Ear Infection

I suppose you're all assuming it's Jordon who has the ear infection, but nope it's actually Darlene. This week i've noticed my ear has been hurting and i noticed some nasty stuff after i cleaned my ears from the shower and my ear was a little sore for some reason. After the second day of it, i knew that wasn't normal, so i scheduled my appointment for the dr. The Dr said that it was very inflamed in my ear and there was a little red bump. So she said that she was going to treat it as an ear infection and prescribed me some medicine for a week and if it doesn't clear up by my followup appointment it might be a cyst that i'll have to go to an ear, nose, throat doctor specialist. Just my luck I know, i haven't had an ear infection since i was a kid. The sad thing is that the only available medicine for it(i have ear drops and an antibiotic) isn't nursing friendly. at all! My obgyn, the pediatrician, and the pharmacist say absolutely no nursing with this prescription for 2 weeks! Yesterday was Jordon's and I first adventure with straight bottle feedings and it was rough, mostly for me i think, Jordon is now kindof liking the stuff which i'm scared about. So for 2 weeks i'm pumping at every feeding so that i can be relieved and to keep up my milk supply. I'm hoping Jordon will come back to me for the feedings after 2 weeks otherwise I guess that's it for nursing. A whole lot earlier than i planned, i was hoping for 8 months of nursing, but we'll see. He's such a good eater i think he'll be fine, but it's already a bit heartbreaking for me. But i'm giving lots of hugs and kisses and playtime with mommy to make up for it, he's a trooper. We had a little talk a day before i started the medicine, maybe he understood! The medicine is awfully powerful, i take 2 pills a day, it makes me quite drowsy, but at the same time it's hard for me to go to sleep. But it's just for a week, so i should be ok. They said to pump for 2 in order to get the antibiotic out of my system. I wouldn't want Jordon to even get a little taste of this medicine, imagine what it would do to him.

Other than that, Chris and I have been doing good. We closed out our wamu bank account almost, since wamu has been sold to Chase. It was sad to let go of the account since they've treated us very well. Chris works in the building of Comerica Bank in Dallas, so we moved our account over there and it seems to be working out really good now. There are a lot more benefits for us since Chris is employed in that building.

We've also been trying to clean up the outside of the house of the parents stuff. We were able to move the basketball hoop to a place where i can get more access to it to shoot hoops and then we're planning to get rid of the old rusty weight machine, with dad's permission of course. So that'll clear up the space back there. Slowly but surely things are getting into order here. With Chris's crazy work schedule and scheduling in Jordon time and getting other things done around the house, i'm the one now who actually keeps up with the lawn mowing job. I don't do the edging cause for one our edger is a little difficult these days, it was probably too cheap of one, and i'm not that good at doing it. One of these days i'll do it but for now i'll just stick to mowing the lawn. We're still planning to plant flowers just have to figure out when we're going to do it. Saturday might be a good day to do it, need to do it before the weather gets too cool.

My family is doing good, mom is doing good from her broken arm injury a few months ago, she's been going to rehab and doing well. She's back at her job a few days a week working a few hours at a time. She's still hoping to come see us here in Texas to meet Jordon for the first time, but i'm not sure if she's at the stage of being able to lift up a suitcase. She has until next march to use her ticket, so we keep hoping soon she'll be coming. Jacey and Ellisa are doing good too, Ella is almost 18 months old and will be going to nursery soon, sometime in October. She is very talkative on the phone, and loves to say hi, kitty, and nana(banana). Erin and Matt and their kids are doing good too. Brinton is over a year old and soon to take his first step. Anya is doing good and enjoying school and playing with her brother, rin tin tin as they call him. We're trying to plan a Gallis reunion in Montana in June next year to get all of us together, and all the cousins can play now that Jordon is getting to the sociable age. In June he'll be as wild and crazy as them and probably walking(scary thought).

Jordon is doing well, eating his rice and oatmeal. He's been experimenting with sweet potatoes and bananas. He's actually started to like his sweet potatoes plain a bit. i had to mix a smidgen in with his cereal at first so he could get used to the taste. He loves to sit up and play along with lying on his back and kicking around. He does ok on his belly but after a couple of minutes he wants to do something else. But that's about it for us. Just wanted to update everyone. Until then, take care!

A Day Out With Daddy!

Friday was a wonderful day. Chris took off the day and all of us were able to go for a trip to Daddy's work and show off Jordon and be able to meet all of Chris's coworkers and friends that he knows at TM Advertising. Everyone there went all ga ga all over Jordon and thought he was the cutest thing! And Jordon was flirting with all the ladies with his smiles and babbling. We were able to see Chris's cubicle and be able to play with the computer! :) Or at least Jordon did! We took the bus down and Jordon was great and slept the whole way, of course on the way back he woke up as soon as we got on the bus, but he was a trooper and actually didnt fuss for food until we got back to the Colony, which is very amazing. He is a patient boy if he has to be. We were also able to go to Neimen Marcus, which is a very very fancy, expensive store. Even though it was very fancy, the stuff there like the purses and shoes were quite ugly in my opinion, but then again im not too much into that kind of thing. what can i say, i'm still a farm girl in a way. We spent time in the store while waiting for the next bus. It was great to see where he worked and spend most of the day in downtown Dallas. It was quite an adventure but i think Jordon got a kick out of it and seeing daddy's work! Jordon has sure been growing and becoming more and more of an independent sitter. He's been having quite the appetite. i give him oatmeal twice a day now. He seems to handle that a bit more than the rice cereal. He's been trying to work on his spitting up problem too. His 6 month checkup is coming up in a week or so, so we'll see what the dr says and get his measurements. Hope everyone is doing well, take care!

Jordon Sitting Up!

