A Great Weekend

This weekend was GREAT! Joe and I asked our neighbors, Bill and Eleanor, to watch Scarlett for a couple of hours while we went out to eat for lunch and to Target. It’s been a long time since Joe and I were able to go out to eat… just the two of us. Those two and a half hours were definitely needed. Scarlett had a great time too! She was TIRED when she got home and took a 3 hour nap. So we finished our afternoon in the pool. We had a really wonderful day.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, my cell phone rang around 9:30. It was a Houston number with no name. I couldn’t imagine who would be calling me so late… It was Katherine. She was calling to tell me that she was engaged!!! I am so happy for her! Her fiancé, Ed, is a wonderful man. They are a perfect match!! We’re just thrilled and can’t wait to find out a wedding date!

Good Times

I must admit that I used to be one of those people that thought people with kids didn’t manage their time well or didn’t make enough time for their friends. Seriously, I was soooo wrong! Having a baby changes everything. And, I mean everything! For those of you with kids, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. Joe and I celebrated our 7th anniversary a couple of weeks before Scarlett was born, so we were pretty used to doing whatever we wanted when we wanted.

Over the past 18 weeks we’ve had to learn how to manage our time. This is definitely a work in progress. We both work from home and juggle our schedules to make sure that one of us is with her at all times. This is becoming more and more difficult. I pretty much never stopped working when I had Scarlett. I’ve been going into the office on Tuesdays, and I was asked to come in more the week after last. So now I’m going in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s nice to get out of the house and interact with adults. Luckily, we have two neighbors that keep Scarlett on those days when Joe has appointments and can’t be here with her. This is working for now, but we really need to find permanent help. So, we’ve been working on trying to find that.

So, that was a pretty crazy week. My company asked for more of my time and we had Scarlett’s tests. I was stressed out to say the least. Joe and I have been in need of a break. You know, a full night’s sleep and some us time. When Scarlett and I went to Atlanta the plan was for her to stay there with my mom for a few days. Well, that plan got shot down because of her tests. I’m not complaining, but we were all disappointed about the change in plans.

Well, we did end up getting a night out! My Uncle Jim and Pat were in town and took us to dinner. Our friends Rand and DeAnna have a daughter, Kendyl, that just loves Scarlett, and we asked her to babysit. So, we dropped Scarlett off at their house and headed downtown for a night out!

We started out at the Library at the Melrose Hotel. Two glasses of wine later, we walked across the street to the Centrum Building where there’s a new restaurant called Bengal Coast for another glass of wine. This place was great! For any of you in the Dallas area, I highly suggest checking it out especially on a Thursday night. They’ve got complimentary lettuce wraps which ended up being the perfect appetizer for dinner. We then walked across the breezeway area to The Club for dinner. Luckily for us it was Restaurant Week in Dallas. The salmon was delicious!

Here we are in front of the Melrose

Here we are at Bengal Coast

We had a great night out that we really needed. Scarlett also had a great time playing with Kendyl.

Kendyl and Scarlett

Our fun didn’t end there. Our friend Jesse was staying with us for the weekend. It’s been forever since we’ve seen him, and it was great to spend a few days getting caught up. Friday night started off with our friend and neighbor, Randy, coming over to hang out and make jalapeno stuffed peppers. Here’s me with Randy:

He gave me this fabulous t-shirt that he had made up for his company. Randy was also having guests for the weekend, and they arrived early. So, he left about the time Jesse arrived. I pretty much looked like I did in the picture with Randy all weekend…. Hair in ponytail, no makeup, comfy clothes, etc. We had a very relaxing weekend.

Jesse burping Scarlett

Jesse and Scarlett

This past week has been out of control busy. But, I did manage to take several pictures. Here are some that are pretty funny:

Scarlett in her new overalls

Peanut's ready for bed!

Peanut sniffing Scarlett

(Don't worry, Joe was firmly holding on to Peanut in this one!!)

I hope you all enjoy your weekend!!

Scarlett Update

Scarlett went in for tests on her bladder and kidneys on Wednesday. They weren’t too bad, and she was a real trooper! The Radiologist gave us his diagnosis while we were there, so we did not have to wait. Basically, Scarlett has kidney reflux. This website gives pretty good information on it:

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/childrens/medical_services/urology/vreflux/conditions/vreflux/treatments.html

Luckily, she has a mild case, but it is on both sides. I finally spoke to our Pediatrician about everything a little while ago. We are now moving to a mode of prevention. She will have to be on a low dose of antibiotics everyday for the next year. They will then perform the same tests that she had on Wednesday. Hopefully it will have cleared up or be greatly improved.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. We are very thankful that it is only a mild case and pray that it will clear up by the time she is tested again.

