Trashboat

Fiona weighs almost 17 pounds; she's 27 inches long; she's crawling backwards like a champ and pivoting all about; she's getting up on her toes while she's down on all fours like she's trying to stand up; and two weeks ago, her bottom two teeth started to poke through. If you ask her to give you five and stick out your palm, she'll slap it. Josh's dad taught her to say, "Hey!" and wave, and she's babbling so consistently, that I feel pretty sure some more words are on the way. We fed her solid food for the first time tonight and she ate that rice cereal like a champ. Swallowed it all--no gagging or spitting. She was super stoked about it. She's still waking up to eat once in the night and not sleeping all that great; I think being sick the entire month of November had a lot to with that. She essentially didn't gain any weight for a whole month, poor baby. She is always on the verge of an ear infection and we're trying to manage that with nasal steroids. I think they have had some positive effect. Emma loves her sister to bitty bits, and Fiona lights up for Emma like nobody else.

I am enjoying the hell out of being a mommy, y'all.

Fiona is ten weeks old tomorrow. Have a list detailing the past month and a half that I neglected to post about.

1. I am completely recovered from the birth, and the blood vessel tumor thingie on my lip has almost entirely disappeared. Yay!

2. I am ten lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight.

3. Fiona had a lot of trouble sleeping to begin with. She took very, very few naps during the day and never for longer than 45 minutes or so. For example, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. one day she slept a little over three hours broken up into 30-45 minute increments throughout the day. As babies should be getting a metric fuck ton more sleep than that, the upshot was that she would get fussier and fussier and fussier as the day progressed because she was exhausted. She also did not want to sleep in her crib, and she would only sleep at night if someone held her or if she laid next to someone in the bed. Gradually over time, she got much better about sleeping in her crib. She's been taking all naps in her crib for a few weeks now, and the frequency and duration of her naps has increased. She's also sleeping for much longer stretches at night, and last night she slept the whole night in her crib with nobody having to hold her (only waking up to eat and going right back to bed). The relief we feel is indescribable, especially since our first child was (and still is) a champion sleeper. Josh has said on more than one occasion that if Fiona had come first, he would not have been so eager to have another. LOL

4. Colic is totally managed. She doesn't do any more colicky crying. We give her prevacid every morning. I don't get why they don't make a suspension of it; crushing up the pill and mixing it with water is annoying. I know tons of babies take this medicine, so they'd do well, I think, to make a version that caters to that market. We've also elevated the head of her crib and are using the Playtex Ventaire bottles which reduce fussiness, gas, and colic.

5. I stopped feeding her from the breast last week although we are still feeding her breast milk; I'm pumping. After a couple weeks of life, she started having trouble nursing--fussing at the breast and crying--and I attributed it to the colic since my research indicated that many colicky babies fuss at the breast. When we started giving her occasional bottles (and she had her first bottle at the end of the first week of August because I had a surprise meeting to go to), she never fussed. We started giving her bottles at night because she didn't fuss and so that she would drink more and hopefully sleep more. I finally had a hysterical fit last week when every single time I nursed her she just screamed and screamed. It was incredibly frustrating because I am making tons and tons of milk. I have no production problems, and the doctor can't find anything wrong with Fiona to make her fuss at the breast like that. She doesn't have thrush and he can't see anything weird in her throat to make her do that; plus, if she did have some throat problem, it would affect her when she's drinking bottles as well as from the breast. We've gone exclusively to bottle feeding now, and we've started transitioning her to formula. We're using Similac Alimentum; we started Friday with a 3 oz breast milk to 1 oz formula ratio and upped it to 2/2 this morning. We'll do this for a few days, step down to 1/3 for a few more, and then I'll be done breastfeeding. I'm a bit relieved, actually. I'm glad that I'll have been able to give her almost three months of breast milk, but trying to nurse her became so nerve-wracking. I'm also ready to start eating dairy and soy again (although I have discovered several non-dairy items that are worth eating), and I'm ready to wear a bra that actually supports my titties once more. I know it's incredibly vain, but these nursing bras make me look about 10 lbs heavier than I really am.

6. Fiona and I are taking a walk around the neighborhood every morning. I am so out of shape, it's not funny. I'm concerned that once I stop breastfeeding and my metabolism slows (and I start eating dairy again!), that I'll gain back the weight I've lost. I do not want that to happen. I'm also using wii-Fit to measure my weight loss.

So, we had two and a half weeks of perfect bliss with a baby, and then Fiona started getting fussier. And fussier. AND FUSSIER!

She has colic. A textbook case that began shortly after her two week birthday (apparently, babies don't have developed enough systems until they're two weeks old to have colic). Colic is essentially reflux; even if the baby doesn't spit up a lot (which Fiona doesn't), heartburn is essentially the issue. She had been doing the classic arching her back and pushing out her hands and trying to get away like she was in pain; that was especially horrible to endure while nursing her. She was hungry but also clearly in pain. :(

The doctor prescribed some Prevacid and said that in a couple days, it should completely clear up. I also have to cut ALL DAIRY OMG out of my diet.

She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz; she's too big for newborn clothes now although not for newborn diapers.

In non-textbook news, two days ago fiona rolled over from her back to her belly. I knew she was a genius.

In Emma news, she called us yesterday crying (while Fiona was in the middle of an enraged one and a half hour crying jag) wanting to come home from her grandparents' house, so Josh's mom is bringing her today. :( I knew the trip was too long for her to be away; I should have done a better job of planning her summer out. *sigh*

Cross your fingers for us. If this medicine doesn't work, we may all lose our minds.