Honey, I'm BBAACCKK!!

It has been a while. A LONG while. Several years long. 

Literally. 

Here I am though back at it again with an incredible amount of stories stored up and ready to be shared. So many things have happened and so much has changed. Most importantly, I have changed. A lot. Though a couple of things have remained the same, namely my love for writing out my thoughts, my desire to transform myself into a more confident and healthy woman, and my love for my family. 

Then there is the list of things that have changed. A huge change being that we welcomed our third son into the world a little over 3 years ago. Beautiful and healthy. The perfect addition to our family of previously four. Another EXTREMELY major change was our move out of the country into a new one. Well, technically not new NEW since we've lived here for a very short while immediately after getting married but NEW as in this is going to be the country we remain and grown old in. At least that is the plan for now. 

How about we play speed catch up. I'll bullet point the major changes and then post "Catch-Up Mondays". That way I won't be dragging you through thirty pages of events from over the years. 

So here are some major bullet points:

• Moved to new apartment
• Third pregnancy
• Third birth-Second C-section
• Husband went to Africa
• Changed my health lifestyle
• Started my weight loss
• First No Sugar Challenge
• Rented Building In different country
• Moved to "new" country
• Turned 30
• Started new fitness business venture
• Entered 2020
• Was approached by a Forever Living representative
• Started new business venture 
• Found Blog & Brought it back

So there it is in chronological order. I might be a tad rusty with my storytelling but it'll come back to me. I'll be using the above to fill in all the blanks from over the years.

But I have to say I am truly excited. This blog is about to get a complete make-over and that is just so stinking exciting!!

So welcome back to all my previous readers and followers! And hello and welcome to all the new ones!

Vomit In The Master Bedroom.

It's happening...again.

Last weekend our smallest little one started throwing up his bottle...every single night.

And only at bedtime.

Then on Tuesday he started having a fever and by Thursday diahreea was added to the mix. Friday he started throwing up at random times during the day as well.

The entire time my heart broke for him because he's so small and I'd barely managed to help him gain some weight. It broke my heart to see him not wanting to eat because his tummy hurt.

Yesterday morning toddler J. woke up early (5:30a.m.) and came to our room. I quickly changed him and grabbed his bottle before letting him get into bed between his daddy and me. He loves getting to sleep between  us so I thought it would be a nice way to start the weekend .

It wasn't.

Toddler J. had barely finished his bottle and handed it to me before he started vomiting all over the bed and me. Hubby escaped being decorated. Our toddler hadn't thrown up in the longest time so it was a shocker to all three of us.

Now Baby M. is doing a little better. He still has a bad case of diahreea but I've noticed the amount of times he throws up and the quantity have both gone down. And he's only had a fever once yesterday right before bedtime.  I'm thinking this is an improvement.  Oh and he finally didn't throw up at bedtime. Thank you God.

Toddler J. has a much stronger stomach so he's only thrown up three times so far and the last two times it was a handful amount wise. Instead diahreea is pretty bad in his situation and he's been running a low grade fever all day.

I'm hoping the boys get over this stomach bug soon.  I hate seeing them sick . Their such lively boys filled with energy. It's really difficult to see them not wanting to run around .

But on the bright side....the cuddles are plentiful and oh so wonderful.

Monday Memories: Just The Basics.

For today's post I'd do a quick general update of all my pregnancy appointments. Because I love seeing my babies on the ultrasounds and getting to take home pictures with them I opted to pay a one time fee. This not only ensured that I got to see the baby every time but that I also got to take home pictures and I got 2 extra appointments. 

Each appointment is basically the same. I get to enjoy (not really) peeing in a cup, this is then used to check for protein and sugar. Which thank God I've never had show up.

Afterwards I get weighed and have my blood pressure taken. Unfortunately my blood pressure has always been a bit higher than normal. I always become very nervous and excited the day of my appointment and it affects my blood pressure.  Because of this I have to take it once a week at home as well just to be sure everything is OK.  And it's always been fine at home.

My weight this time around has been great. I'm still overweight but with God's mercy I barely just started gaining weight at 6 and a half months. Up until now the scale hadn't moved. Even though baby has grown beautifully.

Not gaining weight until this late in pregnancy has made me VERY HAPPY! I was really worried about being huge and then becoming even bigger because of all the weight gain. But so far I've only gained 1.5 kgs. Which is absolutely perfect.

Afterwards I get my exam. Baby gets looked at and measured. My water and uterus get a look see. And of course the last two times were spent trying to see if baby is a girl or boy.

