Constipation, Constipation!

So the past week we've (or at least Lilly physically) has been dealing with constipation. We've talked to the doctors and gotten a slew of instructions, and we've laid off the solids, especially bananas. She's back to strictly milk during the day and formula at night, while we get her stomach issues settled. It's heartbreaking to see her get all red in the face, grunt, strain, and then nothing comes out. Or a pellet. And it's hard and it looks like its so painful. Because then she cries and goes through the whole sequence again. Well, yesterday she was given prune juice. I tried to trick her, by giving it to her first, in a bottle, and she took maybe a few sips before she was like, gross, what is this? I then switched to breastmilk, which she at first refused, thinking it was going to be the prune but nope. She greedily took it down. I then tried to go back to the prune but she swatted her hand and said NO! We're stocked, we got the glycerin suppostories, full prune juice bottle, and boxes of apples juice. Karo Syrup is next. But luckily last night, before bath time she went through two painful cycles and then finally pooped and it was soft! So today she'll get some apple juice to keep her digestive system on track and hopefully this weekend we'll go back to solids. There's sweet potato puree and pea puree waiting for her!

Apples, JCC babysitting not so much

Yesterday I steamed a Red Delicious Apple and then pureed it. I thought Lilly would want a taste so I put a little bit on my finger and gave it to her. She ate it up, but boy did she give me, a "Gross!" face. So I didn't push it, I put the apple puree in the fridge, knowing I would give it to her tomorrow. So that's exactly what I did. Instead of mashing up a banana, I poured some of the puree into a bowl. I served that along with a bowl of oatmeal. I started with the apples but after the first bite, I got the same "Gross" face. Same thing with the second bite. So I moved to the oatmeal, which she greedily ate up. She sucked that bowl down, and I even gave her another 1/2 of helping.

But boy did she not like the apple. Check out the video. You can see her facial expressions.

And I tried a different time to take her to the JCC. Yesterday we went from 8-9AM, and she did ok. She cried for a bit but did well with Cory. So today, I wanted to try a new time. I've noticed on the sign in sheets that they are not a whole lot kids that come to the afternoon session, so I made a reservation for 4:30, and brought her. From the get go, she was not too happy. When I left her, she started to cry. And that's the worst, I know I need to go, that she'll learn and that she is fine, but to leave her when she is in someone else's arms and crying, it's hard.

But I went anyway. I was on the Elliptical for about two minutes when the receptionist came up to tell me that Lilly was gagging, and they were concerned. She's started with these new sounds and one is a gagging type sound, so I wasn't too concerned, but I went down with her and checked out Lilly. She was fine, smiling and in the babysitter's arms. So I went back upstairs. I was on my 29th minutes, back on the Elliptical, when the receptionist came up again and found. Lilly just wouldn't stop crying, they tried to feed her, but she was not happy.

So I went down with her, heard Lilly as I rounded the corner to the babysitting room and saw that she was working herself up. So I got her, held her, and she quieted down. The two helped me pack up, and then Lilly and I walked to the car. (this was after at least 5 apologies to all people concerned). She braved the cold real well, but was just overtired and a little hungry. We ended up bathing her early, feeding her early, and she went to bed early. So not sure what time will work, I think going at 4:30 might be too late for her. So we'll stick to the 8AM time. We've got a reservation for Friday. Maybe she's more like her mom and is a morning person...time will tell.

6 month stats

I'm only two weeks late in releasing the 6 month stats. Albeit, we didn't go to the doctor until last Wednesday but she turned six months two weeks ago today. Hard to believe that it's been six months. Feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye but on the other hand it hasn't. She's grown. She's laughed. She's definitely eating and drinking. Her front two teeth are coming in and she has taken to biting down on things, bottle nipples, my nipples, fingers, etc. She's testing out her chompers! And let me tell you, they work. They will be sharp and aid her in chewing her food and biting others.

We took her to see Dr. G last Wednesday for her 6 month check up, and she's doing well. In the picture, Mark and Lilly are standing by the scale, in the baby room of the doctor's office. Lilly got two shots and took them like a champ. She also weighs 18 lbs 13 ounces (still in the 90th-95th percentile) and is up an inch, and now is 26 1/2 inches (75th percentile). She's in 6-9 month clothes. My bag of small fitting clothes keeps getting bigger and bigger - I'm due to start another bag.

But she's starting to blow 'raspberries' so lot's of noise and spit. Luckily no blowing raspberries while eating yet. So no projectile food! Her routine napping schedule is off, sometimes she'll sleep 30 minutes, other times she'll sleep 1-2 hours. With her napping schedule so irregular, she usually finds herself exhausted at the end of the day. Yesterday she barely napped and was wiped out by her bath, so she was quite cranky until we put her down to sleep. And for those first few hours, she barely moved. Now she's taking a much longer nap - 1 hour! - and I can hear her stirring, so I better get ready. In just two weeks and some days, we'll be celebrating her 7 month birthday!

New Foods

Lilly has progressed from rice cereal to other foods. She's tackled oatmeal, which she likes a lot more than rice cereal. And she loves carrots, bananas, and sweet potatoes. She did enjoy peas, but she readily ate the orange veggies and yellow fruit up. Each get's all over her mouth, hands, clothes, and our hands and clothes, but she so enjoys it. The close up photo was taken Sunday during her 'lunch' of sweet potato and oatmeal. At her six month check up, Dr. G said we would want to move towards three meals a day with her. Right now it's a second breakfast and first lunch. But I bought a Beaba baby cooker, it steams meats, fruits and veggies and then it can also puree them. It's a small, ingenious appliance and its pretty cool, it's green! So I've been making the fruits and veggies, Regina suggested I let Lilly try the Gerber banana puree, and boy did she NOT like it! So we will stick with fresh bananas. I made a sweet potato puree and now I've got an apple steaming, so I can make an apple puree. I hope she likes it.

We've read that its best to start with either a cereal or vegetables as they can become accustomed to the sweet taste and not want eat anything that wasn't sweet. We asked Dr. G about this and she said pretty much there wasn't anything to it. Let her eat what she wants to eat and when she wants to eat. So not worrying about fruits before vegetables or vice versa. Here's hoping she likes apples. If not that, then we'll move onto something else, perhaps green beans.

....And They All Asked For You

That's right, today was Lilly's first trip to the Audubon Zoo! Sorry no pictures, as your guest-blogger (Mark) forgot the camera. Anyway, trust me when I tell you that the pictures would not have been great. Lilly was not at all interested in the animals! We met our friends Bill and Jessica and their 10 month old son, Parker. We saw elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes - everything you could imagine. Lilly could not be bothered to look at any of it. She was more interested in all the people!

I picked her up at one point, so she could see the lion. However, she was more interested in the sign (of course trying to eat it) than she was in the lion moving right in front of her face. She acted like she had seen that already! She did enjoy looking at the gorillas. There was one gorilla sitting up, playing with his toes. Lilly did the same. Puts a new spin on the old phrase: "Monkey See Monkey Do."

But two hours at the zoo is tiring for anyone . . . Lilly included. As we walked home through the park, Lilly was sound asleep. She may not have cared for the animals, but suffice it to say that the zoo was a very successful adventure. I am sure we will be back!

Excessive Crying + JCC = Not a Good Combination

In this picture she's very happy, but alas, this morning, during an hour in JCC babysitting, she was not. I joined this JCC running group, to train for a local 10K, and mainly to get back into running and have company while doing so. And the good thing about it is that I can leave Lilly in babysitting, for a maximum of two hours, while doing so. Once she made six months, I could put her in babysitting, so I made my reservation, and last Tuesday was our first day. She did ok. She got tired toward the end and unfortunately their pack and play is used for storage and not napping. She went back a couple more times and did fine. The babysitter was Cory and Lilly was taking to her.

But today Cory was not there. Hannah was. And it seemed like Lilly was fine when I left her. But apparently 25 minutes into it, Lilly just lost it. Well, according to Hannah, another baby came in, and I guess Lilly didn't want to share the attention, so she started crying and just wouldn't stop. And 15 minutes later and still crying she had to be removed from the babysitting room and I had to be called. But I was out running (apparently you aren't supposed to leave the building, I guess for this reason) and nowhere to be found. So Lilly was passed between the ladies at the fitness desk before finally settling with a trainer. I come in from the room, and hear her crying, so I go toward her and she quiets down.

The ladies at the fitness didn't say she couldn't come back but if she kept this up then it wasn't going to be good. I told them she did so well with Cory, and she said that perhaps it was just her reacting to the new person. I've got another hour booked for 8:15 Friday morning, so we'll see. Hopefully no tears, but if there are, I hope they are limited to 14 minutes and 59 seconds and under.

Sam's Club Trip

I took Lilly to Sam's yesterday afternoon. She snoozed in the car over there, but woke up as I was moving the carrier into the cart. So I took her out of the car seat and put her in the baby Bjorn, facing out, so she could see everything. Boy did she love it. She also had better access to my fingers, namely my thumb, on which she could chomp.

But she chewed on my fingers and then went onto her own, which probably taste better than mine. So I had both hands in which to wheel the massive shopping cart full of diapers, string cheese, AAA batteries, bottled water, toilet paper, and hummus, among other items. I wanted to get a rotissere chicken but they weren't ready when I went by the section. The worker said it would be about five minutes, but I forgot, and when about my shopping, and was headed to check out, when I ran into him again and he told me the chickens were ready. So I turned the cart around and went toward the back of the store.

On the way there, we stopped by the baby clothing where I noticed spit up on the floor, then my left shoe and then all over Lilly. So I searched through the diaper bag for a spit up cloth but could only find anti-bacterial hand wipes so I bent down cleaned up the floor, left the spot on my shoe and then wiped Lilly off, with a new cloth.

It was only when I put her back into the car seat carrier did I see how much spit up she had all over the onesie.

Sam's Club is known for handing out free samples but Lilly didn't get any and still managed to leave the store with food on herself. She was wiped out and fell asleep in the car. Once awake, I put a new onesie on her.