Christmas 2008 - Baby's First

Twas the night after Christmas and all through the house all you could hear is Little Ivy screaming with her mouth. Her mommy was sleeping so daddy had to stay awake so little ivy's mommy could sleep late.

We have run the gamut with sicknesses it seems like. We were on amox.icillan, then on day 8, it caused this.



A rash from head to toe. We stopped giving her the medicine, and eventually it went away.

The cold has been very persistent with terrible coughing in the mornings. Two kids in her class at school have RSV. Uggghhhh.

Then Christmas morning, we decided after we drank the bottle, we did not want it anymore, so she threw it up. And before we left to go to my parents, she did it again. Not as much this time, but still. Everything the rest of the day is fine. We get to DH's parents and we feed her a pureed banana. She loved it. She ate all of it. The just as we are getting ready to sit down and eat dinner, it begins again. She vomits EVERYWHERE. Forceful, multiple time vomiting. Who's ready to eat?

So, we eat, and come home. No more puking. Yet. I go shopping the next morning to get stuff for next year. I get home, take Ivy from DH, and she promptly pukes again. And again, and again. Our poor couch.

Our experience with San.ta. We had a plan. (I have not learned yet that when I say this, Ivy lets me know, that we will do things her way, not mine.) We would eat and leave for the mall. She would be happy, and we could get it done. We got to the mall, go to Santa and surprisingly enough, the line was not long at all. Why? Because santa was going to dinner. When would San.ta be back you ask? In an hour and a half. 2 mins past baby girl's willingness to smile for a picture. So this is what we get. (At least she is not screaming.)



Here is the picture we used for our Christmas cards.



Baby girl has learned to grab her toes. I am sure she does things at daycare, and then later do them here. B/c it is just all of a sudden she does something new.



She has learned to yell, "talk", squeal. It is so funny sometimes, b/c we have NOOOO idea what she is trying to tell us. She has also learned to scoot backwards on her backs. She arches her back and pushes. It makes diaper changing time difficult. She will sit up by herself when she wants to. She still falls over some, but is getting much better at it. I don't think she will ever roll from her back to her tummy considering how much she despises tummy time.

Last but not least, if you all don't have one of these, you need to get one. It is a jumper that hangs on the doorway. We also have a jumperoo, but she likes this thing sooo much more. She is getting her toys confused, b/c she tried to jump in her walker the other day. Very funny.

Long Weekend

We have had the best weekend. Baby girl used to be a little chatter box a couple of months ago. Then she decided she didn't want to talk anymore. But this weekend, she has decided she would join us in conversation. And when I say join, I mean takeover. Completely. She squeals, laughs, jumps, and just talks non-stop. It is wonderful. It ashame we can't spend all of our time with her. I guess it makes us enjoy the long weekends even more.

We went to a larger diaper at night, and so far, it has worked. Thank goodness. Thank you ladies sooooo much!! I would have never thought about that.

We are now eating rice cereal again. We decided to try on Friday night and she took to it. It is much easier now than it was all of the other times. She is definitely ready this time.

I have lots of videos and pictures. So enjoy.

Back to normal, but need help

Everything is back to normal now. After the stomach virus, we decided we would all get a cold. I felt so bad, I was thinking I wish someone would just take Ivy for a day so that I could sleep. Well, DH did just that. He was wonderful.

But now, we have a problem that we had before hand, it just seems to be getting worse now. It is not that big of a deal, just more annoying than anything. Baby girl uri.nates so much during the night that every morning, she is soaked. Her outfit is wet, the sheet is wet, and 9 out of 10 times, the mattress pad is wet. This is creating an abundance of laundry. I tried 2 diapers at a time. It did not work the second night. The second diaper was a dry as it could be, but everything else was soaked. We have tried hug.gies and pam.pers. Lu.vs seem to be the same as pamp.ers, so I do not think they will be any better than the others.

ANy suggestions? I am open to trying anything at this point.

Also, we have a new camera, and some GREAT (slightly biased) pictures. It takes pictures so much quicker, and I can catch her smiling.

Dr's Advice

I called the pediatrician yesterday to ask them what to do. Their advice: Do not feed her at night when she wakes up, just give her the pacifier, rock her, anything to soothe her, but do not feed her. This will only get her into a habit of eating at night. (I agree with this, but at 1 in the morning, I just want her to be quiet. I know that sounds harsh, but I am tired too.) Also, they said do not feed any more cereal, she is obviously not ready if she is still pushing it out with her tongue. We should try again in a week or two. And do not increase the amount in her bottles, or feed her more frequently. I thought this woman was CRAZY. I wanted to tell her she could come over and deal with the cranky baby who only cried.

So last night, DH attempted to feed her some cereal. Again, all over her, none in the mouth. Then we rocked her and held her, until about 7 and fed her ht bottle. We did put a new outfit on last night for her to sleep in. It was a fleece outfit instead of just cotton. We have had some chilly nights here the last couple of nights. And by golly, she slept until 2, and then just chatted. I got up, went to the restroom and got ready to go in there, when I came out, she was back asleep. (And no, I was not in there very long at all.) She woke up again at 3, and chatted for a little while, then eventually went back to sleep. She did this again at 4, and this time, she did not stop. I went in there, and scooped her up, changed her diaper, and we went and laid on the couch. When DH got ready to leave at 5:15, we got up and I fed her a little bit. She did not even finish the entire bottle before going back to sleep. And she slept until 6:30.

So overall I would call it success. We will see how she does over the next couple of days. I do think she is teething. We also put some ora.jel on her gums to see if that would help. So, maybe a combo of the ora.jel and the thicker nighttime outfit made a difference. I guess we will see.

Thanks for all you help!

Another long night...

...So last night we decided to try again with the rice cereal. Now sweet baby princess had a 7 1/2 bottle at 4:40 pm. We tried the cereal at 6:45. Nothing. Everything was being pushed back out onto the shirt. She did however grab the spoon to put it in her mouth and chew on it. So, after 15 mins I gave in, changed her, and gave her the remaining bottle, 7 ozs. We put her to bed about 7:30. At 10:30, she was back up again. Another 5 1/2 oz bottle. At 1:00 she was back up again. This time she only ate 2 ozs. I am afraid at this point her stomach is going to explode from eating so much. I just thought if we could get some rice cereal in her, she wouldn't be so hungry, but she just won't eat it.She got up again at 4, and I just laid her on me, and we slept together for another hour, before she wanted to eat again.

I am not sure if she is beginning to teeth, getting ready for a growth spurt or what. She has diarrhea, she drools, she chews on everything, including the nipple to the bottle (makes me extremely happy I am not breastfeeding at this point).

THe only reason we have not put rice cereal in her bottle is b/c the ped told us not to. Due to the fact that most people do it either to help reflux or help them sleep through the night. Neither of which we were (keyword) having a problem with. I am going to call the peds office today and ask them what they think we should do.

We have decided at this point, to just continue to try feeding her the rice cereal, and maybe soon enough she will get the hang of it.

Here is another picture. The hat was made by volunteers at the hospital that I delievered at. There are also booties to go with it, but we have not tried those on yet.

15 Steps Back

Baby girl has been sleeping through the night every night since Sept 14th. Now ever since she has gotten sick, I think she has only slept through the night once. She would most of the time wake up because she had pooped EVERYWHERE and did not like it. But who can blame her? Anyways, we have been working on getting her back into a routine where she goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and gets up anywhere from 5 to 6.

So, now she has gotten a cold. Runny nose, Stuffed up nose, snot bubbles. I am waiting on "the big one". You know the sneeze, that causes the snot bubbles, that causes the coughing, that causes the explosive diarrhea. That to me just sounds like fun to clean up!

So baby girl has finally gotten back to eating normal. She normally eats 5 - 6 ozs in the morning before school and then 3 6 oz bottles at school, and then another bottle before bed. Well, so much for that last night. My little piggy ate 6 ozs before school. Her 3 bottles at school. And her regular 6 oz bottle before bed. So I was thinking woohoo, we are going to get an entire nights sleep. Why must my sweet, sweet daughter prove me wrong? I continue to think she thinks this is a game. She woke up just before midnight. I thought it was her nose. She would not go back to sleep. DH asked if he could fix her a bottle, I said, she can't possibly be hungry, she just ate. So after an hour, he asked again. I said sure, I will prove to you that she is not hungry. He only fixed her 2 ozs, and then went back to bed. She finished that, so I fixed her another 2 ozs. She finished that. At this point, I am dreading the poop that will be coming out after all this food. She was STILL hungry, so I fixed her another 2 ozs. She finished this and drifted off to dreamland (FINALLY!!). I did not think she was ever going to go back to sleep.

So today, she gets 7 oz bottles at daycare. We will see how she does with those. We are still not doing rice cereal. She still pushes it out with her tongue, so I just don't think she is ready yet. Plus, I am waiting for the diarrhea to go away, and make sure it isn't the rice cereal that is causing it. Has anyone else had this problem?

Sick,Sick, Sick

Last weekend, our household was hit with a stomach virus. We never even knew it was coming. We were playing with baby girl in the floor and stood her up, and projectile vomit came out. Since then we have been dealing with diarrhea. It is terrible. I have never done so much laundry. And no diaper can hold it. We have washed everything multiple times this week. The dr said it could last 10 - 14 days. That to me seems crazy.

We have tried the cereal. The first time she looked at us like we were crazy. The second time was no different. The third time she did open her mouth for the spoon, but she still is pushing it out with her tongue. So we are going to wait a little longer. She watches us eat like a hawk though. DH is convinced she doesn't like the rice cereal and we just need to give her bananas. My opinion is, if she will drink pedia.lyte, she will eat anything. That stuff is beyond disgusting.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Better late than never

I will write more soon. I figured I better get these pictures up now, seeing as how we are going to try cereal this weekend.

4 Months Old



These are at a lookout somewhere above Asheville, NC about 2 weeks ago.

What?

Baby girl has been spitting up more often lately. The dr thinks it may be attributable to her constipation, and the formula just not having anywhere to go, but back out. So, anyways, spit up has always come out of her clothes with no problem. I have never sprayed anything. We just throw everything in the washer together with some regular detergent. I am sitting here at work, after being here 6 hours, and I notice the spot that my sweet daughter puked on last week. Yes, I did wash these pants, but apparently, they did not come clean. And even better, it is not just a spot. It is a line where she spit up, and it rolled down my leg.

Very professional huh?

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

What I thought was accidental has now become second nature. Now I will never be able to get her to do tummy time.




Feeding time has now become a game to her. She makes it VERY difficult. She is so fascinated with the bottle, she continuously pushes it out and pulls it back in.

4 Months Old

Every month I still can not believe how time flies. Baby girl has been putting her little hands on the bottle more and more lately. Well, yesterday, she did not seem interested in drinking her juice. So, while she was sitting with daddy, he just put the bottle in her lap to see what she would do. Well, sure enough, she tried to get the bottle. She plays with it now, taking it out of her mouth and putting it back in. I think this has become a new game for us. But here she is holding the bottle.





Last night we were playing in the floor and "teaching" her to rollover. She has been getting up on her side, but that is about it. I rolled her over onto her stomach and she was propping herself up with her hands. Next thing I know she is starting to lean to one side, and over she goes. So we had our "accidental" first rollover from stomach to back. Yeah for baby girl.

She has really started noticing her hands lately. (Hence the bottle episode.) But now, every toy she has in her car seat is now a chew toy it seems. I don't know if she just started doing this, or we just happen to notice. This is where both parents working full time sucks. There is just not much time by the time we get home in the evenings and the time she has a meltdown to eating to sleeping. So it seems the weekends are when we discover she does new things.

Oh well, I guess it will be like this until we when the lott.ery. Makes you appreciate the weekends even more!

Can you tell...

...Who is the monkey and who is the baby?

1st Laugh

Ignore the cackle from the mother. I couldn't help but laugh after she laughed. It was so cute.

Our "newest" toy

One of my clients let me borrow this. I think she is going to like it. At least it allows her to use more of her muscles to sit up than just sitting in the bouncer.



The newest rap.per on the block



Baby girl absolutely loves this thing. She stayed in it this past weekend for about 3 hours off and on. She even fell asleep in it while my mom was carrying her.

Another Video

It has taken me days to get this thing uploaded. I don't know why. This computer just doesn't like me I guess.

What a wiggle worm!

So we thought the problem was limited to her sliding off the bottom of the mat. Until I saw this.



Notice the dark spot on the top edge of the blanket. I almost panicked when I saw that this morning. I thought she had had a bloody nose, until further inspection revealed that it was chocolate. Hmmmm. I wonder how that happened? Daddy????

Also, she had a fight with her hands today. Can you tell who won?

Pictures

I am trying to upload another video, but I can't get it to work. I am not sure whose fault it is either.

Baby Girl turned 3 months old this past Saturday. She is growing up and getting to be so much fun. She is about 10.6 lbs and 21 1/4 inches long.





Bumper Schumper



No more carseat! I am a big girl now.



If we had a faster camera I could get lots of pictures with smiles. But the man inside our camera who chisels out the pictures onto tablets, is a little slow.

But here is proof that she can smile.



And here she is with her monkey.

Here she is in action

She doesn't talk nearly as much in the bouncer, but watch the legs. You have to ignore the funny voices and commentary. Parents have to do certain things to get their kids to talk.

Funny story...

...Let me preface this by saying baby girl loves to be on her changing table. She will talk up a storm.

So, the other night, she was on the changing table, and DH started a new game with her while I was in the bathroom. It is called baby hugs. You lean down in her face, put her hands around your face while saying baby hugs. When I come back in the room, DH is gingerly wiping baby girl off, and I look at his face, and there is milk around his lips and rolling down his chin. Hmmm, I thought. That's funny, you weren't feeding her when I left. Then I realized what had happened. During one of the baby hugs, baby girl decided to give some of the last bottle back to daddy. He didn't quite appreciate it like she thought he would.

When you lean down in her face now, she opens her mouth, like she is trying to kiss you back. It is very cute.

We fed her 1 ounce of apple juice last night to stimulate some pooping action. It hasn't worked yet.

While she was on the changing table last night, she started making this weird sound. Kind of like a wheezing, but VERY loud. I asked DH if he thought she was ok, and he said, "She is laughing". Hm. Odd laugh. It is like a reverse laugh where she is sucking in instead of it coming out. She did it for a few minutes though. But only when she is on the changing table.

And, I caught her sucking those fingers again. I can take a pacifier away when I get tired of it, but I can't take those fingers away. I do not want her to get hooked on those things. Oh well, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Oh, so many things to talk about...

...We had four "firsts" this weekend.

On Friday, baby girl stayed awake the entire ride home from school. I don't know if she was excited to see her daddy or what, but she talked and talked and talked. I have a feeling there will be more than one parent-teacher meeting in our future. Oh well. I was the same way, what do you expect.

At our family reunion Saturday, baby girl decided she wanted to suck her two middle fingers. She has always tried for the thumb, but never really got it. She got those two fingers, and sucked hard enough to keep them in for a few minutes.

Last night, she slept the entire night. We laid her down about 9 and she slept until 5:15. Just when I was getting up to exercise, she decides she has had enough.

The other first was my nephew's. He peed in the potty like a big boy this morning all on his own. Yeah!!!

NanaT's birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday MOM! I love you very much! We all went to brunch as a family, and then my mom, sister and I went bowling. I know it was my mom's day and all but I won 2 out of 3 games. That is certainly an accomplishment, b/c my mom is so good at bowling.

We had a family reunion Saturday and it was nice. There were a lot of people we only see about every five years I guess. My grandmothers brother was here from California and some of his siblings had not seen him in 19 years. Crazy huh?

Has anybody dealt with a constipated baby? We tried the thermometer. It didn't work. It has worked before, but not this time. You can tell she is trying to go, because of her straining, but nothing is coming out. Friday when she went, it was formed and like a thick paste. Since then, nothing. The daycare said try some juice, but I am just not sure about giving her juice, since she eats nothing but formula now. Thanks in advance for the help.

Our newest toy!

I would have never thought she would go in this thing this early until I saw Farah's son in it. I have to say, she absolutely loved it!!



Today was our first day of all kinds of smiling. It was soooo exciting and much anticipated. I sure hope it continues!

Solutions?

DO you think child care services would think bad of us if we velcro her to the mattress?



And yes, she is sleeping. I had to wake her up to remove her from this position.

Lots of updates

This is what happens when you go on vacation and start back to work full-time. I get lazy.

