Maggie Claire's Baptism

I am happy to report that everything went well with our sweet baby's baptism. I was so paranoid (me? paranoid? I know, totally unlike me..) that MC would scream through the entire service, but she did great! She got a little fussy during the first reading because it was her nap time so I just got up with her and took her to the cry room. After five minutes of walking and patting and shhhh-ing, she was out and remained that way during the rest of the mass. It was quite hilarious though because she was sleeping when Father Mike poured the water on her head - not the best way to be woken up. I mean, imagine you are laying there sound asleep and then all of a sudden you have cold wet stuff being poured all over your head. I wouldn't be happy either. She started flailing her arms and making this pitiful, confused face, but when he finished and I pulled her close to me she went right back to sleep.

As I might have mentioned, MC wore my baptism gown which was really special. I am going to have the date of my baptism monogrammed on one side of the slip and her date on the other side. Then, should she have a baby one day, maybe they can wear it and we can have their date monogrammed on it.

Here are some pictures of the big day!

Been a While

Well, I know its been a while since I've blogged, but we've had some busy days! Let's start with MC. I just don't know about this whole teething thing. She's woken up crying one to three times over the past few nights, but hasn't been fussy during the day anymore. When she wakes at night she starts REALLY crying and shoving everything in her mouth... hands, clothes, etc. She doesn't stop crying immediately when I put orajel on, but she does fall back asleep after a few minutes (the dilema lies in that we let her cry for 5-10 minutes before we even go in there just to make sure she's not dreaming and will go back to sleep on her own. Soooo, is she just tired from crying or does the orajel help?) And if she was teething, wouldn't she be crying during the day as well? Children are so complicated. I wish she had a little collar like that dog in "Up!" that would interpret what her cries meant and put them into sentences. For instance, she starts screaming and I hear "Hey! Lady with the long hair! My gums are killing me here - a little help please!" from her collar. I'm wondering if she's getting hungry through the night too. I mean, the kid is ALWAYS hungry. You should see the pediatricians eyes when we tell them how much she eats. She is eating 7oz every 4 hours and about 2TBS of baby food. Her nighttime bottle also has three scoops of rice in it. I dunno. I'm confused.

On a happier note, I DO know that she is LOVING baby food! She sits in her Bumbo and leans forward with her mouth open like a little bird when I feed her. Its really precious. So far we have introduced prunes, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Her favorite so far was the carrots. She was all about some carrots.

As far as her little problem goes, its better. I dunno if its the veggies she's getting or what, but its a better consistency. Even when she does have, um, harder poops it doesnt seem to upset her or pain her like they have before. With that said, I do want to say thanks for all the comments on the issue and the suggestions. Most of them we had tried already, but its nice to know that even strangers are willing to help out a new mom :) If anyone who happens to BE a new mom reads this post, we tried the following to help with MC's problem - rectal temperature, Karo, juice, tummy/leg movement, suppositories, and different formula. Sadly these were all done to no avail, but hey, one of them might work for you.

Things on the homefront are going well too. Adam and I are slowly getting back into the swing of things and its getting better. I am going to be frank about this though - his coming home was not the fairytale either of us imagined. I had been debating about whether or not to bring this up, but I am all about using my experiences to help people, so maybe there are some other military wives that might benefit from what I am about to say...

First of all, don't think we weren't THRILLED to be back together again, but its almost like we had to learn how to live with each other all over again. That, and I think we both did a lot of changing while he was away. There have been times I have stepped back and looked at a situation and thought "this is not at all how we would've handled this before..." I'll admit its scary. In the very beginning I wondered if maybe we had changed TOO much; but things are getting better as I mentioned. Another thing that caused us some trouble was MC. I mean, I was the only person responsible for her for 3 and a half months. It was really difficult to suddenly let go and allow someone else to do things for her - even if it was my husband. I am very regimented and did things a certain way and now I was forced to hand over my daughter and watch Adam do things differently. I'm sure I didn't make the whole transition any easier on him. I got way too uptight about how things were supposed to be done when I should've rejoiced in the fact that he was here to do them at all!

I think the reason things are getting better is praying. I am not joking people. We bought a devotional for couples and we do it every night before we go to bed. It forced us to talk. It forced us to pray. It forced us to remember that God is the center of our relationship - he brought us together for a reason. He didn't promise things would be easy, but if we trust in Him, it will all work out. I tell ya, God has REALLY tested us the past month or two, but Adam and I both are trying to remember He will never give us more than we can handle. I hope you remember the same!

We are headed to Starkville this afternoon and will be meeting my mom there tomorrow for her to get MC for a few days. She and my dad are going to freak out when they see her (its been over a month!). She has grown so much and is doing so many new things, they aren't going to know what to do! It will also give Adam and I some alone time to spend together which is always needed when you have a baby! It seems like the most intamacy you get is when you bump into each other in the kitchen making a bottle! Anyway, looking forward to a few days in ole Starkvegas and, of course, to MC's baptism this weekend!!!! She will be wearing the gown I wore when I was baptized - and while its not the most extravagent or beautiful baptism gown I have ever seen, it was mine. It was worn when I met Christ for the first time and I think its beautiful that MC will be wearing it when she meets him too. Can't wait to post pics from it all!! Have a happy week everyone!

Are You Serious?!

Life was good. We got the passy away without a HUGE amount of effort and MC was sleeping like an angel. Now what you ask? TEETHING!!!! AHHHHHHHHH! I have heard such horror stories of this whole teething thing and I am scared out of my mind. I had thought she was teething for about a month now with all her drooling and chewing on EVERYTHING, however, she had a sudden crying spell yesterday for no reason. It wasn't time for her to eat, she was changed, she had just woken from a nap, etc. We were seriously laying on the floor playing and she just started screaming. I picked her up, rocked her, everything I could think of and she still wouldn't stop. It concerned me because this is VERY unlike MC. I don't want to gloat by any means but she is a very good baby. Only really fusses when she's tired or something. Anyway, I thought with her little "problem" maybe she was in pain. The way she was screaming I knew we needed something heavy duty and immediate so I whipped out the suppository (sorry, should've warned you this post would also include poop-talk). I had spoken to the doctor about using these so it wasn't a first time thing. Anyway, after I put it in she cried a little more and then stopped. Later that night (for the first time in a LONG time) she had two poopies that weren't hard. Again, very uncharacteristic.

I figured we had solved the problem and didn't give it another thought. Then, this morning about 7 am (she usually wakes between 7:30 and 7:45) she started SCREAMING. We knew this was not a passy thing so we went to get her after 3 minutes or so (we wanted to make sure she wasn't just dreaming or something and give her the chance to go back to sleep). Well we brought her to our bed and laid with her and she STILL kept screaming. She was shoving everything in her mouth - her clothes, her hands, the blankets, our hands.... I thought "hmmm, runny poop and screaming yesterday, screaming this morning, shoving things in her mouth... teething?" I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to just try putting some orajel on her gums to see what happened. I'm telling you, the moment that stuff hit her gums she stopped crying. It was like the magic passy button or something. Anyway, what do you guys think? She is four and a half months old and has been drooling/chewing for a little over a month. I could also use some "its not so bad" talk since I am terrified.

Thanks readers! Look forward to hearing some age old remedies and moral support! hahaha.

Operation Ferberization

Oh yes. I have done it. I have succombed to one of the most popular methods of child sleep alteration. Let me elaborate....

As I might have mentioned before, MC is a passy addict. Seriously. She needs to go to passies anonymous. Now, that is all well and good - except at night. MC was a great sleeper... as long as she had her passy. If it fell out during the night, she woke. This meant that Adam and I were up as many as 10 times a night putting the stupid passy back in her mouth. It was like a magic button though. If the passy went in, her eyes automatically closed and she went right back to sleep. As you can imagine, months of interrupted sleep can make you not-so-fun to be around. Adam and I knew we had to do something. One night, driving home from mass, I passed a Books-A-Million. I remember researching Dr. Ferber (knowing his was one of the foremost authorities on children's sleep) and reading that he had somewhat recently updated his classic "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" book. I sped into the parking lot and ran into the store frantically searching for a sales associate. I found one quickly and the conversation went as follows:

me - do you have a book by Dr. Ferber? I can't remember the exact title, but its something like how to solve your childs sleep problems...

SA - um, let me check. Yes, it shows we have one. Let me show you where they are.

me- PLEASE!

I scowered the shelves (which, by the way, were in NO order at all!!!) and couldn't find it anywhere!!!!! Back to the sales associate I went...

me - Sir, are these in any kind of order?! Like title, author, SOMETHING?!

SA - well, the are supposed to be in order by author, but people don't usually put them back in the correct spot.

me- I HAVE to have this book and I can't find it anywhere!

SA - losing some sleep huh?

me- do you see my eyes? I haven't slept in 3 1/2 months. This book is my life.

SA - ok... (look slightly scared) we'll let me help you look.

We proceeded to go through the never ending shelves of parenting books until the sales associate finally found it. You should've seen my face. It was better than Christmas (I might have even shed a small tear).

When I got home I read the book and knew what we had to do. The passy had to go. According to Ferber, MC had developed a "sleep association problem". He suggested a "progressive waiting approach" to gradually break her bad association. I knew it would be work, but we HAD to get some sleep. And so operation Ferberization began...

