Family Visit and 4 month checkup

Chad's mother and grandmother were in town this week visiting us. They arrived Sunday night and left this morning, and stayed here at our tiny apartment with us. I'm surprised they didn't leave cheering after three days in < 900 square feet and 5 people in it.

We had a great time with them, they were such a big help with the baby and helping us get some things accomplished. We got to spend some time with Grandma L, down in Carolina, a little more than usual too.

Wednesday night I learned how to roast a chicken from Grandma D, that was fun. I made that, cheddar garlic mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and apple cornbread. Pretty darn good, I must say! Now we have enough chicken left over for sandwiches for a week, or a big pot of soup.

Pacibaby started eating rice cereal this week as her first food (if you don't count the nibble of applesauce over the weekend, lol), started Tuesday. That makes today her fourth day, so Sunday I am going to start her on carrots for five or six days before another vegetable. In a few weeks we'll start fruits, since she will like those better. Gotta get the veggies in first! She had some trouble for the first couple of days with figuring out what to do with the spoon and how to swallow the cereal, but today has shown remarkable improvement!

So she had that dreaded four month appointment yesterday. She had another round of shots, 1 oral, two in one leg, one in another. When she had her two month shots, I remember we came home and she slept most of the afternoon away, then was not interested in eating that night. I don't remember how she slept that night. But when we got home yesterday, she napped in her carseat for a little while, then woke ready to play. But by last night, she was running a fever of 100.3 (an hour after Tylenol) and was whimpering, presumably from sore legs. When Chad touched one of them earlier, she cried. Poor baby...during the night she whimpered in her sleep as well. Today, she has not eaten much, about two ounces every two hours, and has napped the majority of the day, many catnaps here and there.

So here's what the new doctor (new practice) had to say:

11 lbs, 2 oz - 20th percentile, up from 5th percentile, but only a 2 lb gain in 2 months
23.5 inches long, a gain of 5 inches since birth, approximately 50th percentile
43 cm head circumference, 90th percentile.

The first two were okay, not happy about the weight, but I still am concerned re: her head size. The doctor reviewed her ultrasound and spoke to the technician who performed it, and called me later in the day to ask me to bring her back in a month for a recheck. She is trying to decide on doing a CAT scan, which I kind of just wish they would go ahead and do already to save me the worry, you know?

She is not concerned about her skull shape, which is sort of becoming a cone in the back because of how she lies during most of sleep, and says along with the PT therapist that it may shape out on its own without a helmet. That is a relief! She signed the orders to continue with therapy, which I'm happy about because she is making such excellent progress. She has begun batting for toys, and keeping her hands open more often to grasp objects. She started reaching for our faces when we get close enough to her yesterday - it is the sweetest thing.

She is early-teething, which accounts for her drastic increase in drooling, and some of the chewing and being whiny. I finally got an accurate dosage amount for the Tylenol, and it has seemed to help. No Orajel for quite some time, of course.

I think that is all for now on the updates. She is growing well, getting long and lean, and hopefully her increase in dosage on the Prilosec will help with her GERD and periods of crying. Poor baby...but at least she's improving in other areas. Here's to an eventful fourth month with my monkey!

I have been terrible at posting lately, so I am making it up to you!

Right now, I am moody, exhausted from PaciBaby's newly discovered love for 2 am, 3 am, and 4 am, scared to death because there is a slight chance that the damn birth control pills I have been relying on have suddenly decided that not only making me a crazy person is fun, but that HEY, YOU SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER KID RIGHT NOW- need I go on?

So instead of reading about my whiny drivel for another second, I introduce: CUTE KID.

How on earth does she sleep this way?

And yes, I do realize that she is so freaking cute, I could eat her alive, but most days, instead of snuggly cuteness, I get this:


I might very well lose my mind.

Sling Things

So we have one sling that she is now too big for, at least to be cradled in:

She can use this one for the hip carry and front-facing carry, but she is yet too small for it, and too large to cradle this way.

One that can only be used standing up:

The Snugli we have is older than this one, so it's a little different. But she really digs it most of the time.

And one that she screams in:

Disappointing, because I really like this one.

...and now that she is over 3 months old, she is now so self-aware and Mommy-aware that she screams, WAILS, whenever I leave her sight. Not only that, but she needs to be constantly stimulated and occupied, or she gets fussy. Meaning, no longer contentedly snoozing in her baby seat.

I am frustrated. I need to hit the lottery so I can buy a larger version of the top sling, and one of these:

It's called a BabyHawk, and it's completely customizable. You pick the fabric, color, inserts, hoods, linings, pockets, etc. Expensive, but super-cool and comfy for Mom and baby, and it also can be used for the back carry, which I'm looking forward to.

Any moms have recommendations for other slings?

save your ammunition for somebody else, I'm all second chances

So PaciBaby has mild torticollis, a shortening of the muscle on one side of her neck. It's resulted in her constantly tilting her head to one side and looking in one direction, and has affected her ability to lift her head when on her stomach and look around. She was diagnosed at her two month well baby visit when the doctor noticed that she could not lift her head when on her stomach (she was previously able to do this) and that she has a flat spot on the right side of the back of her head. That's the side she always turns it to. It's usually a result of her in-utero positioning, and the amount of room she had in there.

She has physical therapy weekly, and thus far she is making wonderful progress. She is turning her head from side to side with nearly full range beautifully. She doesn't like the home exercises, however. The goal for next week is to get her to touch her tummy and to bring her hands together, intentionally. She doesn't look down at her body, and is usually looking upwards towards the ceiling, or at eye-level. If she doesn't learn to look down, it becomes more difficult to teach her that she has a body, with fingers, toes, and a tummy, and this can slow other developments a bit. We've been working on these goals.

I bought her a swaddler this week, a blanket that keeps her swaddled instead of just wrapping her in a receiving blanket that she can kick out of, and she has been sleeping better in it most of the time. I can't believe we deprived OURSELVES out of the wonders of this invention for twelve weeks. I could kick myself.

She is coming up on her three-month birthday on the 30th, and I'm stunned. I swear I just gave birth yesterday. I'm trying to look back and see where all this time went! She has changed so much, learned an incredible amount, and is becoming more beautiful every day. Her smiles and giggles make me laugh even at 3 am when I am irritated to death and beg for sleep. She is learning to hold her head up when sitting up, supported. She is tracking things with her eyes, side to side. She is laughing when she finds things funny, and finds the camera intriguing.

I'm still not sure what I believe about her head and anything that may be going on there, but I am going to let it go until her four month well-baby checkup, unless anything drastic happens.

I am looking forward to everything the future brings the three of us, and we are enjoying every minute with this little munchkin! Now if only she would sleep...

yet another waste of a doctor's visit

After raising heck with the staff yesterday and demanding answers (and repayment of that ER visit), the ped's office called me this morning to tell me that she did actually have fluid on her brain, but that it was in the "range of normal". Then I was transferred from a nurse to somebody in charge (I need to write down these people's names and positions!) and she tried to explain the situation to me. She then said that it would be different if she was screaming like she was in pain, and I told her that that was exactly what she was doing. She is inconsolable most days. She asked if:

- she cried through her feedings (check)
- she cried like she was in pain (check)
- normal ways to relieve colic don't work (check)
- she bats her eyes from side to side (check)

...and several others I can't remember. After answering yes to all of them but one, she said to bring her in tonight to be checked out by another doctor.

So we did, and all he said was that he believed it is STOMACH problems, and prescribed an antibiotic to get her bowels moving and relieve any pain in her abdomen.

.............

I am speechless. Chad says no more doctors, and swears she's fine. The doctors tell me she's fine during the visits, but during the phone calls, they are concerned. I am seeing red at this point. My daughter is not "fine", children who are fine do not scream at the top of their lungs like they are being stabbed with pokers and refuse to eat or sleep.

I don't know what to think.

A scare I never want to have again

For the last week or more, PaciBaby's colic has been increasing in severity, to the point where in the last couple of days, she spent the majority of the day screaming, from dawn to dusk. Her feeding had decreased from 4 oz every couple of hours, to maybe 1.5 oz when we were lucky. I took her in to see her pediatrician yesterday morning, and she saw a nurse practitioner named Melanie. (I will never see an NP again, ever. Doctors only).

She examined PaciBaby and could not find anything obviously wrong, but for one thing. Her head size is increasing, quickly. She increased 1.25 cms since last Monday, 11 days prior, and went from the 50th percentile in head size to the 75th, while her body and weight are still in the 10th.

Alarming, at least to a parent. Melanie ordered a head ultrasound, and within a couple of hours, we were heading to the children's hospital in Norfolk. She screamed the entire time in the waiting room, while I received plenty of dirty looks from unsympathetic parents. I took her to the bathroom to calm down with a bottle while we waited.

The results came in a couple of hours later. A nurse called from the pediatrician's office, and told me that PaciBaby had some fluid on her brain. I immediately start crying, and she tells me that if she continues to scream in the way that she was (in the background) and refuse to eat, that I should take her in to the CHKD emergency room. So, I called Chad and my MIL and he left work to come meet me to get her there.

Luckily, we were seen quickly. Four hours and 100 wasted bucks later, we were told that her results AND THE RADIOLOGIST'S REPORT all came back normal, and left with a diagnosis of....colic.

I AM LIVID. Her pediatrician's office WILL be reimbursing us that money, I don't care how many people I have to raise heck with to get it. I called them this morning and reported what happened to the nursing staff, and was told by Melanie through another nurse that her results were totally normal. They had no idea where this first nurse got her information (!!!) I will be back Monday speaking with her main doctor and the office manager, filing a complaint. This is not the end.

I am, of course, SO THANKFUL that PaciBaby appears to be fine, but to go through that kind of hell for nothing is not going to be overlooked. No way.

So that is the story of how the last 36 hours have gone. Thankfully, she was great today with Chad while I was at work, and she is sleeping peacefully now. But my blood still boils.

Home From Tennessee!

Chad, PaciBaby, and I just returned from a five day trip to Tennessee to spend with his family - his father and sister had not gotten to meet the baby yet, as Mom and Josh had come out when she was born. It was a very long drive as always, nine hours each way. We left nearly 1 am last Wednesday night and drove through the night to arrive the next morning, then stayed until this past Tuesday morning.

Nana and PB, reunited

Grandpa meeting PB for the first time

Aunt Cassidy and PB

We had a great time there. We were able to relax a lot more during the day because his family was so wonderfully eager to help out with her. She only slept well for one night, though (getting up every four hours is considered a good night, a bad night is every ninety minutes or more).

Sunday morning we awoke to a beautiful snowfall before church:

Now, THAT is one of the zillions of reasons I miss living up north, or even just a little farther north. There are only 3 seasons here: hot, warm, and rainy.

PaciBaby was weighed on their home scale Friday morning, and she weighed in at a hefty 9.6 lbs! (9 lbs, 9 oz.) Today, a week later, she should be weighing in about ten pounds. She has her two-month well baby visit on Monday, so we will get the official measurements then! My little one is getting chunky. Speaking of chunky, diaper changes + chubby baby thighs = DESIGN FLAW.

I have all kinds of updates on her, but they will wait until the two-month letter. The biggest one, however, cannot wait - in the last two weeks, she has started "social smiling", then in the last 48 hours, those are REAL smiles, plus now she's cooing! It melts my heart every single time. I am so excited that she is developing so quickly - it's weeks earlier than we expected, based on her adjusted age! She has such a little personality now, and is much more alert and active. She responds to everything in her environment in some way.

She is such an adorable little monkey. More later!