Randomness

I have been finding it so hard to blog these days.  I never want to hear one person who doesn't have children say they have no time.  I used to be one of those people but the truth was I had tons of time-especially to do whatever it was I wanted to do.  If I had no time it was because I just didn't want to do something.  But that being said, I guess it is better to be too busy than not busy enough-especially in the working world.

We did nothing to celebrate Valentines last night but I will give credit to my hubby for booking us a night away this Saturday.  Can't wait.  SLEEP!!!!!!! Everywhere I went Monday and Tuesday was craziness.  I ran into Walgreen's to get something and there wasn't a parking space to be found.  I won't even talk about the Hallmark store.  Even Brookshire's was crazy with people buying flowers and food to cook.  I just kinda think Valentines is a bit overrated.  Anyone else feel this way?

I am really ready for Spring.  I am starting to see clothes I feel I must have but am still holding out cause I know we will have several more cold spells.  More than anything, I can't wait to break out the sandals.

I have been doing a bootcamp 3 days a week at 5am.  Wow it is really early.  Although, the best part is when I come home and have about 30 minutes to myself with no noise.  You can get alot accomplished in that time frame with no distractions.  All I have to say is I better see some amazing results come Spring/Summer.

We went to Phoenix last week for a meeting and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  I am dying to go back on a real vacay.  Spa anyone?

If you haven't been watching The Voice then shame on you.  The talent is so sick this year and I am loving all the judges even more this year.  How is Christina racking up all of the talent on her team so fast?

Rihanna definitely wins the best dressed award for me at The Grammy's Sunday night.  She looked insane in her dress that she helped design I might add.

R.I.P Whitney.

Half a Year

Half a year sounds so much longer than 6 months to me but that is exactly what Aiden is.  I just can hardly believe it.  Leave it to my hubby to put things in perspective. Quote: Aiden was in your stomach longer than he is old.  So really he is still a young little man.  Since I didn't blog about 5 months let me just catch up quickly. 

5 Months

-you have rolled over 1 time: literally
-started you on baby food twice a day.  you love it! why was i concerned you wouldn't? you were a big baby when you were born so obviously you liked food.
-diapers: i moved you to size 2.
-weight: unknown but at the end of December (approx. 5 1/2 months you weight 14 lbs. 2 oz.)

-height: unknown

-you still eat every 3 hours. 5-6 oz. except when you eat food about 3-4 oz.
-clothing size: 3-6 months but 6 months are fitting great in stride

                           Couldn't get a smile outta this fellow.  Maybe because his outfit was so big it looks like he's wearing bellbottoms!

6 Months

-you finally decided a few days before your 6 months checkup you would rolled over.  I knew you could if you wanted but I think you are lazy.  You get very frustrated when you can't roll from stomach to back and just give up and start crying. There are several times in the night when you wake us up because you have rolled onto your stomach and can't get back over.  You also can find your passy very well at night in your crib and have been self-soothing yourself. you are also trying to sit yourself up when laying in the nap nanny and we are working on you sitting up.

-you wake up every morning in the best mood and are a really happy baby.  we love making you laugh and my heart just melts when i come home from work and you smile at me.
-weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz.  You are still settling in right around the 8th percentile but the doctor is not as concerned anymore because you are gaining steadily
-height: 28 1/4 inches long. you are almost at the 100th percentile.  you are so long.  when i put you in pants they looked cropped because you are so long.
-you have loved every food we have given you which makes me very happy.  i have also been making most of your food and you really seem to like fresh fruits and veggies.  i hope it continues. 
-you have started trying to talk so bad and have learned to make even more new sounds. 
-we have a teething boy on our hands.  your drool is out of control and you chew on anything you can get your hands on.
-you still hate to take naps.  you fight it so hard. scream, kick, and cry til you finally just pass out.  we then have to sneak you to your crib and hope you don't wake up.  nights are a different story.  you usually go down between 8:30-9pm and wake up between 7-7:30pm. 
-you still eat every 3 hours but the doc says that's why you can sleep so long at night.  I'll take it!
-bottle size: 6 oz every 3 hours except when you have solids then about 4 oz.
-clothing size: 6-9month

-diaper size: size 2

-you love your jumperoo and also to look at yourself in the mirror. if there is a tv on, forget about it.  You are suckered in just like your daddy. 

