Wednesday, October 26, 2011

4 Months



Abby is almost 5 months old now.  I'm still confused as to how to count the months exactly because she was born on the 31st, but there aren't 31 days in each month.  Confusing.  Anyway, she's growing up way too fast!  It's a recurring theme with my 2 little monkeys.  Also a recurring theme: me, almost missing the month entirely before I do a photo shoot and a post!


Here is some info on Abby at 4 months:


She's a peanut.  She weighs 11lbs and is about 23 inches long.  That's about the 5th% for weight and 15-25th% for height.  She's very petite!  As a comparison, at her 4 month check-up, Emma weighed 14lbs, 6oz, and was 24 5/8 inches long!




She dropped a percentile on weight this month, but the doctor is not concerned.  She's still spitting up quite a bit, and there's not much that can be done about it.  Medication for reflux just reduces the acid in the tummy, causing less burning with reflux.  Abby doesn't have any pain, because she just spits up breastmilk immediately following eating, before it's been digested.  




I think I've had a bit of a "milk supply" issue lately.  She, like her sister did, fusses and acts really rotten when she gets ready for bed.  She had been really frustrated when nursing for the last time before bed.  I've been upping my water intake SUBSTANTIALLY, and taking some herbal supplements.  I think it's helped quite a bit.  We discussed starting rice cereal (actually, we're going to do oatmeal because the rice made Emma SO constipated. TMI?).  The pediatrician recommends waiting until closer to 6 months to start, and I'm in no hurry.  Starting too early has been shown to lead to food allergies and obesity, so they recommend waiting.  Being a peanut is just fine with me!




She can roll from her back to her tummy, and has rolled tummy to back once, but I think it was an accident!


She adores her big sister.  She's not completely trusting of her (with good reason!) because she tends to be on high alert when Emma's around! 




She smiles the biggest smiles and laughs for Daddy when he gets home.


Her Aunt Nancy got some serious belly laughs last night!  We're not sure what exactly she thought was so funny, but she CRACKED up!  She's pretty stingy with those belly laughs, so it was really awesome.


She's a mama's girl.  No doubt about it.  I tend to be the only one to calm her down when she's really fussy.  She also still looks just like her mama, or so I'm told.  I can't complain. ;)


She had been losing some of her hair in the back, but it's coming in again!  Emma was bald for so long, that I'm not used to having a baby with a little hair!  It's just about the same color as mine.  That cracks me up because, as a baby, my hair was exactly Emma's color.  In fact, we have a lock of my hair from my first haircut and it looks like it came off of Emma's head.  It didn't darken up until much later.  Abby's is starting out so dark, I wonder what will happen?


She wears 0-3 and 3 month clothes.  She has some 3-6 month clothes, but they're still a bit big.  I had hoped to be able to share all of their clothes because Abby was due 4 days before Emma's birthday.  No such luck.  Emma was a chunk, and Abby is petite and came 3 weeks ahead of schedule!  I pulled out 3 rubbermaid boxes this morning and sorted clothes.  Luckily, Emma had a few 6 month and 6-9 winter clothes, though most are 9 month.  I think she'll be wearing some bigger clothes with the legs and sleeves rolled up!  




She is still a good sleeper.  She takes 2 big naps a day, and 1 short one around 5:30.  She goes into the crib awake, and falls asleep on her own.  She sleeps from 8:30PM-8:30AM most days, waking once to eat.  Sometimes that one time is around 7:00, so I can't complain!  She's had a few nights lately where she's woken twice to eat, but she's been catching our cold, so I can't blame her.


Speaking of colds, Abby has her first.  It seems to be a much weaker version of what Emma and I had.  She is a little sneezy and sounds snotty, but only has to have her nose wiped just after she wakes up.  She ran a low-grade fever at one point, but Tylenol worked it's magic.




She's been a busy body lately.  She tries to sit up if you lay her down, even to change her diaper!  She also is too interested in what's going on around her to nurse very efficiently lately.  She's been doing her best eating in the middle of the night.  Emma was the same way!


See her trying to sit up?


She wears XS diaper covers still.  To put this into perspective, we really began cloth diapering Emma at 4 months.  She went straight into a medium.  Abby swims in a small!


She had her first trip to the zoo a few weekends ago (also her first train ride!).  We had a ball.  I'll do a post on it very soon.  


She also took her first trip to Stone Mountain.  It was Emma's first as well.  We rode the train and walked around.  Can't wait to take them to a laser show!


She loves her swing, but I worry that she spends too much time in it.  She is in there while we eat every meal.  She doesn't seem to mind, and I have a hard time tending to her wild sister during meals, much less eating myself.  




She loves having her hands in her mouth.  We have to physically fight her to get them out and put the passy in.  When her hands go in, puke comes out, so we tend to stick with the passy.  Also, as I tell her all the time, I can't cut her hands off when she turns 2, but I CAN take the passy away!


She's my precious little angel.  Having been through it with Emma, I know that this is my favorite age.  She's happy nearly all of the time, giving us big gummy grins constantly.  She's a snuggle-bug and adores being held.  She also likes to spend time playing on the floor with her toys and play gym - the best of both worlds!


I can't believe it's nearly Halloween.  A lot of people have asked about costumes.  Emma is going to be Olivia the pig.  Abby has a Halloween shirt that says "I love my mummy" and will be along for the ride!







Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Fat Lip


Well, she finally did it.  Emma earned herself an emergency trip to the doctor's office.  We were going to head straight to the ER, but the doctor's office said that we could come by there first and get their opinion, so we did.  Emma must like to make sure my heart rate stays nice and high.  

What happened?  Let me explain.

We had just finished breakfast.  Emma had eaten and was playing in the living room like she does every day.  I had just put Abby down for her morning nap and came back to the kitchen to wash some dishes.  We do this every single morning.  Emma plays like an angel, I clean up the kitchen, and then we play together until Abby gets up.  Not today.  

Today I had just put away the clean dishes and was re-loading the dishwasher when I heard a bump and Emma screaming bloody murder.  I went running and picked her up.  She looked fine, but shaken.  I took her into the kitchen and sat her on the counter to get a better look (and turn off the water).  Blood.  Everywhere.  I thought she knocked out a tooth, but upon inspection, noticed a hole clear through her bottom lip.  Well, technically it's just below her lip, but above her chin.  I PANICKED.

I carefully cleaned up her face with a warm washcloth and got her a Popsicle.  We were both still in our pajamas, so I carried her, Popsicle and all, to our bed.  I made phone call after phone call while my hands were shaking uncontrollably, getting myself and Emma dressed in the process.  First person I called?  My MAMA!  I knew she could get here before anyone else.  Then I called Brad's mom.  She was on her way.  Then I tried Brad.  He was the farthest one out.  No answer.  Shit.  I frantically searched my phone for his school phone number.  Called and got the secretary.  I told her who I was and that we were about to head to the ER with my daughter and couldn't get in touch with Brad.  She radioed him and had him call me.  He was on his way as soon as he could pass his class off to another teacher.

I called the doctor's office and they said we could come there first if we wanted to.  I would rather do ANYTHING than get Emma stitches OR deal with the ER, so I took them up on it.  My mom got here first, and then Brad's mom.  Abby was still napping so I gave Brad's mom a few instructions and some disposable diapers.  By the grace of God, I had 2 ounces of pumped milk (the results of 2 miserable and fruitless pumping sessions) in the fridge.  This is the first time since Abby was born that I have really pumped, and had been trying to get enough to freeze in case we ever had an emergency.  How lucky was that??  Any other day and we'd be searching the house for formula samples.

So Mom and Emma and I left and Brad's mom stayed with Abby.  Brad beat us to the doctor's office.  We sat in the waiting room for a few minutes before heading back to see the nurse practitioner.  She took a look, cleaned it up a bit, and recommended a stitch or 2.  It had stopped bleeding within minutes of her cutting it, but the doctor said it's for "cosmetic reasons" that they recommend stitches.  Anytime that it's outside of the lip line, they recommend them.  I very politely asked her if we had any choice.  She consulted with another doctor, and told us she'd be fine, but to keep Neosporin on it and watch for infection, which wasn't likely.  YAY!  We left like bats out of hell!  I just wanted my babies.in.my.arms.  My nerves were shot, as were all of ours.

We got back to our house and Brad's Dad was here.  It meant the world to me that he came by.  Seriously.  My family is awesome.  Have I mentioned that?  They love us, and my girls SO much, and it's mutual.  The fact that all 3 of them left work and flew straight to our house the minute I called, is just awesome.  We couldn't have asked for better grandparents for these girls.  


 Emma got the ice cream I promised her, and Brad brought home her favorite - pillow chicken (Chick-Fil-A).  She ate, I very carefully wiped her mouth, and put Neosporin on it, and we all had a much-needed family nap-time.  We got up and Brad took Emma to pick up a school order of clay at a local shop, and I fed Abby.  When they got back we headed to Mom's for dinner. 

Emma has been an angel.  She only cried for a minute once it happened, and only for a second or 2 while the doctor looked at it.  I'm so impressed with her.  She's awesome.  AND big!  Did I mention that she went from 25lbs in early July, to 28lbs today?  And here I was getting concerned that she's not eating quite as much as she used to.  

I bought some Mederma to use once her lip heals to help reduce scarring.  It's really not that bad, but I'd hate to think that my choice to avoid a traumatic hospital experience would cause a scar she'd hate me for forever.  Praying that doesn't happen.  If it doesn't disappear, maybe she'll be proud of it and consider it a battle scar that adds character, though I'm not sure that little girl could stand one more ounce of character!  One day, when she has her own babies, she'll understand.  Until then, she can have ANYTHING SHE WANTS!!!!!  

I'll leave you with a funny.  This is what she did while I nursed Abby last night.  She's a nut.