It's been a month...sorry...

I just can't seem to get this thing updated. I usually post the important stuff on my Facebook.
I always have new pics on my FB site as well. Plus, both grandmothers joined FB, which makes it tons easier on me and them. As sad as I am to say it, maybe this site is going to come down. I don't have the time or energy to manage all of them! I guess I'll save what I've written here and direct my friends and family to my FB for further Maeby news and information!

Peas and Rolls

Maeby has become old hat at rolling over. Now she does it whenever you put her on her back...she immediately flips right over. However, she can't do back to front yet, so she gets really upset about being on her belly for any length of time. I've been trying to show her how to get herself back over, but she doesn't seem to get it yet.

We also started her on peas the other day. After the miserable failure of bananas (she just wasn't a huge fan), I figured we'd try a veggie next. Peas aren't too bad as far as sweetness goes, but I fully expected her to protest. To my surprise, she LOVED them. She even went as far as to grab the spoon as her Daddy was feeding her and shove it into her own mouth! Tonight will be day 3 of peas, and then if no problems show up as far as reactions and such, we'll start peaches or applesauce next!

She has been sleeping til 9 the last couple days. Nice, except I'm so used to her waking about 8, 8:30, that now I am up before she is! Still having some trouble keeping her in the co-sleeper all night, but seeing as we have to move her to a crib soon, it's not that huge a deal. We'll just have to get her used to the crib anyway!

Bratinsky!

I have been waiting and waiting for Moo to learn to roll over. I've stuck her on the floor, tempted her with toys, showed her how to roll over by gently rolling her back and forth, and nothing.

Wouldn't you know it, the little bratinsky learned to do it, and did it while NEITHER of us were present to watch the momentous milestone?

I had put her in her co-sleeper on her back and went into the upstairs bathroom to feed the upstairs cats when I heard her grunting in the next room. I didn't rush right in, as grunting is fairly normal for her, but when I got back into the bedroom, I see Maeby had rolled herself onto her belly all by herself and was busily trying to eat her blankie. Can't believe I missed that!

She hasn't done it since, so perhaps it was a fluke. But today I'm going to see if she'll do it for us!

4 Month Vaccine Appointment Highlights

OK, so here are Maeby's stats as of this morning:

She weighs 15 pounds, 8 ounces, which puts her in the 90% percentile (no problem with eating here!). Her height is 23 and 3/4 inches (she's only grown 3 and 3/4 inches since birth--shorty!), so she's in the 30-35% percentile there. And her head circumference is 40 cm or 15.7 inches (25% percentile). Everything seems to be going well and the doc said she is very strong, and so cute that she should be in commercials!

She got 3 shots and the Rotavirus cocktail and although she did scream like nobody's business, she wasn't as bad as I thought she might be. Glad we have two months until the next batch! Now we just have to watch for a fever or any reactions, but I'm not anticipating any problems with this round. She's been great all day since the shots (I gave her a preemptive Tylenol dose) and is currently playing in her Exersaucer.

Tonight we might try a bit more rice cereal and offer her a little banana to go with it. I bet she'll enjoy that!

Bad mom, I know...

I have been horrible about keeping this up. It has been a little difficult as Maeby is demanding lots more of my time, so I've had to forgo updates. But, now that I have a moment, let me just inform you of the latest stuff:

--She tolerates dairy now. Yay! This makes my life SOOO much easier.

--She has learned to grasp, grab, put things in her mouth, squeal, giggle, scream and has ALMOST learned to roll from her back to her front. She hates tummy time, so I'm not sure if she can roll from front to back, but I'm pretty sure she could if she'd let me do tummy time with ehr for more than a few minutes without getting mad.

--Still teething, but no teeth. The pain seems to come and go.

--Started offering her little bits of rice cereal. She seems to enjoy it, although yesterday after a particularly energetic feeding, she redeposited the cereal on my shoulder an hour later. At Boston market the other day, I gave her a tiny amount of sweet potatoes, and she responded very well to those. If she could have yelled, "YUM, Mom! Gimme more!" I think she would have.