-we took you to church for the first time and you loved the nursery.  you were so busy checking everything out you couldn't even take a bottle. 

-Dr. king and slusher are both pleased with your progress and say we should continue to feed you whatever you want to put the weight on you. 

-heart update: still taking all 3 of your meds.  in 6 weeks we will look at the VSD (hole) in your heart and see if it has closed any.  From there we can come up with a game plan: do we do surgery of try and let the hole continue to close if it has begun to?  We are cautiously hopeful.

-in other news, at the 4 month checkup I expressed concern over the flat side of your head.  Dr. Slusher said let's give it til  6 months and hopefully with him not on his back so much, it will round out.  If not, we could get a helmet.  At his apt. last week, she thought his head actually looked worse.  She thought we should get x-rays done of his head.  What we found was very surprising.  The sutures in his skull in the back of his head were fused nicely like they were supposed to be and should allow the helmet to shape his head nicely.  However, the sutures in the front of his head had not fused correctly.  Usually, when this happens, a ridge forms on the head but to look at him he looks normal so you wouldn't even know.  We have an apt. in Feb to go see a craniofacial surgeon in Shreveport to review the x-rays and also fit Aiden for the helmet.  I asked Dr. King about this and he could see it immediately because of the way his ears didn't line up correctly.  He suspects that he has craniosynostosis which may require a surgery. hopefully, it is just a result of his flat head in the back. more to come...

                                                       Christmas Eve Church Service

                                                   So glad I captured a smile!

                                                                  Sporting the hood!

                                                        Ready to eat in our high chair

4 Months!

I can hardly believe that my little man is four months old.  How far we have come and we still have so far to go at the same time.  Last week was a big week for us.  On Monday, we got our first of five Synergist shots to prevent RSV.  He will get one a month through the season which ends in March.  This shot is really thick but he did great.  Friday we had our 4 month checkup with Dr. Slusher.  He weighed in at 12.2 lbs. and 25 1/2 inches in height.  We dropped from the 25th percentile to the 10th in weight and increased from 95th percentile to 97th in height.  It has been a rough 2 months on his weight.

First, we decided he had a slight milk allergy and switched to soy formula.  Then I decided he may be allergic to soy and switched to Alimentum, which of course is basically the most expensive formula there is.  On top of that, he won't drink the powder.  He wants the ready made formula which is really expensive.  The doc and me still can't decide if he was allergic to soy or just has really bad reflux which makes him refuse formula.  For now, he seems to love the formula and is eating really well so I will pay whatever amount of money to have him eat and put on weight.  Since Aiden's needs to put on some serious weight, the doctor wants us waiting to try and solid foods for another 2 months.  She did want us to add 1 tablespoon of rice per ounce of formula and make it like a slushy. This would make his bottle 35 calories per ounce vs. 20 calories and ounce. Needless to say he hated that and could only eat a couple ounces which doesn't do us any good. So we have put that on the back burner for now until we can come up with an alternative.

Aiden absolutely hates tummy time and is still not rolling over.  He is not the least bit interested.  His neck strength is a tad weaker than what she would expect so we are trying to spend more time on our stomachs.  He just gets so mad though that all he does is lay there and cry.  No lifting of the head at all.  Any tips please pass them on!  Other than that, he is progressing quite well I guess.  He absolutely loves books, music, and Baby Einstein.  He is not that interested in toys and is ready to move onto the next thing fairly quick.  I heard him laugh for the first time last week.  So adorable. 

Milestones:
-Weight: 12 lbs. 2 ounces
-Height: 25 1/2 inches
-Clothing size: He can still wear some newborn if it is a shirt or gown and a couple of 0-3 months as long as not too short in the stride.  They fit him great across your body.  However, he can also wear 3-6 month clothes if they are a onesie. Pants are too big for him.
-Feeding schedule: 5-6 ounces Similac Alimentum every 3 hours.  I do not believe we will ever break him of this.  He's always starving.  He also get a rice bottle every other feeding.
-Medicines: Lasix-0.5ml b.i.d.; Digoxin-1.0ml b.i.d.; Captopril 0.75ml b.i.d.
-Sleeping Schedule: 8:30-9pm til 6-7am.  Occasionally he will wake up early but in general is a great sleeper.  Naps are fairly irregular.

