Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Name that Photo



Ok, so I'm not as cool as Pioneer Woman with her contests, and I certainly do not have her budget for give-aways.

But... I do believe this photo needs a name, fabulous give-away or not.

Help me out! Name that Photo!

Wordless Wednesday











Sunday, June 22, 2008

I'm in here... uh... busy!

Welcome, Carnival of Breastfeeding readers!!!

This is a repost from a few months ago....



This is the sign that hangs on my door when I'm pumping.

I'm lucky - I have my own office with a door and a LOCK! People shove papers under the door for me when needed and they're aware that if they call me on the phone, they will hear the rythmic gugshing of my pump in the background.

3 times a day, I pump so my little Nati has food for tomorrow. I've learned some very important things about pumping:

1. Medela Quick Clean Wipes are the best $18.00 I'll ever spend
2. Lansinoh helps keep my pump horns on by themselves so I can be hands-free
3. Leaving my pump in the office all week saves trips back and forth to my car
4. Playing online video games stimulates my let-down (so do cold pump horns)
5. Pumping makes me still feel like a Mommy when I'm at work

Pumping and Breastfeeding is hard work. Worrying about what bottles are best for her, how much she should be eating, getting no sleep at night because she's still being breastfed, getting those looks from coworkers when I close my door.

Would I do it all over again if I had the choice?

You bet your sweet pump horns I would.



Now, enjoy the following participants posts in this month's Carnival of Breastfeeding (links activated when the posts are up!):

Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog
Breastfeeding Mums
Mama Knows Breast
Breastfeeding 123
Adventures of a Breastfeeding Mother
The Attached Mother
Hobo Mama
Mike and Tonis

Gassy

Natalie has been getting increasingly gassy lately. She's always been gassy, but lately it's been so much worse. She's waking up 4 - 5 times at night for an hour at a time ( you do the math) just screaming and, um excreting gas throughout the day.

I've tried to look at what I'm eating, but haven't really been eating anything excessive. But after reading Kelly Mom's article on gas, It seems like my diet has less of a chance of being what's causing her discomfort.

We started solids about 5-1/2 months. We cut out solids last week (thinking they may be causing her gas) and after a week with no change, started them up again. She has had a decrease in the number of BMs lately - which I'm sure aren't helping the issue. She's now 6 months and according to Kellymom, she should be able to handle the solids, with some enzymes not appearing in her system until possibly 7 months.

We've been giving her Mylecon and probiotics, but nothing seems to help.

I think we'll stop solids again and see what happens. I hate to keep flip-flopping her like this, but I just don't know what else to do.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Sittin' Pretty


I wish I knew how to use my manual settings better. I'm hoping to take a photography class at the local community college in the fall.

Friday, June 20, 2008

6 Months!


Oh my Gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm 6 months old today!!!

(can't you just hear her squeal in this??)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

There was a Little Girl




There was a little girl,
who had a little curl,
in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good,
she was very, very good,
but when she was bad,
she was horrid!

Stingrays!!

Oh how my kids LOVE the Florida Oceanographic Center, or "Stingrays!!!" as they call it. We went a few weekends ago and they had a blast!

Hey, give me a break. I'm busy!

Here are some pictures of the day









Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Strike

Nati is going through a nursing AND a bottle strike right now. Yesterday at daycare she took 2-1/2 ounces in 9-1/2 hours (wow.. am I really away from my baby that long?!!!). She's bearly nursing at home and although she's still waking up 3 (ack!) times at night, she's not nursing as much as being comforted.

We temporarily stopped solids over the weekend in an attempt to help her with some horrifically painful gas she was having. I'm not sure if the two are related or not.

It seems like taking the solids out didn't help with the gas much, so I'm taking a closer look at my diet (which hasn't changed much at all lately). We're doing probiotics, but it's not helping much either.

Poor thing is just miserable.


06/19/08 - Update. Nati's doing MUCH better, but still pretty gassy. She's eating off and on. Yesterday she drank 16 ounces, today only 8. I'm not going to worry too much about it. I ended up giving her some sweet potatoes last night and she DOVE into them. She had been missing them a lot. She ate up very happily and her gas was no better or worse. Who know? MAYBE I'll have her figured out by the time she's a teenager. LOL

Sunday, June 15, 2008

My baby picture

I was inspired by Ruby's Mom when she posted her baby photo, so I checked through my archives....

This was my hospital picture. Wow.



I'll have to search through and find some others...

Here's Natalie's hospital photo:

Sleeping Beauty

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Update on... well... Stuff

I realized I've been a bad blogger and haven't really been keeping up on the day-to-day at the Bee Household.

Brief recap:

I broke a tooth two weeks ago. I was able to get into the dentis the next day. Upon seeing my tooth and doing an xray and some preliminary poking around, she determined I'd need a root canal. WHA???? So, this past friday I was in the chair getting my first root canal. It hurt. It still hurts. And they're not done yet. You see.. I have this pesky little issue with my tooth. All 3 roots have a hook on them. Like a fish hook. Like when the doctor saw the xray she said "Oh yea... that'll be fun". Gee, thanks doc. So, they were able to do part of the root canal and I have another (2-1/2 hour) appointment this coming Friday morning. In the meantime I'm swallowing Tylenol like it's going out of style and doing all I can to remember not to chew on that side.

Let's see.. what else?

The time is coming for Christian and Anilyse to go visit their mother for 3 weeks in North Carolina. Although I'm looking forward to the break, I dread them leaving. I also dread them coming back. Their mother isn't exactly the "mothering type" and has been known, in the past, to medicate them with Benadryl, allow them to stay up as late as they want, feed them an endless supply of Happy Meals, bubble gum, candy and Mountain Dew and forget to bathe them. Luckily, as the kids are getting older, we have taught them to be self-sufficient and (hopefullly) instilled in them a better sense of what is right or wrong. BUT, I have a feeling that we'll have to "re-train" the kids when they come back home. Oh joy.

Mother's Day Photos

I just got these photos from my Father-In-Law that he took from Mother's Day.


You can see why I don't take a lot of photos anymore with my Baby/Octopus in tow.


I love this photo. I just can't seem to get the color balance right in Photoshop.


Oh... yumm-o!

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever you are!

I'm a lurker, I'll admit. It's a nasty habit and one I'm trying hard to overcome. I can relate, really. But come on... come out of the woodwork! Let me know you're here!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Starting to Crawl?!

She's going to be crawling before I know it. She's definately got the hang of it and she's doing it even more in the last few days. She's figured out the legs (although most of the time she bunny hops), but she just has to figure out the arms.

When do you think? I'm taking bets! Haha

(please excuse Mike's shirtless chest!)

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Chest X-Ray

Unfortunately, Nati is still sick with a nasty cough and congestion. We spoke with Dr. Punger and she wanted us to get a chest xray this afternoon, then a visit to her office.

We made it to the radiologist office, where my sweet bundle of joy transformed into a seemingly 8-legged octopus, squirming madly. We finally were called back and I was directed to put my baby into this:



You've got to be kidding me, right? I can't even look at this photo without getting sick to my stomach.

See how the baby in the photo isn't smiling, or even close to content looking. Yea, I would have been overjoyed if Nati was that baby. But Nati wasn't smiling, she wasn't even crying, she was SCREAMING. They directed me to hold her arms above her head while they fastened the device around her. Finally a seasoned tech came into the room and took charge of the situation. She was gruff and very matter-of-fact, which rubbed me the wrong way as my baby was obviously not happy. Looking back on it, she was hurrying and trying to get it done quickly.

Natalie calmed down after they finished and was back in my arms, and before we were even out of the parking lot, she fell asleep.

Poor baby.

Sunday, June 1, 2008