Well, Jordon can sit up by himself mostly! He's still working on it but he can stay up for quite a while, at least a couple minutes and then he falls backwards. He had to show off to Daddy last night. So here are some pictures!

This morning sent us a chill with the weather. It's about time we are starting to have a start to "fall weather" for Texas. It has been getting cooler and cooler at night and especially in the morning. I have to go shopping for warmer clothing for Jordon. I didn't think it would get too cold, but around midnight Jordon was crying a little, he fell back asleep but i think he was doing it because his poor little feet were a little cold. Had to put some socks on him this morning. So today we are going to our CCA thrift store to get some 6-9 month and 9-12 month gowns for him. But i am so excited that it is getting to be wonderful weather outside. Yesterday i worked outside for a couple of hours in the morning during Jordon's nap to weed the front and it was so nice to not have to work up a sweat in the morning. We're going to plant some flowers up front to beautify our landscape and then we're going to attempt to do a fall garden, but we'll see if it's too late or not. Jordon is now on a better routine kindof, thanks to Laura's Happy Sleep Habits Happy Child Book, thank you thank you!. We're still trying to work on it, but he's doing much better. Ever since Sunday we've been trying to do it better. Now he wakes up at 6 AM and then takes a long 2 hour nap from 7-9, has another breakfast with a little rice cereal, down for a shorter nap at 10:45 or so, sleeps till 12 or so and has lunch, and then i put him down for his long afternoon nap around 2 and he sleeps till 3:30. And then i give him a bath at 5, try to feed him a little at 5:30 before he goes to bed a little until 6:30 or so. And then he has a couple extra feedings til he's down at 9. But things are working out pretty good. He actually had 2 TB rice cereal last night, and he kept it down pretty good, had a little spitup but not bad. I think he's almost read to move on to other things but i'll give it another week.

Chris has been working hard trying to finish up the last touches on the bathrooms. He got the guest bathroom tub tile regrouted so that is looking really good. And then we're going to reporcelain the tub a little in some spots that need it. And later we'll be putting up shower curtains and repainting the room. The master bathroom just needs a few more touchups and that will be done. We're also going to try to paint the hallway, living room, kitchen, and den this fall. So we'll send pictures when that is done. I've been trying to get around to it, but it hasn't happened yet especially with trying to figure out the time to do it with a baby. But he's getting older now. He's going to be a pumpkin this year for halloween. So we'll send pictures of that too.

We'll be sending more posts later! Take Care!

It's Fall!

Life in Texas is finally becoming bearable for Chris and I. It's still a bit warm but we're excited that the temperatures are cooling down a bit so we can actually go outside and enjoy a family stroller ride. We had a lot of fun this weekend with celebrating Mom's birthday on sunday. We had all of us there, including Jeremy and Laura, along with the Bennion family, which is always alot of fun. Jordon and Matthew had quite the time. They tried to interact with each other but being a sunday and how both of their schedules get so mixed up with church and interupted naps, they were both exhausted. But it was a lot of fun to see Matthew, he's such a cute boy, making us see what Jordon might be doing in a month.

We have figured out a better routine for now for Jordon. He has always been so active at night and waking up off and on in the middle of his night time sleep that i figured that he might be getting the wrong amount of sleep at the wrong time. He's awake for quite a bit of time during the day, but i've limited his last nap until 5:30-6 at night, so he can go down around 8 with another last feeding around 9:30 and then back to bed around 10. He sleeps until 7 or so in the morning now. We have also figured out why he hates tummy time. He rolled over once and that was it for about a week or so. He has great arm muscles but he only uses them when he's propped up on something. So I make him lay on a stuffed animal as if he's attacking it and put down toys in front of him to entertain him and it works quite well. And because of it, he's been rolling over at least once a day for right now, he's getting used to being a little mobile.

Chris and I are doing pretty good with juggling life with a baby now, parenthood is a lot of fun, yet challenging sometimes. But it's all worth it when we see Jordon look up at us, recognizing us as mommy and daddy. It melts our hearts every time. We're so blessed to have such a healthy son. Things could've been different, considering how small and weak he was, but we appreciate our family's prayers during that rough time.

This fall we are hoping to be able to use some of Chris's vacation time to either go to San Antonio or use it for when Mom Gallis comes to see us. She's still going thru rehab and we're hoping by October she'll be able to come spend some time with us and be able to spoil Jordon even more. We are also trying to update our house little by little. We have redone the master bathroom shower, updated the hallway lights, and painted the back 3 rooms. We're slowly trying to figure out what colors to do for the hallway, living room, and kitchen. Maybe with Kacey's expertise decorating skills, we'll be able to get this place looking good before Christmas.

Hope everything is going well for everyone. Here are some recent pictures!

Jordon has graduated to actually being able to be in the main part of the stroller, he's getting so big!

He sure enjoys his bath time too!

Enjoy the pictures!

I'm 5 months old!

We are so suprised how fast time has flown. We were just sent home with Jordon, which seemed like yesterday, who was only 5 lbs and now he is 5 months old, 15 1/2 lbs and 26 inches long.

Kids really do grow up too fast. But it is so exciting to see all the changes that happen. He is such a strong little boy. He is going to be like his daddy who cut all his teeth at once. Jordon's gums are looking and feeling pretty hard, i can see about three teeth right now trying to come through. We started him back on solids again, he takes the spoon really good but we were giving him too much before and he probably wasn't quite ready. But now we give him a couple teaspoons at night and he's doing just fine. He still wakes up about the same time everyday but at least he isnt crying at 2 AM anymore. We'll see how it goes this month. He might even have a couple teeth! A Very scary thought. We sure enjoy his cute personality. He is a very mild mannered baby with lots of smiles! As you can see!