Teething Woes

Well yesterday was another rough day. Usually if Nadia's needs are met in terms of sleep, food, and a clean diaper, she has a pleasant disposition. Not so the last few days. Yesterday and today were the worst. Thursday I bought some Baby Oragel at the grocery store. She screamed when I put it on her yesterday. Today she accepted it a little better, but I wasn't seeing any improvement in her disposition. So I also tried Tylenol. Then when I went to get my haircut, I stopped at CVS (right next door to the beauty salon) and bought a bottle of Hylands teething tablets. I gave her 3 of those two different times today. So far nothing seems to be working. We listened to quite a bit of screaming today. I can feel one of the teeth so hopefully that means they'll finish erupting soon (bottom two teeth). The best way I've found to keep her content has been to do the Take Along Songs books & cds. I think I've done all 6 books with her more than once in the past 3 days (10 songs each). If I could have only had 2 toys for Nadia the past 6 1/2 months the 2 I would want would be the gym and those books/cds. I am very glad I bought the cd player and those 6 books/cds. The gym continues to be a hit, the difference is that now she plays with it sitting up instead of lying down on her back.

Speaking of lying on her back, I keep putting her to bed on her back, but she sleeps on her belly 90% of the time. Sometimes when I go to get her she's on her back, but when I check on her she's on her belly so although it seems she slept on her back, actually she just flips over onto her back when she wakes up in the morning. Sleeping on her belly is good for her hair on the back of her head, but it's bad for her face. Her cheeks get so red (and stay red many times for quite a long time) when she sleeps on her belly. Sleeping on her belly also means tummy time is going much better, but she hasn't tried to scoot or crawl yet. Mostly we've been working on her sitting skills which are getting quite good! She's also completely mastered taking the rings off of her toy. She usually takes them off two at a time. She doesn't understand the concept of putting them back on At All. If you start putting them back on she immediately resumes taking them off before you even get them all back on again. :-)

We got about 4 inches of snow today. I was brave and drove to my haircut appointment even though we already had 2 inches then. I kept telling myself I could drive 3 miles round trip in the snow. I went during one of Nadia's naps which worked out well for Paul. I did 2 loads of laundry and made lasagna for dinner. That's about all I accomplished for the day. I forgot to feed Nadia any solid foods today. I really haven't been doing well with that At all. I must start making it a regular part of our daily routine!

Monk Tonight!

I have been very purposeful about not watching much tv since we moved here. Quite the opposite was true the first few weeks after we were home from the hospital and I barely moved off the couch in the living room while Nadia was nursing and/or sleeping on me most of the day. Proof that I haven't watched much tv the past 3 1/2 months would be that I don't have any channels memorized except for the network ones which are the same (CBS, NBC, etc). Paul watches more than me so I am sure he knows which channel we need to turn on tonight to watch Monk (on USA). I am excited as it's a new episode tonight, and Monk is by far my favorite tv show. Paul also likes it and so do my parents. If you've never seen it before, it's a show about a detective who is a widower with OCD and a myriad of phobias. Adrian Monk is a very likeable character, and it's fun to see if you can figure out the murder mystery before Mr. Monk reveals the solution. The bad news is that Monk's 8th season (which will begin this summer) is the last season. Bummer! Well all good things must come to an end as they say.

Yesterday was a rough day for Nadia. The 2 hour wake times didn't seem to help. So this morning I put her down after she'd been up 90 minutes and thankfully she finally had a nice nap (90 minutes long). I just put her down for her 2nd nap. I kept her up almost 2 hours this time. We shall see how long this nap is. Last night she went down at 6:30 which was a small miracle given how little she had slept during the day. She woke up once at 3:50, and I decided to nurse her. She cried some after I put her down but then slept until 6:40 so she got about 11.5 hours of sleep which was good.

The photos today are with Nadia in her Jump Up. I keep it attached to the doorway in our bathroom so Nadia can stand while I'm blowdrying and such. She goes around in circles and generally enjoys being in it, but she hasn't actually figured out how to jump in it yet. I think she'll like doing that once she figures it out! I should also mention that yesterday's photos were of Nadia with her passport which arrived in the mail yesterday! I was impressed with how quickly it was processed as we submitted it at the Post Office on Dec 30. I had no idea it arrive so soon! I am already looking forward to the first time her passport will be stamped when we enter Antigua in May!

One More Day

Paul gets to stay home today. Yay! The prof he TAs for cancelled the training for today. Tomorrow hopefully will be his last day of TA training - ever. Hopefully Dr. Garrison's grant will be funded which means Paul can just earn his stipend by doing research for his dissertation and not need to be a TA any more. I am praying to that end! Nadia and I will enjoy having Daddy around today. :-) This also means that I can run to the bank and grocery store while she's napping. Errands are easier on my own.

I have exercised the last four days so I am definitely off to a good start with adding that back to my daily routine. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll start to see some progress on the scale. I have decided to make Wednesday the day I clean (vacuum and such) and Thursday the day I go grocery shopping since starting next week I'll be teaching on Mondays and Tuesdays. Slowly but surely life is starting to take on a new sense of normality!

Last night I was able to keep Nadia up until 6:45 which was progress. She woke up twice during the night. At 2 something she cried awhile but at 4 something she only cried less than 1 minute and then she slept until 6:30am. I let her get up then since that was an hour later than she got up the last two days. I vastly prefer 6:30 to 5:15. She nursed for about 15 minutes. Yesterday she nursed a few times throughout the day, but most of the time it's only for a minute or two. So I'm enjoying the return of the morning feeding. I have no idea how long she'll keep nursing first thing in the morning, but I'll keep going as long as she will. At least she's still getting a little bit of mommy milk every day. Some is better than none!

Our gifts for Nadia

  This picture is of 4 of the 5 toys we got Nadia for Christmas (a little after the fact). The cookie jar shape sorter we bought at Target the day after Christmas. The others I ordered online. The 5th one hasn't come yet. Three of them I picked because they had won awards. I already described the Mozart magic cube in another post. I think it's really neat. Alex Jr. Around the Farm is a soft ball which features the faces of four animals. When you squeeze the right ear of each animal it makes the very realistic (maybe recorded?) sound that animal makes (pig, dog, cat, and frog). She smiles when she looks at the cat face and hears it meow. Well I hate to break it to you, Nadia, but this is about as close to owning a cat as you're going to get over the next 18 years as Daddy is very allergic to cats. The other toy (by Leap Frog) was highly rated by another mom whose blog I read. She said if she could only own 5 toys - this would be one of the 5 she'd want for her kids. I thought that was pretty high praise so I decided to get one for Nadia. It has legs which can be attached to make it a table, but since she can't walk yet I haven't assembled the legs. Nadia is already able to push some of the buttons on her own to make it do various things. I must say it is quite fun to shop for toys for Nadia. I won't buy any more for awhile though as she got quite a few for Christmas between my family, Paul's family, and what we got her ourselves.

Lynn made a comment that her cheeks look very kissable. Let me tell you they ARE!!! Paul told someone recently that I kiss Nadia 50 million times a day. Well I don't kiss her THAT much but I am 100% positive I give her more than 100 kisses a day although I've never kept track. I didn't use to wear lipstick that often, but I almost never wear it now as I want my lips to be able to kiss my little girl without leaving marks all over her face!

I am still struggling to get Nadia back on a schedule during the day. She had been taking 90 minute naps which was wonderful. Lately they're either 30 minutes or 2 1/2 hours. Well we've only had two naps total that were 2 1/2 hours in the last week. Mostly they've been 45 minutes or less. She'll usually play quietly in her crib so the total crib time is about an hour each time, but I can tell she's tired. I think in part her awake time needs to be longer. I am finding that although she starts rubbing her eyes and such 90 minutes after she's gotten up, if I keep her up for 2 hours that she goes down easier for her next nap. So we shall see if continuing to keep her wake times to 2 hours each helps her naps get back to normal.

I am also determined to keep her up until 7pm tonight as this morning she got up a little after 5am. She had gone down at 6:15. Usually I won't get her up before 6:00, but I was really in pain so I went and nursed her. She nursed more than 20 minutes!!! I put her back down hoping she'd go back to sleep. She stayed quitely in her bed for about 25 minutes and then started crying so I went and got her at 6:00. However really we'd both been awake since a little after 5am so that was much too early of a start to our day. The good news is that she is easily going 11 hours at night without a peep (well I put her down at 6:15 last night so it was a little less than 11 hours). If she's going to sleep 11 hours then I definitely want her to go down no earlier than 7pm as 6am is the earliest I'd like her to get up although I'd love it if we could push that back to 7am eventually. Let me tell you though it is SO nice to be able to sleep through the night again. What a blessing that I am not taking for granted like I used to!

16 Glorious Minutes

Nadia can be rather unpredicatable at times. I need to stop trying to guess what is going to happen next regarding nursing. Last night she went down at 6:15 and didn't make a peep until 5:30. I decided to try to nurse her and put her back down. Well the nursing worked (w/o boppy) for 16 precious minutes with her cooing and smiling which was very pleasant PTL! But the going back down part didn't work. She was quiet for 15 minutes and then started crying at 6:00. I let her cry for 5 minutes and decided she wasn't going back to sleep. We'll keep working on the bedtime/wake up time, but I am very happy with the sleeping in general (11 hours and 15 minutes straight!) and of course thrilled that she nursed. I'm happy to just nurse her 1-2 times a day. The last 3 days she's averaged 20 ounces of formula which means she's getting about 1/3 of her milk from me. That's better than nothing. Of course she might go on strike again soon, we shall see. I am thankful she nursed so nicely this morning though.

That wasn't enough sleep for me though since I stayed up later than usual last night and then had a hard time going to sleep. So in light of getting about 7 hours sleep I took a nap during Nadia's first nap today. I will exercise during her 2nd nap instead.

Weaning

I called the lacation nurse early this morning, but no one called me back. I can tell my milk supply is going back down again. Nadia did nurse briefly twice today (for 8 minutes this morning and for maybe 2 minutes another time). That was the first time she had nursed for a few days. I have a feeling our days of nursing are coming to an end soon. I am very sad about this, but I at least am comforted knowing I have sure given it my best shot with pumping and Fenugreek and drinking gallons of water. The trick that helped Nadia nurse today was NOT using a boppy. I held her in a bottle feeding position and it worked, but still most of the times I tried to nurse today she screamed. I know that formula is also good for a baby although of course not as good as my milk, but I am trying to remind myself that she got some Mommy milk every day for over 6 months. I wish weaning her had been a better experience. Unfortunately the last about 6 weeks nursing has been a negative experience emotionally for me. It's hard not to feel rejected when she screams when I try to nurse her when I can tell I have milk and know she is hungry. There were many special moments though earlier so I am trying to remember those and not dwell on the negative experiences the last several weeks. Frankly I am looking forward to when she is weaned off the bottle as the bottle just represents failure to me right now.

The one upside of the nursing struggles lately is that it has made it easier for me to wean Nadia off of the night-time feedings. Last night she woke up briefly at 3 something and 5 something (and by briefly I mean she let out ONE "yowl" lasting maybe 2 seconds and that was it) but otherwise slept 12 hours. I did let her get up at 6:15 since she had gone down before 7pm the night before. So that is one big success that she is sleeping 12 hours at night!!! Now I want to shift her bedtime toward 7pm and her get up time to 7am. Her naps are still not back to normal, but they were better today so hopefully we can get back in a groove sometime this week. Prior to the shots she was taking 90 minute naps (sometimes 3 a day of those other times 2 that long and one shorter one). Speaking of sleep, it's time for me to go to bed!

Back to School

Paul heads back to school tomorrow. Our classes don't start until next Monday, but he will be at school every day this week. Tomorrow he's meeting another professor he is going to do research with (Dr. van Duin). Several weeks ago, Paul had to submit a sheet ranking his choices for research advisor. A few days after this sheet was due, he heard a talk by Dr. van Duin who is a mechanical engineering prof. He was really impressed and commented to me that he would have put him on the list as well if that was allowed (he wasn't sure since he's not a chemistry prof). Well the neat thing is that a couple of weeks ago his research advisor, Dr. Garrison, suggested that Paul do a research project with van Duin that will also help Dr. Garrison as their research interests are closely related. Tuesday through Friday he'll be meeting with the prof he TA's for. I'm going to miss him! It's been great having him around the past 2 weeks.

Friday night I started working on Nadia's scrapbooks. That has been fun of course! Today we started taking down the Christmas decorations. I'll finish that tomorrow. The mantle looks really bare now. I need to get something to put up there. I also got some more work done preparing for the new class this weekend. I also made a decision that I didn't need to get it all done before the semester starts. Usually I create all my notes for class, PowerPoints, exams, etc. prior to the start of the semester. I have most of it done, and really I can fine tune things here and there as the semester progresses. I have the syllabi done and the Blackboard sites set up so really I am set for the semester to start (which is good since it starts in a week).

This morning I went to Sunday School. I wasn't keen on the class, but I think there are 3 other adult classes so I'll try another one next week. I still really like the church though. The pastor is an excellent preacher, and I really like the music. I think the quality of the music is impressive considering how small the church is (small compared to what I am used to anyhow). The service was really long today though. I left before communion was served as the service had already gone 1 hour and 45 minutes. Nadia had slept on me during the first part, and then I had taken her to the nursery. I had a feeling she was probably ready to go home, and I was right. When I went back to the nursery she was screaming. They said she had been happy most of the time but was really tired but wouldn't fall asleep when they rocked her. So I was glad I had left the service early so I could get her home and get her to bed.

I keep forgetting to mention that Nadia has improved SO SO SO much when she's in the car. She rarely cries any more!!! Sometimes she falls asleep, and other times she just looks around. It's so nice to not be serenaded by screaming everytime I take her somewhere in the car. Of course she cried on the way home from the pediatrician last week, but that was for good reason! My arm STILL hurts from where I got the tetnus/diptheria/pertussis shot although the area that is sore keeps shrinking. Her injection sites don't seem to bother her any more thankfully. While I'm bragging on my little girl, I have to say that I was a proud Momma this morning when a mom in the nursery said how impressed she was at how well Nadia was sitting considering she's only 6 months old (Nadia was sitting on the floor playing with toys). That put a smile on my face! :-) I know I've said it before, but it's amazing how quickly they change. Her ability to sit has grown tremendously, she can take the rings off her toy with ease now (in fact she can take them all off at once, LOL), etc. It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!

My milk supply has definitely increased. Last Saturday I got 4 ounces total from pumping 5 times throughout the day whereas I used to get 4 ounces from pumping once. Then after a couple of days I was getting 1 to 1.5 ounces each time I pumped so I was averaging 5-7 ounces a day. Yesterday it went to about 2 ounces each time. This morning I got 3 ounces the first time I pumped. I have gotten more than 10 ounces each day yesterday and today. So the amount of formula she had in a day went from 28 (actually once 32) to 24 and now the last two days she's had 19-20 ounces a day since she's getting more of my milk. However she still refuses to nurse. I am going to call the lactation nurse tomorrow to see if she can give me tips to help Nadia get back to nursing. If Nadia won't return to nursing, then I have to decide if I'm going to keep pumping or not. It will be harder when Paul isn't around. He has helped with Nadia when I've been pumping. I also vastly prefer nursing to pumping. Speaking of her dietary intake, I need to get more regular with giving her solid food. I forget quite a few days. I also want to make some baby food this week - green beans and peas for example. She still hasn't mastered how to use her tongue for solid foods. I have a hard enough time getting pears into her so I am thinking green veggies are really going to be a challenge! But she's 6 months old so it's time to get her eating solid foods more regularly.

Happy 39th Birthday, Paul!!!

Well today Paul celebrates his first birthday as a Daddy. Yes, it really is his 39th. I know many people once they reach 39 have many "'39th" bdays so I wanted to clarify that he really is turning 39 today. His last year in his 30's. When I met him, he had just turned 27 and hadn't been to college (except for a couple of months when he was 18). Since I met him he has earned a bachelor's degree in math, a master's degree in chemistry, and is now working on his doctorate in chemistry. His life has changed so much since Nadia was born a little over 6 months ago.

Prior to her arrival he had never changed a diaper and now it's something he's happy to do as long as the diaper is only wet. He has learned quite a few songs in the past few months. I've never heard him sing so much before! He told me when he woke up this morning that during the night the song "Skip to my Lou" and the words of the book Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss kept going through his head. He's a wonderful daddy. It means so much to me to see how much he loves his little peanut. A couple of weeks ago he missed a step (while holding her) and fell so that his knees hit the tile floor. He said he would break a leg before he'd let her get hurt. Aww... When he comes home the first thing he wants to do is hold his little cutie pie. I could go on and on, but you can tell I think he's a wonderful dad!

Nadia has had a hard time getting back into her usual routine since recovering from her shots. She went down at 6pm last night but thankfully didn't get up until 7am. She woke up a couple of times during the night. I tried to nurse her, but she refused (and I won't give her a bottle at night -it's me or nothing). The first time I changed her diaper and clothes and sheets. I do NOT like Target diapers. I will never buy them again. We are going to Applebee's tonight for Paul's birthday and will stop at the Walmart and get their diapers. The Walmart is right next to the Applebee's. Walmart's diapers are cheaper and in my opinion MUCH better than Target's. Anyhow we are having big trouble nursing. Thursday night around midnight she nursed really well. Better than she had in a long time. She got enough from just one side that she fell asleep on me and didn't nurse from the other side. Well that was the end of it. Friday morning she wouldn't nurse at all even though I was very full, and she hasn't nursed since.

I was saying that I regretted that I didn't pump more when I was working, but in actuality I don't think that was the problem. Up until about 5 months old she was still only getting at most 8 ounces a day of formula. The problem was that right about the time I was trying to nurse her more to get her off of formula she started to reject me and we skyrocketed from 8 to 20 ounces a day while I was at home with her. Since then she has nursed less and less to the point that she has been getting on average 24 ounces of formula (some days as much as 28 ounces and one day 32). My milk supply has definitely increased the last few days, but she is now totally refusing me. I was in tears this morning. The upside is that so far today she's had 8 ounces of formula and 6 1/2 ounces of my milk - all in bottle form. I am not going to keep pumping though if she won't nurse. Frustrated is a very mild word to describe how I feel right now about this.

Learning and Growing

It's amazing how much babies grow and change in a matter of days much less weeks or months. For example, at Christmas my mom was noticing how long and curly Nadia's eyelashes are. When she was born, she didn't have any eyelashes or eyebrows so we've observed the whole process from square one. New skills I've noticed lately would be her increased ability to use her hands (as evidenced by the little ring stacking video I posted recently), sit on her own for extended periods of time (not that she still doesn't wobble over in one direction or another at times), and her new trick of the day is that she will stand up on her own without holding on to anything. My jaw dropped the first time she did that today. I was sitting on the floor (crossed legs), and she was sitting on my lap when she just stood up - totally on her own. Of course she only could remain standing without holding on to something for a couple of seconds, but still it amazed me. She's done that new trick a few times today.

Happy New Year!

Well as many people do, I often set goals for myself each year. I would say my overall goal for this year is to get into a routine that is good for myself, Nadia, and Paul. In the last 6 months just about everything in our lives changed. We became parents(!), moved to a new house, switched to a new church, Paul started a PhD program, etc. Life needs to settle into a new sense of "normal."

1. I still haven't lost all my pgcy/ IVF weight.
2. I want to get caught up on my scrapbooking.
3. I want to get in a good routine in terms of my duties as "housewife." So far there is no rhyme or reason as to how often I vacuum, dust, clean the bathrooms, etc. I also would like to try a new recipe at least once a month. It's easy for me to get in a rut with cooking the same things.

4. I also want my routine to include my daily devotions & prayer. Lately many days that has just consisted of reading 6 devotionals I receive by email each day.

5. I want to continue to do my best at work, but I want to cut the hours I work in half since my pay has been cut in half. This will mean saying "no" more often. Why is that little word so hard to say?

6. I want to get involved at the new church. Specifically I want to join a Sunday School class and the choir. I also want to really make an effort to be friendly so that I can make at least one new friend. Making new friends (as in someone I talk with and do things with outside of church) does NOT come easily to me, but this is important to me.

7. I would like to spend more quality time with Paul and Nadia each week - time when I am 100% focused on Paul and/or Nadia and not also trying to do schoolwork or housework or something on the computer. Multitasking has it's place, but so does giving someone 100% of your attention for a period of time. Mostly this will mean closing the lid on my laptop more often. I can't remember the last time I actually just watched a movie for example. Paul & I watching a movie means Ruth half watching it while she also emails students or grades paper or writes a blog post. It would be much nicer to say snuggle with my hubby while we watch the movie. :-)

So those are my goals for the year! I know I won't succeed at all of them all of the time, but with the Lord's help hopefully I will achieve many of them most of the time! I hope 2009 is a great year for you and your family. It's definitely a year I am looking forward to unlike those years when I kept wondering WHEN would I finally become a Mommy. I know Nadia is going to change and grow SO much this year, and I want to savor as many moments as possible as I know this time with her will just fly by faster than I want it to.

Getting that shot in my arm yesterday made me even more empathetic with Nadia. If I rolled onto my left side last night, it hurt!!! My arm is still very sore in that area. It also reminded me of what my butt will feel like when we do ivf again. Not Fun. It's funny how now that Nadia is in my arms most of the pain of IVF has been forgotten. The part I haven't forgotten is the day of the egg retrieval. Well if doing ivf again leads to another sweet baby in our arms, it will totally be worth it all.

Yesterday Nadia slept more than usual and was fussier than usual during the times she was awake. As she was getting ready for bed around 7pm her mood got much better so I am hoping today she is feeling back to normal. She went down at 7:30, nursed once at 2:30, and then got up at 6:15. If she is back into her normal nap routine today then tomorrow we're going to start working on getting her wake up time to 7:00 or later. Then next week I want to start weaning her off of the one night time feeding as I know she doesn't need it any more as sometimes she skips it.

Other than a trip to the grocery store, I plan to stay home all day. Yesterday I made some more progress on my new course. Something else I need to get working on ASAP is a conference proposal that is due by Jan 16 for a conference I'd like to present at in DC in November. That's the only conference I plan to attend during the 2009-10 school year (usually I've done 2-3 conferences a year the past few years) so I'll have a long break before I need to write another proposal.

If any of you want to see a video of Nadia taking the rings off her new toy, here it is. It's not the most exciting video compared to watching her "talk," but I am sure at least my mom will want to see it. :-)