.

 Our first family picture in MONTHS.

She was so happy to have someone carry her ALLLLL around. 

It was a pretty day. 

 This child could be named Mother Earth. She loves nature and outside and anything having to do with animals. She was so happy to be able to run free and be outside alll day.

 A bit of a posed picture.

 I'm sure there was a sign somewhere that said, "Do not chase the ducks" but we didn't see it. So we just let her go crazy. We saw one duck being attacked and chased by a bunch of other ducks. I felt so bad for him. I guess bullying even happens between ducks. Things like that make my heart hurt. I know, I'm lame.

 Yep. I can't believe it either. A picture of me and my child. Yes. Someone took one for us. I know, weird, right????? :)

 Falls Park. 

 Even though Charlotte appears to be a bit drunk, I actually like this picture of me. And, no, you aren't just seeing things. This really is ANOTHER picture of me with my child. WEIRD. Love this baby girl.

 The Jackson family... you can even see #2 peaking out there :)

After we walked ALL over Falls Park, we made our way back toward the hotel. We stopped and ate lunch outside at "Trio" (we went on a date there right around the time we got pregnant with Charlotte...just a little FYI). Charlotte fell asleep (after fighting it for a bit). We were actually able to both eat at the same time. CRAZY. We then walked back to the hotel and got all of our luggage loaded up and made our way to our next stop.... THE ZOO.

And So It Starts

Cool. A picture of the items in my refrigerator. Nice. Who cares, right?

Well, the hot pink arrow is NOT pointing to an orange juice container. It's actually pointing to my urine. In a jug. On the top shelf of my fridge.

Cool.

So it allllll starts. More BPs. More frequent Dr Appts. More urine collections. More blood work. Here. We. Go. Again.

The story goes like this...

On Wednesday April 11, I had my 22 week check up at the Dr's office. I saw my original gynecologist which is rare. She only saw me a few times when I was pregnant with Charlotte and each time she saw me, I was being difficult with my blood pressure. So I knew it wasn't an amazing sign when I found out she would be the one seeing me. She was standing close when I walked through the door of the office and they weighed me. I turn around to be weighed. It stresses me out to think I am just going to get larger and larger and larger so I just don't look at the scale. I haven't looked at it one time this pregnancy. She heard me tell the nurse, "I've found that if I don't look at my weight, my blood pressure remains lower." Dr. Molly chuckled to herself as she charted on a patient. Off to get my blood pressure. DUM DUM DUM!!!!!!!!!!

I was wrong.

Blood pressure was 180/90 in the right arm . A few minutes later it was 172/90 in the left arm.

Perfect.

They sent me to my little exam room... (all of this occurring with Charlotte on my hip bc I didn't know at the time if she had pink eye or not so she couldn't go see Niki while I did all of this.)

They say, "Lay on your left side." Seriously? I have a 14 month old with me and no one to watch her. She's bored. She's sick. She hates her life today. Lay on my left side on an elevated table and let her run wild in a room with LOTS of things she can NOT touch. Yeah, right. But I tried to obey. After about 10 minutes, they came in. Dr. Molly played with Charlotte while her and I talked and the nurse/assistant too my BP.

164/90.

PHEW! It's coming down.

We sat and talked a bit while she tended to Charlotte. My current diagnosis is Hypertension in Pregnancy. My urine was clear of protein (which is what brings about the preeclampsia diagnosis) so she was very pleased with that. However, she wanted to get some base line lab work including my 24 hour urine... last pregnancy they did at least 5 24 hour urines on me and COUNTLESS labs. After her and I had a long talk about everything that is going on in my life, she agrees that the problem right now is probably stress. She believes that all of the stress I am under has probably made my blood pressure fly off the handle. When I told her I was planning to come to Illinois to see my family and get some help with Charlotte for a  month, she thought it was a great idea...and was much needed. She just wanted to make sure I was seen by a physician at some point in that month.

And so it starts.

The plus side is that since I am SUPER stressed, this high blood pressure could very well be caused by all of that. My hope is that when the stress dies down and I can reunite with my husband, move my 2400 square feet worth of items 6 hours away, get my current home taken care of, meanwhile raise my 14 month old, my cat, and a grow a healthy baby ALL BY MYSELF...once all of that is done or I can share the responsibility with my husband, I am hoping to be back to "normal" and good as new... with a lower BP.

We shall see.

Forward Facing... FINALLY!!

It was finally time to say "bye bye" to the Chico backward facing carseat and hello to the new Britaxx BIG GIRL carseat. When Charlotte was at the Dr's office for her sick visit on Wednesday April 11, they weighed her. Naturally they weighed her fully clothes, with her heavy nerd shoes on, and a heavy full diaper. HOWEVER, she weighed 20.5 lbs SO I decided to face her forward in her carseat. I mean, the doctor's office says she's 20 lbs so she's 20 lbs.

I know that I've been wishing for the day that she is 20 lbs so that I can turn her around. But when it came to actually removing that carseat, it was all I could do NOT to cry :( I mean, my baby is growing up!! Forward facing carseat now, getting her driver's license next. It's just so sad. So in true Sarah style, I had to take pictures of the event...

Bye, bye Chico...see you in a few months!!

The amount of goldfish and Cheerios I found in the base of the carseat and on the little mat that protects the seat was unbelievable. Check out my little Dr. Suess child... she has on a onesie that says she's a nurse and the pants are from her Christmas jammies. And to think we actually went over and visited the neighbors looking this good.

Hello expensive Britaxx carseat. You look MIGHTY intimidating.

She even got to switch side of the car... this way I can see her better and hand her things when she's throwing a fit bc she is bored or just doesn't want to be in the car (those usually start after 2 minutes of riding).

So the new carseat is installed and ready for use. Just in time for a loooooong drive.... The "baby seat" is now in our storage room waiting to be moved to Georgia (tear :( )

And as a side note. We now have 2 alligators drifting around in the neighborhood ponds. The pond across the street has been housing a shorter gator with much darker skin. That one has been there for about 3 months or so...and he/she is out on the bank "sunning" ever sunny day we have.

So Charlotte and I went for a walk after putting the carseat in the Tahoe AKA Georgia. This is what we found on the opposite bank. This pond is the one behind my house but he was on the bank on the opposite side. This one was a LONG one... probably about  6 feet long.

Once I started taking pictures he got a bit bashful and climbed back into the water.

What a creep.

Thanks for the pics though!!!

Poor Sick Baby

Charlotte was finally sick for the very first time. It was so SAD. So on Monday April 9, 2012, as we were waiting for Gavin to come visit, I noticed her nose was starting to run. However, once Gavin and Parker got there, Gavin had a runny nose too so we just figured that they were both teething or both the same thing. Well, later that night, I noticed that she felt slightly warm but she had been fussing as well. About an hour after I put her to bed, I heard her crying. I went upstairs and she was fussing and coughing like a mad woman! It was the saddest, most horrible sounding cough I had ever heard! I started panicking, listening to her lungs, counting her respirations, checking for retractions, etc. I held her for hours because her nose was so stuffy that she couldn't breathe when she would lay down. We made it through until morning...but she slept with her momma alll night (and her momma barely slept at all.)

On Tuesday, we stayed home and hung out. She ended up hitting her eye on a cabinet corner at some point during the afternoon on Tuesday and next thing I know, her eye is alll red, watery, pink around the edges, swollen, etc. It was just sad. And she kept rubbing it. There was no drainage to it, just tears and lots of redness. I didn't actually see her hit her eye, she just started crying at one point and when I got to her a half a second later, she was holding her eye. So anywho, along with a fever of 101.7, a nose running like a faucet, an intermittent cough, diarrhea, she now has a red eye that looks like pink eye. Perfection. By that evening, I called the Dr. office and made an appt for the next morning.

