February 3, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Babies, Changes, Children, Family, Happy, Infants, Life, Love, Memories, Parenting, Personal
Lying in bed this morning, Isabel asleep beside me, I could feel her breathe …In…out…in…out. Just feeling my hand on her body, her small ribs beneath my fingers, gave me such an overwhelming feeling of love and joy for this tiny human, it almost brought tears to my eyes. She was wearing soft white jammies with little, yellow duckies on them. They are new. She received them last summer at my baby shower, but she could not wear them until now because they were too big. She lay tucked up under my left arm, her head and my armpit sweaty with the warmth of our two bodies together. The sheet and blanket were rumpled over her legs, the dawn light dim over her silhouetted form.
I am amazed that she is here. I hold her hands and stare enthralled at her minute fingers, her hands like little gloves that have been blown into balloons. She has dimples at the base of each of her fingers and on her elbows because she is so chubby.
I don’t want to forget these moments when I lie and touch her and look at her. As I lay there this morning, I tried to remember doing this with Milla, but the memories are all a jumble. I have only a general sense of doing so. I spent hours, literally hours, staring at her when she was a baby, touching her, talking to her, loving her. Yet the details are now fuzzy. I don’t remember any specific day. I’m grateful I wrote stuff down, but I did not keep enough of these details so I could remember, so I could hold her in this place in my mind. I think of her and she is who she is now, a gangly, colt-legged, ten-year-old with wild, blond, and shaggy hair–my lily-limbed lovely.
As I lay there this morning, I knew I wanted to write this memory down. I want to keep these moments in my mind so when she is no longer tiny I will remember the details. I am sitting here writing this, she is lying on my lap, and I can see the shape of her miniature arm, dimples in the elbows, her skin soft and pale. I want to remember all of her.
January 28, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Personal, Life, Babies, Family, Love, Infants, Children, Parenting, Health, Ear pits, preauricular pits, hearing impairment
Today Isabel went to the pediatrician for her four month well-baby checkup. She weighed 14 pounds, 7 ounces, and has grown to 25.5 inches long! She has gained more than half what she weighed at birth–no wonder none of her little clothes fit anymore.
There was another interesting development at the appointment. When Isabel was born, we noticed these two small dimples, one on each ear. I think I may have even mentioned them in an earlier post here. It turns out these are called ear pits, or preauricular pits. The are formed quite early during gestation, at about five to six weeks after conception.
The doctor told us that in a small percentage of people with pits, they also have kidney and hearing impairment. I did some research and discovered that the reason for this is that during development of the zygote, different anomalies can occur. Ear pits are one such anomaly, and they occur at the same time as certain kidney and other ear anomalies. In the general population, hearing impairment occurs in approximately .05 percent of the population. In those with ear pits, impairment occurs in .34 percent. Because of this slightly elevated risk, Isabel has an appointment for a hearing screen next week. I know she can hear–we’ll see if her hearing is impaired and if it is, we’ll do what we can to reduce the loss.
January 26, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Animals, Babies, Children, Family, Happy, Life, Love, Personal
Today Isabel is four months old! Big girl. I kept up Milla’s baby book so I read the entries I wrote for her at four months. It appears the two are very similar. I’m glad I wrote what I did for Milla because I did not remember what happened until I read it.
Today in the car Isabel was getting a little irritated at her feet because she could not get them in her mouth. I helped her to reach her foot to her face and she instantly started eating her toes! There was slobber everywhere. She wears these little maroon shoes with flowers on them and she seems intrigued with the flowers.
I have made the discovery that Isabel seems to get an upset stomach when I eat popcorn. I’m sorry for this because popcorn is one of my most favorite foods in the world, but I’m not willing to hurt Isabel to make my mouth happy. So bye bye popcorn for a few years. Ah well.
Isabel loves Ava the dog. Even if she is fussy, if Ava shows up, she stops fussing and tries to touch Ava. I don’t blame her. Ava is pretty cute. I’ve said it before and it is true: I live in the land of cute.
January 24, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Personal · Tagged Babies, Children, Family, Infants, Life, Love, Personal
I saw a photo today of a starving child, a skeleton of a child. I then turned to write on this page and everything seems somehow trivial. I am simply grateful that my child is plump and healthy, that I can feed her, that I have a roof over her head, that she is safe. I am lucky and grateful. That’s all there is to it.
January 19, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Personal, Life, Babies, Family, Love, Infants, Children, Parenting, Happy, Changes
Isabel has discovered her feet. She holds them up and looks at them, then reaches out to touch them.
She has not figured out cause and effect. She will be holding or chewing on something, then accidentally pull it away from her mouth and get mad because it went away. She does this while nursing. She’ll be sucking, then turn her head causing the breast to fall out of her mouth, then get upset because she wants the breast in her mouth. It’s funny.
She is definitely getting stronger. She strains to try and sit up when we prop her up on a pillow. She can roll from her back to her stomach, but hasn’t mastered the other direction yet.
Drooling has reached flood proportions. She had a few really fussy days. We could not figure out whether this was from teething pain or if she had an upset stomach because she had really bad gas too. She has also continued pulling her ears, leading me to believe she still has pressure in them. She has no other cold symptoms or a fever so we do not think she has an infection.
She’s lovely. I’m so glad she was born.
January 16, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Breastfeeding, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Personal, Life, Babies, Family, Love, Infants, Children, Parenting, Nursing, Breastfeeding, Happy
Isabel was lying next to me this morning sleeping. I needed to get up and get ready for work so I moved her. She stayed asleep. I changed her diaper and she woke up and smiled at me. Below are photos of her in each place. She is such a happy baby!
January 13, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Babies, Car seats, Children, Family, Happy, Infants, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal
Today on the way to work, Isabel pooped while she was in her car seat. Since we were nearly to my office and in an unsafe place to stop, we decided to change her upon arrival. Unfortunately, sitting in it caused it to leak all over, requiring a change of clothes. Daddy changed her. Later, after I had seen all my clients and we were ready to leave, she pooped and it leaked again. This time we didn’t have any extra pants so she got to ride home bundled in her blankie. She fell asleep. Below is a photo of Isabel sacked out in the car seat, sans pants. So cute!
January 12, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Personal, Life, Babies, Family, Love, Infants, Children, Parenting, Animals, Pets
Isabel and Ava are buddies. Check it out:
January 11, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Breastfeeding, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Babies, Breastfeeding, Children, Family, Happy, Infants, Life, Love, Nursing, Parenting, Personal
I love my funny, little baby so much. She is quite a character. She laughs and squeals and makes all kinds of noise. She likes to show us her tongue and make spit. It’s hilarious. Tonight she was in rare form, squealing as loudly as she could at all of us. Milla would make a silly noise and Isabel would imitate her. I would tickle her tummy and she would squeal and laugh. Daddy would make funny sounds and she would laugh hysterically. It was so fun.
She also clearly knows what it means when I ask her if she wants some milky. She grunts and makes a little O with her mouth, saying Hoo Hoo Hoo! while leaning toward my breast with her head and trying to grab it with her hands. It’s hilarious.
January 10, 2010
· Filed under Babies, Children, Family, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal · Tagged Babies, Children, Family, Happy, Health, Infants, Life, Love, Parenting, Personal
For the last few days Isabel has been a bit fussy and she started rubbing and grabbing her ear. I am not the sort of parent who wants to antibiotic up my child at the first sign of illness. I avoid them whenever possible. With Milla, there were many times we just waited out ear infections and they went away on their own. I’ve since read that many doctors believe most ear infections will disappear on their own if left alone.
After a couple of days of ear pulling, though, I started to get concerned that if Isabel did indeed have an ear infection, it might cause problems with hearing or speech later because she is so young. This morning I decided to call the advice nurse at her doctor and see if we should go in. I called the advice nurse and she said we could come in today. Surprised the office was open on a Sunday, I booked the appointment.
We ended up having to wait a while to see the doctor. When she finally came in she apologized for the delay. Apparently the clinic we go to is open seven days a week now, and one of the doctors who was supposed to be there did not come in, backing them up. I was glad they let us come in despite the staff shortage. The clinic is in a part of town that has terrible traffic. Going on a Sunday made that part easier for us.
The doctor felt Isabel’s glands and checked her over, looking into her ears, eyes, nose, and throat. She also weighed her: 13 pounds, 13 ounces! Big girl. She said her ears were clear, but that there could still be some fluid in there causing pressure, which would explain the ear pulling. She said to watch her and if she got noticeably sicker, with heavy sneezing or coughing, to bring her back. So far she seems fine. I’m glad she doesn’t have to take antibiotics.
