Day 56: Dinner With Preston

Tonight we went and had Korean food with our good friends Laura and Michael. This is their adorable son Preston taking a picture with Lauren.

Day 55: I Can Stand Up

Lauren started crawling right at 6 months and has not stopped moving since. She is all over the place when she's on the floor, and has even started to pull herself up (with a little help.) Here she is standing up after pulling herself up on my leg. She's growing up way too fast.

Day 54: I'm Running Out of Ideas

I don't know how many sleeping shots I have so far in this blog, but I'm sure it's a lot. I keep forgetting to take her picture until after she's asleep. I need to get creative.

Day 53: Never Say Never

Before Lauren was born, there were so many things I swore I would not do. I would never let my child wear a disposable diaper (after the rash she had, we had no choice for awhile), I would not think about giving her formula (after my freezer stash of milk ran out I had no choice), and I would never, ever let my child sleep in my bed (ha, ha, ha, that joke was on me). When I went back to work after maternity leave, that last "never" changed real quick. No way was I going to wake up and get out of bed in the middle of the night to feed her when I could just roll over and not really even have to wake up. Well after a couple weeks she started sleeping through the night, but by then she was just so used to being with us that I didn't have the patience to make her sleep in her crib. Fast forward 4 months and the child is still sleeping with us. It hadn't been a big deal until recently because she has become so mobile. We have a king sized bed and this 14 lb. 11oz. baby takes up about 3/4 of it. We are going to give transitioning her to her crib a shot over spring break when I don't have to wake up at 6:00 in the morning, but until then we will just have to deal with this monster we have created.

Day 52: The Apple

I can already tell that Lauren is going to be the kid who wants to play with the box way more than the toy that came in it. This child can be surrounded by toys and she wants to go for the one thing in the room she is not supposed to have, like the computer cord, or the laptops. Today it was Daddy's apple. As soon as she saw it she was mesmerized and would not take her eyes off of it. JJ let her hold it and after that she wanted nothing else. She chased that thing around, ignoring all the other toys that were in the room. It was really cute watching her crawl all over the living room playing with her new "toy".

Day 51: A Little Over 6 Months Old

I was a little late on this picture, but that's what happens when you are working full time, being a mom, doing cloth diaper laundry on top of regular laundry, attempting to make your own baby food, and trying to get everything else done too. Some things are just forgotten, like Lauren's 6 month pictures, but better late than never. In 6 months Lauren has gone from a perfect little newborn who hardly ever cried, to an infant who can roll all over the place, crawl, has two little bottom teeth, and throws the occasional tantrum. It's amazing how much they change in such a short period of time. She has even developed quite the little personality, which you can see by the face she's making. I absolutely love my little 6 month old.

Day 50: More friends

 

Today we had lunch with some of the other August moms and their adorable babies. 

Day 49: Lauren and Axel

Tonight we got together with our friends that we met in our birthing class. Lauren and Axel have known each other since they were born, but this is the first time that they actually sat up together. I think it's adorable how she's trying to reach out for him.

Day 48: Day with Daddy

JJ came home early from work today so he and Lauren got to spent some quality time together.

Day 47: Sick Day

With vaccinations come possible side effects. When Lauren got her 2 month and 4 month shots we were able to dodge that bullet, but this time around we weren't so lucky. When we got home she seemed to be okay, but that night she woke up crying and sure enough she had a low grade fever. At about 3:00 in the morning I knew I was going to have to call in to work because she wouldn't even let me put her down. She spent the day sleeping, taking tylenol, and more sleeping. That afternoon her Emo (that means aunt in Korean) came to spend some time with her. That made her happy as you can see in the picture. Thank goodness the fever only lasted about 24 hours, after that Lauren was good as new.

Day 46: 6 month shotsI

Leaving work early usually make me very happy, except when the reason for it is because I have to take Lauren to get her shots. Lauren got measured and weighed first, she's 26" long and only 14 lbs. 11 oz. When it came time for her shots she did really well. She cried a little then I fed her and she went right to sleep. My baby girl is growing up so fast.

Day 45: Valentines Day

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Lauren's first Valentines Day, and no that is not a real cookie. Our cousin Lucy, who is also Lauren's sitter, likes to make me think she's giving Lauren treats like cookies and french fries, but it's always fake.

Day 44: Bath Toys

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This was Lauren's first bath sitting up by herself, and her first time playing with bath toys.

Day 43: Lauren is 6 Months Old

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We started Lauren's 6 month birthday by getting all cleaned up in the bath. Happy half birthday Lauren!

