Mean Green Mastitis Thing

I have Mastitis.

It's horrible.

It started early Friday with a sharp pain which became almost unbearable by night time. By the time I went to bed Friday night I felt like I was getting the flu and I had a temperature of 101.4. Saturday morning I felt a little better and was able to visit with Serge who stopped by for a quick visit after seeing his sister here in North Carolina. But by early Saturday afternoon I was much worse and couldn't get out of bed. I didn't want to call the doctor because I was afraid she'd tell me to go to the emergency room but there was no way I could make that trip. If I was going anywhere it would be by Mike carrying me (and Zoe at the same time?!) or by ambulance. Seriously, that's how bad it was.

After crawling out of bed and checking things out on Webmd (and deciding it had to be Mastitis) I finally called the doctor. It took the on-call nurse 2 hours to diagnose me and call my pharmacy with an antibiotic. 2 hours!!! It took me less than five minutes to diagnose myself on Webmd! (take a deep breath) By the time I got my antibiotic my temperature was 102.7.

I am SO lucky that this all happened during the weekend so Mike could take care of Zoe. I really don't know what I would have done if it had happened during the week because I literally slept from Friday night until Sunday evening non-stop (besides Serge's visit and the stupid 2 hour call to the doctor).

I feel tons better now.

I do not wish this upon anybody. It hurt really bad (even my fingers were hurting). The pain was right up there with labor pain.

Mommy's New Toy

I got this new Hotsling which is SO great. It allows me to carry Zoe around when she's not in the mood to be in her stroller, or when having the stroller is unnecessary (walking to the mail box). Zoe loves it too. She likes to stick her arms out of the sling (she's not doing that in these pictures) and she loves that she's sitting up.


Thanks Viki!

Another New Swing

Our friends, Mike and Melanie, have a daughter, Brook, who is 3 months older than Zoe. We were over at their place the other night and they pulled out Brook's old swing that she doesn't like to play in anymore so Zoe could play in it. Zoe loved it so much that they sent us home with it (can you believe that?! So nice!)

It's so fun to watch Zoe in it because she smiles, laughs at, and talks to the little birdies. It's great. It plays music and Zoe often falls asleep in it.

Here are a couple pictures I was able to capture. I also have a video of her in it (in the photobucket link).

Daddy's Birthday

Zoe got to celebrate daddy's birthday yesterday. She had a blast. First, we had a big pizza party on Friday with Grandpa, Janie, and Uncle AJ.



Then yesterday it was just the three of us for some Chinese and a super yummy, not helping me loose the pregnancy weight, chocolate peanut butter pie.

Mike was excited because he didn't have to change any diapers on his birthday.

Weight Check

I took Zoe to the doctor yesterday for a scheduled weight check. She weighs 9lbs 7oz. She is still at the very bottom of the growth chart, but she is growing just fine considering where she started. Her doctor was pleased to see that Zoe has more fat on her arms and legs, and that she seems stronger. However, he does want me to take her to the local developmental therapist. It's a free service that the county offers. He just wants me and Mike to get some ideas on how we can help Zoe keep up to speed with her physical development. He's afraid that because Zoe is so tiny she might fall behind physically. Mike and I feel that she is developing just fine, but since it's a free service we'll go ahead and do it. Also, maybe we can get Zoe ahead in her physical development.

All of the tests completed during Zoe's brief hospital stay last month have come back normal. However, her doctor wants a genetics doctor to see her in person just to make sure he/she doesn't notice anything out of sorts. Zoe's doctor would rather us find out if there is something we need to work with now, rather than in five years. He is still a little hung up on the fact that Zoe has a big head with tiny facial features and a tiny body. Once again, Mike and I feel that everything is fine but we might as well make sure.

Zoe is eating (averaging 3-4 ounces during a feeding) and sleeping better than ever. She is so cute and so much fun!

Falling Asleep

I need help.

It is now time for me to begin teaching Zoe to fall asleep in her crib, on her own. I have been letting her fall asleep in my arms while I feed her or letting her have a bottle (even though I know she's not hungry, she just wants to suck) when she's crying so that she'll fall asleep. I need to break these habits early but I'm not sure how to do it.

Here are some problems I'm running into:

--Zoe jerks in her sleep so we swaddle her. The problem comes when she falls asleep in my arm not swaddled yet. I can't lay her down as is because she'll be awake in 10 minutes from jerking. But when I swaddle her she wakes up.

--Zoe will fall asleep in my arms and when I lay her down she wakes up, is wide eyed, and wide awake. What do I do in this situation?

--How long should I let her cry in her crib before picking her up?

Help.

P.S. Before sitting down to write this post I laid Zoe on the floor on her tummy (after she had been crying in her crib for about 10 minutes...I was trying to get her to fall asleep). She just fell asleep. OH MY GOODNESS! That has NEVER happened. New dilemma: she's on her stomach...what about SIDS? Should I let her sleep like that? Yes, I will. I'll just watch her like a hawk. Maybe I'll have to let her take naps on her stomach during the day. What are your thoughts?

Too many blogs? Get automatic updates...

If you have a RSS aggregator or use igoogle, google reader, or MyYahoo, or something that gathers different site feeds into one place, you can
include any new pictures or videos I add from my photobucket page.

If you're unfamiliar with RSS (really simple syndication) feeds, it basically allows you to have a one stop shop to gather new "posts", information, news stories, etc. from all kinds of different websites or blogs. For example, I can set up my personalized home page at igoogle.com (click for sample) to gather new posts of my friends' blogs instead of going to each one of their websites. It's like I create my own front page newspaper, and it gets updated automatically! ( Google Reader or www.MyYahoo.com are just a couple of the many other ways you create your own "front page" if you're looking to do the same). If you need help setting this up, send me an email, and I'll have Mike call you. Here's one way to set it up:

1. Click on the link " PICTURES AND VIDEOS OF ZOE" (the same found on the right hand side of this blog under links)

2. This takes you to my page at Photobucket (a photo & video sharing website).

3. Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for " Feed - Subscribe to magicralston's photos " at the bottom left hand side.

4. Click on the feed and add it to one of the options provided. (I used google).

OR JUST CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ADD MY BLOG TO YOUR IGOOGLE HOMEPAGE.

Pictures and Videos of Zoe link

I changed the link name for Zoe's pictures from "more pics at photobucket" to "PICTURES AND VIDEOS OF ZOE".

3 Months!

Zoe is 3 months old (yesterday)! I can't believe it. The time is flying by fast and it has been so fun. Zoe is getting stronger every day. She loves to sit up and look around and she pushes with her legs when we hold her up on our laps in a standing position. She also talks all the time. It seems like her voice gets stronger each day. Right now she sounds like a cat meowing.

Her doctor called us yesterday with the final results from all the testing done while Zoe was in the hospital a couple weeks ago. He gave her a clean bill of health. What a relief. We are taking her in for a weight check on the 21st. She should weight around 9 1/2 to 10 pounds by then. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll keep the bottles coming...

Fire Alarm

A little after 1:30 this morning Mike and I were awakened to the sound of the fire alarm going off in the building. It was SO loud. There is an alarm in each apartment and several in the hallways. Without saying a word Mike and I each jumped out of bed and went into action. I grabbed Zoe's bag (thankfully it was still full from the trip to church), got the bottles out of the fridge, and got Zoe out of the co-sleeper and threw (not literally) her into the car seat. In the mean time I realize that Mike is standing on the back of the couch taping a washcloth over the fire alarm so that it wouldn't be so loud for Zoe. I had my shoes on and was ready to go.

Melanie: Come on, Mike, get your shoes on. We need to go.

Mike: Look outside and see if there is any smoke.

Our complex is similar to the one in the TV show "Friends" in that each apartment's front door is inside the building with hallways instead of facing outside. I could hear people walking down the hallway and into the stairwell which is just outside our door. I looked out into the hallway and saw a bunch of zombies slowly walking, no one was running. Good sign. No smoke. Another good sign. I then went to the outside gate to see what was going on outside. Just a lot of people sitting around looking like they were pretty much still sleeping.

Melanie: There are a lot of people outside. No smoke. Come on, let's go.

Zoe: (finally wakes up) Hey guys, what's going on?

Mike: Let's just wait to see what's happening, there's no smoke.

Zoe: Who wants to have a contest to see who has the cutest smile?

Melanie: Hi Zoe...hey booga booga. We need to go just in case. I have everything ready. Get your shoes on.

Zoe: I'm winning!

Mike: But the fire department hasn't even come yet. I bet some idiot was cooking toast and burned it.

The fire department did finally come...turned the alarm off...and left. It was not even exciting. They didn't jump out of the trucks running with water. There was obviously no fire.

I learned a couple of things this morning:

1) Always have Zoe's bag ready to go. If there really had been a fire I wouldn't have had time to get her bag ready.

2) This is not news to us, but Mike and I react to situations like this in very different ways. My instinct when I heard the alarm was to GET OUT. Mike was more logical and realized that the fire department (the firehouse is literally a block away and they could have been here within a minute) took a while to get here and the sprinkler system never even went off. So he really had no intention of leaving. But if we had needed to he knew we could get out quick because our apartment is right next to the walkway to the parking garage.

Also, I think I secretly wanted to leave because it would have been a fun adventure. I wanted to go outside where all the people were. Or we could have made it to Lisa and Megan's place in two hours if we needed to.

A Trip Downtown

Mike and I took Zoe on her first trip to downtown Charlotte. It was about a 30 minute walk from our front door to the Bank of America building (about in the middle of downtown). Zoe had a great time. There were so many things for her to look at...so many new colors. It was a hot day and Mike and were so worried about making sure Zoe stayed hydrated that we forgot to drink lots of water ourselves. Oops. We need to remember that we can't help Zoe if we're sick ourselves. We're fine now that we drank all the water we had in our apartment when we got home!

Zoe didn't like the hat we put on her for the trip...


So we switched hats and she was happy.

Milestones

As Zoe approaches the 3 month mark on August 10th I wonder how she is developing compared to other children her age. I found this nifty milestone chart on www.babycenter.com. This site also shares ideas on how to help the babies develop. Zoe can do everything except the two things at the end that I italicized. Pretty cool.

If any of you have another chart that you go by please share. I'd love to see other things that I could be working on with her.

1 month
Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Lifts head when lying on tummy
• Responds to sound
• Stares at faces
Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Follows objects briefly with eyes
• Vocalizes: oohs and aahs
• Can see black-and-white patterns
Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Smiles, laughs
• Holds head at 45-degree angle

2 Months
Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Vocalizes: gurgles and coos
• Follows objects across field of vision
• Notices her hands
• Holds head up for short periods
Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Smiles, laughs
• Holds head at 45-degree angle
• Makes smoother movements
Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Holds head steady
• Can bear weight on legs
• Lifts head and shoulders when lying on tummy (mini-pushup)

3 Months
Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Recognizes your face and scent
• Holds head steady
Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Squeals, gurgles, coos
• Blows bubbles
• Recognizes your voice
• Does mini-pushup
Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Rolls over, from tummy to back
• Turns toward loud sounds
• Can bring hands together, bats at toys
• Visually tracks moving objects

A Surprise Gift

Yesterday Zoe and I went to the store Once Upon A Child (a resale shop for kid stuff) to look for, well, anything cool. One of the things Mike and I have been wanting to get Zoe is a swing. We haven't looked super hard but have kind of kept our eyes open for a good deal. Once Upon A Child had a couple good ones but they were more expensive than we're willing to pay (eBay would probably be cheaper...).

As I was leaving the store a lady stopped me and said that she has a 9 month old son who has outgrown his swing. She took it to Once Upon A Child as a donation but they wouldn't take it because they were overstocked with swings. The lady said she was going to go take it to Goodwill but happened to notice that I have a young baby. She asked if I wanted the swing....for free...she would rather give it to me knowing I would use it than take it to Goodwill. Hello!! Of course I wanted it! I thanked her profusely, put it in the car, gave it a good wash when we got home and put Zoe in it.

As you can tell from the pictures, Zoe's not real sure how she feels about it yet.