Annabella had her two month check up yesterday. She was 23 inches long and weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces. She was 10 pounds 7 ounces at her wic appointment that was two days before that. The wic people said she’s borderline not gaining enough weight. The doctor said it was fine and not to worry about it, but if it was bothering me I could go ahead and put her on rice cereal to help her gain. Since it seems like she doesn’t eat very often enough (and when she does she still only eats two ounces at a time) I have started putting rice cereal in her bottles. I don’t know if it’s helping yet, but she seems to like it. Lets hope my baby gets fatter!
The doctor’s were all really impressed with how alert and “grown up” she was. The nurse said she acted way older than two months by the way she was weight bearing and cooing and so alert and aware of her surroundings. She loves to stand up if you just balance her so she doesn’t topple over. The doctor was impressed because when she clicked her tongue to get her attention, Annabella clicked hers back. The doctor said “Oh she’s a smart baby!”
Then I betrayed my baby and got the worst look from her ever. They gave her two shots, one in both legs, and she was absolutely devastated. She was in such a good mood at the appointment and then she got sort of fussy when they held her down then they stuck the needles in and it was awful. She was just so shocked that anyone would ever try to hurt her, especially with her momma watching. I felt so bad.
She was cranky and sore the rest of the night but this morning she woke up smiling and happy again. I finished her nursery today. It looks so awesome. I love it. I even moved in her furniture and stuff. The closet doors need to be hung but other than that it’s the first room done in the whole house. I’ll try and post pictures soon.
She has a pretty set sleeping schedule now. She goes down for the night at midnight and just wakes up about every three hours to eat until ten. She hardly ever has any fits anymore and is a pretty happy baby. She’ll sleep in the pac and play about half the night but she still sleeps with me. She started smiling around 6 weeks and I can tell she really wants to start laughing soon.
She had her first playdate today, sort of! Dugger came over with Ashdon and they’re baby. Dugger was playing Metal Gear with Jon so me and Ashdon hung out with our babies. Ashdon and me have a pretty rocky past (she hated me and talked shit about me) BUT~ When you both have a baby in common you can talk for hours. Annabella and Hattie were sooo cute together too. We put them on the floor on a blanket and they held hands and Hattie kept holding onto Annabella’s arm. It was so sweet. I videotaped it:
She’s also very good at making a ducky noise. QUACK.
Her favorite song is How much is that Doggy in the Window. She likes to listen to it to go to sleep. I know the whole song!
I made up a new song for her today, to the tune of Old McDonald had a farm. It goes:
Old Steve Irwin had a Zoo
E-Y-E-Y-O
And on his zoo he had a (Insert zoo animal)
and it always ends with:
Old Steve Irwin had a zoo
E-Y-E-Y-O
and in this zoo he had a STINGRAY
E-Y-E-Y-O
with a JAB JAB here
and a JAB JAB there
here a JAB there a JAB everywhere a JAB JAB
Old Steve Irwin had a zoo
E-Y-E-Y-O
We had our wic appointment today. It took forever. They weighed both of us. Annabella is now up to 9 pounds exactly! She is growing so fast. She hasn’t gotten any longer or anything though. I got weighed for the first time since she came out and I’m down to 144 lbs. My pre-pregnancy weight was138 lbs and my end of pregnancy weight was 176 lbs. Not too bad.
Since I told them I was supplementing a little bit with formula her wic includes 3 12 oz tubs of formula a month. I asked for lactose-free, thinking that that would be what she needed because of her milk allergy only to go home and find out that it isn’t the lactose in the milk that she is allergic too, but the milk protein. The internet said that it is extremely rare for any baby to be lactose-intolerant since breast-milk itself contains lactose, but most are just allergic to milk-protein. You’d really think the wic people (nurses and a nutritionist) would have known that. So now I have 40 dollars worth of free lactose-free formula and nothing to do with it. I’m experimenting with it on Annabella though, maybe it will still be at least easier for her to digest or something. I don’t know. My only other option is to put her on soy formula and I’m not sure wic gives soy formula vouchers, and, even if they did, the long-term effects of soy formula are still questionable. There have been studies indicating it may have side effects, apparently.
So if the lactose free doesn’t work out, I guess we’re back to exclusively breastfeeding and since she is STILL not wanting to take to the breast all the time anymore, for whatever reason (she loves bottles) I guess I’m going to have to pump and bottle feed. Lazy little girl. The good news is that the health department gave me an AWESOME breastpump. It’s a medela. They retail for about 150$. It’s really awesome. The pump I was using took about an hour to pump out 2 ounces. I got 6 ounces out in under 10 minutes with the Medela and it was free. It’s also a double pump so I can pump both boobs at one time. It’s really efficient.
She’s still having fussy in the evening time. It’s not as bad as it was (constant inconsolable crying) but she’s still not back to her normal schedule. Tonight though she is acting a little different. I guess it’s because we’ve been out all day. It’s midnight and she’s still awake and being fussy. Usually she calms down as soon as Brian gets home from work and picks her up. I guess I upset her sleep schedule for the day.
So, Annabella is 3 weeks and 2 days old today. After eliminating milk from my diet, I found out that she did not have colic and it was in fact just a food allergy to milk. The doctor says as her digestive system matures though she should eventually lose the allergy. So I’ve cut out dairy from my diet. Unfortunately, apparently her nightly fits were what was getting her to sleep so well at night, so the first two days after cutting out dairy she was pretty much awake all night, which sucked.
Also, I’ve been going over to my house in the evenings to paint and mom has been watching her and while I’ve been gone they’ve been bottle feeding her pumped milk. Apparently this was a mistake, because now she pretty much refuses the breast and demands a bottle. I gave her formula last night and it seems to help her sleep better at night and I pumped this morning. So I guess she isn’t going to be exclusively breastfed anymore because I can’t pump near as well as she can nurse. She’ll take the breast occasionally, so I guess I’m just going to have to pump and supplement with formula. Although I can’t say that it isn’t going to be a bit more convenient, I would have liked to have kept her exclusively breast fed a bit longer. As it is though, it takes me about an hour to pump what she could get out by sucking in ten minutes.
So I guess I have failed at exclusively breastfeeding. I’m going to keep trying though, hopefully she’ll remember her love for the boobie. If not, at least it makes it so that other people can feed her easily other than me. It takes me like two days to pump enough for a supply for me to just leave the house for 5 hours. Oh well. Formula has its pros, I guess. I’ll just try to get her to take as much breastmilk as possible, she seems to be more open to the idea in the day time, I guess because no one has been bottle feeding her during that time.
The good news though is that her nightly fits are gone and she’s back to being a good baby, although she is awake and alert a ridiculously large amount of the time.
Annabella had check-up doctor’s appointment on the third. I knew she had been growing a lot because she looks so much bigger and feels so much heavier and the doctor confirmed that. She has went from 7 pounds 6 ounces to, as of Tuesday, 8 pounds 7 ounces. She’s gained a whole pound in just two and a half weeks! She’s also went from being 19 1/2 inches to being 22 inches. My baby girl is growing so fast!
Unfortunately, the doctor thinks she either has colic or a food allergy. Since she was about a week and a half old she’s taken to throwing inconsolable crying fits from about 6 in the evening to midnight. Sometimes they don’t last as long, but they are always at least two hours. During these fits no amount of holding, rocking, singing, feeding, burping, changing, etc. will calm her. She does stop crying if I or mom sings to her, but only while we are singing. The minute we stop she starts wailing again. Her favorite song right now is Where did you sleep last night but she also likes Lake of Fire. She likes the vocals in the former and the music in the latter. Apparently she’s a Nirvana fan, or, at least, a covers that Nirvana has done fan.
It’s really stressful when your baby is crying and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it and you just have to hold her for hours. I just feel so bad for her and it also gives me a headache. I just wish there was something I could do. But I’m managing. At least it isn’t in the middle of the night, or so I thought. Last night she threw a mini fit around 5 in the morning. I’m hoping that was just because Nanny was up and it threw off her schedule. She also only cried from 9-11 last night.
Her doctor said 1 week old was a little young to start colic, so she thought it may be a food allergy to something I’m eating. So she told me to stop eating any dairy products, chocolate, nuts, and all caffeine. I’m not entirely sure what that leaves me to eat, so I’m eating Ramen for breakfast. I don’t think that has any of the above in it.
She’s still just so perfect and sweet during the day time and I know it could be so much worse. She had her first babysitter on Monday! Jerica came over and watched her while mom and I painted my house. It was really terrifying leaving her alone with someone other than family, but Jerica seemed to do a good job and I really need to get my house done.
Yesterday it seemed like she was really trying to smile about three seperate times, so I think she might start smiling soon. I really can’t wait. I’ve started reading to her but everyone makes fun of me cause I’m reading her Terry Pratchett and mom says I read way to fast for her. If nothing else, it at least puts her to sleep and she does seem to enjoy listening to me talk, even if she can’t understand it.
Annabella Blue is two weeks old today. It seems like she’s grown so much! It’s unbelievable how fast she is changing just day by day. She seems bigger and more alert every time I wake up in the morning! Last night she slept very good, although I am fairly convinced she has her nights and days mixed up. In the day time she can go three hours without waking up but at night she wakes me up about every hour and a half to eat.
She has a few periods of alertness throughout the day now, rather than sleeping constantly like she did the first week. These usually last an hour although a few days ago they lasted three hours and ended in a fit. She usually just wants to be held and look at you while she’s alert. She likes her swing sometimes, but she has to be in the mood for it, otherwise she just bawls. Towards the end of her alertness she always starts crying and either wants to eat or go to sleep.
Today we were taking pictures and she wouldn’t wake up for anything, but right after my camera battery died she woke right up. I really wanted some open eyed pictures so I made Jon go get me some batteries and I was able to get a few good ones. Her eyes are so huge! Every day her facial features become more developed and I stillc an’t decide who she looks more like. She definitely has Brian’s lips though and there is no way she got those huge eyes from me. Her hair is getting longer and I really hope she doesn’t lose it like Meagan’s baby is. I’m really curious as to whether her hair and eyes will stay Brian’s color or turn dark like mine.
She seems to be learning to save up her poo so that she doesn’t blow out a diaper every single time she gets fed. For a while there I was changing her before I fed her then having to change her again cause she would poo while I fed her. Now she only goes about 6 times a day instead of around 12.
Nursing is going a lot better than it did the first week. I’m so glad I stuck with it. I can’t imagine having to formula feed, it seems so inconvenient. It also makes me feel so bonded to her and makes me feel special because it’s something only I can do. I thought it would be awful having to feed every two hours for up to thirty minutes at a time, which is supposed to be average nursing times for a newborn, but Annabella is apparently a really efficient nurser. She’s never taken longer than 10 minutes. Although she eats almost every hour and a half at night, in the day time she goes 2-3 hours between feeding (Although she does cluster nurse sometimes in the afternoon). My milk supply is in very good now and I can easily pump four ounces in about 10 minutes. I’ve been doing this the last two days so that mom can watch her for a few hours while I go paint. Although for the first week I was breast and formula feeding, for the last week I’ve been exclusively breastfeeding and intend to keep it that way. Formula makes her fussy (I think it was the culprit behind the 5 hour-long fits two days in a row because at the end of the fit she spit up a crapload of formula).
I’m amazed at how strong she is and how fast she is developing. If I put her on her belly on my chest she can lift her head up for a few seconds and can even manage to get up on her elbows for a fleeting moment or two. She is also able to scoot her way up my torso through a lot of effort. She can lift her head up and root around until she finds a nipple too. She’s getting so big.
Supposedly baby’s can recognize your voice at two weeks and I think Annabella can recognize mine. When I’m not holding her she’ll turn her head if she hears my voice and though she isn’t smiling yet I can see recognition on her face when she sees me. I can’t wait to see her first smile!
