Allie: 10 Weeks, D's 3rd Bday and Christmas

So in the last week we've had Dawson's 3rd Birthday and Christmas. We were very busy. Friday was D's 3rd Birthday and since we had already had his party a couple of weeks ago we just had a small family day and hung out. Then that night Santa Claus came (a day early) b/c Daniel was on shift Christmas Day and we wanted him to be home when the kids received their gifts. It was a great morning. Then we went to the grandparents house and received more gifts and then that evening we went to the great grands and received even more. Seriously my kids have more stuff than they could ever possibly play with. But it was a good Christmas. The family time and just being together is the best part of Christmas for me and it was a good time. Allie's first Christmas-well she slept through most of it. But I have pictures of it so she can enjoy it one day.

Allie turned 10 weeks old yesterday and she's definitely growing up already. She holds her head up so well when we do tummy time and she's always smiling and all of a sudden she's really into her toys. She just stares at them and I know it won't be long before she's grabbing for them. I noticed a flat spot on her head this past weekend so I took her to her pediatrician today just to make sure it was a positional issue and she agreed that it is. Since Allie's a good sleeper she pretty much lays in one position all night-hence the flat spot. We've got some exercises to do to make sure she doesn't always lay on that one spot and in 2 months we'll reevaluate. Her pediatrician thinks it should resolve, but if it doesn't we'll be looking at a helmet to correct it. It's not bad now, but if we don't do something now to work on it, it could get that way.

And that's pretty much all of the updates for now.

Allie: 8 and 9 weeks

Wow, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Not really in terms of having to do things but just with life in general. Allie is 9 weeks old today. She also had her 2 month well check today. My little girl is not very little!! She's already 23 3/4 inches long and wait for this...13.13 pounds. I have such a roly poly on my hands. Dawson is almost 3 (on Friday) and he only weighs 30 pounds. I have a string bean and a butterball.
Christmas is right around the corner and so is D's birthday.

Now something I could use some help with. When D was born I decided to do his vaccinations on a delayed schedule. This way he never received more than 2 shots at a time and sometimes only one if it was a combination shot. I've really been struggling with what to do for Allie. Today I allowed her to receive the rotavirus vaccination and the Hib vaccination. I absolutely do not want her to get the Dtap vacc until after she's 6 months old if at all. I didn't know this with D but apparently there are a lot of cases of SIDS occurring right after receiving this vaccine and that scares me beyond belief. She's not in daycare with no plans of daycare and neither is D. So what do you do for your child's vaccinations?

Always expect the unexpected.

Motherhood has a strange way of changing all of your plans. When you think you have it all figured it, BOOM it all changes. Friday night and Saturday morning it started. It crept back in. Postpartum something. Last time (with D) I thought it was postpartum depression...but actually I'm pretty sure it was postpartum anxiety. I had never heard of postpartum anxiety until a few weeks ago and when I read the symptoms they matched exactly what I experienced with D. An extreme fear that I would hurt him (unintentionally), mess him up in some way mentally, that I wasn't a good enough mother, etc. It took me a full year to admit that I had a problem and get help...around the time that my marriage was probably at it's darkest and I was definitely at my darkest. But, I picked up my boot straps made that ever needed doctors appointment and I was on the up swing from then on out. Then when I knew we would be trying for Allie I went off my medication and got pregnant very quickly. The first few months of my pregnancy with her were hard emotionally on me. I was very sick and tired and chasing after a 2 year old. I was drained. But it was completely situational and when I physically started to feel better I mentally did as well.

Well here we are now. The symptoms are back but different. I think this may be more of a depression less of a anxiety. I think a lot of it is related to the stress of having 2. I feel great physically so that's not it. It's definitely emotionally that I'm suffering. I called my doctor (the same one that held my hand through the rough time after D was born) and I'll go see him tomorrow. Probably back on medication, but I'm okay with that. Of course I have one question b/c it seems to correlate perfectly in timing....could birth control be causing depression? I've never correlated the two in the past...but literally a week and a half after starting back on yaz, I'm in a dark place emotionally. I'm a wreck...could that be it? I guess it could and I'll ask him tomorrow.

Allie: 7 weeks, What I've learned

With Dawson I had baby gear that I absolutely could not live without, a lot of that baby gear has carried over to Allie (b/c when pregnant with D we bought all gender neutral items so that we could reuse them) and now I've got a full fledged list of items that I could not have survived baby days without.

Source: target.com via Mandie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Mandie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Mandie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Mandie on Pinterest

Source: aloadofcraft.blogspot.com via Mandie on Pinterest

Source: fisher-price.com via Mandie on Pinterest

so let's see that's the rainforest portable swing (Allie LOVES this, D not so much) Dove sensitive skin soap b/c both my babies have sensitive eczema prone skin, aveeno lotion for the same reason, soothie pacis for Allie (D didn't like pacis), the rainforest bouncy which both of my babies have seemed to absolutely LOVE and the moby wrap (even though I made mine myself)

Babies and Sleep

So if you've been around here a while then you know that D did not sleep for 2 years. I'm talking up every 45 mins at night for TWO years. It was pretty rough. We co slept (and continue to do so) just so it was sorta bearable. A saving grace in that was that he did nap during the day (of course I was working so I didn't get the benefits of this except on Saturdays and Sundays.)I could actually put him down in the bassinet and get things done or mostly nap. Now here comes Allie. She sleeps pretty good at night. Only up once around 2:30-3 and again around 6:30-7 (for the day then.) I can totally be okay with that. However she doesn't nap well unless you're holding her. At this point in her life I've only ever been able to put her down for about 20 mins during a nap and she stay asleep. If you hold her you can get a couple of hours. Until today. I laid her on her belly. I know I know...controversial...but I co sleep with both of my babies so I'm already a controversy. She's been asleep now for about an hour. Dawson was begging me for attention verbally and non verbally and I had to do something. And it's worked so far. I wonder if this is a fluke. Guess we'll see.