Day 42: Aunt Cindy

My aunt Cindy is one very special person to me, and I know she will be to Lauren as well. She and my uncle Bobby live in Illinois, but are living in Texas for the winter. She has been waiting to meet Lauren since she was born and finally got the chance to come up to Houston this weekend. We were a little worried that Lauren might have some stranger anxiety since she's at that age, but she took to Cindy right away. My aunt just has a way with babies. Here is Lauren asleep on her shoulder. She loves her aunt Cindy already.

Day 41: Lauren's Purple Cup

The toy kitchen that is right behind Lauren has become on of her favorite toys, well a part of it is anyway. It came with several pieces of "food" and a little purple cup. She has seriously become obsessed with the purple cup and will chase it all around her room.You can kind of see it behind the lion's left paw.

Day 40

Lauren's hair is always a little crazy in the morning. This is Lauren getting ready, and trying to crawl off of the changing table.

Day 39: Another Picture Taken in Bed

Today was a pretty busy day and I really wanted to get an "after bath" picture, but it just didn't happen. When I finally got a minute to take a picture she was already asleep for the night, so another sleep shot it was. On a good note though, I took Lauren to her follow up appointment today and her pediatrician said that she seemed to be doing great. Her only concern was that Lauren is not gaining enough weight. She started in the 90th percentile and has steadily gone down. She is now in the 25th percentile so she wants me to add a feeding while Lauren is with Lucy (her sitter). I have enough trouble pumping 4 bottles a day as it is (which is how much she's eating right now), so we will be adding formula to her diet. Thankfully her doctor gave me like 6 cans of samples so that should last us awhile. That stuff is not cheap.

Day 38: Lauren's New Toy

Lauren has become somewhat obsessed with our laptops. Every time one of us is on our computer she immediately loses interest in whatever she is doing and makes her way over to where we are. Luckily I have an old laptop, that doesn't really work anymore, to keep her occupied so that her daddy and I can get our "work" done. Here she is looking like a big girl with her new toy. Hopefully it will be awhile before she realizes that it doesn't really work.

Day 37: Super Bowl Sunday

If you know my family very well, you know that JJ is not a huge sports fan. As much as I love that I don't have to lose him to the TV every Sunday night, or hear him talk about fantasy football (which I still don't really understand), it does make me kind of sad since I grew up with a dad who was a football fanatic. I honestly think that the majority of my dad's wardrobe consisted of black and silver Raiders T-shirts. He even had his 1970 El Camino painted black and silver in honor of his favorite team. So, when JJ sat down with Lauren to watch the Super Bowl it brought back so many wonderful memories of me watching football with my dad, and even made me wish that he was a football fan so that Lauren could have some of the same experiences that I did. I know that my dad would be so happy to see his granddaughter watching the game with her dad, even though his favorite team came nowhere near making it to the Super Bowl this year.

Day 36: Lauren's Shades

After we got home from the hospital we went to church with Lauren. This is a picture of her in her new shades. So happy that she is completely back to being her normal self. I love my baby girl.

Day 35: ER Visit at Texas Children's Hospital

All through the early morning Lauren did not sleep well. She was up almost every hour crying, well actually more like screaming. She continued to vomit and looked awful. Last night we were thinking that she was constipated, but once the vomiting started we figured it was probably a stomach virus, and JJ's google searches led us in that direction as well.
At 6:00 am we woke up to change her diaper and found something that resembled red jelly. It was basically nothing but bloody mucus. When I saw that, my stomach dropped and I told JJ we needed to take her in like NOW! 
We got her ready and got on the road, the wet, icy road. Houston gets ice maybe once a year, and of course it had to be on this morning that we were taking Lauren all the way across the city. When we came up to the I-10 overpass we had to exit an on-ramp because it was closed due to all the ice. We ended up taking side roads and finally got to the hospital. The girl who checked us in asked all kinds of questions and they took her vitals. From the ER they made us go to a part of the hospital called the "Fast Track" area. I had never heard of that, but it seemed kind of serious at that point since we didn't have to wait 2 hours to see a Dr. like you normally would in an ER. 
When we got there a PA came in and looked over Lauren. She immediately told us that it could be a stomach virus, or something called Intussusception (this is where the intestine folds in on itself like a telescope). She also told us that they needed to start an IV just in case in was Intussusception since they would have to do the procedure to fix it right away if that was the case. At that point I really started to get scared, I had never heard of this condition before and certainly did not want my baby to be stuck with a needle if it wasn't necessary. So, she called in a nurse and that nurse tried to start the IV twice. Before putting the needle into Lauren's tiny veins, I could see the look of concern in her eyes. She did not seem confident and kept saying how hard it would be since Lauren was also a bit dehydrated. After two attempts and lots of crying by both Lauren and myself, she said that they would just take us to get the ultrasound to see if we even needed the IV. At that point I literally wanted to punch her in the face for hurting my baby.
After that they took us back to the ER so that we could get the ultra sound done. The tech was really nice, but she couldn't tell us the results so back to the ER we went. I was really surprised at how fast everything was happening, but thought maybe there just weren't many patients because of the icy roads. Once we were put in an ER room a surgeon came in right away and told us that the ultrasound  was positive and we would need to get an IV in and start the procedure to fix the Intussusception. I broke down at this point because I didn't know why we needed a surgery team, and it took 3 nurses over an hour of sticking my baby about a dozen times before they got the damn IV to stay put. That was the worst hour of my entire life! I would give birth without an epidural again, 100 times before watching Lauren go through that terror and pain. I was completely helpless. Oh, I forgot, after the IV was in a nurse told me that the reason we were moving so fast is because if we waited too long Lauren could lose part of her intestine. I got the feeling she wasn't supposed to tell me that, and I immediately started to panic.
When the surgeons were ready we walked Lauren down to the x-ray room and they explained what they would be doing, well they actually explained it while they were getting the IV in, but I couldn't pay attention and that whole part really is a blur. The procedure would take about 10 minutes and they would have to stick a rubber tube into her rectum, then blow air into it to make the intestines go back into place. If it didn't work then they would immediately take her in for surgery. We put on our lead covers and held our poor baby under the x-ray machine. JJ and I held hands and said a little prayer before they started. Lauren was pretty calm until they put the tube in, that's when she started to cry and squirm. They started the machine that blew air into her intestines, JJ watched the x-ray screen and actually saw the intestines straighten out. The surgeon said something that I can't remember, and then it was over. It worked, and I was so relieved. Lauren was back to normal almost instantly. We carried her back to the ER room and she fell asleep for about 3 hours.
From there they took us to the Patient Care Unit to keep her overnight for observation. It has a small chance of reoccurring , but it will usually happen within 24 hours if it's going to happen again.We actually rested well that night. JJ put the recliner up against the bench so it was like we were sleeping next to each other. Lauren slept in my arms and JJ kept his hand on her all night. The next day in the hospital was relaxing and all the doctors and nurses were amazing. They loved on Lauren and reassured us that she looked great and should be just fine. 
We finally got to go home at around 2:00 pm the next day. What I thought would be a few hours in the ER turned into such a scary ordeal. I really hope we never have to go through something like that again. I am so thankful that Lauren is better and back home today.

Day 34: Sick Baby

Up until today Lauren had never really been sick. The only problem that we've had is that she has reflux, which means that every time she eats she spits up massive amounts of milk. So much that I wonder how this child is actually growing. 
Today when I picked her up from Lucy's house she really wasn't acting like herself. She's normally a very happy baby who coos, smiles and laughs, unless she's tired or hungry. Not today. She was quiet and just didn't seem well. Lucy said that she thought she might be constipated because she has been straining. When we got home I changed her and noticed a little bit of blood in her stool. It looked like little red strings, which I had read
could be from her straining and being constipated. I called her pediatrician and the nurse said it was most likely constipation, so we went on with our evening routines and didn't think much of it. When it came time for dinner Lauren didn't really seem interested in her dinner, which was odd since she devoured her peas the past few days that she's had them.
Once we went to bed things started to get worse. She began to actually vomit. I knew it was different than the reflux because she was actually hunching over and heaving before it came up. I felt so awful, and she just looked beat. This continued a few times and then she finally fell asleep. We called the nurse again and she told us to call in the morning and that the pediatrician's office should be open (it was the night that we were expecting ice and snow). This is a picture of Lauren once she fell asleep.

Day 33: Not So Little Feet

Like most people I've been around, I love baby feet. I just can't get enough of them. When Lauren was born, yes her feet were small, but I felt like they were kind of big for a baby. As she's getting older her feet are definitely growing. I just hope that she doesn't end up with her mommy's huge feet. Mine might be considered an average size if I weren't so short, but size 8.5 on a person who is only 5'3" is not right. Hopefully Lauren will either be tall, or not have such big feet.

Day 32: Another Use for the Baby Bjorn

I think I may have to change the name of this blog to "365 Ways NOT to Use the Baby Bjorn". Of course this would be a book for all those dads out there who think that they have "genius" ideas, like my husband. Yes, he actually said that he is a genius for coming up with this. At least it makes for good pictures ; ).

Day 31: Exhausted

Right about now I feel like Lauren looks in this picture, so this is going to be very short. Lauren had a pretty rough day today. Her sitter said that her temp. got up to 99.5 and that she slept most of the day. I hope she feels better tomorrow.