On Thursday afternoon I noticed that my body started to ache really bad. I felt like I had a really bad fever but my temp kept coming back as normal. I left work early and went back to the doctor (I should just call that place my 2nd home) and there weren't enough symptoms for the doctor to diagnose anything. I was really frustrated because it obviously wasn't a virus since I had nothing else wrong with me but I just ached so bad! Well, turns out one of the side effects of my antibiotics for my UTI is muscle pains (and may I say 'not very common side effect'). That explains it! So I've been popping the Tylenol for a couple days now and praying that I never have to use this antibiotic ever again!
Since I'm in constant pain all over all the time I haven't been sleeping well. When your entire body hurts like that you tend to be temperature sensitive, cold one minute and then sweating the next. On top of that I've been putting Josiah in our bed when he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. so that he sleeps longer, and therefore I sleep longer, but he takes up so much room that I'm literally hanging on to the edge of the bed. So looks like no sleep for mama.
I'm also seriously "on the edge of hurting you" Lady Gaga because your new song has been running through my head all week and I can't fall asleep! It's been rough going.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
UTI
I'm not usually one for sharing too much personal information, but this was probably the most interesting thing that happened to me all week so I thought I'd share.
Last night I woke up and felt a little crampy in my gut, you ladies know what I mean. I haven't had my monthly visitor for a year and a half now because of 1. being pregnant and 2. breastfeeding (thank you Jesus for that wonderful break!) but my midwife told me most mothers get it back after 6 months. So for the past month and a half I've been waiting and waiting for it to come. Well, last night I got up to go the bathroom and saw blood all over and assumed that my monthly visitor had returned. I was so excited that I even woke Andrew up and told him because lately I've been very emotional and I thought Andrew would want to know that it was the PMS. Boy was I wrong! I woke up this morning and there was so much blood and burning (making me realize that this was not really my monthly visitor) and instead was a urinary tract infection. I went into Urgent Care and the lab tech couldn't even test my "sample" because it was pure blood (not so cool!). They assumed that it was just a UTI and put me on antibiotics. The nice thing is that after that first dose, I no longer had any issues! I'm so glad it wasn't anything more serious!
Last night I woke up and felt a little crampy in my gut, you ladies know what I mean. I haven't had my monthly visitor for a year and a half now because of 1. being pregnant and 2. breastfeeding (thank you Jesus for that wonderful break!) but my midwife told me most mothers get it back after 6 months. So for the past month and a half I've been waiting and waiting for it to come. Well, last night I got up to go the bathroom and saw blood all over and assumed that my monthly visitor had returned. I was so excited that I even woke Andrew up and told him because lately I've been very emotional and I thought Andrew would want to know that it was the PMS. Boy was I wrong! I woke up this morning and there was so much blood and burning (making me realize that this was not really my monthly visitor) and instead was a urinary tract infection. I went into Urgent Care and the lab tech couldn't even test my "sample" because it was pure blood (not so cool!). They assumed that it was just a UTI and put me on antibiotics. The nice thing is that after that first dose, I no longer had any issues! I'm so glad it wasn't anything more serious!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Major Update
We've been living in our apartment for almost 4 weeks now and I am still not unpacked. I've got living room decor covering our couches and boxes sitting all over the floor, tubs of unpacked items sitting in our entry way, a coffee table with no place to go, and our storage room is a complete mess. I honestly do not know when I will find time to put everything away, which explains why I have been so stressed in trying to make this place actually feel like home. I also have not deep cleaned anything since we moved in! However, in these circumstances you have to just make do. Working a full time job, having a husband who currently works 60 hour weeks and a 7 1/2 month old boy means you just have to do what you can to get by!
On that note of Josiah, he has been sleeping through the night! Wahoo! Well, lets not celebrate too much...we may have had 3 successful nights of him sleeping all night long, but he likes to wake up at 5:30 a.m. again and last night was an awful night! The poor little guy is on his 4th infection this year! This particular infection is on it's 2nd round of antibiotics, which means he's been fighting off this infection for about 3 weeks now. We've tried EVERYTHING! Going to the chiropractor, using breast milk drops, using garlic oil drops, cutting out dairy and nothing works with this child! Our Memorial day wasn't so "Memorial" it was more like "Memori[ILL]al" (if that even makes sense) because we made a trip to the ER. Josiah had pink eye in both eyes, a throat infection, and an ear infection. This poor child!!! Unfortunately if he gets a couple more ear infections, or if he still has this same one when we go back to the doctor in 2 weeks, then he will have to get tubes. In some ways I am all for getting tubes because I know it will really help him (especially from having to take all of these antibiotics!) but I am a little nervous. We will just pray that this is the final infection and God will heal his little ears!
With everything that's been going on lately I've been going through some depression. Now that it's summer Andrew is working around 60 hours a week, which means I spend my evenings home alone with Josiah. It's a struggle to find time to relax after working a full day at day care, coming home and getting Josiah fed, bathed and put to bed plus getting myself dinner. No wonder I don't have time to unpack or clean! It's been hard but we are praying about some sort of job change that would allow me to stay home more with Josiah but still provide for us financially. Now...I know what you may be thinking (how many times has this lady changed jobs???!!!) and I completely agree. My hope isn't to quit where I am at, but instead to go down to part time (along with Josiah being at day care part time) and to clean houses in the afternoons. It pays really good plus I would be able to bring Josiah along with me! I could also have a flexible schedule so I could stay home 2-3 afternoons a week with Josiah. That sounds AWESOME to me! We are going to take some time to pray about this for a few weeks and see what we think God is calling me to do, but it would be so nice to get Josiah out of day care a little more. Maybe that would keep away the ear infections!!
On that note of Josiah, he has been sleeping through the night! Wahoo! Well, lets not celebrate too much...we may have had 3 successful nights of him sleeping all night long, but he likes to wake up at 5:30 a.m. again and last night was an awful night! The poor little guy is on his 4th infection this year! This particular infection is on it's 2nd round of antibiotics, which means he's been fighting off this infection for about 3 weeks now. We've tried EVERYTHING! Going to the chiropractor, using breast milk drops, using garlic oil drops, cutting out dairy and nothing works with this child! Our Memorial day wasn't so "Memorial" it was more like "Memori[ILL]al" (if that even makes sense) because we made a trip to the ER. Josiah had pink eye in both eyes, a throat infection, and an ear infection. This poor child!!! Unfortunately if he gets a couple more ear infections, or if he still has this same one when we go back to the doctor in 2 weeks, then he will have to get tubes. In some ways I am all for getting tubes because I know it will really help him (especially from having to take all of these antibiotics!) but I am a little nervous. We will just pray that this is the final infection and God will heal his little ears!
With everything that's been going on lately I've been going through some depression. Now that it's summer Andrew is working around 60 hours a week, which means I spend my evenings home alone with Josiah. It's a struggle to find time to relax after working a full day at day care, coming home and getting Josiah fed, bathed and put to bed plus getting myself dinner. No wonder I don't have time to unpack or clean! It's been hard but we are praying about some sort of job change that would allow me to stay home more with Josiah but still provide for us financially. Now...I know what you may be thinking (how many times has this lady changed jobs???!!!) and I completely agree. My hope isn't to quit where I am at, but instead to go down to part time (along with Josiah being at day care part time) and to clean houses in the afternoons. It pays really good plus I would be able to bring Josiah along with me! I could also have a flexible schedule so I could stay home 2-3 afternoons a week with Josiah. That sounds AWESOME to me! We are going to take some time to pray about this for a few weeks and see what we think God is calling me to do, but it would be so nice to get Josiah out of day care a little more. Maybe that would keep away the ear infections!!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Big Move
The past couple of weeks have been incredibly stressful. We managed to pack up our entire house, move half of it into a storage unit, move the other half into our apartment, and finish cleaning out our house so that we could close on Friday. It's hard to say goodbye to such a nice house and go back to renting, but I have to keep reminding myself that this REALLY is for the best. We are saving around $400 on a house payment and lots more on gas. The next step is to pay off another large sum of my student loans and see where that leaves us financially. All in all, we are making good progress on eliminating our debt! Wahoo!
I took a few days off of work to get settled into our new place and I'm already feeling like we are at home. I thought the transition would be much harder, but I'm actually enjoying rearranging and organizing. Most of our apartment has been updated but there are some parts that are "still in progress" and will be under construction throughout the next year. For instance, we have some crummy hard wood floor in our bedroom and it won't be carpeted until Christmas break so we had to lay a bunch of rugs all over. There is also lots of trim work to do, especially in Josiah's room. He will hopefully be crawling in the next couple of months and the last thing I want is him digging into the pealing paint chips and enjoying a not so good snack.
On that note, Josiah has not transitioned very well. He hasn't been sleeping well and since I've been stressed and fighting an upper respiratory/sinus infection for about 2 weeks now my milk supply has decreased a lot. That makes for a very hungry boy in the middle of the night too. We are all adjusting to these changes and I continue to pray for some relief from all of these sleeping/eating issues with Josiah. Everyone keeps telling me that around 9 months things will really smooth out, so Lord please make these next 2 months go fast!!!
I took a few days off of work to get settled into our new place and I'm already feeling like we are at home. I thought the transition would be much harder, but I'm actually enjoying rearranging and organizing. Most of our apartment has been updated but there are some parts that are "still in progress" and will be under construction throughout the next year. For instance, we have some crummy hard wood floor in our bedroom and it won't be carpeted until Christmas break so we had to lay a bunch of rugs all over. There is also lots of trim work to do, especially in Josiah's room. He will hopefully be crawling in the next couple of months and the last thing I want is him digging into the pealing paint chips and enjoying a not so good snack.
On that note, Josiah has not transitioned very well. He hasn't been sleeping well and since I've been stressed and fighting an upper respiratory/sinus infection for about 2 weeks now my milk supply has decreased a lot. That makes for a very hungry boy in the middle of the night too. We are all adjusting to these changes and I continue to pray for some relief from all of these sleeping/eating issues with Josiah. Everyone keeps telling me that around 9 months things will really smooth out, so Lord please make these next 2 months go fast!!!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Oh the Sweet Sweet Sounds...
...of Father and Son at play! Josiah has started giggling, and although he doesn't do it often it is still one of the cutest sounds in the world! I have tried to make him laugh and have been rather unsuccessful. That must be daddy's special gift!
Josiah has also started teething (no teeth have popped through yet!) and so everything is going in the mouth and I find drool all over the place! He also continues to suffer from horrible reflux. The Zantac helps with reflux pain but it definitely doesn't help keep everything in. There are days where he will go through 4-5 outfits and I have done more laundry than EVER!
Josiah also LOVES to eat! Show him the bottle and he starts to whine...show him a spoon and he starts to cry! Seriously! I have had some success at making my own baby food, but also some epic failures, sometimes multiple epic failures in one night while Josiah is bawling in his high chair waiting for me to serve him something. I've officially stocked up on some organic jars of baby food for occasions like that. He absolutely loves sweet potatoes, squash, and bananas. Surprisingly, he doesn't really care for apples. He used to love green beans and peas but not so much anymore.
Lastly, Josiah is starting to improve his sleeping habits. He is most definitely a tummy sleeper and still needs his paci when he goes down to sleep. Napping at daycare still isn't very good, but when he's home I can usually get him take 3-4 naps. He is only eating once per night and has been sleeping 10-11 hours a night. We were having an issue where he would wake up at 5:45 a.m. on the dot every morning and that was NOT happening for me! My alarm goes off at 6 a.m. and I am not a happy camper if I have to wake up before my alarm. After a few days of crying it out he eventually learned that 6:30 or 7 a.m. is a much more appropriate time to get up in the Potratz household!
Friday, May 6, 2011
From The Desk of Sir Andrew
My lovely husband has been asking me for a pick-up truck ever since we got married. He’d always lay out a list of reasons why we needed one and I would always shoot him down. After almost 4 years of turning him down, I finally gave in and have allowed my husband to purchase a pick-up truck. It wasn’t until I saw this [well thought out] proposal sitting on the kitchen table that I finally agreed:
FROM THE DESK OF SIR ANDREW
Proposal to Allison, most esteemed and lovely wife:
On the matter of the machine known as a “pick-up truck,”
Thine humble, handsome, husband makes the following proposition:
That thy humble, handsome husband may look for a “pick-up truck” which shall:
a) not exceed 3500-4000 dollars
b) be an automatic, and therefore drivable by the esteemed and lovely wife
c) be four-wheel-drive
d) have the ability to haul a trailer without the addition of any parts to said “pick-up truck”
The following conditions will be accepted by thy humble, handsome husband:
a) should the financial need arise, thy husband shall willing part with said “pick-up truck” or “jetta buddy” depending upon need, condition, and value of said machines
b) thy humble, handsome husband shall surrender all Christmas and birthday money for the following year back to the savings from which the truck was paid for
c) thy humble, handsome husband shall not purchase any said “pick-up truck” that the esteemed and lovely wife has not driven, or passed on the opportunity to drive first
d) thy humble, handsome husband shall not purchase any said “pick-up truck” until he FOR SURE has a place to roast coffee
e) thy humble, handsome husband shall continue to love the most esteemed and lovely wife more than any “pick-up truck” regardless of how “cool” said machine might be.
It was so good, I immediately gave my permission and even removed some of the “conditions” that my humble and handsome husband thought of. It only took 3 days for him to find a truck that he wanted and starting next week we will be official owners of a pick-up truck.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Finally Feel Like Living
One of my favorite music artists is Elizabeth Hunnicutt. I saw her open for The David Crowder Band once and I immediately fell in love with her music. She takes such awe inspiring poetry and puts it to music. One song that really hit home for me was her song "Finally Feel Like Living."
As I look over my life, I can say I have TONS of regrets, and maybe that's how it is for lots of people, but I especially find myself thinking about these regrets on a daily basis. I made so many awful mistakes and decisions when growing up and now they come back to haunt me. I've prayed over and over again that God would help me to forgive myself and forget about what I've done, just like He's done for me, but the enemy still creeps in and brings back the feelings of guilt and shame. But one thing I am starting to learn is that I am totally wasting away when I spend so much time worrying about my past. The other day I heard myself saying to someone "I wasted so much time focusing on other things when I was younger, that it really kept me from growing my faith. I mean...look at my faith now! I could have such a deeper relationship with Christ NOW if I hadn't wasted my time back then!" My husband is a marvelous man and he said to me, "If you are having those thoughts and feelings, then they are from the enemy! You know the Truth of the Cross, and it has washed away the shame, regret, fear, and sin from your past." And then to have him pray over me was just breathtaking. Embraced in not only the love of a wonderful husband, but also of Jesus my Savior!
Elizabeth Hunnicutt
Finally Feel Like Living
I heard somebody say,
"The worst decision you can make
is to make no decision"
& I think they may be right,
I'm still trying to decide
Oh this feels like a collision
Cause what if I regret some choice along the way
What if failure finally catches me
If I want to fly
I'm gonna have to say goodbye
& start a brand new way of life
That finally feels like living
& I've got to to try
Stop holding on to all these lies
I'm tired of wasting all this time
I finally feel like living
I could wait until I know
just what to do & where to go
But I might be here forever
I could surrender to my fears,
like I've done for all these years
& never know if it gets better
There's a chance that I might miss these old familiar walls
& these chains I couldn't even see
Oh I thought I was
But I wasn't living
I'm stepping out
Into a new beginning
As I look over my life, I can say I have TONS of regrets, and maybe that's how it is for lots of people, but I especially find myself thinking about these regrets on a daily basis. I made so many awful mistakes and decisions when growing up and now they come back to haunt me. I've prayed over and over again that God would help me to forgive myself and forget about what I've done, just like He's done for me, but the enemy still creeps in and brings back the feelings of guilt and shame. But one thing I am starting to learn is that I am totally wasting away when I spend so much time worrying about my past. The other day I heard myself saying to someone "I wasted so much time focusing on other things when I was younger, that it really kept me from growing my faith. I mean...look at my faith now! I could have such a deeper relationship with Christ NOW if I hadn't wasted my time back then!" My husband is a marvelous man and he said to me, "If you are having those thoughts and feelings, then they are from the enemy! You know the Truth of the Cross, and it has washed away the shame, regret, fear, and sin from your past." And then to have him pray over me was just breathtaking. Embraced in not only the love of a wonderful husband, but also of Jesus my Savior!
Elizabeth Hunnicutt
Finally Feel Like Living
I heard somebody say,
"The worst decision you can make
is to make no decision"
& I think they may be right,
I'm still trying to decide
Oh this feels like a collision
Cause what if I regret some choice along the way
What if failure finally catches me
If I want to fly
I'm gonna have to say goodbye
& start a brand new way of life
That finally feels like living
& I've got to to try
Stop holding on to all these lies
I'm tired of wasting all this time
I finally feel like living
I could wait until I know
just what to do & where to go
But I might be here forever
I could surrender to my fears,
like I've done for all these years
& never know if it gets better
There's a chance that I might miss these old familiar walls
& these chains I couldn't even see
Oh I thought I was
But I wasn't living
I'm stepping out
Into a new beginning
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