What a week!!

This past week has been a bumpy one for me! It all started last Tuesday morning. I woke up on Tuesday morning and my whole back/arms/shoulders were sore. You know when you have been sleeping extremely hard in the same position kind of sore? That was it. I had been sleeping flat on my stomach. The reason I woke up was because Jackson was crying, so I went in his nursery and grabbed him to bring him to our bed to nurse him. It was then that I realized that it felt like someone had punched me in the boob...(tmi!) yikes! When Justin woke up I told him I wasn't feeling quite right. I still drove to work because I am stubborn like that and I never call like to call in sick, but on the drive in I started getting the chills. I still wasn't feeling terrible, but I knew something wasn't quite right. I came home after working my half day in the office and looked in the mirror and I my suspicions were confirmed of what was going on when I saw a red patch over where I was having pain. Masitis resulting from a plugged duct...BOO! I cut out my middle of the night pumping session a few days before, and this was my biggest fear :( This is precisely WHY I had still been pumping throughout the night, but at over 8 months of breastfeeding ,I thought I was pretty safe from getting mastitis. Anyway, I called my OB and she wanted me to come in. She saw me and confirmed what it was and said it was most likely going to get worse and so she wrote me an antibiotic. I did not want to fill it because I was thinking I could get through it without the medicine (again the stubbornness, which drives Justin crazy :), but she said I would know when it was time to take it because I would feel like crap, and fast. Also she said to nurse frequently to help unplug the milk duct.

Fast forward to about 8 pm and I started feeling BAD very fast. I took a shower and even though it was on the hottest it would go, it still felt lukewarm. My fever climbed to about 100.5. Now about this time I came downstairs and Justin said "what is that noise?". As soon as I heard it I knew what it was. It was a catfight. Thank goodness Annabelle was closed in on the screen because I looked on our porch and there was this stray cat that sometimes roams around in our backyard nose to nose with Annabelle on the other side of the screen. Annabelle was hissing, yelling, lunging, growling....but the cat wasn't moving. I (STUPIDLY) thought to go on our porch and shoo the cat away, since it has worked in the past. I opened the door and Annabelle lunged at the cat making a sound I have never heard and the cat scurried away and jumped over the fence. Then, in the blink of an eye, my perfect, precious, angelic, sweet bundle of fur that I rescued as a baby from the pound looked at me with crazy eyes and lunged at me. She jumped on me with her claws out and grabbed both legs before I pushed her off and jumped back inside. I was shocked, but i knew it was my fault. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that you never try to break up a cat fight. Still I had just been trying to protect my little alley cat. Of course it didnt hurt too bad but then I saw she scratched me pretty good and it was bleeding. Justin was NOT happy and he was really worried that the scratches were deep, but it looked worse than it was. By the time we bandaged me up and got in bed, my fever was at 101.5. Justin made the executive decision to fill my antibiotic right then at 11 PM. I am so thankful for him for taking such good care of me. I ended up with a 102 fever all night and I was MISERABLE! The next day I was still pretty sick and my fever wasnt getting below 101. Justin took Jackson all day so that I could rest (except to nurse him). What a good man! Then on Thursday I woke up completely soaked with sweat and I knew my fever broke! Since then I have been feeling great and the redness and pain is all gone. I am almost done with my antibiotic and the scratches are also almost completely healed. As for Annabelle, the next morning I made sure to give her lots of love and she was back to normal. I hope that cat stays away and out of our yard. I just hope Annabelle doesnt learn that she can jump our fence from the other cat doing it. I can't stand irresponsible pet owners!!

There's nothing like being under the weather to make you really appreciate being healthy, which is such an easy thing to take for granted. Having good health is truly a blessing!

Today was an interesting day as well because while at Babies R us, my credit card got denied...WHAT!? I called the company and they said they had locked the account because there was suspicious activity and they wanted to verify with one of us that the charges were ok before unlocking. THANK goodness they called because we are now officially the victims of credit card fraud! Starting yesterday someone swiped our credit card at Walgreens and Walmart in Knoxville TN charging over $500. They tried to use it at Home Depot today and thats when Chase bank locked the acct. Justin and I only have the copies of our card and they are both in our posession, so how in the world does someone out there have a copy of our card to swipe? Scary! Luckily we are not liable for what was charged and Chase has launched an investigation and closed our acct. Still, it creeps me out that someone somewhere got our credit card number and was able to make transactions with a fake card. But I am so glad it happened to our credit card and not our bank acct. I was so pleased with the customer service that Chase bank gave...without their swift action, we may not have caught the fraudulent charges for days. I like to think that most of the world is good and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but this is just a reminder that some people are just BAD EGGS who take the path of least resistance in life.

On the bright side, Jackson is def. crawling and he's going the distance! And he's going for speeeeeed! (haha) He also was pulling up to standing in his crib and hanging out there so we lowered it all the way down. Also, his third tooth (bottom one) has officially popped through. I also think he has learned what "kisses" means. I will say "give mommy a kissy" and he will bury his head into me and smile. What a month of changes! One last thing-The other day I was moving laundry from the washer to the dryer while holding him and he just let out the loudest laugh. I wasnt even talking or anything. Then every time I moved a piece to the dryer he would do it again. Justin came up and we both got such a kick out of his laugh. He is the light of our lives!