Jillian's cold is mostly gone now, with just a bit of a cough remaining. There has been no need for the saline wash in the past few days and she seems to feel better. She is becoming very aware of her surroundings and watches everything gone on around her. She really likes watching the dog and cats walk around and she has started petting them with our help. Ally was next to us on the couch one evening and Jillian was watching her. I leaned us over and put Jillian's hand on Ally and moved her hand across the fur. I let go and she kept her hand on the cat and then grabbed and pulled out some fur. Ally didn't even care! Poor kitty, I think she just wanted attention and it didn't matter how she got it! She's also becoming so aware of her surroundings that after nursing for a few minutes, she pulls off looks up at me and smiles really big, then latches back on. She takes a few gulps, looks up and smiles, and latches on again. It is really funny and adorable but a little irritating, so to speak. I looked up why she might be doing this and what I found is that she is most likely becoming more aware of her environment and getting distracted. Last night I gently held her head in place and she would stop nursing, look up at me, then continue again which worked nicely. I just laugh when she starts doing this because she just smiles sooo big. She is a funny baby.
Jillian has been starting to fuss in the evenings when she decides she wants to go to sleep for the night. It took a few nights to figure this out but now most nights, as soon as we lay her down in her crib she falls to sleep very quickly. Beforehand, I can tell she gets sleepy and lots of talking to her or walking around with her is more stimulation than she wants and she gets a look of being overwhelmed. I've heard that once you start to figure out your child, it seems they've changed again and you start all over. I'm starting to see that. She is growing so fast. Sunday we moved her up into a small 6 month piece of clothing and we're finishing up the bag of Newborn diapers, going to start her in size 1. But I don't want her to be in bigger diapers! Sheesh. Happy and sad at the same time. Gotta love my Jilly Bug.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The Sniffles
We made it through the past few days of bad weather and are back to work today. Tuesday it began to snow about 1:00pm and I was able to leave work by 2:00pm. Purdue cancelled classes and only required essential staff to report to work so Garrett had the day off. This worked out well because Jillian's daycare closed so she got to spend a good part of the day talking to daddy at home. After I got home it started sleeting heavily. My work, Purdue and Jillian's daycare were all closed again yesterday so we tried to catch up a bit on cleaning. We had a little snow come yesterday after the continued sleet but we didn't get near the amount of snow originally forecast. The county roads this morning had been plowed but were ice covered most of the way into town.
Jillian has had the sniffles for a couple weeks now. I thought her cold was gone but it returned. I called the pediatrician early last week asking how I could help her. We've been doing saline washes along with running a cool mist vaporizer in her room. I took her to the pediatrician on Monday because she'd seemed to be worse on Sunday and I wanted to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or getting pneumonia due to the rattling in her chest. He said she was fine and just had to work through it. The saline washes work really well with clearing out her nose, but oh my how she dislikes it. She has figured out when we're about to do it and gets fussy and cries while we do it, but as soon as we're done, she stops crying and seems happy again. She's back to sleeping most of the night again which makes mommy happy. The two girls that watch her at daycare said that she is a joy to care for even when she's feeling lousy and that that is saying something. I love my baby. She is just perfect.
Jillian is now grasping items very well and holding on to them for a period of time. The past few days when we've set her on her activity mat she bats at the dangling toys. She reaches up to her mouth all of the time and if her pacifier is there, she either holds on to it in her mouth or pulls it out and keeps a hold of it. If anything gets near her mouth, she leans forward to mouth it. She really likes daddy's shoulders and gets them nice and slobbery for him. Instead of sucking on her pacifier at one point yesterday, she was chewing on it. In addition to chewing on things constantly, she has been drooling A LOT. I'm convinced she is teething and we need to get more things for her to chew on. This chewing is getting uncomfortable for mommy, too.
She is now on 1/4 formula in her bottles we take to daycare. I think my body has adjusted and I'm almost making what she needs each day. We gave her a bottle a few nights ago because she hadn't eaten it at daycare and we didn't want it to be wasted. When it got to the last ounce, she started chewing on the nipple instead of eating. Here's our sign (she's teething)! I wasn't expecting the teething yet but I looked it up and it can certainly be happening this early. It's hard to believe she's coming up on four months young. Every time we lay her down to be changed, she starts smiling big. She does the same thing when she hasn't seen one of us for a while and we walk up and tell her "hi". She brings her hands up to her face and smiles and wiggles. I took her over to a friend's house last Sunday for a play date. Addison is one week older and I work with her mom (Melissa) at Klondike Canine Academy as playgroup monitors. Addison was one week late and Jillian one week early. Addison is a big girl and very sweet. She really liked looking at Jillian while Jillian wasn't quite into looking back at her as much. We spent over 3 hours visiting and had a great time. More play dates to come I hope.
I submitted my online application and had fingerprints taken last week for my handgun permit. I need to take the paperwork the police station gave down to the sheriff's department to complete the process and then they will send me the permit. I should have it by next week. The fingerprinting was neat with it being digital. They roll your fingers across a clear plastic platform and it shows up on the computer screen while your finger is rolled. I found it really cool but I'm kind of a dork sometimes.
More to come later. Hope everyone is well. Stay toasty!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Swing of Things
It has yet to get easier to drop Jillian off each morning at daycare. I realize this is only the second week but I find myself not wanting to let her go. Miss Sarah, one of her caregivers, stands next to me after I pull Jillian out of her car seat and I reluctantly hand her over. Once I do let go of her, I tell her to be a good girl and I just have to touch her little hand. Every night last week I cried at the thought of having to drop her off again the next morning. I have held back the tears this week, so perhaps it's not that it's getting "easier," rather it is just something we have to do. She's such a perfect little baby.
Jillian continues to grow and change so quickly. She follows us with her eyes when we walk across the room. She watches Huntley and the cats when they catch her attention. She has started grasping her toys when she feels them brush on her hand. Garrett was offering her her pacifier a few nights ago and she leaned forward with her mouth open to latch on to it. She smiles more and more and has great conversations with us, especially Garrett. When she hears either of our voices she turns for us. She was dozing yesterday afternoon when I walked into her room at daycare and said hi to the caregiver. She opened her eyes and looked around for me. She has been doing really well with her rolling over from her belly to her back with little effort. Yesterday Sarah said she was cooing a bunch. She has been doing very well at daycare with taking bottles and not being too fussy. That makes us happy that she seems happy there. Perhaps that explains why she cries almost the entire way home each evening. Well, not sure if that's the reason, but I like to think that she has a good time.
Last weekend we started supplementing her with formula. I had stocked some milk in the freezer before going back to work but she was going through it really fast. Perhaps the stress of everything kept me from producing as much milk the week before going back to work so I decided to try the formula over the weekend. I gave her half breast milk, half formula in a bottle a few times and she has had no problems with it. She continues to have the combination at daycare this week. I'm bothered about supplementing but I tried to increase my supply with little luck. I called a lactation consultant and they presented the option of trying herbs. Supposedly there are a couple that help increase supply but there has been little research on their overall effect so I'm hesitant to try them. This week I'm almost keeping up with her so we'll see how it goes. As long as I can provide some, that's better than none.
Every time for the past few weeks that she's had a bm, she has overfilled her diaper! Then she urinates but there's no more room for it to absorb. Needless to say that she's been getting frequent baths and we've been doing more loads of laundry. She has a Bumbo chair that is supposed to help her gain strength in her neck and back. You can look it up to get a better idea of what it looks like and she enjoys sitting in it. We have renamed it the Bubble chair because every time we put her in it, she passes gas. I'm not sure if it's just the position that helps the bubbles come out or if she relaxes in it, either way, it works! And the best part is that she's happy and isn't crying her eyes out with the gas. It doesn't work if she has colic before we put her in it because she's too unhappy to be set in the chair. Her colic doesn't come as often anymore and doesn't last as long as a month ago, thank goodness.
Jillian had her first cold last week but quickly recovered. We set up a cool mist vaporizer in her bedroom at night and that seemed to improve her stuffiness. She was so congested in her nasal passages she was having a difficult time eating and it was making her frustrated, understandably so. She continues to sleep most of the night. This week she has been waking around 4:30am to eat, then quickly goes back to sleep until we're ready to leave the house for the day. That's enough time for me to get back in bed for another 30 minutes but then I really don't want to get back up. Since Monday night I've had a dry scratchy throat so it's been hard to fall asleep. Last night I got about 4 hours by the time I was able to fall asleep with help from a throat spray. I was thinking this morning that from now on I should just stay up and get on our elliptical so I don't have to fit in exercise in the evenings. Until Spring, then we'll be taking more walks. We've been going out on the calm days when there's little wind. At least the cold temperatures are bearable then. I'm ready for Spring. Ready for green grass, tall corn and soybean fields surrounding our house and flowers and the garden. Not sure what we'll plant this year in the garden but it would be fun grow something. Perhaps I'll use our entire garden spot and plant a gigantic plot of flowers. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Well, we'll see. It would be fun to plant at least pumpkins again.
My work has been going well. I got back into the swing pretty quickly. The work right now is steady but not crazy busy. Garrett continues to be busy with his job. Everything else seems fine and we're enjoying every minute with our little girl. She's the best gift and we feel so fortunate to have a healthy and happy baby.
Jillian continues to grow and change so quickly. She follows us with her eyes when we walk across the room. She watches Huntley and the cats when they catch her attention. She has started grasping her toys when she feels them brush on her hand. Garrett was offering her her pacifier a few nights ago and she leaned forward with her mouth open to latch on to it. She smiles more and more and has great conversations with us, especially Garrett. When she hears either of our voices she turns for us. She was dozing yesterday afternoon when I walked into her room at daycare and said hi to the caregiver. She opened her eyes and looked around for me. She has been doing really well with her rolling over from her belly to her back with little effort. Yesterday Sarah said she was cooing a bunch. She has been doing very well at daycare with taking bottles and not being too fussy. That makes us happy that she seems happy there. Perhaps that explains why she cries almost the entire way home each evening. Well, not sure if that's the reason, but I like to think that she has a good time.
Last weekend we started supplementing her with formula. I had stocked some milk in the freezer before going back to work but she was going through it really fast. Perhaps the stress of everything kept me from producing as much milk the week before going back to work so I decided to try the formula over the weekend. I gave her half breast milk, half formula in a bottle a few times and she has had no problems with it. She continues to have the combination at daycare this week. I'm bothered about supplementing but I tried to increase my supply with little luck. I called a lactation consultant and they presented the option of trying herbs. Supposedly there are a couple that help increase supply but there has been little research on their overall effect so I'm hesitant to try them. This week I'm almost keeping up with her so we'll see how it goes. As long as I can provide some, that's better than none.
Every time for the past few weeks that she's had a bm, she has overfilled her diaper! Then she urinates but there's no more room for it to absorb. Needless to say that she's been getting frequent baths and we've been doing more loads of laundry. She has a Bumbo chair that is supposed to help her gain strength in her neck and back. You can look it up to get a better idea of what it looks like and she enjoys sitting in it. We have renamed it the Bubble chair because every time we put her in it, she passes gas. I'm not sure if it's just the position that helps the bubbles come out or if she relaxes in it, either way, it works! And the best part is that she's happy and isn't crying her eyes out with the gas. It doesn't work if she has colic before we put her in it because she's too unhappy to be set in the chair. Her colic doesn't come as often anymore and doesn't last as long as a month ago, thank goodness.
Jillian had her first cold last week but quickly recovered. We set up a cool mist vaporizer in her bedroom at night and that seemed to improve her stuffiness. She was so congested in her nasal passages she was having a difficult time eating and it was making her frustrated, understandably so. She continues to sleep most of the night. This week she has been waking around 4:30am to eat, then quickly goes back to sleep until we're ready to leave the house for the day. That's enough time for me to get back in bed for another 30 minutes but then I really don't want to get back up. Since Monday night I've had a dry scratchy throat so it's been hard to fall asleep. Last night I got about 4 hours by the time I was able to fall asleep with help from a throat spray. I was thinking this morning that from now on I should just stay up and get on our elliptical so I don't have to fit in exercise in the evenings. Until Spring, then we'll be taking more walks. We've been going out on the calm days when there's little wind. At least the cold temperatures are bearable then. I'm ready for Spring. Ready for green grass, tall corn and soybean fields surrounding our house and flowers and the garden. Not sure what we'll plant this year in the garden but it would be fun grow something. Perhaps I'll use our entire garden spot and plant a gigantic plot of flowers. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Well, we'll see. It would be fun to plant at least pumpkins again.
My work has been going well. I got back into the swing pretty quickly. The work right now is steady but not crazy busy. Garrett continues to be busy with his job. Everything else seems fine and we're enjoying every minute with our little girl. She's the best gift and we feel so fortunate to have a healthy and happy baby.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Day 2
We have been packing our lunches, getting bottles washed, and laying out our clothes and ready to go the night before which seems to be working very well. Although, I would have had plenty of time this morning. Jillian slept at the daycare from 8-11a, then 12-3p yesterday. She fell asleep last night at 8pm, which is earlier than usual. She woke at 1am hungry and went back to sleep until 4am and decided she'd had enough rest. At least she's a happy girl in the mornings. The daycare called me at 11a today saying they'd given her 3 of her 4 bottles already and she was still crying. They wanted to give her her last bottle but instead I went over and fed her from myself. They didn't know I was coming but when I got there I peaked in the door's window to see how things were going. One of the employees had her on her lap and was slowly and gently rubbing her tummy. It made me happy to see that they were trying to soothe her and not ignoring her. She had calmed down by that point.I haven't known how much per bottle to send her with each morning but apparently it isn't enough. I'm hoping she makes it through this afternoon but I may get another call. I'm so glad they did call. I anticipated these first few days to be difficult in a number of ways but we'll get it figured out. I'm hoping she stays awake more today. A few more hours and I get to pick up my Jilly boo. Then we'll be home and cuddle near the wood stove on this snowy day.
Monday, January 10, 2011
First Day
Today is my girl's first day at daycare and my first day back to work. Of course it was hard to leave her this morning. The daycare is only a half mile from my work so I went to check on her over lunch. She is doing well and I feel she's in good hands. But not as good as her momma and papa's. I sure wish I only worked part time. I really need to win the lottery. I'm playing catch up at work. Everyone is being really welcoming. My boss baked me 12 cupcakes and left them on my desk with a sign reading "Welcome Back" in big letters. Hopefully we can settle into a routine quickly. I need to get back to work but thought I'd make a quick post. Happy Monday!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Jillian Louise
Jillian Louise has arrived! She is the most beautiful baby we've ever seen (of course because her parents are good looking)! We couldn't be happier. So, here's the story:
Garrett's friend, Brandt, had come on Friday night to help Garrett work on the garage. He was staying through Monday and they jokingly told me to wait to have the baby until Tuesday. They were up until 1:30am and then went to bed.
I woke up at 3am on Sunday October 24 with a moderate cramp. Though I was suspicious, I heard that labor usually starts off slowly. Before I could fall back to sleep I felt another cramp. I looked at the clock and it had been five minutes. So as I was then more awake I stayed in bed and waited for five more minutes to pass. Sure enough, another cramp. I now determined this was the beginning of what ended up being a very long day. The doctor's office had given me a sheet with beginning labor signs and at what point to call the phone number listed for after hours. I waited the one hour, contractions five minutes apart. I then woke Garrett up and told him I thought I'd gone into labor and then called the doctor. The doctor said to take my time and shower and eat something if I wanted. I went ahead and showered thinking the hot water would help me relax. By the time I was dressed and got downstairs I couldn't hardly walk. Garrett got Huntley taken care of and grabbed a few last minute things. My bags and car seat were already in the car ready to go and had been for a couple of weeks. We left for the hospital and got there around 5am. The contractions were on top of each other and when we pulled up to the Women's Center at the hospital a couple of nurses had just finished their shifts and were leaving but went back in to get me a wheel chair as I couldn't walk with the pain. I was admitted quickly and got into the room. After getting examined I was already 4-5cm dilated. The baby had passed meconium but the nurse and doctor weren't concerned about it being an issue. The nurse poked me three times in my hands to get my IV started. My veins were blowing. She gave me a dose of narcotics for the