Saturday, January 30, 2010

Sleety Saturday

Ahhh, this morning I was awakened to a hungry baby around 5:40 AM. I knew she was hungry because she downed 6 oz and fell right back asleep. And she never drinks that much in the morning! While feeding her I listened to the sleet fall from the sky. It stopped sleeting hard around 6:00 AM. Once Jewell finished eating I put her right back to bed and we all slept until about 8:00. It was just splendid. Jewell of course woke us. Which is when we decided that it would be fun to just lay in bed for 2 hours and play with her. We had a blast drinking coffee, giggling, and of course watching the Today Show.



About mid morning I decided to eat an early lunch. Jewell kept fussing kind of funny. I noticed it was every time I put a cracker in my mouth. So I thought I better see if she wanted something to eat herself. We tried rice cereal again and she loved it! I think she's beginning to feel much better because she wasn't interested in it at all earlier this week.





This afternoon we decided to venture out into this so called Severe Weather. The roads were fine. We went to Target to buy 3 packs of Pampers (the only kind that works for Jewell) to receive a 5 dollar gift card. I used the gift card and a Nestle coupon towards a second purchase which just so happened to be formula. I got a 25 dollar can of formula for 12 dollars! I was so excited. I also had coupons for the diapers. I saved big with the baby stuff today. I also picked up a few organizational things and two more laundry baskets. Our house is pretty small, so the more organization the better!

And here we are all cleaned up from our cereal!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Our Morning

Friday's are my early day. The kids arrive at school at 7:15 and I'm responsible for watching the 4th graders. Which means I have to leave around 6:45 AM. I decided to get Jewell up just a bit earlier today so I could say goodbye to her. I'm so glad I did this. When I walked into her room she gave me the biggest smile and stuck her tongue out! She LOVES to smile with her tongue sticking out now. She was just adorable! So many people tell me that it gets easier to leave your child for the day, I don't believe them anymore. It just keep getting harder to leave her! I often feel like I miss the best part of the day with her. She's always so happy in the mornings, and I rarely get to enjoy it. I always tell my husband he's spoiled because he gets to feed her at her best. I'm so glad it's the weekend. Here are the pictures I just had to take this morning.







I always give Jewell her evening bottle. She's just adorable!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Spit Up Day

Jewell has been doing splendidly better these last few days. She's even back to sleeping between 11 and 12 hours at night. This is a huge blessing with me working full time right now. She's been taking the bottle very well this week even. However, we ran out of her formula last night. I have tons of other kinds so I decided to give her the soy formula again. Let's just say that after 3 outfit changes at daycare due to spit up, I won't be doing that again. She even spit up a ton once she woke up from a 2 hour nap. Babies are so funny! Needless to say, I went right to the store to buy her another 25 dollar can of formula. I haven't had much luck finding Nestle Good Start coupons. I MUST find some soon. I just can't spend 100 dollars a month on baby formula. That's half of my monthly grocery budget! Here are few pictures of our Jewell from this evening.





We discovered the teething ring tonight ;)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Back to the Doctor

Last night was very trying for us. Jewell woke at 2:00 AM. She didn't seem hungry so I just let her calm herself in her crib. By 2:30 AM she seemed to be mostly settled. Then the crying really started. By 2:50 AM I went and picked her up. She just wanted to look around. So I put her pacifier in her mouth and put her back down. Which is when the pacifier battle began. To make a long story short, I ended up feeding her 4 ounces at 4:00 AM. By the time my alarm went off at 5:30 AM I was convinced I'd never sleep again.

Today at daycare Jewell hardly ate anything. Her caregivers recommended that I take her back to the doctor because she was short of breath and still not eating well. Fortunately, the doctor got me in right away. Dr. Pool said the Jewell now has an ear infection that's much worse. The antibiotic she was on did not work. So we are now on a different antibiotic that she really doesn't like. I'm to use a humidifier for the congestion, saline drops, and Tylenol for pain. My poor baby! She's so sick and so little.

On the happy side of things, Jewell has made a few great discoveries today. The first one is...her tongue. She's figured out that she can stick it out. She just leaves it out of her mouth, plays with it, or tries to smile. It's so funny! The best one...she now tries to hold her bottle. She has been doing this with one hand for quite a few days now. But this afternoon she held it with both hands. I let go for a few seconds today even. I was so excited about this discovery of hers, yet a bit sad. I guess you could say it was bittersweet. Happy because she's learning new things, but sad that she's beginning to become a bit more independent each day. Either way, I'm proud of her!

That said, I will continue to pray for my little one to get better quickly. She's too special to stay sick for so long.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Recovery Weekend

Wow, what a weekend! I can't believe it's actually over. Boy did we do a lot.

It all began Friday evening. Matt found his old Super Nintendo. So, after we forced Jewell to eat (we've been doing that all week) we stayed up for 3 hours playing Super Mario. It was blast to do that together. We then went to bed happily thinking we had plenty of time to sleep. Jewell on the other hand had other ideas. She decided that she wanted to wake up at 4:45 AM to finish the bottle we tried to give her at 7:30. Silly baby! My wonderful hubby told me to go back to sleep and he went and fed her.

Saturday began with another force feed. See Jewell has been so sick she's hardly been eating. But she needs to eat. That and I switched to formula this week and we struggled with finding one that she liked. After getting Jewell ready for the day I realized just how behind I was with my household responsibilities. With 2 of us sick this week I just gave up. So I cleaned all day long. And I mean, ALL DAY! We ran a few errands, and of course, ended the day with yet ANOTHER force feed and Super Mario. Jewell again, woke at 2:25 AM to finish the bottle she didn't finish at 8:00 PM.

That brings us to today. I decided to take a different approach to feeding Jewell. The morning feeding was the toughest (because she was so congested). I decided to wait to feed her every 4 hours thinking if she was really hungry it would help. BINGO! She FINALLY ate 7 and a half to 8 ounces at 2 feedings today. I was so excited. I finally found a formula that she likes too. What a huge blessing!!! Jewell felt much better today as well. She enjoyed watching Baby Einstein while I cleaned (for quite a while again) and she took a good nap. She had her last feeding at 7 PM and I'm hoping she doesn't wake up again until 7 AM this time. We'll see. As soon as this sickness is over we are moving to cereal!

I'm exhausted from this weekend trying to recover from this week, but I finally feel caught up. It's very difficult keeping up with it all while working full time. But the Lord has given me much grace to do it.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Swinging!


Matt and Jewell fell asleep after church today.


Cuteness...


I just LOVE this picture. She held the keys for 2 hours tonight!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

New Milestone!

Life is beginning to get more and more exciting with our little Jewell. She has been very sick this week, but tonight she had her energy and happy self back. Jewell typically doesn't like sitting in her bouncy seat while I cook. I've been trying to teach her to a little bit at a time. Tonight I tried it again. She finally noticed the little toys in front of her! She kept playing with them too. I was so proud.

Once dinner was ready I decided to put Jewell in her highchair (we have to practice this). I put some toys on the tray to see if they would distract her so we could eat. About halfway through dinner Matt and I noticed something different. It was quiet! Jewell was just sitting in her highchair sweetly playing with her toys. She even picked them up all by herself and put them in her mouth. We were so proud!

Jewell seems to slowly be getting better. Her cough is still pretty rough, but she's starting to eat more again, a huge blessing. I'm so happy to see her start to get back to her normal happy self.





I was talking to Jewell while she was in her swing this afternoon. Daisy got a bit jealous. She insisted on sitting on my lap! So...my 35 lb. dog thinks she's a lap dog. Spoiled...so spoiled!

Monday, January 18, 2010

First Sickness

Friday evening, after shots, Jewell came down with a fever. I assumed it was because of the shots. Then on Saturday it was still there. I continued to give her Tylenol throughout the day. Still, the fever did not go away. On Sunday her temperature got up to 102. She was coughing, sneezing, had a runny nose, and would barely eat. This morning I took her to the doctor right away. We found out that she has an ear infection in her left year. My poor baby is so miserable. She doesn't like her antibiotic at all, and still won't eat much. Tomorrow is a workday for teachers so I plan to stay home with her. I hope she feels better soon.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Cereal Success

We did it! This morning Jewell was in a wonderfully fun mood. So I decided to put her in her highchair while we ate breakfast so she could talk with us. She was so cute sitting in her little highchair at the table. Once we finished eating I thought it would be fun to try cereal. I mixed 1 tablespoon of cereal with 4 tablespoons of warm formula. The first few times I put the cereal in her mouth she pushed it back out with her tongue (it was a bit confusing for her). But she seemed to get the hang of it by the end. She even opened her mouth every time I put the spoon in front it. I'm so proud of her! My little girl is growing up and eating baby big girl food.



