State of the Family Update

Alright, well no bump pictures (I look pregnant.) but I feel like doing a little family update.

Julia:

The diaper rash is, knock on wood, resolved for the moment. It cleared up with Desitin after our last pediatrician visit and it hasn't come back. I expect it to recur at some point down the line but for now, her skin is clear and I'm very very very happy about it. I'm even feeling confident enough about it to cautiously put my toe back in the cloth diaper pool sometime in the next few days.

She's still on one nap a day, but hasn't settled into a good rhythm yet. She does best when she catnaps in the car in the morning - too long a morning snooze and she won't take an afternoon nap, but no morning snooze and she's a weepy mess by noon. Her nighttime sleep is starting to get a little better; I'm shooting for at least a 7:30-6:30 night stretch and starting to get it more often than not.

She's still taking two bottles a day, but all milk, no formula (hooray!). No effort has been made at all to get her off of them, and I'm getting to the point where I don't really care. She will happily drink milk out of a cup when it's mixed with chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast, and she loves her drinkable yogurt, but not in the quantities she needs to to replace the bottles. Plus she likes them as part of her naptime and bedtime routine and I'm loathe to mess with that. (She's still nursing in the mornings like we have been, nothing new on that front. She loves it still and I can't give up the extra 20 minutes in the dark warm bed.)

You're not going to believe what you're about to read...

Julia is also going through a tough period right now, mentally or emotionally or something. She's clingy and whiney and needy and incredibly difficult to keep happy. It's just a phase, I know, she seems to get this way every two months or so, but it's wearing on me. Ironically, she's just fine with other people, like the special behavior gets reserved for me. I'm doing my best to keep my patience but I'm ready to have my chill, flexible, good-natured little buddy back.

Still doing lots of walking, running, and climbing, and virtually no talking. She says "Dada" pretty reliably, and she barks and growls and makes "brmm brmm" noises, but that's about it. She did pick up the sign for "please" pretty quickly when she realized that gets her what she wants a lot more effectively than screaming at me, so she's capable of communicating when it suits her. It just doesn't seem to suit her yet.

Baby #2:

She's good! I feel her moving around in there multiple times a day, and we're almost at fetal viability (24 weeks). She still doesn't have a name or a place to sleep when she gets here, but we're working on it.

Robert and I:

We're good. Compared to Julia, we don't change too much. My main complaints are tiredness and backaches, neither of which are big deals in the grand scheme of things so I'm happy.

We're debating doing a small kitchen remodel, replacing our backsplash and countertops. Not because we really really want to right now, but because we know there's no way it'll happen once we have two babies. I'm also looking into preschools for Julia for this fall, so our schedule these next few months is starting to fill up pretty quickly.

Anyways....

The weather here was beautiful today so we headed out to my favorite local park. We started out at the playground, naturally, but Julia quickly chased some doggies and we promptly ended up on the walking path. This kiddo walked at least 1/4 of a mile, maybe 1/3, just strolling along like it was no big thing and we go walking all the time. A few doggies kept her interested here and there, but mostly she acted like she was just enjoying the chance to stretch her legs. Strange. But I'm really really looking forward to springtime and the chance to get outside more often.

Adorbs, am I right?

Christmas Break...

This will probably be my last post for awhile, since we'll be off doing the holiday thing with the family. I'm guardedly looking forward to it: I'm looking forward to having R around full-time for a few days, seeing family, going to a house that's actually decorated for Christmas, and enjoying the season with my daughter. I think all my presents are wrapped and my Christmas cards sent, but.... we have a plane to catch and a house to clean and a dog to deal with and 37183102 other little things that need to get done in the next few days. (Yeah, me and everyone else, I know I know...)

I'm definitely looking forward to having R around for this upcoming flight. I fly all the time with Julia by myself, and it's generally fairly smooth going but it's exponentially easier with another person to help out a little. I'm flying back by myself since R is coming back earlier to work, but at least we finally decided to spring for another seat for J so that shouldn't be too miserable either. I was really hesitant to buy another seat since it was way more expensive than they make it sound ("substantially reduced fares for infants!") but as my lap shrunk these past few weeks, I changed my mind. No way I can do an energy-filled 14-month-old on my lap with a 23-weeks-pregnant belly.

Anyways.

We had an extraordinarily slow morning today - crummy weather and obviously wanted to avoid all shopping areas, so we stayed in all morning. Booooorrrrrinnnnnng. So J and I went to the Magic House this afternoon. It's really a local gem - a children's museum that has a whole huge section for younger children, although J likes to go wandering around with the big kids too. We spent almost three hours there. J was whipped by the end, but she had an absolute blast. She started jumping and squirming in my arms as soon as she realized where we were.

It's cool to go someplace like the Magic House, which has safe indoor play areas, on a periodic basis because I can really see how much she changes by what she's able to do each time. This time she walked in, walked right up a flight of stairs and slid down a slide, totally by herself. Me being pregnant is going to be great for her gross motor skills, because I'm all about sitting down on something nearby and letting her do her thing. (I was actually right next to her the one time she bit it on some stairs - thankfully, age-appropriate shallow soft stairs.) I'm trying to be really conscious of letting her explore her physical limits - I keep asking myself if I'd jump up to help or intervene if she were a boy, and frequently the answer is no, so I let her be.

Anyways. She had a blast, and she burnt off a lot of energy. She also did some adorable things, like hug all the dolls in the play dollhouse before flinging them to the ground, that kept me amused too. Now that she's on her new one-nap schedule and the great outdoors is crummy, I foresee a lot more afternoons at that place.

In other news, today was the first day off all formula and totally on milk! We've been putting off the transition because we were worried it was contributing to her diaper rash, but finally concluded it wasn't and we've slowly made the switch. She was NOT happy about milk at first, so this is a victory for me. :) Still have the bottles but I'm not going to mess with that until after the holidays.

And speaking of diaper rash - we went to the pediatrician yesterday morning. Of course she made me eat my bragging words of earlier - she thought the rash Julia had was no longer a yeast rash and was just a regular ol' diaper rash. So, she instructed us to stop all the yeast medication, since we had run through a full course, and to switch back to Desitin. So far, fingers crossed, her tush still looks good. I'm not even going to speculate on whether or not we've beat this thing - I'm bringing all the extra yeast medication with us over the holidays and we'll see what happens over the next week or so.

Okay, all that on Julia and nothing on New Baby? She's good. :) She kicks, mostly at night, and the Braxton-Hicks have slowed down to about 3/day since I quit doing any dog-walking. And I have gotten huge. My back hurts and I'm definitely slowing down ("ugh do I really have to stand up AGAIN?! I just sat down!") but I still feel pretty good overall. New Baby doesn't have a name yet but we might be down to two top choices.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Here's the adorable photo I have of J today. What happens when you're bored with Mama in the house all morning? You put diapers on your head, of course.

This is the most fun I've had all day so far!

Monday Update

What we were up to today:

1. It got cold! I have the cutest little fleecy poncho for Julia, which is perfect for getting her in and out of the car since I can get her buckled in underneath it. I still don't have a good cold-weather car system down yet but we definitely got our practice today!

2. We tried to go to the Magic House but it's closed on Mondays during the school year. Of course I didn't realize this so we found out when we were actually standing in the empty lobby. Poor Julia was so upset that we had to leave. I salvaged the afternoon somewhat by going to a nearby library instead, but then all she wanted to do was play on their computers instead of look at books or toys or a puppet show. Girlfriend is drawn to technology like a moth to a flame.

3. Chocolate milk seems to be a success around here lately. J drank about 4-5 ounces of chocolate milk out of a straw cup today. It might be the key to both formula- and bottle-weaning for us. Am I lazy and a bad mom for taking this shortcut? Probably, but I don't care. She gets virtually no other sweets in her diet so a little bit of chocolate syrup is okay with me. (I probably will switch to Carnation Instant Breakfast or something a little healthier if this continues to be a hit.)

4. Julia decided to start eating with a fork today. She would occasionally use a spoon if I pre-loaded it with food, but she showed almost no interest in utensils until today. And she's been watching us, because she picked it up almost immediately. She needs a little help stabbing the food with her fork but otherwise totally gets it. A lot of my baby books talk about introducing utensils earlier than this, and I'm sure we could have pushed the issue, but today was definitely a score for Laid-Back Mom Letting Her Daughter Develop At Her Own Pace!

Here are a few fork photos (cell-phone pics from lunch today):

And here's a pic of her wearing her pink sparkly Toms that my friend S got her for her birthday, just because she's adorable.

Also, I feel like a total mom having my grocery list written in crayon. Hilarious.

5. We were inspired by my dad and his dog to get a reindeer headband:

Doctor Day

We survived another doctor's visit!

Vital stats are:

• Height - 29 inches, 44%
• Weight - 19 lbs, 8 oz, 16%
• Head - 17.9 inches, 52%

We think her weight is low because she's coming off of three weeks of illness, but the doctor did point out that neither Robert nor I is "stocky," so maybe the poor thing is destined to be slender. She did well with the general check-up and her milestones are good. Her gross motor skills are great, although her verbal skills are a little behind, I think. (Although maybe I'm not giving her enough credit - I did answer the phone tonight and before I could say anything, Julia goes, "Hi Da!" Awesome and heart-melting.) I do need to probably talk to her a little more throughout the day. (I try, but you know how hard it is to talk to someone unresponsive all day? Seriously it's mind-numbing tougher than you think.)

She got four shots today, poor babe. She also needs a blood draw. The tech at the office didn't feel comfortable trying on Julia so she's sending us off to Quest. Neither Robert nor I has ever had a good experience there so I'm pretty apprehensive but I don't know what choice we have. I'm debating letting Robert handle that appointment but I don't think I can live with myself if I chicken out like that. (Update - R won't take Julia by himself because he "doesn't like Quest." (The last time he went they were running late and rude.) So it looks like it's up to Mom.)

