February In Summary...

This car took the most "visible" damage...

We have been so busy these last two weeks that I never got a chance to post about our accident!  Yes, an accident...  On the 19th, on our way home from lunch (My Mom, Garrick, myself, and the baby), we were rear ended at a stop light!  Luckily, none of us were seriously hurt (sore backs and such), but the lady that hit us was seriously injured and was taken by ambulance as she was losing consciousness and had a pretty nasty "ouchie" on her arm (or so I was told, I never saw it).  We still haven't got my car fixed (the 2005 Ford Freestyle), but it was drivable, at least enough to get us home.  The impact was enough to move us an entire car-length (my car length) out into the inter-section (and then we rolled a few feet because I closed my eyes and took my foot off the brake when I saw/felt it coming)!  While I was panicking (looking for my 4-way button and parking the car), Garrick and my Mom did a quick assessment of everyone in the car and then Garrick jumped out (after I figured out how to unlock the doors) and ran to see if the other driver was okay (and call 911 because she was definitely not okay).  I was so shaken up that I couldn't move from my seat, Gabriel very nearly slept through the incident and didn't react until I started crying (damn "Mom hormones").  I had my Mom get him out of his seat and handed to me (so I could check him and make sure he was okay), after that, I calmed down enough to realize that I was sitting in a car that was sitting out in the middle of a busy inter-section and did not want to be hit again while sitting in the driver's seat holding my infant!  So, I grabbed his blanket out of his seat and covered him up while standing on the sidewalk.  Of course, it was raining lightly, and he wasn't in the warmest outfit (and I wasn't even wearing long-sleeves or a jacket)!  Since before he was born, I have had a pink, flowery baby blanket that is fleece (the kind that looks like it came straight off a sheep) and fuzzy (synthetic fleece maybe?) in a bag in the car...I had someone get it out for me and wrapped that over the baby as well.  I eventually calmed down enough to let Garrick put him back in the warm car, where he kept an eye on me, watching every move I made, until he drifted off to sleep, safe in his car seat.

After giving all of our information to the police, we were allowed to drive our car home, leaving the tow truck driver to collect the other car, which was not drivable.  It was an eventful occasion, with 2 police cars (the responding officer and his superior that arrived a few minutes after he did), a fire truck (the accident occurred blocks from the fire station and they were on scene in under 5 minutes), and an ambulance too.  If Gabriel had been a little older, he would have loved that!

Our car seat...(stock photo)

The "bad" news of it was we had just moved Gabriel into his new convertible car seat about 7 days prior to that!  That would be the $300 car seat that we hemmed and hawed over getting (because of the steep price), but ultimately settled on because it is the only convertible seat that has "stay in car" bases (we ordered a second base that is still sitting in a box in my dining room) and excellent reviews.  If you're curious, it's a Graco Smart Seat, All-in-One Convertible Car Seat (in Larkin, exclusive to Babies 'R Us).  We chose this one also because it converts all the way to a booster seat with a weight limit of 100 pounds and a height limit of 57 inches (at 4 months old, Gabriel weighs around 18 pounds and is 27.5 inches).  Of course, for the last 2 weeks, I haven't been ab;e to use it (car seats involved in car accidents are considered unsafe because they can't guarantee there was no damage to the seat) and we are back using the infant seat until the insurance company (her's, not ours) buys us a new one.

Back up sensor & corner damage...

No clue what this is...spare tire well maybe?

My tail pipe is broken-ish...

We take our car in on Monday to have the estimate done and are still holding our breath that there isn't more unseen damage that will make it so that they total it (Blue Book estimate is around $9000 still).  The good thing I did, as far as escaping bodily injury, was take my foot off the brake as the impact occurred...letting the SUV take the full brunt of the impact.  Unfortunately, I have been told by people more "in the know" than me that there is more likely a lot more damage that is not visible because of that.  We know that the entire rear bumper needs replacing (including the back up sensors which are now dangling free from the bumper), the tail pipe needs fixing (or replacing), and whatever that big metal piece is...(it's right where the spare tire sits in the back of the SUV), other than that, we will just have to wait and see!




That wasn't my "whole" month, but a scary part of it anyway!  Now, to make up for all that...baby photos! 

 First time in the stroller without the car seat!  Sorry about the red eye...hard to catch good baby pictures!

 Nursing...but I love how I was able to capture his beautiful eyes!

 He's started to "discover" that he can interact with his environment!  Toys that light up or make noise are especially intriguing!  This is his Seahorse (Fisher-Price makes them and WalMart sells them for about $15)...he sleeps with it every night (it stays up against the crib wall at about head level so he can watch the lights...he sleeps in the middle of the crib)!  Here though, he was playing with it at the hotel while we were visiting family in Central Oregon at the begooning of the month.

 Can't forget the toys that don't light up or make noise though!  Flatofrog has recently been taken away again because he's coming apart again...

 Passed out cold during a nap while on vacation...

 New toy from Aunt Stacy!  This is an "allergy friendly" developmental baby toy that came with instructions on how to clean it so that it has no allergens attached to it (we don't have any allergies though).

 Visiting other relatives in Portland!  Here, he was visiting with his Aunt Nanny (my cousin Tana) while sitting on Grandma's lap.

 Finger sucking!

 Gabriel has developed a fascination with this box...and my coffee cups (no matter the color), he seeks this box out every time we go in the kitchen!

 First time in the high chair!  He didn't last very long this time, but since this, he's been in it a few times to play while we ate dinner and the other night he played in it while I cooked dinner (for most of it anyway, it was his dinner time too so Dad had to hold him while I finished up cooking our dinner).

Another new toy...this one was supposed to be a gift for someone else, but it accidentally got left out of the box and we had just watched Dumbo (with the dancing pink elephants on parade), Gabriel saw this and has been playing with it ever since!

Gabriel's first Valentine's Day!  Well, a few days after V-Day...I got him this onesie on clearance on the 15th for 48 cents!

More playing with his toys...this is what he does when I have to set him down (to run to the potty or whatever).  He pitches toys over his head and loses them...that's why he starts with so many!

Just sitting...(assisted, those are my legs on either side of him)!

The other "news" we got on the 19th was about my "sore thumbs"...I was diagnosed with Carpel Tunnel (hands going numb when slightly bent...so pretty much all the time), Trigger Thumb (joints catching...feels like the bones are popping out of joint and is very painful when they catch), and DeQuervain's (tendinitis)!  I'm going to Occupational therapy twice a week for the month of March in hopes that therapy will make it better.  I could do Cortisone shots, but from what little I can find on the subject, it isn't safe while Breast feeding (because no one has ever studied it).  I need to call my Lactation Consultant and see if she has any information that I couldn't find on the subject.  If all else fails, they could do surgery, but I'd rather not do that!

We now have a Johnny Jump up so that I don't "have" to hold Gabriel all the time ($13 at Sweet Repeat) and are looking for an ExcerSaucer that is affordable (or hoping the one from my sister gets here sooner rather than later...if not, I have other uses for them) so that I can entertain him without killing my hands.  I have them both taped right now and am supposed to be wearing splints/braces, but cannot do anything with them on, so I have only managed to wear them at night while sleeping and while driving.

Hand therapy is kinda awesome though...on Thursday I got to dip my hands in a paraffin bath, then into plastic bags.  Then, I got propped up on pillow things so that my hands were elevated and piled with warming balnkets, where I sat for a good 20 minutes.  Afterward, my therapist did ultrasonic massage on the right hand (it's a little worse off than my left), followed by a massage (of my thumb region) and muscle stretches.  Then, that hand got put in an ice machine while she massaged the left hand.  I got iced on my left hand as well, then she taped up my thumbs and wrists using sports tape.  After all was said and done, it was back in the splints and off to come back home where Garrick had been watching Gabriel and attempting to work at the same time (making both harder to do).  I believe these last 2 therapy sessions (at the first I got the splints) have shown Garrick a little bot of how hard my days at home really are...he's decided to take time off of work in the mornings when I have therapy so that he can take care of the baby.

I'm doing very well back on the low carb diet too!  In the first week I dropped 11 pounds!  Fat Bombs are my life savers...though Garrick thinks I should put more peanut butter and add more sweetener to them (that would up the carb count in them considerably)!  As are the new Atkin's Frozen meals (more on them another day), I have one for lunch every day (except some weekend days)!  I've made Mocha Mini Donuts (minus the glaze) in my mini donut maker (I only got 19 donuts, but if I figured out my carb count correctly, it's 2.7g net carbs for 3 of them) and Breakfast Bonanza Muffins (page 236 in Low-Carbing Among Friends, volume 1...also by Lisa Marshall) to have for fast, easy to grab breakfasts in the morning while I nurse.  Dinner seems to be where I'm having issues...but that's more because I'm just so dang tired by the time dinner rolls around!  Last night I made Coconut Flour Pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner...I used my new (it was a Christmas present) Ice Cream Sandwich Maker (like the mini donut maker, but it makes 4 mini waffles at a time) to make "mini waffles" out of the batter!  I ended up making a double batch and serving a whole batch worth to both of us (a whole batch is 5.69g net carbs)...I was really light on carbs for the day and could "afford" it and I was also "starved" by the time I got to making dinner (not a good thing)!  A whole batch made approximately 12 mini waffles, so it could easily be divided among people and served with eggs and bacon, sausage, or any other kind of protein!  These waffles would make perfect "breads" for breakfast sandwiches too...

This morning I "missed" breakfast because I needed the car today and had to take Garrick to work.  When I finally got a chance to eat (after putting Gabriel down for his nap), I made a Muffin in a Minute!  I added a few dried Cranberries (the sugar free ones I made myself), a little orange extract, and about 1 tablespoon of Sugar Free Hershey's Chocolate Chips!  My Cranberry-Orange Chocolate Chip muffin was heaven with a good sized pat of butter on top!  I made it in a large glass dish and sliced it in half, it nearly filled my small plate!  And, with 1/4 cup of flax seed meal in it...I sure got my fiber for the day!  For the sweetener in it, I used a packet of Splenda with Vitamin B in it too, for an added "healthy boost".