Finally, it's over....

Well some of you know we have had one heck of a time trying to get our little man circumcised. I never felt either way about it, but hubby wanted it done so before birth we decided to get it done. Now, in retrospect, WHY didn't we tell people immediately? I don't know. You can bet your bottom we will be doing so next time.

At the hospital, we were told that my OBGYN could do it, well, that didn't happen. No idea where communication broke down but she never did it, we were told by an administrator that our insurance wouldn't cover it at the hospital (which we later discovered it would have).

While seeing Andrew's pediatrician we were given a list of doctors that could do the procedure. We spent 3 months searching but couldn't find anywhere that would do it.

Finally, at Andrew's 6 month appointment we learned he had Phimosis. This meant that our insurance would cover the procedure at a urologist the pediatrician referred us to. Later that month we met the doctor, talked everything out and set a date.

At the end of August we went in but #1 we had the wrong location so we were 30 minutes late. #2 we misunderstood their instructions so Andrew had eaten too recently. They sent us home and rescheduled for a month later.

SO long story's end... we went in yesterday and got the whole thing over with finally, and man. Little dude is a trooper.

Diaper bag, breakfast, etc packed and ready to go

Time to get going!

Little man is very confused why he is up before it's light out and why there is not a bottle in his mouth.

Needed a Pumpkin Spice Latte to start the day....

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All Children's Hospital

Playing with daddy in the waiting room

Still so sleepy... 1.5 hours without a bottle after waking up

He loooooved the bars. Even more than his toys lol

Pre-op room

In his little gown

Paperwork

See what I mean about those bars???

Kisses from mommy

Bottle after waking up

He was very cuddly

Waiting at the pharmacy

Kid is on hydrocodone. He gets very smiley and giggly after a dose lol

We thought he deserved a maple biscuit after the day he had haha

Playing after a pain med dose

He seriously did SO good. It was about 3 hours of no bottle after being woken up early, and similarly 3 hours of no naps before he got wheeled in to the OR. He had caudal anesthesia (which is basically like a baby epidural that allows the bottom half to be numb longer (making the ride home easier) and is easier to wake up from). 

I will admit to tearing up when they wheeled him away, it sucks that you have to let them go on their own for scarier things like that. We were to wait in a consultation room for the 45 minute procedure, the Doctor came in and said everything went perfectly. We then got a beeper and were sent to a family waiting room for about 30 minutes.

We then were led to the recovery room. Baby was still pretty lethargic until he finished his 2 ounces of Glucose Water and then he let us know he was awake and hungry lol! The nurses said he was very good and calm and of course he was flirting with them all.

We were able to dress him right away and give him a bottle and some pain meds. After 30 minutes of making sure he had no reaction to the hydrocodone we were sent down to the pharmacy for the rest of his prescription. 15 minutes later we were in the car on the way home.

All the nurses were very nice, helpful, patient and kind. The doctors were fantastic and the atmosphere was great. The parking meters were part of parkmobile so we could extend our parking limit on our phones from the waiting rooms, and it really was a very quick process! All in all, I'm very pleased with how it went and even happier it is over!!

After coming home, he napped for a few hours and woke up in a lot of pain, so we quickly gave him another dose with lunch and he did great with it - no nausea, yay! He had one more dose before bed and the rest of the time was very content to roll around on the floor all evening.

Well, I have been awake for almost 24 hours now so I think it's about time for bed. Since Andrew gets a pain med dose every 4 hours I am sure the morning (after 12 hours of sleep with no pain meds) will be pretty....um...fun. For all of us lol

TTFN! <3

Lastly, check out Ebates.com, I recently ordered diapers through them (from Target) and made money back! They are also doing a fall sale at the moment so you can get a higher percentage back-- totally worth it, all you do is enter your email and I've maybe gotten 2 emails from them period. It's a pretty sweet deal :)

Mama, daddy and baby date day... and the first ballet class in 3 years.

So we have been thinking about this date day for months. I kid you not, MONTHS. 

I read so many articles encouraging mothers to venture out to the movie theater with newborns but I just could not bring myself to do it. I know as a single woman I always loved kids and babies but it would annoy me if there were crying babies around with parents not really interested in being considerate to others. I am the kind of mom that I will let my plans get delayed if it means others don't have to be subjected to our kid's screams. SO it took me finding a kids movie, 2 months after it opened, at 10:35am on a Tuesday morning to agree to take Andrew. There was one other person (older man) but otherwise the theater was empty. Andrew did great! He watched about 2/3 of it, and slept for awhile in the middle.

Afterwards we window shopped through the entire mall (it is humongous). We found good places to shop for Andrew for Christmas, I became bent on visiting a Bath and Body works soon, and we also found an awesome tea shop where we want to purchase some tea, beet sugar and a set. Yup, we're turning into those kind of people ;-P

Sunday we relaxed and went to the beach with friends.

Here are some pictures of our week so far :)

Napping in his tent

Reading with Daddy

Loving being messy!

Sunset Beach

...at Sunset

Tuesday (the big date day) we went to Citrus Park to see a movie and window shop

He's getting SO BIG

Ready for the movie!

Intently watching the movie while gulping down a bottle

Making a "kissy" face

First time the little man has fallen asleep on me in a long time.

No pictures from ballet class but it was really fun! We went early, chatted with some of the dance moms, met the teacher, talked about how there will be a live screening of Carlos Acosta in Royal Ballet's Don Q here in TAMPA (!!!!!), and chatted a bit with the other dancers. Our friend never showed up but most of the other dancers were very nice and welcoming. The teacher reminds me of a teacher I had as a kid, Lydia - she was a lot of fun.

 By about the 4th combination I was drenched "glistening" with sweat, it's such a good workout! I was a little bummed that I didn't get any corrections, but afterwards the teacher told me about the Intermediate/ Advanced class days so I think that maybe means I did okay haha. I definitely want to stick in the beginning class for a while though, it's good to go back to the basics especially after not taking a class in three years. Also, I'm out of shape and semi un-flexy for the moment. I do, however, kind of want to try to go every week rather than once every other week.... we'll see if that happens.

Will have another update blog later this week about our very big/long/trying day that tomorrow will be.

TTFN! <3

New things I'm loving~

The last 39 hours have been c-r-a-z-y. Seriously. I picked up a transcription job for the evening and wasn't feeling it even before I started. I had been tired all day so I decided to drink a "Natural" energy drink. Bad idea. I mean it was delicious and really genuinely woke me up but what I did not anticipate was how proactive I would want to be. I ended up contacting several companies about affiliation and found a few new sites but took me a few hours to settle enough to really delve into the tape.

7am rolls around and I am finally done, my eyes starting to feel like they are coated in velvet they are so tired. Well, I laid down just past 7, slept for around 30 minutes, woke up around 8 to Andrew fussing, fell asleep again after hubby got home for about 20 minutes and then Andrew was up for the day. And I swear I tried to nap when he did but I think I was past the point of exhaustion -- you know that feeling? When you are so tired you can't fall asleep? Yeah it sucks. So here we are 39 since my last decent sleep and I am somehow still going. 

This evening we even got our crap together, and went shopping! We hit up Michaels (Pssst they have a great sale on this week! AND I got three glitter pumpkins half off plus a candle half off (they have 3 large candles for $10) and spent less than $10!) Seriously if there are any other autumn obsessed persons out there, CHECK THIS OUT. It is like my crack. I have more coupons from this last visit burning a hole in my purse :-S

Stopped by our beloved Whole Foods Market for some broccoli/ spinach to make baby food, plus some other essentials to get us through the week. I am determined to try some Autumn- inspired beer there next week!

We definitely stopped by the liquor store for some Vodka beer for the beach this weekend... sure felt classy holding a 1.75 in one hand and my eight month old in the other. Hey we're from Minnesota, we got this. ;-P

And of course what trip is complete without Target? Earlier today I decided to use this awesome website Ebates to look into buying some diapers for the little man... turns out they were on sale! So I used my RedCard (I highly recommend-- even if it's just the debit card like ours is... I shudder to think how in debt we would be if we had credit there) and got an additional 5% off PLUS free shipping. AND I got some cash back through Ebates as well. Score, score, double score.

Also, have you heard about the Cartwheel thing at Target? I just was introduced to it today so I don't know much about it but it looks interesting. Check it out and see what you think!

Zulily - I have heard of and seen this before but never cared enough to get through the initial "sign-up" at the beginning but oh. my. goodness. They have such cute stuff! I am going to be styling the little man like a total prep and they had the cutest three piece set (Jeans, button up and puffy vest) for less than $20!

Okay and last but not least, I am very, VERY excited to say I am advertising Amazon.com! You will probably have noticed the extra ads around for them... haha. But seriously. I shop on Amazon probably once a week at the least. It is a strange week that goes by without me at least putting something in my cart and then occasionally talking myself out of it. We have been very slowly collecting all the seasons of FRIENDS (just ordered Season 9 of 10 this week) and we literally have it budgeted into  our 'Entertainment' fund.

