Eli's Surgery and Hospital Stay

It has been a long week and I finally got time to write this blog post! We just got home from the hospital yesterday and it was amazing! Don't get me wrong everyone at Beaumont was absolutely wonderful but there truly is no place like home. I really wanted to share with you all what we have gone through this past week. Some pictures might not be pleasing to everyone so please just scroll right past them if they bother you.

We had to be at the hospital at 5:30am on Friday the 16th of January. I ended up waking up at 3:40am because there was so much I felt like I had to do still, plus its hard to sleep when your nervous. We had to be there so early because Eli had to give some blood to do a blood type/cross. We ended up waiting in a pre-op room until just before 8:30am when they took him back for surgery. Giving him to the nurse to take him back was the hardest thing I have ever done and I feel like my heart went right with him into the O.R. After that Brad and I had to wait in a huge waiting room until the surgery was completed.

We were lucky because one of the nurses that I have been seeing through the craniofacial clinic's daughter had this surgery. Her name is Jennifer and she was absolutely amazing. She gave me her number and sent me text messages right from the operating room. The first doctor that came out to see us in the waiting room was the neurosurgeon she came out at around 11:15am and she said everything is going great and gave us a lock of hair that they had to shave. She said that he did need a blood transfusion but he is taking it well. Then around an hour or so later the craniofacial surgeon came out and said the operation was done and went really well. All that we were waiting on was waiting for him to wake up and be put in a room. He said maybe another hour or so until we got to see our little man. At around 2:15-2:30 we finally got to see Eli. They moved him to a room in the pediatric intensive care unit. It was so hard to see him hooked up to everything and have that bandage on his head. I felt completely helpless and just wanted my happy baby boy back. 

I decided to show you a modest picture of what he looked like. He was on the ventilator still but he also had an arterial like in his right arm, an IV in each foot, and he had a bulb coming out of his head that was collecting what looked like blood. When I first saw him my heart just sank. It was the worst feeling that he had to go through all of this and there was nothing I could do to help him. A doctor came in and said that his lungs in an X-ray looked like they had either fluid or mucus in them and he would be on the ventilator until the next day. I didn't like that at all but understood why they were doing that. Better safe then sorry. At around 6:00pm another doctor came in and started to mess around with his ventilator. He turned it off and said that Eli was breathing completely on his own! Then he told us that they were taking out the tube! They had us leave the room because I guess the first couple breaths are extremely scary then we were allowed to come back in. He is such a strong little man and I am so proud of him and how well he did going through all of this. 

At 8pm I got to hold my little man! It was a little bit bittersweet though because even though I loved to hold him he had so many tubes that I had to be careful of. I didn't want to hurt him or pull out anything so I ended up breastfeeding him and then putting him back in bed and felt really uncomfortable holding him. During the night he did really good. He slept for around 3 hours at a time then woke up. We ended up bottle feeding him my breastmilk because it was really hard for me to hold him. He was able to open up one eye but the other one swelled up a little bit. 

Little by little he started to swell up. He was able to take out his arterial line and it was a lot easier to hold him. We were able to have our girls visit Bubby and it was good for them to see him. Little Emelia wanted to hold Eli's hand and it was hard for Bridgette to see Eli like that. She ended up telling my mother in law later that she missed Eli's old face. My best friend Ashley and her Husband Trent came and they both love our children so much. It was really hard for Ashley to see him like that. They ended up taking the girls to go play in an indoor garden in the Children Hospital part of Beaumont. I am very lucky to have a friend like Ashley. That night we were doing so well that we were able to move to the Pediatric ward. There is a non-profit organization that makes stuffed dolls for kids going into the hospital. They are called The Shadow Buddies Foundation and are absolutely wonderful. They sent Eli a doll and are helping me with dolls for my care packages to local hospitals. We kept that doll by him a lot in both the PICU and in the pediatric ward. 

By the third morning eyes were completely swelled. He was absolutely miserable. We were giving him pain medication by mouth and he absolutely hated the taste of it. I did get my husband to hold him. Brad was scared of holding him because he didn't want to hurt him. It was like he was a newborn again and every little movement we were terrified of doing something wrong. The doctors all came in and told us that we would see the peek of swelling today then it would slowly start going down. It was really hard to see him with two black eyes and his head really swollen. That night we had a wonderful lady named Debi from our Church whose son had to have multiple brain surgeries come and visit us. She brought us a wondeful gift from our Church for Eli and we prayed over him. We are so blessed to have the support from our Church that we do. 

My husband took this picture that night. I was so exhausted it wasn't even funny. Don't judge!

By Monday he was able to open his eyes a crack and he had gotten his dressing off and "brain goop" tube out. That was terrifying. One second the surgeon is talking to us and taking off the bandage and the next he is pulling out the tube! His cut looked pretty scary too! It was zig-zagged and rugged. I know this sounds horrible but he reminded me of Frankenstein. My husband and I joked that now he has a life-long costume! This day he was a million times more happy and playful! Just by being able to open his eyes! The girls and my mother in law came to visit. Bridgette had the day off of school. We were able to eat lunch with them and hang out with just us and the girls while Meme got to spend time with little man. By the afternoon Eli was able to see more and more. He sat up and played for the first time since the surgery! He wasn't 100% yet but we were starting to get our happy little boy back! 

On Tuesday Eli was opening his eyes even more! He was so happy and alert! It was quite a blessing! He got to sit up and watch ESPN with daddy and then he got to play with his new toy! In the morning all the doctors came in and said he was doing great! They wanted to send us home but the day before Eli didn't drink much breast milk so they wanted to make sure he was eating better. We almost had to put and IV in but my husband and I were determined not to. Our friends Chris and Erica from our church came and visited us when Brad went to go get Bridgette from school. Chris is the childrens pastor at our church and we have all became friends from our growth group. In the afternoon one of the Nurse Practitioners out of the neurosurgeon team came in and was slightly concerned with his right side. He told us that it is possible that there might have been a small cut in the dura mater and he might be leaking cerebral spinal fluid. They wanted to keep an eye on him and it scared us quite a bit. They told us it could be just a collection of blood and fluid too. It was so weird feeling on that side of his face. It felt almost like a water balloon. They told us to watch and see if it got worse or if the fluid went down. If it got worse more than likely there was a small cut in the dura mater, if not then it is just fluid and nothing to worry about. I got on my facebook and asked my family and friends to pray for him.

On Wednesday we got up and the fluid on the side of his face went down! Praise God! We were so happy and then the doctors came in and told us that he was doing amazing and that it wasn't cerebral spinal fluid. They were ready to send us home! It took a while to be able to get everything around to go home but we were able to go around and thank many doctors and nurses that took care of us during our stay. Beaumont hospital was absolutely wonderful to us and we were so blessed by all of the staff. We got home around 1 because the roads were bad and we felt like we were driving with a newborn. We were all happy to be home! 

We still have a lot of healing to do. We have a lot of doctor appointments still in the next month but we are happy to be on the other side. Now my goals are helping spread awareness and help out other families dealing with this. If you have a second go to Caring for Cranio's facebook page and see if there is a way you can help out! 

Peace and Love, 

Sharing My Obsession With Essential Oils-Lemondropper Style

Okay, so I wasn't going to do this. I wasn't going to make a huge blog post about my essential oils and what they are and why they rock. Why wasn't I going to make a blog post? It's not because I had information that I wanted to keep to myself or that I didn't want to share my love of oils. It's because I am not a sales person and I don't want to come off being that way or being one of those way to salesy people. I decided to say "oh well" to that thinking and I wanted to give you at least some form of basic information. Take some time, learn a little bit about the oils and if you want to purchase your own, well I am here. If you don't, no worries! Also if you have any questions please feel free to email me at powersmama713@gmail.com or jbpowers713@gmail.com. Yes I have two emails, I am just that cool. Alright so here we go!

