7 FREAKING MONTHS

HOLY SHIT.


I have a 7 month old.


Hold on. ::has a mini panic attack as she realizes yet another month has flown by::


Ok.


Now that THAT'S over with, let's get to the good stuff.


Claire had quite an eventful 6th month!
*Got surgery to repair her cleft palate
*Started sitting up all by herself {and now that's all she wants to do}
*Began eating solids
*Mastered the fake cough & fake cry {hilarious}
*GOT HER FIRST TOOTH!!! {bottom right}
*Graduated to size 2 dipes {about dang time :)}
*Had her first photo shoot & we learned that she is afraid of strange men with mustaches with weird hats on. HELLO, Stranger Anxiety.
*Had her first play date{s}. Man, we need to get out more. She doesn't deal well with other babies.
*Learned to wave {SOO ADORABLE}. Even though I don't think she knows she's doing it.


Phew. She's a busy little lady.


We had her follow-up appointment Monday for her cleft. She's healing exactly how she should be & the doctor was very impressed! In May, we have an appointment with the cranial facial clinic at Primary Children's to evaluate her. This will be a yearly thing that we will continue following for the rest of her life. I truly can't express how grateful I am that the surgery is over with. She's a whole new baby, as far as eating is concerned. She eats her bottle with no effort! It's amazing.


That leads me to my next topic. Solids. So far we've explored avocado {loves} banana{loves} pear {loves} apple sauce {hates. I don't know if it's the texture or what, but she just gags. Also? It's not very good. I made it. That explains why. HAHA!} We just tried carrots last night. She loved them. But, I have a confession. Those were store bought, in a jar. {They were on sale at Wal-Mart & I picked up a jar} And I am fairly certain that if I puree my own carrots for her, she won't eat them. But, I'm going to try it anyway.


She feels so big & important now that she eats people food like a big girl! It's the cutest thing ever!


But what's not so cute? HER POOP. OHMYNASTINESS. I'm so used to the "sweet" smelling breast milk poop. Now? It's thick and nasty and...ok, you get it. It's just different & I'm having issues adjusting. HA!!


*She is eating solids twice a day now. Morning & evening. And 7-8oz bottles in between.
*Sleeping like a champ. Took a few days to adjust back into her routine after we left the hospital.
*Napping 2x a day. One at 10am that's about 45min-an hour & one in the afternoon that's about 30min. 
*Weighs about 14lbs. YAY for gaining some weight.


Hm..that's about all I can think of. We are in the market for a high chair & I am beyond overwhelmed with the choices. If you want, recommend  the kind you like! We can only feed her on the couch for so much longer. lol.

As a side note, I'm not sure why all of the photos from my "Cleaning out my Closet" post are not showing up, but I'm going to work on that. I'm also adding a few more things to it today. 

If you see something you like, e-mail me! I'm dying to get rid of this stuff & would rather sell it to my faithful readers than anyone else! 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to those who purchased things! They have all been shipped & hopefully you get them soon :)

For the rest of the week, I'll take 20% off of your order! In the meantime, I'll get those pictures to show up again! 

Happy Thursday, loves!

This Post Needs No Words.

Thankful on this Thursday

I have never participated in "Thankful Thursday" before, but since I'm feeling extra thankful today, I'd thought I'd do it!

On this gloomy, rainy/snowy March Thursday, I am thankful that we went through with the surgery for Claire's cleft palate

mmmm...

& she is able to start eating solid food.

You can't tell from this picture, but she HATED rice cereal.

So far, we've eaten rice cereal {hates} pears {loves} & avocado {loves}.

Avocado Mustache

Up next, naners & sweet potato! 

Thank God for the cleft palate team at Primary Children's Hospital, for fixing my sweet baby.

Happy Thursday!

What are YOU thankful for today??

p.s. watch for a post in the next couple of days. I have been working on something exciting & different that I think you guys are going to LOVE. I hope. :)

Sometimes, "Me Time" is a Necessity.

I didn't like last Friday. It was a weird day to begin with & I felt like a dark cloud hung over my head all day long. Not to mention the week felt like it drug on & on.


