Feeling Better & Happy Birthday To Me!

So yeah, I'm definitely feeling better than I was last week. My Mommy and I were both pretty sick, but I'm really happy to tell you that we are both doing better. I celebrated a big milestone this weekend. I hit my 3 month old birthday. I'm becoming quite the big boy now. I like to make lots of baby noises and I'm already trying to talk to everyone. My Mommy and Daddy think they have been blessed by God to have such a great guy as me. I have to agree. I'm trying to be humble, but it can be so hard when you are this cute. Oh yeah, for those young ladies out there scoping me out (Molly, you know who you are), if you think I'm cute now, just wait until I get older. :)

My Sister and Her Family

Those of you in our Sunday School class know that we have spent much time over the past few years praying for my sister, Danelle, and her family. Recently, the local paper in their town decided to run them as the "story of hope". Click here you'd like to read it. Since this story was written, while I was home for New Year's, my brother-in-law, Mark, started having problems with some of the muscles on his face and was diagnosed with Bell's Palsey. Please pray for them as they seek to overcome this too.

Update on Jonathan and his RSV

So...we went to the pediatrician for follow up today on Jonathan. She said that while the after-hours pediatrician place did nothing wrong in what they put him on for breathing treatments, she would have been more aggressive since he is so little and we need to limit how much scar tissue he can develop on his lungs.

So, she put him on a more aggressive treatment to give him every six hours via his little nebulizer thingy. She also put him on liquid steroids that he has to take twice a day for the next five days. She said that within a few days he should be feeling REALLY good.

The negative is that she said that since he got RSV when he was so little, for the next 2 years or so each time he gets a cold he will have the tendency to get this all over again unless we catch it early and hit it strong. So we'll have to be very vigilent in keeping him away from germs as much as possible. I'm pretty sure that means he won't be able to go into the church nursery until he is like 3 or so. :)

The other big shocker was the bill for the new improved medications. I was pleasantly surprised when his first round of breathing treatments only cost us $15.00. So, you can imagine my heart failure when the girl behind the pharmacy counter told me this stuff and the steroids combined were going to be $193.00. WHAT? Is it made of gold? But...I know that God is in control and that He knew this was coming, so He must have a plan. If it makes the little guy better, it is necessary.

So, that is the update. On a side note, in the midst of his sickness I've slowly been developing my own sickness. First it was a sore throat, then today it started to turn into head congestion and has continued into my left sinus. Ouch. I'm looking forward to both of us feeling better. Please keep praying for Jonathan and I.

RSV

Sorry for the long delay in posting. We did have great holidays and I'll update with some pictures later, but right now the main thing we are dealing with is Jonathan being sick. After seeing him struggling to breathe so much this afternoon, I decided to take him in to see a doctor. Yes, it could have been just a cold and they could have told this over protective first time mom to go home and just deal with it, but it wasn't just a cold. He has RSV/bronciolitus and has to be on breathing treatments every 6 hours for the next 5 days. They said it was good that I brought him in and that it probably saved him a trip to the hospital. We still need to watch that he doesn't get dehydrated as that is a concern that also could send him to the hospital.

On a side note, Mike is super busy at work and has to work all weekend, so neither of us will be at church on Sunday. Please pray for strength for both of us as we are dealing with little sleep and pray that Jonathan heals quickly. I do praise God for giving me the "mommy instinct" that he really needed a doctor today.

I'll post more pictures soon...

Recent Pictures

Computer Virus :(

Yes, my computer decided to tell us on Saturday that it was sick. After spending hours trying to figure out why our McAfee didn't stop the virus and what we needed to use to remove it, we ended up giving up and Mike took it to work on Monday. So far it is still sick and not at home where I can use it each day. I think I've been going through withdrawl all week. Thankfully Mike has been able to bring home his laptop each night so that I can quickly check email for any crisis and ship whatever items have sold via Ebay and Amazon.

I can't wait to have a working computer again. Oh yes, and I'm VERY thankful that they were able to pull my files and pictures of Jonathan off the computer before it was able to permanently delete them.

If you need to get ahold of me about something imminent, the best plan is a phone call right now until we resolve this problem. I'm just praying that it doesn't completely die as I don't think replacement is an option right now.

Meeting Family

In the past several weeks, Jonathan has had the opportunity to meet several relatives. I thought I would post some of those pictures for you to see.

Jonathan and Uncle Ken

Jonathan and his cousin, Ryan
Aunt Kristin feeding Jonathan

Jonathan and his cousin, Braden

Jonathan and his cousin, Jason

This is Jonathan with Mike's brother Royce and Mike's Dad.

Jonathan with Grandpa Staples

Grandma Staples meeting Jonathan for the 1st time.

Jonathan and Grandma Herriage

Rested Mommy is Happy Mommy

Score for Jonathan! Monday night he slept for almost 7 hours between night feeding and morning feeding. Tuesday night he slept for 7 1/2 hours between night feeding and morning feeding. And last night he really made Mommy happy...

He went to sleep at 10:30 p.m. and didn't wake up until 7:00 a.m. WHOHOO.

