A Whole Lotta NO FUN!

Poor Amelia! She still has an ear infection, so we are now on our third 10-day round of antibiotics since June 2nd. Her reflux is acting up in a big way. She sounds like she just might cough up a lung at any given moment, and her nose is running like a faucet. It's a vicious cycle: the congestion makes the reflux worse, the reflux is part of the congestion, cough, & ear infection problem, and her lack of sleep isn't making anything better. The bottom line: Cranky Amelia = Stressed Out, Cranky Mama

I went to the doctor again today, and that patient, kind man just sat and listened to my tirade. At least my tone was very polite. However, I let him know in no uncertain terms that he may have the MD behind his name, but I was the Mama, and my baby is not right. Nor has she been right since this whole reflux thing began around 4 months of age. I told him that he was going to do something to break the cycle, and get my sweet girl healthy because this "wait and see" remedy was NOT working for any of us.

I left a little optimistic as I had a new reflux medicine dosage, another antibiotic, and a script to "maybe help" with the congestion. It may or may not work, but at least I left with something besides the normal Rx: "waiting it out."

Seven Months


Amelia is seven months old, and whew, it's been a month. I think Madeline summed it up best one day, "Amelia is a big grumpy bum!" Unlike these pictures portray, she has been a huge cranky pants this month! Poor baby has been hit with yet another ear infection & chest cold ~ most likely she never got over her last infection, & this infection got both ears all sorts of nasty. So needless to say, Miss Amelia has not been much for her playmat and exersaucer...she has become a hip baby. Not a baby that wants to held and cuddled all the time, but a hip baby that is up and about doing what I am doing. It was cute at first, but I'm over it. I can do a lot of things one handed now, and my biceps have gotten quite the workout over the last month. Eighteen pounds isn't exactly light.

Now that I have called her out, I will say that there have moments throughout the month that Amelia has been her smiley, silly self, and most of the time, Madeline has been the reason. Amelia still lights up with huge smiles and squeals when Madeline comes into the room. No one can make Amelia belly laugh like Madeline. It really is so sweet to watch these sisters love each other. Can't you just see the love oozing?! :)

Amelia wants to sit up on her own so badly, and she gets herself in all sorts of funky positions trying to do so. She's doing this half roll over & flex her tummy muscles, but it's just not getting her there quite yet. All the while, she is drooling and grunting. I let her be until she just gets royally perturbed. One of these days, it'll click, and she'll be "sittin up like a big girl" as Madeline would say. Speaking of drooling, she's like Niagara Falls. It's insane the amount of drool that this child produces. Surely with this amount of drool, a tooth will pop up soon, but so far no teeth.

Amelia really digs her food, and she's much more adventurous than Madeline ever was, so it's fun for me to try all sorts of combination stage 2 foods. Amelia hates peas (like gagging then clamping her mouth shut hates) and green beans are not terribly high on her favorites either. I have had to explore other green vegetable options since I don't want her skin to look as though she uses bad self tanner from eating too many orange veggies. I've discovered a spinach/pea/pear combo that she seems to enjoy, and she also likes a broccoli/pea/apple combo. Her favorites are carrot/tomato, any type of corn or corn combination, sweet potato, and squash. Surprisingly, the fruits are not her favorites either. Just plain pears seem to be her favorite, but other than that, she's not so much into the fruits. Unfortunately, her reflux was also acting up something awful this month due to all the congestion, so she was also really cranky from that. Like I said, it's been quite a month around here.

Despite being sick, Amelia is still sleeping really well. She continues to power nap through the mornings, take a long afternoon nap, and hits the sack for good between 5:30-6:30 in the evening. For the most part, she wakes up about 12-13 hours later, so I am very happy with that.

Amelia, even with your cranky disposition, yucky reflux discomfort, & high maintenance need to be carried around all the time, of course we adore you because you are our sweet girl! We can't wait to get our healthy, happy girl back! Here's to a better seventh month, kiddo!

Little Sister is Proud to Announce...

Amelia

is all smiles these days!

She is happy to announce that her big sister, Madeline, has been accident free for SEVEN whole days! Not only has Madeline not had one accident over the last 7 days, she has used the potty in the back of our Armada in numerous parking lots, used a public restroom several times, stopped her play to tell Mommy, "I better sit on the potty!", asked mid-dinner with guests to use the potty, allowed a total stranger in the church nursery to take her to the potty, and consistently asks the ladies in the gym nursery to sit on the potty (again stopping her play)!

Eric and I are very proud of Madeline for breaking us into the potty training thing nicely. We know there will be accidents, but we KNOW that Madeline can "feel the urge", and we are so happy not only that she can tell us but also has shown us that she will stop what she is doing to go to the bathroom.

Oh, and we still need to work on our undies etiquette...let's see the entire hair salon where Madeline gets her haircut saw her new big girl undies, our dinner guests on Saturday night were privileged to see her big girl undies, and of course, both the gym & church nurseries were all privy to Madeline's proud exclamation, "Want to see my big girl undies?" as she lifts her dress for all to see! haha! :)