And just like my previous two pregnancies  there has been zero chance of identifying the gender. My boys only showed us that they were boys around 7 months. So I'm really excited about my upcoming appointment. Because by then I'll be 7 months and a week so yeah. Hopefully baby will play nice and finally give up its gender.

After the Dr is satisfied that everything is in order follows the next and final step. Which is getting my blood drawn. And if necessary a injection. The injection or vaccine whatever the technical term is given to me because of my -RH. This ensures that my body and baby are fine and if there are any bleedings for any reason that my body won't react in  a negative way.

So that's pretty much it. Each of my appointments has gone well so far and I've gotten to enjoy a healthy and happy pregnancy so far. 

This post may not have been the most exciting...but in sure for any ladies that wonder how things go down at an appointment. Well it will be nice to know the basics.

Monday Memories: We've Got A Due Date.

Finding out I'm pregnant with our third child in four years was well just a small shocker. 

A happy one.

Of course after testing for more than a month and continously getting negatives. Well you can understand why it was a shocker.

Anyway, after my first appointment it was determined that baby would be due beginning of February 2017. Which is so exciting. Both my boys are summer babies so it's a nice change.

So I guess we're going to be doing this parenting a newborn all over again. And honestly we're both a little frightened and at the same time excited. A newborn is in my personal opinion so much easier to care for but at the same time a lot more work than a toddler. But I'm positive it'll be an interesting and beautiful experience all in all, parenting two toddlers and a newborn.

Monday Memories : Not Old News

So, I thought that it's about time to share some exciting news with my blog readers.

Now I know I took a long absence from my blogging and because of that the news isn't as new and up to date as it could have been.

BUT it is still exciting and I wanted to share it on here. Kind of play a little catch up.

Here it goes.

On May 27th, 2016 this happened....

 

I've Gotten Over The Worst Of It.

I can honestly say that I am finally feeling better. I'm not back to 100% just yet but thank God the worst is over.

Honestly, it took me forever to get over this sickness. My poor body was so exhausted towards the end that I could barely manage sitting up. Standing was a "do at your own risk" type of situation.

I'm so thankful for my husband. He took such good care of me. Even sacrificed several naps that he wanted to take in this short vacation that he had. He actually let me nap instead. And I'm so thankful for that. I definitely needed sleep.

I still do need sleep but I'm much more rested than before. My body is no longer running on fumes, it has now been provided with a few good hours of sleep and rest. Which after so many days,weeks,and months of constantly waking up to crying babies and now toddlers...well let's just say they were desperately needed.

Well that's it for now. I just wanted to do a quick update on myself and that seemingly never-ending flu-cold bug.

Until next time!

I Am So Over This...Almost.

It started off as nothing really. Just a little sneeze here and there. Then it progressed to a ever so often needing to cough lightly to get rid of the itchy sensation in my throat.

Somehow I went from nothing to a full blown cold mixed in with the wonderful flu.

Seriously. What happened? Better yet HOW????

It's not like I walked around in light summer clothes and sandals. No sir. I know that autumn means cooler weather. And that means it's time to put on a light jacket or sweater.

So for the last two days I've been battling this sickness. It really got the better of me yesterday. I mean it got to the point were I couldn't even sit up without feeling dizzy and on lightheaded. Standing up required a great deal of pep talk. And almost ended up with me stretched out on the floor...twice.

Thank God for Hubby. He took good care of me yesterday. He would have the day before as well but he was working. Though my sweetheart made sure to call and check up on me every couple of hours.

My Hubby even went grocery shopping for me. AND brought home the most delicious honey melon this side of earth. He knows me so well.

So because I've been feeling pretty badly blogging was the last thing on my mind. I still feel horribly sick.  But I've managed to sit up without getting woozy.  So that's progress.

Which is why I went ahead and did two blog posts today. Of course I'm limited in what I can do so blogging was pretty much at the top of the list.

Wall Drawings And Good Sleeping.

Good day and good night to everyone!

It has been an absolutely amazing couple of nights at our house. What can I say besides that I am pretty positive that Toddler J. is finally getting the hang of this sleeping thing.

For the last couple of days and nights I have gotten the opportunity to finally understand what some of the other moms have been talking about. I have to be honest out of my two children zero of them have been "good" sleepers. But Toddler J.  has taken the prize so far sleeping horribly.

Until this week. 

This week something must have finally clicked with him because he has taken wonderful naps throughout the day AND slept through the night. It's true I sleep feed him a bottle of milk every night around 2 a.m. to prevent him from waking up because he's hungry. But that doesn't count against him.

It just means I really want to sleep past 5 a.m. even if only by half an hour.

