Career Change

Yes, you read that right. Joshua has made a sudden career change. He got a job offer from his friend Moshe (Mo-shay) to be Sales Manager for his company, AddTech. AddTech sells and installs security cameras. **This shouldn't be confused with the popular summer selling of security systems. NOT the same.** He was trying to do both OC Tanner and AddTech until he got going with AddTech. I wanted him to wait until at least after the holidays. Well...things led to other things...and he quit OC Tanner. It was a huge sigh of relief for him, and quickly became a huge stressor for me. We're behind on our bills, Christmas is coming, we have only barely started on Christmas shopping, and I have no idea if a paycheck is coming in time to pay rent or not. Yikes. Joshua assures me all will be well, we'll even be making more than he was at OC Tanner. Okay, just make it work, please!

One of the "perks" I guess of this job change is he is now working from home. He sets his own schedule. The bad parts are that now I don't have full access to the computer and TV all day, and I hope he can continue to stay motivated to work when he needs to. He's not a very good self motivator, so I'm worried about that. There are good parts though, for me. I don't have to wake him up in the morning (a HUGE pain in the butt), and I can wake him up during the night to help me with Mikey knowing that he doesn't have to get up for work in the morning on little sleep. We're also trying to go to the gym every morning. (As soon as the daycare re-opens...it's closed for remodeling.) In some ways it's nice to have him home, in other ways, he's kind of in the way. I guess we just have to get used to it and hope the money will be coming in as he promises it will. Oh yeah, and health insurance...not sure what we're doing about that!

6 Month Mikey

Mikey turned six yesterday! What a big boy!



Here's a picture of him tonight. He's getting to be quite mobile, although he hasn't figured out how to crawl yet. He just rolls and wiggles his way around. Tonight I put him on the blanket, but he figured out how to get to my white shoes that were against the wall. Crazy Mike!



He had his 6 month check up today. He's doing great! He weighs 16 lbs 8 oz and is 26.75 inches long. That's 30th percentile for weight an 61st for height. His head circumference is at 38%. He's shorter on the scale than he's ever been and at his highest in weight as well, so he appears fatter than ever! (He's still not considered fat by any means!)

The only bad part is we found out his diaper rash is actually a yeast infection. The doctor prescribed some ointment so it should go away soon. (Hopefully! Diaper changes are no fun right now!)

Sears Photo Shoot

We got some portraits from Sears! Of course there's a lot of cute pictures of Mikey. ;)

Halloween

Mikey was a clown for his first Halloween! Grandma found this costume in her box of costumes and it fit perfectly. Mikey didn't go trick or treating, but he did go through a (small) haunted house with us and didn't get scared.

We're also going to use this as his 5 month picture. He's getting big! He's definitely a pro at rolling both ways. He can sit by himself for a little while, but still falls over sometimes. He's even getting close to scooting/crawling! In the next month or two we might have a mobile baby! (Yikes!)

We're getting family pictures taken tomorrow. I hope they turn out well. If they do, hopefully I'll remember to post some in here.

A Growing Mikey

That kid is growing fast! Here's his stats that we know of so far:

Birth: 6 lbs 13 oz and 21.25 in
2 Months: 11 lbs (31%) 24 in (89%) 39.6 cm (45%)
4 Months: 13 lbs 4 oz (18%) 25.7 in (81%) 41.6 cm (33%)

<---Three months.

<---Four months.

Mikey's trip to the ER

I'm lazy, so I'm going to copy and paste from my MySpace blog here!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Today was my first day back to work. We had two of Joshua's brothers (ages 14 and 16) and their dad watching Mikey. I came home to find out that Mikey had fallen. He had been sitting in his bouncer on the coffee table when it somehow fell off the table. He hit his head on the track of the sliding glass door. We took him to the ER where they did a CT scan and he got 6 stitches. They did a CT scan to make sure his brain was ok, no bleeding or anything. That came back as being okay. He was really good, considering. I think the hardest part for the poor kid was the fact that they wouldn't let him eat for the 4 hours we were at the hospital. haha.

Anyway, that's the shortened story. He's fine. Luckily he has his two month appointment on Thursday so he gets an extra check up. We have to take him back next week to get the stitches taken out.

It's been a while!

Okay, so I haven't posted here in a LONG time. Like since before Mikey was born. (He is freakin awesome by the way.) So...here we go.

May 24, 2007 I had my 38 week appointment. I was actually 38 weeks and 2 days, my appointment got bumped two days. Anyway, I went to that appointment and my doctor checked my cervix. She looked surprised and told me I was 5 cm dialated and fully thinned out! What?!? Then she asked if I'd like to have a baby today. Uh...of course! She told me to go to the hospital and she'd call and let them know I was coming. I called Joshua on the way out of the building and told him the good news. I was supposed to go pick him up from work after the appointment then he was supposed to go to work at Applebee's. I told him he better call Applebee's cause we're not going there after I pick him up, we're going to the hospital! I stopped at home to grab our bags and a change of clothes for Joshua, then went to pick him up from work. We parked then walked up to Labor and Delivery. (This wasn't how I was imagining going into labor!)

Soon they had given me an epidural and then broken my water. Now we just waited. Joshua's family had come to hang out and wait with us. At about midnight they decided I was fully dialated and it was time to push, so out went the family! They decided to wait in the waiting room until he was born. They ended up having to wait FOUR hours. At about 2:30 am they decided he was stuck and called my doctor in. We waited for her for about an hour, just sitting through the contractions. (My epidural wasn't working very well at this point, and I could finally feel them!) I was exhausted. (Duh, it was the middle of the night and I had just pushed for 2 and a half hours.) Finally the doctor got there, I got more drugs, and after using the suction vacuum thingy and getting an episiotomy/4th degree tear, at 4:00 am Michael Joshua Rupe was born. They put him on my chest and I had an awesome distraction while she finished up and stitched me. Next they weighed him (6 lbs 13 oz) and measured him (21.25 inches), put a diaper and a hat on, and the goo on his eyes. Then they handed him back to me to learn how to breastfeed. We tried for a few minutes, then Joshua told me his family was still waiting and they wanted to come see him and then go home. So...I let them in. They all took a turn holding the less than an hour old Mikey. I tried calling my mom. She wasn't answering her cell phone or the home phone! Soon after, the phone in our room rang and it was my mom. She was downstairs in the ER with my brother the whole time and wasn't getting cell phone service. After they were done down there they came up to see us and helped us move from the delivery room to the recovery room. (My brother was fine, his heart was doing something weird and he couldn't sleep.) As soon as we got to the recovery room, Joshua crashed on the chair. Nurses kept coming in telling me things and asking me questions. I don't really remember anything they said, I hope it wasn't important! I didn't get much sleep that day. (The nurses ended up bringing in a cot for Joshua, so he slept nicely all morning.) We had lots of visitors that day and the next. We were anxious to go home and finally got to leave Saturday night, the 26th. We stopped at Smith's on the way home to pick up my drugs from the pharmacy and got lots of looks and people asking how old this obviously new baby was. Not even 2 days old!

<---Here's his hospital picture.

<---One month old.
<---Two months old. Yes those are stitches in his head. That story is next. :)

Waiting

Right now I'm just waiting. Waiting for the little dude in my belly to decide it's his turn to be born. Technically he still has 4 weeks, but I'm impatient and don't want to wait that long. I'm not working at all right now so sitting at home is getting kinda boring. His crib is set up, his clothes are all washed and put away. He has a carseat and stroller. There are a few things we still want, but we have everything we need. I'm tired of looking like I swallowed a basketball. I need someone to keep me company while Daddy's at work. Little pokes from the belly help, but just a little.

What are you waiting for buddy? Anything in particular? Until I figure it out I guess I'll just sit here on the couch drinking my caffeine free Dr Pepper. Maybe I'll go for a walk.

It's a boy!

Here are some pictures of our little Michael Joshua Rupe. They were taken today at 20 weeks. He looks like he's growing perfectly and everything looks normal. We are very excited!