The last time I checked, I'm still breathing. Whew. I really thought I wouldn't make it to see the other side of these last few weeks... this bumpy road is far from over but at least I'm moving forward. And there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm not completely certain that it's not a train.
And it's not Emma causing all of this madness. No, no. That kid has been great lately (and THERE we go! Jinxed it. YES.) up until today, when she turned into a grump again. She's been sleeping through the night (11-12.5 hours straight) for a few weeks now. Jinxed that too. And she's fallen into a pretty decent routine during the day of naps and feeding, even at the in-laws' house.
The madness is from work and moving. UGH, God. Why in the world did I decide to move while I have an eight-month-old goober and a recent promotion? The good news is that eventually I'll be all unpacked and settled into this house and I'll have more than one worker on my team, so I can get rid of my ever-growing caseload and be a real supervisor. Eventually.
One year ago, I was pregnant, living in H-town, and working in B-ville as an adoptions case manager. Now, I'm a mommy, living in the S-to-the-H-town, and an adoptions supervisor in the West Pizzle. Crazy how things change so quickly...
I did realize that we had close to 2300 square feet worth of crap in a 1350ish square foot house. When we were in the process of moving, I envisioned this new house being really empty and bare and that we'd have lots of unused space and room to fill the house with more crap. Nope. Wrong. The new house is surprisingly full-ish and I can't figure out how we fit everything in the old house. The difference is that now, I can do cartwheels in my living room (and my closet too!) without destroying things and breaking bones. And Emma will have plenty of room to run around and cause a ruckus, when the time comes for her to run.
Ok, ok. Emma stuff:
TEMPER TANTRUMS. Omg, it has begun- this kid can go from happy to super angry in a flash if we walk away from her, put her down, or take away something she wants. Hooray. Yippee. The fun part of parenting... sometimes it's kind of cute, but you can't reason with an eight-month-old so it's mostly frustrating. What the heck do you do? I calmly tell her no and then smile to reassure her that everything is ok, but she doesn't understand and just continues to grump at me. Because she doesn't understand. Sometimes I just pick her up, but that's a bad habit I don't want to start. Ah, delicate balances. The other day, I tried to give her the sippy cup after her nap instead of her bottle, but she chewed on it a few times and decided that it was no bueno and began swatting it away with her hands and throwing a fit. I replaced the sippy spout with a bottle nipple and tried giving it to her again, but she was convinced it was a trick and that it was a sippy cup in disguise, because she swatted it away again, all the while grumping, yelling, crying, kicking, and flailing. It was really extreme. I finally managed to get the darned thing in her mouth and once she realized it was a nipple, everything in her little world turned to sunshine and rainbows and she happily took the bottle. Silly baby.
She can feed herself now :( That makes me sad because I enjoy sitting down and holding her while she makes those sweet little noises as she eats. But it's also great for the mornings when I'm trying to get ready to fly out the door (I'm becoming chronically late in the morning, more on that in a moment) because she can feed herself in her bouncy seat while I load up the car and attempt to guzzle some coffee so I don't crash my car on the way to work.
There are definitely some Murphy's Laws of parenting. Like, if I need to be somewhere to meet with my mom so she can watch the baby, or I need to be at a meeting/court/etc., the baby will poop just as I'm about to leave the house. And I can't leave her in a poopy diaper in the car, especially now that my drive to the in-laws' house is about 30 minutes and the drive to meet my mom is about 45, because the poor kid shouldn't be sitting in poo in a car seat for that long. Oh, and I also don't want my car to smell like a dumpster the whole way, either. But regardless, something will happen that will make me rush out the door at the last minute. And that something is usually some kind of bodily function (from the baby, of course).
SITTING. Finally! Hooray baby girl! She mastered rolling from tummy to back about a month ago and now has gone on to bigger and better things. It really didn't take her long to go from needing some support while sitting to needing no support at all. Just a pillow behind her in case she falls (thanks to Sherb, the genius who clearly has more parenting experience than I do. Because I figured she was doing fine sitting on her own and stood up from sitting behind her, only for her to fling herself backward and slam her head on the carpeted floor. Many tears ensued and I felt like a horrible mommy!). Today, she spent some quality time in her pack-n-play with some toys and sat all by herself and played like a big girl.
I realized something. I used to watch videos of people's kids that they posted on Facebook and I used to think that's cute and all, but it's just your kid sitting in a pack-n-play with some toys. Now I get it. Just a few short months ago, she was literally a blob of burping, farting, pooping, eating, crying baby that would stare at the ceiling and go cross-eyed at random times. Now, she's sitting. In a pack-n-play. Playing with toys. In my mind, this kid is Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa. In reality, she's a shreiking, smiling, wobbling little goober chewing on the hand of her Cat in the Hat stuffed animal. I love that little goober. And her big open-mouthed kisses.
Oh, and she can give high-fives. Without even looking. She's still a pro with her hands... so maybe she'll be the next Leonardo Da Vinci. I just hope she doesn't end up with a beard...
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Pictures. Small Pictures. But Pictures.
By the way I'm living my life right now, you'd think I'm a glutton for punishment or something. Teething baby. Moving. Promotion at work. *sigh*
At least the teething let up for about a week or two. Or maybe it's been longer than that? Time means nothing to me right now... but we have had a reprieve from the angry teething baby until today, when she decided to start grumping again and was chewing on anything she could get her slimy little hands on. And her slimy little mouth, which gave mommy and daddy some slimy little kisses today. I don't even care if she only gives open-mouth, baby-bird, super-drooly kisses... it's the cutest darned thing in the world.
So, all this teething and... not a tooth in sight. Her gums look maybe a little different now than they did a few months ago, but that's really grasping at straws. I seriously think her first tooth won't be making its appearance any time soon. Bah!
I've been reading some of my old blog posts and reminiscing on times past, which has greatly helped to put things in perspective for me this week. She's actually been doing very well lately, despite her ongoing issues with sleeping at her grandma and grandpa's house, which in turn causes a domino effect of bad bedtime, bad sleep, and early wakeup time. But other than that, she does great- she's usually in bed by 7:30 or 8, sound asleep in her crib with hardly a peep. And most nights she sleeps for a good 12 hours straight without waking for a bottle, which is, of course, always subject to change. She doesn't need a nighttime bottle anymore, but sometimes she wakes up and just can't get herself back to sleep without some help.
The few times she has woken up for a middle-of-the-night bottle recently have been because of Pampers Cruisers. Yep. Add that to the list of diapers that Emma can't wear. UGH. My mother-in-law bought a box of them when a local grocery store was going out of business and had everything on sale. They don't sell size 3 Swaddlers in the grocery stores around these parts, so the Cruisers were the next best thing. Well, apparently for my Baby Bird, Cruisers= nighttime pee pants. The Swaddlers can hold the biggest of all of the Emma pees without a problem. Ever. In fact, I don't think Emma has ever had a leak with her Swaddlers that I can recall... even when they've been poorly fastened. The Cruisers have a "three-way fit" and apparently none of those three ways actually fit Emma's little bottom. So she pees out the top back of the diaper in the middle of the night, which is a really exciting discovery (not) at 4:30am when I go to lift her out of her crib and am greeted by soaking wet pajamas and crib sheets. Because what I really want to do more than anything at 4:30am is change the crib sheet and give the baby a baby wipe bath (AKA a Hudson baby bath). Then feed her and beg her to go to sleep, because by that point she was completely wide awake and ready to party. Thank God for her swing. So her Cruisers are used during the day, and her Swaddlers at night because, well, if she wasn't spoiled enough already, she now has her day diapers and her night diapers. Next up, is her weekday Power Wheels and her weekend Power Wheels.
Speaking of Power Wheels. We're closing on our new home in 9 days... holy mother of God. There's so much left to do... pack, pack, pack, paint, pack, clean, paint, clean, unpack, unpack, unpack, reorganize, clean, unpack, pass out and die. We'll finally have a big garage (our current garage is more like a 1 1/2 car garage because we really wouldn't be able to comfortably fit both cars in it) so we can park both cars in it, PLUS the third garage bay, which is perfect for a little pink Barbie Power Wheels Cadillac. Duh.
As I was sitting here typing up this blog entry, Baby Bird start screaming bloody murder out of a nice, calm sleep. I jumped up and almost dropped my laptop on the ground in the process because this kid rarely cries. And when I say rarely, I mean I-can't-remember-the-last-time-she-really-cried kind of rarely. Actually, no. I do remember the last time she cried- it was when she had her shots at her six-month well-child appointment. She had a booster shot a couple of weeks ago but hubby took her to that appointment, but she obviously cried at that too. But otherwise, she'll grump when she's in pain or overtired, yell and fuss and scream (not cry though) when she's way overtired and doesn't want to sleep, grump/yell when she's hungry, or whine when she doesn't want to be put down or wants out of her crib when she's done napping. But she doesn't truly cry. So, yea. That startled me and I ran into her nursery and picked her up out of her crib. The poor thing looked at me and cried harder as I pulled her head onto my shoulder and calmed her down... sheesh. Usually she sees me and laughs, squeals, and smiles. So something was definitely amiss with my little miss. I'm still not certain what it was... she continued to cry a little and angrily grunt in my arms until she drifted to sleep again. I held her extra long to comfort her (ok, and me) and she tooted a few times. When I put her back in her crib, she woke up a little and started kicking and fussing like she sometimes does, but there were some angry grunts peppered in. And another toot or two. So maybe she has some gas that's bothering her? I know, I know... I don't subscribe to the whole "it's gas!" excuse that everyone uses anytime a baby is less than happy. But this could be the real deal, the elusive true gas pains. Or it could be heartburn. Or teething. Whatever it is, she's definitely in some pain tonight :(
We elected to discontinue her reflux medications at the end of January (oops, didn't tell her doctor. That may have been a good thing to do first...) for a few reasons. A few people had suggested that I have the pharmacy request an increased dosage since she's grown so much since her original script. At 17+ pounds, she was still on the same dose she was on when she was about 8 or 9 pounds. The doctor's office said the only reason to increase the dose would be if she was having more symptoms or getting worse, which she wasn't. In fact, she doesn't spit up like she used to and she's a generally happy baby. So I figured the medication probably wasn't doing anything for her anymore since it was such a low dose. And we were having to give her Colic Calm, Tylenol, or Motrin for her teething pain, so we skipped a few doses because she was really not feeling the whole medicine dropper thing after a while. The discontinuation of her reflux meds was accidental at first, but then we decided to just not give it to her anymore. She seems to be doing just fine.
My chubby little baby is starting to move along with her gross motor skills now. She rolls from tummy to back like she's been doing it all her life and is starting to sit on her own without support for short periods of time. She still face plants quite often, though and grumps afterwards. I can't help but laugh at that. At the rate she's going with her fine motor skills, she'll be a concert violinist at the age of three. The pincer grasp is now her grasp of choice and she loves to grab at tags with her little fingers all day long. She'll grab a stuffed animal and immediately turn it over and around until she finds the tag, and then proceeds to play with it. She usually doesn't even try to put it in her mouth; she just plays with it with her fingers. Put a toy in front of her, and she can reach right for it, grab it with one hand (depending on the toy), and pull it to her to inspect and decide if she wants to play with it. She doesn't even have to try hard anymore, her hands can do whatever she wants them to do without hesitation. Now she just has to work on getting her legs and the rest of her body to cooperate, and we'll be in good shape.
So here's my sad attempt at posting pictures. I'll include the link to my Flickr account that I created just so I could possibly post pictures on this blog. This is the best I could do for now... most of the pictures are from Christmas, but the first one is from her seventh month-day on February 9th. My, how she's grown!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Lessons Learned
First off... Emma rolled over for the first time all by herself! We've been diligently working on getting this kid to roll over for about a month-ish now and she finally decided to do it on her own. She did it for the first time last night (2/16) but only once, and it was mostly an accident. Hubby woke up when she got up this morning and I laid in bed for another hour, and when I got up, he happily announced that she rolled over all by herself not once, but twice. Twice! And then she proceeded to do it all day long like she's been doing it for weeks now. That's the thing about babies- once they learn something, they master it quickly. She still hasn't rolled from back to tummy by herself, but I think that's mostly because she has zero desire to do so. At least when she's on her tummy, she's motivated to flip onto her back (she still hates being on her tummy). She can roll herself onto her side from her back with no problem, but she's way too smart to keep going.
The funny thing is, she extends one arm up and behind her to start the rolling motion, but she thinks that same motion can get her out of any position she's in- she was sitting on hubby's lap tonight and she kept trying to reach back with her arm as if she could roll herself into a different position from sitting. Silly baby. She at least thinks it's fun to flip over onto her back. Let's hope she doesn't think it's even more fun to flip from back to tummy, or else diaper changes will be pretty dramatic.
Speaking of dramatic diaper changes...
(If baby poop grosses you out, skip to the next topic. And make sure you have good birth control, because babies= lots of baby poop)
So hubby and I are buying another house in three weeks and it's looking like the loan will go through. So we decided to take advantage of the fact that President's Day somehow correlates with appliance sales. Yep... George Washington, washer/dryer deals, it all makes sense. Anyways. We went to our local HH Gregg and shortly after getting there, I realized Baby Bird smelled like a dumpster but I thought we wouldn't be long and I could change her in the car. But when we found ourselves about to purchase three major appliances, I decided to brave the store bathroom and change her in there. It was pretty much a closet with two stalls and a sink. I got everything set up, put the baby on the changing table, popped open the diaper and said "that's not too bad!" Then I realized... it was a blow out. Straight up and out the top of her diaper in the back... the worst kind of blowout. Oh, and did I mention that before I even opened up her diaper, she kicked the travel wipes container off the changing table, causing two wipes to land directly on the floor? Yea, that happened. So I threw those two wipes away. Now, back to the blowout... it took me about 0.1634 seconds to realize that an out-the-back-of-the-diaper blowout means a poopy onesie and I tried to remain as calm as I could. That is, until I realized that I had two remaining wipes in the container. Two. Wipes. And a poopy onesie. In a closet-sized bathroom that now had both stalls occupied- one with a little old lady, and one with a preschooler and her mother. And here I was, with a now-crying baby, no wipes, a poopy onesie, and a poopy changing pad. Oh, and poop on my hands. Poop poop poop. I somehow made it work and tried to get her as clean as I could with what I had available, although I made a horrible judgment call and pulled the poopy onesie over her head instead of pulling it down. And trust me, there were flashes of temptation of just putting my poop-covered infant in the sink and rinsing her off in it. But there were too many reasons not to do so. We both made it out alive and she got a very soapy bath at home... she's definitely clean now.
My next mistake (more poop talk... skip to the next paragraph if you must) was trying to wash said onesie in the sink at home. I sprayed the hell out of it with some Spray-n-Wash and did my best to get as much poop off of it before tossing it in the washer. So that was my first poopy onesie wash- the others have just been thrown away in the past or tossed into the washer because sometimes I'm an awesome mom like that. Now I really can't wait for my fancy-shmancy new washer with a sanitize feature and my steam dryer that kills 99.9% of germs. And I'm certainly no germophobe... but poop is seriously gross.
So if that wasn't enough, my dear little Baby Bird had to vomit sweet potatoes on me before her bath. And all over her white Pottery Barn towel that has her name embroidered on it. So now both of those towels are stained :( And then she pooped again. Emma- 8982745098136 Mommy- 0
We're horribly understaffed at work right now and I ended up working 46.5 hours last week... add in the travel time for dropping off/picking up the baby and it's amazing I had time to breathe at all. I assume that this coming week will be just as nuts. And we're moving.
My saving grace has been that Emma has slept for twelve consecutive hours for the past few nights. She's been in bed at 8, which seems to be her new preferred bed time, and wakes up at 8 the next morning. I couldn't ask for anything more. Well... it would be nice if bedtime didn't usually involve a whole lot of fussing and kicking with some crying peppered in. She kind of hates bed time now and I don't know why. Tonight was the exception- she drifted off to sleep in my arms and I plopped her in her crib and she fell right back to sleep. But I assume that means she'll be up in the middle of the night for a bottle- I'm a mom. I can't have my cake and eat it too when it comes to a seven-month-old baby.
Here are some of the rookie-mom things I've learned in the last seven months, in list format: (experienced moms will be nodding their heads and laughing at this. New moms and moms-to-be: take notes!)
1. Don't assume you have enough wipes when you leave the house.
2. Don't assume you won't need a change of clothes for the baby when you leave the house (I neglected to put a long-sleeved onesie in the diaper bag today because I didn't think I'd need to change her outfit. So I had to put her in a short-sleeved onesie on the coldest day of the season so far. Yep, Mom-of-the-year. Right here.)
3. Don't compare your child to other children. Just don't. Emma is delayed on milestones for her actual age, and sometimes I forget that she's a preemie and it's totally normal for her to be meeting her milestones the way she is. As long as your kid is making progress and moving forward, who cares when he/she rolls for the first time or starts babbling? Enjoy that baby. Forget everyone else.
4. Take lots of pictures and videos. And darnit, post them on Facebook- just don't post eighteen pictures of your child eating crackers.
5. Spend money on good wipes. I just bought a pack of more than 200 Huggies wipes that are the equivalent of wiping my child's bottom with a slightly-damp piece of printer paper.
6. When buying baby clothes as a gift for a friend, consider the size and season. Emma has a LOT of summer clothes in a 9 month size that she'll never wear because she'll be too big for them by the time it's warm enough. She also has a good amount of winter clothes in a 12 month size that she'll never wear for the opposite reason- it'll be too warm by the time she's big enough to wear them.
7. Bath poop is inevitable. Prepare yourself.
8. Don't listen to every single person who wants to tell you in a condescending fashion how to be a mom or what to do in every little situation. Feel free to figure stuff out on your own... the mistakes make for good stories sometimes (like today's fiasco), provided that everyone makes it out alive.
9. Make an effort to use carpet cleaner when the baby projectile vomits and soaks the carpet at 3am. Just soaking it up with a towel doesn't always suffice, and it's never a good feeling to find a crusty stain on the carpet the next morning. Formula vomit isn't always white.
10. Skip the doorway jumper.
I really do think my blog entries are going to dwindle for a bit due to this move. But we'll see- I tend to procrastinate and find lots of other things to do when there's a big task at hand that I'd like to avoid. Like packing up my whole house. Bleh. And once we settle in, I'm going to try to start crafting and sewing because I'll finally have a reason to- I have an additional 1000 square feet of house to decorate. Holy moly. So, I'm crazy busy at work, moving, and juggling new parenthood. If I make it through these next few months without having a nervous breakdown, I'm pretty sure I can take on the world ;)
The funny thing is, she extends one arm up and behind her to start the rolling motion, but she thinks that same motion can get her out of any position she's in- she was sitting on hubby's lap tonight and she kept trying to reach back with her arm as if she could roll herself into a different position from sitting. Silly baby. She at least thinks it's fun to flip over onto her back. Let's hope she doesn't think it's even more fun to flip from back to tummy, or else diaper changes will be pretty dramatic.
Speaking of dramatic diaper changes...
(If baby poop grosses you out, skip to the next topic. And make sure you have good birth control, because babies= lots of baby poop)
So hubby and I are buying another house in three weeks and it's looking like the loan will go through. So we decided to take advantage of the fact that President's Day somehow correlates with appliance sales. Yep... George Washington, washer/dryer deals, it all makes sense. Anyways. We went to our local HH Gregg and shortly after getting there, I realized Baby Bird smelled like a dumpster but I thought we wouldn't be long and I could change her in the car. But when we found ourselves about to purchase three major appliances, I decided to brave the store bathroom and change her in there. It was pretty much a closet with two stalls and a sink. I got everything set up, put the baby on the changing table, popped open the diaper and said "that's not too bad!" Then I realized... it was a blow out. Straight up and out the top of her diaper in the back... the worst kind of blowout. Oh, and did I mention that before I even opened up her diaper, she kicked the travel wipes container off the changing table, causing two wipes to land directly on the floor? Yea, that happened. So I threw those two wipes away. Now, back to the blowout... it took me about 0.1634 seconds to realize that an out-the-back-of-the-diaper blowout means a poopy onesie and I tried to remain as calm as I could. That is, until I realized that I had two remaining wipes in the container. Two. Wipes. And a poopy onesie. In a closet-sized bathroom that now had both stalls occupied- one with a little old lady, and one with a preschooler and her mother. And here I was, with a now-crying baby, no wipes, a poopy onesie, and a poopy changing pad. Oh, and poop on my hands. Poop poop poop. I somehow made it work and tried to get her as clean as I could with what I had available, although I made a horrible judgment call and pulled the poopy onesie over her head instead of pulling it down. And trust me, there were flashes of temptation of just putting my poop-covered infant in the sink and rinsing her off in it. But there were too many reasons not to do so. We both made it out alive and she got a very soapy bath at home... she's definitely clean now.
