Mommy Octopus

We can all use a few more hands

  • Giveaways
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Disney World Tips
  • Homeschool
  • Law Enforcement Support
  • PR Inquiries
  • Contact Me
  • About Me

Update on My Husband’s Cancer

January 14, 2019 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.


Just wanted to give you all an update on my husband’s cancer.  Today we went to the oncologist to hear the results of his scans and figure out what the game plan will be going forward.  I’m so happy to let you all know that they feel good about his surgery and the scans and blood work show a clean bill of health!  He will not be needing chemo or radiation after all!  His oncologist feels that any treatment right now would do more harm than good.  They give him a 85% success rate without the chemo or radiation. Even if he falls into the 15% that comes back, cure rate is 99%!!! Going forward, he will just have scans every 3 months and then the plan will be adjusted if needed.

We are so thankful to all of our friends and readers that have encouraged us along this journey and have walked through it with us.  Your emails were wonderful and encouraging.

Now he needs to finish up healing so he can be back on the road, ready to protect and serve the community.  Thanks again for everyone’s support and prayers! They were answered!!

Update on My Husband

January 1, 2019 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Where did the walking path go????

Thanks to the many of you that have reached out to see how my husband is doing since I posted about him having cancer.  He’s actually doing fairly well now.  Surgery was on December 20th and he had his staples removed yesterday.  Since staple removal, he’s moving around much more now and we were able to get in a decent walk today.  For local friends, just a heads up that the greenway was flooded in parts today!  We enjoyed our walk until the path disappeared!  The kids were a little bummed.  I think my hubby was starting to get a little tired, so it was a good point to turn around.

My husband still needs to build up his strength a little more before he goes back to work.  We haven’t received his pathology reports yet, but hopefully they will be in tomorrow and then the doctor will call with a referral to the oncologist.  We are ready to get either chemo or radiation going and put all of this behind us.

Christmas was fairly quiet.  We had some friends and family visit, but pretty much just stayed home and he stayed on mostly bedrest.  I’m so happy that he’s feeling better and helping me wrangle the kids on their break from school.  We plan to start our homeschool up again on Monday.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a healthy new year ahead.

Erin

When Birth Doesn’t Go as Planned

March 3, 2016 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

When Birth Doesn't Go As Planned - 6 Things to NOT Say and 8 Things to Say Instead

 

This post has been a hard one to write.  Even now as I type, tears are flowing down my face.  My pregnancies aren’t easy.  Every single one of my deliveries has had a rough aspect to it, even though a healthy baby was the ending result.  When birth doesn’t go as planned, there are things you should and shouldn’t say to help out the mom.  For some background, let’s start with my births.

(I’ll add a photo of my first 2 when I find them!  Currently buried in stacks of photos and before digital photos!)

 

Baby G

With my firstborn, I was induced.  It was a 48 hour induction that seemed to never end.  I barely avoided getting a c-section with her since I was just shy of the 24 hour mark after they broke my water.  Once she was born, I was so exhausted from not sleeping, I had a hard time even holding her right after birth.  We had trouble bonding that I believe was due to pure exhaustion from the induction.  In hindsight, I would have never gone for the induction, but I was 19 at the time and had no clue what I was doing.

 

Baby P

With my second, my water broke first.  At the time we only had 1 vehicle and so I was riding with my husband to work at the county jail around 7am so I could use the car later.  I got out of the car to walk around to drive home and POP!  My water broke!  In the middle of the jail parking lot and right in front of one of his supervisors.  (Note to pregnant moms – always carry extra towels with you… you just never know!).  We went back home to call Grandma to come watch our oldest, grab the hospital bag, and then immediately went to the hospital.  This is where things started going sour.  At the hospital, they immediately made me stay in bed.  Of course, now I know how that most likely stalled my labor.  Then my blood pressure started going up.  I honestly can’t remember what it went up to but I don’t remember any really scary numbers.  They went ahead and started magnesium when I was 9 cms.  A side effect to magnesium is that it can stop labor.  And it did.  9 cms.  And STOPPED.  This was now about 5am the next morning.  I was told a c-section was my only option because we were so close to the 24 hour mark after water breaking.

My son was fine, but I was another story.  During the c-section, I started vomiting and so they had to intubate me and put me completely under.  While this was happening, they quickly whisked my husband away not telling him what was going on.  He had no idea if I was alive or dead or what was happening.  He was told to wait in our previous hospital room.  Meanwhile afterward, I woke up in a room all by myself.  Completely alone.  Had no idea where the baby was, where my husband was, or what had happened.  I remember freaking out and pressing the nurse call button with the little bit of strength I had.

My recovery was very rough.  At the time, my only option was morphine for pain.  When I would hurt, I would press the morphine button and within a few moments, I was passed out again.  I don’t remember much about those days in the hospital, of my son, or who came to visit.  I do remember horrible nightmares from the morphine.

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 2.33.50 PMBaby A

With number 3, I looked for a supportive doctor that would help me attempt a VBAC.  I was petrified about having another delivery like number 2.  I found a local doctor and we went along our journey.  One night, I woke up around 2 am with contractions.  We waited around a bit, called my brother to come watch the others, and then went to the hospital.

Although I was scared, I felt a little more confident that my doctor had assured me that he would personally make sure that I was not alone and that Chris and baby would be well looked after IF something occurred that needed another C-section.

When the doctor came to check me, we noticed I was bleeding much more than he was comfortable with.  Was it a uterine rupture?  Was something wrong with the baby?  There was a lot of unknowns and he advised us to go ahead and have another c-section since something seemed off.

He told us after the c-section that baby’s placenta was starting to detach early and that’s what the blood was from.  Thankfully we were both ok.  I had duramorph this time and that is an incredible drug.  Takes away the pain without the grogginess and horrible nightmares from morphine.  I was awake the entire time and had a much better experience even though the birth wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 2.35.17 PM

Baby E

With number 4, we opted to find a doctor that would once again let us try for a VBAC.  I know it’s not important to everyone, but it was important to me.  We wanted to have a large(r) family.  My husband and I had agreed that we would only do 3 sections and that’s it.  We have a friend that had some very serious complications due to repeat c-sections and we didn’t want to push it.

We found a wonderful doctor that worked out of Emory Midtown in Atlanta.  It was going to be almost a 2 hour commitment to get to the hospital from our house, but we figured it was worth it.

The birth was quite beautiful.  I got my VBA2C and she was born super quickly without an epidural.  So quick in fact that she ended up going to the NICU at birth for breathing complications.  They say that she didn’t get all the junk out of her lungs at birth and it was possibly causing an infection.

Getting released from the hospital before your baby is such a horrible feeling.  Here we were, stuck in Atlanta, all alone, with our kids at home with Grandma.  Fortunately, there was an extra room for parents with babies in the NICU that we were able to use.  I remember just crying and crying because I couldn’t hold my baby and feeling all alone.  She got better quickly, but my dream birth had been complicated by the extra NICU stay.

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 2.36.53 PM

Baby S

This one is the freshest in my mind because my sweet boy is 6 months as of yesterday.  Oh how I love this boy.  Treasuring each and every moment because he’s our last.

This pregnancy was complicated from the get-go.  After numerous miscarriages, we found ourselves with a “sticky baby”.  He was growing and thriving, but scaring us to death.  I kept having random bleeds that were determined to be a tear in the placenta.  My blood pressure would do wacky things in the office, but fine at home.  I was sent to Athens Regional twice for monitoring before they finally said we need to get this baby out.

Again I found a supportive practice and I was eagerly looking forward to my 2VBA2C.  We did the foley bulb induction which is safe(r) for moms that have previously had a c-section.  This worked in absolute record time and with very little pain.  Induction started on a Monday afternoon.  I figured we might have a baby by midnight since things were chugging right along.  Then it stopped.  I tried everything.  Walking, bouncing, breast pump, everything, and contractions would not come.  When they did come, they were sporadic and honestly not very painful.

Finally we got to 48 hours from initial induction – Wednesday night!  I was exhausted, my midwife wasn’t sure what else to offer, and I was watching the monitor drop every time that I did have a contraction.  With much hesitation, I knew a c-section was the right and only option at this point.  I cried hysterically while making the decision.  This is where having a midwife came in handy.  She hugged me and told me it was okay and was supportive.  She made sure this was the decision that I wanted and assured me that we would make it a “family centered cesarean”.  She also promised to be there and not leave.  She stood by all those promises.

I made the walk to the operating room and tried to walk as proudly as I could.  I was about to meet my son!!  But I also knew, that this was it.  This was the last time I was going to be in the hospital having a baby.  This was going to be the last time I saw one of my own newborns.  This was going to be the last time I was cut open in order to give life.  Such a bittersweet moment that was.  After Simon was removed, he was such a sweet little boy and immediately I feel in love with him.  I tried to focus on him as the doctor was severing my fallopian tubes and ensuring that we would never have any more children.  I cried tears of joy and tears of pain – for what was and for what will never be.

After all was said and done, we were told that Simon had a true knot in his cord AND a very short cord.  This is why he wouldn’t engage and descend no matter what we were doing.  He couldn’t!  If my body continued trying to push him out, it could have been disastrous.  We were so thankful for modern medicine even though it meant an end to an era.

 

Through each of these births, I have heard it all.  All the things people say to try to make you feel better, except they don’t always succeed.

Things to NOT say:

  1. At least you and baby are happy and healthy. To me, this was the ultimate slap in the face.  This implies that my feelings don’t matter.  Feelings DO matter.  I was not happy after my c-sections.  You can be happy about having a baby, but sad at the loss.
  2. It’s time to get over it. No, it’s not.  We all grieve differently.  It’s okay to grieve.  It’s still a loss of how you had imagined things to be.
  3. C-sections can’t be that bad. Sure.  It’s only major abdominal surgery in which you are required to not only heal but nurture a helpless infant.  If it wasn’t that bad, they wouldn’t give you so many pain medicines, stool softeners, etc.
  4. You should be done anyway.  Ouch.  Who are you to determine my family size?  As long as I care for their needs and love them, it’s not your concern.
  5. Maybe the next birth will be better.  If you don’t know their story, you could have really just hurt your friend, especially if they ended up not being able to carry more children.  After Simon’s birth, I had people ask if we were done now.  That hurt because I honestly couldn’t even think about being done without crying. I did a lot of gritting my teeth and holding back tears.
  6. My births have always been great!  Yes.  This has been said to me while talking with someone about my complicated births.  Do not say this unless you want to be throat punched by a hormonal postpartum mama bear.

 

8 Things to Say Instead:

  1. What day is good for me to bring dinner?
  2. I’m running to the store.  Can I grab anything for you?
  3. How are you feeling today?
  4. Can I watch your other kids so you can rest?
  5. Would you like to talk about it?
  6. How does this make your feel?
  7. How can I support you?
  8. Here’s info for ICAN or other support group.  I’d be happy to go with you.

Now even with all of this, I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything.  So thankful for them, but wish things could have gone differently.  If you are struggling with your births, please reach out and find someone to talk with, whether a counselor or another mom.

Do you have anything to add?  Leave a comment and tell me.

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2016 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Hope you all had a great day!  Here’s our youngest.  Can you believe how much he’s grown?  He’s 5 months now!

Screen Shot 2016-02-14 at 7.36.39 PM

Be Bold and Just Pray

January 28, 2016 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Be Bold and Just Pray

I have a confession to make.  I’m not a fan of praying out loud or with other people.  I’ve always been that way.  Recently I was talking to a dear church friend, who I’ll refer to as LM.  LM is a very wise friend that I talk to often when I’m struggling with something.  She’s always been there without judgement or quick fixes.  Throughout my struggles, she always points me right back to Jesus.  I’ve always admired that about her and how she handles her children with such grace, also pointing them right to Jesus.

LM was over here as one of her girls had a doctor visit nearby and she didn’t want to take her entire crew with her.  We got talking and I opened up about some struggles I have been having.  After we chatted, she asked if she could pray with me, like she had done many times before.  Of course that was fine.

After she prayed, we got talking again.  I admitted that many times I feel weird praying out loud.  She said she has also struggled with praying out loud with other people, but that the best way to get over it was to just do it!  She challenged me that when someone came to talk with me or seek my advice to stop what I was doing and pray with them.  Whether it is in person, over the phone, or through text.

Often we hear of people’s struggles and add the “I’ll pray for you” in response, but do we always remember to pray?  I know I don’t!  Sometimes I’ll get distracted and it won’t be until days later that I remember.  If I stop what I’m doing right then and bring it before the Lord, I’m more likely to remember to pray again later.

