Updates

I ended up having to bring Margaret in to her pediatricians' office Tuesday. She got really inconsolable Monday night and Tuesday, so they wanted to see her. Just a stomach bug was the diagnosis, and fortunately, no other symptoms to worry about. But I was advised to switch her to soy formula for a few days to give her digestive system a chance to recover. I guess when babies get stomach bugs like this, it tends to kill off the parts of their digestive system that break down lactose. Making sure she's not taking in any lactose gives it a chance to rebuild. The soy did the trick but when I tried to switch her back to her old formula (Enfamil Gentlease) this afternoon, she almost immediately ended up with diarrhea again. Back to soy...

I'm wondering if we might have to stick with soy. She's had problems with gas and fussiness since birth, so I'm wondering if she has an undiagnosed milk protein or lactose intolerance because she continues to gain weight in spite of these feeding issues. She did really well on Gentlease (1/4 the lactose of normal cow's milk formula) but is doing even better on soy, so maybe that's the problem. I was hesitant to use it at first because of the controversy out there about everything with soy, including the long-term effects of the phytoestrogens in soy and the link I read about between soy and peanut allergies (they are in the same family, after all). But soy has been on the market since the early 60s. It can't be that bad, can it? And if she does even better on that, shouldn't I give her what she's best able to digest?

We had Margaret's 4 month appointment today. She now weighs 19 lbs 3.5 oz and she is 26 inches long. She continues to be off the charts, although she's getting further off for weight now. Her doctor wants us to cut back on how much formula she's taking in. She's been taking in 36 oz/day in 6 feedings of 6 oz per day for the last couple months. In the last few weeks, she's started acting hungry even after finishing. But I was afraid of giving her too much formula, so I did not increase her intake. Now I'm supposed to cut back, 1-2 ounces per feeding! The last few nights we've started having a hard time getting her up for her 9:30/10PM feeding, so I'm going to try to drop one feeding a day (so she'll have 5 6-oz bottles for a total of 30 oz/day). But I have my doubts it will work.

On top of that, her doctor wants me to start rice cereal. I did not even ask him about this, as I wanted to wait until 6 months to introduce solids because of the potential risk of food allergies from early introduction, as well as the AAP recommendation to wait that long. I'm a bit surprised her doctor would recommend starting now - especially since he's a young doctor, so he's been through med school fairly recently and I'm sure they discussed these newer guidelines of waiting longer. Margaret also had a mild case of eczema when I saw him last month, so I asked him if that meant she was more likely to develop food allergies. He felt that her case was so mild that it was probably more irritant-related than indicative of future problems with foods. I hope he's right. Regardless, I'm waiting until we figure out the formula thing before I add solids. I also plan on skipping cereals, since they basically are sugar in the body and therefore of no nutritional value. If I can hold out until she's 5 months old, I'll probably be okay with it. That's a compromise I can live with. But I also think she won't be happy with the decreased formula unless she's eating solids, too, so I may have no choice in the matter.

Tonight's the first night of cutting 1 feeding. We got her down for the night by about 9PM, when she normally isn't down until 10/10:30PM. I have a feeling I'll be up by 4AM, but I'm hoping for the best.

Poor Sick Baby

Once again, Margaret is sick. Although she doesn't seem to be bothered by it and she really only has one symptom, her *lovely* explosive diarrhea has been quite the thing to deal with these past couple of days. It started on Saturday (fortunately, my MIL did not have to deal with it) with 2 incidences. Sunday it happened four times. Today once. Of these 7 incidences, 4 managed to leak out of the diaper. Yeah, LOTS of fun there. There's no fever and she's acting pretty normally (except for the hour or so of screaming she did tonight), so it's probably just a stomach bug. I called her pediatricians' office today just to check with them as to what they wanted me to do, but they were both out. The nurse felt that it wasn't too serious of a situation and advised me to keep doing what I'm doing and call back tomorrow morning. I read online to dilute the formula to 1/4 or 1/2 strength in the beginning (I've been doing 1/2 strength today) and to add some Pedialyte, which her doctors did recommend in case she got diarrhea the last time she was sick. I'm not thrilled about the sucralose in the Pedialyte, but I need to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated so I have been using about 1 oz per bottle. Seeing as she was down to one occurance today, I'm hoping this means she's almost over it. However, I did read that diarrhea in infants tends to last 1-2 weeks!!!

Looks like I will have an extended weekend on top of my already long weekend due to Columbus Day: Margaret can't return to daycare until the diarrhea has been gone for 24 hours. Then again, it's not like it's a vacation for me. She is very clingy right now so I can't get anything done without backup, and Brian has been working 11-12 hour days lately so I don't get backup until pretty late in the day. I just hope she feels better soon...

Neighbor Vent

A little history first. We live on the 1st floor of a 3 family house that we used to own. We purchased it in 2001 about 6 months after we got married. (There's a bigger story there, but that's not the point.) After having issues with problem tenants, and frequent vacancies, we decided in 2003 to take advantage of the rapid appreciation in the market and we sold the house. We weren't planning on buying again right away, but we had issues finding an apartment with our dog, so the new owner allowed us to rent the same apartment we were living in on a month-to-month basis. Technically, the same tenants are in the house as there were when we sold the house, with some minor changes. The third floor was originally a single girl, and it was explained to her that only she was approved to live there. I don't know what her arrangements were with the landlord, but first a guy moved in with her, then she moved out and her boyfriend moved in with the guy who was here. These people leave exterior doors propped open all the time, the Bilco doors unlocked, have been stacking wooden furniture right next to our gas furnace, and like to leave their garbage pail out at the road nearly the entire week. They're slobs and inconsiderate. But I ignored them and expected the same from them.

Back in July, we purchased a new washer and dryer because our dryer was no longer fuctioning properly. Our set was a used one that my parents bought us when we got the house. The dryer started to sound like I was running cycles full of rocks, so we decided to replace both at the same time. We got a nice front loader set (pretty much the cheapest one we could get, but still nicer than what we had). We decided to hold on to our old washer though to use for Brian's filthy clothes he wears when he's working on his vehicles. We moved it to the left of the new washer and left it there.

Tonight I went down to the basement to run a load of wash and found that our old washer had been hooked up to the 3rd floor hookups and they were running this dryer they had down there for a year now (not previously hooked up) without a vent. Soooo many things wrong with this picture. Number one, they basically just took our washer without asking and started using it. That's pretty ballsy. I told Brian about it and he went down there and disconnected it, turning it back to the side and throwing out the drain tube (that was ours) so they couldn't connect it back up. Number two, running a dryer without a vent is a fire hazzard. And this dryer is right in front of our furnace. Fortunately, the furnace isn't on currently (we shut it down for the summer). But if you're going to do something that is a fire hazzard, it's not a good idea to do it in front of a gas furnace that normally has a pilot light on all the time. No brains here, obviously.

I'm pretty pissed off. I try to mind my own business and I've never been one to complain to the landlord. But this is pretty bad. I won't say anything about the washer to him, but I do think I will mention the dryer set up since he can get in a lot of trouble if the fire marshal finds that during his next inspection.

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I'm sure you're all wondering about the wedding today. I'll keep it short. We were 10 minutes late. They are married. Margaret spent the day with my MIL and sisters-in-law so we could have fun at the reception (and she did very well for them). We danced. Came home. Margaret had a lovely poopy diaper blowout. We went to my parents' house for the party afterwards. And now we're home again. I'm glad it's over!! It was kind of nice to not have to worry about anything today, though. It wasn't my day, after all. ;)

One Down, One To Go

Survived the rehearsal. She was late.. Figures. The minister did tease her about not being late tomorrow. We had to practice walking down the aisle twice because the other girls couldn't understand how to walk slowly enough. It's a very small church so they want to stretch it out a bit. Then we had to practice walking out with the guys. Then the vows. The minister was about to leave without even telling us where we could get ready, and my sister wasn't going to ask. I kind of pushed her to do it, though. She needs to learn to speak up for herself. My mom thinks I'm crazy because I said Kelly should wait to get dressed until she gets to the church because it's supposed to pour tomorrow. Hopefully they'll listen to me. I know I won't get dressed until I'm there, under the circumstances.

At the very last minute, they changed where the rehearsal dinner would be. Chinese buffet. Pretty low class place. Our grandparents weren't even invited, even though they should have been.

It looks like I am going to her house tomorrow morning. My cousin's husband will swing by to pick me up and drop us off at my parents' house. My brother will be driving my sister, cousin, and myself to the church. Hopefully, I can use this to make sure we get there on time!

Brian will be on his own with Margaret... And if she's anything like she has been today, good luck to him!! She's been super cranky. And refusing to eat. No fever and she's not stuffed up or anything so I don't think she's sick. Just cranky (although not crying a lot...just not cooperating). We'll probably drop her off at my MIL's house on the way to the reception. Good luck to her, too! She's never watched Margaret before so this should be interesting! It's only one day...it shouldn't affect her permanently, right? ;)

A Lot On My Mind

With how busy I've been lately, I have a lot on my mind and no time to think it all out. Brian has been working 60+ hours a week right now, as well as 6 days a week. He leaves by 7:30AM and usually isn't home until 7:30PM or so. I have very little time to myself these days. Once he gets home, I have to make dinner, then I have to clean up from dinner and wash all of Margaret's bottles while he takes care of her last feeding of the day. He puts her down for the night, and I'm still taking care of the things that need to be done. Most nights, I don't get to go to sleep until 11 or 11:30PM. Then I'm up again at 6AM and the cycle starts all over again. I'm exhausted and starting to get frantic about all the things I need to do that aren't getting done. But alas, this is the life of a mommy.

My sister's wedding is in 2 days. I am the matron of honor in this wedding. It will be a very busy next 2 days and I'm looking forward to it being over. I ended up being her wedding planner, making many of her decisions for her. I also was responsible for making the bouquets, something I wasn't able to finish sooner because I could not get her to decide on the ribbon she wanted. Now, with 2 days to go, I still have to finish them. There just hasn't been any time. Brian has promised to take care of dinner and Margaret tonight so I can take care of that.

I feel like I'm falling apart. First my neck was bothering me for a few days last week. It spread into my right shoulder when I turned my head certain ways. Now, I'm having pain in my right ribcage just under the bust on the side. It doesn't hurt when I touch it - the pain is from within. It's worse when I breathe deeply, cough, and when I sit/lay in certain positions. Last night, I was only able to get sleep by taking Tylenol and laying on my left side. By morning, it was gone... but it's starting up again. I have no idea what it could be, and no time to address it right now. I know that's highly irresponsible, but it's the truth. I'm also secretly hoping it will go away on its own. Then that would mean it wasn't anything serious, right?

Somebody has been smoking in the 3 family house in which we reside. I can smell it in our apartment and I can't seem to get the smell out of my nose. It's making me sick to my stomach and I don't know what to do about it. Brian insists he doesn't smell it and that I'm being oversensitive. Perhaps he's right since I can still smell it now and I'm at work... But it bothers me. If I can smell it, that means Margaret is breathing it in. I'm not happy about that at all. I go to great lengths to avoid smokers for her health, and it just plain sucks that after all my efforts, she gets exposed in our own home. Unfortunately, we can't afford to move right now. And even if we could, there is no way to escape what others do outside their own homes anyway. Unless you're in the middle of a large piece of land, you can't escape it. It's frustrating and irritating to be so helpless like this when my daughter's health is at stake. And it's everywhere we go. People in cars next to you at traffic lights, people in front of stores you want to shop in, people just walking by your house... and the worst are the people who do it with their children right there, held captive by their parents and forced to smoke. That should be considered child endangerment. There should be criminal charges and consequences for that. (SIGH)

So many more random thoughts, so little time....

im·ma·ture

adj.
Not fully grown or developed. See Synonyms at young.
Marked by or suggesting a lack of normal maturity: silly, immature behavior (as defined by dictionary.com)

One expects that once s/he reaches adulthood, exposure to immature behavior would be minimized. Those catty cliques from adolescence would dissipate and the participants would grow up. I guess these expectations only live on in our imaginations, however, because it appears that as one grows older, the immaturity of others intensifies. The catty behavior grows into downright cruelty. And the victims suffer greatly.

I have recently witnessed some of these attacks by immature adults. I am appalled at the lengths one would go through to subject another to such cruelty. And disappointed. When in the evolution of humankind did we derail this way? When was it determined that some would, rather than mature as they age, instead regress to childhood, and hence perpetually remain in that infantile mental state?

Regardless of how it has occurred, it pains me so to see one subjected to this unnecessary behavior. A great friend of mine has suffered much in her life, and in no way deserves what she has received from these vicious character attacks. I stand by her and ask that those who are her true friends do the same.

After all, how would you feel if you were the victim and your friends turned away from you in your time of need?

A Day At The Fair

Margaret went to her first fair today. It was actually my birthday present since Brian isn't a fan of fairs (doesn't like the smell of the animals). Since it was my birthday, though, he agreed to go. Margaret was more interested in the people than the animals, but she behaved really well. I didn't HAVE to take her out of the stroller at any point like I usually have to when we're at the mall. But I did take her out in the animal buildings so she'd have a better look at them. Maybe next year she'll appreciate it more. In any case, the weather was beautiful. It was the perfect day to go to the fair. Skies were blue and cloudless and the temps got up to almost 80 degrees. So unlike an October day, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We even went for a walk at the nature preserve with our dog Becky in the afternoon.