First day of Prek

Ready or Not

So we are prepared  and sorted for the first week  of preschool.

I know that you  might think, but its March, why are you  starting  already. Well the reason  is because  with a baby coming  in July i want to  give myself  enough  grace time to be able to get the 36 weeks  of lessons done by May 2017. We might  get done before  that,  but in actual fact it might take  us even  longer. That right there is the blessing of  homeschooling. We can  move at our own pace.

I am  getting  excited about this  new  adventure... and so is a little  4 yr old  i know. She watched me print out her work sheets for next week and  she was so excited.

A New Adventure

After LOTS of prayers (mostly on my side) Gary and I have decided that we are starting to Home school. This thought has always terrified me. I once thought that of COURSE I would Home school, and then We got married and I was pregnant with this precious life and I didn't want to screw her up. I was frightened that I would not be able to teach her to read, I mean I had to do First Grade TWICE cause I struggled to learn to read. I didn't want my failures to affect my children's education. But after looking at School Options for our now 4yr old I realized that maybe financially Private School was not an option for us and the Public School we are zoned for just is not an option. So Like i said, LOTS of Prayers, Gary and I are starting Lilly out with some Preschool. If it is successful then we will do kindergarten; and from there we will progress grade to grade. I am excited to have my girl home with me to help around the house as we bring baby Zoe home from the hospital sometime in July. 3 girls in 4.5 years. WOW. God is good. I always wanted to be a mom, and some days I do struggle with having a good attitude and being selfish about "I JUST WANT TO SIT and DO WHAT I WANT" but you know I prayed for these girls, I prayed for a Husband and the LORD has blessed me beyond measure and WAY more then I deserve and I grateful that I get to be their mother.

Home Schooling is just another blessing. I just need to now learn to be better with time management and with a New Baby, it will be a struggle to learn how to manage Teaching with nursing with discipline and raising these girls to be godly young Women who strive to please the LORD. And to be the one the influences their Thought pattern instead of a teacher or classmates is amazing. Gary and i have our work cut out, but this adventure is just that an adventure...and every adventure has bumps along the way but as we get use to a new schedule I believe that it will be a very rewarding adventure.

Cadi's Tubes and Adenoids

 So after 6 ear infections since April 2015, Dr Shah sent sweet Cadi to an ENT. Dr Greer is AWESOME and I highly recommend him to anyone needing an ENT. He said that she diffiantly needed tubes and her adenoids were very large so he wanted to take them out as well. So We headed to Erlangers Childrens Hospital Bright and Early and Lilly came to support her baby sister during this hard day.

Getting her gown on

waiting for the pain meds and sleep drugs to to take affect

Waiting for the Nurses to come get her to take her to the OR

Poppie isnt alone as being considered a FALL RISK

Snuggles with daddy after the surgery

When the nurse came to get me to meet Cadi in the Post OP as she was waking up from surgery the nurse told me that she was mad as a Hornet. It took about 30 mins to get her to calm down. We were kept in the recovery room extra long because Cadi was wheezing after surgery and they needed to do a breathing treatment and watch her and make sure that she was ok before they would discharge her. She was finally released and we went to Chick Fil A and Krispy Kreme afterwards.  I am glad that it is over with and she now is doing so great.

Isaacs Family update

It has been a while since I have written on what is going on in the Isaacs household. And for that I am sorry. Life has gotten busy this past year and half since we have been in the states. With adding a baby to the family after a very hard, LONG pregnancy (it was actually two, but felt like ONE long one), Gary working full time and Studying part time with a very active toddler, and a colicky baby girl.

Right before Thanksgiving 2013 we lost our 2^nd child. I was 10 weeks pregnant, but God quickly blessed my womb once again and the End of January 2014 we found out that we were expecting again. I was extremely sick for Long after you are suppose to be sick and Then I developed a terrible rash that only delivery would cure. My Doctor induce at 38 weeks pregnant, and that afternoon, September 26 2014, Catherine Sophia Isaacs came into the world. We are calling her Cadi (Kay-dee). She just turned 4 months and what a time it has been. We found out after two weeks of constant screaming and very little sleep for Gary or me that she was allergic to milk. Determined to continue to breastfeed I changed my entire diet, but after lots of struggles that I didn’t have with her sister with nursing we switched her to Formula and now she is a happy “little” girl. She isn’t quite little and complete opposite of her sister, but she is a joy and blessing.

Lilly will be 3 in a month (if only she really had a birthday this year, next year she will have her first actual birthday in 4 years). Lilly is a very active little girl. She loves all things princesses and babies.  She talks A LOT, so much so that my mom has dubbed her motor mouth ( a nick name my grandpa gave my brother David).  She absolutely ADORES her sister, and we have had a few arguments on whom was Cadi’s mother. But now she proudly tells people that Cadi is her Sister.

