abby was playing on the floor with some of her toys that she loves playing with this afternoon. i looked over and this is what i found! poor girl still doesn't feel good. she's NEVER fallen asleep like this!

 

i didn't need this tell to tell you this!!!

28 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

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SHE SAID "MAMA"!!!!

i've been saying it to her ALL THE TIME for the past...oh....2 months! but today, on skype with sarah, she said it!!!! and sarah can attest to it!!!!! YAY!!!!!

i woke up this morning at 5.15 with a migraine. i can't remember the last time i had a migraine!! it's crazy how they just hit without warning! i have no idea what brought it on...but i still feel like crap 9 hrs later. it's not as strong as it was, but DANG! migraines really knock the life out of you...especially when you have an 8 month old around as well!!!

here's hoping tomorrow will be better!

i had a dr appt today and while everything is great, i left completely brokenhearted. i'll spare you the details, but just know that just because a dr tells you something doesn't mean you have to follow it. if your instincts say to do otherwise, do it! or at the very least, get a 2nd opinion. you have a right as a patient, mother, whatever to do what you feel is best. if you don't agree with the dr, get a 2nd opinion. trust your instincts.

i certainly wish i had.

as a part of my cloth diapering addiction, i have delved into the world of wool (much to my husband's dismay). i got abby's first wool shorts and pants today and i am TOTALLY in love!!! i mean, tell me these aren't the cutest things in the world!!! technically they are supposed to be used as covers for prefolds and/or fitteds (those diapers are not waterproof - they need a cover to keep from leaking) but i think i will just use them as pants and shorts. they fit over her regular waterproof diapers and really, they are just too freakin' cute to mess up!!! i LOVE them!!!

WE'RE HOME!! we had a great time in dallas. saw mom's new house (it's beautiful!) and saw some friends! abby got her 2nd tooth and learned how to sit up all by herself!! she's growing up too fast!!!

while we were in dallas, we met lori and brenam for the first time face to face! that was the highlight of the trip for me! lori and i have been friends online since our girls were born. they were both premature -- due 1 day apart but born 8 days apart. so lori and i went through the NICU stuff together. it was awesome to be able to meet her in person finally!!! here are pictures from our time together!

well, abby is doing just fine!! the dr said she looks "remarkably well" for sustaining an injury like she had!!! however, she can't fly until tuesday. they don't want them to fly within 2 weeks of head injuries. so abby and i will be flying to dallas on wednesday instead of tomorrow. which gives me a bit more time to do the laundry! ha!!! then we have to take her back in 4 weeks to get one more CT Scan just to make sure that all the fluid (blood, etc) in her head is draining/absorbing properly and that she doesn't end up with hydrocyphalis (sp??). he is not concerned about it -- but it's precautionary. which i appreciate.

so all in all she's doing well!!! thank you, lord!!!

abby is doing much better!!! you can't tell she was hurt at all!!!! she has an appt with the pediatric neurosurgeon tomorrow morning (i'll update you!) for a follow-up. i'm hoping it will be in and out!!!

for your viewing pleasure, here are some recent pictures from the snelson household!!

i have debated posting about this but we've had so many phone calls from people who don't know the end of the story that i thought it would be a good idea. so here we go:

