12 Weeks

Time is really flying by and fast.  I can't believe it is already 12 weeks since Little E was born.  Next month on the 8th she'll be three months old.

No the colic still hasn't abated. Yesterday was 6 shirt changes on her and one pair of pants for me.

She is teething at least I think she is.

She grew another inch.  Last night I placed the yard stick in her crib to check her length.  She is now 23 inches and a tiny bit but she kept wiggling so I just went with the full inch.

She is fully into the 3-6 month size clothes.  I started packing up the 3 month size on a few items that were running small.

Her nails are like razor blades.  I can't keep up on the filing of them down.  I've been tempted to take her for a manicure but I doubt it would be worth it.

She can stand assisted.

Her hair is falling out.  I rather knew it would.  Still it is hard to tell what color her hair will be when it comes in as her eye lashes are brown and her eye brows are a dark blonde.

Still not rolling over.  She rolls to her side but that is it.  I thought for sure the way she was going this morning she would roll from back to front but alas it was just to the side.  More often than not the only tummy time she gets is when she sleeps on one of us to take a quick nap.  She hates tummy time on the floor and will manage only a minute before she screams.

Oh God her screams!  She is ear piercing with those wales.

I'm loving every minute of her existence.   I just wish the days wouldn't fly by so quickly.

It is Colic

We went to the Pediatrician's office today for Little E's three week check up.  We discussed all sorts of things including my milk supply.

At birth Little E measured 18 inches long and weighed 5 pounds 11 ounces.  Today she is 19 1/2 inches long and 7 pounds 2 ounces.  We are doing something right and that makes me happy.

As for the breast milk.  The Ped doc suggested I take the fenugreek tablets 2 at 3 times daily in addition to the tea I'm drinking and to try out the lactation cookies.  I said I didn't feel up to baking as of yet.  She said I can buy them online.  I noticed them on Amazon the other day so I decided to purchase them today along with the tablets.  Hopefully this will help my milk supply.  When the breast milk increases to half of what Little E normally takes in her bottle I'm to start her on the Vitamin D drops they prescribed her today.

As for the colic.  It will pass. We were told not to do water, gas drops and other remedies but to just put her stomach down on our legs and rub her back.  She is pooping just fine and gaining weight.

I, however, am a different story.  They gave me the mental health assessment sheet.  I scored a 10 and that isn't a good thing.  I was then counseled and given the number to the behavioral health clinic.  I said I'll call them soon.  I have no problem with getting help.  I used to get help when I was going through the infertility treatments.  I just wish I'd stop crying so much.

As for the pain.  The peds doc told me that percocet isn't going to hurt my breast milk considering that I don't take it that often and she'd rather I not be in pain.

Time to go pump the milk while J feeds her from the last pumping and the formula he just made up.

Here is a new photo of Little E taken today:

Here is one taken a few days ago:

She has such pretty blue eyes.  They are changing to more of J's color now.  I'm still wondering what color they will be in a year.

Crying It Out

****I have a few questions for my readers in this blog post.  So if you have a potential answer or an educated guess feel free to share it with me in the comments.

Not so much the baby but me.  I'm the one crying though she is too.  I think, but will see her Ped doc tomorrow, she has colic.  I'm not crying over that.  I have the baby blues.  Rather normal.

Little E is fussing a lot at the same time of day.  She curls up her body, screams, passes gas, cries some more and at times is inconsolable.   Again rather normal from what I read.

I'm going to stop the milkmaid tea and watch my diet a little more closely.  Though we are doing more formula than breastmilk, I'm up to pumping 5 times a day, it could very well be my milk causing her issues.  However, it could be an allergy to her formula too as J's brother and I as well, not sure my genetics matter much with this as we used a donor egg, had milk allergy issues as infants.  Again if that is the case then I'll have to change my diet and eliminate dairy.  I'll find out more what the doctor suggest tomorrow.

It has been 6 days of colic like symptoms at basically the same time each day or rather evening and late night.  How many of you out there experienced colic with your babies or yourself when you were a baby?  My mom had to put me on a rice formula added to my bottle at three weeks of age because of my stomach issues.

Now back to the baby blues.  I'm not going to go out and kill myself or anyone else for that matter.  I can assure you all of that.  I have had some rather disturbing thoughts that the world would be better off without me but I'll just call that self-pity because I feel so inadequate.  Why do I feel like that?  Well my nipples aren't appetizing to my daughter because they are too big.  She'd rather J feed her than me.  Though I have done a few, just a few, feedings with her when he was out of the house.  Hey if she has no choice she'll take the bottle from anyone I figure.  I'm still feeling really weak and having some bad pains in the ribs along my kidneys and along the incision too.  I'll post a photo of what it looked like when the bandage came off and I saw the 19 staples.

This is when they changed the bandage in the hospital and I was still third spacing (major fluid retention).  The staples continue under the belly too.
While it does look better now it is still bruised, red, hot to the touch and oddly swollen on the right side.  I don't have a fever so infection can be ruled out.

As for the rib pain along the back.  When this pregnancy first started and they tested my urine for protein with the first of the 24 hour tests I came back with high numbers but that was before week 20.  Then I developed pre-eclampsia.  I was told I might need to see a nephrologist.  Kidney issues run in my family.  It doesn't matter how much water I drink I can still inherit what my dad has and what his grandmother died from.  I'm hoping I won't but I'd like to get it looked at if the pain doesn't go away.

For those of you with endometriosis and have had a hysterectomy (just the uterus removed) can the endo pain return quickly?  I'm asking this because I'm getting a lot of pain where the ovaries are located.  I'd like to blame the pain on the surgery but it has been three weeks almost since I delivered and anything is possible with endometriosis I swear.  I know that the ovaries are the culprits with endometriosis.

Oh and here is a recent picture of little E in J's arms: