Embrace the Camera Thursday

I have seen quite a few people do "Embrace the Camera Thursday" and I want to jump on that train! I love my little ladies and I don't want to be absent in pictures. I want to hear them say one day, "Look how long your hair is!", "What were you WEARING!?", or (fingers crossed) "You look like me!" But I also want to here them say, "Dad! You had hair!" Haha! So, I may try to snap a picture of Michael too. We'll see how that works. When he's home, it's quite busy with dinner, baths, and bedtime. Aww! I would love a sweet picture of Michael putting Audrey to bed and reading a Bible story to her! I'm gonna like this. I hope you enjoy it too.

UPDATE: Picture of Michael and Audrey at bedtime. You can see the love Audrey has for her "Dada."

Sprinkles!!!

If you live in the Dallas area, you should go to Sprinkles! They are also located in Houston, Chicago, the west coast, and other places. Check out their website HERE.

THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER!

I convinced Michael to spend $6 to get two cupcakes the other day, and I thought it was very worth it. I won't be doing that all of the time, but oh how I wish I could! So moist and delicious! I had the Dark Chocolate and the Black and White. I know that the Red Velvet is amazing, so that will be my next try. And when Audrey is not with me, I'll try the Peanut Butter Chip. And I am wanting to give the Key Lime a shot too. Wow...this could be dangerous!

You Dallas people can find this place at Preston and NW Hwy (Southeast corner).

Top Things This Mom Loves!

When it comes to baby products, I think a lot of things are overrated. BUT, there are some things that are just life savers. I'm gonna pull an Oprah and do "My Favorite Things." Sorry that I won't be able to supply my audience with one of each.

GLIDER: Wow, have I loved this glider through the last 2, almost 3 years! My mom bought me this glider and I had no idea how much I would use it. My favorite memories of holding my sweet babies are when I was gliding away in this. I have fallen asleep many times in it. I also use it for the monthly pictures of the baby. It is very nice to have in Audrey and Julia's room and not have to travel in the middle of the night to nurse them. Ah! I love it!

CARRIER COVER: I received this from my friend, Jenny. It has been great! It would be even greater during the winter time when it's cold. During the summer months, I leave it unzipped so it won't trap the heat. I use it to shade the sun, wind, and rain. I think it makes Julia feel more secure. It also makes a sound barrier when entering loud restaurants. The kind I have is made by Kiddapotomus.

ANGELCARE MONITOR: For your peace of mind. I love how I'm no longer worried about SIDS. If Julia pulls an ultra long nap, I don't feel the need to check to make sure she's still

breathing. My grandmother lost a son at 2 1/2 months and she was so worried about Julia. My mom told her about how this monitor will sound an alarm if it doesn't detect movement for 20 seconds. Imagine how her life would have been different if she had had this back then! I moved Julia out of our room faster than I did Audrey because I wanted Julia with this monitor.

TOMMEE TIPPEE: I absolutely love these sippy cups! I found them only after Audrey turned 2. They do not leak at all! I bought a couple more after awhile, and those leaked. I researched and found that there was a slit in the valve that needed to be opened. Those new ones work now. I can't wait to try the sippy cups for younger kids as Julia gets older. I believe the only place to get them are at Babies R Us. LOVE THEM!

BEST ADVICE: My friend, Abbe, told me to dip Julia's pacifier in sugar water to get her to take it. It works! I didn't do it for a long time, but the child needed help settling down at times.

These things were at the top of my head today. I'll post again if I think of more.

E-Mealz

When it comes to cooking, I'm still trying to learn how to do things. After almost 5 years of marriage, I found myself in quite a rut every weeknight. Grilled chicken, spaghetti, hmmm, what else do I know how to cook? Not much.

I had seen this website called E-mealz.com. They give you recipes for 5 meals and a grocery list to go along with it. The items you buy kind of go with every meal, so you're not wasting much food and you're saving moolah.

Then a friend of mine, Laura, tried it out and really liked it. I just had to see what it was all about. I joined ($5 a month) and have enjoyed it ever since. I'm cooking things I've never cooked before (or even tasted before) and we're not bored at dinner time.

Here's what we're having this week:

Tender Chicken Parmesan

Roasted Veggies Loaded Baked Potatoes

Mexican Casserole

Tortilla Chips

Grilled Chicken Salad

Garlic Bread

Broccoli & Ham Rolls

Hot Muffins Grapes

BakedRavioli

Italian Salad Garlic Cheese Bread

A Whole Bunch of Random

I soooo want to be a better blogger, but life has run me down lately, and I can't think straight, much less type straight. ???? You see what I'm talking about?

Quick update on me. No more rash. I was on the prednisone for about a month and I never want to take that bad boy again! I was just fine taking it, but the withdrawals are awful. First, it made me exhausted! On the days Michael was home, I'd sleep the majority of the day and I would still feel like I could sleep another 8 hours. Then I began to notice these crazy lines on my nails. You could peel my nail, but that is gross, so I won't go on. I know that nails tell a lot about one's health, so I was concerned. Lastly, I had horrible joint pain. It was all on the right side of my body. It would come and go in my knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow, but it was constant in my wrist. It kept me up at night and brought me to tears. Again, it hurt to hold Julia. A few days ago, I started taking Licorice pills to jump start my adrenal glands and help my joints. So far I feel a thousand times better! I can't wait for all of this to be a distant memory.

Michael: He has been out of town a lot in the last month or two. I'm glad he's home for awhile now. He was also recently promoted. He has worked so hard and I'm proud of him and the way he commits to things.

Audrey: Love this silly girl of mine! She keeps me laughing and has done so well with Julia joining the family. She will begin preschool in about a month. You can't mention school with her getting excited about a backpack and a school bus. She's going to be so sad when she figures out that I'll be taking her to school! We went to the Rangers game last night and she did so well. The only bad moment was when we were driving away and she started to cry because the sun had gone "bye-bye." This morning she said hi to the sun and clapped. So funny!

Julia: Won't say too much here because she's about to turn 4 months and will require an entire post for herself. She's just wonderful and I'm so happy to have her in my life.

Pictures:

Bought some bows from K-K's Bow-tique and LOVE them. Click HERE!

The Perkins cousins!

The Hall Cousins!

College Roomies with some of our children.

Love and miss these girls!

I'm kind of wanting to have Alice Cullen's hairstyle. Thinking my hair is too thin and this will take too long to fix, but I LOVE it!

3 Months

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 months already! She is just so cute! She smiles so much! She likes to laugh and squeal too. I finally convinced the cutie that a pacifier is a good thing. Since then, she's been a hundred times easier to soothe. She hasn't been as good as she was with sleeping through the night, but that's okay. She'll figure it out soon. I've read so many books about this and everyone has a different opinion on how to correct the sleeping problems at this age. I believe that babies just figure it out, no matter what the method is. She also has grown a dislike for riding in the car. That's the thing that is the hardest. The car had been no problem and we took advantage of it! I was looking at Julia this morning and was blown away at how long she is. Wasn't it just a short time ago that she was less than 2 feet long? I'm sad that the time is flying by so quickly, but I'm really more of a toddler mom anyways.

2 Months!

Julia is celebrating Memorial Day and 2 months of life! She's such a sweet girl! We'll have to get her height and weight stats later in the week, but here are some Julia facts:

• She's so happy in the mornings! It makes it fun to get out of bed, which I'm normally bad at.
• She has raptor-like squeals.
• She has slept through the night a few times and momma really likes that!
• Ceiling fans and windows are captivating.
• She's chubbier than Audrey was.
• She snorts when she's mad.
• She is sensitive to dairy and maybe soy.
• She so good in the car! We had to stop going to places with Audrey because we were actually concerned with Audrey's well-being because she would cry so hard.
• She's still got that head of black hair!

Pictures of Life Lately

This is are only family picture so far. We're gonna have to change that soon! Dad took this on Mother's Day. We went to church with my parents and I got flowers for having the youngest baby. Julia was 5 weeks old then.

Isn't he a good daddy!?

Audrey is really enjoying having Julia around. She asks about her right when she wakes up in the morning.

Audrey has been checking out Julia's stuff and stating that she's "too big."

Too big for the car seat.

Too big for the onesie.

Here are some random pictures of Julia.

She's got the super-model pout down.

And here are some random pictures of Audrey.

Here she is with her friend Anna Lee. Anna Lee is moving, sadly. But isn't this cute?

Last Monday, I thought it was Memorial Day and got Michael to take off work! Oops! We went to the Indoor Safari Park in Southlake. Lame-O! Don't waste your 10 bucks. We did get some pictures of Audrey enjoying some things.

Train ride.

Putt-putt.

Pemphigoid Gestationis

I'm going to use this post to hopefully help women who think they have or have been diagnosed with Pemphigoid Gestationis (PG). What has helped me the most with this disease is a Yahoo group of women who are dealing with this. I didn't find it from Googling it, so I'm directing you to this group. You have to join to get information. This group offers more support than anything else I've found, including my doctors. It has a forum to ask and answer questions, a copy of the one study that has been done on this disease, pictures, information on how to taper off the meds, and much more. You can leave comments here and I will help you in anyway I can.

This is my story.

Pemphigoid Gestationis is a rare autoimmune disease that pregnant women can get. It mainly occurs around week 21, but I got it 4 days postpartum. The antibodies that protect the placenta become confused and attack your skin. It creates an extremely itchy rash that can form painful blisters. It is treated by steroids - almost always prednisone. Prednisone does wonders, but can cause it's own problems.

I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and everything about the delivery and hospital stay was perfect. This was my second child and my second c-section. I knew the routine and knew what to expect. I headed home thinking that losing sleep would be my biggest concern. I was healing well, not in much pain, and my baby was such a good baby.

The thing I longed for the most was to clean up in my own shower and feel more like myself than I had in days. As I was scrubbing away some medical tape residue off of my arm, I noticed bumps beginning to appear. I feared I was having an allergic reaction to the tape and immediately stopped scrubbing. Shortly after, I noticed bumps on the other arm and on my inner thigh.

The rash went to my tummy, chest, and back next. A doctor had already ruled out the medical tape reaction, but not before I received an epi shot. You see, I'm allergic to a drug that would be good to use while breastfeeding; the epi shot was the next best thing.

Another doctor thought I was allergic to my pain meds. I got on some more meds to help with the itching and I stopped taking my pain meds. Oh, btw, Benadryl, Zyrtec, and lotions do not come anywhere near to providing relief. The best thing I did was to dip what I could in an oatmeal bath in my sink. (I still couldn't bathe at this time.) When I finished that prescription, I had new blisters. This time they appeared on my hands and feet. Take a moment it consider how hard it is to take care of a newborn when you have blisters on your arms and hands.

I finally went to see a dermatologist. They did a biopsy and it confirmed that I had PG. The doc gave me a steroid lotion to apply to the rash while I awaited the biopsy result. I had to put this lotion on twice a day and not let my baby's skin come into contact with it. It took 40 minutes to apply the lotion. Through a series of crazy events that kept me from communicating with my dermatologist, I finally got a doctor to prescribe me prednisone. Most women start off with 80 mg. I was only given 20 mg because the doctor was nervous - she didn't know me or anything about the disease. This was all God, because the 20 mg worked! I stopped itching right away. My rash began to clear up in the following days. I saw my dermatologist yesterday and I'm on my journey to safely get off the steroid. Below is the only picture I took of my rash.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have, no matter how personal or gross. I was a science teacher, so I don't mind at all! This disease was the worst thing I've ever been through and it has altered my life forever. I know that I'm very fortunate that I got it after the delivery of my second child and that I can control it with such a low dose of steroids. I praise God for that!

Just Updating

It's been awhile. I'm just going to post some pics that I have on the computer. Hopefully my parents will forward their millions of Audrey and Julia pictures to me soon. :)