Football and Fresh Apples

Monkey really enjoyed half-time!

Last night was my alma mater's homecoming football game. Since my brother-in-law is currently a senior there, Monkey and I joined him at the game. We had so much fun! I dressed Monkey up in her Driller blue and white, and wore the (now too-big) sweatshirt I've had since my senior year (seven years ago!). Monkey slept through most of her first football game, even though we sat right next to the band. It also felt really good to be back on campus, enjoying a nice fall night with hundreds of other Drillers and Driller alumni. Of course our boys won; they beat the visiting Titans 42-20. It was a really great game.

After all the excitement last night, Monkey and I slept in until 11:30 this morning! We were exhausted! After taking Daddy to work, though, we headed up the mountain to Tehachapi (home of the loop) and joined my aunt and cousin for an afternoon of fall festivities.

First off was a visit to my cousin's high school, where they were having a fundraiser for all the school clubs. We went to just look around and maybe get a couple snacks, just to show some love for the clubs. We ended up with 52 pumpkins. What!? So yeah, my aunt is a kindergarten teacher in a really low-income school district and when the principal of my cousin's school announced that all large pumpkins were now $2 and small pumpkins were $.50, my aunt thought, "Hey, my kids would love to have Halloween pumpkins of their own...;" so she bought 24, one for each of her students.

Mommy just couldn't resist the pumpkin pictures!

Then she thought, "I bet Mr. Brown's students would love pumpkins, too!" *Mr. Brown teaches the morning kindergarten class; my aunt teaches the afternoon class.* So she just bought the rest of the pumpkins. So at the end of the day, I had 25 pumpkins in my trunk and my uncle had to come into town to get the rest. While we were waiting for him to get to the school, I gave in to the urge to take some more pumpkin pictures of Monkey (my aunt bought her a pumpkin, too, so now I don't have a valid reason to go to a pumpkin patch).

Finally, we got to go apple picking! We weren't there very long, since it was starting to get late and Monkey was getting hungry, but I did get a ton of fresh apples. I'm going to attempt to make an apple pie this week; if it turns out edible, I'll post the recipe I use, along with a bunch of pictures.

Mommy and Monkey picking apples

We've had a wonderful autumn experience these last two days! The air has just been wonderfully crisp (not clean, though, because ... well, it's never clean here) and cool. The sky has that beautiful deep blue to it and it's been just gorgeous!

My Diaper Stash Is Growing

I got my first two BumGenius 4.0s today, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I had ordered them from Kelly's Closet late on Saturday night and got free shipping, so I wasn't expecting them until the end of the week at the earliest, but when I got home from the grocery store this afternoon, there they were, just hanging out of the mailbox. I was thrilled.

After a quick wash, I got them on Monkey's butt. They are just too cute. I ordered them in Grasshopper and Bubble. Bubble is still a little bit damp from the wash, so she's wearing grasshopper. So far, I'm really liking them; I love the way they feel (they're suuuuper soft), and I like that you don't have to wash them every single time they're used even though they're an all-in-one (AIO). When they're poopy, just flush the poop and scrub them, then hang to dry; when they're wet, rinse them and hang to dry. They do have inserts that get changed and washed after each use, so I'll probably end up ordering a couple more sets and a whole bunch of inserts.

Here are a few pics of Monkey in the grasshopper diaper; I'll post pics of her in bubble tomorrow.

Monkey's Six-Week Check-Up

I'm going to gloat a little bit here: I was right on with the reflux!

We had Monkey's six-week check-up today and Monkey decided that spitting up a three ounce bottle on the way to the scale was a good idea. I just flippantly said to the nurse, "Oh yeah, this is normal," and asked HubbyButt about how long it had been since she ate (it had been an hour, Monkey's upper limit on spitting up). So when the doctor came in, he was asking about her eating and whatnot, and I told him exactly what was going on, and he said it sounds like reflux. Then, and this is what I LOVE about our pediatrician, he brought us a can of Enfamil A.R. to try; if she's still having problems after we've used the whole can, we'll go back and I'm thinking he'll probably prescribe something (which he didn't even try to do today, making Mommy very happy).

Rather than adding rice cereal to the formula, this already has rice starch, which thickens the formula without clogging up the nipple or clumping the formula. Plus, it's actually CHEAPER than what we've been feeding Monkey. For the rest of the day, Monkey has been getting the A.R. and we've had zero spit up! Plus, she's more satisfied with it, since it's thicker, meaning she's eating about an ounce less at each feeding and going longer between feedings, meaning we'll be saving moola on formula! Yay!

So the stats from the check-up today: Monkey now weighs 9 pounds, 10 1/4 ounces, about two and a half pounds more than she weighed at birth! She's also grown 1 1/4 inches, to 21 1/4. She's doing great!

Monkey also got her second hepatitis B vaccine today. She was a total champ and even got a compliment on her diaper (we're actively in cloth, finally!). I had HubbyButt take a picture, just because I'm always thinking in terms of scrapbooking (I also saved her band-aid, it's sparkly!). I think the picture he got is great; Monkey had just started screaming after realizing that she was in pain, poor baby. I felt so bad, having to hold her arms down, but I'm glad I was able to hold her and comfort her and talk to her while it was happening. I know it's just the first of many, and I think we did really well!

Reasons I Love Fall

I don't often do lists; I just don't like them. But this morning, I feel compelled to make a list of the things I love about fall, probably because this is the first morning I've woken up and thought, "It feels like fall, yay!!!" And we're off, in no particular order:

1) The heat is gone! As I said in an earlier post, the temperature hovers around 100 degrees from late June to mid or even late September. Don't get me wrong, I'll be freezing in a few months, but for now, I'm relishing the cooler temperatures. Also, the chill in the air is a good excuse to cuddle up with HubbyButt and Monkey.

2) Apple picking and pumpkin patches. Now that Monkey is here, we have a reason to start the tradition of going about an hour away and picking apples. This was one of my favorite activities growing up, probably because I knew that in the next day or so, my mom would begin making her delicious apple pies.

3) Comfort foods! Who doesn't love a fresh, warm chili on cool afternoon? I'm really excited to try this bread pudding sometime in the near future, as well. I'll post my chili recipe this week; I got it from Weight Watchers and HubbyButt loves it!

4) The holidays are coming up! To me, fall has always meant that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the whole year; I just love all the family get-togethers and, of course, the food. There's just so much tradition in the air this time of year, it's hard for me to not get swept away.

Colic - O joy....

Monkey has colic. Big time. She'll scream and scream for hours. It breaks my heart, especially when the tears start and her lip starts quivering. She's just in so much pain and nothing I try really helps for very long. I'll swaddle her and she kicks it off in ten minutes. I'll try to burp her; again, it works for awhile but then it's no longer effective. I'll bounce her, which works the longest, but I can only bounce a nine pound baby for so long before my arms give out.

Finally, my cousins wife suggested Hyland's Colic Tablets. I had already tried gripe water, which (of course) only worked for awhile, as well as gas drops (they help, but only when I put them right in her bottle, which she doesn't always keep down), so I went to Rite Aid and bought the tablets.

THEY ARE AMAZING!

I just dissolve two of them in a tablespoon of water and give it to her through a bottle. She usually falls asleep in five to ten minutes. They're homeopathic, so they don't have any drugs in them and they can be given more often than gripe water or gas drops - every 15 minutes until the pain is gone.

I have a feeling, though, that what I'm calling colic is actually reflux. We have a check-up tomorrow, so I'll make sure the pediatrician knows what's going on. Along with the screaming, she has a tendency to throw up her bottles as long as an hour after feeding, she's had hiccups every day since birth, she'll pull off the bottle or breast screaming this horrible shrill scream, and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of at the moment. I'm going to ask the doctor how he feels about putting a little bit of rice cereal in her bottle to help it stay down; I've read that some doctors suggest it, and only prescribe drugs if it doesn't help much. I'd much rather start her on cereal early than start her on prescription meds this early.

Has anybody else dealt with colic and/or reflux and have any advice? It would be greatly appreciated!

I'm back!

Bad mommy blogger! I know it's been a long time since my last post, and so much has changed! The biggest change, of course, is the addition of Princess (who will be known as Monkey from here on out) to our family! She is such a sweet blessing! I'm staying home for now, and not planning to go back until January, as I said in a previous post, and even then I'll only be working part-time.

Monkey was born September 8th at 1:43 pm after 17 hours of labor and 3 and a half hours of pushing. She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. She's perfect in every way and is getting bigger and bigger every minute. HubbyButt is in love with his little girl and is doing his best to make sure I get enough sleep to be able to function during the day.

I'm really starting to get into a stay-at-home routine, and am dreading going back to work. After spending two weeks visiting my parents and grandparents up north (after my parents had been here for 3 weeks!), Monkey and I are finally home and have fallen into a nice pattern. We wake up between 8 and 9 in the morning, eat breakfast, and Mommy takes a shower while Daddy hangs out with Monkey and eats his breakfast. Around 10:30, we take Daddy to work and Monkey falls asleep in her carseat; we usually get home around noon. When we get home, Monkey wakes up and she eats lunch. After her lunch today, we went into her room and played for a little while, then I read her "Love You Forever" (and cried) and put her in her crib, as she was nodding off in my arms. I turned on some music for her (she really likes Bach) and left the room. It's now 3:30 and she's still sleeping in there (this is a first)! I'll wake her up in a few minutes.

Once she wakes up, we'll play for a while and take a whole bunch of pictures, then I'll put her in her bouncy chair and set her up in the kitchen so I can start prepping dinner (we're having chicken, rice, and salad tonight, so it'll be easy). Once dinner is ready to pop in the oven, we'll watch the news, Monkey will have another bottle, and then go pick up Daddy from work. Monkey will fall asleep between 6 and 7, but wake up as soon as we get home with Daddy, usually around 8. Daddy and Monkey will play while I finish dinner, and then Mommy and Daddy will eat before Monkey has another bottle and knocks out for the night.

Monkey will usually wake back up around midnight, and then again around 4:30, and she'll eat a little bit but then go right back to sleep.

I love our life.