is the best!!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Vent: my baby is sick.
My baby is sick and I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I hate everything about her being sick right now. I hate that her ear infection, albeit very mild, was discovered at her 6 month check up and neither one of us had any idea. I hate that for the past 5 days Olivia has had a fever on and off. I hate that I cannot be with her today comforting her while she isn't feeling 100%. I hate that the medicine that we have been giving her hasn't seemed to be helping. I hate that we took her back to the doctor on Saturday, and it still didn't make her feel better, or answer the question of why she is still sick. I hate seeing the droopy eyes that my baby has when the fever gets a little bit higher. I hate that we don't know what it is that is causing the fever. Teething? Ear Infection? Something else? I hate that I "had" to give her Tylenol for the first time last night. (More on that another day, maybe, maybe not.) I hate that she goes in and out of having energy and wanting to play to just wanting to put her head on my shoulder out of tiredness. I hate that I hate that she is sick even though I know very well that babies do get sick. But, truthfully, most of all I hate not being able to be there today to comfort her.
I can also go on about the ways that we are blessed. We have be lucky enough to go 6 months before we have seen a fever in our baby. I am extremely lucky to have a great parenting partner who has been there every step of the way for our little girls sicky time. Except from about 1am to 5am last night when it was all me. This was only fair because I was sick as a dog on Friday night and Dave had to take over 100% of the parenting responsibilities, minus the nursing. We are fortunate that Gammie has been available and willing to watch our sick little one 2 of the 3 work days that we have needed her to. We are also fortunate because although she is clearly sick, we have been able to comfort her and keep her a comfortable as we can. We have also been blessed because we have still seen our happy baby on and off for the past 5 days, it has not been all misery. We keep getting glimpses of our happy and energetic Olivia, and hope and wish that it has passed.
However, it hasn't yet. This sickness is still around. I'm praying that it goes away soon. I will be able to stay home with Olivia tomorrow if she still is not better. I will also be able to take her back to the doctor in hopes that we can come up with some answers as to why she isn't better yet.
I can also go on about the ways that we are blessed. We have be lucky enough to go 6 months before we have seen a fever in our baby. I am extremely lucky to have a great parenting partner who has been there every step of the way for our little girls sicky time. Except from about 1am to 5am last night when it was all me. This was only fair because I was sick as a dog on Friday night and Dave had to take over 100% of the parenting responsibilities, minus the nursing. We are fortunate that Gammie has been available and willing to watch our sick little one 2 of the 3 work days that we have needed her to. We are also fortunate because although she is clearly sick, we have been able to comfort her and keep her a comfortable as we can. We have also been blessed because we have still seen our happy baby on and off for the past 5 days, it has not been all misery. We keep getting glimpses of our happy and energetic Olivia, and hope and wish that it has passed.
However, it hasn't yet. This sickness is still around. I'm praying that it goes away soon. I will be able to stay home with Olivia tomorrow if she still is not better. I will also be able to take her back to the doctor in hopes that we can come up with some answers as to why she isn't better yet.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Fastest Six Months of Our Lives
Olivia is half of a year old! I cannot believe that she is six months old already. I'm beginning to understand how my mom felt when she used to squeeze us extra tight each birthday and begged us not to grow up.
Developmentally, Olivia seems to be doing well. She is sitting up completely unassisted. She will occasionally tumble over, but more and more it's becoming intentional. Olivia has started scooting and is quickly gaining speed at this new skill. She is also able to get up on all fours and will rock back and forth a little bit before she collapse back to her tummy.
Olivia is always busy! Gammie says that Olivia has two speeds, very awake and asleep. She is in constant motion when she is awake. She loves toys and has a couple of favorites already. We have a couple of packs of "busy balls" and she loves to scoot after them. She is becoming really good at transferring the ball from one hand to another.
Last weekend we introduced a couple of foods to Olivia. She was offered avocado and bananas. The jury is still out on whether she liked these two new flavors or not. From the looks of her face when she tasted them you would of thought we had given her something horrible, but she continued to keep bringing them to her mouth for more tasting. So who knows. We are attempting the Baby Led Weaning approach to food introduction, but may have to modify it as we see fit.
We are still anticipating the teething stage, but so far, no signs of any teeth.
The other day I absentmindedly took something away from Olivia when I went to pick her up and she got visually upset. That was definitely a first, and although it was adorable at the time, it was also quite scary. Sort of a little look into the future and what a mild tantrum may eventually look like. Although, I immediately gave her back whatever she was playing with, it was interesting to see her make that conscious effort to express that she was upset. Like I said, ubberly cute now, but I would imagine it loses its cuteness in the future.
Olivia had her 6 month check-up today and currently weighs 14 pounds and 11 ounces, and is 24.25 inches long. Everything seemed to check out well and the doctor said that Olivia looked great. We love our pediatrician, but we do not exactly see eye to eye on the introductions of food. She is very persistent on starting with rice cereal, then purees, the food, etc. She also said that soon Olivia should be on 3 meals a day. I just smile and say, yes. I know she is a doctor and all and I do not disagree with her at all when it comes to medical matters. I feel like how we feed Olivia should be left up to mommy and daddy.
That being said Dr. P discovered the beginning of an ear infection in Olivia's right ear. My poor baby! Olivia showed no signs that her ear was bothering her, but I still felt pretty terrible when I heard this. Dr. P prescribed a 5 day dose of azithromycin which we began last night. Dave was pretty traumatized having to administer the antibiotics to Olivia. Who knew that it would be that hard?! The medicine was cherry flavored! And I give Olivia vitamin D drops and that is no where near as difficult as it was to give her the antibiotics. Olivia was thrashing, and moving her head and would spit the medicine out. The meds were everywhere, on her, on me, on Dave, on her clothing and in her hair. I know we will eventually get the hang of it, but that first time was rough.
We monitored her for the next couple of hours. I used to be allergic to certain strains of penicillin when I was a baby, which is why she was prescribed the azithromycin rather than the usual amoxicillan. Olivia seemed to be doing well, but she seemed incredibly tired and fell asleep by 6:30 last night. Olivia woke up at 4a.m. with a 101.6 fever. Since then the fever has gone down, and come back up, but not reaching any higher than the 101.6 degrees it was at first. Hopefully the medicine will do its job over the next couple of days and we kill this infection. Today I am home with my baby, who is currently napping on me in the Ergo, and Gammie will watch Olivia for us tomorrow. Thank God for grandmothers!!!
Six months old also means six months of breastfeeding for this mommy. When I first got pregnant, this was my original breastfeeding goal. We made it. Hopefully we can continue to go just as strong for another six months.
Developmentally, Olivia seems to be doing well. She is sitting up completely unassisted. She will occasionally tumble over, but more and more it's becoming intentional. Olivia has started scooting and is quickly gaining speed at this new skill. She is also able to get up on all fours and will rock back and forth a little bit before she collapse back to her tummy.
Olivia is always busy! Gammie says that Olivia has two speeds, very awake and asleep. She is in constant motion when she is awake. She loves toys and has a couple of favorites already. We have a couple of packs of "busy balls" and she loves to scoot after them. She is becoming really good at transferring the ball from one hand to another.
Last weekend we introduced a couple of foods to Olivia. She was offered avocado and bananas. The jury is still out on whether she liked these two new flavors or not. From the looks of her face when she tasted them you would of thought we had given her something horrible, but she continued to keep bringing them to her mouth for more tasting. So who knows. We are attempting the Baby Led Weaning approach to food introduction, but may have to modify it as we see fit.
We are still anticipating the teething stage, but so far, no signs of any teeth.
The other day I absentmindedly took something away from Olivia when I went to pick her up and she got visually upset. That was definitely a first, and although it was adorable at the time, it was also quite scary. Sort of a little look into the future and what a mild tantrum may eventually look like. Although, I immediately gave her back whatever she was playing with, it was interesting to see her make that conscious effort to express that she was upset. Like I said, ubberly cute now, but I would imagine it loses its cuteness in the future.
