Crazy Week

Well... I started off my week with yet another kidney stone attack. This one lasted for 14 hours and pain meds did nothing... Probably because I kept puking. By Monday at 4am I was feeling "better", though my body ached like crazy. I sure wish they'd just pass already, rather than just put me in pain all the time! Nonetheless, I was able to go play for about 12 students at district solo festival and they all did pretty well. Jayna was a champ being towed around everywhere with these high-schoolers. They all absolutely loved her and mauled her so much that she kept getting a little over-stimulated. I'd have to remind them to back off a bit, but over-all she did really well.

Then, late Tuesday night, I noticed that little miss thing had a tooth that had broken skin. I thought she had been the most amazing teether ever until today... she was CRANKY! I guess it's worse once they break through? Makes no sense to me, but she sure has been in pain today... Orajel was not her favorite thing.

She has been eating oatmeal and is doing quite well at it. She, of coarse, sucks it off of the spoon, rather than  letting me put the spoon in her mouth, but gets the job done either way.

We weighed her again the other night because everyone has been commenting on how much bigger she looks just in the last week. This time Scott weighed her and she was only 14 lbs. I believe this weight more than the 15 I weighed her in at a few weeks ago. I think the scale is more accurate with less weight, so we'll have Scott weigh her from now on. Her 6-month appointment is in a few weeks, so then we'll know for sure where she sits... I hope she hasn't lost weight the last week!

Scott is now sick with a sore throat and we're praying that Jayna and I don't catch it. I've got a busy month in March playing for high school concerts, festivals, and judging scholarship auditions and don't have time for illness. The thought of almost having to cancel because of my kidney stone attack stressed me out enough.

We get to go to Twin next weekend, which I'm excited about because we haven't seen my fam since Christmas. Before having a baby, that didn't seem like so long, but in baby years 2 months is a long time!
We're hoping all illness and pain will subside by then :).

6 Months of Being a Mommy

I honestly cannot believe that as of today, I've been a mom for 6 months. It seems so short, yet can't really remember life without Jayna either. We love our little munchkin so much and can't believe how much she's grown! In fact, she's gained 3 lbs in the last 4 1/2 weeks. She started wearing 3-6 month clothing about a month ago and is now already too long for them. We weighed her on our scale last night and it said exactly 15 lbs. I can't believe it! She's no longer small for her age :(, but :) at the same time.

• She's starting to get a lot more dark hair in... we actually comb it for church now. Haha! 
• She loves to sit up, but can't quite do it on her own yet. You'll see examples in our little "photo shoot". 
• She's semi-consistently holding her own bottle. She's great until she gets tired. Haha! We're going to start her on cereal this next week; we've been trying to get her digestion figured out on formula first.
• She is very mobile (on her back). She still doesn't really like rolling over because it ends her up on her tummy, but she still does it on occasion anyways.
• She's obsessed with her hands and is constantly staring at them and wiggling them.
• She's distracted by EVERYTHING... especially when she's eating or trying to nap.
• She sleeps a minimum of 12 hours a night, which is so wonderful! However, she is not a napper. She's exactly like her mom and dad in this aspect. Neither Scott nor I like to nap... I guess she's an early learner. :)
• She's very vocal - she loves doing the vocal "fry" (sorry, don't know how else to explain it. This is a vocal term though.) She loves squealing, spitting, and talking to herself. Scott says she's learned all of this from me, but in reality, I just copy her... or maybe it's all the voice lessons she sits in on ;).

I'm amazed as I look back to her newborn pictures how much she's grown and changed. The rest of this blog is going to be our little 6-month b-day photo shoot.

This is a picture of Jayna when she was 1 1/2 weeks old, so you have a comparison shot.

... And now...

 ...tipping over...

...unhappy that I'm taking her pic instead of feeding her...

... everything goes in the mouth (in case you didn't already notice)...

...Fell over again. This time onto the tummy and pulled the bow down on the way down...

... with mommy...

...and daddy...

I had to put this one in because they both get ridiculous red-eye with every picture! Jayna definitely has daddy's eyes (and everything else).

...This is how we normally look. Jayna gets my hair ALL the time and she's not easy on me!...

The best self-family portrait we could get.

Pictures to boot!

I realized I haven't posted any pictures in quite some time. I've been thinking about pictures lately because I've been reading all sorts of posts/articles on Facebook about how we shouldn't be ashamed with how we look... that our children need to see pictures of us with them... how we are the only ones who really notice our faults. Then I realized that I've only taken a couple of pictures of myself since Jayna's been born because I'm so ashamed with how much I've let myself slide. In fact, I won't even have family pictures taken because I don't want to see any pictures of myself. That's so pathetic!!! So I've gained a bunch of weight... does it make me less of a person? No, but for some reason I feel like seeing myself in this state just solidifies my failures in my health journey.

