Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

We have been sick. Thursday night (that would be 1 week ago) Y started barfing hardcore. I'm pretty sure he threw up several cups of liqui-tummy contents, with clearly identifiable chunks of his lunch. I know, gross right? Friday, he puked several more times. Then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday he puked one time each day.  Then Tuesday, no puking! Yay! So Wednesday he was able to go to preschool for a field trip to the zoo (yay again!).  Then Wednesday night after dinner he started complaining that his tummy hurt.  Yup...threw up shortly after. At this point I don't think it's a tummy virus, I think his tummy is just a little sensitive from all the barfing. The poor guy.  I feel so bad for him. He is acting just fine and normal, until shortly after he eats dinner his tummy starts bothering him.  Last night we had pasta and spaghetti sauce...nothing too crazy, at least I don't think so. He didn't even eat all that much of it. Before I had been only giving him t...

I'm pretty sure I've said all this before. But. I just have to say. I believe I may have given birth to potentially the worst sleeper in the history of babies. He went from being the king of sleep in the NICU, where I couldn't even keep him up to nurse for more than a few minutes, to being the worst sleeper ever! We keep catching flak for how this baby is. But I promise, promise that it is not my fault! He refuses to sleep alone. Like, not even for five minutes. How in the world does he KNOW when he is put down? Swaddled and warm, my shirt in the bassinet so he can still smell me, completely sound asleep...put him down and he immediately starts fussing. Moments later, it is all out WAILING, even if I'm right there patting him, holding my arm/hands on him so he feels me there, shushing him, putting the pacifier in his mouth - utter melt down.  I pick him up, and immediately he stops. It's amazing.  If I can get him settled, which takes a lot of put down, pick up,...

Took Mr. Ben to go get weighed today, he gained 5.5 ounces in 6 days. Take that, LC lady!  He's up to 10 lbs 11.5 ounces. Next week we should be closing in on 11 pounds, woohoo! I didn't call the doctor's office in time to let them know before they closed for the day so I guess I'll have to call them tomorrow. I have been trying to make sure he empties each breast, and even when he burps I put him back on the same one in hopes he can get the rest of the hind milk if there is any. Nursing sessions last a little longer but I think it will be worth it. Thanks for all of your support, ladies. It's so awesome that people that I don't even know in real life can be helpful and encouraging. Also. I know I complain about D on here a lot.  I really do try to love on him as much as he'll let me and to do nice things for him, and to talk to him and listen (more with the listening than the talking) to him which I think are super important.  Teenagers are so hard. H...

Well Mr. Ben did poop the night I wrote my last blog. It was just normal breast fed baby poop, soft and yellowish brownish. He was happy as a clam before, during, and after.  I'm not sure that the suppositories did anything considering he didn't poo til about 12 hours after the second one, but it didn't bother him when I gave them to him so that's good I guess.  And his poo wasn't hard so that is good also. Still no closing date set on the house. I'm getting a little bit anxious because the first day of school at our new district is August 14. This seems awfully early to me, but what do I know.  Anyway, that is less than 2 months away.  We have to close on our house so we can have an address in the school district, and move at the bare minimum, plus get enrolled and all that good stuff. We wanted to be able to paint and stuff before we moved in but I'm not sure if that is going to happen. The good news is that even if we don't have time to do anything ...

Mr. Ben has not pooped in 11 days. We went to the doctor yesterday and they said to do a suppository. So we did one last night, still no poop. So we did another this morning, no poop yet. We didn't see our regular doctor, we saw some other lady that was also a lactation consultant. She weighed Ben then announced that he is only gaining twelve grams a day. I told her no, he's gaining about 5 ounces a week so that's about 20 grams a day, I weigh him every single week. She insisted I was wrong. Whatever I guess. She thinks he needs formula because her preemie was on formula.  So I'm supposed to weigh him next week and call the weight in. It's a math error on her part (she tried to do it in her head). Anyway, back to the poop. I asked in a breast feeding forum if anyone else has had experience with this - one lady said her kid regularly pooped once every 14 days! And that if they don't need to poop, the suppositories won't work. He isn't super fussy, strai...

This is just for my husband, who has been harassing me about doing a new blog for almost a week! We got the house - woohoo!  I am pretty excited. Already picked out some decorations for the 3 middles rooms (C and Y will share). I have to say the thing I'm most excited about right now is the bathroom situation. I'm so excited to not be sharing a 6x9 bathroom with 6 people. Oh man. And a walk in closet, yay! I'm just so darn excited! I discovered Candy Crush Saga. Talk about addictive! Wow! I am not that good at it, but that doesn't stop me from playing it. :) Nothing else really has been going on I guess. We finally got our tax refund which is exciting, more money to fix up the house yay! I bought a ton of stuff for Miss M's hair. I'm so excited for it to get here. I ordered a sampler of Miss Jessie's hair products. They are expensive, and the sampler gives you a small amount of everything so you can try before spending a bunch of money. Also bought a ra...

I feel like it's important to process this and so I am writing again. Reading a baby magazine that I got for free (where? who knows), turns out it is just as much about pregnancy and delivery as it is about babies that have already been born.  I don't know why I do this to myself, I guess I think it will be OK and then it's not. A section about how your baby moves during different points in your pregnancy.  I never even got to 7 months pregnant so I quickly skipped over that, but it was too late to stop the tears from coming.  A section on what it was like to meet your baby for the first time.  I read those stories but couldn't really relate; my baby weighed less than three pounds and was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and wires and monitors, and I was terrified that I was going to hurt him in addition to being joyful at finally being able to hold him. It just gets me. I don't understand why I would still be so sad about it, but I am.  I am so, so thankfu...

We got a counter offer on the house, and we turned in a counter (counter) offer.  Hopefully we will hear back by Tuesday, and then maybe get this show on the road. I guess if they reject it we're back to square one. Ugh. I so want this process to be over. _______________________________________ In other news, I got a super long FB message from bio mom. She basically went on about her mental health and all her diagnoses, all her physical health problems, and how her life is going right now. She also said thank you for the stuff that I sent her and said she thought the kids looked happy and healthy. I'm not really sure how to respond. I feel bad because it's been like a week since she sent that message. She didn't say anything about seeing the kids but the impression we got is that she isn't going to be seeing them anytime soon. She said something about waiting a few months and if she is stable then adopting a dog or something. I'm not really sure what she wa...