Wait, did I mention...WHOHOO!!!!!

Seriously, I need my sleep. Which reminds me - it is midnight and I need to sleep. I'm still hoping for a repeat and maybe I'll get at least 7 hours before he is ready to eat again.

The Dogs & The Little Guy

Mike, Jonathan, Sheba and Cody

Mike, Jonathan, Casey and Sasha

One of the most frequent questions we receive seems to always revolve around how the dogs are handling the baby. I think they are all doing very well. When we first brought him home, they would jump up every time he made a noise and would wake up in the night when we woke up with the little guy. Now they tend to sleep through just about everything. When we bring them out, they've learned not to come running over, but to lie down on the floor and wait until we give them permission to come closer.

We did have one person (who has never met us or our dogs) criticize us and say that we shouldn't keep such "known aggressive dogs". Anyone who has ever met our dogs (and Julie could probably attest to this since her daughter had only good experiences with our dogs) knows that they are well behaved and not at all aggressive - unless you count licking. I do think some people believe that we put Jonathan in the middle of the floor and let the dogs just run wild around him. Obviously that is not the case.

Pardon me for just a moment while I step up onto my soapbox...

Wow - I love being taller.

Anyway... so many people seem to have this belief that the bigger a dog is, the meaner it is. Some believe that certain breeds will always become dangerous or violent. This drives me a little bit crazy because when I was in 5th grade, someone asked us to dogsit their dog. I came home from school and was petting the dog which was sitting on my mom's lap. Out of no where, the dog decided to lash out and bite my face. Six stitches later and scars that are still on my face to this day, I will always have a healthy fear for - yes, you might have guessed it - LAP DOGS. You know, the cute little ones that look like they couldn't hurt a fly. Any breed can bite. Any breed can become nasty. I truly believe it is in the breeder and the training. Don't tell me that just because my dog was born a Rottweiler, he will eat Jonathan first chance he gets.

Okay, back down off my soapbox.

Bummer...I'm short again.

Now you know how I feel. We have good dogs. In the right circumstances they are allowed to be around Jonathan and we have even allowed them to lick his foot a little (to start building some loyalty - and an opportunity for them to express their love). However, we do recognize they are animals and we do not allow them to sleep with him, play with him, or be anywhere near Jonathan without us controlling the situation.

There you have it. I know you were all wondering.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Six years ago, God blessed my sister Danelle and her husband with this little guy (Matthew). I was in Guam when he was born, but I came home for Christmas that year and I was able to hold him when he was just 8 days old. The first picture was from this summer when I was helping him do some fishing on the dock.

Since I was thinking of his birthday and saw these pictures, I thought I would post a happy birthday message for him. Maybe my sister will see it and show him. Hint hint. I'll have to start making this a tradition for the nephews and nieces.

More Random Pictures

Some One Month Pictures

I really wasn't in the mood to be photographed, but Mommy insisted that since it was my one month birthday we take a bunch of pictures. She had to send some to my birthmom, so she was trying to get some to show how big I am now. I endured the photo session, but saved my best expressions for after she put the camera away. Hehe.

SwagBucks Update

Well, it has been just over a week since I put up the information on SwagBucks. I already have 58 SwagBucks which is equivalent to one $5.00 Amazon gift certificate or $5.00 Starbucks gift certificate and about 13 more towards the next one. I haven't aggressively been searching everything known to man, but when I've had to do a search, I've used their search box.

2 Things I've Learned:

Number 1. It's important to have friends to be successful. Of my 58 SwagBucks earned, 44 of them have been from friends. You can get up to 100 SwagBucks per friend signed up, so those can add up.

Number 2 You don't get SwagBucks every time you search. That is what I would love. Just give me one for every time I ask you for information. Instead you randomly (or so it seems) get them in varying quantities (1, 3, 5) whenever they so decide.

All in all, it hasn't been bad - wasn't that difficult to sign up friends (thanks to everyone who signed up), and has already netted one gift card - though I am waiting for a few more. I think I'll go for the $20.00 Target card and use it formula for the little guy. I only need 162 more for that. So keep searching... :)

SwagBucks

I heard about swagbucks.com through the Money Saving Mom website. Swagbucks is apparently a basic search engine much like Google is. However, the big difference is that Swagbucks gives you points for searching. Then you can redeem those points for gift cards to various places.

Sign up is super easy and does not require any sensitive information that you wouldn't want to give out. No fees, no phone number or address required...

You get three points for signing up and you can download their toolbar to search easier or you can go to swagbucks.com each time you need to search for information on the internet. After only 45 points you can already qualify for an Amazon gift card.

The great part is that the points really can add up because you can get referral points from friends who are doing their searching through swagbucks too. If you do a lot of searching and your friends do a lot of searching, you just went from being able to get an occasional $5.00 gift card to being able to earn a lot more. There is one blog that tells how a lady earned enough gift cards to cover her Christmas gifts just by using swagbucks and signing up friends.

So, if you are interested and wouldn't mind using my referral, here is the link:

http://swagbucks.prodege.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=245533

If nothing else, it could be interesting just to see the potential.

I Love My Boppy

Grandma Staples, Aunt Barb, Aunt Danelle and Aunt Lynelle gave me this Boppy and I love it. Mommy and Daddy say it is much easier on their arms when feeding and I like to hang out on it in between feedings. I hate to be vain, but I think I am pretty cute. Watch out, ladies!

My Boys

Okay, so it is 1:50 a.m. and Jonathan is 3/4 of the way through his 4 ounces. For some reason, I have sleep on the brain, so I thought I would post a few of my favorite pictures of my boys while sleeping. This first one was so cute...I came out into the living room to find them both sound asleep and Jonathan looked so happy and content to be sleeping next to Daddy.

The best part is that in life BJ (before Jonathan), I usually couldn't get away with taking many pictures of Mike either awake or asleep. Sometimes I would get one that I thought was hilarious only to find it deleted off the camera next time I checked it. Now, Mike lets me take more pictures (and sometimes just must be so exhausted that he has no clue I'm doing it). WHOHOO. :)

Works of God, Love of Others

Seriously. The last six weeks of my life have been a big time work of God. As I sit here and look down at my beautiful son, I cannot help but praise God for all He has done. We went from losing Angel (that is what the birthmom named the little girl who was stillborn who would have been our daughter), to finding out about the potential for this little guy, to hearing that we had actually been chosen again, to the joy of seeing our little guy come into the world 10 days ahead of schedule (I think because he was anxious to get out and meet his mommy, but maybe I'm a little off in my thinking). :) He has been an absolute delight and we give God the glory for directing Jonathan into our home.

Often I will just sit and hold him and look down at his cute little face with amazement that God would entrust this little one to us. I cry now just as I did before him, but now I cry with a full heart, thankful for the sacrifice of his birthmom who chose a different life for him - who chose to put him in a family with both a Mommy and Daddy who would love him completely. Even when he is fussy (which really isn't that often), I remind myself that I would choose full arms of a temporarily fussy little guy than empty arms and a heart continually filled with ache and longing for the chance to be a Mommy. I praise God every day and thank Him for bringing Jonathan home to us.

Part of the way God has been blessing us is through friends from near and far, family, my volleyball players and friends from church. Last night the church had a baby shower for us and it was such a blessing. Here are some pictures for those who missed it and said they wanted to see pictures...

The room was decorated with a jungle theme since that is going to be the theme of Jonathan's nursery. The decorators did an awesome job and I loved it all!

I liked the wall decor and they actually took it down for me afterwards so I can put it up in his room. You might not be able to see from the pictures, but there were stuffed animals everywhere. My friend Julie is in the middle of this picture...she saved the night when halfway through the service I realized that I had forgotten to bring the thank you note envelopes (our church will often use those at a shower to instead of a guest book because then you already have all your thank you note envelopes addressed). Since Julie's little girl was a little loud in the service, she had to be out in the hallway anyway and she quickly ran to the store to hook me up. She rules.

This was the AMAZING cake that Erica's mom made for the shower. She has such a gift! I have had the privilege of seeing many of the cakes she has come up with and I'm always so impressed. I do have to say that this is my favorite of her cakes though - it fit the theme so perfectly.

Many of the pictures of me opening gifts ended up a little blurry or I didn't like how I looked in them, so I refused to put them up (okay, so I'm a little vain apparently - shocker).

All in all, the shower was such a big blessing and encouragement for us. Between this shower and the shower that my volleyball players threw for us, we are set on diapers for awhile. Jonathan also received many cute outfits which I'm sure you'll see in pictures to come. Thank you to those of you who played a big part in this night. It really was special and more than I ever expected it to be. The work behind-the-scenes is much appreciated. We are thankful for those who have poured out their love and support through this entire process. We know that God has worked through many of you to be a blessing to us.

One quick side note...I think I'm finding that I now do my best blogging at midnight. Scary.

Yes, we are still alive

Daddy feeds me often. We enjoy our bonding time together.

Us at church my first Sunday. I wore this super great onesie that says "Mommy's Little Man"

Check out my great basketball outfit. The pants are so huge that Mommy rolled them up , but I think I look pretty cool.

Mommy was taking fifty thousand pictures of me this night and I was sick of the flash going off in my eyes. She was trying to take a picture of me with the beautiful blanket my great grandma made just for me. I guess I could have cooperated more and given her a nice smile, but I wasn't in the mood.

I have really long fingers. Everyone keeps saying that I should learn to play the piano when I get bigger.

Hey everyone, it's Mommy talking. Sorry for the long delay in posts...it seems like being a mommy and keeping up with everything else in life takes a little more of my time. I also have the good excuse that for awhile Mike had the plug at work that allows me to download pictures of our little guy. I will try to do better. Apparently 12:31 a.m. is a good time to blog since Jonathan doesn't feel like sleeping unless he is being held by Mommy (he is currently blissfully lying across my lap on the Boppy, but I know if I go put him down and try to sleep, he'll decide that he is going to be fussy).