--She has grown out of half her wardrobe already. LOL! At last weight, which was about a week ago, she was 15 lbs.

--She is close to moving up to size 3 diapers already! Fat legs. :-)

--Geoffrey the Giraffe is still her very favorite toy, although she really enjoys being in her exersaucer and will gladly entertain herself for short periods of time (roughly 10-20 minutes depending on her mood and the time of day).

Maeby is still co-sleeping with us...although I have been trying to get her to stay in her co-sleeper at night, she usually wakes within three hours and won't return to her own bed after her feeding without a LOT of fuss. I figure we need our sleep, so since she's still little and feeding roughly every two to three hours, it won't hurt to keep her in bed with us for a little while longer, until the feedings back off a bit. I can't wait to have my bed back to myself, though! She's a bed HOG. Worse than her father!!

Hope this finds everyone well. Will try and keep updating as I can!

The Joys of Teething

Yes, our little Miss Thang has apparently begun teething. Between the drooling, hand sucking, finger biting, nipple crushing, and incessant whining, it's pretty certain she's due to develop some actual teeth here shortly.

I bought her some Baby Orajel yesterday and gave her some baby Tylenol, which seemed to help a little bit. I can't see anything breaking through the gums yet, but I'm sure that's on its way. Today she seems more comfortable than she has in the past few days and isn't quite as complainy, which is a huge plus.

Also, on August 2nd, she laughed for the very first time! Thankfully her daddy was here to catch it. It was very cute, almost like a chuckle, but with a big ol' grin attached. She does it once in a while, but it hasn't progressed to full-on giggling just yet. I can't wait for that to happen!

OH, and as for the dairy and soy free crap...the soy free diet is OVER. I tested her with Luna bars two weeks ago, which are basically all soy, and she hasn't had a single spot of blood, so soy is NOT the problem. I haven't tested her with dairy yet, but the plan is to eat something that is made with a milk product (like a cookie with milk, or milk chocolate, or sauce with cheese in it) and see what happens. If there is no problem, I will then challenge her system by eating a small amount of butter or cheese. And if there's no problem with that, we'll try some skim milk next. I'm betting her system has matured enough to start handling the proteins now. However, I will limit my dairy intake to a very small amount daily or weekly depending on how she reacts, so as not to overload her system before it's ready to do what it needs to do.

Updates, few and far between

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. The kiddo keeps me busy!

I'll keep this short. This is what has happened since my last post:

--Maeby did GREAT with my mom while we went to our friends' wedding. She ate from a bottle (breastmilk only) and never complained once. Everyone enjoyed her and lavished her with love and attention. She met her aunts Amy and Mal, all of her cousins, her Papa (Grandpa) Rich, and her great aunts Ann and Donna and Great Uncle Fran, as well as great cousins Molly, Katie and Carli. She had her first portraits done (you can see them on the slideshow in the corner there) also!

--We did the Neocate trial. Seemed to work, blood was pretty much gone except for one spot on Day Three. The GI doc told me it was fine to go back to breastfeeding, stay away from dairy and soy, but don't restrict my diet any further. Maeby has been doing well since. Still a few spots of blood in the diapers, but the GI folks weren't too concerned.

--She discovered her hands. She likes to hold them up right in front of her face and stare at them.

--She has started to coo and babble a lot more! It's so funny to watch her hold conversations with her daddy!

--We "interviewed" a new pediatrician as our current one has left us feeling less than satisfied. We both agree that the new doctor seems better suited to our personalities and our needs as new parents.

--She likes to stick her tongue out at us...a LOT. She does the "WHAZZUUUUUP!" tongue as well as an impressive Gene Simmons impression. Also she will just sit there with the tip of her tongue poking out at us for periods of time. She thinks it's humorous and grins at us when we laugh at her.

