davejenbarnes

We did it.  We just submitted, in writing, our intent to leave this apartment complex.  Whew!  It feels great to have that out of the way.  We can’t wait to get out of here… out from under the gigantic man and his stomping… out from under people peeing so loudly into their toilets that you can hear it from anywhere in our apartment… out from under the gush of water that rains down through the walls so violently that it sounds like the whole bathroom wall should be flooded… out from all the stomping up and down the stairs on the other side of our master bathroom and dining room… freedom!

Now, the hunt for a place to live begins to take on new levels of seriousness.  Let the prayers begin.

It’s true. There is nothing fun about it. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Nothing.

A week ago today I thought I was going to die. I cried out to God every second of the day from 10:20 am until 5 am Friday morning because I could not handle the overload of pain and fever and weakness and freezing cold shivers and nausea and overwhelming exhaustion that hit me like a Mack truck barreling down I-35 at 70 mph.

I woke up at 6-something that morning feeling great. It was supposed to be a B-eau-ti-ful day and I was planning on enjoying it with James. He decided that night to sleep twelve hours, so I was understandibly anxious for him to nurse but when that time came, he only wanted one helping of mommy’s milk instead of both. SOooo, I had to pump the other helping of milk so I wouldn’t look and feel like a lopsided cow when we went to the library that morning.

On the drive to the library for baby-time, I was dying of thirst. The only water I could find was tap water in his sippy cup, so I unscrewed the top of his sippy and downed all the tap water in that puppy. (If you know me very well, then you know that I do not drink the tap water from Austin. Blech.) At the library, I kept yawning and couldn’t understand why in tarnation I was so tired all of a sudden. I remember feeling that way in Basic Principals of Inorganic Chemistry (the sophomore level chem class I took my freshman year when I was a chemistry major at Baylor) but that was a 1 pm class right after lunch… this was library time! at 9:45 am! with babies! and songs!

By the time library time was over, I was shivering and could hardly put him back into his carseat for the drive home. Once we got home, I didn’t know what do. James had fallen asleep, so I closed the garage door and left him sleeping and snapped into his carseat while I found the thermometer and took my temperature (99.7) and downed some tylenol. After getting James moved from the carseat to his crib, I left some desperate chats on the IM for Dave and hopped (or stumbled, more like it) into the shower where I leaned over and tried to work out the massive plug that had formed in the time since driving to the library with no luck. Darn pump. I always get plugged ducts after pumping. Something tells me that I need to get some help learning to hand express when I go to the next LLL meeting.

After the shower, I was delirious. James was crying, but he was in his crib. It was the safest place I could think to abandon him while my body proceeded to shut down. I was in bed not knowing what to do and convincing myself that I was the worst mama in the world to leave her baby to cry in the crib all day, but there was no strength left in me. David got home very shortly after I was thinking those desperate thoughts and he immediately got James. I took my temperature again once he got home. 103. It had only been an hour or so since I got home from the library. And I had taken tylenol.

After some panicked looking, we located the prescription my obgyn had written for me back in November just in case I came down with this infection. After finding it, Dave and James filled the prescription and came straight home. Yes, Dave was a very good husband that day. I started on antibiotics at 1 pm but didn’t feel any better until 5 am on Friday morning. Thankfully, David had made arrangements for my parents to come down and be with James for Friday. I did not have the energy to play with him at all on Friday and David had to be back at school because it was TAKS testing week.

Things have slowly improved over the last week. The plugged duct never had a “ah-ha! It’s gone!” moment, but it continually shrunk until today, when I noticed I could no longer feel any lump whatsoever. I am still on antibiotics and fighting the side effects of those with a vengenance. Heartburn. Gas. Metallic burps. Loads of fun. But I would rather have that kind of fun than the side effects of mastitis anyday… namely the pain of nursing. That infection made something so simple and beautiful into something I dreaded. Hopefully James didn’t notice much. But it killed me every time I nursed him. Wow. It was painful alright!