i went to north carolina to help a jaime and wendy with their 2 month twins for 2 weeks. (yes, crazy in itself, i know!) it's about 5 hrs from my house. when we got there, i went to get abby out of her carseat and into the ergo. i put her on my left side to get her in and was putting my right strap onto my right shoulder and she kicked/stretched and when she did, my left arm slipped and she fell backwards, flipped in mid-air and landed on the gravel face first. i (freaking out!) immeadiately picked her up. she was bleeding pretty badly from her mouth and her face was bleeding on her forehead, nose, cheek and chin. i ran to find my friend and she drove me to the closest ER which happened to be a po-dunk little place but had adequate equipment for a CT Scan. so the dr did the CT Scan and said she had bleeding on the brain (subdural hematoma) with old and new blood. that meant that there was this injury and a previous injury that looked like it was from 4-6 days ago. this of course baffled me completely b/c i had no idea where she would have gotten an injury like that! the dr there said that she would need to be transported to the closest children's hospital to be looked at there, with possible surgery. so we were transported by ambulance to Brenner's Children's Hospital inside Wake Forest Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. they put us in the ER there and had 2 neurosurgeons look at her CT Scan. they both confirmed that there was, in fact, 2 seperate injuries in her head, and so CPS and the Child Abuse Drs had to be brought in. abby was admitted and observed, all the while, they were trying to get the pediatric neurological radiologist to look at the Scan. also they were doing full skeletal x-rays and head/neck x-rays looking for other signs of abuse: fractures, breaks, etc. they did a complete physical exam looking for abuse, including sexual. (that was the hardest for me --- they did all this in front of me.) we had interviews with the hospital social worker and 2 Child Abuse Drs. finally the pediatric neurological radiologist read the scan and said that it was misread: children's heads/brains are very different in sustaining injuries than adult's and there was only 1 injury present and that was the fall on tuesday. this cleared us of all abuse allegations and we were sent home.

abby is doing well. she is and has been acting normally. she is very tired, as you would expect, but is doing well. she did vomit yesterday morning all over me (and i didn't freak out!!!!!) which was a concern for a minute, but it was a one time thing so they weren't too concerned. it will take approximately 2 weeks for the subdural hematoma to absorb back into her system. there is no treatment or medications that she needs. she does need to be re-evalutated by a pediatric neurosurgeon and opthamologist here within a week or so just to make sure everything is healing properly.

honestly this was the absolute scariest thing i've ever been through. robert was not with me until 11pm on tuesday. he and my mom drove up from atlanta as soon as i called them to tell them that she had bleeding on the brain. the drs were all fabulous - no one ever accused me of abuse, but they had check into it by law. now i am very nervous when i hold her and walk but i HAVE to do it. i am making myself. i'm not beating myself up about it - there was nothing i could do. but i do relive her falling over and over. i watched it happen -- it was very quick but felt like slow motion. so i see it all the time. abby has only wanted me to hold her for the majority of the time. but she has stayed my happy little girl, playing and loving on everyone around her. in fact, during one of her x-ray sessions, she was strapped down completely to a board and flipped on her side (not very comfortable) and she was laughing with the technicians who were doing the x-rays!

so that's basically it. i'm glad it's over and i'm VERY glad that she is okay. we had so many people praying for us - literally within 2 hrs the whole salvation army world knew about it. i honestly believe that the Lord kept my daughter safe and i give Him all the praise for doing just that. i believe that this happened for a reason and that through this He will be glorified.here are pictures of her for your viewing...pleasure?? again, thank you all for your thoughts/prayers! and to top all this off, in the middle of all this, she got her first tooth!!! wow....

well, our crazy weekend is finally over! i am completely exhausted and am glad to have done nothing today!! but tomorrow i hit the road running again --- i'm going to CWJ to keep jaime and wendy hood's twins. which means that i will have 3 infants under 7 months old. i know, i'm crazy. but i'm actually excited!!!

right now i'm completely wasted so i don't have the energy to make a full post - but i'll leave you with abigail's 6 month pictures, even though tomorrow she's 7 months. wow....

wow. just wow.

http://motherhooduncensored.typepad.com/motherhood_uncensored/2008/05/youll-always-re.html

i've had a lot of questions or curiosity about why and how i use cloth diapers with abigail. i'm going to explain a bit, but before i do i want to make it clear that i'm not doing this to step on anyone's toes or say disposables are bad or anything like that. i've just been asked a lot and i'm answering those who have asked. plus i just like talking about them. if you have an issue with whatever my reasons are, sorry. so here goes:

the first time i thought about cloth was when i was pregnant and katie showed me how to use them with brett. i thought the idea was kinda wierd but hey, it was cool! when abby was born, we had so many people give us diapers that i couldn't buy any cloth ones because we had SO MANY diapers as it was. well, about a month and a half ago or so, i decided that i really wanted to make the move to cloth. i borrowed some of katie's to find brands and types that i liked and jumped in with both feet.

why? you ask. well a bunch of reasons.

1. going with cloth was going to be a lot cheaper in the long run. sure it would be a lot to start with, but considering that abigail will be in diapers for at least 2 years, buying once and washing saves a TON as opposed to buying once a week and throwing away. yes it's more work, but i stay at home with her anyway so i've got the time. and honestly, i LOVE doing my diaper laundry. there's just something about it that's fun.

2. it's better for abigail. there are chemicals and such in disposable diapers that are not good for her. don't misread me: i'm not trying to step on anyone's toes or say that disposable diapers are horrible, but for me, i choose cloth.

3. they are better for the environment. i've never considered myself a "green" person. believe me! but since i started cloth diapering, i've realized just how wasteful things can be! it takes 500+ years for 1 disposable diaper to "decompose" (or whatever they do) in a landfill. that's quite a long time!!! with cloth, i don't have to worry about that! i just wash and the water gets treated as it should. so it really helps the environment quite a bit.

4. they are just so darn cute!! honestly, diaper changes are now so much more fun just because i can pick a diaper to match an outfit, or one that matches her (or my) mood. it's just fun! different patterns, different colors, different brands. you don't get that with disposables.

i have NEVER bought a new cloth diaper. i buy all of them used at http://www.diaperswappers.com/ which is basically a forum where you can buy/sell/trade cloth diapers and everything you ever need to cloth diapers. that has helped keep my costs down A LOT! up to this point i've used Fuzzi Bunz almost exclusively. i love FBs. they are great. easy as disposables to change but oh so cute! however, i've recently decided to change my entire stash to Blueberry's OneSize so that i really can go all the way to her potty training days with the same diapers. and i just LOVE blueberry's. seriously. WAAAAAY more than FBs.

so that's my story. if you're interested, visit http://www.fuzzibunz.com/ or http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/ or http://www.diaperswappers.com/ for more information about cloth diapers.

today we had the memorial service at westview. i went because robert had to be there and i didn't feel like being home alone all day. so i took the opportunity to introduce abigail to her uncle brock.

well, we've got 3 more nights until we are back in our own house. it's both exciting and stressful. i'm stressing about a lot of things right now and i can definitely tell. last night i fell asleep at 8:30 with all my day clothes on in a bed that had no sheets (they were in the dryer) and slept until 8 this morning. the last time i did that i was in my first trimester! i'm just completely wasted. abigail has 4 teeth coming in at once. i am having medical procedures to figure out what the heck is wrong with me. and on top of that stuff we are packing and moving and dealing with my mom moving 12 hours away. it's a lot for me. and i think i'm internalizing a lot of it. i didn't really realize that until this very second that i sat down to start writing. and i'm sure all this is coming out as one big BLAH that makes no sense, but that's how it is in my head. i feel kinda lost at this point. i want to be settled in our house. hopefully once we get in there, things will settle down for me. we'll see....

it's been a crap weekend. huge HUGE changes going on that are happening all at once. mom's moving to dallas, we are having to move back into our house, abigail is 6 months old and is rolling over, we have to buy things for the house that will make it "baby safe" for abby, and about a bazillion other things.

i'm sure i could say a bunch of other stuff but for now i'll leave it all at that.

YAY FOR MANDA!!!!

GREEN BEANS!!
i made abigail green beans tonight and SHE LOVED THEM!! i don't cook - EVER! - so i am very excited that i made her food that she liked!! granted, it's pureed green beans. but still, this is a BIG deal for me!!! i think i'm gonna like making her babyfood!!!

okay - explain how she can look more like him in one pic but more like me in another pic!!! either way, at least SOMEONE (thing) thinks she looks like me!!! :-)

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

here are some pictures from grandma and grandpa snelson's visit this weekend!! also, we started!!! i made abby's first rice cereal tonight. (yes, made it. i'm not buying it from the store. i'm making ALL her food.) so i introduced it tonight. overall, i think it went fairly well. i didn't realize she was quite as hungry as she was....she was doing fine until i put her in her chair to feed her. then she started crying and got really impatient. i probably should have just stopped at that point, but i decided to keep trying. there's one point where she calmed down enough to actually eat off the spoon but the rest of the time she was too worked up to pay attention.

DANG IT!!! i missed yesterday. well, i made it farther than i thought i would!!

okay, april lancaster baker, if you want me to email you something, you gotta give me your email address!!!!

"S"

S is for SPRING

springtime is definitely here! i can feel it in my nose. i thought that i've had a cold for the past few days but i'm beginning to think it's really my allergies acting up. i took abby to a park today to join a playgroup for the first time. i had been feeling fine today until i came home from the park. i was there for 2 hrs! so i'm thinking that it's the curse of the springtime allergies!!!

S is for SPRINGTIME

thank you to erin who reminded me to post tonight!!!

"R"

R is for RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS

my daughter gave me a cold. and it's not nice. my nose has been full of pressure all day, as has my whole head, really. i don't feel baldy, per se, just kinda like my head is going to explode. abigail is doing much better, thankfully, so hopefully that means that my new round of respiratory issues will be over quickly...

...one can only hope, right?!

R is for RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS

ooooh! i almost missed today! i don't have much creative energy right now...not that my blog up to this point has been creative. but i'm really tired!

today i started a new business selling arbonne products. i'm scared out of my mind but i think it'll be a really good thing for me to do on a number of levels. i'm excited about it. apprehensive. nervous. excited. :-) we'll see how it goes!!! if anyone wants to get any products, let me know. arbonne is FABULOUS and has great products that are 100% natural. their baby line is phenomenal! i use it on abby everyday.

alright. i'm going to bed. i'm tired!!

"Q"

Q is for QUIET NIGHT

this past week has been crazy with abigail being sick. our nights have not been that great -- she's been somewhat fussy or wanting to be held. but tonight she is quiet. she's been sleeping a lot the past 2 days and right now she's sleeping on daddy's chest. but i'm glad for a quiet night!!!

Q is for QUIET NIGHT

"P"

P is for PINK

i've never been a girly girl. ever. in fact, growing up i played more with baseball cards and hot wheels than barbies and stuff like that. i'm just not a girly girl. so having a girl is kinda scary. right now i own more pink crap than i care to, really. pink is the obligatory gift color for girls. don't get me wrong -- i'll NEVER turn down gifts! but it seriously looks like our room (which is also abigail's room) has thrown up pink!

but here's the kicker: i find myself buying pink things for her! not because i like pink - cause i don't! but more b/c that's all there is, really! my favorite color (GREEN!!!) is always in boy stuff! unless, of course, it's paired with pink! so i find myself buying a lot of pink things for her. does that make me a hypocrite??!

P is for Pink!

okay, i have no "O" but that's because i just got home from taking abigail to the emergency room. apparently my baby has her first cold....it only took 5 1/2 months!!!

"N"

N is for NEW CLOTH DIAPERS

i got my second package of cloth diapers in the mail today! they are so cute! i also got 2 packs of cloth wipes at the store today!!



so now i have 3 diapers that i own and 5 inserts. the rest belong to a friend and i'll give them back once my stash is built up enough to where i can outfit abigail in just my own. i'm so excited about doing cloth diapers! yes it's a bit more work laundry wise, but it's gonna save us a lot of money and it's better for her! so i'm all for it!