Baby girl had her two month checkup this past Tuesday. She weighed 9 lbs 12 ozs and was 21 inches long. It is scary to think that there are some babies born this size. She got her shots. I didn't cry because they were giving her the shots, I cried because she was screaming bloody murder. I felt so bad for her. She was pitiful. She immediately went to sleep. We were thinking she may sleep for a while. Nope. She was up by the time we got home.

But, over the last three nights, she has developed a pattern. She eats her last bottle about 7:30 - 8, and goes to bed. The first two nights, she slept until 2:30 before eating again, and last night, she slept until 3:30. I hope things will continue this way. I don't mind getting up once a night, twice is just so much harder.

I had a class the other night, and on the way home, I called DH to see how things were going. To my surprise, he was giving baby girl a bath all by himself. (I thought this was something we did together. Apparently, I was wrong.) He went to change her diaper and had poop up past her belly button. And being the good dad that he is, he took pictures. (I am sure she will love these when she gets older.) He said there was no wiping her off, and just opted for the bath instead.

We went to the beach last weekend with DH's family. It was very nice. We rented a house at the Isle of Palms. That beach is just so quiet. There weren't that many people there at all.

And for those of you who come here just for pictures (my sister!!)

Baby girl in the waiting room before anything



Baby girl after being weighed and measured (Still happy)



Baby girl during shots



After the shots (not so happy anymore - but neither was mommy)



Baby girl at the beach (hat by nanaT, suit by nanaB)



This was the sunrise we went to see



And last but not least, the jellyfish. The reason I do not get in the ocean.

2 Months Old

I can not believe it has been two months already.

The long night of sleep did not last long. Last night, she ate at 8:30, 12:45 and 4:00. DH said she really wasn't hungry at 4, she just wanted her diaper changed.

Oh well. She is sooo sweet in the middle of the night. She eats so good without a problem, and then goes right back to bed.

But here are her two month old pictures. And I know you all don't believe it, but I took the pictures and posted them on the correct day!!!

I think she is saying, come closer, my arm is not long enough to sock you. Quit changing my clothes. I am done with this!







I love this picture. She looks so small in her daddy's arms.

It's party time!

I took baby girl to the dr's office to be weighed yesterday. She weighed 9 lbs and 9 ozs and is approx 21.5 inches long. For her real age, this is between the 5th and 10th percentiles for both. FOr her adjusted age, the weight is in the 25th percentile.

Mondays at day care must be rough. She took a 3 1/2 hour nap yesterday afternoon, stayed up from 4 - 7:30 playing the hardest she has played yet, and took her bottle at 7:30, slept until 12:30 am. I fed her then, and then she proceeded to sleep from 1:30 am until 6 this morning. Woohooo!!!!

Now you would think, that this was a great nights sleep. Well, those darned monitors started acting up again with what my DH calls eletrical interference. I was about to electrical interfere them out the window last night. DH never even knows what is going on. He slept through the entire thing. I on the other hand would wake up every time. I even tried chaning the channels which is not easy to do at 2:30 in the morning.

Let's hope this is the start of something new and great. DH said he had a talk with baby girl and has asked her to wait until 10:30 to eat and go to bed and then sleep all night. I hope she is a good listener.

So, as I was saying...

...Sunday night, we got baby girl all ready for daycare (see pictures below). I fed her at 6 am and took her over. I barely made it out of the room before I lost it. For any of you who have yet to venture down this path, but are going to, it is HARD!!! I got out to the car and seriously contemplated going back, picking her up and going back home. Surely work wouldn't notice if I never came back. DH might night when we have no money though. So, I would have to get through this. I called him and cried. My sister called after that. I cried again. One thing that really helped though is that while I have been out of work, my sister got a job where I work. So, it was great to say the least to have her there that morning. I cried again when the girls at work asked me how it went. I cried when I called my mom. Do you get the picture yet?

When I dropped her off she was sleeping. I did not want to wake her up, so I put her in her crib, and left. I felt SOOOOOO bad that she was going to wake up in a strange place to strange people and would have NO idea where mommy and daddy were.