Jewell's 4 Month

Yesterday was Jewell's 4 month doctor visit. I can't believe how much she's grown! She now weighs 13 lbs and 2 ounces. She's more than doubled her weight in 4 months and has grown 5 inches. The doctor said she's right on track. I was concerned about her head control since she doesn't do tummy time well. But the doctor said not to worry because babies typically don't understand what to do for tummy time until about this age. That made me feel so much better.

Dr. Wylie told us that we can start her on cereal whenever we feel comfortable with it. He told us that the way to know if she's ready is if she enjoys trying to eat it. If she looks away and fusses then we should wait another week and try again. So we may be endeavoring that little adventure this evening just for fun. We are also beginning to start giving her 2 formula bottles a day while I'm at work. I believe this will make me breath a lot easier.

We finished the visit with 4 more shots. Jewell was fussy last night, but ended up sleeping for 12 hours. No complaints! Here are a few pictures from this week.

Jewell's first jumper experience. She was a bit confused ;)




All dressed up for church last Sunday!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Congratulations Matt

My dear husband Matt is a video producer at Jackson Marketing Group. He also does freelance in video production on the weekends. This week he was informed that Jackson Marketing Group received 3 Aegis Awards on videos that he edited for them. He also earned an Aegis finalist award. What a great accomplishment!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

We Miss Daddy

This week has been very interesting. It's my first week back to work since Christmas break, and of course right when life gets the busiest, Matt has to leave town for 6 days for work obligations. We miss him terribly. And to top it all off, Jewell is going through a growth spurt. I should have seen it coming, after all, she is 16 weeks old now.

With Matt gone, and me and baby all alone, I've done my best to enjoy the moments as just the two of us. It's hard taking her to daycare (Matt usually does) and realizing she's the only one there that early, and then only getting a few hours with her before her bed time. But I've tried my best to look at the positive side of it all by enjoying every moment I have with her in the evenings. Her newest thing is laughing really hard! I like to put her on my lap and move her arms really fast. She must love it because she laughs so loud! It's adorable. I can't wait for Matt to see it when he gets home on Sunday. We miss you Daddy! Here are a few pictures of her from this week.

Jewell loved playing with her new Dr. Seuss stuffed animal. She was laughing pretty hard here.


Each night I put her in the highchair to practice sitting by herself. This gives me time to clean the bottles and get them made for the next day. She makes the cutest little faces.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Savoring Every Moment

Jewell is now almost 16 weeks old. I of course just can't believe it. Fortunately I've only had to leave her at daycare for 1 week since she's been born. The best thing about being a teacher is Christmas break! However, I do go back to work on January 4th. As I sit and think about starting a new year with my precious child I realize something, she's growing too fast. So this year I've decided to make what I call a "life" resolution. I want to savor every moment with her for the rest of my life. I've always been a go, go, go type of person. I have a list that MUST get done right away or I basically lose it. Having Jewell has made me realize that my to do list really shouldn't be my biggest priority. Enjoying time with my family, loving them, and serving them should always come first. So I guess this decade will bring about many good changes for me. Here are a few recent pictures.


Showing off our new Dr. Seuss books. I just had to buy the stuffed animals with them.


Reading :)


Driving back to SC. Jewell had fun playing with her new stuffed animal. You can see her first injury in this picture. She has a big scratch on her head :(


Sitting in our high chair for the very first time.


She looks so tiny.


Playing with toys while Mommy cleans.


I just love how her teething ring became a bracelet!


I was unloading the dishwasher while she was playing. I turned around and found her "kissing" her glow worm.


Another attempt at tummy time. I tried to videotape this but it only ended in tears again.