My next mistake (more poop talk... skip to the next paragraph if you must) was trying to wash said onesie in the sink at home. I sprayed the hell out of it with some Spray-n-Wash and did my best to get as much poop off of it before tossing it in the washer. So that was my first poopy onesie wash- the others have just been thrown away in the past or tossed into the washer because sometimes I'm an awesome mom like that. Now I really can't wait for my fancy-shmancy new washer with a sanitize feature and my steam dryer that kills 99.9% of germs. And I'm certainly no germophobe... but poop is seriously gross.
So if that wasn't enough, my dear little Baby Bird had to vomit sweet potatoes on me before her bath. And all over her white Pottery Barn towel that has her name embroidered on it. So now both of those towels are stained :( And then she pooped again. Emma- 8982745098136 Mommy- 0
We're horribly understaffed at work right now and I ended up working 46.5 hours last week... add in the travel time for dropping off/picking up the baby and it's amazing I had time to breathe at all. I assume that this coming week will be just as nuts. And we're moving.
My saving grace has been that Emma has slept for twelve consecutive hours for the past few nights. She's been in bed at 8, which seems to be her new preferred bed time, and wakes up at 8 the next morning. I couldn't ask for anything more. Well... it would be nice if bedtime didn't usually involve a whole lot of fussing and kicking with some crying peppered in. She kind of hates bed time now and I don't know why. Tonight was the exception- she drifted off to sleep in my arms and I plopped her in her crib and she fell right back to sleep. But I assume that means she'll be up in the middle of the night for a bottle- I'm a mom. I can't have my cake and eat it too when it comes to a seven-month-old baby.
Here are some of the rookie-mom things I've learned in the last seven months, in list format: (experienced moms will be nodding their heads and laughing at this. New moms and moms-to-be: take notes!)
1. Don't assume you have enough wipes when you leave the house.
2. Don't assume you won't need a change of clothes for the baby when you leave the house (I neglected to put a long-sleeved onesie in the diaper bag today because I didn't think I'd need to change her outfit. So I had to put her in a short-sleeved onesie on the coldest day of the season so far. Yep, Mom-of-the-year. Right here.)
3. Don't compare your child to other children. Just don't. Emma is delayed on milestones for her actual age, and sometimes I forget that she's a preemie and it's totally normal for her to be meeting her milestones the way she is. As long as your kid is making progress and moving forward, who cares when he/she rolls for the first time or starts babbling? Enjoy that baby. Forget everyone else.
4. Take lots of pictures and videos. And darnit, post them on Facebook- just don't post eighteen pictures of your child eating crackers.
5. Spend money on good wipes. I just bought a pack of more than 200 Huggies wipes that are the equivalent of wiping my child's bottom with a slightly-damp piece of printer paper.
6. When buying baby clothes as a gift for a friend, consider the size and season. Emma has a LOT of summer clothes in a 9 month size that she'll never wear because she'll be too big for them by the time it's warm enough. She also has a good amount of winter clothes in a 12 month size that she'll never wear for the opposite reason- it'll be too warm by the time she's big enough to wear them.
7. Bath poop is inevitable. Prepare yourself.
8. Don't listen to every single person who wants to tell you in a condescending fashion how to be a mom or what to do in every little situation. Feel free to figure stuff out on your own... the mistakes make for good stories sometimes (like today's fiasco), provided that everyone makes it out alive.
9. Make an effort to use carpet cleaner when the baby projectile vomits and soaks the carpet at 3am. Just soaking it up with a towel doesn't always suffice, and it's never a good feeling to find a crusty stain on the carpet the next morning. Formula vomit isn't always white.
10. Skip the doorway jumper.
I really do think my blog entries are going to dwindle for a bit due to this move. But we'll see- I tend to procrastinate and find lots of other things to do when there's a big task at hand that I'd like to avoid. Like packing up my whole house. Bleh. And once we settle in, I'm going to try to start crafting and sewing because I'll finally have a reason to- I have an additional 1000 square feet of house to decorate. Holy moly. So, I'm crazy busy at work, moving, and juggling new parenthood. If I make it through these next few months without having a nervous breakdown, I'm pretty sure I can take on the world ;)
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Grump Grump Grump
The reason I'm blogging tonight? Because I should be cleaning and purging my house. After all, we're probably moving in a month. A MONTH. Yikes. So... commence procrastination blogging!
About that move... I tried desperately to prevent myself from getting attached to this new house just in case the loan doesn't get approved. The loan officer says everything looks great and our credit ratings were phenomenal (I'm so grateful that my parents were indoctrinating me on credit ratings beginning when I was too young to have a clue what they were talking about) so the loan should get approved, but I'm still not busting out a box or packing a thing until we know this is going to happen. But until then, it doesn't hurt to throw out some stuff that we should get rid of anyways. We also need to make this place sparkle because a lady is coming over on Tuesday morning to take marketing pictures so they can rent this place out. *sigh* so much to do.
Emma= Crazy Baby= Baby Bird= Baby Bean= My Little Sweet Potato. Just so you're aware that those terms are interchangeable. I think I call her Baby Bird and Sweet Potato more than anything, but I've made it a point to use her actual name here and there so hopefully she isn't too confused on what her real name is. Although I do worry that she'll be two years old and will be insistent that her name is Sweet Potato.
So my Baby Bird is officially 7 months old today. My, how time flies. When I was pregnant, everyone said to enjoy the baby stage because it just goes by so fast. Cliche as it is, it's true. Seven months isn't that long in the scheme of things, but when we're talkin' baby... seven months is practically a century. In seven months' time, Baby Bird has gone from a bump-on-a-log of a baby that would stare blankly at the blurry shapes comprising her world, suck on her hands when she was hungry, and sleep all day night to an interactive, silly, smart little girl who squeals so loud she sometimes startles herself.
So what has she been up to lately?
Teething. A whole lot of teething. And a whole lot of no teeth. UGH. The drama climaxed yesterday and the night before and I swore we wouldn't make it out alive, yet here we are. Still alive. She seemed to be feeling much better today but still. no. teeth. Her bottom gums are turning whiter, but I think we've still got plenty of miserable teething days ahead of us before those darn things decide to grace us with their pearly presence. In the meantime, I'm armed with Tylenol, Motrin, Hyland's Teething Tablets (read: baby crack), Baby Orajel Naturals*, chamomile tea, wet washcloths, chilled teething rings, Sofie the Giraffe, etc etc etc.
*I innocently purchased regular Baby Orajel. Actually, no. Not regular Baby Orajel. Super Baby Orajel... the overnight stuff with extra benzocaine, which is apparently baby poison. I didn't realize the FDA put out a warning about the use of benzocaine on infants until after I bought it and used it. So that went to waste and now I have Baby Orajel Naturals, which is a horrible tasting gel that maybe helps but mostly makes Emma scrunch up her little face, turn red, and start grumping at me for putting something so volatile in her mouth. Sorry, kiddo.
Rolling Over. Or not. Baby Bird is SO CLOSE to rolling over, she just doesn't want to. Still.
Babbling. Kind of. She mostly prefers squealing really reallllllllyyyyy loud over and over. And just today she discovered how to blow raspberries all on her own. It started at lunch, when she thought it was just hysterical to sputter her bananas and oatmeal (with cinnamon! Recipe by Chef Mommy) all over me and her highchair. Then tonight, I stuck a spoon full of green beans in her mouth and she instantly sputtered green beans everywhere... gross. I laughed. She laughed. Then the lightbulb went on and she realized that she could make this hilarious sound with her mouth. And so, for the rest of the night, she was blowing raspberries and cracking us up. I'm telling you... there are few things in life that are funnier than holding an already goofy baby that blows raspberries out of the blue while you're putting away blankets. I guess she's like me in a lot of ways: she likes to entertain herself during mundane tasks. I think my coworkers think I'm completely off my rocker because of that exact trait.
Sitting up. Alllllllllmost. The interesting thing on this one: she prefers throwing herself backwards. This stemmed from my attempt to help her learn to sit up without supporting her weight with her arms/hands. I thought it was a brilliant idea to sit her up on my bed because, if she fell backwards, she wouldn't hit her head and get hurt. Well, that backfired. She apparently thinks it's fun to launch herself backwards onto the bed from a sitting position. *smacks hand to forehead* Emma- 8763254876, Mommy- 0.
Pincer grasp. Achieved. I think we have an artist in the making because this kid is crazy good with her hands and fine motor skills. She reaches for everything in sight... especially faces. She loves faces, and she really loves trying to rip the skin off of your face. And trying to rip out your carotid artery. I think she's trying to kill me... anyways, it's difficult not to laugh when her little arm reaches up and she pats you on the face or grabs onto your chin. But the laughing typically ends once you realize that that little hand is slimy and has very sharp little raptor nails attached to the fingers. Not a pleasant experience.
Food. This fat kid eats like a fat kid some days, and other days you'd swear she was on a crash diet. I think most of that has to do with teething, but I could be wrong. She doesn't like to eat anything first thing in the morning... not a bottle, nor solid foods. But when she does want to eat, she really loves food as long as it's not peas that you're shoveling into her mouth. She's liked everything else so far, even green beans. The only thing I'm struggling with is how much to give her. She isn't a big formula eater as it is... before solids, she had been drinking about 32oz of formula a day, but that suddenly decreased to about 24-27. I want to make sure she's getting enough formula during the day so I don't want her to fill up on solids, but I also want to make sure she's eating enough solids too. And each website has varying serving sizes per age for solid foods. Doh! Advice? Resources? I've been trying to feed her three times per day, but it gets more difficult during the week when she's babysat and those days she ends up being fed solids once or maybe twice.
She's been pretty grumpy with the teething thing going on, but we're managing. I guess I much prefer grumping to screaming any day, but it still breaks my heart that my little booger is so uncomfortable. The funny thing is, you can definitely see the generation gaps when you have a child. It seems older generations attribute everything to gas. Gas gas gas. Like there's nothing else that could possibly bother a baby other than gas. Emma rarely has bothersome gas, and when she does have it, it's obvious because her belly gets distended and you can hear it rumbling around. But that hasn't happened in a long time. It still amazes me, though, when Emma is around someone and starts grumping because she's tired, overstimulated, or uncomfortable and someone immediately tells me that my child has gas. Or when she toots, and I'm told that the poor thing has gas and must be in pain. She's a baby. She farts. It's usually not a bad thing. So now I get this picture of all of these babies in the 70's and 80's that were teething, cold/hot, bored, overstimulated, tired, etc. having their legs bicycled and whatnot because parents at that time thought that the issue was always gas. And I'm not convinced that colic is gas. Not one bit. Because gas eventually has to come out, right? And during Emma's colic days, she didn't fart any more than she usually does and I couldn't hear the rumblies in her tumbly. What I could hear, though, was a crying, unsettled baby. And I also don't buy that colic has anything to do with dairy or cow's milk proteins. Why? Because it didn't bother her initially. And it doesn't bother her now. She's never had real diaper rash for even a day (knock on wood) and her reflux symptoms have been non-existent for quite some time. So, no... I don't think her colic had anything to do with milk or formula and it wasn't anything I was/wasn't eating because she was mostly formula-fed by that point. My theory? Nervous system and/or developing brain.
I've discovered a few things along the way... like, chamomile is a God-send. I realized that the teething tablets calm her, as does her Colic Calm gripe water. Both have chamomile in them, so I decided to give just chamomile a try and, shocker, it worked. And trust me, I'm not a "crunchy mom" and I typically don't subscribe to the whole natural remedies way of life. If I have a headache, I reach straight for the Tylenol. Things are a little different with a baby so I'm more apt to try natural and homeopathic remedies first and move on to the pharmaceuticals later. But chamomile is tried and true- I've found myself in a nice, foggy chamomile stupor after having some chamomile tea before bed many times in my life, so obviously this stuff works. So I steeped a tea bag, cooled it off, and poured about two ounces into a bottle. Then I added four more ounces of water and three scoops of formula, mixed it all up, fed it to the baby, and watched her eyes glaze over and she fell into a sound sleep in my arms. This was a few weeks ago, at which point having a sleeping baby in my arms was a rare occurrence. She went through a phase of terrible bedtimes when I had to stand up and bounce/rock her until she got groggy, then plop her into the crib and pray that she fell asleep and didn't start crying immediately. She's still having some rough bedtimes, but at least if she's had a bad day and is grumpy from being overtired or teething (or both! the worst!), I can add some voodoo magic to her bottle and help her find her happy place a little quicker.
I'm STILL trying to figure out a way to post more pictures without forking over some moolah to Google for "storage." Once I get that figured out, I'll be posting pictures. I PROMISE. I went through the Christmas pictures earlier and was smiling at the silly little faces and extremely surprised eyes in all of Emma's pictures. I sat there clicking away, looking at all of these sweet pictures of my fat baby girl and then... BAM. Four-pound Emma in an isolette with a CPAP mask, with my bruised arm reaching in, hand grasping onto the baby I had just delivered far too early. I've looked at her NICU pictures so many times and the ordeal is somewhat fresh in my mind, albeit mostly shoved to the back of my mind because I'm far too busy keeping up with this "preemie" to dwell on it. But it really caught me off guard tonight. She's over 17 pounds now... fat, healthy, a little delayed on her milestones for her actual age but right on target for her adjusted age, happy, silly. But there she was: skinny, red-skinned, scrunched up, with wires and tubes all over her. If she wasn't sound asleep in her crib, I would have run to her and cuddled her.
On a lighter note, one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world had her precious little bundle of joy yesterday! I briefly talked to her on the phone today and, dear God, did she ever deliver that boy like a total superwoman. She's my size (tiny) and delivered a 7lb 6oz (I think that's right, I'm too lazy to Facebook fact-check right now) perfect baby boy about 12 hours after being given Cervadil. She said she pushed for 40 minutes, but that was only because her contractions slowed. She's a champion child-birther and it sounds like everything went perfectly. I did an internal happy dance for her :) And another dear friend had her baby earlier this week! So many babies. So many cute babies. I need to cuddle them at some point *hint hint*
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Roll, Baby, Roll!
When I started this blog, I made an entry every night. That's what happens when you're stuck in a hospital room with not much else to do other than watch live basic cable and try to figure out a pocket loom with terrible instructions. And now, I'm trying to squeeze in an entry every other week because, well, I'm tired. And busy.
And certifiably insane.
Because, you know... when you can't even find enough time to make a stinking blog post, it's a brilliant idea to pack up your entire house and move.
So, yea- I think we're moving. I say think because we have to find out if the loan company is crazy enough to approve us for a second mortgage. It's a strong possibility, but I'm not going to start packing until we know this deal is going through. But it's tough not to daydream about the new house all day... it solves almost every issue with have with this current house. Now, before I start complaining about my current home, know this: I'm grateful for what I have. Sincerely grateful. So please don't think otherwise... but we were kind of screwed over when we bought this house and it was a bad choice. An opportunity has presented itself, and we're taking it. I'm typically not a risk-taker, at least in the conventional sense. I'm very vanilla and not much of a skydiver.
My biggest gripe is that crazy baby's bedroom is bordered by the garage (where hubby works out and makes a ton of noise, in addition to the noisy garage door), the kitchen (and it happens to be the one wall of the kitchen that has all of the cabinets AND the microwave and stove. So. Noisy.), and the guest bath. So forget about doing dishes, cooking, or doing anything in the garage (which includes going anywhere because opening the garage door is noisy too) during nap time or after bedtime. And about that kitchen- there's zero storage. To the point that we had to buy the world's most hideous monster of a cabinet from Ikea and put it in the "dining room" so we could have a place to store some things. We also only have one great room (living/dining combo) that is so crammed with basic furniture that Emma has no room to play when she gets older. Anyways, I'll stop there. But the list of reasons why this house really bothers me goes on and on.
But just know that if the loan gets approved, my already-lacking blog updates will likely cease for a bit while we purge, pack, and unpack. And then try not to spend the rest of our savings on things for the new house. We're adding just shy of 1000 square feet of house by moving to the new one. So we'll have some space to fill... hellllloooooooo Pinterest pins. :)
Alright. Anyways. Onto the good stuff, as they say.
Crazy baby is still crazy. That was quite expected. And as the days are going on, her little personality is really shining through... she is a spunky, happy, giggly, goofy little girl who makes monster noises and squeals so loud she startles even herself. She loves carrots and sweet potatoes and isn't a huge fan of peas. Regardless of what she eats, she likes to sputter while food is in her mouth, essentially spraying bits of oatmeal and fruit/veggies all over the place (yet another awesome feature of the new house- tile in the dining room instead of carpet. Who was the genius that decided to put carpet in a dining room? Sheesh). For some reason, the string of links that I let her play with in the bath sometimes makes her laugh hysterically. And she loves her Sophie the Giraffe teether... it makes her smile when she sees it. Her daddy is her favorite person in the whole world. And she loves to grab faces. And then pull your skin off...
On the development side, I'm not sure what to make of her. She was making huge strides for a bit, but now she has kind of plateaued with her gross motor skills. She still doesn't roll unless she's assisted and doesn't sit up on her own. She can "tripod" where she leans forward and supports herself with her hands on the ground. But no independent sitting yet. She's also working on babbling but isn't quite there yet either. She's still really good with her hands, though, and started perfecting her pincer grasp today. Maybe we have an artist in the making... probably not an athlete though. Lol.
But I'm officially done focusing so much on what she can and cannot do... it's easy to compare babies when so many of your friends have children around the same age. And it's also difficult for me to remember that she was two months early. But she's just fine... she's doing things at her own pace and is definitely learning new things every day, so I'm not worried at all that something is wrong.
Oh, and she's really fat now. Probably a little over 17 pounds and she's about 26" long. She's in her 9month Carter's clothes now, which is sad because she got a lot of cute stuff in a 6 month size for Christmas that she wore once. And she has a good amount of summer clothes in 9 month size that she'll probably never wear. Oh, well.
She had her cardiology appointment earlier in the week and the hole in her heart is either closed up completely or so small that they can't see it by ultrasound anymore. She still has a murmur, but the doctor wasn't at all worried about it and told us that Emma's heart is completely normal for a baby of her age. I don't know what it was about that doctor, but Emma just adored her to the point that the doctor couldn't get a good pulse in Emma's feet because she was kicking so much from being so darned happy and excited.
Sleep... ah, yes. Glorious, wonderful sleep. She actually had a few weeks in which she was sleeping for about 12-13 hours straight many nights. Now she's back to waking up once per night, usually around 4am. And you know what? It doesn't bother me at all. I actually kind of enjoy those times. Just me and Emma, rocking quietly in her nursery in the dim night light, with the house completely silent and still. Just snuggling in silence. It's not a half-bad experience if you ask me. Some parents are in such a rush to have their little one marathon-sleep every night that they forget to cherish those bonding moments in the quiet with their sweet little baby. I'll sleep all night again one day, but I'll never again be able to have these moments with Emma once she grows out of this stage. She knows that I'll peer over the edge of her crib at 4am armed with a bottle and that she'll drift back to sleep all comfy and warm in my arms. And I know that I'll crawl back into my still-warm bed after I put her back in her crib, smelling of her and falling asleep thinking about her sweet little face. I absolutely love being a mommy. Her mommy.
BUT. This mommy isn't feeling well. Sorry for any slurring of my text here... I'm on a new medication that's making me a little foggy. Hopefully we can figure out what's going on... in true 90210 fashion, it's a mystery. It started with losing an insane amount of weight without trying. I can't even begin to count the number of times people say "you don't look like you have a six month old!" when they find out I have a baby. My automated response is "I missed the last two months of pregnancy, so I didn't gain that much weight." I believed that for a while, until the scale told me otherwise. Then my response shifted to "yea, they're testing my thyroid function." Well, my thyroid is fine. As are the rest of my vital systems... which is good. But now I guess I just have to say "thank you" when someone makes the weight comment to me. Anyways, I also started bruising easily. But I'm not anemic and my white blood cell count is fine, but the bruising has since gone away. Then the dizzy spells and shaky hands started and I've been dealing with that for a week now. *sigh* So I'm taking Antivert for the dizziness. It's not really helping with that, but I'm definitely feeling quite sleepy now.
So that's the update- I'm not feeling well, I have an almost-seven-month-old baby, and I'm planning on moving in a month. Because I'm a genius like that.
My biggest gripe is that crazy baby's bedroom is bordered by the garage (where hubby works out and makes a ton of noise, in addition to the noisy garage door), the kitchen (and it happens to be the one wall of the kitchen that has all of the cabinets AND the microwave and stove. So. Noisy.), and the guest bath. So forget about doing dishes, cooking, or doing anything in the garage (which includes going anywhere because opening the garage door is noisy too) during nap time or after bedtime. And about that kitchen- there's zero storage. To the point that we had to buy the world's most hideous monster of a cabinet from Ikea and put it in the "dining room" so we could have a place to store some things. We also only have one great room (living/dining combo) that is so crammed with basic furniture that Emma has no room to play when she gets older. Anyways, I'll stop there. But the list of reasons why this house really bothers me goes on and on.
But just know that if the loan gets approved, my already-lacking blog updates will likely cease for a bit while we purge, pack, and unpack. And then try not to spend the rest of our savings on things for the new house. We're adding just shy of 1000 square feet of house by moving to the new one. So we'll have some space to fill... hellllloooooooo Pinterest pins. :)
Alright. Anyways. Onto the good stuff, as they say.
Crazy baby is still crazy. That was quite expected. And as the days are going on, her little personality is really shining through... she is a spunky, happy, giggly, goofy little girl who makes monster noises and squeals so loud she startles even herself. She loves carrots and sweet potatoes and isn't a huge fan of peas. Regardless of what she eats, she likes to sputter while food is in her mouth, essentially spraying bits of oatmeal and fruit/veggies all over the place (yet another awesome feature of the new house- tile in the dining room instead of carpet. Who was the genius that decided to put carpet in a dining room? Sheesh). For some reason, the string of links that I let her play with in the bath sometimes makes her laugh hysterically. And she loves her Sophie the Giraffe teether... it makes her smile when she sees it. Her daddy is her favorite person in the whole world. And she loves to grab faces. And then pull your skin off...
On the development side, I'm not sure what to make of her. She was making huge strides for a bit, but now she has kind of plateaued with her gross motor skills. She still doesn't roll unless she's assisted and doesn't sit up on her own. She can "tripod" where she leans forward and supports herself with her hands on the ground. But no independent sitting yet. She's also working on babbling but isn't quite there yet either. She's still really good with her hands, though, and started perfecting her pincer grasp today. Maybe we have an artist in the making... probably not an athlete though. Lol.
But I'm officially done focusing so much on what she can and cannot do... it's easy to compare babies when so many of your friends have children around the same age. And it's also difficult for me to remember that she was two months early. But she's just fine... she's doing things at her own pace and is definitely learning new things every day, so I'm not worried at all that something is wrong.
Oh, and she's really fat now. Probably a little over 17 pounds and she's about 26" long. She's in her 9month Carter's clothes now, which is sad because she got a lot of cute stuff in a 6 month size for Christmas that she wore once. And she has a good amount of summer clothes in 9 month size that she'll probably never wear. Oh, well.
She had her cardiology appointment earlier in the week and the hole in her heart is either closed up completely or so small that they can't see it by ultrasound anymore. She still has a murmur, but the doctor wasn't at all worried about it and told us that Emma's heart is completely normal for a baby of her age. I don't know what it was about that doctor, but Emma just adored her to the point that the doctor couldn't get a good pulse in Emma's feet because she was kicking so much from being so darned happy and excited.
Sleep... ah, yes. Glorious, wonderful sleep. She actually had a few weeks in which she was sleeping for about 12-13 hours straight many nights. Now she's back to waking up once per night, usually around 4am. And you know what? It doesn't bother me at all. I actually kind of enjoy those times. Just me and Emma, rocking quietly in her nursery in the dim night light, with the house completely silent and still. Just snuggling in silence. It's not a half-bad experience if you ask me. Some parents are in such a rush to have their little one marathon-sleep every night that they forget to cherish those bonding moments in the quiet with their sweet little baby. I'll sleep all night again one day, but I'll never again be able to have these moments with Emma once she grows out of this stage. She knows that I'll peer over the edge of her crib at 4am armed with a bottle and that she'll drift back to sleep all comfy and warm in my arms. And I know that I'll crawl back into my still-warm bed after I put her back in her crib, smelling of her and falling asleep thinking about her sweet little face. I absolutely love being a mommy. Her mommy.
BUT. This mommy isn't feeling well. Sorry for any slurring of my text here... I'm on a new medication that's making me a little foggy. Hopefully we can figure out what's going on... in true 90210 fashion, it's a mystery. It started with losing an insane amount of weight without trying. I can't even begin to count the number of times people say "you don't look like you have a six month old!" when they find out I have a baby. My automated response is "I missed the last two months of pregnancy, so I didn't gain that much weight." I believed that for a while, until the scale told me otherwise. Then my response shifted to "yea, they're testing my thyroid function." Well, my thyroid is fine. As are the rest of my vital systems... which is good. But now I guess I just have to say "thank you" when someone makes the weight comment to me. Anyways, I also started bruising easily. But I'm not anemic and my white blood cell count is fine, but the bruising has since gone away. Then the dizzy spells and shaky hands started and I've been dealing with that for a week now. *sigh* So I'm taking Antivert for the dizziness. It's not really helping with that, but I'm definitely feeling quite sleepy now.
So that's the update- I'm not feeling well, I have an almost-seven-month-old baby, and I'm planning on moving in a month. Because I'm a genius like that.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Sleep Sergeant Mom
I feel like the last month of my life has been a bizarre jumble of baby snot, vomit, and extreme baby giggles.
I've also continued to spend a ridiculous amount of money on this kid on anything and everything promising to make her feel better. The solution to cranky baby seemed to actually be free- antibiotics. Which are free from our local grocery store. I hesitated to have the script filled because she wasn't running a fever and nothing really pointed to an infection, but after four weeks of miserable, congested baby, I really didn't have much of a choice. So it could be a coincidence, and maybe she's feeling better because whatever was causing her congestion has finally run its course, or the antibiotics were really what she needed. We shall never know for sure... despite being on the mend, she's still not feeling all that great, especially at night. But it's a significant improvement over the nights of having her sleep in her swing.
Yep. She spent a few nights solely in her swing, and a few days of napping in her swing. It was incredibly difficult for me to do, because we've put so much effort into helping her become an independent crib sleeper- a baby that can peacefully sleep in her crib, put herself back to sleep if she wakes up and doesn't need to be fed, and doesn't rely on something specific to be able to sleep. She had been a pro at it, too. And yet, here I was, feeling completely defeated and plopping her into her swing for the night, thinking in the back of my mind that she would officially be a swing sleeper and we were doomed when it came time to try to transition her back into her crib. Thank God it only lasted a few days and we were able to get her to sleep in her crib again with little issue. Whew, that was close.
SLEEP: I really have to stop being such a sleep sergeant. I get far too worried about her forming bad sleep habits, and it gets me downright stressed when something disrupts her sleep. Like noise. If someone rings the doorbell during naptime, I may hurt that person. And I'm typically not violent. I also get overly frustrated when she doesn't get any good naps during the day while hubby and I are at work... I should chill out about that, but nothing sucks worse than making a 30 mile drive home at 6pm knowing that I'm going to deal with an overtired baby at home for a few hours before she finally falls asleep, only to eat a cold dinner and collapse into bed before waking up early to start a brand new day. But I do need to relax about her sleep. However, my diligence has resulted in a baby with good sleep habits. So maybe it hasn't been for naught.
Speaking of sleep, crazy baby has at least been sleeping through the night for the last few weeks. Up until the past few nights, she had been getting up at about 4 or 5am for a bottle, but lately she's been sleeping until about 7:30 or 8. This morning she snoozed until 8:30 after going to bed around 9! I wish we could get her into bed earlier, but it's just not happening. She was in bed at about 8 tonight, though, so I know she'll sleep well. That's the interesting thing about babies- they sleep better when they go to bed earlier. Definitely true in Emma's case.
STRESS: I am certainly feeling the stress of being a working mom. Out of everyone I know that has had a baby recently, all but one have been stay-at-home moms for more than just maternity leave. So not too many can relate, it seems. I hate leaving her all day... sometimes I fight back tears as I watch my mom drive away with my baby in the back of her minivan. I feel like a huge chunk of my heart is driving away with her. And it's enough to work full-time, but the added driving for dropping off the baby and picking her up is about to break me. And... did I mention I work a crazy schedule that's never regular and hardly predictable? I can go into the office in the morning, expecting to leave at a certain time, and end up leaving two hours later than I expected. So that's no fun. This has to get easier at some point, right?
FEEDING: We started crazy baby on solids again and, let me tell you, this kid loves food. She loves food like a fat kid loves food... and she's a fat kid. So she loves food. A lot. She's had peas, carrots, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, rice cereal, and oatmeal. We have peaches that she'll try soon, too. And then she's on to stage 2 foods... my big girl! She's not a huge fan of rice cereal, but she loves everything else. Today, she had oatmeal and apples for lunch and squash for dinner. I haven't decided what's on the menu for tomorrow yet. But I'm certain she'll like it. She hasn't wanted her bottles quite as much lately but I don't think it has anything to do with her solid foods, since she mostly refuses her first bottle of the day. Even after not eating for 12+ hours, she typically fights her morning bottle of formula. I can't figure out why...
DEVELOPMENT: Still not rolling! I'm surprised, because she seemed so close a few weeks ago. It's not that she can't do it, it's that she won't do it. But she can tripod sit with no problem- we can sit her down and she'll lean forward and support her weight with her hands on the floor in front of her. She can also sit upright unassisted for short periods of time and will sit upright without her back leaning on something as long as she can support her weight with her arms resting on something. She also does baby sit-ups when she's sitting in her bathtub, bouncy seat, car seat, or high chair. It's absolutely hysterical to see her sitting in her carseat in the back of the car with her little head leaning forward while she tries to look around and grab at things. She has also been really concentrating on everything around her and almost looks like a mad scientist when she's trying to play. She's quite the thinker. You can see the figurative gears turning in her little head... she's really great with her hands now, too. She can reach out with one hand, grab something, and then bring it to her mouth. Over the last few days, she's perfected the skill of turning objects in different directions to look at all sides of it, and she can pass things back and forth between hands. She's a pro with those grabbers. Her new favorite activity is grabbing her feets and pulling her socks off, and occasionally she ends up chewing on her socks. Did I mention she's a fat kid? She eats everything. Literally... my face, her socks, burp cloths, washcloths, toys, her fingers, her clothes, my clothes, blankets, the floor... if she can reach it, she tries to eat it. I put her in her doorway jumper last weekend and she immediately began reaching up for the butterfly toy attached on one of the ropes just above eye-level. When she got bored of grabbing it, she did everything she could to try to get that darned thing in her mouth. Most of her day is spent with her mouth wide open while she tries to eat things... while on her tummy recently, I was shaking a toy out in front of her to get her attention. Once she realized she couldn't reach for it (because her arms were holding her up), she opened her mouth wide and leaned forward to try to eat it. My poor fat kid. And over the last few days, she's started really babbling... she doesn't really use consonants, but she's certainly trying to talk. And my God, she's loud. She just sits there and squeals and shouts, then smiles at your reaction to her. Crazy baby is one funny little kid.
GROWTH: 16lb 13oz on 1/15 (her 6 month well-child), which is 63rd percentile for weight. Her height was 25 3/4", which is the 46th percentile. I don't remember her head circumference measurement, but it is in the 30th percentile. Short, fat, with a small head. That's my Emma. Sadly, she got some really cute clothes in a 6 month size for Christmas and she was barely able to wear them all once before they were boxed up. She's now officially in her 9 month sized clothes! So I spent a good $100 on new clothes for her, because most of her 9 month stuff is summer clothing.
