Beach Bound

Well Kylie and I are heading to the beach house today with MomaBrown and PapaFred (my grandparents). Lee will join us on Friday and my parents are supposed to come on Saturday. Of course all of the travel arrangements are in the air since Gustav is headed straight for the Gulf of Mexico! Ugh. Hopefully we will have fun and be able to stay until next Wednesday as originally planned. I do not want to spend the weekend putting up the hurricane shutters.

In other news, yesterday Lee and I visited the daycare that Kylie will attend. It is so cute and the ladies in the nursery were great! There are only 5 babies and Kylie is by far the youngest (the other babies were around 6 months). The ladies were so excited to be getting a tiny baby to hold and love on. She will only go to daycare in the mornings and we are still looking for a sitter for a few afternoons a week when I am in Montgomery for work. I am still working part-time until we can get that figured out and until Kylie gets over the plague (I mean colic). The Nutramigen has helped but she still gets really fussy and there are times where she is hard to console but it is getting better. We will have good days and bad days now instead of the constant crying everyday. We are still praying that things will improve very soon and before the 3 month mark that everyone tells me I just have to wait for. Today I am just hoping for a good car ride!!

I will be making the blog private to invited readers only when we return next week so if you read this and want to continue reading please let me know so I can add you to the "approved" readers.

Hope everyone has a good long weekend!

Someone's Smiling

Happy Baby Pictures!

So we are slowly getting more happy baby awake time each and everyday. We are leaving for the beach on Wednesday and hope that this continues while we are on our trip so we can all have a good time. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday Paw-Paw!

So Saturday was Paw-Paw's (Lee's dad) birthday. We loaded up and went to Tuscaloosa Saturday morning to cook-out and celebrate. Amanda, Jerry, Olivia, Christian, Daniel, and Vica came from Bham too. We had a great time at Paw-Paw and Honey's house. Kylie did great! No extreme colic episodes or anything. It was a very good day! Happy Birthday Paw-Paw! (** Note: These photos are courtesy of Daniel and Vica. I let them take some pictures with my camera. We had a bunch more but they got deleted somehow :) haha)

Big Sister

So Dolly has exceeded our expectations as a big sister. She has done so well with Kylie. I figured she would go crazy when she heard Kylie cry, but since she (like us) hears it so much she doesn't even pay any attention. The bark collar has helped tremendously too :). She will run over and check on her but that is about it. I cannot wait until Kylie gets big enough to start crawling after Dolly.

Privacy Please

So after much thought I have decided to make our blog private. So for those of you that do read this, please comment with your email address or email it to me (keacalame@yahoo.com) so that I can add you to the list of approved readers. This way the whole internet world will not know every detail of our lives. haha. Not that they would be that interested, but as we post more and more pics of Kylie we just thought this would be a good idea. So send me your email address and I will you be sure to add you!!

The Colic Chronicles

This is what I feel the new title of our blog should be. It is still an ongoing battle, but the Nutramigen along with the Prilosec plus a little bit of Mylicon seems to be helping (and don't let me forget to mention Levison drops during the really rough episodes). What a combo! The Nutramigen has been much easier for her to digest and she is having much more regular dirty diapers now. Thank goodness...wow, never thought I'd say that. Poor Kylie is still being monitored regularly by Dr. Hammad. He calls every other day to see how we are progressing. I swear I am not exaggerating when I say it has been ROUGH. On Sunday, our sweet neighbor called and Lee answered the phone. She was in a panic asking if I was alright, Lee was a little caught off guard and said that yes, I was fine. She said well the reason I ask is that Kea's name was listed in the church bulletin under the prayer list. Haha, I guess word has gotten out that we have been a little stressed to say the least. I thought that was funny and to whoever put my name on the prayer list...THANK YOU. We will take all the prayers we can get. :) Everyone keeps saying "in 3 months this will go away", I appreciate the encouragement but please understand that 3 months seems a lifetime away right now. haha. We are just hoping that something will click tonight or tomorrow instead :). I am going to Montgomery for work on Wednesdays now since the person I trained for months and months while I was prego turned in her notice the day I delivered. Wonderful. While the timing isn't perfect, it is a nice break and my mom has been nice enough to come over on Tuesday nights to help out so I can get some sleep before driving to work and then she keeps Kylie at our house on Wednesday. Things are progressing little by little each day and I am just crossing my fingers that everything will be okay before she is scheduled to start daycare (the week after Labor Day), if not I am going to have to work some sort of arrangement out with work b/c there is no way a person can care for her right now that is also having to care for other babies. We have found that taking a bath and being in the swing works wonders!!! She may be the cleanest baby in the world as many baths as we give in an effort to soothe her tummy. I guess the warm water helps. And as far as the swing goes, there are times where I feel guilty because she is in it so much...but whatever works. Maybe my next post should be "Whatever Works", that has been my motto the past couple of weeks!

Swinging Away!

Lee's New Toy

Cutting the grass at our house has always been the biggest chore until now. Our house is on almost an acre lot and Lee was cutting the grass with a very old push mower. NO FUN! He has been wanting a riding lawn mower for a while now, but those things sure are pricey. My Grandpa came to visit and felt so bad for Lee that he ended up giving him his old lawn mower. It runs great and Lee could not be more happy! Even our neighbors that felt so bad for Lee when he was out there behind the push mower have now been riding by giving him the thumbs up sign, haha!

Big Girl Bed

Well we have made the move from the bassinet to the crib. We finally got the video monitor hooked up and that thing is great! I would recommend to anyone.




Now if we can just stretch out the sleeping times. :)

Well it's Friday night...

And what are Lee and I doing? Of course administering a different formula / medication combo to Kylie and crossing our fingers. haha. The Zantac was not really helping and Kylie was not quite able to digest the formula that was thickened with rice starch (Enfamil A/R). So she has still not been feeling well which means very little sleep and lots of crying. Dr. Hammad put her back on Nutramigen today which is the most gentle formula on the market, so her body should be able to process it. However, it is a pretty thin formula which will work against her reflux. So he has now prescribed Prilosec for her which is supposed to be much stronger than the Zantac. I feel like I now end every post with "hopefully this will work" and this post is no different!! I will say that since I am up all hours of the night, I have not missed a bit of live Olympic coverage from Beijing. Thank goodness for the Olympics!

Random question to friends with kids...I have seen some fall/winter clothing I want to get Kylie but am scared to buy ahead of time. She probably weighs 10 lbs now...do yall think 6 month for around Thanksgiving/Christmas?? I am still confused on what size to get, she is now in 3 month.

Bath Time is so Fun

Tweet Baby

Thanks Aunt Megan for the adorable onesie!

One Month Dr.'s Visit

This morning Kylie, Lee, and I headed back to the pediatrician's office for Kylie's one month check-up. Overall I would say the appointment was a success. Meaning Lee was able to come along to help and she did not scream the entire time we waited before we saw Dr. Hammad. Kylie did get 1 shot and she did great, just a little cry and that was it. He said she looks great and is developing wonderfully.

Here are her 1 month stats:
Weight: 9lbs 12 oz (55th percentile)
Length: 22 in (85th percentile)
Head Circumfrance: 37 cm
**A little note on the head measurement...some of yall know I tease Lee about having a large noggin and have teased him about Kylie maybe inheriting his large "brain" haha. So I specifically asked about the head measurement, and hers is actually measuring a little small! haha.

Of course no visit would be complete without our regular conversation with Dr. Hammad going over any progress with her stomach issues. He is pretty convinced that it is not a formula problem and is reflux which is causing the colic to be so severe. So we are now switching her from the expensive Nutramigen to Enfamil A/R. This new formula is thickened with rice starch which will help with the reflux and since it is already added, I do not have to go through the extra step of adding the rice to the formula and then fighting trying to get the rice out of the nipple. I know all of this formula talk and reflux does not make for an interesting blog, but it is pretty much consuming our life right now (wow, never thought I would say that). haha. He also prescribed Zantac for her and we are really hoping this along with the new formula will be the magic cure we have been hoping for! Everyone keep your fingers crossed!
For a laugh I thought I would post a picture of Kylie's cabinet in the kitchen...it looks like the baby aisle at CVS!!!

One Month Old!

Kylie is one month old today! I saw this idea of taking her picture side by side with the same stuffed animal each month so we can see how big she is getting.



Things to note at One Month:
1. Kylie is a side sleeper. Flat on the back is not for her!
2. Only Gerber Nuk Silicone pacifers will do. She is picky about that, who knew they would all taste so different?
3. The colic episodes usually begin around 4:30 p.m. and last until about 10 p.m. She is so much fun during the day, but unfortuntely for Lee the colic sets in right as he gets home from work :(. We are still hoping this will go away very soon!
4. Kylie loves music! Anything that plays music gets her attention (at least for a few minutes anyway :))
5. Nighttime feedings are much better now. She goes back to sleep really fast after eating. She now has her days and nights straight!
6. Bathtime is fun. For the most part, Kylie loves bathtime. I know this is only going to get more fun as she gets older!
7. She is beginning to smile, still not consciously but it is coming :)
8. She can already wear some 3 month clothes! I think she is weighing around 10-11lbs already!!! We will find out tomorrow at her Dr.'s visit.
9. She has been to the Dr. so much I think she thinks Dr. Hammad is a family member, haha.
10. She loves her mobile and will be moving from the bassinet to the crib this weekend. She has taken some naps in her crib and done very well!

Several New Posts!

I have been slacking on the blog front, and was finally able to catch up tonight! Scroll down for lots of new posts! And Lauren...I finally worked on the arrangements for above the fireplace. I think they turned out o.k., but are definitely not as good as yours :).

New Bouncy Seat

Honey bought Kylie a new bouncy seat while we were at the beach. This one is much lighter and easier for travel than the one we have. We finally got batteries for it yesterday and Kylie tried it out today. She really liked it. Thanks Honey!

Lots of Firsts!

Honey, MomaBrown, and I took Kylie down to the beach house for the 1st time this past weekend. It was rather difficult getting out of the house with an unhappy baby, but we managed. It was so nice to be out of the house!!!!! We did lots of shopping and Kylie did o.k. She made her 1st trip to the Wharf and to a Target. I was not brave enough to attempt a restaurant so we ordered take-out from Tacky Jack's, which was so good as usual. The trip also allowed me to drop-off the pack and play and some other baby stuff at the beach house so that Lee and I will not have to re-pack for our trip back down over Labor Day.

While we were at the beach, Kylie finally lost her little umbi cord so she was able to take a real bath! She really liked it. Here are some bath time pics and hopefully I can get lots more now that we are home!

The Battle Continues

We are still battling reflux and colic. No fun! I read a blog a while back of another new mom and remembered that she longed for what she referred to as "HBAT", which stands for happy baby awake time. That is exactly where I stand. Each day is getting a little better, but I am still hoping something will click soon. Kylie is now on her 4th formula which is Nutramigen...la creme de la creme of baby formula. It seems to be easier on her stomach which helps, but has not calmed the colic symptoms in 48 hours as claimed on the can. We go back to the doctor on Friday for her 1 month checkup and at that time he may decide to put her on a daily medication for the reflux. She does pretty okay at night still waking up at around 2am and then waking for a morning feed anywhere from 5 to 6am. Hopefully I will have some good news to report soon!