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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

It’s 3 AM. I wish I could say that I was drunk-writing a blog entry after being out on a wild night on the town or a great party but sadly, that is not the case. Oh no, I am writing this because a certain little peanut woke up crying at 2 AM. Hubby rocked her while I dosed up some infant’s tylenol, teething tablets and a bottle. It worked but hubby was concerned about her breathing while she was asleep so we ended up waking her up while trying to administer saline drops, suction her nose and give her a sauna-esque experience in the bathroom.

Suffice it to say, I think Z and I may be going to our respective doctor’s on Monday. I am still so sick and she is still pretty congested as well. I have been taking Muc*inex, Tyl*enol, Del*sym and whatever else I can find over the counter to help with this monster of a cold but it just doesn’t seem to be working. The coughing and congestion in my chest is really what is starting to get to me. The constant coughing almost always triggers an asthma attack which has caused me to take one too many puffs on the ol’ inhaler one too many times.

This is one thing I hate about being sick when it lingers.. I never really know when to just suck it up and “wait it out” or give in and go see the doctor. I absolutely hate when I go to the doctor, give them my hard earned $20 co-pay for them to tell me to go to the store and buy a $20 bottle of Muc*inex over the counter.

Right now I am sitting here in tears. Because I am just sick of my sweet little girl being congested. I’m sick of her teething and being in pain. I am sick of MYSELF being sick because I feel like I don’t have the energy to even take care of her. I just want us all to be back to our normal selves. It was much easier that way!

Sidenote: This last week has been the WEEK OF HELL! The hardest week EVER in this parenting gig, so far. I think to add to Z’s congestion and cold, she has been teething. Her bottom 2 teeth just came in a few weeks ago but her top two are now peaking through the gums. You can just barely feel them through her swollen little gummies. She has been drooling excessively, whining almost 24/7, crying a lot and waking up a LOT at night. Today was the best day she has had yet.. Not much whining or crying, she was a happy little soul and it was sooo good to see my sweet baby again that I know oh so well! We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa almost all day so maybe that is why she was in such good spirits? She really loves them!

Candy :: Jan.24.2010 :: Baby, Parenting, Zoey :: 5 Comments »

We took Z in to see the doctor for her 9 month check up. Luckily there are no shots so I was happy about that! Zoey is 28 inches long and weighs 19.1 pounds, which puts her in about the 50th percentile for both. They wrote down that her head circumference is 90th percentile but her head doesn’t seem THAT large. Maybe it’s just all those smart brains in there ;)

Doc didn’t really say what she had, which tells me that he isn’t sure if this is a really bad reaction to teething or just a really bad cold. He gave us a prescription for Albuterol to help with her wheezing and basically we will just ride this out. Last night Z and I got barely any sleep. I ended up sleeping on the twin bed in her room to help minimize my trips back & forth across the house and my back is paying for it tonight. Tonight I will sleep in our bed and just make the walk back and forth just to help give my back some relief. I’m crossing my fingers that she will sleep better tonight but I know that she has a really rough time sleeping because of her congestion. She coughs and coughs and it wakes her up almost every single time. I guess we can write this down as her very first cold.

Here is to hoping for a better night as far as sleep goes. Oh and that tomorrow we have no projectile vomit. Because that? Is gross and starting to get on my nerves! I think the vomit is related to the excessive coughing.

Candy :: Jan.18.2010 :: Baby, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: 1 Comment »

Our poor little peanut is sick. She started developing a little cough on Friday, but it wasn’t congested. Today? It’s REALLY bad congested! She is coughing non-stop and choking when she eats anything. So far over the weekend she has coughed so much she has vomited at least 3 times :( I just hate to see her like this. She is acting her normal self other than maybe a little whinier than usual. She still plays and has a grand ol’ time, it is just accompanied by excessive coughing. Luckily tomorrow morning we are taking her in for her 9 month check up so we will see what the doctor says when he sees her.

Candy :: Jan.17.2010 :: Baby, Zoey :: 2 Comments »

I have really started to incorporate regular table food into Z’s diet. I try to give her whatever we are eating for dinner in addition to her baby food puree. She is loving all kinds of things from peas, bread, stove top stuffing, mashed potatoes to little nibbles of hamburger or chicken. She smacks her gums and “chews” everything up very well. She has only turned down one thing and it was when I added a little bit too much oatmeal to her butternut squash and she didn’t care for the taste too much. I snuck the bites in with something else and she did end up eating it all. I honestly can’t blame her because that oatmeal smells pretty rancid and I always add it to her food but usually only add a very little amount.

When I give her table food, I have this habit of blowing profusely on the food until I know it is for sure cooled down on the outside and the inside of whatever it is. I guess over the last few weeks she has been paying attention because today I went to give her a bite of stovetop stuffing and she “blew” on the spoon before allowing me to put it in her mouth. It was the cutest thing in the entire world!! I did it a few more times and she would “blow” (I put that in quotes because she doesn’t know exactly how to blow yet but makes a pbblltt type sound with her lips) on the spoon before opening her mouth. Soooo stinkin’ adorable!!

This is just proof that her little mind is already very sponge-like. She is watching every little thing we do and absorbing so much at such a young age.

I also forgot to write up a post about how my little peanut turned 9 months old two days ago! I can’t believe it has been 9 months since she has been in our lives. Amazing!! This has been, by far, the best time of my life. Now we will start the great First Birthday planning!

Candy :: Jan.16.2010 :: Baby, Baby Food, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: Comments Off

I just wanted to document this so I don’t forget.. Or maybe I do want to forget it? Depends on how ya look at it I guess.

So last night was not fun, to say the least. The previous night I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep so I was already exhausted and this is where Zoey decided it would be the perfect time to challenge us a little. She figured she has been making this parenting thing a little too easy for us. She really likes to keep us on our toes, ya know?

11:00 – Lay down in bed

11:30 – Baby screaming. Go in and try to soothe her. Not working. Pick her up and rock her until she falls asleep.

12:00 – Baby screaming. Go in and pick her up and rock her.

12:30 – More of the same.

1:30 – Baby screaming. Go in and pick her up and rock her.

2:00 – Baby screaming. Go in and pick her up and rock her.

2:30 – More of the same.

3:00 – Go in and pick her up and rock her. She is wide awake. Give her some Tylenol. She is NOT wanting to go back to sleep at this point. It takes me forever. I finally lay her down while she is wide awake and tip toe out of the room.

3:30 – Screaming again. Go back in there and soothe her back to sleep with a pacifier.

4:00 – Wake Gene up and tell him to go get her because I was DONE for the night. I was so exhausted from the previous night that when I got up with her at 3:30 I felt wobbly and my eyes were hurting so bad that I wanted to cry. My patience were running low due to how horrible I felt so I needed him to take over. He said she stayed up for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours and he fed her and changed her diaper.

It is 9:45 AM right now and she has been crying on and off since 8. She will cry out, not scream, just a cry.. and then it will go quiet and be quiet for a few minutes. Rinse and repeat. I have NO idea what the deal is. My only guess is either teething or night terrors. It’s hard to tell when they can’t really tell you what is up.

I am hoping to somehow get some motivation to get stuff done today. I have lots of laundry and dishes that need to be done.

Candy :: Jan.15.2010 :: Baby, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: 3 Comments »

Seeing the bodies just lined up on the streets in Haiti on the television just absolutely kills me. Just knowing that these are people’s family members laying there, dead, in a pile. I know there is no way around this due to how poor their country is and how much chaos this disaster has caused but it just kills me. We don’t have much to donate, but we will give what we can. We will donate to UNICEF, who will you donate to? I know the news keeps reporting how much money the U.S. is sending, how much money they’ve raised via text messaging and how other countries are contributing as well but they will never have ENOUGH. More is needed and right now is a great time to do that good deed you’ve been wanting to do.

Candy :: Jan.14.2010 :: Tragedy :: Comments Off