Baby Powder

A big part of the process of packing is purging. I don't want to pack and haul stuff we don't really use. You'd think I wouldn't have *that* much purging to do since we just moved here four years ago, and I'm sure the quantity is less because of that, but still I've been doing a lot of purging this year. Salvation Army already made one trip here in the spring, and I'll be having them come again in September. I keep saying if we haven't used it in x years then we probably don't need it. One example would be the ice tea maker someone gave us for a wedding present. I've never used it. It wasn't something I registered for or thought I'd use, so I am not sure why I didn't give it away at our last move 4 years ago. However I've decided since we haven't used it in 7 years I'm not packing it up and hauling it to our next house. It's going in the donate pile. As I was looking in Nadia's closet, one thing I was uncertain if I really needed was baby powder. I ended up with a few containers of it. I must have purchased some 3 1/2 years ago when I bought a bunch of stuff for adoption and have also been given some. It's really not something that's supposed to be used on babies though, right? Why do they still sell the stuff in the aisle along with diapers and wipes and such? Well unless I am wrong and I will need this for Nadia later on, I plan on adding the baby powder containers (all unopened) to the donate pile. One thing I wish I hadn't bought in 2005 was baby wipes. Not that I don't use them for Nadia, but they had dried out even though they hadn't been opened. So if any of you readers are preparing for a possible last minute adoption, wait to buy the wipes.

It seems what works one day for Nadia doesn't work the next. So much for developing bedtime routines!! It seems we need one million tricks up our sleeve and have to go through them to find out which one works at that moment. Yesterday she did GREAT with her naps. She fell asleep for her first nap in the sling while we were shopping and slept in the car seat as well and had just the right length of nap by the time we got home from shopping. Then in the afternoon I nursed her in our bed and she took a great nap. I was able to mow the front lawn, get a shower, etc. while she napped. After she had been up a few hours I gave her Zyrtec and it did seem to make her a little "calmer" than usual so I mistakenly thought putting her to bed would be easy. It was not. I nursed her in bed and after she had been asleep transferred her to her crib where she slept a few minutes and then woke up. Getting her back to sleep took over an hour. Basically from the time I gave her the Zyrtec until she was actually down in her crib asleep was 4 1/2 hours. Daddy did give me a break in there for awhile. After that lengthy battle (I think she sees sleep as "the enemy"!) she slept 5 hours thankfully. Getting her back to sleep was again a challenge but thankfully when I put her down awake she didn't cry much before she fell asleep in her crib. Same went for her morning nap today. I nursed her in bed forever. Paul then gave her a bottle and eventually she fell asleep on him and then she took a decent nap on the boppy on the couch. He had tried getting her to sleep in her crib, but she kept waking up. I wouldn't say Nadia has colic as she can wake up in a happy mood and can be very pleasant for extended periods of time, but there are two things that are a big challenge with her #1 she likes to be held All The Time (thank heavens for the sling). She lasts only a couple of minutes on her own in the bouncer, swing, or activity gym before she starts crying and if she isn't rescued that quickly escalates to screaming and of course #2 is that getting her to sleep (naps and at night) is a BIG ordeal that rarely goes smoothly. However when she's held she's a content baby. In fact yesterday was the first time I felt she was definitely cooing. She's always making all sorts of noises, but yesterday was the first time I felt that when I was talking with her and we were making eye contact that she was trying to talk back to me (by cooing). It was so sweet!!!

I didn't make it to church this morning. I went upstairs to get ready and just decided I felt too lousy. I guess I should have napped yesterday instead of mowing the lawn, but it hadn't been mowed in a couple of weeks and really looked bad. I wonder if I am still anemic? Maybe I should get a doctor appointment. I have an appt with the hematologist scheduled as a follow up in October but maybe I need to be seen sooner? Or maybe it's just the combination of going back to work, caring for Nadia, and packing for a move. I knew that the beginning part of motherhood would be exhausting, but I admit I didn't expect to feel THIS tired for this long (almost 10 weeks now). Most of the time I have a headache - the kind I get when I'm tired. I haven't been taking anything for it since I'm nursing. Sometimes I get dizzy and lightheaded. That happened yesterday afternoon when I was packing during her afternoon nap. The other way that motherhood has been tough on my body has been my back. I usually sleep on my sides but that hurts due to nursing. So my lower back hurts very badly particularly when I get up in the morning.

I'm guessing my body could handle all of this a little better if I was 10 years younger. A few weeks ago a chemistry prof I know was chatting with me (Nadia was in the sling) and she was saying how she had a baby at the age of 20 and then her 2nd at the age of 35 and how much harder it was to care for a baby at 35. The way she said it I could tell she thought I was younger than 35 (which I take as a compliment!). She looked surprised when I said I'm 36. Of course there are women who have babies in their 40's so to them I am young. :-) I just wish I knew when things will get easier on me - when my headache will go away, etc. I hope the end is in sight. Being a mother is not an easy task although of course she's worth all the discomfort!!!!

I think she takes after her mommy and her length is in her torso. Plus she seems to be on the petite size. If the length measurement was accurate on Tuesday they said she's 21 inches. 0-3 months is for 21.5 to 24" and 8 to 12.5 lbs. She is definitely weighs enough to qualify for this size but might be a smidge short. Really though she was far more than 1/2 inch too short for those pants which is why I think she's like her mommy. I am 5'7" and yet can wear petite pants as my length is in my torso not my legs. Size 0-3 month clothing fits her fine when it comes to tops and dresses but not bottoms. She only owns ONE pair of newborn pants, and they are brown and white polka dot so it's not like I can put a bunch of different shirts with it. Maybe I can squeeze her into her two pair of preemie pants a bit longer until these 0-3 month pants fit her. I was hoping not to buy newborn pants as I am thinking they won't last too long, but maybe I need to just buy her a couple of pairs. I did see some cute newborn outfits yesterday, but I didn't buy any because I figured that size won't fit much longer. She has a few newborn size sleepers - some still fit and some don't fit any more. She's wearing some newborn and some 0-3 month sleepers now. I was hoping she'd wear the first dress I bought her (size 0-3 months) to church today. I bought this while pg on eBay. It's super dressy - she hasn't worn any really dressy dresses yet. I thought today would be the first, but I decided I really needed to rest. Unfortunately Nadia didn't cooperate so I didn't actually sleep although at least I did lie in bed (nursing her) for a couple of hours. If I can't sleep, being horizontal is the next best thing, and actually I have gotten to the point where I can sleep a few minutes here and there while she's nursing.

Sleep....

Yesterday afternoon I got a nap - something I really needed and hadn't had all week. I think it might have been due in part to the Zyrtec. I didn't read the side of the box where it said it might cause drowsiness. So I won't give it to her today until closer to bedtime. I actually had to wake her up from her nap which is highly unusual as she generally doesn't take long naps, but I didn't want her to think it was nighttime. Last night I tried to nurse and/or rock her to sleep in the glider (which used to work in the past) and after trying that for awhile I let her cry for a bit and when that didn't work I decided to just skip to nursing her in bed rather than turning trying to get her to bed into another 2-4 hour ordeal like it usually is. It worked like a charm. I nursed her and transferred her to her crib. Less than 15 minutes for that whole process. Then she slept for SIX hours straight. WOOHOOO!!! That was such a relief given the previous two nights the longest stretch was 3 hours. I nursed her for an hour in the glider (in her nursery) and put her down but she woke up. So I did the same thing and nursed her in our bed until she fell asleep (about 20 minutes). She woke up a little later but this time she cried less than 5 minutes and then slept 2 hours. The next time she woke up (6:00am) I just skipped straight ahead to the nurse her in bed stage and 45 minutes later transferred her to her crib where she slept for 80 minutes. I think tonight might be easy due to the Zyrtec, but if it's not I am going to skip ahead to the nurse her in bed step much sooner since it's working so well. I hope the Zyrtec clears up her congestion. When she coughs it sounds like a cat trying to cough up a furball. Poor girl! I've decided to stop the antibiotic since the first 12 days she was on it she showed no sign of improvement.

Zyrtec

Paul got some Zyrtec on Wednesday, but he got the wrong kind (for hives instead of for allergies and for 6 year olds not 2 year olds). So after school this morning I stopped and exchanged it for the kind Dr. M had suggested. She said to give Nadia 1/2 tsp a day for at least until the congestion clears up, and that we could consider giving it to her once a day for a year as some studies have shown doing that will prevent allergy problems later in childhood/adulthood. Nadia likes the taste of Zyrtec also (grape). I know some of you are nurses and some are married to doctors so I am looking for input on two issues. #1 should I really keep giving her antibiotics? She's been on Amoxicillan for 12 days now and I see no improvement. In fact Paul commented to me this morning that he thought her congestion was worse, and I agree that it is. We've been aspirating her little nose many times a day for 23 days. The saline definitely helps her breathing. Anyhow I am not a big fan of being on antibiotics unless they are really needed due to this leading to things like yeast infections and/or her becoming immune to this antibiotic. I feel like taking her off the antibiotic. So that's my first question. #2 I am definitely going to try the Zyrtec for a few days to see if it helps clear her congestion. My question though is about this theory of giving her 1/2 tsp every day for a year. Does this seem like a good idea? If it would work I would definitely be in favor. I just am not sure how well established this theory is and what possible negative effects there might be to giving her this drug every day at such a young age.

Thankfully she has been CALM this morning. She's almost back to how she was on Wed. I guess she's exhuasted due to the fact she was awake almost all day yesterday. I probably could have worn her in the sling while teaching, but of course I had no way of knowing that. I felt badly as the babysitter showed up bright and early at my office. I had sent her an email and posted on her wall in Facebook, but she didn't get the messages. We have now exchanged phone numbers. I paid her $50 today for M/W so today was my first time paying a babysitter. Having Grandma watch Nadia saved us a little $$ today although that was definitely not the reason I asked for her help. So hopefully I can get a nap this afternoon as I am still very, very, very tired. I had a hard time not yawning while teaching today. Nadia slept 3 hours last night and then was up for about 75 minutes and then slept 3 hours. So I got 6 hours of sleep. The second feeding was from 4:30-5:30am so I wasn't able to go back to sleep but Nadia did sleep while I was showering and eating breakfast. She woke up before I had put in my contacts etc so I put her in the sling. She likes me to bounce around or walk around while she's first in the sling or she'll cry. Let me say that although it's not too hard to bounce while blowdrying, it's rather challenging to bounce while putting in contact lenses, LOL.

Well I feel so much more relaxed today now that Nadia is calm again. I could tell early this morning that she had calmed down but figured it was too late to change gears as far as calling Paul's mom. I think she really enjoyed spending time with Nadia anyhow. She hadn't seen her in 10 days. I will say I have great sympathy for those with colicky babies. Yikes. Just one afternoon of nonstop crying was very hard for me!!! Nadia is generally a happy baby aside from in the evenings when we're trying to get her to bed. She seems to fight sleep like I've never seen another baby do - especially if it means sleeping in her crib. Last night she went to sleep in our bed and then at 11pm I woke up and transferred her to her crib. She definitely prefers sleeping with Mommy. I am sooooo glad we have a three day weekend in store. I don't go back to work until Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully I'll get lots of sleep this weekend and also get some packing done, and hopefully Nadia's congestion will clear up soon. She won't go back to school until Wednesday morning.

Grandma

I decided it was highly unlikely that it would work out for me to care for Nadia while teaching from 8:25-8:50 and 9:00-9:20 so Paul called his mom and she agreed to come up to our house and babysit Nadia from 7:30-11:30. I'll cancel my office hours tomorrow so that I can get home earlier than I usually would. The other reason is that Nadia had an AWFUL day. From 8:20am when she got up until 5:15pm she slept a whopping 30 minutes total. Instead she screamed. So I didn't get the nap I was hoping for aside from getting 5 minutes here and there myself. I hope this is from the shot and hope it will wear off ASAP. I hope she sleeps tonight. She sure should be tired!!!! In case she would still be fussy tomorrow (fussy seems too mild of a term to use to be honest) that was the other reason we asked Paul's mom to come up and watch her. So her next day at school won't be until Wednesday since Monday is Labor Day. She'll have a different babysitter next week. Ashley and Angela are alternating weeks. I have to say I felt like a horrible mom today. I know it's not true, but it's hard not to feel that way when your little one just keeps crying and crying and crying. It's funny because earlier in the week I said my goals for Thursday were to mow the front lawn and get a lot of packing done. Last night my goal for today changed to - get sleep (naps). Then as the day went on my goal switched to - get Nadia to stop crying. Well I didn't get any packing done or mow or get a nap, but she has been calm the last couple of hours. I'm going to try to put her to bed shortly (8pm).

The only thing I accomplished was to sort through her clothes. It was very sad for me as I realized there are more than 10 outfits (size 0-3 months) that she never wore and never will as they are too summery (sleeveless etc). Really she doesn't fit 0-3 month size bottoms yet. The shirt fit that she wore today but the bottoms kept falling down. She never wore the outfit we bought her in St. Thomas for example - the first outfit I bought her was a tshirt/shorts size 0-3 months, but it still doesn't fit her so she'll never wear it. :-( A few others were ones I purchased, but mostly they were baby shower gifts. I have only one thing in size 0-3 months that is long sleeved (a dress) besides the 3 sleepers that are of course long sleeved. So I need to get her some 0-3 month play clothes and a couple of dresses for the fall. It will be fun to shop for her! :-) I do have a few outfits in size 3-6 months that are long sleeved that I was given as gifts (maybe 3-4 outfits), and I just ordered her one dress in that size on eBay earlier this week. I'll hold off on buying in that size until I know for sure when she's going to start wearing that size. For now I'll just buy some warmer clothes in size 0-3 months. Her arms get cold rather easily so I think she needs to wear long sleeved clothing.

Exhausted Mom

Well unfortunately the fact that Nadia slept pretty much all of the time she wasn't eating from 8am to 4pm didn't help me get any sleep since most of that time I was at work and then my dept chair said he'd call me at 3:30pm so I stayed awake for his call (and he never called). She had slept easily in the pack n play in my office, but when I tried to put her down in her crib at home after nursing her to sleep she only lasted a few minutes before she woke up. So the bottom line is I didn't get a nap.

I tried to put her to bed early, but that didn't work even though she had been yawning for hours so I knew she was tired. We went back to our usual routine of it taking literally hours to get her down. She finally cried herself to sleep at 9pm (I have started letting her cry again but never more than 15 minutes). She slept 3 hours. I nursed her from midnight to 12:30, and she went down easily which was a relief. However she woke up 90 minutes later and was then up for over 2 hours. When I started nursing her at 2am I was so tired I felt like I was going to throw up. I closed my eyes to see if that would help, but it didn't. I called to Paul and asked him to bring me a trash can in case I threw up while nursing. This is normal for me in years past when I am really super, duper exhausted I feel like I am going to throw up (and actually have upon occasion). Of course there are other symptoms that come up first (headache which gets progressively worse for one) and usually I go to bed before I get to the really nauseous stage. With a baby her needs come first so my need for sleep had to be ignored. What finally worked (after 4am) was I was nursing her lying down in bed and she fell asleep in our bed and that's where she is still (she did wake up since then and I nursed her again in bed). I'm up because the plumber is here. He called at 7am and asked me to go down to the basement and check on something and then he arrived about 7:45am.

I was trying to figure out why I seemed to be more tired last night than any night the previous 9 weeks. There were other weeks when I got less sleep. I think the answer is it's the combination of going back to work and caring for a newborn and packing our house to move. Even before I became a mommy I was always tired the first week of school; it's an adjustment getting back into that routine especially when I'm teaching at 8am (last semester I taught in the afternoons not mornings). Now this semester I'm getting up even earlier than I used to when I taught at 8:00am before (5:30am) because getting for ready for work includes nursing Nadia. Most of the summer I've been getting up between 7-8am which is later than usual for me but has enabled me to compensate a little for all the hours I am up during the middle of the night. So I think that's another reason I am exhausted. Well thankfully Monday is Labor Day so next week will be a little shorter of a work week. I haven't gotten any naps this week; hopefully I can get one today.

Last night I kept thinking how badly I wish I was a SAHM and also not moving. I feel like I can't do either job as well as I'd like to. I don't have as much time or energy to give either Nadia or my job when I am juggling both. I was wishing Paul had a job around here, and I could just stay home with Nadia and not need to pack up the house in the next few weeks. I guess thinking like that won't do me any good, eh? Reality is Paul will be a FT student for the next 4-5 years just like he has been since January 2006, and we have to move as his commute is too long (and expensive in terms of gas $$) right now. Hopefully juggling everything will become more manageable for me once we move and Nadia starts sleeping through the night. Many have told me that 12 weeks is the time when their child slept through the night. That's just 3 weeks away and boy would I love that, but I know it might not happen since Nadia is small for her age due to being premature. Dr. M said we have to add about 4 weeks to all the "norms" of when certain behaviors are expected since that's about how early she came.

I have her in an outfit today that she's never worn before. I was looking through her 0-3 month clothing and several outfits are sleeveless. It's already too cool for those. Prior to her birth I had washed all the 0-3 month clothing (hadn't washed anything larger than that) as I thought that's what she'd be wearing this summer. I feel badly as most of it will never be worn by her. The 3 sleepers will come in handy but most everything else is too summery. I'll hold onto it just in case we have another girl some day, or maybe they'd make good doll clothes for her dolls (not that she has any dolls yet but some day she'll have her first doll that's for sure!) or I'll find someone to give them to. I need to buy her some clothing for the fall/winter.

I'd appreciate prayers that I get some sleep today and/or a better night's sleep tonight and also that Nadia will have a good day in my office and classroom tomorrow. She was good as gold yesterday but that was due to the shots so it doesn't really count. I don't want to have to put her in daycare or something like that, but my plan of bringing her to work will only work if she's pretty quiet. I can't have her screaming for so long like she did while I was teaching on Monday.

Sleepyhead!

This is another photo of Nadia from Sunday. I haven't seen her eyeballs too much since she had her shots yesterday. She slept well last night - almost 6 hours the first stretch and then after nursing for about 30 minutes she slept for 3 1/2 hours and might have slept longer, but I woke her up to nurse her before going to work. I nursed her a little more in my office before the babysitter arrived. I had gotten reports from additional faculty members of how much she had screamed on Monday. Thankfully no one seemed upset. So I shared additional tricks with Ashley - use the sling, give her a little milk, etc. Well the tricks weren't needed today as she slept very easily in the pack n play for most of the 3 hours I was teaching. She didn't cry at all. She did drink most of the 2 bottles I provided (one with my milk and one with formula). I brought extra as I knew I wasn't going to be able to nurse right after class like I did on Monday because I had appts with students right after class. I wasn't able to nurse her until we came home. She's pretty much a zombie. She looks like she's on sedatives or something like that! She didn't even cry when I squirted the saline up her nose - that's how out if it she is! I'm going to try to keep her awake some in the early evening as I don't want her to be up all night. I gave the same advice to Paul yesterday and wish I hadn't.

He woke her up at 6:30pm and was trying to keep her awake until I got home at 8pm. Well unfortunately the only options last night were sleeping or screaming so she screamed for 90 minutes. Paul opened the garage door prior to my arrival home and was waiting at the door so he could hand her to me asap. He's never opened the garage door for me before, LOL. I nursed her but she fell asleep before I could do both sides. I should have pumped the other side as then that kept me awake later in the night I was lying there thinking WHEN is she going to wake up (and all the other nights I wanted her to sleep but that one side hadn't been nursed in about 11 hours!). So finally I got up at 2:15am and started pumping (I should have gotten up sooner instead of lying there awake for so long in pain) and a few minutes into pumping she woke up and I nursed her. So that's two nights in a row of only ONE feeding in the night. That is wonderful! I hope this is a trend. One feeding a night would be terrific especially if she goes down easily after I feed her. When she has her 4 month shots I won't try to keep her awake as she's now slept very well for almost 24 hours so I won't worry that her sleeping in the afternoon/early evening after shots means she won't sleep at night. One of the nursing profs said she noticed this pattern that colicky babies (I wouldn't say Nadia has colic but she definitely leans more in that direction) tended to sleep and be easy going for a day or so after their shots whereas easy babies are often fussy for a day or so after stheir hots. Interesting. So Daddy survived his first night alone. It cracked me up when he told me that he ate dinner while she napped but he wasn't able to get any other work done (he was referring to the fact that he hadn't emptied the dishwasher). I responded that I completely understood that - often times I don't get much else done except care for her! :-) I think next Tuesday will go more smoothly for him since there won't be any shots involved. I hope so anyhow!

Since errands are trickier with Nadia, I asked him if he'd stop at CVS on his way home from school to get her Zyrtec and Amoxicillan, and I stopped on the way home to get pizza for our dinner and go to the bank (we finally got our "economic stimulas" check on Monday). Thankfully since she's in chilled out mode she was fine going through the drive thru at the bank, and the pizza shop is kind enough to carry the pizza out to my car.

One thing I have to say is I am super duper glad that I turned down overload this semester. I would have been teaching another class tonight if I had accepted it. It's a course I've taught every semester since Fall 2004 so in that sense it would have been easy, and my dept was really in need of faculty members to teach overload (ironically we've wanted it in the past and not been allowed to have it), but I had to decline. I can't imagine teaching tonight. I am pooped from teaching last night and again early this morning (I went to bed an hour after Nadia and got up 45 minutes before she did so I am tired). I hope to take a nap after she finishes nursing. The best news is that although I have to get up early for the plumber (who is arriving between 7:30-8:00am) other than that I have no appointments tomorrow. Thursday is my stay at home day which will turn into a packing day until we move.

Friday both of my babysitters have a meeting they have to attend on campus from 8:30-9:15, and I teach from 8:00-8:50, 9:00-9:50, and 10:00-10:50 so Nadia will be in class with me in the sling for part of my 8:00 and 9:00 classes that day. Hope that works out to have her in the sling during that time frame. I'm sure my students will enjoy getting to see her in person (so far just photos).

Ouch!

Nadia is 9 weeks old and almost 9 lbs! All of the previous weight measurements at the pediatrician were with her diaper on (no clothes just a diaper), but today's was without a diaper. I think if it had been with the diaper she would have been a little over 9 lbs. Without her diaper she weighed 8lb 15 1/4 oz. Just 3/4 of an ounce away from 9 lbs on the day she turned 9 weeks old. The poor girl got stabbed three times today. She bled a little in one leg and a LOT from the other leg. That look in her eyes when the first needle went in was very painful emotionally for her Mommy! The fourth immunization was given orally. She liked that one a lot as it tasted sweet. If only they could all be given that way! Paul and I drove separately to her doctor appt. She rode in with Mommy and back home with Daddy. It's the first time the base was used in his car; it was her first ride in any vehicle other than Mommy's car. I hope she's good for Daddy tonight. The doctor said she could have some Tylenol if it seemed like she needed some. Paul has never been home alone with her before, and he'll have her for 4 1/2 hours until I get home at 8pm. Hopefully it will go well. This will be the longest I've ever been separated from her, but at least she's with her Daddy!

Last night she was a very good sleeper. She slept 5 1/2 hours and after nursing for 45 minutes went down easily and slept another 3 hours. That meant I got about 8 hours of sleep. Woohoo! I still feel tired, but I guess it will take awhile until I make up for all that sleep I've lost. The doctor said that if Nadia weighed more she'd probably be sleeping at least 6 hours in a stretch but that it will take longer for her to sleep through the night since she started out small. In church yesterday they announced the birth of another grandbaby for our Pastor (his first grandson), and that baby weighed over 10lbs at birth. Nadia is 2 months older than him and weighs less! However she's now 22 inches long so she's grown almost 3 inches! I believe it. The newborn sleeper I had her in today really is too small in the legs and arms. She's definitely ready for 0-3 month size sleepers and dresses. I am still not sure about the other 0-3 month outfits. I guess I'll have to try some more on her, but they still look rather big for her.

As for her congestion, Dr. M said to renew her antibiotics and continue for another 10 days. I didn't think it did any good the last 10 days, but I will follow the doctors orders. Nadia likes the taste of it so she won't object, LOL. She also suggested having her take a tiny bit of Zyrtec every day in case it's allergies. She said we might consider giving her a small dose of Zyrtec every day until she's one year old. She said it's been shown to decrease problems with allergies later in life, and allergies are usually passed down from the mother so Nadia has a high liklihood of developing allergies (I had weekly allergy shots for a few years as a child). I personally think it's more likely to be allergies. Poor girl has been congested for 3 weeks now! She hates the saline spray up her nose but frankly that seems to do far more good than the aspiration as sometimes there isn't anything that far down that the aspirator can do any good. Paul found a different kind that seems to be easier to use than the "Little Noses." It's called Baby Simply Saline. Well I need to get ready for class. I teach from 5:00-7:30 this evening. I hope Nadia has a good evening. I'll be anxious to get home and see how she's doing and nurse her before I put her to bed.

Phones

Paul has never owned a cell phone. I've had one for about 10 years, but for most of that time I've had one "just for emergencies" that cost less than $10 a month. For the last maybe 3 years we've had a prepaid phone that costs us $8.33 a month, and we barely used it so we had a credit exceeding $100 on it. So we've been using it a lot lately to use up the credit as we planned to get 2 cell phones (family plan) now that Paul is on the road so much driving to PSU 5 days a week. We've decided to go without a landline in our new home. I think that this plan will cost the same per month as what we previously paid for cell, local, and long distance. What really has jacked up our phone bill the most every month is the "local toll" charges for Paul to call his parents. That alone is usually $30 a month as the rate is more expensive than even long distance (which makes no sense to me when they're only 30 minutes away). Since Paul's parents and my parents both have Verizon cell phones, that's what we went with in light of free mobile to mobile minutes. I've often been resistant to cell phones, but with our busy schedules and Paul's long drive, I figure some days that might be our best chance to talk is when Paul is on interstate 80. So even though we're finally joining the "norm" let me say we are not into text messages. Neither of us have ever sent a text message, and I haven't enjoyed receiving the few I've gotten on the old phone since I get charged for them. So we haven't totally come up to speed with the current generation. My college students always think it's so funny when I tell them I've never sent a text message in my life and have no desire to do so. I think typing a message using a regular phone keypad would take me forever for one thing!!

I learned today that while I am teaching I need to unplug the phone in my office as the babysitter got Nadia to sleep and then the phone woke her up and it took her awhile to get her back to sleep. Poor Nadia, Ashley, and all the others who had to listen to her scream for a long time. :-( The phone also woke her up at home this afternoon, but I was able to get her back to sleep more easily than the babysitter (no offense to her!). So phones haven't been a good thing for Nadia today! I put her on her activity gym for some "tummy time" and she conked out instead so I'd say the girl is tired!

She's probably tired because first of all she woke up at 5:50am and was awake until I gave her to the babysitter at 7:45am and it sounds like she only slept about 30 minutes until I came back for her at 10:50am. I stepped in the shower at 5:50 and that's when she woke up. So Paul held her while she screamed until I got out of the shower and got dressed and changed her diaper and then nursed her. It was a zany morning as I was blowdrying with her in the sling, etc. I left earlier than I normally will (7:00am) and found it wasn't a good time to leave as I was behind a school bus most of the way there. Thankfully she didn't cry in the car going or coming back.

It was hard to leave her, and it was even harder to stay away. I was very tempted to go check on her at 8:50 and 9:50. I also got paranoid part way through my 10:00 class that I was leaking. I am not sure why I was worried about it as the only time my shirt has ever gotten stained is during the night while I'm sleeping. Well I was greatly relieved to find out at 10:50 that I had not leaked while teaching, but then ironically while holding her and talking to the babysitter that's when I leaked on one side. So I was frantically trying to get my shirt to dry off before I had anyone show up during my office hours. I need to bring a sweater and leave it in my office so I can cover up any future wet spots. I also need to try to minimize the time between when I start holding her and start nursing her. At least I didn't leak while teaching. That would have been much worse as no one saw my wet spot today. Not surprisingly, Nadia woke up with Ashley put her down (asleep) into the pack n play. Ashley said she had to hold her the whole time. I will work on that at home, but the office is not the place to work on it. I don't want other profs complaining of a screaming baby. I really want this plan to work of Nadia coming to work with me. I am going to see if I can put her to sleep on Wednesday before Ashley comes at 7:50.

I have decided to try to leave as close to 12:30 every day (MWF) as much as possible. I did well today (left at 12:45). I was asked to come to a meeting at 12:15 tomorrow and I turned it down (said I'd be available by phone if they needed my input on anything). I am trying to limit my time at work, and saying "no" doesn't come easily for me so it's taking effort on my part, LOL. She won't be going to school on Tuesdays. Paul will watch her instead. Tomorrow she has her 2 month appt at 2:30 and is supposed to get her shots. She's still very congested so we shall see if she has her shots or not. Maybe she has allergies? Last night she slept from 8:45 to 2:05am which was awesome but then she was up for 2 hours which wasn't fun. Then she slept almost 2 hours until she was up for the day. So I got about 7 hours of sleep which isn't too bad.

Photos: #1 of Nadia with her babysitter, Ashley, #2 in the pack n play in my office, #3 of Nadia in the car seat after we got home - her first day of classes pooped her out, lol, and #4 of the bottom of her socks which say "I love my mommy"

Growing Girl!

August 5th (6 weeks old)

August 24th (2 months old)

July 10th (2 weeks old)

August 5th (6 weeks old)

August 24th (2 months old)

Two Months Old!

Today Nadia is wearing the same dress she wore the first time she went to church. Well today will be the last because it's a dress for spring/summer not fall but also because it's getting too small! It barely reaches her knees. She has definitely grown! I don't take pictures of the back of her head, but the hair back there has really grown as well in terms of how far it hangs over the collar of her dress.

Last night was an absolutely WONDERFUL night. Nadia went to sleep at 9:30 and slept until 2:30. Then although the remaining stretches were only about 75-90 minutes each what made it so wonderful is she only nursed about 20 minutes and then went down very easily every time which is a HUGE improvement as she used to nurse 60 minutes and then go down but lately it's taken 2-4 hours to get her back down. So that meant I got a little more than 8 hours of sleep! WOOHOOOOO! I hope this is the beginning of a new trend. :-) Now I shall write a little letter to my two month old Nadia (the first photo she's wearing a sleeper size 0-3 months which shows she's grown as she's gone from preemie to newborn and now to size 0-3 months!).

Dear Nadia,

I love you soooo much. When we are separated even if it's just for an hour while I do something like mow the lawn, I miss you!!! Sometimes when you're snuggled up on me I still think to myself - is this truly my sweet little daughter? I've wanted to be a mommy for soooo long and sometimes I still can't believe that dream has finally come true. Although you don't have many ways to express love yet, I know you like to be near me and that means sooo much although I think you're giving your Daddy a complex. He thinks you don't like him very much.

Daddy is a really special guy, and he's a wonderful father. He loves you soooo much. A few days ago he was laughing while holding you and this caused you to smile (on purpose - mostly you only smile in your sleep these days). This meant a lot to your Daddy! He loves to laugh and smile and make those around him, especially you and I, smile and laugh also.

Thank you for sleeping so well last night. Mommy is going back to work tomorrow, and it would really help her a lot if you would keep sleeping well at night. Some people don't need much sleep, like your Grandma Harton's father didn't ever sleep very much. Your mommy is not like that at all. She really needs her sleep! I wish I didn't have to go back to work, but the good news is that we'll only be separated for about 13 hours a week. Daddy will take care of you at home for about 4 hours on Tuesday nights while Mommy teaches, and Ashley and Angela will take turns caring for you for 9 hours a week in my office. The only babysitter I've left you with so far has been Grandma Kennedy. It will be hard for Mommy to leave you with Ashley tomorrow, but I know she'll take very good care of you, and Mommy will be just around the corner teaching.

It's been so wonderful to have you join our family and to spend so much time with you the last 2 months. I can't wait to get to know you better and watch you grow and learn many things in the coming days, weeks, and months. I know I give you lots and lots of kisses and take lots and lots of pictures of you (it's only 1pm and we've already taken 31 pictures of you today), and that probably won't be changing any time soon!

Lots of love, hugs, and kisses,

Mommy

Miss Popularity

Last night Nadia went down at 7:30, and I went down at 8:30. She slept 4 hours then was up for 2 hours then slept 2 hours then was up 30 minutes then slept 2 hours. Altogether over 11 1/2 hours I'd say she slept 8 hours. So it was a good night aside from her being up from 11:30-1:45am. This morning she took a nice nap in her crib so that was also good. She's still congested; today is day #17.


One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was how VERY popular Nadia was. Wow! I think that is the closest I ever felt to experiencing what movie stars/athletes/rock stars etc experience. If Nadia was out of the sling a student would say something like "look at that little baby" and then I'd have literally a MOB of students around me admiring Nadia. At the picnic when I went up to the microphone to introduce myself, I took her with me and introduced her as well. At the faculty meeting the Provost was there and he asked if she was our newest faculty member. Nadia had many admirers yesterday, and I let of my colleauges hold her at various points in the day as well as Ashley who will be her babysitter next week. I expected Nadia to be a magnet at church since so many had prayed for her for so long, but I admit I wasn't expecting her to be such a magnet with the college students!

