Update....

I know all of you have been patiently waiting to see if Meredith has improved with her eating (just kidding)! But actually, things are currently going much better.....

Last Wednesday I was home all day with Meredith, though her fever had decreased by Tuesday evening, because she had to be fever free without meds for 24 hours before she could go back to daycare. That day went okay. She was a bit fussier than normal and still was eating no more than 2.5 oz at a time.

So, by Thursday we were able to bring Meredith to daycare. That day I basically had a meltdown about Meredith's eating. I hadn't heard back from the feeding clinic and I knew my pediatrician would be out of the office on Friday - I just wanted to do something to try to improve how much Meredith ate. So, I called the pediatrician's office to try to get some advice from my pediatrician - I mean it had been almost a week of Meredith's poor eating. I also called the nurse practitioner at the feeding clinic and left a message. What makes all of this more frustrating is how my job is, I basically can't be reached at work. So, I call somewhere and leave a message, but have no phone number to have them call me back at because my cell phone doesn't work in the OR and I am hardly ever in one spot very long, and if I am it's because I'm in an OR and I can't exactly be taking personal phone calls when I'm taking care of a patient under anesthesia. I did call Jon and found out that he was actually home and thought that I'd have him take care of all of this - but I also felt that he had never been as concerned as I was about Meredith's eating and I wasn't going to take the usual, is she peeing, pooping and gaining weight questioning. Because she was doing all of those things, but in a lot less frequency than she had been and as far as gaining weight - she's up 0.2 lb, then down 0.2 lb, then up 0.4 lb, etc, etc. She isn't drastically losing weight, but she wasn't gaining by leaps and bounds either. And it was more than just how much she was eating - it was her behavior: the crying, the arching of her back, her general unhappiness with eating!

In the end, I decided to request for our pediatrician to call my cell phone anytime after 3pm so I could talk to her and I left a message for the feeding clinic to just leave a message on my voice mail. By noon that day the nurse at the feeding clinic had called me back and said they had Meredith on the schedule for a swallow study and upper GI Xrays, followed by a clinical feeding evaluation - on the following Wednesday. I immediately felt better, at least I was doing something to try and figure out what was going on!

My pediatrician did end up calling me that evening and we discussed what was going on. She's very laid back, which is probably good for me. She has never been all that concerned about Meredith's eating, though she is perfectly willing to humor me in my quest to correct it. We decided to try Meredith on Prilosec (a stronger reflux med). And then I told her about the swallow study appt and she was interested in seeing what we found. She didn't necessarily think Meredith has bad reflux, but didn't know what else could be the problem. I just wanted to rule out a physiological swallowing or reflux problem and then get an expert's opinion on her sucking and swallowing.

She had another weird day on Friday, eating only a couple of ounces every couple of hours. Then - all of the sudden on Saturday morning, Meredith took 4 oz, then the next few bottles she finished (between 4.5 and 5.5 oz). And now, ever since then she's taking between 5 and 6.5 oz a bottle 6 times a day. So what the heck changed? I have NO idea. We had given her the Prilosec for the first time Friday, but that usually takes days to a few weeks to really exert it's effects. She was and still is stuffy with snot and has a cough. Maybe she's a little less stuffy, I don't know.

The weekend was great. She was in a good mood when she was awake, was taking good naps, finishing her bottles - peeing and pooping up a storm and sleeping pretty restfully at night! It's amazing how much happier I am when she's doing well! We even started her on rice cereal for the first time Sunday night. And I would have to say she did better than I expected. She sat in her high chair and kind of opened her mouth. A lot of cereal came out of her mouth and I'm not sure how much she actually ate - but she didn't cry or fuss. Eventually, she stopped enjoying sitting in the high chair - so we were done. Now we've done rice cereal for 3 nights and it's going about the same, which is okay with me. I do still give her 4 oz in her bottle first (since that's where she still will be getting her calories and nutrients until she's spoon feeding well). I just want her to get used to the spoon and then maybe I'll cut her bottle back hoping she'll eat more cereal? We'll see!