I called after a couple hours to check on her. They had to wake her up to feed her. Which was strange. My first thought was, why can't she do that at night? When I went to pick her up, the lady was attempting to feed her but she was completely knocked out cold. Arms as limp as they could be. So, we went home and she slept, and she slept, and she slept. I woke her again to feed her, and she went right back to sleep. This was becoming strange. She had not been awake to play at all. SO, we took her to the pediatric evening clinic. She wakes up while we are there and the dr is poking at her. He diagnoses her as fine. We get back in the car and she is back asleep. We wake her to feed her again that night. DH comes to bed just after midnight and had to wake her up to feed her earlier. We are really getting concerned at this point. So, we get her out of the crib and move her back into the bassinet in our room. She hasn't been in there in a week or so. You know how I was complaining because she was a noisy sleeper. Not anymore. I had to put my hand on her chest several times to make sure she was breathing.

Day two at daycare. I discuss with them that morning that she was still sleeping a lot. So, DH calls to check on her mid-morning. She did not even wake up while they were changing her diaper and had only eaten 2 oz. Ok, panic sets in. More crying ensues. (You would never guess one person could cry so much.) We took her to the doctor and she again wakes up while the dr is messing with her. Which is good apparently. At this point I would rather hear her scream while we are messing with her than for her to sleep through it. Dr says she must just be changing her sleeping patterns. Her weight (9 lbs 7 ozs) is in the 25th percentile, so she is not malnourished and is getting her daily caloric needs. She did not want to run unnecessary tests on baby girl ( I can kind of understand). Her pulse ox (?) was 100%. We are supposed to take her back Friday and weigh her and make sure it wasn't the start of something.

After we got home, she woke up for the next feeding and stayed up through to the next feeding. About 4 hours. She even went on a car ride and to the grocery store and stayed awake for the entire thing. I guess she was slept out. She has done much better today though. The ladies at daycare say she is spoiled. Who my child?

My FIL also made a good point about being upset at taking her to daycare. If I didn't mind leaving her there, I didn't love her enough. I was expected to be upset and that was ok.

Bottom line, for those of you who have not been down the dropping them off at daycare yet, my thoughts are certainly with you. There is no denying how hard it was and is. I feel resentment that these people are taking care of my child, but at the same time, I sooo want them to be good to her, that she enjoys being there (bu tmore so enjoys having me or DH pick her up!).

Long couple of days...

I will write about those later, but here are some pics for the time being.

From the race this past weekend (With the shirt my nana t made me)





My first day of school (daycare) was on Monday. These pictures were all fun and games until we got to school the next morning. That is a whole other post in itself.



And last but not least, I think Wiggles uses baby girl's play toys more than she does!

Mish mash of post

I had my six week appt the other day. Everything was fine. I had lost 27 lbs. with still at least 15 to go. Twenty would put me back at pre-pregnancy weight. I doubt that will ever happen.

I was saying the other day how my nephew loves to help take care of baby girl, well last night he was here, and she kept spitting out her pacifier, he sat there and continuously put it back in for her. It was so funny. He kept telling me over and over, she keeps spitting it out. I finally had to tell him, maybe she just didn't want it anymore. He was so determined that she keep it though.

I am so mad at the insurance company. They paid for the entire birth and everything for baby girl and I. Just the hospital stay and things associated with it for the two of us was about $17K. Now, I wanted to get an IUC (Mire.na) and they will not pay the $700 for it. Is that not crazy? Would they rather pay another $17K? Very irritating.

Have you all seen the commercial for the hoover.round that shows the two older ladies at the grand canyon? They appear to be no more than 10 - 15 feet away from the edge of a giant cliff. There is no way in the world I would walk that close to the edge, let alone drive a scooter over there.

And last but not least, baby girl and I will compete in our first 5K together this weekend. Nana is going to make her a special onesie to celebrate it. We will have to get a family picture for the event. I am hoping by starting her early she will have no problems riding in the stroller for all of our upcoming races. And they she can start to run on her own.

I will post her 7 week old pictures later today or tomorrow.

Baby Girl's new job

Somebody has to make money around here and support her parents. How much do we think Nana will pay us to model the clothes she makes for us? Hmmmm....

If anyone is curious, my mom does embroidery. Here are two of the outfits she has done for baby girl. And she doesn't just do clothes either. She does everything, including toilet paper.








And I just got the first real real smile!!!!!!!!!! If she had sound, she might have laughed.