Monday, May 23, 2011

Coupons

So ever since money has been tighter with the addition of O and M, I've started clipping coupons. People laughed at me at first - but I've got the last laugh! Now, don't expect to see me on Extreme Couponing or anything...I'm certainly not building a stockpile...but getting things for cheap/free is nice - especially when it's stuff you'd buy anyway.

Example:

CVS today I bought

4 Axe Deoderants - $5.49 each (on sale at 3/$13) - I had two buy one get one free coupons and there was a promotion to get $3 Extra Care Bucks when you bought 3.

4 Suave Bodywashes - $2.77 each on sale for $2 - I had two BOGO coupons and there was an extra care bucks promotion for $4 ECB when you bought $10 of Suave stuff

2 Suave deoderant - $1.37 each on sale for $1 Also had a $.50 off coupon

So what WOULD have cost $35.78 cost $14.11, plus $7 ECB leaving a total cost of $7.11.

Now THAT is savings...

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Matilda's Big Adventure

So...my first mother's day was certainly not the way I planned it. But let me preface this post by saying that I am so happy I even had children to celebrate mother's day, no matter how we celebrated.





Thursday night, May 5th, Matilda threw up after her dinner...and felt warm. So we gave her a temp check and she did have a low grade fever. Concerned, we gave her a fever reducer and put her to bed. The next day, her fever got higher, and she got fussier...and wasn't eating much.


Saturday she got a higher fever and ate worse. We had been calling the doctor every day, and finally they let us take her in. The dr. looked at her and saw no strep, no ear infection, etc and said to give her 48 hours then bring her back if her fever didn't break. Her fever was up to 105 so we were REALLY worried. We had her in the car ready to go to the ER When the doctor called back and said no, just give her a tepid bath and "upgrade" to IBUPROFIN.
Sunday, was the worst. Matilda had 105.2 fever. She was throwing up EVERYTHING, including her medecine. She was completely listless just laying on Stewart's lap and not responding to any of us. It was the scariest feeling I've had yet with children. Finally the pediatrician's office said to go to the ER. and we did.


The ER for an 8month old is pitiful. They had to take a urine sample via a catheter, put an IV in, give her shots...poor little thing kept looking at me like, "Why is everybody picking on me momma?" See how sad?


The only thing more pitiful was the hospital for an 8month old. The crib looked like a jail cell...





They gave her a little hospital gown...and put a splint on her arm so she wouldn't take the IV out. Within about an hour they told us that she had a TON of puss in her urine and high white blood cell count - so it was a UTI. She also had to get an ultrasound to see if her kidney's were infected and they were...so it was a doozy.


Long story short, we spent two nights in the hospital. There was very little sleep, lots of tears (both baby and mom), and some scary moments (including more vomiting and more high high temps). She did feel better at times...and got lots of snuggles from both mom and dad...but I'm sure she would have rather had those from the comfort of her own home.

Poor Olivia who was home without her sister didn't know WHAT to think. When I was home I spent some special one-on-one time with her to make sure she didn't get sad. We took a trip to the grocery store where I let her sit in the big girl seat. she LOVED it and had a blast looking all around and feeling everything I put in the cart.

Finally on Tuesday afternoon we were given the go-ahead to take Matilda home. Now, on Thursday a week later she has been eating great, taking her medecine, had an infection free urine culture and has been fever free for 24 hours. On the upswing!!!! It was an adventure, but one I hope she never has to go through again.