976 blog posts is 1

Ok, ok...I know, I a terrible blogger! Carson is 16 months old now, my last post was SEVEN months ago! So here's a little bit of a recap...and I promise to try to post just a little more frequently, but I can't make any guarantees...

So in the last 7 months....Bryan turned 25, I threw him a surprise party, it was fun! Carson had his first birthday, I threw another party, it was even more fun! There was Thanksgiving, Brandon and Kellin and Aiden came to visit again, Carson and Aiden had a great time together! Then there was Christmas, New Years, I turned 22...and then there was school...and more school...and even more school!

Peanut Butter Playdough
Just like lots of toddlers, my little boy who used to eat nearly anything decided that it would be more fun to just be picky and not eat hardly anything. The hardest thing to get him to eat is protein, he has eaten meat exactly once in the last month, PB&J is hit and miss, as is cheese...so we were seriously lacking in the protein department. So what did we do? We made playdough! Not something I'll do on a regular basis unless I can find or come up with a less sugary recipe, but it was a super fun way to play together and get some peanut butter in Carson's tummy!


Playdough? OKAY!


I didn't just put it in my mouth Mommy!


Oh, I'm allowed to eat this playdough? YUM!


Ooooh, cookie cutter playdough!

Want to make some peanut butter playdough for your kids? It is super easy!
3 parts flour
1 part sugar
2 parts peanut butter
enough water to make it "playdough" consistency
mix it all together in a big bowl and HAVE FUN!


Bulema Redux
So remember I told you Carson was picky? Well before the no protein stage was the no veggies stage. It wasn't quite as bad as the no protein stage, he would still eat some things some times, but there was a good week or two where the ONLY way I could get the kid to eat a vegetable was to feed him morningstar veggie bites. If you don't know what those are, they basically look like chicken nuggets but instead of chicken, there is spinach and cheese inside. The only problem? There is only one place in Corvallis that sells them and after I bought both packages they carried, they didn't get any more in for weeks (and still haven't, I'm starting to think they don't make them anymore) So I decided to try to make my own. I bought a big container of spinach, I cooked a few cups of it down in a pan with just a touch of olive oil, then I mixed it with some feta and parmesean and rolled it into chicken nugget sized pieces and dipped it in egg wash and then in bread crumbs and into the oven on a cookie sheet until they were crispy. They were SO good! So why did I name them bulema redux? There are these yummy spinach and cheese filled pastry things that my grandmother makes, she taught my brother and I how to make them a couple of summers ago, they are freaking delicious, but they take all day to make, not to mention a little counter space (something for which we are seriously lacking) but these came out tasting pretty similar~not as good, but similar.



mmmm, Dinner!


Grad School
I applied for Graduate school. To get my masters degree in apparel design with an emphasis on functional apparel. I should find out any day now...so keep your fingers crossed for me, 'kay?


Sleep, Ear Infections, Weight Gain and Finally getting some teeth!
Anyone know where I can get some? Carson is sixteen months old. A 'good' night for us is him only waking up 3-4 times, an average night is 5-6 times, and a not so great night (like last night) is every single hour....its exhausting. I get up with the baby all night, then Bryan takes him in the morning so I can get some sleep. We're both exhausted...that word doesn't even cover it. I go to school and people there talk about how they're so tired because they've been living on 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night for 3 or 4 nights, it makes me want to scream because I would all but actually kill someone for 5 consecutive hours of sleep in one night, let alone 3 or 4 nights in a row! There are plenty of nights where I'd kill just to have had more than 2 total hours of sleep by the time 5:30 or 6am rolls around and Bryan gets up with him. Oh to be lamenting over only getting 5 hours of sleep! Carson is also nearing the end of his antibiotics for his 3rd ear infection in the last 2 months...oy, poor kid got my genes on that unfortunately :( On the bright side, he has finally hit a real growth spurt! He has gained 4 lbs in the last month, grown 1.5 inches and gone up a shoe size! Take that failure to thrive! Oh and teeth, Carson finally got his second tooth on Friday. Most toddlers his age are working on their molars, but not my kid, he was rocking the toothless grin until 15 months, and even now has the same amount of teeth (or less) than the itty bitty babies in his room at daycare.

Ok, that's enough catching up for now, I need some sleep.

My baby is 9 months old! How did that happen?

We had Carson's 9 month check up yesterday. He is 28.5" tall and 16lbs 1oz. He has fallen back off of the chart for weight, and that is a huge bummer. His doctor said that he thinks there is about a 75% chance that Carson just has a fast metabolism (he is Bryan's child afterall) and a 25% chance that there is a chrinic illness or other problem contributing to his lack of weight gain. He has been deemed failure to thrive based on his weight. Let the testing begin....

After his appointment we went to the hospital lab so he could get blood drawn and about a million blood screen/panels done. It was traumatic for us both for him to get his blood drawn, the poor thing has a bruise from it today, not that it slows him down any. His pediatricians office called this afternoon to let us know that one of the liver panels came back below the normal range, so he will be getting more testing done to figure out what that is about. We go in Monday morning for a VGUC, which is where they catheterize him and inject dye into his kindneys and to test for urine refluxing back into his kidneys from the urinary tract. Then we go back in to the pediatrician Thursday to go over all his test results and figure out where we go from there.

On the bright side, he is doing beautifully as far as development goes. He has hit all the milestones he should have so far and then some. He is finally sleeping a little better, he only wakes up 3-ish times a night now instead of every hour. He loves to explore and get into everything and he has the cutest laugh in the whole wide world!

Holy Poop!

This is Carson's new friend Bridget, he stole the cell phone from her...He likes her :)




No seriously, holy freaking poop! Carson wears mostly cloth diapers, although I do use disposables occasionally. Carson has never had a poop leak in cloth, and has only had wet leaks maybe 3 times, he has however, blown out of disposables PLENTY of times, but last night, oh it tops them all.

Carson was playing on the floor with his toys, I went into the other room where it was quiet to speak with a daycare provider, and Bryan was keeping an eye on the baby. Bryan thought Carson pooped, he checked his dipe and nothing, so he put him back down to play. Well he looked away for just a few seconds, then all of a sudden I hear "honey come here" followed by "oh my gosh Carson!!!" Thinking I may be missing some huge event (like perhaps first steps, we're thisclose to them) I ask the woman I am on the phone with to hold on a sec and go to see whats up. Carson is covered in poop! Thank goodness it was hot and he was playing in only a diaper, I can't imagine what the clothing would have looked like had he been wearing it...

There was poop on the floor that he had stepped in and smushed, poop all over the ottoman that he was PLAYING in! And the kid was covered! He had poop in his hands, poop on his tummy, poop on up and down his legs, thank goodness he didn't try to eat it! I quickly hung up the phone and we wiped of the big chunks and carried that baby straight to the bath to get hosed off and scrubbed (and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, blech!)

Oh the joys of parenthood....

We also went up to Tigard this week, it was a lot of fun seeing everyone and we took some cute pictures! Carson had his first experience in the big bathtub instead of the baby tub and he LOVED it, he also had fun playing with his pirate bath toys, so enjoy the pictures, they are my favorites!

Carson's Closet Designs, Stocking Friday!

I'm so so so excited to be stocking my store, Carson's Closet Designs, as part of the Simply Serendipity Congo this Friday. For those of you who don't know, a congo, short for conglomeration, is a grouping of multiple stores, which is great because not only do I get traffic from those looking for my stuff, I get traffic from those looking at my fellow congo members stuff! Some of the stuff I will have available is already up for preview here and the main page for the congo is here. This may or may not be all I will be stocking this time, it depends on how much more I get done by Friday morning. So go check it out, you know you want to :)

Carson has been teething (we think) so he has been extra clingy and cuddly, which aside from not getting any work done, I love because man do I love baby snuggles! He is finally chunking out a bit, which is a relief after all we have been through with his problems gaining weight. He's actually visibly getting bigger, which hasn't happened for some time. He is still quite skinny compare to the other babies we hang out with at playgroup, but he is starting to get little baby chub rolls on his thighs, and even though it takes a cloth diapered butt, his pants (generally) stay up now! He is cruising all over the furniture and his toys constantly. He is also starting to CLIMB! How did my baby get so big already? He's going to be quite the handful, not that we haven't known that since birth, but man this kid is fast! He is babbling all the time and we think he is on the verge of a first word, and every day its looking more and more like that word will be Dada, as he says it all the time while babbling (not knowing hes saying it of course) but never says that Mama syllables. He also sits on his knees to play with things now, which is pretty entertaining. He likes to be involved in everything we are doing, especially if what we are doing involves eating, using the phone, or using the computer. Even if he has just finished eating, if we are eating he looks at us like "Hey, I should be eating that, what do you think you're doing?" He also started doing the most pathetic, but cute, thing in the whole world, when he wakes up, he will roll on his tummy, crawl to the end of his crib that faces the door, grab onto the bars with both hands, and smush that little face as close to the bars as he can and whine, its really sad. I think is all thats new for now, ad even if it isn't, I need to go to bed!

A "friendly" letter to everyone from a very sleep deprived mommy

mmmmm! Chicken and squash!

Happy Father's Day Daddy! Thanks for picking out my hat!

They were having a very serious conversation.

A dress from Carson's Closet Designs.

Some soft-soled shoes from CCD.


I am exhausted. I get 1-3 hours of very interrupted sleep a night, followed by 2-3 hours of sometimes interrupted, sometimes not of sleep in the morning when Bryan takes Carson so I can get some rest. All added up, we are going on 8 months straight of, on average, 4 hours of sleep a night. In the last 7 months 3 weeks and 3 days, I can count the number of times I have had 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep on both hands, and the number of times I have had more than 6 hours total sleep in one night (uninterrupted or otherwise) on one, its a little depressing actually. But such is life sometimes, so I don't say all this to complain, I say it so you know where I'm coming from. I should also mention that for the past 4 1/2 months I have had to live dairy free, which honestly, it sucks, I don't know how vegans do it. I miss yogurt, I miss bagels and cream cheese, I miss bread that doesn't have seeds throughout it and weighs less than 8 lbs per slice. I think I'd be a little less bummed out about the fact that I can't have chocolate when I'm pms-ing if I had a little more sleep, but that is probably more than you wanted to know, so I digress.

Like I said, I'm telling you this so you can try to get an idea where I'm coming from when I say this next part...

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE, dear friends and family, STOP with the unsolicited parenting advice already.

YES, we have talked, at length, with our pediatrician about each and every one of Carson's issues from food allergies, to lack of weight gain, to lack of sleep. YES, we very much trust out pedi, if we didn't, we would not continue to see him and we would seek a second opinion. He is a top pediatrician, graduated from a top medical school, he still researches and is published in scholarly pediatric journals regularly, and to top it off, he has two small children so it really hasn't been so long since he's been through the baby stage, really, we love him.

NO, we do not need to see a specialist of any kind at this point for Carson's sleep issues. Yes, he wakes up frequently, and he is tough to put down. Part of this is likely just his personality, but a big part of it is the fact that for the first 3 1/2 months of his life, he was in a lot of pain from relux and his food allergies that we were, at that time, unaware of. For the first 3 1/2 months, he would wake up, we would try to put him back to sleep by rocking him or whatever, but ultimately, the only way to get him back down was to nurse. We now know that this was due to his reflux/food allergies, he would eat a small amount, it would reflux, he would want to nurse, which would temporarily quell the pain, but then a while later that would reflux as well, lather, rinse, repeat...Well this taught him the very bad habit of "the only way to fall asleep is to nurse" We have worked very hard to get him to go back to sleep just by being held/rocked, and while this still doesn't help the fact that I still have to get up each time he wakes as he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep, it is a step in the right direction. So please, know that when I say he wakes up every hour (sometimes more) know that that is actually an improvement from where we were and stop knocking the fact that a textbook child would be sleeping more by now because Carson is anything but textbook.

Please don't tell me that formula would make him sleep better. No, actually, it wouldn't, but thanks for playing. Carson is severely allergic to dairy, and intolerant of soy when he has it directly (ie soy formula) Formula does not make it better, it actually makes it a lot worse, but thanks for telling me that the way I choose to feed my child is what is causing him not to sleep, and I've got to add, its really a nice boost to my self esteem for you to imply that the milk my child is getting is causing problems, thanks everyone, its nice to feel like I, and my body, are failing my son in yet another way, becuase the inability to give birth naturally, and the the fact that I unknowingly starved my child (literally) for the first 4 days of his life weren't enough, lets add my milk keeping him from sleeping to the list. Seriously though, cows milk is for baby cows, human milk is for human babies, and while I wont knock people for formula feeding, in fact without formula my sweet little Carson would have been failure to thrive right off the bat due to the fact that my milk didn't come in for 8 days, and as of day 4 (when we added formula)he had already lost 13% of his body weight, but lets not kid ourselves into thinking that formula, a substance derived from cows milk, which again, is made for baby cows, and synthetically manufactured to be edible by human babies is somehow better than human milk for a human baby.

You can tell me what you think of vaccinating, not vaxing, delayed vaxing, and why you think that, truly, I enjoy discussing people's views on vaxing, but PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, do not speak to me like I am ignorant or haven't researched my choice to vaccinate my son. Just because I choose to vaccinate does not mean that I am blindly following my pediatrician's advice, I have researched vaxing to death thankyouverymuch, and ultimately, we decided that it was right for our child. You can do whatever you see fit with your baby, but please do not tell me what to do with mine.

For the record, aside from the cold that Carson just got over, he is a VERY happy baby. Sure, he doesn't sleep well, but I've already explained to you why, and it surprisingly has very little bearing on his mood throughout the day. Carson smiles and laughs and plays all day long. Before we found out about his dairy allergy, he was very cranky all the time, it sucked for everyone involved, it really did. But he has been better for going on 4 1/2 months now, so please get it out of your mind that he is always fussy just because I complain about an off day, or nighttime sucking, or the fact that he was all kinds of unhappy while he had a cold. He is happy all the time, other than normal baby fussiness, you know those babies, they do tend to cry on occasion, so PLEASE don't tell me I need to talk to his doctor about his mood, or see a specialist to figure out what is "wrong" with my child. When was the last time you saw him for more than an hour, or at all, that you should be able to tell me how he acts all day, I'm with him basically 24/7, I think I know better, so please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top, for the millionth time, he is not fussy during the day anymore (barring illness of course) so stop thinking that I have this completely miserable child, I don't!

And one more thing...I'm glad that your child/friend's child/coworker's-neighbor's-little sister's-friend's-brother's baby sleeps 12 hours a night without waking up, good for them, but when you ask how I'm doing and I tell you I'm tired, then you ask why, and I tell you that too, it is just not the best time to bring up the fact that someone else's child sleeps like a dream, thanks.

And if you plan on suggesting any of the following books/sleep training methods, please don't. We have already tried Dr. Sears, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, The No-Cry Nap solution, The Baby Whisperer, Babywise, The Ferber Method (I still regret trying this one) and basically every other "method" out there to get out baby to sleep, none have worked, and yes we have gived each more than double what is reccomended in time that each book/method says it should be working by. I'm glad they worked for you, truly I am, but they haven't worked for us so please don't tell me how it will solve all my problems, I've tried it, and all I've ended up with is a whole lot of money wasted on books that I should really get around to selling on e-bay.

