Week 23

So tonight I had to try to remember what the weeks in the post titles were actually counting. It is the weeks since I've started this blog, which correspond to the weeks since Emmaline started solids.

Up until this week, I had felt pretty confident about the route we took with solids. My approach was to make sure that breastmilk was her primary source of nutrition and that all other food was secondary. Solids were to be more of a fun activity than a requirement. We took things pretty slowly. Started with just 1 meal every couple days, waited a while before making it a daily event, waited a while longer before introducing the 2nd meal, and we were holding off until close to a year to begin a 3rd meal. She's still nursing 5-7x/day (depending on how often she wakes at night to nurse). Her bottles at daycare still have 5 ounces each and of course, I can't tell exactly how much she is getting when she nurses, but it takes just as much time as it has for quite a while. Anyway, my bubble was burst when we went to the doctor this week (her cough has not gone away and now is waking her up throughout the night). She has lost weight. She's back to the weight she was at the beginning of May. The doctor wasn't terribly worried because she's still around the 50th percentile, but did want us to start giving her 3 meals a day in addition to breastmilk. She has her one year appointment in a month and we'll see what to do at that point. I know there are a couple factors that could be responsible for the weight loss: being sick all summer with colds and ear infections; starting to crawl and then walk. But I still feel like I'm responsible and that I should have been feeding her more or something. I started spacing her bottles out every four hours this summer, maybe I should have kept it every three.

I also feel horrible that she is still sick! I can't remember the last time when she was healthy for any decent period of time. The doctor couldn't determine if it's the tail end of a cold or environmental allergy (ragweed). If it's a cold, it should disappear in another day or so. If it's ragweed, it'll last a while. Either way, there's nothing to do. The one positive thing was that her ears look great! (Her lungs were very clear and that was a relief too.) And to top it off, whatever she has - Dan and I are starting to come down with it too. Good thing we have a ton of kleenex in this house with all the runny noses and sneezing going on!

We successfully completed the first week back to school with students. It was long and exhausting. I'm praying that we won't still be putting in 10 hour days this week. I miss Emma so much! It seems like we get home with just enough time to feed her, bathe her, and put her to bed. Even the weekend flew by and it doesn't seem like we got much play time (partly because I had to go into the school to get some things ready). I know I wouldn't be a good stay-at-home-mom, but I wish there was some kind of balance in between that and being at work allllll the time.

No major accomplishments or developments. She has started wearing shoes occasionally. She's learning how to run. And I also caught her trying to climb up her bookshelf today. We really need to get around to baby-proofing the house!!

Week 20

Another busy week! Emmaline had surgery to insert ear tubes on Tuesday. After the surgery, the doctor told us the left ear was infected which was the 4th infection this summer. She seemed to recover quickly. She was a super happy baby for about 2 days after the surgery and slept great. Then the sleep issues returned. She woke up 6 times last night that required us to go in and put her back to sleep and a couple times where we heard her, but she put herself back out. We're trying to convince ourselves that it's a teething issue. I've been able to see her bottom tooth (#8) for a week or so, but don't feel anything yet. I'm also wondering if she's working on a molar. Unfortunately, I also have a fear that it's something with her ears still. I've been holding off on taking her to the doctor b/c I don't like taking her in all the time (she's gone at least every other week the entire summer). Of course, if something is wrong and I don't take her I will feel horrible. Her follow-up with the specialist isn't until mid-October (a few days after her 12 month well-baby appointment).

The lack of sleep has pretty much consumed our week and I can't think of much else. We had swim lessons and went to the pool one other time. The weather was grey and rainy most of the week. We also went to Olive Garden with a friend from back home. I allowed Emma to eat a bunch of stuff that I normally wouldn't. I wouldn't feel horrible about giving her parts from the salad, but I know they are doused in dressing. We also gave her about 1/3 of a breadstick. She definitely enjoyed it. I am very happy to report that her tummy handled it fine! Perhaps we will allow more breads. I think I might start giving her some toast with puree on it so I can use up what we have left of purees.

Emmaline got her first haircut (I did it). I'm not happy about her bangs, but the rest turned out okay. She's been standing on her own for longer periods of time and is taking a lot of steps! I think I'm willing to officially say that she is walking (although she still crawls most of the time). A new development that I'm enjoying is that she can now put things away! She loves putting her blocks and toys back in the box and tennis balls back in the container. She has also become a complete chatterbox since her surgery! It's adorable. The only problem is that the little stinker still does not say ma-ma.

We go back to work Thursday and daycare hours will be back to normal. I'm really going to miss the extra time during the day with her. I know we'll really have to take advantage of weekends and holidays.

Weeks 18 and 19

I had every intention of posting a blog after we returned from Vegas, unfortunately we were too exhausted. It has been a long 2 weeks to say the least.

Last weekend, before the trip, Emmaline starting taking a few steps on her own! We've counted up to 6 before she falls or sits down. We didn't mention it to family, because we didn't want pressure for her to "perform" there. That was a good thing since she was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience anyway (although her cousins got to watch her take 2 steps).

We woke up about 3:30am on Thursday morning. Got Emma out of her crib by 4 and hit the road. Our flight didn't leave until 7am so we thought we'd have plenty of time. We didn't. We had to run to get to our plane before they closed the gate and we didn't have a chance to get breakfast. Luckily, Emma slept on the flight to Dallas and then she was able to crawl/cruise around during our layover. She slept a little bit more on the connecting flight to Las Vegas. Once we landed, we called Dan's parents to see if they could come pick us up. They said sure, but then had trouble finding the arrival pick-up so we were standing outside in a sweltering parking garage for about 45 minutes. I thought I was going to pass out and can only imagine how miserable Emma was! We had no problem checking in early and then it was time to sit around and wait... wait for my family to arrive and wait for the hotel to actually bring us the pack'n'play. By the time both of those arrived, it was way past bedtime and we were all very cranky.

We spent the entire trip there at the hotel (luckily there was a Denny's on the property that we frequented). The only time Emma left the hotel was when we went across the street to wander the outlet mall and took her on the carousel. Dan and I did sneak out one night to go to the Mystere (Cirque du Soleil) at Treasure Island. We put Emma down for bed and our moms came over and stayed in the room to keep an eye on her. She woke up once and they had to spend about 45 minutes getting her back down. Other than that, we spent the day at the lazy river or the pool and going to/from the grandparents rooms. Emma is definitely experiencing separation & stranger anxiety. She did not want to be held by anyone else and didn't even want people getting close to her if she wasn't right there with mommy or daddy. I think it made for some disappointed family members. By the last day, she did warm up a little. The trip back was a bit disastrous. We made it out of Vegas fine, but the stop in Denver sucked. Out of the 4 airports we were at during the trip, Denver was the one where we didn't feel comfortable letting her crawl around. The floor was absolutely filthy! We got down and picked up the bigger things we could find before letting her out of the stroller, but within 10 minutes she still found a variety of nuts, raisins, fingernails, etc. We finally boarded the plane and then sat there for over an hour! There was bad weather and we had to be re-routed before takeoff. Emmaline slept for that hour, but then refused to sleep for most of the flight. It was an evening flight and we were counting on her sleeping since it was bedtime. She finally feel asleep around 11:30 (bedtime is 7) and slept for the last 45 minutes of the flight. She woke up after the flight but zonked out once we got to the car. The icing on the cake was hitting a deer at 2:30 in the morning when we were finally about 10 minutes from home! We were fortunate that it only damaged the driver's side door and no one was injured (Emma didn't even wake up).

On another note, we took Emma to the ear specialist Wednesday morning for a consultation. We decided to go ahead with tubes since she has been on 3 different antibiotics this summer alone and still has fluid in her ear. We are scheduled for surgery Tuesday morning. Dan and I are very nervous, but hoping that it really helps her!

Yesterday morning we took Emmaline to the Little Gym for a free-trial class. She absolutely loved it! We were nervous that she would just sit and stare the whole time while clinging to me, but she took off and tried things out. She didn't throw a fit when we took things away to transition to the next activity and she didn't cry when the instructor helped hold her to do different things (like the front roll and flipping on the bars). We went ahead and signed up for the fall semester which starts in 2 weeks and runs through January. With her being so close to walking, I think it's the perfect time.

After the class, I decided it was time to start letting her crawl up the stairs. I didn't think she'd be ready for it because our stairs are pretty narrow, but she took off! She's also been doing a lot of cute things that are new: giving kisses, starting to "share" things (actually letting go and not just holding it in our direction), taking naps in her crib instead of the swing, playing chase (we crawl after her down the hall and she laughs the whole way), and she also started taking her toy cellphone (Christmas gift from grandparents) and holding it up to her ear making a "hello" kind of sound. Yesterday I was also able to see tooth #8, but it hasn't broke through yet. I'm thinking that (along with the ears and still adjusting from vacation) is probably the reason for her waking up constantly throughout the night and not wanting to go back to sleep.

Emma had her first meal at daycare this week. We were running late, so we took her cereal in and let her have it at lunch time. She did very well and didn't make a huge mess. That was good to hear since she'll be having breakfast there everyday once we start back to school. In about a month we will also start sending lunch. (Right now she still just has breakfast and dinner.) I need to start looking up info about transitioning to cow's milk since we will begin that process in just under 2 months! My plan is to phase out the daytime nursings first so I can eliminate the need to pump at work. If we can continue the nighttime/morning nursings we will for at least a few months beyond her birthday.

Week 17

It's been a busy week and I can only imagine what next week will be like!


Monday night, Emmaline slept horribly so we figured something was up. Took her back to the doctor on Tuesday and sure enough, ear infection had flared up in the right ear again. She's now on her 3rd different antibiotic in 2 months (amoxicillan, zithromax, and now omnicef). She started taking the Omnicef Tuesday night and still doesn't seem to be feeling much better (although sleep has improved some). She started pulling on the left ear last night too. Diarrhea started Friday and seems to be okay for now but only because we completely changed her diet. We're taking advantage of this side-effect and letting her eat all the foods that were previously banned because of the constipation. She even got to try pancakes yesterday morning. I found an egg-free recipe and replaced the milk with breastmilk. They were very fluffy and she ate an entire one for breakfast (the leftovers are in the freezer now). We are scheduled to go to a specialist on Aug. 11th to discuss tubes. I'm terrified of this process, but if it helps than I guess it'd be worth it. I narrowly avoided tubes as a toddler when mom finally weaned me from the bottle, but Dan had tubes. We've known from the beginning that she could have a lot of problems with her ears, but we were hopeful that breastfeeding would help. I don't feel like it has helped any, but whose to say that it wouldn't be a lot worse if she was a formula baby.Oh yeah, she had a fever this morning so we'll probably be calling the doctor in the morning.




Tuesday was her first night of swim lessons. She did fantastic! (And no, swimming is not related to her ear problems. People keep implying this and it's starting to irritate me. There's a difference between swimmer's ear and a middle ear infection. Plus, we don't even put her ears underwater in the bathtub!) She dunked her face in the water a couple times and didn't seem to mind too much. The class is in the evening, so she was getting cold by the end and then it pushed bedtime back by 30 minutes which made for a cranky baby.

We had the final Baby Signs class Saturday. We've enjoyed going to that even though it was an hour drive in each direction. (This week's picture is with Beebo the Baby Signs bear holding a flower - which was one of the signs we learned.) I realized that I've never really been with her around another baby so it was good to get that experience. She is so outgoing at daycare, but we've discovered that in other settings she is very shy and stays close to me. When we take her to the nursery at church, she cries for a minute but then does fine as long as the ladies hold her constantly. A coworker told us about The Little Gym and so we checked that out this week. We're going to try to take her to a free class when we get back from Vegas. I like that it works on developing motor skills and cooperative learning. This would be on Saturdays again, but only 25 minutes each way! (In a way that seems like a lot to travel for these activities, but if we hadn't moved out here it would have been 2-3 hours each way to have any opportunities for her.)

Dan and I have decided that before we leave for Vegas on Thursday we need to actually get some sleep. Here's the plan: I am going to sleep in the downstairs guest room tonight and let Dan get up with Emma on his own. I'll leave a couple bottles ready since she's been nursing twice during the night this week (growth spurt?!?). I'll keep the pump downstairs if I need it, but the goal is for me to actually get a full, uninterrupted night's sleep for the first time in about 18 months! Then tomorrow night, Dan will sleep in the guest room and I will get up with Emma on my own (currently we take turns going in there and since she has been sick that is anywhere between 3 and 7 times a night).

I'm going to start packing for our trip this afternoon. Have to go in to work for a bit on Monday and will be at a conference all day Tuesday. That will leave Wednesday for last minute stuff and Thursday morning we head to the airport. We will get back late Monday night. I'm definitely nervous about this trip b/c I don't know how she's going to be feeling. And there's a 3 hour time difference. Not sure how that will work out. We would love to keep her on her schedule, but that would mean putting her town at 4pm and getting up at 3am. Dan is working hard to stay positive. Perhaps it will rub off on me at some point.

Looks like I get to wake a sleeping baby now since it's time to leave for church.

Almost forgot our horrible eating experience this week! I think this happened because we had just commented about how it had been forever since she even gagged on her food. Dan was eating some apple slices downstairs and gave her a peeled slice. She was doing fine until she leaned over and started crawling towards him to get more (still having a piece in her mouth). She started choking. :( Dan responded quickly and calmly. We were able to clear it, but it involved a lot of vomiting. She puked up a ton of mucus along with the apple bits. She cried for a while, but once we calmed her down she was off to playing like nothing had ever happened. Lesson learned: eating will only be done in her high chair where she can sit up straight! *We don't normally feed her anywhere else, Dan just wanted to share with her and felt absolutely guilty.

Week 16

Emmaline is a super eater! This kid has been chowing down. It's almost ridiculous how much she eats (although I am proud to say that she is still nursing just as frequently and so breastmilk continues to be the primary source of nutrition). We have overcome the work-hour nursing strike and I'm even considering leaving the pump at home when we go on vacation in August. It would mean a lot less packing if I can ditch the pump, parts, bottles, nipples, cleaning brushes, soap, etc. I know Dan's parents are pretty uncomfortable with me breast-feeding, but my relatives should be fine with it -- and if they're not the can scram for 15 minutes 6x/day! (3 of those are before, during, and after bed so it's not like we'll be around people for those ones anyway.) With the Baby-led weaning she is comfortable with table foods and so all we will pack is her favorite spoon.

No major milestones that I can think of. We do officially have 7 teeth now, can't remember if I posted that last week and she has been drooling a lot this weekend + a runny nose so we're pretty sure something else is approaching. There have been a couple developments that I'm loving: 1) she has started playing peek-a-boo. It always takes me a few seconds to realize what she's doing, but once I start saying "peek-a-boo" when she pulls the blanket (or toy) down from her face she cracks up! I think part of why I love it is because it's so darn cute, but the other part is because she actually laughs. She has always been very stingy with the laughs and so we really cherish the times when we hear it. We've also discovered that when Dan chases her (crawling after her) she will laugh and if I take my hair and rub it on her forehead she laughs. 2) she has started interacting with the cats! She likes to take the jingle stick and point it in the direction of the cats to get their attention and then she shakes it around or taps it on the ground until they pounce it. She also grabbed one of their mouse toys and was dangling it in front of Jonah's face so he would paw at it. She gets super excited when they play along with her and when she can actually pet them (we are working on the concept of 'gentle').

*Note for Kate: Emmaline LOVES the music table! She has been playing with it off and on since you brought it over. I keep meaning to get some pictures to send you. Today she kept playing the alphabet song and danced around. It was precious. :)

Week 10

What a week! Emma still has her cold and it led to an ear infection. She's spent most of the week being too congested to nurse (which led to a lot of biting) so I had to pump more often and stick with bottles for several days. We went ahead and cut out solids so she would still get enough milk. Nighttime has been particularly rough for us. Emma still wakes up once during the night, but instead of just eating and going right back out she has been up for 1-3 hours at a time. It's exhausting. We went back to the doctor and they started her on an antibiotic. We were able to get a powder form of probiotics for infants at the local health food store and started her on that too (mixed with her juice or breastmilk). We went ahead and gave her some puffs, mango and chicken tonight since we've had the mango all week and didn't want it to go bad. (The picture is from last weekend - somehow Dan missed the spot of peaches on her nose during bathtime.)

Being sick hasn't stopped Emma from learning new 'tricks'. Today she officially pulled herself up to a standing position. She is picking up speed with her crawling and loves splashing in the kitties' water bowls (and trying to grab the cat food). We also finally felt the sharp point of another tooth this morning. It's not one of the central top teeth though, it's on the right side.

Week 8

Emmaline's rash seems to be gone. I still think it was some kind of reaction to the high chair. We've been feeding her fully-clothed for the past week. Tonight we gave her vitamins again so we will see if anything shows up tomorrow. Next weekend, if all goes well, we will introduce some food with apple again to rule out both of those as the cause.

Emma's fussiness was also gone during the week (although it has returned this weekend). Still no upper tooth, but I think that I feel a little bump on the gum. If you zoom in on the picture this week, you should be able to see her bottom teeth! It's been a struggle to actually get a clear picture of them. The picture was taken at Aubrey's 1st birthday party. No cake for Emma, but she did get to have some diluted prune juice in her sippy cup. We first gave it to her in a bottle at day care this week and we were told that she absolutely loved it!

The mango continued to be a big hit this week (for Emma AND mommy). She ate almost every piece that we gave her. A few tiny pieces ended up on the floor, but most of it made it to the mouth. She's not too interested in the puffs yet and most of those are tossed on the ground for the cats to sniff. Tonight she had butternut squash again. It was very squishy and she actually played around with it for a while. She mixed some of it up with the puffs. I also gave her a few bites of the chicken I had for dinner. It was really cute to see her holding it in her fist and chewing on it with her 2 teeth. The not-so-nice development with her teeth is that yesterday she starting biting me (while nursing). She did it 3x while I was feeding her before bed and once during the 3:30am feeding. She only does it on the left side! I shouldn't be surprised because we almost always have issues with that side. I tend to get mastitis on the right side, but everything else has happened to the left.

Emma continues to be right on the brink of crawling. For the past month we keep saying "one more week". Yesterday she managed to crawl a little, but would move an inch or so and then plop back down on her belly. We've decided that she needs to do more than that for us to make it official. It's so strange how there are things that I can't wait for her to be grown-up enough to do, but at the same time I want her to stay a little baby too! I am so anxious for that top tooth to pop in (mostly to end this fussiness), but I also miss her gummy grin. I want her to start crawling, but I miss the little lump that could lay still in bed with me on weekend mornings instead of rolling around kicking me in the back and poking my eyes.

Week 6

Another busy week has come and gone. I think we did a little better this week about giving Emma solids, but it still wasn't close to a daily event. We have 1 more week of soccer -- possibly 3 away games -- so that's going to be tough, but then it's over. After that the students start state testing. That lasts for 2 weeks and then there is 1 week before the end of the year. I keep saying that we will get more consistent about feeding her once school is over, but in all honesty this summer is going to be pretty busy too.

We didn't introduce any new solids this week - stuck with usuals like avocado and butternut squash - but we did introduce new flavors via puree form (continued with the chicken from last weekend and gave blueberry today). Emma is a great eater. Her accuracy with the spoon keeps improving, but she is still so messy that I wonder if we will ever be able to send food with her to daycare to eat during the day! A bib does help some, but she seriously requires a bath after every 'meal'.

She starting developing a rash last Sunday evening (don't remember if I mentioned in the post last week). It started as just a couple spots on her thighs. By Monday it was all over her tummy and the back of the neck. Dan took her to the doctor and she said contact dermatitis and to use some benadryl cream. Each day it has been different - it'll get better in one place and worse in another. Yesterday her thighs were fine and belly was a mess. Today the neck and belly look better, but it's back on her thighs and now on her upper arms too. The benadryl cream didn't seem to make a difference (it doesn't appear to be itchy). We've tried powder thinking it was heat related and aquaphor lotion thinking it was dry-skin or eczema. We've had her sleep in just a diaper with the a/c and a fan blowing (still thinking it was heat related) and nothing. We stopped using the diapers we had switched to last weekend and went back to the Huggies. Rewashed all her clothes and sheets with the same detergent we've always used. Haven't changed soaps. Stopped giving the chicken which was the only new food introduced around that time. No sign of bug bites. We are clueless about the cause. We tried to go back to the doctor yesterday, but they were booked. Not sure we can get in this week without taking time off of work.

On a happier note, we had a wonderful (but short) visit from a friend from college and her son (he's 2). I am proud to take credit for her son, since I introduced her & her husband our sophomore year. They were like Dan & me in the sense that they thought they didn't want children. Life had different plans for them and now they have a wonderful (and extremely handsome) little boy. Emma was able to interact with him a little more than the last time we saw thing (around New Years), but neither were too interested. He was fascinated with the cats, which was very entertaining.

Latest developments: Emma can now get up on her knees in the crawling position and rocks. She has started clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth. Last night she was sitting and almost pulled herself up to a standing position. I got very excited and think I startled her. Those two bottom teeth continue to push their way up. Oh, we learned that she liked to dump over the toy bucket at daycare and she has started pulling things down at home. She also has a little romance at daycare with the lone boy in the nursery (there are 5 or 6 girls and 1 boy). We've been told that they hold hands and kiss on each other. Dan wasn't sure how to take that news - he knows he's in for it when she grows up. :)