Olivia had her 6 month check-up today and currently weighs 14 pounds and 11 ounces, and is 24.25 inches long. Everything seemed to check out well and the doctor said that Olivia looked great. We love our pediatrician, but we do not exactly see eye to eye on the introductions of food. She is very persistent on starting with rice cereal, then purees, the food, etc. She also said that soon Olivia should be on 3 meals a day. I just smile and say, yes. I know she is a doctor and all and I do not disagree with her at all when it comes to medical matters. I feel like how we feed Olivia should be left up to mommy and daddy.
That being said Dr. P discovered the beginning of an ear infection in Olivia's right ear. My poor baby! Olivia showed no signs that her ear was bothering her, but I still felt pretty terrible when I heard this. Dr. P prescribed a 5 day dose of azithromycin which we began last night. Dave was pretty traumatized having to administer the antibiotics to Olivia. Who knew that it would be that hard?! The medicine was cherry flavored! And I give Olivia vitamin D drops and that is no where near as difficult as it was to give her the antibiotics. Olivia was thrashing, and moving her head and would spit the medicine out. The meds were everywhere, on her, on me, on Dave, on her clothing and in her hair. I know we will eventually get the hang of it, but that first time was rough.
We monitored her for the next couple of hours. I used to be allergic to certain strains of penicillin when I was a baby, which is why she was prescribed the azithromycin rather than the usual amoxicillan. Olivia seemed to be doing well, but she seemed incredibly tired and fell asleep by 6:30 last night. Olivia woke up at 4a.m. with a 101.6 fever. Since then the fever has gone down, and come back up, but not reaching any higher than the 101.6 degrees it was at first. Hopefully the medicine will do its job over the next couple of days and we kill this infection. Today I am home with my baby, who is currently napping on me in the Ergo, and Gammie will watch Olivia for us tomorrow. Thank God for grandmothers!!!
Picture taken yesterday morning before heading out for work.
6/8/2011 - 6 months old
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Photoshoot
Grandma Jimenez bought Olivia several new summer tank tops. The cut on these tank tops are so incredibly adorable. I love them a lot. So naturally that meant a photoshoot! I took a bunch of pictures at home this morning before work, but that still didn't seem like enough. So once we got to daycare I snapped a couple more pictures with my phone.
Memorial Day weekend rocked, and I have tons of fun pictures to share here on my blog. I will update and post them as soon as I can. We had a great time with all of the Copelands and saw the Jimenez family on Saturday, too.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
BFFs
The last time we all met up, Olivia was still in the womb. This was the first time she got to meet Aunt Jenny & Aunt Sam, and got to see her Aunt Kelly, again. We make an effort to all get together at least a couple of times a year since college, and as always, it was wonderful.
Kelly & Olivia
Jake, Jenny & Olivia
Josh, Sam & Olivia
All of us.
The ladies :)
Although we try really hard throughout the year to stay in touch and up to date in each other's lives, it's so nice to be able to catch up in person.
Monday, May 23, 2011
A Weekend of Firsts
Olivia had quite the busy weekend! First overnight camp out, first rice "cookie," and first time swimming! Oh, and I can't forget the scooting! Man, I often feel like if I blink I will miss something.
We took this video last week when we noticed that Olivia has started to use her feet to inch herself forward. She seems to be getting better at the scooting, but pretty slowly. It's so exciting to watch. She loves to try and travel around on her blanket, whether by scooting or by rolling.
(Please ignore my husband's dorky comments.)
On Friday after work we decided to load the Jeep up and grab the dog and go camping at Lake Travis. Such a great idea, and such a fun time! The spot that we love to visit is only about 20 minutes away from our house. The weather was acting slightly iffy, so if we had to pack up and go home it would not be that big of a deal. Olivia was such a good little camper! She was ready to party though, and stayed up with us until about 11p.m. She was in a good mood, so we enjoyed having her up.
Dave and the dog got up extra early for some fishing and swimming, and Olivia and I slept in until 7a.m. Not too bad for sleeping in a tent on the ground!
My Ergo rocks. I was able to actually help set up camp, and carry our baby.
