Infertility Survivor

We had a second round of the snow today, I think we got maybe another 5 inches today and are predicted for another 5-10 through the next 24 hours.

( More about snow and pictures )

"Long" video (for those of you with dialup!) but totally worth it. :)

Mommy thinks she was looking for an excuse to go to the pediatrician anyway, just to make sure we are still doing OK!

So Emma's had this little rash on her head, and now it's all over her head, neck, shoulders, and upper torso. That was enough for Mommy! Considering we're supposed to get another 6-8 inches of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, I called and went in for a "sick baby" appointment. The pediatrician reassured me that it's completely normal, checked out Emma anyway because I mentioned she's had a little bit of a cold over the last week, and told us that we were doing a great job. In fact, said that she's doing great because she lifted her head up while on her belly, and smiled at the doctor.

The only thing that worried me was when they weighed her, she was only 9lb, 10oz.... last Tuesday she was 9lb 8 1/2 oz. :( So only 1 1/2 oz gain in the last 6 days? Now, she has been sick and not nursing great. Plus, she hadn't eaten for almost 3 hours when she got weighed AND had made a massive poo before we left, but still! Mommy was sad. I tried to reassure myself that it was a different scale (manual scale at their office -- I'd been using a digital scale at the hospital to do her weekly weights), and that probably was something too.

So we'll go to the hospital tomorrow and do our normal weekly weight. In the meantime, she seems to eat better doing side-lying, and we'll do that from here on out until she can breathe a little better. We'll keep up the humidifier at night, which has also helped. I know it's a little obsessive, but I'm not going to stop weighing her weekly until she gets over 10 pounds. Just something to help me relax. :)

Will try to do some more pictures and/or video later -- we've had a busy morning!

Today our "one" thing was to nap in the crib for longer than half an hour -- and we did it, TWICE! We have definitely learned that Emma needs 3 naps during the day to be a happy baby.... one around 9-10 in the morning, then one around 12-1, and then another one between 4-5pm. Then the goal is to get her to bed around 7-8pm and keep her there until 7am the next morning.

We got the naps down today, yay! And she's been a much happier baby. We've been happier too! Here she is, napping in her crib in an outfit she has not worn before because it was too big! Oh -- AND we took a bath today. It's been a busy, busy day for all of us (including Daddy, who shoveled the foot of snow we got off the driveway and sidewalk, and Mommy, who did a load of diapers, Emma's clothing, and 5 loads of Mommy & Daddy laundry, plus cooked dinner and made brownies).

Done with our webcam... let's see how this looks.

We're working on a way to get the same high quality videos that are a smaller file size and therefore a faster upload and download... these took 1 1/2 hours to upload! Daddy has a solution figured out, we'll try it tomorrow.

Early this morning....



Playing with Daddy!

Daddy is outside shoveling, and Mommy is inside doing laundry while the little one is sleeping. It was a rough night last night -- we lost electricity for 2 hours, and that threw off Emma's schedule. Plus, there was a lot of worry about "what if" (e.g., what if the electric doesn't come back on, how do we keep Emma warm, what do we do if we run out of diapers, etc). Luckily, we all just snuggled in bed together and didn't have to worry about the rest.

Here's what it looked like at 6pm after about 8 hours of snowing...



And at 8am this morning!



Videos are forthcoming of our morning fun with Emma... still trying hard to capture that smile and giggle of hers!

But inside, it's SO delightful!

( Pictures! )

From yesterday! Mommy was trying to capture that elusive smile on video...



And from this morning.... WIDE awake! :)

We're getting more and more of them every day! Daddy and I both have little things we do with her during diaper changes or at other times that she'll laugh and giggle at, and it is JUST adorable.

Tried to get a video of it but she won't perform on command, lol. Here are some pictures of her in action however!

( Pictures )

I'm going to start transferring from this blog to my blogger account, I think.... just because it's easier to post pictures there. But for the short term, I'm going to post entries on both blogs. :)

Here's the link:

http://adventures-with-trouble.blogspot.com/

At the moment, she is sleeping IN her crib! We're going on 10 minutes of her being in there (although she was asleep on Mommy for 15 minutes before we did the transfer). We're slowly going to start getting her used to sleeping in there for naps, rather than on Mommy or in the pack-n-play. Lots of places to sleep! :)

Miss Emma and I are at 6 weeks of almost-exclusive breastfeeding. That third-shift nurse who convinced me that Emma would *die* if I didn't allow them to give her formula that first night can just stuff it. She got some formula in the hospital, and a little bit at home, and then half a bottle the night Mommy had her D&C, but other than that, she's been an EBF baby!

She went from 6 lb, 5oz at birth to 6 lb 1 oz at discharge, and now is 9 lb, 8 1/2 oz! Mommy just loves that it's due to the milk that I'm making with my body. Amazing!

She is 9 lbs, 8 1/2 oz!! :) We have a happy Mommy today.

Off to take a walk since it's 40 degrees out. :)

Happy baby!

Milestones:

Holding head up by herself, mostly steady.
Sleeping longer at night.
Smiling more frequently, occasionally laughing!

Here she is, wriggling around in one of her fleece outfits... she loves the Kissy Monster that shows up to shower her with kisses, and the Kissy Monster keeps showing up when she's in the pack-n-play! :) This was during one of the Kissy Monster attacks, lol!

A poster on another site shared this, and I wanted to put it here because I love it. This will remind me to accept my body for what it is, no matter whether it gets back down to pre-pregnancy and pre-ttc weight!

antithesis

I am large in my skin
I make no apology
This belly grew three babies
Why should it be flat?
It curves with the memory of the womb.
These breasts fed three babies
Why should they be pert?
They swell with the memory of milk.
These hips carried three children
Why should they be slim?
They are full with the memory of life.
My bones are secret under flesh
My skin plump and white and fine
Mine is the face of Botticelli
Mine is the water of the Nile
Mine is the shape of things forbidden
Daughter of Gaia, grown beautiful and wild.

~Lorri Barrier
(poem published in Mothering Magazine, Sept/Oct 08)

*To be sad that my little girl is moving to every 3-hour feedings rather than 2? Mommy didn't realize how much she liked being needed like that.

*To be sad that she's outgrowing those newborn prefolds? She's growing up too fast!

*To want to wake her up so I can see her smile? (believe me, I won't! It took her too long to go down for a nap this evening)

Last night was the third night of a fairly good night -- even though it took a while for her to get calmed down, she slept in 3-hour increments for the most part. If we can get this 10pm fussiness managed, I think we'll be doing great! We've narrowed it down to gas and/or just general fussiness.

So today is Day #4 of Mommy being off of all dairy. It's an experiment to see if it's actually going to affect her little system and make the gas better, or whether the gas is just a normal amount. It's really not that much, but it bothers her SO much -- I think it hurts her little bottom when it finally works its way out more than it bothers her little gut.

Other milestones for Mommy, Daddy & Emma:

* Today is Day #9 of exclusively cloth diapering! We're SO happy to be away from the disposables at night, and I think Emma is happier too.

* We're moving up to the next size prefolds! Her newborn ones are finally just WAY too small and tight, so even though they're supposed to fit up to 10 pounds (and she's not quite there), we're moving up to the next size. I can tell it was a good thing that we changed detergent because you can definitely feel the softness difference between the old prefolds (they feel crunchy) and the new prefolds (very soft). Hopefully she enjoys that too.

* We discovered our reflection! I ordered a crib mirror from Babies R Us and we found a way to put it in her pack-n-play for diaper changes. She'll look at herself and self-soothe while we change her, or fix supper, or eat, or whatever. It doesn't last a long time, but long enough.

While she's napping, Mommy is going to run up and take a much-needed shower. Emma had a very large, mucousy spit-up this morning and Mommy's chest smells like baby vomit. Not as nice of a smell as clean baby, LOL. :)

While I've got a minute to upload a few pictures...

( Cuteness )

Emma got her OWN mail today from the social security administration! Yes, we have a social security card. Wow. :) So Mommy set up a savings account for Ms. Emma effective today, too bad interest rates are so horrible (1.25% APY). Hopefully starting this early will help her with her college ambitions!

I know I'm jinxing myself by typing this, but...

We had a fairly good night last night. Daddy did calming duty, and brought her up around 11:30. She slept solidly until 2am, when she ate and got changed. She went right back to sleep and slept until 5am, and ate and needed changed. She fussed some and needed changed again, and then fell back to sleep around 5:30, and slept solidly until 8am.

She was up from 8-9:30 am, very alert and engaged! So we did tummy time, and we played with Mommy & Daddy, and she just fell asleep again. So our "one thing" for today is putting her in her actual crib to nap! We got our baby monitor this week, so we can actually do it now. Mommy is feeling a little anxious about having her that far away from me (she's upstairs in her bedroom and I'm down here in the living room), but I know I can run up at anytime. The monitor is so sensitive we can actually hear her *breathing*!! Amazing.

We'll have to see how tonight goes... fingers crossed!