Lifestyles of the Young & the Restless

That title is like 2 show references I think...but here is what Em's been up to lately. Being hilarious is the best way to describe it. 

This is what she looked like when I got her up from a nap. Her arm is out of a long sleeve onesie...or she's going for a toga look? I don't even know.

Em's learning to sit still at times and this is one of them.

She'll sit on the couch and play. And she knows how to get off the couch as well - backwards fashion of course.

Go ahead, pinch her cheeks. Eat her face. It's what I do.

Daddy and Emersen lounging in the chair, cozy with a blanket. She must have been tired.

And here's the ridiculous-ness. Kelli/Waverly has passed on some clothes to us for the 18 month phase of life - yes, she wears size 18 month for the most part.

So Emersen is wearing Sponge Bob pj's. And the winter hat? She kept ripping it off when I put it on her earlier in the night. I would hand it to her and she would throw it back. After a nap however, she left it on for awhile. Crawled around, played, etc all the while having the hat on her head. Apparently, the hat inspires silly behavior - note the original owner/wearer who remains anonymously hidden (Waverly...). 

 

Double Digits

"Yeah, I'm eleven months old...so what?"

 

 "Ha...ha,ha,ha....ha" - this is my new laugh. Goes well with my new teeth.

As you know if you've seen her in person, her hair isn't red. But pictures sure make it look a little strawberry-ish. And with reddish hair, she looks SO much like her daddy. She's got his dimple and smile. 

Em loves her cup with a straw. I think she thinks she's pretty cool when she picks it up herself and takes a drink.

Developments at 11 months: Not sure if there's anything different really. She's talking jibberish more and her sounds are more defined. She often sounds like she knows exactly what she's trying to say. Her naps have been short lately, and in fact, this morning she woke up after 45 minutes. I left her in her crib and an hour later, I think she's gone back to sleep. FYI, 45 minutes is not an acceptable length for her nap. She's taken to standing on her own for a couple seconds and is walking pretty fast when we are holding her hand.

I am starting to wean her off of the laxative diet she's been on. She had a huge blow out this morning. Out of the diaper and on to her pants. So I put her into the bathtub, washed her and her hair. Took her out, dressed her and went downstairs. Then, downstairs she was standing at the side table that holds a lamp. It's an unsteady table. She knocked the lamp off this weekend. And it was about to fall again today, so I sat my coffee cup down to catch the table and lamp and splattered it all over her, her hair and the wall. So much for the bath, eh? She just kept patting her head and wiping it. Hilarious. 

Her other favorite activity lately has been laying down on pillows and blankets. She'll just plop down for a few seconds and get up and go again. And she's even learned to sit still on the couch with you and play with her....I don't know what you call the toy....the kind that has the different colored, swirly and hilly tracks on it and you move the beads along it. She loves that right now.

Countdown to the 1 year birthday starts in a week. I've got to settle on birthday plans too. AND we've got to decide on a Halloween costume too! 

LOVE this time of year.

Hair Raising Fun

This is Emersen after poop boot camp. Just kidding. She just had a bath and well that's her hair.

Wanted to do an update on the results of our boot camp for Em's insides. We're all clear, it seems. Seemed like we were after one dose each of the laxative and milk of magnesia...and the enema. That was fun. No, it wasn't - but it was effective. 

I thought back to the time when Em was tiny - like a couple weeks or months old. And I was holding her. She was in a onesie only. And she pooped. And nothing got on her, or her diaper really - it all RAN OUT ON TO ME. Ruined my Run, Run, Rudolph shirt too - not even Dreft Stain Remover could save that baby. Em was fine - I stood frozen momentarily trying to decide who I needed to change first - me or her. I won out and ended up doing diaper duty in my undergarments. Ah - being a mom - what did I used to talk about before being a mom?

So, we didn't have any events like this but one messy crib sheet after a nap. A couple pairs of pants got washed extra times. But it wasn't the poop-fest I had expected - like all the time going. We're still on a laxative regimen to be sure she gets over her dislike of going - no more plank pose. I've only seen her do it once, with no straining or crying and it didn't work either, she went any way. 

Funny thing is that her naps have been affected. And her hunger - she can barely go 4 hours before being starving. I've heard from other moms that their kids had to stay on some sort of laxative for months because of issues - we're taking it one day at a time. 

Emersen is now 11 months old! Can you believe it!? I'll be getting in party planning mode soon. I'm going to disappoint probably because I'm just not going to go all out when she doesn't even know what is going on, she doesn't have a favorite color or character and that's just how it will be. Don't want to set the bar too high this early in life. We will probably have to do two - Louisville and Lexington. But we'll see. A fall cookout sounds nice to me - but not if Emersen isn't walking yet. 

She's been hilariously mimicking us - we've figured out one of her words is for bottle. And she'll do her Home Alone face at very random times. Hanging out with her for her poop boot camp was AMAZING. I stayed home with her last Thurs and Friday, then I'm off on Mondays. I was actually a little bit sad to leave her again. But it's better she gets a variety of folks to hang with- makes her well rounded, I hope. 

Hopefully I won't get too behind and I'll get an 11 month picture up soon. At least before her 1 year milestone. 

Full of It

Check this video out of Emersen - Emersen Eats.  Eating her cheese, which she loves, all day long.

This is Emersen pooping. Or really trying to not to poop. Oh by the way, this post will be about poop - read at your own risk. I post stuff on the blog about Emersen that I want to know about other people and their babies. I mean, there is so much you don't know about babies because they can't tell you anything so I find it helpful to know what certain illnesses look like in a baby or what treatments have been tried and did or did not work, etc. So that's why I post about poop.

We found out yesterday at the doctor, by X-Ray, that Emersen is literally FULL OF CRAP. Pardon my french. Tennis size amount ready to deliver and backed up further up as well. Poor little girl. We've had issues since we switched to soy formula at the beginning of August. At first we thought it was just the switch, as our first experience with raw butts and weird poops happened when we went from some breast milk and formula to all formula. So we give it time. Unfortunately at some point, because of discomfort either from a raw butt or consistency issues probably caused by the soy (because of her body's reaction to soy), she decided she didn't want to poop so she started her "plank" pose for pooping. This turned into crying and getting upset while she did it. Which took us to the doctor the first time. New doctor as well. She recommended 2 tsp of dark corn syrup in every bottle (before when it was occasional, it was 1/4 tsp). Also, to give her milk of magnesia (1/4 tsp) once a day. We did this for about a week. Corn syrup serves as a softener, and milk of magnesia softens and serves as laxative. No change. And she had stopped wanting to eat her cereal, and just wasn't eating that well at all. Sometimes it was because she was squirmy in her seat while eating - we later learned this was probably because when you eat, your body gets a clue to start the process of emptying and because she's so full, she actually felt this happening. Also, she was taking like 2 hr naps all day, and running a low grade fever - nothing above 100.

So we upped the milk of magnesia to twice a day. We did this for several days with no real change - still crying while pooping and it seemed to me that 2 weeks of softener should have more of an effect and things were still formed. So we bit the bullet and switched back to Nutramigen, yes, liquid gold. Our doctor says this usually solves most stool issues. And we had some immediate success, but then back to crying and small results. However, she had stopped the long naps, fever and was back to eating normally. Thank the Lord. I called the doctor to ask about how to measure success and she said to give it 2 more days to adjust to the formula switch and adding back in the cereal. We had two HUGE successes Monday night and Tuesday night, but she had said to go ahead and make an appointment for Wednesday and that we might X-Ray. So, while we had some successes, there was still crying during the act. 

The picture above of her plank pose is one of several pictures I took to show her behavior and results. Yes, I took pictures of her poop. And it was very helpful at the appointment to show how HUGE her successes were but about how small her other results were as well. This led to an X-Ray and seeing the X-Ray afterwards of what she was full of - stool. 

Now we are on poop boot camp for her colon cleansing. Mirolax, milk of magnesia and enemas - oh my! The enema was a terrible, yet productive, experience. She HATED it, cried and just hated it. But of course, that's the problem, is that she hates pooping. The goal is to relinquish control so she has no choice but to let it go and have it not hurt. So I'm home with her today trying to get all this worked out. Things are moving in the right direction so far it seems. And now she's waking up! Time for lunch with Mirolax on the side. Yum.

Before I Can't Wear White

Well shoot. Summer is over and I never posted pictures of Emersen's first trip to the beach. Such is life. So here we go...

Not so much a big fan of the sand coming out from under her feet.

She's already posing.

What IS this stuff?

She LOVED crawling in the sand. And to her, each person who walked/jogged by needed to be chased.

This is not the beach, but on the way to the dolphin cruise. She looks so much older to be here. And now this was a month and a half ago!