I Heart Faces - Week 35 - Back to School

I Heart Faces - Week 35 - Back to School

Holly does not go to school, It barely even registered with me that it was that time of the year, so I have posted a picture of her playing in a "school bus" on her first day of Day Care, She isn't in day care any more, but this is the closest thing to school we have.

I Heart Faces is a site where you can share photos and submit them into weekly contests, of faces, one for kids and one for adults.

Postcard

Postcard
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

So I went to daycare to get Holly, and they decided that they would give me 1/2 refund for the month of October. I was very happy to hear that and have the extra Money. That did mean that I had to bring all of her stuff home with me. I got her formula, and wipes and diapers, her blankets and toys, and extra cloths and bottles, but alas, I forget her teethers, I will have to get them when I go and visit after my trip and pick up the refund check.

After bringing all of her stuff to the car we went to pick up daddy. He was trying to finish up a project, so we went into the office and waited for him in this cool conference room area. There were comfy couches and we sat and played for about 20 minutes waiting for Joel to finish up his project. I was on my way to a professional dinner, for work and Joel was going to stay home with Holly. It was nice to get out and not have to worry about her, and it was a great dinner at a place called mint leaf, a Vietnamese restaurant.

Tomorrow Joel will stay home with Holly while I go into work for my last day, and to a off-site meeting, for that same professional organization. Then I get home and finish packing, though I did most of it tonight, and we are off to the Airport.

Joel and Holly had a lot of fun playing today, they had some piano practice, and she was super energetic as usual. I think she is beginning to learn both object permanence and cause and effect. While we were playing and waiting for Joel, I had my keys sitting on the couch, Holly began to try and reach over for them to play with them, but could not reach. She stretched and pulled and tried to literally crawl over to them, then she decided to pull on the strap of the bag which brought the keys close enough for her to reach them, she was very impressed with herself. When she pulled the bag down she left her pacifier underneath it, so when she was tired of playing with the keys she looked under the bag to get her pacifier and pushed it back up again. I was pretty amazed.

She wants to move, and reach and explore, its only moments away.

BTW - This is a picture of Holly reading a postcard from her granny preparing for her trip to Virgina.

Musical

Musical
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Friday,

Today was a super fun day. Daddy took Holly to Daycare for Mom this morning, which was a lot of help. She had to catch up on work and pack her office and go to meetings. But after a hard day's work she picked up little Holly and they went off to swim class, which was lots and lots of fun. We had not been for a few weeks, and Holly had not had a nap for about 3 hours when we arrived so she was getting a little sleepy. She was quiet and a bit cautious in the water, focused and super cuddly, wanting to hug momma and lie on her shoulder. But by the end of class she had warmed up and was having a lot of fun, she liked it when I threw her into the air, not just raising her up, but actually letting go, which I did only once, as I was trying not to over-stimulate her, but that was when I got the biggest smile and laugh, during the "Mighty Duke of York" song.

She also loves the part of the "Wheels on the Bus" song, when we sing, "the parents on the bus say I love you," and then kiss the babies. She smiles every time. I think she is understanding that a kiss is a form of affection, for example, yesterday when I picked her up, she threw her arms out for me to take her then grabbed my head and hair and opened her mouth and planted it on my cheek and nose. I totally think she was giving me a kiss.

Today when I picked her up I was sad, as most of the babies were asleep, but Holly and Sasha were playing with one of the teachers. Holly was lying on the big cushion, and had a soft spider toy in her hands that she was exploring, and the teacher was on the floor, leaning on the pillow next to her talking and singing to her, with Sasha in her lap, and the three were having a great time. Her teacher told me she heard that we were leaving and that she was very sad and that Holly was one of the sweetest babies she ever has had.

She made me promise that we would come and visit, and said, many parents say they will, but you really have to. She also said she wanted to see Holly when she learns to walk, and all in all, they were disappointed to see her go, but understood that Mommy wanted to be home with her.

After swim class Holly was wiped out, and fell asleep, So I drove to the pet store, she woke as we were going inside the store, so we looked at the birds and fish and baby turtles, and got some food for Mack, a very large red-eared slider turtle, that we are babysitting, that belongs to Tanta Kat who is currently in the Peace Corps. Holly really likes to look at Mack, but also likes the sound of his water filter, which is like a constant fountain.

The we went to the Supermarket, I am trying to save money since I won't be working anymore, and although i spend about $120 on staple foods, I saved another 44$ which was 27% I was excited about that. The only item that I got that was not on sale was coffee for Joel, and that's something you just can't take away from such a good dad / hubby.

I am not sure how to act now that I won't be working, I am used to either having enough money to buy whatever I want and not thinking about it, or to being poor and not able to buy anything. I am not sure what middle ground is, and I am not sure where in the spectrum we will be. So I went and got us Panda Express as a treat for Joel, so he would not have to cook, this was 18$ Now for that much, I could get a bag of frozen chicken, pasta, rice, sauce, and have meals for 3 days. But it is also like cheap fast food, and not like when we normally go out to eat and spend $50 so I didn't know if I should get take out, if I should feel guilty, or what. Joel of course thought it was a great idea, but I am the one who does the finances. I think it will be ok, I am just a lot more mindful of not waisting any money now, which is a new thing.

I have to be careful though, we don't want to give the impression that we can't afford anything because we can still afford things, but we should be spending on only what we need, not everything we want. The difference is our income now covers the bills nothing more, nothing less, so there is no more disposable income, to randomly buy stuff, except our savings. since that doesn't get replenished every two weeks like before, we need to be sure that we need something before we get it.

Its a balancing act, and I am finding my legs a bit wobbly still.

That said, I am going to join in with two friends and purchase a family pass to the Oakland zoo. it allows for 3 adults and 4 kids, so each mom will get one parent pass, and each kid will get one, and one has 2. It ends up being only 33$ each and we can go anytime we want for an entire year. it is also free parking when you have the membership. This is exciting. I have also been researching the SF Zoo, Free day 1 time a month, and the SF Moma, so there is a lot we can do on a dime.

Once we return from Virgina we plan on going to the zoo, and they are having a big Halloween event on the 25th, so that should be fun also. Joel loves the Oakland zoo, but obviously won't have time to go as often as me and Holly, so when he wants to, we still can, and he can just pay for him. This weekend we plan on going to my office and cleaning it out, I have a lot of art and other personal items there that I need to box up and bring home.

Tonight Joel and Holly played in her room, because Mommy wanted to watch a TV show that Daddy didn't like. They had a lot of fun playing with her piano. She doesn't quite get how it works, and knows when you bang on it it makes noise and this makes her happy, and she does bang on it with two arms, but she doesn't quite get that it's the keys you have to hit, so sometimes she misses and then is sad when it didn't make a sound. But she will get it I am sure.

More later... Mom is going to try to get to bed before 1am. PS I plan to go back and add some more pictures to these posts when i get them off my Camera. I haven't done so yet, because I am waiting to transfer all my files from my work laptop, to my new dell xps, which BTW I love and is pink :-)

Overalls

Overalls
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday was a pretty good day, Mommy had totally forgot that Katie's normal Friday Appt was moved to Thursday afternoon, so at 4:20 I was in the middle of archiving email, and saw my calendar pop up, so I rushed out of the building and off to daycare. I called Katie to tell her I would be late, and Lucky for me, she was stuck in traffic, so we both arrived at the house at 4:45. Holly was a little bit fussy when we got started, I think this has a lot to do with her not wanting to work or be away from Mommy right after coming home from school. She cried for a minute, and was wet, but once I changed her and got on the floor with her, she was ready to play.

We worked on rotation, and supporting herself, we did some standing, some tummy time, some reaching and playing. We talked about how Holly is not yet clapping, patting, or banging two toys together yet, so she is a little behind in that, but I am not super worried about it, she seems interested, but her high tone is really preventing her from having the more relaxed movement. She has been banging herself in the head with her hand, like her daddy, and with a soft toy. So her arms are completely capable of doing this movement when she wants to.

Katie thinks the head banging is good, and her way of exploring her spacial area and where she is in the surroundings, like this is my head, ect. She has also discovered her ear, and has been holding the top of her ear, and she has been feeling her hair as well. She is really into textures and like to pet different types of materials.

Also when you put her down on all fours she stays upright like that, and is even trying to go into a sit or stand position, by bringing her leg around and forward. She is not however pushing all the way up from outstretched tummy legs. She also still needs more practice with holding her big noggin up. But all in all she is doing great. Exhausted, she was out like a lamp by 6:00 when Katie left for a long nap.

Mommy was so tired, that she let Daddy and Holly play at 7:30 when he got home and went and took a nap herself for a few hours. By the time she woke up, Holly was just going down to bed. Daddy reported that they had a fun night together, and Mommy felt like she was able to keep a cold at bay for another day, with the well needed extra rest.

Holly managed to stay in these cute overalls all day, and was quite adorable with her little navy and white poke-a-dotted top.

Little Angel

Little Angel
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

I am continued to be PLAGUED by the horrors of Daycare, and alas I think Holly may never be "well" This morning she was very stuffy and snotty, and I really wasn't sure if she should go to school or not. I had three work meetings, that while I could reschedule, it would have been difficult, and I don't have any time this week to reschedule. Joel also could have stayed home, but has a huge deadline at the end of the week, and a meeting himself that he didn't want to reschedule. So our morning began with, do I stay home, or take her to school, will they take, her, and even more importantly, does she really need to be home with mommy, even if they would take her. She hasn't had a fever, or puked her food since Friday, so there is only the question of mucus, she woke up very snotty. Well according to the school, clear snot is ok, its usually caused by teething, and they deal with it, but green mucus is a sign of an infection and they send her home.

I decide to call the doctor, now the advice nurse says this is ridiculous, and that when one begins to recover from a cold there mucus turns green, and at that point they aren't even contagious, because they really pass this along by sneezing and coughing, before they even "feel" sick or have symptoms. So off to daycare I am told. This rips my heart out, as my child is grumpy and obviously sick, but I need to be at work, and if she gets worse, i need to have sick days to stay home when she really needs me.

We have not had a Happy Holly over the weekend, since Daycare began, as she has the uncanny ability to get sick on Thursday night, in-time to be sick for my play date with her on Friday, to miss swimming, and to spend the weekend sick with mom and dad, if I wasn't so selfish, I would say this was a good thing, but I miss the playful little thing, and would like the weekend to go on play dates and take her out on fun activities.

So, this Friday I am looking forward to a "well" doctor visit where she will get her six month vaccinations, and a flu shot, now this is assuming she is well by Friday, so my option is, a sick child who can;t get her shots, or a happy baby, who will now be miserable the next two days precisely because she got her shots, lucky me.

Off to daycare we go, she is on the up, as I gave her some more Baby Motrin, now Joel keeps telling me not to do this, since she doesn't have a fever and thinks it does not help, and that she will build up a tolerance to it, so when she is older, or an adult (like me) it won't work at all. Well, true as that may be, I know from my own horrible sinuses that when they are stuffy, your whole face hurts and is in pain, there is a horrible pressure, it causes headaches, and your jaw can hurt, and I know this, cause it is how I feel this week. So I give her the Motrin, and within 30 minutes her spirits are raised so she at least can take a comfortable nap, and play some.

I get to school and find in her folder the following flyer:

Dear Parent,

Your Child may have been exposed to Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (Coxsackle Virus. in the Infant/Toddler room. Symptoms begin with sudden fever, then with small painful sores in the mouth and throat, followed by a blistery rash on the hands and feet. Symptoms may also include stomach ache and diarrhea.

YEA ------GROSS-----Is there ANYTHING?? She isn't going to catch in the first month of Daycare? its STILL September...


{Sigh} I don't know if I mentioned this, but the week she was at orientation, there was a meningitis exposure..... So this is why I say I am PLAGUED by daycare, they really are the black death of sickness there, but I am told every daycare center is like this, and that she needs to strengthen her immune system, and if it wasn't now, it would be at three when she starts pre-school, or five when she starts kindergarten, and I suppose the older they are the harder it is to deal with a sick child.

In Reality, I doubt she will get this, but if she does... I will NOT be a happy camper.

Anyways.......

So actually seemed to have a pretty good day, she was fast asleep when I arrived to pick her up, officially 3 minutes late, but I don' think anyone noticed, I am actually having trouble getting to her by 5:30, which is very frustrating, today my guilt was abated by the fact that she was sleeping for the past hour, so I didn't miss out on spending time with her. I realized the following.. I used to be in meetings from 10-5 every day, and actually got my work done from 5-7:30 every evening. before, Joel didn't get home until 7:30, so I stayed at work until then, and those last two hours are when i got my work done. Now a sensible person might say I should get off of any committees and not have meetings, but that doesn't stop the constant interruptions, the phone calls from faculty needing help or training, and those hours, would fill up with faculty training, and I still wouldn't have time to do anything else.

I haven't seen the Therapist since I started work, not sure if I mentioned this, but the regional center provides one for free, I guess to help families deal with the fact that there child may have delays. I think it was helpful, but I also think I was dealing with things very well, so i only saw her twice monthly, and often less then that, but once I started to have anxiety about going back to work, she was even more helpful, and it made a difference. So I really want to see her again now that I am trying to manage being back to work, and have so much more stress, and I am short tempered and cranky all the time, but I have less time, because during her hours I am well, at work, and if I am missing an hour of work, I would want to spend that will Holly.. So I am still trying to figure that out.

As far as that goes, I am trying to come to terms with the whole thing, it is not practical for me to not work, particularly with the state of the economy, not only can we simply not afford it, "making it work" would require us to use up our entire savings, and leave me without great insurance and a job, so that if the market goes even further south and i need to work later, there may not be jobs for me. So I am not trying to simply get it out of my mind as an option and live in the real world, but sometimes when you want something, no matter how unrealistic it is hard to let got of the idea, especially when you are a determined person like me, who always gets what they want.

The thing is, I don't want to be home 100% of the time, even thought Daycare is a death trap, I think it is good for holly, and if she could be there 2-3 days a week, it would be great, being around other babies is a good thing, but even if she wasn't in daycare at all, without my income, we could never afford the things I would now have time for like, swimming, gymboree, mom'sgroups, YMCA memberships, toys, cloths, ect. And we would go from a Family who has never had to stress about money to one that was always clipping coupons and living paycheck to paycheck,I don;t think I can trade that stress for this one, I wonder if those circumstances would leave me as happy as I think. The last 6 months was a gift, but it was from the state of California, paying me to be home, my entire income from Family Medical Leave, and well, yeah my 400 hours of saved vacation time.

I know we will figure this out, and I need to give myself time to adjust, I have never had to make an adjustment like this before, one where I was not in complete control of everything, and everything was on my terms, and I was the master of my own destiny, so i need to learn to let go a little bit, and let what happens happen, do what I can and what I can;t well, I have to not be so hard on myself.... But that is easier to write and know then to do and feel.

My poor baby is coughing in her sleep again, last night she woke up twice, so I better go and check on her and get to bed myself its late.

Oh Yeah - The rest of our day was uneventful, we didn' have time for oatmeal tonight, but the last two days of oatmeal gave her very stinky farts and poopies. We did watch us some Yo Gabba gabba, and we did practice sitting in Ocean Time for a little bit, but she was tipping over a lot becasue she is sick and doesn;t have a lot of energy, she also started to whisper Baaaaaah again, which I was excited about. She was pretty mellow, not wanting to do much, and was happy to just cuddle with mom or day most of the night, she was asleep by 9:00 later then usual, but she also wasn't very active most of the night, she didn't have a lot of energy. I didn't give her Motrin this evening, which I should have, cause now she isn't sleeping very restfully.

Look At Me - Big Girl

Look At Me - Big Girl
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday - Today was another long day, I picked Holly up at just 5:30 exactly. She was sitting, in a Boppy, next to Henry who was sitting, and the two looked so cute in Parallel play. I had another log day of meetings at work, and I come home tired, and with more to do then there is time for in the evening. I feel like a ad mom again today, because I did not feed Holly any Rice Cereal, just a bottle, that said, she is getting sick, and has a cold again, and puked up half of her bedtime bottle, so I don't think it would have been the best to give her cereal anyways.

She has been really vicious with her bottle nipples, she takes them and ferociously rubs them back and forth against her gums and I think she has some new teeth ready to pop any day. She took a short nap in the evening in her swing, and then woke up again, and I cuddled her and rocked her and sung to her and played with her, she laid there looking up at me, and just touched my face, it is the sweetest thing ever. Finally Joel took her and she drifted all the way to sleep.

After I picked her up we decided to go shopping. We went to Babies r Us and Holly was such a big girl, she sat up completely in the Cart, as Pictured here, and after we left, she fell right asleep in the car seat, it was a lot of work to stay sitting up and playing for an hour. We decided to upgrade to level 2 and 3 nipples on her bottle, which we should have done when she was 3 months old and never did, and I also got some oatmeal cereal, as it was recommended to introduce her to both rice and oatmeal so she doesn't show a preference.

We also, of courses, got some more cloths, I got two 5 pack sets of colored onezies in Carters, that were 1/2 off. These are the ones that were made really long, so they fit her when all the other's have outgrown her, so now I have ten in various colors, I also got two more sets in white, one long sleeves, so she can wear the white onezie underneath a summer dress or tank top, and still wear some of her summer cloths before she outgrows them.

While Shopping I let her play with the different toys, and she had fun. I also got her a book, and a little gift for Lucian. We enjoyed the outing, but she was ready to go and get a quick nap. Another thing I did today was pick up a veggie box, we are ordering these weekly and they deliver at my job, and they are from River Dog Farms, it had Green Beans, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, and a few others items. Joel was so very excited. Part of why I am happy, is because I was such a flake, I was supposed to go and pick this up yesterday, and with Missing Holly's PT, I never got to that building, and forgot it was waiting for me, so I was afraid it would be gone today. But YEAH! It was still there. Joel even made himself a squash tonight, that he really liked.

I guess the final news is Holly said Ma Ma!! I guess perhaps I should have started with this, but it makes you read to the end ;-) This morning before taking her to daycare she very distinctively said Ma.. Ma! And while she wasn't exactly saying it to define me, or know it is attached to me. It was a clear sound and we were so excited and gave her such positive feedback that she is sure to say it again. It was cool, but I am sure it will be even better the first time she says it, but means it.

Picking Daddy Up at Work

Picking Daddy Up at Work
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Wednesday - So today was a very long day, and I feel like a bad mommy. I had a big important meeting at work in the morning, and during my lunch break I was supposed to meet Sally, Holly's PT at Daycare for her Therapy Session. Well, firstly my meeting ran long, and then I had to do a post-mortem meeting with the Committee Co-Chairs, afterwards, so that by the time I realized it was time to go, it was like 1:15. So in retrospect, I think Sally started around 1:00, not 12:30 and I could have went then, but in my mind I was 45 minutes late, and it takes me 15 minutes to get there, so I didn't leave, and stayed another 45 minutes in the meeting. We were still there, when Sally called me at 2:00 which was when the session ended. Thinking back, I think it ended up being a good thing that I didn't go, because I learned some stuff, but that didn't make me feel any less guilty.

So, what did I learn you might ask, well this is what Sally reported. When she arrived, Holly was happily playing outside with her Teacher, her teacher gave her to Sally, upon which she crumbled and started to cry. This tells me that transitions are what is causing her some problem, as Sally is not a Stranger, and she isn't taking her from "Mommy" Sally tried to soothe her for about 5 minutes, with no Success, so then her teacher cam over and she calmed right down. This tells me that her teacher has learned how to soothe her, and Holly trusts her, also that her teacher is responsive to her. So her teacher sat with them, and they began the session. once she was calm, she didn;t start to cry anymore and she sat very well for Sally, and was reaching left and right, doing good twisting. Then her teacher told Sally how she doesn't like Tummy time, and asked what to do. Sally showed her many ways in which she could get tummy time around the classroom, that may not upset her, and also let her know it doesn;t have to be forced, to the point of her crying, but these alternatives were good also. Another teacher came over and wanted to learn about Tummy Time as well, so Again, they are engaged and have an interest in her development. Then Holly became Fussy, and her teacher said, oh she is Hungry, and got a bottle for Sally to feed her - So that means her teacher is learning the difference between her little cries, and also paying attention to that.

All in All, there session went well, and she got a chance to work with the teachers which I think is excellent.

When I picked Holly up, she was sleeping and I did not want to wake her so i chatted with her teacher and with some of the other mom's then we went to pick Daddy up. Daddy wasn;t ready to come home, so we hung around the office, said Hi to his Co-Workers, practiced sitting on various tables, and desks, and played with all kinds of cool stuff.

When we got home, we were all tired, and really only had enough time for Holly to have some Cereal, a bottle, and she was tired again. But I did get a lot of time waiting for Joel to play with her. We tried the rice cereal think and sticky, and then ticklish with Apple Juice, and then thin and watery, and then in the middle. mom was in an experimental mood. I still don't think she is getting much, but I let her make a big mess, getting it all over her fingers and face, so when she put her fingers in her mouth she got more cereal, and when it was think, twice she almost gagged or spit up, but I distracted her from it by going la a La, and making noises and then she was able to swallow. So I am not sure what that Gag Reflex this is all about. Mom went to bed early, and didn't have time to blog, cause she was so tired form a long day.

DayCare

DayCare
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Here is a picture of Holly at Daycare, just after I have dropped her off.

I wanted to share this post from Basically FX "Who is On Your Team"

I left an extensive comment, with my thoughts/fears on how all this is going to work... Life has been too easy so far, and I just keep my finger's crossed that I stay this lucky!

Must Chew Things Now

Must Chew Things Now
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday was Holly's 6 month Birthday. We had a slow morning, relaxed, ate breakfast, Joel had Coffee, she got to Daycare late, after a short nap, because she woke up so early. I picked her up just at 5:29 running late from a meeting at work, but just in time. She had an explosive poopie diaper 15 minutes earlier, so my timing was perfect. Her teacher's love her, and were happy to see her when I dropped her off, worried she might be out for the day. I told them she would be out on Friday, and they were sad.

We had so much fun when we got home. She was very energetic, and I changed her from her school cloths into a cute new Blue Hawaiian dress. We played in ocean time, had some quality Naked Baby time, and a fun massage, and she practiced crawling, she does this with her face planted, and tries to push with her feet, but then I help her push up and she stays up for a few moments. She loves to lounge forward and reach for her toys.

She has two main toys that she is motivated to get. Her lobster, and a rattle that lights up and plays music when she shakes it, shaped like a triangle. She also likes to play with her prism shaped toy, it has five sides of fun, a mirror, and some flaps that spin are the two she likes the most right now, but its cool because as she gets older there are more parts she can learn to use. It also has sides that are easy for her to grab.

She has been practicing learning to sit. She had so much energy, and when Daddy got home she just wanted to play some more. It was a really fun night. I read her pop-up fish book and her color ocean book to her before bed, and by the end of the night, Daddy fed and rocked her to sleep.

Happy Morning

Happy Morning
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Well Holly has had a rough few days. She is starting to display some more of that mommy separation anxiety. Tuesday started ff as a good day, she got to daycare on time, and I was at work early. This was especially good because Katie called to schedule a make-up appointment in the afternoon at 4:15. So I was able to pick her up, and was only a few minutes late, leaving work on time proved to be a challenge. When I came in to get her, the teacher had just finished feeding her and walked by me. I had to collect her bottles so could not take her immediately. She had the biggest smile when she saw me, but the teacher walked away and sat with her waiting for me to get ready, she immediately started to cry, like why is my mommy over there and not holding me. So I came over to get her, and she helped me collect her items. As soon as I picked her up she was happy, smiling, touching my face, pulling my hair, and cheerful. She was happy to be in the car seat, and played with her loopy toy, and we got home without incident. Then upstairs i held her for maybe 5 minutes while Katie washed her hands, and then when I handed her over, she looked over at me and gave me the Holly pouty grumpy face, and that was it, tears! I took her back and she touched my face and then laughed, Katie took her she cried. So we started to do some of her session from my lap, then I got onto the floor with her and Katie, and sat her in my lap. Katie would try and get her to do her stretches and turns, and she would look back at me, grab my skirt, then look at Katie and hesitantly reach for the toy. But if Katie got too close she would get mad, or if Katie touched her too much, like when she tried to do some leg stretches she cried. So we were able to get through about an hour, but each step was a challenge, and we had to take it very slowly with lots of mommy breaks so she knew I was still there.

After all of this she was so very tired, and fell asleep at 7:00 just minutes before Joel got home. Since she had been up since about 3:45 we decided to let her sleep, and had a good dinner and watched a new show called Fringe, but she had not taken her Antibiotics yet, so we had t wake her for a bottle at 10:00 she was rested, happy to see daddy and playful. On the other hand, mom was exhausted from being up since 7:00 am, and went to bed. making sure daddy would be ok with Holly on his own for the night. She played until around 11:30, since she had just had a 3 hour nap, and then went peacefully to bed, until 6:30 the next morning.

since mommy was so tired from the night before, Joel got up with her and after a poopie diaper change they fell asleep in the living room on his chair. mom got up, and pumped, and let them sleep until just before it was time to leave for daycare, we were actually ready to go just around 9:00, fed her her antibiotics, and dropped her off without incident. Today, she only had 1 nap from 12-2:45, it was a long one, and mom picked her up just at 5:30, running late, walking in 1 minute before they would start to charge me. We were off to a parent meeting at the other daycare, where she will start in January, it was sorta an orientation, and though it was optional, I wanted to meet some other parents and get a feel for the community there. The meeting went well, it is definitely a hippy daycare, green, healthy snacks, like carrot sticks and muffins for monthly birthday parties, but mostly we really like it, and especially the diverse and inclusive student population.

I think Holly is starting to exibit stranger anxiety, which I suppose is a good thing because it is a milestone, but I am not sure, so I will talk with Katie on Friday about it. Today at the parents meeting she was cheerful and happy playing with me and hugging me, but two other moms were trying to engage her and smile at her, and she looked at me and then them and started to cry. It only took a hug and a kiss to bring her back, but she did not want to engage. Now, perhaps it is not a good thing, and she is showing social anxiety or shyness, but she hasn't done this with other babies yet, so I'm just not quite sure how it will continue to manifest.

After the meeting we went to pick up Joel at work, and she saw some of his co-workers, and she was happy to say hello to them, but has met them before, so perhaps remembered there faces, and of course we didn't try and hand her over, I didn't want to risk it.

Joel was very possessive tonight, I think he was missing her, he wanted to feed her and play with her, and we looked at some baby pictures of him, that his mom had sent. Then it was time for hm to make dinner, and Holly was getting sleepy, since she had been awake since 2:45 it was almost 5 hours from her last nap, and around 8:00 she fell asleep. We moved her into the crib after dinner, and she stayed asleep, and is still asleep now.

The night has gotten away from me, reading email, and other blogs, and I still need to pump, so I am off to finish the night, so I am not too tired tomorrow.

I got my toes

I got my toes
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Monday!

Well today I got off to a pretty late start, I think it was almost 10:30 by the time I dropped Holly off. She was having a good morning. I dropped her off to play on the bean bag, and went to make her daily bottles. her teacher seemed to be out sick today, and I thought I heard her crying/fussing in the other room, no one was going over to her. There seemed to be a sub, who went over and sorta looked at her, but didn't really pick her up or do anything. Once I finished making the bottles I went over and I picked her up. She was tired and a bit cranky. At this point one of the main teacher's from the other room came in, and she saw me and she took Holly and said, I bet she likes being rocked to sleep, and sat with her in the glider. This made me feel better. I told her about Holly's ear ache and to call me if it seemed like she was in pain and could not be comforted, as I did not give her any Motrin this morning, she had settled, and seemed fine so I left for work.

She was still asleep when I arrived to pick her up, and a different sub teacher I guess woke her and went to change her diaper to get her ready to go home with me, but didn't really know how to change the gDiaper's and was trying to pull them down, not undo the Velcro. The Velcro is in the back, so she can;t undo it herself. So I showed her how to do it and finished, and she went to change another baby.

Since Holly had just woken up and I was waiting for Joel to get off work so I could pick him up, I decided to give her her bottle there, and play a bit. They have these large cylinder cushions, and I put it in front of her, and she stood up leaning on it. Jack a little I think 14 month old came wondering over to play with us. Each week at Daycare, there is a star of the week. This is jack's week, and his story and family pictures are posted, it was cool to read that jack has an Oma and an Opa just like Holly (German for Grandma/Grandpa) He was taller then holly, and she would look up at him, then back at me and had the biggest grin and was watching him. He would pat her hand and try to roll the cylinder that was supporting her and try and give us toys. So then Chloe the 9 month old wanted in on the action and she crawled over to join the fun. Holly was so excitable, that she could not eat more then about 2 ounces, and was having too much fun playing. Jack was sick with a runny nose and a bit of a cough, so I am hoping Holly doesn't catch something new. Eventually her immune system will fight off all these germs. Soon it was time to go and pick up daddy, and we said goodbye to all Holly's new friends.

We decided to go to Bay Street and get a new computer game called spore. Joel fed her the rest of her bottle in the car, and then we decided to eat out at Fudruckers, as we both wanted burgers. Holly seemed in good spirits, she played while we ate, and then we went to the bookstore. Holly is such a spoiled baby, we got her an ABC Animal Book, that each page has some type of interaction you can do, a pop-up ocean, underwater book, and a pull out colors sea life book, and Joel got her the story of Icarus and the end of the universe, with pictures that looked like they were from Hubble. There were like 5 more that I wanted and put back, and Joel said we could get next time.

They didn't have my game at Gamestop, so we went to best buy, Holly had fun walking around the store, and was fascinated with Guitar hero. We would play this all the time when I was pregnant, and she loved the music, and today she loved it again. I think it is a great game for little kids because they can learn there colors and hand eye coordination, so watch out, in just few years, Holly will be our little guitar here. We are thinking about getting Rock Band, and then she can learn rhythm and timing on the drums!

By the time we got home she was exhausted, and basically ate her medicine and went to bed for the night, early at around 7:45.

Katie called and we will have a make up session tomorrow which makes me very happy, I was getting worried with all the missed appointments lately.

Also, thanks for the notes about not worrying with her lack of saying Ba. and everyone is right, I will put it out of my mind, and I am sure she will say it again.. In fact, today she has been going mmmmmmm mmmmmm so maybe a new word is on our horizon..

I am grumpy tonight, as my Tivo is acting up again, and it missed recording all of my shows tonight. I took out the cable cards to try and fix it and will have to call tech support tomorrow, if i have to send this one back too, I will be really upset.

See, you just have to...

See, you just have to...
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Grab the foot and put it in your mouth, simple.... Toes are tasty to chew on, except when "Someone" bites them, and then its not so fun! Holly was in a better mood today, why would she be in a bad mood you ask, sadly, Friday was a very disappointing day. Holly is sick AGAIN!

So going back to Thursday, when I picked Holly up from daycare she was falling asleep, and she had only had two 20 minute naps since 11:30 that morning, so when she was a bit cranky and fell asleep at 7:00 I just thought she was tired and adjusting, thinking she would wake up in about 90 minutes for her last meal of the day, I woke her at around 10:30 when she had not. She ate and fell right back asleep. Still not worried, as she had been in fine spirits the night before, I was surprised that she didn't wake up for an overnight feeding, but instead slept until 8:30, over 10 hours.

I had been looking forward to Friday all week, as I was going to work from home, and get a chance to play with Holly, and go swimming in the afternoon. Joel woke me at 9:30 and she was sleeping again, he said she was pretty cranky, and she had been fussing but ate her bottle. She woke up not 15 minutes later, and was very restless and I knew something was wrong. by 10:30 I fed her again, and she fell back asleep. While she was up, she was pretty listless, I tried to stand her, but she didn't want to hold herself up, she was just whining, rubbing her head, and not wanting to sleep or play. I put her in her swing, and she slept another 4 hours. So at this point it was 2:30 and in the last 20 hours, she had only been awake maybe 2-3 at most.

She was supposed to see Katie for her OT, but Katie was sick, and she ended up sleeping right through the appointment. Wishfully thinking she would wake up and be happy and we could go swimming, I was so disappointed to see how unhappy she was. Earlier, I tried to give her a teether, because she didn't want to eat or suck on her pacifier, but it seemed like too much of an effort for her to even chew on it, she instead held it up against her face and stuck her tongue out and would lick it.

I decided to give her some Motrin, thinking that perhaps she was achey or her mouth hurt, because of her crankiness, but she ended up puking up her food. So I made her a bottle, with Motrin inside it, and called the advice nurse. She didn't seem to have a fever, but she was just so blah, I was worried. My fear was that she might have an ear ache. The Nurse told us to come in and make sure, since it was the weekend. So instead of swimming, at 5:00 we went to the Doctor. She ended up having a 99.9 temperature. and one of her ears was a bit clogged, so after cleaning it out, the Doctor said that from 7-11 (like a clock) on the eardrum was slightly red, and that indeed she did have an earache. She said that she sees most children, about 3 days later into it, and we caught it very early. By the time we took Holly to the Doctor, she was climbing around, smiling, and chewing on things again, I guess the Motrin kicked in, and that told us for sure, she must have been feeling pain before.

So the Doctor gave us a prescription for Amoxicillin, which was a pink liquid that we think is bubble gum flavored and we have to give her twice a day for ten days. We went to Babies-r-us to get some formula, water, and detergent, and we got some pick up pizza, and filled the prescription. We got home by 8:00 and she had her medicine and went back to sleep, until about 6:00 AM.

This morning, Joel had a pretty good time with her, he gave her a mini bottle for the antibiotic, and 2 hours later a mini bottle with Motrin mixed in, when she started getting cranky again, but most of the morning, she wasn't energetic, but she was calm and contented. They read stories and played.

She has been pretty fussy all day, and not sleeping that well, I think she is uncomfortable, tired, but tired of sleeping, and grumpy. I was determined to have her work on her therapies though, so we had a ton of tummy time today, and already she is getting a little better at holding her head up, and she isn't crying when on her tummy, she just turns herself over when she is tired of it. I had her on the floor, on the bed, over my leg, against her nest pillow, against a large cushion, and over a bed pillow, as various different ways to get her to lean up on her arms and hold her head up.

I also played with her language cards, we went through the food category, and she tries to grab the card, but she listens to the words, and looks at the picture. We also watched Baby Einstein, Lullaby time, and she fell asleep to that. Much of the day she was cranky because it is soo soo hot and miserable, we are all feeling tired and really hot int he house, but it wasn't the worst day either. I seem to have slept funny on my arm or shoulder and my neck has been in pain all day, so overall its just been like I said a disappointing weekend so far. I just hope the meds kick in and she is back to her playful self soon.

Fuzzy Bunny

Fuzzy Bunny
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday 9/4

Mornings have still been hectic, and I am getting Holly to Daycare late. This morning, she arrived just when 4 of the babies were leaving for a morning walk with two of the teachers, so she was stuck in the classroom with a crying baby who was fussing, because he now is being bottle fed and misses breastfeeding.

I was told that she took a walk later with jack an older boy (1 year) around 11:30 when she woke up from her nap. She also made a project for her new teacher today, and I was happy to report that there was no incident with the G-Diaper, and all stayed well cleaned. In the afternoon she took two short only 30 minute naps, and when i arrived to get her at 5:00ish she was falling asleep in her teacher's arms eating a bottle.

By the time I transferred her into the car seat she had woken up. It was in the 80's when we got home, and was very hot. So we changed out of our work/school cloths, and played in bed (the room with the ceiling fan) Holly is up to 14lbs 81/2 oz so I am happy about her now gaining weight again, and think she is pretty much over her sickness. Since i missed her so much I wanted to play and we had some tummy time, but rather then hold her head up, she decided to just cuddle herself in my chest, as a cushiony pillow. By 7:00 we were both falling asleep for a nap, as she was so tired, and Joel didn't wake us until 9:30 when he had gotten dinner ready.

He took advantage of the free time to work on one of his projects. Then after dinner he got about 90 minutes to play with and feed Holly, before she fell asleep in his arms.

The new thing she does, is feel our face while she is eating. Joel typically holds her in his left arm, and she reaches up with her right arm and basically tickles and rubs his chin while she eats.

So we tried an experiment, what would she do if he put her in the other arm... Alas, she decided to reach across the mid line, and the bottle, and grab his chin with her right arm. But she wasn't contented with just that, so to amuse herself even more, she took off his glasses, and was quite please with herself.

But.. to encourage her to also use her let arm which tends to be much tighter, he would kiss her hand and once she figured out his face was there, she continued to pet his chin from the left side.

It is quite adorable.

After seeing some of the other kids, younger then Holly in daycare the last few days, I have decided to be more aggressive with Tummy time, even if she doesn't like it, as they are holding there heads way up and even arching there backs, and she is flat, stiff as a board, and needs to get some back bending practice :-)

I want to get her to strengthen those muscles now, as it will only get harder later as her head gets bigger and bigger.

Another Picture Mom?

Another Picture Mom?
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Daycare is going much better then expected and Holly's teacher's love her. She has not cried as far as i can tell, and she sleeps a good portion of the time she is there. This morning we were running fairly late, as I did not want to wake her up and she did not wake up on her own until 9:00, so I let her sleep. Then Fed and Changed her and it was almost 10:00 by the time we got there. We were able to drop her off with little fan fair, a kiss good bye ad left her playing in the pillow with the Galaxy toy, happy. She napped from 10:45-11:30, which is pretty short for her. At this time her teacher took her and Justin another little boy on a walk in a double stroller they went to all the to her classrooms visiting the other kids and around the block. She reported that Holly had a lot of fun. When I arrived for her PT appointment at around 12:30 they were out back and she was happily sitting up in the stroller playing with toys.

Sally met with her starting about 1:00 and she was a little fussy. She did not want to extent her head backwards and would cry when sally tried to lean her back on the rolling cushion. She was also slightly locking her legs and seems a little fussy. I changed and fed her and she opened up and relaxed while eating, but definitely chooses to stay tight at other times, and fights it if you try and move her in certain ways, that at other times she does on her own no problem. In tummy time she does not really raise her head, and she needs to strengthen the muscles on the back of her neck.

By about 1:45 she was shot, and I think that the fact that she was up since 11:30, and that absorbing all the stimuli from a long walk, she was exhausted. I put her down in the pillow with a hungry Caterpillar toy and she was restful. Her teacher reports that she fell asleep by 2:15 and did not wake up until 4:45. She then was changed and ate, just in time for me to pick her up just after 5:00. When I arrived one of the other teachers was holding her in the back while her teacher fed Henry. She didn't cry out or immediately reach for me. She looked at me and smiled, but then she looked back at the teacher and tried to grab and eat her large beaded necklace, also touching her face, and was happy to be there.

When we got home we had a lot of fun playing, including a massage and naked baby time. she then got a little worn out after eating another bottle so we watched yo gabba gabba, she didn't actually nap, but it was a restful period. When daddy got home she was refreshed, and played with him for about an hour. She then was sleepy again and we read some stories, including the very hungry Caterpillar, and good night moon. She fell fast asleep around 9:30.

She cried for a moment, and Joel went in, and she was holding her feet on her back and yelling. he handed her back the pacifier which she grabbed right out of his hands and immediately took her blanky and turned back to her side and fell right back asleep.

Joel also noted that she grabbed her bottle from him tonight, and he tried to pull it back to adjust it and she would not let go, so he knows what her teacher is talking about.

I love my sweetie!

Vrooom Vroom

Vrooom Vroom
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Well,

I will make today's entry short and sweet. Holly survived Daycare!! yeah. Her teacher really likes her and has a very positive and cheerful energy. When Holly woke up from her morning nap, she was very hungry. The Teacher, back in the baby room, after several years with the older children was excited to feed her a bottle. To her astonishment, Holly simply grabbed the bottle from her hand and put it in her mouth.. Apparently, she was not fast enough. She did need a little help keeping it up all the way, but the teacher was taken by her veracity.

Mommy survived also, calling once at 12 to check that she had napped and eaten without incident, and again at 4:00 to see if she was ready to be picked up. She went down for her nap at 3:00, so Mom worked a bit longer, as I didn't want to arrive and have to wake her.

Her teacher said, she did have one spit-up while the teacher was at lunch, as when she returned her cloths were changed. So whether this was a crying fit, or because she is still a bit under the weather we are not sure. but the teacher wrote down for me how much she ate, when, and when she checked her diapers, and changed them, so I can continue to maintain her list and track her input/output. I am slightly worried about her weight gain, being sick last week she lost 1/2 pound and is only just back up tot he weight she was at almost 3 weeks ago.

Mom had a hard time leaving work by 5:00 to get Holly, and work was crazy, drama and only my first day back. Also everyone wanted to know how Holly and i were, and if it was hard to leave her at Daycare, so I was reminded constantly about how much i missed her.

I did cry the whole way to work, but once I got there, I had my chin up, and everything else did distract me. Plus talking to her teacher at 12:00 was very reassuring. When I walked in to pick her up, the teacher was sitting on the floor with her feeding her a bottle, and she looked very happy.

Daycare doesn't like her pink pass-a-cord (apparently a choking hazard) so Holly and I played for about 25 minutes, while I heard about her day, and then we went to babies-r-us to get her an official Lutchka Clip (one that is sadly like only 5 inches long) My Friend Tracy made me a wonderful one, but holly pulled on it and the cord broke sending beads everywhere, about 2 weeks ago.

While at babies-r-us we were happy to be in the air conditioning, so we played in the jumper, swing isle.

This is a picture of holly is a hot little car, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree (I do miss my car)

PS I finally wrote and posted a post on the date it actually occured!! Yeah

Tommorrow I will be meeting the PT at daycare at 12:30, and hopefully post a few more video's!

Spike

Spike
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Monday 9/1

Holly is finally feeling better. She did not spit up once today. Just in time to go to daycare tomorrow and get sick again ;-) We had a great day. Mommy got to sleep in and Daddy and Holly played all morning. One of her new games is finding the tag. Her blankets have little tags on them, and she examines the blanket until she finds the tag, the tag has smooth material, and the blanket is terry cloth. Once she finds the tag, she chews on it. She also likes looking at the logo on Daddy's shirt, and then grabbing it. Since it is on the pocket, it is easy for her to pull.

When Mommy woke up, she read a few stories to Holly, Holly really likes her new Elephant book. The Elephant in the book has a nose that loops from the left to right page, that she can grab and feel. This is fun. Then we played on her blanket and practiced sitting. She really likes to lunge forward and grab toys, and doesn't really have much balance yet, but she can on occasion sit for a few seconds. She played with a new rattle today that lights up and plays music when you shake it, and she also played with her Lion Rattle. Mommy gave her this toy today to remind her how much she likes it. it is one of the toys that I have two of, and plan to bring with her to daycare.

We found in the basement one of those cylindrical pillow and brought it up for Holly. She had fun playing tummy time on it, Mom would stand her up against the pillow then roll her forward onto her tummy and she would reach for toys on the floor on the other side. We tried this the other way also allowing her to hyper extend her head backwards, giving her a chance to stretch those muscles. She likes to hold her head up so much, it was difficult to get her to relax and let her head fall all the way backwards and stretch her arms out but I was able to get her to do it a few times.

In the afternoon after she was getting tired from all of the playing, but before she was ready to sleep, we watched a new show that Daddy Discovered. it is called Yo Gabba Gabba, http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/int/2008/08/28/yo_gabba_gabba/ and was a lot of fun. it had bring colors and characters and fun songs, and will be a show she can watch and enjoy as she gets older and becomes a toddler.

The picture here is while she was taking her nap, after playing lots of fun games with mommy.

Last night was difficult. She actually slept for 8 hours straight, and I am convinced the gripe water is working, but she would half wake up every 60-90 minutes or so and if i wasn't there to give her the pacifier and gently rock her she would cry, but I was able to get her to stay asleep.

We went into the bedroom at around 5:00 am after she ate and was changed and she slept in the co-sleeper for another 3 hours, and then Joel got up with her. He gave her the gripe water with formula most of the morning and once she stopped puking we stopped giving it to her.

I was getting anxious tonight about daycare tomorrow, I packed all her diapers, wipes, bottles, blankets, toys, and extra cloths. I straitened up and organized her room and picked out cloths for me to wear to work tomorrow. It will be hard to leave her, and I am hoping they will let her keep all the stuff I am bringing. I worry about her not being able to sit herself up yet, she doesn't like laying down, and there is no where to sit for her like her nest. We have one of those large reading pillows for the bed that I want to bring to put in her crib, but Joel won't let me, he says I can overwhelm people, and doesn't want me to get off on the wrong foot with the center, and says I can always bring something later in the week.

I am hoping there will be a teacher in the classroom that likes to get down on the floor with them, she would be happy sitting on the floor in someones lap, but the teachers I have seen so far all sit up on chairs.

Joel also reminds me I need to ease into work and sit back and relax and not try to do a million things at once and remember that at the end of the day I will get to see Holly. One of my co-workers reminded me that it will get better with time, so I hope I can sleep tomorrow, and just tell myself its only a few hours.

Still Sick, No outings for us.

Saturday 8/30 So I have been sick the last few days, well the whole week, but the last few days I have been extra tired, runny nose and sinus fluid in my ear, soar throat and headache. We did not go swimming yesterday and I was very disappointed, but in addition to me feeling under the weather, Holly was very snotty and congested and just fell asleep for a nap around 3 so there was no way I was going to wake her when she had not been feeling well.

On Thursday night we went to the supermarket and we had so much fun. For the most part Holly sat up in her car seat on the front of the wagon, and she was so curious looking around at everything and playing with her loopy toy,. after about 45 minutes she was tired of just sitting, and I would carry her around for maybe ten minutes then set her down again, and she was happy to have this diversity. She was so popular in the store. There were a surprising amount of other kids, and they all wanted to touch and see the baby, as well as other moths with strollers and car seats who wanted to know how old holly was.

There was one cute 7 month old baby who was actually sitting in the top seat of the wagon with a strap around her to keep her centered. I was shocked this worked, but she seemed content and happy. Her dad said once she could sit up on her own on the floor, she was able to sit like this in the cart. Joel was at Dream Dinners and i was picking up what seemed like a small list but what ended up costing like 250$ I did get some baby food that I wanted to try out this weekend, but Holly seems to have had a bit of a relapse this time with stomach symptoms, so no new foods yet. but i got rice cereal, organic carrots, sweet potatoes, and sweet peas, and pears, and pears with oatmeal. last week at the doctors office we asked about starting Holly on solids and she said once she turns 6 months, which is like in 11 days. She recommended starting her on rice cereal mixed with pears, she said we could get fresh organic pears from Berkeley bowl, or baby food pears and mix it in, apparently the rice cereal or solids can make them constipated but the pears helps with this. However when buying the cereal, pears were a level 2 food, and pears with oatmeal were level 2, this was on all brands, whereas the others I got were level 1. So I am not sure exactly what I will do as we introduce these, i need to do a little more research.

