It was such a nice 5-day weekend. The thought of going back to work tomorrow depresses me, but it’s crazy to think that Christmas is only three weeks away! With all of the shopping and preparation that needs to happen, and all of the “stuff” going on… I’m sure it’ll fly by.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, though. We went to my mom’s for dinner with my family, and had a few special guests this year. My cousin, who has spent the better part of the last 10 years or so living in Southeast Asia (she and her husband were ESL teachers), moved back to the States over the summer. She lives in Virginia now, which is still 500 miles away but seems ridiculously close when you consider where she used to be! Anyway, she and her husband traveled up here with their 7-month-old son to spend Thanksgiving with our side of the family for the first time EVER!
Oh, but before we get to Thanksgiving weekend… you may notice in the pics to follow that we have a lot of SNOW on the ground. It came so early this year! We actually got our first dose of accumulation the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. Nora was so excited and totally into it. When she woke up to snow, she basically demanded to go out and play in it right away. Luckily, she has a very nice daddy who took her out and ran her around. Mommy went out to take a few pictures and a little video but otherwise stayed inside where it was warm. :)
Anyway, we woke up to even more fresh snow on Thanksgiving. Nora wanted to go out and play in it again, but first we snuggled in our pajamas for a bit to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Nora was more into it this year than previous years. She enjoyed the singing and dancing for a while—and kept commenting on the women’s clothing and costumes! She loves twirly/sparkly dresses right now. It was funny because when the Rockettes were on, she said to me, “Mommy! I want to wear that for Christmas!” Ummm… not if your daddy has anything to say about it, kid. :)
Once she got bored, Michael did take her out to play for a while. When she came back in, we made an apple pie to take to my mom’s for Thanksgiving dinner. We got her down for an early nap, got ready ourselves, then headed over to my mom’s around 1:30 p.m. to hang out and watch football. Everyone else arrived around 3:00 p.m. and it was chaos from then on, so we only got a handful of photos.
Nora was playing with a box of toys from my childhood and came across this fan. She was obsessed with it. OBSESSED! She kept walking around with her head tilted up like this (looking mighty snobby, haha!) and fanning herself. I love it. It reminds me of Christina Aguilera in all of her obnoxious glory on The Voice.
It starts already… Trying to get the girls to pose for a photo but they wouldn’t stop touching each other. I see a lot more of this nonsense in my future. :)
We left between 6:30-7 p.m. in order to get Vivienne home for bed. She was exhausted and was starting to act like it. Nora, on the other hand, stayed behind to have a sleepover with my mom. This is the second time in a few weeks that she has done this, and she LOVES it! It’s some nice quality time with my mom and of course Grammy spoils her a bit by letting her stay up late watching movies, allowing her to sleep in bed with her, and giving her pancakes for breakfast. On Friday morning, my mom made her pancakes in the shape of Mickey Mouse. When my mom showed her, apparently Nora goes, “My mommy doesn’t do that.” OH SHE IS SO DEPRIVED.
In the late morning on Friday, we went and picked up Nora from my mom’s to go get a Christmas tree. We bundled up for it—snow pants and everything!—because we knew the snow would be moderately deep and we’d be traipsing all over the tree farm with the kids in tow. We even pulled Nora in a sled because it was WAY easier than having her walk!
The girls and me with our tree!
By the time we got home with our tree, Nora was more than ready for a nap thanks to her late night with Grammy. I took her upstairs but she was sure to warn me before I left her… “You have to wait for me, Mommy! You can’t put the tree up without me. You have to wait for me. I want to help.” It was then that it became abundantly clear that she is COMPLETELY into it this year. She gets it, and it’s awesome.
We did go ahead and get the tree in the stand and in the house while she was napping. I also put the lights on because let’s face it, with all of those things, there’s no easy way for a 3-year-old to “help.” When I did get her up from her nap, she came downstairs and immediately wanted to put ornaments on the tree (of course). After every one she put up, she would come running back over for another and telling me, “I did it, Mommy!” So cute.
We brought out our Elf on a Shelf, too. He made his first appearance when Nora was in the bath that night. I put him up on the stairway banister while she was in the bathroom and he was just THERE when she came out. Once she was ready for bed, I read her the book, and… well, she was completely freaked the hell out. While I read the book, I could see the look on her face grow concerned and fearful as I read about how the elf would be watching her and would tell Santa if she should be on the naughty or nice list. But she played along and officially named him “Sprinkles.” (Our elf was around last year, but he went nameless since Nora was still too young to really understand.)
But by the time we were winding her down for bed, she was telling me, “Sprinkles can’t come in my room, Mommy!” And then when we tried to get her to go into the bathroom to pee before bed? She started crying, “I don’t want to go out there [into the hallway with the elf]!! I’m scared!!”
To try to overcome this, we played up Sprinkles big time. Vivienne and I went right up to him and pretended we were talking to him and telling him what we want for Christmas. Shortly thereafter, Nora came around and has been fine ever since. In fact, she loves looking for him in the mornings and completely believes that he holds the key to her being on the naughty or nice list. I can’t even tell you how wonderful THAT has been so far. Can Sprinkles stay here all year?? :)
We celebrated with Michael’s family on Saturday when everyone was able to come into town. Somehow we managed not to take any photos that day—thankfully Michael’s sister took many!—but it was a good time. Nora had fun playing with her other cousins.
Now that we’ve respected the turkey… bring on Christmas! HO HO HO!
When I was fresh out of college and landed my first “real” job in June 2004, I went right out and bought myself my first-ever brand new car. Looking back on it, it was kind of a dumb move. I mean, I hadn’t even moved out of my mom’s house yet (and wouldn’t for another year). And compared to what my measly salary was, the amount of my car payment was HIGH.
But for the long term, it was a smart decision. Instead of buying a cute little coupe/sedan like a lot of my friends, I wanted a Honda CR-V. It was more car than I needed at the time, but that choice is what has allowed me to continue driving that same car 10 years and 2 kids later. I guess you could say we’ve grown into it. And now? Well, now… we’ve kind of grown OUT of it.
It’s been a great car. There are still a lot of things I love about it. I can’t even tell you how many loads we’ve hauled—all of the things we’ve crammed into it over the course of two moves, many road trips, and countless DIY home projects. It has served its purpose. And it’s been mostly good for transporting our new family of four.
Back in September, we went on a long weekend trip to the Poconos for a wedding. It’s a four-hour drive. We were only staying for three nights (in a rental house). We didn’t even bring the dog. AND WE BARELY FIT. We were packed in there like sardines and it was a little bit miserable. It was then that I realized for sure: We need a bigger car. I even joked with Michael that we need a minivan. THE HORROR.
It had always been our plan to try to avoid having two car payments at once. I paid my car off in July 2009 and to save us money and have NO car payments for a while, Michael continued to drive his beater 1996 Saturn—which he’d had since sophomore year of college—until it literally died in April 2010 (we were going to replace it anyway before Nora was due in September 2010, so the timing was only a little earlier than we planned). At that time, we replaced it with a brand new Mazda3 (ooh, shiny). We qualified for 0% APR on that sucker, so we’ve not been in a hurry to pay it off, paying only the minimum payment each month. We still have about 16-17 months of payments left on it.
But now we have the itch to go ahead and buy a new car. At first we thought we’d wait until Michael’s car is paid off, like I mentioned… just so we don’t have two car payments. Then, that changed to “maybe we’ll look in the spring.” And then suddenly, we started talking about it more and we found ourselves at a few car dealerships yesterday.
You can probably see where this is going.
We haven’t purchased a new car yet, but it’s tempting. We visited Honda yesterday to check out the Pilot and Odyssey (OMG, minivan, AHHHHH!). We ruled out the Pilot right away—we just really don’t like it—but liked the Odyssey way more than we thought we would. They make some fancy ass minivans now, y’all. Then we headed to Mazda to check out the CX-9. We kind of fell in love.
I’m still not 100% sure what to do though. Bigger SUV (with three rows of seating to accommodate up to 7 people) or a minivan? The minivan was huge and spacious and had a lot of bells and whistles. The SUV seemed more “normal” for me to drive on a daily basis. We “only” have two kids, so the minivan sort of seems like it’s almost too much space. Mazda has done a really great job with the CX-9… it felt kinda luxurious. Heated seats. Lots of really cool technology that I have NONE of in my 2004 Honda CR-V. But as is typical with a 3-row SUV, there is not a ton of space to be had in the third row (although there is more in this make/model than there is in many other comparable vehicles). Part of me cares about that… shouldn’t the third row be easier to access and comfortable? But then the other part of me is like, Screw it. I’m not ever going to be the person who has to sit back there anyway. In all reality, it’s going to be my kids and their friends back there. So…?
Out of curiosity, we let the sales guy at Mazda run some numbers for us. We found out we’d get a REALLY respectable amount for trade-in of my CR-V. And the monthly payments were… well, monthly car payments. Blech. Of course they tried to sell us hard, but they were trying to sell us the last 2013 on the lot. So we wouldn’t have our choice in color or anything. And we feel like if we’re going to drop this much money on a car, we want to get EXACTLY what we want. So of course we walked away. Because hi, we were planning on just looking and it would’ve been pretty nuts to sign papers yesterday.
After the girls went to bed last night, I poured over the two vehicles on the internet. I was falling more in love with the Odyssey. I mean, it has a built-in “cooling drawer,” people. It’s a cooler… without needing ice! But I was also still really digging the CX-9. I sent in a request for a quote to another local Mazda dealer, just to see.
Well, I got an email back from the Mazda dealer today that made things kind of interesting.
This second dealership is having “Black Friday” sales this week and the guy laid it all out for me. And based on what I can tell from research on Edmunds.com and the like, we’d be getting a CX-9 with a technology package upgrade (a value of $3,000) basically at the invoice price of the car WITHOUT the technology package. Um, what? This is for the 2014, which they are literally just beginning to get on the lot. And this is without even TRYING to negotiate. This is what I was offered up front, just by sending an automated email to the dealership through Edmunds.com. So discussions became a little more serious today. Should we really consider doing this?
My question is this, though: Is Christmastime really as good a time to buy a car as people want you to believe it is? Or is it really just a ploy to try to get sales to pick up at the end of the year? I mean, the price of the car itself seems low… but they’re not offering 0% APR right now. The lowest is 1.9%. So say we wait. Surely they’re going to offer 0% APR at some point this year, right? (Mazda usually does.) If that’s the case, and they don’t have these “awesome deals” on the cars at that time, then we kind of make up for it with 0% APR, you know? Which is what makes me wonder if we’d basically get the same price/same monthly payments, regardless of when we purchase. So isn’t a wash? Does anyone have a lot of knowledge of car sales that can confirm/deny that this is the case? Any “insider info” or tips? I’m curious.
Obviously, if we’re seriously looking at potentially making a move, we also need to make sure that this is actually THE car we want to buy. I’m pretty sold on the Mazda CX-9 in terms of SUVs, but… the Honda Odyssey is still pulling me back in. Dude. A minivan. I can’t get over the fact that I’m even considering one. I don’t even know who I am anymore.
So, moms… minivan vs. 3-row SUV. Please weigh in. Let’s have a discussion. Let’s keep in mind that we’re pretty sure we’re done having kids. I mean, I won’t say never, but I’m thinking that’s the case.
And then there’s part of me that thinks we’re nuts for even considering this right now, when 1) we’re paying for two kids in full-time daycare and 2) my CR-V is technically still fine and I could easily get AT LEAST another year or two out of the thing. I mean, we “only” have two kids after all. It can be a tight squeeze (or impossible) at times, but it’s definitely doable on a day-to-day basis. For longer road trips—like our planned trip to Virginia and OBX next summer, for which we’ll be gone 10ish days—we would definitely have to rent a minivan or something, which would run us several hundred dollars (I’ve priced them out… we’re looking at like $800 at least, unless I can score a better deal as we get closer). My CR-V has less than 89,000 miles on it. It’s still a good car, and given that we drove Michael’s Saturn literally into the ground, I hesitate to get rid of a perfectly good car. And it’s PAID FOR. But then I remind myself that driving the same car for nearly 10 years is not something that too many people do anymore. And I can’t play my iPod/iPhone music in my car or use Bluetooth because this wasn’t even standard in 2004. First world problems, people.
For what it’s worth, Consumer Reports and user reviews of both the CX-9 and Odyssey are pretty excellent. The gas mileage is a bit better on the Odyssey than the CX-9. Technology features are pretty comparable. So it really comes down to form factor and space. SUV = less space, drives more like a car, has all-wheel drive. Minivan = ridiculous amounts of space, front-wheel drive, and… it’s a minivan.
Talk to me.
I’ve never pretended to like pumping. It’s a pain in the ass, but it’s one that so many working mothers put up with in order to continue to feed their babies breast milk—and I’m just one of them.
When I was pregnant with Vivienne, I was ALREADY dreading the process of pumping. I hadn’t forgotten the inconvenience of it: Making time for it (twice!) during the work day; the washing and organizing of bottles and pump parts every night and morning; carrying all that STUFF back and forth to work every day. Back when I was pumping for Nora, I felt like a bag lady walking into and out of work. It was crazy to try to remember all of the “pieces” I needed to bring to work every morning—pump bag, cooler bag for the milk, lunch bag, purse, computer bag. It was awful and there were several times when I actually forgot something at home and had to go back to get it. And to carry it all, I needed all shoulders, arms, and hands on deck. It was a serious balancing act.
This time, once I knew I would be using a Hygeia EnJoye pump (which is a standalone pump) instead of the Medela Pump-in-Style Advanced (which is built into a bag that is unfortunately not large enough to hold the cooler bag/milk itself!), I wondered if there was a bag out there that could help me consolidate. Was it possible to find something that could accommodate my pump, my milk, AND my computer? Did such a thing exist?
Oh, it does. And it’s called The Devyn Bag.
This thing is genius. It is EXACTLY what I needed all along. It’s not even technically a pump bag—it’s kind of an everything bag, a diaper bag, or could even be used as a really tricked out computer/work bag. But the two big selling points are that it has both a waterproof, insulated pocket to be able to keep things warm/cold, AND a pocket specifically designed for a laptop or tablet. Then, the third pocket can hold whatever else you need—diapers, wipes, extra clothing, wallet, keys, or in my case, my pump.
Let me show you how mine has been working for me.
Here is what my bag looks like when it’s fully loaded.
Now, I’m not going to lie—it’s kind of big when it’s stuffed like this. And it’s pretty heavy. BUT the point is that it all fits in one place. It NEEDS to be big in order to hold all of my stuff. I would be carrying all of this weight anyway, but would be doing it while also trying to keep hold of multiple bags. Now, I can sling The Devyn Bag over my shoulder or cross-body and I can still easily carry my purse and lunch bag into work. I even have a free hand to get my keys out to let myself in and out of the office.
You can see here how everything I need fits into the bag. Up top there I have my pump parts and bottles (and a slender ice pack to keep it all cold—more on that in a minute). In the middle is my laptop, and there’s enough room in that pocket for the charger and a few folders or notebooks, too. On the bottom there is the miscellaneous pocket in which I squeeze my pump.
The insulated pocket itself is pretty roomy. If you are using this as a computer bag for work, I think most lunches would fit in here pretty easily. It has mesh pockets lining each side to hold items (like bottles!) in place.
The ice pack slides down in between the mesh pockets to keep everything cool, and then I throw in my pump parts on top (in a ziploc bag). This pocket zips closed for extra insulation.
The ice pack is really cool (haha, ba-dum-bum). When I first received it in the mail, I didn’t think it could possibly be an ice pack. It feels like some sort of papery cloth, and you soak it for a few minutes in water until it absorbs it and puffs out a bit. Then you slide it into the provided ziploc bag and freeze it. From there, you can freeze it over and over again, occasionally re-soaking it if needed.
Next to the insulated pocket is the laptop/tablet pocket. It’s pretty large, so I think most laptops would fit, even if you have a fairly bulky one. As I mentioned, there’s plenty of space for my computer + charger cord + any files/folders I need to bring home with me at any given time. Some people might be worried about having the computer pocket right next to the insulated/”wet things” pocket, but that’s the thing… it’s completely insulated so there’s no chance of any water/leakage from that pocket into this one. The laptop pocket is also padded for protecting those precious electronics.
The front pocket is the most “multi use” of all of them. The Devyn Bag calls this “the purse section.” You can use this for pretty much anything. When I first received the bag, I thought my pump was going to be too large to fit into it, but I was wrong. It really expands when it needs to, and the flap to close the bag still fits easily over the front and I’m able to velcro it closed like it should be. If you have a Medela Freestyle or other smaller pump, the pocket would be MORE than sufficient to hold it… and you’d have room for even more stuff, too!
A bonus is that this thing is cute. I’ve been back at work for 3.5 weeks now, and I can’t even tell you how many women have complimented me on The Devyn Bag as they see me walking around the office with it (either coming in/coming out of the office, or making my way to the mommy suite for pumping). I’m pretty sure half of them just think it’s my computer bag, not a “pump bag”!
I love this thing. It can be ordered from devynbag.com for $109 (+ $5 for the freezer pack if you need/want it). I think it’s the perfect bag for the working, pumping mom, and for a lot of other women, too. In fact, I could see myself continuing to use this in some capacity, even after I don’t have to haul a pump and parts to/from work every day.
And guess what? The Devyn Bag is offering 10% off of a Devyn Bag purchase to my readers. Just use code 1213 at checkout. If you like the idea but don’t think you need this much space, also check out their Elle Convertible Bag. Also super cute! They have a lot of photos and even some video on their site with more information about their bags.
Questions? Comments? Let me know.
Disclaimer: The Devyn Bag provided me with a Messenger Devyn Bag and ice pack for free in exchange for my review. However, opinions expressed within this post are my own.
You know… I don’t even like milk.
I can’t tell you the last time I drank a glass of plain milk. It had to be like 20 years ago. I’ll do chocolate milk occasionally, but beyond that… I just use it to wet my cereal in the mornings.
So you’d think that giving up milk products would be kind of easy for me.
NO. SO MUCH NO.
Let’s back up for a few minutes here.
Our honeymoon period with Vivienne’s new reflux med dosage was apparently not meant to last. After five GLORIOUS nights of sleeping through the night, things went to hell in a handbasket again on Saturday night. At its worst period, I was awake with a refusing-to-go-back-to-sleep Vivienne from 3:45 to 6:15 a.m. It was miserable.
And last night… well, it was a different kind of shitty, but still shitty. It took her forever to actually GO to sleep in the evening; in fact, it was so much of a struggle that we eventually gave up after about an hour and a half or two hours and put her in the Rock ‘N’ Play. Which, I might add, she hasn’t slept in since she was like four weeks old. To say we took a giant leap backward is an understatement. But every time we had gotten her to sleep and then laid her down in her crib, she woke up immediately. And putting herself to sleep was NOT happening (although it did last week! she was so.good!). To be honest, it was clear she was uncomfortable. She kept doing her thing where she throws her head back and twists it to the side as far as it can go, arching her back. Until last night, I thought this was just a normal developmental thing and was her way of working up to rolling over, but then a reflux friend clued me in that this is a classic sign of discomfort. Apparently it’s their way of trying to straighten out the esophagus and keep the liquid down in their stomachs. Our pediatrician confirmed this today. Awesome.
So we put her down in the Rock ‘N’ Play. And then she proceeded to wake up probably at least once per hour for the remainder of the night. We had a really strong wind/rainstorm here last night, so we lost power around 10:30 p.m. I dragged the Rock ‘N’ Play into our room so I’d be sure to hear her without the monitor, and the poor thing, you guys. I woke up a few times throughout the night to the sound of her choking. It was never too alarming—she was always able to cough and clear it herself—but it was obvious that her reflux was bothering her in full force. And this was when she was elevated in the Rock ‘N’ Play!
Now, I remember some of you reflux moms telling me two things: 1) A Rock ‘N’ Play can be a godsend, but it can also be not-the-best thing because it forces an infant’s legs into a bent position, which places more pressure on the abdomen and can aggravate reflux. And 2) Swaddling can also aggravate reflux. Right now, we’re still doing the one-arm-out swaddle. So who knows. Maybe I need to experiment with these things again. I’m hoping to put her back in her crib tonight with the reflux wedge, even though she slides all over the place with it in there.
To make matters worse, I heard her develop some nasal congestion around 3-4:00 a.m. this morning. I literally heard it. It wasn’t there one moment, and then the next, I could hear it in her breathing. And colds? They make reflux worse.
We’re batting 1,000 over here.
I called the pediatrician this morning and they had us bring her in again. I had a lengthy talk with the doctor about where we go from here. The problem right now is this stupid cold and its sudden onset. Given that our sleeping issues began on Saturday, I’m inclined to think the cold is not the main culprit here, but the pediatrician said that we can’t really begin to pinpoint the cause of the problem until the cold is gone… because it could, in fact, just be the cold.
BUT… we are upping her medication again. The goal with any reflux medicine is to give the baby the lowest amount possible to keep them comfortable, while obviously staying below the maximum amount allowed for their weight. The doctor calculated that we could actually give Vivienne up to 1.9mL per dose (twice a day), and her current dose—determined last week—is 1.2mL. She told me to go ahead and make a big jump with it tonight—1.7mL—given that she’s sick and sometimes it takes more meds to get them comfortable when they’re sick. So we’re going to see how that goes and adjust accordingly.
Not just that, though. I’m also giving up dairy.
CUE THE SADNESS.
Actually, I don’t have to give up all dairy, just milk products. Milk, yogurt, butter, CHEESE. Ohmygod, cheese. This is going to be problematic and an extreme inconvenience, for sure. I’ll get back to that in a minute.
But my MAIN concern? The reason I want to cry when we talk about the possibility of Vivienne having an intolerance for milk products that will subsequently result in me cutting them out of my diet? It’s because of my STASH, people. I have more than 630 ounces of beautiful liquid gold taking up some serious real estate in our deep freezer. Six hundred and thirty ounces that I have worked hard for, by the way. Because pumping? I hate it. If it turns out that Vivienne DOES do better without my eating dairy, and we have to continue this way… this milk will basically be useless to me. I will die.
In all seriousness, worst case scenario, I will donate it. I would at least want SOMEONE to reap the benefits of it. But I definitely NEEDED my freezer stash as I got into the later months of breastfeeding with Nora, so I am sort of freaking out about having to give it up, too. I’m going to hang on and see what happens, though. I won’t cross that bridge until I actually get to it.
So let’s get back to this “no milk products” thing. I asked a few questions about it to the pediatrician but now I have even more questions. Like… OK, pancakes and waffles are made with milk. Can I not have those since there is milk in them? And… homemade cookies. Can I not have those because they are made with butter? I’m assuming that the answer to these questions is NO, but in that case… ohmygod THE HORROR. For now, the doctor told me to stick to “obvious” dairy, but… butter is butter, even in a cookie, I’m assuming. So is that “obvious” dairy? These are the things I do not know.
I need tips from the moms who have done this cutting-out-milk-products thing.
And I also need sleep. Sleep would be good.
On Sunday night, I was at a breaking point of sorts. We had been dealing with Vivienne’s awful sleep for at least a week or so, and the sleep deprivation was catching up with me. So just as I was about to lose my mind, I let it all out on the blog, hoping someone, somewhere, could possibly help us. (And you certainly answered the call, THANK YOU!)
But that was also when I figured it all out. Well, at least we hope so.
In my last post, I mentioned how—after observing a distinct difference in Vivienne’s behavior in the upright vs. lying down positions—I had a new theory that all of this might possibly be due to her reflux. This was after we had spent a week testing all sorts of other theories… we felt like we had tried almost everything! I don’t know why it took me a week to consider her reflux, but it did. After hearing from so many of you about your own reflux babies, and hearing from other parents on Facebook, I suspected that maybe we had found our culprit.
On Monday morning, as I prepared to give Vivienne her Zantac for reflux, I made a split-second decision to give her a little more than usual. I upped her dose by 0.2mL, figuring that the pediatrician was going to tell me to do that anyway, and I might as well get her started on the new dose to test it out. Someone else had also suggested adding gas drops to her bottles for the day—in case gas was the culprit—so I did that, too.
Later that day, I called the pediatrician’s office and talked to a nurse. I explained to her what had been going on and asked about reflux. But instead of her just telling me to up the dose like I expected, she said that because she is so little, they wanted to see her to rule out an ear infection or anything else. Having dealt with ear infections many, many times in Nora—and learning our lesson when she got her first one at 3.5 months old!—I REALLY did not think that Vivienne had an ear infection. But I agreed to bring her in because I figured that if nothing else, I could use the appointment to talk to our pediatrician about the best way to approach our sleep issues. We scheduled an appointment for Tuesday morning (today).
As I put her to bed last night, I made the decision to again go rogue and give Vivienne the increased dose of Zantac. I swaddled her, fed her, and she fell asleep nursing like she often does. I lowered her into her crib and waited for a few beats to see if her eyes would fly open. But they didn’t. So I turned away quietly and left her room, closing the door behind me. I got downstairs and checked out the video monitor… still sleeping. So far, so good, but based on past experience, this didn’t necessarily mean anything. The true test was how long this would last. I didn’t at all expect that she would make it past the 45-minute mark.
But guess what? SHE DID. My face was like this:
And then? SHE KEPT SLEEPING. For hours. MANY HOURS.
You guys, she didn’t wake up until after 7:00 a.m. this morning. We’re talking about 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Not only was this a vast improvement over what she had been doing—even just one night before—but this was also the first time she had ever slept that long without waking to eat. FIRST.TIME.EVER! The kid went from one extreme to the other in just 24 hours time. My face looked like this:
We didn’t have any choice but to keep the doctor’s appointment since it wouldn’t have been enough notice to cancel it, but it didn’t matter—I still wanted to go anyway, in case this was a fluke.
At the appointment, I told the nurse and doctor right off the bat what I had done with her meds. The doctor asked me to start at the beginning and talk her through what brought us here. I explained it all to her, including what had happened last night, and then I apologized for taking it upon myself to up her meds when God knows I don’t have an M.D. behind my name. But instead of scolding me, our pediatrician said, “No, don’t apologize! You did the right thing!”
After hearing how Vivienne had been acting at bedtime and throughout the night, she said that what I was describing was a baby struggling with reflux. She said it was further proof that yes, Vivienne definitely does have reflux, and yes, she definitely does need meds. She also noted that Vivienne had gained more than a pound since the last time she had seen her (for a reflux follow-up) and nearly two pounds since the last time we raised her dose. It was perfectly reasonable to up her dose again.
As I write this, Vivienne is sleeping, and has been for an hour. She’s already made it past the dreaded 30-45 minute mark again, and I am starting to feel like MAYBE I can breathe a sigh of relief. I’m not expecting her to make it through the whole night again—that would be crazy—but at this point, I’m tremendously grateful for marked improvement. I’m only kicking myself that it took me this long to figure it out. My poor baby had to suffer for over a week! :(
Fingers crossed.
Knock on wood.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