Wednesday morning I had a dr appt for me and the baby (more about that later) and Charlotte had a sick dr appt with Dr. Lowe. Niki wanted to babysit her during my appt but with the weird eye thing going on, I wouldn't let her watch her. So we went to see Dr. Lowe. He's so nice... and knows that I am crazy. He thought that Charlotte did NOT have pink eye... but had some sort of eye infection. So he wanted her to have drops put in her eye. He felt that she either had a virus or allergies. She is now on Claritin daily and eye drops three times per day. I feel so bad that I passed on my allergy issues to my child. As far as the fever goes, could be a virus or could be teeth. Niki had said that Parker had had a fever so it was probably a virus.

The next day I had to go back to the dr and get some stuff done so Charlotte went to play with Gavin and Parker... (the dr said all was cool 24 hours after the eye drops were started). She was really good while I was gone. We were leaving straight from their house to go meet Alex in Greenville. So I picked up some McDonalds and ate a quick lunch at their house...and I got some for Charlotte too. As she is fussy, tired, and not feeling well, sitting on my lap eating a cheeseburger, she gags on some of the bread and she literally throws up buckets of snot/drainage from inside of her belly all over herself and me. I mean, wow! It was impressive. SO MUCH SNOT. After we got everything cleaned up, I drugged her up with some Motrin and some Benadryl, loaded up in the  car, and it was all good. She slept almost all of the way to Greenville and was a new person when she woke up. Later that night when Alex got tot he hotel, she had a big fever again, so she got some more Motrin.

On Friday April 13, I could tell she was feeling muuuuch better but was still sick. She had her fussy moments but was a better baby overalll. She had a lowgrade fever but nothing crazy. Although, while we were eating dinner with Alex and my parents @ steakhouse in Spartanburg, Charlotte gagged on something and the snot/drainage came pouring out of her in the middle of the restaurant far away from the bathroom....and all over me. She felt better though. And then, once she had her nighttime medicine, she was out on the drive for mom and dad. She had a fever that night as well but that was the last fever she had.

She really started feeling better Saturday and Sunday and by Tuesday she was back to her old self...and boy did I miss the old Charlotte. You just feel so helpless as a parent when your child is sick... :(

The picture at the top was taken on Tuesday when her eye started being weird. She felt so sick. The picture on the bottom is from her a few minutes later. She had just finished dinner and she had passed gas. She thought it was funny :)

Babysitting Gavin and Parker

I was so honored when Niki called and asked if I could babysit Gavin and Parker for her. Granted, she only needed me to do it for like an hour, BUT I still got to do it! I was so happy about :)

Charlotte was so excited for Gavin and Parker to come over and visit us on Monday April 9, 2012. They came over right as she got up from her afternoon nap so she was in a SUPER good mood. Then when she saw her buddies coming through the door, she could not contain her excitement! So we got Parker settled in the bouncy seat and we got the bff's settled on the screened in porch with fruit snacks, gold fish, and juice.

Gavin is such a sweet little man...and just as active as they come.

I love when they actually play together... when they continue to interact, talk, and share.

I also love when they clean my house.

Parker just hung out. Even when he was gassy and his tummy wasn't feeling the best, he was still such a good baby!!! He just hung out.

I remember when I used to babysit when I was younger and I felt like the hours just inched by. I felt like it would be an eternity before the parents would come home. With these three, I felt like they were only together like 15 minutes before Niki came back. I am so very sad that they are moving to Greenville and we are moving to Columbus. What will Charlotte do without her buddies???

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had multiple things that we could have done this Easter but all involved traveling. After the busy week that we had that included us getting back from spending 3 days in Georgia with Alex and going to Surfside Beach earlier in the week, it was necessary for us to stay home and rest... and was part of the doctor's orders.

Since the Easter Bunny had come to Georgia to visit us, he didn't come and bring presents on actual Easter Sunday. He did, however, leave a few eggs in the backyard for pretty pretty princess to find after lunch.

We started out our morning with Eggo waffles (we eat these almost every morning), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and playing. Then, as Charlotte took her morning nap, I got ready for church. After her nap, I put her in her beautiful Easter dress and shoes that Papa and Gigi got her. Then we were off to church!!!

As I handed her off to the sweet nursery lady at church, she started screaming and clinging to me. Charlotte LOVES little kids and new toys so I really figured she'd be ok. I went into the service. The music was starting but I decided to stand in the back against the wall bc I had a feeling I wouldn't be there for the entire service. After 2-3 minutes, I went and checked on her...still crying, a pitiful cry... I offered to take her but they told me she'd be fine. So with tears rolling down my cheeks, I went back into the service. The opening music was still playing. After another few minutes, I see the first "come get your child" number flash up on the screen. "141". Yep, that's me. I go out in the hall and start walking toward the nursery. My kid is no longer in the nursery room anymore. She is now in the hallway with a different woman, still crying. I take her and apologize profusely. The opening music had JUST ended. Great. Kicked out before the opening music is even done. So we went into the Mother's Room which is for breastfeeding mothers. It's usually empty so when we get kicked out (this is a regular occurrence) we go there to listen to the message. We lasted through the entire message but left during communion and the reflection time. Happy Easter to us, right???

So I took pictures of  the Easter Princess when we got home.

How cute is this dress????

Much happier now that she has her mom and a yard to play in.

So that we at least had some "family" around for Easter, Alysia and Lee came over. They brought most of the Easter lunch with them.... along with an Easter present for Charlotte.

After a DELICIOUS meal and lots of playing, Charlotte went down for a nap while we cleaned up dishes and Lee fixed my laptop. (It runs like a gem now) Once she woke up from a decent afternoon nap, we enjoyed warm apple pie and ice cream.

Then it was time to search for Easter eggs.

As soon as she saw them in the grass, she knew what to do... she also knew there would be something inside of them. 

She loves her some mini oreos. Just shovel it in, girl.

So dainty :)

Here she is telling Lee all about the oreos and the eggs the Easter Bunny left her.

And she kept going over and sitting next to Alysia.

It was as fabulous as an Easter can be without having the rest of our family with us. We were SO THANKFUL for Alysia and Lee coming over to spend the holiday with us. Thank you, friends, for the flowers, the Easter gift for Goose, the food, for helping clean things up, for keeping me company, and making this the easiest holiday I've ever "hosted" at my house. We love you to the moon :)

Hope your Easter was sensational :)

14 Months Old

Date: April 8, 2012 (Easter Sunday)

Weight: Probably around 20 lbs

Height: She looks like she is starting to go through a growth spurt :) Her little legs are looking longer everyday!

Teeth: Well, she has four good teeth in and she has two that are pretty much broken through on either side of her two top front teeth. Naturally they started breaking through right after we saw Alex in Georgia. We got home and a few days later I noticed that they were both right under the gum line. So, we have SIX teeth now. Yes. Six. And the mood to go with it :)

Clothes: Well, I am trying to transition Charlotte out of her 6 month clothes but she has SO MANY cute 6-9 month dresses that I just keep putting her in them. The only part to them that doesn't fit the best is that some of them are a bit short but they fit otherwise... so she just continues to wear them. And they look SO ADORABLE on her!! Also, she is wearing size 3 shoes and sometimes I will put her in size 4 shoes...with some really thick socks. And one of my favorite things I've bought her in the last few months are these little frilly socks from Kohls. LOVE THEM!! I love little girls in frilly socks. I'd put her in them everyday if she had enough pairs.

Naps: I love that my crazy little one still needs two naps per day. I really feel that if she would sleep in later (like sleep until 8:30 and not 6:30) then she wouldn't need a nap within 2-3 hours of waking up. This nap ranges anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours...usually closer to an hour max though. She then takes another nap sometime between 2 and 3. I've noticed that when she takes later naps in the day and sleeps until 5 or 6, it really affects what time she goes to bed at night. On those nights if we are at home, she will cry ALOT longer then normal and if we are somewhere else and rocking her to sleep, she takes forever to go to sleep. But her afternoon nap is usually longer. It usually lasts about an hour and a half...sometimes up to two and a half hours. These naps are really falling into place :)

Sleeping: As long as my sweet little princess isn't sick or teething, she sleeps very well through the night. If she's teething or sick, she will wake up or sleep extremely restlessly. On those nights, we have mommy/baby snuggle time. I just feel bad for her when she doesn't feel well and I can't let her cry it out. But as far as going down to sleep at night, she gets better and better. It's all about her being ready to go to bed and not just forcing her at 8:00 pm and 2 seconds to go to bed every night at this time. She goes to bed anywhere from 7:15 to 8:15 pm every night. But she chooses. It's so sweet when she is just over being awake. She walks over and whines for me to pick her up and then she nuzzles into my neck and that's all she wrote :) Such a sweet little baby...

Health: This has been a very healthy month for my sweet baby! Besides some runny noses that come along with teething, she has been the picture of perfect health. Naturally she has had her fair share of bruises, goose eggs on her head, and skinned knees. But that's what comes along with being an active little girl.

Food:  Welp, my little Chubby Checkers still loves her food. She still LOVES her little bowl of cereal every morning with juice while she wakes up and gets ready for the day. She has breakfast an hour or so later and then she must ALWAYS have part of my breakfast. We usually share cereal and/or an eggo waffle. This child LOVES her some Eggo waffles. I've never seen a child get so excited about her "waa-waa".  She has her little snack of whatever we can scrounge up and then for lunch, she usually eats anything under the sun. She has a snack afternoon nap and then dinner. She's not big on dinner. I think it's because she usually has snacked all day long and she just isn't all that hungry for dinner. Her favorite thing to drink is juice (we do Fruitables bc she hates veggies right now) and the one thing she will NOT drink is milk. I've tried it plain, after cereal (when it's a bit sugary), with chocolate, with strawberry syrup, etc. Not a fan. She loves loves loves bagels, any bread, mac N cheese, CHEESE, strawberries, grapes (without the skin...she hates it all of a sudden), turkey, hot dogs, and so many other things. And she continues to go without a bottle!!! So proud of my big girl!

On the Move: Little girl is just all over the place. She is up and down the stairs. She is in and outside. She's into everything. She has had many skinned knees and bruises like I've said before. Nothing is safe now. Poor poor Max can't find a safe place away from her. He doesn't know what to do with himself.

Playtime: Charlotte's newest little project is vacuuming. (sp?) Gavin was over playing with her at the end of March and he realized that I was vacuuming so he decided to use my little vacuum (just that little Dirt Devil thing). He did a GREAT job and so Charlotte decided to take up doing the same thing. The Easter Bunny got her her own vacuum from Gigi and Papa. She will get that later on when they see her. She loves to pretend like she is cooking and she's really starting to imitate me and the stuff I do. She is obsessed with shoes and pointing them out wherever we are...whether they are on people or if they are sitting on the floor. She loves shoes. One of her favorite things to do is to look through magazine and books and search for "dog-dogs". When she finds them, she will bring them to me and show them to me. She is also discovering writing on things. I took the ink out of a pen and let her use that to pretend write in a notebook I bought her with princesses on it. I love her little imagination that is forming. She loves to watch all of the people walking their dogs from the front door. She loves the park and seeing other kids. She loves riding her tricycle and just running around in the yard. She just might be one of those tree people that lives in the woods in a tent someday... she never wants to come inside.

Friends and Events: From March 8 to April 8, Charlotte had 2 long term visitors! She loved her time with Aunt Kathy and Gigi. She got to see Aunt Amelia for breakfast one morning and she got to see her daddy TWO TIMES!!! She also got see her Grandma and Grandpa Jackson and her Great Grandma Mimi for a day. She really started loving ice cream in this time. She went to the beach twice and saw lots of "wah-wah". She got to see Gavin and Parker MULTIPLE times and she got to play with Aunt Lee and Lee multiple times. It was a busy month that also included Nicole babysitting her TWO TIMES. (which she LOVED). 

The months seem to be going faster and faster. Somedays I wish we could just slow it all down a bit... :( 

Until next month...