Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily’s 17th Week (6/22/09

This week was super hot and as mentioned before, Lily does not like the heat. Without a working air conditioner, we had a pretty fussy baby for a while. I couldn't blame her though, I was fussy too as I can't stand being sweaty either. On Monday we went grocery shopping and ran errands after work so we were unable to get the AC fixed that day. We called the repairman on Tuesday but unfortunately he couldn't come out to fix it until Wednesday. Even with the fan on, I had a hard time sleeping Tuesday night. Wednesday was even hotter. We had Lily stripped down to a diaper every day and kept holding her in front of the fan to cool her off. The repairman came Wednesday while we were at work to see if he could find a problem outside but determined that it was inside. He couldn't come back to check out the problem inside until 10pm but I assured him it was not too late as there would be no way I could sleep that night without AC. The problem was apparently in the motherboard of the furnace which is not a good sign. He got it running but reminded us that our furnace will need to be replaced soon. Like we have the money to do that!

Meanwhile, I worked at our Brighton lab on Tuesday and Wednesday which is the first time I have been there since returning from maternity leave. It was good seeing everyone out there and a nice change of pace. Even though my schedule can be pretty hectic there some days, I still found it much easier to pump out there. They have had many employees out there in my same situation so they have laminated signs to put on the door. Instead of trying to find a place to pump, I can just put up the sign, close my door, and do my thing. It is so much faster and easier. On Tuesday, I drove Lily to Kirsten’s even though it is a bit out of my way (especially with the stupid detour that is going on until September to repair the bridge over the Huron River on Winans Lake Road) but Kirsten has our extra carseat base and I wanted to be the one to pick her up. I only had to drop her off about 10 minutes before my normal time to be at Brighton at 8:00am instead of the Hospital at 8:30am. Then I got to pick her up before 5:00pm since I get out at 4:30pm and am so much closer as opposed to our usual pick up time of 6:00pm. That extra hour with my baby is very precious to me!

On Wednesday, we had to put the carseat base in Paul's car but I still accompanied him to the drop-off. Lily had her 4 month doctor appointment that afternoon so Paul had to leave work early and pick her up to be at her appointment at 5:00pm. I can't leave work early at Brighton but since I get out at 4:30pm, I had no problem meeting them at the East Ann Arbor Health Center on time. I was assured when I made the appointment that even though it was a bit early and Lily wasn't quite 4 months old on her appointment date, it would be no problem giving her the vaccinations then. It turns out that this was not true. Dr. Sachdev said that she could give Lily the vaccinations if it was not convenient for us to come back in two weeks but that she would really prefer to wait a full 8 weeks between her 2 and 4 month vaccinations as this would decrease the likelihood of her getting the fever and diarrhea that plagued her last time. Even though another return visit isn't that convenient for us, we wanted to do what was best for Lily so we agreed to come back for the shots later. Meanwhile, she checked Lily over and declared her perfect. She was impressed by her strength and head control and said that she is ready to try rice cereal at 4 months. She weighed 15 lbs 4 ounces and was 25.12 inches tall. That is in the 89th percentile for weight and 87th for height. No wonder she is outgrowing everything so fast!

On Thursday, my parents came over while we were at work. My mom cleaned the house while my dad installed new lights in our basement. We just had a few bare bulbs with pull cords. He installed switched fluorescent lighting. It is so much nicer and brighter down there. Mom had delicious poppyseed chicken for dinner. After they left, Paul put together Lily’s exersaucer. By the time he got done, she was asleep for the night so she didn’t get to try it out until Friday after work. She really liked it. All the fun tired her out and we were pretty exhausted ourselves from a long workweek. We all took a nap then went to bed early.

On Saturday, we got up early to pack and get ready for a road trip to Petoskey. There were a lot of pictures from the weekend so that will be a separate blog entry.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Teething on mommy's finger: