Yes, I'm a baby wearing Mama.


Grocery shopping was quite exhausting this morning for Miss Magnolia.

I thought everyone might enjoy seeing some of the pictures Zac took at the game. Here's the sea of Vandals storming the court.

Uncle Brad feeling quite joyous.

Maggie's Work

Hmm, I'm not quite sure how I ended up under here.

Now why would Mommy stack my cups up so pretty?

Well, I took care of that.

Yes, sometimes my mommy puts me in silly ensembles.

Cousin Issac decided he needed to chew on some stuff too, so we decided to lounge and chew on stuff together.

I've been a little scattered this week, so I'll apologize now for the random list below (the only thing my brain could format this evening) of things I felt important to share with everyone.

• Wow, I didn't know that a six month old has so much to do in a day. She's like a crazed little animal, rolling all over the house, grabin stuff, knockin stuff over, eaten stuff. She attacks paper like she's a wild carnivore and it's the best piece of meat ever. She sees her bottle being prepared now, and she starts screeching for it and banging her fists. Tonight she was stomping her feet in the high chair, just glaring at me, as I was getting her cereal ready (obviously not fast enough). She's definitely learning to express herself. It's been interesting to watch, but of course, amazingly fun and entertaining as well!

• We enjoyed a nice dinner out tonight at Smoky Mountian. Of course every waitress had to comment about how cute Maggie was, and then of course Maggie had to give them that beautiful smile where her whole face lights up. It was a great evening.

• We saw Dr. Ally on Tuesday for Maggie's six month well baby checkup, and Ms. Moo is in the 25th percentile for weight and height (she's a petite little nubbin, but still growing well). Her head circumference is still in the 50th percentile.

• Chris had approximately 5 cds of Maggie photos for us today. As soon as I get through them I'll get some more school pictures posted.
  

• Oh ya, and................................GO VANDALS!

It's Official!

Maggie and Mommy at Addie's for Breakfast

Well, we went to Addie's for breakfast this morning. This wouldn't be anything out of the norm for most people, but I haven't eaten at a restaurant for over five months. So yes, the caveman diet is over. I decided to break myself in with some delicious eggs benedict and some coffee with cream. I'm waiting for my stomach to scream in protest, it hasn't handled something like that for a long time. Maggie had a great time watching mommy and daddy eat out. She also enjoyed watching this little girl run all around Addie's. She kept smiling at the little girl, and finally the little girl got a little embarrassed that Maggie was so interested in her and hid in a booth. I warned Zac in the car that if it suddenly hits me harder than I'm expecting (that I can't breastfeed Maggie anymore), that I need him to try and stay calm as I'm having hysterics. His usual response was given, "I don't think you need to cry about that." We'll see though, but yes, my milk protein/soy saturated food was delicious!

Maggie Update

Well, I have lots of cute pictures, but Zac's been "organizing" pictures on his laptop, so this will be just a bunch of boring text---sorry!

Zac and I attended one of the local "parents of children with food allergies" support group meetings last night. We met with the new allergist to Boise, Dr. Fritz. He shared a lot of information with us, very late into the evening, and it appears as though all specialists have different suggestions (of course). It was soooo nice to talk to other parents though. Maggie's the youngest child of the group, so most of the parents have already gone though a lot of what we're about to expect. All the parents really encouraged Zac and I to get into see Barbie Dougherty the nurse practitioner with Idaho Pediatric Gastroenterology. They say she's the best. The woman who organizes this group, her son is now outgrowing his milk protein/soy allergy at two years old. She also told me that he was ALWAYS sick. When children with food allergies spend all their bodily efforts trying to fight the allergy, they aren't as successful with fighting off things like colds. This makes sense, and this is certainly our little Maggie Moo. I'm hoping with the switch over to Neocate this may help build up her immunities some--we'll see.

Some of you may be interested in checking out the Alliance for Kids in Idaho with Food Sensitivities and Allergies website: www.kifsa.org, it has information about elemental formula (which Maggie is on now), etc.

FYI: A cute little baby is going to be six months old on Friday!!!

Yum, yum, yum

Of course we allowed her to attempt feeding herself---I don't tell parents to do this, and ignore my own advice, that would be silly, and yes it was messy!

This was during our morning hike in the foothills, she was working up her appetite!

Well here it is...the first bite of solid food.  She loved it!  I knew she would.  

We're to just formula in her bottles now, and I'm still breast feeding 2-3 times a day.  I've realized how much more convenient breastfeeding is.  I'm also realizing how much formula a baby can go through.   It's sort of freaking me out.  We hadn't been using much because we were mixing with breast milk, now we're flying through it.  I guess that's how it goes.

Going to the doctor is sooo much fun!

So we were into see Dr. Ally again because Maggie has Croup.  She got a steroid treatment to help with her cough and breathing.  She's been finding it very interesting that she has a new voice (the barky scratchy croup voice that is).  She likes to listen to herself make all these new sounds, but it makes me sad to hear it.

I know, isn't' it always fun times for Miss Maggie.  She's had a cold every month since October.  Poor thing, she just keeps catching every little virus she comes into contact with.  It doesn't help that I work with children probably bringing home their colds, and she spends three days a week with her friends at school catching all their colds---that's how it goes though.  We're hoping February will be sick free!  

She's been in a pretty good mood considering, until today that is.  She whined at Zac and I all day.  No crying, just constant whining.  Zac's sick too, and I was quite amazed at the patience he demonstrated--he's changing so much since he became a dad.  

Here's some pics of Maggie at the doctor's office.  Dr. Ally was running a bit behind schedule, so Maggie had lots of time to play with the paper on the table.  She loved it, and that's putting it mildly.  Especially since she's a pro at rolling both ways now.  Paper makes lots of neat sounds when you roll around on it!

Completely Refreshed!

So, when you realize that your stress threshold has been far exceeded, it's about time for some relaxation. By about Friday at 10am I realized that if I continued to be as frazzled as I was, well I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen, but I knew it wasn't going to be good. This is when I called my husband and laid out some plans...
1. We get home from work and throw enough stuff in our bags for the weekend
2. We get in the car and drive
3. We don't come home until we know we feel much better

Of course he agreed, it's Zac! And this is exactly what we did.

Here's our little family (minus our B-dog), on our walk to the lake.

Maggie's been sticking her tongue out at us lately. We're not quite sure if she's just playing around with everything her mouth can do, or expressing her opinion.

So this is our "cabin." I know, it was really roughing it.

Maggie adores her Aunt Sara and Uncle Brad. She enjoyed their company all weekend.

Zac made a delicious dinner for us. He's pretty cute when he cooks, isn't he?

I'm happy to report I'm feeling much better now. We had a FANTASTIC weekend! I'm relaxed, refreshed, and motivated to keep going at all those challenges that seemed so difficult to endure this last week. Maggie had the most fabulous time as well. She loved McCall. She decided she was enjoying herself so much she might as well start rolling from back to stomach. She'd been working on this for awhile, so we were so excited to watch her finally reach this milestone. The "cabin" was beautiful. There was a hot tub on the patio (relaxation guaranteed), three bedrooms, two baths, a beautiful kitchen, and it was within walking distance to downtown McCall. We took a nice walk to the lake, and Maggie enjoyed taking in the beautiful snowy scenery. I couldn't have asked for a better last minute trip.

Thanks Zac, for knowing when I'm in some serious need for a little bit of a breather, loving me so much, and being so up for anything! Thanks Maggie, for being the most beautiful, delightful, and charming little baby (you were pretty funny this weekend too). Thanks Sara and Brad, for also being up for spontaneity, and for being such a great aunt and uncle. Thanks Mom, for always being that last minute dog sitter.

Sure was fun. Love you all!

What is Stranger Anxiety and Seperation Anxiety?

I know many of you have heard these terms before, but I thought I would share some information about this since many of you have seen Maggie display these anxieties.

We'll have to start with a little social/emotional development information... the most important learning an infant does in the first 0-6 months is learning how to meet their own physical needs (how to eat, how to calm themselves, how to eliminate waste, how to fall asleep, etc.) and forming attachments with a primary caregiver (most often their parents). Responsive care giving, or responding to a baby's cues so that the baby begins to learn that their needs are being met, is the first way to start building attachment. When a baby realizes that there are consistent people who continually meet their needs, they begin to attach to those people. This social/emotional foundation encourages growth and learning in all areas of future development.

Some babies begin to depend (as they should) on these important people who meet their needs. Some even become upset or anxious when removed from their "important people." To them this may mean that their "safe" person isn't right there with them, and their needs may not be met. This is generally something that develops later in infancy, usually around 8 months of age, when the infant can cognitively process differences between familiar and unfamiliar people and situations. Maggie just happens to be a bit ahead of the game. Quite cognitively advanced I might add.

So how do you respond?? Simply by continuing that responsive care giving and respecting her needs. At one time, it was believed that babies were empty vessels--that they didn't process stimuli/information, that they couldn't communicate, etc. We now know this is completely ridiculous. Babies are born communicating, and with the right responses, and attempts to understand their communication, this communication becomes more refined. When Maggie cries when someone that isn't mom, dad, or another close person holds her she is letting that person know that she feels a little unsafe right now, and would like to be with one of her familiar people (she wants to ensure that her needs will be met). This doesn't mean that she wouldn't enjoy playing next to that person on the floor, or smiling at them while she's in mom's lap, etc. Maggie is also very purposefully reaching or turning away from someone to let them know if she wants or does not want to be held. When others listen to her gestural commands, she begins to understand that these people listen to her too, and this begins to make her feel safe with them as well.

I know this can be difficult for others, when they see how adorable she is, and just want to pick her up and give her kisses all over like I constantly have the urge to do, but please join me in respecting Maggie's already advanced forms of communication. Talk to Maggie when you first see her. Let her warm up a bit, and play near you before being taken by you. Hold out your hands and let her "tell you" if she would like to be held by you or not. This has become quite the fun game with Auntie Sara. Although she's usually very comfortable with Sara, she'll often smile and turn her head away letting her know "not right now." Within the next few minutes though she's reaching for her, as she will with many of you!

Here's one of Maggie's favorite people---daddy of course, getting her way to excited before bed time, he's soooo funny though!

Spitting Up on Daddy is Funny!

Well, Maggie and I thought it was really funny, Zac, not so much.

Maggie's Daddy Week

Zac kept photo documentation of their daily activities to share with me this week. I thought all of you might enjoy seeing how they spent their time as well...

Apparently it's really fun to pull out the umbrella stroller and chase Boston around the house. I hear both Boston and Maggie enjoyed this activity.


Peppa, Maggie's dolly, was giving Maggie some loves after Maggie woke up from her nap. I think Doudou is a little jealous!

Here's the daddy smile.

Here is a video showing Maggie playing and eventually rolling over to her back. Enjoy.

Maggie and Zac have had a great week together--they are quite the playful duo now. I've been amazed at how Maggie will just watch Zac from across the room, and when she gets the slightest glance from him in her direction she brightens up instantly and gets a beautiful, huge grin on her face.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have some new details to share about the choices we are making concerning Maggie's allergies. After Dr. Ally and I had a lengthy discussion when she called the other night, we have decided to go ahead and transition Maggie to the Neocate Formula. Our rationale for this is simply that we can't stop the bleeding, and we need to get her symptom free before we start solids. This way we'll actually know when she's having an allergic reaction to something, rather than just thinking that is how Maggie always is. Dr. Ally spoke with both Dr. Thompson the pediatric gastroenterologist, and Dr. Jeppson, a pediatric allergist. They both agreed.

This obviously has been a very, very difficult choice for us, especially me. Dr. Ally keeps reminding me that she doesn't know any mother who's been able to breast feed this long with a child that has allergies like Maggie. I just keep telling myself that we're almost to six months (the minimum amount of time recommended for exclusive breast feeding by the AAP).
Our plan is to slowly introduce the formula, mainly because we don't have a choice, Maggie's currently refusing it. This will also help with the tremendous cost of this formula. Zac was hesitant to pull out his calculator, but he finally did, and we had the very harsh reality of how costly this is going to be. It isn't going to be easy, at all, but we'll make it work--we have to.
We bought Maggie a new bottle, so we don't upset her when she thinks she's getting her breast milk from her usual bottle. We are going to start with one ounce formula and three ounces of breast milk, and slowly start decreasing the breast milk. I'm still going to breastfeed Maggie for her early AM feeding, and right before she goes to bed, until she's taking exclusively the formula from the bottle. This morning she actually drank the breast milk/formula mix from her new bottle, so we are hopeful.
I'm trying to think of this as a transition to new and different things rather than the end of something. I know many of you who have been breastfeeding moms, understand me when I say it's very hard to quit breastfeeding. We will be starting solids at the end of the month though, if Maggie's feeling well, and that will be a great new adventure as well.

As always, we'll keep everyone updated.