Saturday, July 31, 2010

Houston, we have a (crying) problem!


On July 27th, exactly one week later, Makena cut her 2nd tooth. These last several days have been our least fun ever. She has two teeth, and constant bad case of the grumps. So not cool. She cries about pretty much everything. People are beginning to comment "Wow, she used to be so happy." And it makes me want to cry. :(

I'm finding myself getting super frustrated and annoyed. She wakes up happy, and gets about an hour of giggles and smiles, then it's downhill. She really enjoys playing on the floor, but she gets mad when she can't reach something, and she falls over all the time and screams, and she wants to move around but can't!

She's been waking up a lot in the middle of the night, ready to play. Pam and I are realizing now, at 6 months, what sleep deprivation is. Most babies outgrow this by 6 weeks of age. Makena sailed right through her first 6 weeks, misleading us to believe that we were just lucky, only for it to bite us in the butt months later. The non-sleeping, the crying... this is what people mean when they say having kids is hard. I went to sleep at 8pm last night without eating because I couldn't handle waiting for dinner.

It's one thing to have a crying baby. But it's another to have a whiney fussy baby who is half smiling as she cries out. I'm SO upset that I'm having so hard of a time. Makena is amazing- she is so fun, has a great giggle, loves cuddles, yadda yadda... she's wonderful, there's no denying that! But we really feel like this is an impostor baby..where did our sweet, content to sit and play by herself, easy-going darling go?! And more importantly, is she coming back???? WHEN?!

So now, a list of everything that Makena doesn't love-

Getting her clothes/diaper changed.
You might remember that just a short while ago this was on the "Makena Loves" list. Well apparently she's reached the age where everything around her is so exciting that stopping to get changed is the end of the world. She's started to wiggle and fight it. Getting her arms through the arm holes is like an Olympic event.

Being on her tummy.
Makena has never enjoyed tummy time. She will lay on her back happily for a long time, but cries pretty soon after rolling onto her tummy. She can roll to her back, but she would rather lay there and cry until we sit her up. She wants to sit 24/7, but she also tries to reach for things and ends up slumped over on her side then rolling onto her belly. And she hates it. Here she is just moments away from flopping onto her belly.

Loud noises and strangers in her face.
The vacuum, blender, leaf blower, power drill...all these noises make her scrunch up her face and SCREAM. When people she doesn't know well get up close and talk to her she sticks out her pouty lip and lets out a loud cry that says "GET AWAY FROM ME!" She displayed this beautifully to a waitress who was trying to be nice. The waitress asked which of us was Makena's mom, and I said "Both, she has two moms." and she replied with "Well isn't that special! Not every baby is lucky enough to have TWO moms!!" Cue the screaming lucky baby...

Falling.
Ok well this one is to be expected, I mean, nobody likes falling. Especially when she falls face first. I'm glad we have carpet! Sometimes she unfortunately falls onto a toy, and I'm sure that hurts and warrants a good cry. But Makena screams each and every time as if she has cracked her skull. It takes a lot of holding and distracting to make her forget about it. Then again, she could be crying just because she tried to grab something but ended up falling, and she's not mad that she fell, just mad that she couldn't reach. Oy. She is SO close to crawling, she sits so well and then reeeeeaches and ends up falling. Look at the photo, she's trying to grab something that isn't even in the frame. It's obviously out of her reach!

Things that get taken away.
If this is the beginning stage of a toddler who will throw temper tantrums...oh lord please help me. Obviously the most exciting toys in our house are- our cell phones, the remote, anything made from paper, and plastic bags. All of which she isn't allowed to have, yet somehow keeps getting her chubby little hands on. (Side note: Who knew we have so many plastic bags in our lives? Get out of here!!) If she grabs something and we take it away she screams as if we just dropped her on the floor head first. It's ridiculous and drives me crazy. I try my best to keep these items out of her sight (Plastic bags?! Are you kidding me?? EVERYTHING is packaged in plastic all of a sudden!) once she sets her mind on it, she has to have the forbidden item. Because she knows it's a forbidden item. I know how this all works!

Eating more than a couple bites.
Makena gets so excited at meal times. She loves to sit in her highchair (which I exchanged for a new fabric pattern!) and opens her mouth in anticipation for that first spoonful. She'll take the next few bites with no problem, but after about the 4th spoonful she purses her lips closed. And whines. And bangs her fists. So I try to squeeze the spoon in or make her laugh and get the food in her mouth, and she eats it happily until she closes her mouth and acts all mad again. I think she just hates being fed and wants to do it herself. And I'm okay with that! But she can't feed herself purees with a spoon. Maybe I'll start doing meals in the tub so I can let her go crazy and spray her down afterwards...

Swallowing pool water.
Again, I'm pretty sure nobody likes that. Pam has been doing swim classes with Makena this past week, and on the first class she swallowed a big mouthful of water. The rest of the 30 minute class she was a big ol' grumpster. In fact, she hasn't seemed to enjoy her swim class at all, which makes us sad. She loves the water, but the class is at 5:30 and that's a crappy time of day.

Sleeping alone.
She's still only napping if I nurse her to sleep or I'm not around and Pam gets her to fall asleep while holding her. And she wakes up with any sound or movement, so we can't transfer her into her bed. I came home from Target to this view as I opened the door-

And her newest thing is...drum roll please...
Crying when I walk away or leave the room.
If she's starting to fuss and whine she get's clingy and needy, and I if dare leave her sight she flips out. Or, Pam will be with her and if I walk by she flips out. We're starting to do that whole "no eye contact" thing in hopes that she won't have a meltdown when we lock eyes but I don't hold her. She's reaching out for me sometimes, and while very cute and heartwarming... it's also super frustrating (for both Pam and I!) because she'll be in Pam's arms and crying to get into mine.

I know her teeth and mouth must be hurting. The other night she was crying so much that I gave her some of the Hylands Teething Tablets and she literally fell asleep within seconds. She grabs at her mouth a lot and drools all the time. She loves sucking on cold things, so I give her frozen cubes of pureed fruit in her mesh feeder thingy and she is happy for a while. And she does still smile, in fact she's still WAY more smiley and happy than some other serious babies! We laugh a lot and she's adorable! But her grump is always right under the surface, and you never know if it's going to come out! This is what she looks like a lot of the time now-

She pulls her lower lip in and has this intent look of...annoyance? Boredom? Whatever it is, it makes me sad. But not as sad as this face-

P.S. In other news, she pooped in the toilet today. She woke up abruptly from a nap after only sleeping for 20 minutes. She woke up crying and when I sat her up she was super gassy and started straining to poop but clearly it wasn't going to well. And she was wearing a nice new cloth diaper that I didn't want to get ruined with poop (I know...it's a diaper!) so I took off the diaper to give her more room. But then I thought "now what?!" So I sat her on the toilet and she totally pooped. 4 times. It was a LOT of poop! I was so excited that she didn't make a huge poopy mess that definitely would have leaked out of the diaper! All I had to do was flush it away! (Well, after saving it to show Pam...lol!) It was exciting, in a way that you would only understand if you have a baby.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Fever, family, food, and everything in between!

We've been without a working computer for a few weeks, and I've been itching to update this blog! So let's get right to it!

June 5th
Makena was very clingy and had a slight fever in the evening. Went to bed and woke up crying and so congested that she was getting frustrated with nursing. Took her temperature a few times (I don't care if the thermometer is one of those fancy 1 second ear ones...it still takes too long when the baby is crying and squirming!) and the highest reading we got was 101.7 so we called the night nurse. Poor baby was miserable. We sat in the steamy bathroom and got some saline nose drops and sucked out boogers like crazy. It was a rough night, she woke every hour from midnight till morning. :( Took her to the Dr on Monday and he said she just had a regular ol' common cold.

June 7th
We went to the Silicon Valley Duck Race for the first time! We sponsored 3 rubber duckies, but didn't win anything. It was cute though, and my parents and Diana and Nickel and Sofia came along. Makena wanted to eat this tiny duck of my mom's, but I love how in the photo she looks shocked at seeing such a little rubber duckie! lol.


Then Grandmo pushed her around in the stroller for a few minutes and she fell asleep!! Her first (and only so far) stroller nap! She pulled her hat down and covered her face and was out for about 45 minutes. A miracle!

June 14th
I went to a La Leche League meeting. I have these red sore dry patches on my areola and I think it's because Makena has gotten lazy with her latch. (And I've gotten lazy about correcting her...) Later that night Pam was sitting on the floor next to Makena who was doing some tummy time, and I was on the couch watching tv. Pam yelled "Look!!" and I stood up and looked and said "what?!" and Pam said "She just rolled over!!" and sure enough she was on her back! Pam says she just caught the very end of her rolling, and I missed it entirely. No fun!

June 16th
We had been watching like hawks and finally she did it again and we both saw it clear as day- Makena rolled over, from tummy to back!

June 18th
Pam went to work and her boss was waiting with a box of her belongings and she texted me and said she lost her job. So that sucks. She's still looking for something, and it's been tough for sure. :( The bright side is that she gets to be home a lot now to be with us! And she's gone back to teaching a few soccer classes with her old job.

June 21st
While taking this photo outside our apartment (for a few days she loved sticking out her tongue like that. So funny!) we both looked at the camera to see how it came out...and then realized neither of us was holding Makena up! She was sitting all by herself at 5 months (and 1 day) old!


June 23rd
I know we have no income other than my about-to-end unemployment benefits and the money I make babysitting, but I can't resist and buy an Ergo Baby Carrier. I'd been wanting one for a long time and they were on sale at babysteals.com and I had to act fast before they sold out!! And it's a fantastic product and I'll use it for a long time! Breaking the news of my impulse purchase to Pam went over much better than I thought it would. lol!

June 25th-28th
We flew to Denver, CO for a wedding and to have Makena meet more of Pam's family, her granny and Uncle Kyle. The flight was okay, she wanted to grab and put everything in her mouth.

We were glad it was only about 3 hours! And we had some bad turbulence that had me gripping the seat and Pam's leg. The pilot kept telling us "Just a few bumps, nothing to worry about," but the fasten your seatbelts sign was on the whole time and they even had to stop drink service so the flight attendants could sit down. It was rough. Especially for me who can't stop imagining worst case scenarios all the time! Ugh! But we landed just fine (as I walked off the plane an older woman patted me on the arm and thanked me for being a good mom. I think I said "Oh, thanks?" and she said she didn't hear a peep out of my baby and that's the sign of a good mother. LOL!) and got our rental car and made it to Kyle's house. At the wedding the next afternoon she slept the whole ceremony, and then Pam was lifting her up to blow on her stomach and she was giggling so adorably. See?!

Then we went back to Kyle's house and Makena got to meet Pam's mom for the first time! We went to Downtown Denver and met up with Pam's friend James and then later Dwayne. The next day she got to meet Pam's brother and we went out to eat brunch then took photos in City Park.



Then it was time to leave, so we drove to the airport and Makena was exhausted and finally fell asleep for the drive. At the airport we had hours to spend and Dwayne gave us free food since he works at a restaurant there. We spent a lot of time at a great toy store and then sat at the terminal while our flight kept getting delayed. But it wasn't too bad at all, and Makena rolled over back to tummy for the first time! The ride home was a nightmare, it just took forever to get in the air and Makena was SO fussy. We finally got flying and the lights dimmed and she nursed and fell asleep across our laps. And we held her like that the entire time until we landed and she woke up.

July 2nd
Swimming! Makena got to wear her adorable bathing suit and we took a dip in the pool at my parents apartment! She loved it, and we loved it! Her favorite part is splashing, and she laughs when she splashes water in her face!

On July 4th we didn't have any plans, but Makena did wear a cute outfit!

She also had her first taste of real food!! Pam was eating a peach and we let Makena lick it. She loved it! Also, about a week before that we had bought her a sippy cup, and she LOVES drinking water from it. Then we slowly started adding more first foods...She bit a banana on 7/7, sat in her high chair for the first time and tried avocado on 7/9, had a couple spoons of homemade rice cereal on 7/13, and on 7/15 we went to Whole Foods and bought a bunch of different fruits and veggies to make for her! She had sweet potato that night for dinner and got a special treat- a Baby Mum Mum...which is an organic rice cracker type thing for babies that dissolves almost instantly in her gummy slobbery mouth. She loves them!!


July 10th
We went to the park with my sister and the kids. Makena wore the outfit they bought her.


July 11th
We went to San Francisco and had a baby reunion for all our birth center friends who had January babies! This is the group photo from April (Maya left before we took it)-
Lakota, Makena, Quinn, Chloe, Rowan, Jaesun, and Esme, about 3 months old!

And this is the same group (with Maya but missing Quinn)-
Chloe, Jaesun, Lakota, Rowan, Makena, Esme, and Maya, about 6 months old!

It's always nice to see everybody and catch up. We wish we lived closer and could get together more often! They are a great group of people and babies, and as an added bonus both Esme and Quinn have 2 mommies. :) And we seem to all share similar thoughts on parenting which is nice.

July 16th
Makena is a rolling machine! Pam and I were doing some housework and we had her laying on a blanket in the livingroom. We kept noticing her roll over 4 or 5 times in a row, especially to try and reach Donte as he would walk by. So cute! She can definitely purposefully roll over now when she wants to. She still really hates being on her stomach. She's even starting to dislike being on her back, all she wants to do is sit. But she keeps trying to reach for things and turns her body while sitting and falls over a lot. And she cries almost instantly and want to be sat back up. It's exhausting...she has us trained well! Yesterday she fell hard while trying to grab her sippy cup. Instead of bringing it up to her face (like she knows very well how to do!) she leaned her head down and fell right into the cup. Screamed!! It took lots of cuddles to soothe her but then she was over it and wanted her cup again.

July 17th
We went to my nephews 9th birthday party, and Makena was the star event. All the little kids loved handing her things and she just loves watching children play! After the party we drove to Fresno to visit Kimberly, Susan, and baby Kansas. Makena slept in the car... until she woke up. We stopped in Los Banos and I fed her, then she cried the entire way to Fresno. Finally fell asleep as we turned onto their street. Of course. Let me tell you, driving while your baby is screaming is one of the hardest things ever. It's awful. But we got there and we all went to bed. The next day we played with the babies and went swimming! (And played with their new underwater camera!)



July 20th
We left Fresno and on the drive home Pam was sitting in the backseat with Makena. She was feeling in her mouth and said she thought she felt something. We stopped for lunch at Casa de Fruta and sure enough, Makena has her first tooth!!!! The last couple days have been tough, this teething thing is no joke! She's been super fussy and clingy and crying about everything. What happened to our sweet cheerful baby?! Last night was super hard. She woke up around midnight screaming and I couldn't console her at all. So I decided to try the Hylands Homeopathic Teething Tablets, and literally within seconds she was asleep and SMILING! It was so adorable, I am a believer in the magic of those little white tablets!!

Today is July 24th. Right now Makena is sitting on the floor playing with her toys. I had the Boppy around her back to help soften her toppling over, but she's scooted across the blanket (while sitting the whole time!) and is now about 4 feet away and facing the opposite direction that I put her in. At this rate I don't know if she'll crawl...she cries when on her stomach and can move around pretty well while sitting! Annnnd she just fell backwards with a thud. That Boppy pillow was so helpful sitting over there on the other side of the blanket. lol. She's crying, but it's not a painful cry, just a "I'm pissed off that you aren't helping me to sit up again" cry. I'm talking to her and she's fine. And now she's not crying at all but keeps grabbing at her mouth. Poor thing, I'm pretty sure either another tooth is about to pop out or the first one is hurting her. Oh good, now she's grabbed a book and is occupied with that while she sings a lovely song for me. :)

I'm going to get dressed and head out for a walk. Pam scouted out a nearby playground that has baby swings covered in shade if you go before noon!