Boys vs girls

Frank and I were talking last night about how we are starting to notice the subtle differences between Frank and Lily as babies, and we were wondering whether these differences are because he is a boy and she is a girl.  Obviously these traits are not inherent to either gender, but at least for our boy and girl, here are some of the big differences between the two of them:

(1) Lily is much more sensitive than Frank ever was.  Her skin is sensitive, and we now have to wash all of our clothes, towels, and sheets in special detergent.  Her tummy is sensitive, and we have to give her special hypoallergenic formula.  She is extremely crabby if she is overtired, and if she misses a nap, it can mess up her whole day.  She is also sensitive to loud noises, and she will get startled easily.

(2) Lily only eats when she wants to.  If you put a bottle in Frank's mouth, he drank it.  It did not matter how long it had been since he had last eaten, and he would often chug and chug and demand more, even if he had already eaten a ton that day.  Lily, on the other hand, only eats when she is hungry.  If I try to feed her early because we are going out to run an errand, she won't eat.  She will take one sip and  give me a look like I have just tried to give her the most disgusting thing in the world.  She also won't eat when she is about to poop, even if she is in the middle of a bottle.

(3) Lily is not very good at soothing herself.  When she gets tired, especially if she is overtired, she has trouble soothing herself to fall asleep.  She often needs us to rock her, shh her, sing to her, and to have one last sip of a bottle in order to calm herself down enough to fall asleep.  She will frantically suck on her hands and cry when she is overtired, and she gives almost the same cues as when she is hungry, so it is hard to distinguish the two sometimes.  Frankie on the other hand was always very good at soothing himself, and he did not need all of the rocking, shhh-ing, and extra milk to get him to fall asleep.

Maybe all of these things have nothing to do with the fact that Frankie is a boy and Lily is a girl...maybe Lily is just a little princess, and we will have to work a little harder to make her happy.

Here are a couple more pictures of my little diva from the last week:

The greatest show on Earth!

Today we took both kids to the circus!  When we learned that the circus was coming in town, we decided we wanted to take Frankie as a special treat for doing so well with his stars.  We implemented a stars reward system a few weeks ago when we were having some big problems with his not listening, having intentional potty accidents, and not taking naps.  Every day we give him stars as rewards for doing good with things like eating, taking a nap, taking a bath, and listening.  Then, at the end of the day, we let him count up all of his stars for the day.  He has been getting progressively better over the last couple of weeks, and I think having incentives really helps him.  I was a little apprehensive about bringing Lily to the circus, but both kids did fantastic!  The show was just about 20 minutes too long, but we made it to the very end without any major meltdowns.  Frankie loved the show, especially the elephants, tigers, and lions.  I haven't been to this type of circus in a long time, and I had forgotten how amazing it is!  We had a great time.  We also rode the DART train downtown, and Frankie loved it.  It was so easy to hop on the train near our house and ride it all the way to the AA center.  We had a great time, and I think Frankie really enjoyed his special treat!

Liliana is 2 months!

My sweet baby girl is two months old today.  We celebrated her two month birthday by going to the Burch twins' first birthday party!  Amy did an awesome job with the decorations and food, and it was great to see the girls and some good friends that we had not seen in a long time.  Frankie came home from school yesterday with a fever, and when he woke up this morning, the fever was above 103 degrees.  He has never had a fever that high!  He was also not acting like himself, but he didn't really have any other symptoms.  We took him up to the doctor this morning, and she said it must be a virus, because his ears and throat looked fine, and he tested negative for strep.  He seems to be feeling better this afternoon, and he no longer has a fever, so we'll see.  He always wants to give his baby sister hugs and kisses, and it is killing him that we are not letting him touch her until he gets better.

At two months, baby Lily is still in size 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers, but she is growing out of both and will probably move up to the next sizes soon.  She is usually sleeping through the night for 9-11 hours at a time, but sometimes she wakes up between 3:00 and 4:00 if she did not eat enough during the day and then goes back to sleep for the rest of the night.  She typically eats 5 times a day, and usually 4 ounces at a time, for a total somewhere around 20 ounces.  She is still having some fussy days where her reflux is acting up, but most days are good!  I took her off of the second medicine that the specialist put her on because I read some scary things about the potential side effects, and because it seemed to make her fussier than normal.  She has been virtually the same (minus the extra fussiness) since I stopped giving it to her, so I do not think it was helping much anyway.

Liliana is very smiley, and when she smiles her whole face lights up.  I think she looks so similar to Frankie when she smiles.  She loves when I (or Frankie) sing to her, when we play "this little piggy," and playing peek-a-boo.  She is starting to like baths better.  We are often stopped by ladies at the grocery store who tell us how pretty she is, and she usually rewards them with sweet smiles.  She has now been babysat twice, and both times her sitters reported she was a sweet angel.

I cannot believe that my maternity leave is already halfway over!  I love getting to spend this special time with my sweet girl.  Here are a couple more pictures from the last few days:

Thankful

Today, I am so very thankful for the following things:

(1) My sweet friends who help out whenever we need them, and sometimes, without even asking;

(2) My sweet husband for giving me a night off to go out to dinner;

(3) Professional opportunities that are exciting (this always happens when I am on maternity leave...);

(4) my four months of maternity leave that I get to bond with my sweet girl;

(5) VACATION in three weeks;

(6) healthy, snuggly, squishy babies;

(7) the lovely ladies at Supercuts yesterday who told me I looked great and couldn't believe I had just had a baby 8 weeks ago;

(8) my Keurig;

(9) Lily currently sleeping between 9 and 11 hours straight at night;

and (10) dark chocolate and skinny margaritas.

Happy Tuesday, happy baby!

This sweet little girl has been SO happy today! She has been settling into a pretty consistent routine the past couple of days, which Mama really likes.  She is sleeping between 7 and 10 hour stretches at night, and she is having less problems going down (or back down) to sleep.  She is taking three good naps a day, and usually one smaller cat nap.  She typically eats five times a day, approximately every 3-4 hours, minus the long stretch of sleep.  She is eating about 18-20 ounces a day.  She is really starting to like when I sing to her--this is what gets us the most big smiles.  After she eats a bottle, I will usually put her in her bouncy chair for 20-30 minutes to keep her upright, and she LOVES this thing.  She could sit in it all day I think.  Between that and her swing, I feel like we are really utilizing our baby equipment with her!  I am really enjoying spending these days at home with this sweet baby.  Here are some of the TONS of pictures I have taken of her in the last week:

A letter to Frankie

Dear, Frankie:  Where do I begin.  You have been giving your Mommy a very hard time lately.  On one hand, you have been so, SO sweet.  You have been asking to cuddle, to be picked up, and wanting to be close to Mommy all the time lately, and I LOVE that.  I so miss my special time with you.  I feel like you went from being a baby to being a big boy in the blink of an eye, and I can hardly remember any of the time in between.  You have been randomly coming up to me and telling me you love me.  You run into my arms when I pick you up from school.  And you are giving me tons of hugs and kisses.  You are also so incredibly sweet and protective of your sister.  You show her off to your teachers and friends every day at school, and you are always aware of where she is and what she is doing.  But....you are also giving me a really hard time.  You are acting very jealous of the time I spend with Liliana. When I am feeding her, you are acting out.  Whether it is peeing on the floor (you KNOW better), taking off all of your clothes, unplugging things, or just generally misbehaving, you want Mommy's attention and you do not seem to care if it is good or bad.  I know that this is a tough transition for you, and I want to help make it easier, and spend special time with you, and reward you for being good.  But it is hard when you insist on misbehaving.  I hope that you can grow out of this phase soon so that we can work on rebuilding our special relationship.  You are Mommy's favorite boy, and I hope you always know that.  Love, Mommy.

Severe GERD, MSPI, and Sandifer's Syndrome

Today I took Liliana to the pediatric GI specialist to discuss her continuing tummy troubles and see if the doctor recommended that we continue with the regiment we have established or switch things up.  The doctor confirmed the diagnosis of severe GERD, milk/soy protein sensitivity, and Sandifer's Syndrome, and she gave us a few options of different directions to go to try to improve Liliana's symptoms.  She gave us a new medicine to try out in addition to the Prevacid which is supposed to help her empty her stomach faster.  Hopefully this medicine will improve her reflux, but if not, the next step is going to be switching to a formula that is even more hypoallergenic (and MUCH more expensive) than the formula she is on now.  The doctor was also slightly concerned about Liliana's weight and height because she is only at about the 25th percentile for both, even though she was up above the 50th percentile for both when she was born.  She is only taking in between 14 and 18 ounces a day, which is on the very low side of normal for her age.  She has started to sleep for one nice long stretch at night (the last four nights she went 11.5 hours, 8.5 hours, 8 hours, and 7.5 hours), which is GREAT, but she does not seem to be increasing her milk intake to make up for the feeding(s) she has dropped.  

Of course, while the doctor was talking to us and examining Lily, she was perfectly happy and good, even when laying flat on her back.  The doctor kept saying, "I just don't believe you are a fussy baby.  Does your Mommy know what she is talking about?"  Then, right after the doctor left, she started having reflux issues and got very fussy. She has some days where she is a dream baby and is not fussy at all, and then she also has days where she is super fussy most of the day.  But, overall, she is much happier than she was even two weeks ago, so we are very thankful for that!  Hopefully this new medicine will help her even more.  I took a few pictures of my sweet princess when we got home from the doctor.  As you can see, she was very smiley and cooperative at first, but by the end she was crying and saying "no more pictures!"