Well, she's weaned.

After 39 months of nursing, Lacy is officially weaned. I got a lot of help from my great husband through this process, which started around her third birthday. That was when we started our bedtime routines, which included nursing for 5 minutes right before bed. Once Dave got put on the swing shift and wasn't there for bedtime anymore, I changed it to 5 minutes before she brushed her teeth, on the couch. Then, a couple of weeks later, Dave was back on the day shift and was home at bedtime. He started reading her the bedtime stories and tucking her in, and we haven't nursed in about a week now. I thought I would miss nursing more than this, but I guess since I had so much time with her, it is easier to let go. I loved our nursing relationship and am glad that we went for more than three years. It is much, much longer than average, at least in the US. But nursing her as long as I did, I feel comfortable knowing that I provided her with as much protection as I possibly could. I wanted to post a few pictures memorializing our nursing relationship, but for some reason my scanner isn't working (my first picture of us nursing is on film, not digital), so I'm going to have to wait on some of them.

I do know that by providing this for my daughters, they will grow up thinking of nursing as the normal way to feed a baby, and hopefully they will nurse their own children. Hopefully, by the time they are mothers, the world will be more accepting of breastfeeding mothers and doctors will understand more about it. It seems like lately there are studies that have come out that for some reason are trying to prove that breastfeeding isn't all it's cracked up to be. In the last couple of months, I've seen studies and/or articles that have come out disputing the diabetes/obesity link, increased IQ, asthma/allergies, and more (I'll try to link the rest of the articles when I find them). But IMO there are problems with all the studies that I have seen, or the news reports are taking one tiny portion of the study out of context. For example the asthma thing-- they didn't compare exclusively BF for 6 months infants with infants who were exclusively fed formula, supplemented with formula, or fed early solids (Dave has asthma, and so did his mom, and though he was exclusively breastfed, he was fed solids at 2 months old which has been shown to increase risk of allergies/asthma). But there have been positive studies, as well-- including a study that shows breastfeeding does not cause saggy breasts!

OK, I'm off to find some pictures of Miss Lacy-bug nursing, and I'll post them when I find them. There is a Blogger maintenance tonight at 11 so I'm posting now and I'll add the pictures when Blogger is back up again.

But as a teaser... here is a picture of a brand new Lacy right after our first nursing session (the other pictures of us actually nursing taken from this camera are completely blurry). TTFN!

Nightweaning bites.

Rose has some cavities. And I'm sure it is "baby bottle rot" type cavities. She doesn't take a bottle, but she does nurse to sleep. And studies have shown that breastmilk does not cause cavities, for some reason my little munchkins get the cavities right in the typical spot for bottle rot. I suppose it could be from all the wet kisses we give those girls! So here is the plan: baby #3 will not get kissed.

OK, maybe that won't fly. But here's what I'm doing for my Rosey-Roo: Tonight, Rose got about 10 minutes nursey time and then she was rocked to sleep, after I wiped her teeth with a cloth. Usually she just nurses to sleep. Unfortunately, she woke up about a half hour later and was inconsolable, except by breast. So after about 10 minutes of torturous cries, all the while rocking my sweet screaming Roo in my arms, I gave in and nursed her to sleep. This time, it took a half hour to get her to settle down and fall asleep.

Last night, I remember Rose waking up 6 times. My kids are terrible sleepers, if you can't tell! Anyway, I was able to successfully get her back to sleep without nursing three times, but she woke up about a half hour after that each time.

I guess I need to take some babysteps here. I think I will focus on getting her to fall asleep without nursing, and every other wakeful period I will attempt to get her back to sleep without nursing. In a couple of weeks I want to focus on not nursing her back to sleep until it is after midnight, and then (to preserve what little bit of sleep I may be able to get!) I will allow her to nurse back to sleep.

I keep telling myself that this phase will be over soon. But it's so hard! I would like to have another baby in the near future, but I have to have my Roo sleeping better at night before I start trying for another one. So I guess we'll have an 18 year spacing between Rose and the next child. *sigh*

I'm calling the dentist on Monday. I am horrified at the state of her teeth. Lacy's were bad, but Rose's are much worse, and at a younger age. I have no idea why. I brush her teeth every day, despite kicking and screaming throughout, and I give her fluoride, xylitol, and I've even started brushing her teeth1-2 times more per day. Darn my kids' oral fixation that cannot be satisfied with anything but the real deal!

I'm a Hallo-Weiner!

Tonight was our ward's Trunk Or Treat party. We had lots of fun. I was originally intending on having both girls dressed as fairy princesses, but in the end Lacy wanted to be Little... I mean BIG Red Riding Hood. Dave went as the woodsman/hunter and I went as a frazzled mom who was just glad to have the kids dressed, much less in costume!

The girls together:














Rose hamming it up at the cakewalk:














Lacy fishing for prizes:














Lacy made out like a bandit:

























And Rose spent her time quietly eating everything she could get her sticky little paws on:

























We had a GRATE time. We left just after 8, and when we got home we allowed the girls 15 minutes of free candy eating time, had spiritual time and went to bed, and everyone was in bed asleep by 9, which isn't too bad considering. I think we're going to skip trick or treating tomorrow and just go to bed. We got plenty of candy tonight, that's for sure!

Happy Halloween!

Another entry for the baby book

Rose learned how to spit. Yes, I know that spitting is something that most babies are very good at. Of course Rose has spit in the past. But this week she learned how to really gather up the phlegm and hock a loogie. She does it all. the. time. It is so gross! She just spits wherever she feels like spitting. On the floor? Great! Her sister's lap? Even better! Oh life with a one year old is fun.

I also have her in panties now. She's only had two accidents in the last two days, both of which were at the end of the day, during dinner prep hour. I kind of expect her to do that then. The more remarkable thing about it is, she (and all the rest of us) has been sick.

We all got it yesterday, except Dave who got it this afternoon. The girls didn't really show symptoms until this morning. I ended up letting Lacy watch TV all day long in our bed. I think she still has an elevated temperature but nothing big-- maybe 100 or 101 tops. Dave is very upset about being sick as he gets no sick leave. I sent him off tonight (for school) with some daytime cold/flu medicine and hopefully that got him through it. He can take some Airborne when he gets home. It feels like a 24 hour bug, so hopefully by tomorrow I'll be better and Dave can suffer through one day of work. The only thing that stinks is that this is a really sweaty illness. Hopefully this is the only one we get this winter.

My kids are cute, and some rants about overly managed birthing

I love my kids. I love that randomly in the middle of other activities Lacy will say, "Mom, I love you." I love that she plays so well with her sister, and is so protective of her. She is so smart, too (humor me here if these are typical for a 39 month girl, and smile and nod). She can spell her name (sort of, sometimes she says L-A-Y-S instead of L-A-C-Y, and occasionally she starts naming off random letters). She knows her birthday. She knows all the colors in the rainbow, can count to 20, recognizes numbers on paper at least through 6 and counts items well, through 5. She knows many of her letters and always gets the ABC song right, and some of her older friends do not. She can draw recognizable people now if instructed, and can break eggs without causing too much damage (when we're cooking of course).

Rose is also a joy. She says a lot of words and uses many signs now, though the sign for "eat" means a lot of things, as does "all done." She can say Lacy, now, though it comes out more like "eee-see." She is also very proficient with the word "hot" and says it all the time! Probably because I say it all the time to her! She likes to help me cook, you see. Today she went to nursery for about a half hour and she DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE I LEFT. She is SOOOOOO ready! Only 4 more Sundays to endure before she is nursery aged! YEA!!!!

And the birth rant. OK, I am a huge advocate of normal birth. I don't put much trust into the birthing industry in general, though I do trust my midwife (she is a licensed midwife but not a nurse midwife). I do generally trust the medical community, after all my life was saved by a great Uriologist (shout out to Dr. Ellen!). But birth is not a disease. Generally speaking, it should not be managed by surgeons. While I don't dismiss the need for surgery in childbirth (it is very necessary and lifesaving, and I know many, many mothers and babies have been saved by this surgery, including my own husband), I feel it is overused. Currently the rate of cesarean rate is about 30%. The World Health Organizations says that once the rate goes above 15%, it is costing more lives than it is saving. *Disclaimer-- I do support full choice in birth for ALL women, whether it be elective primary cesarean with a tummy tuck or unassisted homebirth in the forest. Mostly I want women to know their options and to be fully informed of all their birth choices, not just the ones their birth attendant gives them with risks glossed over.

