Guess who's getting her groove back?

 

Still has a nasty cough, but other than that she is all smiles. =)

....and does that hair look red or blond?  We still can't tell.

Blogger Award

Thanks to my good friend and fellow blogger Diane for nominating me for this.  

Here's how it works:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the award and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Share 7 interesting things about yourself.

5. Nominate 7 bloggers. 

7 Things about me:

1. I have a small phobia to bath tubs.  The thought of them creep me out. In my head, I think they are full of nasty germs.  Even new ones.

2. I have never flown on an airplane. Crazy I know.  Even crazier, my husband hasn't either.

3. I hate, hate, cleaning the bathroom (please reference above).  Luckily, my husband doesn't mind it =)

4. I have a six inch scar up the back of my head.  If your curious, ask me sometime I'll tell ya the whole spiel.

5. I've never rode a roller coaster.  I'm scared to death of heights!

6. I have the most adorable baby in the world (okay, so I'm partial, but seriously, the most adorable)

7. I use to want to be a country music singer when I was little.  

Now, I nominate: (I'm only doing 5)

Jodie B.

Keyanna 

Anna B 

Kyle W 

J.P.

There's a first time for everything...

But not everything at once please!  If you haven't noticed I've been MIA for a couple of weeks now.  Where have I been? I'm glad you asked.  It all started on Friday,  February 12th.  I had taken a few vacation days so that we could visit family in Illinois.  I strategically planned the days off around President's Day on Monday so that I could have an extra long break but not use as many vacation days.  Little did I know just how long the break was going to be.  And let me say, I would have gladly come back to work than go through the craziness Jarrod and I went through.  We left early on that Friday morning and headed over to Edwardsville, IL ( my old "stomping grounds" back in college) to visit our good friend Kyle.  We met him at one of my most favorites places in the world: Sacred Grounds, a quaint little coffee shop that I use to work at.  This place has more personality than...well, something with a lot of personality (sorry, my brain is mush right now.)  Anyway, the visit was great, coffee was awesome, Jesalyn did good. She made goo goo eyes at Kyle and drank her bottle no problem.  We left with scones and biscotti in hand, all pumped for the great vaca that was about to take place that we desperately needed. I had been sick the week before so I took Jesalyn to the doctor for him to look her over just to make sure she wasn't getting sick.  He gave her a clean bill of health, so we were good to go.  Nothing was stopping us...that is until we were 30 minutes outside of our hometown.  She woke up from her nap and decided she was not happy.  We had to stop once because she was screaming so hard her face was turning colors.  We finally got home and she calmed down for a bit.  Laughed and played with my mom and then about two hours into it started screaming again.  This time was twice as bad as the car.  She screamed for 45 min straight until she exhausted herself and fell asleep. It was so bad, we called my old pediatrician at his house because my mom was so worried.  It was the hardest thing I've ever had to watch.  She was in so much pain and we couldn't figure out what was wrong.  After giving a quick debrief on little Jesa's life the past 4 months he told us it sounded like she had a problem breaking down cow protein and told us to try switching her formula to Alimentum, aka liquid gold.  This stuff is so stinkin' expensive, but I'm willing to give anything a try to ease the pain my baby has been in.  We bought the formula gave it to her at her next feeding and it seemed to work.  Whew!  Glad we got that fixed.  Vaca is still going good.  Or so we thought.

Sunday night, she started coughing a little, but nothing serious.  Monday, a little more cough with a small fever so we made her an appointment for Tuesday with the doctor that helped us that weekend.  I knew I had been sick and I wanted to nip this in the bud so to speak, if she was coming down with it.  He swabbed her nose and told us the worst three letters in the alphabet...R.S.V.  I had no clue what it was at the time, but now....oh man!  If I could shrink myself down to virus size, we would go three rounds in the ring and let me tell you I would kick its royal butt.  He told us to watch her breathing and if it got up to over 40 breaths in a minute to come back in. I counted when we got home. It was 28, but by nightfall it was up to 42.  We made an appointment for the next day and he put her on a breathing treatment of albuterol three times daily and an antibiotic for an ear infection that had started.  Fast forward two nights to Friday at midnight. Her breathing was still pretty hard and fast, she was crying and she had had a temperature of 101.5 that we couldn't get brought down with Tylenol.  We decided to take her to the ER just to be safe.  We were there for three hours.  They weren't so much worried about her temperature but that she was in "respiratory distress."  We hadn't given her her breathing treatment that night yet, because she had been crying so much.  Apparently this caused her to get worse.  They gave her one in the er and some Tylenol for the temperature and sent us home.

As the days have gone on, she is getting better (Praise Jesus) but we ended up staying in Illinois until Monday the 24th because her temperature wouldn't stay down and the breathing didn't slow either. She had a follow-up appointment today with her doctor here and he says she's on the upside.  She's smiling again so that's a good sign.  

Oh! How could I forget.  Not only was Jesalyn sick, but Jarrod got sick the exact same day so this ol' momma had her hands full.  Thank goodness my mom was there to help when she wasn't working.  This was probably the worst week Jarrod and I have had.  This was Jesalyn's first sickness, first fever, first er visit.  What I'm look forward to now is her first recovery, and with this new formula, her first month eating with no stomach problems.  

My little sweetheart being brave:

Wordless Wednesday....because I've lost my voice =)

May the best cloth diaper win!

As promised, I'm here to give my take on the cloth diapers we have been using for the past week and a half. As I said previously, we bought two different kinds, BumGenius and FuzziBunz.We got the one size adjustable ones on both brands.  There are several other types out there, but these two seemed to be the most popular. They are both built the same way, the difference is just how you size them and the method of keeping it on the child (one is velcro, one is snaps.)

