My kid is seriously cute.

As if you needed proof...

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Grandma Susie!

And don't forget to vote!  :-)

Sarah

Remember When?

I woke up this morning nervous about the day.  Today, my friends, was to be Lilly and my (Is that correct grammar?  I couldn't decide what sounded right.  Whatever.) third ever meal in public (our first was lunch with Jen back when Lilly was still sleeping a lot during the day - easy as pie - and the second was a few weeks ago at Hadley's baptism).  We were supposed to meet Stephanie & Hadley, Andrea and Nicole for lunch at Firebird's in North Hills.  There were a variety of reasons why I was nervous, but I will give you just a few:

• Lunch was supposed to be at 11:30.  Lilly normally goes back to bed until around 11:00, which was my target "leave the house" time.  If she didn't wake up until 11:00, I'd have to feed her right then, and we'd never be on time.  If she was still asleep, she might wake up when I transferred her to the carseat, which she has just in the past two weeks decided that she hates, and of course if she woke up during the transfer she'd want to eat.  If she slept through all of that and woke up in the car, we'd have to go into the restaurant with her screaming to be fed.
• Lilly has been very happy for several days in a row.  I love it when she's happy.  However, call me superstitious, but I felt like it was pushing my luck to expect her to be happy on a day when we were to be in a public place.
• I love me some Firebird's, but really have you ever been to North Hills?  It is for the ritzy folk, and lunches in there are packed with business people - we take clients and recruits to eat there often.  I did NOT want to be responsible for ruining anyone's lunch if Lilly decided not to cooperate.  I was wondering if we should have chosen a more kid-friendly place like...Applebee's.  I asked Stephanie if she ever thought the day would come when we wanted to go to Applebee's over Firebird's.  Ha!

Stephanie and I were texting this morning about the outing, and she was nervous about sweet Hadley as well.  I also know that babies can sense your moods, so I was hoping my anxiety wouldn't affect Lilly bean.  I started getting ready for our outing around 8:00, pumping and trying to get the diaper bag packed.  Lilly woke up around 9:30, and luckily for me, my anxiety apparently didn't have any affect on her mood...or perhaps she just loves being naked:

Since Lilly woke up and ate at 9:30, and she eats around every 3 hours, I calculated that she'd probably want to eat again right in the middle of lunch.  Good thing I had some bottles ready to go and in the diaper bag.  I decided to go ahead and get her ready for the day while she was happy and awake so that if she was asleep (fingers crossed!) I wouldn't have to wake her to get her out of her jammies, and then I sat her in her bouncy seat while I tried to get myself together.  She did indeed fall asleep (angels singing!), which as mentioned above, could be good or bad...only time would tell.  I managed to throw myself together and we were going to meet my goal of leaving the house at 11:00, except when I was putting on my jewelry I dropped a diamond earring down the sink.  Great.  I know we have a trap, so I wasn't too worried, and I texted Dan and he didn't seem mad.  He told me what to do, but I'm too weak and wasn't able to unscrew the part that needed to be unscrewed.  I called my Dad and he assured me that as long as I didn't run water in that sink, it would still be there when Dan got home (fast forward 6 hours and it was, thank the Lord). 

All of this took a while, so we did not walk out the door until 11:20.  Lilly had slept through the entire ordeal, and I was praying that she would sleep through the transfer from bouncy seat to carseat (and while we're at it, sleep right through lunch as well).  Wishful thinking, because of course she woke up for the transfer and fussed a little, but it was pretty half-hearted, so I knew there was still hope.  She fell back asleep by the time we got to the car.  Score!  Except I didn't remember until after I cranked the car that my gas light had been on for a WHILE, and I wasn't sure whether I could make it to North Hills.  Sigh.  I texted Andrea to tell her we'd be late.

I got lucky with the rest of the trip.  We were late, and I was worried about parking (the car seat is a lot lighter without a chunky baby in it!), but luckily a spot opened up literally at the front door of the restaurant and I snagged it.  Lilly slept through most of lunch, at least long enough for me to eat.  Hadley did great, also!  Steph gave her a B- for the outing, but I thought she was a perfect angel.  She was awake for lunch and was looking around, taking it all in, and giving us some sweet smiles and laughs as well.  Around 12:30, Lilly started moving around and I knew I had about 30 seconds to get her out and feed her or she'd get mad and let the whole restaurant know it.  I took her out and she fussed some, but luckily the restaurant was really loud, so I don't think we disturbed anyone's lunch.

It was not until I got the bottle out to feed Lilly that I remembered that in my haste to get out the door, I had forgotten to heat the bottle.  CRAP.  Lilly HATES cold bottles.  Even if she is starving, she won't eat much of them, because for some reason they really upset her stomach.  I decided to try it anyway, and we got through about 2 ounces before I sensed that something was seriously wrong.  We had already paid, so I hauled our tails out of there as fast as I could.  Thank the LORD I had the sense to leave when I did, because we made it to the car where I changed her diaper and planned to finish feeding her before the ride home, and she had a meltdown.  Not just any meltdown.  This was a meltdown of epic proportions.  She could NOT be consoled.  There were real tears, and it broke my heart.  I knew she was starving and could hear her little tummy making noises, but she was NOT having that cold bottle.  In the end, I decided to put her in the car seat (still crying) and get home as fast as I could to heat the bottle and finish feeding her.  I HATED doing this because I knew her crying was my fault, but I really didn't have another choice.  Luckily, she cried for about five minutes and then fell asleep until we got home.

