warm weather is finally here!

today was gorgeous! it was in the 60's and the rest of the week is suppose to be in the 70's and 80's. i'm hoping the warm weather is here to stay. we are going to start taking more walks down to the park/zoo now that the weather is a lot nicer.

costin is growing nonstop. he just started teething this past week. he has been drooling everywhere and sucking on his hands. a little fussy but not as bad as i thought he would be during this time. he is so curious and strong. he can stand for a long time now with our help and is keeping his head up without bobbing it around like he use to. he's always talking. we love listening to him. he also just moved up in his clothing size...he's now in 3-6 months. he's definitely our pride and joy. we love being his parents!

other news.. marcas lost his job two weeks ago. God has been providing for us. we have all our bills paid for this month. during this time..God is the one who is keeping us strong. we know he is going to take care of us no matter how bad the circumstances look. we are believing in an even better job within the next few weeks.

here are some up to date pictures of costin:


1-3. enjoying bath time

4&5. costin with his teddy bear

6&7. spending time with his grandpa & grandma

8. trying to wake up

9-13. nap time

everyday life..

our lives have changed so much within the past few months. marcas is still working over 48 hours a week and it has been extremely stressful to say the least. it has been really hard taking care of a brand new baby all day by myself and trying to keep the house in order. keeping the house in order is a work in progress. every time i lay costin down, he starts to cry. we bought him a swing.. thinking that would help me get stuff done around the house during the day but it turns out that he doesn't like it very much. within the past few days though he has been doing a lot better. i can actually put him in his bassinet near me while i do stuff and he's ok. he just started to discover his voice. it's adorable. that keeps him occupied for awhile now. he also has been smiling for the past few weeks. it's so cute! i can't wait until he can laugh.

as for me.. i'm doing alright. i have started to sell avon but still lack customers. i really need clientele because that's the only way i am going to get something out of selling for them. i'm not going back to work and this is going to be my only income for awhile. as you can tell.. i'm really stressed out about it. those of you who read this: "if you know anyone who likes avon products and would like to buy some... please give them my information. i seriously would be so grateful."

i took costin to the doctor last monday for his last checkup without shots. he's 9lbs. 14 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. i can't believe how big he is getting! he just outgrew all of his newborn size clothes and is in 0-3 months now. not too much longer and he'll be out of those too. his next visit is march 30th and he'll be getting shots. i don't know how i am going to handle it... i hate seeing him in pain.

the past few days the weather has been BEAUTIFUL! it has been in the mid 60's with a light breeze. i've been able to air the house out some. today isn't as pretty. it's suppose to rain but it's still warm outside. i really hope it starts to stay like this and we don't get anymore snow. i don't want to see anymore snow for awhile. it's funny how that has changed. my first winter here i was excited to see snow because we never would get it in hampton... now i can't wait to get rid of it. spring and fall are my too favorite seasons of the year because the weather is perfect. i hate the summer... waaaaaay too hot.

here are some recent pictures i have taken of costin. :)



1. marcas having fun with his hair while he was sleeping. haha (when he had hair... he's going bald right now)

2 & 3. costin enjoying his naptime in his swing.

4. we were about to leave and i had just put leah in her cage. i caught him looking at her and giving her the "eye". it was so funny.

5 . sleeping...

6. getting ready for a diaper change. **notice the top of his head... all his hair is gone**

changes in just 20 days..

i can't believe costin will be 3 weeks tomorrow. already he is growing extremely fast. when marcas and i left from the hospital on january 30th, he had lost weight (which is normal) and was 6 pounds, 10 ounces. by that monday when i took him to the doctor to be checked for his jaundice level.. he was 7 pounds, 3 ounces. they were surprised and told me that i was doing an excellent job breastfeeding. i took him again yesterday for his two week checkup and he is 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 21 inches long. every day i can see him growing. he started smiling a week ago and i can already tell he has his dad's sense of humor. :) he likes to play a game with me already. he acts like he is hungry and when i get ready to feed him.. he doesn't want it and just gets a huge grin on his face. it's cute.

he's the best baby a mom could ask for. we are truly blessed. he's never fussy unless there is something wrong. either he needs a diaper change, he's tired, or he's hungry. sleeping through the night is getting better. last night he slept until a little after 4:00 am. it was so nice getting some sleep!

i love being a mom! it's stressful but has so many rewards. he has the cutest facial expressions and gestures. here are some pictures showing you them: (i think he enjoys getting his picture taken) haha

labor and delivery..

i went into the hospital on january 27, 2009 at 5:00 am to start the process of being induced. my midwife decided to induce me a week early because of having high blood pressure and horrible swelling towards the end of the pregnancy. i had already been on bed rest for the past month. (it was not fun at all...) by the middle part of the day my blood pressure was on the high side and they started to give me medicine to lower it in my iv and i had to get a catheter. (talk about extreme pain.. that was one of the worst parts of having a baby) the rest of the day went by without me dilating. i started to have a few small contractions by the end of the night but still without any real progression. my midwife checked on me tuesday night and told me that she would go ahead and break my water the next morning. early wednesday morning i was far enough along to go ahead and get an epidural. i wanted one before the real pain began and before my midwife arrived to break my water. around 5:00 am (exactly 24 hours of being in the hospital) they gave me an epidural. marcas had to leave the room.. i wasn't happy about that but i guess that's the procedure there. the epidural went ok but the nurse hit a nerve while she was trying to administer it and i ended up nearly jumping out of the bed. once she finished my body for some reason acted weird towards the epidural and my blood pressure dropped to extreme lows. i started to go in and out of consciousness. i remember laying there and hearing the nurses arguing about what to do with me and saying that costin was up high enough if they needed to palpitate him. that freaked me out... i didn't care what was going on with me... all i wanted to know was what was going on with my baby. since my blood pressure dropped so quickly, costin went through stress and had a bm inside of me. (they found out that after they broke my water) they didn't act too worried though. they got my blood pressure to come back up by giving me some medicine through my iv and taking me off the high blood pressure medicine. at 8:30 am my midwife broke my water. i loved the epidural because i didn't feel any of it. around 11:00 am i had only dilated a few centimeters. by the early afternoon my epidural started to wear off and i asked for more medicine. i started to feel contractions getting a lot stronger and hurting more than anything i could ever describe. when they gave me more medicine.. it numbed my legs and upper body but not the area it needed too. they thought i had a blockage but they wanted to regive me more medicine sitting up to see if it that would work. thank God it worked because i did not want to have another epidural put in. around 3:00 pm my midwife came to check on me and i had dilated to 7 centimeters. after she left i kept getting stronger and stronger contractions. i told my nurse who had just started her shift and she asked me when i had been checked. i told her it had only been about 15 minutes earlier but i knew something was going on. the nurse who had been taking care of me the previous shift came back in to change my iv bag right before leaving and tried to get into an argument with my new nurse about rechecking me again. thankfully my new nurse (sherri) listened to me and rechecked me. in just 15 minutes i was dilated to 9 centimeters and in just 30 minutes after that.. i was completely dilated. sherri called my midwife and she told her to go ahead and prepare me for labor. my midwife wasn't going to get there until after she finished up her appointments at the office. around 5:00 pm i started to practice push with sherri and she felt costin's head. my midwife got to the hospital just in time for me to deliver. my beautiful little boy was born at 5:59 pm on january 28, 2009.

the past few months..

my life has been doing a lot of changing in the past few months. the last time i wrote on here it was the day before thanksgiving. i don't know where to start... here it goes:


1. we spent our second christmas together in our new house. one of my dreams ever since i was a little girl was to have a live tree when i grew up (as silly as it sounds). the reason being was because my parents never would buy a live tree. my dad always said that it would die and no one would take care of it. way to spoil christmas for everyone. anyway, marcas went out a few weeks after we moved in and bought me a live tree. it was beautiful and meant so much to me!




we spent christmas with margi and mike (marcas' parents) over at their house. i missed my family so much over the holiday season. a thousand miles is way too far away. hopefully, sometime in the near future we will be able to go out to virginia for either thanksgiving or christmas.


2. we have another new addition to our family. a boxer puppy named leah. she's 11 weeks old and full puppy with tons of energy... she doesn't stop. potty training has been an interesting adventure so far. the weather here has been extremely cold/bitter. yesterday, it was -9 degrees outside. today it's -13 degrees. she doesn't want to go out and neither do we. tomorrow it's suppose to be a little nicer.. nicer meaning in the 20's. this is way too cold for a southern girl like me! i will say though it has been interesting trying to get use to it. i think i am doing better than last year. it still hurts to breathe in this kind of weather no matter how use to it i can get. ok, enough about the weather. (haha) back to leah. she is such a joy to have. i have missed having a dog. we have eloise (our cat) not the same though. companionship is what you get with a dog. we've only had her for a few weeks now and already she is extremely loyal. she doesn't like me to even leave the room because she wants to know where i am at.. at all times. as far as eloise and her go. leah barks at eloise and eloise just watches leah. they both keep us entertained.







3. i've been on bed rest for the past month. i was put on bed rest because i have been having swelling in my ankles/legs and also high blood pressure. my midwife thought i had preeclampsia and started testing me twice a week for it (i hate getting my blood taken because my veins roll and it normally takes multiple times to find one.. oh, the joys of pregnancy.) all my tests have come back negative. thank God because i do not want to have preeclampsia. my midwife has just been monitoring me and making sure that costin is doing alright. i go in twice a week for a stress test and he's doing great. yesterday, i had a sonogram done to check to see if his lungs are developed enough for them to induce me. i will find out at my next appointment on January 21st. after seeing him yesterday... i just want to have him and be able to hold him in my arms. oh, and we decided to change his middle name to johannes. his official name is going to be costin johannes boyer.