Back to Work

Well Nadia and I went to school today. We left the house at 8:30am and didn't return until 5;00pm. Thankfully most days won't be that long. I was exhausted at the end of the day, and I think Nadia was also as I just put her down (easily for once) at 7:30pm. I am going to head to bed myself shortly once I feel certain she's really going to stay asleep. My meetings were on all different places on campus so I got a good workout with her in the sling especially as the campus is on a hill. I have to start by saying that she slept SIX HOURS STRAIGHT last night. WOOHOOO! I was soooooooooooooooo thankful! She slept from 9:45pm to 3:45am! Then she was up for quite awhile. I think it was 5:30 when she went back asleep. I felt badly as I had to wake her up at 7:45 to get dressed as I wanted to nurse her before I left at 8:30am. She slept in the car and slept through my first mtg (until 10:30am), and then I nursed her for 45 minutes before heading to a picnic with the students at 11:30am. After the picnic I nursed her again before going to the faculty meeting. She got fussy in the beginning so I gave her a bottle and after downing one ounce she conked out and slept the rest of the mtg. I wanted to nurse her after the mtg but people were coming to my office so I gave her more bottle. I left feeling totally drained. I guess it's because I was doing two jobs at once - caring for my sweet 8 week old daughter while also doing my job at work. That is tiring! I won't be teaching with her in the room, and that's a good thing. I forgot to mention yesterday in my "errands" post that although running errands is easier without her, I miss her when I'm running them alone. I really do. I love her so much, and it's hard to leave the house without her.

I probably looked absurd as I went into my office this morning as I had Nadia in the sling and then over one shoulder I had a bag with my work laptop computer and over the other shoulder the diaper bag. Then in one hand I had another bag (with a pack of diapers, pack of wipes, etc.) and in the other hand I was carrying the pack n' play. Yikes!!! Thankfully on the way out I only had Nadia plus 2 bags (diaper and computer). Hopefully Paul will finish his thesis this weekend so I can go back to leaving my laptop at work as then I'll only have one bag plus Nadia. The pack n' play fit perfectly in my office right in between my desk and the doorjam - the exact right size! At first I changed her diaper on a changing pad on the floor a couple of times (and snagged my nylons the first time on the velcro) but then switched to using the pack n play as I had the bassinet part in the top so I don't have to lean down too far. I left one (Steeler) bib there, one pack of diapers, one pack of wipes, one thing of diaper cream, one boppy (the "generic" one which isn't as nice as the real one that I still have at home), and one activity gym thing. She has a home away from home in my office. :-) I kept her bottle in the frig as well as her antibiotic. I changed her diaper 5 times in my office today so the janitor will have a treat when he empties my trash can, LOL. Thankfully I'm good friends with him. :-)

The first two photos were taken this morning to commemorate her first day of school. Monday is the first day of classes. The bottom photo was taken this evening. Mommy needs to do the laundry - all her newborn size sleepers are in the hamper. So she wore a 0-3 month size sleeper for the first time, and it fit! I bought this one 3 years ago. It's the only sleeper I've purchased. Hopefully she'll sleep as well as she did last night!!! That would be awesome as I am exhausted.

Errands

Well I used to prefer to do a whole bunch of errands at once rather than making several trips. I think with a little one though my preference might change at least when she's with me. Last week I had several errands to run -sign paperwork at the realtor, pick up special paper for Paul's thesis at Staples, get groceries at Weis, and pick up pizza for dinner. She did well with the first few errands, but by the end she was crying (screamed the whole drive home). At each place I transferred her from the car seat to the sling. Thankfully a guy at the pizza place has always willing to carry the pizza out to the car for me ever since I've had Nadia which is nice. Anyhow when I am with Nadia I think I need to limit the number of times I am transferring her in/out of her car seat. However, when her Grandma is babysitting and I am running errands by myself (like this week) then I'll try to accomplish as much as possible on one trip. It hit me last week that running errands must be REALLY a challenging task if one has more than one newborn. I always wanted twins, but while running errands last week I was thinking I wasn't sure how I could accomplish this if I had two seven week old babies.

Last week at Weis I had purchased 5 of a certain item because if you bought 5 they'd give you a $2 coupon or your next trip. That's the only reason I bought 5 packs of them. Well I realized right after I left that I wasn't given the coupon so I went back to the cashier who said I'd have to go to customer service. I discovered a huge line at customer service and decided it wasn't worth it with a fussy baby. I have changed! Before I was a Mommy I would definitely have waited in that long line for my $2 coupon, LOL. Nadia doesn't know yet that her Mommy is a penny pincher. She'll figure it out one of these days I'm sure. :-)

Last night seemed like it was starting out the same way as she only slept a little more than 2 hours the first stretch (and we were used to getting at least 4 hours). Thankfully though it "only" took me until 1:45am to get her back to sleep (75 minutes less than the previous night). That was not a fun time for Paul and I though (11:15pm-1:45am), but then she SLEPT until 5:30am. MUCH appreciated! And unlike the last several days, I was able to get her to go back down after I fed her. So I feel much, much, much better today. Yesterday I did get a lot of schoolwork done despite my exhaustion and headache, and Paul mowed the backyard. One new problem is that I am finding it harder to fall asleep during the day and night. Usually I am out within a very short time of hitting the pillow. That has gradually been changing. I am not used to napping and not used to my sleep being interrupted so much. Also I find I wake up frequently even when she doesn't (like during that time she slept until 5:30). I just don't seem to sleep soundly any more even when I am utterly exhausted. I just hope that she'll start sleeping through the night maybe when she hits the 12 week mark as it seems that's when it happens for a lot of babies. I have a busy day at school tomorrow so I am hoping tonight to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep.

I called the pediatrician today to see if we should bring her in as we think she sounds worse and she's been on the antibiotics for 3 full days now. They said to wait until her appt (Tues) when she's supposed to get her 2 month shots. Today is her 14th day of not feeling well. I really hope her congestion clears ASAP. It's painful to listen to her breathe. :-( Poor little Nadia.... She's asleep on the boppy on my lap right now. I think I'll transfer her to the sling and start packing. What a difference a few extra hours of sleep makes. I have soooo much more energy today!!! :-)

P.S. I cannot believe I didn't put this on the list yesterday. #27 She has SUPER kissable cheeks. I kiss her soooooooo many times a day. She also gets kisses from Daddy and Grandma. :-)

600th post

I started this blog in Dec 2006 to chronicle our journey to adopt 2 chidren from Ukraine, but God had a different plan in store - Nadia! From reading Joy's blog I learned that it's customary to share 100 things about yourself on your 100th post. I didn't do that. I am not sure if there are any other "traditions" as far as other posts (500 or 1,000 or whatever). Speaking of blogging customs, what is the usual way to answer questions posed through comments? I am not sure whether to post a comment with the answer or answer the questions in a future post???? Well anyhow in honor of the 600th post, I am going to list facts about Nadia (not 600 though!!!).

1. She likes to be swaddled from the armpits down when she is sleeping.

2. She sits in my lap ever so attentive while I play the piano or sing to her while I play the piano. It's a great way to calm her down if she's upset.

3. If she has to be somewhere other than someone's arms when she's awake, the boppy is her first choice and she definitely prefers the bouncer to the swing although I can't say she's a big fan of the bouncer unless she's really tired.

4. She smiles and laughs in her sleep - a lot. Her laugh is just the sweetest sound in the whole wide world (to me anyhow). I can't wait to hear her laugh when she's awake.

5. When she's awake she's in constant motion. Her arms are rarely still whether she's being nursed or whatever. Paul says she's going to talk with her hands like her Mommy. She also frequently sticks her tongue out, and if she's lying down while she's awake then she does what Paul refers to as leg lifts. I am not surprised by her level of activity given how active she was in the womb!

6. She rarely spits up, and if she does it's generally just a tiny bit on her chin. She has never spit up on her clothes. She spit up on my clothes once in the last 8 weeks.

7. She rarely is quiet. When she's not crying she is making all sorts of other squeaks and sounds. Sometimes she sounds like a little mouse. She gets the hiccups a lot and to me they sound like "ribbit" "ribbit" so sometimes I say she's like a little frog. Paul doesn't like it when I say that as he doesn't think frogs are cute (but mice are?). She makes many sounds in her sleep as well. I think I had the monitor turned on in my bedroom maybe 1-2 nights once we were home and then I realized every little sound would wake me up and I can hear her crying without the monitor. Actually the same goes for the living room downstairs. If she's wailing I can hear her without the monitor. So we don't use the monitor too much. I would get even less sleep than I do now if she slept in our room (more than she does anyhow - sometimes she does sleep with us a little). As it is with her in the other room I still sometimes wake up when I hear her and then I peek in and see she's still asleep and go back to bed.

8. She's not big on pacifers. Brands like Nuk are immediately ejected from her mouth. Sometimes the Soothie ones help to comfort her, and she is getting a little better at keeping it in her mouth. Most of the time however they are of no assistance in calming her. Sometimes she sucks on her fist but that's usually more a sign of hunger than anything else.

9. She's only been in the Snugli once, but it worked well (for Paul) that one time. I've used the sling with her many times and as long as I am walking (or at least standing) they work pretty well most of the time. I am not sure how we'd survive a trip to the grocery store without the sling because

10. she doesn't like the infant car seat. Sometimes she falls asleep in the car and other times she screams the entire trip. However she does not like to be in the car seat in the house. She again went down to sleep easier last night in her crib (rather than the car seat we'd been using).

11. She's grown a lot in the last 8 weeks. We were using both "layers" of the head positioner in the car seat and now she's "graduated" to only using one of them. She's outgrown some clothes (in length) and others that were too long before now fit her or are getting small as well.

12. She loves to have her back rubbed. Patting works as well at times, but I think she likes it being rubbed the best. It can calm her when she's upset and definitely helps to put her to sleep.

13. She's much calmer with me than with Paul particularly with things like diaper changes and having her nose aspirated.

14. Her eyes are still blue so maybe they're going to stay blue like her Daddy's?

15. Her hair is still brown, and it didn't fall out thankfully (I know that happens with some babies). It's actually grown quite a bit and is filling in more and more. I can't wait until it's long enough for things like pigtails and such! :-)

16. Her belly button is still DEFINITELY an outie...like I've never seen before. I don't know where she got that as Paul and I have innies (even at 36w pg, LOL).

17. She used to wake up crying immediately, but lately she wakes up and is happy for a little bit before she starts crying and she doesn't usually go to a scream immediately unless I take too long to come get her.

18. She's also outgrown her first bathtub (this small pink basin from NICU) and she had her first bath in the BIG tub (using a bath cradle I bought 3 years ago) on Saturday. She usually enjoys her baths (which wasn't true at first).

19. We usually give her a bottle about once a day (usually 4 oz) and she doesn't like it if it's cold (as in straight from the refrigerator). We need to at least warm it up by holding it under warm running water. She has no trouble switching back and forth between the bottle and being nursed.
20. Nadia's favorite places to nap are on my chest or on the boppy on my lap leaned up against me. To get her to nap elsewhere generally requires over an hour of effort. So the last nap Mommy got was on Sunday which means I've had a bad headache the last couple of days. Last night I got less than 5 hours of sleep as she was up from 11:30pm-3:00am and then only slept until 5am. I really, really need a nap today and/or more sleep tonight. I had planned to do some packing or mow the backyard today (which hasn't been mowed in 7 weeks since my mom did it last). I mowed the front yard once, and Paul mowed the front yard once in that time frame. However I feel so awful I don't think any packing or mowing will get done today.

21. Nadia was born w/o any eyelashes. They started to come in slowly while in the NICU. Since then they have grown longer and gotten darker, but they are still nothing like her Mommy's. Even as an infant I had long, dark eyelashes (while my hair at that point was blonde).

22. She also was born w/o any eyebrows. She has some light brown hair there, but she's had a lot less progress with those compared to her eyelashes.

23. She really likes the taste of Tylenol and Amoxicillan.

24. Her hands get ice cold when she sleeps in her crib even if the room is really warm and she's dressed in layers, long sleeves, etc.

25. She makes the cutest facial expressions even while sleeping. She dispays quite a variety!

26. She loves to arch her back although that isn't good while nursing.

I look forward to learning many more things about Nadia in the coming days, weeks, months, and years ahead!

8 Weeks old

Nadia is EIGHT weeks old as of today! Last night wasn't a good night as she slept 3 hours the first stretch and then was up every hour after that and got up for good rather early. The one upside of last night was that she went to bed very easily every time. We had her sleep in her crib. I am not sure if that is why she went down easier. I am not sure which is better though to have her sleep longer stretches and have it take so long to get her down or shorter stretches but easier to go down. She's still very congested. Today is day 13 of frequently aspirating her nose. She loves the taste of the antibiotics but is still learning how to swallow it - some of it is "ejected" although not intentionally as she really likes the stuff! Her Grandma came up today to babysit her while I went shopping for 90 minutes.

Doctors Appointments

I called this morning and asked that Nadia be seen by a doctor even though she doesn't have a fever as today is her 12th day of being very congested, and we haven't seen any improvement. Actually she sounds worse. So I had my ppm appt at 11:00 and then took her to be seen by a pediatrician (not her usual one) at 11:30. My appt was very informative as I had it with the OB who delivered Nadia. I asked her if I was pg again if I should just automatically have a c/s. I figured if my pelvis wasn't big enough to deliver a 6lb 2oz baby that I probably couldn't deliver any baby. She said that my pelvis wasn't the problem. The problem was Nadia's head wasn't in the correct position. She said they weren't able to put the vacuum on her head in the normal place as her head was at an angle off to the side. She said they were trying to shift her position with the vacuum, but they were not able to get her in the correct position. The doctor said that in fact it took her 2-3 attempts to get her out during the c/s. She said usually the baby's head is located right near the incision, but Nadia's head was not there and they had to move her to even be able to deliver her by c/s. She apologized that this information was not given to me sooner. I said there was so much going on there at the end that it was understandable. So although it doesn't change anything, I admit I feel better knowing I have the accurate info. There was a part of me that was wondering if it was my fault somehow; although it took some training by the nurse to get me pushing correctly, they said I was doing a good job, but since I pushed for 4 1/2 hours and didn't get her out a little part of me kept wondering if I did something wrong, if I had done something differently we could have avoided a c/s. Well that "guilt" is now gone now that I realize it was due to how Nadia "presented herself" as the doctor said. She said it was unlikely that if I was pg again that the next baby would do the same thing and that I would not necessarily need another c/s. Well who knows if I'll ever be pg again, but just in case I am glad I had this conversation. The first thing I noticed when she came in was that she is pg herself. She told me she's due on Halloween. She said my incision looks good. It's still bright red, but it's now flat.

Then I took Nadia to her doctor appt (less than 5 minutes from my OB's office). Between the two appts and the driving time we were gone a little less than 2 hours and Nadia was crying most of that time. She now weighs 8lb 10.5 oz so she gained 2 ounces shy of 2 lbs in 3w 3d. She'll definitely be over 9lb at her 2 month check up next week. They didn't measure her length, but I am positive she's grown that way as well. The doctor checked her ears, throat, and lungs and said her lungs are clear. He gave her an Rx for antibiotics which Paul is picking up right now. Hopefully these will help her start feeling better soon. I can't believe she'll be 8 weeks old tomorrow! Last night she slept for 4 hours, was awake for 2 hours, and then slept a little less than 2 hours. So she's now had a few nights in a row of only sleeping 6 hours which is less than usual for her.

The professor that Paul is a TA for is away at a conference this week. So Paul gets 4 days off in terms of TA training (his prof will do training on Friday). They are having talks every day at lunch time that the new PhD students are supposed to attend, but I suggested to Paul that he should ask for permission to be excused since he'd be driving 3 hours RT for a 1 hour talk. So he decided to stay home today and work on the revisions for his thesis. He's going to go tomorrow as he's also going to attend a group meeting of one of the two research groups he's considering joining. It worked out well that he was home today as the radon people came before I got home from the doctor appointments. They're installing the radon mitigation system right now.

Associate Professor

Well yesterday my promotion and tenure became effective. I have no idea why they became effective on a Saturday given we only work M-F. Yesterday and today I have been doing some work to prepare for the fall semester; it was the only thing I couldn't do prior to Nadia's birth as they only gave us access on August 1. I finished 3 of 5 classes (one is just an independent study) and hope to finish the other 2 before I go to bed tonight. My goals for this week include to start packing, start exercising, and get caught up on writing thank you notes. I am so amazed at how many people have sent us a card and/or given us a gift. When I stopped in my office on Friday there were 3 more gifts - two from nursing profs on my hall and one from the union president and office manager. Those gifts included a beautiful white sweater cape, onesies, shoes, headbands, and a t-shirt and socks from our school's bookstore.

Tomorrow I have my ppm visit at the OB's office. I asked for my appt to be with the OB who did the c-section (and vacuum attempts) as I want to be able to ask her a few questions. I had one prenatal visit with her. I plan to weigh myself with Nadia and without Nadia at the doctor's office so I can find out how much she weighs. We tried doing that at home with our scale and it seems she's over 9 lbs, but we aren't sure how accurate that is. I am very curious to see how much she weighs. The second photo here is from July 15 and the third is from today. In the second one the sleeves are rolled up and you can see there was a lot more growing room in that sleeper than there is now (3rd photo). She's definitely longer & heavier!

