YAY!!!

We have finally found a pediatrician that we love love love!!!!!  what a relief!

Today was Chelsea's 2 month appointment.  The pediatrician spent a good 40 minutes with us, was attentive and so wonderful to all of us.  Chelsea weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces (75th percentile) and 23 1/2 inches long (90th percentile) and is very healthy.  Now I know why she seems to be growing out of her 3 month clothes already!  I have moved most of her 3 month clothes into a storage bin. we are starting to dress her in 3-6 month or 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers already.  I've realized that baby clothes are not consistent in sizing and even when washed & dried on the gentle cycle shrink easily.

 We had the pediatrician look at her skin and she said she does NOT have eczema.  We had self diagnosed Chelsea with heat rash a few weeks back and the pediatrician confirmed our suspicions.  Makes me upset that her old pediatrician diagnosed her so quickly without asking the right questions or really even knowing what he was looking at.  Chelsea is a little heater and we have to dress her very lightly.  As long as we keep her cool her rash doesn't show up. 

She received four vaccinations today as well.  The poor thing was screaming / crying after each shot.  After the shots were finished we gave her a bottle and then she settled down.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home and is still sleeping in the carseat in the living room (2 hours later!).  I hope she wakes up feeling good.  We have been forewarned that her temp can spike and she could be fussier than normal because of the vaccinations.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she does not have any reactions.  

2 months!

Today is Chelsea's 2 month birthday!  The little beauty is taking a nap on her bouncy seat at this very moment so I do not want to wake her to take her 2 month pictures.  I will take the pictures later today or tomorrow and post on Friday.  Friday is her 2 month well check visit at the doctor.  We are trying out a new pediatrician and are very excited about this clinic.  Friday is a big day for chelsea because she will be having several vaccinations.  I am NOT looking forward to the vaccinations and it will probably "hurt" me more than it will hurt her!  I AM looking forward to seeing how much she weighs now and how long she is.  I'm guessing 11.5 pounds and 22 inches?????

Last Saturday my parents came to spend the night and watch Chelsea for us.  Ben and I needed a night out just the two of us. This was the first time we have left her overnight.  We stayed in the Westin Galleria Hotel and it was absolutely beautiful.  The room was gigantic and the hotel was very nice.  We sat in the hot tub, walked the Galleria Mall, played some cards, went out to dinner and were fast asleep by 10:30.  The night went by way too fast and we are so appreciative of my parents to have given us the opportunity to have a date night. 

Monday was my niece Ariyanna's 2nd birthday.  I drove to Alexandria to hang out with my family and to help celebrate.  It was really nice to see everyone and to be able to be there for her big day.  The family went swimming at the Arrowwood water park and we had pizza and cake.  All 3 of my nieces looked like they had such an amazing time -- it was wonderful to see all the smiles on their faces.  Since Chelsea has pretty dry skin as is, I didn't want to bring her into the pool yet so I stayed on the "sidelines" to take pictures and tend to Chelsea.  I did change her into her swimsuit (thank you Cris!) and Jillian held her above the water.  My mom offered to have Chelsea sleep in her room Monday night so I could get a full night of sleep.  I slept from 10:00PM until 7Am!!! Ben, back in Maple Grove, was also able to sleep well since Chelsea and I were in Alexandria.  two out of three nights of wonderful sleep!  I could get used to that :-)

Chelsea and I drove back to the city Tuesday mid morning.  I subbed on a woman's volleyball team last night and Ben came to watch with Chelsea.  it was fun having a little cheering section.  I felt really good playing, did pretty well last night and had so much fun.  I really have missed playing indoor volleyball.  I am playing on a woman's outdoor team (at mama g's) this spring / summer starting in April.  Hopefully the weather warms up a tad before then!

Pictures Time :-)

Ben and Chelsea on her playmat

Alayna, Ari & Chelsea

Alyssa & Chelsea

 Jillian & Chelsea

Joel & Chelsea

A family trip down the waterslide!

Chelsea & I

Grandpa and Ari

Grandma & Chelsea

Jillian & Chelsea

Lazy Friday

I was just the middle of getting ready to go to Ridgedale with Chelsea and changed my mind.  We are NOT going to leave the house today!  Chelsea's had so many outings, chaos with people over and a trial day of daycare yesterday that I decided it would be good for both of us to just hang out at home today. 

Last Saturday we took Chelsea to a Baptism class at our church.  There were about 10 other couples there as well.  The pastor told us that our church does an average of 150 baptisms a year!  That is such a change for me because I grew up in a small town and am not use to the vast size of this church yet.  Chelsea's baptism is set for June.

Ben's 30th birthday was on Monday!  We ended up going on a walk, making a nice dinner and hanging out as a family at home  I ordered Ben the new IPAD (didn't think standing in line for three hours at best buy for a chance at getting one when they first came out was logical with an infant) for his gift but he won't get it for another two weeks.  It's a gift that he would never buy himself and completely deserves. 

Tuesday night I was asked to sub on a woman's volleyball team which I was very excited about.  It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be unfortunately.  I played ok but am definitely not as quick, scrappy or really able to jump well.  My abs are a long way away from being healed.  I guess it's just another negative of having a c section.  I've been asked to play again this coming up Tuesday so hopefully my strength only continues to improve. 

