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Z and I are on the mend but boy this past couple of weeks sure were a doozie. It started with Z being extremely congested and ended with me catching her awful cold. She had a good week long bout of awful sleeping, waking multiple times through the night, and crawling around whining and fussing. Every time she would bump her head, even if it was just a slight bump, she would melt down into hysterics. It was quite the pitiful sight, if I say so myself.

Well, now that she is feeling better, I was finally able to see that her top 2 front teeth are peeking through her swollen gums. I had the biggest “Ah ha!” moment of my entire life when I first saw the white specks on her top gums. Everything just made total sense! The crying, the whining, the not-sleeping, the fussiness and the sensitivity to Everything. That. Came. In. Contact. With. Her. just made complete and total sense to me. It all added up and I suddenly felt enormous guilt for not giving her teething tablets and Ty*lenol to ease her pain. Here I thought she was just battling an icky cold and come to find out she was battling an icky cold on TOP of some hardcore teething. Parenting fail!

Ever since we made this discovery we have been able to stay on top of her discomfort with teething tablets and the occasional dose of grape flavored infant’s Ty*lenol. She is in much better spirits and I no longer feel like I am going to lose my mind. It is a win-win situation, really!

I think the version of Z’s cold that I received was about a bajillion times worse. I got The Cough. It has been awful and even though I am starting to feel a lot better, I still have The Cough. I’ve been taking everything over the counter that I can and I even dug up an old bottle of antibiotics that I never finished (yes, I know, shame on me!) and have been sucking those down as well. Mu*cinex, Del*sym, Extra Strength Ty*lenol, Al*eve, Ny*quil, Day*quil, the list could go on forever. I am so drugged up on OTC medication that I should probably look into a detox program when The Cough is finally gone for good.

So that my friends is my unnecessarily long excuse of why I haven’t been around. I still want to blog more frequently and still have great aspirations to keep up with this thing.

Sidenote: Z is pulling up to standing position on EVERYTHING, regardless of it being a stable surface or not. There is a lot of head bumping and falling over going on at our house but surprisingly, we have yet to get any bruises. She is starting to learn that she can move her feet and I have a feeling she’ll be cruising along the coffee table or sofa in the upcoming weeks. She can crawl pretty fast now and has a love for any and everything that is not a designated toy (for example: the remote, the cell phone, cups, kleenex, shoes, breakable home decor, etc.). I am officially going to pack up all of the pretty decorative stuff in my living room and put it away in the garage until after we no longer have little children in the house. It’s a sad day but I realize that is what comes with the territory. It is either that or invest in one of those baby gate / makeshift jail house things and I just feel bad doing that!

Candy :: Jan.28.2010 :: Baby, Health, Parenting Fail, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: Comments Off

Thursday I was out having lunch with a good friend when Z was acting pretty tame so I decided it would be a good time to clip her nails. She had grabbed onto my neck earlier that morning and I almost shrieked when I felt her tiny little daggers sink into my neck. I got her left hand cut pretty easily and quickly. I had become pretty good at using the nail clippers on her. I only used an emery board on her nails until she was at least 12 weeks old and then I finally grew the balls to try the big girl clippers. So far it had been fairly easy and we had no real issues.

Well, Thursday was not my day. All of the Patting On The Back I did to myself was thrown out the window on this fateful Thursday. I started with her right thumb, which had a gianormous nail on it. I was sitting in the dark (not pitch black, but no lights on over head) and I remember clearly thinking, I should turn the lights on while I do this so I can actually see what I’m doing. You know, when I’m using a sharp object to CUT MY DAUGHTER’S NAILS. Can you tell where this is going? Because I’m not very good at leading up to suspenseful endings without giving the story away far in advance. Anyway, so I cut her nail and as soon as I cut it, she started crying and had this look of horror on her face. I checked and she was bleeding. A LOT.

I mean.. A LOT. We soaked a couple of tissues trying to get it to stop bleeding. We tried tiny bandaids but they just wouldn’t stay on her SUPER TINY hand. We needed Super Tiny bandaids, damnit!! Are there even such a thing as infant bandaids?? I have no idea. So she didn’t cry near as much as I expected her to. She became really fussy afterwards but I think it was a mixture of PTSD and sleepiness. I gave her some of the yummy grape flavored infant Tylenol and she went to sleep immediately. I put a tissue in her hand and she grasped it (yay for those graspy little infant hands!) and held it the whole time she was asleep. After a good hour or so it had stopped bleeding and hasn’t bled since and she has been fine.

But me?? I have beat myself up over it at least 4 times today already. When I’m holding her, I look at her thumb and want to kick myself. I know it’s a stupid mistake and I’m sure a lot of us have done it.. but I can’t help but think back and wonder why I didn’t just turn the stinkin’ light on! I shouldn’t have grown so confident in my alleged Professional Infant Nail Cutting. I guess all that matters is that Z is ok and I am ok and we are all on the road to being ok over this whole thing.

But I can’t promise that my daughter is going to have short nails any time soon. I just hope she doesn’t scratch herself anytime in the near future or I am going to be forced to do it again before I’ve fully recovered.

Astro Update: I took him to the Vet today because I found sores ALL OVER his stomach. $50 later and he has a Staph infection and is on 2 weeks of antibiotics. Poor dog. His wound on his side is healing up nicely and we’re guessing that is how he got the Staph infection. I coated that darn thing with Neosporin for a few days but I guess it just wasn’t enough. He’s still wearing his frumpy t-shirt around the house as I wait for that wound to FULLY heal.

Emma Update: Astro was locked in the bathroom last night (so he wouldn’t poo all over my carpet) and we woke up to poo on the floor in our bedroom. Which means only one thing: IT WAS EMMA. It had to be her because Astro was still in the bathroom when we got up this morning. So now I have no idea which dog has the poo problem and which doesn’t or if they both have it? It’s all a freakin’ mystery to me! So now they are both confined to each bathroom when we are out so I can figure out who is having the problem.

My Sanity Update: It’s GONE. MIA. If you see it, please send it back to me. I need it. It helps this day to day gig go much smoother.

Candy :: Aug.21.2009 :: Baby, Dogs, Parenting, Parenting Fail, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: 4 Comments »

A couple of nights ago I think Z had her first nightmare. It was only about 10:30 PM but she had been down for about a good hour and all of a sudden I heard these really sad sounding wails. I waited to see if she would fall back asleep but they began to sound more and more pitiful. It wasn’t your normal hungry, gassy or upset cry. It was the most sad sounding cry I have ever heard! When I went in there, her top lip was tucked under and she was making the saddest face while crying, as if she was scared for her life. I gave her a paci and rubbed her belly until she fell back asleep. I have no idea how my heart is going to handle it when she first falls and hurts herself. Haha.. Oh boy am I in for it.

So Gene gave Z a bath last night, as it is tradition in our house and afterwards he put her in a prefold with a cover. I mentioned that we would just have to change her into an All In One diaper (they hold more & don’t leak as bad.. she usually sleeps in these kind) before she went to bed. Well, to our surprise she finished her bottle and went to bed really early (9:30 PM). Gene put her in bed and we didn’t think anything of it. This morning I went in to get her when I heard her making noise at 9 AM and all I could smell was URINE. I gave her a few ounces of formula and then went to change her diaper and that is when it hit me… We totally forgot to change her into an AIO diaper! Parenting FAIL! I went in and took her jimjams and her diaper off and it was soaked and her jimjams were soaked. Who knows how long this little baby had been laying in a soaked diaper and jimjams? All 11 1/2 hours that she was asleep?!?! Wow.. She really DOES like her sleep if she wont even wake up for that.

I let her bottom air out for a while on the changing table before putting another diaper on her. See, if you aren’t familiar with cloth diapers, prefolds are absorbent but the cloth is touching the baby’s skin, which is why you have to change diapers more frequently with this system. All In Ones are made so that the fabric touching the baby’s skin will wick away the moisture onto the doubler underneath it, keeping the baby feeling dry. Ick. My poor girl had pee touching her skin ALL night long! I put some diaper cream on just to be safe and let her air out and I think she’s fine. Apparently she didn’t care or she would not have slept for 11 1/2 hours straight.

Candy :: Jul.24.2009 :: Baby, Cloth Diapers, Parenting Fail, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: Comments Off

Being a parent is sure enough to guarantee you at the top of the FAIL list. It seems like at least once a week I am doing something that makes me say “That was a Parenting Fail!” in my head. Sometimes I say it out loud and Z just smiles at me.

It’s not as if I am doing anything horrible like throwing a plugged in hair dryer into her bath water, dropping her on her head (It’s ok if it’s only done once, right Hollie? ;) or leaving her unattended in a hot vehicle with the windows rolled up. But the little things. The things that are so miniscule that you can’t even believe you’ve done it. And even if they aren’t life threatening or life changing, they are Fails nonetheless.

The other day I was rubbing baby lotion on Z’s face because she has some pretty patchy dry skin. And I squirted a dab of lotion onto my finger and started rubbing it on her forehead. And there was way too much. And I think I got some in her eye. She didn’t cry and her eye is ok but I saw it on her eye. And I freaked out a bit. But the thing is, it took me FAILING as a parent to realize that the smart way to lotion up my baby is to rub it into my hands and THEN wipe her face gently with my hands. Duh?

So then I was changing Z’s diaper and she is laying on the changing table (yes I actually use the changing table for 100% of all diaper changes! One of the BEST investments we made!) and she starts to spit up a little bit and in fear of her getting it onto her clothes and changing pad, I grab the nearest thing I can reach and wipe her face. But uh.. hello.. I grabbed the already soaked-in-pee cloth diaper! Oops.. I totally just wiped my baby’s face with a pee soaked cloth diaper. So what is worse, spit up on ITEMS THAT ARE 100% WASHABLE or PEE FACE?!?! Fail. Fail. FAIL FAIL FAIL! And I can’t even blame this particular fail on sleep deprivation because my little princess is letting mommy get a good 8 hours of sleep per night and she is sleeping an average of 11 hours herself.

Those are just two parenting fail examples and I’m sure there are many more to come. Which is why I’m creating a Parenting Fail category on here. And to add to my Fail list, I’d also like to mention how I have been doing an AWFUL job of keeping up with her milestones and writing about her on here. Or in her baby book. It’s awful and makes me feel horrible! With Grandpa’s death we have been really, really busy and I just haven’t had time. I think I only took ONE picture of her in her 13th week of life. Oops.

One last thing.. This week Z is starting to really hold her head up VERY well. I am able to support her waist with my hands and sit her on my lap and she will just look around and hold herself up really well. I am so proud of her! It’s really fun to sit her up like that and watch her look around and laugh and play with me. This parenting thing is funny and confusing and awesome and What The Heck Do We Do Now? all rolled into an adorably poopy package. I’ve told myself and Gene that we can’t have any more babies until this one is paid off, hah, which will be approximately 2 years. I want my children to be about 2-3 years apart in age. And yes I want more than one child. Actually, I am completely enamored with Z and I would get pregnant right this second if it was logical and if I could afford it. But for now we’ll wait and enjoy our little peanut as she grows without any distractions.

Candy :: Jul.22.2009 :: Parenting Fail, Zoey :: 4 Comments »