to this
in only 2 weeks!
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Sleep
I know I have said here before that Kara is a good sleeper (probably more than once or twice). It is something I am very happy about as Caden was never a good sleeper and still isn't.
He will not go to bed on his own (he will be three in 3 months) and he wakes up almost every night at least once sometimes 3 or 4 times and won't go back to sleep until we go in. We have tried Ferber, we have tried gradually trying to move further and further away (we get as far as the foot of the bed and then never get any further). I have read at least a dozen "sleep training" books. They all say that there are some children who are so insecure that sleep becomes a bit of a problem. That's Caden.
I know I have said in the past that he is really shy. I don't know that I have communicated just how deeply ingrained that shyness is. He is overwhelmed by new situations and is now at an age where he knows it and can anticipate it. He will tell me "I don't want to go in there Mommy, I will be scared" We go anyway of course, but I always end up with Caden sitting on my lap, refusing to move, even if he becomes fascinated by what is going on around him.
He is overwhelmed by noises, anything loud and he will say "make it quieter Mommy". He is so easily intimidated and doesn't have coping skills for dealing with other kids his age when they are naturally assertive/aggressive, such as when they want to come up and hug him, pull him by the hand to do what they want to do, or snatch the toy he was actively playing with, etc. I have never stopped putting him in these situations. Since he was 4 months old we have been in swimming lessons (he loves to swim as long as it is just him and I, it doesn't matter if there are other Mom's and babies as long as he is not asked to interact with those other Mom's and babies), we have had regular play dates with friends (the same friends for the last 2 years, I don't change the people on him). I do try to talk to him before and after about ways he could prevent/deal with the behaviors that intimidate him. I suggest that when other kids take the toy he is playing with he could nicely say "No thank you, I am not done playing with that yet" and take it back. I have suggested that when someone tries to give him a hug he offer them a high five (which he is fine with). When we talk he responds and says that those are good ideas but presented with the situation and he freezes and just looks at me terrified with big wide eyes and says "I want to go home Mommy" We don't go home, but still it breaks my heart.
I read a post from Serenity tonight and it really hit home. Life is tough. It is often loud and chaotic and it is up to me to teach him to deal with the world we live in. I must admit that there are a lot of things I have taught Caden that I am very proud of, but in this regard I have outright failed. We are enrolling him in preschool starting in September for a couple of mornings a week. We had always intended for our kids to go to preschool the year before school starts just for socialization, since they are not in a daycare, but it is even more important now given Caden's personality.
He has done Mom and tot gymnastics for the last year and a half and although he still has a while to go before he is in their age range for independent sessions, his coach has recommended he start without me at the next session (in April) because physically he is so far ahead of the other kids his age. We are going to give that a try. My fear though is that he will be so intimidated that he will just not want to go to gymnastics anymore and that will become another fight. I just want him to have fun, to enjoy the fun things that life offers kids. I don't want to always have to force him to do things that ultimately he doesn't enjoy. While I admit is somewhat embarrassing for me to always have the kid who cries through parties and group outings, that it is embarrassing to have to carry my 3 year old around in my arms when other kids are running around laughing and having a good time, it is truly not about my embarrassment. It makes me very sad that he has to be so scared. That he is missing out on so much because for some reason he is terrified of kids. That no matter what I try, I haven't yet found a way to help my little boy who depends on me to make things ok and for whom it is my job to prepare him for life.
Do any of you have kids that have been through this? If so, how did it work out?
Ok and back to what this post was suppose to be about.... Kara's sleep. For the last 2-3 weeks she has been sick, very sick. And for several nights she slept in the recliner chair with me. She had to be upright and in the line of the humidifier in order to breath easily enough to sleep. Our doctor was seeing her every 24 hours to make sure she was getting better her wheeze had gotten so bad. And then also during that couple of weeks I had to put her mattress down because she not only pulls herself up but holds on to the rails and jumps and I already had one trip to the ER because she jumped head first out of her high chair. So I don't know if she got used to sleeping in my arms (which previously she hated) or if having the mattress down makes her feel caged in (or some combination of the two) but for the last 4-5 days that she has felt better enough to sleep on her own, she is absolutely refusing to be in her bed awake. She howls and squeals like she is being tortured. But here is the best part, she stands up and starts banging against the wooden rails of the bed so hard that she has actually left red marks on her palms and arms.
Everything I have read on sleep training says that this age is the worse to try to sleep train. That is almost never successful because it is the stage of the first and most intense separation anxiety. I know she has hit this stage because she has become very stranger shy and also for the first time gets very upset if she can't spot me in a room. But seriously people, I can see this good sleeper slipping away from me and it is very scary. I NEED Kara to sleep well. I need her to go to bed on her own and sleep through the night at a reasonable age (she has done it on somewhat consistent intervals between growth spurts in the past) I NEED to not get up with two kids multiple times throughout the night. But mostly I need to know that I didn't cause insecurity in my children.
He will not go to bed on his own (he will be three in 3 months) and he wakes up almost every night at least once sometimes 3 or 4 times and won't go back to sleep until we go in. We have tried Ferber, we have tried gradually trying to move further and further away (we get as far as the foot of the bed and then never get any further). I have read at least a dozen "sleep training" books. They all say that there are some children who are so insecure that sleep becomes a bit of a problem. That's Caden.
I know I have said in the past that he is really shy. I don't know that I have communicated just how deeply ingrained that shyness is. He is overwhelmed by new situations and is now at an age where he knows it and can anticipate it. He will tell me "I don't want to go in there Mommy, I will be scared" We go anyway of course, but I always end up with Caden sitting on my lap, refusing to move, even if he becomes fascinated by what is going on around him.
He is overwhelmed by noises, anything loud and he will say "make it quieter Mommy". He is so easily intimidated and doesn't have coping skills for dealing with other kids his age when they are naturally assertive/aggressive, such as when they want to come up and hug him, pull him by the hand to do what they want to do, or snatch the toy he was actively playing with, etc. I have never stopped putting him in these situations. Since he was 4 months old we have been in swimming lessons (he loves to swim as long as it is just him and I, it doesn't matter if there are other Mom's and babies as long as he is not asked to interact with those other Mom's and babies), we have had regular play dates with friends (the same friends for the last 2 years, I don't change the people on him). I do try to talk to him before and after about ways he could prevent/deal with the behaviors that intimidate him. I suggest that when other kids take the toy he is playing with he could nicely say "No thank you, I am not done playing with that yet" and take it back. I have suggested that when someone tries to give him a hug he offer them a high five (which he is fine with). When we talk he responds and says that those are good ideas but presented with the situation and he freezes and just looks at me terrified with big wide eyes and says "I want to go home Mommy" We don't go home, but still it breaks my heart.
I read a post from Serenity tonight and it really hit home. Life is tough. It is often loud and chaotic and it is up to me to teach him to deal with the world we live in. I must admit that there are a lot of things I have taught Caden that I am very proud of, but in this regard I have outright failed. We are enrolling him in preschool starting in September for a couple of mornings a week. We had always intended for our kids to go to preschool the year before school starts just for socialization, since they are not in a daycare, but it is even more important now given Caden's personality.
He has done Mom and tot gymnastics for the last year and a half and although he still has a while to go before he is in their age range for independent sessions, his coach has recommended he start without me at the next session (in April) because physically he is so far ahead of the other kids his age. We are going to give that a try. My fear though is that he will be so intimidated that he will just not want to go to gymnastics anymore and that will become another fight. I just want him to have fun, to enjoy the fun things that life offers kids. I don't want to always have to force him to do things that ultimately he doesn't enjoy. While I admit is somewhat embarrassing for me to always have the kid who cries through parties and group outings, that it is embarrassing to have to carry my 3 year old around in my arms when other kids are running around laughing and having a good time, it is truly not about my embarrassment. It makes me very sad that he has to be so scared. That he is missing out on so much because for some reason he is terrified of kids. That no matter what I try, I haven't yet found a way to help my little boy who depends on me to make things ok and for whom it is my job to prepare him for life.
Do any of you have kids that have been through this? If so, how did it work out?
Ok and back to what this post was suppose to be about.... Kara's sleep. For the last 2-3 weeks she has been sick, very sick. And for several nights she slept in the recliner chair with me. She had to be upright and in the line of the humidifier in order to breath easily enough to sleep. Our doctor was seeing her every 24 hours to make sure she was getting better her wheeze had gotten so bad. And then also during that couple of weeks I had to put her mattress down because she not only pulls herself up but holds on to the rails and jumps and I already had one trip to the ER because she jumped head first out of her high chair. So I don't know if she got used to sleeping in my arms (which previously she hated) or if having the mattress down makes her feel caged in (or some combination of the two) but for the last 4-5 days that she has felt better enough to sleep on her own, she is absolutely refusing to be in her bed awake. She howls and squeals like she is being tortured. But here is the best part, she stands up and starts banging against the wooden rails of the bed so hard that she has actually left red marks on her palms and arms.
Everything I have read on sleep training says that this age is the worse to try to sleep train. That is almost never successful because it is the stage of the first and most intense separation anxiety. I know she has hit this stage because she has become very stranger shy and also for the first time gets very upset if she can't spot me in a room. But seriously people, I can see this good sleeper slipping away from me and it is very scary. I NEED Kara to sleep well. I need her to go to bed on her own and sleep through the night at a reasonable age (she has done it on somewhat consistent intervals between growth spurts in the past) I NEED to not get up with two kids multiple times throughout the night. But mostly I need to know that I didn't cause insecurity in my children.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Poor Babies
My kids have been sick. Not just your run of the mill runny nose, although it did start off that way. But to the doctor, antibiotics, don't put me down, miserable sick.
Caden go the cold first and had just a runny nose for a week. Since this is the first cold we have had since before Christmas, I thought I was getting off easy. After all, it is almost March, cold season is almost over and this particular cold seemed like it was going to be relatively mild. Then after a week of a runny nose he developed a nasty sounding cough. And then two days later he screamed in pain saying that his ear hurt (only 1 ear) and please Momma, please kiss it better. I was surprised, he had never had an ear infection before and he had no fever but he was in obvious pain so off to the Doctor we went.
I took Kara along really as a precaution. She had also developed the runny nose and nasty cough and just that morning had started to sound a little wheezy. She was napping when Rick got home so I could take Caden to the doctor but I though "Let's bring her, don't want to have to go again tomorrow if she ends up with the same infection". I must admit when I woke her, the wheezing was a lot worse and I was glad I had decided to take her.
Neither of them had a fever. So imagine my surprise when the doctor said not only did Caden have an ear infection (somewhat obvious given his level of discomfort) but that Kara had a serious case of bronchiolitis and a lung infection. That her left lung was a quarter full of fluid. When the Doctor pulled up her shirt to listen to her chest her little chest was rising and falling way too fast. I swear it wasn't doing that before we left home. That she need two different types of puffers for the bronchial infection and antibiotics for the lung infection. That if she got any worse I was to bring her back or to the ER right away.
How could I have missed her being so sick? As if on cue, from the moment we left the Doctor's office, she was miserable. I spent 2 nights with her sleeping in my arms in the recliner chair in her room, with a cool mist humidifier aimed straight at our faces.
Luckily the antibiotics and puffers are working and today she was herself for the first time in almost a week. Crawling and cruising the furniture. Into anything, especially the things she knows she is not allowed to touch. Despite telling her no a million times and patiently trying to distract her, it was heart warming to see her be herself again. God I love those kids and it is terrifying when they are sick and you can't help them feel better.
Caden go the cold first and had just a runny nose for a week. Since this is the first cold we have had since before Christmas, I thought I was getting off easy. After all, it is almost March, cold season is almost over and this particular cold seemed like it was going to be relatively mild. Then after a week of a runny nose he developed a nasty sounding cough. And then two days later he screamed in pain saying that his ear hurt (only 1 ear) and please Momma, please kiss it better. I was surprised, he had never had an ear infection before and he had no fever but he was in obvious pain so off to the Doctor we went.
I took Kara along really as a precaution. She had also developed the runny nose and nasty cough and just that morning had started to sound a little wheezy. She was napping when Rick got home so I could take Caden to the doctor but I though "Let's bring her, don't want to have to go again tomorrow if she ends up with the same infection". I must admit when I woke her, the wheezing was a lot worse and I was glad I had decided to take her.
Neither of them had a fever. So imagine my surprise when the doctor said not only did Caden have an ear infection (somewhat obvious given his level of discomfort) but that Kara had a serious case of bronchiolitis and a lung infection. That her left lung was a quarter full of fluid. When the Doctor pulled up her shirt to listen to her chest her little chest was rising and falling way too fast. I swear it wasn't doing that before we left home. That she need two different types of puffers for the bronchial infection and antibiotics for the lung infection. That if she got any worse I was to bring her back or to the ER right away.
How could I have missed her being so sick? As if on cue, from the moment we left the Doctor's office, she was miserable. I spent 2 nights with her sleeping in my arms in the recliner chair in her room, with a cool mist humidifier aimed straight at our faces.
Luckily the antibiotics and puffers are working and today she was herself for the first time in almost a week. Crawling and cruising the furniture. Into anything, especially the things she knows she is not allowed to touch. Despite telling her no a million times and patiently trying to distract her, it was heart warming to see her be herself again. God I love those kids and it is terrifying when they are sick and you can't help them feel better.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Happy Valentines Day
First I have a question for you.
I am excited to say that although Kara is 7 months old, we are still breast feeding!!!! She is obviously eating solids but she doesn't get any formula at all... But breast feeding is different these days. First of all, I never get that full, heavy feeling any more (I know there is lots of milk though because I can hear her swallowing of course and because it sometimes drizzles out her mouth). Second, it seems like every few weeks I feel (although I am not sure I am accurate) that she doesn't get enough milk. Once, she got constipated which is not at all a usual digestive concern for her. Is this normal? As they get older and add more nutrition from foods being added to their diet, is it harder for your supply to regulate? Should I be aiming for a minimum number of feedings a day? She still won't take a bottle and I have given up trying so I am hoping to continue to breastfeed for a while yet. Any suggestions or information welcome :-)
Happy Valentines Day! What a lovely Valentines Day it was here. We had special pancakes for breakfast, all got homemade cards and went on a fun Valentines Day hike.
I am excited to say that although Kara is 7 months old, we are still breast feeding!!!! She is obviously eating solids but she doesn't get any formula at all... But breast feeding is different these days. First of all, I never get that full, heavy feeling any more (I know there is lots of milk though because I can hear her swallowing of course and because it sometimes drizzles out her mouth). Second, it seems like every few weeks I feel (although I am not sure I am accurate) that she doesn't get enough milk. Once, she got constipated which is not at all a usual digestive concern for her. Is this normal? As they get older and add more nutrition from foods being added to their diet, is it harder for your supply to regulate? Should I be aiming for a minimum number of feedings a day? She still won't take a bottle and I have given up trying so I am hoping to continue to breastfeed for a while yet. Any suggestions or information welcome :-)
Happy Valentines Day! What a lovely Valentines Day it was here. We had special pancakes for breakfast, all got homemade cards and went on a fun Valentines Day hike.
Life seems to be moving at the speed of light lately. Both kids seem to do new things every day. At Christmas Kara was just learning to sit up. Since then she has learned, and in this order, to:
1) put her hands up to be picked up
2) say Dada and then Mama and intermittently Hi
3) clap her hands when we sing or make her happy (mostly when Caden is being silly for her which he does all the time)
4) destination rolling (followed very shortly by getting from her belly back up into sitting position again) so in effect she can be sitting in one spot, decide she wants a toy somewhere out of her reach, lay down, roll, and then sit herself back up when she gets there
5) pull herself up to standing (and once she did this she would not stop!)
6) crawl
She loves to eat and is right now snubbing my pureed or strained food in favour of eating finger foods. Unless there are cheerios or small pieces of fruit or well cooked veggies on her tray for her to pick at, she won't eat from the spoon. Frankly, sometimes she won't eat from the spoon anyway, unless of course she has the spoon, in which case, very little food goes into the mouth.
They are both in swimming lessons and loving every minute of it.
Caden is still in gymnastics and his coach thinks that he should start the next session without me (move up a level to the older kids who go independently). We are going to try it. I know he is ready physically but he is so shy, especially with other kids. But if he can figure it all out and cope well, it will be so good for him. Caden's imagination seems to blossom every day. Santa left a puppet stage here at home for him and Kara and he loves to play with it. Lately he has started making up his own puppet plays (which are strangely similar to some of his favorite books - I thought that was brillant of him :-) He and his Dad have also started making up stories at night instead of reading stories and I love to listen in on the monitor. A couple of nights ago Caden told a story about Tom the camel and it was quite hilarious. He loves to sing and will often sing and act out songs for Kara to make her laugh. His current favorites are Pop goes the Weasel, Ring around the Rosie, and The Wheels on the Bus. He also loves to sing along with Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, but he can't quite keep up with the actions yet.
And perhaps the biggest news from Caden, we have started (and are making great success) with potty training!
And some recent pictures!
Playing hide and seek with Grandma
Taken today, Valentines Day, on our hike!
Oh how I love to stand up
Happy Girl
Monday, January 11, 2010
Home
I am home... having just returned yesterday from a 5 week visit to my parents. I am so pleased to say that my parents are doing better than I could have imagined. Which is not to say that everything is hunky dory in their world... far from it. But they can be genuinely happy on a day to day basis and that is more than I hoped for last Christmas.
Caden made Christmas happy for all of us this year. We missed Karen immensely and it was hard to spend Christmas in my childhood home. A place where I always fell her loss most. A place I never had been without her until her accident.
On New Year's Eve I realized that I was happy to see the back side of the past decade. Although some wonderful things happened in the last 10 years (mostly I got married- - 2000, and my children were born -- 2007 and 2009), mostly it has been a decade of heart ache and pain, most notably of course the loss of my sister but the brain tumour and six years of infertility certainly didn't help.
Despite this, I am happy on a daily basis. I love my children and am so pleased to see that they already love each other deeply. Today Caden spent a good 20 minutes doing the same action over and over because it made Kara laugh so hard she got the hiccups. She stares at him adoringly all the time and when he notices, he says "she likes me Mommy" and then "I love her too."
Caden is such a precocious two and a half year old. His vocabulary is astounding and if you say a word that he has never heard before, he will ask you what it means, think about it and then try it out in context. It is quite something. He is extremely focused and can and will spend hours doing something if it catches his attention. For example for Christmas he got a couple of L..ego kits and spent 3-4 hours a day for at least 4 days playing with them. When he gets focused like this, it is hard to distract him. He has a great imagination and can make up his own games or story lines. For Christmas Santa brought him a puppet theatre and I have been entertained ever since. He also has the memory of an elephant and you had better not tell him you will do something later or tomorrow unless you absolutely plan to do so.
He is also extremely cautious and easily intimidated. New people fascinate him, but he prefers to watch from a distance than to participate in anything they are doing. He takes it all in and then asks me questions about it later. Although he is quite happy to play with other children, it has to be other children that he wants to play with. He has a friend and a cousin that have similar personalities to him (sensitive, quiet, and polite - no grabbing or screaming) and he will happily play with them for hours and usually cries when it is time to go home. However, I have other friends with children who are more typical 2 year olds (loud and rambunctious and wholly unconcerned with other people's personal space) and Caden has no interest in going there or having them come here. In a rather embarrassing development, he has now taken to telling me so both before they get there or we arrive and after, in front of their parents. "No Mommy, I don't want to play with ....! I don't like ...... or ..... is too loud or snatches toys or is scary" Because he is sensitive and easily intimidated he finds many situations scary and often has nightmares at night. When he is not sure how he is feeling, he asks me in a slightly anxious and higher pitched voice "Am I scared Mommy?" It is the most adorable thing and of course I always take that opportunity to say no, this situation is not scary because .... Then whenever he runs into that situation again, he will say "I am not scare because ..."
He is my articulate, imaginative, intense little boy and I love him so much.
Miss Kara is now 6 months old (how the hell did that happen). She was exclusively breast fed until 6 months. She refused to take a bottle or eat cereal early, despite the fact that I needed her to do so in order to have a MRI with contrast dye. I did have the MRI in December (the results of which were no new or recurrent tumours!!!!) and in the 8 hour period that I had to discard my mild (new drug - much shorter half life) she drank a full 2 oz of formula. She nursed like a mad woman in the following 24 hours. Quite amusingly the day she turned 6 months she started eating solids and has been slurping it down ever since. It's like her body knew that solids weren't supposed to be introduced before. Although she only started on the 3rd, she is eating 2 different kinds of cereal, pears, blueberries, banana's, carrots, squash and prunes. She seems to favour the veggies over the fruit but so did Caden and now I have to trick veggies into him.
She can roll from front to back and back to front, sits independently and gets up on hands and knee's as if to crawl but has not actually moved those limbs in any kind of coordinated fashion yet. She has perfected the bum scoot though and can often be found several feet from where I sat her as a result of wanting a toy that was originally out of reach. She says da da , ma ma and raises her hands when she wants to be picked up. She is a dream sleeper and will go to her bed awake and put herself to sleep. In fact, she prefers to go to her bed awake and it takes a lot of work to get her to sleep if going directly into her crib is not an option.
For a long time she was sleeping through the night or only getting up once but in the last month she has started getting up several times a night to nurse again. Today while Caden was making her laugh I saw a tooth shaped white spot under her gum on the top. I am hoping that is the reason for the night wakings and once through, we can get some sleep again.
She is one of those children Caden doesn't like (although he loves her). She is loud and rambunctious and has no misgivings about taking Caden's toys or putting her fingers up his nose, pulling his hair or poking his eyes or ears. She is smiley and happy almost all the time but you can see the mischievousness in those eyes. When she is angry at a toy or a person she looks directly at it and yells at such a pitch and with such consternation that you can almost imagine the curse words. And when she laughs out loud it is with so much joy that you wonder what a six month old could be so absolutely joyous about. She loves to cuddle and give kisses and will stay with you to give and receive kisses and raspberries and tickles and whatever else you can think of as long as you can give it.
She is my loud, happy, loving baby girl and I adore her.
I am so in love with my family and I do truly hope that while the last decade brought them into my life, the next decade will be filled with my love for them and with treasured memories made as I watch and guide their childhood.
I'll post pictures soon.
Caden made Christmas happy for all of us this year. We missed Karen immensely and it was hard to spend Christmas in my childhood home. A place where I always fell her loss most. A place I never had been without her until her accident.
On New Year's Eve I realized that I was happy to see the back side of the past decade. Although some wonderful things happened in the last 10 years (mostly I got married- - 2000, and my children were born -- 2007 and 2009), mostly it has been a decade of heart ache and pain, most notably of course the loss of my sister but the brain tumour and six years of infertility certainly didn't help.
Despite this, I am happy on a daily basis. I love my children and am so pleased to see that they already love each other deeply. Today Caden spent a good 20 minutes doing the same action over and over because it made Kara laugh so hard she got the hiccups. She stares at him adoringly all the time and when he notices, he says "she likes me Mommy" and then "I love her too."
Caden is such a precocious two and a half year old. His vocabulary is astounding and if you say a word that he has never heard before, he will ask you what it means, think about it and then try it out in context. It is quite something. He is extremely focused and can and will spend hours doing something if it catches his attention. For example for Christmas he got a couple of L..ego kits and spent 3-4 hours a day for at least 4 days playing with them. When he gets focused like this, it is hard to distract him. He has a great imagination and can make up his own games or story lines. For Christmas Santa brought him a puppet theatre and I have been entertained ever since. He also has the memory of an elephant and you had better not tell him you will do something later or tomorrow unless you absolutely plan to do so.
He is also extremely cautious and easily intimidated. New people fascinate him, but he prefers to watch from a distance than to participate in anything they are doing. He takes it all in and then asks me questions about it later. Although he is quite happy to play with other children, it has to be other children that he wants to play with. He has a friend and a cousin that have similar personalities to him (sensitive, quiet, and polite - no grabbing or screaming) and he will happily play with them for hours and usually cries when it is time to go home. However, I have other friends with children who are more typical 2 year olds (loud and rambunctious and wholly unconcerned with other people's personal space) and Caden has no interest in going there or having them come here. In a rather embarrassing development, he has now taken to telling me so both before they get there or we arrive and after, in front of their parents. "No Mommy, I don't want to play with ....! I don't like ...... or ..... is too loud or snatches toys or is scary" Because he is sensitive and easily intimidated he finds many situations scary and often has nightmares at night. When he is not sure how he is feeling, he asks me in a slightly anxious and higher pitched voice "Am I scared Mommy?" It is the most adorable thing and of course I always take that opportunity to say no, this situation is not scary because .... Then whenever he runs into that situation again, he will say "I am not scare because ..."
He is my articulate, imaginative, intense little boy and I love him so much.
Miss Kara is now 6 months old (how the hell did that happen). She was exclusively breast fed until 6 months. She refused to take a bottle or eat cereal early, despite the fact that I needed her to do so in order to have a MRI with contrast dye. I did have the MRI in December (the results of which were no new or recurrent tumours!!!!) and in the 8 hour period that I had to discard my mild (new drug - much shorter half life) she drank a full 2 oz of formula. She nursed like a mad woman in the following 24 hours. Quite amusingly the day she turned 6 months she started eating solids and has been slurping it down ever since. It's like her body knew that solids weren't supposed to be introduced before. Although she only started on the 3rd, she is eating 2 different kinds of cereal, pears, blueberries, banana's, carrots, squash and prunes. She seems to favour the veggies over the fruit but so did Caden and now I have to trick veggies into him.
She can roll from front to back and back to front, sits independently and gets up on hands and knee's as if to crawl but has not actually moved those limbs in any kind of coordinated fashion yet. She has perfected the bum scoot though and can often be found several feet from where I sat her as a result of wanting a toy that was originally out of reach. She says da da , ma ma and raises her hands when she wants to be picked up. She is a dream sleeper and will go to her bed awake and put herself to sleep. In fact, she prefers to go to her bed awake and it takes a lot of work to get her to sleep if going directly into her crib is not an option.
For a long time she was sleeping through the night or only getting up once but in the last month she has started getting up several times a night to nurse again. Today while Caden was making her laugh I saw a tooth shaped white spot under her gum on the top. I am hoping that is the reason for the night wakings and once through, we can get some sleep again.
She is one of those children Caden doesn't like (although he loves her). She is loud and rambunctious and has no misgivings about taking Caden's toys or putting her fingers up his nose, pulling his hair or poking his eyes or ears. She is smiley and happy almost all the time but you can see the mischievousness in those eyes. When she is angry at a toy or a person she looks directly at it and yells at such a pitch and with such consternation that you can almost imagine the curse words. And when she laughs out loud it is with so much joy that you wonder what a six month old could be so absolutely joyous about. She loves to cuddle and give kisses and will stay with you to give and receive kisses and raspberries and tickles and whatever else you can think of as long as you can give it.
She is my loud, happy, loving baby girl and I adore her.
I am so in love with my family and I do truly hope that while the last decade brought them into my life, the next decade will be filled with my love for them and with treasured memories made as I watch and guide their childhood.
I'll post pictures soon.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
How I love these kids
Kara is going through a growth spurt and has gone from sleeping through the night to being up 3-4 times a night for a week!
Caden is sick... just a head cold but very congested and scary sounding. We haven't been letting him sleep alone.
As you can guess I am very, very tired. So imagine my surprise when my little boy (who fights sleep both at nap time and bedtime) looked at me this afternoon and said:
Caden: Let's have a nap together Mommy
Me: Are you tired sweat pea?
Caden: Only for you Mommy
Perfect.. let's go buddy. And nap we did.
At her appointment Kara was 15 lbs (75%) and 25.5 inches (80-90%)
Caden is sick... just a head cold but very congested and scary sounding. We haven't been letting him sleep alone.
As you can guess I am very, very tired. So imagine my surprise when my little boy (who fights sleep both at nap time and bedtime) looked at me this afternoon and said:
Caden: Let's have a nap together Mommy
Me: Are you tired sweat pea?
Caden: Only for you Mommy
Perfect.. let's go buddy. And nap we did.
At her appointment Kara was 15 lbs (75%) and 25.5 inches (80-90%)
Sunday, November 08, 2009
4 Months
My daughter is 4 months old. How exactly is that possible. Time is flying by.
Her 4 month appointment is this week so I don't have her height and weight yet but I think it is safe to say she is ginormous. Caden was so consistently in the 50th percentile or under and at 2 months she was in the 90% for height and 75% for weight and I feel confident she is still there.
Because this will also be my journal, I have not got around to doing a baby book for Caden yet, let alone Kara, I am going to record some facts:
Kara slept through the night, at least from 10:00 until 5:00 for the first time at 7 weeks. She has regularly done it since and in fact, often goes from 7:15 to 6:00 or later. She has very short daytime naps however.
Although she was colicky for the first 4-6 weeks of her life and there were times in those 6 weeks that I wasn't sure I could make it through a year if she continued to be colicky. She smiled for the first time at 5.5 weeks and she is now such a happy baby. She almost never cries and is ready and willing to smile at anyone who talks to her. She is such a flirt!
She started to "talk" coo and babble at 7-8 weeks and she has continued to do so. It is hilarious, she even pauses so that you can have a turn to talk back to her. This is not something Caden did (although he spoke real words really early, he never really babbled, he was always a happy but serious baby)
She laughed/giggled for the first time at 3.5 months and although she has not really started to laugh consistently yet, when she does it, it is the cutest sound.
She has not yet rolled over. About a month ago she was so close I thought she would get it any minute. In fact every time I put her down on her back, I watched closely, sure that it would be the time. She gets over to her side immediately, then almost all the way to her belly but could not figure out how to get her arm out from underneath her. However, she got really, REALLY frustrated and one day screamed (not cried or fussed) but screamed in frustration and then stopped trying. Literally she has not tried once since then! Boy I think I am in trouble, I am sure this child is going to have a temper!
She loves her big brother. If Caden is around, I do not need to entertain her at all. I put her in her exersaucer and she just will watch him for hours. Now when she is on her play mat, he picks up toy after toy and gives her. Unfortunately this has two problems 1) she will never roll over if he keeps handing her the toys and 2) he takes the one he has just given her and gives her a new one so quickly that she gets frustrated and the quick switch!
She loves the outdoors, a great thing because we spend a lot of time out there. And she rarely fusses if she is in the stroller and able to see things. Recently I tried her in the baby swing in our play set and she LOVED it. Caden loved it too, he loves to push her and also he loves that I can give her a push and then go play with him for 5 minutes without her in my arms!
She is losing all her hair. She was born with so much and it grew quite a bit and then all of a sudden in the last couple of weeks it is disappearing. I would think she was rubbing it off because it started in the back but it has happened most on the top of the back of her head. She does love to dig her heels in when she is on her back and push herself along but I doubt she puts that much pressure on the top part of her head. Any ideas about this, is it normal? She looks quite funny as the only part that hasn't come out is a triangle of long thick hair in the front so she looks like she has a comb over!
Breast feeding is fantastic however she absolutely refuses to take a bottle. Normally I wouldn't care but I already rescheduled my MRI (originally supposed to be Sept 28) because I would prefer not to feed her for 24 hours after the contrast dye. It is currently scheduled for Dec 1 but I have had no luck getting her to take any bottle. I have tried, Avent, Playtex, Nuby (the new breast like one) and Adiri (which I was sure would work it looks so much like a breast) and different flow nipples for each one but she just spits it all out. I have tried letting her get hungry and offering it to her before she gets really hungry. I have tried giving it to her myself and getting someone else to give it to her. I have tried formula, frozen breast milk and freshly squeezed stuff. She refuses, gags and urges if you keep trying. Interestingly, I have noticed that she gags easily now that she is gumming toys. I have tried giving her freshly pumped milk from a spoon but it was not that successful. Although she was very interested, she didn't really get the concept of swallowing and most of the milk drizzled out again. It would take forever to get much milk into her that way.
If anyone has any ideas on getting her through a 24 hour period without the breast please pass it along. And I do know that new research suggests that I could feed her after the contrast dye. My hospital recommends pumping and dumping for 48 hours, mother risk says you don't have to at all. I have done the research and read the science journals. Based on the levels of dye in the breast milk in 4 hour intervals after the injection, I would be more comfortable discarding for 24 hours. On the other hand, it has been 1.5 years since my last MRI (supposed to have them yearly) and I really don't want to reschedule again.
Here are some pictures of my beautiful 4 month old daughter:
4 months old today! well... not today.. on the 3rd, when this picture was taken
Her 4 month appointment is this week so I don't have her height and weight yet but I think it is safe to say she is ginormous. Caden was so consistently in the 50th percentile or under and at 2 months she was in the 90% for height and 75% for weight and I feel confident she is still there.
Because this will also be my journal, I have not got around to doing a baby book for Caden yet, let alone Kara, I am going to record some facts:
Kara slept through the night, at least from 10:00 until 5:00 for the first time at 7 weeks. She has regularly done it since and in fact, often goes from 7:15 to 6:00 or later. She has very short daytime naps however.
Although she was colicky for the first 4-6 weeks of her life and there were times in those 6 weeks that I wasn't sure I could make it through a year if she continued to be colicky. She smiled for the first time at 5.5 weeks and she is now such a happy baby. She almost never cries and is ready and willing to smile at anyone who talks to her. She is such a flirt!
She started to "talk" coo and babble at 7-8 weeks and she has continued to do so. It is hilarious, she even pauses so that you can have a turn to talk back to her. This is not something Caden did (although he spoke real words really early, he never really babbled, he was always a happy but serious baby)
She laughed/giggled for the first time at 3.5 months and although she has not really started to laugh consistently yet, when she does it, it is the cutest sound.
She has not yet rolled over. About a month ago she was so close I thought she would get it any minute. In fact every time I put her down on her back, I watched closely, sure that it would be the time. She gets over to her side immediately, then almost all the way to her belly but could not figure out how to get her arm out from underneath her. However, she got really, REALLY frustrated and one day screamed (not cried or fussed) but screamed in frustration and then stopped trying. Literally she has not tried once since then! Boy I think I am in trouble, I am sure this child is going to have a temper!
She loves her big brother. If Caden is around, I do not need to entertain her at all. I put her in her exersaucer and she just will watch him for hours. Now when she is on her play mat, he picks up toy after toy and gives her. Unfortunately this has two problems 1) she will never roll over if he keeps handing her the toys and 2) he takes the one he has just given her and gives her a new one so quickly that she gets frustrated and the quick switch!
She loves the outdoors, a great thing because we spend a lot of time out there. And she rarely fusses if she is in the stroller and able to see things. Recently I tried her in the baby swing in our play set and she LOVED it. Caden loved it too, he loves to push her and also he loves that I can give her a push and then go play with him for 5 minutes without her in my arms!
She is losing all her hair. She was born with so much and it grew quite a bit and then all of a sudden in the last couple of weeks it is disappearing. I would think she was rubbing it off because it started in the back but it has happened most on the top of the back of her head. She does love to dig her heels in when she is on her back and push herself along but I doubt she puts that much pressure on the top part of her head. Any ideas about this, is it normal? She looks quite funny as the only part that hasn't come out is a triangle of long thick hair in the front so she looks like she has a comb over!
Breast feeding is fantastic however she absolutely refuses to take a bottle. Normally I wouldn't care but I already rescheduled my MRI (originally supposed to be Sept 28) because I would prefer not to feed her for 24 hours after the contrast dye. It is currently scheduled for Dec 1 but I have had no luck getting her to take any bottle. I have tried, Avent, Playtex, Nuby (the new breast like one) and Adiri (which I was sure would work it looks so much like a breast) and different flow nipples for each one but she just spits it all out. I have tried letting her get hungry and offering it to her before she gets really hungry. I have tried giving it to her myself and getting someone else to give it to her. I have tried formula, frozen breast milk and freshly squeezed stuff. She refuses, gags and urges if you keep trying. Interestingly, I have noticed that she gags easily now that she is gumming toys. I have tried giving her freshly pumped milk from a spoon but it was not that successful. Although she was very interested, she didn't really get the concept of swallowing and most of the milk drizzled out again. It would take forever to get much milk into her that way.
If anyone has any ideas on getting her through a 24 hour period without the breast please pass it along. And I do know that new research suggests that I could feed her after the contrast dye. My hospital recommends pumping and dumping for 48 hours, mother risk says you don't have to at all. I have done the research and read the science journals. Based on the levels of dye in the breast milk in 4 hour intervals after the injection, I would be more comfortable discarding for 24 hours. On the other hand, it has been 1.5 years since my last MRI (supposed to have them yearly) and I really don't want to reschedule again.
Here are some pictures of my beautiful 4 month old daughter:
4 months old today! well... not today.. on the 3rd, when this picture was taken
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