Tag Archives: baby

March 29, 2013 ~ Birthday Girl

Cool birthday girl. With snot.

Cool girl

Look at her.  She’s so big!  She’s two now, and I’m amazed at how quickly she’s gotten this big.

She’s become quite the little personality.  In height only, not size.  Like her appetite, her personality is super-sized.  Tonight at her birthday pancake dinner, the waiter was impressed at how much of the Grand Slam she put away.  (One big pancake, half the eggs, half the hash-browns, one sausage, chocolate milk, and one pancake pop).

She has so many words and loves putting them together.  Sentences.  Many of her words end with a -tch, Russian sounding.  Animals?  She has them down, and their sounds too!  Reading?  She’ll read a book to you, if you ask her just the right way.  She loves giving hugs, and must hug everyone at the day care before we can leave at night.  She hugs them all hello too!

She has little fear, going down slides and giggling for more before her bigger sister finds her own courage.  Swings are still a big treat, and she will ask for more tickles and raspberries.  Then ask you to stop, barely getting those words out before she asks for “more, please!!!!!!”  Sometimes she does get scared, crowds, loud noises, strange people.  When she does, she’ll cling to you, asking to be picked up, to hold your hand.  That simple act seems to give her strength and she’ll end up running off to play soon.  She’ll also ask to hold hands when she’s tired.  Maybe that small comfort helps her relax to sleep.

She loves music and will dance dance dance.  Yo Gabba Gabba and Fresh Beat Band are two of her favorite shows, though Steve and Blue and Timmy rank up there too.  She thinks Steve and Blue live in a house on our walk.  She and her stuffed Foofa will sit next to each other on the sofa (foofacouchtch!) and watch a show before bed, usually while she holds her giant strawberry or her tiny sheep.

If she hurts you or anyone, usually by mistake, she’ll apologize, saying sorry while making the sign on the person she’s apologizing too.  Then she’ll give you a hug and a kiss.

She’s quieter than her sister, but not quiet.  She will sit and watch, planning, plotting.  She’ll let Teagan get into trouble and while we’re distracted she’ll dive off the sofa/chair/slide.

This little person has changed our lives.  Love her so much.  Happy birthday baby, mommy loves you.

She's two tomorrow! How did that happen??

by

April 5, 2012

20120405-204158.jpg

Teagan's Spring Flower

Looking back on the year so far, I’ve done pretty well with my heretofore unstated challenge for writing a Post a Day.  But lately I’ve been feeling that I’m reaching for material to write about.  That it’s becoming a chore and not something I want to do.  Something I like to do.  I don’t think I’m improving my writing, but writing for posting’s sake.

I’m glad I’ve done it though.  I have some posts I know I’ll go back to as time passes.  Some moments that I’m glad I recorded, even with my mediocre writing.

So, maybe it’s time to stop the daily posts.  I will still post…  this has been a sort of journal of mine for over six years.  There will be so many little bits of life I won’t want to forget, so many cute things that the girls will do that I won’t want to forget.  So many things I’ll want to share.  If I don’t write them down, I know I will forget.  They’ll fade.

And then I won’t have lovely things to embarrass them with when they get older.  I wonder how many times I can post pictures of their bums or them picking their nose or a video of them farting.  Maybe just sharing their artwork, or simply posting a picture of them sleeping.

Everyone loves a baby sleeping, don’t they?

20120405-204145.jpg

Ashlin sleeping hard at day care

 

by

March 29, 2012

Tower

So, my baby turns one today.  I can’t believe it’s been a full year already.  It zoomed by in the blink of a bleary eye.  I was a bit bittersweet this morning watching her eat gold fish (and toast, and cheese, and fruit, and, and…), knowing I was sending her off to day care today, sad that I wasn’t going to be spending the day with her.  But, I got over that bit of sadness quickly.  She was home yesterday, and will be home with me tomorrow.  But the melancholy of today being her birthday is still there.

She’s grown so much, changed so much from the little (big!) peanut I had to wait to hold.  It’s been a year of challenges, for both of us.  She’s overcome so many of them.  At first it was her breathing and glucose levels.  Then it was the possibility of  hip dysplasia, thanks to her being breech for so long.  Then she was caught in the PKU screening, then nursing too much, and refluxing.  Not nursing enough, losing weight. And losing more weight.  Throwing up and almost needing to be tested for pyloric stenosis, a bout of croup, an ear infection, rash, allergic reaction, and another more impressive rash.  Stomach flu with severe dehydration, which lead to two ER visits, with an IV for fluids during the second one.  Sleeping through the night.

Swinging Birthday Girl!

No, wait.  She hasn’t overcome that yet, still up at least once, usually twice a night.  Though she will sleep around four or five hours in a stretch now.  More, if she’s been stuffed with macaroni and cheese, saltines and gold fish.

But there were good things that happened too.  Her first smile, her first laugh.  The huge laughs that Teagan can get from her, the way she looks at Teagan, and Teagan at her.  Her first party, staying up to see the Royal Wedding.  Many walks on the beach.  Rolling over, finally getting out of the swaddle.  Finally saying Mama. Standing.  Crawling.  Cruising.  Supported walking.  It’s all going by so fast.She loves imitating you, putting things on her head, playing peek-a-boo, talking on the phone.

She will say LaLa now, and NayNay, though her preferred word is still DaDa.

She gives hugs.  When being rocked to sleep, she wants to be up, with her head on your shoulder, snuggled in, instead of reclined in your arms.  She loves her glowing seahorse, and will usually go down easily, though still doesn’t stay down all night.

She’s got five teeth now, all came up within the past six weeks.  At least three more are just waiting to break through.

She sits back and watches, happy to be on the side lines.  If she wants attention she will ask – cry – for it, unlike her sister, who will be a dancing monkey for any attention.

~~

I had this post open, revising it, adding to it, all day.  Maybe to keep my baby in mind today.  To hold her a bit longer.  I know the time she allows me to hold her is limited.  She’s going to grow up so fast, and want to run, run, as soon as she can walk.

I am looking forward to finding out who she will be as she grows older.

by

February 13, 2012

bbbbbbettahhhhh

She’s doing so much better today.  My brave girl.  The IV did help.

Her morning diaper was soaked.  Drenched.  A total flood like we haven’t seen in days.  Yay!  She nursed well, was in a good mood, a better mood than she’s been in lately.  So nice to see her back.  We hadn’t realized how reduced, how diminished she was.  She usually shines brighter than she has been.

Instructions from the ER docs on discharge were to make sure she drinks 30ml ever hour she’s awake.  If she has any diarrhea, then to add an additional 20ml.

Most of the day was spent trying to get fluid into her and waiting for a wet diaper.  Waiting for the Tinkle Fairy, as someone said.  We only got two slightly damp diapers.  Not too bad, after the morning heavy.  We also got two poopsplosions.   Great.  More fluid to try to get back into her.

Force-feeding her pedialyte through a syringe is not fun.  She won’t take it any other way, unless she’s thirsty and sleeping.  You have to hold her arms down and put the syringe in, forcing her to swallow.  Most will go in, some escapes.  She fights, she cries.  I hate making her cry.

At least now, when she cries, she can make tears.  Watching her cry, and not having any tears just tore my heart in two.

Stu and I were only able to get about 100ml into her.  We should have given her about 200ml.  Now, since she did nurse, and nursed several times today, that reduces the total amount needed.  But we still didn’t get enough into her.  She’ll be in day care tomorrow, and they’ll need to try to get her to drink, too.  She’ll get four 90ml bottles of breast milk, so that should make up the bulk of what she’ll need.

Hopefully, it will all go well.  I’m a little anxious about it.

Oh.  And she’ll say “mama” now, and mean me.  She doesn’t just say it when she’s crying and wants me.  Pretty cool.

Related articles
by

February 10, 2012

Do I look sick to you?

Today’s episode in Ashlin’s ongoing saga of disease and pestilence is brought to you by dehydration.  As the on-call doctor suggested last night, I called first thing and got her an appointment.  By the time we got there at 11:00, she had only had one wet diaper, her morning diaper.  She also had been very fussy in the morning.