I don't want anyone to feel as though this rant is directed at them and them alone, I promise it isn't. This is directed at everyone who has given me unsolicited parenting advice regarding those things written about above, and I promise that each and every one of the issues just laid out has been commented on by at least two people, so really, this is not directed at anyone in particular, so please don't feel like it is.

Also, if your name is Cami, please disregard everything I just wrote, because you, dear cousin, have been there. You and your dairy allergic little Clarendon have gone through so much of what we have been through with Carson, so you can tell me anything you want to that you think might help because you actually get it.

Now that that is out of the way and off my chest, here is an update on Carson. We stopped supplementing with formula after a couple of days because Carson was having issues with the soy, turns out he does have an intolerance for it, it just isn't as severe as his dairy issues so I can eat it without enough getting into my milk for there to be a problem, but he can have it in the nice concentrated amount in soy formula. Despite not supplementing, he managed to gain 11 ounces in 10 days(this is nearly double what he gained in the last 3 months!) YAY!! The antibiotics worked wonders and his infection is now gone. His doctor thinks that he has likely had the infection for a while but the only sign was lack of weight gain, it is rare, but sometimes UTIs and kindey infections only manifest themselves in low weight gain, they dont always include the typical fever and other symptoms, so without his doctor's concern over his weight gain, we may not have known until it got even worse. His doctor ordered a kidney ultrasound, which we are waiting on radiology to schedule, just to make sure that he isn't having urine refluxing into his kidneys, which could cause problems and recurring UTIs/kidney infections, but we are hoping that this was a one time thing. If the ultrasound is clear then we will consider it to have been a one-time thing, but keep an extra eye out for low weight gain, unexplained fevers, and general unexplained, out of the ordinary fussiness, and if any of those occur then we will be immediately testing his urine to check for infection. If he does get another infection, then he will have a VGUC, which is a bit invasive (catheter, dye, etc) so we are holding off on it and hoping that this was one time and wont happen again.

Carson is reaching milestones like its going out of style. He can pull up from his tummy to standing in like a millisecond, he plays peek a boo all the time, he will stand, leaning his tummy against the coffee table and let go with both hands to play with a toy (or fabric, because its a toy too!) He cruises all over that coffee table too. Today he even tried to stand without holding/leaning on anything, but no success on that one yet.

My clothing, Carson's Closet Designs, is now a part of the Simply Serendipity Congo on Hyena Cart. Our next stocking is July 3rd, so my stuff wont be available until then, but you can check out the congo by clicking here you'll see Carson's Closet Designs on the list of vendors at the top of the page. There isn't anything on my page yet, but there will be soon, its very exciting!

It's finally Summer!

School is finally out for the Summer and it feels so nice to know that I get to spend nearly 4 months just hanging out with Carson and not having to worry about classes! Carson is learning so many new things and that is a lot of fun. He is moving all over the place, you look away for a second and he is well on his way to another room, it's pretty cute. He also loves to be standing and he can pull himself up. He has also taken a couple of wobbly steps while holding onto his crib or the coffee table.

We went to the doctor for another weight checkup on Tuesday and Carson still isn't gaining properly. He is now, at nearly 7.5 months old, only 15lbs 2.5oz. In the past 13 weeks, he has only gained a total of 8.5oz, which is barely anything for and infant. He has completely fallen off of the growth chart for weight, although he is still at the top of the charts for height at 28in. We have started supplementing with soy formula after two nursings per day to see if that will help him gain. They also ran a urine analysis to test for kidney problems that could be contributing to his low weight gain, but instead found that he has a UTI, so we are going to back in next week to test his urine again to make sure the infection is gone and to test for kidney problems. We then go back again in July to re-check his weight. We are hoping at that appointment to have significant weight gain from the help of the formula. If he is still not gaining properly then we move on to blood tests to figure out why exactly he is not gaining weight. Hopefully his appointment next week shows weight gain and no more infection, and we are really really hoping that our appointment in July shows enough weight gain to avoid blood tests, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Thats about all that is new here for now, I'll post some new pictures just as soon as I find my camera adapter that I once again lost, I have some super cute ones of Carson's first swing ride at the park and first time in his baby pool, or rather his feet's first time in the pool as he was too freaked out to actually make is all the way in :)

It's been awhile...

This is Carson's teddy bear, Teddy

Eating with Daddy

This is the Atlanta Braves Diaper I made for Carson

Angry baby! I swear, he was totally fine until I pulled out the camera, then he flipped out and wanted to be picked up! Don't worry, I picked him up as soon as I took the picture :)

Oh dang, its sideways...this is another diaper I made for him :)

This term has been the most difficult yet and I haven't had time for much of anything, least of all blogging, so here is an update on the goings on around here :)

I have officially, as of about 5 minutes ago, withdrawn from my math class. Its like a huge ball of stress has just floated away and I feel so much better about the rest of this term now. I decided to take my required math class online, as I have done with any classes possible since Carson was born, so there was less time I either had to be away from him and pump (oh how I HATE pumping) or less class I had to bring him with me to. Well it was an exceptionally bad idea to take in online. There is no homework, so your entire grade is based on 2 midterms and a final exam. Well I managed to fail the first midterm. It was the first failing grade I have ever received in my life, and I knew after finishing the exam that it was coming. I figured out that just to pass the class (passing being a C- or better because apparently D stands for failing these days, but I digress) I would need to get very close to 100% on both my second midterm and final. The likelihood of this happening is next to nothing but I already paid for the class and I didn't want to drop it and have to pay for it a second time to take it on campus, so I thought, well I *might* pass, a miracle could happen, and if I don't well then I still have to pay for it a second time. But the more I realized that there was no way in heck I was passing, and I would inevitably have to pay for it a second time, I realized that I did not want to kill my near perfect GPA with a failing grade. It feels so much better not to have that class hanging over my head anymore...even if I do still have to take it next year.

Now onto more exciting things, because lets face it, most of the you, people who read my blog, are way more interested in whats going on with Carson than with me :) And I totally understand, he's way cuter and far more exciting! He is coming up on 6 1/2 months old and still hasn't even hit the 15 lb mark. We went to his 6 month appointment on Tuesday and he is 14 lbs 13.5 oz, yea that's right, I'm counting the half ounce! He has only gained 3.5 ounces in the last month. He has fallen from the 85th% for weight at birth, to the 50th %ile from about a week old until roughly 3 months, then to around the 20-25th%ile around 4 months and is now below 10%. We're not sure why isn't gaining like he should, but we are going back in just over a month to weigh him again and reassess his weight gain. He is still consistently in the 80th% for height at 27 inches tall! We are hoping his weight gain is just due to genetics seeing as Bryan is tall and skinny too, but on average babies double their birth weight by 6 months old and for Carson that would be weighing about 18.5 lbs, which he is nowhere near.

He is also still not a sleeper, its just not happening. He wakes up hourly all night and it is pretty exhausting. We have tried just about everything we can think of/have read about/have had suggested to us, and nothing works. I'm beginning to think that he is legitimately hungry that often seeing as he is having such a hard time gaining weight.

He moves all over now, you look away for one second and he's nowhere close to where he just was and off trying to play with something else. He also learned how to reach for people so that is fun because he will reach for people to hold him. And he LOVES baby Einstein dvds, they are pretty much the best thing ever for calming him down when fussy and I watched the first signs one with him and we did sign language together, ok I did sign language for him, but its fun and I'm hoping he will learn some of the signs soon if e watch it regularly and I do them for him whenever I am doing stuff.