I had planned on my next blog post being about Kinley coming home from the hospital after she was born, but I had also planned on my next blog post being much sooner. I don't know how new moms stay current on their blogs. Their babies have to sleep much better than ours... which wouldn't take much because Kinley doesn't sleep well at all, especially lately! She's been asleep for a little while now. We're actually probably currently at a record for the past couple months, and I am just waiting for her to wake up. If she would do this every night without me having to be right next to her, then I would have more free time. We can hope that it'll happen one day. Since I am so far behind (6 months, yikes!), here's a little update of what's going on currently.
Kinley turned 6 months old today! We're already at her 1/2 year birthday! How did that happen?!? Where has the time gone?!? It makes me sad that it's going by so quickly and that she's getting so big, so fast.
On our scale at home, she's weighed 16.2 lbs. the last couple of times that I've weighed her. We go for her 6 month well check and shots on Monday so we'll get exact measurements then. The last time we were at the doctor, which was on November 24th, Kinley weighed 15 lbs. 4 oz. She was 25 3/4 inches long, and her head circumference was 42 cm. This wasn't a normal doctors visit with her pediatrician. It was a follow-up visit with a GI specialist. After Kinley's 4 month checkup and shots, she started having blood in her stool. Initially, our pediatrician's office thought that it might be a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine even though they hadn't really seen it as a side effect before. We went in a couple times to the pediatrician. After the blood remained, we ended up doing blood work and stool samples. When Kinley was 10 weeks old she was pretty fussy so we had cut out cow's milk then. I had replaced it with almond's milk. However, we weren't strict on the dairy since she didn't really have any issues so I was still eating things that had cow's milk in it. Due to the blood not clearing up, her pediatrician, Jess, told me to go ahead and eliminate all dairy (cheese, sour cream, etc. that I had still been eating) but that she thought it would probably be fine to still eat it if it was cooked in food. We also discussed possible other allergens and worst case, stopping breastfeeding if need be. The blood continued so I got very strict on the dairy and eliminated it 100%, and Jess also referred us to GI specialist. Luckily, we got in really fast. Kinley was still thriving and still gaining weight so the specialist, Dr. Jatla, didn't see the need to run scopes or run any more test. He didn't think they would tell him much and said that a lot of the tests aren't very reliable in a baby that young. His plan of action was to wait the 10 days or so to get all dairy out of my system and go from there. Two weeks later there was no change so I contacted the doctor. He said the next things to eliminate were soy and wheat. That's when I started looking at our boxes in the pantry to see if my cereal had wheat. It had MILK. Who would've thought that... so I hadn't really eliminate 100% dairy like I thought because I had been eating a ton of cereal. She also hadn't been sleeping well so we had tried Gerber rice cereal and of course that has allergens in it too! I didn't even think about it. I wasn't near as strict as I thought and I kinda wasted two weeks. I didn't want to waste another 10 day/2 week window of time for products to get out of my system so I told the doctor that I would of course cut out dairy (for real this time) and also go ahead and cut out both soy and wheat. I wanted to have those eliminated before we saw him again. Two weeks of eliminating all three of those from my diet, still no improvement. After talking to my sister-in-law at my family's Thanksgiving and realizing that I had been eating a lot of eggs, I decided I would go ahead and eliminate egg as well. Talk about limiting my options of what I could eat! My favorite snacks became mixing natural peanut butter, gluten free oatmeal and honey and making smoothies with flax seed. All I could basically eat was meat, veggies and fruit. Colt also found me some Cheerios that I could eat and that became my breakfast of choice. Our follow up visit with Dr. Jatla was just a couple of days after I eliminated egg. She was still gaining weight. He didn't see any markers or flags to make him think Crohn's disease, Celiac or anything like that. He still didn't think sedating her and running scopes and more test would tell us much. He also didn't see a reason to stop breastfeeding. He did go ahead and give me a sample of amino acid hypo-allergenic formula for us to research but said that it was a last resort because he didn't see a need for it and that Kinley wouldn't like the way it tasted. He basically said there was nothing left to eliminate from my diet but since I had already started the egg elimination to keep at it for a week to see if she showed any improvement. He also set up a referral to an allergist so maybe they could give us a starting point. I also spoke with him about solids. We had been given the ok at our 4 month well visit so I had tried sweet potatoes once a while back but I stopped because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see the changes in her stool and to determine if the blood was getting better or worse. He said to go ahead and continue introducing solids as planned. Well, I am so happy to say that finally since I've cut out eggs, we haven't seen blood since. Just in the past couple weeks, I reintroduced both wheat and then soy and we were still good. This Thursday, I started reintroducing dairy slowly just in cooked things and I'm waiting to see what happens with that. So far, so good though! I also accidentally ate egg cooked in a muffin on Thursday and didn't realize it until Friday night so I failed on that but as of right now, we're still ok. I just won't be eating any more egg just yet and definitely not scrambling up any for breakfast. Fingers crossed we are just better for some reason and we have no allergy issues. I can't tell you how good a slice of wheat bread tasted the first day I reintroduced wheat though after being on that strict of a diet! One thing that this being on a strict diet the last two months did do was make me lose all of my baby weight and stomach, plus some. I currently weight about 8-9 lbs. less than I did when I got pregnant with Kinley. Of course, I don't have any muscle either though!
Kinley loves her some food! I think her new favorite is apples and she also liked pears when we tried them for the first time tonight. We've tried sweet potatoes, bananas, and squash. She's a fan of everything. She didn't seem as excited about the squash though, and with the apples and pears, she didn't leave a drop behind. A couple nights ago, I wasn't moving fast enough and she started licking her tray before I got her food ready! She also grabs the spoon and eats with her left hand. Will being a lefty be yet another thing she gets from her daddy?!
Now on to Kinley sleeping... or lack of sleeping! She had started sleeping really good, or good in my opinion. It was at least a schedule that I would LOVE to get back to. For a while she was sleeping 5-6 hours, then another 3 hours, then another 3 hours before she would get up for the day. It was great but it was short lived! This schedule was also while she was sleeping in our bed. We said she wasn't going to be sleeping in our bed because of all the horror stories, especially with Colt seeing the horror stories at the hospital first hand, but when we were desperate for sleep, it happened, and it's still happening. We had tried to transition her to her crib early on but since she wouldn't sleep very long in there, we decided to transition again around 4 months. Well those plans changed. Right about the time of her 4 month check up, she started waking every couple hours to nurse again, and we are still at it! We have tried EVERYTHING, everything I can think of, everything I've read, everything I've been told! Even though our pediatrician doesn't want us doing rice cereal in her bottle, we tried it recently too. It doesn't help. I was messaging with my sister-in-law, Jennifer, this past week and she said that her son still nurses about that much during the night so that made me feel a little better! Then she also said it's just a phase and that it is, an exhausting, but wonderful at the same time, phase! I think part of our problem is that she just likes the sucking sensation and she's not really a huge fan of a pacifier. A lot of the times when she wakes during the night she is actually eating for a while but sometimes she's just snacking and using it to go back to sleep. We definitely have not gotten the art of self-soothing yet.
Kinley also does not nap unless I'm holding her. She'll nap for three hours while I'm holding her. I put her down and the crying immediately starts! We play many rounds of putting Kinley down to nap a day! We've tried the rock 'n' play, the swing, the crib, pallets in the floor so I can lay next to her, you name it. We've done the putting her down awake, laying a hand on her, etc. I think when I was trying to get hours in for work at my desk, I got her used to being on me when I was baby wearing. I would let her nap on while I wore her to get more straight hours in. Then Colt thinks at 4 months when she started having blood in her stool, we started babying her a little more and she got used to it. She never was great at napping on her own but she was better than she is now. I know a lot of people say you can't spoil a baby, but I think I've spoiled her. Looking back, we could probably have been more consistent too, but I feel like with Colt's schedule flipping back and forth from days to night about every day, it makes it a little hard. Since he works nights a lot, I didn't want to fight with her all day and him not be able to sleep. Then when he works days and is home at night, I don't want him not to get any sleep either! For now, I guess we will keep battling with her and hope it gets better! I do think that since we are fighting naps during the day is why she isn't sleeping as well at night because when I give in and hold her, she seems to sleep better at night.
Now on to Kinley sleeping... or lack of sleeping! She had started sleeping really good, or good in my opinion. It was at least a schedule that I would LOVE to get back to. For a while she was sleeping 5-6 hours, then another 3 hours, then another 3 hours before she would get up for the day. It was great but it was short lived! This schedule was also while she was sleeping in our bed. We said she wasn't going to be sleeping in our bed because of all the horror stories, especially with Colt seeing the horror stories at the hospital first hand, but when we were desperate for sleep, it happened, and it's still happening. We had tried to transition her to her crib early on but since she wouldn't sleep very long in there, we decided to transition again around 4 months. Well those plans changed. Right about the time of her 4 month check up, she started waking every couple hours to nurse again, and we are still at it! We have tried EVERYTHING, everything I can think of, everything I've read, everything I've been told! Even though our pediatrician doesn't want us doing rice cereal in her bottle, we tried it recently too. It doesn't help. I was messaging with my sister-in-law, Jennifer, this past week and she said that her son still nurses about that much during the night so that made me feel a little better! Then she also said it's just a phase and that it is, an exhausting, but wonderful at the same time, phase! I think part of our problem is that she just likes the sucking sensation and she's not really a huge fan of a pacifier. A lot of the times when she wakes during the night she is actually eating for a while but sometimes she's just snacking and using it to go back to sleep. We definitely have not gotten the art of self-soothing yet.
Kinley also does not nap unless I'm holding her. She'll nap for three hours while I'm holding her. I put her down and the crying immediately starts! We play many rounds of putting Kinley down to nap a day! We've tried the rock 'n' play, the swing, the crib, pallets in the floor so I can lay next to her, you name it. We've done the putting her down awake, laying a hand on her, etc. I think when I was trying to get hours in for work at my desk, I got her used to being on me when I was baby wearing. I would let her nap on while I wore her to get more straight hours in. Then Colt thinks at 4 months when she started having blood in her stool, we started babying her a little more and she got used to it. She never was great at napping on her own but she was better than she is now. I know a lot of people say you can't spoil a baby, but I think I've spoiled her. Looking back, we could probably have been more consistent too, but I feel like with Colt's schedule flipping back and forth from days to night about every day, it makes it a little hard. Since he works nights a lot, I didn't want to fight with her all day and him not be able to sleep. Then when he works days and is home at night, I don't want him not to get any sleep either! For now, I guess we will keep battling with her and hope it gets better! I do think that since we are fighting naps during the day is why she isn't sleeping as well at night because when I give in and hold her, she seems to sleep better at night.
Other things that are going on with Kinley... She is rolling around like crazy. She's been rolling for two months now. She absolutely LOVES her baths. She always has the biggest smiles in the bathtub and would probably stay in there forever kicking. She loves eating. Her favorite toy is the jumparoo that James, a resident, got her at our shower. It's been crazy watching her advance with that. She went from barely playing with the toys on it to playing with everything like crazy and jumping all over the place. She also loves her activity mat and reaching up for the toys. She usually doesn't stay on her back long though before she flips over. She definitely prefers to play and hang out on her stomach. Just in the last couple weeks, she's started to sit a little better on the floor. She's not quite sitting on her own and balancing yet, but she can stay sit up if she's leaning forward a little with her hands on the ground or playing with a toy. Just recently she started showing a lot more interest when I read to her. She now grabs and touches every page and really looks at the pages. She has started to really feel and scratch at everything with her fingers. I have a little bright pillowcase owl dress that a resident gave us hanging by her changing table and she constantly plays with it and pulls it and has for months now. She loves watching the dogs play or even just walk by her. She always smiles so big at them. She has the biggest smile! She is happiest first thing in the morning and is alway smiling. Generally, she'll always give out smiles to me or daddy. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. She always smiles at herself. This has been going on for a while now too. She's started making a couple new funny noises with her mouth here recently. She has an exaggerated yawn. I made the comment that I didn't know why she made so much noise when she yawned, and Colt responded that I do it too! The past month or so she's been really trying to put her feet in her mouth, especially in the bathtub. For some reason for her bathtub = toes in mouth. I guess in her bath seat she has easier access. The first few months her feet were stinky. They were sweaty, and I swear they smelled. This passed and I don't really notice it anymore! Just this past week she's started a new thing when she's nursing where she grabs her foot and pulls it up and down while she's nursing like she's doing aerobics. I've thought she was teething a couple different times now because she's started drooling more than normal and wanting to chew on everything (even more than normal) but we can't feel any teeth just yet. She also loves when I sing to her... she doesn't know quite yet that mommy can't sing. Colt actually said today when I was singing that one thing I got out of this is that I finally have someone that likes my singing! She loves anything with light... phones, tv, you name it and she's glued. She tries to push the buttons on my phone when I'm holding her and on it. We have a little projector in her room because we thought it would soothe her and help her fall asleep on her own but it just entertains her. I will be rocking her and nursing her and she will stop and look up at the ceiling with the biggest grin and then go back to eating! She went through a phase a while back (months ago) where she would scream when I was trying to talk on the phone. She even did it to Dede one day, but she's over that one! She loves when I and especially when Colt holds her up high above our heads and it always get giggles. Overall, she really is a happy baby when she's awake for the most part! She has definitely changed our lives even more than I expected, and we love her more than anything!
One other major thing right now with mommy is that I am currently on a leave of absence from work. At the beginning of November, I decided that working while also keeping her home with me was wearing on me since I was working all hours of the night to get my hours. Colt said I couldn't keep it up, and he was right. I was pretty miserable and stressed. I felt like I wasn't giving my all at work and wasn't giving my all to her or him either. After much debate, I decided to resign. However, when I made the call, I ended up on a temporary leave of absence until January 4th for the time being. I'm sure I'll post more about all the details of that later.
I think that's enough of a little current update for now. Hopefully my next post will be soon and will be back to when Kinley was just a couple days old and coming home from the hospital (a WHOLE 1/2 YEAR AGO). I keep saying I'm going to do a post a day but when I have a little free time, I find myself decorating for Christmas, wrapping presents or a million other things these days. Even though I'm not working for the time being, there still isn't enough time in the day and the days fly by!
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