Merry Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Santa did not disappoint and got Austin a mini iPad and Wesley "Ballapoolsa." Austin was so excited for Santa to come she asked to take a bath at 6pm and was in bed by 7pm. I thought for sure she would be up at the buttcrack of dawn, but we were plesantly surprised when she ran into our room at 7:40am. In the afternoon we hosted Yaya, Papa, Unlce Phil and his new girlfriend Lauren, and Uncle Mark, Auntie April, Anthony, Michael, Payton and of course Nana (even though she lives here) for lasgana. I was pooped by time everyone left at 6pm.

 

On the Wesley front, I am happy to annouce that Wesley is now 100% bottle fed. I go back to work in a week and was having a lot of anxiety about Wesley still refusing a bottle. I also was not looking forward to pumping. Pumping is very time consuming and a pain in the butt. I did it for 4 months after I returned to work with Austin. I told Luke I just cannot picture myself doing it this time around. So I called the pediatrician and asked them to recommend a formula (Gasp!). They recommended Gerber Goodstart Gentle because of Wesley's reflux and sensitive stomach. On Friday morning Austin and I left for the day to go paint pottery and go to lunch and Daddy was on "Operation Bottle" with Wesley. The first two bottles Luke tried to feed Wesley she refused, but by the third bottle she had given up and it has been pretty smooth sailing since. Luke gave Wesley the rest of her bottles that day/night and the next day I gave her a bottle. It was bittersweet. I wanted to cry, but these tears were tears of joy. I really think that I was unhappy breastfeeding Wesley. I was depressed,  had anixiety and was mad at times. My relationships were suffereing. This change has been the best thing for the entire family. I can now focus on other things besides nursing Wesley. I can spend more time with Austin and Luke can now play an active role in feeding Wesley. Plus, Wesley did get 3 months of being breastfeed, which is better than nothing.

 

Wesley is not a fan of tummy time, but decided to roll over (from back to tummy) on Christmas Eve. She was pretty upset, so what did Luke and I do...help her roll back over? No, we got the camera out first to take a picture. :-)

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December Update

We have had a pretty busy December and there is still 3 days until Christmas. Since my last update we went to go visit Santa at the local mall. Austin was all up for it while we were at home. I dressed the girls in the cutest matching outfits and we set off. But once we got to the mall, Austin was too "shy" to sit on Santa's lap. I really wanted to get a picture of both of the girls together. Luckily, Austin did get a chance to visit Santa when my parents took her to the North Pole Experience up in Flagstaff. We have had a really warm "winter" and two days before they were to head up to Flagstaff it snowed. I am sad that we missed out on the North Pole, but Mommy, Daddy, Wesley and Nana went to Las Vegas for the rodeo.

 

Austin finished up soccer in December also. This is the first time in a very very long time that she is not in an extra curricular activity. I am not going to lie, its kind of nice. I am not sure what we will sign her up for next. I think we are just going to take a break for a while. The weekend before Austin headed up to the real snow in Flagstaff they had a Christmas festival here in Carefree were they trucked in 25 tons of snow. Nana took Austin up there to play in it, but said it was melting and packed pretty hard (I think it was in the mid 70's that day). This past Thursday Austin had her holiday concert at school. It was her first holiday concert and I was so excited. I almost cried. I am really happy that we switched Austin to her new school.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Months Old

 

 

Let's see what has happen in the last month...Wesley has been on Zantac for her acid reflux and I truly believe it is helping. I forgot to give her morning dose one day and she was a very fussy baby all day long. Wesley is not a fan of tummy time, but will lay on her back on her play mat and roll on her side. She is getting awful close to rolling on her belly, which I am sure will upset her. We started putting her down for naps in her crib not in the bouncer. I bought a wedge we put under the mattress that elevates it slightly. Wesley is not a good napper, but she will sleep her typical 30 minutes in the crib without the bouncer. We need to tackle nighttime sleeping next.

 

This past weekend Wesley made her first trip to Las Vegas. We went on our annual trip to the NFR and Luke's Mom was nice enough to come with and watch Wesley while we went to the rodeo each night. She did so good in the car (however we played the vacuum white noise the entire 5 hour drive) and the first night she went down and slept like a champ. The second night we were not as lucky, but still got a chance to go to the rodeo and spend some time with those Harney girls. Wesley is still not taking a bottle so it makes it difficult for me to go anywhere.

 

I am sure I am forgetting something, but Mommy brain is in full force tonight. Oh, I remember. I go back to work in exactly 2 weeks. I actually miss working after being off for 3 months. However, life in general is going to be difficult once I return. I am not quite sure how its all going to work, especially if I have to travel anytime soon. My Mom is going to watch Wesley so that is one less thing that I have to worry about.