Oh, yea. And baby vomit... I've done an insane amount of laundry because of it. We're not talking spit-up. That's child's play compared to this... she's had many episodes of stomach-content-emptying vomiting over the last few weeks. Like, you can hear it dripping onto the carpet. And it soaks through your clothes and drips down your arm. And it makes her look like the exorcist as it gushes out of her tiny little mouth. Poor fat kid. And poor mommy! There's nothing pleasant about being covered in warm baby vomit all over your head, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then trying to figure out how to pull your t-shirt over your head without smearing the baby vomit all over your face. It's that bad.
Mommy stuff:
Here's the New Year's post I should have made:
1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
- well, jeez, let's see- became a mommy, spent four weeks in a hospital, had natural childbirth, cleaned baby vomit out of my cleavage... the list goes on.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
- I don't do New Year's resolutions. Never have, probably never will. I'm a constant work in progress and I'm always making new goals for myself... not just at the first of the year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Ummmm... me. Doesn't get much closer than that. I also had a handful of close friends who had babies or became pregnant! It was a great year for pregnancy.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
- Thankfully, no. I hope to have the same answer for 2013.
5. What countries did you visit?
- For the first time since 2009, we didn't go out of the country. Our almost-yearly visits to Jamaica have been put on hold for a bit.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
- A higher level job. It's about time for me to start moving up...
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched in your memory, and why?
-There are a few: June 12, the day I went into the hospital. July 9- the day Emma was born, August 1- the day Emma came home from the hospital
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- Staying pregnant for four weeks after going into preterm labor. And delivering a baby naturally with no drugs (against my will! lol)
9. What was your biggest failure?
- Being pregnant. I really sucked at it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
- Well, lets's see- I burned the bajeebers out of my hand while making dinner one night. I also dealt with pre-eclampsia and preterm labor.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
- Oh, man. That's a tough one... it's a toss-up between my Little Castle glider and my Kindle Paperwhite.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
- SO MANY PEOPLE. Everyone who offered support, prayers, and encouragement while I was in the hospital and Emma was in the NICU. The people who visited me at the hospital. My aunt and cousin who sent me an amazing care basket of goodies... I was overwhelmed at the kindness of everyone.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- A handful of people during election time. It made me realize that most people aren't free thinkers, but rather mindless parts of a group. Lemmings, if you will.
14. Where did most of your money go?
- Aside from the mortgage, car payments, etc... putting together the nursery. Medical bills. Baby stuff.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- Bringing Emma home from the NICU!
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
- "There can be Miracles" from the Prince of Egypt
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder: Happier! Although I was happy this time last year, I was also nervous because I was newly pregnant. Now I have a funny little baby to make me smile all day!
Thinner or fatter? Thinner. Like getting-my-thyroid-checked and my-clothes-don't-fit-me thinner. Ugh.
Richer or poorer? Poorer. Babies are expensive!
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
- In the beginning of the year- blogging. Towards the end of the year- sleeping.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
- waking up and going to sleep in a hospital.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
- Christmas Eve at my parents' house. Then opening gifts that night. Then Christmas day with my in-laws.
21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
- YES. I felt a kind of love I never knew existed; one that will stay with me forever. The love of a mother.
22. How many one-night stands?
- TOO MANY TO COUNT! Oh, wait. No. None. Ewwwwwww.
23. What was your favorite TV program?
- Mad Men. Jon Hamm...*swoon*
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
- Hate is a strong word. But let's put it this way: there are people that I view more negatively now than I did a year ago.
25. What was the best book you read?
- Darn. I don't remember when I finished The Hunger Games... but we'll pretend like I finished it before 1/1.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- Broken Bells!
27. What did you want and get?
- A baby. Duh. And a vintage Barbie doll! And a Coach leather diaper bag :)
28. What did you want and not get?
- A full-term baby.
29. What was your favorite film?
- UGH. I'm not a movie person... I don't even remember what movies I watched last year...
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- Oh, sad. I spent it in the hospital, but my family came for a visit and hubby spent the day with me!
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably satisfying?
- Again, a full-term baby. And a healthy pregnancy. That would have helped immensely.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
- Maternity blah. Flats. Flowy shirts. Awful pants. After the baby? My clothes were all too big and baggy. It wasn't a great fashion year for me.
33. What kept you sane?
- My husband, my family, and a job that was flexible enough to allow me to return to work when I couldn't afford to not work any longer, yet allowed me to work from home and do what I could when I could.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- I'm beginning to think these questions were written by someone British... but, Jon Hamm. *swoon again*
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Don't get me started. Gay rights... or should I say, civil rights?
36. Who did you miss?
- My best friend. I didn't get to see her enough :(
37. Who was the best new person you met?
- Hmmmmm... I didn't meet a lot of new people in 2012. But my new coworkers are fantastic. And there were some truly amazing nurses at the hospital and in the NICU.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
- There were many more than one: Everything really, truly happens for a reason. Having a positive attitude can make any tough situation easier. It could always be worse. Be grateful for what you have and don't whine about the way you think things should be. Don't judge others based off of an assumption.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
- Well, that's an easy one! "There can be miracles, when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who know what miracles you can achieve. When you believe, somehow you will. You will when you believe."
I've also continued to spend a ridiculous amount of money on this kid on anything and everything promising to make her feel better. The solution to cranky baby seemed to actually be free- antibiotics. Which are free from our local grocery store. I hesitated to have the script filled because she wasn't running a fever and nothing really pointed to an infection, but after four weeks of miserable, congested baby, I really didn't have much of a choice. So it could be a coincidence, and maybe she's feeling better because whatever was causing her congestion has finally run its course, or the antibiotics were really what she needed. We shall never know for sure... despite being on the mend, she's still not feeling all that great, especially at night. But it's a significant improvement over the nights of having her sleep in her swing.
Yep. She spent a few nights solely in her swing, and a few days of napping in her swing. It was incredibly difficult for me to do, because we've put so much effort into helping her become an independent crib sleeper- a baby that can peacefully sleep in her crib, put herself back to sleep if she wakes up and doesn't need to be fed, and doesn't rely on something specific to be able to sleep. She had been a pro at it, too. And yet, here I was, feeling completely defeated and plopping her into her swing for the night, thinking in the back of my mind that she would officially be a swing sleeper and we were doomed when it came time to try to transition her back into her crib. Thank God it only lasted a few days and we were able to get her to sleep in her crib again with little issue. Whew, that was close.
SLEEP: I really have to stop being such a sleep sergeant. I get far too worried about her forming bad sleep habits, and it gets me downright stressed when something disrupts her sleep. Like noise. If someone rings the doorbell during naptime, I may hurt that person. And I'm typically not violent. I also get overly frustrated when she doesn't get any good naps during the day while hubby and I are at work... I should chill out about that, but nothing sucks worse than making a 30 mile drive home at 6pm knowing that I'm going to deal with an overtired baby at home for a few hours before she finally falls asleep, only to eat a cold dinner and collapse into bed before waking up early to start a brand new day. But I do need to relax about her sleep. However, my diligence has resulted in a baby with good sleep habits. So maybe it hasn't been for naught.
Speaking of sleep, crazy baby has at least been sleeping through the night for the last few weeks. Up until the past few nights, she had been getting up at about 4 or 5am for a bottle, but lately she's been sleeping until about 7:30 or 8. This morning she snoozed until 8:30 after going to bed around 9! I wish we could get her into bed earlier, but it's just not happening. She was in bed at about 8 tonight, though, so I know she'll sleep well. That's the interesting thing about babies- they sleep better when they go to bed earlier. Definitely true in Emma's case.
STRESS: I am certainly feeling the stress of being a working mom. Out of everyone I know that has had a baby recently, all but one have been stay-at-home moms for more than just maternity leave. So not too many can relate, it seems. I hate leaving her all day... sometimes I fight back tears as I watch my mom drive away with my baby in the back of her minivan. I feel like a huge chunk of my heart is driving away with her. And it's enough to work full-time, but the added driving for dropping off the baby and picking her up is about to break me. And... did I mention I work a crazy schedule that's never regular and hardly predictable? I can go into the office in the morning, expecting to leave at a certain time, and end up leaving two hours later than I expected. So that's no fun. This has to get easier at some point, right?
FEEDING: We started crazy baby on solids again and, let me tell you, this kid loves food. She loves food like a fat kid loves food... and she's a fat kid. So she loves food. A lot. She's had peas, carrots, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, rice cereal, and oatmeal. We have peaches that she'll try soon, too. And then she's on to stage 2 foods... my big girl! She's not a huge fan of rice cereal, but she loves everything else. Today, she had oatmeal and apples for lunch and squash for dinner. I haven't decided what's on the menu for tomorrow yet. But I'm certain she'll like it. She hasn't wanted her bottles quite as much lately but I don't think it has anything to do with her solid foods, since she mostly refuses her first bottle of the day. Even after not eating for 12+ hours, she typically fights her morning bottle of formula. I can't figure out why...
DEVELOPMENT: Still not rolling! I'm surprised, because she seemed so close a few weeks ago. It's not that she can't do it, it's that she won't do it. But she can tripod sit with no problem- we can sit her down and she'll lean forward and support her weight with her hands on the floor in front of her. She can also sit upright unassisted for short periods of time and will sit upright without her back leaning on something as long as she can support her weight with her arms resting on something. She also does baby sit-ups when she's sitting in her bathtub, bouncy seat, car seat, or high chair. It's absolutely hysterical to see her sitting in her carseat in the back of the car with her little head leaning forward while she tries to look around and grab at things. She has also been really concentrating on everything around her and almost looks like a mad scientist when she's trying to play. She's quite the thinker. You can see the figurative gears turning in her little head... she's really great with her hands now, too. She can reach out with one hand, grab something, and then bring it to her mouth. Over the last few days, she's perfected the skill of turning objects in different directions to look at all sides of it, and she can pass things back and forth between hands. She's a pro with those grabbers. Her new favorite activity is grabbing her feets and pulling her socks off, and occasionally she ends up chewing on her socks. Did I mention she's a fat kid? She eats everything. Literally... my face, her socks, burp cloths, washcloths, toys, her fingers, her clothes, my clothes, blankets, the floor... if she can reach it, she tries to eat it. I put her in her doorway jumper last weekend and she immediately began reaching up for the butterfly toy attached on one of the ropes just above eye-level. When she got bored of grabbing it, she did everything she could to try to get that darned thing in her mouth. Most of her day is spent with her mouth wide open while she tries to eat things... while on her tummy recently, I was shaking a toy out in front of her to get her attention. Once she realized she couldn't reach for it (because her arms were holding her up), she opened her mouth wide and leaned forward to try to eat it. My poor fat kid. And over the last few days, she's started really babbling... she doesn't really use consonants, but she's certainly trying to talk. And my God, she's loud. She just sits there and squeals and shouts, then smiles at your reaction to her. Crazy baby is one funny little kid.
