The good, the bad, and the soy

Well, this week has been an eventful one.

THE GOOD
The week started off with a fantastic shower thrown for us by some of Matt's college friends. In addition to great food, lovely atmosphere, and tons of great stuff for Bea, the group also gave us a tree in memory of Elsa. It was really nice to celebrate both girls.

Also in good news:
-Bea weighed in this week at the doctor's office at 9 lbs 5 ozs!!!!
-Bea slept three hours in a row for the first time in weeks!!!!
-Bea has been able to get outside and take a walk around the neighborhood (Well, she isn't exactly walking herself, but you know what I mean.)
-The doctor cleared Bea to go out and about to Target and such places - so we went to Panera to see a family friend - whoo-hoo... Thankfully Grandma Liz was with us, because we had to experience our first diaper change in a restaurant and it was a doozie.

THE BAD

Bea and I both had a stomach bug, which gave us both belly aches and made me very tired and dizzy. We're still getting over it and still a little groggy.

Miss Bea was diagnosed with acid reflux. Bea has only been sleeping 20 minutes at a time during the day and never peacefully. Her record at night was 2.5-3 hour, but most of the time she wanted to eat every hour. We thought this was normal or maybe normal for a preemie at least. She seemed fussy a lot and she drooled a lot. After a particularly bad couple days last week I looked up the symptoms online and figured out that she might have reflux. The doctor confirmed our suspicions and now Bea is on reflux medicine. We hope this will make her feel better.

THE SOY
Because of Bea's reflux, I can't eat any dairy. Now, if you know me at all, you know the four food groups for me are: milk, cheese, ice cream, and butter... and I like yogurt, too. I drink a half gallon of milk on a slow day. So, this no dairy diet is nearly killing me. I'm trying all the soy substitutes and I am not sure how those vegans do it. Yucko.

***If you have any good non-dairy/non-apple (I'm allergic) recipes please send them my way, I need all the help I can get.***

To illustrate my sense of loss for my dear dairy products, here is a funny story (at least it's funny in retrospect). After the doctor appointment the other day, I was heading home with Bea in the car, had only slept an hour or two, and was getting the flu, but didn't know it yet. I knew I was too tired to find something to eat at home, so I went to the McDonald's drivethru. I went to McDonalds particularly because I thought they had frozen yogurt (and I thought frozen yogurt was dairy-free, but that's another story). I get to the intercom and I say, "Your cones are frozen yogurt, right?" to the teenage kid in the window. And, he says, "No we've changed to real ice cream." Suddenly, it was all too much and I started to cry right there in the drivethru. So, the snotty McDonald's kid says to me, "Pull yourself together." I ordered and headed home. When I got home, I went to take Bea in her car seat out of the car and my back went out. Luckily my Dad was at the house to help me get her in. Eventually opened my McDonald's bag. I had ordered a fish sandwich - with no cheese - and the twerp had given it to me with cheese anyway. I started to cry again.

So, next time you have a bad day, just remember at least you didn't get told to "pull yourself together" by a 16-year-old in a McD's uniform.

Yours in dairy withdrawl,
Melissa

Sextuplets in My Old Room

Just a really quick note -- remember when I was in the hospital awhile back and there was another woman on my floor who was having sextuplets? Well, they were born! They all made it, but they were born very early. They were born at 22 weeks +, which compared to us was the week after we were in Cincinnati -- two weeks before I ever got to the hospital. The smallest baby is smaller then Elsa was. So, say a prayer for them.

For me it is especially interesting to watch the videos they have on this web site -- because she is in MY OLD ROOM. So, if you watch the videos on here, you can see what my environment used to be like. Check it out.

http://wcco.com/morrisons

Talk to you soon,
Melissa

WAH!, Moooo, and More

Yawn. We're tired around here.

Last week when Bea had her shots she learned something new -- the extremely loud cry (we'll call it the "ELC"). The ELC goes something like this: WAH! [breath] WAH! [breath] WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! [breath, breath, breath, breath]. I'm sure our neighbors can hear it clearly. Last night, she did it so loud it made Bullet start to whine. Generally, she only uses the ELC when she's hungry. She'll be smiling one minute and in full-on ELC the next. She also likes to do it at 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. each night for extended periods. Then last night, she did it for Dad for several hours straight. We hope that was the pinnacle.


One reason I'm not as tired is I'm weaning off of the breast pump. I used to pump 8 times a day for 30 minutes. Now I'm down to 2 times a day for 10 minutes! It's amazing the time that frees up! :) And, I no longer feel like a farm animal. I was starting to Moo. Just for kicks here is the picture of the free standing freezer we have specifically for breastmilk. This picture is from about three weeks ago. Everything you see in the picture is breastmilk, except (appropriately) for the jugs. The jugs have since been replaced with more breastmilk. As you can tell, we're well stocked. Bea will not starve. I told Matt we need a generator in case the power goes out. I would be seriously p-o'd if this all went to waste.

OK, that's all for now. (This is probably the most bizzare post yet! As I said, we're tired. haha.)

Melissa.