5 Months!

Well Isla is officially five months old now, and as I say every month, wow that went by fast. I feel like I blinked and month four was over.

We've become much more familiar with the daily routine this month with bedtime, mornings, and daycare. She has consistently been going to bed between 7:30-8:00, and usually puts herself to sleep no problem. There have been nights that she has slept all the way through, but for the most part she is up 1-2 times during the night still. It's not even a big deal to me anymore, I just get up for about ten minutes and then we both go right back to sleep.

Mornings and bed time are my favorite (if I had to pick) moments with Isla. It never grows old. Seeing her peaceful face falling asleep or her smiling face in the morning just makes me so unbelievably thankful for such a wonderful gift of being a mom. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with sadness thinking about the babies out there that aren't held and cuddled and loved. Babies are just the best thing ever and they should all be cherished.

Some milestones this month are:
Compete rolls
Playing with toys - her fine motor skills are developing rapidly
She now screams in a cute good way and also in angry ways when she wants attention
She "talks" all the time and especially when she wakes up in the morning- we often hear her just talking over the monitor
Her hair is continuing to fall out
She is laughing a lot
She's still trying to sit up but I think it will be awhile before she does it on her own
She loves to be sang to
She had her first stuffy nose :(

Some of Isla's baby friends :)

Something must be interesting...

Isla's friend Jeff

Fun with daddy <3

Watch me roll off my mat!

I can reach my toys now!

Looking alot like my cousin Nicholas in this one :)

Isla is still eating milk and oatmeal. I tried giving it to her on a spoon but it just came right out of her mouth. I've read conflicting things about when to introduce solids and what kind of solids to introduce. This month we will stick with the milk and oatmeal but at six months we might try something else. I'd love to hear what and when other moms introduced solids.

Well, that's all folks! See you all next month :)

4 Months

Isla is 4 months old, 13.05lbs and 25 inches long!

This has been a month of transitions. I went back to workJanuary 7^th. Really, I started my fieldwork (working full time forfree – well really getting paid with knowledge – cheesy I know). I alreadywrote in my last post about what a week that was. Isla has since been onPrevacid (the liquid form which is $35 a month rather than the tablets at $65 amonth) and we’ve seen improvements. One of the other transitions is that Islais now sleeping in her own room! Literally the night I started fieldwork shestopped sleeping for longer periods at night and started waking up every 1.5-2hours. I was getting about 45 minutes of sleep at a time because I couldn’tsleep with her fussing next to me. We also suspect that Isla is now teething….veryred cheeks, sucking like crazy on her fingers, drooling, and more fussy thanusual. Going to fieldwork where I was new to the place, the people, beingchallenged with new tasks and information and being expected to perform at acertain OT level was tough on virtually no sleep for three and a half weeksstraight. Thank goodness I had my mother in law staying with us for the firstthree weeks! Isla has been in daycare the last two weeks and its going well.They absolutely adore her which makes me and Alex happy. Isla likes them tooand is always smiling when we drop her off and pick her up.

We’ve come a long way since the beginning of January. Thatfirst week all I could do was work all day, come home take care of Isla, andcry. Now I work all day come home and make dinner, do the dishes/laundry, giveIsla a bath, pump (milk management is what I termed all that has to do withpumping and man does it take up a considerable amount of time), put her to bed,and try to get ready for the next day – all without crying :) And all with Alex’shelp of course. Isla is also back to sleeping for longer periods of time. Shetypically goes to bed at 8pm and will be up about twice before 5am. Much muchbetter than before!

I couldn’t have made it through this past month without mymother in law. She was amazing taking care of Isla every day. I know Islamisses her like crazy. She also spoiled the heck out of us with her help, time,gifts, and love. I wish she could move in with us for the next couple of months :) Thank you Annette,your time with us meant the world to me and to Isla and Alex too. <3

This has been a big month for change in Isla’s development. Shehas been so happy and will just stare into our eyes when we are smiling at her.I know she can feel our love and that she loves us too. There are some thingsthat don’t need words to be communicated and the love between parents and a babythis age is one of them. (The pictures were edited by Annette, thank you :))

Some of her new tricks are:

Taking a toy ball(with holes for her fingers) when I give it to her

Sits up in herbumbo chair

Laughsoccasionally – has huge open mouth smiles all the time

Shecan almost roll from her tummy to back

Shetracks people and objects from a distance

Sheloves to watch TV – not kidding, especially MSU basketball :)

Splasheswith a purpose in the bathtub

Herhair is falling out like crazy (and mine)

Blowsbubbles with her mouth

Ismaking all kinds of new “talking” sounds

Shecan get the wubanub type of binkys in her mouth on her own – just notconsistently

Gotta love those baby slippers!

Just Chillin

This is why we now have to strap her in :)

So Innocent

NO MORE PICTURES...please

Breastfeeding as a working mom: not as easy as Ianticipated. First of all it was awkward to have my big pumping bag with me thefirst day and to have to find a place to store it. Then there were a few timeswhere I was pumping in a room and I heard people with keys outside the door. Iyelled not to come in but they were just “testing the lock” not actuallyopening the door. Enough to stress me out. Then my supply was going down. I wasall stressed that I wouldn’t be able to meet my goal of using only breast milkfor the first six months. Really my first goal is 6 months, second goal is thissummer, and final goal is 1 year. I don’t plan on breastfeeding past one year.Anyways, what I found to work is pumping every chance I get at home. I pumpbefore work (after feeding her in the morning), twice at work, when I get home,and then again after every time I feed her at home (just not in the middle ofthe night). Doing this has increased my supply and I’m able to pump enough for herto get through the next day at daycare. It takes up so much time, but I wouldn’tdo it if I wasn’t passionate about it. There are two reasons I’m dedicated tobreastfeeding: 1) it’s free 2) I believe in its magic. In other words, thehealth benefits it has for baby. Like everything else this past month, once theroutine was established, it has become more normal and it’s not so stressfulanymore. I know I’ll make it to at least 6 months :)

Acid Reflux.....sucks!