GROWTH: 16lb 13oz on 1/15 (her 6 month well-child), which is 63rd percentile for weight. Her height was 25 3/4", which is the 46th percentile. I don't remember her head circumference measurement, but it is in the 30th percentile. Short, fat, with a small head. That's my Emma. Sadly, she got some really cute clothes in a 6 month size for Christmas and she was barely able to wear them all once before they were boxed up. She's now officially in her 9 month sized clothes! So I spent a good $100 on new clothes for her, because most of her 9 month stuff is summer clothing.
Oh, yea. And baby vomit... I've done an insane amount of laundry because of it. We're not talking spit-up. That's child's play compared to this... she's had many episodes of stomach-content-emptying vomiting over the last few weeks. Like, you can hear it dripping onto the carpet. And it soaks through your clothes and drips down your arm. And it makes her look like the exorcist as it gushes out of her tiny little mouth. Poor fat kid. And poor mommy! There's nothing pleasant about being covered in warm baby vomit all over your head, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then trying to figure out how to pull your t-shirt over your head without smearing the baby vomit all over your face. It's that bad.
Mommy stuff:
Here's the New Year's post I should have made:
1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
- well, jeez, let's see- became a mommy, spent four weeks in a hospital, had natural childbirth, cleaned baby vomit out of my cleavage... the list goes on.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
- I don't do New Year's resolutions. Never have, probably never will. I'm a constant work in progress and I'm always making new goals for myself... not just at the first of the year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Ummmm... me. Doesn't get much closer than that. I also had a handful of close friends who had babies or became pregnant! It was a great year for pregnancy.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
- Thankfully, no. I hope to have the same answer for 2013.
5. What countries did you visit?
- For the first time since 2009, we didn't go out of the country. Our almost-yearly visits to Jamaica have been put on hold for a bit.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
- A higher level job. It's about time for me to start moving up...
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched in your memory, and why?
-There are a few: June 12, the day I went into the hospital. July 9- the day Emma was born, August 1- the day Emma came home from the hospital
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- Staying pregnant for four weeks after going into preterm labor. And delivering a baby naturally with no drugs (against my will! lol)
9. What was your biggest failure?
- Being pregnant. I really sucked at it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
- Well, lets's see- I burned the bajeebers out of my hand while making dinner one night. I also dealt with pre-eclampsia and preterm labor.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
- Oh, man. That's a tough one... it's a toss-up between my Little Castle glider and my Kindle Paperwhite.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
- SO MANY PEOPLE. Everyone who offered support, prayers, and encouragement while I was in the hospital and Emma was in the NICU. The people who visited me at the hospital. My aunt and cousin who sent me an amazing care basket of goodies... I was overwhelmed at the kindness of everyone.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- A handful of people during election time. It made me realize that most people aren't free thinkers, but rather mindless parts of a group. Lemmings, if you will.
14. Where did most of your money go?
- Aside from the mortgage, car payments, etc... putting together the nursery. Medical bills. Baby stuff.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- Bringing Emma home from the NICU!
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
- "There can be Miracles" from the Prince of Egypt
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder: Happier! Although I was happy this time last year, I was also nervous because I was newly pregnant. Now I have a funny little baby to make me smile all day!
Thinner or fatter? Thinner. Like getting-my-thyroid-checked and my-clothes-don't-fit-me thinner. Ugh.
Richer or poorer? Poorer. Babies are expensive!
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
- In the beginning of the year- blogging. Towards the end of the year- sleeping.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
- waking up and going to sleep in a hospital.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
- Christmas Eve at my parents' house. Then opening gifts that night. Then Christmas day with my in-laws.
21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
- YES. I felt a kind of love I never knew existed; one that will stay with me forever. The love of a mother.
22. How many one-night stands?
- TOO MANY TO COUNT! Oh, wait. No. None. Ewwwwwww.
23. What was your favorite TV program?
- Mad Men. Jon Hamm...*swoon*
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
- Hate is a strong word. But let's put it this way: there are people that I view more negatively now than I did a year ago.
25. What was the best book you read?
- Darn. I don't remember when I finished The Hunger Games... but we'll pretend like I finished it before 1/1.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- Broken Bells!
27. What did you want and get?
- A baby. Duh. And a vintage Barbie doll! And a Coach leather diaper bag :)
28. What did you want and not get?
- A full-term baby.
29. What was your favorite film?
- UGH. I'm not a movie person... I don't even remember what movies I watched last year...
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- Oh, sad. I spent it in the hospital, but my family came for a visit and hubby spent the day with me!
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably satisfying?
- Again, a full-term baby. And a healthy pregnancy. That would have helped immensely.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
- Maternity blah. Flats. Flowy shirts. Awful pants. After the baby? My clothes were all too big and baggy. It wasn't a great fashion year for me.
33. What kept you sane?
- My husband, my family, and a job that was flexible enough to allow me to return to work when I couldn't afford to not work any longer, yet allowed me to work from home and do what I could when I could.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- I'm beginning to think these questions were written by someone British... but, Jon Hamm. *swoon again*
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Don't get me started. Gay rights... or should I say, civil rights?
36. Who did you miss?
- My best friend. I didn't get to see her enough :(
37. Who was the best new person you met?
- Hmmmmm... I didn't meet a lot of new people in 2012. But my new coworkers are fantastic. And there were some truly amazing nurses at the hospital and in the NICU.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
- There were many more than one: Everything really, truly happens for a reason. Having a positive attitude can make any tough situation easier. It could always be worse. Be grateful for what you have and don't whine about the way you think things should be. Don't judge others based off of an assumption.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
- Well, that's an easy one! "There can be miracles, when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who know what miracles you can achieve. When you believe, somehow you will. You will when you believe."
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Hello, 2013.
Oh, god. Where has the time gone?
I've been sucked into a time warp thanks to a sick baby, some good books, and two four-day weekends in a row. I'm glad the whirlwind of the holidays is over but the aftermath isn't quite so pretty... especially since crazy baby has been sick. STILL.
Yep, three weeks of unsettled, cranky, whiny, grunty, congested baby. And in that three weeks, I've bought an insane amount of remedies and baby gear- anything to make my sweet little buttercup feel better- and shifted my theory on what was bothering her about a bajillion times. You see, this cold that she has (maybe it's allergies? I'm still not sure!) has been super sneaky. It started with her having difficulty going back to sleep when she'd wake up for her nighttime bottle. Then cranky bedtime and sleeping all night. Her congestion didn't seem bad until recently, but it was always there. I just didn't think it was bad enough to cause her to be so darned restless and irritable, but I was apparently wrong. She may also be teething, but the verdict is still out on that one. Over the last few days, the junk in the back of her throat has gotten worse, to the point where she just can't clear it out and it really pisses her off. I'm certain it'd piss me off too if I had thick phlegm in the back of my throat and I couldn't do anything to get rid of it.
So, really, my last three weeks have consisted of a lot of the following: rocking, swaying, jiggling, feeding, soothing, shushing, patting, walking. And using the humidifier, baby rub, teething tablets, wet washcloth, Colic Calm, Tylenol (waste of time), saline, and the bulb syringe. And there is nothing on the face of this earth that enrages my child more than the bulb syringe... I'm seriously looking forward to the arrival of her Nose Frida on Monday. Google that... now. Yep- it's basically a snot sucker, and apparently it works wonders. Since Emma hates the bulb syringe so much, I feel the snot sucker is worth a try and will hopefully eliminate most of the risk of poking out her eyeball with the bulb syringe while she shakes her head back and forth trying to avoid my attack. She's also caught on to the fact that she can swat the bulb away with her hands.
*sigh* These are the things people forget to tell you about having young children. Or at least the things people forgot to tell me. That when your almost-six-month-old baby gets sick, all of your determination to get her to be an independent sleeper will fly right out the window along with all of the money you're going to spend on any product promising to make your child feel better.
I seriously took for granted the days when she was such a fantastic sleeper- up at 7:30am, one hour nap about an hour or two after that, cat nap at lunch time, three hour nap in the afternoon, in bed by 8. She's been a swing sleeper for her naps for about the last week, and last night she slept in her swing all night. I was able to turn off the swing after she had fallen asleep, but it keeps her at an angle that prevents the junk in her throat from choking her and waking her up. So I'm seriously terrified that we're going to have a loooooooong and painful process of getting her to sleep in her crib again. I'm hoping this cold doesn't last much longer. Three weeks is ridiculous.
We're putting prune juice concentrate in her morning bottle so that she isn't pooping rocks anymore. Since we've started doing that, she hasn't been grunting and whining all day anymore. She still doesn't feel well and so she gets fussy once her excitement about a new activity has worn off, but it isn't a full day of grunting. The prune concentrate turns her bottle a nice coffee color, so apparently she's joining me and my morning coffee habit. Her "morning cup of joe" reminds me of her morning dose of caffeine in the NICU for her apnea episodes... ah, the NICU days. It's crazy to think that her cold has lasted for almost as long as her entire NICU stay. These past three weeks have felt like half the amount of time she spent in that place.
On the development stuff... she's about a few weeks to a month behind on her gross motor skills for her actual age, which is to be expected. In fact, she's still technically one month ahead. Her fine motor skills are fantastic- she can look at something, decide she wants it, and lean forward and reach for it. Grab it. Pull it to her mouth. She seriously just wants to eat the whole world, or at least gum it and see how it tastes. She's incredibly aware of her surroundings and can track fast-moving objects and people walking around the room. If you stand near her and talk, she'll divert her attention to you and look up directly into your face. She'll hold your gaze for a while. She giggles like none other. She holds her head and chest up while on her tummy like she's been doing it her whole life. If someone's holding her and a second person walks up and talks to her, she'll smile with her whole mouth open, kick her feet, turn her head away, and hit the person holding her with both hands... she gets overwhelmed with happiness sometimes. She has clear likes and dislikes and starts to whine when she wants something. She isn't rolling over yet, but she's still pretty close. And she's not babbling yet either, but that tongue is doing some fancy work in that little mouth of hers so I'm thinking she'll start making more consonant sounds soon. She's definitely sharp as a tack, though and you can really see her gears turning when she's presented with something new or interesting.
