July 26, 2011

Tuesday:

I had a birth to go to early this morning, so we picked up Frances the night before to stay the night and be with the kids during the day. Frances said that Annabelle woke around a quarter till 6:00, which is crazy early, and then when I talked to her around 10:00 she said that Annabelle looked very tired. Duh. I would be too! So I suggested that whatever time Annabelle went to nap, to put Liam down at the same time, and try and get her to make it to at least 11:00. Well, she did, and then in the evening, when I got home, she was past tired. I promise we don't let her intentionally sleep in her high chair, which we have about two videos of her sleep rocking in, but it was just too cute and funny to not get a picture of. Bedtime was a hassle, she was over over over tired, and put up a fight that really made me want to bust out the Benedryl. Of course I didn't, but I don't have much guilt expressing how badly I want our daughter to sleep.

July 25, 2011

Monday:

I went to meet a doula mentor for lunch today and I took Annabelle with me, thinking she wouldn't be too crazy and quite manageable, enough at least to where we would still be able to carry on a conversation. I think she's getting a little less containable than she used to be. I used to be able to just keep her in the wrap and she was perfectly happy. This doesn't work anymore when I'm at a sit down place. She would stand up on the booth and giggle and laugh at the people sitting behind us, which of course wasn't an issue at all. Then she didn't want to be in the wrap, so we got a high chair, and then she decided even after the full bottle of milk, a whole banana and a half a pear, that she wanted to eat too. So me and the other doula gave her our cantaloupe, which she loved, then I gave her all my oranges. I figured she was done by her no longer eating them, but picking up triangles of orange and throwing them on the ground. Luckily, we were done with our meeting, so we said our good-byes and headed out.

Tonight, as Phillip and I were waiting on dinner to cook, we decided to see what the kids were up to in the back of the house. We heard a bunch of screeches of laughter, and we found them in Liam's room, on Liam's bed bouncing up and down. Apparently, Annabelle can climb up there all by herself. She did fall off once, and I think that scared her more than anything. But it didn't stop her from climbing right back on. She was a little more cautious after that though.

July 24, 2011

Sunday:

As I was getting ready to go to church this morning, I heard all kinds of laughter and giggling in my bedroom. I walked in and found both Liam and Annabelle playing in a cardboard box that Phillip's new computer was shipped in. They were having a blast. Annabelle has really been into climbing lately. She really tries to climb on her potty, but always to no avail. She gets in the right position though, standing up, holding on to the front and back, and then she sticks one of her legs up in the air behind her, like she knows that the next step is somehow moving that leg, but just can't figure out how that next step should unfold. It's kinda funny. Anyway, later today, after we got back to church, the kids took to playing in it again. Then, during some diaper-free time, Annabelle peed in the box. So that was the end of that fun. But, not to worry for the kids, the next day, my computer came in the mail, and they have a new box to play in.

July 23, 2011

Saturday:

I don't know what is up with all the Annabelle screaming, but it's really wearing on my ears. The rocking in the high chair was really aggravating too, for whatever reason. Obviously there is no way to get to her stop just by talking, but a couple of dish towels folded between her back and the chair is enough to make it impossible to make that annoying repetitive thumping sound when she tries to rock. *Sigh* Mission accomplished. After lunch, we went to nap, even though it was relatively early, I didn't care.

When the kids woke, we went to a doula coworker's house so she and I could work, and mine and her kids played. She has a four year old little boy and an eighteen month old little girl. I don't think Annabelle cared for the little boy as he was kinda rough, but she was still her social self. She wouldn't go on the potty there, and I hoped that I could make it home before she went in her diaper, but I knew that was a long shot. She indeed had wet by the time we got there, but I put on a new diaper and headed to HEB to pick up a few things, and then when I got back, put her on the potty and she went, so that kinda made up for it. I know she's learning and I just have to keep reminding myself of that sometimes.

After dinner, which Annabelle ate beans, beef, tomatoes and avocados, I gave her her second bath of the day in the sink. All of Liam's baby-hood eating has come back to me on how messy it is. I might as well keep the baby soap by the kitchen sink. But luckily, I'm only having to wash her and not the floor. We have a great dog for that.

