Hello Lover

Oh Friday, I'm so happy to see you I could kiss you on the mouth!

what a long week this has been

I can't wait to spend the weekend with the fathers and sons in my life!

This About Sums it Up

Maternity leave is officially over and I'm back to work - It makes me feel like this

...guess I'll go design some stuff now

(I really miss my babies if you couldn't tell)

The Day I Cheated on Mary Coyle

So today is my last day of maternity leave. I don't really want to talk about it so I'm going to just go ahead and show you pictures from the weekend instead - k?

We took the boys to the zoo to see the new elephant exhibit, only when we got there, it started pouring rain. Soooo, we needed to waste some time while we waited for the rain to pass and we took the opportunity to try out this new ice cream shop on Detroit that we had been wanting to visit for awhile. Sweet Moses, was it delicious! Best. Detour. Ever.

 Eating our picnic lunch in the car at the zoo 

 We couldn't leave without trying the homemade caramel corn too - what?

Back to the zoo and look - sun!

 Did you know you can feed the giraffes now? And for only TWO dollars!!!

 Guess who DIDN'T have two dollars with her? Epic fail.

The Godfreys Meet the Duggars

Oh my, where do I even start...

Ok, so the Duggars came to Akron for a book signing. You know the Duggars right? They're that crazy family with 19 kids and they have that show on tv...

Yeah, them.

Well, we started watching them with friends when they first arrived on the scene with just a made for tv special or two - before they got the show. (We go way back) And for some reason unbeknownst to me these people inspired an almost cult-like fascination amongst our circle of friends. We would all gather around and watch these ridiculous specials that showcased this super religious couple with all these kids whose names all started with the letter J and who built their own house and had really crazy bangs and ate a lot of tater tot casserole. I dunno, somehow they just captured our hearts - it's hard to explain.

We would sit around after watching the show hypothesizing about their relationship and finances, making up elaborate backstories about their lives --- for example, we concluded that Jim Bob (the dad, aka Papa Duggar) and Michelle (the mom, aka Mama Duggar)... shall we say... got intimate once a year for the purposes of reproduction only. We referred to this special time as their "Annual Sexuals" which were of course followed nine months later by the "Yearly Inconvenience" - real mature, I know.

Anyway, the amount of fodder we had dreamed up about the Duggar family got so out of hand that our friend Adam even gave an impromptu financial seminar posing as Jim Bob in our living room one night (captured on video via cell phone ((so you know it's high quality)) here and the follow up video here - yeah, you read that right, it happened a second time).

The point being - when we heard the Duggars were coming to town, it was a big deal. There was no question, we were going to meet them.

Fast-forward to last Thursday night. We all met up at the bookstore, Adam even drove up from Columbus for the occasion and got in line early. When we got there we found out that if you wanted to meet them, you had to buy their book ($20) and there was no sharesies allowed...one book per adult.
Most of our crew wasn't willing to fork over the cash for a spot in line. But Adam was already committed and there was no way I was missing the opportunity to meet them (and have a little fun with them as well of course). So we schemed up a plan that I would pose as Adam's wife (so I could cut in line and skip the wait) and we could do the book signing together.  Josh and I had brought along the boys and we had to get them in on the fun, so we temporarily re-named them Jes and Joren and the Godfrey family of four was born!

The meeting of the Duggar clan was so epic... so magical, that it can only be summed up in one way---

I now present to you The Top 10 Duggarlicious Moments of the evening

#10 - Getting our copies of A Love that Multiplies signed by all of the Duggars, including the kids who each used a different colored pen - they're all individuals you know.  You see, Jedidiah's favorite color is blue, whereas Jason's favorite color is green

#9 - Getting to meet Jinger Duggar (the saucy one)

(We suspect Jinger will have a less than honorable profession one day in the adult services industry. Her name is Jinger, with a J. Like she even has a choice?!)

#8 - Adam asking the younger Duggar kids how their "jurisdictions"(chores) have changed now that they're on a big fancy book tour

#7 - Anna Duggar excitedly striking up a conversation with me about my Ergo baby carrier, including questions about the style of Ergo I went with, if the infant insert was really necessary and whether or not we went with the "organic" one.

(My answers were as follows: Sport, yes and of course! (even though it really isn't))

#6 Mama Duggar excitedly striking up a conversation with me about my Ergo baby carrier...Apparently the Duggars are in the market for not one, but two new carriers...Do I hear the pitter pat of the 20th set of tiny footsteps in the near Duggar future?

#5 - Josh and Anna Duggar asking us if we planned to have a big family. To which we replied of course we hoped to, but kids are just so expensive and we just aren't sure if we can afford to have a family as big as the Duggars...to which we were told "You know, there's no greater investment than your children" 

#4 - Hearing the Duggars sing a song Sound of Music style from the balcony above the crowd

#3 - Papa Duggar regailing Adam on the benefits of homeschooling our children - which Adam told him we of course planned to do since he himself had also been homeschooled...

#2 - Telling Josh and Anna that our kids names were Jes and Joren and then Anna exclaiming that those were "Great J names"!!!

(if the next baby Duggar is named Joren I am going to lose my shit)

#1 - Papa Duggar personally inviting Adam to attend his upcoming financial seminar

(It's the best thing he ever did for his kids you know)

And Then

they smile

and it's all worth it.

Trying To Catch My Balance

The truth is, having two kids is hard.

It's hard to go without the extra sleep you're used to.

It's hard to face the finances as the medical bills start rolling in.

It's hard to keep up on the housework and the laundry and all the other daily tasks at hand.

But far and away, the hardest part has been balancing my time between the two of them. And the truth is, I'm still trying to find my way.

The colicky symptoms are still hanging around and making us all miserable. Luckily, I found a great book that's been really helping to calm Ori when he has one of his crying spells, but the techniques are time consuming and it feels like he's getting all of my attention right now. Of course, Wes still needs me just as much as he used to and it's hard handing him off to someone else, or making him wait until I can get to him. With one unhappy baby and a two year old who I'm afraid is feeling a little forgotten, it seems like one big fat parenting fail after another for me lately.

Now, as an extra sour cherry on top --- I have to face the fact that I'm going back to work in less than a week and all of it is just a little bit overwhelming. I want to be there for both of my boys every minute of every day. I want to meet their needs and be the one to make them happy.

I want to be super mom, the thing is, right now, I feel like I'm not quite good enough to do it all.

But I still keep trying.

Could It Be Colic?

Don't get me wrong...I love my children dearly, but why do they have to be so high maintenance?

Yes, that dreaded word we hoped we had left behind forever has entered our daily vocabulary yet again...

COLIC

(the new c-word)

Wes had it, and it was bad, real, real bad.

Now my dear, sweet, little angel of a baby looks like he's following in his big brother's footsteps.


Not cool Oren, not cool at all.


When we brought Wes home and the colic kicked in, it was a rude awakening. Ruuuuuude I tell you.


The crying was non-stop, day and night. Anytime he was awake he was wailing. After a month of that combined with an impressive amount of projectile vomiting, we reached the end of our rope.  We took him to the doctor and suspecting an allergy to milk protein, she suggested we try giving him Alimentum formula.

It's hypoallergenic, pre-digested, robot-food (as Josh likes to call it) but boy did it work!
Within one day he was a totally different baby. We got to see what his face looked like when he wasn't crying - amazing! Unfortunately the stuff is outrageously expensive, worth it, but outrageously, ungodly expensive.

I remember going to the store to buy the first can, not knowing if it would work. We were desperate to have a happy and healthy baby, but at 3 or 4 times the cost of normal formula, we were kind of afraid of it working as well.  Well, work it did and we survived somehow (somehow being my mom who so generously bought baby Wes lots and lots of the stuff).

Now Ori has begun the crying fits. But, unlike Wes, he only cries (so far, knock on wood) in the evenings. It lasts a few hours and then he sleeps peacefully during the night and seems fine during the day. Also, he's not spitting up anymore than a normal baby would. So what is the reason for the crying?

Immediately, I suspected a milk allergy again, so in an effort to continue breastfeeding, I removed all dairy (even trace amounts) from my diet.  And you know how I love my ice cream. The problem is, 10 days later, he's still crying. It doesn't seem to have made much of a difference at all. I took him to our doctor and he said he doesn't think it's an allergy because he's gaining tons of weight (Hello, almost 4 pounds in 5 weeks!). He said even if it was an allergy to something I'm eating, it could be anything, or a combination of things. It could take me forever to figure it out and I could drive myself crazy cutting out every food under the sun. He suggested I keep breastfeeding and just power through it.  I would hate to know he was crying or in pain because of something I ate, but breastfeeding is still supposed to be the best, right? And if it's not an allergy, then what is it?

(By the way, we of course have tried swaddling and pacifiers but he hates both with a passion)

So, what would you do? Try the Alimentum? Eliminate soy or eggs or nuts from my diet next? Or just deal unless it gets worse or any new problems develop?

All you expert moms out there - I need your advice... so leave it!