Basically, all is well! She's a happy, pleasant, and friendly kid with a huge smile and the sweetest little voice. She doesn't need to see the doc until her next set of shots (1.5 months away). Eventually Tony will put more pics up on the Picasa site to share with y'all!

Appointment highlights

Miss Pleasant had her first immunizations yesterday. After that, she was Miss Sorely Pissed Off.

FOUR shots and a Rotavirus oral drink. Poor kid. She screamed bloody murder. I don't blame her one bit...those needles looked pretty big to me!

She is 11.6# now, 22 inches long, and has a cranium measuring 15.2 inches. BIG head! LOL

The ped said she looks great, is very strong and busy (she was trying to crawl!). Another good piece of news is that our GI appointment got moved up to tomorrow at 1 pm. Much better than waiting until August to do it! Plus, the ped said that this GI doc is much more approachable than the one we were originally scheduled with. Phew. If we would have had an asshole specialist, that would have pissed me off. I'm a firm believer in doctors having good bedside manner. There's no reason for any doctor to be an asshole to their patients (who aren't being assholes to them, that is!).

Maeby did develop a low grade fever last night, but we gave some acetaminophen and she slept fairly well (she woke up a lot more often that usual), and this morning, was very pleasant. Last night we gave her a bottle of Nutramigen formula as while we're at my best friend's wedding, my mom is going to watch her, and it might be simpler if she just gives her some formula instead of messing with breastmilk the whole time. I'm sending some along anyway just in case she freaks out about the formula! Anyway, she drank the whole 2 ounces, but would only take it from me, not Daddy. We're going to try it again tonight, hopefully she is agreeable.

Off to do housework while she naps.

What's been going on...

It's been pretty much the same old, same old for the past week. We got back from our vacation in Jersey on Sunday and have been hanging around the house. It's safe to say I have a touch of cabin fever, so I'm going to attempt to leave the confines of the house today. Whether daddy is coming with us remains to be seen (he has some weird "anti-shopping on holidays" trip...don't ask).

The vacation went well; better than expected, actually. The ride down was harsh on poor Maeby as she really didn't want to be strapped in her car seat for 10 hours. But she was a trooper through it all. I didn't get to hang by the ocean as I wanted to, which really sucks because I was truly looking forward to a little time by the water to clear my head and renew myself a bit. The ocean seems to do that for me. And since I see an ocean every few years, I was really looking forward to it. I'll have to make positively sure that when we go to LI this September, I get some time by the water before we leave town.

Maeby's RAST test came back negative for allergies. According to the allergist, she could still just have a sensitivity in her GI tract. According to my pediatrician, the RAST test is basically useless. I told her I wanted to see an GI specialist ASAP after she said, "Oh, well, we may have to take you off wheat and eggs next..." Christ, I'd like to be able to eat SOMETHING to keep myself alive, thankyouverymuch. I am not going off any more foods until the GI guy checks her out, because if I find out she has a fissure or a little internal hemorrhoid or something, I am going to be seriously pissed that I've been limiting my diet this way for this long. Maeby is happy, healthy, gaining weight, barely cries, and eats like a champ. That seems pretty good to me.

So the GI guy is scheduled to see Miss Moo on August 6th. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe we'll finally get some answers. Even if the answer is, "You can't eat anything but turkey and rice until she's weaned or she needs to go on special formula", that's fine, because it will be a damn answer instead of the guessing the ped's been doing all along. I hate guessing when it comes to my kid's health and well-being. I did forget to ask why it was that my ped didn't think it would be a good idea to check Maeby's blood for anemia, since she's been passing blood in her stools for 6 weeks straight, yet that's the first thing the allergist wanted done. Thankfully she is not anemic or the ped and I would have had some words, let me tell you.

I started pumping so Tony could start offering her a bottle. The first day I only pumped an ounce. She sucked it right out of the bottle in two seconds. The second day, I got two ounces (and was very proud of myself). She drank 1 ounce and then lost her shit. She cried for an hour, burped a massive burp, farted amazingly loud, and would not take the other ounce. I had to breastfeed her to calm her down. She was fine after that. Not sure what that was all about.
She needs to get used to the occasional bottle before we go down to Walton so my mom can babysit her while I attend my best friend's wedding, or she's going to be one hungry kid for a few hours while we're out! I'm nervous about leaving her for the first time. My mom will be fine, and Maeby will probably do wonderfully, but I think I might cry.

That's all for now. More news as it comes...

Curses, SOY-led again!

Soy.

SOY.

SOOOOOY!!

She's sensitive to soy now too.

Soy is in EVERYTHING.

Everything, people. From salad dressing to cookies to tofu ice cream to bread to pasta sauce.

So that makes dairy AND soy she's sensitive to, if you haven't been keeping track. I have a box of rice noodles, marshmallows, banana chips, and pasta that I can eat. I told Tony I was making Marshmabanaricesta for dinner. I hope he's hungry.

I ran to the store and bought rice milk and a few other soy and dairy free items to keep me alive for the next few days as we await the results of her stool test (which will probably test clear of parasites and infection...if she had those, she'd be sick as hell). It's a touch frustrating but still, I am bound and determined to breastfeed this kid. Unless the next things to go are wheat and eggs, then she's going on hypoallergenic formula and I will just have to deal with my Mommy Guilt.

She is happy, though. Aside from the bloody, mucusy, and watery poop, she smiles at me every day and just loves to eat. Did I mention she gained a whole pound since last week's visit? Can you say "heifer"?

Pretty good for a breastfeeding mom who can't eat any of the good stuff, eh?

Sweet Maeby Moo

New developments:

--Maeby smiles every day at us. It's this big, beaming smile that lights up her entire face; a big, toothless grin. It's heartwarming!

--She has started to understand that if she pushes air out of her lungs the right way, she can make real sounds. Mostly, she does this by accident and surprises herself, but once she gets going, she does it over and over again. We're almost to full-blown cooing!

--She is mesmerized by the big living room light fixture on the ceiling. Even when it's not on.

--As for the supposed dairy sensitivity, we're getting a second opinion by a pediatric allergist on the 25th. Her stool is still watery, mucusy and has small amounts of blood in it on and off, despite my being off dairy for a month now. She does not(and did not at the beginning) really fit the description of a truly dairy-sensitive child...she's eating well, not crying inconsolably, and is pleasant and sleeping fairly well. I just need to be sure we're not missing something related to her gastrointestinal tract since the only real symptoms are blood and mucus in the stool.

--She is getting so chubby! Her wrinkles and folds have all filled out and she has chipmunk cheeks! I hold her now and I can tell she's much, much larger than she was only 6 short weeks ago.

We're looking forward to our visit to NJ to meet Tony's half-siblings and then to see Grandma Moose and the rest of the family at the end of this month. Should be an eventful trip!

No whey out (ha, another pun!)

Had our visit with our pediatrician and as expected, I'm to stay off dairy until further notice.

Here I was a month ago thinking, "Yes! Once I'm not pregnant, I can eat anything I want again!" PSYCHE! I can have liquor and sushi again, LOL, but no dairy. Oh, the irony. Maeby has had a couple spots of blood in her stool on and off over the past few days, so we'll recheck in two more weeks, but if she is still having some bleeding, I may be looking at going off soy as well (which is nearly impossible since everything prepackaged contains soy, not to mention I am using soymilk because I can't have my moo juice) or putting her on expensive formula, which I REALLY do not want to do.

My thing is, I'm enjoying breastfeeding. Sure, it's not the easiest thing at times, what with trying to plan outings and such around her feeding times, and sometimes it can even hurt (she's a biter and puller), but to know that I am giving her the nourishment she needs to grow and be strong and healthy makes me very happy. Plus the connection she and I have is really important to me. So I'm a little scared that I might be relieved of boob duty more prematurely than I wanted if she comes up sensitive to anything else. I'm hoping she sticks with the dairy sensitivity and that will be that.

On a positive note, she went from 7 pounds, 2 ounces to 8 pounds, 14 and a half ounces! So we're doing very well with breastfeeding! Her head went from 12 1/2 inches in circumference to 14. Big brain!

She does have a little yeast infection starting up on her bum. I was putting diaper rash cream on pretty regularly thinking it was a little rash, but that won't do anything for yeast. She has to have Nystatin put on four times a day for a week. AND she had to get her second Hepatitis B shot today. Ouchies. Poor kid can't catch a break.

The heat is on!

Gosh, it's hot in Rochacha. It's been 90 degrees for the past two days. Bleh.

Maeby didn't get to sleep last night for hours as she was pretty uncomfortable. We had the A/C on upstairs to counteract the yuckiness. Then the power went out for almost two hours. Ugh.

She's napping in her swing, trying to catch up on the sleep she missed last night, no doubt! I'm going to wet down her hair when she wakes up just to keep her comfortable and cool; she seemed to like that yesterday. I had her just in a diaper for most of the late afternoon as it just seemed so damn hot in the house and I didn't want her to be sweaty and sticky! Today I'm keeping the big window curtain closed to keep some of the cooler air in. There's no chance of going out to take a walk today...MUCH too hot for that!

Tony has pictures to put up of the baby, but hasn't gotten to it yet. He should be able to get them up this weekend.

First bath

I gave Maeby her first tub bath yesterday since her umbilicus looked much better. I was nervous that she wouldn't like it, as she didn't particularly enjoy the sponge baths, but my fears were all for naught...she LOVED it!

She looked rather surprised as I lowered her into the water, but she got excited and was fine with me shampooing her hair and rinsing it off. I look forward to her weekend bath as her daddy was quite bummed that he missed the first "real" bath. We'll hook up the whirlpool piece to her bathtub and see how she enjoys that!

We see her doctor on Monday afternoon and will find out how she thinks the dairy free diet is working for Maeby. She also gets some vaccinations then, which I am not looking forward to.

Stumped

Maeby's umbilical stump fell off during a diaper change at 5 this morning. 'Bout time!!

We're all much happier without it. Now, in a few days, we can have actual baths instead of sponge baths! YAY!

Maeby Moo

Just chilling today with the Maebster. She's slept fairly well for the last two days so I actually feel rested and normal(ish). Although she still will not sleep alone; we've been cosleeping every night. I'm okay with it for now as is she, but I certainly don't want to do it forever!

The dairy free diet is going all right. I hate it, but will do it for now...I still am not completely convinced that this is the problem, but we'll see after the next doctor's appointment whether or not it has made any difference. If it has, then I guess we'll continue on as directed! I miss pizza, though. A lot.

No whey!!

That's no typo. I'm on a dairy free diet for the next couple of weeks.

Seems that Miss Maeby is sensitive to dairy coming through the breastmilk, so I'm eliminating it from my diet for the next two weeks to see if she responds well to the change. If not, I may have to eliminate soy or eggs next. I'm hoping it won't go that far!

It's not an easy task to stop eating dairy. Not only am I an ice cream and yogurt fanatic, but lots of weird stuff have dairy components in them, like lunch meat, hot dogs, and some tuna fish!! I was fortunate to have found lots of info on the web to help me out with shopping, and can I just say that wheat free/dairy free Newman-O cookies are the bomb diggity? (Newman-O's are Paul Newman's answer to Oreos...and they are truly awesome!) I also have a new-found love of Tofutti Cuties ice cream sandwiches (yes, they are made of tofu, not milk, but they're really not bad!). Maeby seems to feel better today, so I think it's working. She's certainly worth the trouble! And probably within two weeks or so I will be allowed to reintroduce some dairy back into my diet anyway.

She's 16 days old today...wow. Already more than half a month old. Seems like yesterday I was at the hospital having her. She is just too sweet, and such a good baby overall, not to mention how utterly precious she is. We just adore the crap out of her.

COMING MAY 2008

Under construction!