The art of taking a temperature

This truly is an art that we have not quite mastered. Well, Deb has mastered it well enough to get a temperature on Addison but only after multiple attemps. Let's just say she's a little bit of squirmer, Addison I mean. She had a very rough 1st Thanksgiving at her Grandma Di and Papi Bob's house. She was just a bit out of sorts, cranky, screaming and just not feeling well. The only way she would eat is if she was laying flat on her back in the pack and play. Needless to say, we were very thankful to head home and put her to bed for a few hours. When she awoke, she was ready to eat again, normally this time, and midway she left go of a bit of a rumble in her britches. Upon investigation, I found that she had sent poo flying up her back to her shoulder blades. Saturating her onesie and cute little, Baby's 1st Thanksgiving shirt. Into the bath for a 2nd time that day, I forgot to mention that before going to my parents for lunch, she peed all over herself in the middle of a diaper change and this too went up her back. I told you it was a rough day!

With the 2nd bath complete, she settled in for the night still very fussy and out of sorts. We spent the evening make 180 sugar cookies, minus the ones we ate, in preparation for our annual Sledding & Spirits party on December 15th. Our friends Kelly & Teena came over to help which was a blast and Kelly had her first chance to give Addison a bottle and change her diaper. She'll be watching her on Friday the 5th because grandma Di has to go to a workshop for work and we thought we'd give Kelly a little test of her baby watching skills. She did well with the bottle and the only drawback to the diaper change was that she didn't move quick enough when swapping the dirty diaper out for the clean one which resulted in Addison once again peeing all over herself and the changing pad. Not to worry though, a 3rd change of clothes and she was whisked off to bed where she slept for about 4 hours (in a row!!).

So, back to the art of taking a temperature...........this morning, Addison still seemed fussy and warm so we decided it was time to take her temp. Deb prepped the thermometer with vasoline and I busied myself up by her head trying to entertain her. Deb inserted the thermometer and had it in for about 4 seconds before Addison scrunched up her face and 100% blew poop out her bum. Luckily Deb had somewhat propped her diaper up which prevented it from flying onto the changing table. Deb then went to wash of the thermometer while I began to clean her up and prepared to put a new diaper on her when the rumble came again and this time it went all over the changing table, onto my hand and arm and onto the rocking chair. Disgusting!! I then got a clean diaper on her, cleaned up myself and the area around her and we attempted another go at getting her temp........3 tries later and 3 more poop filled diapers, Addison was safe at 98.8 degrees. The positive aspect of this experience aside from her being fever free is that she hadn't pooped since 10pm the night before and had spent a great deal of time grunting so we're certain she felt much better. The thermometer in itself proved to be a wonderful tool if one is ever trying to help their child out of constipated situation.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Cheers,
Mic, Deb and Addison

Work is for the birds

Addison has decided, and I fully support her, that having her mommies go to work every day is for the birds. She thinks it's quite unfair that she only gets to spend about 4-5 of her awake hours a day with them. She is suggesting that they start a collection to support Mama Mic not having to work so she can stay home and snuggle with her. Her Momma D has to work because she makes the big bucks and will be starting her doctoral degree in the spring.


As you can see, we are all bummed about me having to return to work. I've only cried twice (in the 2 days I've been back) and both times were on the way to work. I was brilliant enough to park in a lot far away from my building so by the time I got into my office, the tears would be dried up and my face would just look red from the chilly weather outside. Work itself is great, it's nice to get back into the swing of things and get caught up. It's the 8 hours of being away from the little peanut and always wondering what she's doing that makes me bonkers. I've held myself off from making phone calls to check in, with that said though i've certainly picked up the phone multiple times and then reminded myself that she's just fine and Kasey would call if she needed something.


Speaking of Kasey, we are so fortunate to have her come to our house on Mon-Wed to take care of Addison. She is my godchild and has a little guy, Carter who is 7 months old. Addie will get to hang out with her Grandma Di on Thurs and Fri each week also. Thankfully, she doesn't have to go to a real daycare until January 26th and that will only be on Mon-Wed because she'll spend her Thursday & Fridays with Grandma Di.

Back to Kasey and Carter, apparently Carter likes to pet her feet and tummy when Kasey puts Addison in her papasan chair and plays with Carter on the floor. Their days are spent watching Baby Einstein dvds and juggling 2 babies eating and sleeping schedules. Not sure how Kasey does it but each day when we come home Addie is very relaxed and usually sleeping.


Aside from above, Addison has had a few new adventures:

• She spent her first day in the company of the Koeppel Family. She had an absolute blast with Barbara and Tom (Maria's parents) while her mommies went to the Iowa/Purdue game with their friends Maria and Britney. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to be held all day long and snuggled. She wasn't sure about their 4 legged friend Joey but she thinks that she'll certainly try to make another stop by the Koeppel's and is excited to wear her Iowa Hawkeyes bib that they gave her.


• She decided to up the amount she was eating and is now eating between 4-5 ounces which makes her mommies so proud.


• She had her first blow out diaper for Momma D. She felt a thousand times better but this was less enjoyable for Momma D because she had to clean off the changing table, all of the stuff on the changing table, and the floor and rocking chair next to the changing table in addition to stripping Addison down and redressing her with poop free clothes. Mama Mic was at a night meeting for work so she missed the whole thing and is just fine with that.


