Saturday, June 25, 2011

Asparagus Fiend

Last night, P and I went out for dinner for the first time in a few weeks. We've been taking swimming lessons on date night, so this was kind of a treat. I ordered asparagus and when it was my turn to hold her, Ellie reached out and snagged a spear for herself. I guess it just looked too irresistible. She proceeded to gnaw on and discard a few different spears. She didn't make too much headway, but she did make a decent mess considering that asparagus is a pretty neat food. I'm going to need to start wearing a smock and putting down a splash mat when we eat out.

Monday, June 20, 2011

In 'n Out

Just a couple days after we noticed the first tooth, a second one joined it. She keeps them hidden mostly, but every now and then you can keep her tongue back and take a peek. They are about half emerged from what I can tell. So far, she's been a trooper. Her head seemed a little warm this morning, but mostly, you can't tell she's teething. I was dreading days of crankiness and sleeplessness. But, she is sleeping better the last couple days. There were several where she was waking up every 2.5 hours, but now we seem to be back to 4-6 hour stretches (knock on wood). She has been a little off her feed, but today, she had a lot more appetite.

As far as solids go, I give her a few tidbits when she is around and we're eating. However, most of the time, I eat when she's asleep. So, she gets food only sporadically. And, since she hasn't shown a ton of interest, I'm not really sweating it. So far, she's tasted oatmeal, raspberries, mushrooms, potatoes, broccoli, peaches, avocado, dried apricot, and pie crust. She has taken everything except the peach and avocado, so far. I cut up some celery and cucumber sticks tonight so we might try those as more substantial grabbing food in the next couple days. I also steamed some veggies, so we might try those too. The broccoli especially seemed to fascinate her. We got to see her gag reflex in action as she moved the little blossom from the back of her throat back to her jaw for a little additional mastication.

I'm beginning to get a little anxious about our upcoming trip to Florida. Luckily, we only have a couple of events on the schedule. And, since we're nursing nakid'  boob style, nursing seems much more effortless. I've found a couple of suitable dressy outfits I can nurse in, which is harder than you'd think. Button up shirts are scarce these days. I even found "cute" shoes I think I can walk in while carrying a baby/baby carrier. Now, I'm just debating how many extra sleep sacks, outfits, etc to pack. We've been having severe night-time diaper leak issues.

Size-wise, she's still in size 2's, but when we ran out of our diaper cake stash, I bought 12-hour Pampers thinking they'd solve our occasional leak issues. Instead, they increased them. After giving them about a week, I had washed the sheets, sleep sacks, and clothes more times than I cared to. A load a day. The final straw was when she leaked through two sleep sacks in one day. I bought the Pampers Extra Protection diapers in the next size and after one night, they seem like they might do the trick. I changed her mid-way through the night and then her morning diaper was just enormous. But, leak free! I'm beginning to think we might could have solved the problem by just moving to regular size 3's. Which is weird because at 14 pounds, she's still under the 18 pound weight limit. And, under the 16 pound entry weight for size 3's. Maybe she just eliminates like a bigger baby....

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Cutting Up and Out

Ellie started cutting her first tooth yesterday (apparently I was mistaken before). It's a sharp little nub on her lower right center. She's handled it with no fuss except she seemed to have trouble sleeping last night. She woke up 90 minutes after going to bed – during which time there were several near wake-ups, and then 90 minutes again after that. The second time was mere seconds after I had laid my head down for the night. She does seem to have a 6th sense about these things.... The second time, I figured I'd try to be proactive and I grabbed the Orajel before I went in. She only nursed for 6 minutes and never opened her eyes, so when it seemed like she was really out, I jabbed some Orajel in her pie-hole to hopefully numb the nub. She didn't take the intrusion kindly and I suspect she doesn't like the flavor or possibly the numb tongue sensation. It's the "natural" Orajel with the main active ingredient being clove oil. I tasted it a little this morning after she fussed about it again. It tastes a little like licorice, which is one of my least favorite flavors. So, maybe she takes after me. Luckily, the flavor dissipates pretty quickly. And, after getting Orajel-ed last night, she slept for 4.5 hours and then another 3. Which was good, since Mom doesn't handle 90 minute intervals well. Hopefully the morning nap will be of the longer variety also...

We also have eliminated the nipple shield finally (I hope). We've only used it once in about 36 hours and that was because she was incredibly fussy. In that instance, she wasn't rejecting naked boob, she had some really stubborn gas that the magic baby hold got rid of. The timing is good though because we're supposed to fly to a wedding in a few weeks. And, while we've learned how to keep the nipple shields on hand and clean at home, traveling with them is a pain since they must be cleaned and packed away constantly. Naked boob is much much much easier. She was getting to the point where she was playing with it an awful lot. She'd blow into it and also peel it off and chew on it like a pacifier. As a matter of fact, I'll probably keep it in the diaper bag for a supervised diversion.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Little Swimmer

Yesterday, we went for our first swim class. Ellie was a little overwhelmed at first, but she got into it after I kept grinning like a fool and encouraging her. She finally took her hand out of her mouth and started reaching for the little bath toys we were supposed to toss for the kids. She even swallowed some water at one point and coughed it out like a trooper.

Before getting wet.

Toward the end of class. We LURVE Gator!!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

6 Month Appointment

Yesterday was Ellie's 6 month appointment. She got the full complement of vaccines and was not happy about that, but she bounced back to her happy self pretty quickly. The doctor's appointment was unusually prompt. We only had to wait to be called back about 20 minutes. Then, the doctor came in almost as soon as the nurse left. They are implementing a new system. Instead of patient folders, they are inputting info via laptops now. So, I had to answer a lot of goofy questions like, "do you live in a house built before 1958?" "How long and often does she nurse?" "Does she sit yet?" Etc.... Her stats are fairly consistent. She weighed 13 pounds, 9 ounces, which was consistently less than my guess of 14-15 pounds. She's in the 10th percentile for weight, but 57th percentile for height with an impressive 26 inches. Dr. L showed me her growth curve on the computer, and he's happy with it, so I'm going to try not to obsess over her weight. She seems happy and healthy and eats as much as she wants most of the time.

I asked Dr. L about the Baby-Led Weaning approach and he gave me the standard answer about starting with cereal and stage 1 purees and waiting 3 days between new foods. No nuts, no cow milk, no honey, etc.... I'm a little disheartened that he didn't want to discuss it really. I'll probably still offer her some real food when we get to that stage. However, I'll take a CPR class first. Just in case. He spent a lot of time entering stuff into the computer and not much actually looking at us. Ellie started babbling, screaching, and generally being conversational. He commented on what a happy child she seemed to be and that we were doing a good job. I mentioned that she sleeps on her stomach now most of the time and that she only rolls to the left. Neither seemed to concern him.

Over the weekend, Ellie was sleeping 8-8.5 hours at a stretch. Last night, she broke that streak with a series of wake-ups at 1-hour intervals 3 times. Luckily, I had gone to bed at 8:30, so it didn't kill me quite like it would have. Still, 5 am came way too soon. She did sleep an hour for her first nap. And, she snuck in a half hour at the Y. But, she shortchanged her afternoon nap with just 90 minutes. So, bedtime was early tonight and we started the sleep clock at 6:30. Cross your fingers.
Nice to meet you Mr. Pete. I like your haircut!