Lily's 46th Week (1/11/10 – 1/17/10)

I went to work on Monday with barely a voice and by the time my day was done, my voice was completely gone again. It continued to return slowly all week and by Thursday, I was sounding husky instead of squeaky. By Saturday, my voice was finally all the way back to normal. I can’t believe that it took over a week to completely regain my voice. I felt a lot better but, unfortunately, Paul started feeling ill on Friday. He didn’t lose his voice but it sounded squeaky like he was repeating puberty and he was coughing and achy all weekend. Thankfully, his version of the illness was much milder than mine. Lily and Rachel haven’t displayed any symptoms so far. I really hope that they don’t catch it.

Lily finally had her 9 month well child visit on Wednesday, even though she is over 10 months old now. Paul got out of work early to pick her up from Kirsten’s to take her to the 5pm appointment. I worked at the Brighton Health Center so I couldn’t get out early but I hurried over to the pediatrician’s office as soon as I got out of work and arrived before the appointment started. Lily feels so heavy but she actually hasn’t gained nearly as much weight as I thought. Back in September at her 6 month visit, she weighed 17.7 lbs and was in the 81st percentile for weight. Now she weighs 20.15 lbs and is only in the 55th percentile. She also slowed down on her height growth. Back in September, she was 27.09 inches and was in the 91st percentile for height. Now she measures 28.94 inches and is in the 73rd percentile. The pediatrician said that this thinning out and slowing of growth is perfectly normal for breastfed babies as they transition to solids and no longer take in as much fat and calories. Plus, the more active they become, the more calories they burn and Lily is certainly an active little baby. I have definitely noticed that Lily’s Michelin man legs and arms are thinning out and I don’t like it. I love the chub! However, the pediatrician pointed out that fat babies have a much harder time walking so thinning out her legs is nature’s way of making it easier for her. I talked to Dr. Sachdev about my low milk supply and she said that, unfortunately, the older the baby gets, the harder it is for the mom to increase her milk. I have been holding off trying the Fenugreek until I can find the Blessed Thistle to use in combination with it but perhaps I will try it alone to see if it helps at all. We have been mixing whole milk with breastmilk since Friday but Dr. Sachdev discouraged this even though Lily seems to be tolerating it. She said that cow’s milk given to babies before the age of one can lead to GI bleeds even when the child seems to be digesting it fine. That scared me. She said to make up for the lack of milk with more fatty solids like cheese and butter. While we were talking to Dr. Sachdev, Lily kept fighting to get down so we finally gave up and let her pull herself around the room. She walked around Dr. Sachdev’s chair, holding onto her legs and hands. Dr. Sachdev noted that Lily doesn’t seem to exhibit any stranger anxiety which is funny because she usually does. There are just some people that she instantly likes and, thankfully, her pediatrician is one of them. Lily also played with the exam table, shaking it like crazy and pulling out the stirrups. Dr. Sachdev said that she hadn’t seen a baby of Lily’s age exhibit so much strength before. That’s our little Bamm-Bamm! At the end of the appointment, Lily got the second half of the regular flu shot and the first half of the H1N1 flu shot. She didn’t even cry! I was so amazed. The medical assistant that gave her the shots is really good and my little girl is one tough cookie.

Paul accompanied Lily and me to AquaTots on Saturday morning. This was so much easier than trying to do it alone again. Lily and I both went to class with our swimsuits on under our clothes so I didn’t really need his help before class but it was so much easier after class to have him change her and hold her while I showered and dressed. Last week, it was impossible to keep her from crawling all over the gross locker room floor while I tried to dry off and change clothes as fast as humanly possible. Plus, he got to take pictures of us and see how much Lily loves AquaTots. She fell asleep on the way to class again as it is, unfortunately, scheduled at the same time as her morning nap and car rides always knock her out. We woke her up when we got there and as soon as she got to the pool, she pointed to it excitedly and couldn’t wait to get in. The water wasn't nearly as warm this week but Lily didn't mind a bit. The new skill they learned in class was to “jump” off the side of the pool into the water then immediately “swim” back and hold onto the edge of the pool. Of course, the bigger kids could do this with a lot less assistance than the little ones like Lily. The instructor introduced this skill as an important one in case the kids ever fall into a pool, their first instinct will be to swim back to the edge and hold on instead of panicking and possibly drowning. Lily loved jumping into the water from both a sitting and standing position but I never let her head go under as the instructor discouraged that for right now. The rest of the class was spent working on kicks and paddling and just having fun.

After class, I had to clean the house as my parents were coming over for an afternoon visit and dinner. They hadn’t seen Lily in a while and my mom claimed that she was going through withdrawal. I laid down with Lily to nurse her to sleep for her afternoon lap and she, Paul, and I all ended up falling asleep. I woke up right before my parents arrived so only half of the house was presentable but oh well. We had a good visit and my mom brought pork chops to make for dinner and a delicious pie for dessert. My parents had fun listening to Lily talk and Rachel played them some of the new songs she is learning on her violin. My mom could get around a lot better now that she finally got to see the orthopedic doctor and has an air cast that she can walk on instead of hobbling around with the walker. She jokes that her cast makes her look like a Storm Trooper. I completely agree.

Lily said a few new words this week, mostly echoing what we said. She said “tiger” on Saturday morning in reference to a tiger on her bouncer then repeated it on her own when she saw her stuffed Tigger. She also said “art” in reference to a heart shaped magnet on our refrigerator that she likes. She continues to point to everything in the world saying “Whazzis?” and sometimes just “This?” or “What?” alone. She still loves bananas and still loves hummus (much to Paul’s dismay as he hates garlic breath).

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily eating pizza for the first time on Monday. She loved it:

Eating a banana, her favorite fruit, on Wednesday:

Yummy:

I can do it myself:

I guess that bite was too big:

Lily still loves her Exersaucer but doesn’t like to sit inside it anymore. She crawls over to it and pulls up to play with it from the outside. Here she is chewing on her favorite flower on Wednesday evening. We always hide her rubber ducky inside the flower. These frog pajamas are her absolute favorite. Whenever we let her pick out her pjs, she always picks these. She must love the faces:

Lily waiting at the cat door. Whenever she crawls away from us, this is where we can find her:

Playing with Amber:

Lily tried to follow Amber through the cat door:

She couldn’t fit but she could still see Amber:

Lily happily petting Amber through the opening:

Amber retreated back to the basement. Lily looked very sad:

She decided to entertain herself by playing with the Christmas cards:

Amber rejoined Lily who was busy pulling down cards:

My groovy girl enjoying her first chocolate donut on Thursday:

Lily and I getting in the water at AquaTots on Saturday:

Lily was thrilled to be in the water again:

Excitedly practicing her kicks:

Paddling her arms and kicking:

Laughing hysterically while splashing mommy:

My cute little water baby:

Her new skill learned at class this week was jumping off the side of the pool into the water and swimming back to the side to hold on. Lily couldn’t figure out why I was getting her out of the pool:

But she was delighted when I helped her jump back in:

Holding onto the edge:

More swimming:

Floating with a boat:

Lily loved this orca toy:

Lily and I enjoying our swim:

Getting ready to jump in the pool again:

Class is over, time to dry off:

Rachel really enjoyed the Cool Whip on the pie my mom made on Saturday evening:

Lily taking a nap on mommy on a lazy Sunday morning:

Circling the House (1/11/10)

Here is Lily circling the house with her walker. She loves doing this. She can't turn it so Rachel helped her go around the corners and get over the rugs without getting the wheels stuck. She made noises of delight the entire time.

Music and Dancing (1/9/10)

Here is Rachel practicing "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath on her violin while Lily rocks out to the beat.

Lily's 45th Week (1/4/10 – 1/10/10)

This week was a difficult one for driving. On Monday, we had a slippery commute in the morning due to a light snow that coated the roads and made them quite slick. I don’t think that I ever pushed the accelerator pedal on the highway, just alternated between braking and idling. It took forever to get to work. On Tuesday, we had another slow drive in to work as there was freezing rain in the morning. Wednesday was uneventful but then it took us a long time to drive home on Thursday as a ton of snow fell that day and continued into the night. Rachel was really hoping for a snow day on Friday but had no such luck.

I took down our indoor Christmas decorations on Monday. I was sad to see them go but was glad to get the tree down as it takes up a lot of space in our living room. Plus, Amber kept attacking it and I was getting sick of putting the bottom branches back on the tree. At least she didn’t take down very many ornaments this year as I baby-proofed (and kitty-proofed) the tree quite well.

I could feel myself getting sick all week. My head was stuffy since Monday and on Thursday night I had a hard time getting to sleep because I couldn’t stop shivering. Then I kept waking up because I was either too hot or too cold. To add to my sleep deprivation, I had to get up extra early on Friday because we had to leave for work an hour earlier than normal due to an early morning meeting that we needed extra time to get to because of all the snow. It was too early for Lily to wake up so we just took her straight from bed and put her in the carseat in her pajamas to go to Kirsten’s. Right before I left Kirsten’s house, Lily woke up in her carseat a bit confused about where she was. Poor baby! Dr. Chan did a presentation at our meeting about pulmonary function testing in the big picture of what it means for patient care and research. I thought it was good in that it reminded us that what we do is important and has a real impact on a patient’s course of treatment. Data that we gather also fuels a lot of important research. Midway through the afternoon, my head finally cleared up which felt great but then my throat started feeling funny and I began to get hoarse. By the time I picked Lily up, I was sounding squeaky. Lily had a fun day with Kirsten and had peanut butter for the first time. Kirsten felt bad that she fed it to her after finding out that I hadn’t introduced it yet but I was just relieved to know that she was not allergic to peanuts. You have to find out sometime or another! Rachel requested Red Robin for dinner so we ate out then all went to bed early. I barely had a voice by the time I went to bed and had trouble sleeping because I kept waking up every time I swallowed because it hurt so much.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with no voice. I felt fine except for the fact that I could not speak so Lily and I went to our very first Aqua Tots class. She absolutely loved it! She was a little whiny and clingy when we first got in the water but that was more due to the fact that she had fallen asleep in the car on the way there so I had to wake her up and strip her down then head right into the pool as we were almost late so I think that she was groggy and disoriented. Once we did a few circles around the shallow end of the pool, she got really excited. The instructor had us walk with the kids on our hips first, taking them lower and lower into the water. Then, once they were comfortable, we had them hold onto our necks and kick their feet. The kids in the class ranged from 9 months to 2.5 years so the younger ones like Lily needed us to guide their legs into kicking at first. Lily really got into the kicking and after a few minutes, I could hold her out away from my body. She kicked her feet and slammed her arms into the water, delighted at all of the splashing. She giggled hysterically the whole time! The instructor had us float the kids on their backs as well but Lily didn’t like that as much since she couldn’t really splash that way. The class was only a half hour long so after some playing and a song together, we all got out of the pool. While I was drying her off, Lily kept pointing at the pool and babbling loudly. I think that she was telling me that she had a lot of fun and wanted to go back in the water! Lily and I had worn our bathing suits under our clothes so it was really easy for me to strip the both of us in the locker room before class. Changing after class was not so easy. There was no place to change Lily so I had to dress her on a towel on the locker room floor then she kept trying to crawl off while I got changed. Thankfully, another mother from the class who had an older child offered to hold her while I got dressed. I was very grateful. I think that I will bring Paul next week so that he can take pictures of her like the other dads did during class then he can be in charge of her while I get dressed afterward. When Lily and I got home from class, we were exhausted so we took a nice long nap together. After our nap, I was still tired so I had Paul watch her and I kept sleeping for most of the afternoon. Apparently I was sicker than I thought. Paul brought her in to take a late afternoon nap with me then we all got up around 7pm.

Sunday was a rough day. First, I woke up with my eyes stuck shut. Pink eye, great! Plus I still didn’t have a voice. Paul and I cleaned the downstairs together then he took down the outdoor Christmas decorations. When he came back inside, I cleaned the upstairs. While doing so, I found a bunch of paint stains in Rachel’s room again. She knows that she has never been allowed to use paint in her room yet there was paint all over her bookshelf, the wall, and the carpet. I was infuriated with her and frustrated that I had no voice to express myself with. Later, we had to drag information out of her about whether she had homework to do. Finally, she admitted that she had math homework that she needed us to check. She had done it all wrong but was super oppositional, wouldn’t listen, and just kept pushing Paul’s buttons when he tried to help her. Then Rachel finally showed us her student progress folder that she had in her backpack since Friday but “forgot” to show us. We were proud to see that she is doing a lot better in Math but were stunned to learn that she is failing Language Arts. This is by far her best and easiest class but she is getting an E simply because she didn’t bother to turn in four big assignments. We were very disappointed.

Lily was really hungry all weekend. She nursed a lot and ate a ton of solids. She mostly wanted to eat whatever I ate which included peanut butter on toast, hummus (I can’t believe it but she loved it!), and chicken enchiladas. Maybe her increased nursing this week will help with my milk production. I am concerned because my production is still really low. I can only pump about 8 ounces a day but she drinks about 18 ounces while at Kirsten’s. Since I was sick this week, my production was even lower, only about 4 ounces a day! We have been making up the difference between what I pump and what she needs with my huge surplus of frozen breastmilk for the past few months but now we are almost out. I am at a loss about what to do. I really want to breastfeed her until at least a year of age but just can’t produce enough breastmilk to use it exclusively. The lactation consultant had recommended power pumping which didn’t help in the past so her other suggestion was to try a combination of two herbs, Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle. I bought Fenugreek earlier in the week and have been taking that but I can’t find Blessed Thistle anywhere. In the meantime, I had Kirsten try to introduce formula but Lily completely refused it all week. She used to take it just fine when we gave her an occasional bottle of formula but now she won’t take it, even mixed with breastmilk. She would either sniff it and refuse it or sip it then angrily spit it out and throw the bottle. Kirsten said that you can introduce cow’s milk at 10 months but I wanted to wait until after Lily’s doctor appointment next week to get Dr. Sachdev’s approval, especially since Lily had such a hard time in the past whenever I consumed dairy. However, we were getting desperate so I bought her some DHA fortified whole milk and she tried it mixed with breastmilk on Friday. She drank it and seemed to like it and, thankfully, didn’t seem to have any GI issues afterward.

Lily still loves doing circles around our house with her walker and is getting faster and faster. She has been using her doggy walker at Kirsten’s all week. She continued to say “whazzis” and “whozzis” all week and says “mama” more and more. Paul swears that she said, “I want mama,” on Sunday. She sometimes mimics when you say “hi” and “bye” but doesn’t say them unprompted. She also started waving. It is so cute!

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily getting up close and personal with Blue's Clues on Wednesday evening:

Pointing to the screen:

"Whazzis," she asked:

Making sure that we saw that it was mail time on the show:

Lily playing with her favorite toy. I always have the tune that it plays stuck in my head. It drives me crazy:

Reiley taking a nap on the snowman pillow. This is Lily's favorite pillow. She always points to each snowman and asks, "Whazzis?":

Lily passed out on Paul:

Lily loves to eat bananas and insists on taking her own bites, not having pieces cut up for her. The problem is that she always wants to jam the entire banana down her throat so it is a bit tricky feeding her:

Mmmm:

Big bite:

Chew it up:

That's better:

Yummy:

Lily discovered the cat door this week as a magical place where cats come and go. She crawled over to it constantly to see what would pop out. Here is a sequence of an encounter between her and Amber on Saturday morning which Lily found to be quite delightful:

My hooded cutie playing with her blender on Saturday afternoon after a fun swim class:

Rachel and Lily:

Lily is such a happy girl. Her smile lights up my life:

Lily loves this pepperoni pizza teether from Grandma Maureen's house:

My little sweetheart passed out on me on Sunday morning with a handful of my hair: