G’n'R Out West

Adelle had her first real fever last night.  It was a bit sad.

She woke up from her first night time feeding at her normal feeding time and I took her out of bed and she was all hot and sweaty.  She wasn’t much interested in eating which was surprising.  After she had a little snack she pulled off and we just looked at each other.  I got worried…because I’d heard you don’t worry about a fever unless the baby is non responsive.  She was looking at me in what I was imagining was a non responsive way.  So I called Greg in.  He quickly settled the responsiveness debate.  The second he entered the room Adelle assumed we were having a late night party and she got all squiggly and smiley.  It was relieving and super cute.

In general she didn’t seem too bothered by the fever, with the exception of the fact that she wasn’t much interested in sleeping alone.  So we had lots of great cuddles.  She did have one bout of pretty scary screaming a few hours after we brought her into bed.  But it didn’t last long and she was content to fall back asleep as long as I stepped up my cuddle grasp from a passive posture to a more active one.

This morning she had a nice little snooze in our bed while I tried to get a few things done.  When I heard her stir I went up to get her to find our sheets covered in a serious diaper blowout.  Frign’ frig….had to happen on our bed!  Anyway the sheets are in the washer and we are moving on.  But seriously poo is so much grosser in my bed then hers!

On a happier note our friends Ahren and Katherine finally welcomed their new daughter Mackenzie into the world.  She took her time coming but by all accounts she was well worth the wait.  We are so happy for them.

We had a fun and busy weekend.  Lost of busy days and late nights (read: we stayed up past 11 pm two nights in a row) but we did lots of catching up with friends so it was worth every second of tiredness.  I also managed to have a ridiculously successful shopping trip with Gen and Lisa and I think I am finally ok, from a wardrobe perspective, to return to work.

We had lots of fun at the zoo.  It was a nice way to celebrate our friend Sarah’s first birthday.  Despite Adelle loss of appetite she had tons of fun.  She thought the animals were ok, the kids were amazing…but the best part of her day was her stuffed animal we brought in the car.  She giggled for about 20 minutes playing with it in the back seat.  Too funny! 

So she is in good spirits.  So far today she has eaten a tablespoon of peas and about 20 puffs.  She has nursed a few times, so I’m not too worried.  I just feel sad for her when she isn’t feeling on her game.

All tuckered out at the zoo parking lot

Last night we broke down and Adelle got her first baby Tylenol.  It is always so hard to know what to do when it comes to giving your baby drugs…especially at 4 am.

The last few days she hasn’t really been on her game.  She has been particularly needy and sleeping and eating have been hard for us to predict.  Tuesday she finished her breakfast at lunch, and yesterday she didn’t finish her breakfast until dinner time.  I know for most kids this isn’t a big deal but for Adelle it is surprising when she isn’t interested in eating.

Last night seemed to be going ok.  She woke up for her regular 1ish feeding and then at 4 she woke up and wouldn’t settle.  She was just screaming and her back was arching and she wouldn’t eat.  When she gets really mad at us she pushes us away from her.  So it is so hard to console her when you are getting pushed away.  She was so mad at us. 

Usually Greg doesn’t even get out of bed at night.  But after hearing Adelle scream at me for a while he got up to see what was going on.  When she was little she would often scream at us like that but we’d use our highly skilled sleeper hold/bouncing combo package and after a few minutes she couldn’t resist the lulling action.  Now, when she needed her bouncing we weren’t often able to put her down…but it was rare that she would cry for longer than a few minutes.  So we know there is really something wrong with her when she screams. 

The screaming, coupled with the odd behavior the last few days led us to giving her Tylenol.  I’m not sure if she needed it.  Greg had her fairly calm when we gave it to her.  After we gave it to her she was content to be held and sleep while pretending to nurse.  It took me a long time before I could successfully unlatch her (despite the fact she wasn’t actually eating).  The last I saw her was at 5:15….it is now almost 9 am and she is still sleeping.  She is normally up by 7:30 or at the latest 8am.  At least she is getting a really good sleep.

I wonder if those teeth will come soon?

On another note, we have had a fun and busy week as usual.  Yesterday we attended our first baby sign class.  It was really fun and we’ve started to use lots of signs around her.  She definitely understands ‘milk’ she even showed off her knowledge in front of the sign instructor yesterday.  I’ll post if she seems to be understanding any of the others, or if she actually starts doing any signs herself.  I think it is still a bit early for her to sign….but some people have stories of their kids signing much younger than Adelle, so I guess it could happen any day.

Today we are off to the zoo with the yoga mamas as one of the girls is turning 1.  Her mom is back at work, but she took a vacation day today.  I am glad Adelle will get to see her little buds, and am curious to see how she reacts to the animals.  I hope she has a wonderful day, she certainly deserves it after the last few days.

Ok, seriously, this month really flew by.  I know I say that a lot but I mean it more this month than I have in the past.  Since we were on vacation for over 2 weeks this month it feels like time just dissapeared.  Which I guess is good becuase it means we had lots of fun. 

Sleep:
Frig, she is the best sleeper EVER.  I think she might win some sort of medal for her superior sleeping skills.  Her usual schedule seems to be bed at 8 pm (if we can keep her up that late), up after a few hours to feed, up at 6 am to feed again, and then she is up for good by 7ish.  She is a napping machine and usually has at least one nap of at least an hour during the day.  Ocassionally she has 2 naps, and sometimes she will nap for longer than an hour.  It  is pretty sweet.  I must say, I thought I had it good when she didn’t nap, because it meant I didn’t have to worry about keeping her on a schedule.  But now that she does nap, I freakn’ love the free time it gives me during the day.  It is a nice break from the constant goofing around I do with her.  

Eating:
Foods are still Adelle’s favorite thing ever.  We have finaly started her on finger food.  The first day she had no clue what to do, but enjoyed the feeling of puffs in her mouth.  After only a week on the puffs she was an expert at navigating them into her mouth.  We have put a few other things on her tray since then and so far so good.  Often after she has stopped accepting food from the spoon she will nibble away at whatever we put on her tray.  What a little star.  She doesn’t like bananas and chicken so far as we can tell.  The chicken one was funny becuase she’d open her mouth wide to eat it, swallow the mouthful and then barf it back up again.  Yet, she’d continue to open her mouth up wide for another bite…very bizarre.  We have since mixed the chicken with apples and they seem tolerable like this. Mangos might not agree with her as we had to nickname her fart-a-lot-amous for a few days after they were introduced, but Greg and I were more bothered by that side effect that she appeared to be. 

Getting Around:
She can scoot around a bit from a seated position as long as she is distracted enough so she doesn’t realize she is moving.  As soon as she realizes what is going on she screams and requests some adult intervention into her movement.  She can however pull herself up from a seated position using our hands (or my pant legs as of yesterday).  She hasn’t tried to do it from a table or any non parent type object.  It is pretty fun becuase she is so proud of herself when she actually makes it into the standing position.

The idea of crawling makes her angry and she has little tolerance for experimentation.  Like her father, she appears to only enjoy doing things she is already good at.  I will keep working on the crawling thing.  Letting her walk with our assistance is great fun for her, and it isn’t so bad for us right now.  But I know it will kill our backs if we keep it up…

Hair:
Same old same old, lighter, longer awesome fun.     

Eyes:
Still a greyish-blue.

Language:
I am adding this section, because we might be getting somewhere in the sign language department.  I have started using the milk sign when I breastfeed her.  It is the only sign that we use with her (apart from waving) so far.  More often than not I get a reaction when I give her the milk sign.  It is either some heavy breathing and wimpering (which is a ‘yes, frig, I’m starving’) or arching of the back and screaming (which I think means, ‘enough already leave me alone’).  I would like to be able to use eating signs with her at her meals too…but I guess we’ll see how all this progresses.  I found a sign class and we start next Wednesday so hopefully I’ll get some good advice on how to proceed. 

Along the lines of communication: Adelle has given us strong indications that she LOVES cats, dogs, dolls, babies, kids, stuffed animals.  For a while she would squeal with delight when we walked passed another kid.  Now if she sees a stroller she starts to squeal and squirm.  It has now progressed to the point where she will spot stuffed animals and dolls at people houses and start squirming for them.  It is pretty funny how much she loves them. 

Personality:
Happiest baby ever.  Ok, I am a bit biased.  But needless to say we have lots of fun.  She has a bit of separation anxiety (oh, no wait, that is me…).  But other than that she never stops the squealing, giggling, yelling talking screaching.  It is pretty hilarious.  I am curious to see what she has to say when I understand her words. 

Stuff that happened this month:
- Nana and Adelle finally met - it was a tearful moment, not everybody is lucky enough to meet their great grandmother
- we had another world wind trip out east - she met lots of her extended family and we had lots of fun
- she started on finger food and she is an expert puff, blueberry and pea eater
- we figured out the bath and now it is a fun experience

Adelle having a little nibble at a toy:
 

Click on the link below for yet ANOTHER food video…this one is blueberries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalpeobdfb8

Today I locked my keys in the car.  Locking your keys in the car sucks rocks.  Locking your keys AND your baby in the car sucks even more.

Adelle came out of the experience pretty much oblivious.  She cried a bit, but I ran around the car like a madwoman trying to keep her entertained waiting for Greg or CAA (they were racing each other) to come to our rescue.

CAA arrived within 5 minutes of being called and didn’t charge me despite the fact that we don’t have a membership.   I think he felt too guilty taking money from a sobbing parent.  It was very kind of him.

I was pretty shaken up by the entire event.  

I happened to have a chiropracters appointment a few hours after the incident.  The chiro dude always starts the appointments by doing a quick evaluation of my back.  He ran his hands along my spine and then asked what happened that day that got me so stressed out.  It is amazing what a little stress does to our bodies.

Anyway, in the future I will be much more careful with my darn keys.  I hate learning lessons the hard way.

In other news, Adelle has a pretty good cold at the moment.  She is all goopy eyed and snotty.  Poor little bean.

Well, in holidays of past I have often complained about missing out on my fair share of turkey.  Between having divorced parents and inlaws to visit we often manage to miss the turkey everywhere we go.  But this Easter EVERYTHING changed.  We got 3 turkey dinners (two in one day!).  I was the happiest person ever.  Now some of you might think that two turkeys in one day is too much turkey…but this breastfeeding mama had no trouble keeping up.  I was on my game all three meals.  I never used to be the biggest eater, but since Adelle came into the world things have changed.  My appetite amazes me on a daily basis.  As I write this I am dreaming of turkey leftovers….some things sure do change when you have kids!

We have just had a fabulous family vacation out east.  We had so much fun visiting everybody.  Adelle was awesome.  The plane rides seemed long, but she was terrific.  She fussed occasionally but never really cried.  She only slept on one of the 4 flights we took, but honestly, apart from sore biceps from all the lifting I must say I am very impressed.  The only stressful moment was changing her diaper after boarding had already started and having such a poop mishap in the process that I ended up having to dispose of her diaper shirt.  In retrospect her wiping her diaper all over her front is funny, however, at the time, I was so stressed I just wanted to cry.

We spent lots of time with both of our families.  We even got to spend a few days with my brother (and he is a hard dude to track down, so we were lucky to get the time with him).   He is such a wonderful uncle.

One of our many trip highlights was heading out to Cape Breton so Adelle Verena Forgeron could meet her Great Grandma Verena Forgeron (more fondly known as Nana).  It was an emotional meeting to say the least.  Greg’s grandma is in her 90s and we feel so lucky that we were finally able to introduce Adelle and Nana.  Nana has a fiery spirit and as near as we can tell so far naming Adelle after her is quite fitting!

Adelle got a bit more proficient at scooting around on this trip.  She still seems to have no interest in crawling…but when well distracted she can easily move a few feet while sitting on her butt.  She seems to be quite interested in assisted walking.  I am currently spending a fortune at the chiropractor trying to get my messed up back into shape…so I am really pushing for the crawling thing.  Although, I must say to see the look on her face when she pulls up to standing, it is hard not to congratulate her with a little walk around.

In general she adjusted well to the traveling and the time changes.  Wouldn’t you know, her bedtime is 8pm out west and out east…it was like we never left home!  She seemed to wake a bit more frequently in the evenings and it was a bit more tiring settling her without all the normal comforts of home, but all in all it was great.  She continued napping while we were out there and I think we are getting sort of a little bit not terrible at guessing when to put her down.  I think we are so lucky to have such a happy little baby.  Everywhere we went people commented on how happy she is.  It is nice to hear.  She is just a joy to be around.  When we got off the flight in Ottawa (2 hours past Adelle’s normal bedtime), the flight attendants were so impressed with her on the flight that they congratulated my dad on having such a cute granddaughter!  The good thing about having a baby who is so darn social on an airplane is that as soon as she started to fuss all I had to do was hold her up to see the people behind us and pretty soon the whining turned into squeals of joy.  Darn she is so funny, and man, am I getting a good workout with her.

Here are a few pictures from our trip out east…there are tons on flickr so this is just a taste of our trip.

Adelle with her Nana, such a special time to have these two together.  Nana also bought Adelle her first doll.  It is very special to her already, Adelle has had her eyes on other kid’s dolls for months now it is so special that her first doll came from her Nana
 

Adelle and Lily in the stroller.  Adelle fell asleep while I was putting her in her snowsuit (the cousins REALLY tire her out) and she stayed asleep when I transferred her into the stroller.  Oh, and for those of you who are wondering Lily is the cousin formerly known as Wynne.  She has changed her name in the past, but Lily is sticking so I thought I should honour her wishes and call her Lily on the blog too!

We got the opportunity to see one of my friends from home while we were back.  Our friends Brendan and Tara had a baby just before Christmas.  I thought this shot of Adelle and Teagan was too funny not to post.

The kids with Uncle Al.  My sister, brother and I (and the kids…and of course Uncle Hugh) spent 2 days together while we were out east.  It was special, it has been too long since all three of us siblings have been together.