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!

Smiles :-)

We all had another big week last week.  Chelsea turned 1 month old on the 23rd and she is starting at act like a "little human" instead of a sack of potatoes!  Our favorite discovery is that she is starting to smile in reaction to us (not just gas pains)!  She smiled a couple times yesterday and has really started showing me her beautiful grin more and more today.  I am really hoping she decides to show ben her gums when he gets home from work.... and not in only a crying fashion :)

Chelsea is also showing so much interest in items around her.  She is really liking her playmat.  It has five toys hanging down over her, a mirror and some crinkly sounding items on the floor of the mat.  Reaching out and purposely touching an item hasn't come to her yet, but her arms and legs flail around and her eyes are locked on certain items.  I've also attached a hanging toy on her car seat that she really loves looking at. 

We are also upping her formula ounces to 4 per feeding.  She seems to drink the 3 ounce bottles very easily and is eating more frequently than normal.  Tonight will be her first 4 ounce bottle and we are hoping she keeps it down.  She is still waking up 1 - 2 times per night.  Hopefully upping her ounces to 4 will keep her to waking up only once. 

Friday we took her to a gathering with a bunch of friends.  she did so well.  It was so nice because our friends really wanted to hold her, feed her and Kjirsten even asked to change a diaper!  That helped out Ben and I a lot and we could hang out and enjoy ourselves without worrying about tending to her as much.  That night was my first night having multiple beers since her birth.  I had a great time, but the next morning was a little rough.  Saturday we attended Aiden's 5th birthday at a waterpark hotel.  Again, Chelsea was a perfect angel and lots of people helped us out by holding her.  Saturday was Ben's night to drink the multiple beers :)

I am on week 5 of my recovery from surgery and am starting to feel great!  My incision is still sore which keeps me from wearing anything but workout pants on a daily basis, but all in all I'm feeling great.  I have my post delivery doctor appointment on March 8th.  Hopefully my doctor gives me the go ahead to start working out again.  I am looking forward to shedding these last 10 pounds and fitting into my pre baby clothes once again!

Picture time!

Ben decided to put chelsea in the dog bed with the dog toys

Kjirsten and Chelsea

Kjirsten, Doug and Chelsea

One month old!

Beautiful girl

Ben and Chelsea trying out her new playmat

Chelsea lovin' her new playmat

Cris and Chelsea

Tammy and Chelsea

Roy and Chelsea



Babies Babies Babies Everywhere!

Our little girl is almost a month old already!  It's amazing how strong she is getting!  Chelsea is pretty much holding her head up on her own.  She is also starting to "find her voice."  I know some mom's out there are cringing when I say this.... I do NOT mean her crying voice.  She is finding her "babble" voices.  She makes some pretty random cute sounds as of late as if she is trying to talk to us.  I hope laughter and smiles are closely following.  All in all she seems (knock on wood) to be a pretty darn good baby.  She only cries when she wants food, is wet or wants to be cuddled a bit.  She also only wakes up two times between the hours of 10 and 7.  This has been very helpful for Ben and I.  we each take a "shift" overnight and get to sleep the entire rest of the night. 

I notice that I have not written a blog in about a week and there is so much that I could write about.  But - I will keep it "focused" on the most fun part of our week.  Chelsea (and Ben and I) got to meet three future friends of hers that are all under 7 months old :) 

We had the privilege to hang out with Madeline Hays (3 days old), Steven Buettner (6-7 months old) and Anne Peterson (6-7 months old).  Chuck and Andi welcomed Beautiful Madeline Hays into the world on Wed of last week.  Ben, Chelsea and I went to the hospital to visit them on Saturday.  It was so fun to FINALLY get to meet Baby Hays and spend a little time with Chuck and Andi.  Cari, Scott, Brett and Steven came over to our place as well on Saturday.  We had some fun "adult" time, but also lot of fun kid / baby time as well! 

We are officially members of the Lord of Life Church now, so decided it was time to take Chelsea to her first church service on Sunday.  She was such a good girl and slept the entire time.  Including when Ben took her out of her car seat and carried her up front during communion.  We ran into Mark and Brooke and family at this church service.  It was Anne's baptism day!  They invited us over to their house after her baptism to eat their food and drink their beer ...  Ok... well maybe to celebrate Anne's baptism, introduce Chelsea to the Peterson clan AND to eat their food and drink their beer :)  Anne looked absolutely beautiful and we feel lucky to have been able to spend some time with the family on her special day. 

Since I have LOTS of pictures to post I will wrap up the boring writing part of the blog and post the pictures... 

Chelsea dressed for her first stroller "walk" outside

Chuck holding Chelsea and me holding Madeline

Ben and Madelne

Chelsea at almost 1 month and Madeline at 3 days

Brett, Steven and Chelsea

Steven trying to get to Chelsea

Before Chelsea's first church service

Pretty girl all dressed up in her church clothes

Brooke, Anne, Chelsea and I

Mark, Anne, Ben and Chelsea

Laying in Anne's playmat