The whole idea of the Ferber method is, yes, to let them cry, however you DO go in and check on them and comfort them at set intervals. The first night (Sunday) we did our usual bedtime routine and when she was drowsy I put her in her crib. She cried immediately. I was overcome with heartache but left the room anyway. I started at her on the montior for three mintues (the first interval for the first night). I'm telling ya, when you have a baby screaming 3 minutes can seem like FOREVER! After the three minutes I went in and comforted her (without picking her up). She was still crying after my alloted 2 mintues of being with her, but according to Ferber I had to leave. Again Adam and I stared at her on the monitor, this time waiting for 5 mintues before we returned. Adam went in after five minutes and did the same comforting and left with her still crying. "Wow. She is never going to stop crying". Then our next interval was 10 minutes. We waited and watched. She was out just moments before the ten minutes was up!!! My little MC was off to sleepy land without the passy!!! She cried a total of 18 minutes. I was super excited, but scared it wouldn't last. I was somewhat right. She woke at 4am and we did the interval thing for 45 minutes before she was back to sleep. It was SUPER hard, but she DID go to sleep without the passy.

The next day she cried 4 minutes at her first nap. That night at bedtime, ZERO crying. I seriously laid the kid down at 8:30 and she slept without waking until 7:45. I don't care what anyone says - this Ferber guy is brilliant. Adam and I had an amazing restful sleep and I couldn't be happier for my BIG GIRL!!! I am loving life without the passy!

So This Is How It's Gonna Go

After speaking to SEVERAL people about this feeding issue I have made my decision. MC will continue getting baby food once a day until I introduce all the fruits and vegetables. Then, I will give her a fruit in the morning and a veggie in the evening. She will continue to get rice in her bottle (hey, don't judge. If you were raising a newborn alone for 3 months you would need sleep too!) I might also try mixing a little rice in with her fruit in the morning as she grows. Anyway, thats it. We'll see.



Again, the prunes have had no effect on little MC. We tried peas for the first time last night and she seemed to enjoy them, but things still aren't moving (I had heard from someone that foods beginning with "p" helped in this area.... hence the prunes and peas) I think the next food we might try will be sweet potatoes.



Does anyone know if there are other "cereals" that might make MC less constipated. Like, at this age can they have something other than rice cereal?

Thanks for all the comments! I have the most awesome blog readers ;)

Coming Together

Ordered MC's baby bedding.... not sure if it was a wise investment or not given that she will be about 8 or 9 months old when she finally gets her own room in our place in Starkville. However, since I never got to do the whole nursery thing with Adam gone, I suppose I have gone a little overboard. I guess I could use it again if we have another girl though - or sell it on Ebay if we got our boy ;)

You can see her crib here, and here is a photo of the bedding... the blanket isn't shown, but its the damask fabric in the middle followed by the polkadot ribbon, then a border of the striped fabric, then a small edging of the sage minky. This is the photo from the website, not her room. I ordered it online from modpeapod.com. She's got some SUPER cute custom made bedding. Anyway, I think it will be cute when it all comes together ;)


Still looking for wisdom on my last post!!!! Happy weekend everyone!!!!

What the (missing) Crap???

***WARNING***this post contains content not suitable for those with poopy-phobia. If you are not interested in reading about my child's bowel movements, you should probably stop reading now.....

Ok, I warned you. In my last post I mentioned that MC has been having some difficulty "getting things going". My pediatrician said this was common, especially when using the Isomil soy formula. Anyway, as I also mentioned, since she has rebelled against drinking her juice we opted for prunes as her first baby food. As you can imagine from the pics and video, I was expecting to have a HUGE surprise waiting for me at some point in the evening. However, I waited... and waited... and waited.... NOTHING! I thought to myself, ok, surely this prune-filled baby will wake up at some point during the night with my long awaited surprise. I slept. She slept. I awoke the next morning fearing that my sweet darling had spent the entire night in her not-so-sweet prune poopy. I leaned over the crib and did the sniff test. Hmmm, I smell sweet baby, not poop. I took her to the changing table and changed her pee pee diaper wondering "where's the poop???!!!" I thought she might be saving it up for today, however, NO POOP! It is currently 9:30 pm and even after a second dinner feeding of prunes, MC won't let it go. I am stumped. Severely stumped. How does one make a baby poop normally???

Speaking of night number two of baby food, here are a few more pics... (I let her play with the spoon this time after she ate and she LOVED it! As you can see, the spoon even made it to her right eye a time or two and left its prune-y mark on her eyebrow haha)

In addition to being baffled by my child's stools, I am also completely confused by this whole "introducing solids" thing. I mean, I started putting rice in MC's bottle at about 2 1/2 months to help her sleep through the night (Surprising I know. I am typically so worried about doing things perfectly, that I rarely veer from mainstream opinions about child rearing - and as we all know, rice in the bottle is not reccomended. However, I was raising this baby alone for the first three months and when you are doing things alone, you HAVE to get some sleep. Granted, the rice didn't help her sleep any better, but that is another story) Wow, that was quite a long tangent. Anyway, as I was saying, I started putting rice in her bottle so now I am concerned that with the rice and the baby food she is getting too many calories. I am also confused about how much and how often to give her the baby food. And do I decrease the amount of milk now that she is getting baby food? And, why did he not have us start with rice cereal? Is it because we were already doing that in her bottle? Ah, so many questions. I LOVED my new pediatrician but he is very laidback about everything. I am more of a "specifics" person and he is more "go with the flow".

At our appointment he said we could start giving her baby food now. I said "oh great, how much how often, what kind, etc". His response was "Oh you'll hear/read all kinds of things about starting with vegetables,starting with yellow things, etc, but really it doesn't matter. Since she's staying constipated you might want to try some prunes or something, but basically just give her whatever you want whenever you want. You can feed her three times a day or just one time. She may not drink as much milk, but still just continue giving her the bottle as you have been doing." Not so great for me who would like to hear "Well, give her X amount of milk X times a day and give her X amount of baby food X times a day". I know babies don't come with a handbook or specific guidelines, and that makes me super nervous. I don't want to screw up. The point of this rant is I would love some input from those of you who have or have had babies. How does this whole solids thing work? I appreciate any knowledge you might be willing to share! Thanks!!!

Prunes and Spring

Soooo I forgot to mention that the doc said MC was now ready for baby food!!!! Yup, last night we fed little girl (well, big girl!) her first baby food. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but sweet MC has had some problems, um, keeping things flowing. The pediatrician reccomended giving her a little juice each day but over the past few weeks she has wanted NOTHING to do with it! She will scream when she even sees the bottle with the juice in it!! Now that we can start baby food, he said that some of them should help get things going. She hadn't "had things going" in a few days so we decided her first babyfood experience would be prunes.... I know, we are terrible parents. Anyway, here are some pics!

And a few pics of my family enjoying the GORGEOUS weather and blooming flowers!!!

Happiness and Heartache

First of all HAPPY EASTER! We had a wonderful Easter together as a family this year. Didn't do a whole lot of anything -just the usual: lunch, mass, photos, you know how it goes. Anyway, here are some pics of us and MC (My parents started a tradition getting me a stuffed bunny every year at Easter so I am carrying it on with MC.... however, instead of one stuffed bunny she ended up with 3 hehe)

Now for the heartache - my baby's second round of shots!!!! Ugh!!! It should be a crime for a baby to feel any pain! Yes, Adam and I filmed it... my mother (whom MC and I lived with until Adam came back) has been having MAJOR MC withdrawls so she wanted to see "her" baby haha. Its quite sad seeing her cry, but I promise she was fine after just a minute of me holding her!

Other than the pain of seeing her cry during her shots, the checkup went GREAT! This was our first time seeing the pediatrician in Starkville and he was FABULOUS!!! I just can't say enough great things about him! If you live in Starkville or ever move there, I would (a thousand times over) suggest Dr. Ruff. The nurse who was with us was also WONDERFUL. It was just an all around great experience. However, I do have to say that I never imagined I would have such a big baby! Adam and I are both fairly small in stature, however 4 month old MC is in the 90th percentile for both weight and height. She weighed in at 14 lbs and 12oz and was 25 1/4 inches long! (on a side note, let me just say that I'm glad they give the not-so-smart parents an explanation of the percentile thing. I received a piece of paper saying stating her numbers and it said that 90th percentile means she is larger than 90 out of 100 babies her age. Wow. Chunky monkey. The doctor also gave a large "Wow!" when I told him how much she is eating a day.)

Of course we all know that the most important part of the appointment was how I was received in all my crazy paranoia. I am happy to report that the nurse and the doctor did not seem at all ready to add me to the "way-too-crazy-mom" list. (Even if they were, they didn't show it, and to me that's just as good as not being on it.) The doctor was (or appeared to be) happy to answer my long list of questions and did not seem rushed to hurry to the next patient. I felt important and listened to so I couldn't be happier!

Happy hump day everyone!

Happy Easter!

No, this is not her easter outfit... just a fun seersucker outfit she wore to the easter egg hunt at her nana's office ;) She had a great time with the easter bunny and Hinky the clown!