My two babies.
Oh! Hey, Daddy!
Thor supervising.
Down for the night in the tent.
Saturday morning!
On Saturday, Olivia got to enjoy a little taste of food. Gammie bought her some Mum Mums, which is like a rice cake, to munch on. We figured, what the heck, let's try it out.
Olivia seemed to know what to do with the rice cake, but I don't think she quite liked the taste or the texture. They ended up being more like toys for her in the end. Messy, sticky toys.
Although it threatened to rain all week and weekend, it never rained for more than a couple of minutes. Which meant the pool water had finally gotten warm enough! We were able to take Olivia for her first dip on Sunday. We didn't stay at the pool too long because the sun felt so strong, but we did have a good time. I'm looking forward to lots of pool time this year!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
I donate.
I feel like I may be writing about breast milk and breastfeeding a lot these days, maybe even too much. However, for the past 5 months and 10 days I have been nursing my daughter and/or pumping (ie feeding my robot baby) approximately every 2-3 awake hours, and at least a couple of times a night still. So to say that breast milk is a large part of my life right now would be the world's biggest understatement.
Any working and breastfeeding mom knows how intense this whole process can be. When we aren't with our little ones and allowed to simply breastfeed, we must pump, and clean pump parts, and clean bottles, and properly store and transport milk, measuring out and sending the right amounts to school, etc., etc. I am not by any means patting myself on the back. This is a choice I have made and continue to stick with because I'm so confident in the benefits of breastfeeding and I very much enjoy our nursing relationship. There are just some days if feels like a lot of work. Every Monday I start counting down to the weekend by how many pumping sessions I have left until Friday where I can just be, and just breastfeed my daughter. No pump, no parts, and no bottles. Freedom.
I began pumping and storing breast milk while I was on maternity leave at the recommendation of several other working and breastfeeding moms. The strategy is to provide yourself a nice little "freezer stash" for once you return to work and on days you are not able to pump enough to meet your baby's needs, you will have some breast milk to thaw out and send to school. I started pumping about 1-2 times aday in addition to breastfeeding at about 4 weeks postpartum, I felt pretty comfortable with my little stash when I returned to work after 7 weeks.
I have been incredibly blessed by only having to dip into my freezer stash once, ever. I also pump about 20-30 ounces extra from what I need to send to daycare a week. Additionally, Olivia reversed-cycled for the first 4 weeks she was at daycare, meaning she would eat VERY little during the school day and compensate for it the minute we got home and throughout the night. Lucky me, right?
It was actually a blessing at the time. I missed her so much when I first returned to work and was incredibly flattered by her preference of me versus the bottle. I also loved the time we got to spend together in the evening and night, even when it meant very little sleep. Thankfully the reverse-cycling eventually ended, but it meant that I had a huge surplus of expressed breast milk that I had continued to store and freeze. Our freezer was full. I had over 250 ounces that I did not know what to do with, and it killed me to think that I may have to throw it away.
My mother in law suggested that I try and contact La Leche League to donate some of my expressed breast milk. I looked into the LLL as well as the Austin Area Milk Bank about making donations. Both organizations required a large initial donation as well as an extensive screening process. The thought of all of that stressed me out, and with the return to work and very little sleep, I didn't feel like I could go through that process. I also had a strange feeling about donating my milk to an organization where a mom would have to pay for the milk, either out of her own pocket or through her health insurance company. I know a lot of the money goes towards the screening and pasteurization of the milk, but I still didn't like the thought of that.
I came across a group on Facebook (Human Milk for Human Babies & Eats On Feets) that helps link together moms that have extra frozen expressed breast milk with those that need it for their babies for a ton of different reasons. The idea seemed so strange and foreign to me at first. Like, someone else was seriously going to feed her baby my breast milk?! Whyyyyyy??? But then I realized that these mommas are doing whatever they can to provide their baby with breast milk when for whatever reasons their own bodies would not allow for it.
