Adoption is FINAL!!!

So it is official.as of Thursday afternoon.. Randall is now legally Korey's father. Korey's last name is now Jones. We dropped his middle name and made my maiden name his middle name(all Korey's choice)..New name is
Kortland Hamilton Jones..YOOHOO. I am so relieved. I have been on pins and needles the last few months waiting on everything to be finalized.
Because I had no idea where the "biological donor" was, we had to do what is called publication of the petition for four consecutive weeks in two seperate papers, we also had to send a certified letter to his last known mailing address that I had. Anyway.. All I can say now is too late... You lose and the best part is. The Judge that signed the finalization papers is the same Judge that signed the original petition for child support so many years ago(of which I never got a single payment). I am so relieved and the grin on Korey's face shows it all.. I will post the picture of us with the Judge later this evening as I am at work right now.. Yippee!!!

Laughing like a Hyena!!!!

Ok, so I will fully admit that I LOVE reality TV, well some of it anyway. My new guilty pleasures are the shows- Tabitha's Salon Takeover and The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. My reasons for loving these shows and laughing like a hyena while I watch them- I am just like these ladies. I say what I mean and don't care what anyone thinks, basically I am a Bi00tch!!LOL.. Only my true friends know this about me. I love the scarcasm of the lead ladies on both of these shows. One comes on the Bravo channel and the other on the Oxygen channel. The problem with these shows, none of my other friends watch them, so I can't make fun of them with anyone else.

Weight Loss battles

Ok, so does anyone else remember being told that "breastfeeding makes you lose tons of weight". Well maybe for some, but not for all. I ended my pregnancy at 12 lbs BELOW my prepreggo weight(thanks to a little thing known as all-day sickness) and lost another 19lbs within the first week of having little Karli. I am now down a total of 39 lbs. I was so stuck at 36 lbs for over a month. Finally this week, after strictly following weight watchers for over 2 weeks I have lost another 3 lbs. Now I was told that I shouldn't lose more than 1 lb a week, so is the 3 something to be proud of or is that bad. Can I count that as the last 3 weeks worth of weight loss? LOL.. Anyway I am very proud of myself, but just want it to be known that the weight doesn't just fall off with breastfeeding.

New Off Days

So Randall did his semi-annual shift bid on Wednesday and....drumroll please.... He got nights(again)...He actually wanted to remain on nights, it just works well for us right now. The upside is that his off days are changing. Beginning Oct 1, he will be off on Sunday and Monday nights. This kinda throws a hitch in my working, as I already work every other weekend, but it will all work out.
Since I have to work 8 days a pay period, I am going to work 3 days one week, and 5 the next week. The 5 days will be on the week with my weekend, that way at least one of mine and Randall's off days will be together for us time. I am very thankful that I was able to go back to work part-time. Our hope is that by the first of the year, I will be able to drop down to 5 days a pay period. I never thought I would want to be a stay at home mom, but with 2 kids now, I really want to be at home more.

The Lactation Center at my work

Let me just say. Thank God!! I am so glad that I work somewhere that is so pro-breastfeeding. I am able to leave and go pump during my shift as many times as needed with no questions asked. How many people get that freedom. The Lactation Center is very nice, although it is small. It is equipped with 5 seperate "stations" which include a pump, a comfy chair, and a table. There is also one private room ( which I had to use today since I left my nursing cover at home). I am so blessed because they have the Medela Lactina and Symphony pumps there for your use and also give you a nifty cubby hole to keep your "dry parts" (the parts of the pump that never touch your milk).
Although I use an Avent Isis Duo Electric pump at home( which I LOVE!!) I am using the Medela Symphony at work which does the job, but isn't nearly as comfortable as my pump. It also cannot be used as just a single pump, whereas mine can be. Also I can hook up to an 11 oz bottle onto my pump and use that same bottle for storage, but with the Medela the biggest bottle is a 5 oz, and I only have 2 of those. So after pumping I have to transfer my milk into storage bottles, which is a hassle. With the Medela pump you can buy storage bottles that hold 80mL which is almost 2.5 oz. My problem is, I pump more than that at once, so I can't pump directly into those. I would definitely suggest the Avent pump to anyone.http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/us/consumer/cc/_productid_SCF294_99_US_CONSUMER/Twin-electronic-breast-pump+SCF294-02 Another good thing about the Avent pump, they sell sippy cup nipples that fit the bottles as well, so you really can use this system the entire time.

First 2 days back at work

Well I must admit. I did not turn into the blubbering fool that I thought I would when I left Karli to go to work yesterday. It might have been because Randall was keeping her. I did good. He called me to check on me before I was able to call him to check on her. My day was okay. I fell right back into the routine of things, however I was kicked out of everything. All of our charting software, the medication and supply pyxis. So I spent over half the morning on the phone with tech support getting myself put back into everything.
Today went just as good. I was a little nervous because of having to get myself and Karli going this morning and dropping her off at my Mom's but all went well. I was actually early to work yesterday and today...(that doesn't happen often) Karli did really well both days. She is totally on schedule and eating 3 oz of ebm(expressed breastmilk) by bottle without any issues. Since she hardly ever gets a bottle, I was not sure of what volume to leave, so for now we are set.

Back to Work this week..YUCK!! and possible changes

Well my maternity leave is officially over this Thursday. What stinks is while it has been 12 weeks, Karli won't be 3 months old until the 26th.
I am very Blessed that I won't have to put Karli into daycare. Randall will keep her 2 days a week, and the grandmothers will take the other 2 days. I feel very lucky to only have to work 4 days a week, the downside, as a nurse I have to work every other weekend, the upside, I get longer stretches off without missing time and I still accrue sick and vacation time.
Randall also has to do shift bid this week(every 6 months they have the option of changing shifts based on senority). There is a possibiliy that he may end up on DAYS!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how great that would be. He has been on nights since we got married, so it would be so nice to sleep like a normal couple. Plus I have lived the sleeping like a vampire life and once you get on days, it is so much better.

Babies and Daily Schedules

I am so thankful that I got Karli on a schedule at an early age. I know that some people say that schedules aren't good for breastfed babies, but when that breastfed baby is forced onto a schedule because of an early arrival, then who am I to try and change it. Well I did change it but only to fit my routine. When Karli came home from the hospital she was eating every 4 hours like clockwork, no keep in mind that once I got her home, I started nursing instead of pumping all the time. Sometimes she would nurse more often, but not everyday.
I am happy to report that we are officially sleeping at least 6 hours if not longer at night. She is a little bit of a night owl, as she doesn't fall asleep till around 10:30, but we always start the nightly routine at 8:30. Sometimes she goes to sleep a little earlier, but very rarely. I have noticed on the nights when daddy is home, she goes to bed a little earlier. I guess it is probably because she knows that I stay up late and therefore wants to stay up with me and my chat friends.. I have noticed this week that she is still asleep when I would normally be getting up for work, so it will be interesting to see how our routine changes once I have to start getting her up to take to the babysitters houses. Well enough of that rambling.

Snapshot of the kids

I was going through the camera today and found the cutest picture of the kids. Just a little snapshot from one day at the house, but it is so cute.

Little Bit of a Rant

Ok, as all of my friends know, I am exclusively breastfeeding our daughter. While she was in NICU, I was deprived of the good bonding time and was forced to use a breastpump instead of just letting my daughter nurse. This caused issues with my milk coming in. However, after working my butt off for the first month, I finally got my supply up to snuff and have been able to store a good little bit away for when I return to work.
But here is my rant, I am sick of the in laws and my parents telling me that I am starving my child. They seem to think that she is always hungry. I have tried to laugh it off and always just say, if I was starving her then she would not be growing and gaining weight! But I swear that if it gets said one more time I am going to go off. I mean do they honestly think that I would purposefully withhold food from my child. The other thing they have been asking is when can we give her real food. Hello, but last time I checked breastmilk was real food, and I am working my butt off to make sure that I have enough milk to continue breastfeeding her. UGH....
My main worry is that when I go back to work, they are going to sneak something into her diet. Luckily Randall will have her 2 days a week, so my mom or his mom will only have her one day a week each...and since we are on such a strict schedule, and I plan on sending just the amount of breastmilk that I know she takes, then hopefully she will be okay and not starve to death...Lord help me to not go off on my parents or in laws....

First Anniversary

Well we made it to a year..LOL..09-08-07. I can actually remember more details of that day than I thought I would. We haven't had a disagreement or anything. I did get a great anniversary present, I got a Wii!!! Yippee.. It is the funnest thing ever. I have to say I was very surprised. I got Randall new bowling shoes, some gloves for work and a couple of movies. I came out the best, but Randall says not really because I have to share my present with the whole family...LOL...