Scarlett's Room

When I found out I was pregnant with Scarlett, Joe and I debated on which of the rooms upstairs would be hers. We ended up agreeing on the one that had not already been painted, so it wasn’t that hard of a decision. When we finally found out that she was going to be a girl, we started working on her room ASAP. I bought her furniture and ordered the bedding online within a month. Joe painted, replaced the screens on her windows, and repaired the blinds that were installed incorrectly (just one of the many things that we’ve found in this house…)

We received so many wonderful gifts from friends and family that it was getting really hard to keep her room organized and looking somewhat put together. Most people think that I’m very organized. I am to some degree, but it takes me a lot of time to think about what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it. For example, I didn’t wash all of her clothes before we left for the hospital. What if she was too big to wear them?

Her room really wasn’t all that decorated when we brought her home from the hospital. It was just hard for me to put it all together before even meeting her. I also had this deep fear that she might end up being a boy. Thank God that didn’t happen! I would have probably considered suing the sonogram tech if she had been.

Sixteen weeks later her room is finally coming together!! One thing that had to go was the rocking chair. It’s not that I don’t rock her or like the rocker, it’s just that I would prefer to do it downstairs in the recliner…. So much more comfortable! We also had this old dresser of mine that we had painted blue (an awful shade of blue!!) that we’d been using for some of her clothes in her closet. The closet was just a mess, so the dresser needed to be moved into her bedroom. We moved it to where the rocker was to see how it would work and so that I could think about it being there for a while. Here’s what it looked like:

The dresser was originally white with goldish-colored pulls and knobs. When we painted it blue, I couldn’t find pulls that would fit as the other ones had broken, so we just used el cheapo knobs all over it. It looked ok. We decided to paint it pink, and I started searching for pulls… Please note that there are all kinds of pulls out there, but there are not many with a 4.5” boring. A boring is the measurement from the center of each hole. Of course Lowe’s didn’t have it, and I was having a tough time finding them online. I finally found some online and the company assured me that the knobs would match the pulls. I kind of had a feeling that I wouldn’t like the color when they came in, so I had planned on just painting them brown.

Fortunately, I loved the pulls, but the knobs didn’t match! The knobs are on their way back to South Dakota, and I found some that would work at Lowe’s. Here’s how it turned out:

It may not be perfect, but it works!

A Weekend in Atlanta

Things have been quite busy at the Farners! First and foremost, Scarlett is feeling much better. We are taking her in for tests on Wednesday morning, so please keep her in your prayers. Hopefully everything will be just fine. Here is a picture that I took of her and Punkin last week. He’s the nice dog, and we don’t mind him hanging out with her. Seriously, we could put him in her baby bed and wouldn’t worry about him licking or biting her. We don't do this, but it's always an option in case we can't find a sitter! :)

Anyway, Scarlett and I went to Atlanta this weekend for Christy’s Baby Shower. It was a nerve-wracking drive there, but we made it. She started crying in Omaha and didn’t stop until we got to Aunt Judy’s. She and my mom were both there to help get her changed and a bottle popped in her mouth ASAP. Jennifer Jo came over too to meet Scarlett. Here she is with Scarlett and Maddie.

We spent Friday evening at Dr. Dave and Nancy’s. It was great seeing everyone especially Autumn, Katherine and Shelly. It had been a while since we’d all had a chance to visit, and this was their first time to meet Scarlett. We had a really good time and took a lot of pictures.

Katherine and Scarlett

Autumn and Jackson

Shelly and Scarlett

Me, Autumn, Katherine, and Shelly

Me, Mom, and Scarlett

Saturday was the shower. Scarlett is still on her antibiotics, so she was a little fussy, but overall everything went great. It was fun seeing her with her cousins. We’re all really excited about her newest cousin, Jackson. He’ll be here soon. We’re especially excited as Jason and Christy live closer to us, so Scarlett will have a little playmate that’s nearby. I wonder if they’ll play He-Man like Jason and I did when we were little? I was always She-Ra Princess of Power! Joe still has his entire Masters of the Universe collection, so who knows!

Flint, Scarlett, Maddie, and Mary Claire

Sarah and Scarlett

Jason and Christy

Aunt Judy, Mom, and JoJo

I ended up going out with Autumn on Saturday night. Gran Jan and Papa Larry kept Scarlett, and Ed kept Jackson. It was nice to have a girl’s night out. I will say that things have changed over the past few years…. We were done with dinner in Texarkana at 7:15 and then headed back to Autumn’s to visit on the back porch. Not too many years ago we would have been heading out around 8:00 and rolling in way after midnight!

We drove home on Sunday, and Scarlett was great the entire way. I did stop a couple of times to put her pacifier back in her mouth, but she slept most of the way. She was exhausted from so much activity! Overall, we had a wonderful weekend visiting with friends and family!!

Scarlett's Fever

Last night is one ordeal that I never ever ever want to repeat again! It all started late yesterday afternoon. Scarlett was very hot, so I took her temperature. She had 99 degrees, so I gave her some Baby Tylenol. It worked. Her fever dropped. A few hours later she was not acting right. She was extremely fussy and hot. Joe took her temperature, and she had over 102. So, we called our doctor to see what we should do. They have an answering service, so the doctor on call would have to call us back. In the mean time, I called Dr. Dave in Atlanta to see what he thought. I didn’t have time to wait on someone to return my call when my little baby was obviously not doing so well. Dr. Dave said to take her to the ER. As we were almost ready to run out the door, my doctor’s office called back. I just gave the phone to Joe. I didn’t care what he had to say… we were headed to the hospital! Oh, as all this started to unfold we were in the middle of cooking dinner, so we turned off the oven, grabbed her bag, etc.

We decided the best place to take her was Baylor Medical Center which isn’t too far from our home. Luckily I called ahead… they had no pediatric ER. So I told them nevermind. We were going to Medical City Dallas, the hospital where she was born and where her doctor was associated. The ride there was not fun. We were both stressed and to top it all off there was this big gang of motorcycle people weaving through traffic. At least 5 of them drove in between us and another vehicle in the lane next too us. If any of you have ever ridden in a car with me… well, just imagine how it was.

We pulled in and I ran in with her as quickly as I could while Joe parked the car. These people knew I was very upset. I was crying and extremely panicked. At this point, Scarlett was breathing very heavily and really didn’t seem right at all. The led us into an exam room immediately. They took her temperature, and she had 105 degrees!! Oh, this wasn’t good. So, they started doing tests…. A chest x-ray, a urine specimen which required a catheter, blood work which required an IV, and then they wanted to do a spinal tap. Are you kidding me?? I immediately told them NO! Well, the doctor insisted (please note that this doctor looked like she was 12 years old!!). She thought that she might possibly have spinal meningitis and kept telling me that Scarlett could die. I really wanted to wait and see what the other tests showed, but they wanted to do it anyway. So, they made us leave the room while they did this. I could hear her screams down the halls. It was just horrible and broke my heart.

It ended up being a urinary tract infection. They gave her a big dose of antibiotics and sent us home with instructions to go to our pediatrician this morning for more antibiotics and tests. We met with her doctor this morning. He too did not think that a spinal tap was necessary, but he did point out that that was easy to say now seeing that we had clear results. We do have to go back next week for more tests to make sure that her kidneys are working properly and that there are no abnormalities. Please pray that all her tests are clear.

Here are a few pictures that I took of her the other night before I put her to bed. She was so happy lying in her crib that I wanted to take a few pictures, so I ran downstairs to get the camera. Once back up the stairs, I realized that the batteries were dead…. So back down and up again. She was still happy as a little lark when I returned.

New Nipples

This weekend my friend Kim came by to see Scarlett. While here she pointed out that we were still using Size 1 nipples on Scarlett's bottle. For those of you who don't know, size 1 has 1 hole, size 2 has 2 holes, etc. We thought she was doing fine on Size 1. I mean, she was drinking the entire thing, she wasn't crying, and I honestly didn't know what size to buy. Size 3 is for 3 months +. She's almost 3 months, so why not get those? Or, should I get size 2? It was all very confusing, so it was just something else I've been procrastinating about what to do.

Anyway, Joe went to the grocery store the next morning and bought size 3. So, she went from size 1 to size 3. What a leap and difference it has made! Instead of taking 30 minutes for her to drink 5 oz, it only takes 10 to 15. Then I decided to open up the larger bottles that I had bought a week or so ago and see if she would take more than 5 oz at a time. Well, those bottles had size 2 nipples! UHHH... more to think about! Should I throw these out and continue on with size 3 only or see what the size 2's are like? Being a new mom isn't easy. There's so much to figure out!! So, we are using both, and it's working for now. Thank you Kim for pointing this out. We need all the help and advise we can get!

Another thing I've been wondering what to do about is the high chair. We've got a great one that has been sitting in the box in the garage for a couple of months. I didn't know that you could get one that reclines and makes it easier for feeding. So, I've been debating about what to do about that... Should I exchange it? Should I keep it? Well, we decided to keep it. She'll be sitting up on her own soon enough... right? Joe put it together yesterday and sat her in it. She LOVES it!! I'm also so amazed that she's sitting up so well! I think she may be very advanced for her 14 weeks!! :)