3rd baby syndrome??

Well, Carter had his 9-month checkup today.  Passed with flying colors EXCEPT he has not gained any weight in the past 3 months. His weight at 6 months was 17lbs, and his weight today was 17lbs 2.5oz.  He's otherwise growing very well, which I can tell without numbers because quite simply he's completely outgrowing his clothes! I explained his typical feeding schedule.  Nursing 4 times a day, eats puffs/cheerios every meal, and getting baby food (usually 2 bowls full) at dinner and/or lunch. Sometimes. Dr's orders were to really feed him full {baby} meals regularly for the next 2 weeks and come back for a weight check.  {if he still doesn't gain weight he'll have to get blood drawn} So we came home and did just that.  2 bowls of food right away.  And we'll remember to feed him at dinner. And breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. And so on...

It's so hard to be intentional about this stuff, come third baby.  I'm so busy preparing meals, serving meals, fetching things for everyone, attempting to feed myself, then cleaning up ,that sitting down and preparing baby food also {as easy as it is) is just another thing to add into the day.  Too easy to just skip.  Because obviously the baby is happy as he is.  

We don't do baby food consistently, we don't do regular baths, we don't read enough with the baby, we don't have a baby memory book {yet}, we hardly ever take video clips, and I certainly don't do this anymore!  My, how life has changed!

BUT we do love Carter just as much!  SO MUCH!  And so, I vow today to remember to feed the poor child his baby food.  =)


P.S.  I'm not actually worried about Carter's lack of weight gain.  I'm pretty sure it's just the result of him being so mobile now and our lack of consistency with his meals.  Give him 2 weeks of bulking him up, and I think he'll be fine.  But pray that it is just that. 

Prayer Request

Just a quick prayer request before I head off to continue packing. My right eye has been very blurry almost all day today. Left eye is fine so I don't notice it terribly, just a bit unbalanced vision. I've taken my contacts out a couple times to rinse them but it doesn't seem to make much difference, or if so not for long. As you know, we're headed off to Colorado bright and early tomorrow morning, in which I'll be driving a majority of the 8 hrs while Kevin sleeps since he's working 'til 6am. So please pray that my eyes are good and clear in the morning and clear all day! Not sure why I'm having so many problems with them lately! Thank you!

Prayer Request (Updated again)

* UPDATE 2/14: My eyes are better again! They just gradually kept getting better and better until I could finally make it through the whole day without having to resort to glasses at the end of the day. So whatever it was just worked itself out! Thank you, God!!

* UPDATE 2/7: Home or not home my eyes are still VERY dry and blurry. I've figured out that when they start getting really blurry again I can drip some saline solution into my eyes and they instantly clear up. However, it only lasts a few minutes and then they're back to blurry, and it's time for another splash of solution all over my face. Not really sure what else to do, except to maybe look for actual Dry Eyes drops when I go into town again. Anyone out there experience this??

My mom's guessing it might be because of the new carpet (and hopefully it'll get better once it's not so new) but the last few days I've been having a TERRIBLE time with my vision being super blurry. It's okay in the morning but by the end of the day I can't see anything but shades of color really. If I take my contacts out, rinse them off, and put them back in, they're great again... but for only like 5 minutes maybe, and then they're back to crazy blurry. Not sure what to do about it. I guess we have three days of really nice weather coming (50s!!) so I'm going to try to get outside as much as possibly in hopes that fresh air helps. But pray that I'll have wisdom over this and even better yet, that it will just go away!! Thank you!

Eye update.

Wow, you all overwhelmed me with your kind responses and help regarding my eye problems! Thank you so much!!

I dropped the kids off at a friend's house and was able to go to the doctor today. The family doctor then referred me to an eye doctor and had an appointment set up for me for the next hour since he knew I was having someone watch the kids for me. Turns out I have a cornea infection (keratitis, I think it was), so it was very good that I got it checked finally before it led to scarring and permanent damage to my eyes. I was prescribed eye drops and given orders to wear my glasses as much as I can for the whole week. (sigh) But I'm sooo glad to finally get this fixed!! So, pray that I can get the darn drops in my eyes the next few days (that's sooo hard for me!) and that I'll be faithful about wearing my glasses even though I hate hate hate them. I was given a trial pair of contacts for when I do wear my contacts, so those should cover me until our household items get shipped to us and the rest of my contacts arrive!

Thank you all so much for your prayers! You've been so kind! Hopefully I'll have happy, healthy eyes again soon!

Prayer Request

Ever since we got back to Iowa 3, almost 4 months ago, I've been having real troubles with my eyes. About every 4 or 5 days or so my eyes get very very red, mostly just the left eye with a little bit in the right. When they're bad they burn a little bit, but mostly they get very sensitive to light, and even inside or with dim lights it just seems so bright and I can barefly open my eyes. Even with sunsglasses I'm squinting. It's hard to look upward, or they just sting. And I've noticed lately that when I take my contacts out after they've been red all day there's a white film of goo on them. I've tried and tried to connect it to something, to find some pattern, wehter it's a makeup or face wash or where I've been or just plain allergies, and I just can't figure it out. And like most pain, the more I think about it, the more it hurts. Clear Eyes drops help some, but it burns to hold my eyes open like that to get them in, plus the anxiety and anticipation of waiting for the drop to fall on my eyeball just about kills me in itself, or so it seems. But I have been doing the drops anyway. I can't not wear my contacts either. The most I can do is maybe two hours. Don't know why but I just can't see out of my glasses. Even with up-to-date lenses, everything's still so blurry, not to mention that I don't have any peripheral vision. For those of you who understand bad eyes, my prescription is -8, folks. I've got bad eyes. I'm used to that, but this red eye business I can hardly bear anymore. Now that we're finally moved and have insurance and an income, I'm going to try to get to the eye doctor this week. Not sure what I'm going to do with the kids, but somehow I've get to get this taken care of. So please pray that it will clear up for me this week, that I'll find some answers from a doctor, and that I'll figure out what to do with the kids. Thank you, hopefully there will be a good report soon!

Prayer Requests

For this week:

* Pray that we would please SOON get a call from Nebraska! We STILL have not heard Kevin's test results that he took almost two weeks ago to know if he could get a job there or not. We are getting sooo frustrated and discouraged about that, and we feel like giving up on it altogether but know we've waited this long and are so close now!

* It's also been a week since Kevin did the test and interview at the plant in Iowa, so we're also waiting for results from them too, although it is only our second choice for locations.

* Pray that God would work the details of our situation. Our "things" have been in storage for the last 2 months. I packed vacation-style: just enough clothes for what we had room for and the bare minimum for toiletries and everything. Well, both kids are moving up a clothes size (2T pants for Eli and 12-month clothes for Hannah) and I don't have much of anything for them. I had brought a box or two of spare contacts, but now I've used them all and am currently wearing my very last pair. They're 2-week contacts, and it looks that we'll be here at least a month more until we're in a house and our belongings are returned to us. Also, both Kevin's and my cell phones are literally falling apart. Our Sprint contract is up in January, and with the move we'll be switching service providers, so just pray that our phones will hold out until then. Just pray that all the little details will work themselves out.

* Pray for our finances. We've been two months without income now. So far we haven't had to even tap into our savings, but it's close now.

* It's Kevin's birthday next week, on Tuesday, and I have absolutely nothing planned. The things he's interested in are crazy expensive, and I just have no clue what to do otherwise. I feel really horrible about it and want him to have a good day, a special day, especially because I know he's been so stressed lately. Pray that it will be a good day for him, despite the circumstances. And if you have any ideas on what to do, please share!!

* Above all pray for peace and patience. We're all under great stress and frustration that we're snapping at each other left and right. We so greatly want to get settled and know that it's going to be yet another month for a house AFTER we finally get word on a job. Pray for joyful hearts.

Thank you! We'll keep you updated when there's something to update!

UPDATE! Kevin finally got a hold of the HR lady for Nebraska, and he passed the POSS test! We still have to wait another few days or a week or whatever for the actual job offer but we know it's coming. Without the actual job we're not sure what we can do for a house just yet, but for sure we'll be doing all we can to get the ball rolling.

Prayer Requests

Just thought I'd post an updated list of prayer requests now that we've been back for a couple weeks now...
* Pray for Eli. He's got a lot going on right now with being away. He's been to a lot of places, seen a lot of new faces, daddy's gone, he's got several molars coming through, and he's 2, so he's pretty cranky. He's clinging to me like crazy and though my family wants to help out, Eli won't let them. He doesn't want anyone else to put his shoes on but MOMMY, or anyone else to fill his milk or juice cup but MOMMY, or anyone else to push the stroller but MOMMY or anyone else to take him outside but MOMMY or anyone else to buckle him in his booster seat or car seat but MOMMY. I am the only constant in all of this change, so he's super attached which is hard on him and annoying for me. He's not around his normal play area and doesn't always have things to keep him entertained so some days he's just bouncing off the walls and rowdy and even when we take him outside a lot, he's still just bonkers when we come back in! He's been so good about naps and bedtime though, doesn't ever have trouble adjusting to his new bedding situations whether he's by himself or a sharing a room with all of us. And he does love having the family around, but not when it comes to the things he usually does with mommy.

* And in turn pray for me to be gentle and patient with Eli though it's as frustrating and irritating as it is.

* Pray for little Hannah. Not sure what's going on but a few weeks ago she started waking up quite a bit at night, sometimes 3 or 4 times! And now that we've been staying with other families or sharing rooms, I just want her to stay quiet and go back to sleep so I've just been feeding her a little instead of trying to rock her or letting her cry at all. I just don't really know why she's waking up and I'm so frustrated because she slept soooo well the first 5 months of her life. Pray that she starts sleeping better. And also pray that she'll start taking food. We've been trying for almost 2 months now for her to take cereal and baby food but she just doesn't have any interest. She won't open her mouth for anything! So far we've done rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, and bread. We've tried the baby food variety and even the real deal, and just haven't had any success! And I don't know if that would help her sleep better if she was getting food!

* Continue to pray for Kevin's job search that God would soon lead us to where He would have us.

* Pray for my grandparent's travels. They were here visiting from North Carolina for a couple weeks and just started the long drive back across the States.

* We're thankful for how God has provided for us during these two weeks so far, and we're thankful for the time we've had with friends and family! Thanks for all your prayers! Until next time....