James 5:16 says “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”  You can find another reminder in Matthew 18:19-20 – “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Such sweet reminders of how we are to pray for and with each other throughout our daily lives.  I want to challenge you to be bold and to just pray.  Pray for your friends.  With your friends.  Pray out loud.  Pray in the shower.  Pray in the car.  Pray while you fold the laundry.  Pray with your kids.  Pray with your spouse.  Just pray.

How do you make time to pray each day?

The Accidental Homemaker

January 10, 2016 By MommyOctopus 2 Comments
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Accidental Homemaker 1

I never intended to be a homemaker.  I had dreams of growing up, marrying a cowboy, living on a ranch way out west, and maybe having a kid or two.  If you would have told me in my teen years that I would be married to a cop, have 5 homeschooling kids and living in a neighborhood, I would have thought you were nuts!  Perhaps I’m the nutty one after all.

I’ve noticed in the past year or so that I have become the go-to person for many new moms – both new to parenting and new to the homeschool world.  It makes me laugh.  When did I become old enough to be giving others advice?  And how the heck do they think I know what I’m doing?  Most days I totally just wing it!  Other ladies have been asking why we homeschool and how we decided for me to stay at home.  It all kinda happened on accident.  It definitely wasn’t my intention.

When I found myself pregnant with our oldest, I totally thought I would go back to work.  I was teaching at a preschool at the time.  The plan was for me to take a 6 week maternity break and return as the lead 4 year old teacher.  When my baby girl was 5 weeks, I called and said I wouldn’t be returning.  I just couldn’t go back and leave someone else in charge of my infant!  I took odd jobs as a babysitter for a couple families and was blessed with being able to take my daughter with me.  A couple years later my son was born.

There were times that money was super duper tight. It is hard to raise a family on one income at a “starting out” job and have a house in a safe area.  We did it the best we could.  I started couponing, I crocheted items and sold them, I babysat, whatever we could do.  We went down to only one car for over a year.  My husband worked full time, took overtime, and worked odd jobs as well.  I remember a month where he worked the entire month full of 12 hour shifts without a day off.  We did what was needed.  We were flipping through pictures the other day and my oldest saw a doll that she had when she was younger.  She asked me whatever happened to that doll.  I had to tell her the truth – there was a time where we couldn’t make the mortgage payment and feed everybody.  The doll was sold along with almost everything we could find to sell to make ends meet.  That was a very dark time in our lives but we made it through.

Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 8.22.17 PM

As my kids grew, homeschooling just kinda happened.  Again, I would have thought you were nuts if you told me this.  When I say it just kinda happened, it did.  I just decided since I taught her to walk, talk, eat, I might as well try this homeschooling thing.  I figured we would do it for just a year or so.

Around this time, we found out my son had a severe allergy to all things soy.  Almost all things processed are completely out of the question for him.  We decided that it would be easiest to continue homeschooling to ensure his wellbeing.

The kids grew and grew and multiplied into 5 children now.  Even still, most times I can’t even believe what I am doing now.  God had a much better plan for me than I could have ever imagined.

Instead of relaxing in the mountains, I’m running the kids to their activities.  Instead of training horses and riding all the time, I am teaching and guiding my children into young adults that will hopefully love the Lord with all their hearts.  With that, I am truly thankful that His plan far outweighed my own.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

My New Years Goals 2016

January 5, 2016 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Screen Shot 2016-01-05 at 4.35.44 PM

I know my blog is taking a slight turn – less deals, more info and random stuff.  It is definitely warping into something different or perhaps back into what it was when I first started.  More local stuff, less online deals, more recipes.  Less rush, more actual content. This year I have decided to write down my goals for you guys, mainly to try and keep myself accountable.  Here goes:

First up, I am aiming to stop people pleasing.  Yes, making other people happy is important, but not at the cost of myself or my family.  Ultimately, people pleasing doesn’t matter.  I need to be aiming to please God and not others.  I’ve definitely struggled with this lately.

Next, I plan to put my blog more on the back burner and move my family forward more.  Honestly as a working from home mom, it’s hard to create that balance.  For too long my blog/work has taken the front line.  Moving it back more and more.

Thirdly, I hope to get rid of 5 kids worth of baby weight.  Upping my protein and getting rid of sugars and junk carbs.  Exercising with a friend once a week to hopefully have some accountability.

I also want to work on eliminating negativity.  I’ve seen God work absolute wonders from horrible situations and I need to remember that throughout hard things, God is still working.

My big goal for the year is also my “word of the year” and that is Minimizing.  By this I mean getting rid of useless stuff.  Clutter.  Both in my home and in my personal life.  I’ve already started getting rid of clutter!  Feels good!

What goals do you have for 2016

Babies Don’t Keep

December 10, 2015 By MommyOctopus 1 Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

I know in years past, I’ve been on top of the deals.  I’ve shared some whoppers and have helped many of you do all of your Christmas shopping.  I’ve heard from a couple readers asking why I’m not doing it this year.  This is why:

Screen Shot 2015-12-10 at 12.41.59 PM

And some of this:

Screen Shot 2015-12-10 at 12.44.22 PM

And even some of this:

Screen Shot 2015-12-10 at 12.45.04 PM

To be honest, deals are the last thing on my mind.  There are lots of great sites like Hip2Save, Time2Save, IHeartPublix, IHeartKroger and others that would be happy to keep the deals flowing for you.

Loving on a sweet baby, homeschooling my other 4, being a dedicated wife to my deputy, and being a daughter of God have kept this Mommy Octopus stretched to the max.  I work when I can.  Some days more than others.

Simon is my very very last baby.  Unless we adopt, there will be no more babies from me and that’s also something that I’m having to work through as it was a bit unexpected.  More on that another day.  So for now, I’m enjoying my kids.  I’m disconnecting more.  I’m reading to them more.  I’m playing more.  I’m enjoying life.

Babies Don't Keep

He’s Here!

September 11, 2015 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Simon pic

 

I know many of you have been wondering if I’ve had the baby yet.  The answer is… YES!  Simon arrived September 2 after a few complications resulting in a C-Section.  He had a true knot in his cord AND a short cord, so he wouldn’t descend.  We are very thankful for the C-Section option so our little guy is here healthy.

Since then, I’ve been busy healing and enjoying my little guy.  He was a healthy 8 lb, 2 oz and 21 inches long at a week early.  He’s a great nurser, an okay sleeper, and an all around cutie pie!  I’m completely in love with this little man.  Recovery has been taking me a bit longer than I would have liked and I’m still healing and getting stronger each day.  Thankfully my husband has about 6 weeks off so he can help me with the recovery and keeping the other kids going on homeschool work and such.  He’s fantastic like that.

The big kids just love their baby brother and ask constantly to help with him or hold him.  That is very much appreciated by this mama!  Our church has been great as well providing meals for us and making sure we have the support we need.

Thanks for being patient with me while our family grows and heals.

Happy 13th Anniversary to Us!

March 30, 2015 By MommyOctopus Leave a Comment
By clicking my links, I may earn a small commission to support this blog. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

Screen Shot 2015-03-30 at 5.16.35 PM13 years ago today, I said “I Do” to my best friend.  It has been a wild and crazy ride in these 13 years but worth every minute.  When we got married, I had just turned 18 and everyone thought we were insane, but we made it work.

Screen Shot 2015-03-30 at 5.22.25 PM

Today for our anniversary, we decided to do something we would both enjoy!  We headed on over to the Athens Gun Club and spent about an hour working on some target practice.

20150330_124923_resized I have to say that my shooting has definitely been improving and of course hubby can always use more practice to keep on his toes.   Above is my result 🙂

20150330_131800_resized

If you’re interested, Athens Gun Club offers free sessions for ladies on Thursday and you can also score a free session on your birthday!  Discounts for law enforcement and teachers as well!  I took a picture of their rates in case any of y’all were curious.

We wrapped up our middle of the day date with lunch at Freddy’s and some frozen custard.  I’m so happy to call this man my husband and look forward to many more years!

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Catch up with Mommy Octopus

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Categories

Timberdoodle"

Grab My Button


Schoolhouse Review Crew

Privacy Policy | Disclosure

Copyright © 2023 · Modern Blogger Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

Mommy Octopus
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.