June 11th, 2010

June 11th, 2010.  More than just the day after my 27th birthday.  Forget all of this conference expansion talk, 5 months ago, the Black family had an expansion.  Caleb is 5 months old today!  Can you believe it?  5 months!  That's a month shy of a half a year!  Time just does not stand still anymore.  I want to thank everyone for prayers for us and Caleb. He has been through so much as such a little guy.

• Born 2lb 12.8oz, 8 weeks premature
• But, the biggest concern was lungs/breathing and he was only on breathing assist for 10hours!
• He kept his body temperature far sooner than he "should have been able to"
• Released from Hospital Feb 16
• Liver function concerns
• Fixed it's self
• 3 hernias
• Had surgery March 26 when only 5lbs
• Surgery went great and all marks are already healed!
• Reflux

This little guy is a fighter and he has clearely been blessed by our Heavenly Father.  The creator of the universe has delicately handled Caleb's growth and development every step of the way.  We are proud to say that Caleb has grown to weigh in last week at a whopping 12lbs 5oz!  We continue to petition your prayer over Caleb as his reflux is VERY bad.  He can at times spit up his entire feeding (3-4oz) just minutes after completing a meal.  This is something that seems to be tied to a immature digestive tract.  We believe in healing though.  All that God has done leaves no question.  So please pray with us in faith that he be healed.  I believe I can update this post and that last bullet point with "reflux healed" in a matter of days.  Pray that it be so.  Also pray for Sarah and I as we cope with this in the mean time.  It is troubling to see you infant child spit up 2-3 times a day 2-4oz each time.  Thank you, each and everyone of you for your support, your calls, your card, emails, flowers, gifts, time, meals, etc....  It has been so wonderful of a reminder of those God has put in our lives and how blessed we are.


Thank you!


5 months down.  A lifetime to go!

Quick and Easy Pork Ribs

Here is another Crock Pot, Easy Meal.

Pork Ribs

1 family pack Country Style Ribs (bone-in or boneless)

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

Brown Sugar, Honey, hot sauce to taste (we will add either brown sugar or honey depending on BBQ sauce used)

Place ribs in the crock pot, top with BBQ sauce and additional brown sugar/honey/hot sauce. Cook on low for 4-5hr or high for 3-4hr. When done meat will fall off the bone.

Chicken Azteca - Crock Pot

Well Crockpot meals have been a saving grace around our house for the past few months since Caleb has come home. And there have been a few favorites, one being Chicken Azteca that my best friend gave me. It is quick, easy and not too many ingredients and makes a lot of food (so far 1 pot has served 5people dinner, 4 lunches and i have 4more servings in the freezer for dinners later on!)

Chicken Azteca

8-10 boneless skinless Chicken Breasts

2 cups Salsa (I sometimes add a 3rd cup)

2 Cans of Black Beans (rinsed and Drained)

2 cans of Corn (drained)

2 Tbsn Cumin

2 Garlic Cloves, Crushed

2 pkg Cream Cheese (i use fat free)

Rice, shredded Cheese, Sour Cream and Chips

Mix together 1cup of salsa, black beans, corn, cumin and garlic in the bottom of crock pot. Add chicken to top and cover with remaining salsa. Cook on high for 3-4hrs or low for 4-5hr or until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and cut into chunks, and add back to crock pot. Cook rice according to package (i cook 3-4cups of brown rice). Add cream cheese and cook rice to crock pot (turn to low/warm) cook until cream cheese melts. Serve with Chips, Shredded Cheese and Sour Cream. (serves 10-12)

Cloth Diapering Venture

So some of you know that Josh and I decided while we were pregnant that to be cost effective and Eco-friendly we would do cloth diapers. When I thought of cloth diapers, I thought back to the old-school prefolds with the plastic pull-over cover and then having to do the dunk in the toilet, ewww, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. But after much research, we found that cloth diapers have come such a long way and many look just like a disposable diaper.

Josh and I calculated the cost of disposables and for 1year of pampers and it was going to be around $500-650. Where with cloth diapers we spent around $400-450 for 18 diapers that we can use up until Caleb is 35lbs and then use for future kids too. Yes there is a large up-front cost, but it sure bets running out of diapers at 3am! Right now we do diaper laundry every 3rd day, and man is it easy.

Here are somethings that we have found helpful to have and what our diaper stash looks like:

• we have 12 BumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers, each comes with 2 different size inserts and run about $18 apiece and are for infants 7-35lbs.
• we also have 3 Flip Day Packs; each pack includes 2 covers and 6 inserts. again these are for infants 7-35lbs. These run around $45 per day pack (the basis of these are that you just change the insert and continue to use the cover til soiled)
• Stainless Steal Kitchen trashcan with lid ($45 from walmart).
• 2 waterproof diaper pail liners ($13 each).
• Cloth wipes (we bought 24 baby washcloths from marshals $8)
• 1 medium wetbag (for when we are out, for wet/dirty diapers $15)
• Thirsties Booty Luster Spray (Just found this yesterday and love it, $11)
• Bummis Flushable Diaper Liners (put this in the diaper to catch all solids and then flush, 100 per roll for about $6, we go through 1 roll in 1 to 1 and 1/2 months)
• BumGenuis Odor Remover Spray ($6 per bottle, we put 1 spray on each diaper before it goes in the pail, this bottle will last us a little over 2 months).
• Charlies Soap (made in NC, this is a fantastic laundry soap that is safe for diapers. We ended up ordering a 40gallon bucket that will last us 2 years and now use it for all of our laundry!)

There are 3 different places we love to get our diapers and supplies from, 2 online and 1 store in Charlotte. The Milky Way is located in Dilworth, and they carry a wide range of diapers and accessories and hold a free cloth diapering class that go over all of the different types of diapers and options you have. JilliansDrawers.com is our next favorite, they have great prices and also do a trial run of diapers for 21days for $10. Cottenbabies.com is our other favorite online store. Also on both sites they sell gently used diapers for a reduce rate.

When it comes to washing, we do diapers every 3rd day. We take the diaper pail liner and empty the contents and liner in the washer, and do a cold water rinse. then a hot water wash with Charlies soap, and then a cold water rinse. All covers are hung to dry and inserts dried on hot.

That's what were are doing now, and will post new things as we continue our venture.

Caleb is now 4months

Well Caleb turned 4months (2months adjusted) this past Tuesday and is growing like a weed. He had a weight check on Monday and weighed in at 10lb 5oz.

We are still battling his reflux and had a really bad day last week, but it seems to come in waves. we will have 1-2 really bad days and then a few good. His medication was adjusted so hopefully we will see some changes.

Friday we had a follow-up appointment with the physical therapist that worked with Caleb in the NICU. And she did an evaluation to see how his development is going. There are somethings he scored on target with his adjusted age, and others he was either behind 1month or ahead. We have some stretches and different exercises to do a few times each day. We will go back in 4months for another follow-up, PT said that she would like to see Caleb roll-over by that point.

Caleb is now smiling on a more regular basis and babbling all the time.

Thats all for now. We go back to the doctor on Wednesday for his 4month appointment and will post new weight then!

What's REALLY in a Name?

So, I had a post earlier this year that explained Caleb's name.  That post was named "What's in a Name?".  In that post, I explained how we chose Caleb's name in part due to the correlation of Caleb to Joshua in the Old Testament.  I also explained how his middle, James name was chosen (practically) at random.  Well, so we thought at least.

I recently got into genealogy.  This was sparked by both the new show on NBC "Who do you think you are" and the birth of our first son.  I have been thinking a lot of legacy.  In case you didn't know, I am the only one bearing the Black name for some generations.  I was not sure how far back, but the idea of legacy caused me to begin tapping into the abundant resources online to find out about our family.  Pertaining to carrying on the Black name, I am the only one going back 4 generations at least.  I still have to trace distant cousins to see how many of us are carrying the torch.  As for my other discovery...  We thought Caleb's middle name of James was completely random.  However, I found that starting 5 generations ago, there were at least 4 generations of James' in my Black family lineage!  I have noticed in my family studies that it was very common for children to receive at least part of their name from a family name.  We thought this occurrence was intriguing.  We pray that Caleb carry the Black family legacy with pride.

Caleb is 3months Today

Caleb turned 3months old yesterday, 1month adjusted. It is amazing to see how far he has come in the past 3months. He has doubled in weight since birth, as of 4/1/10 he weighed in at 6lbs 4oz!!! We head back to the pediatrician this morning and will know what his current weight is. He had his first smile at mommy and daddy on the 9th! and oh does he have a cute little smile.

March 26th Caleb had to have 2 hernia's repaired, we had a awesome surgeon and thankfully he checked the other right side inguinal and he ended up having a hernia there too that just hadn't popped out yet. So he repaired that one too. Caleb did very well through the surgery, and we ended up spending the night there at the hospital due to his prematurity. Caleb was back to his happy self within a few days.

last week we had an appt with his GI dr. concerning his liver and then to talk about his reflux. labs were taken and came back very good, we will be on Actigall for 1 more month and then we are done. Follow-up isn't for 2months. Its a huge blessing to see the dr. appt's start to slow down. While we were with the GI dr. we talk about his reflux, and his current medication (zantac, his Pediatrician put him on it) has pretty much stopped working. His GI dr has put him on Nexium and we started that on Saturday, we have been told that it can take up to 3weeks for it to work. This is due to the medication working on the problem and not just masking the symptoms.

Over all Caleb is such a happy baby!!! he is now sleeping 4hrs straight through the night, and we couldn't be happier to let him sleep and not be on the strict 3hr schedule! God has truly blessed us with an amazing little boy!