Jared, Lucrisha, & Leylan

On Monday, I returned to work...blah blah. Leylan for those of you that don't know is going to be staying with our neighbor. She has three little boys, which I am sure he will enjoy playing with as he grows. Dropping him off that morning really broke my heart. I held it together until I got out the door. Then most of the way to work I cried. On the way, I called Jared and he tried to calm me down,but I think I just made him want to cry. I know he is in good hands. It is just hard after being with him for so long to let go. During the day, I just called once to check on him. As soon as it hit 5, I was out the door to go get him. He was sleeping so sweetly in the best swing ever. He didn't even wake up when I got him out. We walked back to our house and he finally woke up. He gave me a big smile and then started crying. The poor little guy had some bad gas and need to go number#2. Well needless to say he was fine later and I was much better now that I was home with him. This week was a good week for me to go back, though. Monday I was at my store, Tuesday a manager meeting in Knoxville, and today therapy. So it broke up the week as I just didn't have to be at my store the entire time. Speaking of the therapy it was a very upsetting experience. This whole time Leylan has seen several doctors of which have all said treat him like a normal baby. We even got the go ahead on the 12th to start cereal. I was so excited he was getting to try something new. Then for the next visit we would start more food. She also said he is doing great. So, I was thinking this therapy visit would be close to the same thing. We would just get some exercises for his little legs and move on. First, we sat in the waiting room and seen all the little patients. It made me so sad. Most of the little ones had braces on their legs and all I could think of was that what Leylan is going to have to go through. We have been so blessed thus far and I don't take that for granted. Finally, we were called back and the nurse started out with us. Leylan weighed 12lbs and 12ozs. Then she explained to me that Leylan needs to be treated and looked at like a 6 week old. He shouldn't be on cereal and may not eat it until 6months. I told her what the Ped dr had said and she repeated the same thing to me. 6 weeks, do you get that? Yeah, I got it loud and clear. I was really confused. I told her that the ped dr gives us a sheet each time telling what he should be doing as a full term baby. We were always excited because Leylan could do some of the things on the lists each time. The Ped Dr. did say don't get discouraged if he can't do some of the things. One thing on the last list was reach for toys. He doesn't do that or have good head control I told the nurse. Dr. Trainer informed me that he shouldn't be doing any of those things. That looking at him as a 6 week old should make me feel better. Here we go again just like his hospital stay one nurse would tell you one thing and the next would tell you that it was wrong. I absolutely can't stay that. I also told them he could roll from front to back. Which I was very proud of and Dr. Trainer said that he shouldn't be trying to do that at this point. He is using the wrong muscles in order to rollover. So don't promote this activity until he is older. If he continues to use the wrong muscles it will prolong his sitting and standing properly. HELLO...he is a preemie won't those activities be prolonged anyway. She did tell me how to hold him properly in order to promote the use of the correct muscles. Also the best way for tummy time and a few other things to help. After all that drama then they informed me that he will take part in a high-risk clinic of which he will see an Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, Nutritionist, Dr.Trainer, and a Nurse. This is all to happen on his next visit. Boy, I just thought we had moved passed all these doctors. I guess I was wrong. He will continue to be looked at as an adjusted age until he is 2. I know this time will fly by. We are still so lucky that our little man is as well as he is. God has never left him.
Oh yeah...excuse all the errors in this. Jared is not here to proof-read it for me. I am much more of a math person. He still loves me despite my lack of proper grammar.

I am sure that Friday for most people is their favorite day of the week. For me it definitely is. Well you can say every other Friday. Jared usually has those days off. He works so much it is a treat to spend a whole day with him. Since I have been on maternity leave we spend alot of Fridays together. This past one I wanted to go visit my pal & co-worker Bridgett in Oneida at one of her stores. So we decided to make it a double duty trip after the visit with Bridgett we rode on over to Cumberland Falls. Before Leylan, we visited there quite a long time ago. It was nice getting to re-visit and take more family photos. On Monday, I am suppose to return to work. Dread is not the word for what I am feeling, but our Fridays will for sure be one of my most missed things. You really don't appreciate the time you have until it is gone. My time with Leylan has flown by. I feel like I have just started going out places with him and now it's over...boo.

We haven't taken Leylan to have his pictures made yet. I'm hoping to do this before I return to work. So I thought we would go out today and take some photos. Good thing we went earlier because he is being a little bear this afternoon. He is really starting to show his attitude here lately. Well you have to take the good with the bad. After his little fit this afternoon he just smilied at me. You can't tell babies don't know what they are doing.

This weekend was our 5 year anniversary. It is so hard to believe it has been that long. You really don't realize how fast time goes by until you get older. Jared so graciously agreed to take me back to IKEA in Atlanta for that day. Jared thought about staying all night there, but I told him I wasn't ready for that. We went there for the first time while I was prego to purchase Leylan's furniture. It sounded like a great idea. I was so excited to go back and this time it was for us bedroom furniture. The plan was to take Leylan to Joe & Edna's early and come back that night to get him. Well that plan really got messed up. We got to IKEA about 12:30. Things were still going well at that point. We looked at everything. I couldn't decided between two dressers. I finally decided after hours of looking in the store. We got the warehouse part to pick up our items the first thing was the dresser and they were out. Well out of the stock that they use for that day. They had several on the third shelf, but they don't get those items down during store hours. I was very upset. I decided I would get the same dresser in a different color and move on. Then the nightstand I wanted was oversold as well. This wasn't looking very good. Next up was the bed and they were out of the side rails. I told Jared maybe we are just not supposed to get this stuff. I really wanted to cry after the drive and leaving Leylan I wasn't even going to get the items I wanted. Jared of course calmed me down like usual. We decided to put the bed back and just get the two dressers. We got all the way to the checkout line and I changed my mind. I said let's just wait. Then I think Jared wanted to cry after all that drama. This is just the way things go. So we ended up getting to storage units for Jared, mirror, and some picture frames. At least we didn't leave empty handed. By the time all that craziness was over it was getting late and we needed to eat. I had a awful headache. We stopped in downtown Chattanooga to eat at Sticky Fingers it was on hour wait. Instead of waiting we decided to just go to the other one closer in. At that time we knew that Leylan was probably getting low on food because we hadn't planned for him to stay all night. Jared called and he had enough for the morning. We wouldn't be home until 1 or so. At dinner we sat and tried to decided about leaving our little guy. Neither one of us wanted to, but we were both worn out and had a load of stuff in Edna's explorer we would still have to take home in order to get my Escape and Leylan. Therefore, we decided to just let him stay with them. It was our anniversary and you think it should be a romantic time, but I guess after 5yrs and a little one your priorities defiantly change. Well we were at least together for that day. The best part of the whole thing was going to get Leylan the next morning. He saw me and gave me the biggest smile. It made me forget about the bad IKEA experience until they asked us about what happened.

Mom decided she wanted to make Kaeleigh some bedding for her big girl bed. Kaeleigh loves Elmo, but all the elmo they found looked like boy bedding. We found this Elmo fabric at Wal-Mart and thought we would give it a try. Neither one of us had done this before. I don't have a final picture but these are pretty close. Kaeleigh loved it. Mom also made her some valances. I mostly did the quilt. It was pretty fun.