Record-breaking badness

I have to make this quick because right now I'm supposed to be doing 556 things and none of those require blogging.  BUT, monumental terribleness happened today and I must record it.  After all, every second that ticks by another brain cell in my head implodes.

Amelia didn't sleep well last night.  I have thought for the last couple of days that I was being a super awesome mom by figuring out a way to get protein in my baby's lunch.  Add black beans!  Problem is, beans are a magical fruit.  Baby's got gas.  She didn't go to sleep until 9:30 last night then woke up at 2am (I hadn't been to bed yet) screaming.  I rocked her and fed her and rocked her some more.  She finally went to sleep and I finally did, too.  I thought she would sleep in a bit but she was awake at 7:45 this morning and wouldn't be put back down.

I gave her a bath then put her down for a morning nap which only lasted 45 minutes.  Not long enough.  I tried rocking her - she was obviously SO tired.  She's been cutting teeth so I gave her a little bit of Walgreen's version of Tylenol.  She loved chewing on the dropper so I let her hold the bottle.  It was in her crib when I put her back and hoped she'd fall back to sleep. 

Meanwhile, I called David's mom and asked if she was free to come over and play with the baby so I could get some things done.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  She said she would be happy to (LOVE her!) and she'd be here after lunch.

Amelia had gotten quiet then all of a sudden started crying.  It was the poo cry.  Sure enough, I walked in to her room and smelled it.  Then I looked in her crib and saw it.  Not poo - reddish pink stuff.  My first thought was "She threw up the Tylenol" but .08 mL is not enough to coat her crib sheet in 5 different places and make my baby a completely sticky mess. 

I found the dropper and the bottle.  Empty.  It had only been half-full to begin with.  I changed Amelia's diaper and stripped her of her sticky, gooey clothes.  I called David at work and he said I should call poison control, something I was planning to do anyway but for some reason called my husband first.

Amelia's baby tub was still in the kitchen from when I bathed her, oh, and hour or so before.  I stuck her in the tub and let her splash around while I ran a wet washcloth over her and called Poison Control.  The guy on the other end needed info from the Tylenol bottle.  In Amelia's room.  I grabbed her out of the tub, wrapped her in a towel and found the bottle in her bedroom.  I gave him the information he needed and he put me on hold while he did some calculations.  I took Amelia in the living room to put a diaper and clothes on her while I waited.  As I was trying to diaper Amelia one-handed, he came back on the line.  Amelia was fighting me and the diaper so I let her air dry while I wrapped up the phone call.  She crawled next to the towel, sat up, and peed.  On the carpet.  Reminded me of those fireboats:

David's mom came over and played with Amelia for a couple of hours while I worked on finishing my lesson for the ladies class.  I taught the class - it was on Homemaking.  I was told it went well!

I should be packing and making bows.  I'm so far behind on the bows I need to make that I feel I'll never catch up.  Most are donations to a wonderful charity but I also have some gifts to finish making. 

Happy Friday!

Starting to Forget

I was so concerned about potentially boring my few readers that I neglected writing about Amelia as often as I wanted to and should have.  Now I'm starting to forget so much about her first several months.  I know we had rough nights (and some rough days), but not wanting to be a downer, I rarely posted details.  How lame.  Life is full of ups and downs - how can anyone read a blog that's all "ups" and no "downs" with any sense of reality at all?  Especially with a newborn the wonderful moments outweigh the tiring, emotionally exhausting ones, but I think they're all worth documenting.

Often we drive past the gas station where, on the way home from Bible class one night, we had to park there so we could take turns soothing an inconsolable baby.  My parents were in town that night and my mom spent a lot of time with me trying to figure out what was wrong with her...I think Amelia was maybe a month old.  Finally my mom, being the rockstar superhero that she is, soothed Amelia with a combination of song and belly rubbing.  I know now that it was painful gas causing my baby to get so upset.
So, I'm here now. I have to get back on the proverbial horse and write about my sweet baby. It makes me so happy to go back and read the few posts I did manage to write when we first brought her home and the months that followed.

Here are some things about my 10 1/2 month old baby girl:

- She doesn't like anyone to touch her hands.  At all.  I was able to put a finger puppet on her pointer finger tonight in Bible class before she slipped her hand out of my grasp.  I think it was just an attitude thing, but when I was holding her tonight I had my hand on her leg and she kept pushing my hand off.

(Picture to the right is of Amelia and her pediatrician.  We love her!)

- She still only has 2 teeth that are all the way through and those are on the bottom.  The white of her left eye tooth is clearly visible but no sign of her two front teeth yet. 

- She loves graham crackers, green peas, cheese, all fruit, Costco hot dogs and buns, and beef.  She's not a big fan of chicken or turkey.

- She loves Tess.  Every morning when she first sees Tess, she claps and says "Hi Teh!"  She's constantly grabbing Tess's toy rope and waving it in front of Tess's face until Tess grabs it and they play some tug-of-war.

- She hugs me every time I get her up in the morning and after her naps.  I love it.  She will give me hugs and kisses any time I ask, and I ask a lot! 

- She's a daredevil.  Climbs on things, including our couch, and loves to be tossed into the air.

- She says "Mama", "Dada", "Bah" (Book), "Teh" (Tess), and tries to say a lot of other things.  She's just at the age where she'll look at your mouth when you're saying something and she really tries to figure out how to say it.  She babbles all of the time.  I can't wait to see what she says next!

- Her favorite games are "Peek-A-Boo", "I'm Gonna Get That Baby", and "I See a Belly!"  She loves her books, especially "Open the Barn Door" because I make the animal noises.  Every time I say "Woof Woof", Amelia laughs.

(Picture to the left is her about a week ago when she fell asleep for the night using her stuffed bunny as a pillow)

- She loves her daddy.  When she hears him come in the door, she crawls over to the gate and claps and bounces up and down.  She wants him to hold her right away and she'll spend until dinner snuggling and playing with him.  She loves repeating noises that he makes.  He'll say "Ha ha ha" and she will repeat it.  They do a lot of "Ah!"s back and forth. 

- She has learned on her own how to uncap lipbalm and Vaseline as well as how to push the button on the wipes box and start pulling wipes out of the container.

- If she is done with something it goes on the floor.  This applies to books, toys, and especially food.  Tonight I gave her pieces of cooked chicken breast dipped in mixed veggie puree.  On the floor.  Then I tried salvaging the pieces (they had dropped onto a clean towel which we had underneath her) by putting a small piece of pineapple on top of each piece.  That did the trick.  My baby loves pineapple, just like her mama and completely unlike her daddy.  The "on the floor" thing has become an issue in the middle of Bible class or worship services when she just lets go of whatever toy she's done holding and it falls loudly onto the floor.  So, we are teaching her not to drop things on purpose.  It's a fine line between purpose and accidental at this age.

- She's not so much a drama queen, she stays pretty even tempered.  However, her whine/cry sounds like the most pathetic noise in the world.  Sometime I'll record it and post it.  There are days when she's not in the best mood and that's all I hear.  It makes me want to saw my ears off with a spoon.

I think that's enough for tonight.  Good timing on her part - she just cried out.  Hopefully (praying!) she isn't really awake and that was just a squeal in the night.  We'll see.  Mama needs sleep.  I planned to get up with David tomorrow morning but I also planned to go to sleep 2 hours ago. 

Happy Thursday!

Snot Rockets

I called Poison Control for the first time tonight.  David and I were in our bedroom - he was getting ready for Bible class and I was on the computer.  The baby was playing with whatever she found lying around.  We have toys and baby-safe gadgets within her grasp in our bedroom for occasions such as this. 

Now, I dig a lot of things out of her mouth on a somewhat daily basis.  Mostly ribbon.  I try, but I miss picking up some minute pieces of ribbon from my bow-making sometimes and if it's even a speck, Amelia will find it. 

So, in the bedroom.  Suddenly I turn and David is digging something out of her mouth, asking why I had a pill on my nightstand.  I didn't have a pill on my nightstand.  Apparently, a stray FenuGreek pill had found its way under the nightstand and Amelia found it.  Nursing moms will know that Fenugreek are herbal pills meant to increase milk supply.  I haven't nursed Amelia in almost 2 months, so obviously I was completely clueless as to how and when this pill wandered under my nightstand.  David retrieved the capsule from Amelia's mouth.  She had biten off the top 1/4" of the pill and that part was still in her mouth.  Fortunately, the capsule still held most of its contents.  I go digging in Amelia's now maple-sugar-smelling mouth for the top part of the capsule and its contents.  She is not happy about having my pinky finger shoved in every crevice of her mouth, but I caught a glimpse of the capsule and am determined to grab it.

I finally dug it out and called poison control.  No harm.  They took my name, Amelia's name, and her date of birth.  I can't help thinking that I'm now on file with CPS. 

David took this week off work.  Here was our plan:

- Get home improvement projects done
- Do a lot of spring cleaning
- Go to the zoo
- Go to the aquarium
- Take family walks every day
- I would get to make some bows while David watched the baby

Here's what actually is happening:

- Millie and I got sick

It's so bad that every time Amelia sneezes, David sings "Snot Rockets" to the tune of the "Hot Pockets" jingle.  You can imagine why.

Is there really a worse way to try to fall asleep than with a stuffy, yet runny, nose?  I'm an advocate of the cry-it-out method, albeit a modified version of the method, but when the baby is sick all of that gets thrown out the window. 

I put her down at 7:30 tonight.  I thought I had every possible base covered.  We stuck to the bedtime routine, I also turned her cool mist humidifier on high, Baby Rub-bed her chest and neck, gave her a dose of Benedryl to help with her nose, and slightly elevated her mattress.  She fell asleep quickly and easily.  I was so relieved.

Fast forward one hour and 10 minutes later.  Amelia wakes herself up by coughing and decides it would be a good idea to stand up in her crib and make a huge fuss.  After a few minutes seeing if she would calm down and realizing she clearly won't, I went in and tried the old "I'm right here, I wiped your nose  - oh, hey look!  It's your pacifier! - but I'm not going to pick you up" routine but she flipped out.  I rocked her.

And rocked her.

And rocked her.

The good news is that she let me rock her.  The bad news is that she didn't fall asleep, she just stared at me and played with my nostrils.

I fed her what equaled an obsene amount of formula for what she's used to at bedtime, but she drank it and wanted all of it (she is definitely one to turn down the milk if she doesn't want it).  I laid her down and she did the thing where she pops right up the second I put her on the mattress.

David got home from Bible class and we let Amelia cry in her crib for probably 10 minutes.  I was hoping she would realize how tired she was and zonk out, but I also was realistic in that the more worked up she got, the more snotty everything got.  Snotty - messy, crusty, snottiness. 
I'm a sucker and got her out of bed where she played in the darkness of our bedroom for about 30-40 minutes.  Happy as a stinking clam.  Fed her another 4 ounces which she sucked down then I put her back to bed.  She fussed for a total of 1 minute then completely sacked out.

I'm pretty sure it was 11:45pm.  Now that I'm on record with CPS I'm sure this will go in my file, too.

I'm scared of how this night and tomorrow will go for us, but hopefully she sleeps well.

P.S.  I'm having another giveaway tomorrow on my Facebook fan page, so stop by.

Wordless Wednesday: Rub-a-dub-dub

No Appropriate Title

We are fighting the gas monster over here.  I think it's part of growing pains.  You get to try a lot of really yummy and interesting foods but sometimes it takes a minute for your little digestive system to figure it all out.  By "we" and "you" I, of course, mean Amelia.  Someday she'll be mortified that I posted about her flatulence online, but it's just part of being a baby and some day she'll understand.

We hear "something" and follow her around sniffing her rear only to discover that she's reached the age where not every toot means she has filled her pants.  It's pretty sad, though, to hear her whine and cry in her sleep every now and then.  I'm not 100% sure that gas is to blame, but it's my best guess.  She's hopped up on Motrin tonight so I can't really blame her teeth.

She's starting to really say some definitive words.  Tonight she pulled herself up on David and said "Dada".  Then, a few minutes later she hoisted herself up on my leg and said "Mamamama".  She tries really hard to say "Uh oh".  The only thing that comes out is "Uh" and then a little cough.  She hasn't grasped the "Oh" sound yet.  She waves at everyone and everything, and every once in a while she'll say "Hi" or "Bye bye".  She says "Tess" on cue - it sounds like "Teh".  She has also tried a few times to say "Thank you". 

It's hard to know if she's old enough to say "Please".  I'm trying to work with her on it but so far all she does is grunt when she wants more food.  She has signed "more" to me a few times by clapping her hands together, and she has signed "milk" a couple of times as well.

I came back from Oregon with either a cold or allergy issues.  I'm not really sure which but my nose is stuffy, my head feels like it's going to explode, and my voice is on its way out.  I'm still going to try to make the most of this week that my husband has off work.  I'm really looking forward to it!

Flowery cupcakes

This weekend we were in Portland for my niece's first birthday.  My sister baked some cupcakes and bought some candy for us to, hopefully, get us inspired on how to decorate the cupcakes.  I tried working with some of the candy she bought but neither one of us were really happy with how it was turning out.  I had researched a little online and found that it's possible to roll out gumdrops and cut shapes into them.  I thought that was a clever idea but when we were at the store at 10:15pm the night before the party to readdress the cupcake decorations, Starbursts sounded better and the colors were brighter.  I figured rolling those out would have the same effect.  So, we bought them.

After I rolled out the Starbursts and cut them into flowers, I poked a hole through them with a toothpick and Carrie rolled the scraps into balls and we used those as the center of the flower.  Then, we stuck the toothpick through the green Sour Patch Straws that Carrie had purchased earlier that day and voila!  Cupcakes with flower sticking out of them.

Anna definitely approved..

Would anyone be interested...

..in hosting a giveaway on their blog of my products?

Email me at MilliesBows@gmail.com if it sounds like something you'd want to do.  I'd like to do one every month or two starting in June and I'd pick different blogs each month to host the giveaway.  My only requirement is that you have a fair number of followers and that you post regularly.

I know I've been absent - I apologize.  The business is going really, really well.  Too well.  I'm wanting to do giveaways because I think it will help keep business up without me having to spend a lot of time on the computer, marketing myself.

Back to making ladybug clippies...