She has been battling a Urinary tract infection since Christmas, and finally we have got it cleared up. But the doctor is sending her for test to make sure she doesn’t have urinary Reflux. They put a catheter in her and fill her bladder up with dye and make sure that none of it flows back up into her kidneys. If it does there are several things that could happen as a result, one being surgery. It hasn’t been scheduled yet but I am thinking that it will be around the beginning of March. She had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, and I told her that the doctor was going to tickle her belly with a funny stick, but she still freaked out about it. Especially the jelly, but Gary will be with us for the cath test so I am hopeful that it will be ok and all will go well.

Gary is doing well; he is very blessed and thankful for his job. Even though it isn’t what he wants to be doing long term his bosses are very family oriented and that has proven to be a HUGE blessing, especially when we lost our baby a little over a year ago. They are also aware that Gary is working on his Masters of Divinity. Gary started his second year of Studying part time through Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He recently applied for a scholarship so we are hopeful that that will come through and he can up his class load and possible cut down his hours at work. He truly desires to be working in a church, but right now that isn't what the Lord has called him, so we are trying to be patient and wait on the Lords will. He has preached several times and has been asked to fill in our Sunday school to teach. He loves those opportunities and looks forward to having more and more chances in the future.

I am doing well. I am enjoying being a mommy, even though it can be very hard, frustrating and tiring. I love my girls and can’t imagine life without them. I try to thank the Lord daily for them, even in the wee hours of the morning with Cadi thinks that its time to be awake. I have tried to remind myself that this is only a season and she isn’t going to be little for long and I need to enjoy the cuddles and the fact that she needs me now, because I know that as she gets older, like her sister, she will need me less and less. But that is my and Gary’s purpose, to raise them to be independent on us and dependent on God.

Breastfeeding Struggles

For the moment when and if the Lord blesses us with another one and I need a reminder:

Who ever said breastfeeding was easy and doesn't hurt, they are wrong. Yes, the baby is latched correctly, no she doesn't have a tongue tie. These 5 weeks have been HARD, not just with the nursing but all around. I dont remember it being this hard with Lilly, but then again maybe I have just forgotten. It has been over 2 years since she was a newborn.

I remember with Lilly that I truly enjoyed breastfeeding. I was sad when she gave it up at 10 months. In the beginning I was sore, of course I was. But it was nothing like I have experienced these past 5 weeks with Cadi. 

I think that it is because the girls are totally different with how they nurse. Lilly was low key, she liked to snuggle and her suction was not hectic. Cadi, OH MY WORD, its like she has is a  Commercial  grade Vacuum. And she isn't all that into snuggling. She likes, when she is in the mood, but seriously she would rather lay on her changing table and kick and move and look around then snuggle with mommy. 

These 5 weeks have been exhausting. I have had blisters, Thrush, bruises...I started to pump because I just couldn't take the pain anymore when Cadi and I were dealing with thrush. but pumping is EXHAUSTING. Also baby girl is allergic to Milk so I have had to cut all dairy. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it was going to be but it has its challenges. 

With her allergies she also has acid reflux and a LOT of tummy pains. So nursing, she wiggles and moves and uses me like a stretchy doll...Can you say OUCH. Its been a Challenge. I have never wanted to give up more then now. If it wasn't for my husband saying I must breastfeed her since we were blessed with a Medela Breast-pump, and its cheaper then formula. But pumping is exhausting, especially at night when i just want to crawl back into bed after getting up with Cadi, feeding her and getting my colicky little girl back to sleep.

I am hopeful that as She gets older breast feeding will get easier, but as of now Its all about pumping.

Let me just say, if you ever consider buying a Breast pump...DO NOT BUY CHEAP. Spend the extra money...its totally worth it. With Lilly we had a Tommee Tippee breast pump. It never worked (their bottles are awesome though, highly recommend them!) I barely got to work EVER. When we left Cape Town I gave it to a friend to use for her baby. I thought I just was one of those women who just couldn't pump. So when Cadi was a couple days old, I had a HUGE milk blister  and I just wanted to scream in pain...Then i got engorged and Cadi would latch, which made the pain even more worse. My doctor called me in Dr Newmans Nipple Cream ( oh my word, the best stuff EVER, its magic) and a friend bought us a MEDELA  Breast pump

Its magic. I absolutely recommend it. Like I said before I thought I wasn't able to pump, but after the first use I was SHOCKED as how effective it is.

Day 4 and start of 5 of this

Yesterday didn't go so well. She sat on the potty for a good portion of the morning, and then she had 3 accidents all with in a 30 minute period. I was frustrated beyond belief.  Needless to say, she didn't get any stickers on her chart yesterday, then yesterday evening we went out to some new friends house for supper.  So we put her in a diaper.

I am praying that we have some success today, we will have 2 days of busy Saturday and Sunday so the training will be put on hold. And we will start again on Monday...I am not expecting it to be a quick lesson, things in my life don't happen as quickly as it does for others, but I have 10 weeks before Cadi's due date, so I am hopeful that she will have the hang of it by then😃