I've also been keeping my word and have not allowed him to watch any more cartoons. He gets to watch the vlog updates that I like to keep up to date on but that's it. Plus it's only two vlogs that I follow and he loves one of them a lot because they include their sons in them.So the time that he spends watching can range from 18 minutes to 30 minutes tops.

I've also been teaching him different words and phrases. Helping him develop his creative side by providing crayons and white walls for him to color on. The white walls were not intentionally provided but since he has now pretty much covered three separate walls in drawings I see no point in getting into disagreements with him about coloring on them.

At least not until Hubby paints them white again.

I've also made sure he has stacks of paper and notebooks to draw in but he likes to do short doodles in them and then pretend that their reading materials. Not that he doesn't have plenty of those...he does...or did. Baby M. got into the books today and it broke my heart having to trash some of them because they were torn beyond recognition.

Anyways, I just wanted to post a quick and to the point...kinda update on the wonderful sleeping Toddler J. has been doing.  I'm hopeful that Baby M. will follow his lead soon.

And dare I say it? I think I do. I'm hopeful that one day soon I'll get to return to the land of the people that actually sleep the entire night away.

The Everyday Mommy: Update On The Sleeping In This House

The Everyday Mommy: Update On The Sleeping In This House: Here's the latest update on toddler J. and his sleeping. Or well non-sleeping. And the mickey mouse clubhouse detox. Yeah I totally came...

Update On The Sleeping In This House

Here's the latest update on toddler J. and his sleeping. Or well non-sleeping. And the mickey mouse clubhouse detox. Yeah I totally came up with that on my own.

We have just conquered day number 2 of the detox. Let me tell you it was no easy feat.  Toddler J. Is unbelievable determined that he will get you watch his cartoons when he wants and he will also have a great snack to go with them. Unfortunately for him, I am just as determined and quite stubborn in my decision that he will no longer have this privilege.

So it's been a very rough two days.  The first was catastrophic to say in the least. I actually, and see here I'm being completely honest, gave in for about two cartoons length. Which is 30 minutes. The only reason I did that was because he was hanging on to me screaming and I needed to throw up. Apparently something I ate didn't sit well with my stomach.  So while I threw up, cleaned up, and brushed my teeth he was quietly and very happily watching his shows.

The happily part quickly turned to anger and a screaming fit of the year when I came and quite calmly took away my cellphone. But we survived day one.

Day two was much better. He woke up insisting to watch his show. After maybe 10 minutes of pleading and crying he gave up and played with his cars. Around noon he remembered that he wanted to watch his show but that was quickly resolved by taking him to bed for a nap. And he once more remembered that he still wanted but so far hadn't watched his shows at dinner time. Which thank God was also easily derailed from becoming another fight of the wills because his dad rang the doorbell getting the boys all excited that he had come home from work.

So day two ended really well. I made sure to keep him constantly occupied and happy with other things. I have a notebook full of scribbles to show for the two hours that we spent just drawing together.

Now on to the sleeping. The first night went ok until about 3a.m. that was when little M. (previously known as baby VP) woke up screaming and crying. Which resulted in toddler J. waking up as well. Little M. went back to sleep sometime around 4 a.m. for about 30 minutes but toddler J. only managed to fall back asleep around 6:30a.m. and then only for a short time.

Needless to say everyone had a great nap during the later that day.

I don't think that the staying awake the first night had anything to do with being over stimulated. I'm positive though it had everything to do with little M. screaming his lungs out.

Night number two went much better. Little M. woke up again crying for his bottle of milk which resulted in waking up toddler J. He had been sleeping quite peacefully up to that point. Unfortunately it seems little M. also had an upset stomach because not long after drinking his milk he threw it up. I was brave and did clean up duty. Toddler J.  meanwhile ended up having a pee-pee accident. Not fun having to rummage for clean clothes at 2 a.m.

But I took care of that an about an hour later he went back to sleep. Calmly. No crying. No trying to get out of bed. No screaming because he doesn't want to sleep. A definite WIN in my book.

So even though we still stayed up at least 2 hours both nights it wasn't as bad as before. Really it wasn't. And I was very happy to see him do something other than watch mickey mouse clubhouse during the day.

Maybe later in when he is older he will be allowed 30 minutes here and there of cartoons but that's a HUGE MAYBE. I'm really leaning towards a NO on that. I think there are so many great things children can do to occupy their time that cartoons should really be a last resort.

To conclude this long and not so exciting update...we're on doing good so far. The detox is going great. Much better than I expected. And the sleeping is starting to improve.

Dare I say I have hopes of actually getting to sleep through the night before the year is over?!