Eating and Bouncing

Paige has rebounded from a rough week rather well. When I began to wean her from her reflux medicine things went down hill quickly and we had a return of the screaming feeding sessions. Guess she needs the meds more than I originally thought. After a talk with her GI (I'm glad they have a great nurses line!) it turns out her recent weight gain means she actually needs a larger dose of medicine. After four days of the new dose we're back in the swing of things.

In other news, Paige continues to enjoy solid foods. She LOVES peas and just yesterday ate her first Mum-Mum (a rice husk snack--after a few trips to the mouth it turns into a soggy cracker). This afternoon we're going to break out the mesh treat holder and try some real banana.


I'm also SUPER excited to announce that we've temporarily inherited a Bjorn bouncy seat from Caroline!! While Paige enjoyed her previous bouncy seat, she couldn't sit as up right as she liked. Recently she was becoming fussy after short spurts of sitting in it; perhaps it was irritating her stomach to sit in a crunched position? Who knows. Caroline found her Bjorn bouncer at a consignment sale and I've coveted it for some time--I just couldn't bring myself to spend $$$ on getting a new one of our own. After two failed attempts to procure one through both Craigslist and eBay, Caroline called on Thursday to say she no longer needed hers. Paige is in heaven. She's been happily sitting and bouncing away for two days now. Caroline, you're a life saver!

Play Hard

During a quick visit to San Antonio this week, the girls got to break in the new playground that Grandpa Righter built for them. To call it a swing-set would be an understatement. You could barely pry Reese off of it during our visit. Much to our surprise, she eagerly climbed the stairs, crossed the bridge and enjoyed the view from the tree house. You really outdid yourself, Grandpa!

Rodeo

Austin's annual rodeo is held every March and usually coincides with SXSW and Spring Break. Because most of Austin spends spring break either filling their forearms with wristbands and wandering downtown seeing bands or killing their brain cells in drinking binges away from UT's campus, the rodeo is a fairly tame and slightly under-attended event. It's not a large rodeo by Texas standards, but it's still got all the classic components; namely a BBQ cook off, a stock show, lots of tractors, and a carnival with questionably safe rides.

Kevin and I got hooked on attending the rodeo about six years ago when we learned about the BBQ cook-off. The concept is genius: during the course of two days teams compete in a variety of food and drink categories. Their entries are judged by a panel, but their fare is open for the public to enjoy. Basically, you pay the rodeo admission fee and you can wander from tent to tent all day sampling all the BBQ and beer you can stomach. You are encouraged to make donations at each tent you visit and all the money that is raised goes toward scholarships. As young, childless adults Kevin and I would spend all day tossing singles in jars and stuffing ourselves silly; it was basically the only part of the rodeo we bothered to visit....Let's just say the rodeo is a totally different experience with children in tow.

While we took Reese to the rodeo last year as well, she was very excited to visit it again this year. We left Paige home with Aunt Kim and set out with our little cowgirl in tow.
Back story on the outfit: At Reese's baby shower I was given a beautiful modern cowgirl outfit (courtesy of Courtney Johnson and Ramonster). Reese finally grew into this winter and was anxious for a warm weather occasion to sport it. In combination with her cowboy hat from Christmas she made quite a cowgirl. Notice the purple socks that she insisted "match perfect!"

At the rodeo Reese took in all the sights. Our first stops were the petting zoo (full of mainly deer and goats this year) and the cow milking demonstration. We took a LONG stroll through the stock yards where Reese was fascinated by the cows. She wanted NOTHING to do with the miniature ponies but apparently the GIANT bovines didn't bother her.


For lunch Reese polished of a corn dog and we headed to the carnival. With Reese's age and height we planned on killing time checking out the carnival rides until the BBQ cook off began at noon. To our surprise, though, Reese was willing and able to ride quite a few rides.

(She was technically an inch too short to ride most of them unaccompanied, but most of the operators weren't exactly thorough with their height checks and as one lady said, "With the cowgirl hat on she qualifies.") All of the rides she chose were a variation of the same thing: crawl into an object (either vehicle or animal related), sit down, buckle up, and go around in a circle four or five times. She is definitely NOT her daddy's girl when it comes to spinning rides--I thought he might get queasy just watching her go around so many times.

