Family Pictures!

We finally got family pictures taken!! and Matt hates it so much that it'll probably be a loooooong time before we get to do it again, lol. But thank you honey soo much for humoring me and doing it this time!! The picture above was actually taken at the end of the session, and Victor looks happy but he was about to SCREAM!!!

He was not thrilled with the whole situation, but did much better than I expected!
Me and Matt
I was making him laugh, lol. When the photographer pulled the sheet down that he's laying on Vic thought it was so cool and started laying on it and trying to blow rasberries, it was the cutest thing!
His molars are coming in and we have a hard time getting his fingers out of his mouth so we just had to roll with it. I think it turned out cute!!
He loved this chair!
"Really?"
angel face"You really gonna let me have a cookie?"
"Santa?"
"Hey!! this cookie isn't real?!?" the funny thing is after he was trying to get the cookies off the plate, he leaned over and looked underneath the plate like he was trying to figure out what was wrong, hah!
"hee hee!"
Adorable! I think this one is my fav.

"can I get up now?"
the only way we could get him to sit still is to let him play with something, an ornament or box or something.
These pics worked really well because he loves to be read to and he just sat there very content.
Family Pic!


All in all, we are very pleased with how they turned out. Thank you again to my wonderful husband for going through with it!

Oh yeah...

This is my old, old hair. Back before Vic was about 4 months old. I hadn't done anything to it in a long time.
So then I dyed it a bit darker (which I love) and cut bangs. Took awhile to get used to, and then of course ended up growing out the bangs. It grew a lot for about 8 months and then about 2 weeks ago I realized how long it had been since i had cut my hair..... SO....

ignore my pasty face, i had just woken up and had next to NO makeup on.

I cut my hair off. I do not have a before picture, but it was very long, down past my bra strap in the back. I always have to have it pulled back out of the way, usually in a knot of top of my head. I have been fighting it and fighting it but decided it was time. Funny enough, watching episodes of "What Not to Wear" pushed me over the edge. Watching all these women undergo transformations and look/feel amazing, made me want to look/feel amazing! Plus, it had been 8 months since anything had been done to it..... it was time. So, I don't know if I exactly accomplished that, but it is MUCH easier to take care of and I think I like it. I think I will like it a bit better when it grows out maybe an inch or 2, we will see....

Victor's surgery

Everything went really well! His cyst was removed and they determined that it really was just a cyst. He had 3 little stitches and 2 have fallen out so we are just waiting on the 3rd and he will be all good again. He was a little trooper though! He was super mad of course about not being able to nurse when he woke up and then being exhausted. But we were mean and took pictures of him anyway!



Poor little guy... I just wanted to squeeze him and never let him go...
Awww.... my baby.....
Daddy was trying to help too... Shortly after this the nurse came in to take him and I just hugged him so tight and then lost it after they walked away... I could hear him crying as they walked down the hallway and I just wanted so bad to go and grab him and take him away! They were not quite as patient friendly/ thorough as they were at Women and Children's when he had his MRI done. But the doctor was quick and efficient and very good at his job. The whole thing took about 35-40 minutes. One of the worst parts was afterwards when he had the wrap on his hand.


he was just so mad! He can't stand it when you touch his hands normally and didn't take well to having it wrapped like that. Luckily, he adapted to it quickly and while he did get mad occasionally at it, he also continued to use it freely like nothing was wrong. Hopefully he will continue to be healthy, I think after 7 ear infections, tubes, an MRI and now surgery, we have seen enough doctors!!!

I love new stuff...

I'm so excited that I just ordered some new books. I am in the process of becoming a La Leche League (LLL) Leader and one of the things I had to have for that is their newest edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, so I got that one. I also needed to read a book on childbirth, so I picked out Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (which I conveniently had been wanting to read anyway) and also Playful Parenting, which is a gentle parenting book that shows ways to connect and reach your kids by playing with them. Doesn't that sound wonderful? I've heard some great reviews from friends and decided I had to check it out.

Becoming a LLL leader is all part of eventually being a lactation consultant. I have become so passionate about breastfeeding over the last year that I can think of nothing I would enjoy more than working with new moms to beat the "booby traps" that many women fall into. For more on that, check out http://www.bestforbabes.org/ on how to do the best for your babe, whether it's BFing for 2 years, 2 months, or 2 days they want to help you meet that goal and this organization is dedicated to educating women about their choices. There is sooooo much bad information out there about breastfeeding and I want to help people and get them the right information.

I'm so excited to get my new books and read them!

Surgery.

Well, we had a day of doctor's appts with some good news and some bad news. Good news first! We went to see the ENT again about Vic's ears since the P.A. at the MRI said they looked bad. The ENT said that lady must not have known what she was talking about because his ears look great! yay! So on the one hand, irritated that the lady was so wrong and we had to spend $35 copay to find out his ears were fine, but on the other hand, yay! so happy his ears look fine!

Then the good/bad news. The hand surgeon said that the MRI showed the lump to look fluid-filled (good news!). However, because of the location, size and Vic's age, it would be better to remove it. This way it doesn't interfere with any development in his hand or his muscles or anything like that and it can be sent to be biopsied to make sure it really is just a benign cyst. SO... Tuesday morning at 8am he will be having surgery to have it removed.

I'm totally. bugging. out.

this will be the third time that Vic will have been put under general anesthesia and I HATE that. I hate that he has to be put under with all those chemicals and crap in his tiny litttle body... But it's times like these that I'm soooo incredible glad we are still nursing. At least I know I can comfort him in that way when he is going to need me the most. I don't know how long the surgery will last, I'm hoping not too long , but I figure at least an hour, probably longer. And afterward is going to suck so bad with the bandage on his little hand. He hates when you touch his hands and the few times he's had a bandaid on one of his fingers (just from a little stick to get an iron test) he flips out! I can't imagine how it's going to happen with stitches and a bandage. *sigh*.

He's 1 year old!!!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!! One year ago at the beginning of October, this is what i looked like! then about 2 weeks later...

Magic! This beautiful baby boy entered our lives. Our lives have never been the same since this moment... they have been so much richer, more extraordinary and better than we could ever have imagined!

Pictures from his party!

Victor with Matt's mom Melanie.

Victor with my mom, Janene. She was visiting us for 2 whole weeks! We LOVED having her!

Vic with my mommy again.

Family Pic. I hate this pic I think I look terrible, but oh well.

First taste of the cupcake! Just dipped his fingers into the frosting.

Daddy laughing as Vic finally took his first bite.

Vic sharing with Mommy :-)

Yummy!

And.... he's done! He got mad when I was trying to help him eat it and he wanted out of his high chair. So we let him down and then started opening presents.

We asked everyone that if they wanted to get us something to bring books. We only had a few and Vic LOVES me to read to him so we really needed to expand our library. We got a bunch of really great books! Thanks sooo much!

Our friend Jessica and her son Isiah got us a lawnmower! He freaking loves this thing and pushes it all over the house!

More presents!

Yay for books!!

He's such a cute birthday boy!!! We love you soooo much bubba! Happy Birthday!

Ear infection, a lump and the MRI...

This is going to be a HUGE update with lots of talking and not a lot of pictures, sorry guys!!



So he got his tubes in about 3 months ago and he's been good since then. He was tugging at his ears a little bit but I was assuming it was due to teething cause he's been working on his molars for awhile now. One evening about 3 or so weeks ago I was nursing Vic in the living room and holding his hand to keep his fingers out of my nose (ha ha) and I felt the lump in his right hand. It's in his palm right where the first big knuckle is. First thing the next morning I called to make an appt with his pedi. The pedi ordered an xray of his hand and checked his ears for me too. Sure enough the left one was infected so we got some antibiotics for that.



The xrays sucked! I had to hold him while the tech was trying to hold his hand in the right place and he was screaming and fighting and just sooo pissed off. The next day they called and said that nothing showed up on the xray, just that his bones looked fine and normal, which in itself is good. But frustrating that they can't tell us the the lump is. So they referred us to the Bone and Joint Surgeons. Finally got an appt with them just this past Monday. Doc said he thought it might be a cyst, but couldn't be sure so they needed to do an MRI of his hand to find out for sure what they are dealing with.



Of course, for a 1 year old they had to do the MRI under sedation. AWFUL! They had to ue the mask to make him sleepy and start an IV to keep him asleep. It all took about an hour and a half. Of course I wasn't allowed to feed him beforehand, except nursing him, and the nurse was very misinformed about breastmilk and I tried to explain to her that BM is a clear liquid (it's 80% water!) and it only takes 90 minutes to digest so the fact that she was going to make us wait a whole other HOUR (it had already been 5 since he'd nursed) before starting was compeltely wrong, but she started in on the whole "it it were MY child I'd wait just to be safe.. blah blah blah..." making me feel guilty and then I couldn't even argue with her without making myself the "bad parent". I was SOOO PISSED. Anyway, then they had to check his ears to make sure his tubes were MRI safe. The lady was looking in his ears and there was enough build up of wax/fluid that she couldn't even see them. I mentioned that he'd had an infection a couple weeks ago and she said "yea, that left one is still red."

Arrggghh! So mad that it's still infected and that the stuff apparently isn't draining.

Anywho, The MRI took an hour and 38 minutes. The longest 98 minutes of my life. Poor guy was so out of it when we got to go back in. He just laid on me for awhile while we both cried for a bit and he nursed a bit and we cuddled and Matt and I passed him back and forth for a bit. After about 30 minutes we got to go home. He was actually pretty good after we got home, played and ate for a bit and then we crashed for 4 hours! He's feeling pretty good today, just is nursing quite a bit, i think to make up for yesterday.



We have an appt on Monday to get his MRI results and discuss what needs to be done. Then it's off to the ENT to have his ears looked at. Gonna be a long day of doctors!!!