2 Month Check-Up

Kara had her 2 month well-baby check up yesterday.  Sorry, no pic to go with it right now...wanted to get this posted while girls are sleeping and didn't have time to download.  Maybe later.  Anyway, our little porker weighed in at 12lbs even and 22 1/4 inches long.  Same length as Allison was at 2 months but a pound and a half bigger!  Love it.  So even with all the spitting up, fussing, etc, she is gaining and thriving!  :)  And, of course, as I am trying to explain to our pediatrician Kara's intense crying/colic spells she is laying on the exam table quiet and cheerful...she even gave him big smiles!!  So, now he thinks I am crazy.  J/K.  Actually we talked about a lot of things.  It is of course very hard to know for sure what causes the intense crying in babies, could be a milk protein allergy, reflux, or just plain colic.  We are trying different things.  Now she is switched to Prilosec (which unfortunately tastes TERRIBLE and she hates it!), and I am trialing no milk products for a week to see if things improve.  Let me tell you, no milk products sucks.  It is very hard.  No milk, no cheese, butter, yogurt, chocolate, etc.!  Ugh.  If it turns out to be a milk allergy thing, I don't know if I will be able to continue this...might end up switching her to special formula...we'll see though.  Dr. said if it IS a milk allergy thing (which she would grow out of, babies do this sometimes) we would see a dramatic difference.  I am really not convinced any of these things is really going to help.  I really believe she has plain old colic.  But I don't want to take a chance that one of these things could help, so we'll see.  And on the bright side, if it IS colic, we should be over the hump...  Of course last night after her wonderful show at the Dr. she got shots and then we had a rough evening.  A good 3 hours of crying...HARD, you feel sooo sorry for them and so helpless.  We tried everything.  She was also very spitty during this time, so I tried to give her tylenol, but I think I ended up wearing most of it.  Anyway, the night was pretty good.  I think the storm woke her at 12:40 but she ate and went back to bed and slept until just after 6.  I'll take it. 

Colic...What colic??

This picture just doesn't quite do it justice of how wonderfully peaceful and beautiful she looks sleeping!  I had to take it with no flash so I wouldn't wake her!  Anyway, we have been dealing with colic at our house the past 2 months.  I have read and heard that it does go away at 3 months...I am waiting and praying it does.  It is sooo incredibly hard to deal with.  I have questioned just about everything.  We started her on Zantac a few weeks ago for possible reflux...we weren't sure it was helping so last weekend we trialed stopping it.  Needless to say she is back on it today and I do think she needs it.  I am nursing and I question just about everything I eat and drink.  I wonder if she would better off getting formula...but then some say it is worse on formula.  Plus that is so expensive!  I wonder if we should be bottling her instead (sometimes it seems like she swallows a lot of air nursing).  I wonder if when we do start formula if we should have her on special formula (soy?).  I don't know.  I am just trying to make it through the next month and then we will probably switch to just bottles because I will go back to work.  I plan to continue to pump, but she will also get some formula then too. 

Also, night sleep.  Allison was sleeping mostly through the night by 2 months already!  She would get up just once at 2-3 a.m. to eat and then back to sleep until 7 or so.  BUT she didn't go to bed until 10-11 p.m.  Kara (usually) goes to bed by 9, but she gets up for sure 1x and sometimes 2x.  I am WAITING for the night I wake up at 6 a.m. and she hasn't gotten up!  I realize this is expecting a lot.  I just need to have faith that she will eventually sleep all night!!!  (PLEASE, PLEASE do it by 3 months....please! ;)

Gillette Update

The part that had us worried most...the car rides to and from the cities...went well!!  She slept both rides the whole way!  No screaming!  Praise the Lord!  There were many prayers said about this, so thank you!  I think timing in the car is just key for her.  If she is not happy she is not one to just go with the flow...she WILL let you know and won't stop until she gets it I think. 

As for the appt. itself, it went pretty good.  We saw Dr. Wood at Gillette and he recommends laser treatment.  I thought we were going to get the oral treatment - Propranolol, but he said the type of hemangioma she has responds very well to laser treatment and there are less (virtually no) side effects with the laser treatment.  The bummer part is that we have to come back to the cities and this time we have to go to the Gillette hospital in St. Paul to have it done!  And she has to have sedation because it is right by her eye!!!  Poor baby!  They are supposed to call us to schedule it today.  Although I am going to ask at Kara's Dr. appt. on Friday if she can have the laser treatment done here in Willmar.  I know they do it, I just don't know if they will on such a young baby and with the location of the hemangioma.  We'll see.  Thanks for all the prayers and keep em coming!

Baby Shower Blessings!

This past Sat. I helped host a baby shower for a very good friend.  It went very well and Jamie got so many fun baby things!!  I can't believe how many cool things she got!  Anyway, congratulations Jamie!  Can't wait to meet this sweet baby!!

Lookin' FABULOUS!  Only 1 1/2 months to go!

Cousins!

Allison adores her cousin, Emma (Dan's daughter).  Even though she doesn't see her often (or maybe because she doesn't?), she ALWAYS asks about Emma and last week when my mom was bringing Emma up to visit us, Allie was sooo excited!  They are both 2 - Emma is almost 4 months younger than Allie.  So, we heard a lot of "That's mine" and "She took it" from both girls!  Funny!!

Sisters!

Allison continues to love her sister to death and asks to hold her ALL the time!  The other day she was playing downstairs for quite a while by herself (don't ask what it looked like down there...she was a busy girl!), anyway, when I heard her coming up I asked if she was coming up to see us.  She said no, she was coming up to see Kara!  And came and gave her a big kiss. 

First Smile!

Kara smiled at me for the first time at just after 3 weeks, however she didn't do it again for another week or more.  She is 6 weeks now and has smiled at everyone - even Allison (who is ALWAYS in her face!).  Those smiles are just precious!  I haven't gotten a really good picture of it because it is sooo hard to tear yourself away from her when she is smiling to get the camera and about the time you do, she stops.  Here is the one I finally captured, it was right at the end though, they get a lot bigger!!

Side note...see that red spot by her left eye?  It is a strawberry hemangioma (or birthmark).  We are taking Kara to Gillette in 2 weeks for that.  I wasn't very worried about it, except that it could get bigger, but our doctor recommended taking her to Gillette for it because of the location.  There is a new treatment they are doing at Gillette with Propranolol (?), a medication used on adults for blood pressure/heart problems.  It makes the spots go away supposedly.  I am glad we are going, I didn't want it to get any bigger.  Will be interesting to hear more about how it works. 

Pics...FINALLY!

Here is a pic of Miss Ellie Jo:

She is 2 weeks old now, so she has grown and changed a lot in those 2 weeks, but here she was on her Birthday!  Look at all that hair!!

Baptism:

Doesn't Allison look happy?!  She did NOTwant to take pictures!  Family pic with Kara's sponsors, Josh and Katie.

Kara was a little noisy during her baptism...she was hungry!

Allison getting re-baptised!  Her favorite part...playing in the baptismal font.