*Incoming obligatory New Year ramblings*
2012. What a year. On 12/31/11, I was at a New Year's Eve party with my two fellow preggos, watching a bunch of people we didn't know get embarrassingly drunk. I drove my sleeping husband home at 3am while terrified of the drunks on the road, relieved to have made it home alive and in one piece. This year, I sipped some champagne with dinner and held my breath while the baby settled in to her crib to sleep and the fireworks outside sounded like bombs going off in her nursery. I needed a nap before the ball dropped. Hubby woke me up in time to wipe the sleepiness out of my eyes before midnight, then we shared our midnight kiss which has been the tradition for the past six (now seven) New Year's Eves we've spent together. I sipped more champagne, then made my way into bed, angrily Facebooking about the fireworks that needed to stop because my sick child was trying to sleep. What a world of difference from the year before.
But 2012 is a year I'll never forget. It was the year I became a mommy, and not just a normal first-time mommy, but a first-time mommy to a preemie. I knew I'd be spending the night in the hospital for the first time ever when I delivered her, but had no clue that I'd actually end up spending 28 nights in the hospital for myself, and a bunch more with her. 2012 was the year of learning just how much I'm able to handle. How I can go into survival mode and just make it through. Of knowing that there is always the other end of every ordeal, despite not knowing what that other end will look like.
I learned what real friendship is about. I was humbled by the amount of people who prayed for me, encouraged me, and tried to make me smile in a very dark and anxiety-ridden time. But I also realized that it's fully possible for someone to rejoice in another's good fortune even when your own circumstances suck. And that I have zero room in my life for negative people. I grew closer to my husband than I ever thought possible. I watched him transform into the loving father I knew he'd be, but even more so than I ever imagined. I also experienced a kind of love I've never felt before- the love that a mother feels towards her child.
My visions of a healthy baby and breastfeeding didn't come to fruition, at least not in the way I pictured it. I never thought I'd be buying formula and mixing bottles day after day... or reviving my child multiple times a day for that matter.
Aside from the baby stuff, I took a leap of faith and made a decision to move back to my "home" at work. I wasn't immediately sure that it was the right decision. But by the time the end of the year rolled around, I knew it was right. It was like jumping off a cliff and hoping the parachute opens... and it did.
On a lighter note, there were lots of other things I never anticipated... like baby poop under my fingernail during a diaper change in the back of my mom's minivan in the Target parking lot. Bath poop. Learning that my cleavage creates a perfect funnel for baby vomit. Learning the hard way that lifting the baby up over your head and then slowly lowering her for a kiss on the cheek directly after feeding her is a sure-fire way to get baby vomit all over your face, up your nose, and in your hair. That baby hands inevitably grab and rip chunks of hair out of your head in a split second. Making a baby laugh while feeding results in formula being sputtered all over your face. And the sound of my own child giggling is by far the sweetest sound I've ever heard.
2012. The year of everything unanticipated. The year that knocked me off my feet (quite literally, when you consider the hospital bed rest), spun me around, and showed me no mercy. Yet, ended in such a great place (minus the baby sickies).
I really hope 2013 is... more predictable. Please, for the love of God... no more surprises!
I've been sucked into a time warp thanks to a sick baby, some good books, and two four-day weekends in a row. I'm glad the whirlwind of the holidays is over but the aftermath isn't quite so pretty... especially since crazy baby has been sick. STILL.
Yep, three weeks of unsettled, cranky, whiny, grunty, congested baby. And in that three weeks, I've bought an insane amount of remedies and baby gear- anything to make my sweet little buttercup feel better- and shifted my theory on what was bothering her about a bajillion times. You see, this cold that she has (maybe it's allergies? I'm still not sure!) has been super sneaky. It started with her having difficulty going back to sleep when she'd wake up for her nighttime bottle. Then cranky bedtime and sleeping all night. Her congestion didn't seem bad until recently, but it was always there. I just didn't think it was bad enough to cause her to be so darned restless and irritable, but I was apparently wrong. She may also be teething, but the verdict is still out on that one. Over the last few days, the junk in the back of her throat has gotten worse, to the point where she just can't clear it out and it really pisses her off. I'm certain it'd piss me off too if I had thick phlegm in the back of my throat and I couldn't do anything to get rid of it.
So, really, my last three weeks have consisted of a lot of the following: rocking, swaying, jiggling, feeding, soothing, shushing, patting, walking. And using the humidifier, baby rub, teething tablets, wet washcloth, Colic Calm, Tylenol (waste of time), saline, and the bulb syringe. And there is nothing on the face of this earth that enrages my child more than the bulb syringe... I'm seriously looking forward to the arrival of her Nose Frida on Monday. Google that... now. Yep- it's basically a snot sucker, and apparently it works wonders. Since Emma hates the bulb syringe so much, I feel the snot sucker is worth a try and will hopefully eliminate most of the risk of poking out her eyeball with the bulb syringe while she shakes her head back and forth trying to avoid my attack. She's also caught on to the fact that she can swat the bulb away with her hands.
*sigh* These are the things people forget to tell you about having young children. Or at least the things people forgot to tell me. That when your almost-six-month-old baby gets sick, all of your determination to get her to be an independent sleeper will fly right out the window along with all of the money you're going to spend on any product promising to make your child feel better.
I seriously took for granted the days when she was such a fantastic sleeper- up at 7:30am, one hour nap about an hour or two after that, cat nap at lunch time, three hour nap in the afternoon, in bed by 8. She's been a swing sleeper for her naps for about the last week, and last night she slept in her swing all night. I was able to turn off the swing after she had fallen asleep, but it keeps her at an angle that prevents the junk in her throat from choking her and waking her up. So I'm seriously terrified that we're going to have a loooooooong and painful process of getting her to sleep in her crib again. I'm hoping this cold doesn't last much longer. Three weeks is ridiculous.
We're putting prune juice concentrate in her morning bottle so that she isn't pooping rocks anymore. Since we've started doing that, she hasn't been grunting and whining all day anymore. She still doesn't feel well and so she gets fussy once her excitement about a new activity has worn off, but it isn't a full day of grunting. The prune concentrate turns her bottle a nice coffee color, so apparently she's joining me and my morning coffee habit. Her "morning cup of joe" reminds me of her morning dose of caffeine in the NICU for her apnea episodes... ah, the NICU days. It's crazy to think that her cold has lasted for almost as long as her entire NICU stay. These past three weeks have felt like half the amount of time she spent in that place.
On the development stuff... she's about a few weeks to a month behind on her gross motor skills for her actual age, which is to be expected. In fact, she's still technically one month ahead. Her fine motor skills are fantastic- she can look at something, decide she wants it, and lean forward and reach for it. Grab it. Pull it to her mouth. She seriously just wants to eat the whole world, or at least gum it and see how it tastes. She's incredibly aware of her surroundings and can track fast-moving objects and people walking around the room. If you stand near her and talk, she'll divert her attention to you and look up directly into your face. She'll hold your gaze for a while. She giggles like none other. She holds her head and chest up while on her tummy like she's been doing it her whole life. If someone's holding her and a second person walks up and talks to her, she'll smile with her whole mouth open, kick her feet, turn her head away, and hit the person holding her with both hands... she gets overwhelmed with happiness sometimes. She has clear likes and dislikes and starts to whine when she wants something. She isn't rolling over yet, but she's still pretty close. And she's not babbling yet either, but that tongue is doing some fancy work in that little mouth of hers so I'm thinking she'll start making more consonant sounds soon. She's definitely sharp as a tack, though and you can really see her gears turning when she's presented with something new or interesting.
*Incoming obligatory New Year ramblings*
2012. What a year. On 12/31/11, I was at a New Year's Eve party with my two fellow preggos, watching a bunch of people we didn't know get embarrassingly drunk. I drove my sleeping husband home at 3am while terrified of the drunks on the road, relieved to have made it home alive and in one piece. This year, I sipped some champagne with dinner and held my breath while the baby settled in to her crib to sleep and the fireworks outside sounded like bombs going off in her nursery. I needed a nap before the ball dropped. Hubby woke me up in time to wipe the sleepiness out of my eyes before midnight, then we shared our midnight kiss which has been the tradition for the past six (now seven) New Year's Eves we've spent together. I sipped more champagne, then made my way into bed, angrily Facebooking about the fireworks that needed to stop because my sick child was trying to sleep. What a world of difference from the year before.
But 2012 is a year I'll never forget. It was the year I became a mommy, and not just a normal first-time mommy, but a first-time mommy to a preemie. I knew I'd be spending the night in the hospital for the first time ever when I delivered her, but had no clue that I'd actually end up spending 28 nights in the hospital for myself, and a bunch more with her. 2012 was the year of learning just how much I'm able to handle. How I can go into survival mode and just make it through. Of knowing that there is always the other end of every ordeal, despite not knowing what that other end will look like.
I learned what real friendship is about. I was humbled by the amount of people who prayed for me, encouraged me, and tried to make me smile in a very dark and anxiety-ridden time. But I also realized that it's fully possible for someone to rejoice in another's good fortune even when your own circumstances suck. And that I have zero room in my life for negative people. I grew closer to my husband than I ever thought possible. I watched him transform into the loving father I knew he'd be, but even more so than I ever imagined. I also experienced a kind of love I've never felt before- the love that a mother feels towards her child.
My visions of a healthy baby and breastfeeding didn't come to fruition, at least not in the way I pictured it. I never thought I'd be buying formula and mixing bottles day after day... or reviving my child multiple times a day for that matter.
Aside from the baby stuff, I took a leap of faith and made a decision to move back to my "home" at work. I wasn't immediately sure that it was the right decision. But by the time the end of the year rolled around, I knew it was right. It was like jumping off a cliff and hoping the parachute opens... and it did.
On a lighter note, there were lots of other things I never anticipated... like baby poop under my fingernail during a diaper change in the back of my mom's minivan in the Target parking lot. Bath poop. Learning that my cleavage creates a perfect funnel for baby vomit. Learning the hard way that lifting the baby up over your head and then slowly lowering her for a kiss on the cheek directly after feeding her is a sure-fire way to get baby vomit all over your face, up your nose, and in your hair. That baby hands inevitably grab and rip chunks of hair out of your head in a split second. Making a baby laugh while feeding results in formula being sputtered all over your face. And the sound of my own child giggling is by far the sweetest sound I've ever heard.
2012. The year of everything unanticipated. The year that knocked me off my feet (quite literally, when you consider the hospital bed rest), spun me around, and showed me no mercy. Yet, ended in such a great place (minus the baby sickies).
I really hope 2013 is... more predictable. Please, for the love of God... no more surprises!
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