So, after seeing that she did well at daycare on Monday with her bottles and after discussing it with Jon - we basically decided to cancel the Feeding Clinic appt for now. I did call the nurse practioner to get her opinion and she agreed that for now, maybe things will stay better. But if we have problems again in the future, we may end up doing it anyway. I went back and forth in my mind on whether or not to just do it. But it wasn't going to be a completely benigh test - they would've had to shove a tube down Meredith's nose and into her stomach. And we also had to consider the cost of paying our deductible and then 20% of the cost after that.

Yesterday afternoon after daycare Meredith had a meltdown when I was trying to feed her. I almost called the clinic back and put the appt back on. But I ended up getting Meredith to eat her bottle after changing her diaper and swaddling her. I think she was just tired, hungry, upset, poopy - all the same time. She continued to be fussy all evening, but still ate her bottles normally. I'm hoping she was just tired and had some diaper rash that was bothering her. She also decided to wake up for the day at 3:45 this morning. Luckily, Jon was already planning on bringing her to daycare this morning so I could take the day off. I tried to get Meri back to sleep, but ultimately just got her up, got her dressed, fed her and got her in her carseat for Jon and then I headed back to bed for a few hours. I can't tell you how valuable my sleep is to me. I need a day or two in the week to get a few extra hours of sleep! And now I have a few hours to get some errands down. I'm actually getting my oil changed right now and then have a few more errands to run before I pick Meredith up at daycare.

I hope that things continue to go well. I need a break from my own anxiety, it's very exhausting! This weekend Jon is leaving us, once again. He's going to Florida for another conference - so Meredith and I are heading down for a quick trip to Blue Earth. I hope all is well with everyone. I'm looking forward to life settling down a little and the weather getting better. And I hope to be making more plans to see friends and family now that Jon will be around a bit more and his call will lighten up for the next few months!

I'll get some pics added of her and her rice cereal eating when I get a chance!

5 Months Old and Our Trip to Mexico

Well, we're back from sunny Mexico. That's right, Jon and myself decided to be brave and took our 5 month old to Mexico for a 5 day, 4 night "vacation"! Let's just say, we probably will not be bringing a baby on another "vacation" again, at least not without some extra help....

Even before Meredith was born I had the idea that Jon and I were going to go on a sunny vacation with the baby sometime in the winter months. I am a very anxious person about a lot of things, but traveling isn't really one of them. So, when Meredith was only a few weeks old - Jon and I made it to the DMV with her to get her a passport, we both had to be there in order to do this. It wasn't easy to get her passport photo at that time and she looks nothing like her photo!

I had already taken a random week off in February, so by early January I was like - boy we need to either book this vacation or forget about it. So, I did a little research myself, but like most things these days I realized I had very little time to poke around on the internet, so I ended up emailing a travel agent we've used periodically since our honeymoon and told her what I wanted to do. She was very helpful and suggested a resort that specifically caters to families with infants. Within a week, we decided to just book the darn trip - it would be an adventure, right?

The resort was on the beach just south of Cancun and was called, Azul Beaches. It was all-inclusive and had many amenities that you would need for an infant - infant baths, baby monitors, bottle warmers, bottle sterilizers, cribs, pack and plays, strollers, toys, baby food, and even available baby-sitters (for an extra charge). And for whatever reason we were able to get first class tickets for the way down and had an empty seat in between us for the way back. After much consideration we did decide to bring our own stroller and car seat, as well as our Baby Bjorn - all of which came in very handy!

So we left early Wednesday morning, taking a cab to the airport using our own carseat. We didn't get there very early, so we basically checked in, went through security and then once we got to the gate, they were already boarding. We were able to check both our stroller and car seat at the gate - for no extra charge (Delta was awesome with that, our friends took their baby to AZ through United Airways and said they would charge them to check the stroller and car seat!).

I had a stewardess warm up a bottle for me for the take off, but Meri was fussing quite a bit during the taxi and I ended up giving her the bottle before we even took off (and by goodness, she ate the whole thing - making me very happy). Then she took her pacifier and her ears didn't seem to bother her at all as we made the ascent. During the flight she fussed on and off, which was made harder by the fact that turbulence made it so the fasten seat belt sign was on nearly the whole flight. We were able to finally swaddle her and get her to sleep in my arms a couple of times, but she was her usually fussy self and cried on and off and we constantly needed to entertain her. Definitely not a relaxing flight.

Getting to the hotel was fine, we had a private shuttle. And check-in was fine, though I did kind of upset about the original room they wanted to give us because it was so far from everything and so small I couldn't imagine where they would've put the crib - so they eventually gave us a closer room that was bigger and already had a crib and all the other infant amenities in it that we needed.

The rest of Wednesday was just unpacking, napping, eating and going to bed. Thursday morning we got up early with Meri (and we all have to get up when she gets up since we're all in the same room - adding to the lack of relaxation.....). We had generally had a good day that day. Meri seemed happy, was finishing all of her bottles. It was a little hard to coordinate when and where she'd sleep for her naps. In the mornings I would often take a nap with her since we were waking up between 6am and 7am to give her first bottle. But then we wanted to get in the sun. So, we were able to set it up so we had our stroller fully reclined, we swaddle her, got her to sleep in the stroller and then put her in the shade near us, so we could lay in the sun and read - those few hours a day when she slept in the stroller and I laid in the sun - were definitely the best part of my vacation. But when she was awake we had to hang out in the shade with her and entertain her. One of the days we had a covered bed cabana on the beach. It was nice because we could lay her down on it and play with her, but then Jon and I didn't get any sun, even when she was asleep. Plus since it was on the beach - all of us ended up with sand all over us. The other two days we hung out by the pool, Jon and I had beach chairs in the sun and Meri was in her stroller in the shade. When she woke up though, I pulled my chair into the shade and did my best to entertain her.

At lunch and breakfast, Jon and I generally took turns eating and holding her. There was a breakfast buffet in the restaurant, so we went in together to eat and took turns holding her while each other ate. Then at lunch they had a buffet on the beach and one of us would eat first and then take her to the room to feed her so the other person could then eat. In the late afternoons we either hung out in our room or we went on walks with the Bjorn and the baby on the beach on a couple of days.

Dinner was a bit more tricky because there were no buffet style meals, only a la carte. And the restaurant didn't open until 7pm which was always about the time Meri eats and she typically goes to bed around 8pm. So the first night we fed Meri at the table while we ate and all went back to the room by 8pm and spent the rest of the night there, boring! Then the second night we decided to get a sitter so Jon and I could enjoy ourselves. We fed Meri and left at 7:30pm and were back by 10:30pm. All she had to do was swaddle her and put her to bed. Jon and I went to one of the two nicer restaurants and then watched their Circus Show before getting back to our room at 10:30pm. Meri was sleeping soundly when we returned and the babysitter said she did great! The third night, Friday night, we ended up feeding Meredith and then swaddling her, placing her in the stroller and she slept soundly while Jon and I ate dinner. It was perfect except I noticed a few mosquitos landing on her face. So I ended up covering her up to keep the bugs away. Then we headed back to the room and put her in the crib and enjoyed a few drinks on our patio as she slept. The final night we decided to get a babysitter once again and Jon and I went to the other nicer restaurant at the resort. We then headed to the their Tequila bar for a few drinks before relieving the babysitter at 10:30pm. Meri was happily sleeping when we got back, but the babysitter said she cried for a good 20 minutes before finally falling asleep! Poor Meri and poor babysitter. Don't worry, we tipped her well (actually the next morning I noticed a $20 in my purse that I'm pretty sure was supposed to go to the babysitter - so Jon found the guys that headed up the Kids Club and told him to pass it along to our babysitter!).

So, the resort was nice and it was certainly nice to have those baby things available. Though the bottle warmer was pretty slow, so we ended up using hot water from the tap to warm the bottles. We never used the sterilizer either, I had brought a bottle brush and Dawn liquid soap. The baby monitor didn't seem to work very well either, it's range was pretty low. But the infant bath was necessary and we used it every day and the crib was nice too (as was the babysitter service!). I definitely think I would want a place with a buffet available at every meal though, it would just be easier for quick meals when Meri's being fussy, but we're still hungry. And I think Jon and I came to the conclusion that we won't be bringing a baby so young on vacation in the future, at least not unless we bring our parents to help. I would say our vacation was only okay. There were so nice times (when Meri napped and we laid in the sun and when we had babysitters) and there were some unhappy and stressful times - like when she was hysterical on the plane rides.

But the biggest problem and anxiety happened when on Friday, Meredith started to go on another "hunger strike". She had been doing so well at daycare and on both Wednesday and Thursday with us - at least nearly finishing all of her bottles - taking between 4 and 5.75 oz of formula 6 to 7 times a day. Then, all of the sudden, on Friday she was back to taking 2 to 3 oz and throwing a fit after and while she ate. She'd be fussy, acting like she's hungry and then she'd take an ounce or 2 and then just stop. She'd continue to fuss, but then refuse the rest of the bottle. Sometimes after a good long break, she'd take another ounce, but it - once again, became a huge ordeal. When she's like this, she's just generally more fussy all around and doesn't sleep as soundly at night - which in turn makes me not sleep well either. I mean, I'm up almost every hour giving her pacifier and sometimes am up with her for an hour as she restlessly sucks (and spits out) her pacifier.

Now we're home and we may have found a temporary reason for this "hunger strike". I was at work on Tuesday and had called my daycare a few times to check in and they said she was only taking a couple ounces at a time and sleeping a lot, and was very stuffy (which I already knew). Well, then by 12:30pm they called and said she had a temp! 101 axillary (so they add a degree - so she was 102). Darn it! Jon was able to go and pick her up and I am currently home with her today. Her fever has come down and was only 99.9 this morning, so hopefully she'll be going back to daycare tomorrow (as I don't have too many vacation days left!). And she is now eating 2.5 to 3.5 oz every 3 hours today. She's still pretty sleepy and her output has decreased significantly - but she has her happy and awake times and she still is eating, peeing and pooping - though a lot less than usual. I am hoping as this illness passes, her appetite will perk up again - but if not, I've already contacted the Feeding Clinic at Children's hospital and the first step they would do is a swallow study with Upper GI Xrays. So, I think we may be setting that up for a few weeks from now and only cancelling them if things get tons better!

Oh and Little Miss Meredith is now 5 months old! I'll add in a few of her happenings....

- She is SO much more alert in her environment. She loves bright toys and puts everything in her mouth

-She is loving her Exersaucer, at least for up to 20 minutes or so - she seems to have a progression: sleep, wake, eat, in vibrating chair, lay on activity mat, play in Exersaucer- then time for a nap. She lets me know when it's time to move on to the next activity by starting to fuss!

- She is starting to stay awake and happy for a bit longer. She can be up for 1.5 to 2 hours before she gets really tired and she then takes hour to 1.5 hour long naps.

-She still sleeps pretty well at night, minus often frequent trips to replace the pacifier. I am so ready to let her cry it out, but I want her formula intake to become reasonable before I put her through that....

- She's experimenting with making noises and has definitely found her voice, sometimes squealing in delight, so loud you would think we were hurting her!

- She's still not a big fan of tummy time, but has in fact rolled over from tummy to back on a few occasions. I'm pretty sure she'll end up being one of those babies who never crawl, but instead go right to walking. She loves "standing" while I balance her. Her legs are incredibly strong!

Meredith spent a lot of time sleeping and hanging out in her stroller. It worked really well! Here she is in her cute sun hat!

A family walk on the beach with Meredith in the Bjorn. It worked great this day because it was slightly overcast. Two days later we tried to do the same thing, but the darn sun was out in full force and Meredith was not a fan of the sun in her eyes. But here she's smiling!

Meri hanging out on our King size bed in our hotel room. We spent a lot of time here, napping, playing, etc. Some day I want to have a King size bed at home....

Happy Hour with Meredith at the bar!

Having a cocktail on our patio!

Meri hanging out in her stroller, again!

Hanging out in our covered cabana!

We had just attempted to put Meri in the pool, but she was not a fan of the cold water. So, now we're back at the cabana, sans swimsuit!

As I mentioned before, Meri was not a fan of the sun in her eyes, so I borrowed her my sunglasses. I told her some adults actually wear sunglasses that are this big on them, too!