Well, I got in contact with a nearby mom awhile ago and I was able to meet her and give her about 200 ounces from my frozen stash. It felt so good! Since then my stash has continued to grow and I am ready to make another smaller donation to this same mom and baby once we are able to coordinate our crazy schedules. I love being able to help out another mom, even if it is just ever so slightly. It also makes me feel like all of this pumping and cleaning and storing is not only for my own baby, but I'm also helping another baby. I guess that's when my true social worker type heart comes out.
I don't want to get too deep about all of this because I know it's not like I'm out there helping to cure cancer or anything, but I did want to put this out there. If, for whatever reason, anyone ever needs this type of information.
Any working and breastfeeding mom knows how intense this whole process can be. When we aren't with our little ones and allowed to simply breastfeed, we must pump, and clean pump parts, and clean bottles, and properly store and transport milk, measuring out and sending the right amounts to school, etc., etc. I am not by any means patting myself on the back. This is a choice I have made and continue to stick with because I'm so confident in the benefits of breastfeeding and I very much enjoy our nursing relationship. There are just some days if feels like a lot of work. Every Monday I start counting down to the weekend by how many pumping sessions I have left until Friday where I can just be, and just breastfeed my daughter. No pump, no parts, and no bottles. Freedom.
I began pumping and storing breast milk while I was on maternity leave at the recommendation of several other working and breastfeeding moms. The strategy is to provide yourself a nice little "freezer stash" for once you return to work and on days you are not able to pump enough to meet your baby's needs, you will have some breast milk to thaw out and send to school. I started pumping about 1-2 times aday in addition to breastfeeding at about 4 weeks postpartum, I felt pretty comfortable with my little stash when I returned to work after 7 weeks.
I have been incredibly blessed by only having to dip into my freezer stash once, ever. I also pump about 20-30 ounces extra from what I need to send to daycare a week. Additionally, Olivia reversed-cycled for the first 4 weeks she was at daycare, meaning she would eat VERY little during the school day and compensate for it the minute we got home and throughout the night. Lucky me, right?
It was actually a blessing at the time. I missed her so much when I first returned to work and was incredibly flattered by her preference of me versus the bottle. I also loved the time we got to spend together in the evening and night, even when it meant very little sleep. Thankfully the reverse-cycling eventually ended, but it meant that I had a huge surplus of expressed breast milk that I had continued to store and freeze. Our freezer was full. I had over 250 ounces that I did not know what to do with, and it killed me to think that I may have to throw it away.
My mother in law suggested that I try and contact La Leche League to donate some of my expressed breast milk. I looked into the LLL as well as the Austin Area Milk Bank about making donations. Both organizations required a large initial donation as well as an extensive screening process. The thought of all of that stressed me out, and with the return to work and very little sleep, I didn't feel like I could go through that process. I also had a strange feeling about donating my milk to an organization where a mom would have to pay for the milk, either out of her own pocket or through her health insurance company. I know a lot of the money goes towards the screening and pasteurization of the milk, but I still didn't like the thought of that.
I came across a group on Facebook (Human Milk for Human Babies & Eats On Feets) that helps link together moms that have extra frozen expressed breast milk with those that need it for their babies for a ton of different reasons. The idea seemed so strange and foreign to me at first. Like, someone else was seriously going to feed her baby my breast milk?! Whyyyyyy??? But then I realized that these mommas are doing whatever they can to provide their baby with breast milk when for whatever reasons their own bodies would not allow for it.
Well, I got in contact with a nearby mom awhile ago and I was able to meet her and give her about 200 ounces from my frozen stash. It felt so good! Since then my stash has continued to grow and I am ready to make another smaller donation to this same mom and baby once we are able to coordinate our crazy schedules. I love being able to help out another mom, even if it is just ever so slightly. It also makes me feel like all of this pumping and cleaning and storing is not only for my own baby, but I'm also helping another baby. I guess that's when my true social worker type heart comes out.
I don't want to get too deep about all of this because I know it's not like I'm out there helping to cure cancer or anything, but I did want to put this out there. If, for whatever reason, anyone ever needs this type of information.
Additionally, I ran all of this by Olivia first, she approved and was just as excited.
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