Physical Therapy: Day 1

Marlo met Andrea, her physical therapist today.  Andrea did an over all assessment to see Marlo's strengths and weaknesses.  Marlo isn't rolling over yet, and is not crawling.  Andrea and I discussed Marlo's daily activity as well as her overall disposition.  I emphasized that she is a VERY easy going baby.  She doesn't get pissed often.  If she can't reach a toy she claps her hands or starts playing with her toes.  She's content.  I love this about her.

But, according to Andrea and Marlo's pediatrician, she should be doing a bit more.  Andrea said that Marlo needs to strengthen her core and her upper body.  So, yes, basically, Marlo will be participating in baby pilates twice a week.  Marlo did not like the evaluation very much.  For a baby that rarely cries, she did a lot of crying.  But I suppose this was to be expected since she was being handled by a stranger and being forced to do core exercises for an hour.

Andrea gave me some "homework" to do with Marlo.  We worked on side sitting and balancing on our knees today.  She said that the cause of all of this is partly her disposition and partly not enough tummy time in early infancy.  (If anyone looks at Marlo's head, she has a perfectly round head! I was always putting her on her tummy!)  But, so be it. I guess during the afternoon she didn't get a lot of tummy time because that is when Liam plays outside so I usually had her in the sling. 

Either way, I'm looking forward to Marlo's sessions and hopefully in a couple of months I will have some great videos of Marlo rolling and  crawling to share.

The dreaded question: What's for dinner?

At the end of the day, when Joe gets home from work, I cringe when I hear the dreaded question: what's for dinner?  Joe usually gets home around 8 pm.  By this time in the evening, I've dealt with various tantrums throughout the day, am covered in crusty kid stuff, am surrounded by a mess in every direction, and if I'm lucky, both kids have been bathed and are sleeping.  On my unlucky days, one of them is still fighting going to bed.  The last thing I want to do is cook dinner.  Liam's dinners are pretty simple.  I make him pasta or give him chicken with rice.  His stuff I can make easily.  Liam and Marlo eat dinner around 6.  They can't wait until Joe gets home. 

On my good days, I have dinner prepped when the kids are napping or I've got something in the slow cooker so dinner is already done when Joe gets home.  Full disclosure, these good days happen about once every two weeks.  Sad, I know.   Usually, I end up hating cooking and putting the minimal amount of effort into it.  Or I tell Joe he can have a bowl of cereal or pick up take-out.  And I really want to have a good dinner ready for Joe when he gets home.  I just need to set myself up for a bit more success.  I would love to get some slow cooker recipes.  So if any of my readers have one or two to share, please do!  We like to keep it healthy, but are not afraid to indulge.  We eat everything!

This is the happy face I want to make when my dear husband asks, "What's for dinner?"

Demon voice...it always comes down to this

We are in one of those difficult phases with Liam.  Two steps forwards, two steps back; my life can easily be defined by these Paula Abdul lyrics.  I find myself telling him 6 or 7 times to do something before he does it.  And it's not like I'm asking him to do things that are beyond him.  I'm asking him to put his shoes on or brush his teeth.  Simple things he does every day.  So usually by repeat 6 I've had enough and demon voice comes out.  And, of course, he listens when I use demon voice.  But really?  Do I need to use demon voice in order for my son to listen to me?

He is also going through a major independent phase.  He wants to do EVERYTHING on his own.  Get this - just a few days ago, during outside playtime, Liam leads his buddy, Charlie, into the house.  This is not that uncommon, although the kids know that they should be playing outside.  So I went to go get the boys, and Liam had locked me out of the house!  Thankfully, I left the garage door unlocked and was able to get in that way.  Upon entering I found Liam and his buddy hiding under the kitchen table, bike helmets still on, scarfing down Halloween candy.  Pretty hilarious, but so not okay!  I'd also like to add that the candy was placed on the kitchen island, so Liam had to get on a bar stool and climb to the middle of the island in order to retrieve the candy.

Here is an in-action shot of  a flooring kicking tantrum.  I know, I'm an evil parent for documenting this.  I think I actually took it to send to Joe so he knew what kind of a day Liam and I were having.

Going back to the discipline drawing board  - so to speak.  Demon voice is unattractive.

And the chaos has begun!

Until this year, Liam didn't really "get" Halloween.  But, boy, the times have changed!  On Tuesday he kept reminding me that it was "one more day until Halloween" and on Wednesday, whenever I called him Liam, he corrected me and said, "Mom! I'm not Liam! I'm the Big Gardener!" 

Yesterday, by 9 pm, I was Halloweened out! I had been going strong with Halloween activities since the early AM.  To start the day off with fun and excitement, Liam and I made orange pancakes with chocolate sprinkles.

Silly pancake making face

The finished product

 

I then spent the morning cooking mac n' cheese for 30 kids for Liam's class party.  I didn't get a picture, but it was a crap load of mac n' cheese. 

 

The Halloween parade was pretty darn cute, but I had to fight through the crowd  of parents to snap my shot.

Liam chowed down big time at the class party.  And he was such a little gentleman at the table saying "please" and "thank you."  Two parents came up to me and complimented me on how well behaved Liam was.  I was thinking if they only knew the other side they'd think otherwise!

Yum!

Marlo even had a great time!  She met a baby Hulk and was quite smitten with him!

 

Baby Hulk, on the other hand, was a bit timid.

Liam was getting a bit antsy around 5 pm.  It was still too early to trick-or-treat, but the anticipation was building.  At 6 we went out and met some our neighbors.  Our block was such a wonderful place for Liam to spend Halloween.  He was darting back and forth from one friend's house to the next.  One of our neighbors cooked chili and made cornbread so I didn't even have to cook dinner!  The streets were bustling with happy children.  It was straight out of a story book.  

My mother-in-law came down to help me with the kids so she stayed at the house to pass out candy while Joe and I took Liam with a group of his friends from house to house.  We quit after an hour.  Liam could have gone on for much longer, but I was pooped!  But Liam even had a great time when we were inside and handing out candy.  He was in heaven!

 

I guess the chaos of Halloween has officially started!  No longer can I put Liam in a costume and sip wine at home.

 

Here are a few more pics!

 

  Marlo and her best gal-pal, Baby Gaby - of course Gaby was a Flower and Marlo was a Bee.

Liam at the school parade.

Marlo asleep at the school parade - her legs in those yellow tights got a LOT of attention!

One last picture of my cutie in his John Deere Gardening Costume!

Triple Whammy!

Today I took Marlo to her 9 month check up and we got hit with disappointing news.  For starters, I knew Marlo wasn't feeling great since she was extra fussy on Sunday during our flight home from vacation and she barely slept Sunday night.  She was up at all hours with a bad cough and a runny nose.  She was so stuffed up she couldn't even nurse.  I knew we had the appointment today so I held off on taking her in to the doctor yesterday.

 Turns out my girl has an awful ear infection (her first) and has RSV.  Poor thing has to be put on this breathing machine four times a day.  I just know she was miserable on our flight and feel so bad that I didn't see this coming.  Liam got sick for a couple of days over vacation and she must have caught something from him - it seems impossible to keep his germs away from her.

On top of this, Marlo is going to be seeing a pediatric physical therapist for gross motor delay.  She is still not rolling over and this concerns her doctor.  Her doctor isn't worried that she isn't crawling, but says most babies can at least roll over at this point. Additionally, I mentioned that Marlo uses her left hand 9 out of 10 times.  If a toy is placed on her right side she will reach over her body with her left hand to get the toy.  The doctor said that she is either a lefty or is just favoring the left hand for now.  I know everything will be fine with Marlo.  I'm sure the P.T. will teach me some things I can work on with her that will get her rolling all over the place.  But it is never easy to hear your  child is delayed. 

I also know that Marlo is just a very easy going and content baby.  I remember Liam would get really frustrated when he couldn't reach a toy and he learned to crawl at 6 months and hasn't stopped moving since then.  But Marlo is very different.  If she can't reach a toy she'll just move on to something else - clap her hands or look around for Liam and laugh at him.  But, of course, I am over thinking everything and wondering if I dropped the ball at some point.  I mean, Marlo is such an easy baby.  And it's been pretty awesome that she hasn't been on the move - makes my job a LOT easier.  Either way, better to be safe than sorry.  We see the P.T. on Monday and I'll report back with more news.

Here are a couple of pics from the doctor's office.

Marlo practicing "So Big."

Marlo going to town on the sanitary paper table cover.

Okay, not taken at the doctor's office, but I had to show off these ADORABLE leg warmers!!!

I'm hoping to post pictures from our vacation by the end of this week and give a little summary of our adventures!!!  Happy Halloween's Eve!

Holy Cow...vomistop works!!

Earlier this week I posted about using Vomistop to increase my milk supply since Marlo was leaving some nasty battle wounds on me from not getting enough of the good stuff.  I was a bit skeptical of vomistop because the lactation consultant said I would notice an increase in my milk production within 24-48 hours.  This seemed a bit soon from a drug with such a ridiculous name.  But, wow, there is a huge difference.  I'm not engorged or anything, but I can tell Marlo is so much more satisfied when she feeds.  Also the first night I took it, I was able to pump about 7ounces at 10 pm.  Usually at this time there is nothing left in me to pump since it's the end of the day and my supply should be at it's daily low. 

And the lacerations are almost completely healed.  It doesn't hurt to nurse anymore. Vomistop rocks!   I'm so glad I motivated to see the LC since we are leaving on Saturday for our week long vacation!  Having sore nipples is no way to start a family vacay!

I'll blog when I get back and post tons of pictures from our trip!  Leaving you with a cute video of my princess...

Vomistop?? Why not?

On Saturday we leave for our week long family vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We'll be staying in Rodanthe.  This vacation couldn't have come at a better time.  Joe has been sick for two weeks and my stress levels have hit the roof!  Obviously, I handle most of our life on the home-front, but Joe does help out a bit.  Since he's been sick, he's been of no help to me or the kids.  He's even been sleeping in the guest room so that he doesn't get Marlo or me sick.  I think the biggest help from Joe is when Liam wakes up during the night he will settle him back to sleep.  But with Joe being sick, this is one of my added duties.  For the past two weeks I've been waking up 4-5 times a night between both kids.  I am beyond exhausted.  It is the same kind of exhaustion that occurred right after my kids were born and I was breastfeeding around the clock.

(Spoiler alert...if you are squeamish or completely disgusted by breastfeeding talk - stop reading!)

A few days ago I realized that it hurt when I nursed Marlo.  After exclusively nursing for almost 9 months and this being my second go at it, I feel like I'm a professional breastfeeder.  I know what to do with thrush, mastitis, clogged ducts, bad latching, and the list goes on.  But I had two lacerations at the base of my nipples that were unlike anything I had ever seen before.  So, I decided to speak with a lactation consultant at Milkaclicious, a breastfeeding boutique in Aliso Viejo, to figure out what the nipple issue was.  The LC and owner of the boutique, Jennifer, was awesome.  She examined the ladies, watched Marlo nurse and discussed our feeding routines in depth.  We both noticed that Marlo pulled off really hard after the feeding  was complete; thus, she was creating the lacerations by pulling hard at the skin.  Jennifer said that babies do this when they are trying to eek out more milk.  Jennifer asked if I've been under stress lately and tired.  I jumped at that question and realized that the nursing issues started soon after Joe got sick and I became overly stressed and exhausted at home. 

Jennifer suggested that we increase my milk supply since stress was most likely taking a toll on me.  She gave me Vomistop, generic for Domperidome, an anti-nausea over-the-counter drug.  Well, it's over the counter in every other country, but the United States,  which Jennifer says is all about money and politics.  ERRRR...so she gave me a two week supply and I will be purchasing the rest from some online pharmacy in Canada.  She said unlike Fenugreek (a commonly used herbal remedy to increase milk supply), Vomistop does not enter the blood stream at all.  She used it herself for three years and said that I should notice an increase in my supply within 24-48 hours - awesome!

So, here's to hoping the Vomistop will do the trick and keep Marlo from her fierce pull-offs.  Sigh.  I've got to admit that I can't wait to be done breast feeding.  I remember feeling this way with Liam.  And then when I weened Liam and was pregnant with Marlo, I missed nursing and couldn't wait to start again.  I suppose it's a healthy cycle.  But man, the breast feeding exclusively road is a LONG, LONG road. 


Any other moms ever try Vomistop or Domperidone to increase milk supply? Please let me know how it went!