Reality

Reality kicked in this week that I only have this week and next week before I have to back to work. I got to see many co-workers at the bridal shower on Sunday and it was nice as I miss them but I still don't want to go back to the grind of daily stress and responsibilities that Organic Valley portrays. Well I guess that means lots of mommy & girls time in the next couple of days.

Sleep Over - Take 2

Yesterday was a busy day as I had a bridal shower to attend for a dear friend in Spring Green. What is more boring then a bridal shower for a almost 3 year old. So I needed to decide what I should do. Yes it was Harry's day off but he was attending the bachelor side of things so that was out, well that was the plan until he got called to look at a planter for one of his farmers. I decided to ask Uncle Jerod and Kassy if they wanted to play for the day. I figured that Uncle Jerod had so much fun in February with Elly, why not try again. Well I took a leap of faith and left Lorelai also. Yes, it was very hard as this would be the first time I have been away from her for more then 2 hours but at some point I was going to have to do it. It was very hard for me and I wouldn't have if she would have still been very much fussy and needy. It sounds like all went well and they all had lots of fun.

Well here is where the sleep over part comes in. Cousin Maddie was staying overnight at Grapa & Grama's. So of course Cousin Elly was requested to stay also. But by the time I got back to Uncle Jerod's to pick her up it was going to be nearing night time and therefore figured that all tears would let loose. So we came up with the concoction that Uncle Jerod and Kassy would drop Elly off at Grapa & Grama's and then I would pick up Lorelai without Elly seeing me and therefore wouldn't think anything of it. It was a success...except for when Kassy tried to leave! Tears came and huge gripping of hugs "don't leave me" came from Elly. Well it took Grapa getting her involved in a book and Uncle Jerod slipping out to the kitchen and then a couple minutes later Kassy slipping out. According to the story, about 40 minutes later Elly heard a loud truck go by sounding much like Uncle Jerod's and the tears started again with "they left me". Poor girl...it is hard being almost 3! The rest of the night went well and I am planning on picking her up this afternoon after yet another bridal shower. Boy love is in the air! I would have to say that Take 2 was a success. Hopefully all goes well with sleep overs for now on.

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Lorelai update - yes momma was getting tired of the every 45 minutes to 2 hours of getting up in the night so I started holding her off on feedings until at least 4 hours. Wow was the first couple of days hard. She was not happy with me and she let me know about it. But after a while we are getting the hang of things. We are back to getting up only once in the night and I have also started her on 1 tsp of cereal in her bottle to help fill her up also. She loves to eat contrary to her sister. Lorelai seems happier and satisfied. It is great to finally see smiles versus the tears and sad face.

So I have pictures of the Elly & Mommy day but I am having technical difficulties getting them to come on the blog (internets fault, not mine).

Jinx

Yup I jinx us when I wrote about Lorelai, well kind of. She is still sleeping in her own bed and putting herself back to sleep after eating (only at night though). But we went back to eating around 2 or 2 1/2 hours at a time. I guess I can't have everything all at once. Of course she would start sleeping really good in her bed after I asked Aunt Jen to borrow their swing, had Uncle Jerod go and pick it up in Richland Center from Uncle Nick and then I went to Viola to pick it up at Uncle Jerod's (did you follow all that?). Oh well, at least we have them if we need them and Ellaree is having a blast with all the swings in the house for her babies.

Today is daycare day so hoping to get lots of housework done. Harry was wonderful and helped me out on Sunday. His only day off and he was helping with housework, that is a wonderful husband right there! Tomorrow I am expecting to get lots of pictures as it is going to be an Ellaree and Mommy day. Grama is going to watch Lorelai for a couple of hours while Ellaree and I go shopping and then off to the Children's Museum. I am so excited. The last time we were there Ellaree was only 11 months old and so it was limited as to what she could do. This time around it should be lots of fun with lots of pictures. Stay tuned for pictures!!!!!!

Knock On Wood

As I write this I am knocking on wood so that I don't jinx us...Lorelai slept in her bed last night! She slept 4 hours, ate, changed diaper and put herself back to sleep, got up 2 1/2 hours later, ate, changed diaper and put herself back to sleep (do you see the trend here?) All night she put herself back to sleep in her bed with no swing!!!!! Could it be that we are getting somewhere here? All I can do is rejoice and hope for another good night.

Battles

As a parent myself now I am learning which battles to undertake and which ones just to leave alone...I guess that is with marriage too. Anyway, our battle last night, chalk one up to Lorelai! Sometimes desperate times means desperate measures. Here is our last night...

Well lets go back one more night first - Lorelai would get up every 45 minutes and then it would take around 2 hours to get her back to sleep. After a while we realized through our fog of exhaustion that she had not pooped...therefore she was uncomfortable and not sleeping from constipation. So the dark karo syrup came out and into the bottle (old wives tail that really really works). So not much sleep the night before. Let me just say that the karo syrup worked about 12 hours later.

Last night - our friend Lisa was out to visit and Lorelai got her bath with soothing bath and then I decided to lather her in the lotion also. Can't hurt, right? Normal routine last night, Ellaree had her bath and we all were happy and good to go playing and talking with Lisa. Lorelai fell asleep in my arms downstairs (I am very big on babies being put in their beds awake and they put themselves to sleep - I guess that will come later, one battle at a time). So she fell asleep in my arms but still a little restless. Harry and I were skeptical as to how long that would last...yup the minute we put her down she started crying and fussing. Here is where the desperate times means desperate measures. I ask Harry to bring up the swing as that seems to put her to sleep during the day. I would do anything at that moment for her so that I could have a couple of hours rest. I guess this is another battle we will have to deal with later. So the minute the swing started up she was out and I was able to actually turn the swing back off within 20 minutes without her waking up. Lorelai slept for 4 hours!!!!! I was ecstatic when she did wake up for her feeding. Well I decided that I would try and put her back in her bed when she was done and she actually did put herself to sleep by herself after eating. I was very surprised because I figured I would have to put her back in the swing. Well sleeping in her bed only lasted 2 hours but I will take it. Then she was my alarm clock again 2 hours later for me to get up as she just needed a little snack before going back to sleep, in the swing but I will take the night we had. Hopefully we are on the road to better nights.

Sleep Over

Last night Ellaree was going to spend the night at Grapa & Grama's. All week she was pepped up and ready to go. Even yesterday she packed her bag and she was telling me all about what she was going to do with them. Well when it got time for Mommy & Daddy to leave the tears started to stream down the face. We talked to her and got her to calm down and said our good-byes. Ellaree has only cried one other time when we have left her overnight and this was with Papa Harry & Nonie, but within a couple of minutes she was all better. Well within 20 minutes we got a phone call from Grama that Ellaree was crying very hard & telling them that she didn't want to stay. Grapa even tried to calm her down by feeding the fish. If that didn't work...nothing was going. So we turned around and headed back. We met them part way and when Ellaree got in the truck she said very proudly "mommy I'm back!" Very cute.

Did we do the right thing? Should we have kept going and she would have gotten over it? I think that we did do the right thing. When she was crying so hard that Grapa & Grama felt they needed to call, you know it is bad and that there is something going on. Hopefully it is just a phase and she will get over it soon. Maybe because mommy is still home from maternity leave that she doesn't want to leave me and has gotten use to being around me. Who knows but I will say this much...Thank you Grapa & Grama for calling us and letting us know the situation and allowing us to make the decision as to what was best for Ellaree. Hopefully soon we can try it again.

Lorelai's Well Child Visit - 2 Months

It is official - Lorelai has already passed her sister in statistics of growth.

At 2 months Lorelai is...

weight: 11.11 lbs - 73%
height: 23" - 78%
Head circumference: 15.5" - 73%

I don't think that Ellaree has ever passed 25%. Also received 3 shots & 1 oral medication. She was a trooper and only cried a little bit. In return Sissy got a sucker and McDonald's for lunch. How does that work?

Thanks

Harry and I appreciate all the phone calls, text messages, emails and just concern from yesterdays blog entry. By no means did we expect to cause any alarm as to the night with Lorelai. We (I) was just writing how I was feeling and how the night went.

We can definitely tell you now from experience that there is no two children alike. Ellaree was fussy but not like this. Yes there are days we feel Lorelai's goal in life is to kill us with no sleep but this too shall pass.

I also want to thank you all for the offers of watching the girls for a couple of hours and/or overnight. This is something that is hard for me as a mom as I want the time to sleep but at the same time knowing that Lorelai is so fussy makes me not want anyone else have to take on that burden as I feel I know what she needs and wants best. Therefore I can get her to calm down quicker. Trust me, even Harry feels that I can do it better. I am not trying to put a feather in my hat or think that I am supermom - because I definitely am not. Again this is a touchy situation as we have always said we would not say that the girls could not go somewhere but I think once we get a routine down and a little more stable this will come easier for me. So if you have offered and gotten shot down by us, please do not take this personally.

This brings me to my concerns of going back to work. I am not doubting that Lori at daycare can't take care of Lorelai but it is my mom instinct setting in that the questions start arising. What if Lorelai is fussy for Lori and she can't get her to calm down? What if she doesn't do it just like I do and it takes longer for her to stop crying. Ok so this is actually my questions for everyone that watches her. I remember feeling this way when it got closer for Ellaree to start going to daycare. Lorelai, and Ellaree for that matter, has gotten so use to me being at home and having a routine that it will be another change in our lives when we go back to the normal work schedule. I know that as the days go on we will get back into the swing of things. Someone needs to write a book on how tough the Mom Job can be. I thought it was suppose to be a walk in the park. Lori - if you are reading this, please don't shoot me if I call you 12 times in the first week. :)

Please know that I am just writing my thoughts and concerns down. We are all doing fine and will get through this with each day. That is how we roll in this family.

And a good quote from Miss Ellaree - Good Talk!

Guilt

Yes I am feeling that way today. Last night Lorelai was having one of her meltdowns around 11:30 last night and I couldn't do anything for her. Yes I know this will happen from time to time. I still have those moments with Ellaree every once in a while. But after an hour of crying and no consoling, I just lost it and had my own meltdown. I felt so guilty having Harry get up and take over. As some of you know, Harry gets up at 1 AM on one day and 4 AM on the other day. So for me to have a meltdown was not a great thing for me to do. But there comes a time when you just have to walk away - it is better for the baby and for yourself. I know this and yet I am feeling guilty because now Harry is driving exhausted more then usual.

I have found that if I give Lorelai a bath at night and use the Johnson's Soothing Bath that it makes a world of difference in her evening. I have the lotion too so I will have to start using it nightly and hopefully that helps. This helped Ellaree also when she was a baby. These things come to me after a couple of hard days/nights of what did and did not work on Ellaree. Live and learn, I guess.

Her reflux has been fine since going off the Prilosec and I think we are finally getting better with the formula switch for the last time. So we will see what Dr. Nancy says tomorrow at her 2 month checkup. Yes 2 months tomorrow already! I can't believe it.

I Did This To Myself

Yes, I have stabbed myself with a pitch fork in my foot...or at least that is how I feel right now. Lorelai finished her Prilosec the other day. All was going good and I didn't think that the soy was doing much good. When I talked to Dr. Nancy about what to do earlier she had told me not to switch formula's. But the genius I am, found on the Similac website that soy would help her therefore I switched her fully. When she was not satisfied I went to half and half. Well when we were back to getting up like we would with a newborn versus once in the night like we were with having the regular Similac I decided to switch her back to regular all the time. At that point she was only getting one scoop of soy and I had put her down to half a scoop of soy. So Saturday I switched her. We had two bad nights of crying and just uncomfortable. At this point of not having any sleep and a crying baby I then was thinking "what have I done". Well I couldn't keep switching her. That would just continue to screw up her system. Therefore I went with what Dr. Nancy said which was not to switch formulas so I have stuck with the regular formula and we are heading through the fog together. Last night was a good night where we got up, ate and went back to sleep. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel but it has been a hard tunnel as I really didn't know if I was making the right decisions. My cousin Jena made this comment the other day and it is so true - wouldn't it be nice if God gave us little post it notes telling us what was going to happen next, then we would be prepared. I completely agree with you Jena. Also another quote from Lorelai's Godmother Laurie - this too shall pass. This is what is getting us through these days along with lots of patients and prayers.

Easter Morning

Easter Morning was lots of fun as Ellaree really didn't know what to think of the Easter Bunny leaving a basket of goodies but had to find it. You know, Santa just leaves the goodies under the tree right there for you and you don't have to go hunting for nothing. What is up with this Easter Bunny playing tricks on her!!!! She did really enjoy the Easter egg hunt. Good thing that cousin Maddie hid Easter eggs last weekend at their house for Ellaree. She had lots of practice and did a great job finding all 10 of them.

New Family Info...

So here I am trying to update my Family Tree Book and what do I find but a "Liza" on the Hilleshiem side of the family. Which in translation would be my Grama Hornby's side. So how is this "Liza" related to our Liza...She would be Great, great, great, great grandmother to our Liza. How stinking cool is that!!!!!!

Keepsake Tote

I have been wanting to get Lorelai and Ellaree keepsake boxes to keep some of their baby things in, like their coming home outfit from the hospital, baptism dress, and special items given to them. But all the keepsake boxes that I have found I have felt have been way to small for my liking. So I decided to make my own and I thought I would share with you. I have Ellaree's done and will start on Lorelai's soon. I looked at their lives now and went from there.

First, the lid. I went online and found stencils that I could print off onto cardstock and then painted her name after tracing.

Princess crowns all around...for a Princess Ellaree of course! Ellaree is my princess through and through. I am hoping that Lorelai is too and loves to wear dresses and do her hair all pretty just like her big sister.

That brings us to the next aspect of Ellaree's life right now...she is the best big sister a sissy could ask for. Trust me Lorelai does not lack in the hugs and kisses section of her life. I think sometimes she is a little concerned with her little bubble being invaded. Becoming a big sissy this year was huge and thought it was important to express that.

Besides being a Princess she is Momma's Little Lady. Even if Harry or I say mom or mommy Ellaree replies with Momma. I think it is sweet and very old fashion but I love it.

And the last two aspects of Ellaree's life right now as a Princess is her favorite song to sing and dance to is Jesus Loves Me and I hope that she continues to love this song and live by it.

Also, Coffee -N- Cream! What Little Lady Princess could go wrong as long as she has her coffee

-n- cream in the mornings. This is the first thing she asks for in the mornings and the last thing she asks for before bed. This girl loves her coffee -n- cream...a girl after my own heart.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing Ellaree's Keepsake Tote that I made for her. I hope someday she appreciates all the hard work and time I put into this but just knowing that I did this for her and her keepsakes are safe is all I really need.

Dying Easter Eggs

Ellaree was so excited this year to dye Easter eggs. Once she saw the box she asked me if we could paint them about a bazillion times before we actually got around to doing them. We had fun but of course she did not think I had boil enough eggs. Dually noted for next year!

Ellaree needed Daddy & Lorelai's assistance!

Patiently waiting!

Ready, Set, Go!

Daddy & Lorelai on the phone

Finished product ~ Great job Bugaboo!

Addition

I always forget to write something crucial in my original blog entry. Call it interruptions a million times, lack of sleep, forgetfulness, or any other type of word for a momma on the go constantly!

I forgot to mention that we are keeping Lorelai on her Prilosec until it is all gone. Once she is out we are going to see how she does without it. She could have up to 3 bad days as the medicine right now is telling her to produce less acid and without that medicine her body will need to learn to adjust. Dr. Nancy said that if after the 4th day she is not adjusting then we will need to put her back on it and adjust her dosage as she is growing and gaining weight.

We are hoping that with the adjustments made now and in a couple of weeks, Lorelai will eventually grow out of this. Acid reflux is very common in infants even though you don't hear about it that often. Sometimes the Prilosec works like a charm and then other times it only works a little bit. In our case, it only works a little bit but better then nothing. Without it life would be much more unbearable at times. We just have to take each day with a new look on life that Lorelai will not always be a grouchy baby...but will turn into a beautiful happy child from God.

Like I tell people...we just roll with the punches that life throws at us. If we didn't we would put ourselves in insanity!

Well, What The Hey!

That is how we are feeling these days...Lorelai has started the whole spitting up, fussy stages again but I don't believe that it is "just colic" like some have said to us. Because if it was "just colic" then she would not be sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night or on her back.

The other day I received some coupons and information from Similac. In there actually was information on what to do if you have a fussy baby and along with it was a website called feeding experts . After taking a questionnaire it stated that Lorelai might be lactose intolerant. And they suggested putting her on soy. Well just by coincident I had 2 cans that I had gotten in the mail of free samples. We tried the soy, by mistake starting her on it at night time. I was up with her every 2 hours if not less that night, the soy just was not filling her up and satisfying her. So I went back to the regular Similac until today when I had my 6 week checkup with Dr. Nancy, yes already 6 weeks. I mentioned to her about the soy that it seemed to help her not be so fussy and she didn't spit up at all in the night. Most mornings when I go to pick her up her sheet is soaked from where she has spit up in the night. Scary for me as I don't hear her spitting up. Dr. Nancy suggested trying to mix the 2 together so that she is still satisfied but also not spitting up and is not as fussy. So once we got home we started our first bottle mixed. We will see how it goes. Anything is worth a shot at this point.