Pesky cold

We've had a busy week (evidenced by the fact that I didn't blog), but one thing that hasn't changed is Miss Elliott's pesky cold. I thought for sure she would be 100% by now, but no such luck. I can tell she is definitely feeling better, but she still has this stuffy nose. Hate it for her...and for us for that matter because stuffy nose=no sleep. We have definitely had less than optimal sleep this past week, which was a real downer since I also had to work. Afternoon naps not an option. Thankfully, she slept through the night the past two nights because she slept in her car seat. Whatever works, right? I must admit I do feel somewhat guilty to let her sleep in her car seat. It seems so uncomfortable! However, it also allows her to breath (thus sleep), so I guess it's worth the discomfort.

The bad thing about lack of sleep for me is I almost inevitably get sick when I don't get good sleep. So now I'm desperately trying to fight off a virus. Please not during my Thanksgiving break!!

I've always thought parents who obsessed about making sure their kids avoided germs were completely unreasonable. Germs build immune systems, right? Well, I don't want to become a germ nazi, but I can definitely see why it is in Elliott's (and our) best interest to stay healthy. Any thoughts on germs and avoiding illness?

She doesn't look sick here, huh. "Aunt Lacey, you're so funny!"

So last weekend we got to go to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family (minus my middle sister and her husband...we missed you guys). We ate lots of good food, had great fellowship, and watched Harry Potter (got to take advantage of free babysitting by Mimi and Papa). We had a wonderful time, and as usual, it was sad to leave. Tomorrow it's Thanksgiving with Kev's family. Have I mentioned I love the holiday season?

Hanging out with Aunt Lacey.

Love my Mimi!

We also got to see my cousins' kids...they LOVED Elliott!

Poor sick baby

So Miss Elliott officially has her first sickness, and it is the saddest thing ever! I think I grossly underestimated how sad it would be when your own child is sick. I've even treated sick babies at the urgent care and it never seemed that sad to me. I have a whole new understanding now.

She's not super sick, so for that I am very thankful. She has a super stuffy nose and is coughing. However, I think she might sometimes cough because she can't breath and not because her throat hurts. When her nose is stuffy, she starts turning her head back and forth and wiggling her bottom...it's like she is acting out of her frustration of not being able to breath. Kind of funny but sad.

The other thing that surprised me about this sickness was how absolutely helpless I felt. I felt like everything I had ever learned about treating sick kids went out the window and I had no idea what to do for her. Thanks to some good friends with little kids, I was reminded of some homeopathic treatments. Kev went out and bought a humidifier, I have been dropping salt water in her nose then suctioning it out (although I really wish I had something different than just the bulb they gave us at the hospital), warm baths, letting her sleep mainly upright (typically in our arms), and I'm considering using a vapor bubble bath.

She has a really hard time sleeping (especially at night), so it has been a rough 3 nights. Needless to say, we're a little exhausted. Thankfully I didn't have to work today so I'm hoping to get a little nap. I know this is the first of many illnesses and hopefully I'll become more competent, but it has certainly not been fun! The best thing about the sickness is we have gotten some great snuggle time in!

3 months

Thanks for all of your input on the swaddling issue. It's nice to know that others have not followed the "rules" and your babies turned out okay. So for now, we're going to continue with the swaddling until it looks like she's okay without it.

I've been reflecting this weekend on how much can change in a year. We celebrated our good friends' little boy's 4th birthday this weekend (pictures to come), and it made me remember back to this time a year ago. Last November, I felt like we would never get pregnant, like we had been trying forever. Little did I know that little Elliott would be with us a year later. It felt like that difficult season lasted for an eternity, but now when I think back, it seemed like such a short time (and totally worth it).

So without further ado, here are Elliott's 3 month stats:

• Wearing 3-6 month clothes.
• Wearing size 2 diapers.
• Her poopy diapers have decreased to every other day, which is kind of nice, but the down side is she has a blowout nearly every time she goes...not quite as nice. Probably more information than you wanted to know.
• Drinking 4-5 ounces from a bottle when I work. I went back to work when she was just over 12 weeks old. Sadness.
• Still eating every 3 hours during the day but she is starting to have feedings where she goes 3.5 hours in between.
• At night, her last feeding is at 9 or 9:30 and she sleeps until 6:30 or 7. I feel like a new woman!
• She went through a spell several weeks ago where she started fighting her naps. She would cry for about 5-10 minutes when I laid her down. Now she has gone back to going down without a fuss.
• She is now staying awake about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes in between feedings...so much fun!
• She is a very happy baby, but her fussiest time is at night. She doesn't want to go to sleep but she doesn't want to stay up either. A baby's life is so tough!
• 
• Her favorite thing to do during wake time is play in her activity gym. She loves to kick and she talks to her blue elephant. On a side note, she also likes her blue mouse (who I've named Max) on her carrier the best, so I've decide her favorite color is blue.
• She has found her hands and loves to suck on them. She hasn't really found her thumb but likes sucking on her fist.
• 
• She is ticklish, especially on her neck. Love to hear her laugh!
• She is definitely smiling and talking more and more. However, I've decided she does not smile in big groups...too much to look at.
• She loves to suck her bottom lip. So cute!

I feel like she is getting big SO fast! Slow down time!

Burning questions

I feel like I have so many questions as a new mom, but I'm realizing there are no "right" answers. It helps talking to other moms and hearing their experiences, but it doesn't necessarily mean that will work for you. I also enjoy reading books, but the authors are not experts with your baby. This is difficult for me because I really enjoy things being black and white, right and wrong...definitely not the nature of parenting.

So I have 2 questions that I have been contemplating lately. First, how long do you swaddle your baby? We just swaddle Elliott at night and she sleeps like a champ. We have been doing her last feeding at 9 or 9:30 and then she has been sleeping until 6:30 or 7 (when we start our day routine). Can I say I LOVE this routine! There is something about getting a full night sleep that makes you feel human. I was reading on another blog and then thebump.com that you need to stop swaddling when a baby is 3 or 4 months, because it helps their development to be able to move around at night. WHAT?! Who would have thought. My hold up is I'm afraid if we stop swaddling she'll wake up at night, and the thought of that makes me cringe. She does move a lot when she's swaddled and when we get her in the morning, she has moved up in the swaddle blanket so her shoulders are totally exposed. I don't know if this means she is ready to be unswaddled or what. Thoughts?

Question 2...I'm wondering if she will be ready to drop a feeding soon and how we go about that. I'm thinking I would like to lengthen the time between feedings (right now I feed her every 3 hours), and then maybe try putting her to bed a little sooner, but I'm wondering whether or not she's ready for this. There are definitely some feedings where she acts disinterested in eating so maybe this means she is ready?! I definitely don't want to change too many things at once, and since I'm working 3 days a week, I have less time to try things (I want to be here when we make the changes). She has definitely had more wake time lately which is really nice.

Any thoughts about these questions? I would appreciate the input. Now I'm off to clean the house. We're hosting a couples shower at our house tonight so I'll let you know how that goes.

Lattes after pilates

Wow! I'm finding it a little more difficult to post regularly since I'm back at work. It feels like there are so many things to do when I get home (think cleaning pump parts, make dinner, talk to Kev) and this doesn't even include what I want to do the most...get as much time possible with Elliott. I'm sure it will get easier (or is this wishful thinking) as I get used to it, but right now I'm still trying to work on the balance of it all. I'm finding Monday is probably my most difficult day because I work a full day, then we have small group at 7, and then I leave the next day for work at around 7. The good thing is once I make it through Tuesday, the rest of the week feels like it is downhill. I totally miss Elliott at work, but I'm not miserable because I know she's in good hands, and I've actually enjoyed being at work again. That's a plus.

Thanks for all your super helpful comments about the carbon monoxide and dressing a baby in the cold. So helpful! We got a good carbon monoxide monitor (one that plugs into the wall...thanks Vicki!), and so far it hasn't gone off. We are a much happier family in the warmth of a heater. Makes me incredibly thankful we actually have a heater.

I'm still working on my 3 month post for Elliott (I can't believe she is already 3 months), but in the mean time, I thought I would share with you one of our favorite new traditions with our friends Stuart and Amy and their sweet little boys. They're some of our dear friends who we met after college, but constantly say to each other, "Why weren't you in my wedding?" Do you have friends like that? We have experienced a lot together, like

a trip to the Big 12 Championship in 2004 (we look so young),

a wedding in Eureka Springs,

a vacation to California

and Seattle, and SO much more.

Back when we were kid-less, it was easy to get lots of quality time together. Fast forward 6 years, quality time is limited and looks a little different. They have 2 precious little boys who are 3 (almost 4) and 1 and 1/2 years old. You can imagine life is slightly chaotic. Well this year, in an attempt to get regular time together, we started "lattes after pilates" on Saturdays (or "lattes pilates" as their little guy says). I have pilates at 8, then we meet at Starbucks or Cafe Plaid for coffee then walk around campus. Our conversation is not completely uninterrupted, but the boys are pretty occupied running around looking at fountains and such. It is fabulous! Here are some pics of our time last Saturday.

Never realized how difficult it was to get a good picture of such active subjects. This is the best we got. :)

Everything is so interesting when you're a kid!

Elliott conked out in her stroller.

What a cool dad!

Do you have any new traditions you have started recently?

Is it winter?

I think fall just started, but it definitely feels like winter in my house today. It is 62 degrees in here, and I can't seem to do a darn thing because I'm just cold. Since I have less days at home now, I feel this pressure to accomplish a lot when I am home. So I'm a little more tired than normal from working, and yet I feel guilty just to rest. Oh the dilemma.

So back to the cold...you're probably thinking, "just turn your heater on". Well, that's a great piece of advice. We actually did turn it on when we got up this morning, but I don't think our carbon monoxide monitor is working, and I'm totally paranoid about "the silent killer (carbon monoxide poisoning)." So I turned the heater back off with intentions of purchasing a new carbon monoxide monitor today.

In the mean time, we are all bundled up. It's really hard to know how to dress a baby when it's cold. Thankfully we had a really warm outfit from Aunt Lacey and Uncle Marcus that fit just perfectly.

This lazy guy hasn't even come out of his cage all morning. He loves to be completely covered by his blanket! He can pretty much do it all by himself...he's so talented.

I pulled up his blanket so you could see there actually was a dog under there.

Any advice or thoughts on how to dress a baby in the cold weather? She's used to wearing onesies all the time.

The first week

So in case you guys forgot, this was my first week back to work. That probably explains my lack of posts. All I can say is I survived, and it really turned out better than I was expecting. My mom watched Miss E the first two days I worked, then Kev watched her today (probably explains why there was no tears this week). It was great to see coworkers, patients, but most of all, my time at work made me really treasure the time I had with E at night. I have never anticipated coming home more than this past week. Don't get me wrong, I love coming home to Kev and Truman, but there is something about that cute little face that makes me feel completely giddy to come home.

Nothing quite warms my heart like this.

I didn't even take time to get out of my scrubs.

Probably the worst part about being back at work was pumping. Not my favorite thing at home, but REALLY not my favorite thing when I have to sit on a dirty bathroom floor. Plus, it's not like I have a job I can just choose when I want to pump...I feel like I never have time and I always feel rushed. Thank goodness for an iPhone to pass the time! A good friend gave me a piece of advice that has been really helpful. She said her lactation consultant told her if she did not have time to wash her pump parts, she could just put them in the refrigerator and it was still okay to use them the next time. This has been GREAT advice for me, because who really has time to wash their pump parts in warm soapy water every time? This is probably TMI for some of you reading this, but I wanted to share this helpful tidbit.

My mom texted me this picture while I was working...so CUTE!

Another elusive smile...love it!

Family pic at Elliott's dedication. I wish she was looking, but it was a race against the clock to take the picture before she got fussy.

I really wanted to post this really cute video of E talking. It is so cute, but I can't get it to work. Hmmm...maybe I'll try again tomorrow.