Long time, no post!

We've had quite the busy fall!

Since we were last here, Adelaide went on her first real trip to Florida for Thanksgiving! We couldn't have asked for a better baby (except for maybe the flight home, when we were definitely those people on the plane). Everyone kept mentioning how happy Adelaide seemed - smiling all the time and a pure joy to be around. I'm glad people got to experience what we do with Adelaide every day! Words can't describe how she lights up our lives, and I'm so thrilled that the stress of traveling and new places/faces didn't change her mood!

Within the week after returning from Florida, Adelaide came down with her first illness. Not too bad for being in daycare since 6 weeks old, I think! She woke up last Thursday morning with a little bit of a cough. I thought she maybe felt a little warm, but she was acting fine, so we sent her off to daycare. Greg emailed me a couple hours into the morning saying that he had to go pick her up because the daycare noted a fever of 100.9. Later in the day, he measured 102.9. Ordinarily I wouldn't take her to the doctor, but having just come off a plane (and knowing how my childhood was filled with ear infections, especially after traveling), I thought it best just to make sure there wasn't anything brewing in the ear before the weekend. Everything checked out and she was sent home with Tylenol recommendations (for our 18-pound chunk!). Greg and I proceeded to get sick over the weekend (seemingly much worse than the little one), and we're continuing to cough and be stuffy a week later. Adelaide still coughs every now and then, but overall is doing much much better (and I'm thankful she never felt as bad as we did).

In the midst of all this badness, her first tooth (bottom right) finally cut through the gums on Saturday. Friday night was the worst night I think I've ever had with her - I was thinking she was maybe feeling bad from her cold, so I didn't want her to cry and get stuffed up/sore throat more than necessary. I ended up having to bring her into our bed to hold her all night so I could get a little sleep myself, but she never slept for more than 1-2 hours at a time. Lo and behold, in the morning there was a tooth. I think it was more likely pain from the tooth than her cold that was causing her to be so fussy all night. It's coming in slowly but surely - I'd say it's about 1/3 of the way in at this point. Hopefully all the future teeth won't be this hard on her, and hopefully they won't catch her when she's already down!

In terms of sleeping, she continues to improve. Naps vary quite a bit during the day - she can't figure out if she wants to take several short naps or fewer long ones and it changes almost daily. The daycare does a great job adjusting to her schedule, though, and we thank them up and down repeatedly for working with her on it. She still goes to bed around 6-7 PM, we're trying to push closer to 7 PM to make it easier for us to do things in the evening, but sometimes she can't make it that long. She usually wakes up 1-2 times at night to feed still, depending on when she goes to bed.

She is such a great little eater and eats/enjoys all her 6-month foods, including oatmeal, brown rice, barley, apples, pears, avocado, bananas, sweet potato, and peas. We've started trying some 7-month foods with her this week, only pumpkin so far, and she loves it! We've got some zucchini and yellow squash to work in soon, and then maybe some peaches or plums! We love our little cookbook for her which gives us great ideas about combinations and how to introduce new foods that may not taste as good at first (basically, for Adelaide, mix anything with banana and she'll like it soon!).

I think she's gonna be on the move soon. Just within the past week, whenever she sits on the floor, she immediately lunges forward to her hands. She's not able to hold her front up with her hands, but she will basically do leg pushups with her butt going up and down in the air trying to figure out how to move. It's so cute watching her get so frustrated with herself and her inability to move. We were so excited a few weeks ago when she was sitting stably enough that we could walk away and trust that she wouldn't fall over. This was short-lived, though, because now she's unsafe on any raised surface and will start crying soon after sitting because she can't move. I'm excited for her to crawl, but not excited about baby-proofing, so hopefully we'll make more progress on our house hunt this weekend, when we have some showings lined up with our realtor.

We're enjoying celebrating the first Christmas with our little one. I feel that I have more of the Christmas spirit with a young child around, which is very exciting! She lights up every morning when she comes downstairs to see the Christmas tree, and even though she doesn't understand any of it, it's fun to see her reactions to all this new stuff! I can't wait to take her to Cincinnati for the holidays and have her experience the Christmas traditions that her mama and dada have grown up with.

Teething (?) and rice cereal!

Before getting to the meat of the post, we're due for an update on sleep training. Last weekend was rocky and Sunday night seemed as if we had made no progress at all the previous week. The past few days, however, have shown much improvement. Last night was the best night, with 5 min of crying after Greg put her down to bed (after a bottle) at 6:30, a night nursing at midnight, no crying overnight, and a happy baby at 6 AM. Tonight's bedtime was a little worse because she didn't take good naps, but it was still <20 min of crying, which is a big improvement from 2 weeks ago. We're keeping our heads up and are pleased with the small bits of progress we've made so far.

Adelaide started drooling gobs of saliva last week and seemed a little fussier than normal in the afternoons. Maggie (her daycare teacher) noticed the same thing and thought that her upper teeth might be coming in. We can see little white bumps, but nothing seems close to breaking the surface. Regardless, she spends her days at daycare chewing on chilled toys. We got some for ourselves at home, and they're a big hit!

At Adelaide's last doctor's appointment, we discussed solids and were advised to hold off until 6 months since she was doing so well on just breast milk. Well, over the past week, she has decided that 5 ounces of milk every 2 hours is not enough to eat. This girl is way too hungry for just breast milk and she's showing all the signs of being ready to eat. Her 6 month appointment is in 2 days, and we'd have gotten permission then anyway.

We decided to start with rice cereal. We took brown rice, ground it in a blender, cooked it in water on the stove, then added formula to thin it out. At first, she wasn't quite sure what to do with it - making faces, spitting it out.

We tried later in the day with a little more progress, but she still wasn't too into it. In the afternoon, though, she started to really enjoy it.

For dinner, she ate a full serving of two tablespoons. Smiling as she chewed and swallowed, crying between bites with her mouth open, hungry for more.

We'll spend a couple more days with the rice, then the plan is to move onto oatmeal!

Night #6

I picked her up from daycare yesterday around 4:30. She had woken up from her last nap around 2:40. We got home, played a little, and decided to move in the direction of a walk when it was clear she was getting fussy. We normally like to take 2 loops on our walk, for about a mile, or 30 minutes. It was clear mid-way through our first loop, that we were going to cut this walk short. We struggled to keep Adelaide awake for the remaining 5 minutes of the walk, as she was appearing drugged and utterly unable to keep her eyes open. We went straight in to her evening feeding, skipping bath time for this sleepy head.

5:15 - Walk
5:30-5:45 - Nursed to sleep, though awakened and starting crying immediately upon placing in crib
5:45-6:05 - Cried to sleep (20 min)
9:20-9:40 - 1st nighttime nursing
1:15-1:30 - 2nd nighttime nursing
3:00-3:10 - 3rd nighttime nursing (I'm losing my resolve!)
5:30-5:45 - 4th nighttime nursing
7:00 - Woke up for the day

Total crying = 20 min
Total sleeping = 12 hours, 15 min

I need to be better about not going to her so often at night. I always feel bad, though, because what if she actually is hungry? She didn't eat as much during the day yesterday as normal, so I didn't want to deprive her at night. I'm sure she can survive without being fed for a little bit, though.

Night #5

Adelaide's last nap yesterday was in the afternoon, waking up at 2:45. She was in a good mood coming home from daycare and we played at home for a good 1-2 hours before she started getting sleepy. Several weeks ago (even last week probably), we would've tried to put her down for a nap, but now we know that getting tired this late should just mean an early bedtime.

5:00 - Bedtime routine (bath, nursed, fell asleep several times during nursing)
5:30 - Placed in crib awake
5:30-6:00 - Cried to sleep (30 min)
6:10-6:14 - Woke up and cried more (4 min)
9:00-9:10 - 1st nighttime nursing
1:00-1:10 - 2nd nighttime nursing
5:00-5:10 - 3rd nighttime nursing (3 is allowed when you go to bed at 5:30 I figure)
6:30 - Woke up on her own, happy

Total crying = 34 minutes
Total sleeping = 12 hours

Night #4

I had Grand Rounds last night, so Greg had to put Adelaide to bed. Days like this are so hard for me, because I know that when I'm with her those short 20 minutes in the morning, I won't interact with her again until the next morning.

5:15 - Bedtime routine (no walk due to rain, bath, bottle)
5:50 - Put in crib drowsy, but awake
5:50 - 6:15 - Cried to sleep
11:55 - 12:10 - 1st nighttime nursing
3:15 - 3:30 - 2nd nighttime nursing
7:00 - Woke her up for the day

Total crying = 25 minutes
Total sleeping = 12 hours, 15 minutes

Night #3

The daycare is now 100% on board with our sleep plan! I spent a long time detailing the plan with them through an email that they could continue to refer to. They printed it out, showed it to the higher ups at the daycare, and apparently everyone thought it was awesome! Great news for Adelaide, as consistency will help her learn faster. I don't know the nitty-gritty, but Adelaide cried herself to sleep for her naps yesterday at daycare and we were told that she did really well.

She ended up taking a late afternoon nap yesterday and woke up around 5 PM, so we couldn't get started on bedtime as early as the night before. This was also the first time I put her down to sleep at night when she wasn't initially sleeping at all (I could tell she was tired and wanted to sleep in my arms, it just wasn't moving that direction very fast).

6:00 - Bedtime routine (short walk, bath, nursed)
6:35 - Placed in crib after nursing, still awake, though tired
6:35-7:00 - Cried in crib - poor little thing has a hoarse voice now, so it sounds even more pathetic :(
7:00 - Asleep for the night!
12:00-12:15 - 1st nighttime nursing
3:10-3:25 - 2nd nighttime nursing
7:00 - Had to wake her from sleep to get up for the day

Total crying = 25 minutes
Total nighttime sleeping = 11.5 hours

Easy to see now that she has such an early bedtime and can easily sleep 11-12 hours that she must have been quite tired during the day after her other nights of only 9-10 hours of sleep a night. It's not the most convenient thing to have a baby that goes to sleep at 6 (makes it difficult to really do much of anything any evening), but that's what we signed up for when we decided to raise a little one, and I wouldn't trade anything for a happy, well-rested baby.

The daycare sent us this picture this morning in our emails. I feel so happy when I see Adelaide having a good day while her parents are at work. While I'm not sure anything could completely eliminate working mom guilt, it helps!

Night #2

5:15 - Normal bedtime routine (walk, bath, nursing)
6:05 - Fell asleep nursing, placed in crib
6:35 - Woke in crib crying
6:47 - Back to sleep!
11:55-12:10 - 1st nursing
4:10-4:20 - 2nd nursing
6:45 - Woke up for the day

Total crying = 12 min
Total sleeping = 12 hours

I'd say that's an improvement!

Extinction

We've been reading a fantastic book about sleep training - Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. I wish I had stumbled across it earlier, as I feel like I better understand my daughter and her unique personality.

As many close to us know, we have been struggling with sleep with the little one. Previously a "good" sleeper, the past month has been plagued with Adelaide waking up frequently and not returning to sleep easily. As any parents hate the sound of their baby crying, we opted for "no cry" sleep solutions to try first, including a firmer bedtime routine, the addition of a "lovey" tiger affectionately named Mr. Weasley, ocean sounds in the background, and more recently, Greg putting Adelaide to sleep (as Adelaide knows I have the goods). We diligently followed this new sleep plan for about 1 month with detailed sleep logs every ten nights. No improvement. In fact, maybe some worsening as she continues to grow and mature and the habits get worse.

In this new book, Dr. Weissbluth makes it clear that not every baby is the same, and "no cry" as well as "let cry" methods aren't appropriate for every baby. I always assumed that, when considering your parenting style, you either fall into one camp or the other. You either can't stand the thought of your baby crying or feel that it's ok. What I've come to realize is that these styles don't reflect parenting styles, rather they reflect the nature of the baby you are trying to help sleep. I don't think any parent likes to hear their baby cry, but for some, it's the only way. This is where we are with Adelaide.

What we've learned about Adelaide
-She is one of the 20% of babies that, prior to 4 months, could be labeled as extremely fussy/colicky.
-She now has an "intermediate" temperament - not easy, and not difficult.
-On the spectrum of babies at 4 months, she is slightly closer to the "harder to sleep train" category than the "easier to sleep train" category, purely on account of her colicky early weeks. (intermediately tempered babies that just had common fussiness are more likely to be able to sleep without requiring cry it out methods).
-Because of this, "no cry" sleep solutions are unlikely to work in getting her to establish good sleep habits (we could have told you that now, but it certainly makes us feel better as parents having an expert say it).

So what have we decided to do? Let her cry. We don't mess around, so we've decided to go for extinction. No frills attached, no gradual lengthening of cry times, no consoling. She cries until she goes to sleep.

We're one night in, and let me tell you, that girl is stubborn and persistent. Wonder where she got that from?

Granted, it was slightly unfair to her being that she had an out of the ordinary evening leading up to bedtime and was probably very overtired, causing more fussiness than normal. We decided though, that seeing that we knew that no cry solutions wouldn't work, wasting our time for yet another night was not helping anyone.

Night 1
7:40 - nursed to sleep in arms
8:00 - placed in crib
8:01 - 9:00 cry, cry, and more cry (occasional quiet spells leading to hope, only to be disrupted again by crying within minutes)
9:40 - 9:50 (after typical 40 minute nap length) - cry
2:00 - awoke, nursed to sleep (1st nighttime nursing, 2 are considered normal until 9 months)
2:25 - 2:35 - crying again
5:15 - awoke, nursed to sleep (2nd nighttime nursing), no crying back to sleep after this one
7:00 - woke her up from a deep sleep to be up for the morning (preserving the morning naptime is crucial in getting her on a good sleep schedule)

Total crying (hers, not mine) = 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total sleeping = 8 hours, 20 min

Hopefully tonight is better as we'll be able to put her to bed earlier. Or I may need to get out of the house. We'll keep you posted.

5 months

 It has been a while since we posted last, and a lot has changed! Adelaide has now completed almost 1 month at her new daycare - OSU childcare. It is going very well, and we consider the debacle with Nicole a blessing in disguise. Adelaide has been very pleasant during the days (or so we're told) and successfully eats nearly 3 times as much during the day. Amazing what patient caregivers who take the time to cater to infants' needs will do for your child! Not only has this been a great transition for Adelaide, but it is so much more convenient for us as well. Greg now works at OSU full time, and dropping Adelaide off is right on the way! I still try to help out with pick-ups and drop-offs when I can, but I appreciate the dedication and willingness Greg has to be the primary transporter for Adelaide. Just look at how cute the two of them are!





We've been working on Adelaide's sleep, as it seems she has hit what has been called the "4 month regression." She used to sleep very well even at 2 months old, usually going to bed around 9, waking up at 1, then usually at 4, then up for the day. In recent weeks, she has taken to waking up every couple hours, at times even every 40 minutes (basically after each sleep cycle). This can, apparently, be quite normal for babies of this age, as they are more aware of their environment when they wake up at night and realize that they are all alone in a dark room. We've been reading numerous books to try to get some insight and tips as to how to make this better without going straight to the cry-it-out method (which they don't really recommend until 6 months anyway). Progress is slow, especially when we make a log every 10 nights of her wakings and don't see any improvement. Last night, though, was her best night. She went to bed at 7:45 and didn't wake up until 1:00. Then she woke at 5 and went back to sleep until her normal 7:00 morning wake-up. Yay for sleeping through the night!

 

She is so much fun at this age. I think we're really starting to get a glimpse of her personality and it's so exciting. And, of course, we think she's cute as a button!

Square one

We received rather sudden news from our childcare provider today that Adelaide is "too needy" to be cared for by her any longer.

Could we have seen this coming? Perhaps. Over the past couple weeks, Nicole seemed to be pushing toward medicating Adelaide with reflux medication, as she was quite fussy during feedings. We followed her advice (despite being a doctor, I've never had an infant with reflux and she has, right?) and started Adelaide on Prevacid last week. The following week, Adelaide was reportedly "better," and pleasant to take care of. I noticed no difference in behavior, as she was never that fussy for us on the weekends or in the evenings as of late. This week, however, Nicole told us that she has been crying nearly nonstop during the day and isn't happy without attention 100% of the time - something Nicole cannot give while watching other children.

Who can blame the girl? She's getting more and more aware of her environment, wants to play and interact, and has little physical ability to entertain herself. I'd probably cry all day if I were her, too. Her pleasantness in the evenings and weekends proves to us and Nicole that she is simply not happy during the day in her current situation, which absolutely breaks my heart (as well as Nicole's).

So, where do we go from here? Nicole feels that, in her years of experience as a nanny, that one-on-one care would be best for Adelaide. We have no other babies to compare her to, and we've only ever taken care of 1 child at a time, so we're unable to determine if she's really that needy. I do know, however, that nanny care in our home is the closest to the care that we could provide if we did not work. And I know now, more than ever, that getting the right childcare situation for Adelaide is the most important priority in our lives right now. We would gladly sacrifice on almost any other front to make sure that she gets the attention that she deserves. In other words, we are willing to delay buying a house, paying back our loans quickly, going out to eat, taking nice vacations, getting new computers, practically almost anything...

Nicole will continue to watch her until we are able to find another situation that we are comfortable with. We all know that the worst thing for Adelaide would be to spend the next month jumping from provider to provider because we were too hasty in finding a new arrangement. We are hoping to have something worked out within the next month, and at this point, it looks like the safest way to go will be an in-home nanny. This will make, not only our lives easier, but will also help Adelaide be able to establish a routine and get 100% of the attention all the time. We know it will cost an arm and a leg, but as I mentioned above, she's the most important expense in our life right now.

We certainly know now, at nearly 4 months, much more about the kind of care needed for Adelaide than we did when she was still yet to be born. We're trying to see this just as a bump in the road of parenthood, something that couldn't have been avoided. Yet, it will be extremely hard over the next several weeks to drop Adelaide off, knowing that she won't have days filled with smiles and laughter.

3 months!

"Um...Dad...what are you doing?"

Wow, time has flown by! Adelaide increased her time on this planet by 50% and I have completed my first month of dermatology residency. Things are going well so far and, despite having a lot to learn, it is nice to know that I'm reading information relevant to the rest of my life. No more wasted time!

Adelaide is doing well. She seems to be getting less fussy, though she still has some nights that are somewhat rough. Even though we like to blame all aspects of her behavior on growth spurts, we really do think that she is going through one right now. The past several nights, she's been getting up more frequently to eat and her general mood has been a little fussier than normal. In general, though, she is a very happy baby and so much fun to spend time with! She has discovered her hands and likes to chew on them whenever possible. She has also started to be able to play a bit more interactively. Her favorite toys are her activity mat and the lizard on her robo chair. She loves sitting in that chair and we often see her gazing at the lizard with a smile on her face. It won't be long before she can make purposeful movements to touch it - right now it's just flailing of the arms with occasional touching of toys.

August looks to be a good month. This coming weekend she is getting baptized, so she'll get to meet Omi for the first time. Aunt Karen is coming to town and staying with us for the weekend, so it will be nice to have some extra hands around the house. We're excited that Kristen, Kyle, and Everett will be making the trip, too, especially since they just moved this weekend and have plenty of other stuff they could be doing.