It was difficult to get out of bed & get moving. I just wanted to crawl back under the covers & not deal with anything. {I sort of miss those days every now & then where I could do that}


I held back tears as Dallas left for work, fearing that I wouldn't be able to handle Claire on my own. Fearing that I'd have to call him home from work again. {that's a whole other post}


For some reason, I just felt defeated from the moment I opened my eyes. Feeling overwhelmed by every little thing. I guess it didn't help that I slept horribly the night before. Little sleep + me= not good.


The first thing I thought when I felt those heavy feelings was, "Oh my God, please do not let this be my depression peaking. I do not have the time or energy to deal with it!"


As the day moved forward, I pushed myself to get through it & be strong. Shove those negative feelings to the side & focus on being a happy momma. But you know what? Sometimes that doesn't always work. Sometimes you can't always pretend everything is ok when it really isn't. Sometimes you need a break.


I called my mom when she got off work. She knew something was up. "I'm just in a funk today & need to get out of the house." So, we met at the mall. Surely shopping would cheer me up! Wrong. I had zero desire to shop once we got in the mall. In fact, I cried while we were in Express. No clue why. Probably because a single shirt was $39.95 & shit if I could afford that. HA!


Driving home from the mall, I broke down & had a little pity party for myself. I hate when I have pity parties, so pathetic. I called D & just whined. "I don't know why I feel like this. I just DON'T KNOW!" After asking if I had been taking my meds, he said "You need a break". A break from being a mom." 


WHAT? But, he was right. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed a break. Time to myself & nobody else. But why did I feel so incredibly guilty for admitting that? I AM A MOM! I can't take a break from that!! 


But I did. And it felt so good. Saturday, my amazing husband surprised me by telling me I was going to the Lady GaGa concert that night. "You need to go & unwind, I'll stay home with Lu".


He melts my heart, that man.


So, Saturday night I got all prettied up, which is SO rare & {semi-reluctantly} went to the concert with D's mom & little sister. {I felt guilty leaving. I don't know why. Claire was already in bed by the time I left.}

I look pissed. But I really was excited!

And? It was a lot of fun. That Lady GaGa is a freak. 


Also, I got to sleep in until 10 yesterday. It was glorious & I feel like a whole new woman {& mom} today.


Sometimes, it's ok to take a break. Right? Right?!

I swear St. Patty's Day was JUST yesterday!

I'm freaking out a bit over here.


It feels like St. Patrick's Day was just here yesterday!! I was 15 weeks pregnant, craving beer, so I opted for an O'Douls, anxious to know whether "Baby D" was a he or a she.


This St. Patrick's Day? I have a 6.5 month old princess.


Absolutely mind blowing.


What a difference 1 year makes.

St. Patty's Day 2010

St. Patty's Day 2011

{p.s. I don't think I tell you all enough how much I adore you & all the help you offer me! Thank you SO much for the suggestions on my baby food post. I feel more ready than ever to embark on the food makin' process!! eee!!}

Now that the surgery is over with...

it's time for me to jump into the land of solids!!!!


I've been looking forward to this for SO long & I know Claire has too! She's beyond ready to expand her eating habits from just milk. I can just picture what she's thinking every time I feed her "mommm, this is so boring. I'm sick of milkkkkk!" Ha.


You all know how frugal I am, so of course I am going to be ambitious & attempt to make Lu's baby food. But you know what? I have no idea where to even begin. What supplies do I need? Can I just use a blender? Or do I need one of those fancy, expensive baby food makers? What foods do I buy first? 


I feel so overwhelmed with all of the options there are out there!


This is where you baby-food-makin' momma's come in. I need your advice & suggestions on how you make your babe's food & what you've been making! Anything you've got! I'm so lost as to where to even begin.


I think tonight, we are going to try rice cereal for the first time. I'm nervous & excited... & lame. Lol.


I can't believe this is finally happening! So thankful that the surgery is over with & Claire is back to her normal, happy {improved} self!

We're Home!

Damn, it feels good to be out of that hell hole. We were all going insane & I may have been admitted to the psych ward if we had to stay another night.


Let's Recap


******************************************************************
Saturday evening, we got moved to a private room. Normally, with "well" babies, they hospital makes you share a room with other "well" babies. The private rooms are for the sick babies with RSV & such, but our amazing nurse, Tammy, requested one for us considering how bad our night before was. That made the fact that we had to stay there another night just a little bit easier. 


Yesterday morning, the nurse came in to see Claire in great spirits & totally acting herself, but, she wasn't eating. She told us that we absolutely would not be going home until she averaged once ounce of breast milk an hour. 


