Wednesday, September 28, 2011

survival mode

One of my favorite things about being a grown up is that I can make a box of brownies whenever I like and I can eat as many as I want... even more when my husband is away on business.


Baby S is 10 weeks old. Last we left off, she was coming out of the MSPI funk and we were switching pediatricians. Her 2 month appointment with her new Dr was wonderful. I honestly could not have been happier. Best part? The Dr walked in to the exam room EARLY. And I was taken back to the exam room before I even finished filling out my new patient paperwork. So I ended up doing the paperwork last. Unreal to me after our last office, who loved to let me sit and wait for unthinkable amouts of time. She was measured at 24" long and 11 lbs, 10 ozs. We talked through the milk-soy protein intolerance deal and her reflux situation. They tested her stool and for the first time, it came back free of blood, which? HUGE FRIGGIN DEAL. Finally. After all the difficult dietary struggles I've been through in order to keep nursing, I was so happy to get that news. Her dr thinks I should try introducing soy this week and if that goes well, she thinks I should slowly try adding milk proteins back in within 2 weeks. Just to see if she's outgrown the intolerance. If not, we likely wouldn't try again for at least 6 months. We're also trying to wean her off the prev.acid to see if her reflux has chilled. I went from 1 full solutab a day to 1/2 a tab a few days ago and she has been just fine. I'll likely try dropping the prev.acid all together for a few days before I try introducing the soy. Otherwise, she received her 2 month immunizations (I forgot, SO MANY) and an overall full bill of health.

Within the past few weeks, she's been an absolute dream of a baby. She rarely cries, unless she's tired, and she smiles and coos at me NONSTOP while she's awake. In fact, it is when she stops making eye contact and smiling at me that I immediately know it is time to put her down for a nap/bedtime. She is happy to be on her floor gym alone for long periods of time and happy to be snuggled and baby talked to just as well. At this point, I'd say she's down right drama free. After where we started out, it seems almost unreal to describe her that way! Within the past 10 days, I've nailed down a daily schedule that is working wonderfully. She's spending 1 to 1.5 hours awake every 3 hours and the remainder of that block napping. She goes down drowsy but awake and falls asleep just fine. Bedtime is at 8 PM, she has a "dream feed" at 10 and wakes between 3-4 AM to eat and then goes right back to sleep until 7 AM. Some nights are less than perfect, I'm not going to say that I have got this down to an exact science. But for the most part, I am seeing SOME consistency. Finally.

Little L is doing well. I started seriously potty training last Monday. I started not-so-seriously potty training last Tuesday. Potty training is a real pain in the neck, to say the least. I don't have the time/attention span to FULLY devote to chasing her around the house with a water cup and putting her on the potty every 15 minutes. She gets the principal of the process and occasionally she'll luck out and have to go when I tell her to go sit on the potty. Otherwise, she never tells me she has to go and she never spontaneously realizes she needs to go sit on the toilet. One day I'll get tired enough of my half-attempts at this and just go hard core training but that one day isn't anytime in the very near future.

I'm also fighting thumb sucking with her because even though she's only 2.5 years old and all the books say I shouldn't be pressuring her to stop just yet, I'm SO GROSSED OUT by the habit. The sound of her sucking (akin to the irritation of hearing someone "smack" their food while chewing with an open mouth), the condition of her thumb, the fact that she tries to hide it from me... not to mention the nasty GERM-LADEN aspect of the practice? It is vile. I'm trying to convince her to conceal it to the upstairs part of the house right now. Primarily, her bedroom, but since her playroom is up there and she is often in there without me I felt like I needed to include that space. It's going... not great this week, but I will persevere on this.

I'm not sure what's worse to me. Her not being potty trained yet or her sucking her thumb still. Otherwise? She's quite possibly the best child on the planet. Sure, she's a toddler who likes to throw tantrums and is ridiculously bossy and downright rude some days, but I honestly cannot complain about her. I truly adore the child with every fiber of my being and she is so quick to show her affections and apologize for her mistakes.

As for me? I am really living in survival mode. With Baby S's advances in napping, sleeping and overall making my life so much easier than it previously had been, I feel like I should be able to say I am managing things much better. But somehow it all seems to be getting harder. All of this is another blog post for another time, however. So until then...

(thanks for following me all around the internet)