Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily's 32nd Week (10/5/09

I worked at the Brighton Health Center on Monday then picked up Lily from Kirsten’s and met Christina at Spicer Orchards for her photo session. Kirsten said that Lily had been an angel all day but apparently she used up all her happiness with Kirsten because she cried most of the car ride to Fenton then would not smile for the pictures. She was very calm once we got out the car and acted patient and fine while she had her pictures taken but she was way more interested in eating hay and grass than smiling. Finally, I had to call Paul to have him and Rachel come up to the orchard to get Lily to smile. As soon as Rachel arrived, Lily gave us a few good smiles but by then it was getting cold and she was getting tired. I felt bad that she didn’t do better for Christina but Christina said that she got some really good shots nonetheless. I am looking forward to seeing them and will post them as soon as I can. Lily did have a big BM when we got home so maybe her tummy was giving her trouble. All of us went to bed upset due to a giant meltdown by Rachel over her math homework. I don’t know why she has to fight us tooth and nail when we are just trying to help her understand and do her homework correctly. It is so frustrating.

My frustration continued on Tuesday as my milk production plummeted. On Monday, I pumped 16 ounces yet on Tuesday, I could only get 6.5 ounces. That is a huge drop! Perhaps I was still stressed from the previous evening or perhaps my period is coming. On a good note, Lily got her second tooth on Tuesday. That is two teeth in less than a week! The tooth could also explain her lack of enthusiasm during her photo shoot on Monday night. She doesn’t seem to get fussy or sick when her teeth come in but it does mildly affect her mood and appetite which really isn’t noticeable until after the fact.

Wednesday was crazy at work because the power and phones went out for a while. Luckily my schedule wasn’t too busy and I was able to contact most of my patients using my cell phone to tell them to stay home unless they heard otherwise from me. They were going to have to close the Brighton Health Center if the power stayed out for over an hour and a half because the emergency lights only had 90 minutes of battery power but wouldn’t you know it, the power came back on after exactly 88 minutes. When we got back up and running, the phones were still spotty but I was able to contact all of my patients and see all of them that afternoon, even though it did make for a crazy last few hours of work. I was able to pump 9 ounces on Wednesday (thank God for the battery pack on my pump). That’s not enough to keep up with her demand for 15 ounces when she is with Kirsten but it is an improvement over Tuesday.

On Thursday morning, Kirsten called to say that Nate probably had strep so Paul ended up staying home with Lily. That was the longest he had watched her without me. He did have some help as my parents came over that day but my mom needed the whole day to clean the house while my dad worked on painting over the spots on the walls he patched two weeks ago. Paul and Lily tried to stay out of their way the best they could but I think that it still made it a bit difficult for my mom to clean. Meanwhile, I had to be at work an hour early due to a meeting. I did not like getting out of bed that early but the commute and parking were so much easier. Kirsten called me Thursday afternoon after she left the doctor to confirm that Nate did indeed have strep and the doctor said that he would be contagious for 24 hours. Luckily, I had called my mom in the morning to tell her what was up so she packed an overnight bag to bring with her in case we needed her to watch Lily on Friday. I was able to pump 10 ounces at work which is a small improvement but still not enough. It was nice getting home early but I was pretty tired from being off my normal schedule. My dad stayed fairly late visiting with us and my mom spent the night so that she could watch Lily on Friday. We were very grateful that she could stay and watch Lily yet again as we already employed her assistance for two days last week.

My mom needed to leave early on Friday which was fine because I had the afternoon off of work to take Lily to receive the second half of her flu shot. When I was leaving work, I called the doctor's office to confirm the time of the appointment because the battery on my PDA had died. I am completely lost without it. I told them specifically that I was bringing Lily in to see the nurse to receive the flu shot and they told me that the appointment was at 3:30pm. When I got home and got Lily ready to go, my mom told me to check the answering machine because someone had left a message that sounded like it was the doctor's office. I was curious because I had just talked to them and they didn't have any special instructions for me but I checked the message and called them back just in case even though the message was left at 1:00pm and I had called and talked to them at 1:30pm. When I called, I again identified myself and told them I had an appointment with the nurse for a flu shot and they told me that the appointment had been canceled because they are out of the flu shot. I was very upset. Yes, I can understand the inconvenience of being out of the vaccination and don't fault them for that. However, the girl was very curt, did not seem at all apologetic, and had no explanation for why, when I called at 1:30pm, they didn't tell me at that time that the appointment was canceled. Clearly they knew because the time I called to confirm the appointment was a half hour after they canceled it. And I had identified that the appointment was for a flu shot so since they were out, that should have been a red flag for them as well. How irritating! It was a big inconvenience for me since I apparently took time off of work for nothing. Yes, my mom needed me to relieve her early but I could have taken an hour of time off instead of three and a half, especially since I was still at work when I made the original phone call. Ugh! There is a shortage of flu vaccine everywhere so who knows when she will be able to receive the rest of her dose to give her full immunity. That worries me.

On Friday evening we went over to Kirsten’s house for her birthday party. Her actual birthday was on Thursday so we joked that Nate’s strep wasn’t a very good birthday present. Luckily, he was feeling much better. The party was a lot of fun. The adults partied upstairs and in the garage while the kids hung out in the basement. Rachel had a blast with all of the kids and we had a good time as well. Lily came with us. She knew more people there than I did! She slept on the couch for most of the party and Paul sat beside her while I mingled. We ended up staying until almost midnight not realizing that we had to get up at 7am the next morning to take Rachel to the airport. It was really tough getting up. I wanted to sleep in and just send Paul and Rachel to the airport but I knew that Rachel would want Lily to come with her. Rachel was flying to visit her mom for a long weekend since she hasn’t seen her since July. I hate going to Metro. It is huge, takes forever, and parking is expensive and dangerous. Plus the terminal she flies out of is about a mile walk from the front door. Seriously! Luckily you get to walk through this crazy tunnel with all of these lights that change color and dance all over the walls to music. It is entertaining, Lily loves it, and it distracts you from realizing how far you are walking. As we were checked Rachel in, I put Lily on the baggage scale. She weighed 20 pounds exactly. When you take an unaccompanied minor to the airport, you have to accompany them to the gate and can’t leave until their plane is not just away from the gate but actually in the air so by the time we got home from the airport, most of the day was already over. Paul worked in the yard a bit while Lily and I played indoors.

On Sunday, we wanted to do something fun. I had never been to Spicer Orchards prior to Monday and we really didn’t get to check it out much while Lily was getting her pictures taken there so we decided to go back. It was colder out than I anticipated but we bundled up Lily and headed out. We got cider and donuts then wandered the grounds checking out the petting farm and all of the children’s activities. We then walked through the orchards to the pumpkin patch. Lily and I took a wagon ride back while Paul walked back with the stroller. Lily absolutely loved the wagon ride and squealed with excitement the entire time. Then we were all getting too cold so we headed home.

Lily still isn’t crawling. Paul remembers that it seemed like Rachel was on the cusp of crawling for weeks as well. I don’t know why I am so eager to have her mobile. I have nothing in the house baby-proofed and I will probably hate having to chase her all around making sure that she isn’t getting into things. We introduced meat into her diet this week. She had turkey and chicken. She did really well with both. Unfortunately, as we were warned, the diet change led to some horrible smelling diapers. Despite her having two teeth now, nursing is no longer painful. Apparently both she and I have adjusted to the teeth. She did bite me once, though. Wow, was that ever painful!

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily in her ghost shirt playing with a stuffed ghost that she stole from Kirsten’s house on Monday evening:

She didn’t successfully crawl but she did manage to work her way over to the cat bed to get out some toys that she wasn’t allowed to play with. She got very unhappy when I took them away from her:

Sleeping on Mommy after a crazy Monday night:

Amber and Reiley snuggling:

I got this “If You Think I’m Cute, You Should See My Mommy” shirt at Once Upon a Child. I couldn’t resist:

Rachel and Lily adore each other:

Lily playing on Tuesday evening:

For some crazy reason, Lily prefers to flip her xylophone over and play with the wheels on it. Paul thinks this means that she is going to be an engineer when she grows up: