The Two Month Old

It's hard to believe that Sara is already two months old! She's growing like a weed and is getting into a phase where she's discovering new things each day. It's so exciting to see her becoming more aware of the world around her, and she seems to be enjoying her new found sense of awareness.

We went to the doctor last Thursday for Sara's two month appointment. She weighed in at 11lbs 6 oz and 22 3/4 inches long. She's gaining weight nicely and seems to be the picture of health despite her rough start at birth. I had been dreading this appointment because it brought four shots for Sara. I was so worried about her getting hurt with those needles that I cried about it for days. The pediatrician kept saying that the nurse was very quick and it wouldn't be that bad, but I still had to hide behind Andy for most of it because I couldn't stand to watch. The nurse was very quick to my relief and Sara actually only screamed for a minute and was ok again. I decided to nurse her there right after to help her feel better and was pleasantly surprised that they had a nice room we could go to with a big comfy chair. We've been really happy with this practice and I'm glad that they are so supportive of breastfeeding.

Sara did ok with her shots but she was uncomfortable for a couple days. I kept her on Tylenol for the first day and that seemed to help. She slept most of the morning but was fairly fussy during the afternoon and we could tell she just didn't feel good. She seemed good most of the next day until evening and she started to run a slight fever. A bit more Tylenol did the trick and she has seemed fine since. I felt so bad for her though getting all those shots and then having to feel bad for a few days to get over it. I know this is a lot better than her getting one of the diseases she was immunized against, but it's so hard to have to let your two month old go through that.

In other news, Sara had her third set of visitors for Easter when her Mimi and Gebo came to visit for the first time. I'm surprised they were able to hold out for two whole months, but they really did get a great visit since Sara is so much more alert now. It's a toss up between seeing that new tiny baby right away vs waiting until she's a bit older and can smile and coo at you, but I think they had a good time with Sara for sure. They had lots of nice conversations together and Sara found out that her Gebo can play on the floor with her for as long as she'll stay awake!

It was also good to have Andy's parents come after I had been so sick for a month because they were a huge help in getting the household back in order. Things had really gone downhill with me being out of commission, and they were so great helping us to pick up the pieces. We now have several meals in the freezer, the laundry is caught up, and several things around the house have been repaired! We also learned that we have a new friend who has been keeping up with us on the website from Erwin, so we wanted to say hello to Miss Rose and thanks for sharing in our excitement with Sara.

For Easter we went to Dottie and Jason's house for their annual Easter Brunch. This year was quite a crowd with most of Dottie's astronaut class coming with their families on top of the usual gang of friends. It was nice to get to introduce everyone to Sara and we even got to see Dottie's sister, Neva, again (she lives in Chicago so we don't get to see her often). Sara really enjoyed the crowd while she was awake, but wasn't so thrilled when it came time for a nap and had a hard time sleeping with all the noise. We had a good time though and the food was great as always. It will be fun when Sara is old enough to enjoy the Easter Egg hunt and know what's going on a bit!

In general Sara news, she is really starting to change a lot these days and it's hard to keep up with all her new things. She seems to really be able to focus on smaller objects now and has recently started analyzing patterns on shirts, burp cloths, etc. She seems to be trying to read the wording or figure out the little pictures on things that she didn't really notice before and it's fun to watch her stare at these things. Since she can see a bit better, she's also started to really like story time. We had tried to read to her several times before and she just got fussy, but we started again recently and she seems much more interested now that she can look at the pictures in the books while we read. We'll have to make story time a daily event now that she seems to be enjoying it more!

Sara is also becoming more and more aware of her toys. She really likes her play mat now and stares intently at the objects dangling above her. She is really good at kicking the ball at her feet and still bats at the toys above her. I don't think it's quite with real purpose yet, but she's definitely much more aware of the toys than she was before. I've also switched out the elephant on her car seat with a duckie and she is enthralled with it. She stares at the duck the whole time she's in the seat and has even talked to it a bit. Yesterday the duckie fell down and she was grabing it a little. It looked like she was trying to play with it, but I'm still not sure if her reaches and grabs are intentional yet. I think she's getting close to that though and should be gaining that coordination soon.

Since Sara can hold her head fairly steady these days, we went ahead and got her one of those new Bumbo chairs. They are sort of hard foam chairs that surround her and help her to sit up. She can sit up in this chair and look around. She still loves the TV and looks like a little grown up sitting in her chair staring at the tube! We'll have to start turing the TV off when she gets old enough to really start watching it so she doesn't become an addict like Andy and I. I've also put toys in her lap to touch while she's in the chair and she shows mild interest in them. Today she fell asleep in her Bumbo chair and it was really cute - I guess she can only handle so much fun at a time still!

Sara's other new discovery is the mirror. They have a big mirror at the doctor's office when she's on the table and she really started staring at herself when we were in for her two month appointment. We went out and got a small mirror that we can put on the floor in front of her and she likes staring at it too. I think she's too little to know that the reflection is her, but she likes looking at that other baby in front of her a lot!

It is really amazing how quickly she is learning and growing. Andy and I can hardly believe we have a baby still and she's just growing and changing so fast that it's hard to keep up! She is definitely starting to be a lot of fun with her smiles and coos. She loves her daddy a bunch and always gives him the best smiles. She even laughed a little for him a few days ago which was so cute. We haven't heard the laugh again yet, but hopefully she'll start doing that more sometime this month. We just continue to be so impressed with how much she seems to be taking in and just stare at her all the time.

As for us parents, Andy and I are doing pretty good these days. Andy has been on a normal schedule again for the last few weeks and things feel a lot better having him home more. My stomach seems to be pretty much back to normal now that I'm on the Aciphex and hopefully the ulcer will heal up and be gone for good. We are both pretty tired from a couple of bad nights where Sara decided she didn't want to sleep in her crib anymore. She had two nights in a row where she was waking up four or five times in a couple hours crying and having a hard time sleeping. We ended up having to put her in the swing both nights for a bit. The first night she wouldn't even go back down in her crib after eating and spent most of the night in the swing, but the second night she did go back in her crib for the rest of the night. Last night was the first night where she went back down in her crib the whole night. It was a relief that she slept and we hope she'll stick to the crib like she had been before!

I only have two more weeks of maternity leave and am starting to get nervous about going back to work. It's hard to decide what is right for Sara with her being so little. I like my job and the income means we can do a lot more for her, but I also like being home with her and knowing that she is getting everything she needs. We spent a couple hours in the baby room at daycare yesterday to check things out and I still feel unsure. The daycare is a good quality one, but there are still four babies to each teacher and while I was there each one of them had to cry for a couple minutes at least once before getting picked up. The lead teacher, Rosie, was a very nice woman who genuinely seemed to care about the babies she had. The babies also seemed to really like her and gave her lots of hugs and smiles while I was there. They do lots of fun activities with the babies and keep detailed notes on their eating, sleeping, and potty habits for the parents each day. The babies there seemed to have fun playing, but I'm still worried about how much love and care Sara will be able to get when she's upset or not feeling good. It's such a hard decision to make and I empathize with any parent who doesn't have the choice and has to work. Right now I'm thinking that I will go back and see how she does at daycare. If it's too hard for either of us, I may change my mind!

I guess that's enough Sara details for now - had to catch up after Mimi and Gebo left! Hope you're all having a good week so far and be sure to keep in touch!

Mom, Where Did This Elephant Come From?

Almost from birth we've had this blue elephant hanging on Sara's car seat to give her something to look at when we go for a ride. She's made brief note of this in the past, but hasn't paid it much attention until yesterday. We went out for several errands in the afternoon and I sat in the back with Sara for some of the drive. For the first time, she really seemed to notice this little elephant hanging up above her. She stared intently at it as it swayed with the motion of the car and then began to smile at it and talk to it. I played with the elephant to move it around and it pulls down and vibrates back up too. Sara was so fascinated with this thing and it was really fun to watch.

She has continued to do well when we go out and about and really loves looking around at new scenery and people. She also naps well in her car seat as long as she isn't strapped down too tight, so we loosen the straps when we get out of the car to keep her happy. Things went well yesterday until I fed her in the car while we were out. For whatever reason, she decided to give the bulk of her meal back to me during her burp and I was soaked with breast milk. Of course I wasn't smart enough to have brought a change of clothes, so we had to go home before our next stop. On the way Sara continued to spit up her meal until she and the carseat were soaked. She didn't seem sick and was quite happy the whole time, but just couldn't keep the food down for some reason. I wondered if the motion of the car was making it worse, but it's hard to tell when she can't tell you what's going on! I fed her again when we got home since I figured her stomach was pretty empty and she kept that down just fine. It took a while to get us all cleaned up after that though!

Our crib intervention is continuing and things are starting to improve at least for now. I am still not letting her nap in the swing during the day and she's getting a bit better in the crib even though she still doesn't like it too much. We started putting her down in the crib at night two nights ago since Andy had Friday off. We are letting her go to sleep in the swing and moving her to the crib once she's been down for about an hour hoping she'll be sleepy enough to stay there happily. The first night was fairly rough and we had to get up frequently to put a paci back in. She only made it from about 10pm to 1:30am before she was too upset and we put her back in the swing for a bit. She woke up around 4:30 to eat and we put her back in the crib after her meal. That lasted about two hours before she got upset again and we put her back in the swing until she was up for the day. It was tempting to leave her in the swing last night to avoid the lack of sleep, but we wanted to be consistent so we put her in the crib again at about 10pm. We had to get up twice in the first hour or so to put a paci back in, but then a miracle happened and she slept just fine until 3am when she woke to eat. I even tip toed to her room around 1:30 to make sure she was ok, and she was sleeping soundly! We put her back down in the crib after her feeding and the crazy kid slept in there again until she was ready to get up for the day around 7:30. It was like a whole new kid sleeping in that crib last night and we're hoping that this will stick and she'll be fine with it now. She's still been a bit cranky about sleeping in there for her naps today, but she is a bit better than she was yesterday morning. We're hoping she's finally getting used to laying in her crib and will sleep good in there soon!

Sara is continuing to change so fast these days. She's growing like a weed still, so we bought her some 3month size clothing yesterday. I bet she'll be in those right on time if not a bit early as she is completely filling out her 0-3month clothes now. Just in the last week Sara has become so much more vocal and continues to try to immitate us when we talk to her. She's also making a lot more noise when she plays and is "talking" to her toys now. Her head strength is still improving and she can hold her head steady for a few minutes at a time. She's begun kicking more and now kicks the ball hanging from her activity mat. She also is gaining more control over her hands and brings them to her mouth to suck on quite a bit now.

Sara has also surprised Andy and I by rolling onto her side to sleep! She started moving her torso like that earlier this week and has since figured out how to get her hips up too. She never liked lying flat on her back and seems to have found a solution by laying on her side now. She's not strong enough to really roll over or anything, but she can get herself totally on her side and then back on her back if she wants. This might be why she's sleeping a bit better in the crib now - who knows!

The last bit of exciting news is that Sara took her first bottle today. We wanted Andy to give it to her so she wouldn't be confused, so I warmed up some of my expressed milk and put it in a bottle for Andy. I was concerned about her taking it since you hear some babies refuse to take a bottle, but she figured it out pretty quickly once some of the milk leaked out into her mouth. I only heated up about an ounce and a half so we wouldn't waste much if she didn't take it well, but she ate it all down. I snuck over and took a couple pictures while she was eating and they are up on the website now. I fed her after she finished the bottle so she could get all she wanted and pumped what was left when she was done. I think she's eating about 3oz during her daytime feedings and probably a bit more when she eats before bedtime. I had mixed feelings watching her drink from the bottle since I love feeding her so much, but it is nice to know that daddy can feed her if I'm out and that she should be fine to take bottles at daycare when I have to go back to work.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far - we're hoping for another good night in the crib!

Andy, Valarie, and Sara

Crib Intervention

Hi Everyone! I thought I would take a minute to update the blog while Sara is sleeping. She's in her crib, so it probably won't last long! I swear this child would live in her swing if we would let her - other than to eat of course :)

Andy and I are torn every night with what to do with this child. She has only been waking us up once at night to eat, going 6-8 hours, but the catch is that she is sleeping in the swing. She's been staying awake a lot more during the day and subsequently gets cranky after her last feeding. By the time we get her to calm down and go to sleep, neither of us really want to test things by putting her down in the crib. We really want her to start sleeping in her own bed, but we are also loving the sleep we get when she's in that swing. I swear she doesn't make a peep in that thing until she's ready to eat again and then she goes right back to sleep in the thing for another 4-5 hours. How can we get her to do that in her crib?

I've been feeding her at 7pm every night since I started pumping then this weekend and so we're trying to make this her bedtime. She usually won't go to sleep until after 8 with her crankiness, but she isn't waking up to eat again until the middle of the night once she is down. Andy and I are going to try to start a bedtime ritual with feeding at 7pm, new diaper and outfit, and put her in a sleep sack to rock to sleep. We're hoping that she's old enough now to pick up on the routine and maybe get less fussy at this time of night and go to sleep easier.

As for the crib, I've been slowly trying to put her in there more often during the day. It's just as hard to do this "crib intervention" during the day because it means that I can't do anything else while I'm trying to get her to go down in there. She constantly starts to make noise and I have to go put her pacifier back in or stand there with my hands on her to calm her down again. When she does go to sleep in there, it usually only lasts for about 20-30 minutes at a time instead of her normal couple hours that she'll nap. I'm hoping that she'll start to get used to the crib this way though and will start sleeping for longer stretches in there. I keep thinking she'll eventually get tired enough to sleep for a full nap in there, but she apparently got her stubborness from her mother and has so far refused! Something will have to give eventually though because there's no swing at daycare and she'll have to get used to the crib they have there.

Other than our crib woes, Sara is continuing to do really good. She's really starting to smile and coo a lot and has even started to mimic some of the sounds we make when we talk to her. She loves going places and just stares at people like they are the most interesting thing in the world. We took her to the zoo for the first time this past weekend, but she ended up sleeping the whole time so we didn't get any pictures. It was still nice to walk around and we finally fit in there with our stroller since the zoo is stroller/baby central anytime we've been.

I put up some new pictures and videos the other day for those who haven't been to the site in a while. I'll try to get some more soon.

Well, the little one called me away hours ago and I just got a chance to put her down again to finish this up. I better post it now before she starts up again!

Happy Wednesday!

Don't Forget to Spring Forward

So this weekend begins daylight savings time. While I love daylight savings as it's much more desireable to have light in the evening, I'm thinking of writing my local congressman to tell him how much I appreciate losing an hour of sleep this weekend as the mother of a six week old! Each hour of sleep is critical to this tired mom, and I don't much appreciate having to lose one tonight. I don't really understand the need to change our clocks back and forth each year anyway - why not just remain on daylight savings time year round?

Other than the upcoming loss of an hour of sleep, things are starting to get a bit better around here I think. After a really bad bout with my stomach this past Monday night, I went to a gastroenterologist to see if she could figure out what was wrong with me. Since my ultrasound for gallstones came back negative (whew - no surgery for that!), she thinks I have an ulcer from all the ibuprofen that I was given after delivery. I always thought an ulcer would be a burning pain, but apparently it can cause all sorts of different pain. The only good thing about an ulcer is that it can be taken care of with medication over a 6-8 week period. They normally do an edoscope to confirm an ulcer, but this requires sedation and I would have to discard my milk for a while after the procedure. We haven't started Sara on bottles yet, and I haven't started pumping either. Because of this, the doctor decided to put me on an ulcer medication and see if my symptoms improve over a week. I have been on the medication since Wednesday and I think it might be starting to work. I've still had some stomach problems, but I've also had a couple days with no pain at all. I really hope this works so that I don't have to do any further testing!

On top of the ulcer, the gastroenterologist also called yesterday to tell me that I have a urinary tract infection and put me on antibiotics for that. I sure am having a tough time getting healthy, but I hope I am on the right track now. I hate taking all this medicine while nursing Sara even though the doctors say it should be ok. I made it all the way through pregnancy without even taking a Tylenol and now I am on multiple prescription medications! It's very frustrating for me because it's so important to me that Sara be breastfed but I also don't want her to get anything in the milk that might hurt her.

On a happier note, with Andy done with his big plant nightmare, I am going to start pumping tonight after Sara's last feed before her long stretch. I want to start building up a supply of extra milk in the freezer, and we'll have Andy try to give her a bottle soon. The bottle is something I'm both looking forward to and dreading. I really love nursing Sara and it is a wonderful feeling to be able to give her the food that she needs, but it will also be nice to be able to get a break and not have to be home or with her for every feeding. She obviously needs to learn to take a bottle before I go back to work too, so we'll see how it goes one day soon.

Sara has been a bit cranky today and hasn't wanted to go down for a nap. She only napped about half an hour at a time until around 1pm when she finally went down for a long stretch. She slept well then, but is back to being cranky at this hour. She gets herself so tired and then doesn't know how to get to sleep despite all our rocking, cuddling, etc. Eventually she just gets so tired from crying that she goes to sleep, but she hasn't been staying asleep very long. Maybe she'll sleep well tonight after being awake so much during the day - we'll see!

Sara is also growing like a weed! Andy and I think she weighs about twelve pounds now and appears to be about 23 inches long by our measurement. Her head is getting a lot bigger and she has lots of baby chub on her with a big baby belly and lots of little baby rolls developing on her arms and legs. I keep telling her it's the one time in a woman's life that those rolls are going to be considered cute so enjoy :) She's so big that she's started to outgrow most of her newborn clothes and is fitting quite well into the 0-3 month size. We're actually going to have to start packing up those little newborn sizes now and need to go shopping for some 3-6 month sizes that she'll be in soon enough. I can't believe how much she's grown in such a short amount of time. It's exciting to see her change and yet I still feel a little sad that she's not the same tiny newborn. It's funny how you want your children to grow up and stay the same all at once!

Well, we hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. It's been like heaven having Andy home for a change and we've both been able to relax a bit in between the crankiness.

Happy Daylight Savings,
Andy, Valarie, and Sara

The Playdate

With Andy at work, Sara and I ventured out yesterday with Katie and Lily for a playdate at Hilary Vicker's house. Hilary has a two year old, Mandy, and is expecting her second daughter any day now. We picked up some lunch on the way and spent the afternoon with the girls.

Sara did really well on our outting and seemed to really like being somewhere new to look around. She also liked Hilary's swing in which she can sit up and look around (unlike ours where she is still in cradle mode and laying down). It was pretty funny too when she fell asleep in this swing with her chin resting on the little tray holding her in. It's always amazing how many positions babies will sleep in that look like they would be so uncomfortable.

Hilary had this giant fake bottle of Hershey's Syrup filled with M&Ms, and I thought it would be cute to take a picture of Sara with the bottle since it was bigger than her (I added it to the pictures today). I'm sure she will love chocolate when she is finally allowed to have some one day!

I had a good time talking to the girls and watching Mandy play, but my mystery stomach illness decided to make a lovely appearance in the form of me losing my lunch! I can't remember the last time I threw up and it was extra nice to have to do so in someone else's home. Luckily Katie was right next to me and I handed Sara to her to make it to the guest bathroom - thank God I at least made it there and didn't hit Hilary's floor! This stomach thing is seriously irritating and I'm still trying to figure out what it is. The doctor didn't really know last Friday but said it might be gallstones. I went to the local hospital on Saturday morning for an ultrasound but still haven't heard back from the doctor today. I called this morning and she still hadn't reviewed my images to tell me anything. I would think that would be something she would have done when she first got in since I've been waiting two days already, but oh well. I'm hoping that I don't have gallstones because I don't want to have to worry about a potential surgery to remove my gallbladder.

After such a big day, Sara was a bit cranky last night and ate a few times in a row for a long time. The only nice thing about her doing this is that she sleeps for a long time once she finally goes down. Once again, I misjudged when she was going to go down for her long stretch and put her in the swing instead of her bed. She slept for 5 hours in that stinking thing! It took me a while to get her to calm down and go to sleep before that and she ended up going 7 hours between feedings. Six hours two nights ago and seven last night - I don't know if it's the growth spurt or maybe that she's been so awake the last few days but it would be great if she keeps doing these long stretches and we can get some good sleep. Of course, I wonder if she would have slept so long had I put her down in her bassinet since she does not love it like she does the swing. I guess I'll just take what I can get for now because the last two nights have felt pretty good compared to earlier in the week!

Sara is having a pretty good day so far - she's really starting to be awake a lot more during the day and that means even less time for me to try to get anything done (even showering some days!). This morning she played for a couple hours before getting hungry and tired. She is really smiling a lot more when you talk to her so I took a short video and tried to make noises to get smiles. I got a few small ones and a few noises so I'll put it up on YouTube when I get a chance. We had fun playing on the floor and in her bouncy chair until she got cranky and hungry. She had a rough couple hours after that with gas and trying to poo, but I finally got her to sleep a few minutes ago and put her down in the swing. Man was it a good investment to get those rechargeable batteries!

Hope everyone is having a good Monday - I put a few new pictures up and I'm working on some videos too...

The Six Week Growth Spurt

Just like clockwork, Sara has hit her six week growth spurt. Andy and I suspect that it may be the cause of all the terror this week, but things are starting to get a bit better. We did end up having to let Sara sleep in her swing all night after that horrible night we had. Andy and I just needed sleep and the little stinker sleeps so quietly in the swing. We went back to the bassinet the next night and she went down for a while in there. After her first night feeding, she was restless and noisy. Andy had to keep getting up to put a paci back in and hold her arms down - those things flail everywhere! I gave up after he went to work and put her down in the swing for the last few hours of the night.

Yesterday started the feeding frenzy for her six week growth spurt. She ate constantly all day and only took one nap in the middle of the day. By evening, I was feeding her about once every hour and a half. She actually completely drained me a few times and was not happy that mom did not have more milk immediately - what a little piggy :) This went on until about 9:30 when I put her down in her swing. I thought she'd be up again soon to eat and would put her down in the bassinet after that round, but apparently she had finally eaten herself senseless and she slept in that stinking swing for SIX hours! Andy fell asleep on the couch and I had gone to bed to rest before what I thought was another imminent feeding. You'd think that having her sleep for six hours straight would be such a fantastic thing, and it sort of is, but I spent most of the time waking up constantly to see if she was still asleep or if she was ready to eat yet. And, as all moms who have nursed can empathize with, after all that constant feeding during the day I was painfully full by the time she woke up.

The good news is that she did go down fairly well in her bassinet after that 3am feeding. She woke me a few times but went back to sleep before I had to get up. She stayed happy there until about 6:30 when she was ready to eat again, so I am at least happy for one good stretch in there.

I'm hoping that this growth spurt will be over soon and maybe that will help with the night trouble she's had this week. Only time will tell...

Sara is starting to smile more and more but they are still not what I would call frequent. She liked me repeating "Mama" and "Dada" over and over again in baby talk yesterday and gave me several good smiles for that which was so fun.

The other fun thing is that Sara has really started to figure out where the milk comes from. If I hold her in a cradle type hold now, she turns her head toward me with a big wide mouth (whether it's meal time or not!). The other day we were taking a nap and she was laying on her side facing me. I felt her start moving around a bit but didn't think anything of it since she is always a wiggle worm. After a short time she let out this frustrated scream. When I pulled back to look at her, I realized that I had a big wet spot on me where she had been trying to latch on through my clothes. I guess she woke up hungry and figured she'd just get to munching but didn't quite understand the clothes being in the way. It was pretty funny and she was happy again as soon as I gave her what she wanted :)

She's also figured out our routine of a diaper change before feedings and will stop crying when she realizes that she is about to eat. She's starting to be able to latch herself as well which is making things quite a bit easier for me! She certainly loves her milk and it's really fun to see how excited she gets when it's meal time. When Andy is done with his crazy work schedule, we'll start introducing bottles to her and see how that goes. That will be nice for me if I want to go somewhere for a short time and she'll have to start taking them when I go back to work.

Well, I hear the little munchkin filling her diaper for me again, so I'd better go for now. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!