Friday night she slept 5 1/2 hours straight the first stretch which was great, but then she only slept 30 minutes total the rest of the night which was not good. Last night she slept 3 1/2 hours the first stretch and after I nursed her 45 minutes she slept 2 1/2 hours. Then she was awake from 4:30-8:30am and then slept 45 minutes. Thankfully she went back to sleep easily at 2am last night (which didn't happen the night before). However getting her down for the first stretch has taken a long time every night for many days. I'd say the shortest it takes to get her down is 2 hours and the longest is 4 hours. She took one nap in her car seat today, and it took Paul over an hour to get her down. She falls asleep but wakes up soon after being in the seat and it's back to rocking her to sleep again, etc. I hope once she feels better that it's easier to get her to sleep for both naps and for bed at night. I was very grateful Paul got her down as I slept both during the time he was working to get her down and the time she was sleeping as I was totally exhausted. Friday is really my first day back to work even though classes don't start until next Monday. I hope I can start getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night before I go back to work.

Sling

The outfits shown in yesterday and today's posts are size 0-3 months so thankfully we are getting some use out of some of them before the weather changes. These were both gifts from a Canadian friend I've emailed with for 5 years (thanks, Krissy!).

Well I am very grateful for the sling (thanks, Mom). Since Nadia isn't crazy about the bouncer or the swing, I am very glad she is usually content in the sling as this enables me to get housework done, go grocery shopping, etc. Today she was in the sling while I was at work. It seems it takes me about 90 minutes to get myself showered etc. plus nurse her etc. This means until we move I'll need to get up at 6:00am MWF and then 5:45am after we move. Last night she went down at 9:30pm, and I got at least 6.5 hours of sleep between then and 6:15am when I needed to get up. I used to get 8-9 hours, but today I proved I could function at work with less than 7. I'm going to send her doctor a message to let her know today is the 9th day of needing to frequently use the aspirator on her. I hope she feels back to normal soon!!

Aspirator

 

I feel badly for Nadia. Today is the 8th day of me aspirating her nose. She's still very congested. Last night she had a hard time going to sleep, but finally Paul got her down at 10:30. She slept until 1, and then she slept from 2:15-5:00am. This morning she's been napping a lot. Yesterday she would only sleep on me. She's been super clingy. If I put her down to go to the bathroom she screams. I assume it's because she doesn't feel well. She still doesn't have a fever, and she's still eating well so that means the doctor doesn't think she needs to be seen. I guess there's nothing they could do for her. It's hard to watch a little baby be sick. It's especially hard for Paul when he hears her struggling to breathe. I hope she feels better soon!!!

Wow!

Dr. M said that Nadia is at the age where she won't have as many poopy diapers. She said as long as she has 1 a week that's ok. She went more than 24 hours w/o one and then made up for lost time with a huge one around 5am today. She woke up screaming and it sounded like a poopy diaper scream, and I was right. I'm learning! She's still very congested so I keep using the drops and aspirator regularly. She went down at 7:30pm and slept until 12:45am which was great, but the rest of the night didn't go well. Hopefully her congestion will clear up soon; it's been a week now.

There are over 60 new PhD chemistry students at PSU this year, and Paul was one of only 2 assigned a 400 level lab (TA). He ran into the grad student who was his "host" at the Open House in the spring. Seth asked Paul what his TA assignment was, and when Paul told him, he said "Wow." I am proud of my hubby that he did so well on his entrance exams!!! We are glad his commute RT will be an hour less each day starting on 9-24.

The first photo was taken 7-4 and the second 8-12. She's growing like a weed! :-)

7 weeks old

Nadia has still been congested, and ever since last Thurs I had been wondering whether I should call the doctor or not. Her only symptom was a stuffy nose (no fever). Well she was a lot fussier yesterday (not just at naptime/bedtime like she had been for a few days but all the time) so I called the doctor. Her pediatrician asked me if she had a fever (no) and was she still eating well (yes). She suggested we buy "little noses" (saline drops for the nose), aspirate before every nap and every feeding, and have Nadia sleep more propped up (like in her car seat). So we bought the drops, and Paul's mom was a dear and went to the Walmart down near them and then drove up to our house with the battery operated nasal aspirator I had on my registry but hadn't received or purchased. I should have ordered it a few weeks ago! Nadia hated the regular bulb syringe. She did sooooooooo much better with this new aspirator. It's well worth the price, and I recommend it to any of you who have wee ones. Also, the temporal thermometer (which I did receive as a baby shower gift from my registry) is wonderful as well. She hates having her temp taking at the doctor's office but doesn't mind this one at all. So I suggest that parents of young children will appreciate owning these two things!
We gave her some infant Tylenol last night for the first time (1/2 dose). I am not sure what did the trick - having her sleep in the car seat, the Tylenol or the more frequent aspiration (after using the saline), but she SLEPT. YAHOOOOOOOOOO! She went down EASILY at 8:30pm and slept until 12:45am and went down EASILY at 1:30am and slept until 5:00am and then I nursed her for about an hour and she's still asleep right now (almost 2 hours later). This was by far the best night in a very long time. Actually it might qualify as the best night ever! We put the car seat in her bedroom and that was her bed. I do plan to call the doctor back this morning though as although the sleeping went much better, her new symptom is that she's stopped pooping. Her diapers have been either only wet (soaking so that's not a problem) or wet with the tiniest bit of poop. Definitely a big change from usual. So we'll see what Dr. M tells me this morning. I am not sure if she'll want us to come in or not. I feel so badly that Nadia doesn't feel well. Poor little girl!

She is now SEVEN weeks old as of today. I can't believe how much she's changed in that time. She's definitely gained a lot of weight and also grown quite a bit in length based on the fact she's outgrowing some clothes. That sundress that she wore last week was 0-3 months so some 0-3 months stuff is starting to fit although the bottoms still are way too big. She has a little waist. You could fit at least two Nadias in most of the 0-3 month size bottoms, LOL. It's funny because she seems "so big" to me and then I think of the babies who are 10 lb + at birth, and to those parents she probably still seems so small. :-)

House

Well our house is being shown twice this morning and again tomorrow night. That's 5 showings in 7 days to 4 different potential buyers as the ones coming at 10:00 today were here on Tues. The ones from Friday are definitely making an offer and who knows if the ones coming through a 2nd time will as well. Our realtor told the realtor of the house we want to buy that our house should be under contract by the middle of the week. Hopefully that house will still be available by then. They're having an open house today. He said they'll accept a contract from us again once ours is under contract again. I'd appreciate prayers about this. Thanks! I'd also appreciate prayers for my dad and brother who are on a short term missions trip this week (they left a few days ago and have one week left). Seven other people from their church went with them.

Good News/ Bad News

Well the good news is #1 the realtor thinks that the people who looked at our house yesterday are going to make an offer by Tuesday. #2 is that Paul is home and he doesn't return to PSU until Tuesday morning so we get THREE days together one of which (Monday) is our 7th anniversary. #3 is that I got at least 7 hours of sleep last night so I feel much, much better today. Part of the reason I got as much sleep as I did was that Paul put her to bed after I was already asleep and she only woke up once to be fed during the night (3:45am).

The bad news is that it took about 4 hours to get her down last night. We started to put her down around 7pm as she was yawning plus she had been up for 2 hours at that point and had been fed and had a clean diaper. Well we would get her to sleep but within a few minutes of being in the crib she'd start crying. We let her cry a few times but that didn't work either. We rocked her to sleep, I nursed her to sleep, etc. It wasn't until a little after 11pm that she finally went to sleep. When she woke up at 3:45am I nursed her for an hour and usually she goes right down after that but after trying to rock her to sleep for an additional 30 minutes I gave up and brought her to bed with us at 5:15am and she then slept for over 3 hours in bed with us. I read some of another book this morning (The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems) and was determined to work really hard the next three days to work on getting her on a schedule (rather than on demand feeding or as she calls it "accidental parenting." She had this strategy she suggested including swaddling, patting the baby's back, and saying "shh, shh" near the baby's ear while the baby is in the crib. She said it might take 15-20 minutes. Well I tried it for about an hour. I had nursed her for 45 minutes (watched her jaw for signs of when she was turning me into a pacifier and then took her off) played with her for a while until she started yawning and then had started the process of putting her to sleep. After trying to get her to sleep for 90 minutes (tried many different things like rocking her, the pacifier, etc.), I then switched to trying to let her cry herself to sleep. That didn't work either. So I got her out of her crib 2 hours after we had started trying to put her to bed and I fed her again. After she nursed for about 40 minutes she fell asleep so I decided to skip the "wake" time since she had now been awake for almost 4 hours straight. Unfortunately a few minutes after she was in the crib she started crying again; I am letting her cry now. I am confident I could get her to sleep on me or with me in our bed, but I am trying to get her to sleep in her crib. Neither letting her cry it out or the techniques of the Baby Whisperer are working for us yesterday/today. I am open to suggestions. I am very frustrated and am feeling very clueless what to do to help her go to sleep in her crib. I know she's tired!!!

Her Rose

The last good night of sleep I had was Saturday night. It really caught up with me last night. The longest stretch was 2 1/2 hours and since that started at 8:15 it was only 90 minutes of sleep for me. From then on she woke up about every 90 minutes. My head hurt so badly it felt like it might explode. I had only had one nap in the last few days due to cleaning the house, doing those projects for school, etc. Unfortunately today wasn't a good day in terms of naps for her either although I did get her to sleep in the crib for 45 minutes so I did take a nap then as well. Today she cried any time I put her down. Usually she'll be happy for at least 5 minutes in the bouncer or boppy or swing. Sometimes of course I just had to let her cry or I'd never be able to go to the bathroom or fix myself a sandwich for lunch, etc. I forgot to try the sling. The sling worked well at the mall, but I keep forgetting to try using it at home.

Although the main points are the same in both Babywise and Baby Whisperer, I have found at least one significant difference. Baby Whisperer does not advocate letting the baby cry it out. She advocates picking the baby up, comforting him/her, and then putting the baby back down and repeating as many times as necessary (even if it's 120 times). She also advocates using a pacifier to help until the baby is 3 months old. So I think I'm going to try this tomorrow. Letting her cry it out does not seem to work. Even if I go in and comfort her after say 15 minutes, she resumes crying once I put her down and she will cry for at least an hour total without falling asleep. Both books advocate starting very early. Babywise advocates starting once the baby is one week old, and Baby Whisperer advocates starting on day one. However both say that you can start later even if "bad habits" have already been established. Hopefully tonight will be a better night as I am really, really tired!

The photo is of the rose that was on the organ at church on June 29 in Nadia's honor. The pastor and his wife gave it to us last night along with a gift from them of a pack of Pampers and a picture frame. So I have now received the two gifts I thought were common baby gifts which I didn't receive at a baby shower - Krissy (whom I met online in 2003) gave me some receiving blankets 5 weeks ago and the Pastor and his wife gave us some diapers. We discussed Nadia's dedication, and we have scheduled it for Sept. 28 based on the schedules of our family members who are planning to attend. Nadia will be wearing the same white dress that I wore 36 years ago at my dedication. She will be the 6th girl in our family to wear it (first me then my 2 sisters then my 2 nieces). So many times I have gotten emotional when I've seen "yet another" rose on the organ. The hardest time was around Feb 2006 (when our first baby was due); there were quite a few roses on the organ back then. Of course I wasn't in church on 6-29 (we were still in the hospital for one thing!) so I am really glad I now get to see the flower that was placed in her honor. Donna had already given me the bulletin which announced her arrival. Baby dedications have also sometimes been a very emotional experience for me; so it is with GREAT joy that I think about the fact that in about 6 weeks I will be participating in one rather than watching and wondering whether I would ever be a mother. Thank you Lord for this precious little girl!!!

Frozen

One year ago today Nadia was frozen. It's really weird for me to think that the sweet little girl who is napping on me right now was at negative 320 degrees F (-196 degrees C) for a little less than 3 months. I am not a big sci fi person, but I do know that Darth Vader froze Hans Solo in the Star Wars movie, LOL. Yet this is not science fiction, my little girl really was in liquid nitrogen. This boggles my mind! Successful cryopreservation first began in 1972 (with other mammals), and the first successful human pregnancy from a FET was in 1983. This delay of implantation actually happens naturally (no freezing involved) in about 100 species of mammals such as the wallaby and is called embryonic diapause. Well although I might not really be able to wrap my mind around the concept of my daughter being frozen for about 3 months, I am glad she successfully made it through the freezing and thawing process. I remember the embryologist being so happy that they didn't see any ice crystals when they were thawing her out. Ice crystals? Again just not something I think about when I think of a little baby! I guess I just don't have a scientific mind. Science would have been about the last area I would have chosen to major in when I was in college.

So if Nadia has science questions, she can go to her daddy for help. I have to brag on Paul. He just called a little bit ago to tell me that he passed FOUR of his SIX entrance exams. That's the best case scenario! It wouldn't have changed anything if he had passed five or six (yet it would be different if he had passed less than four). Going into the exams he was hoping to pass 3 (physical chemistry, organic, and math). He figured if he had time to study he might have been able to pass a fourth (inorganic). Well he DID pass all four of those even though he didn't spend even one tiny minute studying for the inorganic one!!! He studied a tiny bit at the last minute for the math exam, but he said it was super easy (for him) and he could have passed it without any studying. He had studied the most for the organic and phys chem exams. It turns out he studied the "wrong" stuff for the phys chem exam so really it's as if he took the test w/o studying because the stuff that was on there was not what he had studied. So the only test which the studying helped him pass was organic. I thought he was at a huge disadvantage as PSU had sent out the test information in early May and encouraged the students to study all summer. He didn't start studying until July 30 and honestly he didn't really get too much time to study this past week in between photos at Sears, a dentist appt, graduation party, etc. Well I am really proud of him!
Last night Nadia went down easily (no crying) at 8:30pm. It figures that she'd go down early when Paul was here but she wouldn't go down until 10:45 pm (Mon) or 11:35pm (Tues) when I was home alone (as usually Paul takes over during those hours so I can get some sleep). She slept until 12:45am so that seems to be the norm that her first stretch is usually about 4 1/2 hours. Normally if I nurse her for one hour the first time she wakes up then she goes down easily and then the other feedings are usually about 30 minutes long the rest of the night and usually she falls asleep while nursing and I put her down without any crying. Well last night I nursed her for an hour and she cried after I put her down so I tried nursing her a little more and then Paul tried rocking her to sleep. We had also changed her diaper, burped her, etc. We did all of this for TWO hours (mostly me but Paul did spell me for about 30 minutes in there). I didn't know what else to do. She was still wide awake. So I let her cry herself to sleep. Thankfully she "only" cried for 25 minutes and then she slept for 2 hours (3:15-5:15). I kept waking up thinking I was hearing her crying, but I'd check on her and she was sound asleep. This happens to me now during the day so it's not just a situation of I'm dreaming that I'm hearing her cry. Even during the day I think she's crying and then I get really close to the baby monitor and realize the only sound coming from her room is the ticking of her clock. I tried to get her to take her nap this morning in her crib but after letting her cry off and on for a little over an hour I couldn't take it any more. This babywise thing just does not seem to be working for us. It just seems cruel to let a 6 week old baby cry that long!!! She fell asleep immediately in my arms where she still is now. I guess the babysitters are just going to have to hold her. I'm not sure how much she'll sleep in the pack n play I plan on putting in my office. I am paying them $8/hr so I guess it's reasonable to expect them to hold her during her nap. She will take a pacifier for a little bit, but it falls out of her mouth so unless you stand there and put it back in every time it falls out, it doesn't work as a comforting device for her. The sling does work (she will sleep in it) as long as I am standing or walking. So I could get housework done while carrying her.

This morning she was a bit congested. I needed to use the bulb syringe on her nose for the first time which of course she didn't like. I think maybe I saw her first social smile today. It's so hard to be sure, but I had just smiled at her and immediately she smiled right back so I think it was purposeful but who knows for sure. She started having acne just a few days after birth (while in the hospital) but it got a LOT worse the last few weeks. Paul was actually concerned, but I kept reassuring him it was totally normal and it would go away. Well Monday was the first day I noticed an improvement and it has continued to improve each day. I think it will be totally gone by the end of the week. Paul noticed a big change when he came home last night. Actually he said she looked different in other ways as well. Babies change so quickly when they're so little. It's not as noticeable to me since I see her all the time, but it's noticeable to those who go a few days or weeks without seeing her.
Sorry this post is getting so long, but I wanted to add that one thing I've learned from reading these books is the importance of not switching sides in the middle of one feeding. In the Baby Whisperer book she said it can take as long as 18 minutes into a feeding before the hind milk starts which is the high calorie milk. I knew there were 3 stages of milk and that the 3rd was the fattiest, but Nadia was SO hard to keep awake while feeding her (probably the jaundice is what made her so lethargic) that I would usually switch sides after 15 minutes when I was nursing her in the NICU. If I could go back in time I would have stayed on one side the whole 30 minutes. Maybe this would have helped her start gaining weight sooner. Oh well at least now I know to stay on one side an entire feeding or at least for 30 minutes anyhow. I think the times that she nurses one hour it probably is okay to switch sides half-way through the feeding, but most of the feedings I have been trying to just keep her on one side. I want to make sure she gets the high calorie milk! The lactation nurse referred to the third stage as the "milkshake" stage, LOL.

A former GA of mine (Dan) met Nadia this afternoon. I think the pastor and his wife are coming over this evening to discuss Nadia's baby dedication which we are hoping will happen on Sept 28.