Hopefully the weather will cool down slightly, because it's getting awfully rough being stuck inside due to the humidity. Neither I, nor Adelaide, do well with heat/humidity, but I want to be able to take her out more than she's getting. I don't want time to go by too fast, but I do want it to be fall soon!

Flared nostrils = imminent diaper change

2 months!

Whether you define 2 months as 8 weeks or as July 5, she's not technically at either yet (8 weeks tomorrow and July 5 in 6 days). She did, however, have her 2 month check-up today, which makes her, in my book, 2 months old. She weighs 12 pounds 1 ounce (82.9th percentile), is 22 inches long (44.5th percentile), with a head of 39 cm (62nd percentile). Everything is going as expected and her doctor says she's "perfect" every time she sees her.

Adelaide pre-appointment at 7 weeks, 6 days (happy)

She did receive her first major round of vaccinations today (has already had hepatitis B twice, once at birth and once at 1 month), which consisted of an oral vaccine and two whopping combo shots. I've never seen her so upset in her life. She was red as a tomato, shaking, with tears running down her face doing the silent cry for nearly 5 minutes. Every attempt to comfort her failed to provide even the slightest relief. I finally had to just pack her up in the car seat and make my way out of the office. Luckily, she fell asleep in the car on the short trip home. We have discovered since then that she is one of the 50% of babies that experiences drowsiness and lack of appetite after the pneumonia vaccine, as she's essentially slept for the past 7 hours, interrupted only by 2 small feedings and one bout of inconsolable, painful, heart wrenching cries mimicking her post-vaccination state. I hope tomorrow she feels better, as she's just so pitiful right now - sleeping with occasional whimpers.

In terms of her development, she continues to change daily. She's getting much more interactive and is awake for larger chunks of time during the day. She has mastered the social smile, but still needs to be in the right mood to flash it. She's experimenting with her voice with various coos throughout the day as well. She's doing well overnight and usually sleeps for an initial 4-hour period followed by a 3-hour period followed by a 2-hour period before she is rudely awakened by her intestines trying to poop. Practically like clockwork, when 6AM rolls around, she will be grunting loudly over the monitor. Because this sometimes distresses her, she earns a spot in Mom and Dad's bed early in the morning, so I don't have to keep getting up to comfort her. We got excited the other night because she slept for an initial 6-hour period, but that hasn't happened since. I think we're headed in the right direction, though. She seems to still feed every 2-3 hours, which is still considered "normal" for this age. During the day for naps, we've started to try to put her down when she's drowsy to teach herself to fall asleep. By and large she does ok, but we can only practice this if she's in a good drowsy mood and not a fussy drowsy mood, which is a rare occurrence. Her evening fussiness seems to be dying down slightly. She still is fussy, don't get me wrong, but her inconsolable crying seems to be spacing out. We've heard 3 months is a magical time. I certainly hope so. It's hard to not see her all day at work and then come home to only see her in that mood. 

Otherwise, things are all going well. I have finished Step 3, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. I have tomorrow off and then things get started with dermatology on Friday! It's what I've been waiting for, but I'll admit that I feel slightly less than competent right now, though I'm sure that will improve with time. Greg is working on studying for the GRE, as he's officially decided to push forward and apply to the low vision master's program at OSU (and I thought I would be the forever-student)! We'll be headed down to Cincinnati this weekend for a birthday party and a 4th of July celebration with the family!

Still here...

It's been longer than I had hoped between entries, so I just wanted to throw a quick one in to keep the readers checking in! I've been frantically cramming for Step 3 of the USMLE which I will take tomorrow and Tuesday, the last step before I can become an officially licensed physician in Ohio. I probably should have thought this through a little better and planned to take it earlier in the year rather than with a nearly 2-month-old, but sometimes you have to go with the flow! In addition to the stress of the exam itself (2 8-hour exam days), I need to try to squeeze in 3 pumping sessions and lunch in my 45 minutes of total break time (good thing I can pump hands free, cause my other hands will be feeding me lunch/snacks), all on a minimal amount of sleep! I started preparing for the exam with questions the day Adelaide was born. I chuckle a bit every time I open the question bank on my computer and it tells me the activation date was May 5 - takes me back to the craziness of that day and how everything was going so smoothly/normally before she decided to quickly make her appearance! In the time since then, I've been doing the questions when I can, between nursing and loving my daughter, and somehow I've managed to complete all 1600 of them. I don't feel nearly as ready for this Step as I did for the previous two, but luckily it's the least important. Let's hope for the best!

Colic or not...does it matter?

colic 

noun

severe, often fluctuating pain in the abdomen caused by intestinal gas or obstruction in the intestines and suffered esp. by babies.

You also hear definitions such as 3 hours of continuous crying for 3 days a week for 3 weeks. Or 3 hours of crying a day (not continuous). Does the definition really matter?

The word is meant to describe inconsolable crying in a young child. Adelaide certainly doesn't cry for 3 hours straight, and she hasn't been crying frequently for 3 weeks. And how are we to know whether she has pain in the abdomen? We are unable to reach a decision on whether to say she has colic or not, but labeling her behavior and its effect on us with a word is unnecessary. 

For the past week or so, Adelaide has been having periods occurring at random times during the day where she simply is inconsolable and has us with our arms in the air wondering what to try next. Is she overstimulated? Does she have gas? Is she tired? Is this normal fussing? It doesn't happen every day (but definitely most days), and she seems to be relatively distractible - we can take her on a walk and she'll settle, or take her to Cincinnati and she'll be an angel, making us think that maybe her fussiness was isolated. But the crying always returns and leaves us scratching our heads.

It's so easy to get frustrated with her and her inability to communicate and our inability to help her, which is why I'm avoiding labeling her a "colicky" baby. I think that has connotations that she simply fusses and is hard to care for. I truly believe she is uncomfortable in some way and that is why she cries, which makes it even harder for us to listen to her scream, knowing that she is probably hurting. We do our best to just hold her during these times, hoping that she understands that no matter how much pain she's in and how much noise she makes, she's loved. We may not know every parenting trick, but we do know how to love, and that's all we can do, right?

Bath time

After Adelaide got home from the hospital, we started doing sponge baths because her umbilical stump was still healing. We decided on a twice-weekly schedule, as she's not really that dirty, but we did want to start developing some sort of routine for her. She tolerated these sponge baths relatively well...so well that we were hesitant to move away from them and transition to "real" baths because they were so easy and well-tolerated.

We started doing "real" baths, nevertheless, a couple weeks ago. Let me say that she LOVES bath time. There have been times that she is the fussiest baby leading up to the bath, but the second we get her upstairs and take her clothes off, she gets so excited for her bath that she forgets what she was crying about only seconds before. We keep thinking that maybe her mood has been a fluke (what newborn baby likes to be naked and have water dumped on them?), but we have now done 4 tub baths and have determined that yes, she truly does enjoy bath time.

We still make the baths relatively short to not press our luck, but we are able to adequately clean her (aside from her extraordinarily long neck with paper thin skin and a million creases that love to hide breast milk remnants). After her bath, we wrap her in her warm hooded towel.

After her diaper is put on and her body is sufficiently moisturized (given my skin and fear that she may have inherited it), we put her in her after-bath attire - a lightweight sleep sack and hat that mandates "she's so cute" utterances repeatedly every time she dons it. 

We like bath time, too.

Pacifier

The title says it all...we caved.

We had initially determined not to use a pacifier, wanting Adelaide to find ways to self-soothe and comfort herself, not becoming reliant on a piece of plastic that falls out, gets lost, and requires another human to replace. I think we did pretty well for 3 weeks without a pacifier. She has a strong urge to suck, however, something ingrained in infants to facilitate nursing. She has no conscious control over this reflex until several months of age and it is her primary way to soothe herself when she's tired, uncomfortable, etc. I really don't mind being her human pacifier, which is the role I've served willingly for the past 3 weeks. As a result, I have an abundant supply of milk, which really is the ultimate goal of this reflex of hers. I, however, will be returning to work next week and not around to soothe the little lady, which, in addition to breaking my heart, mandates another solution.

We have decided to use a pacifier in a limited manner - only when napping/sleeping/periods of restful waking, and really only if she wants/needs it. We are avoiding the pacifier during her alert states, because we hate the thought of her eventually running around and playing with it in her mouth. All throughout the day yesterday, I felt like we had failed as parents, not able to stay true to the first parenting decision we had made. Yet when I see how calm she gets when she has it in her mouth, I can't help but feel it's the right decision. We're certainly not going to use it in place of parenting and our own attempts at soothing and interpreting her cries. She doesn't seem to cry just to cry, so we're thankful for that and will continue to try to decipher her cries to better be able to meet her needs.

I do want to mention that she did sleep for 4 hours, then 3 hours last night - both without the pacifier. It seems like it's most useful for naps during the day, when we know she needs one but she can't calm herself enough to fall asleep.

We successfully introduced a bottle to her over the weekend and will try to do one a day in preparation for me going back to work. She drank an entire 2 ounce bottle from Greg yesterday morning without taking a break, followed by more nursing from me, so we're starting to think that her stomach capacity may be closer to 3 ounces. She has started to spit up a bit more and usually has 1 large-volume spit up (as in her entire feeding) every other day or so. Yesterday as we were eating breakfast, about 30 minutes after she had eaten, we heard what sounded like some spit up. Sure enough, we walked over to her crib and found her laying in a large puddle of milk mandating an entire wardrobe change and mini bath. We think right now that she may have a little bit of reflux, though we're not entirely sure. She certainly doesn't seem bothered by these events.

We have her 1 month checkup on Monday and look forward to seeing how she's been growing, since she's certainly bigger to us. In fact, we've had to retire her newborn clothes! Hard to believe our little baby is growing so quickly.

2 weeks old

It's hard to believe how quickly time flies in the life of a newborn. Adelaide continues to grow and develop her personality day-by-day. Here is a bit of what she's doing now:

-She continues to eat very frequently (every 1-2 hours) during the day and seems to have an unquenchable thirst for milk. This may bother some, but I enjoy the closeness I get to have with her so often. She generally gets up every 2-3 hours at night to nurse.
-She sleeps well in her crib at night and often can be put down while still awake after nursing and fall asleep on her own. She prefers to be held and loved during the day, though, and is not as willing to nap in her crib when there are arms to be in.
-She has 2-3 periods of active/awake time each day that last about 2 hours each. She has her tummy time during these periods, but otherwise is content observing what's going on in someone's arms or lap.
-She gets uncomfortable gas pains from time to time and stiffens/arches her back and can be quite unconsolable. Mylicon drops seem to make a world of difference.

Luckily the weather took a turn for the better today and we were able to get outside and get some fresh air, which was a welcome change of pace from being cooped up inside. She's still too young to go out in enclosed spaces with such a susceptible immune system, but some fresh air outside is good for everyone. We took a walk around Antrim Lake, about 5 minutes from our house, with Adelaide being carried by Greg in the Baby Bjorn. She slept like a baby the entire time from house to Lake and back. Despite our walk being around a man-made lake within sight/sound of OH-315, we did manage to see Baltimore orioles, a cowbird, and a cedar waxwing. Here are some pictures of Adelaide and Greg and some video of her 2nd week of life.

 
Adelaide - 2 weeks from Greg and Katya Hopkins on Vimeo.

1 week old

It's hard to believe that our sweet little Adelaide is already a week old. Though not a long period of time, she has had quite some adjusting to do from life in the womb to life in the real world. We are really getting a sense of her demeanor, and multiple encounters with professionals that are used to interacting with many babies have commented on her excellent disposition. She is really quite a happy baby, crying only when she's been uncomfortable with some indigestion. When she's hungry, she only whimpers slightly and does her characteristic snorting, which we find adorable (one of the many things that is only adorable at this age before it becomes simply strange).

She eats pretty consistently every 2 hours through the day and night and has quite a voracious appetite. She successfully regained her birth weight plus 3 ounces by the time she was a week old, thanks to her hearty milk intake. Many times nursing she tries to eat so quickly that she gets very out of breath and starts squeaking as she tries to inhale the milk as quickly as possible. Now that she is 9 days old, she has entered her first growth spurt (typically around 7-10 days old) and is eating closer to every 1-2 hours during the day. It makes it hard to do much of anything productive during the day, but I really don't mind all this closeness I get to share with her during this period, as I'm sure I will miss it greatly when I have to go back to work.

We have successfully transitioned to cloth diapers, which seems to be going quite well. Due to her frequent eating, we go through a ton of diaper changes a day, and I'm glad that we aren't having to use that many disposables. We plan on keeping the disposables handy, though, for traveling and other times that cloth diapering may be difficult. I did experience her first "poo-splosion" today during a diaper change. As I was taking away her dirty diaper, she decided to explosively pee and poo at the same time with quite some force, causing me to jump and shooting her poo roughly 4 feet, splattering the wall next to her crib. She, of course, was calm as ever during this time.

In addition to her eating, sleeping, and pooping, we have started to do some daily tummy time. She tolerates it quite well and has shown how strong she is already. She is able to completely lift her head and turn it from side to side if she feels like it. We hope that time spent on her tummy at this age will help her tolerate tummy time well in the future.

Here is some video of her first time on her activity mat.

Activity Mat - 6 days old from Greg and Katya Hopkins on Vimeo.

The world welcomes Adelaide Lea...

Over the course of the past year since our last post about vacationing in Hawaii, life has been anything but a vacation. We have been busy adjusting to our new lives in the real world, making use of our professional educations, making money for the first time, and, most importantly, making a new life that we had the excitement of meeting on May 5, 2011. This post may be long, but I think such a miracle of life deserves it.

The Pregnancy
We had planned on trying to get pregnant during the summer of 2010, with the goal of having a baby prior to starting my dermatology residency. We could not have been more fortunate for the timing that occurred, when I found out I was pregnant on September 13 with a due date of May 15, exactly 6 weeks before my dermatology start-date.

Initially I was worried about the effects of pregnancy on my ability to work, but I am pleased to say that, aside from occasional nausea, I did not have any morning sickness. I did notice that I had frequent headaches and was absolutely exhausted until about December, but what intern isn't? I did not have a non-pregnant intern life to compare to how I was feeling, so I went with it and took how I was feeling to be a combination of creating a new life and working 80 hours a week.

I was able to work unhindered at the level of my non-pregnant colleagues until delivery. In fact, I had my last 30-hour overnight call when I was 37+5 weeks (unbeknownst to me, I would deliver in 6 days). At my 37 week check-up, Dr. Pool said that I was 1-cm dilated and 50% effaced, a good start. I remained the same at my 38 week check-up. We tentatively made plans to schedule an induction for May 20, in the event that I did not spontaneously go into labor before then.

Labor
On Tuesday, May 3, a day after my doctor's appointment, I began having painful contractions around 9:30 PM. None of my Braxton Hicks contractions, which I had been having since the late 2nd trimester, were ever painful, so I knew that something was starting to happen. Throughout the night, they got more frequent and intense. Around 3AM, I told Greg that we would likely need to go into the hospital soon, as my contractions were regularly 5 minutes apart. We arrived at triage around 5AM, when they hooked us up to the tocometer and the fetal heart tones monitor. My exam was unchanged from my appointment earlier in the week, however after an hour of contracting every 5 minutes, I did dilate to 2-cm and was 80% effaced. They had me get up and walk for an hour, but another exam following the walk was unchanged. Dr. Pool was called and updated and we were told that I was likely in early labor, but not changed rapidly enough right then to require admission. They offered us the option of getting admitted and waiting for active labor versus going home to a more comfortable setting and returning when things seemed to intensify. As early labor can last up to 72 hours, we chose to go home and forgo the possibility of waiting out early labor in the hospital.

I slept for a short while after getting home from the hospital on Wednesday, May 4. As the day progressed, my contractions got more irregular and less frequent, though I never went more than an hour without at least one contraction. By the night of May 4, I was contracting roughly every 15-20 minutes. I was too uncomfortable to go to work on May 5 with the frequent contractions, but I decided to accompany Greg to campus in the event that, should something should happen, I wouldn't have to drive myself to the hospital. I sat in the library all day studying for USMLE Step 3 amidst contractions occurring anywhere from every 7-15 minutes. Greg's work day came to an end around 4PM, and we left for home, as I was contracting about every 8 minutes at the time.

Almost immediately upon arriving home, my contractions seemed to intensify (process of walking to the parking garage?). I laid down on the couch and starting timing them and noted them to be pretty regular at 4 minutes apart. Greg started preparing some leftovers for dinner and I told him that we'd be going to the hospital after dinner. I was really unable to eat much of anything due to lack of an appetite and the frequency of what were now increasingly uncomfortable contractions. We left for the hospital immediately after Greg finished eating and arrived at triage around 5:45 PM.

We had the same triage nurse as the day before. My check at 6 PM showed that I was 5 cm dilated. Dr. Pool was notified and the decision was made to admit me to L&D. I was told that I could receive the epidural at any point now, and I elected to receive it right then, as I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. As I was getting wheeled to my L&D room, I was told that Dr. Pool may decide to artificially break my water to speed up the process.

In the birthing suite, I started getting my initial evaluation by the nurses and my IV was placed. Within 5 minutes, the floodgates opened and my water broke spontaneously. From this point onward, the delivery is somewhat of a blur. They quickly checked me to find that I was nearly completely dilated. The anesthesiologist poked his head in for the epidural and was told that he may not be needed anymore. They called Dr. Pool again to update her on my quick progression, and she told them that if I still wanted the epidural, that I could have it. The pain was unbearable at this point with contractions within minutes of each other, so I opted to proceed with the epidural, as that was my birthing plan all along. The epidural went in without any difficulty, though the baby's head was starting to crown at that very moment. I remember the anesthesiologist giving a small test dose of the medication and asking if the heart rate on the monitor was mine or the baby's. Her heart rate had dropped significantly, most likely from her head being compressed. Dr. Turner (Dr. Pool's partner) luckily happened to have just finished a C-section and noticed that one of her patients was in labor. She poked her head in the door and before you knew it, was gowned up and asking me if I was ready to push. I had 2 contractions and little Adelaide was welcomed into the world at 7:30 PM, an hour and a half after arriving in active labor. Dr. Pool arrived as Adelaide was being placed in my arms for the first time. Dr. Turner told me that if anyone asks if I had an epidural, the answer is no. I stayed in the birthing suite for 1.5 more hours as the epidural took effect and then wore off (you have to be able to get out of bed on your own before getting out of labor and delivery).

Our Miracle
Adelaide has been an absolute blessing in our lives. She is everything we could have ever wanted and more. To look in her eyes and know that she is yours is such an unbelievable feeling. She is now nearly a week old and I already feel that the time is passing too fast. It feels like such a tremendous responsibility to raise a child, but I just have to trust my instincts and what my body knows to do, as it's gotten me this far. Until then, we'll be trying to update this regularly with our trials and tribulations of our parenting journey.


Adelaide Lea from Greg and Katya Hopkins on Vimeo.