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.

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 9

More firsts: Emma figured out how to go from the crawling position to sitting up on her own. She is now working on pulling herself up from the sitting position. She loves standing up (with help) and seems to get more balance every day. Her new favorite sound to say is "na-na-na-na". Yesterday we took Emma to the mall for the first time. She had a blast riding around in the stroller. We went in search of a dress for her to wear at the wedding later this month (3 weeks from today) and found a ton of other cute clothes for her too. As long as she doesn't have a major growth spurt anytime soon, she is now set for summer.

We also took Emma to the doctor yesterday because she has had a very runny nose and bad cough since Wednesday. (Thank you very much sick babies @ daycare.) She was sounding wheezy so we wanted to have her checked out. Lungs are clear and ears look good. If she's not improving by this Wednesday or Thursday we'll take her back. Dr. wants to make sure all the congestion doesn't lead to an ear infection. She's fussy off and on, but mostly her happy self.

The school year is wrapping up. Only 4 1/2 days left with students. My testing is finished (did pretty well overall, couple disappointments) and Dan's test is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to this year being over. I'm not looking forward to having larger class size next year, but ready for a fresh start. Also looking forward to a summer break! We are heading up to Cape Cod for the wedding this month and flying out to Las Vegas in August to see family.

I guess the solids are going alright. Emma's favorite vegetable is currently carrot and her favorite fruit is mango. She still gags when she bites off too much or shoves a whole piece in her mouth. It totally freaks me out and Dan has to deal with it. Tonight was one of the those nights where I want to just stop with the real solids and stick with purees, but Dan keeps us going. He does well being the voice of reason when it comes to stuff like this. He's been a great supporter when it comes to breastfeeding. I remember all the times I sat in tears telling him that I was giving up and we were switching to formula. And here we are, 8 months on Tuesday and still never used a drop of formula. I'm not enjoying this biting phase, although it seems like she only bites on Saturdays - no clue what's up with that. But it's just something else we'll work through. It isn't nearly as painful as mastitis or thrush and doesn't crush me heart like a nursing strike (although I do hate how sad she looks when I tell her 'no biting').