Shit.


Around 5am, we took Claire off of her I.V. fluids so that she would "feel" hungry . While being pumped with fluids, the chances of her wanting to eat were slim because she was hydrated & wouldn't feel as hungry/thirsty. We tried & tried & tried offering the bottle, and she just was not having it.


At noon, we decided to go on a little walk to the cafeteria to get us something to eat & get out of that depressing room. We put Claire in a little hospital stroller & brought her bottle with us, just in case she decided to eat. When we were in line to check out, she got fussy. I offered her the bottle and? SHE ATE IT!!! ALL 3 OUNCES!! We even had to go back up to the room & get her more, because she was still hungry.


I wanted to cry, I was SO proud of her. She didn't even act like she was in pain when she ate it. Praise, GOD!! 


Her sweet nurse was so proud & happy for Claire. She paged the doctor & ordered discharge papers. WE WERE GOING HOME, FINALLY!!


We filled her Lortab perscription & got out of there around 4:30 yesterday evening. 


The night went ok. She was so happy to be home, take a bath & eat her bottle. Bedtime was rough. She cried when we laid her down & I ended up having to rock her to sleep. She slept from 9:30pm-6am, had her pain meds & went back to sleep until 10AM & ate a 6oz bottle!! 


She is already down for a nap. Her pain medicine makes her drowsy.


We are so happy to be home & getting back to our normal routine.


I cannot thank you all enough for the thoughts & prayers. They definitely helped us all get through this hard weekend. I never want to go through something like that again, but am so thankful we got it over with. She will never remember this. Which makes me feel even better.

Her poor, sweet little eyes & face were SO swollen from crying

Playing Doctor ;)

My Little Trooper

Playing Grandma & her Elmo Balloon 

Hello From Hell.

A.k.a. The Hospital.

I'm on the verge of tears & a mental breakdown, so keep that in mind if I sound bitchy with this update.

First of all, I want to raise my hat to those of you who have been in the hospital with your children for long periods of time. I don't know how you do it. It's the most God awful thing to sit & watch your innocent child howl in pain & you cannot do a damn thing about it.

We arrived here around 12:30pm yesterday after being told 4 different check-in times. We checked in, got baby girl changed into her giant hospital pajamas & waited. & waited. & waited. Until 3:30 when the anesthesiologist finally took her back. And? Dallas & I did surprisingly well. Got a little teary, but we knew she was in good hands.

Jammies drowning my baby

I am thankful that I didn't have to watch her be put under. Couldn't have handled that.

Around 5:45, they called for one parent to go back to recovery to be with her. I was the lucky one who got to see her in the worst pain of her life. I completely lost it when I saw her. She was screaming as loud as she could with her horse little voice & dry blood in her right nostril from the breathing tube she had in.

I wanted to scoop her up & run away & take her pain from her.


We were in recovery for about 20 minutes. The nurse gave her a dose of Morphine {do you know anyone who needed Morphine for a sore throat? Remember, the damn surgeon told us that the pain would be that of a sore throat...}& urged me to try & feed her so glucose water. Cue the screams. She hated it. She had a tongue stitch in which basically held her tongue down so that she couldn't swallow it...horrible. Once the Morphine kicked in, she was wheeled up here to the IMSU (Infant Medical Surgical Unit). That was about 6pm.

Daddy & his sad baby girl

We got to the room & Dallas & I broke down. We didn't want to be here with our baby in pain. It wasn't supposed to be this bad. It was supposed to be minor pain. We just felt like we were left in the dark about how much pain she would really be in.

Did I mention that we are sharing a room with another family of a 6 month old? Did I also mention that the mother of this child read my blog & commented on my last post? How freakin' small is this world??

If we had our way, however, we would all have our own rooms. When one baby cried last night. the other one woke up & started crying. It was a vicious fucking cycle. Between that, pumping every 3 hours & the damn nurses poking & prodding Claire every hour, I think I slept a total of 10 minutes.

Right after surgery

This morning has been weird. She woke up acting like her normal, happy self, but then realized she was starving & in pain. She can't eat. The nipple on the bottle irritates the incision, but she wants so badly to eat. And we can't go home until she has mastered eating. So, it looks like we will be here until tomorrow evening at the least.

Thank you for all of your thoughts & prayers. Keep them coming.

If You're the Praying Type,

please keep our sweet Claire Lula in your thoughts & prayers.

Tomorrow, she will be having surgery to repair her cleft pallet.

It's an inpatient procedure & she will be kept over night for observation after the surgery is complete.

While I am so anxious & excited for her to get this fixed {while she's so young} so that she doesn't have any more problems with feeding,  I am a ball of worry.

I know that everything will be o.k. The surgeon has {slightly} set our minds at ease by telling us that it's really no different than having your tonsils out {which is a pretty minor procedure}. But nonetheless, she's getting put under, & that scares the living crap out of me. She's only 6 months old, after all.

Supposedly, Claire will be able to eat normally as soon as the procedure is through. I am so excited to see the change in her eating habits & wonder if she will put on a bunch of weight afterward! Or maybe she's just always going to be a little lady ;)

I promise to keep you all posted as soon as we get home on Saturday.

Daddy brought home the "nice camera" from work this weekend

& we had a little photo sesh 

Yes, she's on the counter. 

God, I love her.

She loves me too :)

And LOVES grabbing noses

Drool

Getting so big

Also, thanks to your suggestions, I'm meeting up with a local momma tomorrow &  giving her about 150oz of my frozen breast milk stash for her 4 month old baby boy. It feels so good to give it to a baby who will benefit from it, rather than throw it away!

Lovella Bowtique Giveaway {Winner}!!

Congratulations, Britt! You've won a $25.00 credit to Lovella Bowtique!

Please e-mail Felica at Lovellabowtique@gmail.com to find out how to claim your credit!

Britt said -I like "Lovella Boutique" on Facebook.


eta: I have no idea why the random.org widget did not appear. But that is the site I used to choose the winner. I hope you believe me :)

In Denial

There are 2 reasons as to why I am just now posting Claire's 6 month post.

One is because I lost my stupid camera charger & haven't been able to take any pictures, so photos from my phone will just have to do.

But the main reason I haven't written this post yet is because I am living in denial.

Denial that I have a 6 month old living in this house. 

That's a half year old. That means in another 6 short months, I will have a one year old. 

Please excuse me while I inhale into a paper bag. 

I just cannot believe how quickly these 6 months passed us by. 

In a way, I feel like she was just born, yet I feel like she's been in our lives for years.

Weirdest feeling.

Enough with the sappiness.

Moving on. 

Claire has changed so much in the last month. I feel like she's so much older & has so much more personality, which I just love!

*As of her 6 mo check-up last week, she weighs 13lbs 3oz {10th%tile} 26" tall {60th%tile}. Long & lean baby girl. 

*Still in size 1 dipes. 

*0-3mo bottoms & 3-6mo tops. She's in 6 month sleepers

*Eating between 5-7oz of breast milk every 2.5-3hours. I can't wait to get her cleft repaired so that she's able to eat more without getting so tired & frustrated.

*We start our bedtime routine at 5:30 every night. She gets so fussy around 4 & refuses to nap around then, so we just put her to bed early. It's fine. She's no night owl, that's for sure. She is in bed no later than 7pm & sleeps until about 3:30-4, eats then sleeps until about 7:30.

*Her jumperoo is her absolute favorite toy. Just about 2 weeks ago, she discovered that she can actually jump in her jumperoo. It's absolutely hilarious. She thinks she's all that.

*Despises tummy time & has zero interest in trying to crawl. None. Whatsoever.

*"talks" constantly & loves to stick her tongue out while doing so. Silly babe.

* We are now napping in our crib. Hallelujah! About 2 weeks ago, I just randomly thought I would try putting her down in her crib after failed attempts of her sleeping in her swing. And? She fell right asleep. And the rest is history. {knock on wood} Granted, they are never longer than an hour, but I have a cat napper. I've come to terms with that.

*She's just learning how to sit on her own for a few seconds at a time. It's so funny because when she knows she's sitting on her own, she gets a giant grin & you can tell she's so proud of herself.

*She wants everything that mom & dad have. i.e our cell phones, remote, drink & FOOD. omg. She is just dying to get her little hands on any and all food we have. I absolutely cannot wait to start her on solids. She's beyond ready, now we just have to wait until next week when her surgery is done & over. 

I'm sure there is more that little miss is up to, but I think I've highlighted the most important things.

 I am just still in shock that I have a 6 month old.