Twelve little baby legs

Here's some more AW'ing for you: i made some really cute "baby legs." Baby legs are basically leggings, or legwarmers, for babies. They're kind of silly and trendy, but also cute. And they make pee pee diaper changes easier. The idea is that they are like pants without the part around the butt or crotch, just thigh high legwarmers. If the baby is wearing a onesie, they are covered. And as they are learning to crawl, they're helpful. And did i mention they're cute?

Someone on an internet group i go to posted this site on how to make babylegs out of women's knee high socks. And Alan and i went shopping for D (details on our shopping trip to come), and happened past the women's socks, and i saw these. i got two 3-packs of socks (hence some of the plain Jane ones), and one extra pair of black and white Halloween-ish socks. i only ruined one pair in learning so we now have 6 pairs of Baby Legs.

Now for the pathetic details. My in-laws came into town again this weekend and offered to babysit for us. Which was actually sad because there was nothing we really wanted to do, and we both enjoy hanging out together with D. The only thing we do regularly that we can't do with her is going to the movies (too loud for new ears). And there really weren't any great movies out that we wanted to see. We ended up going to a 2:30 matinee of "The Invention of Lying", which looked great but fell flat. Several feet short in my opinion.

After the movie, we didn't want to go right home, so we grabbed dinner. At 4:45. Yeah, i did say pathetic. And, we finished dinner before 5:00 (we just went to Baja Burrito which is like a made-to-order assembly-line taco stand, so no waiting for food to cook), and felt really dorky. So we went to our favorite place... Target. And we spent our first date in a month, second date since the baby, shopping for... the baby. But, we really did have fun and there's not much we'd rather do, so there you have it.

By the way, those Baby Leg things take seriously not even 10 minutes a pair. And they turned out great! i'm going to sew the seam up a wee bit more (bigger seam allowance) on one of the black-and-white legs so that one black thing at the seam isn't as fat. Otherwise, i'm extremely pleased, so if you have a sewing machine and a baby, you should totally go for it!

Just a post about nothing in particular

i'm pretty stupid tonight. Not sure why. i think my husband took "the brain" without asking. We always joke that we share a brain, and apparently he's a giant hog tonight.

i've made plenty of mistakes tonight, but the big ones are that i nearly gave myself a heart attack over formula, and i forgot to wash my pants. First, the formula. D eats formula, obviously, and she seems to do better on Ready-to-Feed formula versus powder. But RTF is very expensive, so we found we can mix them. i make her formula up in a big jug at night, and normally do 2 cups powder and 2 1/4 cup RTF. Lately, she's been eating more, and she's doing better on her reflux meds, so i decided to try 2 1/4 cups powder and 2 cups RTF. That worked yesterday, and today i upped it all the way to 2 1/2 cups powder and 2 cups RTF (so there's a little extra since she eats more).

When you make formula from powder, you measure the water out, and then you add the powder. 1 scoop of powder for 2 oz of water. There are 8 ounces in a cup, so 2 cups of water is 16 ounces so you'd use 8 scoops of powder. Which i have been doing. Tonight i was measuring 1/2 cup extra, and for some reason i totally forgot 8 oz in a cup and thought it was 16. Which means i should have been giving her twice as much powder scops as i have been. Unbelievable! So i nearly had a complete heart attack. i literally almost fell over. And when i realized i hadn't been seriously undernourishing my girl, i cried a little.

The other stupid me story is that i need to wash my jeans. D Vesuvius'd all over me tonight. So i did a load of laundry and meant to remove my pants and throw them in. Nope. So now i have to do another load just for the jeans. Ugh! Okay, that's not as bad but i still don't like it.

Sleep well everybody!

OH! And her breathing is improved!

It's hard to tell for sure when i live with her every day, but the pedi noticed immediately that her breathing is doing a lot better. More evidence that the reflux really is improving :).

In sad news, D's brother was just diagnosed with asthma :(. Hopefully that won't happen with D, but it's very common in premature kids (and D most likely was slightly premature, though there was no prenatal care so who knows, right) and drug-exposed kids, so we're pretty much expecting it sooner or later. Hopefully later.

4 month appointment

D had her 4 month appointment today (shots included, bah). She took the shots like a champ, only a bit of crying, and was in a good mood the rest of the day and evening.

The pedi was really happy with her development, especially her milestones. Her weight is now 12 pounds, 3 ounces, and her length is 23 inches. That puts her almost to 25% in weight but still only around 5% in length (kind of reversed from previously where she was longer than tall by % standards). i forget her head circumference number, but she was in the 75% there. Her brother has a ginormous head, but he's totally healthy. So it's not surprising, but the good news is she doesn't LOOK disproportionate lol.

Pedi said we did the right thing switching back from the Alimentum to the Similac Sensitive RS. And she's been eating way more the last several days, too. Not just more than she was during the ill-fated switch, but more than she did before we tried giving her Alimentum. She's probably eating the 32 oz that most kids her age are eating, which is incredible since she's always eaten so little. In the last week or so, i'm really starting to think the Prevacid is helping more than i used to think, so that's awesome.

Pedi also said to start solids. Start slowly, with cereal (which she'd previously suggested we start by spoon), and start veggies in a few weeks. Said kids with reflux do so much better once they start solids, so we'll take the risk of starting solids earlier than the 6 months currently recommended by the AAP. Her brother didn't have any allergies to solids so we'll take that as a positive sign. And, D does like cereal by a spoon, but she only likes it warm (whereas she actually prefers her bottle chilled).

4 months old already!

i can't believe it's been almost 4 months since our sweet little pickle came to stay with us! Tomorrow is her 4 monthday, and also her 4 month doctor's appointment. Hopefully we will get some guidance on the reflux, perhaps referrals if needed, etc. Meanwhile, i'm going to do something i try not to do too often: brag on my girl!

i know milestones don't really mean that much. Every baby develops differently, and if one baby is ahead on development, it really doesn't reflect on their parents. Similarly, if a baby is a bit behind, it doesn't mean the parents aren't great parents. So this is not a brag on me at all, just my girl! (Honestly i think her size and "performance-enhancing drugs" may be giving her an advantage lol)

According to BabyCenter.com, most 4 month olds will have mastered the following skills:
• Smiles, laughs - first smile 3.5 weeks, first laugh 5 weeks
• Can bear weight on legs - she started this before 2 months; now ALL she wants to do is stand
• Coos when you talk to him - she's been a babbling fool for over a month now

According to the same site, the following are emerging skills:
• Can grasp a toy - she's been doing this since 2 months!
• Rolls over, from tummy to back - she's been doing this for over a month (she also rolls back to tummy)

And, according to the same site, a few babies can do the following skills:
• Imitates sounds: "baba," "dada" - We have mini-sations and she imitates me...somewhat
• Cuts first tooth - okay, no teeth, but i don't consider this a "skill"
• May be ready for solid foods - The doctor will let us know tomorrow. She did have me feed cereal by spoon, and the tongue thrust seems to be gone, so that's good.


Now for the skills for 5 month olds (Mastered):
• Distinguishes between bold colors - hard to say, but she does watch things and track objects
• Plays with his hands and feet - yes, she especially enjoys her feet!

Emerging:
• Recognizes own name - no way! We're not even sure what to call her!
• Turns toward new sounds - She's been doing this for a month i would say
• Rolls over in both directions - Yes, she has been rolling back to front for a few weeks, and front to back for longer

A few babies can do this:
• Sits momentarily without support - Oh, yes, and she is a master tripod sitter now, after starting a month or more ago
• Mouths objects - And how!
• Separation anxiety may begin - thankfully not yet


So you see, i'm not just a doting mother when i call her my WonderBaby! ;) Thanks for bearing with me.

Continued reflux issues

At the beginning of the month (Labor Day Weekend) we tried switching D to soy because the reflux is just terrible. She balked at the taste, so we switched back to Similac Sensitive RS. She has had continued problems and was put on Prevacid about a week and a half ago, and it may be helping slightly. It takes up to 2 weeks for full effectiveness, so i'm still holding out hope.

By the way, have i mentioned how much i LOVE D's pedi? She's truly amazing. She calls, like, on her own without me calling first, to find out how D is doing. Once the test results came back, she decided to prescribe the Prevacid and change her formula again (this time to Similac Alimentum). TennCare (Medicaid) requires a special form for pre-authorization for the Prevacid, and WIC requires a special form for the formula. She stayed on a Friday night until 8 pm to get those forms faxed in and make sure they went through. Apparently the TennCare one took a long time, like hours. That's dedication!

So we decided to start D on the Alimentum even though WIC won't cover it until we can get to the office and get the coupons changed. It's twice as expensive, by the way. Well, not shockingly, D hates it. Almost as much as she hated soy. We started with 100%; no go. Then 50%, again no go. So i took it way down to 10% Alimentum and 90% RS, and she ate it but definitely didn't eat as much. We kept her on that for 2 days (and 2 long nights as she made up some of what she'd not eaten during the day at night). Then we went to 20%, and again she ate even less for 2 days. Then we tried 25% and she barely ate. Her little Buddha belly she'd been getting started shrinking, and that last fat roll on her legs i was so proud of went away. So, last night and today we went back to 100% old formula, and she has eaten more today, BUT she's back to having a bad night for reflux.

Sigh. It looks like the Alimentum, even at a low %, was helping her reflux and now that she's back on the old formula, she'll eat again but she'll hurt. You know, i knew parenting would be hard, but i thought it would be the extra work, the loss of freedom, the lack of sleep. Really it's the every day decisions of "Do i mix up 25% today or go back to the old formula?" and "Is it really okay to start solid foods early like the pedi wants to do?" that get to you and make you wonder if you're doing the right things.

D update

TennCare finally approved her Prevacid prescription, so i picked that up this evening. Hopefully it will start to work very soon and she'll have a lot of relief. It could have just been a good night, but it seemed like it already had an effect tonight. She didn't fuss her evening bottles like she usually does.

In other news, i think she's in her 3 month growth spurt. She had started STTN right after being prescribed Zantac, around 2 months old, which was great. Then she got sick and slept in the swing, and transitioning back to the crib added usually one night waking, which isn't that big a deal and we can handle that for sure. But the last few nights she's been waking 2-3 times a night, and last night she woke every 2 hours again. And she woke *hungry* last night, not just fussy like some other nights (oh, she'll eat a little, but usually not voraciously; last night she ate 3-5 ounces per waking which is a full bottle each time!). This evening she ate a 6 ounce bottle, which i think is a record, followed by a 4 ounce bottle before bedtime. And settled right down, thank goodness!

And, my husband is still amazing! Last night i took all the night wakings (not knowing it would be so darn many lol) because his back/neck have been killing him for a few nights. i didn't put away the laundry last night though, because i was just too tired. Today, he put away the laundry AND the dishes (normally he starts the laundry and gets it in the drier before work, and i put it away, and same with the dishwasher). What a sweetie!

OK, and this is completely ridiculous but totally effective. D's crib is slanted so that she's not flat at night; this helps with reflux. She also sleeps on an inclined wedge, so there's even more incline to hopefully help that much more. And she sleeps on her side, swaddled. She fights the swaddle and sliiiiiides down the incline, which is scary for me. i followed someone's advice and put a heavy pillow under her, and it worked for a couple of nights but then i woke up to find her face pressed against the pillow! Big no-no! So i took a pillow case, filled it with dry white beans, dry black beans, dry lentils (basically emptied the cupboard of dry beans lol), and threw in some lavender buds for good measure, tied up the pillow case, and now i tuck it underneath her tushie at night. It really seems to be working this time! It's pretty ridiculous, though.