Exzema, GO AWAY!

After my allergic reaction last week to what I assume is coconut oil, Micah has definitely gotten worse in the eczema and sleeping department.

I got him to bed last night around 10 and we were up again at 1.  I went in and fed him and got him back to sleep. After rocking him for 5-10 minutes, I laid him down and he woke right up! Ugh!

I picked him up and rocked him for another ten minutes or so and laid him down again. Again, he woke up.  For the third time, I rocked him. This time when I laid him down, he actually stayed asleep, so I snuck back to my bedroom and went to bed.  Not even five minutes later, he was up again!!

I went back in there and noticed he was trying to scratch the back of his head on his sheet, so I reached over and scratched his head for him. He immediately stopped crying!! I scratched his head for awhile and even his tummy incase that hurt too. After awhile, he just started crying, so I picked him up and rocked him yet again.

I could tell he wanted to nurse, but I felt there was no reason to eat. It was almost 3 am by this point and I had just fed him around 1. (Honestly, he probably doesn't need to eat at all during the night!)  I was just fighting him, and finally I laid him back in his bed while he was still screaming at me and went back to my room. Sometimes you just have to put the baby down and let them cry!

When I went back to my room, I kind of yelled at Matt because I was just tired!! I had been working with Micah for two hours and he was still NOT back to sleep. He told me to chill out and he went in there. I shut the bedroom door, so I couldn't hear anything. Apparently Matt picked him up and they went to the basement to watch YouTube videos.

Around 4:30, I woke up and noticed that Matt was not back upstairs and the bedroom door was still shut. I got up and looked in Micah's room. Micah was sound asleep in his bouncy seat!! I then went downstairs because there was a light on in the living room. I eventually found Matt in the basement and he said he was wide awake, so he was just working on some thing in the basement.  I went back to bed and he came back to bed fifteen minutes later.

We were up from 1 am to about 4:45 am this morning, we had some catnaps in between, but neither one of us got much sleep during this time.

Around 7:30 am, I heard Micah again and noticed that nobody else was up yet. I went and got him and took him downstairs to feed him.  After I fed him, he immediately went back to sleep and I kind of dozed off myself.

About 8:30, the phone rang for Matt, so I had to get up and get it. In the meantime, I woke Micah up because he was sleeping on my lap.  After the phone call, I went and got the kids up. If we were going to make it to church on time, we needed to get going. Matt was still asleep!

After the kids made their way downstars, Matt came down too. We were soooo tired! I was weak and didn't feel like doing anything. Matt didn't look so good himself.  The girls, though, were well rested and were ready to go to church. Matt looked at me with the,"Why don't we just stay home and sleep" look, but I really thought we should go to church. I don't want to teach the girls that if you are tired, you can skip church. Everybody got ready and we were out the door only five minutes late!

As the day went on, I noticed Micah's exzema getting worse. He actually cried at us for an hour tonight, which he hasn't done in a long time! He has not been taking very good naps during the day, so he is overtired again. I am also sure that if his skin is looking worse, then his stomach probably hurts more too. I found some 100% Vaseline today, so I covered him in that before I put him to bed tonight. Hopefully we will get more than a three hour stretch tonight! We also put a radio in his room, so he has some background music. This always helped him before.

More Skin Troubles!

Along with Megan's eczema and hives and Micah's eczema, I am now having skin problems!! As my doctor said, we cannot catch a break!

I was up early this morning with Micah (5 am) and had fallen back asleep when he did about 7. I slept on and off until about 8:30 when I got the big kids up.

We ate breakfast, which was nothing out of the ordinary. I sat back down to nurse Micah as the bigger kids got dressed and then my hands started tingling. I could feel this tingling moving up both arms! Along with the tingling, my arms were getting very warm. Something was going on!

I sent Courtney downstairs to get Matt. I was pretty sure this was an allergic reaction to something and I didn't want to stop breathing without somebody knowing it!

By the time Matt got upstairs, I was starting to break out in a rash. Within about ten minutes, both of my arms were a little swollen and were covered in a rash! What in the world??

I sent Matt to Baker's to get some Benadryl and I called our doctor. She picked up the phone, which was great! I explained to her what had happened and that the rash actually stopped where my shirt sleeves began. This made her believe it was a contact allergy and then she asked what I had been using a lot of lately. I told her coconut oil. I had been covering Micah in coconut oil every time I changed his diaper. She and I both thought this would help heal his eczema (honestly, I don't think it was doing any good.) She thinks that I was having a reaction to coconut oil! Whenever I am done smearing it on him, I usually rub the excess on my arm and moisten my own skin. :) 

She told me to take some Benadryl and take a shower and wash it all off. She also mentioned to wash any blankets, towels, or clothes that would have coconut oil on them.  I did exactly as she said! I also gave Micah a bath and washed his skin.

Within about 90 minutes, the rash was gone.

I may go in and talk to her anyway this afternoon. She said that coconut oil is becoming an allergen because people are overdoing it. I know we use it to bake A LOT!

She said that people often get a contact reaction along with some other stress factors, such as lack of sleep. I kind of laughed! I don't get much sleep at all! I honestly feel like I run on fumes all day! I have to take care of Micah, keep up on the house, clean the house yet from the garage sale, and get everything ready for Christian's birthday party and Micah's dedication next weekend.  Plus my thyroid is low, which doesn't help any!! I know I could probably get more sleep if Micah got more sleep. I think the key to Micah getting more sleep is to figure out what his causing his eczema. This may be what we talk about this afternoon! If we figure out Micah's problem, then we could probably figure out Megan's problem!

No Pictures for Awhile. :(

I have just recently really started using the camera on my phone a lot! I still use our real camera, but for items I want to use right away, I just take a picture on my camera. Since it automatically uploads to the skydrive, I can pull them up on my computer right away. How convenient! Otherwise, I have to ask Matt how to download the pictures from the camera and honestly, he doesn't always want to help me.

On Wednesday, I was getting out of the van and forgot my camera was on my lap. I heard something fall on the cement and  something go "crack!" The glass that covers the camera lens broke and now my pictures are fuzzy. I am very thankful my screen did not crack!

So now I can't take pictures as well as I could before! I am sooo bummed!

But the good side of this is that Matt knows my history of dropping phones and breaking screens, so he bought insurance. I called the insurance company today and filed a claim. They said it would be $100 deductible and I could get a whole new phone. Matt thought this was a little expensive after paying $8 a month for the last year! I think I paid $50 for my phone to start with last year when I got it!

This is only one option. Another option would be to get the glass fixed and it may cost me less than $100. I also asked Matt when his contract was up. Maybe he could get me a new phone (or he could gets a new one and give me his old one) with a new contract and we could just start over.

I think I need to make a few phone calls tomorrow and see which option would be best! But until then, I can only take fuzzy pictures.

Birthday Party?

Today we had a birthday party for our house and it wasn't for one of my children, well, sort of. It was for "Lyla," Courtney's twin sister. Megan, Christian, Micah, and I were all called down to the basement about 4 pm this afternoon and given positions. We were supposed to stand there and yell surprise when "Lyla" came down the stairs.

When she came down, we all yelled surprise and then we had to help "Lyla" celebrate her 10th birthday. (Courtney had been talking about this party all day and hauling various things downstairs, but I didn't really know what she was doing. Her plans are usually harmless, so I just let her do it without asking many questions.)

Courtney had the radio downstairs, so there was dancing and music. She took a pitcher full of water and my real glass glasses down there, so there were drinks. Notice the white bowl with fruit in it in the picture, we had to have snacks!  Apparently "Lyla" also likes airplanes, so one activity was to make a paper airplane. There was some painting that happened. I left the party early, so I didn't get to partake in that fun.

Celebrating Lyla turning 10!

Oh and if you were wondering, Courtney was at her friend Halle's house all afternoon.  I went into the living room at one point, and Courtney (the real one) was standing outside the front door with her basketball clothes on, apparently she was just coming back from Halle's house.

I just shake my head sometimes at the things this child comes up with....

Garage Sale Days 2 and 3- Success!

I declare our garage sale done and very successful. In the end, we made about $300! I think about $120 belongs to our girls. They are quite the entrepreneurs! In addition to selling their old toys, their perler bead creations and rice krispy bars were a huge hit! Who knew!! Both of these were kind of last minute thoughts, but many people bought them!  The girls made some of the perler beads into necklaces for little girls, one lady bought them as prizes for her math students, and another couple bought five of them to use as coasters!  They also sold 16 rice krispie bars. We started with 21 and had five left at the end of the day. Even though they were begging the whole time to eat one, we said they had to wait until the sale was over. They sold quite a bit of their old play jewelry. There is still some left, but not near as much as when we started!

Matt also ended up selling a couple old laptops, a mower he fixed recently, a trimmer, and an edger, along with the inner tube we used behind the jetski. This turned out to be a significant amount of money AND more space in the garage. (I don't know what is more important to Matt- money or space in the garage?)

I am pleased with the garage sale overall.  I probably had fifty pairs of shoes out and we maybe sold ten. I wish some more of them would have sold. I also wish the dress up dresses would have sold. I wonder if I had them priced too high. Many people looked at them, but nobody bought them. 

I also had a whole container of candles that I put out. Sorry, whoever gave me candles. I don't mind them here and there, but honestly, I am not a candle person. I think they are dangerous. I ended up selling all but three of them. I told Matt that if candles are that popular, I should hit up a sale and buy them really cheap and then sell them for profit at a garage sale!! 

Many of the baby items that I had set out did not sell or even the TV that Matt put out for FREE! It works, but is not a digital TV. We aren't quite sure what to do with it. Nobody takes the old tube TVs anymore, so he may just put it in a dumpster.

We also had a neighbor bring up an entertainment center, golf clubs, a window air conditioner, and some shoes. Everything of his sold except for the entertainment center. I wish it would have, he and Matt loaded it back into his car and he took it back home. I think he was going to try to sell it on Craigslist sometime. Another neighbor brought over a baby swing and that sold within an hour.

I think the girls learned a huge amount from the garage sale! We had to take quite a bit of school off to put it on, but I think it was worth it. We gave 25% off everything the last two days, so Megan had to figure that amount out. I also had her count change back to everyone. What great life lessons! I told her I learned to count back change when I was 14 and was making ice cream cones for a job. :)

I asked the girls if they wanted to do another garage sale and they both said, "YES!!" They thought it was a very positive experience! I think they loved seeing everyone and watching them come and go. I sure did! I wasn't always out there though because I was often changing or feeding Micah. I did miss some of their old toys, such as their kitchen set and a cheerleading outfit, being sold. They were pretty excited about it though. I am glad they aren't too attached to these items. I totally felt like I was selling their preschool years this weekend, but I have to remember that it is only stuff and I cannot store it forever. I loved it when another little girl got so excited about a certain toy (like one of their old baby strollers) and then bought it. I don't mind passing stuff on when I know someone else will love it. I just wonder where all our stuff ended up. What kind of homes did it go to? Who is playing with it? What happened to it??

Maybe my girls should start on more perler bead creations to sell again next year!

Now, what do I do with the leftover items? Matt says we should just load it all up and donate it to the Open Door Mission, but I don't want to yet. Some items are worth some money. Maybe I will continue to try to sell the items or just put them back where they were.  Some of them I don't mind keeping (such as a high chair you attach to a chair at a table) or some girl puzzles and games. I don't want to get rid of all my girl stuff incase we have friends over to play.

I am really anxious to get life back to normal. After a pretty intense week of painting the entire upstairs and now the garage sale, I can finally pick up the pieces and get life back to normal again!

Garage Sale- Day One: Success!

After getting ready for our garage sale all day yesterday, today was the big day when we started to sell our items.  My main objective was to sell the girls' old toys, dress up clothes, and shoes.

Many of their old toys are from the playroom. When we went through the playroom last summer, the toys that they no longer played with ended up in a laundry basket in my room. Some of the bigger items, such as the strollers and kitchen set, got put in the dining room, in hopes of somehow getting rid of them. Today, they all went out to the garage sale! I did keep all the Barbies, Polly Pockets, and baby items.  I do want some girl toys around incase we have girls over, but I want to be able to put them away.

As for the Barbies, anything that did not fit into our "Barbie box," as I like to say, got put on the garage sale. This included a little Barbie house and Barbie car. They both sold today. I did keep the three store Barbie house because the girls still play with that quite a bit. I should add that they do not play with Barbies with the house, but rather Christian's cars!

I also went through the game closet yesterday and pulled out all the princess and Dora games and puzzles. I know nobody has touched any of these in a LONG time! Some of these sold today, some did not. I also washed up many of the girls' old dress up dresses. I kept the ones that they absolutely loved or were pretty important to them (or to me!). The rest I am ok with selling. Along with the dress up dresses, I also put some of the old Halloween costumes out. Unfortunately, only one dress sold today. Many people looked at the dresses, but I may have had them priced too high.

Shoes were also something that I wanted to get rid of this weekend. I dug out all the old shoes that no longer fit and\or we don't need. I had kept all the girls' shoes from the time they were babies. Again, I kept the ones that were special, like Megan's "google shoes" and a pair of shoes Matt's parents brought back from the Ukraine when Megan was 3, but other than that, they all went to the garage sale. We sold about five pairs today. The kids could not believe that I kept them all! Honestly, when things are put in the attic for years, you kind of forget they are there too! (Until you need more space in the attic and realize that you don't really know why these shoes are still there in the first place!) I tell people that I kept everything from my kids. I just happen to have two boys and didn't need the girls items anymore.

I also still had all their winter coats and snow pants from when they were little. I know it isn't exactly winter season, but I put them out anyway. A few people looked at them, but there were no takers.

We had some interesting people come today. One woman was looking for Junie B. Jones books. I said that we did not have any on the garage sale, but the girls did have some. I looked at them and said, "Do you want to sell your Junie B. Jones books?" Almost simultaneously, they said yes! I knew they didn't really like those books. Both girls ran up to the bookshelves and grabbed three of the books. The lady ended up buying one of them and we put the other two on the garage sale.

Another guy walked up and asked Matt if he had any spare lawn mowers or snow blowers. Matt had recently gotten a broken lawn mower from his brother and fixed it up until it ran. Matt told the man that he did have a spare lawn mower, but was debating whether to sell it or not. He thought it would be a good lawn mower to have Christian take apart, but in the end, he ended up selling it because it was too good to take apart! This gentleman also ended up buying Matt's trimmer for $5. It was also broke, but this guy just wanted to fix it to have something to do! Yay for more room in the garage!

We also sold our inner tube today that we have had for many years. It had a rip in it and Matt is constantly having to bail the water out of it while he is out on the lake. Honestly, I don't like it at all because it hurts my neck so bad when I ride in it. The kids loved it though! We had a couple guys looking at it at the same time (I thought it was interesting how many guys came to our garage sale today!). The person that ended up buying it did not have a jet ski or a boat, but he said a bunch of his friends have them. Now we need to go buy a new tube for the summer!

As the day went on, Matt and I kept thinking of things we could put out. He was up in the attic a few times pulling things out. Courtney had these cute ride-on toys from when she was little and our neighbor ended up buying one of them for her granddaughter. Matt also made a couple of trips to the basement and pulled some things up. It is amazing what you have just sitting around and don't use!

It was rather enjoyable sitting outside today. The girls helped a lot and actually earned about $35 from all of their toys. I told them that if it was theirs, they could keep the money. Matt and I earned quite a bit more because of the mower and the tube.

I am sure we will find some more things to put out tomorrow and Saturday. This may be a yearly thing for me!

Garage Sale Week!

We were at a graduation yesterday and as I sat and was talking to one of matt's old neighbors about homeschooling, I was thinking about all the life skills that my girls have learned this semester.  We have only been able to get through math, English, and spelling on a daily basis; we haven't done any formal history, geography, science, writing, or reading.  Micah has been a very challenging baby!

I always tell people that even though we didn't get through these subjects, my children are learning in other ways. Just last weekend, Courtney and Christian were outside making mud bricks. Why? I have no idea, but it brought up the idea of pioneers living in sod houses! What would you build YOUR house out of if you were in the middle of nowhere with no trees around?? What happens when it rains on your sod house? Do you live with critters? How did you break the sod up? How did you build your roof? Many questions were answered last week!

But even though we haven't done these subjects, are my children still learning?? Absolutely! My children have learned how to run a home. They have learned how to cook, even Christian can make a pot of chili now! They have learned how to do laundry and clean bathrooms. They have learned how to take care of a baby and how to be a mom. Lately, Courtney has even changed a few diapers.  We have learned what to do when a baby poops on you in the middle of church or what to do when he spits up on the floor at a graduation party! They have watched me bathe him many times and just love on him.  All the children have learned to distract him and calm him down when he is screaming.  My children have learned to help others in times of need with a smile on their face. They are not afraid to ask, "Can I help you in any way?" I still have a hard time offering help to people!

We are going to have another big lesson this weekend in putting on a garage sale! Our neighborhood puts on a garage sale every year and every year, I see all the cars that drive past and think I should have a garage sale next year. Well, I am going to this year!! Last week when we got our upstairs painted, I had to move a lot of stuff away from the walls. I told myself that instead of putting half this stuff back, we are going to have a garage sale to get rid of it!

I have been hanging onto girl stuff for quite a long time now because I wanted more children.  Now that we have four, I feel I can get rid of it. (If we have more, that is fine, but we have more than enough stuff!) I got rid of quite a bit of stuff before Micah was born, and I need to keep going! My girls are definitely done with all their princess and horse items. I also have a couple Rubbermaid containers full of old girl shoes and old girl winter coats. I know these might not sell right now, but they just might!! I also have old books and just a variety of other items that we need to get rid of.

I told the girls that if they sell any old toys, then they can have the money. Anything else is mine!

I also told them that if we had time, they should make some cookies or rice crispy bars and sell those too! Matt suggested we buy a couple cases of water or Gatorade also. We will see if this happens!

Are the girls learning anything by putting on a garage sale?? Absolutely!! First of all, they are learning the basics of putting one on.  They are going to help me price everything and sell it this coming weekend. I may even put them in charge of the cash box. This would involve adding the items up and giving change.  What a great lesson in economics!

So again, even though we aren't learning history and science, we are definitely learning other skills that are needed in life!

I think we have turned a corner!!

I could almost celebrate!! Micah slept form 10 pm - 7 am this morning!!! He has been sleeping longer amounts of time lately and it makes me happy!

Now if only I could sleep all night! GRRR!!!

First Tooth!

Micah finally popped his first tooth a couple of days ago! Thank goodness! He had enough drool the last couple of months to last him a lifetime! I was changing his onesie about four times a day. (And yes, I tried putting a bib on him, but he would pull at it and it would just be in the way, so I quit putting them on him).  Maybe now he will stop eating constantly and actually sleep through the night!

Last night he slept from 9-7:15 am! I actually had to wake the kid up!  He was asleep tonight by about 8:30, I hope I don't see him overnight.

I remember that once Christian hit six months old, he flipped. He started to sleep consistently though the night and was just much happier. Hopefully that will happen with Micah too. We have been much happier lately during the day lately, probably because I just feed him whenever he is hungry. I have also been able to wrap him in a blanket and just rock him to sleep. We haven't used the swing for at least a month. I feel like we are finally getting somewhere with him!!!

Now to get rid of his eczema and grow some more hair. :)

Cousin Playtime!

We got the privilege tonight of watching our niece, Everly. She is eleven days older than Micah and these two make quite the pair!!

Even though they are so close in age, there are some things Evie can do that Micah cannot and vice versa. Evie can already roll over and Micah cannot. Micah loves to stand up and is really sturdy on his feet, where Evie is a little shaky yet. They are both perfectly fine in their development!!

I also love seeing the differences between boys and girls at this young age! Girls can sit on the floor and play with toys for an extended period of time. Micah cannot! He needs to be moving and entertained all the time! Tonight I kept pointing out this difference to my girls. Oh how I would love it if Micah would just stay put and be happy for more than five minutes!

It is so much fun watching these two grow up so far. We have a couple other nieces that were born within six months of these two and  they are also fun to watch.