SO....

Shop at Amazon.com!

:)

P.s. for those of you with Netflix, try a free trial of Amazon Prime! I used to looooove Netflix but started getting annoyed with it and then they raised the prices.... Prime is one lump payment per year but cheaper than Netflix if you use it a decent amount. I really loved it and hope to get it again one of these days when we have some extra moolah laying around :)

ALSO.... Halloween is just around the corner!! I am beyond words excited!!! Last year we had a few trick-or-treaters and WAY too much candy (we split the candy up into sandwich bags and smuggled it into the movie theater hehe). This year since I am not pregnant I am wondering about dressing up.... don't know what to do/ be but it'd be fun to go out with the hubby that weekend too-- the first year we were together on Halloween he wasn't 21 yet so we didn't get to do much. The second year we went and had a blast, third year we went on the wrong day and it was booooring and last year we stayed in due to the uncomfortable preggo lady.

Andrew will be....*drumroll please* a MONKEY! I am sooooo excited to see his little face in that suit. Don't worry you will get ridiculous amounts of pictures plastered all over here and FB :)

Alright well that's it for now I think. I'm going to go attempt to pass out for a few hours. Happy weekend!

OH and p.s. if you are on facebook, you should go "like" my page... :)

TTFN <3

Andrew's first playdate!

Well we did it! And it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, haha!

The majority of kids were around 13 months so Andrew was a bit young (not the youngest) but he still seemed to enjoy it! He stood with the help of a prop, played with some toys, rode (and was pushed around in) a little fire truck, swang/ giggled as he flew through the air, lounged in the ball pit and had a blast in a bouncer!

Here are some photos:

Our weekend in pictures!

We had a fairly busy weekend! Jesse had to work so on Saturday, my mother and I decided to go shopping!

We hit up Target (where I snagged my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season), Old Navy, Michael's and Macy's.

I got two tops at Old Navy... this and

Please ignore the messy bathroom haha

I got a coupon the last time we shopped there so even though my purchase was over $30, I spent less than $20- yay! The tops are super cozy and they actually have jeans long enough for my legs (I have a 36 inch inseam)!

Got a few more decor items at Michaels... they have 50% off autumn garlands, muahaha. Got some yummy smelling candles too!

That being said, immediately upon returning home (before hubby woke up) I went-a decorating! I think we're done until October when the Halloween stuff comes out- yay! Halloween is my favorite holiday EVER!

Coffee Table

Andrew's Room

Our bedroom door

Dining table

Our little ledge

The one little window in the living room

Half wall

Halloween lights

Pumpkin Spice, Apple Cider and Autumn Walk candles-- YUM

Our "Mantle"

Macy's is having an awesome 40% off sale PLUS 25% off most baby items. I got two adorable outfits for Andrew as Christmas presents and my mom got him a whole bunch of onesies.

We left the house at 9:45am, got back home at about 3pm. Andrew had maybe slept about 30 minutes total and was two hours overdue for a bottle. But the whole time we were out he made one fussy noise that lasted about a second. He is an amazing little man and we are soooo lucky it's ridiculous!

The rest of the evening we just were couch potatoes. Andrew has officially conquered the getting-the-pacifier-back-into-his-mouth thing. So much so I had to take his paci out of his crib cuz he just automatically reaches for it.

Sorry it is sideways :-S

Sunday morning was rough for the little guy but we managed to cuddle a bunch, he calmed down long enough to watch America's Next Top Model with me (haha) and while he was fussing playing in his walker, I created a play area. You know how TeePees are all the rage for kids right now? Well we don't have much space, but I noticed we had left the swing up in the corner (Andrew doesn't like it too much anymore and anyways probably already is too heavy for it) and thought "hmmmmm". I used some packaging tape, a cozy blanket from Target, a few extra blankets for padding and the base of the swing. Voila! 

He likes it!!! :-D

Later that day we woke daddy up so we could go to the ZOO!!!

And then after arriving home I totally failed at making pizza rolls. I used a dough mix I've never used before which was wayyyyy too liquidy to roll up and then I put toppings on right away rather than baking the crust first. We ended up having pancakes and eating the toppings off the pizza haha....

Now the weekend transcription is done, the house is clean....ish and it is time for a few Zs before the little man wakes me up.

TTFN! <3