I've been feeling particularly fat and ugly this last week (probably because I'm not moving as well as a 95 yr old person), and have been going through the whole thought process that I can't believe Scott would stay with me looking like this, even though he didn't marry me for my looks in the first place. So, in my desperate attempt to get motivated, yet again, to have the desire to work towards my weight-loss goals, I decided to look through all of my pictures to find some to motivate me. Let's just say that did the trick! Not to brag, but looking back on my pictures of when I was at my thinnest, I have to say that I'm a pretty hot chick! I'm going to post pictures on here of me at my thinnest and me now, mainly for journaling purposes, but also to remind myself how quickly things can slide if I let them and to show the world (ok, just the few people who read my blog) where I am, so I will be more motivated.

This is me Nov '10

 April '11

 ... and today

Aaaagggghhhh! I must say, other than my weight gain, I look less healthy, less happy, and my eyes are squinty... again. I used to think I just had squinty eyes... until I lost all my weight and realized I had big, pretty eyes. Time to find those eyes again!

Ok, enough whining and complaining. I'm the one who allowed myself to get this way, so I will take responsibility and get back to work! On the up side, I have adorable little Jayna and Scott who make my world better :). 

Jayna is just 1 week shy of being 6 months. I can't believe it! I know I say this all the time, but she is just getting cuter and cuter every day. Her little personality is so fun! We were at Walmart the other day with big ol' long lines, so I entertained myself by making Jayna giggle. Well, she got the major giggles. She was laughing sooo hard, hiccuping, and squealing... it was so dang cute! All the people around us were entertained and people were saying how adorable and precious she was. Seeing as my self-esteem is suffering, I soaked up all of the sweet compliments and loved every minute of it!

Here are some of my favorite pics of her over this last month:

Love her little belly

Haha! I love how uncomfortable she looks, yet she didn't move for an hour.

So, this is when I was on the couch with a hurt back. Scott had to go to work for 1 hour only and I truly couldn't lift Jayna. In that hour, she was the most active she's ever been. She made her way off of every side of the area rug and even rolled over (for only the 2nd time). I would scoot myself onto the floor and shimmy her back onto the rug... ridiculous. Oh, and she's naked because she also had a blow-out in that hour and I could barely change her diaper, let alone her clothes.

Hehe! We find her like this in her crib often. She won't sleep unless her head is in the corner (usually with her face up against the bumper pads) and she's always finding a way to shimmy out of her pj's. Girl just wants to be naked!

Love her expression in this one... it was taken today.

Finally enough hair for a little mohawk. Daddy doesn't like it, but I have to show that she has hair. :)

I LOVE MY CUTE LITTLE GIRL!!!!! Can't imagine my life without her! Okay, I love Scott too! ;)

Back to basics

Today is the first time I've been able to sit since Saturday, so I'm just now updating my blog. Smarty-pants, here, wasn't thinking clearly on Saturday and tried to move things along too quickly. You see, I've always had back issues and they got really bad just after I got married... mainly because I was trying to introduce orthotics and a heel lift for my right side (which is 1/2" shorter than my left). I need these things to correct my overlying issues, but they cause extreme short-term discomfort. Well, just after my body had adapted to them, I got pregnant... and had extremely swollen feet. I have huge feet anyways and my shoes were a tight fit with everything in them before. Well, needless to say, I couldn't get my shoes on and ended up taking everything back out.

So, here we are, about 8 months later and I'm just starting to train to walk a half marathon in May. Little was I realizing that just starting to walk more could cause discomfort in my back. But then, on top of that I think, "I should start introducing my orthotics and heel lift again." NOT SMART!!! I got home from my walk on Saturday and took a shower. As I stepped out of the shower, my back completely seized up and I could hardly even get dressed. I went in an laid on my bed for a minute to see if I could get it to calm down, but no dice! Here we are, 4 days and a chiropractic adjustment later, and I'm just now getting to the point I can sit. Oh, the joys!

The hardest part has obviously been the amount of quality time I've been lacking with Jayna. I hate it!!! I haven't been able to sit up and feed her, haven't been able to sit on the floor and play with her, haven't been able to hold her and cuddle, and I haven't been able to put her to bed or go in and get her out. My favorite part of the day is when I get to go into her bedroom in the mornings to get her out of her crib and she immediately smiles and giggles when she sees me. Scott has had that luxury the last 3 mornings, and I must say I'm jealous. I have one more adjustment from the chiropractor tomorrow and then hopefully I'll be better, for the most part. Then, I'm bound and determined to start practicing yoga and make it part of my life. That's the one thing everybody has sworn to me would be the most help, but I've avoided it because I'm the least flexible person in the world and yoga is ridiculously hard for me. Yes, I know it will help make me more flexible, but I'm really impatient :).

I've got to get back to basics when it comes to my health... walking regularly, yoga, and healthy eating. I'm getting there, but I know I can do better. Hopefully my body will rebel less if I do these basics.