Growing

I often makes notes on my phone, sometimes it's a grocery list or impressions I have, or great quotes. This morning while holding Eden I was cleaning them up and ran across this quote I wrote down...

Welcome the task that makes you go beyond yourself and you will grow.
-Julie B. Beck

Oh crap, that task is absolutely Eden, can I be done growing now? I'm not sure I have the welcoming part down yet.

What the Girls Wore #87

Catie built a camp fire one day (the necklace) and ate marshmallows with Daddy and Baby Eden.  Oh, and she hasn't stopped wearing her Halloween costume since the day I bought it.

Grandma brought us some face paint so we've been playing around.  She thinks it's really fun, when I finish she says, "I'm gorgeous!"

Some smiles in the morning.  She started to laugh this week too, it's adorable.

I have a serious Starbucks hot chocolate addiction and I'm passing it on to Catie.

I find it amazing how different Catie and Eden look, here's a photo of Catie at the same age for comparison. I also couldn't believe when I was looking at Catie's photos just how often I hold Eden.  I have photos of Catie in all sorts of positions and places, Eden insists on being held almost all the time so it makes for some boring photos.

A Good Day

I talk a lot about how difficult Eden is and our days are really hard. I thought it was important that I report that today was a really good day. Perhaps the best day we've ever had.

Naps went great, she didn't cry for hours tonight, Catie and I played (at the park even) and I got a nap. Dinner was put on the table (even if it was frozen lasagna), I washed and folded laundry and I'm currently spending some time with my husband.

It was a great day.

Start as You Mean to Go On... heh heh heh

I`ve often heard people talk about how before you have kids you make rules for yourself of what you will and won`t do and then after the baby comes those rules go out the window. This isn't really something I understood because we parented Catie exactly the way we wanted to. Everything I wanted before she was born worked out perfectly for her and parenthood was easy... and then came Eden.

My parenting motto has always been, Start as you mean to go on. So if you don`t want to be rocking your two year old to sleep then don`t start rocking your baby to sleep, and then came Eden. This little lady gets rocked to sleep before every, single nap. I didn`t want to use a soother and now it`s my best friend. I`ve always thought swings were sleep crutches and now I`d give anything to have a swing put Eden to sleep. I`m not a big fan of baby wearing but the Moby comes in handy.

Perhaps the one I felt the mostly strongly about was that babies belonged in cribs, not my bed. Never once did I sleep with Catie yet somehow this girl doesn't ever sleep as well as she does right here, tucked between Brad and I.

We`re pretty sure there has never been a more fussy baby and I worry about what happens when it`s time to put an end to these bad habits.  For now we`ll continue to do whatever works, to just get through each day with a little sanity, we`ll deal with the consequences another day.

What the Girls Wore #86

Thanks to Eden and her need to be held so often our unpacking is going very, very slowly. Catie has no complaints as it means this empty box just sits in the living room, perfect for playing in.

She likes to put Mr. Brown in and close up the box.  Then she tells me to close my eyes and opens the box while exlaiming, ``Ta Da!``

I finally caught a smile on camera

Trying to beat the boredom at the hospital

She`s officially moved up a clothing size.

Funny faces in the morning

We had a surprisingly warm day so I managed to find a few minutes to take Catie outside to ride her tricycle. It`s amazing how much better she is now than when we started at the beginning of the summer, she even steers (though she steers poorly).

The Hospital Visit

I don't normally post on the weekend but we've had an eventful couple of days so I thought I'd talk a bit about that.

I've mentioned multiple times (I'm sure I talk about it too often) that Eden is a fussy baby.  She cries a lot and it's been a big challenge.  Often we'd feel like thing were getting better and then the next day she'd cry for an hour and there would be nothing we could do about it.  So like usual things were starting to seem better and then Tuesday was a really bad day.  She cried for an hour, fell asleep and then was fussy and miserable the rest of the day.  Normally one of these bad days is followed by a couple good ones so I was looking forward to a good day... she cried for two hours and was even more miserable.  At this point I was super frustrated and made another doctor's appointment for her but didn't think too much about it.

One good thing I can say about Eden is that once she's down for the night she's pretty good.  Nowhere near sleeping through the night but at least nights are okay.  So you can understand the frustration when it took way longer than it should of to get her to bed and then she woke an hour later.  Brad got up with her to feed her but after just a swallow or two she was immediately hysterical.  I got up to help since he had to work the next day and settled in to the couch, prepared to hold her until she tired herself out enough to fall asleep.  This cry was so different though, there had been no wind up, she was just immediately inconsolable.

Both Brad and I felt it was time to go the hospital.  I packed her up and headed to the ER, sure that they would laugh me away thinking I just had a baby that cried.   Everyone was super nice to me though and assured me that it was good that I came.  The resident took a good look at her and I think she was preparing to send me home with a Colic diagnosis but she brought the Doctor in who thankfully wasn't very happy with her cry.  She said that she didn't want to put her through unnecessary testing but she thought they should do some to be sure.  I immediately agreed, so relieved that they weren't sending me home with my crying baby.

They took her temperature (a rectal one) and put in an IV to draw some blood.  They then took a urine sample (through a cathetar).  When the nurse looked at the sample she showed it to the other nurse and said, "I think that looks cloudy, don't you?"  To which I replied, "Good!  Cloudy is bad right, it's means somethings wrong?  Excellent!"  I can't tell you how relieved I am that they found something.

I kept thinking she had a broken arm... they tape her arm to a padded board and then wrap a cloth around it, all so she won't bother the IV.

In the end they discovered that she has a urinary tract infection (or a bladder infection) which is great news because it's minor, and easy to fix.  For an adult they would send us home with antibiotics but because she's so little they'd need to treat her with IV for two days in the hospital.  There was no room for us at the Children's hospital so they transferred us to the Peter Laugheed where we spent the next two days hanging out.

Here we are at 4 in the morning waiting to be transferred.  I was very tired.

I suppose things get worse before they get better because the first night we were there she cried for 5 hours. 5 hours without a break and without any real sign of why she was crying.

My favourite part of the hospital stay... Brad brought me some clothes and such and I pulled out my toothbrush and found a present from Catie... a plastic tomato.  It made me chuckle.

Things seem to be better now though.  We're home, she's on the mend and now she's Eden 2.0, wireless (no more IV).

Wish us luck that the crying was all caused by the infection and it will be smooth sailing from here on out.

What the Girls Wore #85

I know I've taken a ton of these photos but often after some serious crying this view just melts my heart and makes the cycle worth going through again.

 

Having dinner in front of the tv on her little table, what could be better.

 

I love when both girls end up in the same photo.

 

Yet another smooshy face photo.

 

We went on a spur of the moment trip to the zoo on a chilly day.  It was totally worth the cool weather and we had a good time.  Eden looked like this the whole time (it was so last minute I'm not wearing even a little make-up and my hair was a quick pony tail).

 

She loves Eden's Bumbo.

 

Hanging out in the swing.

 

I love this photo.  She napped in my arms and when she woke up she had my sweater embossed all over her face.  It made me chuckle.

 

Catie thought the sweater over Eden's eyes was hilarious. "I can't see him" (we're working on our pronouns)

 

Don't be fooled, that's not her thumb in, just her hand over her face.

 

Hanging out on her Noah's Ark mat (there will be anothe post dedicated to this mat later)

 

Catie joining in on the fun.

 

Watching General Conference with my two ladies (and Catie's sucker)

 

She found Eden's head band and was very proud of herself.

 

Catie on our zoo trip.  I think she looks so stylish here.

 

Happy Eden

What the Girls Wore #84

We still haven't set up our computer so again this post comes from my phone meaning it will be wordless again. Better than nothing right?

This week we moved and we blessed Eden, it's been good but busy.