Haddox Family Pics

Just wanted to share a few family pics we took about a month ago.  Aiden was 3 months at the time and I can't believe how much he has grown in such a short time frame.  The super talented Kasey Stringer took these at the in-laws house and property.  She literally whipped them out in 35 minutes.  The hardest part is deciding which ones of him I want to buy and use for a Christmas card.  Below are some of my favorites (not sure why they are so small).

The Battle of the Best

I couldn't resist writing about LSU right now.  Watching this season unfold reminds me so much of my senior year in college. That was the year they won their first BCS National Championship.  I have to admit that I never would have thought we would have two games left and be undefeated but we are!  So are we a sure win for the National Championship?  Let's review the scenarios. 
1.  If we win the last 2 games I think we are in regardless of what happens in the SEC Championship.  Let's say we were to lose the SEC Championship and Oklamhoma State wins the remainder of their games.  Oklahoma State will be in and who else should play them?  Oklahoma who lost to Texas Tech, Oregon, who we beat, or Alabama who we beat?
2.  If Oklahoma beats Ok St. and LSU wins out, who should we play?  Oklahoma who lost early in the season and perhaps will win the Big 12, Oregon who lost to the #1 team in the Nation in the first game of the year, or Alabama?
3.  If LSU loses to Arkansas, they will still represent the west in the SEC Championship because we will have the highest BCS ranking and in a head to head tie-breaker, we beat Bama who throttled Arkansas. WOW, this is a mess.  We then go on to win the SEC Champ and OK St. loses in their championship game, who do we play Bama or Oregon?  Oregon lost to LSU the first game of the season on a neutral site but was basically a home game for us because it was so much closer.  Bama lost to us in OT but on their on turf which makes it worst.  So who deserves to go?  Selfishly, I would much rather play Oregon again than Bama.  I also feel that Bama would bring almost as many fans to New Orleans as we would, only giving us a slight advantage.  Oregon will most likely win the Pac 12 Championship making their point more valid than Alabama who did not evern play in thier conference title game. Another thought would be if the voters changed their minds and still put Ok St. in the championship game to avoid a rematch even though they would have lost their conference championship game.  You saw it happen in 2003 when Oklahoma lost and still made it to the National Championship game. There are great arguments to be made for each one. 
4. Easiest and best case scenario would be for LSU and Oklahoma State to both win out. Done and Done.

                                                       LSU is undefeated thus far in 2011.

                                          I think this was how Saban felt when we played them!

                 Does Oklahoma State have the defense to play in the National Championship?

The most interesting thing about Oregon is what uniforms they would wear

I just hope that LSU shows up this weekend to play Ole Miss.  They sure didn't last week against W. Kentucky.   Geaux Tigers!

I also wanted to send a shout out and good luck to my hubby and his team this Friday as they travel to Mangham to play in the second round of the playoffs.  Should be a great game!

randomness

I feel this blog post best describes my life right now.  Nothing seems to flow-everything is pieced together best I can.  My last day of work for 2011 is December 7th, and I am counting down so maybe I can get my life in order.  It seems like everyday I have something extra to do.  Ben too.  It's a shame those "somethings" are things we are doing together.  Here is a snapshot of my life: 1. pack bottles. 3 days out of the week I am packing bottles.  That means sterilizing water, pouring it up, measuring out formula and writing directions for the bottles.  You see, it could be really simple but Aiden has to be on a 22 calorie/ounce formula. That means calculating the water/formula ratio for every bottle.  Also, he gets a rice bottle every other feeding. I measure and pack that.  And finally, he gets his 3 medications twice a day.  I measure those out as well.  I am exhausted just typing it.
2. packing my car.  I need a Tahoe.  Seriously, there is so much stuff!
3. Work.  This is an extremely busy time.  We are planning for next year and just came back from a meeting in Orlando and running around like crazy trying to get business for a new medication.
4. Packing.  Yes, in the midst of all this chaos we are moving.  We only have a few weeks left to get out of the house and I am not sure how it is going to be done.  Luckily, I am able to get some help with Aiden so I, NOT WE, (my husband is no help.  Why? Because it's football season!) can pack.

