As most of you know poor little Abigail has been a bit under the weather for the past two weeks. Actually to say a bit under the weather is an understatement, she was actually very very ill. Two weeks ago her daycare provider called and said that her 6 month old son had tested positive for RSV (Respiritory Syncytial Virus). This virus is much like a cold and in toddlers and adults doesn't present too much of a problem. However in infants it can lead constrict the airway and lead to labored breathing and possibly pneumonia. We kept our fingers crossed that Abigail wouldn’t' get it but that was next to impossible since it's highly contagious. Well on Friday she started to get a cough and by Saturday her nose was running and her cough was worse. We actually were headed to Roanoke on Saturday afternoon for James' bday but turned around and came home because little Abigail was coughing up a storm in the backseat. Sunday wasn't much better and on Monday morning we headed to the doc's office. Sure enough, she had RSV. What we thought was the midpoint of her sickness was actually only the beginning. So we set up camp in the Family room downstairs so she could sleep in her swing, elevated and we could keep a close eye on her. She got increasingly sick over Monday night and Tuesday. She ran a 101.5 fever was having labored breathing through Tuesday night. So Joe took her back to the doc on Wednesday where she got a antibiotic shot, a nebulizer treatments and a Tylenol suppository. As if all that wasn't bad enough she then had to go for a chest x-ray. From what Joe explained this was the worst experience every. He had to hold her down while she wailed and cried, not good for a baby who was already having trouble breathing. The doc. sent Abigail home with a Nebulizer which she had to use every 6 hours til breathing improved. We were so overwhelmed with all this stuff that I'm surprised we didn't loose it. Not only could our little baby not breath but she still had a temperature and refused to take her baby Tylenol, it was really very very hard. Sidenote: apparently CVS no longer sells baby tylenol suppositories...Thankfully around 8 pm on Wednesday night her fever broke and the neb. treatments started working. By Thursday she was much improved but Joe and I felt like we had been through the ringer. We thought taking care of a newborn was hard, taking care of a sick baby was the worst because you’re sick with worry and sometimes there's nothing you can do but sit and wait, and not sleep. Either way we made it through the week and Abigail is doing much better now. It will take another week for the virus to be completely out of her system but she is much improved. Her sleeping on the other hand has taken a step in the wrong direction. Before she got sick she was sleeping a solid six hours at night which was awesome, now she's back down to three hours. According to my baby research month four brings about what’s called a "wonder week" where her brain makes a "mental leap." For some babies this can lead to temporary fussiness and sleep regression. This is def. the case with her, she's not overly fussy, never has been. But we can tell that her little brain is working overtime and she's making big steps in the motor skills department. She's always been very strong and alert but as of the last week or so she's become increasingly aware of her surroundings and almost seems to have "woken up" a bit more. It's so amazing to watch her grown and to watch her little brain just a working away.
Anyhoo, Christmas is upon us and of course we went way overboard on Christmas presents. I am so excited! We got her tons of books and clothes and Santa will be bringing an exersaucer. I am super excited for this Christmas and all the ones to come with her. She's so special and makes us laugh and smile everyday. We thank God for her every night. Well that's the update for now. Til next year...
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Our new normal
I apologize in advance for typos...
So I've been back to work for four weeks now and Abigial has been in daycare for two of those weeks. I must say that we have adapted to our new normal quite well. It's definitely an adjustment but we were lucky enough to have Joe's mom come stay with us my first week back to work and then Joe stayed home the week of Thanksgiving so I was able to adjust to going back to work for two weeks before having to deal with the daycare thing. Going back to work was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I spent twleve wonderful weeks home with little munchkin and I knew all along that I'd have to go back but it was still incredibly hard. Work is work and I'm so thankful to have a job it's just really hard somedays when I think about Abigail playing or laughing and smiling without me :-(
Choosing a daycare was probably the most stressful thing I've done in my life. We were lucky enough to score a spot in an in-home daycare somewhat halfway between work and home. It's been great except that Abigail has already been sick twice. She is actually sick right now :-( It really sucks when you're baby is sick because when their 16 weeks olds there's not much you can do except feed them and let them sleep. We have originally planned on heading to Roanoke this weekend for James' 30th bday but we got about five miles down the road this afternoon and and ened up turning around to come home because Abigail was showing signs of getting worse. She's got a little cough, her nose is running like a faucet and had a fever this afternoon. Thankfully her fever subsided this evening but she is still a pathetic little mess and it's absolutely heartbreaking when she coughs, she's so little and it's like she doesn't understand why she isn't her regular self.
Anyhoo back to the new normal. So we've estaslished some sort of "schedule" with Abigail. I say "schedule" because with a four month old there really isn't one. As soon as you get used to something it completely changes or she goes through a growth spurt which throws everything off. But for now we are up aroudn 4:45 to start getting ready for work, I drop Abigail off at daycare by 6:45 to get work around 7. I work an alternate schedule of 9 hours a day to have every other friday off so Joe picks her up in the afternoons around 3:45 where she comes home to play and hang out til aroudn 7 when she heads to bed. She's doing a great job of sleeping right now, doing about 6-7 hour stretches (whichis awesome for exclusively breatfed babies) til we get her up in the morning. Usually it works out to where we only have to wake up to feed her once at night. We alternate nights and that's been working out really well.
Next month is a big one because we'll be starting solid foods. By solid foods I mean rice cereal watered down with milk. Basically she'll get two teaspoons of mush a day til 6 months when she can start other stuff like veggies. I've decided to make my own baby food (hear me out before you call me crazy). I honestly can't stand the sight of jarred baby food plus they are full of preservatives and added sugar, if you know me then you know this won't fly in my household. Last weekend my dad gave Abigail a giftcard to Kohls for her baptism and we got a Baby bullet. Steaming and mashing up vegetables is not that hard, plus you can mass produce and freeze it! So for now, that's what we'll be doing, we'll reassess once I figure out how time consuming all this is.
So like I just mentioed Abigail got baptized. The whole family came down, including Annie who is her godmother and Jimmy who is her godfather. Annie and James brought Clara so the cousins met for the first time,it was awesome! For the Baptism Abigail wore a gown that was made out of my grandmother's wedding dress. My father and I were both baptized in it. She did great during the ceremony and didn't even flinch when the priest poured the water over her. She is absolutely wonerful and continues to amaze me with her baby strength and growing abilities. She is super strong and can tummy time with the best of them. She goes back to teh doc. on Dec. 23rd adn I'm so anxious to see how much she weights. I would be she's about 13lbs now meaning she's literally doubled in size. She is currently working on rolling over. She did it once but hasn't done it again recently. She does like to "talk" but she is more of the strong silent type. You can definitley tell that she just like to sit back and take everything in. I love her so much, you can never fully graps the amount of love your capable of until you have a baby. All of the sudden nothing else matters except that baby. But along with this love comes an immense amount of worry, this is def. something I didn't prepare for. Every time I put her to bed I worry, every twitch or sign I worry and with this cold that she has now I'm a mess. But that's normal I suppose, she's the center of our world and the sparkle in our eyes. This Christmas is going to be awesome, I alreay have plans to go way overboard on spoiling her with gifts even though she wont remember it. We put teh lights on the tree tonight and she was just in awe of the sparkly lights, it was so awesome. She is most def. going to be spoiled rotten! She certainly has Joe and I wrapped around her little baby finger and we love every second of it! So until next time, that's the baby update. She's amazing and wonderul and a true miracle, but we already knew that :-)
So I've been back to work for four weeks now and Abigial has been in daycare for two of those weeks. I must say that we have adapted to our new normal quite well. It's definitely an adjustment but we were lucky enough to have Joe's mom come stay with us my first week back to work and then Joe stayed home the week of Thanksgiving so I was able to adjust to going back to work for two weeks before having to deal with the daycare thing. Going back to work was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I spent twleve wonderful weeks home with little munchkin and I knew all along that I'd have to go back but it was still incredibly hard. Work is work and I'm so thankful to have a job it's just really hard somedays when I think about Abigail playing or laughing and smiling without me :-(
Choosing a daycare was probably the most stressful thing I've done in my life. We were lucky enough to score a spot in an in-home daycare somewhat halfway between work and home. It's been great except that Abigail has already been sick twice. She is actually sick right now :-( It really sucks when you're baby is sick because when their 16 weeks olds there's not much you can do except feed them and let them sleep. We have originally planned on heading to Roanoke this weekend for James' 30th bday but we got about five miles down the road this afternoon and and ened up turning around to come home because Abigail was showing signs of getting worse. She's got a little cough, her nose is running like a faucet and had a fever this afternoon. Thankfully her fever subsided this evening but she is still a pathetic little mess and it's absolutely heartbreaking when she coughs, she's so little and it's like she doesn't understand why she isn't her regular self.
Anyhoo back to the new normal. So we've estaslished some sort of "schedule" with Abigail. I say "schedule" because with a four month old there really isn't one. As soon as you get used to something it completely changes or she goes through a growth spurt which throws everything off. But for now we are up aroudn 4:45 to start getting ready for work, I drop Abigail off at daycare by 6:45 to get work around 7. I work an alternate schedule of 9 hours a day to have every other friday off so Joe picks her up in the afternoons around 3:45 where she comes home to play and hang out til aroudn 7 when she heads to bed. She's doing a great job of sleeping right now, doing about 6-7 hour stretches (whichis awesome for exclusively breatfed babies) til we get her up in the morning. Usually it works out to where we only have to wake up to feed her once at night. We alternate nights and that's been working out really well.
Next month is a big one because we'll be starting solid foods. By solid foods I mean rice cereal watered down with milk. Basically she'll get two teaspoons of mush a day til 6 months when she can start other stuff like veggies. I've decided to make my own baby food (hear me out before you call me crazy). I honestly can't stand the sight of jarred baby food plus they are full of preservatives and added sugar, if you know me then you know this won't fly in my household. Last weekend my dad gave Abigail a giftcard to Kohls for her baptism and we got a Baby bullet. Steaming and mashing up vegetables is not that hard, plus you can mass produce and freeze it! So for now, that's what we'll be doing, we'll reassess once I figure out how time consuming all this is.
So like I just mentioed Abigail got baptized. The whole family came down, including Annie who is her godmother and Jimmy who is her godfather. Annie and James brought Clara so the cousins met for the first time,it was awesome! For the Baptism Abigail wore a gown that was made out of my grandmother's wedding dress. My father and I were both baptized in it. She did great during the ceremony and didn't even flinch when the priest poured the water over her. She is absolutely wonerful and continues to amaze me with her baby strength and growing abilities. She is super strong and can tummy time with the best of them. She goes back to teh doc. on Dec. 23rd adn I'm so anxious to see how much she weights. I would be she's about 13lbs now meaning she's literally doubled in size. She is currently working on rolling over. She did it once but hasn't done it again recently. She does like to "talk" but she is more of the strong silent type. You can definitley tell that she just like to sit back and take everything in. I love her so much, you can never fully graps the amount of love your capable of until you have a baby. All of the sudden nothing else matters except that baby. But along with this love comes an immense amount of worry, this is def. something I didn't prepare for. Every time I put her to bed I worry, every twitch or sign I worry and with this cold that she has now I'm a mess. But that's normal I suppose, she's the center of our world and the sparkle in our eyes. This Christmas is going to be awesome, I alreay have plans to go way overboard on spoiling her with gifts even though she wont remember it. We put teh lights on the tree tonight and she was just in awe of the sparkly lights, it was so awesome. She is most def. going to be spoiled rotten! She certainly has Joe and I wrapped around her little baby finger and we love every second of it! So until next time, that's the baby update. She's amazing and wonderul and a true miracle, but we already knew that :-)
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