On Friday Katie came over at 12:30, I had to wake Holly from her nap, so she was a little cranky at first, but since Katie had not seen her for a week or two she was amazed with how much she had progressed, particularly her fine motor skills of playing with holding, grasping and passing toys. She will take her crab toy from my hand hold it, look at it turn it put it in her mouth, look at it again and then turn to another spot and stick it back in her mouth. She also was playing with some teethers that she holds with two hands and gnaws on. She was also quite verbal, and she isn't usually very talkative during her sessions, so this was also new for Katie. They had fun, but she got fussy after a bit, needed to take a break to eat, and then by 2:00 was completely done. Cranky however, she took over an hour to fall asleep for her nap. She did sleep for about 90 minutes though once I got her down.

Since I have finally gotten access back to my email, I started going through it all. I had over 2500 messages since I last checked it, plus a few hundred more, from June/July that were important reports, ect. that I had not yet read though. I spent several hours in the afternoon while Holly slept, and in the late evening going through and organizing as much as I could. It was very overwhelming. I was able to catch-up with Monique and talk on the phone for about 2 hours and hear about all the goings on, it was very overwhelming, and I didn't really know where to start, as the first 3.5 months of my leave even though I was not working, I was reading email, and at least aware of any drama, changes, new issues, projects, ect. But yesterday 2 months worth of stuff hit me all at once.

Oh and on Thursday we also went to daycare orientation. I won't write too much about this because it just makes me angry. Some of the stuff could make sense if it was the philosophy you believed, but for example, even babies, every child must be there by 9:00 AM. This is so the classroom does not get disrupted and so there is consistency and routing. Also they strongly discourage visits, indicating that when your child sees you they think its time to go home, and doesn't understand why you would leave again without them. They have all these policies about signing them in and out, having to pick up and drop off the exact time each day, having to call in advance for any absences, having to have a doctors note before they can come back to daycare if they were out sick, ect. In my life, I want to take her to daycare one day from 11-5:30 and the next from 8:30-3:00 If the center is open from 7:30-5:30 and I pay the same amount whether she is there 10 hours or 5, I don't see why I can allow them to meet my needs and for me to take her when it works for my family. Since I was required to write down a schedule for her, I wrote 8:30-5:30 as her normal times, but I intend on taking her at around 9:00 and picking her up around 4:00 every day, but since I can;t promise to never be there after 4:00 I wrote down the later time. Joel says he thinks the actual classroom teachers will be much more flexible, and I can work out these details with them, and since she is a baby, this issue of consistency won;t be much of a big deal yet, but that it would be a problem for us, if she was an older child.

But since we plan on changing to the other daycare in January, it is not worth the stress to make any waves now. It is sad, because as rigid as they are, to me they seem pretty inconsistent and disorganized, they didn't schedule or inform me of the Orientation until a few days before, and the information about what to bring the first day was different from what the teachers told me to what the director told me to do. I worry about things like feeding, because formula goes bad after an hour, and she doesn't always drink her entire bottle at one time, she drinks maybe an ounce, then 15 minutes later 2 ounces, then in 90 minutes will be hungry, but would need a fresh bottle, so she might drink 2 ounces and then in another 90 minutes 3. So she has drank from 3 bottles and had 9 ounces. But they tell me to make and bring 8 ounce bottles, pre-made. So I am not sure how to handle this, and they refrigerate them. and then warm them, and she just drinks them at room temperature. Also the gDiapers will be different, and I am hoping they don;t give me a hard time about that as well. When I was visiting, they had a tendency to put the kids down a lot, and she doesn't sit on her own well yet, so she needs to be held, she will cry if they just stick her laying down int he crib to play, she needs to be interacted with the entire day. Plus she has been sick, so she is already crappy feeling and cranky, and fussy and whining... Oh geeze, I need to change the subject so i don;t upset myself again.

On Saturday morning, I was feeling particularly sick, and Holly had woken up at 4:00 AM and didn't want to go back to sleep, she was really playful, so she was up until 5:30. Joel let me sleep until 11:00 when Sally came. She had a wonderful session with Sally, even if it was only for about 35 minutes, she was ready for her nap and already getting sleepy. But sally was very impressed with her talkativeness, and her grasping and moving, and just has a beautiful way with her, that gets her to turn, stretch and move around the way she needs to me. After I had some breakfast and went back to sleep, Joel is amazing and let me sleep until 6:00. But he said he has such respect for me, and can;t believe I make it through all day alone, around 5:30, he said, its almost time for daddy to come home from work, and understood, how by the end of the day I am ready. She had two poopie Diapers today, and they were super watery, diarrhea, so he thinks she has a stomach thing.

This was further confirmed by her vomiting up most of her food twice in the afternoon. Triggered by a little coughing fit. She was cheerful after spitting up her food, and it hurt us more then her, but she was pretty cranky. Joel insisted it would not help, but after her not falling asleep for 3 hours and knowing how tired she was I gave her a 1/2 dose of Motrin in her last bottle, while she did not have a fever, I was convinced she must just have minor aches and pains from teething and feeling crappy and that it would help. Joel said it was for me to feel like I was doing something and would not help, but she did fall asleep shortly after and is still asleep and getting rest. Tomorrow morning I get to have a massage which will be loads of fun, and hopefully she will be up for an outing, we are thinking of maybe going to the bookstore, just to get out of the house.

Boo!

Boo!
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday 8/28

Holly is definitely feeling better but mom is feeling more sick, my throat is getting soar, I am sneezing, and feel achy with a headache. Holly on the other hand still has no fever and has been very playful. If fact she didn't want to go to bed last night until 11:30, mom was so exhausted and needed a shower that Daddy stayed up and put Holly to bed. She did sleep until 6 am however, and then went back to bed after a snack until 8:30. However after being sick the last 3 days she has lost weight and is down to 13lbs 15 ounces. Joel says this was expected since she wasn't eating much. I was also sad to have to cancel all of my playdates this week. I did not go to the mother's group this morning, and I cancelled lunch with Cole and Aleutia for Friday, but hope to still go swimming if Holly is up to it. Tonight we have orientation at daycare and Joel is going to dream dinners. I was planning on taking Holly to the supermarket and hopefully that will tire her out and she will go to bed a bit earlier tonight. While I love spending as much time as possible with her, it is nice to have 1-2 hours to myself in the evening, so if she goes to be like 9:30-10:00 that is great, I have a chance to watch a show, pump, eat dessert and then can try and sleep by midnight, while I almost never get to bed that early I will need to try now that I am starting to go back to work next week.

Owwie - blood tests hurt - but I'm a brave girl!

Owwie - blood tests hurt - but I'm a brave girl!
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Thursday, 8/21

So it has been a few days since I have kept up on the Journal, since we stopped the Minocycline treatment. It has actually been a bit of a rough few days, as I am trying to get a head start on transitioning Holly into Daycare. Tuesday we went to Davis, and Holly saw Dr. Hagerman first off, I think this made her a little tired, so by the time she got to the last eye tracking video she was rather fussy, and over tired and needed a nap, so I don;t think she did as well on that one. Next time we visit, I will ask that she does the assessment stuff first. She ended up napping while we answered the vineland questionnaire, then we drove to a different lab to finish off the Mullins Assessment.

On the way home I was able to talk Joel into going and seeing the Mummy 3 movie at the baby brigade, and Holly was such a good girl. This cheered me up. Right before leaving Davis, we did a blood draw. She was only able to give 2 vials of blood, so she will need to do another on the next visit. She cried when the needle went in, and cried because she was restrained, and she cried when the needle was moved around to get the blood to flow, but in general, it was not as bad as the screen with the earrings, and other then having to hold her down for about 3 minutes she didn't get too frantic and when it was done she was happy and playful again, and it was much better then vaccinations, which the misery lasts for days after.

On Wednesday we saw Sally, and holly is gaining some new skills, she is holding up her trunk, when Sally holds her waist and puts light pressure on her front legs, she is in a complete and steady sitting position, and this she reports is great, and should be practiced so she can learn to balance, also when she is on her tummy if Sally shifts her weight, she extends one side, and crunches the other bringing her leg up, which is the precursor movements to crawling. Sally was very excited about this progress. We played on a cute Bouncy horse, and the ball, and did some other stretches. Afterwards she was to daycare, for 2.5 hours. She would not let any of the other teachers hold her, they tried and after a moment she would see me and cry, one tried for several minutes walking with her and trying to sooth her but to no avail. So I stayed and played, and she at least got to see the room, see the teacher and get exposed, so it won;t be a completely new place.

On Thursday they gave me a call and said that one of the children in another room was exposed to viral meningitis, and they were required to report this to me. I was stopping by the pediatricians office to get paperwork anyways, and they didn't seem to worried although I was, and said that I should keep an eye out for fever and rash. We went to the mommy's group this morning, and met Kyle and another little Indian girl with a very unique name that I can't remember whom was adopted. We were practicing Holly's sitting, and she was reaching far out in front of her to get a toy and she made a face plant into the floor. There was a loud bump and she immediately screamed. There was a little bump on her head above her eye, but it wasn't bulged out, it was just a red mark. She calmed down within a few minutes but fell asleep. I was of course worried about concussion, but everyone told me it was not that bad, and not to worry. Since she was 90 minutes overdue for her nap, I let her sleep. I asked the on call nurse about this also, and she said to watch for vomiting, but she looked fine. She woke up about 30 minutes later as if nothing had happened.

I then took her back to daycare, I handed her to miss Mary with her lutchka, loopy toy, and blanket and she didn't cry when I was setting up her diapers and bottles so I left without even saying goodbye, I didn't want to give her a reason to get upset. I went to a movie, Sisterhood of the traveling pants. I checked my cell phone every 5 minutes for the first hour, then every 10-15 for the last hour, making sure they didn't call me and watching the clock. I did enjoy the movie, but was worried about her. When I returned, at first she cried a tiny bit, but then I went around to the other side of her crib and she reached for me to pick her up. I did so, and she put her hands on my cheeks and tried to eat/kiss my noise, then smiled and laughed at me. I asked how she was, and her blanket was soaked, they said she had a rough time, and she spit up all her food. I am assuming this meant she had a fit, they were not overly communicative.

Her g-diaper was on backwards and very sloppy, and they said she had eaten, but her bottle was only short 50 cc's We staid and played another 45 minutes, I met several of the other parents, as there was a returning parent's orientation and they were showing up early and hanging out with us. Sasha and Chloe as 6 & 7 months, so just a bit older then her, and Naomi is 9 months. They all seemed happy and well cared for, but they don;t seem to have bonded with Holly yet, she was down in the crib, not being held, though not crying when i showed up. I don;t know who her teachers will be, what the routine is, ect. and they didn't write stuff down, so I am very super apprehensive about all this. New parent orientation is supposed to be next week Thursday at 4:00. The time and date has changed 4 times, so it all seems very disorganized and unreliable. I can't wait until she starts at aquatic park, this is going to be a nightmare.

We were so hot when we got home we put on the AC, took off our cloths, and ended up napping. Then we played till Daddy got home and Holly had a fun bath and massage. We played in the bath some with her rubber ducky. The water is not so deep, and i think I am going to talk Joel into giving her bathtub baths soon, so she can have deeper water to play in. We washed her hair and neck good, which was starting to get very sweaty, even though I have been cleaning it off every day. I sang her to sleep after reading her a story. Not before Daddy riled her up with his gwaaa ing, and making her crack up laughing.

Tomorrow I see Isenberg, get my return to work paperwork done, and go swimming. I am looking forward to the pool, it is SOOO hot. Next week Emeryville is closed for training, so I won't get to take Holly back until the 2nd. I am going to try to officially return to work early, so i can catch up from home on the last 6 months of email, and so i can spend some time with her on Tuesday the 2nd before I head in and so I can pick her up early.

I ordered her picture flashcards, which I am excited about. They will be arriving tomorrow. I also want to go back to Ikea and get her another fishy toy to take to daycare, and another loopy toy from Target, and maybe some toys to hang from her crib there.

Parachute Time

Parachute Time
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Day 32 Monday 8/18

Today was a very busy day. Holly took a nap with daddy this morning, and when they woke up on his chair she was rested, changed and had a full belly, so she was ready to play. Joel reported that he made faces at her and she laughed and laughed at him. This was great as the last few days she has not been very cheerful with him.

Instead of her normal nap around 10:30 we dropped Joel off to work and went to a trail Gymboree session. While it probably wasn't as good as a session geared for her age group, we had great fun. There was another mom there with 9 week old Sarah, and several moms with toddlers from 14 months to maybe 4 I think. They had these very large foam barrels and we put it on its side and put Holly on her Belly and rolled it back and forth rocking it, she stayed like this for a very long time in the center. Then we made room for Sarah to join us, but this was at an angel, so she started to turn over. We laid on it backwards also which stretched out her neck and back. We also slid down the slides on our belly's and had more tummy time on the wedges.

Holly liked looking at Sarah who was also very social, and the two smiled and Holly kept reaching for her face. The little kids loved holly, as they all have dolls at home, and she is like a little doll, so they all wanted to hold her hand and pet her head. She was happy to oblige, and in return got to hold there hands and touch there faces. There were these large stacked donuts, and i put holly in the middle of them, standing, leaning over the side. She stood up for a few minutes then would plop down onto the mat, since she was inside of the donut she would be sitting when she "fell" rather then going all the way to her back, and she liked this. They also had these wedges that looked like the top 3rd of an orange, that holly stood up against, sorta like tummy time but mostly standing. later they had circle time with songs around a large parachute. They drummed on one which she liked, and on another waved the parachute up and down, she grabbed the edge of it and held on. Then they blew bubbles which she tried to grab, and she listened to the songs. She stayed awake and alert the entire time, and then at 12:15 passed out on the way home.

When she woke we watched a little baby Einstein, but she wasn't very interested in the Baby Noah Episode, it was animals, and not as interested as the more animated characters and puppets in the other episodes. We read a story and then had to go and visit her new Daycare. It is actually the center she will begin in January, Aquatic Park. She was quiet and playful, and sat in her car seat for about 15 minutes playing with her fish when we arrived, then she wanted out and played on my lap with her loopy toy. We then got to go into the baby room and meet the teacher and some of the other kids, she was right at home and ready to grab and mouth the toys. I am very happy about this daycare and wish she were starting this one right away. In January they have a 1 week transition period where you attend with the child each day and leave for a certain number of hours while they transition, I think it will be great. This program only has 4 "baby's which goes to about 14 months, and another 4 at 14-24 months.

We went home to meet Katie for a session but it was cancelled. This was good, as Holly had not had a nap for about 3 hours and was very tired again She took a short nap, and was refreshed but rather fussy, so we had a fun baby massage. This was a long massage, and she had a good deal of naked baby time. She liked this a lot, and since she hadn't eaten in almost 4 hours, I made her 6 ounces of food. She drank 2.5 but then 20 minutes later had another 2.5.

She played with Daddy when he got home and was cheerful to see him, she has a new game where she wants to eat his glasses, and she takes them off his face with two hands. She has been almost sitting on her own, she can not get to sitting, but she can stay seated for maybe a minute and she is starting to fall forward which I am told is good, This I believe is because she is playing with her feet so much.

Also, over the last few days, Joel thinks she has been singing, we do have music playing quite often, especially in the car, and she is very verbal, he says that her babbles sound like they are going in the pattern or rhythm of the song, and it sounds like she is singing along. Who knows if she is, but its very cute.

Tonight she last ate at 8:30 and I gave her a 25 dose of Minocycline with 4 ml of apple juice and 3 pinches of sugar at midnight. She was starting to wake up while I was mixing the medicine, and I gave her the pacifier and she fell back asleep, she was sorta awake a few minutes later for the medicine, but drank it, and then with the pacifier fell back asleep again. its only been 30 minutes, so I hope she stays asleep another 1-2 hours at least before I feed her again.

Tomorrow we drive up to UC Davis, and complete the second Eye Tracking test.