Four mo appt and laughing her tiny patootie off

Eleanor has started really laughing in earnest now, and it’s a crack up!  I love baby laughs in general, but hers is of course the cutest.  ; )  I can usually get her to laugh a couple times a day, sometimes doing things that she didn’t used to react to.  I remember how stoked I was when I could get her to smile a few times a day.  Now I get all upset if she doesn’t smile at me when she wakes up, haha!  How quickly you take these little things for granted.

We took her in yesterday for her four month appt.  I finally talked to her ped about her dairy sensitivity, and her ped agress that that’s what’s going on.  She was actually really surprised.  I started off by saying that I think she’s sensitive to dairy, and the ped din’t really say anything.  So I listed off her symptoms and she looks at me with her eyebrows high and goes “oh, wow, so it probably is then!”  LOL!  She said she gets moms telling her all the time that their babies are sensitive to dairy, but it’s rarely the case.  Apparently the GI difficulties (diarrhea and gassiness especially) I listed were the tipping point for her.  She told me to avoid dairy but keep trying it every once in a while.  Nothing I didn’t already know, but I’m glad that it’s in Eleanor’s chart now.  She also said that we’ll have to talk more about it when it comes time for Nora to start eating dairy, if she hasn’t outgrown it by then.  That shouldn’t be for a while (I think it’s nine months for yogurt/cheese, though that could be wrong.)

Other than that, the appt went well!  Nora is now 12lbs 10oz – I was guessing 13lbs, so I was a little off.  She’s 24″ exactly, and her little noggin is 16″.  That’s 28%, 41%, and 40%.  I think she was 32%, 50%, and 50% last month, so she seems to be heading back toward her birth percentiles.  Apparently BFed babies get ahead of the charts for the first few months, then they slow down and FF babies catch up to them.  At one year and beyond, they’re the same.  So she’s normal.  : )

She got her second round of DTaP shot and rotavirus oral vaccines, and did fine.  Screamed for a second during the shot, but once we picked her up she was all smiles for everyone.  Crazy baby!  We didn’t give her any Tylenol this time, and I’m just playing it by ear today.

She’s been doing the classic four mo old eating/sleeping thing, where she doesn’t eat terribly well during the day and then makes up for it at night.  It’s tiring!  Plus she somehow gave me a blood blister on one side the other night, and it’s excruciating now.  I pumped that side all day yesterday, but then fed her once right before bed (little painful, but fine), and again at 5am today.  That 5am feed was a huge mistake.  It didn’t hurt much while I was feeding her, but 2.5 hours and two ibuprofen later it still feels like someone’s poking me with a hot needle.  Youch!  So I guess it’s back to pumping that side all day today, too.  I hate doing that!  I hate pumping in general, it’s a pain to wash the pump and bottles several times a day, it’s always bad for my supply, and I don’t like giving her so many bottles.  But I hate the pain more, so I’ll deal, lol!

I’m putting a couple more pics up.  They’re from the last few days.  Enjoy!

Long time, no write!

OK, I’m back!  From where I’m not sure, but I’m back nonetheless.  : )  Maybe from new-mommy fogland?

Where to begin…  Well, John went back to work on May 12th, which is the main reason I haven’t written a new post on here in ages.  Nora has been quite the handful for me, and since I’ve also taken on the majority of the night shift (John needs to sleep on weekdays, and he can’t breastfeed anyway) I’ve been pretty tired. Every time I think we’ve gotten on a nice little schedule, Nora throws a curve ball and it seems we’re back to square one.  She does go to bed at about the same time every night – 9pm – though she wakes pretty erratically.  Some nights she’ll go seven straight hours, others she wakes every two hours.  Ack!

Nora has gotten one round of vaccinations so far.  We decided to follow Dr. Sears’ alternative schedule, so at two months she got the rotavirus oral vaccine, and the DTaP shot.  She seemed to do ok.  She slept most of that day, and we gave her Tylenol every four hours which kept her fairly happy when she was awake.  She was supposed to get Pc (pneumococcal) and HiB (hemophaelus influenza B) this past week, but there’s apparently a nationwide shortage of HiB and they were out.  We’re going back next Tuesday to get those.

Cutting dairy out of my diet worked, yay!  Her colic and reflux got much much better.  Every time I eat too much dairy (she can tolerate small amounts, depending on what it is) she has a very bad, fussy day, and gets diarrhea and diaper rashes.  Poor thing.  : (  It really stinks not eating dairy – I miss pizza! – but it’s worth it.  Supposedly she should start growing out of this in the next few months, but we’ll see.  In the meantime I’m taking lots of calcium supplements.

New fun thing making her fussy though: teething!!!  She started at 10 weeks!  She’s chewing everything, especially her own hands, drooling like crazy, fussier than usual, and sleeping poorly (hence the tired mom!)  I didn’t really believe that was what was going on until I talked to my parents and found out that I had two teeth at eight weeks.  Unfortunately for us, Nora is now almost 14 weeks old and still hasn’t popped a tooth.  I keep hearing that the worst is over once the teeth show themselves, but that it can sometimes take months.  I look every morning, but nothing yet!

Milestone-wise, she’s doing great!  She’s holding her head up very well now.  She still gets a little wobbly after a while, but will hold it up almost indefinitely in any position you put her in.  She likes to sit or stand, and will do either one with minimal support.  She’s not quite ready for her Exersaucer, but I think in a couple more weeks she will be.  She’s not rolling yet, but can lift herself up pretty well while doing tummy time, so she’s not as miserable doing that anymore.  She lasts about five minutes on her belly before yelling at us for mistreating her, instead of the previous two, haha!  She’s down to about eight nursings a day, which is apparently a little more than average for her age but I’m thrilled with it!  She’s cooing and smiling like crazy, and is learning how to squeal.  She definitely knows mommy and daddy and gets very excited when she sees us.  It’s so sweet.  : )  She’s not quite grabbing things yet, but will bring anything in her hand – our fingers, a terry cloth burp rag – to her mouth and chow down on it.  We bought her a little floor gym last weekend, and after a couple days she figured out how to kick her toys to make them swing and rattle.  She loves it and will happily play there for up to half an hour at a time!  It’s wonderful for her and great for me.  ; )

The cloth diapering is going well, too.  I think the Thirsties pocket-AIOs, and the Thirsties wraps with Kissaluvs contours are my favorite methods currently.  The Thirsties just seem to fit her best right now.  She’s pretty skinny for a baby (32nd percentile for weight, but 55th for height) and a lot of the diapers seem to have leg openings that are too big.  When we tighten them enough to fit well around the legs, they become too tight around her tummy.  I’m sure things will change as she grows, though, as they have so far.  (We liked the Proraps and BumGenius one-size pockets best when she was littler.)

Oh, what else…  Oh, we made our first real car trip with her!  We drove to my parents’ across the state, which is normally about a four hour drive.  The way there was awful.  We stopped twice to feed her, which I had expected, but then she was so unhappy most of the rest of the drive.  We ended up stopping another time so I could get in the back with her and keep her happy.  She fell asleep immediately, so I think she was just lonely back there.  The way back was great – she slept most the way – and the visit itself was wonderful!  My family is absolutely in love with her, and she seems to return the affection.  It was great having so many people around to entertain her and keep her happy, and it was like a little vacation for John and me, lol!  I think our next trip will be in Sept, when we go for a friend’s wedding.

OK, Nora just woke up from a nap and is hungry.  : )  I’ll post a pic or two really quickly, in the pictures section.  The Super Nora one is my new favorite!