Charlotte has not yet met her Grandma and Grandpa Baker. I know, right?! It definitely hasn’t been by choice. It just hasn’t been feasible, with them being in another country and all. They have been living in Germany for the past 2 1/2 years but are flying home for good tomorrow! I’m sure it has been very difficult for them to miss the first few months of their first grandchild’s life. I have been trying to post as many experiences and photos/videos as I can for them to see so they don’t feel so out of the loop.
I am sure they are already in the air flying over the Atlantic as I write this, but here’s another video of Charlotte, complete with a baby sneeze, a dog bark, and a surprise appearance from her daddy.
{my apologies for the video quality and the weird angle – Charlotte was taking a quick cat-nap in my arms but decided to cut it short to chat about something. It’s also quite long… I can never decide when it’s a good time to stop recording. “Okay….now! No….um, now! wait, she’s talking more….. ok, er, stop now! gah… just record forever. people will watch it anyway”}
This week she has also started blowing raspberries {which I thought was supposed to be a cute little innocent and playful baby noise but somehow makes her sound disgruntled and angry, like she’s expressing her feelings at her current situation – which right now, is swaddled and forced into a nap because she was cranky}.
First off, here’s a photo I forgot to add to last week’s photo recap:
Charlotte’s 2 month appointment. She weighs 10 lbs 1 oz now and regularly sleeps 5 or 6 hours each night. She also got 3 shots during this visit and the tears and cries nearly ripped my heart out – but we survived and I’m sure she’s forgotten all about it. I just kept telling myself “All babies go through this… You did and you don’t even remember it”!
As far as this week goes, we have been quite busy!
Charlotte spent quite a bit of time working on her head control and baby push ups.
and she’s been concentrating so hard to try and figure out how to work her arms and hands to get those toys that are so far away.
We had a lunch date with Chris, my friend Tiffany, and her son Hunter, then went to pick up our race packets for the Wicked 10k
The convention center had some spooky decorations in preparation for the race.
“Charlotte, don’t you know better than to visit a haunted house alone”?
Just kidding, I’m pretty sure Charlotte inherited my scaredy-cat genes so she probably won’t be visiting haunted houses anytime soon. I’ve never been a fan of scary things, so I will probably try to protect her from them as well; but this scary backdrop at the race pick-up location + her gummy smile was just too good of a photo op to pass up.
Tiffany and I finished our first 10k the next day! Our time was 1:26:19. I am so proud of us.
We had intended to push Charlotte and Hunter in strollers, but decided to leave them at home with their daddies just in case Sandy decided to dump rain on us early. Tiffany made our awesome tutus which were fairly practical for running in (and SO glittery – I’m pretty sure we left a fabulous trail of glitter throughout the race course). Some of the other costumes were not so practical, but very entertaining. I wish I had had my camera there to capture some of the creativity: hamster in a cage, telephone booth (life size!), redneck treadmill (beer can hanging from a baseball cap), Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi in their karts plus a baby in a stroller as the giant bullet, about 12 ‘chickens running with their heads cut off’ (that one took me a bit to figure out…but awesome), Rick from The Walking Dead, Granny in a wheelchair, Captain Planet and all his comrades, and on and on. It was so much fun and having all the costumes to look at really helped the miles pass.
Later that evening was a co-worker friend’s wedding. I was very relieved that I fit into my ‘wedding’ dresses (I only have two, and another one of my coworker friends got married last weekend so I was very glad that they both fit)! It was such a mad rush to get Charlotte over to my parent’s house after the race then come back and change and make it to the ceremony that I even forgot to put on my wedding rings – oops!
Hurricane Sandy threatened rain all day on Saturday but it didn’t actually start raining until after the race, so that was a blessing.
Sunday morning at church Charlotte and I snuggled up and worked the computer/powerpoint while Chris and the worship band practiced. I’m fairly certain I heard running water and leaky drips in the walls and in the ceiling (something that has definitely happened before in this building) – but we were just happy to be there and the worship was awesome. Charlotte loves the drums and of course loves to hear her daddy play his guitar.
Sunday evenings we typically have small group but instead of continuing on in studying Matthew we decided to enjoy a meal together and some games. It’s always a good time with our group, and with each laugh my abdominals reminded me of my triumphant 10k finish the day before – ouch!
Charlotte loves Kallie and gave us so many giggles that night. Also, during Whits and Wagers my lack of knowledge about all things trivia became abundantly clear.
Today we hunkered down inside while Sandy pounded the east coast. Our neighborhood doesn’t flood so we weren’t ‘stuck’, but still decided to stay in and have a snuggle day. Thank you God for protecting our friends and family during this storm that had the power to do so much more damage.
All day yesterday Baxter moped around the house. He would flop himself down at my feet and let out a big sigh, or just sit and stare at me with sad doggy eyes. I actually texted Chris at work to ask if he had fed Baxter before leaving for work because I thought for sure Baxter was trying to communicate something important to me! “Baxter, bark twice if your daddy didn’t feed you today”! No response, he just sat and stared. Didn’t even play with his toys!
Today it finally dawned on me that in all the hullaboo surrounding our new family addition (Charlotte, of course) I forgot about our first born dog’s birthday! Baxter turned 2 yesterday – EEK! I feel bad that we let it pass by, but he knows we love him regardless. Extra apple slices for you today buddy!
You can read about last year’s celebration HERE and about how Baxter dog became a member of the family HERE.
Baxter is a very good dog. I can’t say that he meets all of my ‘dog requirements’ (If you’re really nosy, they are listed in the link above) but he certainly tries and by the time he started barking and shedding a bit I was already hooked – there was no going back.
Baxter is a very good big brother to Charlotte. Very protective and super calm around her, though he is always on high alert and nervous that every squirrel, mail man, and leaf blowing by is trying to break into our house and he must bark loud enough to alert everyone on the street.
“What’s that smell? I thought I was the only mess maker in the house”.
Happy Birthday Baxter – We are so glad you’re part of our family!
As you know, Charlotte’s been dealing with some reflux issues {aka GERD}. She has silent reflux, meaning the spit-up comes up into her throat and mouth but then is swallowed back down instead of being spit out {most of the time} – not a lot of clean-up for mom {unless I do something silly like put her on her tummy too soon after eating…. bad mommy!}, but more pain for her because the acid passes through her throat twice! Poor little lamb. Here’s a video of me torturing Charlotte with tummy time – spoiler alert: someone {I won’t say who} spits up.
Yikes, who’s manning the camera anyway?! Don’t quit your day job!
I do think I should get some brownie points for not screaming or gagging, though. Yay me!
At her one month check-up Charlotte’s pediatrician and I opted to try some postural techniques to alleviate the reflux instead of using medication. The amount she was actually spitting-up {spitting out really} greatly reduced with just a bit more work on my part:
1. We keep her upright for about 30 minutes after each meal {This means not laying down, but also not in a sitting position that squishes her belly}. This isn’t too difficult, although in the middle of the night it does make for a very long process. During the day I like to sit with her propped up against my thighs – that way she’s upright and we can get some good ‘face time’ while we’re at it – woohoo, efficiency!! At night I just keep her up on my shoulder so she can go back to sleep.
2. One of Chris’ coworkers let us borrow “The Reflux Pillow“. It’s a wedge that the baby sleeps on to keep them at a 30* incline. The first night I put Charlotte on the pillow she slept for 6 hours! Initially, though, I was very skeptical- mostly because the pillow looked outdate, the website looked outdate… everything looked OLD and I didn’t want to put her on something that was no longer safe. I did extensive internet research for any reviews/complaints/recalls but couldn’t find much. The only comments I read were regarding older babies wiggling themselves partially out of the straps which could be dangerous if they get stuck in a bad position. I will have to make a decision about whether or not to continue using the pillow when Charlotte gets older and is moving a lot more. For now, she stays perfectly strapped in throughout the night and continues to average 6 hours each night, sometimes more!
3. I nurse her in more of an upright position, rather than a cradle/laying down position.
These postural changes definitely helped reduce the amount that she was spitting up and improved her comfort level throughout the day. However, the biggest issue continued to be while she was actually nursing or taking a bottle. She would pull off frequently, arch her back, cry, cough, choke, spit up while she was actually drinking. It didn’t seem to make a difference whether she nursed or took a bottle of expressed milk. It is so hard to see her in pain and I didn’t want her to begin associating meal time with pain. At Charlotte’s two month check-up the pediatrician prescribed a small amount of Zantac to help. I’ll keep you posted on whether or not that helps, but the issue then became giving her the medication! It has a very strong ‘mint’ odor, so I’m sure it tastes strong too. I used the medicine syringe and put the first dose inside her mouth along side her cheek to reduce the amount of contact with her taste buds. Fail. She immediately spit it all out and began screaming, which seems to usually activate her reflux even more. She may not be able to say ‘yuck’ yet, but she certainly got the message across with her facial expression. PLan B. It was time for some ingenuity and good ‘ol fashion sneakiness. I remember reading this trick somewhere {maybe Pinterest?} but I couldn’t find the source when I went to look for it. Just know that this was not really my brain child and that someone out there is way smarter than me and deserves credit for thinking this up.
I took a pacifier {one of the giant ones with an open back that they gave us in the hospital} and made a cross-cut in the very tip. This is what a cross cut looks like – though I made my cuts even smaller.
Here’s our set-up. Medicine in the syringe, hole cut in the pacifier, and a baby {that last part is optional…. I mean, you could be someone who gets their kicks cutting holes in pacifiers, I don’t know?! sicko}
This was her before the medicine… I think she suspects some sneakiness is going on.
Keep in mind, this only works if your baby takes a pacifier {obviously} and is wanting one at that moment. Sometimes Charlotte refuses a pacifier and sometimes she loves it; we just got lucky with this experiment.
As soon as she latched on I injected the medicine into the bowl of the pacifier and she sucked it right down. Keep in mind, I didn’t squirt the medicine into her mouth through the hole in the pacifier – that would probably have made her choke. Instead, I put the medicine into the bowl and let her suck it out at her own pace.
If you try this technique be sure to pull the pacifier out once the medicine is all gone to prevent your kiddo from sucking down air. Also, be sure to wash the pacifier thoroughly to remove any medicine and to remove any lingering medicine taste, which might thwart your efforts if you try this technique again.
I am sure they are already in the air flying over the Atlantic as I write this, but here’s another video of Charlotte, complete with a baby sneeze, a dog bark, and a surprise appearance from her daddy.
Today we hunkered down inside while Sandy pounded the east coast. Our neighborhood doesn’t flood so we weren’t ‘stuck’, but still decided to stay in and have a snuggle day. Thank you God for protecting our friends and family during this storm that had the power to do so much more damage.