Overall, I'd say the trip was a successful one, although I don't think I'll forget to heat a bottle again.  Sure enough, the 2 oz of cold milk did upset her stomach, as she had 4 blowouts (but not the clothes-dirtying kind, thankfully) in a 2-hour time frame, and has been gassy and pooping pretty much since we left the restaurant.  This is her "I'm pooping on you" face, in case you were curious:

After she took care of that business, she took a three hour nap and was then happy as can be:

I say all of this to say: remember when meeting friends for lunch was easy?  When I had typically already had time to shower so all it took was getting myself out the door?  When it didn't take me literally four hours to get me and my tiny human ready to go out for an hour and a half?  I wouldn't trade it for the world, though.  After all, how lucky am I to get to hang out with this sweet face all day?

Happy Wednesday!  Did you remember to vote?  :-)

Sarah



Poor Layla

Although I obviously didn't birth her, I consider Layla to be my "first born."  She was my baby for three years before Lillian's arrival, and she, too, is one of the best things that ever happened to us.  Layla hurt her paw over the weekend, and it has caused a lot of stress in the Baum household.

We took her to the beach with us for the holiday weekend.  Due to the nasty weather, we didn't take her onto the actual beach like we normally do.  Instead, she got several walks when it wasn't raining (on the pavement - we avoided mud puddles like the plague), and Dan took her to play on the tennis courts one day to keep her from getting nasty in the wet grass and mud.  Around Saturday night, we noticed that she was limping.  Her paw has been hurt before from walking on the pavement instead of in the grass, so we assumed that's what it was.  She was pitiful enough that Grandma Susie and Papa allowed her on the couch, though, as I mentioned before.  On Sunday, the limp was much worse.  When we got back home and settled, Dan examined her paw.  We were pretty sure it wasn't sprained or broken, because she didn't whimper or cry when we tried to touch it.  He noticed that she broke the nail that's on the side of her paw, and we assumed she was just experiencing some tenderness in her paw as a result.

When we woke up on Monday morning, not only was her limp even worse, but her paw was swollen to at least two times its normal size.  We were still thinking it had to do with the broken nail, and decided to wait and see if it would get better on its own.  We didn't want to take her to the vet and pay an exorbitant amount of money for them to tell us that it was her broken nail and it would get better on its own eventually.  However, as the day went on, her behavior worried me more and more.  She wasn't really eating, and she just wasn't herself.  She had no energy and was very lethargic - if you know Layla, you know that this is NOT normal.  I knew something was really wrong when she wasn't even interested in people food.  Her limp was so bad that Dan was carrying her up and down the stairs when she needed to go.  He did some internet research, cleaned her nail really well, and even iced her leg, which seemed to help with the swelling but not for long.

This morning when she wasn't better, we still couldn't decide whether to call the vet.  I wanted to take her in and have her checked out if for nothing else than peace of mind, but again, I didn't want to get charged an arm and a leg for it to turn out to be nothing.  It was when I was talking to my Mom about the situation that we made a decision.  She said, "You wouldn't hesitate to take Lilly to the doctor if something was wrong.  Layla is your child, too."  And I knew she was right (I know it's hard to believe that I was never a dog person before we got her!).  So, I sucked it up called the vet.  I described what was going on, and they said to bring her in as soon as we could.

Side note: my bff is awesome, because she is a mind reader and knew as soon as I told her we had to go to the vet that I was already worrying about how to get both the dog and the baby there and back, so she and Hadley came to play with Lilly.  THANK YOU, BESTIE!

When we arrived at the vet, I noticed that Layla's paw had started bleeding pretty badly.  No matter what the cost, I was immediately glad I'd taken her in.  They took her from me to examine her, and all I heard was her wailing.  It seriously broke my heart, and I almost cried.  They came in to tell me that she wouldn't let them near her paw, so they were going to have to sedate her so that they could shave it and take a closer look.  All I could see was dollar signs, but of course I agreed. 

Long story short, there was some sort of small puncture in her paw - the doctor said it could have been a thorn, or even a bug, or anything really - which created an abscess (Seriously?  I am about to have to spend $1281239128737 over a bug bite?!?!).  The abscess was severely infected.  The doctor said that the abscess had ruptured, which was why it started bleeding, and that she'd probably been in a lot more pain prior to the rupture.  I think he was right, because I noticed that once we got to the vet, while her limp was still there, it wasn't as bad as it had been at home.  He told me that he wanted to do an x-ray just to make sure there was no fracture or break; her paw was so swollen that they couldn't tell.  My poor baby!

Luckily, the abscess was the only problem - no fractures or breaks.  She has to take three pills - an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic - twice per day for two weeks.  The vet told us that she will not be back to 100% until probably next week - he said there was a lot of swelling and that she was in a good amount of pain.  She is to try to rest and we are not to take her on walks until she stops limping and her foot looks a lot better.  Great, try telling that to the most energetic dog ever.  She was a real trooper, and I am so thankful that she is okay - and also I was pleasantly surprised because the vet bill was a lot less than we'd anticipated.  Score!  Isn't she pitiful? 

Layla, we are so glad you're okay.  We can't imagine life without you.  It was worth every penny we spent at the vet to make sure everything was fine. We hope you have a speedy recovery...and also that you will put your jealousy aside and start to love your little sister soon, because she sure does love watching you and giggling!

Sarah

This Is How I Cooked Dinner Tonight

After Lilly was born, we were spoiled with dinners.  Well really it started before she was born, when I was on bed rest.  Dan is an excellent cook, so he cooked a lot, and we were also brought a lot of meals by friends and family.  After she was born, I am pretty sure we did not have to cook for about a month, and when we weren't brought dinner or Dan didn't feel like cooking, we ordered takeout.  So, I'm sure it's not shocking to anyone that one of the things I've been struggling with is making dinner.  I feel like I am so busy with Lilly all day long that my time management skills have gone out the window.  Forget finding time to do anything for myself - between diaper changing, feeding, pumping, and bottle washing alone, there is barely any time left in my day.  Finding time for every day things like laundry, cleaning the house (pretty much has not happened since her birth - sorry Dan), cooking dinner, etc. is next to impossible.

I decided this week to make a conscious effort to find time to do these things.  Dan and I sat down yesterday and planned our meals for the week, made a comprehensive grocery list and took a family outing to the grocery store, which was half the battle.  Luckily, at least for today, Lilly was cooperative - I'm not sure whether she was tired from all of last week's activity or what, but she took a killer nap (in the crib!).  Today I unpacked suitcases - hers and mine - and put everything away!  Dan was shocked when he came home to a clean-ish bedroom.  I also did and folded four loads of laundry, washed bottles, pumped, addressed all of Lilly's birth announcements, and packed away her newborn clothes (muffled sob).  I had an appointment with my trainer tonight at 6:30.  Dan had a dinner meeting, but I knew I had to get dinner started before leaving for the gym at 6:00 or else I wouldn't get to eat until 10:00 pm.  I decided to make a chicken casserole, because Dan has several work dinners this week and I figured I could eat on it for lunches and the nights he's gone for dinner.  I knew if I could get it put together before the gym, then I could throw it in the oven when I got home and let it cook while bathing Lilly, feeding her, etc.

I cooked my chicken all day in the crock pot, and Lilly had been in a great mood all day and was happily playing with her new Lamaze rattle set from the Easter bunny:

Ain't she cute?  Anyway, of course as soon as I started shredding my chicken, she decided that she was inconsolable and absolutely had to have my undivided attention.  So, I did what any mother would do (right?): went upstairs and fetched the baby k'tan:

Dan came home and I'm sure was wondering what in the world we were doing (Side Note: you should have seen him roll his eyes when I asked him to take a picture and make sure to get an action shot.  Not sure whether he got the memo that this blog is serious business.).  It worked out pretty well, though.  She looked around and kicked a lot for a long time, and I finally realized that she'd fallen asleep.  Everybody's happy, yes?

Ya do what ya gotta do, I say.  Operation: get dinner together before the gym was, for the most part, successful...I was only 10 minutes late for my appointment!

Here is the recipe for chicken casserole in case anyone is interested.  I've historically made it a lot on Sunday evening so that I could take it to work for lunches.  It's healthy and delicious.  I normally serve it with a veggie - typically salad, sauteed spinach or green beans.  Yum!  Also, the casserole is HUGE so I normally only make a half portion.

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked long grain rice (I use brown rice)
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) reduced-fat reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 2 cups fat-free milk (I normally use 1%)
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast*
• 2 cups chopped celery**
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted, divided (I normally don't use this)

*I prefer shredded chicken, so I normally cover my chicken in water, add some salt & pepper and cook in the crock pot on low all day (at least 8 hours).  It is so easy to shred - falls right off the fork!  Plus, I typically freeze the broth for later use in other dishes.
**The chopping of celery is important - don't chop it too finely.  If you chop it coarsely and a little bigger (read: don't mince), it adds a nice texture and flavor to the casserole.

Directions

1. In a large sauce pan,  bring the rice, broth and water to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-18 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the soup, milk, onion, Worcestershire sauce and salt.  Stir in the chicken, celery, 1/2 cup almonds and rice.  Transfer to a 13-in. X 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Uncover, sprinkle with remaining almonds.  Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through.  Yields: 10 servings.

Nutrition Information: 1-1/4 cups equals 334 calories, 7g fat (1g saturated fat), 49 mg cholesterol, 660 mg sodium, 41g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 25g protein.

Hope your Monday was great!  Did you remember to vote for us today?  Please and thank you!

Sarah