Lily's 13th Week (5/25/09 - 5/31/09)

This week has been a challenging one. I already posted about Monday which was Memorial Day. That evening she was a bit fussy. Late in the night she developed a really stuffy nose which made it hard for her to sleep. By the next morning, she was sneezy and very goobery. This continued all day Tuesday and Wednesday. She apparently had a cold but was in really good spirits, very happy and smiley. Unfortunately, she had a hard time breathing while lying down so her and I didn't sleep well all week. She napped a lot during the day sitting up in her carseat and swing but, unfortunately, wailed if we tried to place her in either location at night. She would only be calm if she was being carried around or was lying down next to me. We couldn't carry her around all night and lying next to me made it hard for her to breathe, hence, the sleepless nights.

Late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, the congestion settled into her chest. The coughing woke her up in the night a few times which really upset her. Thursday she seemed less happy and more clingy when we dropped her off at Kirsten's. Around 11 a.m., Kirsten called me on my cell phone at work to tell me that Lily had been screaming like she was in pain for the past hour. Lily had never even cried once for Kirsten so this was highly unusual. In fact, Kirsten's husband, Patrick, calls Lily "the golden child" because she is so well behaved. She wouldn't eat and finally she cried herself to sleep. I felt so horrible and powerless, not being able to help my poor baby. I called and made her a doctor's appointment for later that afternoon to get her checked out. Meanwhile, Kirsten gave Lily some Tylenol when she woke up then took her temperature which was around 100 degrees. I got out of work early, hurried to pick up my poor baby who was sleeping with red-rimmed eyes, and took her to the doctor. I figured it was viral and they couldn't do anything for her but better safe than sorry. Since it was an urgent visit, I didn't see Lily's regular doctor. The doctor I saw checked her out and confirmed it was just a viral infection. He recommended continuing Tylenol, putting her in the bathroom with a hot steamy shower running to break up her congestion, and said that it should hopefully run its course in the next few days. He kept mentioning how cute she was. Of course, while I was complaining about how lethargic and fussy she was being, she was smiling and cooing at him and trying to make me look like a paranoid liar. At the end of the visit he said, "Diagnosis: adorable." Her weight was 13 pounds 13 ounces.

After the appointment, I went back to the hospital to pick up Paul. My parents had been at our house all day. My mom was cleaning and my dad was fixing the phone lines again. They took Rachel to basketball and pulled back into the driveway a few minutes after we arrived home. Lily was happy and smiley for just a few minutes then got really fussy. She was screaming like she was in pain, just as she had been at Kirsten's. Luckily there were four of us to pass her around and try to make her happy. Certain tricks would work for a short period of time. She was so stuffy that I think she had trouble breathing while she was eating so, although she was hungry, she refused to eat. She screamed even louder whenever I attempted to breastfeed her. My mom made us a lovely dinner and we ate in shifts. I gave Lily more Tylenol then about a half hour later, she finally fell asleep on Paul. When she woke, we gave her a bottle figuring it would be faster and easier for her to suck down. She ate most of it. She slept a little better that night than the previous two. She kept trying to sleep every night, the nasal congestion and cough would just wake her up and make her angry and restless.

Lily was back in good spirits for Kirsten on Friday. We stopped giving her Tylenol on Friday evening as it seemed like her fever was gone. When we picked up Lily, Kirsten mentioned that they were meeting some neighbors at Hamburg Pub for dinner and invited us along. We went home, picked up Rachel, fed Lily, then joined them. We've lived in Hamburg for 7 years now but have never eaten at the Hamburg Pub. It was good. We ate outside so the kids could run around. Their neighbors seemed like really nice, fun people to hang out with. I hope we get the opportunity to spend more time with them in the future as we don't really have many local friends. Keegan (Kirsten's daughter) and Rachel got along wonderfully as they had on Monday at the lake house and Keegan ended up asking if Rachel could spend the night. We said, "sure," after checked that it was okay with Kirsten to have Rachel over for the night after watching our other daughter all week. After dinner, we went home, packed up Rachel's bag, and dropped it off to them. By then, I was exhausted after having been in a zombie-like state all week from lack of sleep.

Both Lily and I had a pretty good night but were up around 7 a.m. on Saturday. Paul did some yardwork then we went to Fowlerville to Arrowhead Alpines to pick up some Earthmat stuff to keep the weeds down between the raised beds in the vegetable garden. Kirsten dropped Rachel off to us right when we got home. Rachel and Keegan were super tired. They were apparently up until midnight then got up at 7 in the morning. They went to Keegan's soccer game then Nate's soccer game then had lunch and ice cream at Dairy Queen. On Friday night, Paul had found an old photo album with pictures of Kirsten from college. We showed them to her which she found hilarious. After they left, Lily and I took a nap downstairs while Rachel took a nap upstairs. Paul worked on the vegetable garden then we all watched the Red Wings game.