  

Both diapers are built like this.  There is an opening in one side where the insert goes.  It goes in pretty easy, but you have to make sure it's spread out completely from side to side.  If you don't you can get some leakage on the sides.

 

This is the bumGenius Diaper.  It velcros like disposables do.  At first I didn't think I was going to like this.  My opinion on velcro has always been that it doesn't last long and if you washed it, that would shorten the life even faster, but this is some heavy duty velcro, it ain't falling apart any time soon.  And if for some reason, it does fall apart, there is warranty for one year.  The way you size this diaper is by the snaps on the front.  If you snap the bottom three snaps, it's at it's smallest size, no snaps is at it's largest.

 

This is the FuzziBunz diaper.  It closes by the snaps. There are several snaps on there so you can adjust the tightness around the waist.  To size the FuzziBunz, you have to adjust the inside of the diaper.  There is a numbered elastic piece built in to the sides of diaper (that wraps around the leg.)   You simple pull it out as far as you need it and secure it with a button.  The further out you pull the piece, the tighter around the leg it gets.  

Each diaper comes with 2 inserts.  I usually use just one for the daytime, but it is an absolute must to use both for the overnight diaper.  

 

We sprang for this piece of equipment as well.  It's not exactly cheap ( I think we paid like $45 for ours) but let me tell you, it is a must! I would have paid twice that.  Wet diapers are a cinch, but for those dirty ones, you need this. After your done, it's completely washed off. There isn't even a bit of color left on it.

So how does it all work?  It's actually pretty simple.  With a wet diaper, you simple take it off, pull out the insert and throw both pieces in the washing machine.  For the dirty ones, you spray it out using the above tool and throw both pieces in the washing machine You can buy cloth wipes to go with the diapers too.  I bought one pack just to try, but honestly I have just used those as burp cloths.  It's not that they don't work, but the disposable wipes are decently cheap and I go through quit a bit when cleaning up after a dirty diaper.  

How many diapers do you need??  It all depends on how often you want to do laundry.  We started out with 12 and we do a load of diapers almost once a day.  We basically just keep our washing machine empty and throw the diapers in there as we go through them.  You can buy a diaper pail liner that is suppose to work pretty good to keep odors from seeping out. We bought one, but just haven't used it yet. 

Some pros and cons.  The Pros: the days of trash galore are gone! I just use a small bag to put the wipes in when I use them.  I  have saved money not having to buy the disposables.  I've only been using them for a week and a half and am really interested in how much overall I'm going to save.  The diapers are very simple to use, and adjust.  Since I got the one-size, I don't have to keep buying different sizes as she gets older.  These diapers will still be good if Jarrod and I decide to have another child, so I'll save money then too. The diapers are absorbant.  We've only had two leaks, one was my fault for not putting that second liner in overnight, and the other time it was just a little wet around her leg.  

Cons:  your initial purchase of these diapers will want to make your throw up. The average price of one diaper is $17.  We bought 12 diapers, one pack of wipes, and a small diaper pail for travel and it cost us about $260.  They are a little more work than disposables.  Traveling is an issue because you can't just toss them.  I would be okay if the diapers were only wet ones, but those dirty ones are just too much without the sprayer attachment.  I will probably buy disposables for travel.  If you have a small child, the diapers are a bit bulky.  I couldn't use these on Jesalyn until she was three and half months old, and even then there are some pants that don't fit her with the diaper on. 

I would recommend cloth diapers to any mother. Out of the two, I really don't have a preference.  They both seem to get the job done. I have really like using both of them and will definitely use them again if we have another child. Please feel free to ask me any questions that I might not have covered. 

                     

Lets Eat

Let's just get it out...I'm an emotional eater.  It's true and I'm coming to terms with it.  The first step is admitting right?  My official realization of this fact came last week.  If you've been following my life via blog or facebook (as if you have nothing else to do right?) you would know that things have been a bit stressful in the Pruitt household.  Now I'm not sitting here saying "woe is me,"  I know that things could be a lot worse.  I try to thank God each day for everything I have in my life, but I'm just letting y'all know the basis for my madness.  Back to my story... last week in the middle of the crazyiness of trying to decide whether to move to Tennessee or not, I just so happened to have a rough day at work.  I walked through the door to my apartment, walked through the kitchen, opened the freezer, grabbed a bag of french fries and dumped oh about half the bag on a cookie sheet and said, out loud I might add, "I'm going to sit here and eat every single one of these!"  Go ahead and chuckle, I did after I said it, but man all I wanted after a long week was hot, crispy fries with a mound of ketchup.  Now, let me clarify I do not do this every day, thank goodness, but every once in a while is normal right? Right?  Y'all do it to don't you?   And, I do get up and workout at 5:30 in the morning.  Surely that gives me the "right" to have a few pig-out meals??  The other thing I've picked up on about myself is my love for Diet Dr. Pepper.  I must blame this addiction in part to my good friend Keyanna. A few weeks ago she came over to my house with a drink from Sonic (which I'm a sucker for because of their ice) and it just looked so good.  The next day I went and got one, and it's been downhill from there.  Want an example?  For a while there, I would just stop at the gas station and get one, but then I realized I was spending too much money so I sprang for the 12 pack of soda. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that since I was drinking so much of it, it would just be cheaper to buy a 24 pack.  This is the first 24 pack of soda I've ever bought. I tell myself it's diet, so it's "not bad" which I know is crap!  But after a long, rough morning, or even a great morning, I always reach for that soda at lunchtime.  I'm just not ready to give up the addiction right now =)   For the most part, I'm a pretty healthy eater, but man there are times when I just have to give in.  Please tell me I'm not alone.