Tummy Time!
The Bubble Chair
Bobbing Along
Bobbing Along
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)