So, she’s lost at least two-thirds of a pound in a week.  Her earsdrums are still red, but not bulging.  The doctor didn’t want to prescribe another round of antibiotics – omnicef – as Ashlin already has diaper issues thanks to the amoxicillian and then the zithromycin.  Not sure if her tummy issue, she hasn’t puked since yesterday, is from them too.

So, we were told to push pedialyte and breastmilk.  To even use a syringe to get more fluid into her.  The doctor initially wanted at least one wet diaper by 3pm.  We didn’t have a wet diaper by 3pm.  She did wet one, sort of, by 4pm.  Doctor wasn’t totally happy, but as Ashlin is mostly herself, we should wait and see tomorrow.  If she starts acting odd over night, we were to call the on-call doctor.

So, to start a third paragraph the same way, we are waiting to see how she does.  She had a barely wet diaper, one not worth changing around 5pm, and a dry diaper at bed time.  She nursed a bit, and then fell asleep pretty easily.  She’s been a bit restless, but not bad.

I just want my normally happy girl to be better.

Related articles
by

January 3, 2012

What's in here?

Today we had Ashlin’s nine month well-baby visit.  She is going great! Doctor was pleased with her, her weight gain, milestone progress.

Ashlin now weighs in at 17 pounds, up from 14 pounds at six months.  Up from the 10th percentile to something “between 10th and 20th percentiles” according to the doctor.  But, she was happy with that gain.  No need to test poopy diapers, feed the baby butter, or make her eat in the middle of the night, or really worry much more.  Yes, she’s small, but she’s gained enough weight to not worry about failure to thrive.  That’s so good to hear!  I blame it on the macaroni and cheese, and the french toast, and the sausage casserole, and the lasagna.

The rest of the stats were good.  Height is now 27.75 inches, up from 25.25 inches, but holding at 50th percentile.  She has a big noggin, 46 cm (90th percentile) up from 43.6 cm (75th).

So, good visit.  Whew!

As you can see, she’s getting into things, even though she’s not crawling yet.  She still can move around in her space.  She can’t be deterred, she wants go explore.

by

November 1, 2011

20111101-222546.jpg
Ashlin does have croup. It was not an easy night, though I – we – got some sleep. Even Ashlin got some sleep.

She was sounding so bad, even in the morning, that I called the doctor for an appointment. We got in first thing, thankfully. It is croup. We need to watch her breathing, and as long as she isn’t having too much difficulty, we can avoid both the hospital and steroids.

In weight news, she’s up nine ounces. Yay!

20111101-222540.jpg

by

September 12, 2011 ~ Day Care Update, Part II

I'm not a problem

Today was Ashlin’s second day in day care.  It was better and worse than her first.  She napped, and played and smiled.  She, however, did not take a bottle.  Not really.

I got a call around noon today, asking what we did to get her to take a bottle.  Um…  breastfeed her?  I’m such a wise-ass in my brain.  We were bad over the weekend, and didn’t work on it.  Why make her cry if we don’t need to?  Well, we probably do need to, as she does need to eat during the day.  But it’s just so much easier, much less frustrating for her and for us, to just breastfeed her.  Sigh.  Mom fail.

Instead, I say that although we try, we never have been very successful.  I do mention that I sent in two types of nipples, one regular medela one and one that looks like her pacifier nipple.  I had told this to the morning instructor, and asked that she let me know which worked best, and that I could send all the bottles in with that nipple.  I guess that message hadn’t been relayed.

By noon she had drunk only 30ml – 1oz – since 6:30.  Not really enough.  She’d be cranky when they tried to feed her, but when the stopped, she’d be all smiles.  She played, she giggled, she napped.

By 4:30, she had taken a total of 60ml – 2oz.

Stu and I left early to get her – so I could nurse her.  The afternoon instructor said that she had done better with the pacifier type nipple, although she only took 30ml.  I told her I’d try a bottle at home tomorrow, and that I’d send in bottles with that nipple from now on.

I hope this stubborn baby changes her mind about bottles.  Soon.