Monday, December 5, 2011

21 Weeks

This week included another trip to the pediatrician, since Josie's cough had been getting worse and she then started to have some eye discharge too. Ryan had a skateboarding incident over Thanksgiving weekend, so he stayed home with Josie on Monday to take her to the pediatrician and so he could try to recover from his concussion. This was going to be the first full day he had watched her on his own, but I ended up coming home after lunch once I had enough time to question the judgment of leaving a sick baby home with a husband with a head injury ;) They were both doing just fine, but taking care of Josie doesn't usually leave much time for resting, which is more what Ryan needed (although being pressured into going to the doctor doesn't really lend itself to rest either, as Ryan astutely pointed out to me).

So Ryan took Josie to the pediatrician, where they confirmed that she had a cold, pinkeye, and an ear infection in her right ear again. Her congestion has come and gone throughout the week (and we've gotten more adept with the saline nose drops/bulb syringe combination), she was on antibiotic eye ointment for the week (with her eye looking much better within the first couple of days), and we'll be going back to the doctor in a couple weeks to check that her ear infection cleared up all right. It wasn't as bad as the first one, with just some fluid built up behind the eardrum, and since she hasn't been acting like her ear has been bothering her we'll hopefully get to avoid another round of amoxicillin - especially coming on the heels of being on the antibiotic eye ointment, we'd prefer to not have to have her on more medications since they don't seem to agree with her.

I don't know if she just had another growth spurt or if I'm just seeing it more now that daycare commented on it, but Josie seems to be noticeably bigger again. She did weigh in at 18lbs 10oz at the pediatrician, and I've suddenly realized all of her 0-3mo clothes really, really don't fit now, and her 3-6mo clothes are too small too. So now she's in 6-9mo clothes, and I actually had to go clothes shopping for her - everyone else has kept her well-outfitted so that I've just bought onesies and an outfit for special occasions, so this was the first time I had bought regular outfits for her. I got very little pink, but some of the stuff was still more cutesy than I would have expected I would get for her ;)

Miss Josie also got LOUD this week. She likes to make a lot of noise anyway, but this week she began shrieking. This is still adorable and quite funny, but can be a little startling ;) She is continuing to explore more with her hands, and started doing some more repetitive hand motions, including "shaking hands" - she was holding one of my fingers while she was nursing once, and kept moving her hand up and down so that we were shaking hands the whole time she was nursing - since she was giving me some dirty looks when I kept laughing at her, I don't think she found that nearly as amusing as I did ;)
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[Shaking hands]
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[Touching fingertips]

[Running through her various noises]


She has also started to hold onto the hand sanitizer when she's getting her diaper changed, which is also (of course) adorable:
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[Note the furrowed brow - clearly she thought I was not taking her needs seriously, since it was 4am and she just wanted me to get on with the diaper change so she could have some food]


One of the blogs I came across on a forum recently had a list of "things to remember". I think I've been pretty good about writing down (and trying to capture on video) the little things I'm going to miss, but as I found myself nodding along and getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic while reading through them, I thought I'd repost it here (with some added comments). The only things I'd really add are watching Josie sleep (I've found myself on more than one occasion recently just watching her peaceful face and just trying to drink in the sight of this wonderful little being that we brought into this world), and having her sleep on us, as I can't think of much that's better than having our little baby curled up and asleep on our chests.


    -Her baby stretch. It's gone now, already :( Arms so so high, fists balled, lips straight across, head arched back, bottom lip stuck out. I adored this. She did it from day one. [Josie has stopped doing this already too - sad, since it was so cute and I was never really successful at catching it on video]

    -Her "heh heh heh" sound that she would make when she was so eager to nurse. It's also gone. We would always laugh because it was sooo adorable. [Josie pretty much stopped doing this the day I tried to record it - she still will do it on the rare occasion though, and then I repeat it back to her and we end up sounding like Beavis and Butthead ;)]

    -Her "baby talk". It was like she was trying to "talk" extra soft and extra baby like. Little Ahh's and Gaaah's. She would do it oh so quiet and soft. It was like she sweet talk....also gone now. [Josie kills me with her quiet baby talk - she does these super-quiet raspberries when she's awake and waiting for me to get her out of her crib at night]

    -Her screeches. They are hardcore and shrill. Most would want to cover their ears but I just love them. We all laugh. The other week at the Nutcracker Market she went on for probably 30 minutes. We got laughs from others. haha [Ah, the screeching. Love it.]

    -The way we both just love staring at and admiring her.

    -The time right after waking up in the mornings. She is very quiet and touches all over Mommas face. Hands in my mouth, over my eyes, everywhere. I pretend like I am going to eat her fingers. She laughs [Josie has just started really doing this - gently exploring my face, grabbing onto Ryan's chin, sticking her hands in my mouth]

    -Her face mesmerized by mine. She just stares in amazement as to be thinking "My Momma is so pretty". She did it for almost a full 30 minutes while facing me in her Bjorn at the Nutcracker Market. My Mom even kept on commenting. I of course was thinking the same thing that I suspect she was ;) [I have not had this experience yet - I'm pretty sure she hasn't sat still long enough to have a chance to be mesmerized by anything ;)]

    -Her sleeping face, lips puckered...while I kiss them. [I haven't kissed her when she's asleep for fear of waking the beast, but she gets more than her fair share of kisses while she's awake though :)]

    -Nursing. [Yes. Also, Josie sleeping on me after nursing]
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    -The way she rushes back to nursing burying herself after briefly pulling away to look around. She also laughs at my face during nursing and gets too distracted to eat, so funny. [This kills me too - and also the face she gives me whenever she's done nursing and actually not asleep (which is normally the case). It looks like the picture below, although most of the cuteness is in the expression on her face, which you can't really see from the angle.]

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On a more serious note, this is a somewhat bittersweet time of year for me. I'm looking forward to the holidays and getting to spend them with family (and Josie, as it probably goes without saying), but it's also hard since about this time last year, we were in Rochester laying Ryan's beloved Grandma Dot to rest. All of my grandparents had died when I was still pretty young, and with Grandma Dot living with Ryan's parents just up the road from us for the last few years, I got to spend more time with her as she became my honorary grandma. I hope to never forget the times we spent with her, especially the evenings I went over to have dinner with her while Ryan's parents were out of town, and we would eat the entire meal holding hands.

I had so hoped that she would be able to meet Ryan's baby, but unfortunately she passed when I was about two months along with Josie. We had told her when I was about that far along in the first pregnancy, and I had never felt more like I was going to suffocate as I did then with all of the excited hugging :) That made it all the harder when we learned just days later that that baby had passed, so we struggled a bit with whether or not to tell her I was expecting again. We ultimately decided against it since it was pretty clear her health was failing, and we were afraid it would make her feel worse to know that she wouldn't be around by time Josie was born. So as we head into the holiday season, how much I miss Grandma Dot is reminding me again how important it is to hold close those who are dear to you.
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1 comment:

  1. Stacey,
    Thank you so much for the wonderful tribute to Gramma Dot. We all miss her.

    ReplyDelete