On Sunday, we ran a bunch of errands. Paul then worked outside again and Rachel played outside with the neighbor boys. Lily had a very poopy day with icky diapers from all the mucus. She played a lot on her playmat, actually reaching for the toys a lot more than she has been. She and I went outside and sat in the grass talking to Paul as he worked. She found it fun to pull up grass but I had to make sure that she didn't put any in her mouth as that is her favorite thing to do with anything she gets her hands on. We ended the weekend with a trip to Dairy Queen.

Lily still has a runny nose and occasional cough but it isn't interfering with her mood or energy level anymore. It's funny, though, because whenever she coughs, she gets a mad look on her face for a moment then returns to being happy. Apparently, she doesn't like coughing!

I don't have a lot of pictures from this week as a snotty fussy baby isn't that photogenic. Here's a few photos.

Lily at the pediatrician's office:

Reiley, Amber and Nolan watching Paul put out birdseed:

My beautiful baby sucking her thumb and sleeping in her swing:

For some reason she was completely happy hanging off my lap upside down. Whenever I tried to bring her back up, she flipped herself back over. Silly girl:

Lily laying on my lap looking at me:

Looking at Daddy:

Cute smile for Daddy:

Showing off the tail on her kitty outfit:

Rachel stocking our patio pond with goldfish (a.k.a. snacks for the heron):

My cute kitty sleeping in her carseat:

Amber sleeping next to Lily:

Lily having fun on her playmat:

Smiling at the purple toucan:

She loves that toucan:

Looking at Mommy:

Lily in her sunhat getting ready to go outside:

Lily and I posing with some flowers in the back yard:

Lily and I posing with the purple Clematis in the front yard:

My adorable baby with some Columbines:

Chatting with Paul:

Lily in the News (5/28/09)

In Lily's three short months of life, she has been in the Davison Index twice. Here she is in the May 28th edition:



And I realized I never posted her birth announcement which ran sometime in April:

Memorial Day Fun (5/25/09)

I have so many pictures from Memorial Day that I decided to do a separate post just for them. We got up really early on Monday to drive to Davison for the Memorial Day parade. My dad is in the American Legion so he marched in the parade. After the parade, they have a speech at the city hall which was wonderful. Then we went to the American Legion post for hot dogs with my parents. Lily wore her very patriotic outfit given to her by Sonja. She was a huge hit!

Lily in her American flag outfit with me:

Lily at the parade:

Paul, Lily, me, and Rachel watching the parade:

Lily with my mom in her adorable outfit:

watching the parade:

Lily and her chubby arms:

The Davison American Legion members (my dad is in the front):

Lily with Papi Tim:

After our lunch, we drove up to Millington to the Fredrick's lake house. Kirsten (Lily's sitter) and her family had very kindly invited us for a visit and since we were close, we decided to take them up on their offer. They took us for a ride around the lake on their pontoon boat, the kids swam and fished, and then we had dinner. We had a great time.

Rachel and the kids caught some baby bunnies:

Lily and I on the pontoon boat:

Keegan (Kirsten's daughter), Gabby, and Rachel on the boat:

Nate (Kirsten's son), one of the neighbor kids, and Patrick (Kirsten's husband):

Gangstas Nate and Patrick:

Lily and I again:

the kids and Patrick:

Rachel, Nate, another neighbor kid, and Keegan eating dinner:

Lily with Kirsten and her puppy Gidget:

After dinner, we drove back to my parents' house and visited with them for a while. Then on our way out of town, we stopped at my Grandma's house to see how she was doing after her accident. She was a little sore but feeling pretty good, just going a little stir crazy without wheels! Lily got a bit fussy in the evening. I don't know if it was stomach issues from my ice cream yesterday or just overstimulation from such a busy day. She developed the sniffles today, too, so that doesn't help.

Rachel and Lily at my parents' house:

Paul and my dad sharpened the mower blades and used some hilarious old safety glasses that my dad found in his toolbox. Rachel and Paul then had a lot of fun posing in the glasses:

Geeks pretending to be geeks:

You're the bigger nerd. No, you are:

We didn't get home until 10:30 and were exhausted but it was a great day.

Lily's Twelfth Week (5/18/09 - 5/24/09)

I got to have a bonus day home with Lily because Kirsten called early Monday morning to say that her son, Nate, came down with croup Sunday night. The poor guy was up all night coughing and wheezing. I didn't want Lily exposed to him because croup is contagious as long as he had a fever, so I kept her home with me. Paul has a lot more time off saved up than I do but I wanted to be the one home with her. Plus her breastmilk for the day was at Kirsten's house so Paul would've had to go there to pick it up. We had a nice day home alone together.

Unfortunately, I believe that due to the fact that I was home three days with Lily who didn't eat a ton during that time, my milk supply was super low on Tuesday. I could hardly pump anything out while I was at work and when I got home with her that evening and she wanted to do her usual binging, I had basically nothing in me to give her. She kept screaming so we had to give her a bottle of formula. I felt horrible and inadequate which meant that both her and I were crying over the incident. I knew she wasn't getting anything from me because she was sucking vigorously but not swallowing. She gulped down 4 ounces of formula so clearly she was really hungry. I spent the rest of the evening all stressed out over the possibility that I was drying up. Over the rest of the week I tried to drink a lot more to keep myself from being dehydrated and pumped more frequently. Gladly, by Friday, my supply was back up to normal. With the three day weekend ahead, I plan to try to pump between feedings to keep my supply up. I think the problem is that when she is with me on the weekend, she eats less milk more frequently because she can. During the week she doesn't eat a lot with Kirsten but eats a ton when we are back together in the evening. I have to have a big supply to keep up with her on those evenings which means that I produce more than she needs during the weekday. This is fine, I just freeze the excess that I pump. But I guess I will have to be careful that her less frequent eatings on the weekends don't cause my supply to decrease.

On Wednesday, we got some annuals and Paul planted them. I took Lily out to watch in her Baby Bjorn. This is the first time she used it facing outward because I think her head control is finally adequate enough to do so. She enjoyed it but then I got my first mosquito bite of the year so we went inside before they attacked her as well. On Thursday, we took Rachel to a basketball class. She isn't sporty and isn't a joiner so we were very proud that she wanted to go. She had a lot of fun. Lily got her first bug bite right between the eyes at Kirsten's house. Kirsten felt bad but it was bound to happen eventually!

The work week seemed to take forever and I was very glad to start the three day weekend. On Saturday, I cleaned the upstairs then we went to the Brighton Farmers' Market. It was Flower Day which they block off Main Street for. It was a beautiful day and there were a ton of people there. We got a few more annuals and a couple new perennials. Then I dragged Paul in to get a haircut and we had lunch at IHOP. When we came home, we tried desperately to catch Lily rolling over on video. We caught it once but missed her going from her back to her side. We have many other recorded attempts where she rolled up onto her side then staying there while we cheered for 10 minutes then gave up. She has been rolling over all week but mostly just at night. It keeps freaking me out that she is sleeping on her stomach so I end up getting up nearly every hour to flip her over. Paul did some yardwork then we had movie night and watched Remember the Titans. It rained early Sunday morning then turned into a beautiful day. Paul mowed the lawn while I finished cleaning the house. I wanted us to get out and do something fun but that never happened. Finally, at 9pm, we went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream as our one fun outing of the day. This is the first dairy I have consumed in a long time since I gave it up in an attempt to cure Lily's digestive issues. We'll see how it goes.

I got a scary phone call from my mom Sunday night that my Grandmother had been in a car accident on Sunday morning on her way to church. She was hit by a van which flipped over her Cadillac and landed upside down next to her. Miraculously, both drivers walked away unharmed. They took my Grandmother by ambulance to the hospital for tests just to make sure she was okay. Being 88 years old, having osteoporosis, and being in a big crash, you would expect some broken ribs but everything checked out fine. We thank God that she is okay!

Here are some pictures from this week.

My adorable baby girl:

"The lip" caught on camera. This is the face she makes right before crying:

She recovered but apparently wanted to punch me if I took any more pictures:

Goofy face:

My sleeping chubster:

In a cute outfit given to her by her sitter, Kirsten:

Lily in her Baby Bjorn by the azalea:

Lily nibbling on her Bjorn with Rachel and I:

Lily and I:

Lily waving:

Lily in her cute fishy dress:

Snacking on her fingers:

Big silly smile:

Eating her hand in a bib made by her Grandma Chris:

So cute:

Lily finally decided she likes her pacifier (this picture got uploaded out of order):

In her cute fishy dress looking happy:

Conversing with Mommy on the floor after practicing rolling over:

Lily and I:

My grandma's car after the accident: