Leaving is Hard, but Great Things are in our Cards!

In BIG BIG BIG news for the Weavers, we have made a hard, but exciting decision to move to Central Texas.  Hard because we are leaving people and things we love and the timing is difficult with a newborn, but exciting because this is a wonderful opportunity for Cary and our family.  Who wouldn't want to live in Central Texas and raise their family there?

Cary and I met while I was in College at Southwestern University in Georgetown.  He went to UT, but we spent countless hours in the quaint little town of Georgetown.  We most definitely fell in love there, drinking wine on the San Gabriel River and seeing him love my kitty, Tucker, as if he was his own.  Our first apartment after I graduated and we became engaged was in Georgetown.  Jobs brought us to Houston, but our hearts were always back in Central Texas where the weather is fantastic, the pace is slower and the people are more wholesome.  We even made a failed move to New Braunfels where we absolutely fell in love with living there.  We were both devastated when it did not work out for us and we moved back to the big city.

This time I am confident we will not be failing.  Cary is suffering burnout at his current job and his consulting firm is being compromised by the loss of several government contracts.  He was always a good ole boy among Ivy League business men, and for that reason, he was actually the most successful one in all of the Texas division.  He just has the ability to relate to regular people and is genuine and hardworking in all he does.  For this reason, he is moving on to sales and project management for the largest A/C company in Central Texas where he will use his savvy people skills and energy efficiency knowledge. The company owner, Chris Strand, is the Mattress Mack of Austin with his quirky commercials and his local celebrity.  I had the pleasure of meeting him and have a great sense that he is a wonderful man and is seeing to it that Cary will succeed in every possible way. 

So... with a heavy heart yet a happy heart, we say goodbye to Houston and our dearest loved ones in one week.  OMG!!!  I am terrified of not having the help of my mom and mother-in-law with the kids, but I think God wants me to buck up and embrace my role as a SAHM and conquer it on my own.  I have already enrolled Margo in a fabulous little school that is 10 times cheaper than the schools here.  I have created a monthly cleaning, cooking and activity schedule to help me stay on task.  Cary and I have both agreed since Margo was born that we want nothing more than to raise our family there.  Let's face it, HISD is not ideal and we cannot afford private school.  The suburbs are not for me.  Our dreams are coming true before our very eyes and we feel so blessed. 

Things I will miss about Houston:

• Our family:  My mom, Cary's parents, my sister and her brood and Cary's cousin and aunt.
• Our amazing Houston friends and our dear neighbors across the street.
• The restaurants:  Specifically, Goode Co. Seafood, 100% Taquito, Zoe's Kitchen, The original Carrabas, Backstreet Cafe, Ouisies Table, Tiny Boxwoods, Brennan's, The Chocolate Bar, Sprinkles, Crave and soooooooooooo many more!
• Our incredible location and the closeness to amazing shopping.  Kuhl Linscomb is the greatest store on earth and I love Doodles, the amazing children's stores in Rice Village and Anthropologie right down the road is wonderful.
• Whole Foods:  Lord help me to be so far away from my fave place on earth in Georgetown, ha ha!  At least I will be saving us some money!
• The BEST pediatrician on earth.  Truly, I would recommend Dr. Wolens to the President of the United States.
• Our house where so many amazing and sometimes painful memories have been made.  Bringing our babies home, Margo's first steps, birthday parties and more.  I will never forget the day I found out my beloved brother-in-law died and receiving that horrific call as I lay under the oak tree on a beautiful day in January.  And... the things I love about our house, our giant windows that allow for the best natural light ever.  Those amazing oak trees and our original wood floors.

Things I will not miss about Houston:

• Living in the ghetto.  Just last week there was a homeless man driving a shopping cart full of cans down our street.
• The competitive and too fast paced business world.
• The high cost of everything. 
• The traffic.
• Worrying about the schools and our children's future.
• Our house that is entirely too small at 1700 square feet.  Our master bathroom is smaller than most people's closets, we have two storage units to store half of my clothes, baby items and more and the garage is overflowing.  Oak trees are not all they are cracked up to be when you deal with never ending bird crap, terrible pollen and the biggest flux of acorns you have ever seen.  The floors creak which wakes the babes, the drainage is terrible in our yard and we have pumped a small fortune into our aging beauty.

So, here we go, embarking on an incredible journey with our little brood.  Please pray for us, as I think this might be one of the hardest transitions I have ever had to face.  I am fully and totally in my comfort zone right now and change is hard for me.  I worry about my Margo and all these continued changes that are facing her as well.  However, my Cary is excited for the first time in a long time which is so refreshing and ultimately we are achieving exactly what we wished for.  How lucky are we?  God is good!

Bye bye house with so many memories.  I am pretty sure we only got yard of the month because we watered the yard during the drought--ha ha.

Month One was Going Swell Until Reflux Raised Hell!

Our sweet David was a dream baby starting out in his first weeks. He slept well, nursed perfectly and was easy peasy other than hating his bath. At his one week doctor appointment I remarked that I was so happy he did not have reflux like Margo. Our pediatrician quickly told me not to jinx it and to drop the subject. About one week later, reflux and other miserable symptoms began to rear their ugly head.

These pictures done by my friend, Deanna, are AMAZING!

David is not a refluxer like Margo. He spits up, but not with the same amount and frequency, so I just thought it was typical baby spit-up. As he started getting fussier and more uncomfortable, I attributed it to possible colic or bad gas. We started trying one remedy after another... Colic Calm (which I believe helps a lot), gas drops at every feed, the Windi (which works amazingly well when it is really needed) and probiotics. These were all only very temporary fixes if they helped at all. Sadly, at three weeks I tried eliminating dairy from my diet to see if it would help. There was a remarkable difference and when faced with the prospect of going dairy free (no bread even) along with my raging hormones, I decided I just could not be a good mom to my baby and make that kind of dietary sacrifice. I am sure some would heavily criticize me for this, but I felt it was best for the overall stability and health of our family and quit breastfeeding. Symptoms continued and evolved. Nonetheless, I was certain in my mind it wasn't reflux until...

One day David started having trouble eating. He was screaming through his feeds and clearly struggling in immense pain, talk about heartache for a mom to watch. Sadly, he was hungry but could not eat. As tears rolled down my face and I tried to comfort our suffering son, I decided it was time to see the doctor. The diagnosis was immediate of being reflux and I was really disappointed, but relieved at the same time to have an answer. We started David on Prevacid immediately and noticed almost instant improvement. Unfortunatelty, the improvement was not enough. Right around the same time, David started having bright green and horribly smelly poops, so bad we would have to tie up his diapers and put them in the garage. We started by splitting his Prevacid dose to AM and PM instead of once a day, again this helped but not enough. The doctor wanted to give it some time, being careful not to make too many changes at once. We waited and watched our son continue to suffer at times and were perplexed that some days he did great and others were utter hell. His inconsistent symptoms were confusing. Ultimiately, we ended up switching his formula to a hypoallergenic formula and after a week, his poop returned to the typical baby yellow and was not near as smelly. By his second month, we finally have things relatively under control. He has good times and bad and we are at least managing. I think his digestive system is immature due to his early delivery and it will just take time to improve. In the meantime, we will continue to manage his symptoms and try to keep him as comfortable as possible with the hope that as each month passes by, we will continue to see improvement.

On the positive side, David is growing incredibly well. He gained two pounds in two weeks and was 7 lbs. 14 oz. at one month. I am thrilled at least that his symptoms are not preventing him from thriving. He is very strong. He holds his head up very well and just like Margo, is very alert and aware when he is awake. He loves to look around and you can see him taking in his new world with awe. Fortunately, he loves to sleep and sometimes I worry that he is sleeping too much. Many days he sleeps from one feed to the next and I worry he will be awake all night, but that is never the case. He just loves to sleep.


Hi Monkey!

My boys!

David's first mohawk!

Margo is an amazing big sister! I am so very proud of her. She has shown very little jealousy and so much love for her baby brother! She always wants to know where he is and you can tell she thinks about him and worries about him. She loves to pat him, push him in the swing and is very proud of him! My heart melts at seeing her interact with him and you can tell he already thinks she is really special just in the way he looks at her!

It doesn't get sweeter than this!

She put the bear and book in his bed.

Yo, sis!  What up, bro!

Please pray for our little boy who has had a hard time adjusting to life outside of the womb. He is so sweet and sensitive and I just want him to feel better more than anything. Our nerves are frayed at times and I have experienced exhaustion to a level that I do not handle well. We are so grateful for the gift of our beautiful boy, but are also ready for it to get easier for all of us!