10 MONTHS!!!

Well yet another month has just flown by.  I still can't figure out where the time goes.  Today Cameron is 10 months old.  He's starting to get more and more of an attitude and temper and I see his brother all over again (GOD help me)...LOL  He is either really super happy, smiling & laughing or he's really mad and doesn't hesitate to let you know.  I have never ever in my almost 42 years heard a baby that screams as loud and as high pitched as he does.  It adds new meaning to "blood curdling"!  He is getting to be so much fun though...learning new things all the time.  He smiles & laughs a LOT and he has the cutest darn smile I've ever seen...he smiles a lot with his HUGE blue eyes.  Speaking of blue, I'm sooooo happy and excited that his eyes are going to stay blue!!!  I was so hoping that both boys would have different eye colors.  He's also losing the red tint to his hair (that makes me sad because I wanted two red heads).  I think he's going to have dark brown hair like daddy!  He still doesn't have any teeth!  His brother didn't get his first tooth until he was 9 months old and then didn't get another one until 13 months.  Again....following right along in his brother's footsteps:)  He's getting closer and closer to walking.  He's been cruising all over the place.  We bought him a little walker that you walk behind and push and he goes all over the living room with that thing.  He'll even let go and just push it with one hand.  It's super light weight so it's not like he can use it to support his weight.  He is actually walking but just using it for security!  His legs are definitely strong enough to walk and he definitely has the balance and coordination, but he just needs that confidence to let go!  He's quite investigative and really isn't afraid of anything.  He's a little daredevil too.  He tries to climb on anything he can.  He'll stand next to his swing and only hold on with one hand while he swings the heck out of the swing with the other hand.  He and Brayden have actually starting interacting more and he likes for Brayden to lay flat on his back while he climbs onto his stomach and pulls his hair.  I wondered when the sibling rivalry would start and guess what???  IT'S HERE!!!  Brayden has a fit whenever Cameron touches one of "his" toys.  He'll walk up to him and grab it right out of his hands proclaiming "NO, that's MY toy!" I've really had to watch him closely too because he's becoming aggressive and has hit his baby brother and pushed him down and thrown toys at him.....ugggghh!!!! 

We have signed Brayden up for "Soccer Tots" and he'll be starting his first class on August 21st.  I'm really excited about it and I think it will be good for him.  It will help him even more with coordination (even though he doesn't need much help in that area) and hopefully make him better at interacting with other kids.  I really wanted him to take karate but it's WAY too expensive.  I think he's going to have a blast and he's in the 3 1/2 to 4 year old class.

I've ventured into the cloth diaper territory due to a bunch of my online friends getting on board and swaying me into it.  There are soooooo many options out there and I'm not sure what I think about it so far.  It definitely is a LOT of work and extra laundry and kinda gross to have to wash the poop off each time in the toilet.  I'm finding that one brand/style of diaper definitely doesn't cut it.  They are all made sooooo completely different and what works for one baby, definitely doesn't necessarily work for another baby.  Some are better for fatter babies, some are better for skinny babies, some are better for skinny legs or longer torsos, etc. etc...  Some definitely do NOT work well at night or for long naps especially when you have a heavy wetter like I do.  You really have to try out many different kinds to find what works the best.  They are NOT cheap either.  The good thing is that there are tons of "diaper swapper" sites out there and thousands of women willing to buy used diapers so there is never a problem re-selling them down the road.   It can get rather addicting though ordering different kinds and trying them out.  I'm pretty close to making a decision as to what I'll probably stick with and I'm waiting on a gal on one of my online groups to finish making me ONE of her diapers.  They are super cute, well made and I'm hearing lots of great things about them.  She's supposed to be shipping it to me shortly so I'll have yet another style to try.  I'll update later down the road as to whether or not I stick with it and if so, what styles I ended up staying with.  They look sooooo funny on Cameron because disposables are sooooo trim these days compared to way back when and cloth is soooo bulky....it makes him look like he has his mama's HUGE butt...LOL  I'll post pics later on in this post!

If you remember from my previous posts, I was having horrible problems with my stomach.  I ended up having an endoscopy done and they found inflammation in my stomach lining but aren't sure of the cause.  However, I'm VERY happy to report that I think whatever it was has cleared up for now and I've been feeling tons better in the stomach area.  They ruled out any lesions, ulcers and celiac disease.

Now on another health front....I'm still having horrible constant anxiety.  Thank GOD the panic attacks have pretty much calmed WAY down though.  They are still toying around with medicine because it seems that I've gotten super sensitive to all of the meds and now my Psychiatrist has finally listened to me and decided that there is probably something more going on as far as hormonal imbalance, adrenal problem, etc...I'm going to an Endocrinologist this next week and can hopefully get answer as to whether or not it's more of a physiological thing.  I think what made him realize that something more is going on was when I told him about my awful experience at the dentist a couple of weeks ago.  I had some gum work done due to gum disease and the dentist suggested that I get numbed up (which I haven't done since I was in my 20's because I HATE shots in my mouth).  I finally agreed since the cleaning would take quite a long time.  She started giving me shots in my mouth and after about the 10th shot, I started feeling VERY strange.  I felt really sweaty/clammy, lightheaded and my whole body started shaking uncontrollably, almost like I was having convulsions.  I felt like I was in a fog and everyone's voices sounded really far away, like we were in a tunnel.  I really really thought I was going to lose consciousness.  The dentist started getting a little freaked out and grabbed her blood pressure cuff and when she checked my blood pressure it was 170/140!  Then a few minutes later it crashed down to 90/50.  Then it would shoot back up again, all the while my body continued to shake uncontrollably.  They called 911 and immediately put me on oxygen while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.  They wanted to take me to the hospital as my pupils were fixed/dilated and my blood pressure kept freaking out.  I can't remember the last time I was so scared.  I ended up declining going to the hospital so they monitored me for about an hour and things finally started to feel sort of "normal" again.  The paramedics said I must have had some sort of reaction to the anesthesia and yet the Dentist was denying it.  The funny thing is on my way out of her office, she told me that if I ever go to another dentist, I might want to request the "epinephrine free" Novocaine....So that right there told me that she was admitting it was something in the anesthesia.  I had no clue that they put epinephrine in Novocaine.  Apparently it it is a vasoconstrictor which causes less bleeding and it makes you stay numb longer for lengthy procedures.  I came home and googled the heck out of the Novocaine/epinephrine combination and there were tons and tons of people who had had the exact same BAD reaction that I had.  Even right down to the shaking/convulsing thing!  Epinephrine is adrenaline and since I'm already "suspecting" that I have something wrong with my adrenals, it caused my body to shoot out a bunch of adrenaline, which affected my pulse, BP, etc. to be affected and caused all the other symptoms. Needless to say I will NEVER let them give me that combo again and I'm so thankful that things turned out o.k.

I also mentioned in the last post that my step-daughter (Rachel) was down here.  We had her for about 3 weeks and she actually loves to do laundry & dishes so I put her to work...LOL  She did a LOT of laundry and dishes while she was here!  It really helped me a lot but of course now that she's gone my kitchen and laundry are all behind again..boo!  I felt bad that we couldn't do a whole lot of "fun" things due to not having the extra cash but we did go to a carnival and she and Brayden had a blast.  We ended up taking Rachel to Richmond, KY to meet her mom (half way for both of us).  The boys and I went along and we got a hotel for the night so the boys could swim.  I wish I would have gotten pictures because it was Cameron's first time in a pool and he absolutely LOVED it.  He was actually trying to swim!

Well, that's probably enough of an update for now.  I'll post some pics and videos now:)

First time in his ducky tub (used to be Brayden's tub)...he LOVED it!

First cloth diaper I tried (pocket style)

I had to resort to cell phone pictures for some of these since my one & only digital camera died:( NOT a good thing when you take hundreds of pictures a week of your kids!

This was in the hotel room when we took Rachel back.  Cameron loved the full length mirror....this was him kissing the other "baby" in the mirror.....he talked to it, cooed at it, laughed at it, etc....it was sooooo cute!  This stage is soooo much more fun than the newborn stage!

My new cell phone has frames that you can select before you take a pic and this was one of the cuter ones...and what better subject to experiment on than my beautiful little man!  I was bored on the drive to Kentucky, can you tell?

Rachel & Brayden on a carnival slide thing.

Cell phone pic of Rachel feeding her baby brother.  I wish this would have turned out better because I LOVE this picture!

Race car ride at the carnival.

Look at that beautiful smile:)  This was his first time sitting in Brayden's old high chair  We finally dug it out of the garage and cleaned the spiders & dust off it!

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