happy new year!!

wishing everyone a wonderful and prosperous new year!

here are some photos we took this weekend (alex is almost 6 months old!):

glucose follow up

i was gestational during my pregnancy. a week ago i went in for a glucose follow up test to see if that is over or if i still have it. i was very anxious about the whole thing but needed to get it over with so i went in on saturday. it was a two hour test and i brought a book to read so i wouldn’t be thinking too much about the what if’s if i fail.

anyway, i got a call early monday morning and my first thought was i failed!!! i answered the call and the rep from my doctor’s office informed me that my test came back normal. my reply was “so i’m okay then??!” it was a great feeling and i’m glad i’m okay for now.

the book i took with me was “the frugal duchess” and it was a great read. i thought she was pretty witty and the way the book was set up, it felt like readin a novel instead of tips and advices on being frugal. hahahaha

breastfeeding

breastfeeding is hard. i am super glad that i have make it through almost two months now. granted, i don’t exclusively breastfeed but i’m proud of myself still.

i tried bfing with all three of my kiddies. with faith, she would not take the bottle. at. all. that combined with the excruciating pain that i was getting from her not latching correctly was too much to bear. i stopped after 3 days. it was the opposite with jaelynn; she refused to take to the breast so i had to stop too.

the third time’s a charm or so they said i think. alex latched on correctly and because i had more help and support this time around. i bf’d him as soon as he was born and it got kinda painful so i didn’t want to continue. we gave him the bottle at the hospital and he refused to take it. at that time, we weren’t sure why he wasn’t taking anything from the bottle. the nurses thought he had a sucking problem since he wasn’t latching onto the plastic nipples.

i felt really bad that he wasn’t feeding so i decided to try bfing again. my nurse helped me. she got me all comfy, put him next to me and helped me latch him on. he latched on right away and perfectly. the nurse was amazed. she said she couldn’t believe he latched on so quickly and agreed that he probably didn’t like the plastic nipples. it was then that i made up my mind to bf him for as long as i could for as long as he wants to.

because he was jaundiced at birth, i had to supplement with formula and do also gave him the bottle. alex has no problem now going back and forth between the bottles and me. for that, i am just so greatful. i love bf’ing him but i get so exhausted sometimes. this combo help tremendously and is working out perfectly for us. another reason we’re doing a combination of bfing and formula is because i simply don’t make enough milk for the little guy.

the only thing that is at the back of my conscious mind is what will i do when i go back to work? how will i make it work? one thing is for sure, i’m going to miss my kiddies a lot, especially alex.

our sit-n-stand stroller

jaelynn testing out the sit-n-stand

the cube storage’s new home in the girls’ closet

we tested the stroller that i got on clearance at target when i was 3 months pregnant. ages ago huh? we went the farmers’ market today and stroll around in it. i find it easier to manuever than those travel systems. the only thing is that it’s hard to get into the storage underneath. seriously. iguess for the price i shouldn’t complain. the seats can accommodate up to 40 pounds each. did i mention that jaelynn loves it?

i love the farmers’ market! i try to go every other weekend. i love buying fruits and veggies from there. the prices are great and you get fresh fruits without the grocery store prices. today we bought 5 big baskets of cherry tomatoes for $1 each – i put these in the freezer and use them year round. they are such a pretty deep red color.

other fruits we got are 2 cantoloupes, 2 honey dews, 6 pounds of asian pears,  & 6 pounds of white necterines. i was going to get a watermelon but we were out of space. we are usually out by the middle of the week with our fresh fruits – the girls love eating (especially jaelynn) and i will give her fruits before any candies.

our new bed

our simple bed in our simple room.

it’s been a few weeks since we have our new memory foam mattress and platform bed set up. i have to say i LOVE it!! it’s definitely different from regular mattresses and my body took a few days to get use to the bed. however, since we’ve had it, i have not experience ANY back pain! that in itself is a miracle.

the thing is, with all of my pregnancies, i have back pain constantly. i’ll wake up feeling like i’m 80 years old. i still feel like that sometimes (cause of the sciatica) but no back pains. it’s made a huge difference. james have also been commenting on how much he loves it too!

it wasn’t a bad purchase afterall!

diaper stash organizer

and just because i couldn’t resist posting , we bought this storage shelf from costco for $29.97 to store baby’s diapers. it’s so much sturdier than i expected and so easy to install. no screws needed plus plenty of storage space. still have empty spaces at the bottom.

charlie horse…..aaaahhhhhh!

i thought i was going to get pass one pregnancy without experiencing a charlie horse! i was successful this far too. just 2 more months to go…

but alas!! just after midnight, i was asleep and started stretching. all of a sudden, i like a charlie horse coming and i tried to stop it, by arching my toes up. don’t ask me why or how, but sometimes that helps me. anyway, it didn’t work and i was caught in the grasp of my lower right leg in extreme pain. i woke james up to help message my calf but it was so sore and so painful i couldn’t help but turn and toss and whimpered. gosh, how horrible was that.

after what seemed like a long time, i thought it had finally stopped. i moved just a bit and bam! it started again and this time, i was sorta yelling because it was killing me!! yes, it was that bad. i said frantically to james, “arch my toes! arch my toes!” because i couldn’t do it. he message my foot and calf and arched my toes right away. it helped that time and my charlie horse actually stopped. tears were coming out of the corners of my eyes from being squeezed shut so hard and i had broke out in a sweat.

i don’t want to go through it again…it’s too much. i told james i would rather go through labor. *sigh* my nurse had told me at one point that charlie horse is a result of not having enough calcium. she said the prenatal vitamins does not have enough of a dosage. it’s funny too, that this past week was the week i didn’t eat any oranges or drink any o.j. no matter what, this morning, i promptly went to costco and bought a jar of calcium supplement.

i decluttered some…and a target gift card offer

ya-hoo!! it sure feels good. james and i declutter most of the day today and my back is really reminding me of all the bendings i’d done. also, i realized we’re not even close to being done. why didn’t anyone warn me? j/k.

i love the feeling though – of getting things neat and organized. hahahaha it sure makes one feel good.

let’s see, i boxed up all the books to go to the library – we have a few bags of clothes and toys to go to the thrift store and a few bags of baby clothes for my 1 year old niece. and that’s only going through jaelynn’s clothes – i still have faith, james and mine to sort through.

we also have about 2-3 bags of just things to throw away – wow!!

i boxed up all my dvd’s – a box of just classic and current chinese movies and a box of american movies and work out dvd’s. i have some random dvds and vhs that i’m going to see if my brother wants to keep otherwise they may be donated or throw away. i can’t stand to look at some of the dubbed movies – they are just horrible – luckily i don’t buy anymore. *shudders*

if i’m not too aching tomorrow after work, i told james i’ll continue cleaning up. ^^

i’ll be adding some frugal and simple living blogs and sites, so watch for them. i signed up for a trial to nicole’s savings advantage. it costs $1.95 for the 30 day trial and you get a $25 target gift card. not bad eh? just remember to cancel. thanks to little people wealth.