So my first week back to 'work' was one of the worst of my life. I like where I'm at for fieldwork and the people are great. I know I'm in the right career, that's for sure. It was just a difficult week in every other aspect of my life. Obviously it was hard to leave Isla. I cried harder than I have in a long time about 3 times that week because it just breaks my heart to be away from her. I just worry that she is going to feel abandoned :(  But, she is having a great time with her nana and I think everyday, when my mother in law sends me a picture of her smiling, it makes me feel better.

However, in addition to that her acid reflux has been acting up. As I've posted before she choked and lost her breath because of the reflux a few times in the past. This past week it has happened 11 times! Most of the time it happened at night when I was home, but it still happened a few times during the day with my mother in law. You can tell something is wrong by looking at her and all of  a sudden she is turning red, there is obvious fear in her eyes, and she is trying really hard to breathe and can't. It lasts about 5-9 seconds and then she coughs or cries real hard and can breathe again. It scares her and us so bad. She's also been crying while eating and/or kicking her legs like shes frustrated. She's been having mucusey spit up and is constantly gurgly. So we took her into the Dr.  today to see what is going on.

There wasn't much new news that the Dr. shared with us. He didn't even seem that concerned. He said what we've already heard which is that it is common and that there isn't much that can be done except wait for her to outgrow it. He said it might take until she is 8 months old before it gets better. He did suggest putting a teaspoon of rice cereal in her bottle and he changed her medication. She was on .5ml of Zantac 2x a day and he changed it to Prevacid solutabs. So....we went to CVS to get the Rx and it was $60! And that's with insurance otherwise it was $119. I thought that there must be a mistake so I didn't get it.

I got home today and have been reading everything I can online about Zantac vs. Prevacid because I don't want to pay that much money and have the medication not work. (It seems that everything is trial and error with acid reflux meds). From what I've read on forums, Prevacid solutabs work better for babies because Zantac is not for long term and is weight sensitive. It also seems that rice cereal should help. Although, Isla is exclusively fed breastmilk, so during the day is fine, but I don't want to quit nursing her altogether. Hopefully rice cereal in her bottles during the day will be enough to help. We already keep her upright after eating, she sleeps in the rock and play, she only eats from one side at a time, I've stopped eating dairy and tomatoes, and we make sure she burps.

I am thankful that Isla is such a happy girl besides the reflux. She does fuss and cry more than other babies I'm sure, but we haven't had to deal with colic. I just don't know if I should pay the $60 to try the Preavacid or call the Dr. and ask for something else. Its so hard to be able to tell if a medication is going to work and its going to be a monthly cost.

If anyone knows about the medications and has any suggestions let me know!

3 Months

 

Three months have gone by and the wonderment (yes that is a word whether its in the dictionary or not) of being a mom has not passed. In fact, it grows everyday. People told me that having kids is amazing and that being a mom would be the best job I would ever have. I found myself saying the same things to a woman at a hair salon that was 6 months pregnant. I saw a baby in the store the other day that was 6 days old that I had to stop and stare at. If anything, being a mom makes me appreciate babies and kids and the whole experience even more. I wanted a baby so bad for so long and I don't know if that's why I feel the way I do but it still brings tears to my eyes when I look at my baby girl asleep in my arms. God has been so good to me.

This month has been different than the first two. Isla is starting to become her own little person. She does more than "eat, sleep, and poop". She is starting to play. She loves her little gym mat and staring at the "other" baby in the mirror. She bats at the animals hanging above her. And most of all, she is rolling over. She first rolled over when she was 2 1/2 months. That whole week she rolled over at least once a day and fought to do it. By the end of that week she was rolling over like a pro. Now I am hardly able to keep her on her back. I set her down, she rolls over, gets stuck and fusses til I roll her on her back again. But then she just rolls on her tummy and tries to roll back herself again. She is determined and I'm sure she'll be doing complete rolls around our living room before the end of January.





She also loves her swing and staring at the lights and the bears/stars as they rotate above. It is so fun for me to watch her track them and smile up at them. It reminds me just how innocent she is. She also likes to sit on my lap and stand up. She just needs me to keep her balanced and from falling over, but its her muscles propelling her up. I think we are going to be in trouble with how much she wants to move.

Monday, the 7th will be my first day at fieldwork. I have been so anxious and sleeping erratically all week just thinking about it. Luckily Alex's mom is here to watch Isla the first three weeks. But the inevitable is that she will start daycare. Either way, its so much time that I will have to spend away from her and its breaking my heart. I know it will become a new "normal" and I just have to get in the routine. But knowing that doesn't make it easier.

One more topic for this post: insurance and breast pumps lol! You may have seen my post on facebook. The first person told me it wasn't covered. The second person told me it was according to the new law. I went to pick up my new pump and they told me that my insurance told them it was 80/20 coverage and only after I met my $750 deductible. So I got the pump and will have to fight with insurance company again. What a debacle. It shouldn't be this hard and it just makes me think about all the other people out there that need medical equipment (not a breast pump) that have significant needs and have to fight with the insurance company for stuff that they should be getting according to their plan.