• She had her 2 month pictures taken. This experience was much more favorable than the first time and she had her picture taken with her new elephant that Grandma Di made her. She thinks Grandma Di is pretty darn crafty and should sell the animals she's made so other kids can enjoy them.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

Last few adventures of maternity leave

Addison made her first trip to Iowa City to visit her Uncle Ben last week. She was very pleased with the outcome of this trip because she ended up with a few cute outfits from Von Maur, courtesy of Grandma Di, got to see Uncle Ben even though she doesn't understand why he doesn't like to hold her, got to hang out with great-grandma Pat (aka: Big G) and got lots of kudos from Mama Mic for taking a bottle from Grandma Di. She's officially shopped in Madison, Wi, Davenport, IA, Iowa City, IA and Galena, IL. She's looking forward to Thursdays and Fridays with Grandma Di where there's certain to be more shopping adventures.

We've winterized her car seat with a little bundling thing to keep her warm considering the temps have certainly dropped. She loves her new hat, maybe love is a strong word but she only screams while you're putting it on her and then she snuggles into it. Who wouldn't love being snuggled into a warm fleece blanket and having someone carry you around??!!! Babies sure live the life!

I'm preparing to go back to work this week. I'm starting with 1/2 days on Thursday and Friday and then will go full time on Monday. I had truly convinced myself that it wouldn't bother me to go back to work and that seemed to shatter this week when I realized how much of my time I'll spend at work and not at home with my peanut. It's going to be a bit tough but I'm sure i'll get through it as a result of the laughter and sarcasm I'll endure in the office from having to pump during the day. Thank heavens for comedy in our lives.

Addison is doing much, much better with eating these days. She's realized that in order to not be hungry she'll need to accept a bottle during the day. We can't quite convince our sitter our my mom to strap the bottle on to their chest to make it seem more real so she'll just have to learn to love the bottle. She's also doing really well with the terrible tasting Nutramigen. I think she secretly likes it! She screams less overall as a result of her tummy so we think we're heading in the right direction. I personally live for the day when I can eat Happy Joe's pizza again but it's worth it to abstain from dairy now in order for her to get all the good stuff she needs. Sleep on the other hand is still a battle. We've started a new routine at 7pm: I feed her if it's time for her to eat, we give her a bath if it's bath day (if not, she gets her head and bum wiped with a warm wash cloth and calming cream on her arms and legs), we read her a book and then we say goodnight and lay her down in the pack and play. She hasn't moved to her crib yet, i'm just not ready!! We promised each other that at 3 months she would start sleeping in her crib and out of our room. This seems to work for 20-30 minutes tops and she sleeps but then she is up and she is mad. It then typically take anywhere from 2-3 hours to get her to go down and stay down. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We take turns soothing and putting her back down after she's cried for about 5-7 minutes but it just doesn't seem to work. If anyone out there has suggestions, send them please!! When she does officially fall asleep, she'll sleep for 4-5 hours before waking up to eat. We do this routine every night and cross our fingers that one of these days, it's going to click with her and she'll just zonk out when we put her down. She has little bags under her eyes at night and we know she's too young for eye creme!!! A positive lately though is that she has started sleeping during the day. A few hours at a time!!! It's fantastic!!! She's so much happier when she wakes up and I'm so much happier because I've rested too.

Well, that's about all that's new on Perry Street. We're hoping to get pictures taken on Friday since she'll be 8 weeks old and has grown so much since the last time we had them done at 8 days. She also goes to the Dr. on thursday for her shots and well-child check up. I'm certain I will cry more than she does!! She's growing up so fast!!!!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

12 hours of crying

Well, we surived (barely) an entire day of crying. Yesterday, Addison decided that she would scream all day long, only taking short breaks to fill her britches with runny poop and refuse to eat. For a new mom, this was a totally stressful day and I was a bit of a wreck when Deb got home. It started at 6am continuing to 6pm and she ate 2 ounces of formula, nursed twice for 5 minutes each time, screaming all along. She's got it in her to be a bit of a colicy baby but this seemed a bit extreme as the hours passed by. I finally called the Dr's office realizing it really wasn't going to stop and they told us to give her pedialyte throughout the evening and made an appointment for right away the next morning. Deb convinced her to take 3 syrings of pedialyte and she took a small cat nap for about 20 minutes and then fussed again. About 2 hours later she truly seemed hungry with her little hands balling into fists and gravitating towards her mouth. She kept spitting her pacifier out and so we made an executive decision to try and nurse her instead of pedialyte. Miraculously, she nursed. She then slept from 9pm-1:30 am, nursed again, slept from 2am-5:30am, nursed again and woke up at 8am to go to the Dr. Did I mention before that she only slept 2 hours during the course of the 12 hour scream off?

So, we went to the Dr. and he came to the conclusion that she just has a bum tummy. He gave us a sample of Nutramigen which is a pricey formula that is supposed to do the trick. Apparently it tastes terrible, we'll take his word on that one, but is easily digestible and helps with the colic. She also will be taking Zantac twice a day to help with what he thinks is a bit of reflux. The positive part of our Dr's appt is that she weighs 10 pounds!!!! He was very pleased with her weight gain and it made us feel so much better that despite the terrible fussiness and refusal to eat (only 1 day), she's still gaining weight (aka we're doing something right!). We got home from the Dr. and Deb gave her a 4 ounce bottle of Nutramigen which she fussed a bit at first and made funny faces but ended up drinking 3 1/2 ounces of it. YAY!!! We were so proud! I can't give her bottles because she refuses to take them from me. Who would have thought a 6 week and 5 day old baby could make a decision not to take a bottle from her mom who usually nurses her because she's mad that I'm offering her the fake stuff?!!! Is this a sign of stubborness already??

As I type this,the little peanut is sleeping on the bed next to me after 6 attempts to put her in her bassinette. She's now been sleeping for and hour and a half so I guess she won this time!! We are looking forward to the days when her tummy is better and she learns that sleeping during the day is a good thing too. We can't complain too much because she does sleep for hour spances at night! :-)

Cheers,
Mic, Deb and Addison