Weekend Update (kinda late)

Kaylin and I had a great weekend! Friday, we got a surprise visit from Grandma and Morgan at work! It was so nice to see them! Then we got to leave work super early so we had lunch with Erin and then went over to Meaghan's for a play date with her two sweet boys, Logan and Austin. Austin and Kaylin had a great time playing together! (No offense, Logan! You're just too old for tummy time!)

On Saturday, I cleaned the house and rearranged/organized the kitchen and Kaylin's nursery (can you call it "nesting" if the baby is already here?). Kaylin loves to help me vacuum! She gets strapped into her Bjorn and will sometimes hold the vacuum cord. It's so funny. I set up her play yard on Saturday, too. That was interesting! I had to refer to the owner's manual more times than I'd like to admit. I set it up in Kaylin's room, and when I went to wheel it into the living room - it wouldn't fit through the doorway. Doh! So I had to figure out how to get it folded back down... and... well... the thing is finally in the living room. :) She doesn't mind being in there as long as I keep it short.

Kaylin is still in love with Copa. When she rolls over, it's usually to watch Copa. For the most part, Copa knows to stay off the baby blankets. She's a really good "big sister."

We ventured out Saturday night to try on bridesmaid dresses with Erin. After that we went out to eat where I ate a ridiculously large amount of food... and then got a dessert to go! Kaylin had a great time - she refused to nap, she was too interested in what was going on around her. She's such a social baby. She drifted off in the car and slept until we were about 10 minutes from home. Those last 10 minutes always seem to get us. I fed her some cereal then she went back to sleep. (and I ate my tiramisu! Yum!)

We had a lazy Sunday. Kaylin worked hard on blowing raspberries.

We're looking forward to Daddy coming home on Wednesday and celebrating Kaylin's first 4th of July!

Quickly...

I'll have to do the weekend update tomorrow or Tues, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures. We had a great weekend! Tomorrow is Kaylin's 4 month check-up (even though she'll be 5 months on the 2nd. The original appt had to be rescheduled b/c of her UTI.) I'm trying not to stress about the shots. :(

Wordless Wednesday is preempted by an announcement...

Kaylin rolled over!!! She rolled from her tummy to her back and then looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes like it was no big deal. Milestones are amazing!

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Overall we had a nice weekend. Of course it was over way too soon! It frustrates me that "normal" life doesn't stop when Billy comes home. We still have chores to do and errands to run. We used to use Sunday as our "clean the house" day, but now that Billy is traveling so much, I hate to spend any time cleaning. I'd like to just do fun stuff all weekend, but I guess that isn't realistic.

Anyway...

After we ran our errands we took Kaylin to our pool for the first time on Saturday. Since it was the hottest day of the year so far, we waited until about 6pm to go. She wasn't sure about it at first, but by the end she was splashing around.

We also got Kaylin a highchair over the weekend. It's a $140 highchair that I scored on craigslist for $50! Sweet! We put her in it for a minute and she though it was hilarious. (she finds most things hilarious, actually)


Billy celebrated his first Father's Day yesterday! Kaylin and I hope he had a good one! We tried to make him a gift, but I learned that I'm not exactly what you would call crafty. We got one of those kits where you make an impression of that baby's hand prints. It seemed easy enough - mix the powder with water, let it sit for a few minutes, then place baby's hands in. The directions said it would be easier with the help of another adult, but I thought I could handle it. When I put Kaylin's hands in, she squeezed the clay like she was playing with PlayDoh. It didn't resemble hands at all. I eventually enlisted Billy's help, and we got a decent imprint of her feet, but now the darn thing won't dry. Oh well. I guess it's the thought that counts. (?!) We were bummed that Billy has to leave at 2:30 to go back to Ohio, but we were glad he was able to spend some time with his sweet baby girl on Father's Day!

We couldn't ask for a better Daddy! We love you.

Then & Now

First bath at home:
(a few days old)
Bath last night:
(20 weeks old)

Wordless Wednesday

Serious Diaper Malfunction.

She'll kill me for this one day.

What a day. (TMI Warning!)

Ok, so here's the full story. Kaylin started running a low fever on Sunday afternoon. Of course the first thing I do is grab my copy of What to Expect the First Year and flip to the fever section. She has several teething symptoms, so I figure that's all it is. I give her some Tylenol and she takes a long nap.

Fast forward to 2am. She wakes up crying (which she never does) and is super hot to the touch. I take her to the nursery to check her temperature and it's 102.8! I give another dose of Tylenol and head back to bed. Now that the fever is so high, I know something is seriously wrong and decide to call her doctor first thing in the morning. Kaylin wakes back up at 8am and her temp is 102.3. I call the doctor, they say to bring her in.

I should say here that there's nothing worse than having a sick child EXCEPT standing helplessly by as doctors and nurses poke and prod that child to determine how to effectively treat her. We go in, she gets weighed (she's up to 12 lbs, 15.5 oz!), gets her temp taken (which is down to 98.1) and wait for the doctor. We get Dr. Bob who is about 70 years old, but the sweetest old man ever. He's the one who came to the hospital on his day off to give Kaylin her first check-up. Anyway, this is where the torture begins. He checks her ears, nose and throat. She didn't really care for that, but stopped crying as soon as I picked her back up. Then Dr. Bob decided we needed a urine sample because he suspected a urinary tract infection. They put a bag on her that looks like this:

It's held in place by some seriously sticky adhesive.

We wait for a while for Kaylin to give us a sample, but no luck. They decide to speed up the process and do a catheter. Let me repeat - THEY GIVE MY BABY A CATHETER. I'm trying to comfort Kaylin as she lays on the table, telling her, "You're not going to like this, but it should be over soon" when the nurse tells me, "It's really not that bad. They just don't like the position they have to be in." Oh, really?! I don't know about you, lady, but I've had a catheter before and I assure you, it wasn't the position that bothered me - it was the plastic pipe that was shoved up my lady bits. Anyway, back to the story. Kaylin is screaming her head off and I'm doing my best to comfort her. I can't even look at what they're doing because I know I'll start crying too. They finally finish the procedure, but her bladder was empty. UGH! They put another bag on. I nurse for a few minutes and Kaylin falls asleep. The nurse comes back in to take a blood sample. Oh great. She's sound asleep and has her toe pricked. She screams, of course, but settles down fairly quickly. It's time to go home now. We are instructed to return with a sample. We stop by the check-out desk to reschedule Kaylin's well baby visit. While I'm talking, Kaylin starts fussing. I bend down - with my diaper bag on my shoulder - to give her her paci and my cell phone falls out and hits Kaylin on the forehead. I feel like a complete jackass. My baby has just had a catheter and blood drawn and then I smack her on the head with my phone. Awesome.

We get home, Kaylin poops all over the bag. I take that one off and put on another. About an hour later, we have pee in the bag. Yay! However, she's also pooped all over it again. There's no way I'm going to attempt to remove the bag and pour the contents into the sterile container. I'm sure I would contaminate it and then we'd have to start the process all over again. We head back to the doctor's office and have the nurse do it. They test the urine and find both red blood cells and protein. Baby's first UTI. We're doing amoxicillin for 10 days and Tylenol for the fever. We have to go back in 2 weeks with another urine sample (Doh!) to make sure she's back to normal.

She's been sleeping a lot and is pretty fussy and clingy. She still had a temperature this morning, so we stayed home from work again. Hopefully the antibiotics will start working soon and my sweet girl will start feeling better.

20 weeks old!

Kaylin is 20 weeks old today. She's been on the outside half as long as she was "cooking" on the inside. :)

Today has been a rough day, though. I'll give the whole details soon (tomorrow?), but the short version is that my sweet baby girl has a urinary tract infection. Poor thing. I hope she feels better soon.

Weekend Update

Where did the weekend go?! They're never long enough!

Billy made it home on Friday before Kaylin and I were home from work. We left a little early, but told him I got off at the regular time and then had to nurse Kaylin. He was so surprised to see us drive up ahead of schedule! :) We had a lazy night - pizza and a movie. Both of us fell asleep before it was over.

We ran errands on Saturday: lunch @ Burger & Shake (can you guess what they serve?), public library (Billy is now a fan, too!), Target, kids' consignment store, and Kroger. Billy earned major points for taking Kaylin grocery shopping with him while I went to have a pedicure. Ahhhh! :) I can't tell you the last time I had a pedicure. Such a nice treat!

We didn't have time for too much today. I felt like we were both watching the clock because Billy needed to leave around 2:30 to go back to Ohio. :( I did enjoy my chocolate chip pancakes though! Kaylin's been fussy all day - I think she's teething. (or at least all the signs point to that) She's been running a low grade fever all day - around 100.2. We gave her some Tylenol and she took a nice long nap. I feel bad she's so uncomfortable. (although right now she's "talking" and chewing on a toy)

No pictures this time. I only took one picture over the weekend and the camera's in the living room. Gotta check Kaylin's temp again...

Tastes like... toes!

On Monday, Kaylin finally got her toes in her mouth! She's been working on it for a couple of weeks and finally succeeded while on the changing table. I gasped when I noticed she'd done it and she dropped her foot like she was in trouble. Ha! Go ahead, sweet girl, enjoy those toes.

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Update

This week has been much different for us with Billy out of town. Before he left, I was totally stressed out thinking how I was going to be able to do everything that needed to be done without his help. But I learned that where there's a will, there's a way. We miss Billy/Daddy terribly, but Kaylin and I have enjoyed out Mommy/daughter time.

I think I'm most proud of us taking a bath together on Tuesday. Kaylin loves taking a bath with me, but with Billy out of town, I wasn't sure if I should attempt it. It's definitely not safe to be holding a baby while getting into the tub, and even more unsafe to get out while you're both wet. So, I'll share my 12 step process for our bath:

1. Run water.

2. Strip Kaylin down to diaper and put her in the Bumbo seat by the tub.

3. Get out regular baby bath tub, put hooded towel in it. Put it next to regular tub.

4. Get in, wash.

5. Pick Kaylin up, remove diaper.

6. Wash Kaylin.

7. Place Kaylin in her bath tub, wrap her in the towel.

8. Get out, towel off.

9. Watch, amazed, as she lays happily in the bath tub.

10. Get dressed. She starts fussing.

11. Pick her up, diaper and dress her.

12. Pat myself on the back. :)

Whoa, I didn't really think that would be a 12 step process, but it was. Ha!

We started taking walks this week since the weather was so nice. We try to go around 9 a.m. before it gets too hot. The exercise is good for me and Copa, and Kaylin either sleeps or smiles at me.

Kaylin has a new favorite toy. Kelly gave her a bunny rattle as a baby shower gift and she loves it. Sometimes she's a little fussy when I put her in the car sear, but now all I have to do is rattle the bunny and she laughs and coos at it. She's fallen asleep before with it tucked in her arm. Adorable!

On Friday, I had dinner with my friend Meaghan and her two little boys. It was a little wild with a 2 year old, an 8 month old and a 4 months old, but we had a good time. Kaylin was a little socialite and stayed awake the whole time we were there! She slept all the way home, though! We didn't get in until 10 p.m.!

Saturday was fun - we ran errands and hit the public library. I've documented it below. I was able to watch a movie later that night, uninterrupted, as Kaylin slept on my chest. Bliss. :)

"Mommy spent how much at the store?!" Just kidding.

Today has been a lazy day and we have no plans to leave the house or get out of our PJs. I have managed to vacuum (with Kaylin in her Baby Bjorn!), run the dishwasher, and put a load of clothes in the wash. I also made chocolate chip pancakes since that's become our little Sunday morning ritual and I was craving them. They were good, but not the same as when Billy makes them for me.

We're looking forward to Billy coming home on Thursday!

Daddy-less Saturday

6:15 a.m. - Kaylin and Copa wake. Feed Kaylin, Copa waits.
6:30 a.m. - Take Copa out, feed her. Put Kaylin in swing, start coffee, wash bottles.
6:45 a.m. - Pump, watch news. Kaylin sits in bouncy seat, plays with toys.
7:00 a.m. - Coffee. :)
7:03 a.m. - Kaylin starts fussing. Pick her up, finish coffee. Try not to spill.
7:10 a.m. - Play with Kaylin.
7:30 a.m. - Feed Kaylin.
7:40 a.m. - Kaylin falls asleep. Consider putting her down and cleaning the house. Decide to watch reruns of Gilmore Girls.
8:20 a.m. - I fall asleep.
9:30 a.m. - Wake to fussing Kaylin. Feed her.
9:40 a.m. - Kaylin falls asleep. I watch more TV. (wouldn't want to disturb her!)
10:00 a.m. - Kaylin wakes up. We play.
10:30 a.m. - Kaylin sits in swing, I make cheese toast. While waiting, I unload/load the dishwasher.
10:55 a.m. - Skype with Billy.
11:20 a.m. - Feed Kaylin.
11:35 a.m. - Finish Skyping, change Kaylin's clothes, change my clothes, put Copa in her crate with a Kong. Check diaper bag. Load stroller.
12:00 noon - Give Kaylin a quick snack. Leave the house.
12:04 p.m. - Kaylins falls asleep.
12:30 p.m. - Arrive at library. Kaylin wakes, smiles at me, explodes in diaper. Change her in the car.
12:35 p.m. - Load Kaylin in Baby Bjorn. Enter library.
1:00 p.m. - Exit library thinking it is the best invention ever. 3 books, 1 CD - free! (pre-baby, I would have gladly blown $60 at Barnes & Noble while drinking a $4 coffee)
1:15 p.m. - Arrive at Kroger. Get gas. Go into store. Get creamer, toilet paper, cheerios, and, for some reason, spaghetti-o's.
1:40 p.m. - Wendy's drive-thru. Order a small Frosty. Yum.
1:45 p.m. - Kaylin falls asleep. I drive, eating the Frosty, listening to free music, watching her in rear view mirror. Happy Mommy.
2:00 p.m. - Arrive home. Unload sleeping Kaylin. Leave her on the porch, get Copa. Let Copa go potty, play soccer with her until...
2:10 p.m. - Kaylin wakes, is HUNGRY.
2:12 p.m. - Feed Kaylin, watch TV.
2:30 p.m. - Put Kaylin in swing, eat spaghetti-o's. Yum.
2:40 p.m. - Kaylin starts fussing, pick her up, rock her.
3:00 p.m. - Kaylin falls asleep.
3:05 p.m. - Read.
5:00 p.m. - Kaylin wakes, is HUNGRY.
5:01 p.m. - Feed Kaylin.
5:20 p.m. - Put Kaylin in her cradle, turn on her Nature Baby DVD. Clean litter box. Figure out how Billy has rigged Diaper Genie with regular trash bag. Empty it, take dirty diapers outside. Put laundry in the wash. Get in shower.
5:40 p.m. - Think, "Wow, she's being such a good girl letting me shower this long. I never get to shave my legs AND exfoliate. This is fantastic."
5:41 p.m. - Kaylin starts fussing. I end shower, towel off in break-neck speed.
5:44 p.m. - Pick Kaylin up. She stops fussing.
5:50 p.m. - Give Kaylin a bath.
6: 15 p.m. - Blog.

(I also changed Kaylin's diaper probably 8-10 more times than I documented. Please don't call DFACS.)

4 Months Old!

Kaylin is four months old today! I recently realized that my monthly updates have been a little off. I've been calculating 4 weeks = 1 month, but (duh) that's not always the case. I should have been celebrating each month on the 2nd. So that's what we'll do from now on.

Moving on....

Kaylin is getting to be such a big girl! She weighs 12 1/2 pounds! She's getting chunky little thighs! I'm going to have to move the straps on her car seat today because she's too long for the first setting now. She is becoming more and more active. She loves to kick her legs and likes to have something in her hands at all times. She's started chewing on everything! I'll give her the paci to suck on, but she just spits it out and looks for something to chew. Right now she's chewing on her Pooh book. Sometimes when she's chewing on her hands she sticks them too far into her mouth and makes herself gag. Oops.

She's started sitting in her Bumbo seat for short periods. She likes to be sitting up and will actually sit up herself from a reclined position. (like when we have her propped up on pillows)She's started trying to roll over, but I think we have a few more weeks until she actually does it. She laughs a lot now - especially when we kiss her belly. She thinks that's just hilarious. She's still eating every 2-2 1/2 hours... even at night. I was hoping by now she'd be sleeping a little more... maybe not "through the night" but more than 2 hours would be nice! Mommy is exhausted! We tried rice cereal the other day, but it didn't go over very well. We'll try again in a couple of weeks.

Here are her monthly pictures...

We're a little sad Daddy's not here to celebrate four months with us, but we know he is doing what is best for our family right now. His drive up to Ohio has been an absolute train wreck, but we hope today's leg of the trip goes as planned.

Happy four months, sweet pea.