Today was a rough day for my precious little girl. She had her four month set of shots today and, naturally, did not like that experience one bit! I can't blame her! My poor baby had 4 needles injected into her thighs and it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Then, on top of that, she is still teething. To add to her current woes, she is also having some constipation issues. It just hasn't been a good day for her. But now she is sleeping soundly and tomorrow everything will be right with the world again. But on a positive note, my little girl is very healthy and is developmentally perfect. She is in the top 95th percentile for her length and weight, and in the 97th percentile for her head circumference. She is, technically, a big baby...but she LOOKS so small, simply because of her length. She is a L-O-N-G baby, with L-O-N-G fingers and L-O-N-G toes (which she DEFINITELY didn't get from me!) so she actually looks much smaller than she really is. She is growing like a weed, though, and reached a milestone right there in the doctor's office when she rolled from her back to her tummy. She hasn't rolled from her tummy to her back yet, though, but that is my fault. Annabelle absolutely, positively HATES to be on her tummy, so I never put her in that position. Since she is never in that position, she hasn't had an opportunity to reach the rolling milestone of tummy to back. The doctor chided me about that and told me I need to put her on her tummy for at least 30 minutes a day to strenghthen those muscles. I think I'll break that 30 minutes into 6 sessions of 5 minutes each. If I keep little Annabelle on her tummy for 30 minutes straight, she will throw a fit like you've never seen! Oh well, I guess we'll seee what happens. If worse comes to worse, I can always break the 30 minutes into 30 sessions of 1 minute each! Hee hee hee!
It's been a bit warm here for the past few weeks with a cold day scattered here and there. However, it looks like tomorrow will be the start of the colder weather, with temperatures dropping into the 20s and 30s and STAYING there for a little while. Autumn and winter just aren't the same when the temperature is in the 50s. Hot cocoa and hot apple cider just don't taste as good when it's not cold enough to see my breath outside. I just love it when the seasons change.
Now that Thanksgiving is almost here, it gives me an opportunity to sit and think about what I am thankful for. I know I mentioned in an earlier blog about some of the childhood memories that I am thankful for, but there are so many things that I think I sometimes take for granted. Things like running water. It is unbelievably convenient to be able to go to the kitchen faucet, turn it on, and have water flow freely from it. It sure makes flushing the toilet a whole lot easier, that's for sure! I listen to the stories my dad tells me about growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania and having to walk to the outhouse in the middle of winter whenever he had to use the toilet. I would have never survived! I would have died of either dehydration or starvation, because if I knew I was going to have to walk outside in 4 feet of snow just to use the bathroom, I'd have stopped eating and drinking just to avoid that awful experience! Oh, how thankful I am for indoor plumbing! And thinking of 4 feet of snow makes me unbelievably thankful for central heating, which I firmly believe I would also die without! If I believed in past lives, I'm pretty sure I would have suspected that I was some cold-blooded reptile in a former life simply because of my intolerance for the cold. I love to admire the cold from the warmth of my kitchen window, but I don't necessarily enjoy being out in it. Nonetheless, I'm thankful for winter. Growing up in south Florida, I was so miserable in that horrible, oven-like heat. It never got any better and I would always pray that one day I could escape that nasty, sticky weather and go somewhere that has 4 seasons. And that makes me thankful for answered prayers. We have a God Who enjoys answering the prayers of His people....and I have every reason to be thankful for that! Yes, Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to sit back, relax and just be thankful for all that we have, compared to the millions of people out there who don't have a fraction of what we do. God is good. Life is good. And the turkey and pumpkin pie aren't bad either! :-)
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5 comments:
Shots are NO fun for Mommy or baby! I think they hurt us more though than they do them. Aren't the milestones fun? I know you are excited. My Annabelle hated tummy time too at first, but I tried a few minutes here and a few minutes there, and then she started really liking it (and she only wanted to be on her tummy). In fact, when she learned to roll from back to tummy, she ONLY preferred to sleep on her tummy. I just imagined her as a newborn thinking every night, "Why do they keep putting me on my back? I would much rather sleep on my tummy?" But, they scare you half to death with the SIDS, so she slept on her back until she was able to roll over herself.
Do you have one of those mirrors to put in front of her to entertain her during tummy time? They have some cute ones at Babies R Us (if you have a store near you).
As for the constipation issues, that is no fun! My Annabelle is still having problems, and I am thinking about taking her to a Gastrologist because I have tried everything recommended by the doctor, and nothing seems to work (besides the Miralax the pediatrician recommended). And, I'm not too fond of giving her medicine every time I turn around.
Have you started her on rice cereal yet? As soon as I started Annabelle on rice cereal, she started with the constipation issues. They recommended switching to the oatmeal, and then they recommended adding some prunes or juice (prune, apple, etc) to her diet. Of course, as you introduce her to more solids, they recommend staying away from the bananas if the constipation issues continue.
I really hope that your Annabelle gets over the constipation issues. It is very painful to watch them when it hurts so bad for them to go. It is worse than the shots.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
I forgot to ask...does Annabelle have red hair? It looks like she does from the pictures, but I wasn't certain.
My husband has red hair, and it was bright red when he was born, so we were hoping for a red head, but Annabelle has brown hair like mine. Of course, now, I could not see her any other way.
I *DO* have one of those tummy mirrors that I'm going to have to start using with her. She's getting a lot better about being on her tummy...it takes her a little while before she starts screaming now. She rolls back and forth from back to tummy to back now and she does it like a champ! She especially likes to do it right in the middle of her diaper changes! It's really cute, actually! She is just so much fun!
I haven't actually started her on solid food, yet. I'm planning on doing that either this weekend or next week sometime. She's ready, so I'm goin gto give it a shot. One of the ladies in my Sunday School class told me how to give Annabelle a natural enima (plain water, nothing else). Her little boy had some very serious constipation issues (he is a very sick child) and she couldn't keep giving him medicine since he was already on soooooo many medications to begin with. I'm going to try the water enima if the problem ever comes up again, which I pray it doesn't.
No, Annabelle has dark brown hair, just like mine. It's funny that you mention red hair, though. I was born with a full head of very dark brown hair that turned red when I was two. It turned back to brown when I was four. Nobody understood that, as nobody in my family has even a single strand of red hair! My eyes did something similar...I had crystal blue eyes up until the time I was four years old, when they turned hazel (which they still are today!) Annabelle was born with, and still has, gray eyes. I've never seen anything like it before! The doctor tells me they won't stay that color, which makes me kind of sad, so we'll see what happens.
What color eyes did *your* Annabelle have when she was born? Are they still the same color or did they change?
I almost forgot to respond to your question on the blue eyes...so sorry! My Annabelle was actually born with bright blue eyes. The doctor told me that because her eyes were such a deep blue that they would actually probably stay blue. He said that if they had been a lighter blue, that they will typically change. At 13 months, she still has blue eyes. Of course, she didn't really have a chance of anything else as my husband and I both have blue eyes. I think they typically change by 12 months of age if they are going to change, but don't quote me on that.
About the gray eyes though, I actually have gray eyes, but I refer to them as blue eyes. My husband always tells me, "You don't have blue eyes. They are gray." So, it is funny to me that you mentioned that about your Annabelle. Of course, I've always wished my eyes were a deep blue. That just goes with human nature of always wanting what you don't have though!
That's crazy that your eyes turned to hazel at 4 years of age! I never knew they could take that long to change color. And, your hair was red too?!?! That is wild! From the pictures, it really looks like your Annabelle has a bit of red in her hair though. Maybe it is just the picture though.
I've got to post some pics of my baby girl on my blog too! She was born with a head of dark brown hair, and she lost very, very little of it. By 8.5 months, I was able to pull it up into two little pigtails. Now, her hair reaches down her back. I have still refused to have it cut though, but everyday, I have to pull it up in a ponytail or the poor thing cannot see!
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