Here we are, week
7! Check-ups, conferences, Valentine’s Day – it was a big week!
Monday morning started
off pretty normal. The big girls off to daycare, Eliza off to my inlaws’,
Christian and I off to work. I got to work and plugged through the morning,
then I was off for the afternoon. I picked Eliza up and we were off for her
9-month check-up. The doctor had to cancel her appointment this past
Friday…when I was off work, so I had to reschedule. Her appointment went well
though. To start, I had to fill out a little questionnaire…about her
development. Now, it’s been quite obvious to me that she’s well behind the
other two in her development, but I wasn’t sure if that was bad or not, so I
was interested to see what her “results” would be. Next up, they took her
measurements. She weighed in at 19lbs13ozs, 75%, and was 27.5” long, 45%. She’s
short and stocky, just how I like ‘em! Then, the doctor went over her
questionnaire results. He said she was right where she should be, she passed
everything, but was slightly on the border for her language/communication
skills. I was actually kind of surprised….I mean, she doesn’t talk or anything,
but I guess I never even thought about it. I don’t remember the other girls talking
at this point, but maybe they did. So, that took me back a little. I went on to
ask him about her motor skills, specifically the fact that she’s not crawling
or cruising or anything yet. Now this is what had me concerned as the other
girls were both LONG crawling by 9 months, and both walking by 10. He said it
wasn’t a concern at all…that the average for crawling was 9 months,
cruising/baby steps by 12 and walking by 13/14. Whew! I knew the other girls
were a little ahead in that, but I thought she should at least be crawling by
now, so that made me feel a lot better. He said her low communication is likely
a case of “third-child-alitis”…by #3, you just don’t have the time to sit down
and chit chat with them as much, and work on those skills. And with big sisters
talking the day away, it takes away from her need to. So, that made sense.
Personally, I’m hoping she’ll just be our quiet flower to counteract the volume
and abundance of the other two! Finally, though she didn’t need any
vaccinations, she was due for a blood draw, so we stopped into the lab. Of
course, in true diva fashion, she was NOT a fan of the blood draw, and it was
very dramatic. But, she quickly calmed down and we were on our way to pick up
the big girls, and made our way home. She slept most of the evening from there,
and was in a “post appointment” funk all night. Later in the evening I received
her blood test results, and noticed that some of her tests were coming in below
of the normal range…her white blood count and her HCT, and everything else was
right on the border of the low normal read. Of course, I spent the rest of the
night in a panic, barely getting any sleep, thinking something was wrong. I
tried to contain my freak out, knowing the doctor would call if it were
anything to be concerned about – but that’s always easier said than done.
Happy Baby!
Tuesday was a pretty standard day. Eliza was in good
spirits, and we were all off to our proper locations for the day. In the late
afternoon, I received an “official release” notice of Eliza’s test results from
her doctor, and he released them with no concern, so I had a big sigh of relief
there. I’m guessing he’ll end up running her blood panel again at her 1-year
check-up though, since some of her results were abnormal, but we’ll see. As I
settled into work, I balanced our checkbooks, as I do most mornings, and oops –
up popped a charge from “Edible Arrangements”. So, apparently I’ve ruined my
Valentine’s surprise. Oh Christian, he tries so hard. After work, I picked the girls
up, we had some dinner, I helped Olivia fill out her Valentine’s for school.
She did so well – she’s growing up, that’s for sure! Then, I settled in with my
latest obsession...Subway Surfer on my phone. Olivia gets annoyed – she says it’s
a kid’s game. It’s not, and I love it. I am one of the few who still play Candy
Crush (Level 680, thank you very much), but I think this will now take up all
of my free time.
Working Hard
Wednesday was a
pretty quiet day. Dropped the girls off, worked from home, picked the girls up.
With her teeth coming in, Eliza is turning into a bit of a biter when she’s
nursing. I never had this issue with Amelia, she never bit me. Eliza hasn’t
done it too hard, but she thinks it’s funny, so I definitely need to break her
of that habit right away, somehow. Other than that, the evening went pretty quiet.
Until bed time. When all hell broke loose. Shortly after I arrived home, I
realized I had left Eliza’s pacifier at daycare. And we couldn’t find her backup
in the house anywhere. She’s our first pacifier baby, and clearly we were not
aware that a good stockpile of pacifiers is necessary. I thought to myself…OK,
this is going to be a little rough, but we’ll survive. Nope – NO WAY did we
survive. I did get her to sleep, but she woke up around the time I settled into
bed, and would not stop crying, or go to sleep, for anything. I held her,
rocked her, tried to nurse her (to her refusal) and NOTHING would work. So, at
11:00, I was off in the FREEZING cold to Walmart to buy some more pacifiers.
Good Lord, who knew?!? Needless to say, we will now always have a supply just
sitting around in the wings.
Thursday was a
pretty busy day. Work was pretty standard – it’s always busy catching up from a
day away from the office. Christian got off work a little early (well,
technically, he got off on time) and met the girls and I at Olivia’s school. First
up, we had to register Amelia for kindergarten in the fall. O.M.G. – my baby,
in kindergarten. I CANNOT believe it! I already had this blog up and running by
the time Amelia was born – and now we’re getting ready to send her off to
school. Unbelievable. Next up, we had Olivia’s winter conferences. She and
Amelia settled in with some toys while we chatted with her teacher. She said
Olivia is doing great, adjusts well to everything and is doing really well in
her young scholars program. She said that she is responsible, sweet and makes
good choices in friends, which is so nice to hear. She said her and the two
little girls she spends the most time with, Alice and Ri’Kia, are all very kind
and sweet, and don’t get involved in any of the “drama”, which makes me very
proud. So, all in all, she’s doing a great job. We’ll get her 2nd
trimester report card in a few weeks and see how she’s developed. We all
stopped into the book fair after conferences and the girls each picked out a
book. Finally, we picked up some dinner and settled in for the night.
Throwback of the week, exactly 1 year ago, at Olivia's kindergarten registration
Tonight, my beauties!
Friday was a pretty
standard day. My mom was over bright and early to watch Eliza, and we were all
off on our way. Olivia didn't have
school today, so she’ll be spending the day at daycare. I’m hoping to get a
good bank of leave time saved up before next school year, so that I can start
taking the day, or at least ½ the day off when school is out…it is an additional
$18 a day to send her to daycare for the full day, which isn’t horrible. But,
next year we’ll have two of them, and $36 a day adds up quick. For now, we just
let her go, and spend the day with her friends. My “surprise” Edible Arrangement
arrived around lunch time and looked DELISH!!! Everybody was totally jealous. After
work, I picked the big girls up and relieved my mom from baby duty. The girls
ripped right into my Valentine…sharing, it’s for the birds. Christian picked up
some Noodles and Company for dinner and we hung out. We watched “American
Sniper” once the girls were in bed…I was so exhausted though, I kept dozing
off. I’ll have to rewatch it so I can really pay attention, but what I did see
was pretty good.
YUM!
Saturday, the big
day…Valentine’s Day! Didn’t really mean a whole lot in our house though. We don’t
really get the girls Valentines, I don’t typically get anything for Christian
and we don’t really bother going out and spending all that money (last year we
went out, we had a gift card though, LOL). So, it was a pretty typical day for
us. We had breakfast, everybody showered, and we were off to swim class. We
stopped at target and let the girls pick out a little gift as their Valentine –
Olivia got some new Shopkins, Amelia got a My Little Pony. We girls grabbed
Wendy’s for lunch and made our way home for naps and some rest. Meanwhile,
Christian was off for a haircut, and went to lunch with his friend, Lorenzo. We
had a spaghetti dinner and I did the girls’ nails special for the day – I finally
used those Jamberry nail wraps. It’s quite a process to put those things on,
that’s for sure. Hopefully they actually work/hold though. Christian and I
started watching “The Gambler” and, again, I fell asleep. It was a bit of a
snore, so I probably won’t bother trying to finish that one. I just took my
tired butt to bed. Very romantic!
My Valentine's!
Sunday was a low
key day. We had breakfast and relaxed the morning away. Tomorrow is a holiday…school
and daycare is closed, and I’m off work, so my mom asked to take the big girls overnight,
so she picked them up around 1:30 and it made for a pretty quiet night. I got
to work doing some picking up around the house, but knowing I had the whole day
to myself the next day, I didn’t go too crazy. Then, things went south. While I
was feeding Eliza dinner, she threw up. Like THREW UP, exorcist style,
everything she ate. And it just kept happening. I wanted to die. We got her
cleaned up and I gave her a bath while Christian cleaned up her chair and all
that. So gross – I’m sorry, I’ll never get used to that as a mother. After her
bath, we relaxed…she seemed in OK spirits, no fever or anything, so I’m not
sure what happened. We gave her a bottle before bed, and she seemed to take
that well. She dosed off in my arms, and then woke a short time later and threw
up again, all over me. At this point, I just wanted to die. We got her cleaned
up and changed again, I cleaned myself up and changed, and we were off to bed.
I was sure I’d be in for a horrible, exhausting night, but after that she was
perfectly fine. Never another issue. So strange – something just didn’t sit
well with her. Poor baby.
Snuggling with my sick, sweaty baby. Poor thing.
Until Next Week! XOXO
