Green Beans

I'll get to the green beans in a minute, but I was right!  The more I talk about her pooping the more she does!  I think we may be having a break through, but I'm not going to say it's over yet...

First let me show you how easy it is to make Green beans...

Ingredients:

Green Beans (I used frozen, of course you could use fresh, but canned should be used as a last resort)

Water

1. Cook beans according to package.  If using fresh, cut off the ends and steam until tender.

2. Place beans in food processing gadget of choice.  I like to use my bullet.

3. Puree until smooth.  Adding water as needed to get a consistency your child does well with.  Green beans need to be pureed a little longer than other vegetables to make sure the skins are all pureed too.  Some people like to strain them, but I find a little extra time in the blender works fine.  Some times a little extra water is needed to get it smooth.

4. Dish into containers of your choice.

5. Freeze what you don't plan to use right away.  Ice cube trays are typically one ounce.

Remember how I said this saves money?  Well here's the break down:
You can buy a case of Gerber Green Beans on line - 56oz for $20.72 (doesn't count shipping) = $0.37/oz
Earth's Best Organic Green Beans at Walmart (12 pack) - 30oz for $13.08 = $0.44/oz

Home made using frozen Great Value Green beans: 1 pkg beans $1.08
made 10oz of puree = $0.11/oz.  That's a savings of $0.26 and $0.33 / oz!  It sounds so small, but once your baby is eating 6oz per day, your saving at least $1.50 A DAY!  Plus if your little one likes them thinner, you get more from one bag or you can make them thinner if you like to add cereal for iron or something.  Plus, no preservatives!

I'm very excited to make squash and pumpkin.  They take a little more time cause I think they taste best if you bake them, but you get a lot of food from them.

Oh yeah and I don't mind licking this food off my fingers (as is habit while I'm feeding her).  If it tastes better to me, it must taste better to her.

Here's Little miss trying her beans for the first time!

Not Helping

Apparently I need to post about poop more often.  Every time I do, Laney goes!  Well really she didn't go much, just little bit a few more times.  I think it's the water that's helping her go, but it isn't helping her feel any better :-(  Last night was another night of comfortableness for her.  She didn't even want to nurse when she went to bed like normal.

We went up to MIL's to get her some "new" toys to play with.  You know all the crap great stuff I saved from when Lilli was small. She loved them all!

I'm thinking tonight we might make up some peas or green beans to try.  I think I might also skip cereal for now unless I need it to thicken up some of her other food.

I'm really not sure why more people don't make their own baby food.  Lillian never ate anything out of a jar. I always just steamed or baked fruits and veggies and pureed them.  And as she got older I just put our dinners in the blender.  It is definitely WAY cheaper than buying.  With most veggies you can get fresh or frozen for $2.  It normally makes at least 6oz depending on the veggie.  Maybe I will share some of that stuff with my lovely peeps.

Getting the Best of Me

My stress and emotions are getting the best of me and I can feel it quickly spiraling out of control.  

Little Miss still isn’t feeling well.  The last time I posted about her poop, was the last time she had a real one.  That was 6 days ago now!  Over the last 2 days she had pushed out 3 little marble sized pieces and that’s it.

I took her back to the doctor yesterday (even though her well child is next week) and the pedi made me feel like I was an over-reacting mom.  

Her suggestions:

Since apple juice isn’t working, give her prune

Giver her more water (I already started over the weekend)

Instead of plums giver her green beans

Give her 1mL of Erythro instead of .8mL

It is my feeling that since I have been in there at least once a month for the last 3 months because of her belly issues, you should be doing more than just suggesting I change her diet.  I’m actually starting to wonder if it’s the Erythro that made her constipated in the first place.  I know that a side effect is loose bowels, but just like apple juice binds some people up, maybe this med does too.

Also on the suggestion of some friends and lots of searching on the internet, I bought some Mirilax last night.  I haven’t given it to her, but if something doesn’t happen by tomorrow night you can bet your ass I will be.

Thankfully she slept peacefully last night, although I think it’s just because she is so exhausted for not getting any sleep.

On a positive note, both the girls had some firsts this weekend.

Little miss Laney sat in the grass for the first time this weekend, she didn’t mind it at all.

She also used a sippy cup for the first time!