She didn't loose her lunch in the process of enjoying the carnival and we made two stops at the BBQ cook off for beer and brisket for mommy and daddy before calling it a day.
We made it home with a cranky cowgirl just in time for her afternoon nap, but of course she wasn't the least bit sleepy if you asked her....

Our Little Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Patient Patient

Perhaps it speaks to the number of trips we've made to the pediatrician this winter, but here's some photos of Reese playing doctor to Paige. She's really got the process down: she warms the stethoscope before placing it on her patient's chest and even makes all the corresponding sound effects. Apparently Paige needed a shot today. Luckily Paige either is the right age or the right personality to endure regular check ups from Dr Reese.

Still holding...

Just a quick note to say that things continue to go well with Paige. I started trying to wean her off her reflux medicine this week, but after two days the results are mixed so we're going to continue using it for awhile. It's likely a condition she will outgrow soon anyway, and if she continues to gain weight her current dose will become gradually less effective and act like a weaning anyway. She continues to eat well, sleep much better (almost predictably), and poop by herself. I've started her on solids and she's now gobbling up pears, rice cereal (strangely her favorite), and squash at breakfast and dinner time. She seems much more eager about solids at this age than Reese and she'll likely be eating them three times a day in the next few weeks. She also has gained more than half a pound in less than a week! Suddenly, the 3 month clothes are entirely too small and she's filling out her 6 month clothes easily. Way to go baby girl!

I won't hold my breath, but....

Paige's soy formula is still doing the trick for her! She's eating almost 30 oz per day now with ZERO screaming!
AND, while this morning's nap was extra short, all aggravation about it was temporarily erased when I realized that Paige had woken up because she had pooped her diaper ALL BY HERSELF--for the first time in months!!
Please let these trends continue....

The Paige Saga Continues...

First, a little background on Reese that may prove related to our struggles with Paige:
As previously blogged about, when Reese was born she was a terrible breast feeder. She ended up eating pumped breast milk in a bottle for the first four months of her life. Whether related to her tummy and eating or not, Reese also had terrible colic. She screamed day and night and was never happy unless being held (awake or asleep). Around two months old, she began having eating issues--rejecting the bottle mainly--and her bowel movements (while regular) started to change consistency. Eventually we tried an over the counter hypoallergenic formula, and within days her eating issues were solved. Reese stayed on the special formula for several months and we very gradually weaned her on to regular formula. Until recently, milk has always given her tummy issues; namely constipation. I never thought the day would come that I wasn't dosing her with Miralax daily. Finally, she seems to love, and handle, milk products withe ease.

But back to Paige...
When I wrote recently about having perspective with Paige and her eating things were starting to go down hill again. She was rejecting her hypoallergenic formula day and night and there was lots of fussing. I would put the bottle in her mouth, she would suck a few times, sometimes for up to a minute, then she'd pull away and start screaming. She'd straighten her legs, arch her back, pull her legs in and accept nothing except a pacifier. She was getting plenty of rest in her swing for naps but her night sleep was becoming more disturbed and irregular in her bed. Her bad gas came back, her bowels became more mucousy and she was generally unhappy. I took her back to the pediatrician to rule out a virus or ear infection and when they couldn't find anything they spoke to our GI. He recommended upping her reflux medicine dose as well as giving prescription formula a try.
The two theories now:
1. She has REALLY bad reflux and needed a higher dose of meds since she's gained a little weight. (Possible, but with all her bowel issues, I doubt this is the whole culprit.)
2. The broken down milk proteins in the hypoallergenic formula we were feeding her had accumulated in her system and were again giving her problems.

Our GI generously gave us 3 cans of sample prescription formula (a $$$ value) and I crossed my fingers it would be our magic bullet.

The week that followed was full of battles: battles with Paige to get her to eat (she was back to eating 10-12 oz/24 hours and would go 5-8 hours both day and night without eating anything), battles with the insurance company to convince them that Texas law mandates that they cover this new prescription formula, and battles with the pharmacy to order the new formula. I literally spent the greater part of two and half days yelling at insurance customer service reps, pharmacy techs, and anyone who got near me. Yes, that sometimes meant Kevin and the kids. Not my best week of parenting or marital bliss. Many apologies later, I picked up 10 cans of formula at our pharmacy on Friday.

The battle was all for not, however. Paige continued to reject all food all week. The new prescription formula was extremely thin, almost the consistency of water and there was lots of spitting, gagging, and crying at every feed. I tried slower flow nipples, making the bottles warmer, colder, feeding smaller amounts more frequently, feeding in a quiet room, you name it I tried it. I called our GI on Friday desperate and out of my mind. His nurse informed me that the prescription formula tastes terrible and that maybe we should try mixing it 50/50 with something else to make it more palatable. "But mix it with what exactly?" I was thinking. I didn't want to return to the hypoallergenic formula that had just been making her miserable, so my only alternative was soy.

After two days of mixing soy and prescription formula I got lazy and tried a few bottles of soy only. I hate to jinx myself (since I've had my hopes up before), but this could REALLY be our cure for Paige. She seems to LOVE it! She hasn't eaten less than 5 oz per feeding since I started giving her the soy and last night she ate 7oz before bed! I couldn't believe it. More that than, her feedings are "normal." By that I mean that I put the bottle in her mouth and she eats until she's full. It doesn't take an hour to sip by sip get her to take 2 oz. Just last night in her bedtime feeding and two night feedings (midnight and 3AM) she had 15oz. And, her gassiness is virtually gone.

Her bowel movements are still a toss up, but after another consult with our GI yesterday we're going to try to see if Miralax can get her going on her own. I've got plenty of experience with that stuff... fingers crossed.


In other Paige sleeping news:

Paige is done with the swing and swaddle. Compounding all of Paige's eating issues were her sleep issues. For the last several weeks Paige has been busting out of her comforting swaddle. The second her hand hit her face, all bets on sleep were off. We were doing our absolute best to keep her well rested in anyway possible so that we could be sure her eating issues weren't a result of cranky over-tiredness, but it was becoming exhausting to deal with.

So..now that her eating is straightening itself out, we've decided it's time to abandon the swaddle and do some sleep training. We're only three agonizing days into listening to her cry and try to self soothe, but we're already starting to see small improvements. She's beginning to suck her fingers for comfort, and there's no more hours of rocking her to sleep. So far it's taken a lot of self-talk ("You're helping her learn an important life skill,"; "She's old enough to handle this now,"; "You know that medically there's nothing wrong with her") to be consistent, but memories of how this same process helped Reese keep me going. That, and lots of coffee in the morning and wine before bed...

Hook 'Em

Reese came up to me today and said, "Look Mommy, it's my Texas!"
Since football season has ended we haven't been big on pushing our team spirit, so I was caught off guard with what I saw. Check out our little longhorn!

Noisy Girl

About two weeks ago Paige started "talking" to us. Now when she's well-rested she is a total chatterbox. She doesn't just coo or babble, she screeches. The other day she made her "happy sounds" for over an hour straight while playing. I tried to catch some of them on video. This sample isn't very good since she was distracted by the camera, but it gives you a small sampling of our chatty girl. Add these screeches to Reese's constant commentary and I am only beginning to grasp how loud our house is going to be for the next 16 years or so...

On The Move

While Reese has been riding her tricycle regularly since her birthday in August, she just mastered riding it without assistance last week. Until now, Mommy or Daddy have been pushing her or helping her steer using the long handle that attaches behind the trike. After a few slow-moving trials during our recent walks, Reese picked up on riding quickly. Now she can be found tearing around the house in a circuit down the hall and through the kitchen and she loves riding around the block. If it weren't for Paige's impending naps and/or feedings, she'd probably spend all afternoon riding around the neighborhood.



Reese also received another "car" from Grandma Bailey during a recent visit. We've dubbed it her "worm car" and she's taken it around the block as well as all over our house.