Happy 3 months Khloe!

I will never forget the first few nights home from the hospital with Khloe. She was perfectly happy all day and when it came time for the exhausted mommy and daddy to sleep, she wasn’t having it. She screamed ALL night. John David and I took turns trying to soothe her and eventually found the only way she was happy was when she was held. Everything I SWORE I would never do as a new mommy went out the window. Those first two nights, she slept curled in either of our arms IN our bed. I know, I’m a horrible person, but at that point, whatever she wanted I was willing to give just so I could get a few minutes of sleep. By the third day I knew we were doing something wrong. She slept on her own perfectly during the day, it was just at night that we were having the problem. It didn’t help that we were on a very strict three hour feeding schedule since she was preemie.

I desperately began trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I began torturing myself by trying not to hold her nearly as much and not letting her sleep in my arms during the day. I know people thought I was crazy when I would get upset that she had been held all day, but no one understood what I went through during the night. It was especially hard since John David was rarely ever able to help me because he was working nights. It took about 3 weeks to get Khloe on a routine sleep schedule. We think she had her days/nights confused.

Swaddling was a must for Khloe. Nearly 80% of her cries could be cured by wrapping her tighter. John David was the best at swaddling. He proudly taught all the grandmothers how to do it “correctly”. One of the first things he would do when he came home from work was make sure she was swaddled right, which she often was not. She was so little and so fragile that most of the time, without knowing, I covered her too much. It wasn’t until she developed a heat rash on the back of her neck that I realized I was keeping her too warm. I was reading a baby article one day that said dress your baby in no more than one layer more than an adult would use to be comfortable in the same environment. Oh! That makes sense! That was one of the best tips I learned as a new mom.

During Khloe’s 2 month check up, her pediatrician finally took us off the strict 3 hour feeding and said we could let her sleep through the night. HALLELUJIAH! The first night that she slept 5 hours felt like 24 for me. This was the beginning of a much happier/ less moody mommy. 

January 1^st was Khloe’s three month birthday. As you can tell by the MULTIPLE videos I have posted of her, I am having the most fun with her this month. It seems like everyday she learns something new.

A few new things she’s doing this month:

•  Laughing- not giggling- laughing. I really have to get this on video the next few days because it is the cutest thing EVER!
• Cooing/talking much louder and more often
• Copying more facial expressions and sounds. She can pant like a dog, smack her lips, open her mouth very wide and say “Ohhhhhhhhhh” when mommy asks her to.
• Attempting to roll over. She has rolled over once, but was slightly propped so that doesn’t count. We are very jealous that cousin Grayson has already conquered this task. : )
• Scratching. She scratches her bed while going to sleep, scratches my chest while holding her, scratches her bottle while feeding. Basically, anything she can get her hands on, she scratches.
• Watching (and still LOVING) TV for longer periods of time. I prop her up in her boppy pillow on the couch and turn on cartoons (the educational kind, of course!) and she will watch anywhere from 10-20 minutes. 
• She now really enjoys the Bumbo seat. Her favorite place to sit in it is on the countertop and she has become quite the helper while Mommy cooks (ha). She still can’t sit up completely by herself so I think this seat really helps with those muscles.
• She is a professional scooter! She can go from one side of the blanket to the other in ten minutes tops!
• DROOL!!! I haven’t figured out if this is a sign of early teething, or if it is just the baby not having control of those muscles, but I have to keep a bib on her (AND ME) these days. I really hate this because they are hard to match and bibs take away from the cuteness of her fashionable outfits. LOL.

Her daily activities include: watching baby Einstein & cartoons, playing in the Einstein Activity jumper, playing with the hanging toys under the fun playmat, swinging, facebooking, modeling for pictures, videoing, and entertaining Mommy & Daddy. We try to get out of the house at least a few times a week. I am very ready for spring so we can start back our daily walks at the park! : )

I think she weighs around 10-13 pounds. She’s in size 1 diapers and still wearing 0-3 month clothes; although I often put her in 3-6 month even though they are big just so she can have some variety. Let’s be honest, no girl likes to wear the same outfit more than a few times.

She naps for around an hour, sometimes more, 3-4 times a day. She loves listening to the lullabies her baby monitor plays as she falls asleep. I finally started the CIO (Cry It Out) method that Baby Wise teaches about a month ago and it was the best thing I ever did. At first it was super hard listening to her cry, but when I realized she would only cry for about 5 minutes and then completely fall asleep on her own, I knew it was going to work! She goes to sleep on her own now for nap and bedtime. She cries sometimes, but it’s never for more than 10 minutes. Bedtime is usually about 9:30 but if it were up to her, it would be 8. Mommy likes to sleep later in the morning, so I try to make her stay up a little later. She sleeps anywhere from 6-8 hours at night and usually only feeds once early in the morning and then goes back to sleep until around 10:30-11. I look back on those first three weeks of restless nights and thank GOD we learned good sleep habits. We thank God AND Tabatha for sending me the Babywise book! Hopefully it stays this easy the older she gets.

She’s napping during the day in her crib in her room, but I still have her in the bassinet next to me at night. When she wakes for her morning feeding, I have started putting her in her room to sleep for the rest of the morning. I just recently found a noise machine for her room and she sleeps much better when it’s not so quiet. The “running stream” seems to be her favorite. I have a firm deadline for sleeping in our room and it’s January 31^st. Makes me so sad, but there again, teaching good habits early on is key. (I think Babywise wants them in their own room earlier than this, but I wasn’t ready.. and, I don’t follow the book EXACTLY. You have to figure out what works best for you and your baby.)

She is a super happy baby. People always brag at how well behaved she is when we go places. One friend told me the other day that she didn’t think she ever cried. Oh, believe me, she does. LOL! Most days when she cries, there is a reason. I am truly thankful for this. I think God really knew that I needed a good baby after going through such a horrible pregnancy!

I am loving Khloe Brooke’s third month. She is truly the love of our lives! I would go through another 9 months of a terrible pregnancy just so I could hold her in my arms and have her say “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Every day I try to teach her new things, but at the same time get sad that she’s growing so fast. I am so thankful and LOVE that I am able to stay at home with her. We are praying that I can continue to do this.

We have a few things that we are looking forward to in the next two months:

• Khloe & I are visiting the Grandmas and Aunts for a couple weeks first of February.
• John David’s one week vacation
• Khloe’s Baby Dedication
• Khloe’s 4 month baby pictures
• John David and I will be celebrating our fourth year wedding (eight years together) anniversary. 

I hope everyone is having a happy New Year! Stay tuned for updates, pictures & videos. Thank you for all the sweet comments and messages! I love that even though we are miles away you can watch Khloe Bear grow up! Here are a few new pics!

I stole the picture frame idea from one of the blogs that I stalk. She used a super cute chalkboard every month; I didn't have a chalkboard so I improvised. I wish I would have thought of this sooner! I love it!

 Ok mom, enough.

Seriously, I said I'm over it.

Fine, I'll just go to sleep then.

WHERE'S MY BLANKET!?!?

Now, go away. : ) 

 

Drab 2 Fab: Ribbon Holder

A few years ago, my mother-in-law bought me this wrought iron blanket holder.

I have always loved it. I used it in Jackson when our family room was alot bigger. Our house now has a huge dining/sitting room and the family room is in an open floor plan with the kitchen. Our furniture is placed around the fireplace and it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for extras. 

The past few weeks I've been trying to come up with a solution for my ribbons. If you know me, you KNOW I can not even deal with this situation pictured below:

.

I originally bought some dowel rods and some boards from HL and was trying to figure out how I wanted to put it together. The other night I walked past this blanket holder and thought "Oh my goodness... that would be perfect!" I stopped everything I was doing just to put it together! : ) 

It's so perfect because now, you just pull the ribbon you want, cut and VOILA. No more digging through the super unorganized ribbon box. 

I know what you're thinking. What about the ribbon that you don't buy by the roll? Alot of times if you don't need a whole lot, it's cheaper to buy it by the foot. I ran to my supply closet and started digging through my boxes for a solution. Here's what I came up with!

Curtain Clips! Perfect. Easy on, easy off. I put extra on the rod for new ribbons as I collect them! 

I folded the extra ribbons to make it look a little nicer. I'm so excited about this project! Now, I can just stick it in my spare closet and add my ribbon rolls as I collect them. No more unorganization!! Yay!!

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

Drab 2 Fab: The Dresser

 While browsing around Goodwill the other day, I spotted this dresser. It didn't really catch my interest until I saw the price tag of $8.00. EIGHT dollars? Even if I took the entire dresser apart and just used the wood, eight bucks is cheap. So I went home, got the truck, and bought this piece of junk.

\

 Always, always use this stuff BEFORE you put any kind of used furniture in your house!

Another favorite tool of mine: the Orbit Sander from Home Depot! Plug it in, turn it on, and go with the grain of the wood. Easy Smeasy. Note: I always wear a mask and some time safety glasses when sanding this kind of stuff. Which leads me to the funny story. When I finished sanding this down, I took my mask and put it on top of my hat on my head. Hours later, I was on my way to Hobby Lobby and just happened to reach up to pull my hat down when I felt that mask! Thank GOODNESS I didn't walk in Hobby Lobby with that mask on top of my hat!! ha ha ha 

 

 I discovered while sanding that this dresser has been painted about 4 different colors.

 

 Now for the fun part. The plan all along was to repaint with a high gloss black. While out in the shop looking around for the paint, I came across a high-gloss RED spray paint. "Hmmmm..." I thought. What's the worst that can happen? If I hate it, I'll repaint it. BUT, I loved it. Check out the transformation:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I want to replace the original knobs and I've already found the ones I want at Hobby Lobby but they are $4.99 a piece. The best thing about Hobby Lobby is that they ALWAYS have half off sales. For now, it's not going to have knobs.. not until they go on sale! : )

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I found the black frame at Goodwill for $1.99 and bought the "T" at Hobby Lobby at half off for $5.00, brought it home and spray painted it. I may end up using some fabric in the background of the frame, but for now, I like it like this. 

What do you guys think? : )

Buying Mcneil / Intro to "Fabulous Finds" and "Drab 2 Fab"

To make things easier, before moving, we sold as much of the big stuff as we could. Living room furniture, dining room furniture + my buffet that I loved so dearly, brand new FRONT load washers & dryers, refrigerator, etc. The thought behind all this was it was less stuff to move, plus I could shop for NEW furniture that was a perfect fit for the new house. This would have been a great plan, but of course, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to.

Everything went so smoothly when we sold the Whitworth house. Our Realtor was awesome and really did everything he could to help us. Our Mcneil house realtor, not so much. First of all, who doesn’t have their email sent to their phone.. especially when you tell me it’s your “preferred form of communication.” I shouldn’t have to call you to ask if you received my email. Secondly, either answer the phone when I call, or call me back in a reasonable time frame. 1-2 days later is not reasonable. Thirdly, if you say to meet at the house “around 9ish” and you don’t show up until 9:30 that’s NOT considered 9ish. *deep breaths*

Upon negotiating the purchase price for the house, we agreed that the seller would pay closing cost, up to $4,000. She told us, and I quote, “John, Heather, don’t even worry about that, there is no way closing will be more than that!” Awesome! It was the last we thought about that. So, after a month of getting everything ready for closing and having horrible communications, on her side, it was finally closing day. Yay! Furniture shopping tomorrow… or so I thought. We arrive at her office and began signing the eight million closing papers. Towards the end she says, “Ok, and this is the amount you owe, which you brought the certified check for.” John David and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and then back at her. My response, “Huh?” She slides the paper over and says “yea, the closing costs went over by 2960.” My response “Oh, twenty nine dollars?” John David gulps and says “no, twenty nine HUNDRED.” We both just started at her blankly and then she said “Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you about this. I found out last Friday and it was the weekend, and I was leaving to go……..” I couldn’t hear her speaking anymore because I wanted to hurl across the table and CHOKE her. How are you NOT going to tell us about a twenty nine HUNDRED dollar overage that WE have to pay? Furthermore, we need a certified check? Where do I even get one of those? Oh my Jesus. I could feel the tears forming.

Long story short, there was no way around it. It’s what we owed and just because she forgot to tell us didn’t mean anything. Then I asked her about the air conditioner. See, the coils needed changing because the unit wasn’t cooling the house down. “Oh” she says. “I’ll call about that right now”. OH MY GOD. This pregnant girl is going to throw a complete temper tantrum. She comes back and says “I’m so sorry, but they can’t come and change them until Thursday. Today is Monday. It’s July. In Alabama. And I’m Pregnant. Lethal combination!

Thankfully, we bought a small window unit AC a few years ago when we first moved into Whitworth and never got rid of it. They finally got the coils changed, only for us to realize, the coils were not the problem. The unit is too small for the house and just can’t keep up with the Alabama heat. The homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t cover replacing it because the unit WORKED. There was definitely no way we could afford to replace it, ESPECIALLY now that we have spent every bit of extra money we had on CLOSING costs. Soo the unit would run all day, the house stayed about 84 degrees and the electric bill was over 400 dollars for every summer month. The window unit was too small to put in any of the open rooms so we kept it in the bedroom. I basically lived in my bedroom until mid September.

The air in my car also went out the first of July. John David started driving it to work and leave me with the truck since he went to work and came home from work before and after the sun rose and set.

When it seemed like nothing else worse could happen, we found out that I do not qualify to go under John David’s insurance. Between the time we were accepted at Mobile and the time he started work, their insurance policy changed. Pregnancy was now considered PRE-EXISTING. I had been paying my insurance through my previous employer for 4 months now, at over 300 dollars a month, and now I had no choice but to continue paying until the baby was born. As if that wasn’t bad enough, since I wasn’t under the resident’s insurance, I could no longer have the baby for free at the hospital, which meant I had three months to come up with 20 percent of the delivery cost. Seriously?

As if I wasn’t an emotional wreck already, this about put me over the edge. We had a plan. We had a budget. We had paid off all credit cards. Things were going to be great. Now, I have no job, sick as a dog, and have more bills than we have ever had. Like I said in my last blog, I cried. Every day. Even if I had a day where I wasn’t super sick, I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything simply because I didn’t have the money.

Finally the long awaited month of November rolled around. This was the first month since I got pregnant that we weren’t basically throwing money down the drain on healthcare. Of course, now I owe the hospital around $4,000 from delivery of Khloe since it wasn’t a “routine” cesarean. The total bill was almost $29,000. A normal cesarean is about $3,500. Thankfully I had good insurance and I only had to pay $4,000, but still. We’ll be playing catch up for quite some time to get back to a comfortable place.

So, the reason for this blog is to give you an idea of why I haven’t posted any pics of the house décor. If I could go back in time, we would have rented 8 U-hauls before I sold all my furniture. I had no idea things were going to turn out the way they did.

Decorating here has been a super slow process for many reasons, but mostly because I could never replace what I sold. Over the past few months, on a very limited budget, I have begun to try and fill the house. Desperation often leads to inspiration! One piece at a time, I have been scourging my local Goodwill’s, Thrift stores and Department stores for “fabulous finds” and things I could turn from “Drab 2 Fab.” This is what my next few blog entries will be about. Hopefully, it will give a few of you crafty girls (and maybe a few of you who are on a very limited budget, like me) some inspiration to get creative.

A very wise woman, Barbara Scruggs, once told me “it’s short term discomfort for long term happiness.” One day I will be able to afford very nice things, but even then, I will still love me some Thrift stores! One person’s trash…. Another person’s treasure!!!

I’ll be posting “The Dresser” in a few hours. I’m super excited about it.

Love you guys!

Heather

Khloe at 2 Weeks Old