Life is pretty good. :)

Life with Blake has been pretty good lately. :) The only things I would change (besides obviously the Alagille's) is that I don't have to work as much (overtime. Blah.), school all the time, and the hellacious medical bills. I thought I'd have them all paid off, until I found one I forgot about that's a little over $5000. So I'm going to submit it to medicaid...again.

Anyway, Blake had carrots for the first time today. He was in love!!! He ate the whole jar of them. He's NEVER eaten that much before! It was so cute. :) He just devoured it. And my little piggy even downed an ounce of formula before crashing out. He's been asleep for a while now. He had a bath in between the carrots and the formula, so I guess he's pretty relaxed. :) He made a mess of it all though haha. There was orange everywhere! I'm glad he enjoyed it though. :)

Also, I got an order of fluff in today. I got some flip diaper covers (they came out with a lot of fun colors!), and I'm in love! I can't wait to try them. :) Most of the afternoon I've been playing around with them, checking out different ways to use them, etc. I SHOULD be doing homework...but this is more fun. :) And I still need to prep the hemp liners. Now I'm just waiting on my bum genius fitteds to come in (maybe tomorrow?), and I'll be set. :D And if I end up being in LOVE with the fitteds, I may buy more, since they're not making anymore, and they're getting rare. The ones I just bought were the last of what she had. So I need to act fast! Did I mention how excited I am? Who would've thought that I'd get so excited over diapers? :D

Some awesome news :)

So on Monday we went in for Blake's pre-op appointment. He was born with an inguinal hernia, and those rarely fix themselves, so it looked like Blake would need to have surgery to fix it. It used to bulge quite often, but it had been a few months since I had seen it do so (last time was Black Friday, in fact). Turns out that the doctor could only feel the hernia slightly and only when he was sat up. He decided that it wasn't necessary to do surgery on it, but if it started acting up again to come back. YAY! Maybe it is healing itself. It's possible, but just very rare. But as I've said before, Blake has a lot of rare things happen to him.

On a little more of an enh note, Blake's doctor in Gainesville wants him to be on extra vitamin D. So guess I'll add another medication to his daily (or so, I haven't gotten the meds yet so I don't know how often that is) regimen. My next three babies better not have to be on any medications!

I should be getting my tax return back on friday. So excited!!! There's so much I need to do with that money. Pay off medical bills that medicaid is being a pain about, buy him a cloth diaper stash (yaaaaaaaay), pay mom back some money I owe her, and I want to buy a nice dSLR camera. I have it picked out and everything. :D Same with his diapers. Oh I am so so sooo excited about the diapers. I want to order them now so badly! But at the moment I really shouldn't do that kind of spending, so I must hold back.

Other than those things, life has been pretty much the same. I'm still my usual stressed mess, overwhelmed by homework, work, and so many doctor appointments that I've lost track. Blake makes everything worth it though. If I could just get school over with, I would be a lot better. That's my main stressor. I'm just ready to be DONE. THe only problem is, after I'm done this semester I'll have my General AA degree, and then what? I mean, what next? I have no clue what I want to do! I just want to be a stay at home mommy honestly. That's all I want to do. I don't want to work. I don't mind cooking and cleaning and just taking care of the kids. I'm totally okay with that! That's all I want to do. ALL I want to do. I feel like I'm wasting my time in school. I mean, I guess I know I'm not, but really I can't get a job with my general AA. It's basically just there to say "yep, I've been to college." Awesome. I've thought about going for Early Childhood Education, but the average pay for that is only $12/hour and around here you can't even make that much. I don't really want to be a teacher anyway. I just don't know. There is nothing I really want to be that requires schooling. Maybe I should go work at a doctor's office. I've heard you get paid a good amount there. I don't know how to get about doing that though. Maybe I'll check out Craig's list. Anyway, now I'm pretty much just rambling. I'll leave you all with a picture of my beautiful baby boy. <3

Physical Therapy

So Blake went to his first physical therapy appointment today. His pediatrician I think just meant for it to be a one time thing to make sure he's on track, even though we weren't too worried about it. We've read that some kids with Alagille's syndrome have some developmental delays. Well he was tired through the appointment, so not really into sitting/rolling, etc. But he does it!!! They said they didn't see anything wrong though. And that they would like to see me weekly.

Um, WEEKLY? Why? They saw nothing wrong. I can understand maybe monthly to make sure nothing is behind again, but weekly? I really don't see a need for that, especially since they didn't see anything wrong. They said that they would be able to give me tools to help him sit up better (adjusted age he's only five months, and he's getting it) and roll more. I really wasn't worried about it. If he doesn't want to roll, he doesn't want to roll. He CAN roll, and I think that's all that should matter. I can stand on my tip toes and walk, but I don't want to, so I don't. Do I need to go to physical therapy for that? Weekly at that? I don't have time for weekly appointments! He's already seeing his pediatrician every two weeks, going to Gainesville every month, going to Pensacola for other random tests, etc. Not to mention that besides his a million and one doctor appointments, I also have five demanding online classes and lately I've been working five to six days a week. I didn't really want to spend every single day I have off at doctor appointments. I mean, I pretty much do now anyway, but still. I just think it's kind of absurd for my baby to go to physical therapy weekly when he doesn't have any problems.

Anyway, I was browsing through Sabrina's blogs that she is following, and I got so inspired! There are SO many things that I want to make! Now I just wish that I had time to do them! lol. I'm so fed up with being busy. What ever happened to being able to spend quality time with your family and making fun crafts, not worrying about deadlines for tests and papers and homework, worrying about money and work and missing your baby while away? There's just so much I want to do, just no time. :( I want to garden, I want to sew, I want to cloth diaper and eat home grown things, I want to get some chickens and eat fresh eggs, I want to decorate, want to just be able to take a nap with my son without feeling guilty that I should be doing schoolwork instead. Oh summer, where are you?

So excited!

I filed my taxes the other day, and this is my favorite tax season EVER! Haha. Did NOT expect this much back! I can pay off all his medical bills now (since medicaid hates me), pay my mom back from when she paid my insurance for three months (thanks!), and I'm also planning to buy him a new cloth diaper stash (since the gDiapers just aren't really working for him, I'm getting the Flip system. SO excited!!! Yay fluff!), a dSLR camera, and I plan to take Mom out to dinner as a thank you for watching Blake for free when I work (lately that's pretty much all the time). I'll still have a good bit left over to save, which will be nice. :)

Blake is just growing up so darn fast. He's just into everything! He grabs at everything, everything goes into his mouth, passes everything back and forth in his hands, etc. It's so cute just watching him play and experiment! He's so smart, and I've read that if babies are willing to explore, then they feel confident that the parent (or caregiver) cares for them and will come when he cries. So I'll take that as a sign that I'm doing something right. :D

I hope Blake starts taking to solids more now that he's six months old. I'm so ready for him to eat his food! He likes to play with it, but I would like for it to get to the point that food is replacing a bottle or so everyday. Especially since WIC has cut back his formula since he gets food now too to only six cans a month. I really don't want to have to pay for his formula, since for three cans together it's about $86. Ouch.

I'm really wanting to grow a garden. When Blake gets older, I think he would have fun helping mommy in the garden. It's so weird to me that I want to garden. I've always been the type that thought it was gross. I definitely do not have a green thumb, but maybe it would be different this time around. But, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that Blacky (my sister's dog) would destroy it all, since it's normally what she does. I can't wait to move out, have my own yard to do with what I'd like, and to just have room for everything and be independent. I love the help I get here, but I'm looking to have a more natural way of life. I want to kind of get married, just so I can have financial support and not have to work, or at least work less. I've been so stressed out with five online classes (I hate online classes, but with all the trips to Gainesville, I don't think I could've taken normal classes), working five to six days a week, and trying to care for Blake. Blake is my main concern, and I wish I could just spend all of my days paying attention to him. Plus this house I'm in now is way too small for all of us. We have no room, it's always a big mess, and just everything needs work done to it. It's just really frustrating. I kinda wish mom would move out and find a nicer, bigger place, and let me rent this out from her. That way I'm pretty sure she would let me paint and all that jazz, and I would finally have room to do stuff. It would be a nice sized house for me and Blake, and if I met someone then him. I think I could make this house look a ton better, but that's just me. If I could just completely redo it, I bet it could look not too bad. But anyway, I don't see that happening anytime soon!

I'll leave you with a cute picture of Blake playing, sitting up, and of course, drooling!