This week Chelsea and I also visited a few daycares around the area.  We are going to send her to daycare one day a week for socialization and to give mom some free time.  Two daycares have really stood out to me for completely different reasons and I'm really struggling on making a final decision on where we will be sending her.  She did go to one of them on Thursday for a free trial day.  She did so well and the daycare told me that she is a very, very good baby and they would be excited to have her there.  I took full advantage of the day she was at daycare by getting a massage, working out, getting lunch at jimmy johns, sitting in the hottub, walking the dogs and baking cookies.  One day a week of me being able to do whatever I want without bringing Chelsea with me everywhere will be a great refresher. 

We had people over last saturday night and Ben had some guys over to play ping pong last night as well.  It has been a very busy week for both us and Chelsea.  Time for me to log off, pick up my sweet baby girl and enjoy a day with no plans!

Video of Chelsa at 7 weeks old

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSx7Z_Kx5M

Video of Chelsea on her playmat at almost 7 weeks old!

deep breaths....

Today is my first ever close to anxiety attack over Chelsea's health and wellbeing.  Her rash is getting worse and her stomach upset seems to be getting worse as well.  I have a call in to our clinic's nurseline to ask them about formulas and what we should do.  Of course i'm antsy antsy antsy waiting to hear back from them.  As soon as I do I will be running to the store to purchase whatever they recommend!  my heart just breaks thinking that she could be very uncomfortable at this moment and can't communicate with me what is wrong.  I feel so helpless at this very moment.  I took some pictures this morning of her poor irritated face :( 



Eczema?

It's 9:00PM on Tuesday evening and I'm sitting here watching Ben spread Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy lotion on a confused infant's face and neck.  Chelsea has sported a blotchy red rash for awhile and it seems as if it's gotten worse as of late.  Initially we had thought it was baby acne and just left it alone.  I took her to the doctor today to have him take a look at the rash.  It has been diagnosed as Eczema at this time.  We are supposed to only bathe her twice a week and lotion her up daily. I have also bought some fragrance free 7th generation laundry soap to wash her clothes in.  Who knew baby Dreft has fragrance and irritants in it?!

 Hopefully this "treatment" does the trick.  I am not 100% convinced it is Eczema / severely dry irritated skin.  I am wondering if she is reacting to her formula as well.  We are going to put some gripe water in her bottles for a few days and see if that helps some other symptoms she is having.  If her skin doesn't clear up and her fussiness and gas don't go away by her 2 month appointment we'll question him about it again.  She hasn't been sleeping as well the past few days and seems very uncomfortable :(

On a more positive note...  I went to my 6 week (can you believe it's already been 6 weeks since Chelsea has joined us?!) post delivery check up today.  My infection has cleared up and I have gotten the OK to work out again!  I went to the health club after Ben got home from work tonight.  I started very slowly by biking for 30 minutes and going on the elliptical for 20 minutes at a slow pace.  It felt absolutely wonderful!  Hopefully I gain more energy now that I can workout and it benefits me at home with Chelsea. My doctor said it will take a full year for my body to fully "recover" from the surgery but if I listen to my body I am good to go at the health club, and most importantly, playing volleyball!

What else to write??  Chelsea's doing very well when I take her out and about with me - she generally sleeps the entire time.  Chelsea now weighs 10 pounds 8 ounces.  Ben and I have been pretty sleepy the past few days because of her not wanting to sleep as much as normal. Mina has been "sucking up" to me big time by following me around and by climbing up on me and giving me lot of doggy kisses.  Poor thing must be missing mom's total attention :(  I've been lucky to have been able to meet up with some friends for lunches / dinners the past week.  It's so nice to be able to get some occasional "adult time" in.  Ben's Wed night Co-Ed volleyball team won their volleyball league (out of 12 teams).  Coborn's grocery delivery has become out new best friend :-)

Chelsea sitting on our living room couch

Chelsea wearing some pretty headbands our friend Cris made for her



Advancement & Setback

Lets start with the good news.  Chelsea is FINALLY sleeping in her crib! She has slept in the nursery the past two nights and has taken many of her daytime naps in the crib.  She really likes her vibrating chair bouncy seat thing to nap in as well. This is a big deal for us because we can now get about half the baby stuff OUT of our living room!  We still have a swing and a playmat in the living room, but it feels like we have so much more room now that the pack and play has been taken out.  It is amazing what "things"  I get excited about now that I'm a mom :-)

Now the bad news.  The area around my incision (from the CSsection Surgery) has been sore the past couple days.  I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I just wrote it off as part of my recovery.  I woke up this morning and it was even more painful and no matter how baggy and soft my pants are they still irritated it badly.  I figured that calling the nurse line would be helpful and maybe they could give me some hints on how to make this part of the recovery a little easier.  Well, after calling the nurseline my doctor called me back and requested that I come in immediately.  Thank goodness my parents are in town so they could stay with Chelsea while I ran to the doctor's office.  It is much easier to not have to get her ready to go somewhere and tote her along. 

I walked out of the doctor's office with the diagnosis of an infection at / around the incision site and a prescription for an antibiotic.  I really hope the antibiotic kicks in fast because the irritation is driving me crazy.  It's tough to do anything active around the house (cleaning, cooking, picking up, playing with Chelsea, etc.) and even hurts to feed chelsea since she sits on a pillow during the feedings that I put on my lap which rubs against the incision.  I've been trying to just sit on the couch for the past hour and rest but I am so antsy and eyeing the dishwasher that needs to be emptied.  I'm horrible at "recovering" correctly.  I also am so excited about getting the green light next Tuesday to resume normal activities 100% so hopefully this is NOT a set back. 

Finally in the crib!

Chelsea's favorite napping place!