HF&M (UGH)

Super quick (pictureless) post tonight (I am beyond exhausted) for some advice!

Lilly's teacher told me this morning when I dropped her off that they have their first confirmed case of hand foot and mouth in the classroom.  For all of my readers who are not mamas, do a google image search.  Nasty stuff.  I can't believe that we are already dealing with this and it's only the second week of school!  Obviously I know that Lilly is going to get sick and we can't avoid it forever, but I would really like to avoid this one if possible because I have heard it's pretty miserable on sweet kiddos.  The disease has already made it through the other toddler classroom and 3 children out of 8 got it, so hopefully our odds of contracting it are low, but I am not trying to take chances.

I asked Carney to immediately change Lilly's clothes and wash her hands when she got home from school before nap (she did one better and gave her a bath too for good measure, best ever).  We gave her a new lovey, and after her nap I stripped all of her bed clothes and took the new lovey and have been washing them ever since.  Other than keeping her hands as clean as possible (I'm extra worried since she sucks her thumb), is there anything else I can do to try to keep this at bay?  Do any of my mom friends have experience with it?  Dan's first thought was to keep her home this week instead of sending her to school, but I feel like that seems a little drastic.  As I mentioned above, I am not delusional and I know we are going to deal with more sickness this year than we have previously, but I wasn't prepared to do so this early on!

That's all for me.  I have several posts to write this week, hopefully I can get around to doing so  but I have yet another week at work where I'm slammed so we'll see.  Happy Monday!

Sarah

Sleep Regression?!?!?!

For a week now, Lilly has been waking up at night. 

Before I continue, please let me go on record and say that I know I shouldn't complain because we really have had such an easy time with sleeping.  BUT.  As a result of aforementioned easy time with sleeping, I am not used to sleep deprivation and I am here to tell you that it. sucks.

I'm not really sure what's going on.  We've had the occasional "wake up during the night" here and there, but it's never been consistent and I've normally been able to pinpoint the cause: teething, sick, super dirty diaper, etc.  This time is different, because I just can't figure it out.

I was worried at first that the wake-ups were due to Lilly being hungry.  I know what you're thinking: how could a child with that many rolls possibly be hungry?!  She is obviously not malnourished.  I think I mentioned in a previous post, though, that my supply has taken a huge hit as of late.  I thought it was stress, or maybe pregnancy (let the record show that it is NOT pregnancy), or any number of things.  On the days when we're together and Lilly nurses, it's not like she's hungry after nursing - but when I pump, I'm not getting NEARLY as much as I used to.  Any lactation consultant or doctor will tell you that what you pump is definitely not indicative of what you're actually producing when a baby nurses, but it's still been hard not to worry when I was used to getting a certain amount from pumping and it just dropped seemingly overnight.  Most work days, I don't even pump enough while at work to make one bottle for Lilly, so we've had to dip into the freezer supply some.  I'm more thankful now than ever for my early oversupply and our freezer stock (which we hopefully will not deplete over the next two weeks due to all of our upcoming travel).  Anyway, I digress, I don't think it's even a possibility that she's waking up due to hunger, because she goes to bed not too long after she eats solids for dinner (and she has been eating a LOT of solids).  Also, three times this week instead of nursing I gave her a bottle just to make sure my low supply wasn't starving her.  She still woke up.

When L wakes up, I nurse her.  I'm not sure whether you're "supposed" to do that, but it's what we do.  I know she's not hungry, I think it's more of a comfort thing, but it's really just easier that way because she is up and down in less than 10 minutes (Me on the other hand, not so much.  It takes me FOREVER to fall back asleep, hence the sleep deprivation.).  We tried letting her cry it out a little on Friday night - we used some variation of the Ferber method - but we are suckers and only lasted an hour.  After the hour, I went in and got her and nursed her and she was literally back asleep in 5 minutes.

Anyway, so now I just have to figure out what is going on.  I think she has a few more teeth coming in - I can see two on the top that haven't yet broken through, and she's back to drooling up a storm and chewing on everything in sight.  Other than that, I guess it could be anything.  She hasn't really eaten anything different, so I don't think it's gas.  She drinks a lot more water now so she has wetter diapers but I don't think that's it, either.  I'm pretty sure it's not hunger.  Her room for some reason gets pretty chilly at night but she's never cool to the touch - we dress her in PJ's and a sleep sack (she's not hot/sweaty, either).  It's just so strange to me that whatever is happening is happening now, when it hasn't happened before.  In addition to not knowing what's wrong, I feel like I'm not sure what I should be doing.  By nursing her to help comfort her and calm her down, am I teaching her that it's okay to wake up in the middle of the night?  Should I be trying to let her cry it out?  I realize that it's only been a week, and I'm hoping this is just a phase, but you just never know.

Has anyone else had issues with this?  Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Sarah

P00P

If any one ever would have told me that I'd be so concerned with the bowel movements of another human being, I wouldn't have believed them.  Who knew that a lot of things baby are measured by poop?  How often, what color, what consistency/texture, are there little seeds in it (if breast feeding), etc. - all of these things are important to keep track of.  When baby is brand spanking new from the womb, the hospital will keep track of it for you.  When you take baby home, it's super important to keep a journal, because the pediatrician will ask you about it to determine whether baby's organs are functioning properly.  I know the hospital gave us a sheet to use, and we made copies and used those for the first several weeks.


After the first month, the pediatrician told me that I didn't have to keep a journal anymore.  I'm sure you'll be shocked to find out that I still keep one anyway.  Not only is it perfectly in compliance with my OCD tendencies, but honestly I have so much going on in a day that a lot of times I truly can't remember everything that I should.  For example, from one feeding to the next, three hours later, I normally can't remember which breast Lilly nursed on first at the last feeding (important because she should start on the other breast for the next feeding).  So, I journal.  I write down diaper changes, sleeping (naps and bed time), nursing, bottle feeding, and I even keep track of how much I pump and when.  A little overboard, maybe, but it is good not only in helping me remember things, but it's also a good tool to communicate with the nanny - I drop it off with her every day to fill out so that I can see how the day went when I pick L up.  If your child is enrolled in daycare, I think they normally give you daily report cards anyway, so this is the best of both worlds.  I also write Carney notes so that she can see whether we had a rough night, or if Lilly seems gassy or fussy, or if she's on any medicine when I gave it to her last, etc. etc.  Any old journal will do - even a plain notebook - but I've used a few already and my favorite so far is called Baby's Eat, Sleep and Poop Journal:

The main thing I like about this journal is the page layout.  It's set up in a way so that you don't go through it as quickly because you fill in your own dates and times, they aren't pre-determined.  I went through two journals that were divided up by hours of the day and was annoyed at how quickly I went through them before I discovered this one:

Anyway, I digress.  I didn't mean to get on the subject of journaling, but my nerdy side loves stuff like that.  So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we started L on solids recently.  She hated rice cereal, so after a week we went ahead and started her on bananas, which she loved.  We did that for about a week and then decided to introduce her to avocados.  She wasn't too sure about them at first...

...but in the end she decided that she loved them and we couldn't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough for her satisfaction!

Lilly is loving trying new things and has really gotten the hang of solids.  She opens her mouth when she sees the spoon coming, but we will have to work on her smacking for sure.  ;-)  The only problem we're having is - you guessed it - poo-related.  Homegirl is constipated.


Before we started solids, she mostly went #2 every day.  Since we started them, she will go like 6 days (no joke) without going.  It doesn't really seem to bother her until the day that she does have to go, and then she's a little fussy, extra gassy, and super uncomfortable (think red-faced and lots of pushing/straining).  In the meantime, during the 5 days leading up to poo-day, she has terrible gas.  I find myself wondering how something so foul can come out of something so small.  Most of the time I'm POSITIVE she has had yet another of her world-famous epic blowouts all over my clothes, but then I check her diaper and am shocked to find that there's nothing there.


I called the doctor the first time this happened, and they assured me that this is normal, and that babies will sometimes go a week without going.  I keep thinking to myself that this can't be normal, although I guess it makes sense since Lilly's system is trying to get used to something new.  The doctor said that they are more concerned with the consistency - at this point, since she is only eating solids once/day to learn how to eat, Lilly's bowel movements should still be runny (TMI alert!).  If her bowel movements are the consistency of adult poops (harder, not runny), then that's cause for concern and we should bring her in immediately because it means something isn't working right.  I know that rice cereal can cause constipation for sure.  I read that bananas are used for both - they can both help go #2 and not go #2.  So far, in our case, they have only done the latter.  Today was day 3 of avocados, so we have one more day before we will introduce anything new.


The doctor suggested that we give Lilly one ounce of water 2x/day in between feedings to help move things along, but that isn't working at all.  Through talking to girlfriends (although none of mine have had the problem to the extent that Lilly has - their children have only gone 2-3 days max) and research, I found out that switching up fruits/veggies (read: moving onto something new) also helps ease constipation.  However, you're only supposed to feed them one item for four days before trying something new to make sure they don't have any food allergies to whatever you've been feeding them (one more day for us with avocados).  I am not comfortable giving Lilly juice yet unless the doctor gives me the OK, and prunes aren't on the list of foods her doctor gave us for her to start out with.  I think we are going to try pears next, because I read that those might help.  The only other thing I've read is to help her exercise her legs and massage her tummy, both of which I've been doing - along with using a lot of gas drops.  Mommy friends, do you have any other advice that I haven't thought of or tried?  Like I said, it doesn't seem to bother L until the day she's going to use the bathroom, but then I feel so terrible for her because I know it can't be comfortable.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Happy hump day - one day closer to the weekend!


Sarah

Stain Help!

Just realized this didn't post yesterday...whoops!  I need some help, friends.


Lilly's baptism is coming up on Sunday, May 6.  I have a beautiful christening gown that was worn by both myself and my two sisters that I am SO excited for Lilly to wear, assuming it fits.  It is 3M, and she is currently still wearing 3M clothes but not for too much longer, I don't think, even though 6M is a tad big still.  At least it looks like a big 3M, so hopefully it will fit.  Anyway, I digress.  Aforementioned beautiful and very sentimental christening gown has a couple of stains on it.  They aren't really very noticeable, and at first I was just going to ignore them, but then I decided I'd ask for advice and keep trying before sending it to the cleaners one final time to be pressed.


I did some googling, but would rather have suggestions from people I know who have tried things!  Per my research, I discovered that clothes that were pristine when packed away for storage can have old stains on them again when taken out of storage - something to do with the bacteria in formula/breast milk/whatever.  So even if you wash them and they are spotless, if you take them out of storage a year later the stains could reappear.  I am positive that's what happened with this dress, because I know my mother and she can normally get a stain out of anything.  


I sent the dress to the cleaners and they couldn't get it out.  Bummer, since they already dried and pressed it, because it may have set the stain.  I tried using a toothbrush and putting oxiclean directly on the stain and then letting it sit for several hours and rinsing with warm water, but that didn't work either.


Anything else for old baby stains that I haven't thought of and could try?  One thing I read was something called an oxibath: bring a large pot half full of water to a boil, add a scoop of oxiclean and then throw the dress in to soak all day or overnight.  Has anyone tried that?  A lot of people said to try drying it in the sunshine, but if the stain is still there I'm not sure how that would help? Anyway, help me!  Obviously I don't want to do anything too drastic that could harm the dress, either, so if it comes down to it I'll just leave the stains.


Like I said, not the end of the world if it doesn't come out, because it's not really even that noticeable.  It's just that since I started working on it, I thought I'd see if there was anything else I should try before giving up.


Please and thank you!  And don't forget to vote!  We'll be back later today with L's "Happy 3 Months" (!!!!!) post.


Toodles!


Sarah

Rash Help!

Unfortunately for Lilly, I think she inherited (at least) two not-so-fun things from me: VERY sensitive skin, and being hot-natured.  Her poor skin is very sensitive to everything - even the most bland, organic products cause her to break out.  She is SO prone to diaper rash that I try to change her diaper literally the second it is dirty/wet (which is not hard because she also inherited from me a hatred of being dirty, and therefore lets me know as soon as she needs to be changed) and I also put diaper cream on her with every change.    Even with that, she still gets pretty bad diaper rash sometimes, which call for more desperate measures such as letting her hang out on some towels butt naked for an hour after bath time to air her tiny lady parts out.  As long as she's not cold, she loves being naked, so it works out for all involved!  Sadly, this also probably results in more diaper usage than the normal household.  I originally wanted to try cloth diapers, but decided against it since none of our daycares will allow it.  However, all of this sensitivity is causing me to reconsider, because I've read that cloth is the solution!  Anyway, I digress.

Not only does Lilly not like being cold, but she does NOT like being hot, either.  With the weather here in Raleigh having been so nice, there have been some pretty hot days.  I'm sure the fabric that car seats are made of contributes to the problem, because mostly I've only noticed her sweating when she's in the car seat.  Since she is a fatty total chunkster, sweat, spit up, milk, drool, etc. tend to be easily missed and get stuck in her little fat rolls, which irritate aforementioned sensitive skin.  I have been battling this nasty little rash for a week now:

See neck area above

Close up :-(

I feel like a terrible mother, but no matter what I do, I cannot combat this thing!  This rash started when we were at the beach for Easter - it was pretty cold, so we think that it was caused by not wiping her well enough when she was eating and got lazy and drooled milk everywhere.  We tried to be more conscious of spills and wiping, and we powdered it a few times a day and I thought it had gone away.  However, I then noticed that it was back this week, I think due to the fact that it was a lot warmer than usual outside over the weekend and she gets hot and sweaty and moisture just gathers there.  Anyway, I had been powdering it a few times per day, with my thought process being that I should keep it dry.  That didn't work, so after talking with Stephanie, I decided to use aquaphor - she said that when Hadley has gotten it, the aquaphor has done the trick (that's why it's so shiny in the above picture, I had just put ointment on it).  Bad news: the aquaphor isn't working either!  Today I've gone back to powdering, and instead of just a few times/day I've powdered every time I have changed a diaper.  It may take a few days, but it still doesn't look better to me.  Luckily, it doesn't seem to be bothering sweet Lilly:

Any other tips/ointments/powders/miracle rash destroyers that I have not tried/don't know about?  Help!  I want this rash to be gone from my sweet girl's chunky neck rolls.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're going to have a hard time with this over the summer being that it's probably going to be a scorcher.  Sorry, Lilly bean!

Hope everyone has had a great Thursday - and don't forget to vote!

Sarah