The ups and downs of being a mommy

Well I think I officially have memorized the pediactrians phone number for Hannah, for a 12 week old baby we have been in their office 9 times for her. This makes me sad. Last Wednesday I took her again because her Gerd was terrible, she would scream, couldn't sleep and was just an uphappy sad baby girl. This is where I took my dive down the tubes, the Dr pulled her off breastmilk, she was losing weight not gaining it. My 1st reaction was I was a failure, that I couldn't even feed and keep healthy my own baby, my 2nd reaction was why? and the 3rd one was holly crap how are we going to pay for this stuff, not only is she on formula but one of the most expensive ones out there. So two days into her being on just formula, my baby is BACK! She is happy, smiley, sleeping, looking around at her big old world, loves to talk to you so my reactions all changed to, this is the right thing for my baby until she learns food is good, thank goodness for Enfamil and them making a hypoallergnic formula and thank you Dr for helping us finally. So as it stands today, we are on formula with a little breastfeeding and I am married to the pump 3 times a day in hopes that she will gain weight, learn food is yummy and her intestines will process the food and keep her acid levels in her tummy down. Then as she gets older we will change formulas and introduce more breastfeeding.
I can say that finally I see that there is a light at the end of this tunnel we have been stuck in for 10 weeks, I am so happy that Hannah is acting normal and loving life I can't even explain. My heart was broken because she was so miserable and as we all know when mommy doesn't feel good no one does, so hopefully this will be a positive turn around in our house for all of us.
YEAH HANNAH!

Video

Here is a video of Hannah

We did it!

We survived Daddy being gone for the second time. Well almost. We had two really rough nights but we are all still here and kicking! Hannah in my opinion has grown quit a bit this past few weeks and is starting to act more like a baby than a newborn, it is so fun to watch. Her reflux seems to be under control all though she choak a lot on the liquid coming up which is still hard to hear and see for mom.
Lydia is doing great, she is learning to count to 100 and does really good until she gets to the changes like 19 to 20 and 29 to 30 but I am very impressed.
The sun is shinning in this city today which is rare lately so I think Hannah and I are off for a walk.

New photos

This week marks 11 weeks old on Friday, where did the time go? Mom had her knee replacement on Thursday and is doing great so far. I have a hungry baby so I need to run but wanted to get new photos up as she changes everyday.

Grateful

The week is only half over and I think I have realized one thing, how grateful I am for healthy kids. We have been to the Dr. twice this week and the hospital just as many times for both Hannah and Lydia and I have to say, it drains a Mom and the pocket book (ha ha) Tuesday I shut or should I say slammed Lydia's right hand in the car door-1st trip to the Er, a few x-rays later no broken bones just a few cuts and bruises-AMEN, she did great and you wouldn't know she hurt at all by last night. Wednesday I took Hannah in for a talk with her Dr. about her reflux, it isn't getting better and the poor baby can't stay asleep longer than 20 minutes, which as we all know leads to worse sleep due to being over tired so it is a bad cycle, well this led me to the hospital for lab work because the Dr. thought she still looked yellow, which combined with her little weight gain, her reflux symptoms could have meant she had a clog bile duct, which is NOT good. Needless to say I cried more than I thought possible and cried even more when the results came back negative. How thankful I am to have her healthy. I also realized how good I have it really, a husband that is WONDERFUL, not many men would get up at 4am to rock their baby to sleep when they have to go work all day and their wife stays home, not many would leave a lunch meeting to drive to the ER to be with his 3 year old because she wants him there (and so does his wife). There are many days I feel all alone here in Boise since we don't have family but I have to say we have the best friends ever here. You know who you guys are and thank you for the calls and babysitting this week. And thank you to our family for your support, prayers and phone calls! You guys are awesome!

Thank you God for my two beautiful, happy and healthy little girls.



Showing off her bandade from the hospital

8 weeks

It was a big week in our house, Hannah is smiling a lot more, talking a lot more and Lydia FINALLY 5 months later stood up at preschool and said pray and sang "God Bless America" (I guess she always would sit down and just listen). This was news to both Kris and I since we thought she had been doing this for months since she says the pray at home and sings all the songs to us. But I guess she was just listening and learning. I did have to brib her with chocolate but hey whatever works!

I returned to work on Saturday and Kris had both girls and did great. He finally understands why when he comes home form work I am beat. I also was able to sneak away for lunch with Rachel for our birthdays. I will start working M and W afternoons and Saturday mornings, I am not excited about this but it is a must for us.

Here is a picture of Hannah Jean looking at her mobile.

My smile

Hannah is 7 weeks old, and last week started to really smile at us, but really her sister is the one who got the first smile. In the middle of the night she loves to only eat a little then look around for a while and last night I asked her, are you ever going to eat, or just keep mommy awake and she got the biggest grin and coo'd at me. It made my heart melt.

Lydia is starting to get then hang of having a baby in the house and her attitude is improving day by day. Which is nice for us.

Sunday Kris and I got to go out for our 1st date without the girls to celebrate my birthday. We ended up just going to lunch and sitting and talking for a few hours but it was so nice to be with just each other. Thank you Rachel!

Here are a few photos that I took to try and get her smile, I will continue to take and post if I can capture the cute thing.