I'm really hoping Annabelle sleeps well tonight. She's been waking in the wee hours of the morning and we have to go in and put her back to sleep and then waking around six or seven to get up for the day. Not cool. I'm trying to remember how old Liam was before we taught him to stay in bed 'till the clock turned eight'. If I can remember, maybe I'll at least have a light at the end of the tunnel.

July 22, 2011

Friday:

Beth and Ari came over today to keep me and the kids preoccupied as we head towards the end of this tiring week without Dad home. Annabelle had a blast playing with a new playmate, and Ari really likes her. I'm finding all younger kids become entranced when they see a baby. Beth loved holding her as well and playing with her. They were a great entertainment. I was surprised Annabelle lasted so long, it was almost 2:00 by the time I put her down for nap, and that didn't take much. She was all droppy and squishy after she finished her bottle, she didn't even suck on her binky before she fell asleep. It still makes my heart melt every time she gets that way.

After nap, it was pretty late, so we mainly hung out at the house. For dinner, we had meatballs, which Annabelle ate a whole one, carrots and sweet potatoes, which she loves, and green beans which I don't think I could have given her enough of. Phillip and I talk a lot on how we are glad our kids are not picky eaters, and how they eat a variety of good foods. We are very blessed.

July 21, 2011

Thursday:

Today our pastor and his wife came over with their little boy, Joel, who is about three months older than Annabelle, to talk about potty training. I've started a pilot course for teaching nine to fifteen month olds potty training. It's more like teaching the parents how to potty train, which is how most everything is as a parent; you learning to teach them. They came in and Annabelle was sitting in the kid rocking chair, naked, sipping on her bottle, rocking back and forth. I wish I would have grabbed a picture, it was the cutest thing. After she finished, and about twenty minutes later, she came over to me kinda fussy, so I put her on the potty, blew some bubbles and then she got very still and peed. It's kinda cool that she did too since they were still there, they could see that it does indeed work.

Annabelle and Joel were very interested in each other, and kept reaching out and touching one another. Little baby interactions are so funny to watch. Joel was very interested in the exersaucer, so I put it out in the middle of the floor, and they all three, Joel, Annabelle and Liam, played with it. It was like Annabelle and Liam had never seen it before. Even after Joel and his family left, the kids were still in awe. Annabelle crawled under it and was playing with Liam's glasses and Liam kept insisting that he wanted in it and kept trying to climb in. I didn't think that was such a good idea, I foresaw him doing a lot of falling and some of that falling onto his always nearby sister. They are so silly sometimes.

At dinner, Annabelle had swiss chard for the first time, and ate up practically a whole small tomato. She's a fan of those. I've noticed there are some foods she really likes, and others not so much. Like cherries, tomatoes, peas, zucchini, compared to cheese, plums, sweet potatoes. Then there are some that are a hit or miss. She'll love it one meal, and then another won't touch it, like broccoli. She does eat though now, that's for sure!

I also just realized that Annabelle turns 10 months old today! WOW has time truly flown!

July 20, 2011

Wednesday:

Annabelle's new thing is putting things in things. I think she sees Liam and I pick up so much that she now has a fascination with putting toys in buckets and such. Liam likes to exclaim, "Anbel picking up!" when she does this. She also likes to take her little bites of food and put the from her tray into the little cup holder spots on the side of the tray.

We did our grocery storing today, which she was a great trooper through since she woke up at 4:30 and didn't really go back to sleep. Once we got home, she was asleep in her car seat, but I didn't want her to nap then, I really try to get them to nap at the same time. Plus, she hadn't had lunch, and I wanted to make sure she ate first. I got inside with her in my arms, with her little smushy body barely holding itself up. I put her on the floor in the kitchen thinking the cool tile would wake her. She sat there for a bit, swaying back and forth with her eyes closed, catching herself before she falls over. Then she stretched out her arms in front of her and laid down on the floor. So pitiful. I picked her up and gave her some lunch of zucchini and lunch meat, which she nibbled at, then a bottle, then bed. I keep telling her to just sleep later and through the night and she won't be as tired during the day, but I don't think she gets it.

July 19, 2011

Tuesday:

And it wasn't long till she woke last night. Maybe you have to wait a few days for the Baltic Amber to settle in their system or something. I don't know. She gave us a hard time though, and we finally brought her in bed with us, which really doesn't solve the problem, but at least means we are not having to get out of bed and hang over the side of her crib patting her bottom while the blood flow slowly decreases to less and less down our arm. That's a pain. And I've tried and tried, and there is no comfortable way to sleep while sitting next to her crib. So, at least, in bed, I can doze between cries and clawings.

Pottying is going great! I noticed today that she has started coming over to me with scrunched brows, and makes an "aaahhheehhh" noise when she has to go. So I put her on the potty and she pees. I missed one today, and then half another one, but she finished on the potty, so that was nice. I even caught the day's poop! Yay! She really has no interest in signing much. The only thing she does try to do is 'all done' and I think that because I say that to her when she is screeching in her high chair after eating. So, it's kinda out of desperation, and she doesn't sign it with much enthusiasm, kinda just rubs her hands together. I understand her though. I don't care if she signs or not.

July 18, 2011

Monday:

After last night, Phillip felt really bad about how he felt towards Annabelle. This morning, I don't think she remembered at all, and she she saw him in the living room as he was headed out for work, she excitedly exclaimed "YAAAHH!" She does that a lot. Her new one is shouting "Tduckle!" I don't know what this means, but out of the blue, it's the funniest thing in the world.

We went out today to get what they call Amber Teething necklaces. Supposedly Amber has some kind of anesthetic and/or anti-inflammatory property that is released when it touches warm skin, and then it is absorbed through the skin directly into the blood stream. I don't know if it's true or not, a lot of my hippie friends have them for their kids and they swear by them. So, I ventured out to the Hippiest store in all of central Texas (maybe the entire state), The Herb Bar. When I got there, I found the necklace and on the price tag it said $26. $26 !!!! You have got to be kidding me. I thought of calling Phillip in the middle of the store and getting him to weigh on if it was worth it or not. But then I thought. Would I pay $26 for the chance of maybe getting even another 10 minutes of sleep a night. After that, without hesitation, I whipped out my wallet and bought it. I put it on Annabelle before I walked out of the store. I don't think she knew what to do with it. They aren't supposed to chew on it, and she really does try, but I think they are designed with the notion in mind (being teething necklaces) that kids wearing them are going to try everything they can to get them in their mouth. I doesn't reach though. But it was funny to see her try! As a back-up, I still bought some Baby Oragel at HEB on the way home. I figure with both, we've covered all grounds, hippie and mainstream, and tonight....so far....she sleeps. I'm happy.

July 17, 2011

Sunday:

Annabelle went on her potty this morning, at least once for Ruth and once for me as well. She is coming along on this potty training, of course not without some mysterious puddles here and there. After Ruth and the kids returned from church, she ate lunch peacefully while her older brother fought valiantly to avoid eating anything on top of his cracker / cookie lunch that he enjoyed (unbeknownst to us) while at church.

I will comment on nap and bedtime by saying that Annabelle is not going down without a fight. I admire Ruth for her incredible patience. I wish I knew the secret. I don't have patience like that. People say, 'they're just kids', or, 'wait till she gets older', or my favorite, 'you have to imagine that she's a little person.' F**k that - thank God I have Ruth. Just go to sleep, period. We had to give her two bottles to get her to sleep tonight. It may be her teeth, we are buying some orajel tomorrow. I think my problem is that I can't have dialogue with her, or reason with her, nor will she simply lie in bed quietly; at the end of the day, as long as she is not shrieking from her room, it matters not to me what she is doing.

Backing up to earlier in the evening before bedtime, we finished eating dinner and Ruth was on the floor with her playing, when she noticed that Annabelle was having a poo poo. Ruth hoisted her to the potty, but before she could get Annabelle over the target area, there lay on the rug a bi-colored log. It was quite humorous. I froze, just looking in awe and wondering why there was a clearly delineated division between one half of the log (light brown) and the other half (dark brown). Ruth snapped me out of my stupor (I was probably murmuring something about why the turd was multi-colored) by asking me to get something to pick it up with. I returned from flushing the specimen, Ruth stated that the coloring was probably due to her differing meals throughout the day. Meanwhile, I was advising Liam to move a little further away from the potty (he had his head about 12 inches from the specimen that successfully arrived at its destination).

Bedtime is a pain with Annabelle these days, but it is rewarding when she (and Liam too) smile when they see me in the morning or when I return from an errand, a workout, or the office.

July 10-16, 2011

Sunday-Saturday:

Yep, another whole week has gone by, and at this point, I'm thinking these daily updates are going to have to go out the window. Like many things in the life of a mother, some things just fall lower and lower on the list of priorities. Thinking about it though, I'm super glad that I did daily inputs as much as I did. But, I think it's time to face the reality, that I'm not a super mom, just a mom trying to figure all this out. And that's okay.

So, let me back track. Sunday, I really don't remember anything of. I know we didn't go to church, and I don't remember why that was. My guess is we were all to tired, cranky, or just flat out didn't want to go. That's the way it is sometimes. Even after talking to Phillip, he doesn't remember either.

Monday afternoon, I got a call from a mom of mine who said she was checking herself into the hospital to potentially have her baby. So, we got dressed, loaded up and picked up Nanny Frances. Annabelle, when we got home, and saw her finally face to face, out of her car seat, started kicking her legs excitedly and squealing. I'm sure she enjoyed the day. I didn't get back till Tuesday night after the kids were in bed, which was kinda sad as I really missed them this time. I got almost teary-eyed thinking about them when I was gone. That's a tough part about this job.

Wednesday morning, Phillip stayed home (he took off the rest of the week, he wasn't feeling well) and as I woke up from sleeping in, I had Annabelle at my side, and Liam too, and he was vigorously tickling her and she was letting out the best belly laughs I had ever heard. Just what I needed after a long couple days. We then went on with our day, groceries, and such. Then on Thursday, we did laundry. Which was pretty non-exciting.

Friday, just yesterday, I have little recollection of. I do remember Annabelle only using ONE diaper ALL DAY LONG!!! WHOO HOOO!!! It was during dinner time too, when she was in her high chair, so, not a big deal. Other than that, I think I had a half accident in the morning, and then all other pees in the potty. Even during nap she was dry! YAY! She does have that weird rash still, to which we did another treatment of vinegar on all the cloth diapers. I don't think that's it though. I think it's some kind of irritation she is getting while she is diaperless. She never wore cloth but once today, for about an hour, and her rash is no better. So, there's no telling. I wonder how it would work to potty train with diapers. Hmmmmm....

Today, we had a lot of fun playing with popsicle sticks. I had a package of the jumbo colored ones that I had bought way back when that Liam has been asking about all week, so we busted them out and had some craft time. Annabelle loved them too, then she got mad when I took them away when I noticed the blue ones dyed her mouth blue. Not cool. She didn't think taking them away was cool either. But, she did get to play with all the other hundreds of sticks that weren't dyed with colors. She kept taking them out of the bucket and Liam would say, "You going have to pick aaallllll those up Anbel." It was funny. She has though, started to find a slight fascination with putting things in containers. I'm giving her as much praise as I can when she does this to encourage this behavior.

In the afternoon, during lunch, Annabelle rocked back in forth in her high chair slowly, inchingly scooting it back bit by bit. Phillip and I were talking and didn't notice that she had stopped and when we went over there, she was almost full face down in her broccoli, asleep. We would talk to her and wake her, and without opening her eyes, would begin to rock again a few times before drooping back down over in a sleepy haze. It was too funny. I'm glad we caught a video. We got her out though and gave her a bottle and she napped.

In the evening, it was a pain and a half to get her to go to sleep. We started putting the kids to bed around 7:00, in hopes that by 7:30 they would both be out and Phillip and I could have a nice dinner together, something we try to do once a week. Well, after baths, stories, bottles, it was 7:30, as planned, but Annabelle was not having it. It was just nearing the nine-o'-clock mark when things were finally (hopefully) quiet. I don't know what the deal is. Is it the three teeth coming in? Is it a learning stump? Growing? Not being on her regular formula? Solids? Who knows. I think it would expel more energy trying to figure it out than to just go with the flow for as long as this is going on. Like everything else of course.

July 9, 2011

Saturday:

So...the rash is back. Again, and it's pretty bad. I called my cloth diapering guru friends to get their advise and Brielle (who was at Annabelle's birth) recommended 'stripping' my diapers. She said to soak them in vinegar over night and then do a couple rinses on hot and then a wash on hot. So...instead of buying a whole pack of disposables, we've decided to just use receiving blankets. I know that sounds weird, and it did to me at first until I googled it, and it's actually quite common. Especially for parents who use the flat diapers like we do. So that's what she has been using, as well as going on the potty much more. I'm tellin' ya', this rash is going to force us potty train her!

As the kids ate dinner, I decided to do some sewing and make a couple slings. Doing this, I found out, I really need some practice sewing in a straight line. I don't think I could sell anything yet that has straight line sewings, unless I miraculously get the thread to match the fabric so well that you can't see the thread. I first made a lime green one that I had Phillip try on with Liam and he said he liked it, more than the wrap, but he didn't like the color. "Maybe if it was black or something." He said, and maybe with Annabelle. Little did he know, I had a whole bolt of charcoal fabric which took me 5 minutes to make into a ring sling. He said it was masculine enough for him to use. YAY! Not that I don't love baby wearing, but it's just so cute to see my hubby with my baby worn on him.

July 8, 2011

Friday:

Last night, we noticed Annabelle's rash coming back, so we re-washed all the diapers. One day, it will end...the day we are no longer in diapers is more likely to come sooner though. But anyway, in the evening, as she sported her 'sposies' as the cloth diaper parents call them, Phillip snapped some cute pictures.

I turned on Bob FM today as we hung out at the house, and Annabelle loves it. Of course Liam does too, but Annabelle will just sit and dance to it. It's so entertaining to both me and Liam.

She's doing much better with her eating. In the morning, I start with solids, today was banana (which I found if you break it where it splits naturally in thirds and then break those in pieces, they aren't slimy and too tricky for her to grab) and some pineapple from yesterday. After breakfast, I gave her milk, and then nothing else till lunch, which today was the rest of her apple and banana puree, leftover sweet potatoe fries (which I also found out if you steam them briefly after you bake them the skins won't be tough, but soft and more appealing to her) and left over sauted zucchini from last night's dinner. After, she gets a bottle, which now she is on the variable nipples, which is nice since they are easier to get the not-as-pureed ingredients out of. For now, we are having to use the commercial formula with added egg yolk and cod liver oil since we are out of lactose. She fell asleep drinking her milk. I've also started keeping her up till after lunch, where both the kids now go down together after. That works out nicely.

July 7, 2011

Thursday:

After a busy day yesterday, I'm glad I'm tied to the house with laundry day. This also gives me a chance to do some cleaning. By the afternoon, I've already swept, mopped, cleaned the kitchen, done all the laundry, and I still have a few hours before Phillip gets home to vacuum and clean the bathrooms.

Also, we are starting the potty training again. It's going much better now since her rash is gone, which by the way, was really quite ugly and painful looking, and coconut oil cleared it up in three days! So, she was diaper free all morning, peed three four in the potty, with no accidents till I started to get really distracted. I finally put a diaper on her for lunch when she ate in her high chair. I gave her all the carrots from yesterday, but luckily, I soft boiled some eggs yesterday for her, so she had that and some peas, tomatoes and some blueberries. She hadn't napped all morning, which I'm starting to like, because she's very easy to put down by noon, and so is Liam. Having him wait till her later afternoon nap when she does nap in the morning is rough. He's over tired, and she's kinda difficult to put down. Now, they are both doing afternoon naps earlier now. I was finishing up putting some laundry away when I went back over to her high chair and found her asleep among her egg yolk and peas. She didn't put up much fuss about moving to her bed. It was more so about having to wake up to get her face wiped. She didn't like that.

July 6, 2011

Wednesday:

I felt very busy today. We got up, picked up Frances, and then I headed out for a prenatal, came home, played with the kids for a bit before we headed out to HEB and then back home with Nanny Frances for nap so I could go to a meet and greet at the Get Babied office. When I got home, the kids were just waking and we went to Walmart and Sunflower, then home for dinner and bed.

I'm glad I had some leftover carrots for Annabelle in the fridge. I really wish she would let us spoon feed her. She refuses to eat when we do and throws a huge fit, so we have to give her some mushy diced veggies and fruits instead. This means I have to cook baby food every day. It was much easier with Liam when I could spend one day every couple weeks, puree and freeze cubes of food and thaw when I needed them. Babies are a lot of work. A LOT! They are worth it though.

July 5, 2011

Tuesday:

Last night was better. She did wake up at 5:45 and had 12 ounces of milk and then slept till 8:00. We are getting there! For breakfast she ate another banana and most of a nectarine. Today was also her nine-month well-check at the pediatrician. I asked for his insight on the matter and he suggested not feeding her at night. That's kinda what my mom gut told me, since I don't want her to get in the habit of eating at night. He suggest giving her water instead, and that will at least not give her calories of blood sugar spikes, and will still make her hungry in the morning. I think I'm going to go with that for a bit. He agreed with me that babies can be a pain sometimes.

We also ran out of formula and are waiting on some lactose to get here in the mail to make more, so we are resorting to a high quality commercial powdered formula with some added cod liver oil and an egg yolk. At first, she didn't want anything to do with it, but as the evening progressed, I think she got used to it.

She went on to eat her pureed green beans mixed with some milk and a little applesauce by hand. It was messy. Very very messy. For whatever reason, I also thought it was good idea to slice up some apple thinly and give that to her as well. She liked it at first, till she swallowed a piece too big and got it stuck in her throat. She wasn't choking or anything, but I know the feeling, it hurts really bad, and I can't imagine what that feels like to a baby. I held her, patted her bad vigorously, rubbed the front of her neck, tried to get her to drink until she finally threw it up. I don't think she cares for apples now. She wouldn't even eat the cooked ones I made. But, she did eat a lot of carrots and some sausage for dinner. We shall see how tonight goes.

July 4, 2011

Monday:

It's the fourth of July, and I had every intention of dressing the kids up in the American flag shirts Gigi and Papa got them and heading out to the neighborhood parade, but, last night was another rough night. We slept in and it was well past parade time by the time we got done with breakfast.

Phillip turned on the radio in the living room and both the kids loved it. They both stood over by it in amazement. Almost like they were thinking, "Wow! That's what this thing does!" Then, I put Annabelle on Liam's car, and then asked Liam if he wanted to get on there with her. He did, and it was the cutest thing. Annabelle would tip her head up and look behind her at Liam and just smile away! It was the most darling thing.

We are making it a point today to do more solids. For dinner, we were having peas, salad and Parmesan meatballs with Pesto sauce. Phillip and I loved it, and turns out, so did Annabelle. It was after she ate a dab of Pesto that I remembered there were nuts in it, I had a quit Mom freak out about a potential allergic reaction, but she was fine.

July 3, 2011

Sunday:

Last night was the toughest night for me as a parent. Annabelle got up around eleven or midnight, I don't remember, and was up till after 2:00am. Just crying. And screaming. And fussing. And crying. We held her, changed her, swaddled her, brought her in bed with us, nothing helped. She hasn't had night feedings till about two months of age, so even though that was last on our list of things to try, we went ahead and gave her a bottle. I don't know if it was that or just pure exhaustion, but about a half hour after feeding her, she went to sleep. I am very hesitant to start night feedings, because I want her to be hungry in the morning so she will eat solids, which is proving to be trivial for us. She got another bottle this morning and about an hour later when we went to Kerby Lane with Gigi and Papa, she ate an entire banana. It wasn't one of those scrony ones either. It was over a cup of banana, and she ate it all. I think it maybe her still getting over her virus, but there is no telling.

July 2, 2011

Saturday:

Annabelle's sleep has gotten weird since she's been sick. She doesn't sleep well during her afternoon nap, and usually when the evening nap time comes around, it's too close to bedtime that we don't put her down. This then turns into her waking up at night, or just not going to bed. So, we're going to have to change that. So even though Gigi and Papa are here, we are going to be adamant about napping. We also thought that it could be her needing more food during the day, so today I made her first batch of homemade pureed baby food. It was apples with bananas and cinnamon. She ate a bit during lunch. And during nap in the afternoon, it took her about half an hour. We also considered it being an attachment thing since she cries as soon as we begin to walk away from her bed. So, we are using the Baby Whisperer technique of pick up/put down, and staying with her till she's in a deep sleep. Nap today was an hour and half, which is much better than her half hour naps she'd been taking.

We shall see how this goes.

July 1, 2011

Friday:

In the morning, I went to brunch with Marlene, and Phillip was nice enough to continue the potty training endeavor while I was gone. There wasn't much luck there either. Towards the middle of the day, we noticed the rash on her hiney was getting worse and worse. Once it started weeping, I decided to call the pediatrician. We are going in next week for well checks and after google-ing pictures of diaper rashes (which should have view discretion warnings) we determined it's yeast. SIGH. The hardest to get rid of. We are giving her apple cider vinegar baths and putting yogurt and coconut oil on it, and we've temporarily switched to disposable diapers while we get the fungi out of the cloth diapers and her hiney heals.

To get it out of the diapers, the best bet we've found is to wash all of them on cold with tea tree oil, then on hot with oxygen cleaner, then hang dry in the sun. So I did. All 27 diapers (we started with 36, that should give you an idea of how bad the poops were), 4 covers, and 3 inserts.

I hope this ends soon for her sake.

June 24-30, 2011

Friday-Thursday:

It's been a week since I've been able to find a second to sit down to make an entry. It's been a long week. Liam was sick, and then once he was on the up and up, Annabelle got sick. Most of Friday involved taking care of Liam, then Annabelle's bout started Saturday night. Phillip worked on Saturday, and then I had all of my monthly meetings with the doula collective that I work with in the evening. Frances was here in the afternoon after I left and before Phillip got home. I told Phillip that Annabelle had thrown up in the morning, and that he should really watch her this evening.

Well, once Phillip got home, Annabelle was just waking up and she threw up again...on Frances. Frances has a work history of day cares so it wasn't that big of a deal. This was all but mortifying for Phillip, but little did he know the worst was yet to come. During the evening, Phillip couldn't get her to drink anything, and resorted to syringe feeding coconut water forcefully. She didn't like this at all. He could hardly get her to drink anything, and when he did, she would throw up. After a couple bouts of throwing up in her bed, Phillip blew up the air mattress, put it in our room and put a comforter on it and laid her down there where he could keep an eye on her and let her know he was close by.

When I got home in the late evening she was still up. She stayed up till about 1:00am and finally went to sleep. The only thing we could get her to drink was her milk, but that always came back up. I felt so bad for her.

Sunday, the next morning, she slept in till 7:00, when Liam came in and woke her up. She was not ready to get up, so I brought her in bed with me after giving her some milk. I only meant to give her about 4 ounces, to avoid over loading her stomach. Well, I fell asleep while she was drinking, and woke up to an empty bottle and her throwing up. Needless to say, we stayed home from church. We finally figured out that we could dilute the milk with the coconut water and she would keep it down and stay hydrated.
Monday, when Liam was eating his lunch, Annabelle came crawling over to see what he was up to. He ever so nicely handed her a carrot off his plate and gave it to her to chew on. She took it and gnawed away!
Tuesday, I don't remember, most likely due to exhaustion. Wednesday, they finally started to both feel better so we did our grocery storing. We only went to two stores, which was good. Since all this sick stuff has been going on, and Annabelle's diapers have been less than easy to deal with, so we've started to hold off on the potty training.

Thursday, I did the laundry, and I think I'm getting pretty good at wrapping Annabelle on my back while I hang laundry. She really likes it, and she really likes to pull my hair too. It's also easy to front wrap her too since there is that little pocket in the front, I can stick the clothes pins in. It was a rough day for me though. I decided that since she was feeling better, it was time to go back to potty training. The day started with a bottle feeding, and then 10 minutes later a massive poop on the floor which covered her legs and arms and bottom. I snatched her up and gave her a bath and myself a pep talk that I could do this. The rest of the day consisted of cleaning up pee puddles everywhere, and a lot of putting her back on the potty. She wouldn't sit on it for anything. So that's frustrating, since she was practically potty trained completely at home. I think being sick really threw her off that train as well. While it is frustrating for us as parents, I'm sure she's just as frustrated and confused as to what we want her to do.

Looking back, this is the first time Annabelle has ever been sick. The Dr. said that it could be a week or two till they get over it, and I guess I'm surprised that it was over so quickly. I know it must have been hard on her, and I think it may take some time for her to get back on her schedule of sleeping and eating, so we're praying for some patience.