Maeve and Me at 14 months

Posted on September 18, 2013 by deewares

I feel bad that Maeve’s 13month update just never happened. She hit the 13month mark on the last day of GenCon and it was enough to get my thoughts down about that whole experience that I didn’t have time/energy to notice what new things she was doing.

Just before GenCon we added another local mum and baby to our little circle of friends. Maeve now has Elena (who’s just hit the 10mo mark) and Christiana (who’ll be a year on the 25^th). She finds these babies fascinating. It’s amusing to watch her play with them and realize they can’t do all the same things she can, that they are ‘babies’. When she plays with Simon and Riley she definitely feels like one of the big kids. And I love watching her play with Simon! They look at each other and babble away and are definitely trying to communicate and play with one another. It won’t be long before they are getting into mischief together!

We started a new term of swim class. It’s the same level as last time but it’s a good way to keep the kids familiar and comfortable with water and swimming and make new friends. The parents in this group seem to be far more friendly than last term. I already know the names of 5 mothers (Anne, Susan, Jeni, Brett and Jackie) and am trying to schedule an after class lunch date with a couple of them 🙂 After the first class we met up with N, E and the girls and it turns out that one of the ladies in swim class (Jackie, who’s also British) is friends with E 🙂 So we might be adding Jackie and her little girl, Maisy, to our little group 🙂

Maeve enjoys playing in water, but there are parts of the class that are very upsetting for her (specifically laying on her back stuff). This week she got so upset I had to give up and just hold her in an upright position or she would scream. This evening in the bath she was bobbing her head into the water. She would be standing and then splash down really quickly and bob her head to the water and stand up again. She kept doing it over and over. I guess she’s trying to get comfortable with water in her face, but I ended up stripping off and climbing in the tub with her. I thought that maybe we could play some swim class games together in a ‘safe’ and familiar place. She still stiffens up certain limbs when we’re playing certain swimming games like when I’m trying to get her to move her arm through the water in a swimming fashion one arm will do it but the other arm locks up. I should talk to the teacher.

Maeve is talking more, but no real words. She says ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ but seems to use them interchangeably or call me dada. She will only use mama when she’s upset She went through a week or so of saying menumenumenu all the time and now says things like takeabite and other multi-syllabic ‘words’. She sounds Polish or Check or something 🙂 She will bring over a book (or a toy) and hand it to us saying “mee?” and then “takeabite” while she climbs onto our lap.

She continues to hate being lain down on her back. She will fuss and cry during changes unless we do them standing up. She still hates changing tables in public restrooms, she gets scared when I put her on one. She hates the part of swim class where we lay on our backs.

She’s showing signs of understanding us. I can ask her to go find one of her toys (a lion or a dog or a monkey, or her baby doll or cow) and she’ll try to find it. She still has issues with toys that aren’t those listed above, but it’s progress! She will also make some attempt at finding a specific book. Like she knows what story comes from what picture book and will study the cover to think if that’s the right one. At least that’s what I tell myself. We have a few books that are part of a series (Maisy, Spot, Llama Llama, Eric Carl) or by the same author/illustrator and she seems to know this. I can also ask her to find her bottle or blanket or shoes and she’s getting better at finding them. The other week I asked her if she was tired and wanted a nap, wanted to go to bed and she walked into her room and pointed at her bed!

Oh! Reflux update! At the end of August we stopped taking the Prevacid completely! She started spitting up again on occasion, and has been a bit fussy about some things, but is generally still sleeping okay at night so I think her fussiness might be more to do with teething. I think tooth #7 is coming in and she has been snotty and drooly and off her food the past week or so.

Sometimes I feel a little lonely. I can go to a party or brunch or whatever occasion and see all my friends, but I spend most of my time following Maeve around making sure she doesn’t fall down stairs or get into things she shouldn’t, making sure she eats enough and doesn’t just throw it all on the floor. It’s better than when she was puking and crying all the time I guess, but I miss having a conversation with my friends. I’m happy that I have a few local mums to meet with as they understand the stilted conversations that now occur.

Last week (Friday the 13^th, wouldn’t you know) we met up with N and Elena at the park. We were hoping to meet E and Christiana too, but apparently E lost her phone for 2hours and had no way of contacting us. We met another local mum (Jenny) and her kids, Rebel (almost 2) and Sunday (3mo). Maeve was having a great time running around with Rebel and Elena was practicing her walking. At one point Rebel and Maeve went to the jungle gym and I wasn’t quick enough to get up there with her so I walked along the outside trying to get her to hold my hand. She walked all the way across the wobbly bridge by herself then sat down and rolled off the far side of the bridge between the gap in the railing! She must have fallen 4 and half feet to the ground! I felt awful that I hadn’t managed to even attempt to catch her and she cried for a couple of minutes but then got straight back to climbing! I managed to distract her away from the jungle gym and she was running around again when she tripped and fell and smacked her face on the low wall surrounding the play area. She actually slammed her bottom teeth into her upper pallet and was bleeding a bit. It looked really bad and I was shaken up just seeing all the blood (even though I know mouths bleed a lot and heal quickly). We got some ice for her to suck on but she was crying for almost an hour and I don’t blame her.

This week was N’s turn to panic about Elena. All weekend Elena had had a fever but was feeling well enough by Tuesday that we were able to meet up at the park for a little bit. Nuria was changing her diaper and noticed a rash on her tummy which we both put down to a reaction to detergent. A little bit later I get a call from Nuria saying that the rash had spread all over her torso and up her neck to her face and head and she was taking her to the doctor! Turns out she had Roseola (which I’d never heard of). Thankfully because Maeve and I had been suffering from a cold I’d been keeping my distance from Elena whenever we got together during what turns out to have been the contagious period. Roseola starts with a fever for 2 days and loss of appetite, then the fever goes and a rash appears.

Maeve’s one year check-up

Posted on August 5, 2013 by deewares

This morning was Maeve’s one year check up. It is also Lewis’ birthday. We woke up, opened some birthday presents in bed and went for a birthday breakfast at our favourite spot before going to the Doctor for her appointment.

Maeve is now 20.2lbs and 30” tall!

Doctor M was very happy with her progress. She said that it’s okay for her not to be talking yet as long as she’s babbling a lot which she is. She’s started making new vocal sounds and sounds like an alien character or something (“b’duk duka ticuh” etc). She commented on her friendly social nature saying that most 1yr olds are dubious of her but I think Maeve is a generally good judge of character. She can be shy with some strangers and friendly with others.
She was given the all clear to eat any food she wants! Yay! And as for the reflux Dr said to try her on the ¼ tablet once a day for a few more weeks and then try stopping altogether! She’s been doing the once a day for 10 days now so I’ll give it to the end of the month and see what happens. I can’t believe we might be done with medicine. She still spits up once in a while, but it’s not even every day now 🙂

After the doctor saw her, she got 3 sets of shots (2 in one arm, 1 in the other). She cried a lot, but the nurse was very quick. Then we went to get blood drawn which #1 was the rotten cherry on the top of the pile of crap that was the 3 shots and #2 was just miserable for all involved 😦 she cried so much and was sobbing throughout. I had to hold her legs between mine and wrap my arms around her so she couldn’t wriggle. The nurse tried twice to find a vein in the arm, when she found a vein she wasn’t able to get any blood so she had to do a pin prick on the finger and collect the blood for 2 vials that way (which of course takes so much longer). Maeve was sobbing, Lewis was unhappy, I wasn’t happy, I felt sorry for the poor young nurse too. It was a rough 10 minutes or so.

Since her birthday she has had a few new things going on:

Pooping. She has started to go to the bathroom door when she needs to poop. It’s only happened a few times. Or she’ll come over to me and want to climb up on my lap for a cuddle and I get a whiff 🙂

Weaning: A few weeks before her birthday we were down to one or two breast feedings per day, then a few days after her birthday I went out for the afternoon and she wasn’t able to have her mid-afternoon snack so she went all day with only sippy cups. I think it was the next day that I managed to distract her and she went 2 days without breastfeeding! I was so surprised when I went to bed that night I had to text Christina 😛 We are now managing to breast feed every 2^nd or 3^rd day. If she sees my boobs when I’m changing she gets excited and sometimes she’ll grab at my shirt but I can usually offer her a sippy cup or a pacifier and she’s happy. Now I have to hope she doesn’t get too attached/dependant on a pacifier. I’m trying to keep it out of sight and only offer it at nap time and even then only when she’s fussy about going down.

So she’s now 30” tall which means her reach is even longer and not too many surfaces are safe from her grabby little paws. She can also climb, remember?! She can climb onto the loveseat and onto the windowsill behind; she can climb onto the couch and then onto the table behind; the other day we turned around to see that she can climbed onto the windowsill by my bedside and was looking out at the world below!!!; she can move the step stool around the kitchen and has started to attempt to climb it… This morning she wobbled the rack where her food is kept just enough to knock a munchies cup filled with cheerios down. I might have to do some rearranging!

I’ve bought a little harness/leash type thing at Babies R Us. I’m hoping that this way I can wear her when we go out and then when I get tired or she gets fidgety she can walk around without darting into a street. I am also looking at getting a cheap umbrella stroller for some outings so that we can ride the bus if needed. The jogging stroller is great for most trips but it’s a pain to break it down if I want to ride on the bus (and I hate taking up the space on the bus if I don’t break it down).

I love the little person she’s becoming. I look at pictures or read my journal from a year ago and it amazes me. Those first few weeks were a haze of sleep and feeds and now she’s a blur as she zips around the condo.

9 months

Posted on April 18, 2013 by deewares

The Stormbringer brought us one hell of a storm on the day she reached 9 months. I like to think that the storm on the night she was born helped soothe her and now whenever we have storms they feel familiar and calming rather than frightening. She slept through most of it 🙂 But man did it do some damage! Flash floods in lots of local neighbourhoods, even as close as 2 blocks north of us! Thankfully our street was unaffected.

The basics: She is now 18lbs 1oz , 28.5inches long and wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. I put some clothes on her the other morning that were clearly too small for her so have gone through her drawers again to sift out the small items. I always feel sad when I have to pack away my favourite items of clothing because she didn’t get to wear them often enough.

What is Maeve up to now? Well she’s walking for reals now. If she wants to get somewhere fast she’s down on her knees crawling but otherwise she’s very comfortable toddling about the apartment. I got her some shoes (size 3) but they only just fit and are kind of clunky for her so I’ve exchanged them for some softer more flexible shoes. I love watching her follow Roomba around 🙂 As some of you know she is also climbing very well! If she is on the couch with me she is quick to scale the back of the couch and tries to get onto the table. The other day she had maneuvered an empty box over to the coffee table and climbed up on to it to reach something on the table! So, yeah, I have to keep an eye on that!

I am still breast feeding but she is taking the bottle at meals and occasionally at non-meal times too! It’s about 50/50 breast vs bottle these days. She is starting to get the hang of tipping the bottle up too 🙂 She started venturing into finger foods at the end of March. She is getting less interested in purees and spoon fed cereals so mealtimes can be a challenge, but generally a good one. I have to have a few things ready for her in case the spoon fed stuff is rejected. I really don’t want to encourage a picky eater but I can’t force her to eat if she doesn’t want to Foods she currently likes include: banana, melon slices, parsnip, broccoli & cheese nuggets, pasta & sauce, steamed apple slices,rice puffs, green beans. It all depends on the day though we just got the go ahead for yogurt and egg yolks and cheese, yay! The other night we went for dinner at Penny’s Noodles and she happily sat in the high chair and ate her parsnip mash but then she kept grabbing at my plate so I picked out some chicken and broccoli pieces to cool down for her. I think she was watching her cousin across the table eating gyoza (pot stickers) with her kiddie chopsticks 🙂 Today I bought her a new sippy training cup to try too!
Oh, we are continuing on with the Prevacid (her reflux medicine) twice a day until she hits the one year mark. Then after her one year appt we’re going to go down to once a day for 4 weeks and if she’s doing okay we’ll talk about getting her off it within 6 weeks. Fingers crossed she’ll be reflux free by 15months 🙂 Funnily enough Dr M is away for the entire month of July so Maeve’s one year appointment will be on her original due date of August 5th. 🙂

She is still not sleeping through the night on a regular basis, but in the past month she has had 2 or 3 awesome nights! One night I woke at 2am and realized she’d been asleep since 8 or 9, I lay there wondering if I should be worried but she woke at 2:30 for a feed. Then one night last week she slept from 8pm until 3am and then again until 6:45am. It was great! Last night she woke just before 2 am and 4am and managed to soothe herself back to sleep without me going in at all!! Hurrah!!! I’m trying to get her to sleep better at night by the end of May so that she doesn’t keep Nana & Papa up all night while we’re out of town for a wedding.
Edited to add: Exciting news! Last night (April 27th) Maeve went to bed at 7:30 and slept through until 5:15am! That’s almost 10hrs of solid sleep!! Then after a quick feed she went back to sleep until about 6:45ish ❤

Our place is becoming overrun with Maeve toys. My brother brought over a bunch of clothes and books and toys (oh my!) from his kids. I’m very grateful and I love that Maeve gets hand-me-downs from all of her cousins (I think it helps build a connection between them) but we need a bigger place for everything! Of course she’s happy playing with anything she finds around the house too. She’ll play with my shoes, the Roomba, an empty box, the mirror in our bedroom, a paper bagfilled with paper bags, the cords to our laptops (which we have to say no to!), the remote control, my keys, an empty plastic bottle… anything really 🙂 She also loves her books. I have a basket with her big kid books out of her reach, and all her board books are on the entertainment centre for her to get to easily. She’ll pull them all down and study them intently. Sometimes she pulls our books off the lower shelves of our bookcases too which is rather more dangerous/annoying. Window sills aren’t safe surfaces to display our things anymore. I’ve had to remove Lewis’s bobble head collection, a Dalek and our Tokidoki things and pack them up in preparation for the new house. I kind of want to start packing up a bunch of stuff in preparation for the new house but that’s rather presumptive seeing as we haven’t even been to any viewings. It would just be so much easier to pack things away rather than constantly shifting things to a temporary new place out of her reach 🙂

I saw some tasty looking finger foods at the store this morning but as we’re on a tight budget at the moment I decided to research some more recipes for making my own veggie cookies etc for her to nibble on. I don’t want her to just snack on the rice puffs (although they do go down easily!), I’d like to know that she’s getting some real fruit/veggies in there. Chris also brought me another Annabel Karmel book of recipes for Maeve (Feeding your Baby & Toddler) that they’d found useful. So I have more fun recipes to try out 🙂

Edited to add the part about me: I got my period today. Woo hoo, welcome back to the joys of being a woman 😛 When she grabs at my shirt I have been trying to give her a couple of ounces from a bottle, and I keep boob time for before naps or in the night. Like I said, I guess we’re at about 50% bottle now so that has affected my milk production and allowed me to resume periods. I guess I have to watch my snacking habits again now that I’m burning less calories through breastfeeding 😛
The other day I managed to squeeze in a semi workout. I played Kinect while Maeve toddled around and laughed at me jumping about. I’d like to get out running more, but I’m generally happy with the activity level. Walking 1.5miles to the store while wearing an 18lb baby is *work* 🙂
I’m definitely enjoying alcohol on occasion again. Generally I save it for the weekends and only have a drink before bed, but the freedom to choose is nice.

Scrawny Screamer

Posted on February 24, 2013 by deewares

“Scrawny screamer” is a term used for babies with reflux because they spit up so much they don’t gain appropriate weight, and they are often crying from pain and hunger.
Last night I was looking up ways to soothe babies with reflux (once again) and came across an article that was telling me pretty much the same stuff I’d read everywhere else and then this sentence caught my eye “Don’t neglect yourself”. I read the next bit “Dealing with a baby with reflux is overwhelming. You may be experiencing sleep deprivation, self-doubt, some level of depression and general frustration at not being able to make your baby completely comfortable and happy. You are not alone!”
I nearly burst into tears right then, because yes!, that is exactly how I feel at least some portion of every day. Some days it’s only a few minutes of tiredness, but other days it’s crushing.

I feel frustration that I can’t soothe her pain, and guilt that my milk makes her spit up even though she seeks comfort from me in that manner.
Every time she spits up I feel judged by everyone (including Maeve and Lewis) that I’m a failure at keeping my baby healthy and guilty that *I’m* ruining people’s clothing, carpeting, couches and decor. Surely I as her mother should know what to do to make her stop spitting up all the damn time?!

The article ended with a section about Shaken Baby Syndrome and how babies with reflux are at a higher risk of it because of the excessive crying and frustration and there have been moments in the middle of the night when I was so tense and strung out that I was scared I might hurt her by accident. I do *not* enjoy those moments, and it adds to the general feelings of failure as a mother.

In general moving onto ‘grown up food’ has helped immensely and she is clearly not a “scrawny” screamer any more but every time I introduce a new food I wait somewhat anxiously to see how her tummy will cope with it. I need to create a spread sheet or something to track what she’s tried and when we can try more things. I really hope this doesn’t become a lifetime issue for her to watch what she eats in case it causes her such discomfort 😦

7 months

Posted on February 20, 2013 by deewares

On Feb 18th, Maeve hit the 7 month milestone.
We’ve put her back on medication for reflux because she was still having trouble sleeping through the night. Even with the medication she is having trouble, but it feels different now. The other night she was waking me up so often I don’t think I actually fell into a deep sleep until Lewis had left for work. She would cry and wriggle around but eventually settle down to sleep on me, and then 10mins after I put her down she’d start crying again, but she wasn’t searching for food which is a major improvement. Last night I tried to avoid picking her up for cuddles (just rubbed her back so she knew I was there) and eventually I was able to let her whimper herself back to sleep. I think she had gas so I’m looking at what foods are potential suspects and what I can do to help ease the nighttime pain. Other than me not sleeping much I think we’re making progress. She has her last feed by 8pm (depending on when she got dinner and if she wanted any boob before bed) and manages to last until midnight before her next feed. Last night I fed her at 3am and then she slept until almost 8am.

She is far less whiny these days. She still spits up some, but far less than she used to and hopefully the medication will help her reflux and heartburn and make her more comfortable. We have 11 refills for the prescription, so a full years worth(!), hopefully by then her system will have matured some and she won’t need it.

She is still cruising along furniture nicely and working hard at walking freely. She stands up and looks like she’s working really hard at lifting her foot, but plops down before she manages to do it. She is quite fearless in some respects. I put Lewis’ little desktop table on the floor (it’s about 6″ tall) and she climbed right up on it and then stood up! If it is next to the loveseat she will use it to try and climb onto the loveseat too! If things are in her way she simply crawl/climbs over them to get where she needs to be 😛 I foresee some adventures down the road!

I just removed a few more of her 3-6mo clothes and am integrating more of her 6mo clothing into rotation.

Today we went to the doctors to get the 2nd round of her 6 month shots. Because she had the flu shot last month they wanted to spread out the rest of the shots to make it easier on her. So out we went in the ‘blizzard’. Thankfully I didn’t have to fully undress her for this visit, because I’d bundled her up so much, I just had to take off her trousers. Because this wasn’t a proper milestone visit she wasn’t going to get weighed or measured (boo), but while the nurse was out of the room I plopped Maeve on the scales and she’s up to 16lb 14oz (fully clothed)!
So she got her shots and the nurse apologized for making her cry. she said “She’s so strong so I had to be a bit strong with her” which I understand. She did cry but while I was giving her a cuddle afterward the nurse was straightening the paper and had to change the roll so Maeve got totally distracted by the whole lifting the chair and everything.
We spent some time in the waiting room after so she could have some fun before getting bundled up again for the ride home.

Solids: food and poop

Posted on February 8, 2013 by deewares

So, Maeve is now on solids. a whole new era of poop has begun (yikes!). Our washing machine has been fixed after 3 long weeks (hooray!) and so we are returning to cloth diapers too. Maeve has been spitting up with more frequency again so I read up on causes:

Any foods that baby eats are more likely than mom’s foods to cause the spitting up. Has baby started solids recently or tried a new food? Are you or baby taking any new medications? Have you or baby started taking vitamins or changed your vitamins? Well, she started eating solids so each food is being monitored for her reaction to it. So far carrot has been the most violently spat up. she liked it going in but apparently it can be hard for some babies to digest so I’m taking carrot off the menu for a while. More on this later.
Has baby been fussier than normal, and/or crying more lately? If so, he is probably swallowing more air than usual, which can cause the spitting up. She has been kind of fussier, I guess.
Spitting up can be caused by teething. When teething, babies tend to drool more and often swallow a lot of that extra saliva – this can cause extra spitting up. She has been drooling a lot and rubbing her gums like crazy and that fussiness i mentioned is more grizzly than whiny or screaming so I think she’s starting to teeth. Also, she shoves her hand into her mouth to rub her gums so I’m sure, y’know, gagging herself isn’t helping matters 😛
A cold or allergies can result in baby swallowing mucus and spitting up more.
Baby may be hitting a growth spurt and swallowing more air when he nurses, especially if he’s been “guzzling” lately. She does seem to guzzle her food more but that could be due to me trying to space out her meals. Either way, she’s probably gulping in air too.
If you tend to have oversupply or a fast let-down, some moms see renewed symptoms (which can include spitting up) after a growth spurt. I do indeed have a fast let-down.

So, yeah, many reason for her spitting up still. sigh.
Foods we’ve tried are carrot, squash, sweet potato, banana and apple (this morning). I think she has liked all of them although banana took a few bites before she accepted it. Carrot made her spit up orange which is far more distressing than regular spit up 😦 Sweet potato can stop up baby down there but otherwise I haven’t seen any problems and she hasn’t been too stopped up poop wise. Sweet potato and squash are my go-to foods as she seems to like them best so far. That’s not to say she *loves* them, but she doesn’t reject them or have any bad reaction to them. Banana was slow going, but I think it was a texture thing as much as anything- it’s very different than squash or sweet potato. Also, banana poop is super gross 😦 we tried apple this morning. this may be my #3 go to. Either she’s getting happier eating “grown-up” food or she likes the flavour but it seemed to go down well.
As for cereal I’m not sure if she prefers rice or oatmeal, I think it changes every day. The first oz is always a struggle and then she gets into it. The past 2 weeks we have been having cereal for b’fast, veggie for lunch, cereal for dinner. Now we start cereal, veggie, cereal, fruit. Four meals a day. I had to start with fruit for b’fast this morning because I’d run out of formula and the new tub I’d ordered won’t arrive until later today (i’m hoping in the lunchtime postal delivery).
I need to buy more sweet potato, squash and apple and think of which veggie will be the next on the list. I’m thinking peas. Potato and cauliflower might be good but i’m not sure of their nutritional values. For some reason I think spinach and broccoli might be hard to digest. Oof. Never ending adventure 😉

She is chatty and mobile and gets into as much as she can possibly manage! Lewis and I have been taking a ‘cross that bridge when we get to it’ approach as to baby-proofing etc. We were like “oh we won’t need to do X until she’s X” y’know. Why plug up all the sockets when she’s 3 days old etc, but she’s crossing certain hurdles earlier than expected.
I just bought a little chair that straps onto a grown up chair so she can join us at the table without taking up table top space or the extra floor space a highchair would. It has a little tray and will convert to a booster when she’s older and doesn’t need the tray. I think I’ll take the bumpo chair to Oak Park so she has something to sit in during meal times out there.

six months (pt 2)

Posted on January 24, 2013 by deewares

Today we had her 6 month doctors appointment. She is now 15lb 1oz (25th percentile) and 26.5″ long (tall and skinny like her cousin). Today she got half of her 6mo shots and her flu shot and she’ll get the rest of her 6mo shots next month after that she won’t have any more shots until her 1st birthday. We decided to go with giving her the flu shot because this year is particularly bad for it.

When we first went in and she was getting weighed and measured she was so squirmy and kept grabbing at the paper on the seat. I think she scrunched up and ripped and tried to eat about 5ft of it 😛 When the doctor came in I had laid out her blanket over the paper so she wouldn’t vandalize the whole roll and she sat quietly listening to the doctor talk about what shots she’d be getting. Doctor commented “she’s sitting very well” and I told her how she was already pulling herself to standing and starting to cruise around and even stand by herself for a few seconds.
When I said how she wasn’t really babbling yet and should I be concerned Doctor said it was okay. I brought it up because Simon had been babbling for a while at this point and I wanted to make sure Maeve was on track. Dr thinks she’s just not interested in talking just yet, that clearly moving is more interesting to her 🙂 She said that she should start babbling around 8months and some babies don’t start until a year (yikes!). As long as she is making noises and showing interest and engaging with us there’s no cause for concern yet.
We talked about food. Maeve has been getting just over a tablespoon (unprepared) of cereal twice a day tomorrow we up that to 1/4cup! We also start with fruit or veggies. Doctor suggested fruit (because maeve is breastfed and the transition will be easier while she’s still getting used to texture), but she also said the theory for veggies first was equally valid and I could do whichever I felt. Yellow/Orange foods first, then Green foods later. I bought some carrots, some what i think is pumpkin and some banana. Mostly I got the banana to use as an ingredient in these teething biscuits seen on Pinterest (http://imprintalish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/homemade-baby-teething-biscuits.html) I’m thinking the carrots will be sweeter than pumpkin. Each new food will be done for 3 days to test for allergic reactions before introducing the next new food. So tomorrow, Maeve will start getting 3 meals a day cereal for breakfast, fruit/veggie for lunch, cereal for dinner. In 2 weeks we’ll go to 4 meals a day 4hrs apart: cereal, veggies,cereal, fruit.
We’re holding off on a refill of the Prevacid for 2 weeks. She’s been off it for almost 2 weeks now and seems to be doing ok, much less spitting up and not too much arching. doctor wants us to keep track of her night sleeping habits for the next 2 weeks. Currently she still wakes around 11pm, 2am and 4am before her final wake up at regular start the day time. Doctor thinks some of that could be due to her reflux so we are going to see if new/more food added to her diet helps her sleep better. If she is still waking up multiple times in the night in 2 weeks we’ll put her back on the prevacid. sigh.

After Doctor was done the nurses came back in and gave her her vaccines which she did not enjoy, I fed her and we bundled her back up for the journey home.
I felt like today’s appointment was a really good one. Doctor seems very happy with Maeve’s progress and reassured me about a few things. I’m excited for the next stage.

Six months of chasing… (long entry!)

Posted on January 21, 2013 by deewares

Maeve…
Maeve is growing up so fast. Every day she whines and fusses with frustration and I calmly remind her how amazing she is and that it’s ok to not be able to do *everything* just yet 🙂 In the 4.5 weeks since her 5 month update she has advanced immeasurably! Her sitting has become far more stable and she has gone from merely being able to push up into a crawling position and rocking to pneumatically maneuvering around the room. She spent a few weeks kind of crawling backwards or sideways in a crablike fashion or pivoting around the object she was trying to get to and suddenly on Monday (Jan 14^th) she managed to propel herself forward. As I say it is rather jerky and pneumatic and not entirely smooth or coordinated, but she is moving! If I place her on her back to change her diaper she flips onto her belly and is up into a crawling position like lightening! She doesn’t crawl aimlessly, so far she only crawls if she wants something, although climbing seems to be a different matter altogether!

For her half birthday I invited Nana, Sarah, Riley, Christina and Simon up to the north side for a play date at Pickles Playroom in Lincoln Square. It’s half café, half play area (and has a kids hair salon attached too). The kids loved it! I will definitely return, although I might choose a quieter time of day 🙂 At one point Maeve and I were exploring a climbing wall in the ‘older kids’ (3+yrs) area and a little girl came over. “I like your baby” she says. “Thank you” I replied.
“What I like about her is her bald head”
“I like that too” 🙂
“Do you think your baby would like to meet my baby?”
“Sure.” So we followed her across the room to where her mum and baby sister were playing. The mum said something to her baby and I did a double take
“What’s her name?”
“Maeve”(!!)
“um, same here!” I said and we laughed. So much for picking a unique name that no-one else in her class would share! Other Maeve was 7months old. We joked that by the time they start school there’ll be so many Maeve’s no-one will have problems with spelling or mispronunciation.

Maeve’s favourite toy in the playroom (aside from the climbing wall which fascinated her) was some soft stairs. She was all about figuring out how to climb them. I guess I’m glad we don’t have any stairs in our house currently, but we’ll have to keep an eye out for her at friends houses.

When we got home from the playroom she was still sleepy from napping on the way home so I lay her in the crib while I put some stuff away. I heard some murmuring and peeked in to find her standing up in the crib holding on to the rails. Um, yikes! The following morning we lowered the mattress base. She’s only had the crib 6 weeks.

Last weekend she finished her medication for reflux. Just after Christmas we started her on cereal twice a day. She now gets cereal at lunchtime and dinner time. I try to switch between rice cereal and oatmeal so she doesn’t get too bored, but I’m already looking forward to introducing her to veggies and fruit.
Feeding her can be a 2 spoon affair. She doesn’t really like sitting down to eat, rather she prefers to stand in her play station (because standing is always her preferred position of choice). I offer her food and try to get as much into her before she grabs the spoon and wants to feed herself. While she is figuring out how to get the spoon into her mouth I prepare a 2^nd spoonful. We rotate spoons until she’s had enough. Sometimes she manages a whole bowl (about 2 tablespoons of prepared food) sometimes she only gets about half, but between the 2 meals she gets about 1.5bowls a day. I bought some new formula that is specially formulated to reduce spit up. I only use formula to make her cereal but it all helps. This week she has tended to have one major spit up per day (no guarantee when it will happen) and the rest are more like juicy burps with a little spit up coming out. I’m not sure if it’s the cereal or new formula or if her esophagus is maturing, but she seems to be doing better.

Clothing: I’ve stopped putting her in 0-3mo clothes and am branching into the 6mo clothes. It’s constantly hard to pack away the cute clothes she’s grown out of. So far the 6mo tops fit nicely with some breathing room, but the pants are baggy at the waist. Also, most of her 6mo clothes are t-shirts rather than long sleeved which has been a major reason in ‘squeezing’ her into the younger clothes 😛

Also, in the past month she has had her first Christmas and New Years Eve 🙂 She met her aunt Katie and uncle Phil, and experienced the Kindle Market and Zoo Lights at Brookfield Zoo. We have her 6 month doctors appointment on Thursday evening so I might do a mini update after that.

…And me!

I told myself I would give myself 6months to enjoy being a stay-at-home mum. Now that Maeve is 6 months I looked very briefly into daycare costs if I were to return to work full time. Here on the north side of Chicago daycare costs average $350 a week. I would have to bring home at least $600 after tax for it to be vaguely worth it. If I returned to the scene shop I’d have to drop Maeve at day care at 6:30am and not collect her until 4:30pm which is not something I feel comfortable doing. I’d like to really get my Etsy shop earning. I keep finding reasons to get distracted and procrastinate and I need to get my butt in gear!

For the most part I feel happy with my post baby body and don’t give it much thought, but on occasion I get depressed about my flat, sagging boobs and my squishy belly. I know I can fix the belly if I just worked at it, but he boobs will never be the same. I try to tell myself that it’s okay, it’s the mark of motherhood- just like stretch marks from pregnancy, but it still saddens me a little. I kind of know why my mum’s friend says she had 4 kids because she liked her pregnancy/breastfeeding boobs 😛
At least our sex life is returning to pre-pregancy standards 🙂 It really helps not having baby *right* next to us 😉

I have been having bad dreams lately and I don’t know why. Two nights ago I slept on the couch because Lewis was snoring. I dreamt of zombies. I spent the whole dream running and looking over my shoulder for the growing mob of zombies that were following us. I couldn’t stop running to rest or even sleep in case they gained ground on us. There was a tarry black river too that I was scared zombies would crawl out of. Last night I dreamt that my friend was being weird around me and Lewis and when I asked her about it she said that Lewis had been really sleezy and tried it on with her at some point and now she felt creeped out by him. I had a hard time believing her as she can overreact sometimes, but at the same time I needed to talk to him and hear his side, because if he had made a move on her after we’d got married and she was with her new boyfriend then I was going to be *super* pissed off with him!!
I’m working on not feeding Maeve every time she wakes in the night, and this morning (at 4am) I even managed to stay in bed and let her fuss it out and fall back to sleep by herself!

Now that she is super wriggly during diaper changes I can’t change her on the table as safely as before. So, I have rearranged some stuff and now our dining table is free to be a dining table or (dare I say) a craft(!) table again. she has got into the habit of having a short nap mid morning and a longer (maybe 2hr) nap in the afternoon. I’m hoping I can utilize these afternoon naps to get some crafting stuff done.

Sometimes it’s still hard being a mum. There are still nights when I break down. When Maeve is crying and Lewis is not only sound a sleep, but snoring through it all. I feel bad about her reflux and her spitting up all over everything, but she is getting better about that lately and she is gaining weight (or feels like it!). I just need to give certain people a bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner 😛

Chasing the Spitmonster

Posted on January 14, 2013 by deewares

I need a spit rag the size of our living room rug. Now that ms Maeve is mobile there is little guarantee that she will stay on any of the cloths I lay down for her.

Chasing The Stormbringer

From Two Blue Lines To Today

Tag Archives: reflux