And Lilli was in her first fishing derby, she didn't catch anything though :-(

 And Lillian got to ride her bike all weekend!  He she is taking a break while letting her Great Aunt’s dog out…

Friday Night Left Overs

It's Friday and this one sucks, only because it's the first one I've worked in 4 weeks!  What's gonna suck even  more is not having a 3 day weekend.

• I miss my grandparents so much already and they haven't even been back home a week.  I miss breakfast and playing dominoes and just BSing about nothing at all.
• For the last 3 weeks Lillian has spent at least one night at T's.  This week was the first time I really missed her.  Like to the point I wanted to stop over before heading to work just to give her a hug.  *I'm pretty sure T was glad I didn't come wake them up at 6:30 am*
• Delaney's stomach is going to drive me insane!  She is miserable for a few days, finally poops, has gas that makes her miserable for another day and then has a great day.  Then we get gassy again and repeat.
• I'm getting irritated with our sleeping arrangements.  B is sleeping in Lillian's room with her because she pretty much refuses to be in there alone.  Delaney sleeps with me because she is still waking at night to eat.  I've tried putting her to sleep in her room, but all she does is look around at things.  Maybe I need to take her in there more during the day.  Or maybe it's the gas, I don't know.  I just know that I want my bed back with my husband in it.
• I think breaking Lillian of the sleeping habits is going to be harder than Delaney.
• I had the assessment done on the car.  Now lets hope I can get the hood fixed for under $1200!

And lastly, here's my little model showing off a huge pair of underwear held up with clothes pins because she was too busy riding her bike to go in to the bathroom.  Well, she regretted it because she didn't get to ride any more.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  We are headed to my mom's camp, I hope I can relax some!

Lunch Time

I really don't mind having to use part of my lunch to go see this beautiful site every day...

She Pooped!

Finally!

And I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad she did it at the sitter's. If we are totally honest, I'd be happy if from now on she only poops while she's at the sitters, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen since I do like having her home.

I don't know how much it really helped her belly though. We still spent most of last night with a very uncomfortable baby. I know some of it is teething, the girl is chewing everything! But the way she throws her body around isn't teething. Last night it was so bad I had to put her on my bed and let her go cause I couldn't keep her on my lap, I was afraid I was going to drop her! After 10 or 15 minutes she got comfortable enough to fall asleep and I didn't bother her again. After eating in the night she had trouble getting comfortable again too. This morning she woke up with all sorts of gas out of both ends. I'm at a loss still. I'm going to keep up with feeding her plums and cereal for a few days and see if we can get her to poop a little more frequently. I'm also looking into a second opinion on her reflux. I'm really irritated by the way my pedi keeps just upping the dose of her meds.

Not that I want the 3 month supply and $70 worth of meds I just got in the mail to go to waist, but I want my happy little girl back.

Oh and she has started crying when I leave after feeding her and giving her medicine at lunch time during the day. Breaks my heart so much I can barely leave.

Here's my big girl yesterday riding in the cart rest for the first time!

Tummy Troubles

Saturday night I actually thought I was going to get some time to myself to blog *gasp* while not at work!  And I did, but I did it on my weight loss blog.

Sadly though the post that should have taken 15 minutes tops took me over an hour.

Starting Friday night I decided it was time for Laney to start sleeping in her own bed.  I don't need 2 girls that won't sleep alone in their room and I swore I wouldn't let it happen.  Well, at 5.5 months old I can see that I may have started a little too late.  But I have been making Laney take her naps in her bed for a few weeks now.  I even take her in and lay her down awake for her naps.  Once in a while I have to go in and have to rock to her to sleep, but that's better than her being in my bed.

So anyway, Friday night went great, she slept in there until 1am when she woke up for her nightly meds and feeding.  At this point I brought her back to my bed.  I do this so that I actually have a chance to fall back asleep before my alarm normally goes off (at 3:30am).

Saturday all was good, except she seemed to be having some trouble getting comfortable and was acting as if she was fighting sleep.  Now I learned with Lilli that if I laid her down before she was tired she would scream, talk whatever until I can in.  But Laney was tired!  Her eyes were all red, she was rubbing them and so on.  But she couldn't get comfortable.  Once she finally did, she slept for 2 hours.  She was pretty good the rest of the day until it was time for bed.  At her normal bed time of 8pm I took her into her room to feed her rather than laying in bed with mommy.  After eating it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.  Unfortunately within 20 minutes of falling asleep again she was awake and not going back to sleep.  She'd start to fall asleep and would all of a sudden throw her head back arching her back.  Then she'd try to curl right up into a ball or throw herself from side to side.  Most of the time with her eyes closed and a thumb in her mouth.  This went on until almost 11pm.  She managed to sleep until 2, but it took longer than normal for her to go back to sleep then and then she was up again from 4 to 5.  Sunday was filled mostly with eating, wanting to be held and some sleeping.  She actually did quite well at the outside birthday party we attended my niece.  Although I held her most of the time, she napped on my shoulder and didn't cry too much when I put her down in her seat so I could eat.  On the 15 minute car ride home she fell asleep and even stayed asleep while I got her out of her seat and in the house.  It wasn't until  gave her meds that she opened her eyes and sissy thought she needed "watch" her.  She has a very hard time understanding that no talking means NO talking.  So again last night I was up with little Laney until 11 with the same screaming, as Saturday night, only this time my alarm was going off at 3:30 am!

If you do not wish to read about my daughter's bowel movements you may want to stop reading now...

So here's my worry, I don't know if all this is reflux related or not.  Right now she is on 2 medications.  One for the reflux (twice a day) and one that is supposed to help her digest faster and not spit up so much (every 6 hours).  I think they are both technically working, but also causing another major problem.  She isn't pooping.  My poor girl is going 3 days without a messy diaper and even when they come they are not normal.  The last decent one was like paste.  As of right now the last one she had was Friday morning and that was more like a messy fart.  And the one she had yesterday I can't even count because it looked more like a booger came out her ass.  yes, it was even greenish and sticky.

And my poor girl can't get the gas out either!  I've tried rice cereal and oatmeal (both made with apple juice), I've tried not giving it to her, I've tried diluted apple juice and tonight will be plums (prunes are just dried up plums).  If this doesn't work I don't know what I'm going to do.

Life Happens

Life always seems to just be passing by.  I'm constantly trying to remind myself to slow down and take it all in cause you will never get these days back!  I mean look at this, my baby girl can sit now!

After Lillian spending the night at T's on Tuesday I was so excited to come home and hear all about it last night.  That last all of about 30 minutes.  She started whining, she wanted this and that and no daddy couldn't get it.  I did half enjoy her trying to do the Jillian work out with me though.  Her being so proud of herself for doing something and wanting to be active with mommy is great.  Her running and jumping and wanting me to watch and comment while I'm trying to work out, not so great.

Dinner was one argument after another.  Some she started, some B started, they both go spoken to a few times.  After dinner we played on the floor with Sissy, this was great...

Until she wanted to hang all over my back and I asked her not to.  Then it was fine sit in you lap which would last 30 seconds before she needed to get up and do this, sit back down for 30 second get up and do that.  I was happy when it was time for baths!

Bed time wasn't so great, except Laney putting herself to sleep on my bed while I tried to take care of a few things.  Then it was a fight to get Lillian to put her pull up on.  She tried insisting on a diaper, threw a fit.  Kicking the legs and all while on the bed her sister was sleeping on.  If I had, had the strength I would have picked her right up and taken her to her room.  After finally getting her to lay down she wouldn't lay still or keep her mouth quiet.  Then she wanted me to lay with her.  I really didn't want to, she was driving me nuts, I needed 5 minutes to recoup from the last "fight".  But then I looked over to her and saw her sad, but accepting face.  I let her lay for a minute because she needs to know her behavior wasn't acceptable and you don't get the things you want when you misbehave, but then I went and laid with her and we talked about how she needs to work on her attitude.  I'm so glad I went and laid with her...

Bloggity Blog

I really didn't think it had been that ling since I posted. I need to get more on top of this blogging thing...  Problem is, now I technically have 3 blogs. This one, who's original intention was to share my story on miscarraige, which turned it almost fertility problems, then pregnancy and secondary infertility and now its just generally about my life, the good and bad. I have my crafty blog which has been neglected for almost a year due to my lack of time (not that I'm not being crafty, just no time for my business or photos). And now I have my weight loss journey blog.

I can just never remember what I was going to post about when the time comes to do it. I even have pins realized I want to share. And some times as I'm typing I think "wait did I already talk about this in my last post?" Most of the time the answer is no because the post I'm thinking about was only written in my head at 5am and never made it out to my faithful followers. Seriously if I could post at 5am or in the middle of the night you'd have a post every day.

I really need to decide what to do with these blogs. I don't have enough time or topics of interest to actually post on then every day. I've thought about combining this and my weight loss blog, but that kind if changes the purpose of this blog.  Although weight loss and being healthier is a big part of my life right now, its not really baby related and the title of this blog is "dreaming of baby".

Any thoughts?  Keep them separate, combine them here, star a "newly named" blog combining them?

Mommy Needs...

At the moment I don't even know what this mommy needs, I need a lot of things, or maybe I just want them...

I need to feel better - I'm working on it.  As soon as Laney is asleep at night I'm laying my head down to join her.  I feel horrible cause Lilli either gets kicked out of the room to go watch the Olympics with Daddy, or she hasn't been there, but it's helping.  I just need more rest.

Ok, so that's probably the only thing I NEED, the rest is just stuff that would really make my life easier or me feel emotionally better.

A new job - I don't even know where to begin with this.  I've said before my dream is to open my own boutique to sell my crocheted stuff and the bows I've made (Oh and I'm working on sewing) but I just don't have the time to keep creating.  Right now it's all getting done during my pumping sessions, which right now tend to also involve a little cat nap due to the above mention need to feel better.

Motivation - First to get my house in order.  I've had clean folded clothes taking up most of the couch for weeks now, ok it's probably more like a month, but who's counting?  At least they are clean, right?  Don't even get me started on the need to clean out my closet!

Motivation - To make my lunches.  For two reasons, one I can't afford to keep buying and 2 I eat way better when I plan ahead.

Time - I could make a list a mile long of all the things I want to get done around the house.  Right now I can barely manage the things that NEED to be done, like laundry and grocery shopping.

Anyway, that's the jumble that is my brain right now, you probably wish I kept it to myself.

5 Months

Normally I wouldn't have true weight stats and such at 5 months, but hey she's been to the doctor twice in the last few weeks...

Height: 26.5" (I measured her myself)
Weight: 16lb 6oz (I'm pretty sure it was 16 and not 15 cause 15 would have meant she only gained 3oz in a month and I'm sure the doctor would have been a little worried about that.)

So she is still 95% for height and 82% for weight.

She has changed so much in some ways.  She can almost sit on her own, her back muscles just need a little work.  Tummy time has been hard for us since laying her on her belly usually ends with her face in a pile of spit up.  The exersaucer seems to be helping though and she loves that!  She's also learned in the last few days that she can use one arm to prop herself up while reaching with the other.

She definitely shows her emotions, especially excitement.  One afternoon she wanted nothing but to stand on my legs, but I had to make dinner.  Daddy held her while I went to get the exersaucer and I thought she was going to jump off his lap with her excitement.  Squealing and flailing her arms, it was too cute.\

She now reaches for me and pulls on my shirt when she is hungry.

Last week her reflux got bad again.  To the point she wasn't sleeping and becoming lethargic.  I was glad that my normal sitter was on vacation and she was at Traci's with Lillian.  I took her to the doctor Tuesday afternoon.  She upped her Zan.tac by .1mL and put her on another med to help her digest her food faster.  In the past the second med had been an option.  After her, for the first time, witnessing the crying and spitting up she said I needed to start it immediately.  Wednesday is when she became a little lethargic and just couldn't sleep (Monday it was lots of crying and spitting up).  So Wednesday afternoon I picked her up to see what was going on.  I was able to get her to sleep for a few hours after I got her home.  She didn't sleep well at all that night or the next.  She also hadn't had a crappy diaper.  So I stayed home with her. After giving her a bottle that was half apple juice and giving her cereal made with apple juice she finally got it out!  But then Saturday she started coming down with a cough and sneezing.  It was horrible through the night and Sunday morning, but she slept decent Sunday night.  Today, she's congested.  You can feel the congestion when she breathes :(  I want my poor girl healthy again!