"M"

M is for MOUNTAINS of laundry

i have spent almost the whole day doing laundry today. i even folded the socks -- i don't usually do that. that's robert's job. but today, i did it. i HATE it. but i did it!!! so in light of the fact that today has been cleaning day (and abby has been somewhat fussy again) i have yet to get a shower and into clean clothes. i'm still in my jams. but hey, that's the life of a stay-at-home mom! WOO HOOO!

M is for MOUNTAINS of laundry

"L"

L is for LOOOOONG DAY

today has been a long day. i was at from 3:30 last night and couldn't go back to sleep. abby was a mess in her crib last night. it was wierd: she wasn't awake but she was really restless and i heard her. so i finally at 3:30 brought her in bed with me. she slept really well after that...but i didn't. i never sleep well when she's right next to me. (that's why i miss our co-sleeper!) so when it was time for church i got up and got ready and was exhausted. went to church, made it through church - somehow - then came home and fell in bed for a nap...only to not fall asleep. so i got back up. finally i fell asleep for about 1 1/2 hrs or so then robert went to church so i had abby alone. she's been a mess again tonight. i think she's constipated. poor baby. and she is only quiet with/on me. but i'm so tired!!! so it's been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day.

L is for LONG DAY.

okay. i have no K. i'm tired and it's late. i've been running all day. i'm a slacker, i know, but at least i posted SOMETHING!!!! :-)

abby found that her hands work today!! we've been working on this for WEEKS b/c the pediatrician told me that this was one area she's behind in. but, seeing as today is her 3 month adjusted birtday (she was due 3 months ago today), i think she's doing well. here's a video of it --- sorry it's cockeyed...i forgot i can't flip the videos rightside up like i can pictures!

okay. i have no K. i'm tired and it's late. i've been running all day. i'm a slacker, i know, but at least i posted SOMETHING!!!! :-)

"J"

J is for JAMMIES

i thought i'd take a second and pay hommage to jammies. i've always loved my jammies, but now especially they are pretty much what i live in!! so having a comfortable pair of jammies is especially important. i have 2 pair of jammie pants that i particularly love, and coincedentally, they started out as christmas presents to robert. they are, however, now mine. and i LOVE them. one pair i brought to the hospital with me when abigail was born.

but as much as i love my old jammies, there is nothing better than a new pair of fabulous jams!! seriously!!!! getting to crawl in bed with a new, fresh pair of jam pants and a top is probably one of my favorite feelings in the world. and it's one of those that don't get taken for granted since i don't get to buy new jams all that often. and i only hope that i will be able to pass along my love of jammies to abigail!!! they are, afterall, one of the secret joys of womanhood!

so here is my tribute to jammies. :-)

J is for JAMMIES!!!

"I"

I is for Indifferent

can i still blame mood swings on crazy hormones? i delivered abigail 5 months ago TODAY (holy crap!!!) so is it still okay to say "i just had a baby. my hormones are going crazy." in response to foul moods and bad days? today i just feel indifferent. well, this week i just feel indifferent. i've been in a funk for the past few days and i don't know what it's about. i'm thinking hormones (seriously) but i dont' know. i'm not depressed. i'm not mad. i'm not anything like that. i'm just indifferent. i think i'm just tired. BUT! roni is coming over tonight and that always makes everything better!!!!

I is for Indifferent.

"H"

H is for HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIN!!







Happy Birthday!!! I love you!!!!