 

 

November Update

Over Veteran's Day weekend the Villas came to Arizona for a visit. We were very lucky that they fit sometime in for the Kautzman's. Unlike when we visit them, they have tons of family here in Arizona and need to make time for everyone. We took them to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park one of the days and then had lunch at the Sugar Bowl. I know its no Legoland, but the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves.

During the week of Thanksgiving we had a play date with McKenna and Jaxson. We tried to get a picture of all three kids together, but it proved a little difficult. On Thanksgiving day we went to my Mom's house and I did not take one single picture (bad mommy). We had a very nice dinner and visit with them.

I believe that I mentioned it in a prior blog, but when Austin had her 4 year well check she did not do well on the eye test and we were referred to a pediatric opthamologist. We have learned Austin does have a slight astigmatism, but nothing that needs correction yet. They do want to see her again in 6 months to check again.

Austin seems to be doing really well at her new preschool. In just a month I cannot believe how well her coloring has gotten. It may seem like a small thing, but the improvement is wild. I know they have been working on how to hold a pencil correctly, so I guess maybe she has better control of the crayons now. She has also been learning Mandarin and telling Luke and I all the words she knows. It just blows me away.

 

  

 

 

 

 

2 Months Old (A little late)

Let's see, since I last blogged about Wesley, we have moved her into her own room. She still is sleeping in the bouncer, but its inside of her crib. I know I need to figure out how to get her to sleep in her crib without it, but I am going to wait a little while longer. Sleeping has been good and bad. Some days she naps awesome, some days (more recently) naps are 30 minutes. Some nights she goes down to sleep and sleeps 5-6 hours, some nights Luke and I spend 2-3 hours trying to get her to sleep. Its all over the board. Its very hard because she is still so young. Both Luke and I had to remind ourselves of this and lower our expectations.

We had her 2 month check up last week and Wesley now weighs 12 pounds 1 ounce (68%) and is 23 inches long (73%). She also was given two shots and a oral vaccine. It's weird with your second child, it was not as traumatic as with the first. Wesley was a little more fussy for a day or two and we gave her a couple doses of Tylenol to help.

While at the doctor's appointment we discussed the possibility of Wesley having Acid Reflux. I guess its pretty common in babies, especially colicky babies. We told the doc Wesley's symptoms and he prescribed her Zantac twice a day. She has been on it a week and I really think that I see a difference in her, especially after she eats. She doesn't scream when she spits up.

Oh, I almost forgot. We had our appointment at Phoenix Children's to test Wesley for Kidney Reflux. The test was pretty stressful, but went well. They were able to tell us right after the test that she does not have Kidney Reflux, which was great news.

Wesley has started to smile which is absolutely the best feeling. She is usually really smiley first thing in the morning and I have never have my camera around. I thought that I had caught some smiles on the camera, but the pictures are not on there. Maybe it was my cell phone? Can you tell I am tired?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

 

 

 

 

 

The Hospital

I struggled to come up with an appropriate title to this blog. Nothing really sounds right. Our trip to the hospital, our 3 nights in the hospital, my baby was in the hospital???? On Wednesday, October 24th, Wesley was officially 5 weeks old. We have been struggling with a "colicky" baby these past couple of weeks and I am not sure she was anymore colicky or fussy this day. Around 3:45pm I left to go pick Austin up at school and Wesley stayed back with Sandy. There were various fundraising activities going on at Austin's school so pick up took a lot longer than usually. We got in my car about 4:15pm and my phone was ringing. It was Sandy. I could tell by her voice that something was wrong. She seemed panicked. She said that Wesley was very lethargic and she was not able to rouse her. Part of me thought Nana was being silly, I was just home, and the other part of me thought to myself something is wrong. I told her we were on our way and I immediately called Luke. My rock. I am not sure how I would get through life without this man. I calmly said something is wrong with Wesley; you need to come home now. As I drove the 2 miles home I thought to myself if something was really wrong she would have called 911. Then I thought, what if I hear sirens, I pressed on the gas a little harder.

When I opened the door to the house I could hear that Wesley was crying and I immediately felt better. Sandy was still panicked. She told me that right after I left Wesley just seemed to go limp and she couldn't get her to wake back up. She finally had to pinch her to stay awake. She handed Wesley to me and I thought that she felt warm and decided to take her temperature. 100.4. Not extremely high, but I remember the discharge paperwork from the hosptial said 100.4 or higher in a newborn you need to call the doctor. I called and the doctor's office said to come in at 5:10pm. Thank god they have office hours until 6pm.

Luke, Wesley and I headed off to the doctor's office and Sandy stayed home with Austin. We had to wait forever to see the doctor. Once we saw the doctor the only thing she could see was her right ear seemed to be red. She said she wanted a second opinion and the nurse practitioner came in and said she thought it looked red too. How the heck does a 5 week old get an ear infection? The doctor explained to us that in babies this young (under 8 weeks) they automatically get admitted to the hospital for 48 hours of IV antibiotics if a fever is present. She made sure we understood everything and then left to call the hospital to make sure they had a room available for us. She came back in and said to go home and pack and she would call us when the hospital was ready. At this point everything was a blur. I kept telling myself it’s just an ear infection.

We got to the hospital about 7:30pm and the next hour was a stream of nurses and doctors coming in asking the same questions and examining Wesley. The doctor explained to us that they would do blood and urine collections and cultures and they might want to do a spinal tap. They told us they would start her on IV antibiotics to treat whatever this was. At some point the doctor came back and said that we were in a "gray" area when it came to the spinal tap. All babies under 30 days get the spinal tap. Wesley was 35 days. It was up to us, but she said she felt more comfortable with doing it so they could rule out meningitis. Luke and I agreed to it.

They came to get her for the spinal tap, blood and urine collection and we decided that Luke would go with. The procedure room was actually not too far from our hospital room...I could hear her cry. I sat in the room alone and bawled my eyes out. I wanted so bad to be with my baby. But, Luke is the strong one. After about an hour Luke and Wesley came back. Luke was different. I could tell he was traumatized. He said they didn't get the urine and would have to do that later. The nurse came in and hooked up Wesley's first antibiotics. She would be on two different antibiotics. One was given every 8 hours and one was given every 6. She had to be hooked to the IV machine for 30 minutes and we would be able to hold her the entire time.

We took turns holding her in the chair while the other one got a couple of hours of rest in the window seat/bed. When the doctor came in on Thursday he said that none of the cultures had come back yet. I guess they checked them at 24 hours and 48 hours. He said that the blood test looked good and the initial spinal tap looked good. Both my Mom and Sandy came down to visit and Luke left to go pick Austin up at school and to spend a couple of hours with her. Her first question to Luke was, when are Mommy and Wesley going to come home. Luke came back down to the hospital and Thursday night was the same with us switching off holding Wesley.

On Friday when we saw the doctor and she said that the urine culture had come back positive for both strep and e-coli. This meant that Wesley had a UTI. She said in babies this young they are concerned for kidney reflux when they get a UTI. She ordered an ultrasound and said at some point once Wesley was better they would test her for Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR). She explained that VCR or kidney reflux was abnormal flow of urine from the bladder backup to the kidneys. She said that most likely we could be discharged on Saturday and Wesley would be put on oral antibiotics. I was so happy at the thought of being discharged and being back at home. Austin and Sandy came by on Friday for a short visit. That evening (at freaking Midnight) they finally came up to get Wesley for her ultrasound. Both Luke and I went down and it went pretty quickly.

On Saturday morning was Austin’s school’s fall festival and Luke left to take her to it and my Mom came down in the hopes we would still be discharged. We saw the doctor early (which was nice) and he said everything looked good on the ultrasound and someone from their office will call to schedule the VUR test and we should probably have it done at Phoenix’s Children’s Hospital. We were given discharge papers and finally on our way home by lunch.

Wesley’s is almost done with her antibiotics. I will update more once we have gone for the test.

 

 

Keeping up with a 4 year old

Life with a 4 year old could be pretty hectic between preschool, ballet, soccer, birthday parties and pumpkin patches, but throw in a newborn and I am not sure how I even have time to shower. I am so lucky we have the means for me to take a little longer maternity leave and be off until the beginning of the year. I am still not quite sure how this is all going to work when I return from my maternity leave.

Since my last update Austin had her 4 year well child check up. She is 41 3/4 inches tall (88th percentile) and 39lbs (79th percentile). One of the things they do at the 4 year well check is an eye examine. Austin did not do to well on hers and we have been referred to a pediatric opthamologist. Luke and I were both surprised since Austin is always pointing out airplanes in the sky or counting hot air balloons while we are driving in the car. We have an appointment scheduled in a few weeks, so we will just have to wait and see (no pun intended). During this appointment Austin also had to get 3 shots. These will actually be her last shots until she is 11 years old! These shots were the icky shots like the MMR and DTaP so Austin was not feeling well and was pretty grumpy for a couple days

Austin's ballet class session was coming to an end and they allowed parents in to see what they had learned during the 6 weeks. I am not sure we are going to continue with ballet. She likes it while we are there, but its like pulling teeth to get her to go. I am glad that we signed her up through the city of Phoenix's parks and recs department because the class was only $25. I think I spent more on the outfit, but she sure does look cute in it.

 We recently made a big change in Austin's life and switched her preschools. Her preschool teacher was fired suddenly (still not sure of the whole story) and we absolutely loved her. Austin had her last year in Preschool 1 and she was the driven force behind our decision to put Austin in Preschool 2 vs Pre-K. With her teacher gone it made Luke and I examine if this was the right place for Austin to be. They had recently opened a Montessori school about 5 minutes from our house and we had heard great things about it so we went for a tour and Austin did a trial day. Luke and I were highly impressed and Austin loved it and said she wanted to switch, so we did. So far so good.