pain, which didn't make any difference in my pain level. I wanted to avoid an epidural due to the possible side effects for the baby and myself but after a couple hours I decided to get one. It seemed like foreeevver for the anesthesiologist to come. As soon as he got it put in I started to feel relief. Apparently my water had broken before arriving at the hospital but I didn't have any indication beforehand. The doctor and nurse thought we'd be welcoming our baby before noon. It took me until around 3pm to get completely dilated so things slowed down a lot after getting the epidural. I started pushing and pushed for two hours. The doctor came in at that point and suggested a cesarean because of the position of the baby and lack of progress. I asked about using forceps but he said Jillian wasn't far enough into the canal to use them. If I had been more aware I would have asked about trying other methods for getting her into better position. She was trying to come out forehead first and wasn't turning. I really didn't want a c-section and started crying when the doctor suggested it. He gave me the option of pushing up to another two hours but I was worried about stressing out Jillian and I didn't want it to turn into an emergency situation. My Mom and Danny had arrived after we called them at 7am to let them know we were going to have the baby. They came into the room and I cried even more. 20 minutes later, I was in the OR getting scrubbed while Garrett waited outside the doors. As soon as I was prepped they let Garrett come in and he stood next to my head and he brushed his fingers across the side of my forehead and my cheek. I felt the doctor pressing across my abdomen cutting through the layers. He then said I'd feel a lot of pressure. 30 seconds later I felt a lot of weight come off of me and heard my baby cry. I immediately started to cry but tried to not cry too hard because I could feel my abdomen moving with my crying. The nurses took her straight over to her station and suctioned her and cleaned her up. Garrett then brought her over to me. She was perfect. Everything at that moment was perfect. 8 pounds, 20 inches. Garrett went with Jillian to the nursery to get a bath and finish getting examined while the doctor stitched then stapled me. I went to the recovery room and stayed there for the required minimum of an hour. It was driving me crazy knowing that I was missing being with my baby. But, it was really nice to lay there in the quiet with the lights only partly on in the recovery room. After a long day mentally and physically, that gave me time to relax and reflect on everything that had happened. It's a lot to take in. I actually relaxed so much that my breathing had gone down so much that the machine was reading that I wasn't breathing so the nurse asked me at one point to take a slow deep breath for the machine to register that I was still breathing. My epidural came out along with other monitoring devices and I headed back to my room. Jillian and Garrett arrived a few minutes after I got into the room. The nurse that had been with Jillian then helped me get her to latch and she did so without any problem. The hospital stay was very pleasant. The nurses were all great, the food was good and it was quiet. I couldn't have asked for a better experience with the hospital. We went home that following Wednesday around lunch time. Brandt was so helpful and stayed at the house and took care of Huntley until Garrett went home on Monday and took him to the vet for boarding.
The first few nights at home were rough because Jillian had gas and was up until 3am crying. We are now in the groove and Jillian is a great sleeper. She only cries when she has gas (which we're still working on) and when she's hungry. She sleeps through the night except when it's time for food and even then she really doesn't like to wake up to eat. The last few days she's been eating a lot and sleeping more so I think she's going through a growth spurt. She's opening her eyes a lot more often and I feel that she's getting heavier. We don't have a scale so I don't know how much she's gained. We go to the pediatrician Dec. 9 so we'll see then. We are loving her so much and couldn't ask for a better baby.
I'll try to give updates more regularly than once a month :). We are staying home for Thanksgiving this year and will be in Missouri for two weeks over Christmas. We hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!
Garrett's friend, Brandt, had come on Friday night to help Garrett work on the garage. He was staying through Monday and they jokingly told me to wait to have the baby until Tuesday. They were up until 1:30am and then went to bed.
I woke up at 3am on Sunday October 24 with a moderate cramp. Though I was suspicious, I heard that labor usually starts off slowly. Before I could fall back to sleep I felt another cramp. I looked at the clock and it had been five minutes. So as I was then more awake I stayed in bed and waited for five more minutes to pass. Sure enough, another cramp. I now determined this was the beginning of what ended up being a very long day. The doctor's office had given me a sheet with beginning labor signs and at what point to call the phone number listed for after hours. I waited the one hour, contractions five minutes apart. I then woke Garrett up and told him I thought I'd gone into labor and then called the doctor. The doctor said to take my time and shower and eat something if I wanted. I went ahead and showered thinking the hot water would help me relax. By the time I was dressed and got downstairs I couldn't hardly walk. Garrett got Huntley taken care of and grabbed a few last minute things. My bags and car seat were already in the car ready to go and had been for a couple of weeks. We left for the hospital and got there around 5am. The contractions were on top of each other and when we pulled up to the Women's Center at the hospital a couple of nurses had just finished their shifts and were leaving but went back in to get me a wheel chair as I couldn't walk with the pain. I was admitted quickly and got into the room. After getting examined I was already 4-5cm dilated. The baby had passed meconium but the nurse and doctor weren't concerned about it being an issue. The nurse poked me three times in my hands to get my IV started. My veins were blowing. She gave me a dose of narcotics for the pain, which didn't make any difference in my pain level. I wanted to avoid an epidural due to the possible side effects for the baby and myself but after a couple hours I decided to get one. It seemed like foreeevver for the anesthesiologist to come. As soon as he got it put in I started to feel relief. Apparently my water had broken before arriving at the hospital but I didn't have any indication beforehand. The doctor and nurse thought we'd be welcoming our baby before noon. It took me until around 3pm to get completely dilated so things slowed down a lot after getting the epidural. I started pushing and pushed for two hours. The doctor came in at that point and suggested a cesarean because of the position of the baby and lack of progress. I asked about using forceps but he said Jillian wasn't far enough into the canal to use them. If I had been more aware I would have asked about trying other methods for getting her into better position. She was trying to come out forehead first and wasn't turning. I really didn't want a c-section and started crying when the doctor suggested it. He gave me the option of pushing up to another two hours but I was worried about stressing out Jillian and I didn't want it to turn into an emergency situation. My Mom and Danny had arrived after we called them at 7am to let them know we were going to have the baby. They came into the room and I cried even more. 20 minutes later, I was in the OR getting scrubbed while Garrett waited outside the doors. As soon as I was prepped they let Garrett come in and he stood next to my head and he brushed his fingers across the side of my forehead and my cheek. I felt the doctor pressing across my abdomen cutting through the layers. He then said I'd feel a lot of pressure. 30 seconds later I felt a lot of weight come off of me and heard my baby cry. I immediately started to cry but tried to not cry too hard because I could feel my abdomen moving with my crying. The nurses took her straight over to her station and suctioned her and cleaned her up. Garrett then brought her over to me. She was perfect. Everything at that moment was perfect. 8 pounds, 20 inches. Garrett went with Jillian to the nursery to get a bath and finish getting examined while the doctor stitched then stapled me. I went to the recovery room and stayed there for the required minimum of an hour. It was driving me crazy knowing that I was missing being with my baby. But, it was really nice to lay there in the quiet with the lights only partly on in the recovery room. After a long day mentally and physically, that gave me time to relax and reflect on everything that had happened. It's a lot to take in. I actually relaxed so much that my breathing had gone down so much that the machine was reading that I wasn't breathing so the nurse asked me at one point to take a slow deep breath for the machine to register that I was still breathing. My epidural came out along with other monitoring devices and I headed back to my room. Jillian and Garrett arrived a few minutes after I got into the room. The nurse that had been with Jillian then helped me get her to latch and she did so without any problem. The hospital stay was very pleasant. The nurses were all great, the food was good and it was quiet. I couldn't have asked for a better experience with the hospital. We went home that following Wednesday around lunch time. Brandt was so helpful and stayed at the house and took care of Huntley until Garrett went home on Monday and took him to the vet for boarding.
The first few nights at home were rough because Jillian had gas and was up until 3am crying. We are now in the groove and Jillian is a great sleeper. She only cries when she has gas (which we're still working on) and when she's hungry. She sleeps through the night except when it's time for food and even then she really doesn't like to wake up to eat. The last few days she's been eating a lot and sleeping more so I think she's going through a growth spurt. She's opening her eyes a lot more often and I feel that she's getting heavier. We don't have a scale so I don't know how much she's gained. We go to the pediatrician Dec. 9 so we'll see then. We are loving her so much and couldn't ask for a better baby.
I'll try to give updates more regularly than once a month :). We are staying home for Thanksgiving this year and will be in Missouri for two weeks over Christmas. We hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!
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