teeth

While we were in Hawaii, one of my molars started to hurt. I figured I would take care of it when we got back and chewed on the other side of my mouth. Then, several days ago, the molar on the other side started to hurt. Bad. I couldn't even chew there at all without getting zingers that made my eyes water. So, I made an appointment to have my mouth inspected. That appointment was on Thursday morning, but we had to go to Soldotna Wednesday night so I could interview a firefighter for a little story I am doing for a magazine. Matt was in Soldotna all week for training, so we took advantage of his hotel room and went for a road trip, despite colds and total lack of sleep for several nights. Then, we booked it back to Homer in the morning.
As we crested Baycrest Hill, Thea woke and started to cry. No biggie, Thea always cries. So I dropped Liam off at preschool and then went to the beach to let the dogs run around and pee before my dentist appointment. When I went to pull Thea out of her car seat for a snack, I knew something was wrong as soon as I reached in. Wet. Not just Wet. Really Wet. She had blown out her diaper with a huge poo all up her back and down her leg. Her carseat cover was soaked, she was wiped out, and screaming, and we're in a parking lot. So, with the door open to the nearly-freezing weather, I pulled off her clothes, wrapped her in a blanket, used about 100 wipes to clean her up, rediapered and dressed her and lined her carseat with a blanket to keep her seperate from the mess. Then we nursed, went to our friend Andrea's house, where I dropped her off, and headed to the dentist office.
They took 1,000 xrays and inspected my mouth. What did they find? Nothing. A couple tiny cavities, but nothing that should be really bothering me.
"So what's causing all this pain," I asked.
"Well, is it possible you are clenching your jaw," she responded.

sniffles

Well, it was sure to happen one of these days. Thea got sick yesterday. And of course it was right after the first time I left her with someone - my sister - and went to the gym. She hadn't been doing very well sleep-wise and I was at the end of my rope, and Matt was in Soldotna all week, so I needed a break. And of course it was awesome. I ran and ran and ran. I ran for every time I got woken up during the night and I ran for every moment I didn't think I could make it through another day. It felt sooo good.

So I picked her up and she was crying of course, but Samantha swore she did very well. And when we got home, she started snifffing. And by dinner time, she was sniveling like a soap opera star. Last night was crazy. I'm not sure how often I nursed her, but it felt like it was pretty much the whole night. Sleeping sideways like that is getting old.
So today, I had to take the cat to the vet in the morning. I put her in a box and tied the lid on with a scarf. Good, I thought. Hah. I had to carry a ton of stuff out to the car because it was "pajama day" at preschool, so he needed blankets, pillows, etc. And I put the cat in the car, then left the door open for Liam to get in the car. And We finally all piled in the car and were backing out when I happened to touch the box and realize there was no cat in it. So back into the house to find the cat, then drove down the hill holding the box top on while the cat tried to make a break for it. Then when we got to Raspberry Lane, Liam had a meltdown over the idea of turing out the lights and pretending to sleep, so by the time I got back to the car, the cat had escaped. So I'm driving around town with this cat bouncing around the car. And of course, Thea was protesting the whole time.

Finally, I grabbed control of the situation, borrowing a cat carrier before my cat made a break for it and calling my in-town friend in desperate search of a couch for my snotty-nosed infant to nurse on. Sometimes I feel like the stereotypical frazzled soccer mom in the Halmark afternoon movies. You know the one that starts babbling to herself and swaying back and forth?
On a cool note, however, we had Thea and her buddy Kayah on their tummies and she did really well holding up her head for the first time.
Here's to hoping we get a little sleep tonight.

6.5 hours sleep

Thea went in for her 2-month visit yesterday, and was inspected all over and found to be alarmingly healthy, as expected. I told myself I would never again fall in the world of crowing about your baby's percentiles, but when I got her stats, I was thrown right back in. She was close to 14 pounds and more than 25 inches long. That puts her into the 95th percentile for weight and 100th percentile for length. Wow. Does that mean that statistically no kids are longer than her at this age? Odd stuff, statistics.
Then, after all that good news, Thea got her first round of shots. She hollered a bit and then fell asleep in shock. The doc said she might be crabby and sleepy for the next couple days. He wasn't kidding. She slept and slept and slept and last night, she went to sleep around 9 and didn't wake until 4:30. I was in shock when she woke me up and it wasn't midnight. Today, she has essentially slept all day, which only a few wake periods. Pretty mellow, actually.
They also gave us a perscription for some medicine for acid reflux, which they think she may have since she likes to sleep sitting up (thus her love of the swinging chair and the car seat.) I haven't filled it yet. I'm going to do some research to see if there is a drug-free way to combat it.
Regardless, it feels like she is mellowing quite a bit, and not just since we knocked her out with immunizations. She only seems to let 'er rip when she is forced into a situation she doens't want to be in - like grocery stores. As crazy as it seems, a baby who cries about something rather than nothing that I can identify is a huge improvement.
So my new dream is that three weeks from now, this craziness will fade into distant memories and I'll get to enjoy more of this interesting little smiley girl I've seen from time to time.
And for now, I'm just happy to have gotten 6.5 hours of sleep.

Poopy lip

Every time I talk to someone about Thea and her howling, they ask me, "But she's getting better now, isn't she." Ummm. Yah, the last 15 minutes were OK, so it must be getting better, right? I can't keep track, really. I think she's getting better. I seem to be getting things done, and most of the time, it's not while she's howling. But I still haven't stopped thinking of her as a grenade about to explode. She serenaded the Homer Safeway store the other day, and proved that grandmothers everywhere want to fix your baby for you when she's turning purple and choking.
I took her to Liam's preschool the other day to pick him up and she hollered her head off. We were outside, and the school dog, Curtis, joined in, howling along with her. What a crack-up.

One fun thing happened a couple days ago when Liam discovered he could push Thea in her swingy chair. She smiled up at him like he was a god. Honestly, he has a big fan in her. He's been giving her more hugs and smiles lately.
Nights haven't been great lately. She woke up every two hours the last two nights, and won't let me move her to the cosleeper. I woke up this morning at 6 and gave up after several hours of pretend sleep.
Liam has been hot and cold. Definately more attention-getting stuff going on. Yikes. Double Yikes. Right now he's marching around the living room playing his guitar and singing. Loudly. Lots of sharps and flats. Can you say future metalhead? I gotta get him in violin lessons, quick.

14 pounds

I just climbed on the scale, and while I haven't lost much in Hawaii thanks to brie and beer, neither of which I should be consuming, Thea has exploded. She now weighs 14 pounds, according to my scale, at 2 months of age, and is around 25 inches long, though that's tricky to measure. So she gained a pound a week while we were gone.
In comparison, Liam was 13.25 pounds at 6 weeks, 16 pounds at 3 months and 26 inches long at 6 weeks, so the two are running neck and neck, despite Thea's early low birth weight, which makes me believe even more that she was really losing weight in the womb prior to birth.
Healthy babies are the best.

Home

Well, this picture says it all. We are glad to be home, but tired from the trip. Today is sunny and just below freezing here in Homer, and it is quite a shock to go from sitting on your balcony sipping coffee in the morning to sitting on the couch looking at snow. The trip home was long, especially sitting in those airplane seats for 6-plus hours, which we decided was just short of torture. But Thea and Liam did pretty well, sleeping the whole time. We rested at our friends' house in Anchorage for a few hours, then headed out for the five-hour trip home. Thea slept most of the way, but gave us an hour or so of serenading at top notes when she wanted to hang out and we wanted to drive on.
When we got home, the house was in surprisingly good shape, except for some snow in the driveway and our water heater being off. But a magic fairy had come in and left lasagna and cookies - so nice to come home to.
And Thea is absolutely glad to be home (not to mention Liam, who is still rediscovering all his long-lost toys.) Thea played happily on her activity mat for a good half-hour last night, and seems quite happy to fall asleep in her swinging chair. She also slept happily in her cosleeper, much to my joy, since she's been snuggling next to me for a month and I was worried she would be hard to move. I just sleep so much better when I'm not being punched and kicked all night long. I'm going to try the crib out pretty soon, once things get settled, and see how that goes. We moved Liam at 3 months, and it was awesome - just two feedings a night. We'll see if Thea follows suit.
I went through her drawers this morning and took out all the 0-3 month clothes that won't fit her long body any more. Putting the new ones in was kind of fun - like Christmas all over again. So many cute little clothes, it's hard to choose what to wear. Then again, I'm still in my jammies, so who knows if we will even get out of those today.
All in all, it is good to be home.

Final days

I had a revelation a couple days ago. I went back through all the pictures of Liam at this age, and discovered that there is no way Thea has my eyes. I don't know why that's such a big deal to me - I thought if they were Matt's eyes, or anyone else for that matter, her eyes would be big and round, but they are sorta almond-shaped, just not my kind. Liam literally looked like he was Asian.
Thea has been hot and cold the past few days, giving me some of the best and worst days yet. She has, I think, scared the dickens out of Matt's sister or at least her husband when she hollered her head off for at least an hour at dinner the other night. Then, yesterday, we got to hang out in leisure for most of the day as she slept.

The other awesome thing that happened yesterday was in the afternoon. Liam brought Thea the buzzy bee toy while she was on the couch, and she laughed at it. It was, I believe, the first time they "played" together. I loved it so much. She adores him soooo much. Even when she's turning sour, he can get a smile out of her. Very cool.