States of Mind

One thing that I absolutely love about my husband is that he is my best friend, and with that, we can pretty much find entertainment anywhere together. Take last night, for example. Somehow, he had gotten on his itouch and was looking up Utah's state info...State flower, State song, State mineral?? You get the gist. Well, we ended up doing this for an hour, my head on his lap, him naming off a state's info and me guessing which state it was. It was truly really entertaining. Did you know coastal states have state shells? And that cutthroat trout has got to be the number fish in the Western US and Cardinal the number one bird in the Eastern US. Oh, there are so many fascinating things about each state that you would have never thought of. Go look it up - you won't be bored!

Sorry I've been absent for a little while. I just love spending more time with my daughter than on the computer. Wait a second, what am I talking about. I'm on my phone all the time while I feed her...haha. Gotta do something to keep myself entertained for that little while, right?

But anyway, I did just want to say...I am SUPER excited for tomorrow, you guys! And you'll get to find out why after!

Isn't It So True?

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=1000&sid=19991344

"Where Have All The Local Diners Gone?"

Go to my dad's restaurant. You won't be disappointed.

Voices

First of all...trying to figure out how we can manage with me not going back to work and being a full-time, stay-at-home mommy. Once we get these medical bills paid off, that might actually be an option! But, still trying to get the finances of it all figured out first.

Hailey is starting to discover her voice. No longer do we have her pleasant, lay-on-the-floor-hanging-out baby-ness. She has a voice for everything! She will lay and squawk, then squawk some more, each one sounding a little different than the first, like she's going through each of her different sound possibilities. Eventually, of course, she'll just start crying until someone comes and picks her up - namely, me.

She has a cry for EVERYTHING now!
She cries to eat.
She cries to be held.
She cries when she's cold.
She cries when she's wet.
She cries when she's gassy.
She cries when she has the hiccups.
She cries when she is overstimulated.
She cries when she spits up.
She cries when she has a poopy diaper.
She cries when she's tired and fighting sleep.
                                          And boy. Does she fight sleep.

I didn't think a 7 week old could be starting to show so much personality and different cries already! However, I am actually, in a round about sort of way, grateful that she cries more now. Grandma Benson says it helps exercise the lungs. So sometimes, I let her cry. Keep working those lungs, girl! You're gonna need them strong for singing! (...or...sports...or whatever it is you'll want to do when you get older. Not like we're going to force you into anything or anything!) 



Oh, and also, guess. what.
So I call the Dr's office for a refill on the Nystatin (thrush medication) because her white tongue was not going away (and I swear it wasn't milk!) and reading online said that a lot of mommies had to get a refill or had to try other types of medication.
The nurse says, "Let me go ask the PA." She comes back and basically replies, "He says the Nystatin should have cleared it up and so if her tongue is still white, it's not thrush, it's just milk. No refills for now."

Urg!!! I was so frustrated! Why give me the RX for thrush in the first place if it wasn't, in fact, thrush then? I sure hope he wasn't just doing it to humor me. Good thing we get generic RX's for cheap, so it's not the cost of the medicine that I'm bothered about. I'm just frustrated that he didn't even bother to say, "Here, let me take another look at her and we'll see what we can do." He just says, "Nope, must be milk."

So maybe it is! Who knows! Apparently all babies' tongues are sort of permo white from milk? My mom didn't think her tongue looked bad at all. So maybe I'm just over-reacting. I'm a new mom! Cut me some slack! But whatever. We'll see the Dr-dr in 2 weeks and see what he thinks.

Another frustrating thing, though, is that if this wasn't thrush, then I was putting my baby through the torture of this awful medicine that I'm sure she didn't like for nothing.

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

End of venting. Thank you very much.

I have thoughts and feelings that I need to vent.

I feel like a horrible mother. I have no clue how to take care of a baby, especially a newborn, especially with their very immature immune systems. I mean, I think I was doing pretty well keeping her away from you know, the standard sick people, large and crowded places, make sure people wash their hands before they touch/hold her, wash my hands after I change the diaper, etc., etc. So imagine my surprise when she turns up with thrush.

Yup. Thrush.

I know thrush really isn't that bad. I should be grateful it's not something worse. Thrush is very common. But the thing that makes me feel so awful is that I probably wasn't doing the best I should have been when washing her bottles/nipples. I used burning hot water and soap, but maybe I didn't sterilize them like I ought to have. And because of my negligence, she got thrush.

They say thrush doesn't hurt babies, but I can tell this is bothering her. Her poor tongue is so white. She eats, and then she cries and sticks out her tongue and opens her mouth, and cries some more. I don't know what to do for her! We took her to the doctor and got her Nystatin to apply 4 times daily 1mL each cheek. Dr said it should go away around 5 days or so. Today is day 6, and her tongue hasn't changed. If anything, it almost looks worse.

I did some reading online, and some people say it took WEEKS for their baby's thrush to go away.

I bought a sterilizing kit and have been sterilizing her nipples now after every use, so hopefully that should help. And then I'm going to be calling for a refill of Nystatin.

But in the meantime...I just have to sit back and ache inside while I watch my baby suffer.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Hailey...

...has now graduated from her newborn size diapers and is now wearing size 1!!! This is big! She is also 6 weeks old (where has the time gone??). She is still wearing her newborn size onesies, but she is able to fit more into the bigger half of the newborn sizes. Yay! More outfits to wear! This allows us to introduce more blues and purples into her wardrobe instead of pink, pink, and more pink. :)

Scotty...

...solo'd! Or however you're supposed to say that. He had his first solo last week and he says it went pretty well! He did another solo on Tuesday. He is coming along nicely with his flight training. He is so excited to get his pilot's license soon! And he also can't wait for the semester to be over. He hates. his math class.

Nancy...

...is dying for some social-ness in her life. She spent two hours at the store yesterday shopping just because it was so nice to be out and around people. She also really wants to buy a baby carrier - anyone have any good suggestions? She is hoping to mainly use this for HIKING in the summertime! Also, she can't believe it is already halfway through April (almost)! She is not looking forward to going back to work just yet!

We are a happy family. And this is a long blog post, but thanks for reading anyway. Have a great Thursday!

Hailey in her boppy as she's slid down most of the way. She can sleep in any position!