My Sick Baby

On February 8th my beautiful sweets started running a fever in the middle of the night. :( She wasn't sleeping great and when she woke to feed she just acted like she was miserable. It broke my heart. She had just recently started sleeping pretty good again and it was really out of the ordinary how she was acting. Joey had to work the next day so I was trying my hardest not to wake him up. Unfortunately we did not succeed.. Joey woke up. I had taken Addie to her room to attempt to calm her down and Joey came in to check on us. He ended up getting a bath ready for us. Addie loves her baths and we thought it would help her start feeling a little better. So we took a bath and then snuggled on the recliner together. Although I absolutely hated her feeling so yucky, it was so great getting to snuggle so much! Her temp remained low grade at 99 degrees but maxed out at 101.2. On the 9th (Addies 3 month birthday) we ended up taking her to the doctor because she continued to run fevers and she was just miserable. Due to her lack of other symptoms the doctor decided we needed to cath her to check for a UTI. The nurse (or aid lady) came in to catheterize her. She did a terrible job! She missed her urethra multiple times and didn't use sterile technique at all. It really ticked me off, although I completely understand that it is really hard to cath such a little baby... but it didn't make me feel any less angry at this dang nurse/aid. The verdict: she had a UTI. :( I felt horrible! Dr.Grahm reassured me that it was not my fault, but I couldn't help but feel responsible. He gave me a script for Bactrim and one for Zantac(per my request) and sent me out the door. I also got a coupon for Culturelle, I know how aweful antibiotics can be to your stomach! For the next couple days Addie fought the fevers off and on, pretty much couldn't nap unless she was being held or breastfed and we took many baths.. middle of the day or night- she didn't care. My poor baby made me so sad! Then the nurse called a few days later and said that E-Coli had grown out of the culture and Dr.Grahm wanted to have a renal ultrasound and a VCUG done to rule out any anatomical abnormalities or urniary reflux. Joey and I discussed it and finally decided we didn't want to put Addie through that unneccessarily, so we are not going to do it unless she has another UTI. I am so excited to be done with these dang antibiotics! I think they are bothering her stomach (even with the Culturelle) and I just hate giving her that much medicine. I haven't started the Zantac because I didn't want to put too much medicine on her tiny belly. Unfortunately Addie has not napped well or slept very long through the night since this UTI business. She had previously been sleeping 6-8 hours before waking up.. now we are lucky if we get 3 hours. I am hoping all of this will improve once the antibiotics are done (which will be tomorrow- YAY!).
Even though my baby girl felt yucky she still was able to give me some smiles. It seemed that she would always perk up in the 3rd hour after receiving Tylenol. My goodness I sure love this pretty girl!

The Dreaded...

I started maternity leave exactly one week before I had Addie. I was originally only going to take 12 weeks off of work.. but as the days went on Joey and I decided that just wasn't going to be long enough. I continued to push back my return date until I simply couldn't put it off any longer. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to stay off work and continue having insurance. Darn you insurance!! So.. unfortunately that brought me to the dreaded day of returning to work. I could literally feel part of my heart tearing! I knew Addie would be fine without me, but I was pretty uncertain on whether I would be fine without her. For 14 weeks I was the primary caregiver. I changed her diaper, fed her and was with her 24-7. I absolutely loved it! Jesus put me on this earth to be a mommy and I was taking my job very seriously and enjoying every minute of it! So due to my impending return to work Joey had to buckle down. We had to make sure that Addie and Daddy could survive without me. Joey had yet to change a diaper and now it was time to learn. So, starting on Friday the 12Th, he changed his first diaper, bathed her and did his best to give her a bottle. He did fantastic with the diaper change! Adrianna even gave him a poopy one and he did awesome.
Next came the bath. He put on his swim trunks and jumped in with her. She was really fidgety and didn't do as well as she normally does. I think she could sense that things were about to be changing. :( Joey still did really good with her and didn't let her fussiness get him down. Then... he attempted the bottle. After Christmas we started giving her a bottle every night and she got to the point where she did AWESOME! I quit giving her the bottle at night because she had been doing so well, but Addie showed me how big of a mistake it was. She hated this bottle business. She cried and cried until she finally cried herself to sleep. Talk about heartbroken! I hate seeing Addie crying for the boob and I can't give it to her! She only slept for about 45 minutes and then started the crying again. We decided we just didn't think she was feeling well because while Joey was holding her and trying to calm her down she threw up on him (yummy). After she cried for a while longer we finally decided that she just wasn't feeling well and I should just go ahead and breastfeed her (thank goodness!). I try to stay calm and let Joey do his thing when she is getting really upset about the bottle, but I am always secretly hoping Joey just tells me I can go ahead and feed her and hold her. My heart breathes a sigh of relief when he tells me to go ahead and do my mommy thing with her. :)That night she woke up every 1.5-2 hours (yikes!) The next night, Saturday the 13Th, Addie did phenomenal! She took the bottle great and slept fairly well. Then on Sunday, the 14Th she did fair.. not great.. but not horrible. That brings us to Monday the 15Th.... I literally felt sick to my stomach I was so sad about coming back! I was excited to see everyone at work.. and I love my job. But come on.. I love my job as a mommy much much more! I felt like a cat being put into water and trying to claw my way out. It was such a helpless feeling! But I couldn't just sit and feel sorry myself. So I made sure everything was ready to go for Joey and I cuddled with my sweets as long as I could. When it was finally time to head to work I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I didn't want to, but they just flowed out when I was trying to kiss her goodbye. I might be a little over dramatic.. But I love my daughter more than I could ever put into words and it hurt so bad leaving. With that being said I feel so extremely blessed that I don't have to leave Addie in daycare- she gets to stay home with her daddy. Hopefully soon she will start sleeping better and it will make it easier on him!
Here are a couple pictures of us before my first night back to work:



P.S. Everyone at work was so super great and once I got there I didn't cry again. Also Addie did good with Daddy and didn't give him too much trouble with taking a bottle.. she didn't sleep the greatest, but she hasn't really slept great ever since being sick (that's another blog entry...)

My Valentine

This was Adriannas first Valentines Day and I had so much fun! Daddy bought Addie her first dozen roses. They were pink and smelled so good. Daddy also bought me a dozen red roses and some wild flowers- they were gorgeous!




I got Addie a Snoopy doll that blows a kiss and then opens its arms for a hug. Its really cute! I know she is a bit young this year.. but she will soon learn to love it. :) I couldn't find a Valentines dress that I really liked for Addie, but luckily I had a really cute dress from one of my baby showers for her. I even had a hair bow that matched her perfectly! Addie looked absolutely adorable! We went out to brunch at the Gaslight Grill. It was yummy!! Addie was so good while we were there. She just hung out in her car seat almost the whole time. She has really been teething lately so I just gave her the teething ring and she was occupied!



Addie talks all the time now! It seems like if I am going to take her picture and I tell her to say "cheese" she will start talking. It is soo cute. That is what is going on here... I love it!

I also bought Addie an outfit that says "Babys 1st Valentines". It is hard to resist!


We had a great Valentines Day as a family and I can't wait to see what the future holds.. they can only get better!! :)