A Moving Experience

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WE HAVE MOVED!

I'll get to the move (to a new address) in a bit (or perhaps in the next blog post), but for now, I'm sure that you want to hear about some of Claire's new goings-on, so let's start at the beginning (always the best place to start, in my most humble opinion) - but not the VERY beginning.

DISCLAIMER - This blog post has tons of fun/interesting videos included, but not a whole ton of pictures. Sorry :-)

BACK TO WORK

Back in January, Jen's maternity leave had finally expired, which left me at home as Mr. Mom (officially) full time. As a Dad, I thought, "No problem. I've got this! I already have 4 months of experience. She eats well, she naps well, we've worked through the hard parts (surgeries). I've got this!"

More and more, I'm finding that (and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking these thoughts as a first time parent) the "plan" is always different than the actual "event".

Perhaps a bit of first-time parent naivety. Perhaps a bit of over-confidence.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - There is NOTHING that can prepare you for the train wreck that is having a new child at home. The train is going to crash, and you think you're prepared for said crash, but you're not.



As cute as Thomas the Train is, the baby Train Wreck is a little more like the one in "The Fugitive". Click HERE to see the scene. As always, the video should open up in a new window. If not, just press "Back" when it's finished.

Claire has been a little bit of an extra challenge from the very beginning. Aside from all of the other issues (fully covered in previous posts), she had been suffering from a severe case of (what we thought was) colic, which, if you've dealt with this before, you know is unbearable, frustrating, and exhausting it can be.

THE SCIENCE LESSON

Around Christmas, Claire had a very disgusting episode (and we'll leave it at that), which prompted Jen to do a little bit of research on the internet.

In her search, she found ONE (and not on a medical webpage) reference to one possible cause of the problems we'd been experiencing.

When a mom makes breast milk, and the milk is expressed, there are two types of milk that are delivered to the baby.

The foremilk, is the first milk that comes out (if breast feeding, this is the first milk that the baby would ingest). This milk is watery, and is a bit bluish in color. It is abundant in carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins, but it also provides the laxatives necessary to prevent constipation.

The hindmilk is the milk that comes out after all of the foremilk has been expressed. This milk is very calorie heavy, has a ton more fat, and is much thicker and darker in color (more the white coloring that we're all used to with milk).


The longer the mom waits between feedings (in our case, pumping - say, 10pm-6am), the more foremilk is produced - causing an imbalance (essentially providing the baby with too much laxative - surely you can imagine the effects of having too much laxative in a baby's tummy could/would cause).

So, Jen came up with the idea (approved of by our Pediatrician, of course) of dumping her morning foremilk, thus limiting the amount of foremilk present for the duration of the day, since we mix it all into a big bin and then pour bottles on an as-needed basis.

Not only did her idea work like a charm, Claire's stomach-ache, hunger level, and demeanor changed (literally) overnight.


In the midst of the whole foremilk/hindmilk experiment though, Claire decided that she'd had enough of the Haberman Bottle (likely on account of her newly closed lips not fitting well (for her) over the nipple of the Haberman) we'd been using, so we were back to (almost) square one, trying out new bottle systems.

We settled on the Pigeon system - a much cheaper bottle (Thank goodness!).

If you don't remember the Haberman Bottle, here's a refresher...


You can click HERE to see a video about how the Haberman bottle works. The video should open up in a new tab, but if it doesn't you may need to use your "Back" button.

In contrast, here's how the Pigeon looks (and works).

And HERE is a video that demonstrates the Pigeon system (if you're interested).

MORE BACK TO WORK

Back to the story... Well, Claire is like Jen in more ways than one - we think she's a lefty, and another is that she likes what she likes and she wants what she likes with very little compromise.

Two days before Jen was to go back to work on January 14th, Claire started throwing a fit every time I tried to bottle feed her. As soon as Jen took over, all was well.

Well, this problem did not fix itself, needless to say, during those two days before D-Hour. So, on January 14th and January 15th, while Jen was at work, I had a baby at home that wouldn't eat for me, and therefore, was extremely hungry (P.S.. a hungry baby also doesn't nap), and in general, was inconsolable.

Remember that train wreck we talked about earlier?

To make matters more interesting, Jen's Mom and Grandpa were scheduled to come out for a visit on January 15th (Jen's Birthday). In a moment of extreme frustration, I called Jen at work to gently ask (beg) her to ask her mother if they could reschedule their trip, at the last minute, for a later date.

In my (and Jen's) mind, the only thing worse than a baby screaming her head off all day long, is a baby screaming her head off all day long while people are watching. This issue was something that we had to figure out together, without and audience.

Thank goodness, their plans were (somewhat) flexible. From my end, again, a profuse apology - even though Claire is the one that should be apologizing. If it weren't for her pickiness, no plans would have changed :-)

EUREKA!!!

On January 15th, Jen came home from work so that she could feed our hungry, tired, and screaming (and I do mean screaming) baby, and we struck the pay dirt!

While she was feeding Claire, I noticed that Jen was holding the bottle at a (let say) 45* angle in her mouth. I, on the other hand, had been trying to hold the bottle in Claire's mouth at (again, let say) a 47* angle (Seriously!).

As soon as I noticed the difference in feeding angles, and attempted to feed her, the crying stopped, Claire ate properly, and our bottle-feeding troubles were over (And we are now, once again, accepting visitors).

We covered the Lynda/Grandpa visit in the previous post, so that's that.

Now, we have a happy, joyful, playful, baby on our hands. Hooray for us!

ADVENTURES IN FOOD

Aside from dealing with new bottles, foremilk and hindmilk, laxatives, stomach aches, and sleeplessness, we started giving Claire solid food on February 14th (exactly one year after we confirmed we were pregnant with Claire - apparently Valentines Day is an important day for us).

Here is the Ultrasound Picture from February 14, 2012.


The feeding came a little early (developmentally), but she had started staring us down while we were eating, and we consulted with our Pediatrician, our Surgeon, our Surgical Pediatrician, and our Surgical Team Nurse (because she was not gaining the weight she was supposed to be gaining (needs to be at around 20lbs for her next surgery - October-ish)), and all of them gave us the go-ahead on solids, so, we gave her some rice cereal.

Of course, the first spoonfuls were a bit precarious, and we made a heck of a mess, but we've really progressed nicely.

Here is a picture of Clairelynne's first few spoons of food.


In the interest of Full Disclosure, this picture was actually taken on February 17th (she still hadn't quite figured out how to keep the food in her mouth), but, to make you feel better about my deceit, HERE is a video of Claire actually eating her first bites on February 14th.

Since February 14th, we've introduced a new food (almost) every 4 days.

Here is the food log (with Claire's reactions):

Rice Cereal (February 14) - Interested at first. Doesn't like the spoon.
Barley Cereal (February 21) - Cried the whole week. Likes barley now.
Carrots (February 28) - Loved the carrots. Probably happy not to be eating Barley.
Oat Cereal (March 4) - Really likes oats.
Sweet Potato (March 8) - Very surprised at first (not carrots). Loves them!
Prunes (March 12) - Doesn't like prunes, but her stomach feels better afterwards.
Avocado (March 16) - Hates Avocado. Lets it just sit in her mouth - won't swallow.
Peas (March 20) - Really loves peas - one of her favorites nowadays.
Yellow Sweet Potato (March 24) - Likes them.
Banana (March 28) - Loves Banana, of course!
Zuchini (April 1) - Liked but they're not super filling.
Pears (April 5) - Really likes pears.
Apples (April 9) - Unsure about - may have caused a rash (probably not).
Plums (April 13) - Same as Prunes - very sour. Makes a funny face.
Green Beans (April 17) - Really likes the beans.
Squash (April 21) - This is a favorite for sure!
Kiwi (April 25) - Hates the Kiwi. Vomited several times.
Green Grapes (April 29) - Really liked the grapes. Made a face.
Cottage Cheese (May 3) - Caused vomiting. Smashed into smaller curds - better.
Plain Yogurt (May 7) - Nasty. We mix banana, grapes, or pears into this now.
Ground Chicken (May 11) - Much more filling but more difficult to eat.
Ground Beef (May 15) - Claire will be a cheap date - doesn't like beef (steak).
Broccoli (May 19) - Really liked the Broccoli.
Cauliflower (May 23) - Really likes the Cauliflower too!
Apricot (May 27) - Doesn't have any reaction one way or another.

We were told that Greens and Meats were the most difficult thing to get a baby to eat, but as of right now, she loves all of her Green Veggies (not the Avocado - Fruit), and she likes her Chicken.

Once again, Claire has broken the mold!

Next foods up: Turkey, Peaches, Nectarines, Toast, Crackers (both Graham and Low-Sodium Saltine), Egg Yolk, Cheerios, Cherries, Blue Berries, Corn, and Cucumber. In actuality, we have Claire's entire menu planned out (broken up in to 4-day spurts) until her 1st Birthday in September.

FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

DISCLAIMER - For some reason, Google has changed the way our videos are linked to the blog. When you click on the following links, wait for a moment (you'll be filtered through several webpages). The desired video will eventually come up. I'm working on fixing this issue - hopefully videos on later blog posts will work more seamlessly.

We made a few little "home videos" (which we think are well worth the watch) on JibJab.com. We just recorded them with our phone, so the video quality isn't great but it's still funny. Click HERE to watch (enjoy!).

Claire has started reacting to herself in a mirror. Click HERE to watch.

This last video is of Claire eating carrots for the first time (first non-cereal, homemade food). Click HERE to watch.

THE END

Wrapping up, we've covered moving milk (dumping foremilk down the sink), moving bottles (botticular angle issues), and moving plans (cancelling trips), but we also actually MOVED (to a new address), but that story is going to have to wait until the next blog post.

Also in the next post, we'll cover crawling around (more moving), the 1st bath-bath, the 1st rock climbing adventure, and a few more visitors, as well as (hopefully) some vacation stories.

Hopefully you understand now why this post didn't include many pictures. No interesting pictures can come from a conversation about foremilk/hindmilk, geometry, cancelled trips, and baby food - ha!

Anyway and in the meantime, thanks for reading!

Love,

Dave, Jen, Clairelynne, and Peyton (the dog)