Sleep!

Kaylee slept through the night again! She went down at 9, woke up at 12:30 and slept until 7:45! I am feeling good today rest-wise, however my back has been killing me again for the past few days. I think I hurt it again trying to toddle around with Kaylee holding my hands. I quickly learned I can't do that, and instead have her walk towards me while sitting on the floor in front of her.

Kaylee met another newborn last night, I brought pizza over to the new parents house. She tried some pizza crust, and choked on it. While I was cleaning up her mess and washing my hands, Kaylee's extensive reach stretched over and whipped over the pizza sauce all over their nice white carpet - much to my embarrassment and dismay! My friends were nice about it, but I wish it hadn't happened. OMG!

Kaylee got some cute orange sunglasses from her Grandma. To the right are some cute new photos! Enjoy!

A good day yesterday

Kaylee’s had a good day yesterday, she drank all her bottles at daycare plus she was still thirsty so Kathy gave her 4 oz. of water that she took as well. She also took two short naps and then slept well at night, only waking once with one nearly 6 hour stretch!

While I was cooking dinner yesterday she was playing with her toy on the floor. I turned around to do some cooking and then all the sudden, she was on the other side of the room. I know she can crawl, she's just been an expert in just crawling to things within her (exceptional, flexible) reach. Basically she crawls as far as she can toss her toys. But yesterday I think the slippery ness of the vinyl floors made it easy for her to scott/crawl far and fast.

Kaylee ate a lot of graham crackers yesterday. We were so happy to see it. We hope to increase her repertoire to things more healthy, but are happy with anything at this point. The other day when Eric and I went out, she had a great time sucking on riblet bones. Quite savory. We tried giving her a little chicken yesterday with no interest. She tried our brocolli but promtly shivered in disgust and began choking to get it out of her mouth. She loves to share now. She offers her food to me and Eric, and to the dogs. Not to get rid of her food necessarily but because she wants to share it. She also shares her toys with us too.

Movin' on up!

Oh lost my post! argh. Basically day care talked to me about moving Kaylee up early to the 12-18 month room because she's the oldest baby in the infant room and a baby was born 3 weeks early. So mid-March she'll be moving up. They've been taking her everyday to get to know the teacher, the room, the toys and the other 2 babies. She'll get loads of attention until all the other babies from the infant room start moving up quickly after her in a steady stream. She will see those friends again soon!

Kaylee took her first steps (while we held her)

Last night we were up every 2 hours. I was a very hard night. At 4:30 we had the worst of it, listening to crying for about an hour. Finally she gave in to me and to sleep, after some comforting from me (but I wouldn't pick her up) and from Eric. She slept then until 8. I do not feel rested at all today. At least the night before last I got a full night's sleep!

An exciting thing happened yesterday, I was holding her up so she could practice standing as she likes to do. She bounced up and down excitedly and they took 3 steps toward me. I got super excited cheering her on. I called Eric who was getting us a pizza, when he returned she did it for him too. I guess some walking practice may be right around the corner!

Oh, and the last few days I've heard a lot more Mom in her cries. She also said Mom once when I came into the room. I was so excited to finally hear her say it when she wasn't crying, I was like, "Yes I'm Mom! Come to Mom! You said Mom, Mom, Mom. Yea Kaylee!" I'll be keeping an ear open for any more "Mom" sounds coming from her!

Kaylee slept through the night!

Wow! I didn't think I'd be saying this so soon after we tried this...but Kaylee slept through the night last night. It has been about 6 months since I slept through the night and I can say that I woke up really proud but also worried because I hadn't heard a peep from her. I was like, "5 am?! Yes! Wait....is she okay? Is she alive?" I went and checked on her twice to make sure. At about 5:30 she woke up, (slept from 9:30-5:30) I nursed her and she decided it was time to get up for the day. She was babbling and kicking her legs (Eric and I call this her Kangaroo Kick and sometimes we call her Kangi because she kicks like this when she doesn't want her blankets on or is ready to get up). I had to have Eric snuggle her to calm her down and she slept until around 7:20. It feels good to get hours of sleep in a row. I hope that it continues! It was just in time actually because I had to give a speech today for my Toastmasters and needed the concentration sleep affords you. I did pretty well with the speech, people seemed really interested, smiling and leaning forward and I almost started to cry during a portion of it and I swear the audience members almost cried too. So I guess they were into it. I only need to get better at my vocal variety and cutting the UMs. Oh well, there's a next time. Wish us luck for tonight for continued success! :)

9 month checkup

Kaylee had her 9 mo check up on Friday. She is 19 lbs 1 oz (50th percentile) and 27 1/4" (30th percentile) for height.  I asked the doctor about how Kaylee isn't eating solids consistently yet, basically not showing an interest. She said I am nursing Kaylee too much at night and only to do it from one side during the night, she thought it would be cruel to go from all to nothing so we are doing that now. She said basically Kaylee eats so much at night she isn't hungry for anything all day. She said we need to get her sleeping in the crib consistently too and not taking her to bed with us when she cries.  So Eric and I worked with her Friday night. She went asleep in my arms and made an easy transfer but then woke up an hour later. I comforted her for a few minutes and she fell back asleep. Another half hour later, she was crying again we both were trying to comfort her, and I still felt she didn't need to nurse. So we let her cry. To distract ourselves we made cookies, I had made something in the oven the day before and it had crusted onto the bottom of the over, smoke poured into our house. So in 5 degree weather we were opening up all the doors and turning on all the fans. Eric comforted Kaylee and she fell asleep despite everything going on. She then slept from 12:30-4:30,nursed slept till 6:30 nursed and then woke up for the day at 8:30.  It wasn't as bad as we expected. So then last night we were at it again. Kaylee and I sat in the rocking chair again next to the crib and nursed. Kaylee kept looking at the crib, the rocking chair and then me putting it all together. She seemed to know what was happening. She was anxious and wouldn't sleep in my arms, figeting. I put her down awake at 9:30 and to my amazement she fell asleep. She stared at me for a few minutes to make sure I was still there and went to sleep. She woke up at 12:30, nursed and was back down by 1:00 and slept until 7! I was so happy, she then went back to sleep at woke up at 8:45! At 6:30 the I was hearing some yipping and yapping from a baby and checked on her and she was totally still asleep. I think our monitor was getting something from a neighbor's house. Anyways, we were very pleased. Both mornings, she ate a bit of banana and a couple puffs in her highchair.  I just got done from working for an hour at getting her taking a nap in her crib with no luck so she is napping with Eric who's sleeping in this morning. We'll tackle that another day. 

Kaylee managed to pull herself onto her knees by the coffee table yesterday. She couldn't get up all the way and her little leg was shaking with the effort. She whined for help while we cheered her on, after a minute or so I rescued her. She hasn't been crawling consistently and somehow made it 4-5 feet on the rug by twisting turning from belly to sitting and back again. We got her some foam interlocking mats for her room so the surface of the floor is soft and good crawling atmosphere. We also got her some rolling balls and they look like a good thing for her to chase after. Kaylee continues to get stronger and can stand by herself for a moment if she's balanced right. We practice walking but she doesn't take her own steps herself yet.  She had a good time with her Grandma being babysat on Friday and had a good time visiting with her Aunt and Uncle yesterday! She loves the attention!

Kaylee visits baby

We went to visit a co-worker friend of mine last night who just had a baby. The baby is three weeks old and it was fun to see Kaylee's reaction to the little bitty baby. She was totally thrilled, she had excitement all over her face, she was flapping her arms and reaching out for the baby. We let her touch the baby's blankets wrapped around her, but I wouldn't let Kaylee get too close to her face. The baby is adorable. It is hard for me to remember already what it was like when Kaylee was that little, how quickly time passes and how quickly memory fades...

Kaylee was hamming it up for my friend and her husband. She noticed them paying attention to her and she loved that. She started babbling happily, showing off and climbing up my friend's husband to try to touch his beard. Kaylee is a sociable little girl and loves to go places.

Reaction

Yesterday when Eric was giving Kaylee her amoxycillin, he noticed a lot of redness and a few small hives around her mouth. We weren't sure if it was because of the medicine or the sip of milk I had given her a few minutes before. I called the doctor's and a pediatrician called back, he said it was most likely the antibiotics we were giving her for her earache. He said we should stop giving it to her and that 3-5 days really is enough to typically clear anything up. Her hives went down quickly and Eric had given her less than half of the dose when he noticed so that was good. She continues to be doing well, still cough and congestion but she's generally happy and fun to be around. She seems to be feeling fine. Eric is allergic to all antibiotics and when I was at the doctor I asked what the likelihood of Kaylee being allergic to them as well was. She said that she has an increased propensity for being allergic but does have my genes as well so it most likely wouldn't be a problem. The doctor said that this wouldn't keep them from giving Kaylee amoxycillin again in the future, but that they would keep an eye on it. I asked if it was bad that we were stopping midpoint during the course of the 10 day treatment, because I had heard that this increases the likelihood that a person would be allergic in the future. The doctor said that isn't true and she should be fine. 

He said also not to give her any milk for a couple months and when I do introduce it to only give her 5ml at first increasing by 5 ml until I'm sure she isn't allergic.

New fun this month

About 4 days ago,Kaylee started to clap! It's so cute! She claps when we clap, or to songs like B-I-N-G-O and others. It's not like she can keep time or mimic us exactly, but she sure is clapping! It's fun to see her proud of a new trick. I also noticed that when I sing a song like, "Little bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them..." she will babble in a sing-songy way and use lots of sounds to mimic what she's hearing. "Gaga ga gaaa ga ga ga ga...." It's sweet and fun to do! Like the clapping, she can't exactly imitate and isn't consistent, she's definitely doing these things on her own terms, kind of similar to the way she's been waving her hands. Sometimes she's also played a peek-a-boo game with a blanket or something. She thinks peek-a-boo is more funny lately, and smiles more in response.

We've been treating her earache. She seems a lot better than she was, but continues to cough and be quite congested. She's still getting steamy baths at least once a day for the congestion. She continues to hate the medicine, but Eric has perfected the art of giving it to her. She has thrown it up 2-3 times which is really hard to see.  Throwing up doesn't seem to be as traumatic for a baby as it is for an adult, however.  She seems to bounce back.  Eric is very patient, a teaspoon of medicine takes about 10 minutes to get into her. I'm really glad he's taken that on, I'm appreciative.  

Eric and I went out on a date for only the second time or third time since Kaylee was born (without her, sometimes we bring her out). My parents watched her and we went to go see a movie in the theater. It was only the second movie theater movie we've seen since she was born. It was "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey, we liked it a lot and had a good time. Hopefully it won't be another 8 months till we go out to a movie.  Eric's been feeling better since his stomach flu which is good, we've had a bit of a rough week and hope this next coming week will be better... take care all!

1st Ear infection

Well, Kaylee had a much much better night last night. She didn't cry nearly as much. She seems to be getting a little bit better. We have had 3 terrible nights before last. Lots of coughing, congestion, throwing up, gagging, refusing to nurse, crying, arching the back the whole shabang. No temperature though. Took her to the doctor because it didn't seem to be getting any better and daycare was starting to complain. Turns out she has an ear infection. So we are giving her amoxycillin twice a day for 10 days. and boy let me tell you she HATEs taking her medicine. The first (and only) dose she had so far she threw up after we got it in her. Not fun at all. Takes two of us to hold her down, poor honey. It's bubblegum flavored and smells okay not sure what the deal is...she's always hated taking her tylenol or motrin.

I got to have a nice chat with the doctor about Kaylee and some of her other issues. She said given the number of things I'm worried about she wants to make sure we tackle one at a time. She said:
1) We have to get Kaylee feeling better first and foremost, before we try some to tackle some other issues.
2) We can work on the feeding issue and her disinterest in eating solids. She says there's a feeding clinic she can refer us to if the problem continues and then we can teach Kaylee how to eat better. She says some babies are just this way and just prefer to nurse exclusively. She said Kaylee's weight curve is down a bit from the previous well-check but still is a good baby weight (19 lbs). Eric would like us to try to be more consistent and give Kaylee more opportunities to join us at the table before we go down this road and I agree with him.
3) I would like to get Kaylee drinking more during the day and less at night. So daycare will have an easier time with her and so I can get more sleep. She said after we get #2 better in place I can do this.
4) Once #3 is done then Kaylee will have an easier time staying in her crib sleeping.

So we had a good chat. Kaylee goes to the doc again for her 9 mo check next Friday so we'll follow-up then. Ahhh, more peach again in our household. Eric and I had gotten so desperate to get her some sleep that we prolonged the trip from daycare to home and drove whereever we could think of to get her to sleep at least for one good nap a day. Wish us luck with the Amoxycillin!

Hope you had a good New Years!

Well things have been a bit rough the last couple days with Kaylee. She's been sick with a cold/cough and seems to be in quite a bit of pain from teething. There's been a lot of night-time crying, trouble getting down from naps and more crying in general. I feel so sorry for her. Her chest sounds really congested. She's been getting a some steam treatments a couple times a day, Motrin and Orajel for the teething and a lot of loving and teamwork from us.

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary! We went out to dinner last night to celebrate. We brought Kaylee with since she's been so fussy. We had a good long weekend, it is hard to come back to work but everyone here is very chilled out after the break.