Friday, May 30, 2008

I love my girls

They're both at such fun ages. Hannah is singing and making up stories non stop, and while it can be hard to listen to the high pitched shrieking sometimes, she's so much fun it's worth it. Right now she's sitting with Norah and playing with Norah's toys on her chair with her. She's very considerate, asking her "OH you want your chicken up?" And Norah of course obliges her with huge grins and bubbles.

And Norah, she's getting to finally figure out her hands. She can make them do things like bat at toys and get them in her mouth. Ok she's been getting them in her mouth forever, but the toy thing is new :)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Also





For your viewing pleasure, new pictures!



Looking Good

Lets just say that not feeding a baby should never be on a list of things to do if it can be helped.

That said, her test was this morning, and everything is looking good. All of her parts go the right way and do the right things. She didn't see any reflux on the scan, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have it obviously, it just means she didn't reflux during the test. She was THRILLED to get a bottle after she was done, and wolfed 5oz in about 10 minutes flat.

Thanks to everyone for all the good thoughts, now we can relax a bit

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Is there something on my face

Oh wait, it's just my baby.

What is it about babies that makes people think it's acceptable to stare? Last night we went out to Olive Garden for dinner. We haven't been since the night I went into labor with Norah, so I was excited. Norah was extra cranky from not napping well, so I popped her into the hotsling and fed her while we were sitting. At a table diagonally to our left there were three older ladies, one of which stared at me and Norah the entire time we sat there. It was almost a relief that Norah was so unhappy that I got up to take her outside for a little stroll before our food came. I'm sure they were just seeing how sweet and adorable she can be, but seriously, don't stare.

All the waitresses that walked by had to stop and see her and say how cute and tiny she is. How they can say that is beyond me. She's nearly 3 months old and fits solidly into 3-6 month clothes. Hannah swam in hers at the same age.

I guess I don't know, but I do know it's annoying. I try not to stare, and I tell Hannah not to. Hopefully it will sink in for her sooner rather than later.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Things I hate

5. Waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep

4. Muffin tops. Pants should FIT

3. Grocery shopping with two cranky kids

2. Forgotten laundry (either washer or dryer)

And the NUMBER 1 thing I hate:


Wednesday Norah has her upper GI appointment. She has to go four hours with NOTHING to eat or drink before the scheduled 9am appointment. Since she's sleeping through the night more often than not these days, I'll be waking at 4 to give her medicine, and then hang out for 30 minutes before I feed her, and hopefully put her back to bed so that she won't be starving to death when she wakes up and can't eat.

So the number 1 thing I hate is going to be snuggling my screaming, unhappy baby girl because she's hungry and I CAN'T feed her.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Bad days get worse

Norah has been on Zantac for darn close to a month now. Starting this past Friday, she started with symptoms again. Back arching, crying while eating, coughing/gagging. Ugh, so we took her in to be seen Friday, and as luck would have it, her pedi wasn't available. So we saw some other doctor, who wasn't even polite enough to tell me his name. He prescribed Reglan. I won't go into detail, but I've heard ugly things about this medicine, and I flat out refused to give it to her. We never even picked it up. He had us make a follow up for this week with her pedi, and we had that appointment last night. Her pedi agreed with my decision not to start the Reglan, and said she personally doesn't use it at all. So here is the plan of action.

Continue Zantac 3X/day
Start Prilosec 1X/day

IF the prilosec doesn't show that it's helping enough, she wants to start her on the hypoallergenic formula Nutramigen. I'm praying with everything I have in me that the prilosec works. WIC doesn't cover Nutramigen, and likely our insurance won't either. It's almost prohibitively expensive, and doesn't necessarily make a difference.

She is also ordering Norah down to Baystate to have an Upper GI done to make sure all her parts are in place and working correctly. It's routine and painless, but worrisome to us regardless.

Please keep my girl in your thoughts if you can. We're worried about her.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A reasonably lovely Mother's Day

I got beautiful cards from both my girls and my husband, so score one for remembering cards Steven.

The plan was of course for my Mom to come down here, and as always for a certain someone to come with. Steven had said he'd work on his truck and help him, so bright and early they leave for the shop. Because we had planned everyone to be here for lunch at 1 I didn't give Hannah lunch at her regularly scheduled time, just some snacks. However when at noon they still hadn't reappeared, I was understandably cranky.

Let me just say now, I am sick and tired of a certain person spoiling everything that semi resembles a holiday. First it was every birthday that I celebrated with them. I very specifically remember a screaming fit over Madlibs, which if you ask me is just retarded. My first Mother's Day, ruined by a screaming match on my front porch and no one eating the meal I cooked. Holidays where my father and mother are in the same place at the same time... a mess, but NOT because of them. They are of course capable of being civil.

Ok enough of my whining. Once they finally got here Steven was wonderful to me. We spent the whole afternoon outside and then Norah slept all night. Who could ask for anything nicer than that?

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Norah's 2 month appointment

Norah had her Doctors appointment yesterday for her 2 month well child. She was 10lbs 7oz in her diaper, and a shocking 23 inches long. She is meeting all her milestones for her age, not that there are too many just yet. AND she got her shots, which at the time I thought went amazingly well. She cried when they poked her, but stopped just as soon as I picked her up. Then she fell asleep in her carseat at my friends house.

But the best was yet to come. On the way home from grocery shopping she started to scream, and finally stopped an hour, a bottle, and a diaper change later. She fell asleep after a little tylenol and slept until I woke her at 5:45, and then went back to sleep at bedtime and didn't wake up until morning. Poor dear, those shots are just AWFUL.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Overheard in Northampton

Picture this if you will. My girlfriend and I take a trip to Northampton, with ALL the kids. Her three, and of course my two. We, being the intelligent women we are, put our littlest ones in our slings to wear them so that we'd have our hands free to deal with the wildness of three year olds. We do some shopping, and then come back to the meter after lunch so that we can put more time on it to finish walking around. It's a fancy new kind where you pay at a machine and it spits out a ticket that you display on your dash that says what time you purchased the ticket and how long you have. So next to said machine there is a bench, so we instruct all three year olds to sit on the bench while I walk the 20 feet back to the van to replace the old ticket with the new one. When I get back, Kat is laughing and says this is what she overheard.


"Oh LOOK, they have triplets"


I'm the first to admit that we have 5 gorgeous girls, 3 of which COULD look somewhat similar at a quick glance. But only in Northampton would people assume that two babywearing mama's with three toddlers must be "Together"


I'm adding an old picture of the girls from last year, to make a point. Yes they look similar, but while Mimi and Iza look like each other, (DUH) Hannah doesn't resemble them much.



Monday, May 5, 2008

Busy Weekends

I love that it's getting warmer out, but that means we'll be having lots of busy weekends. This weekend started on Friday night. Steven was fixing my friend's van, so we all trooped over there for pizza and company. We were there over 2 hours, and all the kids were amazingly well behaved. In fact, she and I figured out we needed to start hanging out in the evenings, because they did much better than they do when we do stuff during the day.

Saturday was lots of housecleaning getting ready for Jennie and Ben to come down with their kiddo's Annalisa and Shane. Hannah had a blast playing with Annalisa, and was pretty smitten with Shane, who was also pretty smitten with Norah. He's a very cuddly guy, and enjoyed touching faces, moderately gently.

Yesterday was Circus day. I do NOT do clowns, but since we had free tickets and Hannah had never been, we headed over to the Big E to let her see what was going on. We had wonderful box seats, and assuming Hannah sat on someone's lap she could see wonderfully. I think her very favorite thing was riding the Elephant. She wasn't scared at all and got to ride right up front, so she kept reaching over and patting the elephants head.

After the circus, we headed to the "chair store" because a certain Meema needs a new chair. Her old chair is falling apart and springs are falling out, so Hannah told me that we needed to get her a new one for Mother's day/Birthday. Steven is going to pick it up tonight after Hannah's gymnastics class. Hopefully Meema gets lots of good use out of her new chair, that Hannah approved personally.

Friday, May 2, 2008

I can't resist sharing pictures






We had a fun weekend last weekend. A lot of these pictures are from then. Hannah and Papa, Norah and Lynise, Hannah's rock star glasses, and Norah checking out the camera. The first one is my new very favorite picture of Hannah.
And as an afterthought, because it cannot be possible already. Happy Two Months to my girlie Norah. Unbelieveable.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The problem with 3 piece jammies

Poor Hannah, she's never had so much trouble getting ready for bed. For quite a while now, Hannah picks out her own jammies, and up until last night had no problems whatsoever. However, I recently got her some warm weather jammies that have 3 pieces. Shirt, pants, and shorts. So I asked her to go pick out her jammies while I fed Norah. She came back with her pink duck shirt. So I mention that she needs the pants to go with them. Back she goes to the bedroom, and returns with the shorts that match. Upset to be informed that she cannot wear shorts to bed when it's going to be 25* at night, she goes back. I tell Steven, "watch, she comes back with pants and shorts" And sure enough, I must be clairvoyant, because here she is in the doorway with pink duck pants and pink shorts, and no shirt anywhere. So we send her back. Minutes pass, and no Hannah. Steven finally finishes what he was doing in the kitchen and heads back to her room to help her. When he gets back he says

"Poor Hannah, she was just sitting there on the floor saying I don't know which one"