It seems so silly to be writing about all these things that happened over a year ago, but I really want to have all these memories down while they are still relatively fresh in my mind for my girls and other future children to be able to read and share with their families some day. In all fairness when all these things were going on I was a little busy. Between chasing a VERY active then two year old, having a newborn and moving 2200 miles I was not overly concerned about writing down memories. Plus I was a little worried what might end up on paper as I was not in the best mindset at this point. I guess I will be honest here as motherhood and life in general can be so difficult. I was a wreck leaving Texas and mostly my family. We are very close, but I tried to stay optimistic knowing that we would be with Spencer's family in a very beautiful place. I did well for the most part through the summer. Spencer was around a lot because he wasn't able to find full time work until the beginning of fall. So that helped and kept me from feeling lonely. We stayed busy too, going and exploring our new home. We went on lots of drives and some hikes that summer and we did a lot of exploring on the 10 acre farm we were living on. Lila loved being able to go outside whenever she wanted and the majority of the summer was spent playing outdoors, either on the farm or by The Willamette River. She enjoyed our walks to see the farm animals at the neighbors houses and bug hunting. We also played in the sprinklers and hoses often to stay cool as most homes in the Portland area don't have AC. We also had visits from Uncle Jeff and family and Auntie Cindy and family. It was so nice to see all of them as it had been far too long since we had all gotten together. We had fun hiking and going to farms with both families.
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| Airplane ride to Oregon |
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| Alice 2 months old |
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| Picking blackberries |
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| bug hunting |
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| helping make waffles |
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| Loving on cousin Maddy |
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| such a good big sister |
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| yummy doughnuts |
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| watching the hay get baled |
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| First time in our Jumper |
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| Pumpkin Patch |
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| "Nuthouse" at the Pumpkin Patch |
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| Painting our mask |
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| Decorating candle holders |
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| Alice's first "meal" |
After this, and once the weather started to change and Spencer was gone long hours again working, I started to get VERY blue. I still talked to my mom just about every day and Maia pretty regularly, but we had a hard time finding time to stay in contact. We both have our own families and the time difference messed us up too. I also started having MAJOR sleep issues with Alice at this point. When she was just barely 3 months old we ended up in the ER with her because of a fever. No one else had been sick and we had no idea what might be wrong with our little angel. So, at the ER they did some tests and found E. Coli in her urinary tract. They prescribed antibiotics and sent us home. The antibiotics must have worked because her fever disappeared almost immediately, but the follow up with her pediatrician made it sound like he wasn't positive that's what made her sick. They checked her kidneys to make sure they were healthy and everything looked good. Happy to say she has not had a major fever since and has been healthy minus a few colds. However the antibiotics made her tummy a little sick and she would wake up screaming. I was giving her extra pro-biotics to combat the damage being done and she still was miserable. I thought my good little sleeper would come back after a week or so of being off the medicine, but she is 20 months old now and is STILL a crummy sleeper. I have read and tried everything short of hiring a sleep coach and nothing has worked. I guess one day she will out grow it or she will just be old enough for me to tell go lay in bed and stay quiet. Let me just say 5:30 is NOT an okay time to wake up in my book.
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| Cold weather won't stop us from eating popsicles |
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| Almost crawling |
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| bundled up to play outside |
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| passed out reading in out big girl bed |
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| first time playing in the snow |
Anyway with all that being said I was not in a good place. Sleep deprivation plus all the other very major life changes landed me at the doctor's office asking for help. I wasn't sure I had postpartum depression and the doctor didn't seem to think so either, so she sent me to a counselor. I only saw her once although I'm sure I could have benefited from seeing her quite a few more times, but life sucked me in again and I never got back to see her. She did tell me she didn't think it was postpartum, but just a whole lot of stress that had overfilled my bucket and any other little tiny thing that happened would overflow it and leave me beside myself. Unfortunately, it took quite some time and a whole lot of work on my part to get me feeling like myself again. I would say I didn't really start feeling well until right before spring time. Thankfully according to most the Oregonians I met that had lived there for some time said this was one of the mildest winters they had ever had. I'm glad for my sake it was not as gloomy and rainy as it normally is. What they had was already more than I care for. Not sure why I felt the need to write about this. I just think it is a real issue that a lot of stay at home moms deal with and that should be more easily talked about so that we can all rally together. One piece of advice the counselor and doctor gave me was to get out and find other moms. This was hard for me as I'm not the most outgoing person. I did meet some moms and would spend time with them, just none that I ever became very good friends with. I hope I can help a fellow mommy that might be struggling because that place is no fun to be in.
On a lighter note, Spencer found a wonderful job working in downtown Portland for an IRO after having two part-time jobs that were not providing the income that we needed for our family. He liked his job and the challenge it gave him. It was also a bit smaller company, relatively speaking, with the promise for growth and the opportunity to work from home. November got very cold with a few ice storms and the gloom set in. The excitement for Thanksgiving kept us going as Auntie Katie was coming with her new family (recently engaged with a step-daughter) and Auntie Amy and cousin Gavin were coming to spend Thanksgiving weekend with all of us on the farm. Lila was very excited to see some more of her cousins. We had a very nice holiday with family. Granny put on a wonderful dinner with just a little help from me. We enjoyed everyone's company and got to spend most of the weekend relaxing and going out to eat. We were sad to see everyone go, but I was also very excited for Christmas as it is my very favorite holiday. I was excited to see the girls for the month with all the decorations and traditions even though we would spend the first Christmas without extended family as Granny and Papa were planning on heading to California for the Holiday.
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| Granny's bday breakfast |
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| learning to make dinner rolls |
It was at this change in holidays that our family decided that living on the farm was not working out as we had hoped, so we moved into a two bedroom apartment in Beaverton. It is the same distance from downtown from Spencer's job, but there was public transportation for Spencer to get to and from work everyday, so the girls and I would have a car during the day. We got into our apartment on December 21st and hurried and unpacked and got our Christmas decorations back up to enjoy the holiday.
Lets see that should catch me up to the post I have about Christmas 2014. I will write another post later about the time after Christmas up til we move again. Sorry these ones are so long. A lot happened and like I said I was just not in a place at the time to write. Phew! That was a lot, but I'm glad to finally get it down and off my plate. Let see just 1 more year to catch up on. hahaha.
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