OK, there is one situation in particular that I want to address. A woman in Relief Society today excitedly announced the birth of her newest granddaughter, born Wednesday. Baby was stubborn and didn't want to come out (mother was 41 or 42 weeks I think) so they induced the mother at 6 AM. Mother stalled out at 8 cm in the early afternoon. After several hours of being at 8 cm with no cervical changes, the doctor gave her a time of 6PM that she needed give birth by, otherwise she would need a cesarean. OK, to me that seems so suspicious. 6 PM? So he can get home in time for dinner? There is nothing wrong with stalling out at 8 cm, especially for a mom who had previously given birth vaginally, as this mother had at least two other times. I personally stalled out myself for about 4 or 5 hours, in transition the entire time, with no drugs I might add (not that this makes me special in any way shape or form, it's merely a fact to point out how horribly painful this 4 hours was-- I was actually asking for drugs at the end but didn't get them which I am glad for since I've had a bad epidural experience with my kidney surgery in 1997). Nobody said a single word about surgery to me, not once. And I certainly would have been open to it at one point in my labor! It's the 6PM thing that really bugs me. If mother and baby are fine, just not progressing, why have a c-section? Sometimes labor just stalls for no apparent reason and starts back up again after some time. I've always heard 24 hours after your water is broken (which I personally think shouldn't be a hard and fast rule in every situation), and this was only 12 hours, and I'm not even sure her water was broken at the beginning of the induction anyway. The good part of the story is that mother did give birth vaginally at about 10 minutes after 6. YEA!

Another woman in my ward had a grandbaby born this week, too. This one WAS by cesarean and a necessary one at that. Baby was transverse, which makes it impossible to birth vaginally. Mother had a bicornuate uterus (same problem my mother-in-law had) and baby wasn't able to get enough room to turn vertex. In the end, it turns out there probably WAS enough room to turn vertex, but because he was so frequently transverse there was a high risk of cord prolapse. So he was a c-section. While I guess technically because he was born vertex (albeit by cesarean) he could have been born vagnially, he did like to move to that transverse position a lot, and the risk of a prolapsed cord is too high to justify waiting until the onset of labor to decide whether to try for vaginal or not. It seems like many women begin labor with their first with spontaneous rupture of the membranes, so this would have been irresponsible on the physician's part not to recommend a cesarean in this case. And thankfully, this mother got a low transverse scar, which means her risk of uterine rupture is less than half of one percent (0.4%) in future labors, the majority of which are not fatal (3 out of 10,000 perinatal deaths, same perinatal death rate as planned repeat cesarean), so if she chooses to try for a VBAC (assuming her labor is unaugmented which increases the rupture risk, especialy if cytotec is used) her risk of rupture is about equal or lower than the risks of side effects from a cesarean.

OK, that's enough birth talk for now. Can you tell I'm obsessed? I really want to have another baby but I know now is not the right time. I want Rose to be closer to 3 when we have another baby. Which means only 6 months until we can discuss taking out my IUD! I know, TMI. For now, I'll live vicariously through my friend Emily, for whom I am throwing a baby shower on November 1st. It should be fun! We're filling her freezer with all sorts of goodies.

Cute Kid Stuff

This morning I took Rose potty and she peed. She stood up, looked at what she had produced, and said, "Peeeeeee! Peeeeeee!" in a very loud and high pitched voice. And later, Lacy was climbing the piano and I told her, "Get down!" Rose started repeating me: "Ge dow! Ge dow!" She's really going through a language explosion. She knows probably a dozen signs (maybe not quite but it's close) and she's learning new words every day.

And we only have 5 more Sundays with Rose in class with me at church! She goes to nursery in 6 weeks!!!!! I can't wait!

Last night tucking Lacy into bed, I asked her who she wanted with her to cuddle (as in a doll or bear). She asked for her baby Bella. I gave her a doll and she said, "That doll's naked. That's not Bella!" I tried giving it to her again, when she informed me that Bella is actually a pair of Dave's black socks. This totally reminded me of Little House in the Big Woods where Laura Ingalls has a corn cob as her doll!

Lacy's baby in her tummy is also named Bella, who is a purple baby. Her friend Wynnie's baby is a green baby. And when Bella comes out of her tummy, she will nurse her squishy boobies that are full of juice. I love 3 year olds! They're so fun!

Today is anti-procrastination day so I need to get busy!

Testimony Builder

I just started fasting again after a 4 year hiatus due to pregnancy and nursing. Well, obviously I'm still nursing, but now that Rose is 16 months old she's not needing as much out of me as she has needed previously. So this last fast Sunday I decided to really fast and pray about Dave's work situation. He's not particularly happy doing what he's doing but he wants to keep me home with the girls, so he keeps plugging along. Except that recently, he's been in kind of a slump. He was working a flagging job recently, which pays significantly less than asbestos abatement. We were barely creeping by on what he was bringing home, and we had seriously considered going to the bishopric for help. Fortunately, we paid our tithing and were able to barely squeak by for two months like this. Dave's weekly paychecks for the past two months were never over $600, and considering our mortgage is over $1200 and we have several other bills to pay besides, it was really tight. Somehow we got through. So that has helped me with my testimony about tithing.

And fasting... I really and truly fasted this month. I never have before. Sure, I've gone through the motions, but fasting is something that is difficult to understand for yourself, and it takes a while to develop a true understanding of it. I decided I would do it and pay the fast offering and everything (something I've never done before). I could only make it to 3 o'clock before I had to brake my fast and eat something. But considering I had a light dinner the night before at Women's Conference, I think I did pretty good. Well, the very next day Dave was approached with TWO new job opportunities (one of them we may still pursue) and yesterday Dave was talking with a guy about another opportunity that may come in the future that sounds really awesome. Dave right now is basically turning toxic waste into harmless recycled building materials, which will be a huge help in overcrowded countries that need to rebuild buildings (for example Japan). Dave would be installing the equipment all around the world for a very lucrative salary. I don't foresee it happening in the very near future, but if Dave plays his cards right I may soon be moving in to the yurt of my dreams!

So I have been spiritually fed recently and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm holding my own testimony-wise. We have been doing a lot more to stay close to Heavenly Father and it is showing. Some things that we've been doing include spiritual time every single day with the kids (we haven't missed a day since we started in June!) which entails reading scriptures (usually 5 verses or so), singing a hymn, and saying a family prayer. Family Home Evening is now a regular weekly occurrence. We've been paying a full tithe all year long, which is another difficult thing for me. Since July I've been including personal prayer in Lacy's bedtime routine. Personally, I've been diligent with reading the scriptures. I know I need to get better with my own personal prayers. Babysteps! We're hoping to be able to get to the temple once a month from now on, now that the kids are bigger. We've put forth the effort and we have been blessed. I am now a stay at home mom. Dave has opportunities set before him. Of course we still have a long way to go. But now I'm definitely feeling the hand of the Lord in my life.

Cheese, signs, and weaning

Rose is saying so many words lately! Today we were taking some pictures and Rose kept saying, "Cheese!" with the biggest cheesy grin on her face each time we took a picture. What a cutie! She also says "hot" "Lacy" "Ama" "Mama" "Dada" and a lot of other words that I can't think of at the moment. Probably in the area of 30-50 words already!

She is also doing great learning sign language. She knows "eat" and "finished" and we're working on "more" and "toilet," and maybe we'll do "drink" as well. And maybe "nurse" too, but she is pretty clear about that without having to sign it to me!

Lacy is officially weaning. Dave started a new shift with a new company this week. It's swing shift so I am in charge of bedtime by myself each and every night from here on out. So it's tough to put two kids to bed who both nurse. I rewrote Lacy's bedtime routine so that nursing is #3 on the list (before it was #6) and it is in the living room, not in bed. After nursing, she brushes her teeth, reads 2 stories, says her prayers, and gets tucked in bed with or without music (her choice, but lately she wants to listen to the rain instead). I'm hoping before she starts Sunbeams she's totally weaned. I'll probably write a new bedtime routine poster in a couple months to exclude nursing from it completely and take it from there. Hopefully it all goes well! We also have "How Weaning Happens" on hold from the library.

I forgot to blog that my parents got their mission call! Woo hoo! Frankfurt, Germany, leaving January 7th. Also, it is very possible that my sister will be moving up here next month around Thanksgiving. She's going through a bankruptcy and home foreclosure right now and her hubby has a great opportunity up here with a company he used to work for. He has a face-to-face interview early next month so I'll keep you posted! It's got to be stressful thinking about a big move across the country with 6 little ones including a frequently-nursing colicky newborn! Yikes!

Dave is doing well at his new job. I have a lot to say about this but my baby is being quite the monkey nursing right now so I'll get back to this topic later. It has solidified my testimony on fasting and prayer though

Carolyn and Monkey OUT!

A girlfriend day

Dave is at elk camp currently, and I ended up not watching Cooper today, so this morning we headed out to my friend Emily's house and spent the day with her. We came home with about 40 pounds of garden veggies and pears from her tree. It was a really nice visit.

I've also discovered that Rose is signing "all done" when she is through eating and wants out of the high chair. She also is a southpaw I think!

Oh, and Lacy wants to marry me in the temple when I have broken boobies. The temple is in my laundry room, FYI. When we get married, we hold hands and then dance.

I like wheat 'cause wheat is neat

I just bought two 45 pound buckets of white wheat. YEA!

Weights and measures

Lacy had an appointment today with her allergist. While I was there I took the liberty of weighing and measuring the girls. Granted this is not a real accurate reading, especially since Rose is so squirmy and the weight measurement was different each time. So I'm going by averages with her. So anyway, here's the stats:

Rose is my average girl. She weighed about 23 pounds (50th percentile for weight) and was 31 inches tall (62nd percentile). Perfect size!

Lacy on the other hand... she weighed (get ready for this!) 25 pounds (!!!!!) that, my friends, is less than the 3rd percentile for weight. She's actually gone down in weight, I'm not sure how since she is eating like a horse. I just chalk it up to different clothes on different days. And she was 40 inches long-- 95th percentile for length. Yowza!

New Lacy stuff: Lacy is now able to draw faces. She draws a circle and adds eyes, mouth, and nose, and sometimes hair (if I prompt her to draw those things, that is). She will scribble a body and the arms come out of the head. Pretty typical, I think. But exciting, nonetheless, as she has never drawn something besides circles, triangles, and lines until yesterday.

New Rose stuff: Rose probably has a vocabulary of 30 words by now. It's amazing. Today, Dave was looking at pictures on the camera, and was watching a video of Rose learning to walk, and Rose pointed to it and said, "Me!" She also pretended to call her dad on the phone and said, "I call my dada" or something that sounded exactly like it!

Both the girls are growing like weeds and I'm so excited to see them get bigger. They're both still nursing, though Lacy only once a day usually, and Rose won't nurse the right side. So because Rose nurses about 20-30 times a day sometimes (usually for 2 minutes here and there with about 5 or 6 big nursing sessions a day) so that means that I'm lopsided. Majorly. Like, DD on the left and A on the right. It is comical, actually. So I dusted off the ol' pump and am trying to increase supply on my right side in order to even myself out!

Coop!

My new nephew Cooper was born at about 7:45 this evening after a long induction (11 hours... which is more than twice as long as her last two I think). 8 lb 7 oz 20 1/2 inches with very little hair. More to come as I get info!

Who does she look like???

Weird. Everyone says Rose looks like me and Lacy looks like her dad. Rose has my eye and hair color, and Lacy has her dad's coloring. They both have their dad's eye shape and my hair texture. Maybe if my computer weren't such a clunker I could have found a better picture of Dave and of Lacy! But all of Dave's pictures had him with sunglasses or a baseball cap, so I chose the best of what I could find without having to dig through a bunch of photos. And most of Lacy's seem to be action shots!

Prayers

At dinner time, when we say "it's time to say a prayer" Rose will fold her hands and talk in gibberish in the same intonation as one would say a prayer. She did this at my parent's house this evening and it was very cute.

Also Lacy has a baby in her tummy named Bella. She has pink eyes, pink hair, and pink clothes. Just thought you should all know.

And more progress on Dave's genealogy lines: I found his great grandparent's names. Now I just need to find her maiden name so I can do a little more research. I have found one generation more than I had yesterday, though. I also found the first name of his great great grandmother, and her approximate birth year and place, and the birthplaces of her parents. But again no maiden name, so I'm kind of hitting dead ends with the women. I am trying to find marriage records to get maiden names, and have contacted a volunteer from the US Gen Web Project for assistance with this. Hopefully he'll be in touch with me in a day or two and I can find out what is gg's maiden name was!

Potty Progress

We've made some progress with both girls and their potty time! Lacy is fully potty trained except for at night. But a couple nights last week she woke up to pee in the middle of the night. I helped her go, and she fell back asleep literally as soon as she was done. Once she fell asleep on the potty. She rarely has accidents now, though yesterday she had one, but I blame it on 9 hours of sleep. She usually gets 12 1/2.

Rose also has been making strides. She is almost 15 months now, and the other morning when she woke up I put her on the potty, as usual. She didn't want to go so she got off. Then about 5 minutes later she backed herself onto the potty by herself. I had to help her get her nightgown out of the way, but seconds later she got up with a deposit in the pot. She did the same thing again 15 minutes later, but unfortunately I didn't move her nightgown in time. I may have a potty trained 18 month old because of all the work I've done until now! I'm so excited to see the concepts click in her mind. She's gone through a huge developmental spurt in the last 2 or 3 weeks.

Surprise oral surgery

This morning's dental appointment was for a consult. Dave was so upset to have given up potentially 15 hours of overtime for a consult. Especially when he thought it was for a root canal. All was not lost-- the surgon had an opening at 1 o'clock, which is pretty good considering usually it takes months to get an appointment! So we made sure my mom could watch the girls, went back to Olympia for a few hours and then went back up to the surgon in Tacoma. Five hundered dollars later, I mean one hour later, Dave came out of surgery with three fewer teeth. Well, they weren't really teeth. Just the roots in 2 cases, and only a small chunk of a tooth in the other case. We will be getting some vicodin and antibiotics tonight for the pain and infection.

Dave only has one molar on the bottom of his mouth now. We will have to get him fitted with some partials for the time being, though he really wants some implants back there instead. He also has a couple of root canals to get done and some cavities to fill. But the most important part is done-- the bad teeth are gone.

I'm so lame

I haven't posted in so long. I'm just trying to keep the house clean and the kids fed! But the girls have been up to so much lately. Lacy is growing like crazy and is so grown up now. She has been asking to go to Sunbeams, less than 5 months till she goes. Yikes! Rose now has 14 teeth as of this week, and is learning new words all the time. The other day she said penguin, and she is saying many other words and almost all the names of people in her life. She also is getting into all sorts of trouble by climbing on everything. I actually broke down the other day and put a latch on the kitchen cabinet below the sink because she kept getting into it. Sometimes, if I can't find her in the house, I just have to look in the back yard and I will surely find her in the sandbox. She can get the lid off by herself. She is definitely a second child-- very independent and plays well by herself. Lacy is also independent, but she has to play with someone all the time. I really wish we had friends who lived very close so that I could have her play with someone all day long. I find myself sitting her in front of the TV all the time lately, and that is something I swore I would never do, ever. Fortunately, in two weeks I will be watching a 4 year old named Cooper, so hopefully she'll be entertained enough by him that she won't want to watch TV at all!

I also solved bedtime! Lacy now goes to bed so well every night. The trick is our routine poster. Thanks to Emily for suggesting it! Anyway, she has 8 things on her poster, all of them represented by a picture. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish to do her bedtime routine. We're also doing it with Rose, but going to bed easily probably won't kick in for another few months. Anyway, our routine is: 1. Spiritual time (scriptures, hymn, prayer) 2. Pajamas 3. Brush teeth and wash up 4. TWO books 5. Personal prayers (she usually blesses the food while she is at it) 6. Nurse for 5 minutes 7. Play music (Cinderella is the only option she will take right now) 8. STAY IN BED AND GO TO SLEEP. For the past two weeks, this routine has only not worked once. She has gone to bed easily by herself from the first night we started it. I think in another two weeks we will start a morning routine as well. We actually initiated the routine posters by having a FHE lesson about it, and ever since she has been a dream to put to sleep. I wish I had thought of this two years ago! Oh well. At least things are easier now.

Dave has an abcessed tooth. He has a dentist appointment tomorrow morning at 7 am. Hopefully the dentist will fix it, even though he is going in for a root canal. I just want him to be comfortable. I know he needs a lot of work done. I worry about his mouth quite often. He already has a genetic propensity to have poor oral health, but he also was struck by lightning nearly 10 years ago, further weakening his teeth and destroying much of his dental work, and it also irritated his stomach problems causing ulcers from all the scar tissue and such. So he throws up almost daily, making his teeth that much worse. I just don't want him in dentures when he's 40!

And more good news-- I've traced one of Dave's lines back 17 generations when two weeks ago we had information on his great grandparents and that was where it stopped. I've found about 200 names, most of whom haven't had temple work done for them. Yippee! Now I'm stuck on some of his other lines and one of my mom's lines as well, but apparently a cousin of mine is doing some work on that line so I'll have to be in touch with her. I do think that my mother in law is up in heaven helping me find the information to take to the temple. It makes me feel a lot less guilty about not being able to go as often as I should.

Anyway, that's the update for now. I had better start my own bedtime routine-- I have to be out the door before 6 tomorrow morning!

A mother needs our help!

I've been given permission by the mother to post this information to my blog. Here is portions of a letter she wrote to her senator, Florance Shapiro, that explains the whole story:

y son was removed from my home first thing in the morning on the 18th of July. The charge was "medical neglect", prompted by a doctor who had never seen my son, on the word of a nurse who seemed to resent my desire to continue to breastfeed him. While we acknowledge that he was underweight, we dispute that there was neglect. My son Erick had a very rough entry into this world (high risk pregnancy, difficult labor and deliver, nicu stay in two separate hospitals), and we were trying to find out why, despite a proper amount of diapers and meeting milestones he wouldn't gain. I can provide paperwork, log books and statements to back this up. We were NOT ignoring him, which is what seems to be implied. Despite the claims of Martha Strong, the nurse (she claims that he was at "death's door", and only immediate removal would save him), we have video of him taken two days prior to his removal that shows him smiling (at 5 weeks), tracking and then getting annoyed with the dog, who licked him on his head! He was not acting weak or lethargic.

We were offered NO services, NO investigation and NO options. They just came and took him. We weren't even allowed to put him in the car seat that took him away.

Fast forward to today, and we are informed that he is being released from the hospital and into foster care. Our 2nd court date (apparently there was one held already that we weren't allowed to attend) is supposed to be (according to CPS's own rules) WITHIN 14 days of removal. They have offered us one on the 13th of August, almost a full month later! Supposedly, there is something going on at the courthouse during the time when we were supposed to have our hearing. When I asked Jamie Specht, the case worker, why things couldn't be speeded up instead of delayed (since family reunification is supposed to be CPS's top priority), she said "Mrs. Vinton, if you argue with me, this call is over". We have found her to be very combative through out the entire process, and do not believe she is acting in our or our child's best interests.

CPS has violated a number of their own policies, according to the handbooks they gave us and online research we’ve done:

1) An investigation of some sort is supposed to be done before removal. Removal of a child from his home is supposed to be a LAST resort.
2) She came to my door without a court order, though she claimed they had already been in front of a judge.
3) When they did get in front of a judge, we weren’t allowed to be there to defend ourselves or our son.
4) We haven’t gotten to visit him yet, supervised or otherwise. We are supposed to have a visit coming up on Wednesday, but the case worker has canceled interviews with my other children 3 times already, so I have no reason to believe this will actually happen until we are there and he is in my arms (for the first time in two weeks).
5) She has stated that she will not allow a lawyer to be present during the interview with my other children.
6) The case is supposed to be heard in 14 days, but we won’t be heard until almost a month after the fact (a very long time in the life of a newborn!).
7) A family member is supposed to be offered before foster care. We weren’t given this option, despite a large, loving family who would be willing to take him.

Ms. Shapiro, we have done nothing wrong but get on the bad side of a nurse that we went to in an attempt to help him. If they felt he was at such risk, at the very least they could have removed my medical rights, leaving my other parental rights in tact, and restoring them when they felt his heath was more stable. I have three other children at home, ages 9, 5 and 3. The older two wake up with nightmares that someone’s going to take them too. My 3 year old thought we “got rid of him” because we “didn’t like him anymore”. Can you imagine the damage being done to them as well? How am I supposed to convince my other children that they are safe, when quite frankly, I’m not so sure myself?? This seems a horrific abuse of power by a state agency that has no one to keep them in check. Please, I beg you… I am not a rich or powerful woman, but I love my children deeply and can’t believe that this action is right or moral. I need my son back. And what’s more, he needs me. Please help us.

(Carolyn again) if you are able to help, especially if you live in Texas, you can contact this mother by responding to her post in the Mothering forums, or by sending her a private message. Or you can send a message to your state representative if you are in Texas, or to Rep Shapiro if you don't. Please, if you can spare 5 minutes, this mother is being pushed around by a way too powerful organization. She needs help. Thanks for doing whatever you can!

Happy 3rd Birthday Lacy

I've been busy de-junking my house and playing with kids, so no blog posts lately. I'll try to be back on next week or so after I feel a little better about my house!

Anyway, three years ago this time I was holding my not-yet hour old daughter. My sweet Lacy just turned 3. She was so excited to help me make a pink and purple birthday cake today. She got lots of presents from friends and family (thanks, everyone!) and we got visits from my parents, Dave's grandpa, Emily and her kids Tuckerby, Danner and Wynnie, and Jay and Tuana came by, too. Lacy's presents include: A 3 wheeled scooter complete with head and knee protection, two tiara sets, several dress ups and dancing outfits, a princess backpack and lunchbox, a pink umbrella, some books and a CD. I think there was more but this is off the top of my head.

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick blog and hopefully I'll upload some pictures in the next few days to share.

We're Back! And wedding bells are in the future!

We just got back earlier this week from a trip to Utah for a family reunion and to Arizona to visit my sister, Leslie. While I was gone, I found out that Dave's brother Tim proposed to his girlfriend April. They will be getting married in the Seattle Temple (I believe) on August 25th. I have offered to help them in any way I can since it is such short notice. In other good news for Tim, he is starting up with the plumbers' union tomorrow as an apprentice. go Tim! Tim will be staying with us until he gets an apartment around the time of his wedding next month, since he now works in Olympia. (((Update: This wedding was later called off and Tim now has a girlfriend named Julie)))

Dave isn't faring as well as his brother, unfortunately. Last week was a scorcher (for Washington) and Dave was working on a roof where the temps got to 115. The first day of a new job, they have to wear just their containment suits for safety reasons, and despite wearing sunblock, Dave burned through his containment suit, and the next day he burned through his suit and his garment top. He's completely blistered and painfully red right now, but he's slowly but surely getting better. I wish he had 2 more days off to recover, though. But in good news, his company has given him keys to the shop and he gets a lot of "window time" which means time spent next to the window of a vehicle! He's doing extremely well at his current job and enjoying it. Hopefully he can keep it up for a couple years until he's ready to go to school for taxidermy.

In Rose news, we have 12 teeth now! Yea! And in Lacy news, she is recovered from bronchitis now and has stopped napping, and goes to bed at 8. She really still needs a nap, but it makes bedtime miserable for us so I decided to cut it prematurely. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip: