Another first!

I do believe Miss Lila Jane has made a come-back! Her fever seemed to go away Friday night during the night, and she hasn't felt warm since! HURRAY! I believe we have officially survived our first illness!

In other firsts, guess who had cereal this evening?!?!

She did really well with it! She didn't actually eat very much, but she didn't wig out, and she didn't turn her head away! I'd call that a success for a first try!

This little girl...
is growing up...
way too fast!!!

She wasn't really sure what to think about the exersaucer at work. She hung out in it for a few minutes, though! We went on and got her exersaucer at home set up and she's been in it once as well.

These pictures were all taken a week or so ago.

Today, poor LJ is not doing so great. She had a rougher night last night, and was up crying a couple times for 5-10 minutes at a time. I've been having to wake her up at 7:00 to get her ready for school, but today she was wide awake and very unhappy at 6:00. I took her to school hoping her rough start was just because we got her bedtime routine a bit off last night. But alas, I peeked in to see Miss Lila this morning and she felt a bit warm when I was loving on her. Her temp was only 98.9, but she just didn't seem right. It wasn't long until Mrs. Barb brought her to me fussing and whimpering. Her temp had gone up to 99.4, but she was definitely not feeling well. I called Clay to see if he'd be able to leave work. I put him on standby in case we needed him. At a temp of 101, Lila would have to leave school. Before noon, I checked in again, and Lila was still just absolutely pitiful. Her temp was up to 100.4. She was whiney and limp and hadn't slept for more than a few minutes at a time all morning. She was just lifeless, and it scared me! I went on and called the Dr. and got her a 2:2o appt, and called Clay to come get her. He was able to make it just in time to get to her appt. Apparently she just has a virus, and we're going to have to let it run it's course. They told us to give her Tylenol and wait it out. She slept most of the afternoon, and woke up still pretty pitiful. She did give me some smiles and snuggles before falling back to sleep. She woke up just in time for her bedtime routine, so we got her all jammied up, loaded with a bottle and medicine, and read a few stories before putting her down for the night. She went down without so much as a whimper, and I haven't heard from her since. Here's hoping we have a good night, and a better day tomorrow!!! Uncle Andy and Aunt B and the boys were going to babysit for us tonight so that Clay and I could go out for sushi with some friends, but I ended up staying home with her and letting Clay go to dinner since he took the afternoon shift. Thanks to the Crouches for the offer, and we'll try to do it again sometime!!

I had actually planned to take Lila to the Dr. tomorrow even before all of this happened. She's had a rashy stomach for well over a month now, and I was finally fed up. At our last two Dr. appts, they had told us that what she had seemed viral, but it never really went away. I knew it wasn't viral, but I needed a Dr. note to say she was ok for daycare, so Clay was able to take care of that while she was there today, too. They confirmed my suspicions, that it was just eczema, and had us get some hydrocortisone cream for her. I haven't been using ANY scented soaps or lotions for some time now, so hopefully with the new cream, we'll be able to get her all cleared up soon.

What a start to the weekend, huh??

3 Months Old!

Lila Jane, you are THREE months old!! You haven't been to the doctor since your 2 month check-up, so I don't know your height and weight, but I know you're growing a LOT! I have officially retired your 0-3 month clothes. For the last couple weeks, I've been trying to get your small sized clothes on you just one more time, but yesterday you looked like you were wearing capri pants and 3/4 length sleeves. You were still as cute as a button, but Mommy felt a little bad for putting you in those itty bitty baby clothes! You take about 5 ounces in each feeding, and you eat about 5-6 times a day. I started adding 2 ounces of formula to some of your bottles last week. I make sure to give you one of these mixed bottles at bedtime, and you've slept through the night for a whole week now!! You have really adjusted well to our bedtime routine, and you're usually in bed by 8:30-8:45ish. When I put you down, you don't even cry. You just coo for a minute, then fall fast asleep until I wake you up around 7:00am to get ready for school.

At school, you're known for your fancy bottle labels that Mim made you and for all of your cute hats. The other teachers drop in every day to ask what hat you wore to school! They like to check out all of your cute outfits, too. One day you messed up the cute outfit I put you in, so they had to change you at school. I came in when they were about to put an ugly outfit on you, and I made them stop!! I ran and got you a cute fresh outfit from my purse and let you wear that instead. No ugly faded clothes for you, Missy! Ha!

What are you into? You are fascinated by your hands right now. You'll lay around happily sucking your chubby little fists for a long time! Your hands are ALWAYS moving. You are starting to grab your blankets and anything near you and hold on to it. I've been giving you a burp cloth or little taggy blanket to hold on to and play with. You LOVE when we talk to you. Your big blue eyes will lock into ours and you'll just smile and try to coo and talk back to us. You're very happy in a bouncy seat, laying on a palette on the floor, or even in your car seat. You're even starting to spend short amounts of time in your exersaucer! I couldn't believe when I put you in it that your feet actually touch the bottom! You do NOT like tummy time, though! Your teachers, Mrs. Barb and Mrs. Allison, don't like putting you on your belly because you start crying almost instantly. I try to tell them that it's good for you so to try it every day anyway, but they feel too sorry for you. They spoil you rotten!! I told them they were spoiling you TOO much because you started getting persnickety about the temperature of your bottles. I've always given you bottles that are pretty cool so that I can easily grab a bottle out of my purse and feed you anywhere. At school, though, they warm all of your bottles until they're nice and toasty! You threw a BIG HUGE fit at a restaurant last week when we tried to give you a cold bottle!! I didn't think I'd ever get you calmed down! You were crying so hard I finally took your sweater off because you were getting so worked up and hot!

We are ONLY using cloth diapers and wipes on you now, even at night. Your diaper rash has been GONE for a couple weeks now, so we're sticking with what we know works. After going through a whole list of different diaper creams and ointments, we finally settled on Aquaphor. We're keeping your bum slathered in it all the time. The only time lately that your bottom has gotten red is when Mommy forgot and ate some pineapple. It's just too acidic for your sensitive skin. I'm trying to stay away from all citrus fruits now, and really watching tomatoes as well.

I'm so proud of you and the way you're growing and changing! I love seeing your personality come through more and more each day. Your teachers laugh at you because you can be SO serious, but then you'll just start smiling and laughing at them. You love to snuggle, but you usually want to be held up on our shoulders so that you can see what's going on. I love that, because it means I can snuggle my cheek right up against yours and breathe you in. With your sensitive skin, we don't use any of the good-smelling baby lotions or soaps on you, but you still smell SO sweet to your Momma. I love you, baby girl, and I can't wait to see what the next month brings us!!

ONE month old:

TWO months old:

THREE months old:
And CHECK OUT these baby blues...
(And yes, I think her lip is continuing to get a bit fatter. Our appt. is March 8 with a plastic surgeon. NERVOUS mama!!)

Ketchup

It's ketchup time! Time to "ketch" you "up" on all that's going on around here!

First things first... I think I gave the impression with my last post that I do ALL the work around here, when that couldn't be further from the truth! I do stay very busy most nights, but Clay definitely does more than just dinner!! He definitely does at least half of the cleaning, typically ends up doing after-dinner dish duty, and takes care of the trash, the vacuuming, and even occasional laundry! I probably do more of Lila's direct care, but that is NOT because Clay's not willing. It's more because I enjoy it so much that I don't give Clay enough of a chance! He gladly bathes, does story times, changes diapers, and anything else Lila needs. In fact, he usually is in charge of storytime and the bedtime bottle. After long days away from her, though, I really enjoy those sweet moments when she's cooing at me on the changing table or seeing that calm relaxed look on her sweet face in the bathtub. When I went back and re-read my last post, I realized that it sounded very negative and whiny, and that's really NOT what I intended. I was just trying to give a glimpse of why I haven't been blogging as much lately. I knew when I signed up for it that taking care of a wee one in addition to regular household duties was a lot of work, but it's work that I enjoy more than anything I ever have before!!!

Ok, that being said, we can move on. Dad, you might want to step away from the computer for this next paragraph.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a knot in my right breast. I read up on the internet and self-diagnosed myself with a clogged milk duct. The suggested remedies for that include massage and heat. I massaged til I was sore, and I took countless hot showers, but the lump remained. It didn't hurt, it didn't change, it just kind of annoyed me to know it was there. Last week, I had an unrelated routine visit to my OB/Gyn, and I mentioned it and asked if she knew of any cures. She told me the standard heat and massage. I told her I'd already tried that, and even after about three weeks of it, the knot was still the size of a golf ball. At that, her eyes got kind of big, and she said, "A golf ball??" Roughly, give or take, yes. So she immediately wanted to palpate it and find out more. Because of the unusually large size, she decided we should probably look into it further. She ordered an Ultrasound, thinking it might be a fluid filled cyst of some sort. I decided that after the 13-14ish ultrasounds I had while pregnant, maybe my body was just craving another and had to pull this fun stunt! Ha!! Anyway, I went this week to get the ultrasound and by this point, I was honestly a tiny bit worried. The ultrasound tech was somewhat uncertain as to what it might be, and couldn't even tell me for sure if she thought it was solid or fluid-filled. She took the scans immediately to a radiologist who looked over the images and decided he felt it was fluid filled. In order to determine exactly what we were dealing with, though, he wanted to aspirate some of the fluid out of it. I filled out the paperwork, he numbed the area, and stuck in a needle. Out came a large vial FILLED with breastmilk! I was right all along!! It was definitely a clogged milk duct that had just gotten very full and hard! He was able to drain it almost completely, and sent me on my merry way. Apparently these are things that can't be prevented, but just sometimes happen. He said it may or may not come back, but not to worry if it does. Just go ahead with the heat/massage regime. The human body is fascinating!! And kinda gross.

Ok, Dad, you can rejoin us now!

Lila is still going and growing strong. With every load of laundry, I toss another couple outfits into the "too small" bin that I'm just keeping in her bedroom. It's getting pretty full! So without further ado, I think it's well past time to add some photos!

First, Lila Jane was NOT impressed with her Valentine's Day present from Mim and Pop. She thought she was going to actually get to see them for Valentine's Day, so a mere gift was quite the let-down. Once I straightened out the misunderstanding (Oh, and fed her), she felt much better.
Clay was taking some neat shots of LJ (but failed to get any of her whole cute outfit! for shame!!):

After bath one night. I always bundle her in two towels, because there's a great likelihood of one getting poo'd on. The layers have saved us on more than one occassion. This night they somehow ended up making Pope-baby!! (Please don't look in the background and make fun of me for my MORE than ample children's book collection.)
The afore-mentioned storytime with Daddy:

Notice her fat lip in this one. The hemangioma in her upper lip is definitely growing. Our appt. with the plastic surgeon is March 8. I'm very anxious to see what they say.
Clay was feeding Lila in our bed, and she was SO staring him down. It was just a gorgeous moment.

Where's Lori?

"Oh my..." you might say. "Why Lori, you haven't blogged in over a week," I've heard. "What have you been up to?" you might be wondering.

Well, my nightly routine is somewhat different than it was B.L. (Before Lila)

B.L., my nightly routine looked a lot like this:
Get off work.
Come home from work.
Plotz on couch.
Eat dinner Clay made me.
Muster energy to move to bed and watch tv.
Sleep.

Now, however, the times they are a changin'. The new evening routine looks more like this:

Get off work.
Spend 20 minutes packing up Lila Jane and her laundry bag and rounding up her diapers and various hats, bibs, burp cloths, bottles, breastpump and accoutrements, pack them all into the stroller, stroll to the car, and unload the whole caravan, then fall into the seat and make phone calls on the ride home because I know I won't have a chance later.
Arrive home and try to carry Lila and all of her stuff into the house in one trip. Not always successful. Second trip to the car.
Get Lila unloaded from carseat and settled somewhere safe.
Begin the mad evening rush.
Unload dirty diapers. Start laundry.
Unload dirty bottles and pump accessories. Hand wash mountain of dishes.
Hope that Clay is on top of dinner preparations.
Straighten Lila's room and get everything ready for her night time routine later.
Cram dinner down while trying to occupy and entertain Lila.
Gather dishes and try to get dishwasher unloaded/reloaded.
Laundry is done. Back downstairs to switch loads over.
It's 8:00. Lila's bathtime.
Bathe Lila. Try to remember to lotion her, give her vitamins, suck snot from her nose.
Get Lila dressed and hand her off to Clay for story time while I clean up the errant clothes, diapers, bath pail, towels, washcloths, soaps, and lotions from bathtime.
Fill Lila's humidifier.
Story time is over and Lila is cranky.
Nurse Lila. Use four pillows, two burp cloths, one shield, and partridge in pear tree to accomplish mission.
Tuck Lila in for the night.
Straighten up living room including four pillows, two burp cloths, one shield, and partridge.
It's 9:00 and I'm finally sitting down on the couch to relax. Decide to check email and Facebook and blogs "really quickly" before blogging.
Give up on blogging because it's 10:00 and I still have to get off the couch, pump, wash pump accessories (AGAIN) and find the bed.
Tiptoe to bed where Clay gave up and fell asleep while I was pumping.
PASS OUT.

So that's mostly the routine I have every night now. I enjoy it, but it leaves me NO time or energy to get to the blog most nights. I had great plans for uploading some cute pics of Lila tonight of her first time in the Exersaucer at school, but I can't find the camera cord, and I'm just too darn tired to continue looking for it.

If anyone finds an extra laundry fairy, please send her my way.

Saturday Morning: Preparing for errands in the snow


Sunday Morning: This is what relaxation looks like
*note: Cutie-Saurus jammies! Thanks Doug and 'Chelle!

Likes and DISlikes

Dislike: Lila is so tired after her school day that she fell asleep in the car, and slept until I woke her for our bedtime routine!

Like: This sweet little face, beautiful even when sleeping

Dislike: The mountains of baby dishes that I wash all day every day!
Like: Valentine preparations! These are baby food "Valentines" from Lila for her classmates

Dislike: Etsy.com takes all my money!! Ok, that's Clay's dislike. For me, things like this dress are an absolute LIKE!
Dislike: A whole bucket of clothes that Lila has already outgrown

Like!: Flannel wipes! I wasn't sure about using cloth wipes, but since we are doing cloth diapers, it seemed like a good idea. I LOVE them! I just buy flannel out of the clearance bin at Joann, and cut it up with pinking shears. They frey for the first few washes, then kind of ravel out and stop. Cheap, effective, and GREAT for Lila's sore bum.

Like: Did I mention that I love Valentine's day preparations?? Because I DO! The tea towel in in the background is a sweet gift Clay gave me last Valentine's day!

Like! Lila helped us to make this sweet Valentine treat for Mommy and Daddy!

Adjustments

It's a whole new week at the Cundiff household! Mommy is back to work!

Let's start with last week. Lila and I made the most of our last week at home together!! We were so busy having fun, we didn't even manage a blog post! Shame on us!

Monday was our trip to the doctor for Lila's 2 month well-check. I undressed Lila for her check-up, and found a rash on her whole chest and belly. What fun! Luckily, we were at the doctor and able to ask about it while we were there. The doctor felt like it was just a virus that was running it's course, and nothing to worry about. Whew... We had also noticed that Lila had what looked like a "fat lip", so I asked about that. It had been there for about a week, so I knew it was odd for a fat lip, but I assumed it was probably just where she nursed or something odd. Well, the doctor felt like it was probably ANOTHER hemangioma! I'm not at all concerned about the two hemangiomas Lila has on her side, but if one insider her upper lip continues to grow for a year, it could really cause problems!! So, the doctor went on and set up a visit to a plastic surgeon for us. We'll visit them in March. While we were there for her well-check, Lila also got shots. Yuck. They made her SO irritable. I could hardly even move her without her bursting out crying for the rest of the day. It made momma SO sad!! Lila measured at 11lbs 11oz, and 23 inches long. Go, baby, go!!

Anyway, why do I feel like this blog post is going to somehow turn into a novel?

After a rough couple of post-shot days, it was Friday, Lila's first official half-day at school. Since my boss (Hi Stacy!) is slated for ankle surgery on my first day back to work, we needed a few hours to review everything at the center and bring me up to speed before she takes off for the next 4-6 weeks. (Surgery went well. Stacy is now home recovering with happy pills.) So I dropped Lila off, took lots of first day pictures on my camera, then forgot and left the camera at work. Oh well, it'll give you something to look forward to. Miss Lila promptly initiated her teachers with leaky diapers, outfit changes, and general baby fun. Way to go, LJ!! In four hours, she went through two bottles and three diapers, and two outfits. Impressive, my child.

Anyway, we really enjoyed our weekend, mostly because it involved a LOT of pizza. Somehow we accidentally managed to eat pizza Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night! Wow.... that's impressive, even for us.

Meanwhile, Lila started getting her notorious diaper rash back. I'm SO OVER diaper rash. It's so unfair for her wee little bum to have been through so much trauma already! I'm trying to figure out what's triggering it, but I really can't. I'm sure it's probably something I'm eating. Most likely one of my very favorite foods that I'm going to have to start doing without. Who knows. It's exhausting.

So I think that brings us up to today. Our first REAL day of school. Since Stacy is out, I'm going to be working 8-5:30 for the next several weeks. Let's talk about how early 6:15 came this morning! I was able to get up and get me ready for work, then pump, then get Lila up and ready. Unfortunately, this left no time to actually feed Lila, so I had to take her to work hungry. I HATE being that parent that drops her kid off and says, "Here ya go, have a hungry cranky child, I'm OUTTA HERE!" They were nice about it, but I still hated to do it. Anyway, by mid-morning, they brought Lila to see me in the office. I was all excited to see her for a minute until Mrs. Barbara dropped the bomb. Remember waaaaay back in that first paragraph or two of this novel where Lila had a rash at the dr. office? It's back. Daycare policy states that children can not stay at the center with unexplained rashes, so she gets the boot. All of those many many times I've called parents and made them come pick up their children for dumb rashes came crashing in on me in a moment of wretched karma kick-back. I called the pediatrician and worked Lila in for an appointment just to learn exactly what I'd already been told. $20 co-pay and an hour off work to be told it's a viral rash that will go away in time. Brilliant. But, on the upside, it did give me a few minutes to snuggle my baby!

We headed back to work where I continued to juggle pumping, a mountain of mail and to-dos, and a staffing shortage. Good times. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. Bed soon.

A few parting notes:
- Lila has taken to sucking her fists. It's adorable and funny. She really looks like she's trying to suck her thumb, but she keeps the thumb tucked inside her fat little fists so that she can't find it. Poor Lila.
- Sleep is still kind of a crap shoot. Some nights she goes all night. Some, not so much. Still, though, at 2 months old, I can handle one time a night getting up with her, especially since she goes right back down after I feed her.
- We have established a bedtime routine. Bath, Books, Bottle or Breast, BED. It starts at 8:00, and goes until one of us is too exhausted to continue. Which is usually me. At about 8:30. We're hoping this will help the sleep issue.

Good night!