4 months, part 2

We can’t write about 4 months without posting pictures! There are a few more on the Picasa site, and we’ll add more soon. Please don’t look at my hair…it’s the last thing on my mind right now! We have tried cereal 3 times with success one of those times. We’ll take pictures of that – it’s pretty funny. She makes the funniest face when it’s in her mouth, then she lets it ooze out. Sometimes she will swallow it on the second try, but not always!

Her biggest new trick is sucking her thumb (always the left thumb). We are not thrilled about it, but it does calm her down and she still hates pacifiers, so I guess that’s how it’s going to be. It’s a lifesaver in the middle of the night – for the past 2 nights, I don’t have to rock her back to sleep after she eats. (“Rocking” for us means we hold her while we are standing up and dance around the room…not just sitting in the rocking chair, no…that would be too easy.) I can just put her in the crib when she’s sleepy and she will suck away and fall asleep. Now I know how life with the pacifier could have been!

We are trying to get adjusted to life with a working mommy. I have today and the next 2 days off, which I am thrilled about, and I know Bob is too! It’s been tiring on all of us, but we are hanging in there. Our new bedtime is 8-9pm, especially when I am getting up with her during the night and then at 5am for work. I think it will get better now that I don’t have to work any more stretches of 5 days in a row. Even on days with just a half-day class, we still have to get her to daycare, mess with the pump and bottles, etc. Really, a 12 hour day isn’t much worse than a 4 hour day that way! We are going to hang in there and see how things go…and hope I can go part-time as soon as possible!

4 months!

Well, I know you are all wondering about the bottle, so let me first say that she did NOT have a repeat performance at daycare today :( Bob watched her yesterday morning while I had a class and she did great - ate about 4 oz. over 2 feedings in 4 hours, even with me feeding her right before I left. Today, however, she went back on hunger strike. It is discouraging - I don't know if she is still confused about being there or what, but we'll give it another chance tomorrow.

She had her 4 month checkup this morning and did great! She weighs 13 lbs. 4 oz. and is 25" long. She is still trending around the 75th percentile for length and 50th percentile for weight and head circumference. I was hoping for a bigger weight, but with not eating much last week, maybe she's a little off her game. We got the go-ahead for solid foods, so naturally I stopped by the store after picking her up this afternoon and got some rice cereal. She actually ate it, which surprised me! Don't get me wrong - most of it took 2 tries to get in her mouth and get swallowed, but she did great! It was just about a tablespoon, so not much, but definitely something!

Otherwise, she checked out good at her appointment. Everything looks good. I whined about sleeping a little bit (sometimes she still wakes up twice at night and isn't easy to get back to sleep), but she just said that does happen at her age and that eating solid foods in the evening should help that. Breast milk gets digested faster, so she does still get hungry at night. She also has a cold right now from starting daycare, but it's not too bad. Hopefully she won't feel too bad from the shots either this time.

Breaking news - she has found her thumb! She has been sucking on it big time, but hasn't been able to find it in her crib, maybe because it's behind her head when she is laying in there. I guess since pacifiers are out of the question, the thumb is the next best thing in terms of self-soothing.

Daddy/Daughter/Dog Day #1 (of many to come)

Well, today was Gina's first 12 hour shift as an RN. Since it occurred on a weekend, it also meant that I was scheduled for my first 12 hour shift being the non-lactating, sole guardian/caregiver of a (breast-fed only) almost-4-month-old + a moody 45lb basset hound.

Having managed the hound dog before, I was not intimated by Bella. Worst case, if she got out of line, I could always throw her outside. However, before leaving for work, Gina reminded me that this was not an option for my dear almost-4-month old daughter.

Gina left around 615AM, and I was already awake (since I'm used to getting up around then anyway). Erin awoke at around 7, and was fairly happy. Since she normally eats as soon as she wakes up, I quickly sprung into action for the prime time event:

Erin vs. Bottle

(queue up the "let's get ready to rumble" guy)

Round 1: Erin

She didn't really eat a whole lot - around 0.5oz were gone out of the bottle, but I couldn't be sure how much actually ended up in her stomach. We played for another 30/45 minutes, and she took a brief nap in her bouncy seat. She awoke (apparently on the wrong side of the bouncy seat) in a foul mood, and was fairly cranky for the next hour.

At around 11, I spit water from of my mouth, tapped my gloves against my head, and headed back into the ring (queue the ringing of the bell to start):

Round 2: Erin (by split decision)

Erin decided that she was going to be a bit nicer to me this time - she ate about 3/4 of an ounce (and really was eating from the bottle), but this was about as much as she was willing to do. She fell asleep promptly thereafter for another 30 minutes.
But when she woke back up, I decided that she wanted to eat again (normally a risky venture)....

Round 3: Tie

Erin did good at this feeding - I was holding her head in the bouncy seat (vibration on) and she ate around 1.5oz for me then. She was happy afterwards, and we walked around and she helped me make some lunch for myself. She took another brief nap at around 1, and was up at 1:35pm. At this point, the hound dog was starting to "hound" me for a walk, so I bundled up Erin, grabbed the stroller, and took the girls on a walk to the park and back. Erin didn't cry on the walk, but since it was windy I had to close the stroller's top, so she didn't get to see a whole lot.

We got back around 215, and I immediately heated up some water and got ready for...

Round 4: Bottle

Erin either gave in, was starving, or just decided to help her dad out a little bit - she downed the entire 2.5oz I warmed for her! She was subsequently happy for another hour, and then took another 30 minute nap. When she awoke at 430, we were on for:

Round 5: Bottle

Erin must have been catching up from earlier, because not only did she eat the first 2oz I had for her, but she made it clear she wanted more and eat another 2.5oz!

At this point, I am convinced that this nipple/bottle/position combination is golden. We decide to go to Walmart to get more of these "nuk" nipples. We ran into our neighbors (Mary Kathryn and Ken (and Matthew too)), who were impressed that I accomplished the impossible. Being the proud father of a baby who demonstrated mastery of bottle-feeding, we took a victory lap in the stroller around Walmart and then went back home.

She hung out while I ate dinner, took a quick nap, and then we went in for the final round of the event:

Round 6: Bottle

She ate another 3.5 oz - and Gina got home in time to see it in action (no, I didn't pour 10oz of liquid-gold down the drain).

Here's the box score for the day:

Wasted milk: 2oz
Consumed milk: 12oz
Winner: ALL OF US

All in all, it was a long day. But I sure enjoyed hanging out with her - it was the first of (hopefully) many fun days that Erin and I will spend together! Not to mention that she ended up eating like a champ!

Update from Us

Well, who else would the update be from? Silly me! Anyway, I would say we are doing a little better in each department EXCEPT the bottle, which is of course what I am most worried about. Thursday, she ate 1/2 oz one time and about an ounce another. Today, she didn't eat at all, but she was only there about 6 hours, and she had just eaten when I dropped her off. So not much progress there in the past 3 days.

I am doing a little better with leaving her there, and it partly helps that I've been hanging out in the room feeding her a lot! The girls are very nice and helpful, and I think they are trying as hard as they can to get her to eat, considering they have 4 babies each. Yesterday, the director of the day care was in charge of feeding Erin. Though the past two days when I went to pick her up, she was crying hysterically. That broke my heart!

So I survived my first 5 days straight of work, only to have 1 day off and then 5 more in a row! Nothing like trial by fire. Sunday and Thursday are 12 hour days, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are shorter. Bob gets his first daddy duty on Sunday - good luck to him!

This Week

Well, this is the big week. I started orientation with WakeMed on Monday. Grandma A. came up to take care of Erin on Monday and Tuesday and they got along great. Erin didn't want to take the bottle too much, but she would eventually drink some. Today was her first day at daycare, and that did not go so well. I got a call at 11:30 saying she had refused 2 bottles, and it had been 5 hours since she had last eaten at home. So, after a consultation with Grandma A., I had them try one more time, which she refused again at 1:30. So I left orientation early and went to feed her. Luckily, I was nearby in Cary (the first 2 days were up at the Raleigh hospital) and I didn't miss much of the orientation.

It sounded like we got our money's worth at daycare today because she made them work for it! She didn't want to sleep for them either. I am pretty upset, mostly about the bottle situation...but I think I can give it another try. I think. I really want this job and went back to school for it, but nothing is as important as our baby.

16 Weeks

Well, here we are! 4 days from now, I will be in orientation at WakeMed and Erin will be at home with Grandma A. 6 days from now, she will be at daycare. I am excited and nervous at the same time. We will see how it goes! By the way, they ended up letting us pay for 3 days and working with my schedule instead of requiring us to pay for all 5 days. Whew! We went to visit this morning and I feel a little better. She was very interested in all the babies and the toys, but she kept looking back to make sure I was still there. Heartbreaking!

Erin's new tricks this week are trying to roll over (from her back to her belly, which is funny since she hates her belly), lots of turning her head to look at things, and this morning she started holding her foot out to me when her sock falls off so I can put the sock back on! I'm sure that's just a coincidence, but she's done it a few times. She can get on her side with rolling, but it looks like her arm is stopping her from finishing. I think she takes after her mommy with being so nosy. She has to know what's going on around her at all times.

She's been back to waking up twice at night again (sleeps from 8:30-12:30 or so, then 1-4, and 4:30-6:30). She acts like she's starving each time, so I guess she is hungry and not just waking up for some other reason. We'll see what the pediatrician says when she goes in 2 weeks for her 4 month checkup. I keep hoping we are making progress, but it seems like there isn't much. Oh well!

15 Weeks!

I don't know when to stop doing the weekly updates, but Erin has many changes every week that I want to share! New things this week include grabbing toys and putting them in her mouth, whining (why go to the trouble of crying when you can just whine?), lots of drooling, and looking in mirrors. She LOVES mirrors. She continues to practice tummy time and sitting in the Exersaucer, but both of those depend on her mood. No progress on the bottle, other than our collection continues to grow!

Sleep is going well - she did really well in Concord last weekend, but has been waking up more at night since then. She has a runny nose; maybe that's the problem, or maybe she's just more hungry right now. She's been doing better for morning naps in the crib, but we have still been doing whatever works (bouncy seat or car ride) in the afternoon just to get her some sleep. She's into taking 30 minute naps and is grumpy the rest of the day...longer would be better for everyone!

Our biggest excitement this week (other than the dishwasher) is about the day care. They have changed owners and can no longer be flexible with our schedule. While I am not surprised since most places are like that, we are annoyed that they weren't going to bother to tell us. I happened to ask and found out that way. Our plan is to pay full-time and look into other places. That seems like our best option for now. We are going to talk to them this afternoon, but it sounds like they won't work with us. I will have more of a Monday-Friday schedule for the next month anyway with orientation and classes at WakeMed, so at least we won't be throwing away too much money at first. It's still frustrating, though. Anybody want to be a nanny to a super adorable and somewhat high-maintenance baby???

New Dishwasher

Our contribution to stimulating the economy was to get a new dishwasher. It is a German engineering masterpiece, assembled right here in North Carolina. It's super quiet (58 dB) and very stylish with its stainless steel interior. Bob got it installed last night all by himself - very speedily, I must say. We love it, and Erin approves of it for bottle washing...maybe that's what she was waiting on! Our beloved old one is going to a needy family at church, so it can keep on washing dishes for a long time to come.

Big Weekend!

We had a big weekend in our family - first of all, Erin has a new cousin! Ansley Frances was born on Friday at 2:16pm. She is so adorable! Logan isn't too interested in her, but he does call her "bee-bee". They went home after just 24 hours in the hospital, and we are waiting to see how the first night at home went with everybody. We are so happy for them!



Big congrats to Erin's Aunt Maria for passing the NCLEX! That is such a stressful test, but she did great and gets to enjoy a week off before starting work as an awesome peds nurse!

Erin got weighed at her Grandma's work yesterday - 12.5 lbs. with her clothes on, so we're saying she weighs 12 pounds, just 3-1/2 weeks after she weighed 11 lbs. at the doctor! She has been busy showing off her tricks here in Concord.

2 more weeks for me before I start working...I really hope Erin gets the hang of the bottle by then. I have heard all kinds of horror stories like babies who will refuse the bottle and keep their moms up at night to eat. That does NOT sound like fun when I am working 12 hour shifts. If she does do that, hopefully it will be very temporary. We will see!