Dear Vivienne,
Say goodbye to month two… onward to month #3!
As expected, you’ve changed dramatically this month. You’re bigger, you’re more alert, you’re doing new things.
So, speaking of being bigger… we’ll find out your current stats at your well baby doctor’s appointment on Friday, but two weeks ago (at 6.5 weeks old), you were already tipping the scales at 10 lbs., 4 oz. You gained three pounds in like four weeks! Needless to say, you are a good eater. Your little arm and leg rolls are a testament to that.
You can still squeeze into newborn clothes—some are definitely more snug than others!—but you’re definitely into the 0-3 month sizes now. The weather has been warm again lately, so we’ve had to make do with some newborn stuff, and the very few short-sleeved things we have in 0-3 month sizes. Your wardrobe will expand exponentially once the weather cools off again. We have so many hand-me-downs from Nora, and you’ve also been gifted a bunch of new stuff, too! (And yes, Mommy has been shopping for a few things for you as well… I can’t help it.)
Earlier this month, we had reason to believe you might be experiencing some discomfort due to reflux. You were grunting and whining through your sleep, waking up frequently for seemingly no reason, and just generally seemed unhappy a lot of the time. We went ahead and tried you on some meds, and wow, they made a difference pretty much right away. You no longer spend the nights making noise the entire way through—which I think has resulted in more restful sleep for the BOTH of us. You’ve started pulling longer stretches, too. Currently, you are sleeping pretty consistently from 9:30-10:30 p.m. to 5-6 a.m. You eat, then sleep again until about 9-9:30 a.m. Of course, I’M not sleeping until 9 a.m., though. :)
Even though you’ve been doing wonderfully with the sleeping, I don’t think we’ve completely figured out the right routine for you yet. We’re working on it. But come the evening hours… 7-9 p.m.? You are MISERABLE a lot of the time. Nothing we do seems to make you happy during those hours. I don’t know if we need to make adjustments to your reflux meds (by that time, you’ve gone 10-12 hours since your last dose, so maybe you’re uncomfortable again?), if we need to try to put you to bed earlier (you always seem SO tired), or if it’s just a phase and these are your “witching hours.” We’re going to play around with the bedtime hypothesis first and see if we can find a solution. We’ll see.
Although you are obviously a good, WONDERFUL baby in some areas (I’m loving the nighttime sleep!), you seem to be a fairly needy baby overall. During the day lately, I’ve had a really hard time with you allowing me to put you down. You want to be held all of the time, and “naps” are sometimes laughable. Today, for instance, your longest nap stretch was 25 minutes. I didn’t have time to do ANYTHING, which is why I’m sitting here, still not showered. And just to get some food into my body, I had to let you cry in your mamaroo in order to have some lunch. Not fun. :( I try to remember that this will not last forever… and my only real “job” on maternity leave is to take care of you, so I should relish in that while I can. It’s hard, though, to sometimes feel like I don’t have any time for myself—and that you must always be practically attached to me. I love you like crazy, but mama feels like she’s losing her mind some days! Still, I know I will severely miss the good moments at home with you when I have to go back to work, so I try to balance the good with the bad and not wish it away.
There were a lot of firsts this month. We had our first weekend away as a family of four, which meant that you had your first nights sleeping away from home. We went to the Poconos for a wedding. And since we didn’t bring you to the wedding, it also meant that it was the first time you had a babysitter! You did well with all of it, except for the babysitter. You basically cried for two hours straight during the time we were gone, which I think was actually a product of your reflux (we hadn’t yet started meds) coupled with being overtired. As soon as we got back, Daddy and I were able to get you settled down pretty quickly. Poor baby!
Also… you’ve started smiling. You often will even stick your tongue out a little with your smile. It is awesome. You were about 6.5 weeks old, and we had just started reflux meds the day before. Coincidence? I don’t know. Maybe once we were able to make you more comfortable, you felt you had a reason to smile, huh? :) I am obviously in love with your smile, and every day, I stoop to new levels to try to get one out of you. I hope no one is secretly recording me, because I sound like a buffoon. But whatever it takes! You don’t give them up too easily at this point; you make us work for them. You’ve also started cooing at us, which is ridiculously adorable. Nora was never much of a “talker” as a baby, so it’s fun to see this with you!
Nora is still crazy about you. Every morning before she leaves for daycare, she insists on giving you a kiss goodbye. She has a special, extremely high-pitched voice she uses only to talk to you. “Hi Vivienne! I looove you!” she shrieks. It’s so cute. She finally got over her weird fear/aversion to touching your binky so now she will pop it into your mouth for you if you’re crying. Such a good little helper!
You seem to really love music. A few nights within the past week or so, when you’ve been fussy, we’ve been able to calm you with music on our phones. I love that. It’s just one of the things we’ve learned about you so far… one of many more to come. You also love walks in the stroller outside. You usually stay awake during them, just staring at me as I push you, at the sky, or who knows what else. You love baths with your big sister. She “helps” wash you and you just lie there in the baby bath seat, relaxing. You do get mad when we start draining the water or remove you, though—too cold, I guess! Anyway, I love all of the little discoveries we get to make about who you’re going to be as a person, at least in the beginning.
There is no question about it: You are growing. You are thriving. Let’s see what this next month brings.
You have my heart.
Love you forever and ever,
Mommy
For the past 8-9 days or so, it has felt more like Southern California around here than it has felt like fall in the Northeast. 70+ degree temps, sunshine… and don’t get me wrong, I am LOVING it, given that 70s and sunshine is my idea of PERFECT weather. However, we’re now into October and I’m starting to wonder if we’re going to go straight from summer to… winter. I hope we still get a little fall squeezed in there to enjoy!
Thankfully, though, a couple of weekends ago we DID get a taste of fall. On Saturday, it rained ALL DAY… and of course, that also happened to be the day of Nora’s birthday party. Figures. (More on that later.) But on Sunday, we woke up to overcast but dry weather, and it was cool and crisp—even a little windy. We took advantage and hit up a local apple farm with my sisters-in-law, our nephews, and my mom.
(Kara is expecting baby Sadie at the end of the month! Hooray for a niece!)
This past Sunday (a week after our picking outing), I slept in a bit and came downstairs to find Michael and Nora making applesauce together. Too cute, and delicious, too!
A few weeks ago, on September 11, we celebrated “The Big 3.” My firstborn, my BABY… she turned three. I don’t know how it’s possible.
This age is simultaneously awesome and terrifying. I’ve heard people call 3-year-old children “threenagers” and although we are only a few weeks into this, I already think it’s fitting. Last weekend, I sent Nora to bed without a bedtime story. She had been acting up in the bathtub, and after warning her, she continued the behavior. I immediately removed her from the tub as the punishment, and she started freaking out about wanting to get back in the bath and kicked me while I was trying to put lotion on her. So that, of course, resulted in another warning—if she kicked me again, she was going to bed without a story.
She kicked me again.
I told her that was it—no story. She started screaming and crying and basically breaking my heart. “I’ll be a good girl,” she pleaded. “I want you, Mommy. I want you to read me a story!” and “I’m a big girl now! I’m a big girl!” Even now it hurts my heart a little bit to think about, because I could tell that she genuinely regretted what she had done and was begging me to do something she loves… her bedtime routine. But internally, I struggled because I knew that if all it took was an “I’m sorry” and an “I’ll be a good girl!” plea to get things back to normal, was she really learning not to misbehave? Was she really learning the true meaning of my warnings? Was she learning that my threats were real? No.
So I stuck to my guns. It was hard, but I did it.
Downstairs, I had the video monitor on her and I could see her sitting up in her bed. She continued crying. And then, I could hear her talking. “Now my birthday party is RUINED!” she cried, over and over again. (Her birthday party was planned for the next day.) At that point, all I could really do was laugh. Because “ruined”? Where did she learn that word, and how to use it correctly? And the DRAMA, oh my god. Really. What in the world did going to bed without a story have to do with her birthday party?
THREENAGER, for sure.
At any rate… this is where we’re at. Welcome to the year of the three year old.
But a couple of weeks ago, on her birthday, we showed our girl a good time. We made the day special from beginning to end. It was exhausting, but fun. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already got a good taste of how events unfolded on her birthday, but I’m going to recap it here as well. Here’s Nora’s 3rd birthday!
When Nora woke up, we heard her on the monitor saying, “What’s that? What is that?” and we knew she had seen her gift. We had sneaked it into her room the night before, while she slept.
It was a play teepee!
Nora’s first reaction was, “It’s purple!” (her favorite) and then “It’s like a tent!” Why yes, yes it is. :)
She got to enjoy her teepee for a bit while we got the wheels going with showers, getting dressed, feeding Vivienne, etc. so we could go out for the majority of the day. After we were all ready, we headed out for our birthday tradition of a pancake breakfast. But first, I made Nora pause for a few “I am 3” photos in the yard.
What a goof.
At the restaurant, we all ordered their gigantic pancakes—it only costs like $2-3 (depending on the type of pancake) for one of these suckers. Best deal around. And, they’re delicious!
Just as we did last year, we brought candles and a lighter to the restaurant with us so we could sing her “Happy Birthday.” It was cute, because as soon as our waitress saw us light up the candles, she said, “Oh, it’s her birthday?!” and ran off to get one of the other waitresses. They ran right over and sang “Happy Birthday” to her for us. Very nice of them to give her an impromptu serenade. :) Oh, and hey! Nora now has the ability to blow out candles all by herself. That’s a big girl rite of passage, right there.
Right after breakfast, we made a stop at Wegmans for Nora to pick out a “special snack” for our next stop… the movies. Nora’s first ever in a theater. Nora picked some Pepperidge Farms Goldfish—the S’mores variety (if you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing these and trying them yet, YUM). We rarely ever give her snack food like this, so it really was a special treat!
The only children’s movie that was out was Planes, so the choice was easy.
One of our local movie theaters completely remodeled recently, renovating the theaters so that they all have these sweet reclining chairs. Um, hello, best marketing/business decision ever! If I’m going to pay to go see a movie in the theater (which I don’t often, but if I do), you’re damn straight it’s going to be at this one! :)
For Nora’s first time at the theater, she did pretty good. Honestly, the movie wasn’t that great—the plot a little slow, a little repetitive, so kinda boring—so it was tough to hold her attention. She LOVED the coming attractions (there were SO.MANY, holy cow!), but then only watched about half an hour of the movie before she started getting restless. We managed to make it through the whole thing, but it wasn’t like she was sitting in her seat transfixed by it the entire time. I’d like to try again some day, with a movie that I think she’s more likely to really love. Vivienne, on the other hand, was a rockstar first-time movie goer. She slept the entire time, except for one 10-15 minute period during which I nursed her. :)
Oh, and it should be noted: I took Nora to the bathroom at one point during the movie. The bathrooms—very nice and new and clean, thanks to the remodel—had those Dyson hand dryers. Nora FUH-REAKED out when I used one of them and tried to convince her to try it, too. Screams and tears and everything. “It’s scary, Mommy. That scares me.” Oops.
After the movie, we had to make one quick errand pit-stop at Kohl’s to exchange a pair of shoes. This was the perfect opportunity to try out our new glider board for our stroller. We positioned it as something so very cool, that only BIG girls get to ride. “And now that you’re three,” we told Nora, “you get to ride on the board!”
She now thinks the glider board is the best.thing.ever. And it has been a godsend when we’re out running errands, or even when we walked up the street the other day for a playdate. It’s awesome. I’m in love.
By the time we were done with Kohl’s, Nora was fading fast, and I had to struggle to keep her awake for the ride home. Once home, I carried her right upstairs and plopped her into bed for a nap, which she took easily.
A couple of hours later, we were on the go again. Back out of the house we went, for another special stop. Earlier that week, I had gone to get a pedicure (redeeming a birthday gift certificate, yay!) and while there, I was curious and asked them about doing mani/pedis on little kids. Nora loves to have her nails painted like Mommy’s, so I thought she might get a big kick out of it. They told me that with kids, they only charge for a polish change, not the mani/pedi prices, so done and done.
I mean, come on… is this not the cutest thing ever??
She still struggled a little bit with the holding still + keeping fingers apart thing, so I had to hold them still for her until they dried enough. She still managed to smudge a finger or two, but the woman was really nice and just repaired them. Toes were much easier! Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that she picked PURPLE. Of course. And the woman added a sparkle topcoat, too. Little girl heaven, I tell you.
Once my little girl had been properly pampered (LOL), we made a quick stop at Target for her to pick out some much needed new big girl underwear. (She picked My Little Pony, if you must know!)
Then, our last adventure for the day was to take her out to dinner. Macaroni and cheese with a side of broccoli (which she surprisingly did VERY well with), and then a free birthday sundae for dessert.
Yep, Nora had a great day. Best day ever, even? I don’t know. :) We had a lot of possibilities on our list of things we could do for Nora’s birthday. It turned out that the weather on her birthday was 90+ degrees, so that eliminated all of our outdoor ideas right off the bat. I think we ended up doing well with all of our indoor options, though.
Back home, we took a few photos before calling it bath and bedtime.
It was a happy birthday for my sweet, smart, and funny girl. I love her more than she’ll ever know.
We had Vivienne’s newborn photos done when she was just five days old, when she was still good and sleepy. The timing of the pics was pretty great in the grand scheme of things, too, since the shoot was able to double as our annual family photo session—aside from the maternity shoot, we last had family photos done on September 1 last year.
I LOVE these. The only thing that is a problem is that I can’t put them all up in our house somewhere. Deciding which to display is going to be a difficult task.
(I completely adore this above picture of Nora. It’s just so her.)
(Gah! Her little yawn! The cutest.)
(A favorite!)
(We used the one above for her birth announcement. The lips, the hand up by the face, the little feet blurred in the foreground…)
(I think this one is my absolute favorite. I feel like this needs to be BIG somewhere in our house. Just trying to figure out the right spot!)
I posted a few weeks back about how we started having challenging nights with Vivienne due to her constant grunting/whining/straining sounds. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at the time—some babies are just noisy sleepers, and I thought it was just a part of her—but I also thought that MAYBE there was something else going on. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was grunting like that because she was uncomfortable. That, coupled with her propensity for spitting up A TON every day, led me to question whether she had some reflux going on.
As I’ve since learned from lots and lots of Googling, MOST babies have reflux. Nora had reflux. Any baby that spits up has reflux. But some babies have reflux that HURTS them… so it needs to be/can be treated.
A few weeks ago, we had a particularly challenging couple of nights again, and Vivienne was spitting up SO.MUCH. Up to five outfits a day. Too many burp cloths to count. I had actually resorted to using flannel swaddle blankets as burp rags because I needed something BIGGER. And every morning, her swaddle blanket and the burp rag—which I’ve grown accustomed to putting under her head any time she’s lying down—would be SOAKED and/or crusty with old spit-up. I finally broke down and called the pediatrician’s office and they asked me a lot of questions about Vivienne’s demeanor, the manner of the spit up, etc. At the time, they said that it sounded like Vivienne was borderline. Like MAYBE she has the kind of reflux that should be treated, but maybe she’s just a normal, yet especially spitty, baby.
So we gave it more time.
Last weekend, when we were in the Poconos with my family for a wedding, I had other people who could be witness to what we’ve been experiencing. My mom and sisters-in-law saw her repeatedly projectile spit-up—on me, on the floor, on everything—and they shared my gut feeling that this just wasn’t right. Plus, the fussiness. My poor baby definitely seemed uncomfortable, particularly in the evenings. In fact, when we went to the wedding on Saturday night, Marie’s sister watched the kids for us, and Vivienne basically screamed for two hours straight. Awesome.
The tough part is that Vivienne’s now at the age when newborns will be newborns—and evening “witching hours” are common. So I still questioned myself: Was she fussy because she’s a baby, or was she fussy because of reflux?
We had an appointment with our pediatrician on Wednesday for Nora’s 3-year well child visit. (Nora’s 30 lbs. and 36 3/8″ tall, by the way. Healthy, happy, growing girl. Yay!) While we were there, our doctor said to me, “Why do I feel like I read something about Vivienne? You called about something recently, didn’t you?” I reminded her that I had called a few weeks back with questions/concerns about reflux. She asked me how it was going and I told her that I still had suspicions. She talked to me about it and agreed that what we’re experiencing with Vivienne might not be normal. She suggested that we go ahead and try reflux meds. Worst case, they don’t make any difference and after a few weeks, we’ll just discontinue them.
She had me go ahead and get Vivienne undressed and weigh her—we hijacked Nora’s appointment for a few minutes, oops!—and the GREAT news is that if Vivienne does in fact have reflux, it is certainly not affecting her growth. AT ALL. Vivienne weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs., 4 oz., which is huge to me when you consider that Nora was only 9.5 lbs. at 2 months old and this is Vivienne at 6 weeks. :) Anyway, the weight helped the doctor determine accurate dosage for the Zantac, and she handed us a prescription.
We moved on to Nora’s portion of the appointment. But during that time, Vivienne also did a good job of “demonstrating” her reflux to the pediatrician. First, she spit-up, and with a bit of force. Projectile, but mild in comparison to some of her “episodes”! Then, we were talking about Nora when suddenly Vivienne coughed/choked. Our doctor looked at us and said, “Yes. I really think meds are going to help her.” It was reassuring to me that our doctor got to see these things happen first hand, because it only helped to solidify the potential diagnosis and give me peace of mind about trying these meds with Vivienne.
Anyway, we’re not quite at the 48-hour mark yet, but Vivienne’s received two doses of the meds per day, and I dare say… I think we’re seeing an improvement. In fact, she seems to even be spitting up less, which isn’t even what the meds are supposed to do—they’re supposed to reduce the acidity in the stomach to simply make the reflux more COMFORTABLE, not necessarily suppress it altogether. But the doctor mentioned that other parents do report that the meds sometimes reduce spit-up, too, so… bonus?
We’ll see what happens with time!
Any other reflux parents out there? What were your experiences? How long did your baby have to be on the meds before you were able to wean him/her off?
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.