I didn't even get to dress Aiden up for Halloween.  I had no time to look for a costume and everything little was sold out.  I put him in some Halloween pajamas and took him over to out friend's house in Wedgewood.  He had a blast taking in all the sounds and sights.  He was sacked out by 7:30.  Plus, I didn't even take a picture. 

I make up for the pics when I am at home though.  Here are a few recent ones.  Have a great week!

                                                               Like Father, like son!

                                                                   Aiden's baptism!

                                                  So excited about the big game, he passed out.

                                                                   Lovin' his ugg boots!

3 months!

It's been awhile since I have blogged and I have tried really hard to keep up but man it is hard!  Here are a few updates.  I have been back at work for about 3 weeks now.  It is super hard to get myself ready and Aiden ready in the mornings and both of us out of the house.  We are in the process of moving right no so our house is a disaster area filled with baby gear everywhere.  Aiden is high maintenance! Since I am working and the doctors advised against daycare, we have to take him to my mother-in-law's most days!  Thank goodness for her is all I have to say.  This is an extremely busy time for me at work so most of my "free time" is either spent doing work or running errands (grocery ect..) and trying to get things in line for the new house.  I haven't seen that movie "I don't know how she does it" but I can agree with the movie without even seeing it.  Hopefully soon things will seems easier to me and we will get our routine down. 

On Tuesday, October 18th Aiden turned 3 months old.  I couldn't believe it.  Time really does fly.  I never thought I would experience such a joy in my life and there really is no way to describe how you feel when you become a mom.  I find myself thinking alot about my pregnancy and the moment he was born. Then I think about how much he has grown and been through over the past 3 months.  I love to watch him experiencing new things and I wish I knew what was going on in his mind. 

The past couple of weeks have been pretty stressful.  I officially stopped pumping breastmilk right before I went back to work and started giving him Enfamil Gentlease.  I thought everything was great and then he started spitting up really bad and vomiting alot.  Soon he would hardly eat and began losing weight.  I took him to his pediatrician and she thought he probably had a milk allergy and since I don't eat much dairy in my diet, it had never bothered him before.  We put him on pedialyte for 24 hours then switched to Enfamil Prosobee.  Wow, what a difference.  He went from drinking about 2.5oz to 5-6oz. per feeding.  We went back to weigh him a week later and he still weighed 3oz. less? How could this be? In the midst of this chaos, Aiden got his first cold.  I was stressing out the entire time.  The doctors always tell us how hard on him any simple cold could be and all I could think about was him going back in the hospital again.  At this point, we had our apt. with the cardiologist and went through what had been going on.  I guess Aiden looked really sick because Dr. King told us to prepare for surgery in a month if he can't gain weight like he should and he wanted to see us back in a week. 

Well, one week later we have completely changed course.  Aiden recovered from his cold and gained a whopping 10oz. in a week! This is the most he has ever gained.  I was beyond thrilled.  Because of his outstanding progress, there is a chance after our apt. next week we can come back in a month.  I wouldn't know what to do if that happened.  We have been there almost every week for 3 months.  I swear his first word is gonna be "Dr. king." Ahhh god is good! 

Milestones:
-Age: 3 months
-Weight: 11lbs. (25% in weight on growth chart)
-Height: 24 3/4 in. (95% in height on growth chart)
-clothes:still can wear some 0-3 months but the 3-6 months are fitting great in the stride
-5-6 oz. Enfamil Prosobee every 3 hours with sporadic 1-2 oz feedings in between lately
-Sleep Schedule: random naps throughout the day even though we try hard to get him to sleep on a schedule.  Aiden hates sleep and will do anything to stay awake.  He does sleep from at least 9pm-6am
-He coos and smiles alot and is very vocal.  If he doesn't like something you know immediately.  He also pokes his lip out before he starts to cry.  It is the cutest thing ever.  He loves music and books but he's not really into toys.  Baby Einstein is amazing to him (really t.v. in general). He hates tummy time but love to sit in the bumbo.  He has really discovered his hands and doesn't really want to suck on his thumb but instead tries to shove the whole fist in the mouth.  I think he is trying to learn to roll because when he wake ups in the morning, he is completely sideways.  Aiden can really move his head and find you in a room.  Everyday is a new adventure!

                                      I had to throw this one in there.  Hands in the mouth!!