Monday, July 19, 2010

Hand, Foot, & Mouth, oh my!

We've had quite the exciting week this week! We went to Carrollton to spend a few days with Amber and Jason. We had a great time and Emma was an angel - she slept well, and even liked Jason this time (she's always been terrified of him for some reason!). We had a really funny moment. Amber and I were at her mother's house visiting with Amber's brand new niece when Brad called. I had apparently forgotten to pack bibs and he was feeding Emma dinner. I told him to go ahead and use a dishtowel and that I would run to Walmart later to buy some bibs. This is what I saw when we got back to Amber's house! Please notice the CHIP CLIP!


Jason brought out his guitars and played for Emma. She had fun playing too!



When we got home on Thursday morning, Emma felt really warm. I took her temperature and it was 102! I immediately called the pediatrician's office and we made an appointment for right after her nap. I gave her tylenol and put her down. By the time that we got to the pediatrician's office, it was down to 99.5. However, her cheeks and arms were bright red. Dr. Hutson said that that's her body's way of ridding itself of excess heat. She was miserable. He did a quick exam and noticed one small sore in her mouth and determined that she had the coxsackie virus, commonly known as "hand, foot, and mouth disease." It's basically a really common summer virus that causes 2-5 days of a high fever and often sores in the mouth or on the hands and feet. He recommended Motrin because it has a longer half-life than tylenol. We came straight home and gave her Motrin. She was a sick little puppy.

We had a good 4 days of fever and general miserableness. She never did get any more sores (she may have had more in her mouth, but none that I could see). By the time that she was well, we had completely screwed up her sleeping schedule. I had gotten back in the habit of going in her room everytime she fussed to make sure her fever wasn't too high. Often times I would take her out of her crib, give her more Motrin, and nurse her again before putting her back down.
It took 2 days of sleep training to get her back on track, but she's as good as new now! In fact, she's recently discovered the joys of sleeping late in the morning. Yesterday, she didn't get up until 9:30! It's nice.

One bad thing may have come out of her little illness though. The "fussiness" that seemed to come with it, has turned into a screaming, yelling little monster that won't go away! Emma started arching her back and throwing herself backward whenever she would get mad, upset, or generally not get her way (picture someone being touched by a faith healer - exactly). Well, THAT started a few weeks ago. NOW she's screaming and yelling when she doesn't get her way. If we're at dinner and she wants something other than what she's been served, SCREAM. If she wants to go into a room other than the one we're in, SCREAM. You get the picture. We're working on ignoring it at the moment, but it's tough! Brad actually had to take her out of TJMaxx the other day because of it. There was nothing wrong - she just didn't feel like shopping right then. It's way too early for the terrible 2's!


This is her fake "I'm mad!" screaming. As you can see, she keeps her eyes open just enough to be able to see us and tell if it's working. If it's not, she can turn it off just as quickly. She's a mess.


We've had a pretty relaxed week, aside from all of the above. I finally got to go to Spa Sydell and use a gift certificate for a facial and manicure that Brad's parents got me for my last birthday. My 29th birthday is on Wednesday and we're planning to celebrate with Amber and Jason on Tuesday night. Emma's going to be playing with her Grandmother and Grandpop and Aunt Stacie while we all go to Carrabba's for dinner! It will be nice to be able to go out for my birthday this year. Last year I had a one month old to think about, and restaurants weren't in our vocabulary. With her little attitude these days, she won't be seeing another restaurant for quite some time either! Keep us in your prayers!

I'll leave you with one more sweet picture. This is Emma's first "lovey." My Aunt Barbara gave it to me for my baby shower and Emma has fallen in love with it! She goes to sleep each night holding it and burying her face in it - it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Kissin Cousins!

We've had a nice week or so just hanging around the house. Nothing too new or exciting to report, but it's been fun nonetheless!

Here are a few pictures of Emma and her cousin, Luke, from their visit. They were SO cute together - they really seemed to like playing together this time. When they've seen each other in the past, they've been so young that they didn't really pay each other too much attention. It was sweet to see them playing together. Luke even gives Emma some sugar! There's nothing like kissin on your cousin in front of the bear pt


Emma's now OFFICIALLY unswaddled!! PERMANENTLY! Like I mentioned previously, it was a long time in the making, but pictures like these make it all worthwhile.

It's taken her awhile to get used to her new found freedom. She's been taking shorter naps because she'd jump right up and start singing and jumping up and down. Luckily, that time has hopefully come and gone. She's now taking her usual 1.5 hour (sometimes longer) naps twice a day. She sometimes likes to lay in her crib and play with her seahorse for awhile before she falls asleep, but she eventually crashes. In fact, this morning she slept until 9:15!! I thought I was in heaven! Emma also had another big "first" this week. She had her first Chick-Fil-A kids meal! It was "Cow Appreciation Week" at Chick-Fil-A, and Emma got dressed up in all of her finest cow-inspired apparel. She even had on a cow diaper cover that you can't see in the picture. She got her meal for free. She LOVED the nuggets! I gave her some veggies rather than the fries, but she HAS had them in the past. She had been having a few days of eating nothing but crap, so I felt like it was a better move to try to sneak in something healthy with her chicken nuggets. She didn't mind ;)

Emma also took her first step this week! She isn't walking yet, but has taken a step here and there. As soon as she's a little more stable when she's standing, she's gonna be off! I'm NOT READY!!

Speaking of cow diaper covers, you all probably know by now that we cloth diaper Emma. We have since she was about 3 months old, though I now wish we had started earlier. We primarily use prefold diapers (see picture) with Thirsties diaper covers (also in picture). We've NEVER had a diaper blow-out!



This week we actually did the math. I've spent approximately $600 total on cloth diapers. They will take Emma from when we started to potty training. That's approximately 2 years of diapering for $600. Had we used disposables, we would have easily spent $2,200 for those 2 years, not including wipes (we often use re-usable wipes). Can you believe that?? AND, the diapers that I have purchased for Emma will EASILY last through another child using them for another 2 years. So, $600 rather than $4,400! Why would you NOT use cloth?? I truly don't mind the 2-3 extra loads of laundry per week, and it's really not that big of a deal. I'm considering doing a cloth diapering post sometime soon and I will show you exactly what's involved and how easy it can be.

For now, I'd like you to click this link and head over to the blog post that a friend of mine recently posted. She saw a facebook status update that I made when I was talking about the new Pampers Dry-Max formula and the chemical burns that it's causing on babies behinds and how glad I was that we didn't have to worry about that with Emma. She emailed to ask me some questions and I gave her the run-down of the different options available and linked her to some great informative websites. She completely converted from disposables to cloth for her second child! I'm so excited about that! Check out her post here.


We're heading back to Carrollton for a few days to spend some time with Amber and Jason. Brad heads back to school pretty soon :( and it's the last time we'll get to go for awhile. I'll post pictures of the trip when we get back!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Busy, busy, busy!

There has been so much going on lately that I feel like I've been in a whirlwind. I've been meaning to stop for a minute and write a new blog post, but I haven't had much spare time. So, here's a couple of weeks worth of blogging in one.

Emma's birthday was wonderful. We spent the day doing fun stuff - lunch with her Aunt Stacie and Grandmother at a Japanese restaurant. It also happened to be the same restaurant where Brad and I had our very first New Years Eve dinner - 10 years ago! My, how times have changed!


We went from there to Emma's favorite store -
Petsmart. Emma picked Lucy out a few new toys and treats and headed home. After a big nap and a big dinner, we turned her loose on a slice of her smash cake that hadn't been touched from her party. She made short work of it! We put it on her special Birthday Plate that she will eat her birthday cake on each year. She did so well! Her Grammy even got to watch her tear it up via webcam. We went straight from the highchair to the baby pool - she was a mess!

We spent most of the week recovering from all of the fun festivities. Brad celebrated a nice first Father's Day. It's so hard to believe that last year on Father's Day, my water broke at 10:30 at night and Emma was born the next day. I like to say that she WAS his first Father's Day gift! This year, Emma gave him a grill light and a sweet card. Whenever I think of them grilling, I think of these pictures. So the gift was very appropriate! At least now, when he grills at night, he can see the grill before he throws her in! :)


We took a short trip to Carrollton this week. Only one night away from home. We had a great time, but, as always, it was too short for my taste. Emma slept ok - though she didn't think it was time to go to bed until around 11:00!

This was Emma eating lunch - think she was comfortable at Amber and Jason's house?? Hehe!

Speaking of sleeping, we have big news. Emma is sleeping UNSWADDLED for the very first time in her life! We've tried unsuccessfully several times to unswaddle her. We've tried to slowly loosen the blanket, leave one arm out for several nights in a row, gradually setting her free. It's never worked. She'd scream inconsolably and we'd eventually give in - after all, she was sleeping mostly through the night, so we chose to pick our battles.

Well, it finally became a battle I was ready to fight. She's one year old. I can now say that it's purely out of habit that she needs to be swaddled. AND, she was waking up 1-2 times a night when the swaddle would become loose from her moving around and have to be re-swaddled and nursed back to sleep each time. I was over it.
So we did it. One arm free for about 5 days, then both. She's now in a sleepsack (a wearable blanket that zips up, sort of like a potato sack with arm holes). It's awesome. I'm SO proud of her! It was not easy. She screamed the first night or 2, and we swaddled her arms back in. Each night we'd try again, just getting her used to the idea. Eventually she was ok with it. Now if I can just get her to nap a little longer! She used to start to fuss a little and I'd put "pass" (her pacifier) back in and she'd fall back to sleep for awhile longer. Now she bolts right up onto her hands and knees and is ready to roll.

Tonight we left her with my Mom for a little while while we went to dinner. Mom called to let me know that she was refusing to play because all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep! Hopefully she'll be completely comfortable with her new-found freedom soon and will sleep a little sounder.


We spent the afternoon at the Yellow River Game Ranch today with Brad's parents and sister and Emma's cousin, Luke. Luke's parents are at an out of town concert and so he's spending the day with his grandparents. We had the best time! It was hot, but lots of fun!
Look for lots of pictures of the trip in a later post.

They babysat Emma and Luke together last night so that the parents could all go see Eclipse and have Mexican food for dinner - a nice treat! Apparently, Emma ate her grandmother's meatloaf like it was going out of style, and even tried to eat off of Lukas's plate!


I spent this morning preparing my blog for printing. I ordered Emma's hardbound copy of all of the blog posts from the first time that I announced my pregnancy to her first birthday. It looks incredible online and I can't wait to see it!


Emma's got a new trick - she can make the "rooster sound!" It's the cutest thing in the world. It all started with a Little People farm that my parents got her to play with at their house. She loves it and started making the sound on her own, imitating the toy and my mom. She REALLY got to practice it today at the Game Ranch - we heard LOTS of roosters. I tried and tried and TRIED to get it on video, but she'd quit everytime she saw the camera. Maybe I'll catch her soon! She also sings along with music now - one of the sweetest things you've ever seen. I promise. I'll try to catch her doing that too.

We have a birthday party to attend on Sunday (July 4
th) for Emma's friend Juliette. It should be fun! Guess what we have planned for next week?? NOTHING! We need to rest!!