We got a prescription cream for her diaper rash (the doctor seemed skeptical that it was a yeast rash when I mentioned it to her but when she saw it she immediately agreed - score one for Mom!). And we got the green light to start her back on milk again whenever we like, although she mentioned that some GI illnesses can cause transient lactose intolerance so it would be wisest to wait about a week first. We were told to wean her from the bottle soon, which we were working on before she got sick. I'm not too stressed about this part but I would like to do it sometime in the next few months. The pedi also said we can wait on bringing her to the dentist; it just needs to be done sometime between one and three years. We also need to do another hearing test sometime in the next few months; we're not concerned but it's something worth doing just in case. I'm all for painless medical procedures.

She was a trooper, especially since the appointment went long and late and it was well past her bottle and nap time by the time we got out of there. No recent pics but here's an older one that makes me smile.

Adventures in cloth diapering and a sick baby update

A diaper rash pretty much comes with the territory when a baby's been having as many GI issues as Julia has been. She's had a yeast diaper rash for awhile now. Like, two months awhile, not two weeks awhile. And I've been doing a pretty good job keeping up with it, but I just can't get ahead of it.

Having diaper-free time seems to be the #1 way to make her tush get better, but now that the weather isn't so great for it outside, and it's even pretty chilly inside the house, it's tough to let her run around half-naked. Plus there's the obvious "well what if she goes to the bathroom on something?!" 

So... enter cloth prefolds and wool diaper covers. I already had a bunch of prefolds since I was using them as burpcloths, and I already had some diaper pins because I was using them for decorations other things in the nursery. And after much research, the internet convinced me that wool diaper covers are completely magical and the absolute best in breathability. After I got over my initial disappointment in our local store's selection (the selection was fine, I just wanted a prettier color) (I promised myself that if we do this regularly I'll go get something adorable off of Etsy), I forked over the $30 for a wool diaper cover. 

We tried them out today. They are much softer than I expected wool would be and I'm even coming around and thinking they're kind of cute. The major disadvantage is that you need to change them more frequently than even regular cloth pocket diapers. As soon as baby pees once, it's time for a change, which can get annoying when you have a super-water-drinker like J. Another disadvantage is that the cotton prefolds underneath them are hard to get right, although that's hopefully user error and something that'll improve over time as I get better with them. 

Her tush doesn't really look any better tonight, but I'm going to try to spend some time each day with these, around the house, and see if that doesn't help out with the rash. I hear some people use them for overnight, and I can see how using a more breathable fabric for 10 hours a day could really help with keeping rash to a minimum. If this goes well, I'm going to look into wool longies (basically a diaper cover in the shape of pants so I can use them as pajama bottoms) (also super-duper cute) (also super-duper expensive).

I mean, you can't tell me that's not kind of cute.

On the GI issues front, Julia has been doing much better today. She's been eating much better, her body temp is better, and things are looking better overall. Her sleep is worse - and she's consequently still been a little cranky - since we've been back home but we'll keep working on that. If she's physically feeling better, the rest will fall into place much more easily.

I know! That's how I feel too, JJ!

I'm not sure if it was the milk, or maybe just two viruses back-to-back, but either way, I'm trying to resist going back to her normal schedule and diet RIGHT AWAY RIGHT NOW, which is freaking me out because I'm worried she's going to be taking formula from a bottle for most of her nutrition from now until when she starts first grade at this rate. But, I'm resisting my urge to freak out and planning to wait a week or two and then slowly reintroduce the foods we cut out (mostly dairy, for those interested). We'll also see what the pedi has to say on Monday about this whole thing. I'm assuming she's not going to tell me anything I don't already know but that's probably a little unfair of me.

Anyways, we're having a nice, low-key weekend. R and I got out for a solo dinner for the first time in a long long time, and it was really nice. We need to do that more often. We're starting to make our holiday plans and it's kind of exciting - Julia obviously will be way more into the holidays this year than last year, and I'm also calmer because I feel a lot more secure about handling a baby and holiday shopping, cards, etc. We're going to blink and it's going to be spring! Until then, I have many much things to do.

Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend too!

November in Texas (We're back!)

Julia and I have been in Dallas the past week. It was a mini family reunion on my mom's side. It was lovely to see family I haven't seen in awhile (my cousins have gotten so old! when/how did that happen?!) and I'm really happy that Julia got to meet several family members whom she had never met before.

And of course, since it's Texas, we swim in November.

"Yeah I love Texas."

"I'm the queen of Texas."

"You requested an audience?"

"Finally. My subjects got me a hat for my delicate eyes."

The babe has not been feeling well. We're on day 17 of some major GI disturbances (I'll leave it at that for your imagination), plus some vomiting, a low-grade fever, and a side of uncharacteristic crankiness. At first I thought it was the transition to whole milk that preceded it, but she's been on the world's blandest diet sans milk for awhile now and no improvement. I've been holding out taking her to the doctor - she seemed to be getting better when we headed to TX for a week, and we just got back last night and are headed there on Monday anyways for her 12-month check-up. But, that's pending our next dirty diaper, so we'll see.

The awesome thing is, the dr's did say we should bring in a poop sample when we go in on Monday, but to please refrigerate it before the appointment. Gross! The things you do for your sick baby...