4/5/11 – Whew, All Better!

Well, it was a pretty long night, but it ended up going better than we thought. Olivia in bed with us did not last long…she kept waking up and throwing herself all over the bed. So, Christian ended up taking her out on the couch, and they slept out there. Apparently Amelia the diva REALLY wants her own room…we did not hear a peep from her all night long. She slept right up until it was time to get up and go this morning. Man, I wish we had 3 rooms on the same level!

Olivia woke up while we were getting ready, and hung out with us. She seemed so much better already. She was running around, following us, chatting up a storm. Thank goodness. She kept asking for food and drinks, so that was a good sign. Unfortunately, we kept having to say no, which she was not a fan of. We gave her the nausea medicine, and she couldn’t have anything to drink for 20-30 minutes, but she was insistent that she get some milk (which she couldn’t have anyway, regardless). We kept saying “no, you can’t have any milk right now”, to which she would exclaim “But, I NEEEEED some milk!” Really? You NEED some milk? She has been coming up with some interesting phrases these days!

So, off we went to see if we could make it through the day. She was really excited to get over to Gramma and Bupa’s house, so that was a good sign. I loaded them up with some 7-UP, Jell-O, Applesauce, Pedialite and Popsicle’s. The doctor’s didn’t want her having any food this morning, so we were hoping she would keep the liquids down and could keep getting more throughout the day.

Work was frustrating. We just got notice that we have less than 2 weeks to get certain Contracts in place before they lose their funding. I have a few that it’s not even going to be possible, so that was really upsetting. None of us can understand why things in our office are so crazy right now. I alone have 19 Contracts going around the process right now, and 21 that I haven’t even started yet. To put that in prospective, the district people (in other areas of the state) who do what we do usually only have 2-3 at any given time, at the most. It’s just a very stressful time in our office.

Christian worked an hour of OT today, so I had some extra time to clean up around the house. Of course, the kitchen was a disaster, so I tackled that pretty hardcore. It was just kind of the usual routine…dishes, bottles, making dinner. YAY. It’s finally nice enough that we can let the dog out the backdoor and leave him out for a while now, so that’s pretty exciting! Finally, the rest of the house was home. Olivia was definitely back to her usual self…picking on Amelia, asking a million questions, refusing to listen, dancing around. Yup, that’s our girl.

After baths, it was time for bed. We put them both down in their room again, so we’ll see how it goes. Here are a couple pictures of Amelia today. It’s so funny…her hair is so light, it just sticks up all over the place, it’s not heavy enough to lay down. Olivia had the same thing going on when she was little. Both girls were cursed with my straight, fine hair. Poor things, I was really hoping they’d get the nice thick hair from dad’s side!

4/4/11 – An Unfortunate Milestone

So, today started off like any other day. Sleeping went well again, again only getting up once to eat. YAY. Both girls were completely passed out this morning when it was time to go…and still passed out when I dropped them off. Olivia continued sleeping as I got her out of the car and into my in-law’s house. This was unusual, but I didn’t think much of it.

I got to work and started off the day like usual, until I received a phone call around 8:30AM from my mother in-law. She said Olivia had just woken up, and right away threw up. I thought, maybe teeth, or maybe she was just really warm for some reason, and it would be a onetime thing. Said to just give her a little water and some dry toast, and see if that helps. Well, the phone rang again around 10:00, and Olivia had thrown up 3 more times since our phone call. She wasn’t throwing up food (she hadn’t eaten anything), just clear “liquid”. So, I thought it would be best to go get her, and bring her home for the day. So off I went.

Olivia and I settled into my bed, and she just looked exhausted beyond belief. She’d start to doze off, and them immediately pop up to throw up again. I’d never seen her do this before, and it broke my heart to watch her suffering like that. This continued all day. She didn’t say more than 5 words to me the entire day, didn’t even attempt to play with a single toy, she was like shell over her real self. I thought for sure FLU.

She threw up every 20-30 minutes, all day long. Always this clear, whitish, sticky substance. As I started googling away, I started to worry that the substance was from her lungs, and it was pneumonia. I did finally call the clinic’s CareLine and talked to a nurse. She said to give it a few hours and see if she stops throwing up and can start taking in some liquids. Well, by 4:00PM we’d gone through many PJ changes, a few loads of laundry, she was still throwing up, getting paler and paler by the minute, hadn’t eaten a single thing, was only drank a little Pedialite in the morning, hadn’t gone to the bathroom (not even a wet diaper), so I was getting really worried. I called back into the CareLine, and they suggested that we just head in to the ER at the Children’s Hospital and have her checked out.

Instantly the tears welled up. I knew this was a possibility all day, but hearing the words, and knowing that I was about to take my poor little 2-year-old to the hospital, was not something I was truly prepared to do. I started packing up a little bag, and getting us ready to head out. Christian picked us up, and we had to drop off a couple extra bottles for Amelia because she was going to stay over at my mother in-law’s while we were at the hospital, and then we were finally on our way. Just pulling up to the hospital brought me to tears…a hospital, full of sick, innocent little children, the thought of it was just too heart wrenching.

There were quite a few kids in the waiting room, but they moved pretty quickly. We were taken back, and seen almost right away. After chatting with the doctor for a while, he was confident it was just the stomach flu. He checked her over and said that for all she’d been through today, she was pretty well hydrated still. Thank goodness…my biggest fear was her needing an IV, and having to watch her go through that. They ended up giving her some nausea medication to see if it would help. Literally, within 5 minutes she popped up in bed, and started talking. She was visibly getting better and better. A short time later they brought in a popsicle to see if she could hold it down. She scarfed the whole thing down (and of course, asked for “mo peas”), so they were comfortable letting us take her home.

Our adventure home took forever at this point. It was 9:00 and we were finally leaving the hospital. Christian and I hadn’t eaten at all, so we picked something up quick to eat on our way home. Hopped on the highway, and made it about halfway home before coming up on an accident that had the entire highway shut down! So, we had to get off and venture through the mysterious side roads looking for a way to get back on on the other side of the accident. We finally got back on, and Christian dropped me off at Walgreen’s to fill Olivia’s prescription and grab some flu-recovery-essentials for tomorrow, while he picked up Amelia. We finally arrived home around 10:00, tucked Amelia in to bed, and were finally settling in for the night. We decided to have Olivia sleep with us to keep the flu germs out of the room with Amelia…we’ll see how that goes!

So, today we hit a milestone…Olivia’s first trip to the ER. Not a milestone we ever hoped to hit, but it could have been much worse, and we are very grateful for that. Now, we just hope that it’s just a 24-hour thing, and it will pass quickly…without affecting any of us, especially Amelia!

Here are some pictures of our poor girls rough day!

4/3/11 – Just Another Boring Sunday!

Today was a very boring, low-key, family day around the house. Amelia did really well again last night in the crib, just up once. I’m hoping we’ve finally turned a corner on her sleeping. My main hunch has always been that she could just sense me in the room, especially when she was in bed with me, and it would make her want to be close to me, or nurse, even if she wasn’t hungry. I mean, other things have run through my mine…her reflux acting up again; her teeth bothering her; reactions to food, or my milk; etc. But, I truly thing her attachment to me was really the issue. Now that we’re in separate rooms, and she can’t sense or smell me, she’s able to disconnect a little bit. As much as I love the sleep and the space, and having our room back, it’s still really hard. It’s funny, for so long I’ve wanted this, but now that I have it, I miss her so much, and miss all of our extra cuddles.

Once the girls were up, we really just hung out around the house all day. It was a little cooler, cloudy and rainy today, so we didn’t get a chance to go on a walk or anything. The Easter Bunny arrived at the Mall of America yesterday, so we thought maybe if we could get the girls to take a nap, we could head over and get that out of the way. Well, they were not having any part of that. It took forever to get both of them down, so, that will have to wait for another weekend.

So, we really just sat around, played, tried to protect Amelia from Olivia all day…you know, the usual. I managed to get a few loads of laundry done and put away throughout the day, but that’s really the only productive thing either of us did.

One of the sites I follow on facebook is doing a referral give away right now, and I’m dying to win this one. It’s for a ring sling, which I’ve wanted FOREVER! So, if any of my readers are on facebook, and are willing to help me out, just “like”Baby ‘Roo Slings, and leave “Ashley Hartfiel Duran sent me” as a comment on their wall. Simple as that!

Here are some pictures from today. The girls played with each other for a while (until Olivia decided she’d had enough of sharing with Amelia), Amelia has been passing out lots of slobbery kisses lately, and she got Olivia good today, and I included a picture of Amelia standing up today. You seriously cannot keep her down anymore, she LOVES to be up..the worst is IN the bathtub, that’s scary. She is definitely ready to go!

4/2/11 – My Kind of Saturday

Today was just perfect as perfect can be! We had a good night of sleep from everybody, only up once for the first time in a long time, and Olivia slept right though it! The girls even slept in until about 8:00AM! I couldn’t believe it (yes, that IS sleeping in for us now)! Christian whipped up some yummy breakfast while we girls hung out and played for a while.

After breakfast, we all quickly showered and got ready for the day. As I mentioned the other day, “Our” photographer has her Easter mini-sessions going on today, so we headed over for the girls’ shoot. They did SO great, they both cooperated so well and I really can’t wait to see these pictures. They are going to be beyond adorable!

After pictures, we headed home in hopes of nap time. I was able to feed Amelia and get her down right away, but Olivia just kept fighting her nap like crazy. I eventually just left her in there to at least “rest” even if she wasn’t going to nap. Meanwhile, it was SO beautiful outside, that Christian took the opportunity to get some work done around the house. He took down all of the Christmas lights and packed them away, and did a little cleaning up in the garage. I finally gave in and got Olivia out of bed and dressed, and we joined daddy outside for a while. She rode her bike for a little bit, and actually did really well. She can work the pedals better than we expected, but still ends up going backwards quite a bit…she’ll get it soon though. Amelia woke up from her nap, and we all headed up on a nice, long family walk with the wagon. Amelia did not know what to think about it at first, and was furious that we were making her wear a hat, but she ended up doing really well and was very interested in everything around her.

We arrived home, Christian did some final cleaning up in the garage, I fed Amelia, and we decided it would be a good night for some Chipotle. So we packed up the family and were on our way…but the line at Chipotle was seriously out the door and down the block…so we nixed that idea, and stopped in to Perkins instead. I’m so happy that we can finally get out and about as a family of 4, without Amelia causing a scene everywhere we go. Life is MUCH happier now days, that’s for sure!

After dinner, we just hung out around the house for a bit, watched some TV, played with some toys, had some treats…just a good night, at home, with each other. So, it was a wonderful Saturday, and it makes me really anxious for this warmer weather to settle in for the long run. It’s going to be great being able to get outside and have some more entertainment options for the girls! Here are some pictures of our outdoor fun!

4/1/11 – Where Did April Come From?

How is it possibly April already? I can’t believe it!! I mean, YAY for spring and the changing weather, but where does the time go? I know I say it every month, but it just shocks me over and over again!

Today was just a pretty standard day. Last night went about the same as the last few…each girl was up a couple times. I know it’s going to take some adjustment, and we just need to stick with it, but it gets hard. Last night I decided to take Amelia into our room to feed her…I kept thinking, if I’m sitting there in the rocker, feeding Amelia, and Olivia wakes up, that would HAVE to be pretty scary to see somebody sitting there in the dark. I was good though, and got up and put her back in her crib when she was done eating…YAY for not being so lazy! LOL

Work was work, just the usual. However, I did see something upsetting on the news this morning. A coupe of the state employee bills that I mentioned a while back passed the legislature…they want a 2 year pay freeze (again) for us, and want us paying more into our retirement and the state paying less. There is a chance the governor will veto these bills, but it sounds like the legislature might have enough votes on them to overrule his veto (so, it’s pretty much a guarantee these will be going into effect). Still waiting to hear on the healthcare bill though. And, it’s sounding more and more definite that we will be facing a shutdown this summer. It’s all so frustrating, and so overwhelming. We try not to really think about it, I mean, in the end there is nothing I can do to change it or stop these things from happening, but it’s scary. I mean, we have our house, two young kids, and we can’t afford for me to have all of these changes g into effect or for me to be off work without pay, let alone BOTH. I guess only time will tell what will happen though. Along those lines, Christian has still not heard anything about that job he applied for, so we’re not sure what’s going on there.

"Our" photographer contacted me yesterday. She has a mini-session special going on this weekend, and offered to photograph the girls for free as part of her special! YAY, of course I couldn't pass that up. So, I took a long lunch today and ran to get the girls’ Easter Dresses. You should have seen me in the store. I had three sets of dresses I was trying to decide between…I had each set laid out on the floor and seriously spent WAY TOO MUCH time trying to decide between them. In the end, I just picked my favorite one for Amelia, and a super cute white one to go with it for Olivia. Decisions, decisions.

After work we really just settled into the house for the night. Just the usual really. We were both pretty exhausted, so we just headed to bed as soon as the girls did. We’ll see how tonight’s sleep goes! Here is a picture of the girls hanging out in their cribs while we finished getting ready for bed…I’m guessing we’ll be walking into this scene quite often in the coming months!

3/31/11 – Thursday…Enough Said

I don’t really have anything interesting to report today. Sleep didn’t go quite as well last night. Olivia woke Amelia up shortly after putting them down. We got them back to sleep, and then Amelia was up again a short time later. I kept trying and trying to get her back to sleep, and she just wouldn’t cooperate. I finally gave in and just kept her in bed with me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m such a quitter! But, we’re not giving up yet. We’re getting back on the horse tonight, and sticking with it! I know we need to just be consistent about it, and they’ll get used to the arrangement, It’s just so frustrating, and exhausting, get up over and over again!

The rest of the day was pretty boring. The weather has been really iffy lately, and it looks like that is going to continue for a while. Gotta love Spring! But, this weekend should be pretty nice, so hopefully we’ll be able to get outside for a while.

Work has been going well for both of us. I approached Christian about carpooling a while back, and he really didn’t take to it. One issue is that he drives a friend of his to and from work, and the bigger issue is that he has his random, mandatory OT all the time, and that adds a little kink into it. Now, with gas prices being so out of control (and just getting higher), he actually brought it up to me again. His friend at work is supposed to be getting a car soon, so he won’t need rides any longer. So, it would just be a matter of working through the OT issues. If we carpooled, I would cancel my parking at work (to save that cost), and we would use my car (WAY better gas mileage). Friday’s are easy, either I don’t work, or I can use my mom’s parking pass and drive on the Friday I do work if there is ever a Friday issue. The rest of the week would be the issue. I researched some bus routes from my work to his work so we could maybe work around the OT issues. So, we’re starting the early planning phase of doing it. Hopefully it’s something we can actually implement. It would save us SO much money, and of course, we could erase some of our carbon footprint!

After work, it was just the usual, of course (broken record much?). Today was the 2011 baseball opener, so Olivia sported her Twins Tee for a while! YAY, go Twins! I would love to take the girls to a game this year, so hopefully we can make that happen. Here are some pictures of her showing some Minnesota Twin love!

3/30/11 – Adventures in Baby Food – Mango’s

Well, last night went much better than I expected. Amelia did wake up somewhat early, but Olivia slept through it. Unfortunately, Olivia then woke up a while after we got Amelia back down, and she woke Amelia up, so we had to get both of them back down. And, we did. It ended up working out well. Of course, I still didn’t get much sleep because now I had to worry about her being in a different room! You just can’t win. I forgot the adjustment period that came along with that move. I think we’ll try to stick with this, and see how it goes. Hopefully we’ve finally found something that will work!

Work was busy as ever. Christian started off the morning at the ear doctor, getting a post-surgery check up. They said his ear is healing perfectly, there’s no infection and that from what they can tell and it definitely shouldn’t come back. They want him back in a couple of weeks for another injection, so hopefully it continues healing well. He ended up working a little late to make up some time, and then his mom was cooking some food for him to bring home, so I had plenty of time to get some stuff done around the house. I did a couple loads of laundry, washed dishes, make bottles, made some baby food (peaches and mango’s) and did a little cleaning up. Everyone else finally arrived home, we cooked some dinner and watched American Idol. Nothing too exciting.

Tonight was my first batch of Mango’s. Of course, like a lot of other stuff, Mango’s are not in season right now, so I used a frozen bag. Mangos are another fruit that is loaded with Vitamin A and one that contains a higher level of carotenoids than almost any other fruit. These carotenoids are said to reduce the risk of cancer as well as heart disease. Carotenoids are also thought to be successful in warding off the common cold. Mango’s are low in fat, low in calories but very high in fiber. You will also find lots of Vitamins C and B in Mangoes as well as iron, potassium and protein. Mango’s are tropical fruits and their age for introduction is varied - while they may make a great first food, they are probably not good as THE first food. Mango’s may be allergenic as many tropical fruits tend to be. However, they are not known to commonly cause life threatening allergic reactions however. The type of allergic reaction a Mango may cause is topical or dermatological. The allergen itself resides in the skin/peel of the mango and not within the actual fruit itself. Eating the mango “meat” or pulp will not cause the rash to get into the throat or tummy per se but if the oleoresin from the peel/skin has touched the Mango “meat”, a rash may erupt around the mouth. Some sources say that a Mango allergy may in fact cause a rash around the bottom as the mango is digested and passed through. That being said, there are many pediatricians who say that tropical fruits should be held off until 8 months old and up.

Homemade mango’s are definitely NOT the most cost effective, but you still have some savings, and nonetheless, it’s still healthier, so it’s still a win. The bag was pretty small, so it didn’t make a ton.

Cost Savings:
- 1 Bag of Frozen Mango’s = $2.96 – Makes Roughly 6 Jars
- 6 Jars of Gerber Stage 2 Mango’s = $3.57
- Cost Savings of $.60

3/29/11 – Still Functioning, But Barely

Well, of course, you know the drill…another bad night at our house! Although, I will admit, it STARTED badly, but then wasn’t so bad. Amelia was up pretty early, and I was just so upset. I am so beyond exhausted, I don’t even think most people could understand it at this point. So, when she woke up, so soon after going down, I just cried. I cried, she cried, we cried together. There was nothing more I could do at that point…the frustration, the stress, the exhaustion, my sore body, my burning eyes….it all just caught up with me in that moment.

Christian eventually came in, and of course all of my emotions came boiling over and I started a big fight with him. Like it was his fault she wasn’t sleeping! Like usual, he insists that we should start giving her cereal, which just makes me even more upset. For one, because I have no interest in giving her cereal, but more importantly, because she’s not waking up because she’s hungry. I am SURE of it. When she wakes up, I feed her…she only actually nurses for 2 or 3 minutes, then it’s just a comfort thing…she’s not even eating.

So, my fighting ended up waking up Olivia (mom of the year right there), so Christian had to go get her back down. I ended up just sleeping, sitting up, “feeding” Amelia for a good hour or so. I woke up, she was passed out, so I just laid her next to me and fell asleep. Luckily she stayed down the rest of the night/morning.

Other than that, the day was pretty normal. I’ve spent the last few working days thinking I was finally catching up and making a dent in my work…meanwhile my box of new requests has been filling up somehow. Not sure how I missed that. So, back to square one! I haven’t heard any more about a government shutdown, or the employee bills going through the legislature lately. Christian hasn’t heard anything about the job he applied for. I assume they’ll do interviews, but he hasn’t heard anything. After work, I stopped quick to drop something off to my BFF, and was rewarded with yummy cookies and a muffin! YUM. Christian and I arrived home at the same time, played outside for a bit with Olivia and Chuy, then made a yummy taco dinner together. After a little playing, it was time for our latest task…lowering Amelia crib a step because our new idea is to just go ahead and try having her sleep in the kids’ room, in her own crib. LORD help me, I don’t see this going well! Fingers crossed though.

I also have to add that today is my stepmom’s birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Renny!

Here is a shot of Amelia in her crib. How is it that at 8 months old she seems too small to be in it, yet Olivia seemed to fit right in at 3 months?!

3/28/11 – Play Date

Well, it was just another Monday in our world. I spent the morning catching up on work from Friday, and ended up leaving a couple hours early to get some stuff done. I ran home to do some uninterrupted “picking up” around the house, washed some dishes, pumped, made bottles and then I was off to Target. Oh Target, I seriously had the fullest cart ever by the time I was done…people were looking at me like I was crazy! Well, that’s what happens with you need cat litter, dog food, two boxes of diapers and a box of wipes, along with all of the groceries, all at the same time. I swear; I keep Target in business!

I was finally home, and Christian was right behind me with the girls. I quickly got the groceries put away and whipped up some dinner. One of my sisters ended up stopping over to visit, with 3 of her kids, and it was such a great surprise. We had the chance to catch up, which we NEVER do, and Olivia had SO much fun playing with her cousins. We definitely need to get together with them more often!

After they left, we did a little cleaning up, and then it was straight to bed for the girls. My mother in law gave both of them a bath today, so that was one thing we got to check off our list! Tonight we removed the bassinet portion of the pack n’ play, and we’re going to try having Amelia sleep in the pack n’ play. Maybe some distance between us will do her some good. I guess we’ll see. We just have to try everything we can at this point, and, hopefully something will look promising soon!

Tonight Amelia tried Sopa for the first time (on its own, it’s a very plain tomato-like soup, with noodles). She actually ate a whole little bowl of it, she loved it. It was hard to get decent pictures of her, but here are a few. She like playing with the noodles, and kept giving me a very confused look, even though she liked it. Probably because dad was feeding her, so she thought something was up. LOL