During this affliction, I was able to memorize three new verses of Scripture and relate to some of my girlfriends in the understanding of their pain. I have a new respect for women who have had mastitis and yet continue to nurse. They are amazing ladies because this infection seriously challenged my commitment to nurse James and all my future children. Ironically, continuing to nurse is the best way to get well again. Funny how that works, but it’s so true.

I am thankful to be on the other side of this infection - it is over now and I can put all my energy into making James laugh once again. It is good to have my health back. Praise the Lord!

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. -Romans 12:12, NIV

You know those CoinStar machines at your local grocery store…the stupid, big, green machines that charge you an 8.9% fee for counting your spare change, and then return to you a coupon which you can redeem for less money than you fed it? I’ve always felt that the concept of a machine charging me to count my own money was absolutely ludicrous and manipulating to the lazy and weak minded. I still feel that way.

On a very related note, Jen recently came across this blog entry about using the green machines to purchase iTunes gift cards. The catch is (in this case, catches are good, since the normal operating parameters of CoinStar machines are absurd) when you use your change to purchase an iTunes gift card, the machine won’t charge you the 8.9% fee. In other words, it just transfers your spare change directly into iTunes.

This afternoon James and I headed to our local Albertson’s (the only place in town where the CoinStars offer the iTunes option) and dumped about 30 lbs. of spare change into the machine. The machine counted:

1369 Pennies
349 Nickels
589 Dimes
70 Quarters

for a grand total of $107.54. It then printed out a receipt with an iTunes Redemption Code and simple instructions on how to redeem the money. We’ve already spent $20 of the spare change on tunes that we’ve had in our iTunes shopping cart for many, many months. In the past, we’ve always just purchased an iTunes gift card at Target to buy music (we don’t charge them…too dangerous), and now, we’ll be using CoinStar machines to turn our spare change into music.

I didn’t get a picture of this weigh-in because I was the only one there (David’s school is doing TAKS testing so he can’t take any time off)…

21 pounds 7 ounces, 28.75 inches tall… which puts him right in the 50% range for both.  I thought he would have been closer to 24 pounds judging from the way my back has been feeling lately!

We got permission to start feeding him whatever we are eating minus eggs and milk so that will make dinner time a lot easier.  Hey, since he’s taking a nap, I’m'a go watch some TV - since I haven’t seen Oprah in MONTHS - and since I vacuumed during his first nap of the day (which means it doesn’t need to be done right now either)… laters!

Last night we met with friends for a little studying as we do each Tuesday evening (we’re currently going through the book How to Really Parent Your Child) when it started storming. We needed the rain around here as this year was practically bluebonnet-free in Austin.

The lightning was fantastic. We saw the first flash of light as we were getting ready to leave around 6:45 pm and it continued until well after we got home at 9:30 pm. Nine thirty is a few hours too late for James’ bathtime. He wasn’t very happy about being so tired. Of course, I was worried about the lightning making his bedroom feel more like a disco than a bedroom, so I found a big fluffy Baylor blanket and thumb-tacked it between the miniblinds and the curtains. That did the trick and his room is so dark and cozy I bet he’ll sleep until 9 o’ clock this morning!

Comments will be down until I can straighten out what’s going on with them…

To come: new photo masthead (I want to randomize it)… and maybe a new flash viewer for photo albums (finding the free time to make the collages is getting tough)… and maybe an update of the categories…

UPDATE: got some images (four seven! so far, but they’re super easy to make so I’ll constantly be adding more) for the random masthead, but I still need to fix commenting! I’ll work on that when I have the patience to work on that… which isn’t right now.

Just layin’ around, uploaded by davejenbarnes

Four years old today!

James took eight steps, unassisted, yesterday. David was playing with him as I made dinner, so I didn’t see it happen, but I believe it. His favorite thing is to pull up on something and let go. His record is about 100-120 seconds free standing. He certainly doesn’t care for walker type toys at this time. I guess I better watch out because pretty soon those eight steps will turn into the pitter-patter of little feet… everywhere!