I just realized it has been two months . . .

Easter with my brother and sister and all the kids

I am getting around to posting right now because it is 12:30AM and I can't sleep, but Charlotte is sleeping soundly right beside me.  I cannot even begin to explain how overwhelming it is to work full time and have a baby and a home to manage.  I feel like the house is always dirty and I am never caught up on anything.  Charlotte also still gets up 2 times a night to nurse, which I thought would be over by now, or at least just once a night.  However, I have learned that babies whose mom's work frequently continue nighttime nursing for much longer than babies whose mom's stay at home.  I think this is one of the reasons that we are both enjoying bed sharing as well.  It gives us a lot more time together.  Charlotte is doing awesome.  She has FINALLY mastered the art of eating solid food.  She said her first two words before she was able to effectively swallow food.  She has four words altogether now, "hi", "no", "Alero" (our babysitter's 12 year old daughter), and "mama" (but mama means that she needs something, usually milk).  We have also started teaching her some signs as well, but "more" is the only one that I have seen her try to sign.  Charlotte is trying REALLY hard to crawl, but she ends up scooting backwards because she is trying to do all the work with her arms and not with her legs, but it won't be long now.  She has gotten really tall and we are switching  her to the convertible car seats.  I ordered them from Bed, Bath and Beyond because they own Buy Buy Baby and sell their products through B B and B as well as independently.  For anyone who is pregnant or needing to purchase an expensive baby item, check their website and then order the item in the store with the coupons.  Online it stated that they would only give 10% off Britax car seats and only one coupon per purchase, but I ordered two and got 20% off of both, which was big savings since they were $310 each.  They carry most of the high end baby brands/products.  I could have saved heaps on our stroller if I had known about this.  You do have to pay tax and shipping, but for really expensive items this works out to be a great deal.

Wildlife World Zoo

One of her experiences struggling with swallowing solid food.

I am going to REALLY try and post more pictures this week.  But I am pretty sure I've said that at every post and look how long it has been, two months since posting anything and longer since I've posted any pics.  

Busy Busy Busy

Life has been insanely busy and it doesn't look like that is going to change as long as I am trying to run our home and work full time.  Our babysitter moved to Maricopa, so my day is a little longer than it was already.  I leave the house at 7:00AM and don't get home until about 5:45PM if I don't have to stop anywhere.  However, I have to go the grocery store, bank, etc.  The economy has hit Chad's practice hard, but he got several leads on new projects this week and he is currently up in Parker, AZ.  He and Mark Ryan got short listed to do a building on the Indian reservation up there.  The short list is only four architects, so we are hopeful about that.  They interview for it tomorrow morning.  I have to continue working full time until things stabilize with the economy and his practice.  I do have some good news; I received my ATR (Art Therapy Registration) on Friday.  I have been working on it for the past two years.  I mailed in my application about a month ago and was pleasantly surprised that not only did they give it to me quickly, but they didn't ask for any additional documentation or require additional supervision.  This has happened to many of my friends.  My bad news is that I also applied for my independent counseling license (currently I have an associate license) and it got torn up in the mail.  There were approximately 12 enclosures in the envelope in addition to my application and the post office lost all of them.  So far I have recovered all but five.  My application is on hold until I get everything again.  My money order was recovered, but it was ripped into three pieces.  

Charlotte had her six month well baby visit last Friday and she is now 27.5" long (above 95%), 16.0 lbs (55%) and 17" head circumference (75%).  She has started sitting up and can scoot a short distance on her tummy.  We have also been starting her on cereal.  She started rice cereal about a month ago and we started oatmeal this weekend.  I am planning on giving her peas this coming weekend and if that goes well we will start introducing a food every week.

I am going through the process of becoming a human milk donor.  The milk is given to critically ill premature babies.  It is a great program for anyone who is nursing and has some extra milk.  The minimum initial donation is 150 oz.  They provide you with everything you need and give you a blood test and create a DNA profile.  The whole process takes about two months before you can start donating, so it will be about another 4-5 weeks before I send in my first donation, but I am pumping away and stashing it in the freezer until I can send it in.  My goal is to donate at least 300 oz.

I am going to try and get around to posting pictures soon because I haven't put up pictures in forever.  It is a pain because I have to get them from Chad's computer.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Charlotte rolled over for the first time yesterday.  I was so excited because she has been getting close for a while and I was so scared that she would roll over for the first time at daycare and I would miss it.  She rolled from her tummy to her back.  She has been rolling onto her side from her back for a while, so it probably won't be long before she can roll all the way around. 

4 months and growing

This is belated, but better late than never.  Life has been insane since going back to work Charlotte came with me for the first five weeks, but she just finished her second full week of daycare yesterday.  Life got about a thousand percent crazier when this happened.  My day starts earlier, ends later, and I want to spend my evenings/weekends with her, not cooking, cleaning, running errands, blogging, etc.  We are struggling to find a balance because life must go on.  

The transition time was particularly stressful because the week before Charlotte was scheduled to start daycare and while Chad's parents, sister and niece were in town visiting, Charlotte managed to come down with RSV.  We were in the doctor almost every day that week.  He told us that if she had been one month younger, she would have been in the hospital, but we managed to get by on daily visits to the doctor.  At first we had to give her breathing treatments every four hours, then the doctor added a steroid, then she developed an ear infection as well, so he added amoxicillin and tylenol to the routine.  Charlotte couldn't nurse because of the pain, so we had to feed her milk out of a syringe until she could suck enough to take a fast flow bottle and then after a couple of days I was able to resume nursing.  She has been getting better since and yesterday she had her follow-up at the doctor and he gave her a clean bill of health.  Charlotte was scheduled for her 4 month well baby visit the Friday afternoon of RSV week (two weeks ago).

4 month stats:

26.5" long - above 95%

13 lbs 14 oz - between 50-75%

Long and lean.  She is going through a growth spurt again because for the last three nights she has gotten up four times during the night to eat.

Our daycare arrangement is working great.  "Miss Liz" is wonderful and Charlotte adores her.  She is so nurturing and caring.  Liz is a Christian home school mom of an eleven year old and a nine year old and watches Charlotte full time and one other baby 1-2 days a week, so she gets lots of attention is held most of the time.  If Liz isn't holding her, her eleven year old daughter Rebekah is.  Rebekah also loves singing to Charlotte while she dances/bounces along.  I couldn't ask for a better arrangement.  However, Liz is moving.  There is a good chance that she is moving within a mile of our house, which would be awesome, but there is a chance that they will move to Maricopa.  In that case, I would need to start looking for someone else.  Even if I am working part time, we will still need daycare, so I am hoping that they will stay in Chandler.

I have finished all of my hours for both my counseling license and my art therapy registration, so I am just waiting for all my supervisors to fill out/notarize their forms before I send in my applications, along with the $625 in application fees :(.  Hopefully, there won't be any issues, and I'll have everything in hand by mid-April.  I am interviewing for a part time position on Thursday, but I am still undecided as to whether it is a good fit because it is grant funded and may well end June 30 if the grant is not renewed.  Also, in many ways it would be better to stay put until I have everything in hand in case they send anything back for more information or clarification.  

What a month

Gabriel

Gabriel is doing great now.  The doctors have not been able to determine any medical reason for the seizure.  He is back on seizure medications and will never be able to go off of them again because of the seriousness of this seizure.  It would be too risky.

Benjamin

Benjamin had brain surgery on December 19 to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord.  The surgery went well, but he healed more slowly than the doctors and Leah would have preferred and ended up staying in the hospital a little longer than expected.  The surgery was successful in relieving the pressure.  Unfortunately, this has not affected the non-stop vomiting as we had hoped, so he will be undergoing more tests and possibly receiving surgery to make it so that he is not able to vomit by putting a one-way valve on the top of his stomach.  It is also possible that he will be given a feeding tube like Gabriel.  My sister is hoping that she can get a nurse to help with Benjamin a couple of days a week.  He is being evaluated for nursing services this week.

Work

I started back to work on Monday, so Charlotte and I made it through our first week, three more to go before she starts daycare.  I cried all day on Sunday because I didn't want this first chapter in her life to end.  I desperately want to stay at home with her, but that isn't possible right now, hopefully soon though.  We are shooting for June for me to quit my job, but I don't know if I'll make it until then.  At that point, I'll do contract work 2-3 days a week and take care of Leah's kids 2-3 days a week.  

Charlotte

Charlotte is close to rolling over.  She lays on her tummy and rocks from side to side.  She is growing so fast and she laughs all the time now.  She has started to form opinions about things.  She now has favorite ways to nurse, sleep and play and she protests when we put her in her car seat.

Christmas

My brother came for Christmas, so my whole family was together.  He hadn't met Charlotte or Benjamin before, so it was nice for him to meet the  newest members of the family.  We just hung out at my parents house, watched movies and played games while tending to little ones.

Seizure

At around 7AM this morning, my sister found my nephew Gabriel having a grand mal seizure and vomiting.  She tried to keep him on his side to prevent him from aspirating on his vomit while she waited for the paramedics to arrive.  The paramedics worked on him for 30 minutes, but were unable to stop the seizure despite large doses of medication.  He was rushed to Banner Desert in the ambulance while still seizing and they did not expect him to live.  Normally, he would go to St. Joseph's where his regular neurologist and neurosurgeon are, but they didn't have time to take him in the ambulance and he wasn't stable enough to air vac.  Seizures that last that long generally result in either death or severe brain damage.  Since he already has severe neurological problems (bi-line shunt in his brain, cerebral palsy and mental retardation in addition to all the problems that he experienced as a premie), it is an absolute miracle that he does not appear to have any additional brain damage.  He continued to have seizures throughout the day at the hospital, and is heavily medicated, but he did wake up a number of times and he knew who we were and seemed to be aware of his surroundings.  He was alert enough to ask for water (which he couldn't have because he was having trouble breathing) and to say "take it off" while waving the arm with his IV and pulse/oxygen monitor.  Please keep Gabriel in your prayers as he is not out of the woods yet.  He is in the PICU at Banner Desert and he will remain there until they stabilize the seizures and hopefully they will figure out what is causing the seizures as well.  This little guy has been through more in his five short years than most of us will experience in our entire lives.  It is heartbreaking to watch him suffer, but he is a fighter and we are trusting that God is in control of the situation.

Doctor visit

We saw the pediatrician today for Charlotte's two month well baby visit and vaccinations.  I almost cried when they gave her the shots and I heard her scream.  She calmed as soon as I picked her up, held her and gave her the pacifier, but I was still upset.  She seems to be handling it well overall.  She has slept a lot today and been a little fussy, but nothing like what I prepared myself for.  She got three shots and one oral vaccine.  We couldn't get the polio vaccine today because they were out, so we'll just get that one next time.  I have been reading Dr. Sears' book on vaccines and am considering using an alternative schedule from this point forward.  I had to get everything today because it is one of the contingencies at my job in order for me to bring her with me to work.

Stats from today: 

Two months and two days old

25" long - above 95%

11 Lb 12 oz - 75%

Long and thin - obviously she takes after her dad :)