Essential oils are the aromatic component of plants. They are found in the different parts of a plant like the leaves, root, bark, seed, flower, etc. They have hundreds of different chemical compounds in them and they are highly concentrated. One drop goes a long way! They are not like an olive oil. They don't have the fatty compounds that it does. They are very light and absorb right into the skin.  They are far more potent than the dried herbs are because they are made by steam distillation and it takes much more plant product to make up the essential oil. For example it takes 4,000 lbs of roses to make 1 lb of rose oil! Now you know why rose oil is so expensive. ;-)

I talked a little bit about how they are steam distilled and that's why they are so potent. That is one way of making oils. The oils are made a couple different ways. A lot of citrus are cold pressed which means they take a really big weight on the plant product and squeeze out the oil.Some are made by absolute oil extraction a solvent is added to the plant product. To separate the solvent from the oil they then use steam. Some are resin tapped which means they cut a piece of the plant and resin comes out. They then steam distill the resin. Last is what we talked about before and that is steam distillation. Most oils are made this way. What happens is the plants are harvested and brought to the distillery. They are put in stainless steel cylinders that are around 20 ft tall and 8 ft across. A low temperature steam is then ran through the plant material from the bottom and it picks up the oils as it rises. The steam and oil goes through a gooseneck at the top into a condenser where it is cooled back down. Then the oil is then separated. This is very important to the quality of the oils. There can be different distillations. First distillation is the best and the more distillations the plant goes through the less potent it is. Think of it like a tea bag. First cup of tea is strong but if you use the same tea bag and make another cup, then another by the fourth cup you can barely taste the tea. 

I did months and months of research on oils and different oil companies, so what made me choose Young Living? Well I will tell you! Young Living is 100% pure therapeutic grade oils. With them being so pure they can be diffused, applied topically, and ingested. I will talk more about this in a bit. Young Living has been making essential oils for 20 years! They are the worlds leader in oils. A big part of my decision is their seed to seal process. Here is a picture that talks a little bit about it:

It's Young Livings promise to its customers. They own their own farms so by that they can control the plants. They have farms and partner farms all over the world to make the highest quality of plants.  You can even go visit a farm! Being in business for 20 years means they have the experience in selecting the correct species of plant for desired potency. Also they know how to plant under optimal conditions using ideal soil and natural methods to encourage growth. They do their own harvesting and distilling. Remember how I said that the distillation process was really important? The fact that Young Living does their own distilling means that they can take them from the first distillation. They even take it before the first distillation is complete so they are very potent! They also use a very low temperature, low pressure process to distill their oils. This maintains the molecular content of the oils. They even bottle the oils themselves so that Young Living does everything from start to finish! Another great thing they do is rigorous testing. They have a state of the art lab and also send their oils to third party testing sites to make sure they meet their very strict purity standards.The scientist subject every batch to a gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and a heavy metal analysis.  The refuse to use any diluted, cut, or adulterated oils so if they show even the slightest hint of tampering with or alteration they are rejected. 

There is a couple different choices when getting the oils. First one is you can create a retail account and pay retail prices on them. Its fairly easy and doesn't take much. What I always suggest is becoming a member. You do that by buying a starter kit. I recommend the premium starter kit, its the best bang for the buck! 

If you need any more information or have any questions please comment or you can email me directly at the emails I listed above! Have a great day everyone!

Peace and Love, 

In One Week

In one week we will have the longest drive of our lives, even though it's only thirty minutes.

In one week we will have to give our baby boy over to someone we met a handful of times, and trust them with his life.

In one week our son, our only son, will be cut open ear to ear and have his skull operated on.

In one week we will have to wait countless hours in a room not knowing what is going on.

In one week we will have one of the hardest days of our lives.

but also...

In one week the wait will be over.

In one week the anticipation and nervousness will be over.

In one week we wont have as much worry anymore.

In one week the healing can begin.

In one week we will be on the other side of craniosynostosis.


All those things happen in one week. For now I am going to hold my baby a little tighter and longer. Give him an extra couple of kisses, and enjoy the time we have left before the surgery. I am so scared of what is going to happen and I can feel myself starting to shut down. I feel so many things at one time. I don't think I can handle it all until I look at him and know that I will be strong, I have no other choice. A week feels like so much time and so little time all at once. If you are reading this and can say a prayer for my little Eli I would really appreciate it.

The picture above is Eli playing with some things he received in his care package from Cranio Care Bears. If you have a second click on the link and go check out any ways you can donate to them. It's amazing what one little care package can do for a family. I thank everyone for the love and support that we have received these past 8 months. My only hope is that I may be able to help out people going through the same thing as we have been. <3

Peace and Love, 

Eight Fun Facts About Parents Dealing With Craniosynostosis

I have had so much people wanting to help me with my care packages and my other ideas since I posted them so THANK YOU so much from the bottom of my heart! I messaged three local hospitals seeing if they would like to keep a stock of care packages and what their needs are. So far the one that Eli is having his surgery at messaged me back. She is going to message the practice manager to see what needs to be done (if anything) for them to start giving out the care packages right at the hospital! Yayyyyy!

I am so excited you guys! Another thing that she is going to do is give my contact information to newly diagnosed parents so I can offer as much support as possible to them! I am so excited for that because it is such a blessing to have people in your life that has gone through what you are going through.

I messaged three medical schools to see if I can do anything to help bring awareness to their schools. So far no answer but I know it can take a little bit to check email. I have messaged two art schools to see if they have some artist that want to help paint helmets. If you personally know any artists at all that want to do this anywhere please put me in contact with them. It doesn't matter which state because craniosynostosis happens everywhere and I am sure I can find a need for them! I also got in contact with a wonderful lady that makes cute dolls for children going into the hospital. They are called Shadow Buddies and she said that she would be more than happy to help me with this. She even has cute helmets that she can put on them or she can bandage up their heads! So so so cute! Here is what they look like:

I am so pumped for this you guys! Helping out others going through this is amazing and if you want to help in any way possible or know of some places where this is needed please shoot me an email to powersmama713@gmail.com. Now to think of some cool names for what I am doing! If you have any ideas please leave me a comment!

That's the update on what I am doing, now its time to write what I originally made this blog post for lol. I wanted to write a post of 8 fun facts about parents whose child has craniosynostosis. With Eli's surgery coming up and meeting some awesome cranio-parents I thought this would be a fun post to write. Ready to read it? Alright here they are:

Number One

We stare at every babies head- I know this sounds super creepy and no we are not creepers, I promise. Well most of us aren't creepers anyways. I can only speak for myself. It's just when we see babies now its completely different and we know how important it is to find craniosynostosis early. If we are being honest here, we are staring at your head too.

Number Two

We know more about Craniosynostosis than anyone else- We are a bit obsessive. We have researched until we are blue in the face. What are we doing on our phone? Looking up pictures of the surgery. On the computer? Looking up more information about craniosynostosis. What does our life consist of now? Research, research, and you guessed it more research. Haven't heard about craniosynostosis? Well then, sit down for the next hour while I explain to you everything I know. Trust me its a lot. 

Number Three

We are very busy- Some months we have a lot of doctors appointments! We are running around all the time and some of us have a lot of driving to do to get to the doctors. We are not meaning to ignore you but if we are being honest, most people are not at the top of our priorities list right now.

Number Four

We are VERY overprotective and terrified of getting sick- Especially right before the surgery. Oh you want to come visit? Cool, well all you need is a change of clothes (please burn the ones that you wore over here) and please stand there in the door way while we asses your health and get some cultures to test to make sure you are not carrying any illness. It can take up to two hours and no you cannot leave and come back because we will have to start the process again. Oh and go wash your hand 5 times before touching anything please and thank you.

Number Five

We covet our child's head and freak out if even a scratch happens to it- Okay so their head might be harder than the normal persons because of it being fused together but we still freak out when they bump it. Do they make football helmets for babies? Bubble wrapping the whole house is so much work.

Number Six

We are strong- Anybody who has to go through this must be strong. Do we cry? Yes of course we do but then we pull ourselves together and get what needs to be done, done. We have to see our baby get poked and prodded, be held down for x-rays, be put under for CT scans, and at the end we have to hand over our precious baby to another person who we don't know very well that will cut them open and remove pieces of their skull. If that doesn't make you strong, I don't know what will.

Number Seven

We talk to anyone and everyone about Craniosynostosis- Okay, so this is not true for us all. My husband didn't like to share at all. His work just found out about the surgery and about Eli's condition which we have known about for 8 months. He is more of a private person. As for me I am sitting here screaming it from our rooftop. No seriously I have my megaphone (doesn't everyone have a megaphone?) and am on my roof screaming facts about craniosynostosis. Okay, okay I am kidding but lets be serious. I tell everyone about it, even complete strangers. Somehow the subject always gets to be about my son and his surgery. My husband is not impressed with me talking to everyone and their brother about our sons condition but I have diarrhea of the mouth and he will just have to forgive me.

Number Eight

We love our kids more than anything- This is the most true. Eli is my third and last child (hopefully) but I love all my kids more than anything in this world. I am willing to do anything for my children. I obsess, and research, and don't sleep well because of my love for my children. I sit here and try to make the best decision for my child and when I make that decision I doubt it constantly. I just want my children to be happy, healthy, and well rounded people.

There you have it eight fun facts about parents dealing with craniosynostosis. While all of these may not be true for every one of us I think a lot of cranio-parents can relate! Have a blessed day!

Peace and Love, 

Will you help me?

It is late here in Michigan (11pm), well late for me anyways. I am usually snoozing by 8! LOL and I have had a lot of things on my mind about Eli's upcoming surgery. I just recently joined a support group on Facebook for parents who's children has craniosynostosis. If you don't know what it is click here for my son Eli's story.

What I am realizing is through this group is that a lot of children are being misdiagnosed and the pediatricians don't know much about this condition. It isn't fairly common but the earlier it is found the better it is for the child. In my research of it 1 in every 2000 children will have craniosynostosis and it is more common in boys than girls. There are many different types of craniosynostosis too. It just depends on where the suture is closed. A simple x-ray can (it doesn't always) show a closed suture and a CT scan can show the closed sutures too.

It really does surprise me to see parents all over the US that are part of this group that have been trying for MONTHS to tell their doctors that their children at least need to be checked for this condition. I was really lucky pertaining to Eli. After he was born the pediatricians and OB doctors kept on reassuring me that there was nothing wrong with him even though one of his eyes opened more than the other. When we got home I was really persistent about it and decided to really study his head shape. I noticed that one side was more pushed forward than the other and made an appointment with my family doctor. Here is where I was lucky, I have medical assistant training. My doctor TRUSTS me 100% and trust not only my intuition but my training in the medical field.

I was so persistent with it and luckily he sent me to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak to the Ian Jackson Craniofacial Clinic. They did an x-ray right away before I even had an appointment with a doctor and that confirmed the craniosynostosis. A simple x-ray of his head confirmed it and he was only two weeks old when we started to form a plan for his surgery. Some kids are years old before its diagnosed! YEARS! That blows my mind because not all parents have medical training and not all doctors listen to the parents about it. Heck not all doctors really even know much about craniosynostosis.

Here is the part where I need you. Ready? Listening? Good. I want to start a movement here. I want to start talking to doctors and getting early detection for this condition. I want to start spreading awareness of this condition that is still kind of rare but so important to be caught early.  I want to start sending care packages to hospitals to give to the families and the children that have to go through this surgery. I want stuff even for siblings because I know siblings are so important! I was thinking homemade stuffed animals for siblings that have a special saying on them. I want to meet some awesome artist that are willing to donate their time and supplies to paint helmets that some children have to wear after the surgery. I mean I want these kids to have RAD attention getting helmets. When people ask about them I want the helmets to create more awareness.

I want to do all these things but I am missing something important. YOU! I really cannot do this without support. Without people introducing me to pediatricians, without people donating stuff for the care packages, without awesome artist to help. Will you help me? Any little thing helps.

I will admit I knew nothing of craniosynostosis before Eli was diagnosed with it. I just knew there was something not right. If I wouldn't have been so adamant about it, it might still be un-diagnosed. Un-diagnosed craniosynostosis can cause a whole list of problems including death and brain damage from the inter-cranial pressure. So, I will say it again. Will you help me with this?

Peace and Love,

Diary of a Stay At Home Mom

I have been a blog writing fiend this week. This was something I wanted to do for a while now and finally decided to fit it in. I know a lot of people don't know what it's like in the daily life of a stay at home mom (or dad). I know a lot of people think that all we do is sit on our bums all day. So, I decided to write a series of blog posts that go through my daily life so that everyone can read what a stay at home parents daily life is like. This will be the first one of many. 

Nighttime- Wake up every hour or two to tend to Eli because he is hungry or just wants to be cuddled. I know I am spoiling him but if I didn't I wouldn't get any sleep at all. Also at some time in the middle of the night Hubby started grinding his teeth. Tried to be sneaky and put valor on his toe...well he woke up and luckily was in good spirits about it. Whew, no more grinding teeth.

7:00- This is the time I was able to wake up today. Actually I woke up earlier but I just stayed in bed for a little bit. Usually I have to get my butt up a lot earlier but my little ones have been sick and sleeping in. I also have this set as an alarm on my phone because on school days Bridgette needs to get up at this time.

7:30- I should officially get up now. Hubby is home and getting around for work. Then Emelia woke up so I guess its go time.

7:45-I decided to take pictures on how our house looks every day when I wake up. Also turned on our diffusers after the pics to help with sickness.

Front room:

Kitchen:

Family Room:

Okay so the rooms are not in that bad of shape. Usually everything looks 3 times as worse than this. 

8- I make Emelia some food (and sneak some chocolate for myself) then I pack Hubby's lunch.

8:15- Had to help hubby take out the trash. Omgoodness it is cold outside. Not fun at all.

8:30- Just started cleaning and little man is now awake. Put him in his walker and get to cleaning with hopes that he wont start crying.

9:27-Nurse calls to check in on Eli because of his surgery and because he was sick. Everything is A-ok!

9:30-Front room and Kitchen are done! Woo-hoo just in time too because little man started to cry! It's time to feed and change him:

Front room:

Kitchen:

9:40- Little man is done being changed and fed now it is time to take a shower because both kids are happy.

9:55-Shower done! Hair in Anna braids because I am too lazy to do anything else, now onto cleaning the Family room!

10:15-Family room is clean! Yay! It's time to make a fire because it is freezing in here.

10:17- Making a fire is not going so well. Just keep adding paper and hope it lights up.

10:20-Uhh smoke is now coming into my family room...blow on it and hope it stops.

10:30-Let there be fire! I am the ruler of the fire! Oh no...don't go out..I will add more paper.

10:45-Okay, the fire is actually going. Now, it's time to change the little ones into their outfits. Oh I haven't eaten yet let me shove some cereal into my mouth and be good to go... and re-clean a little of the front room and the family room.

11:00- Kids are changed rooms are kind of clean (I give up. As I was putting stuff away, Emelia was taking them back out) so now its time to tackle laundry.

Front Room:

Laundry Pile:

11:15- Laundry thrown in washer and now its time to start folding. Oh, hold that Eli is now screaming. Time to rock him so he sleeps.

11:45-Okay, now Eli is alseep and I just need to put him in his crib. Gently...gently....whew he stayed asleep. Now its time to fold my first basket of laundry. 

11:52-Basket is indeed folded! Emelia is hungry lets see what I can make her. Oh wait..fire is dying need to grab wood. Don't die fire, don't die!

12:00- Now its time to make Emelia some food. Oh wait, Eli is now crying I have to get him.

12:05- Can I make a peanut butter and honey sandwich one handed? You bet I can!

12:30-Emelia is still eating, fire is still going on, Eli is mildly happy, now its time for me to eat leftover baked ziti.

12:39-Bridgette calls from her Aunt Ashleys house. She never wants to come back home lol. Well she didn't say in in those exact words but close. Mid convo she mutes her side and then calls back to tell me she is not coming home until night time.

12:50-Now it's time to get the laundry from the dryer that I may have forgotten for a couple days.

12:55- OH NO! I don't know where these orange spots came from but they are all over the laundry! Including my husbands work shirt. I am in trouble...I am so in trouble...

1:50- Oh don't mind me I am just scrubbing away on husbands work shirt for the past hour trying to get the orange out. Not to mention I still have a whole pile of laundry that has the dreaded orange stains on them!

2:00-I GIVE UP ON THIS STUPID SHIRT! Plus Eli is screaming, so yeah its time to feed him and rock him to sleep.

2:30-Okay Eli is asleep and my facebook has indeed been checked like I do every time he is feeding. It is New Years Eve so I invited Ashley and Trent to hang out after they bring B back home. Time to work on this stupid shirt again.

2:45- Ugh my back hurts, time to give up again. I think I *might be making progress. Little man is up so I have to run outside to get the trash cans, the mail, and some more logs for the fire.

3:13-I decided to look to see how much stuff is orange in the laundry pile. Well, everything is orange.....I think I might just throw it in the washer and see what that does. First though while both kids are good let me write down everything.

3:30-Laundry is thrown in the washer and some essential oils are added. Praying for a miracle! Plus I found out the culprit of the orange. Somehow an orange crayon got in there. Grrr and the inside of my dryer is all orange. Here is hoping that it doesn't stay that way.

3:40-Eli is now throwing a hissy fit...look at his little hissy fit face.Time to feed and rock him. Oh, but he left a surprise in his diaper. After 4 days of not pooping he decided to go. Gosh it's on my hand. Just keep wiping, just keep wiping. Now we are all changed time to run and wash my hands.

3:55-Eli is changed, fed, and rocked but not sleepy. Putting him back on the floor and its time to get Emelia that refill on milk that shes been asking for, for the past hour.

4:00- Time to get MORE logs, boy are fires hard work to keep going. Also time to re-clean the family room. OH and somehow Eli got a highlighter....boy you're just going to have pink hands for a little bit. Thank goodness he had his binky in his mouth. On top of that Emelia is now diaperless. Time to make her sit on the potty.

Yes I am "watching" the show Angel, don't judge.

4:20-Family room is clean...again. Eli is chewing on something or other. Emelia is still on the potty. Now time to clean the bathroom.

4:30-Bathroom is now kind of clean. I closed the shower curtain took the trash and cleared off the sink...good enough. Time to clean the dining room that I have been neglecting. Emelia is now sticking her head in the toilet....time to put a diaper back on her and put up the toilet.

4:35-Started to clean the dining room but Emelia wanted more milk. Lets just say the wasn't happy when I gave her water.

4:40-Dining room all clean and now its time to read Emme a book and send her to take a nap I forgot she needed until now. She does not like to be put in her bed...then time to try to finish laundry.

Before:

Usually its a lot worse than this!

After:

4:50-I may have forgotten to turn on the dryer. At least I can check on the other clothes. Still has orange on them oh well. Lets check hubby's shirt. It does look better but I can still see orange spots. Time to scrub it again.

Just a little bit before 5- Hubby is home, Emelia fell asleep, and I am in the process of finishing scrubbing shirt. Then I will make dinner and do some of my business work. Bridgette will be home soon and we will enjoy the rest of our New Years Eve!

This was actually an easy slow day for me. The house was able to stay mostly clean and I did not have to go to 5 million places! The laundry didn't get done like I wanted but that's okay! Next time I do this I think I will take more pictures. It's hard to remember to take pictures of stuff! Happy New Years everyone!

Peace and Love,