This blog of mine
Hello there! I'm Jillz. I'm 26 years old and currently reside in Texas with my high school sweetheart turned husband, Joseph, and our two sons Travis, who was born on October 7, 2010 and Nathan, who was born on May 15, 2012 I'm a full time mother to my two children, a full time military wife to my husband who is in the Air Force, and an RN, but I'm a SAHM for now.
I blog about a variety of things from the challenges and joys of parenthood, the bittersweet moments of being a military wife, the rewarding and stressful moments at work, and just life in general.
Me and my sweet Nathan. Some say he looks like me, what do y’all think?
My baby is turning ONE soon and I need some birthday gift ideas! I am at lost as to what to get him. We have toys still from when Travis was his age so I don’t really want to pile on too many. He is getting much better with standing himself up. He has 9 teeth now! The 9th one just popped up last week. He is getting better with finger foods and has recently taking a liking to mandarin oranges!
For Nathan’s birthday, we had plans to take him & Travis to the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas. Unfortunately, Joseph and I couldn’t take off on the days we planned for since Joseph has to do some training and I’m still orienting on the floor (more on that next paragraph). We will do something small for him on his birthday (May 15) with just the four of us. I’ll order him a cake/cupcakes and just have a fun dinner with him & Travis. I would love to throw him a big party, but we haven’t really met a lot of people here in Texas! We will just save that for when we vacation to California. We are definitely still going to take them to the Great Wolf Lodge, but it’ll just have to be pushed till last week of May to June.
Anyway, I started a new job! I finished orientation (general hospital orientation + general nursing orientation). I decided to apply to Med-Surg again because I didn’t feel comfortable (yet) to apply to specialty areas. I think this was a good route for me since the hospital I previously worked at was a small, rural hospital so it will be nice to get exposure to more interesting diseases at this hospital that I am working at now (bigger hospital) I was given 3 choices for the units I could work at when I applied: med/surg, ortho, and oncology. All three are under the Med-Surg division, but are broken up into different units (the whole units are actually med/surg, ortho, oncology, neuro, surgical). I opted for med/surg (the medical side rather than the surgical side) since it was very close to the unit I worked in back in California.
I’m also working nights again! I wanted to work days, but after considerable discussion with Joseph, we decided nights was the best course for me since 1) I’ll be the one to drop Travis off to therapy in the mornings after I get off and 2) We won’t have to spend as much on childcare since we need less hours of it with me working nights.
Travis is doing well. We are so amazed at how much he’s improved. I know I always say that whenever I write on here, but really he’s like a whole different child. Travis has also adjusted to going to my friend’s home daycare well. He likes it since my friend’s son is similar in age to Travis! They play together, which is great so that he gets interaction. Nathan on the other hand has separation anxiety issues at the moment, so needless to say he isn’t too happy when I drop them off. Thankfully, he only cries for a minute or two upon being dropped off, but it’s still hard.
Anyway, I am getting sleepy. Hope everyone is doing well!
I haven’t been on here for a while (again). It’s such a warm day today and I hope that it continues to stay that way and not get any hotter or cooler. Spring is my favorite season (followed by fall & winter) and I want to savor every moment of it before it becomes scorching hot.
We are all doing well. Nathan is cruising now and has gotten way better at crawling so as y’all can imagine, he gets into everything that he shouldn’t be getting into. His latest thing is to stand himself up, let himself go from whatever it is that’s supporting him, stand for a few seconds while clapping his hands, and falls down on his butt. It’s so adorable! He’s also learned to feed himself puffs now and is slowly transitioning into table foods. Sometimes he still gags at certain textures, but it’s gotten so much better.
Travis is doing wonderful! He’s been at ABA now for a month and making steady strides. He’s following directions better. For example, if we tell him to go to timeout he now stays there and doesn’t try to run off like before. He’s also doing a lot of labeling these days and more pointing. We are very very pleased with his progress.
I’ve also found a sitter that can watch Travis and Nathan so I may be heading back to work! I’ve applied for a med/surg RN position at a local hospital so we shall see if I get chosen for an interview. If not, then it’s ok. I’m honestly not in a rush to go back to work. Either way, at least now that we have a sitter, Joseph and I can spend some time together w/o the kids (much needed).
Well I’m going to end this one here. Nathan is trying to climb on me to get to my laptop =)
Reading some bedtime stories =)
This is something that I’ll admit I’m new to. I was fortunate that Travis was an excellent sleeper. All he needed was his blanket, piano music, and pacifier. Nathan on the other hand, I’m not so lucky. Nathan is a bit difficult to put to sleep. You really have to work to put Nathan to sleep. Luckily, we don’t need to do anything such as rocking him or swinging him. However, HE WANTS US TO BE THERE WITH HIM until he falls asleep. If he is alone he will cry and cry and cry and cry. Honestly, I HATE hearing him cry because it stresses me out. So I’ll admit, when he cries WE GIVE INTO his demands. WE are part of the problem.
When he falls asleep, he stays asleep. He does wake up once at night to have a bottle, but falls right back asleep.
That being said, I really need advice to gradually and gently transition him to fall asleep by himself. I need something that doesn’t entail too much crying it out. So if anyone has tips/advice/personal experience that they’d like to share, please respond!
Happy 10 months old Nathan love!
I can’t believe we’re in the double digits already! Two more months and you’ll be 1! Oh my gosh, where has time gone?
I feel like you’ve accomplished quite a bit this past month. You’ve finally learned how to crawl and have gotten better at mimicking us. You can now say a few words such as dada, mama, and bubble! I know Travis taught you how to say bubble. You love to explore all over the living room and getting into things you shouldn’t be getting into. You’re also starting to eat table food now without gagging. You also understand what “no” means now and you don’t like it! You love going to the park with Travis and you love sitting on the tire swing or baby swing.
You always have a smile on your handsome face and your eyes always lit up whenever you see me, your daddy, or Travis. You love kisses and hugs. I love you so much. I can’t believe you’re going to be 1 soon. I feel like your babyhood just flew by so fast.
Travis’s cold made everyone in this household sick! It started with him, then Joseph, then Nathan, and then me. It sucks because it’s going to be a nice week with spring like temperatures and we won’t be enjoying it.
Anyway, I haven’t been in the best of moods lately. I’ve gone through a combo of being angry, sad, and at times un-hopeful. While I’ve accepted the fact that Travis has autism, I do feel overwhelmed with the ABA therapy that Travis attends 5 days a week. I keep thinking, “what if Travis doesn’t improve,” or “God forbid he gets worse?” Today I made myself stressed by trying to figure out when/if Travis will “talk,” I put that in quotations because he does, “talk,” but it’s just random and echolalic. Granted the stuff that he does repeat, he does say it in the correct context, but still. I cannot wait for the day where Travis will even call me “mommy,”
He knows what “mommy,” and “daddy” is because when we give him a direction such as, “Go brush teeth with daddy/mommy,” he knows who to go to. He does have (for the most part) good receptive skills, which has gotten better the past few weeks. I just want to hear him talk. He talks a LOT, but in his own jibberish and language that we can only understand a few words of.
It also doesn’t help that upon my Googling, I’ve read stories of some not even talking. That made me panic a bit because I would be devastated if my son never talked. Hopefully his therapist(s) are correct in that he will talk one of these days since he “talks” right now.
Other than that everyone is doing okay asides from the cold that we’re all afflicted with. Travis is getting less anxious with attending ABA, but he still cries when we drop him off. It never fails to break my heart! Improvement wise, he seems to be pointing more, a bit better at following directions, and (in contrast to what I’ve written above) MORE verbal. Nowadays he likes to count (he can count 1-10, but seems to skip 5), showing interest in ABCs, and even sings along to songs now (though we can only understand parts of it since the rest is in his jibber jabber). Though most of his language is his jibberish, we have noticed that he TRIES to talk more, so that in a sense is good.
Nathan is doing well. He is getting better at crawling/scooting and is getting around our living room, which keeps him content. He’s also been having some major separation anxiety whenever I or Joseph leave the room. He still sleeps in our room and he is an awful sleeper (well to me anyway). Last night he didn’t go to bed till 11 PM and then woke up around 1 AM just bawling his eyes out! He still wakes up once at night to eat, which honestly surprises me considering Travis slept through the night at 4 months old. No worries though, every child is different.
He’s learned to say mama, dada, bubba, and sometimes it seems like he’s saying bubbles! He hears me and Travis saying bubbles a lot since I’m always blowing bubbles for them. He loves cuddling just like his older brother at this age. He loves kisses and will give you slobbery kisses all over you face!
Nathan did me a favor earlier and woke Travis up for me from his VERY VERY LONG nap.
We got through the first week of ABA for Travis, which consisted of getting both kids up at 7 AM, getting them changed, fed breakfast, and out of the house by 8:10 (at the latest) to drop off Travis at the therapy center (he starts at 8:30). Both boys have been extremely cooperative. The only hard part for us is when Travis cries when we drop him off. Breaks my heart every single time.
However, Travis has been improving in terms of being separated from us. I think he’s done extremely well considering that he’s never been in a daycare/preschool type of setting before. The most he has cried according to his therapist has been about five minutes. He usually starts whimpering and having little cries when we pull into the parking lot (especially during the first few days), but his cries have decreased in length by the end of the week. On Friday, he only cried for about 10 seconds when him and his therapist got to the classroom! I am so proud of my little boy.
So while Travis is at therapy (which by the way we tell him he is going to school), Nathan and I spend some much needed quality time together snuggling and playing! We also do errands that I usually do when Joseph comes home from work.
Oh and guess what? Nathan is CRAWLING now! It’s not a real crawl yet, it’s more like an Army crawl, but it gets him around and that’s all that matters to him! The other day he made me panic for a few seconds because I couldn’t see him while fixing lunch for Travis, it turns out he was under the train table, which is kind of low on one side so it was hiding him.
So glad that the week went well. The only downside is that Travis caught a pesky cold! My boo boo hasn’t had an appetite, has had a runny nose and cough. No fevers though, so that is good. I hope he feels better by Monday.
Nathan had his 9 month appointment the other day. My little chunkster tips the scale at 20lbs 1oz and 28 1/2 inches long! Nathan is healthy as he can be. I was a bit concerned because he seems to gag when eating foods that have a mash potato like consistency. I had made him mashed sweet potatoes and mashed avocados, to which he gagged and vomited. It’s rather odd because he eats jarred sweet potato without problems AND can eat actual bananas, puffs, and mum mums. Who knows, maybe he doesn’t like avocados and home made sweet potatoes?
Also, his pediatrician was a little concerned because he isn’t crawling yet. HOWEVER, Nathan does pull himself to stand and can stand by himself while holding on to something for a few minutes at a time. Despite that, pediatrician still wants him to get evaluated by ECI since Travis is on the spectrum. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything “wrong,” I really think he just doesn’t crawl because 1) he prefers to stand and 2) I’ll admit that I don’t really put him on tummy time for fear that Travis will trample on him.
Surprisingly enough, when we got home and put him on tummy time, he made scooting like movements and raising his butt in the air. So perhaps he’s getting there? Regardless, I think we’ll go ahead and pursue the ECI eval since they’ll evaluate him for other things as well like fine motor, speech, etc and it will be nice to know if he’s right on track (which I think he is at the moment).
Nathan babble so much now it’s insane. He can say dadada and earlier he was looking at me and saying mamama. He’s also feisty with Travis, I can’t even begin to tell you guys how many times I’ve caught them fighting over a particular toy or my cellphone or my Kindle (Travis gets a hand of it and plays with it right by Nathan). Nathan is VERY PERSISTENT. Just yesterday he pulled Travis’s head back by his hair and bit him in the back (though I don’t think he bit him to be “mean,” he is teething) trying to get Travis’s drink! Oh and did I mention he’s only 9 months old?