G is for Good News

today when i opened my email, i had one from zazzle that said "zazzle.com, Inc. just sent you money with PayPal." i looked in my paypal acct and lo and behold, there's $133.00 just sitting there ready for the shopping!!! WOW!!! the only bad part is that robert said i can't use it for me....i have to put it towards our debt. stupid debt.

in other news, we have started using cloth diapers with abigail. here are some pictures in her first one:

"G"

F

F is for Forgetfulness

so abby had an appt at a travel clinic today to check about some shots that she may need for a trip we are taking this summer. when i made the appt, i forgot to write down the name and number for the dr. so this morning i was frantically searching for where this drs office was! i finally found it at 9:00. her appt was at 9:30...on howell mill rd. there's NO WAY we're making it! so i was praying that they wouldn't charge me a "no show" fee....thankfully they just changed my appt to later on in the month.

seriously, sometimes i feel like i'm losing my mind! what kind of idiot doesn't write down the name and number of a drs office they've never been to before?!

F is for Forgetfulness!!

E

E is for (un)Eventful

today has been completely uneventful, and i love it! actually, this weekend has been pretty uneventful and that's quite a feat. after a week of both me and robert being sick, it's been nice to just be able to sit at the house and not do much. nealette came over and hung out with me, mom, and abby for 4 hrs. that was so much fun! i love seeing her!! but we just stayed home and ate, napped, played with abby, and were just pretty much a family for a few days!! and it was nice.

E is for (un)Eventful!

D

"D" is for Dog.

i miss having a dog. i know that i've had some issues with acquiring and keeping a dog, but oscar was good! but i really miss having a dog. we can't have one while we are in mom's house, but when we move out i'd really like to get one. robert says we can't get another dog ever because he's allergic to them, but so am i. so i really have a hard time accepting that excuse. i've always had a dog, from the time i was 5. we had buster (a pekingnese) for like 9 years. he was a great dog.

anyway, i really miss having a dog. i want another one when we move out. just a small one. nothing huge. just maybe a shih tzu or a chihuahua. and i think that every child should have a dog growing up. so that means abby should have one.

i know that i've not had the best track record with dogs, but i'm still petitioning to get one when we move out. "where there's a will, there's a way" right!?

this is for aunt sarah!!!!
we love you, aunt sarah!!!

"C"

C is for Crib and Cleaning

last night, abby slept in her crib for the first time!!!! up to this point, she's been in her bassinet (until she outgrew that) then in a co-sleeper that attaches to our bed. she still fits into that well but i've been feeling like she needs to get used to her own crib. i expected her to wake up and want her co-sleeper, but she slept until 8:30!!!!! here's a pic:



i've also been cleaning like mad today! since we've both been sick, the house is pretty trashed. and there's a TON of laundry to do. so today has been cleaning day...when abby's allowed it. she's been really really fussy today so it's been hard. but i've definitely done a lot of cleaning!!!!

C is for Crib and Cleaning.

"B"

B is for Babies Hood WHO ARRIVED THIS MORNING!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS WENDY AND JAIME!!! PEARSON ALEXANDER WEIGHED IN AT 7LBS 3OZ AND NICOLE ALEXIS TIPPED THE SCALES AT 6LBS 1OZ!!!

everyone is here and doing well!!

B is for Babies Hood!

also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAHBO!!!!

"A"

A is for Abigail. The most beautiful thing to come into my life! The most gorgeous baby I've ever seen!

The past 4 1/2 months have been full of joy, fear, heartache, amazement, medical bills, pride, laughter, and so many more emotions that would fill up an entire webpage themselves. I can't believe that she is 4 1/2 months old. I can't believe how far we've come. My little family is amazing and I love them both! Robert is an excellent father. Abigail couldn't ask for better than him!!!

I just pray that I can be a good mother to her. That I can teach her the many things that she needs to learn - to love Jesus, to be all she can be, to laugh A LOT, to not take things too seriously, to not like beef (:-)), to love the braves, to love music, and so many more things.

I love my little girl. More than I can say.

A is for Abigail.

i still feel like crap. robert's sick, too, but not quite as bad as me. thankfully he stayed home from the trip he was supposed to go on b/c i'm not quite a great mom right now. all i want to do is sleep. but he's been an excellent daddy!!! even in his sickly state!

but i have ale 8. that makes everything better. so does this: