Great Visit

Sadly, we have to take Mindy back to the airport today. She has been such a big help over the last week since Eliza was super fussy the first few days. Thankfully, by the end of her visit, Eliza was a happy girl, full of smiles. You know she is a good friend when she comes to Nebraska (the Arctic) and is content to help change diapers, clean the kitchen, stay at home because the baby cries when we take her places and deal with sleep-deprived me! Could not ask for more.

While Mindy was here, she took Eliza's one month pictures and family pictures of us. My favorite picture of Eliza with her 1 month sticker is below. She was so patient when Mindy was taking her pictures and gave us several smiles along the way. She is feeling SO much better!

Since we had Mindy (and Brian's camera), we asked Mindy if she would take a few pictures of all three of us. This was the first time in a month that I have bothered to do anything other than a ponytail and to put a little makeup on. I actually felt human for a bit :)

More pictures here.

Fiona, the Fall Fiesta Maple

Last weekend we bought a tree and they told us it would take 2 to 3 weeks for them to deliver and plant. Well, we had a surprise visitor from the nursery show up yesterday and plant this cute little tree in our yard. I hope it grows quickly so Eliza can climb it when she is bigger.

One Month Old

It is hard to believe that we had this adorable baby a month ago. It seems like we have had her for years at this point because I can't remember life before her. Most of the pictures we have taken of her so far, she has straight hair. Well, today Mindy was changing her diaper and Eliza decided to fountain pee and get her and Aunt Mindy soaked. A bath was definitely needed after that. After the bath, we let her hair air dry and before we brushed it and we were pleasantly surprised to find these beautiful curls all over her head!

Today has been SO MUCH better than the last 4 or 5 days. I think that her tummy is starting to feel better and because of that, she is eating and sleeping better. Hopefully my girl is less fussy over the next few days :)

And the above is just a cute one. This is her I "just-got-dried-off-after-a-bath" picture. Mindy said it looks like she is riding a roller coaster. 

Nicer Weather, Nicer baby

Now that the weather is nice, we have been going on family walks. She loves her stroller, but sometimes she needs a little encouragement to calm down. Notice the cell phone in the upper right corner of the photo. That is my life-saver because it has a hair drier app on it that calms her down. Sometimes, that is the only thing that will sooth her. Thanks to Karey and Annie for the super cute hat.

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Because it is nicer in Nebraska, Mindy decided to come visit us. Eliza loves to sleep on Aunt Mindy, so now mom loves Mindy more! So far she is 4 for 4 on attempts to sooth and make Eliza sleep :)

Dad likes to use the football hold to calm miss Eliza. Aren't they adorable!

MSPI

So, over the last week I have mentioned that little Eliza has been very fussy. For the first 3 weeks, I had a happy baby and then 3 and half weeks hit and she changed into a different baby. After lots of crying, I finally called the pediatrician today explained that she has cried so much that her little cry is hoarse, she kicks and cringes after she eats, her stools are mucousy and she is congested. They said to bring her in and to bring a dirty diaper with us. They checked her out and tested her diaper. Although not visible, there is blood in her stools. They told us that she has MSPI, Milk and Soy Protein Intolerance. It usually starts to show about 3 weeks because her little tummy has irritated and trying to break down the milk and soy proteins. Now, to fix the problem, I have to change my diet so that I do not consume any milk or soy. We should start to see her feeling better in 3 to 4 days once our systems get rid of the MS crud.

Now you know I love you dear Eliza, because that means no cheese! And, I when I came home and looked in my pantry, I was amazed at the amount of foods that contain soy. My non-stick spray contains soy! We will do this diet until she is 6 months old and then will introduce soy back into our diet. If that goes well, a month later we can test milk proteins. The doctor said that most kiddos outgrow the intolerance by a year old. I have to remember that this is temporary!

I don't know if you can tell, but her little eyes are red and watery from her crying so much :(

A nice bouncer

So Sunday and Monday have been very fussy. We got the bouncer from a good friend and it only works about 30% of the time. Thankfully, we have been able to have 1 nice dinner and 1 hands-free Dr. Who episode because of the seat.

Eliza and I went to our Mommy Group and out to lunch today with Jenny and Lyra. I am hoping that as she gets a little older, outings like this will be able to be a little less stressful and more frequent :)

Every lady needs a nice hat

It has been very chilly for April here is Nebraska, so for our outing yesterday, she needed a hat. When looking through her many hats, we chose the hat Aunt Mindy got her. The flower on the head, which is almost as big as her head, was super cute! 

This is our pretty girl smiling after last night's feeding :) I know she doesn't know she's smiling yet, but my heart still melts when I see it. Can't wait for her to start smiling and laughing soon. 

We bought Eliza a tree

On Saturday, we had our first real family outing. We went over to the Vacarro's house, because Melody was kind enough to give us a bouncer seat for Eliza. After a nice visit, we went to Earl May's and bought a Fall Fiesta Maple to plant in our backyard. Above is a picture of one. We hope it grows fast so that Eliza can climb in it when she gets bigger.

Thanks to Michael's parents and grandparents, we have a nice car seat with a matching stroller. It was very helpful with our outing. She looks so tiny in it.

Good thing babies are cute

Last night, Eliza was on strike against sleep. She seems to have a stubborn streak in her when it comes to being swaddled... She must get the stubbornness from her dad ;-) So our nighttime feeding routine is to change her diaper, feed her, burp her, then swaddle her before she goes back down. Usually, once she is swaddled and shhhed, she goes back to sleep pretty easily. Then other times, she grunts and gets mad while she tries to get her arms free. Last night was an "other" time. She eats about every 3 hours at night, and each feeding last night, it took me an hour to get back to sleep. Good thing she is so cute! This is little Eliza's latest response to my sleep requests :-)

Thank yous

                                     
We have been very blessed to have friends and family who have helped us with Eliza. Our dear friends here is Lincoln made sure we were fed for 2 weeks when we got home. Jenny Tyner set up a Meal Train for us, which was awesome! So thank you to Deb & Sandra, Jenny & Ben, Karey & Annie, Phyl, Brian & Kimmie, Amanda, Priscilla, Margaret, Melody & Nick, Ashleigh, Ginny & Fritz and Jan. It was very nice to not have to worry about cooking while we were getting settled with our little one.

Also, thank you to everyone for all of the gifts at our two showers. Yesterday, we needed to channel happy feelings because she was fussy. So, we put on her "Be Happy" outfit that Michael's mom bought her. Super cute!

Our little milk monster

Her papa (Walt) calls her a milk monster, and it is absolutely fitting! She is on a two and a half hour eating schedule during the day, and at night she'll go about 3 to 3.5 hours at night. Thankfully, we have found several tools that are helping us out so much: Baby Connect, White Noise and Happiest Baby on the Block.

Baby Connect is an app that tracks everything about the baby. Every time I nurse, I just click the button and it tracks how long she eats. I can always check to see exactly how long it has been since she ate. I can also go back and see how many times she has eaten during the day. It tracks diapers, baths, medicine, etc. It has been so helpful because I don't have to rely on my sleep-deprived brain to remember everything.

White Noise is an app that does just that, makes white noise. All I have to do it turn on the app for about 5 minutes when I put her down to sleep and she is out!

Finally, Michael and I checked out "The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD from the library. Although the methods seem to good to be true, Michael and I have have been trying them for 2 days now and it has turned our fussy baby into an angel!

Cloth Diapers are a GO!

Trying to be financially and environmentally conscious, Michael and I decided that we would give cloth diapers a go. When we first came home, we did disposables just so that we could get settled without having to do crazy amounts of laundry, but now, we are full-time cloth. It is much easier than we thought it was going to be, and her bottom seems to stay much drier than with the disposables. The picture above is one of Michael favorite diapers because it has physics equations all over it. Jon and Becca Baker sent this to Eliza in the mail . Thanks!

Right now life is great! Michael and I are learning what her different cries mean and are being trained by our sweet girl. She is as cute as a button, but I will be glad when she grows a bit and can sleep in longer stretches. I was able to capture one of her smiles below! I can't wait until she starts smiling and giggling for real in a few weeks :)

We are so in love <3

Eliza's (and Daddy's) First Bottle

After our lactation appointment today, the doctor told us that we were doing well and could start introducing bottles and pacifiers. After 3 different pacifiers, we finally found one that she likes!

And... Dad tried feeding her tonight. We were worried about her not liking plastic nipples because she had trouble finding a pacifier that she liked. Wrong! She sucked down a 2.5 oz bottle like it was nothing! After she finished the bottle, she wanted more! As her Papa says, she is our little "Milk Monster" :)

Doctor Appointments Went Well!

Eliza has had a very busy day! She had her 2 week doctor appointment today and the doctor said she is a healthy baby. She is up to 7lbs 15oz but hasn't gotten any taller yet. She was very cooperative for the doctor... Until we took her diaper off to weigh her. She gave the doctor quite a fountain show! It took several minutes to get her (and the table) cleaned up. Thankfully, I had an extra outfit in her diaper bag, because she was not going anywhere in the clothes she arrived in. She has a small case of thrush, so we are both on anti-yeast medications to make sure we get rid of it.

Later during the day, we had my 2 week incision check. Dr. Bowers, my OB/GYN said I am healing beautifully. It has only been 2 weeks and you can barely see my incision! I am very blessed and pleased with how well Eliza and I are doing. All we can ask for is to be healthy and happy :)

Thank goodness for our garage!

So far, spring has been weird! On the second day of spring, it snowed. Now in April, we have temperatures in the 30's and we are having wintry mix storms. The picture below is the hail that fell this afternoon. Each piece was about the size of skittles, however they weren't colored like them ;)

Although we have always appreciated our garage, we are now realizing it was a GREAT decision to buy a house with a garage. Many people in our neighborhood have garages, but they never use them. We have seen that many can't use their garage because they are so filled with stuff. Thanks to my handy husband, our basement is our main organizational space, so our garage can protect our cars from crazy Nebraska springs.

No More Storms!

The other day I was bragging that we hadn't had a fussy day and all was well. Well, that is over :) Yesterday, we had a storm and about 2 hours before it hit, she was very fussy. We went through the checklist of possible fixes and decided that she just needed to vent. Thankfully, we have Google which told us that babies are just sometimes fussy and you can't do anything about it. The only thing that would calm her down through the entire night was to hold her. I caught this adorable pose at about 3 a.m. this morning. 

Today has been better overall. We went on our first family outing, aside from her doctor appointment, to Walgreen's to pick up some pictures. The car put her to sleep, which was a much different experience from our trip to the doctor. We are nervous though because we have more storms tonight and for the rest of the week. Hopefully we do not have a repeat of yesterday!

It's a rough life!

I know I am biased, but she is one cute kid! Clearly, she has a rough life! She loves to sleep with her arms up, so she gets pretty annoyed when we swaddle her. It is necessary at night though because her arms are quite active and she will hit herself in the face. 

This week has gone by pretty quickly, but it seems like we have had her so much longer than 10 days. She, so far, is pretty easy-going and only fusses when she needs something. We have been fortunate that she hasn't had a fussy day yet. Nights are still going well, though I am starting to feel the lack of sleep. Thankfully, Michael has the next two days off, so I can catch a couple of extra naps during the day :)

First Week at Home

It is amazing how much our lives have changed and how hard it is to remember what I used to do before baby Eliza got here. So far, so good... Since I am breastfeeding, I stayed up with her the first night and let Michael get some sleep. Luckily, after each feeding, she would sleep for about 2-3 hours, and so did I! This pattern has continued over the week, which is great because Michael had to go back to work today. Thankfully, after a 3-4 weeks of feeding, Michael can introduce a bottle and I can get some much needed sleep!