Oct 31 - Happy Halloween!  This is Megan's 1st Halloween, sniff sniff.  I dressed her up in black pants, a little Halloween shirt and a bib that says "my first boo!".  So cute!  I put a bow in her hair and put on Kylie's little pumpkin booties that she wore for her 1st Halloween.  I took the girls trick-or-treating in Riverton with Russ and it was pouring rain.  It was not good rain for the night, but we managed.  I slung Megan and she slept the entire time we were treating in Riverton but woke up to treat down our road.  She didn't understand a thing about what was going on but she was too cute in her costume!

I also had to take Megan for her 1st feeding team visit through Dr. Fishbein's office.  They determined that Megan has "forward tongue movement" (don't remember the fancy term) which is causing her to not want solids.  This is why she expels any solids you put on her tongue.  So they gave me specific instructions on feeding her, what types of foods, how to approach her w/food, get rid of bottles and go with a particular sippy, certain "chew" toys for her, etc.  It was very overwhelming, especially since they want to see her every 2 to 3 weeks to monitor her progress.  They stressed the importance of correcting this issue in fear of future food aversions as well as overbite issues because she sucks on her tongue in her sleep.  Oh boy!

Oct 28 - I need to get busy with this journaling, I'm becoming terrible at this.  Megan is growing up so fast.  Today she had her first bath sitting in the regular tub.  Every time before that she was in her little tub and it would sit in the tub where her sister would share a bath with her.  She didn't seem to care one way or the other how she was in there, lol. 

Megan started sitting up all alone this month, she has really good control now.  She is so much more sensitive than Kylie is.  I guess it's that super sensitive nervous system of hers.  Anyways, if she falls back she screams like you've hurt her really bad.  Whereas it wouldn't phase Kylie as a baby if she fell back on the floor. 

She also has been teething the past few weeks and just last week her left (facing her - my left) lateral incisor came through the skin and the one on the right is just about in. 

She still won't take any forms of solids, although she sure acts like she wants them.  It makes her so angry, then she tries it and gets upset even more because she doesn't like it - no matter what we try.

Megan is wearing size 4 diapers now, as of this week and wearing a range of clothing sizes.  Anywhere between 6 to 12 months, depending on how it's made.  It's even getting cold enough outside that's she's wearing a micro fleece snow suit to daycare.  She is also growing out of her 0 to 6 month Robeez so it's time for the next size up.

She sleeps pretty well in comparison to how her sister did.  I don't have to nurse her to sleep, she'll fall asleep on her on, but not in her crib.  It has to be on the living room floor and it has to be on her stomach.  Once she falls asleep I transfer her into her crib where she sleeps on her back.  Some nights she sleeps from 8 to 10 and then is up at least a few times a night and others, like last night, she sleeps til 3 am and then comes to bed with me.  I am sleeping on a mattress on her floor while Ryan is away because I'm a nervous mommy having her in her crib.  I'm afraid something is going to happen to her.  I'm not used to the whole crib thing, lol.

Megan has become very vocal and likes to scoot backwards on her tummy.  She can get pretty far scooting backwards.  Sometimes she means to try to go forwards to reach something but her little body just keeps scooting backwards, lol.

Megan is what I call a "heaven" nurser.  She isn't demanding at all when it comes to nursing.  Sometimes I forget that she even nursed at all when I'm with her.  Course I do remember it in the wee hours, lol.  Those wee hours are fun when she starts to do her opera singing and she won't go back to sleep.  The good thing about her is she'll just lay there and make noise and I can roll over to go to sleep and she won't bother me, lol.  She eventually goes to sleep on her own as well.  TOTALLY opposite than her sister I tell you.

She's going to be a flower for Halloween and this will be her first Halloween.  She won't know any better but I can't wait to take her out with her sissy.

Wow, I'm behind in my journal by a month so lets see if I can remember what happened in September (blushing). 

Megan has been teething off and on all month, which has been driving her and I crazy.  Poor girl.  She just got those two bottom teeth in August, maybe more were supposed to come but they never did. 

She turned 6 months (wahhhh!) on the 16th and started sitting up about the same time as well.  Megan is really growing up so fast.  She's in size 6 to 9 months on pj's for sure.  Still in some 3 to 6 months clothes but that's stretching it, hee hee. 

Megan is still fussy off and on for Terri.  It just kills me to hear her crying when I go to pick her up.  I hope she gets used to her soon.  She doesn't adjust to situations like Kylie did. :( 

We tried biter biscuits this month, but don't give her one for very long because she manages to bite a big chunk off when she does.  We also tried rice cereal and mashed banana but as soon as you gave it to her (barely on the tip of her tongue) she would reflux/throw up instantly. 

Megan is trying to get into everything!  If she can reach it, look out!  I have to keep my food far away from her at dinner time or her hands are in it.  If I put her in her bumbo on the counter she will go for anything in arms reach.  Ha-ha.

She is such a quiet baby, but has learned to be very vocal in the wee hours of the morning when mommy is trying to sleep.

Daddy left for Louisianna on the 25th which has been an adjustment for all of us.  I'm so sad he won't be here to see her grow up as much as I know she will over the next three months :(

August 15, 2005 - We've been so busy I haven't had the time to post.  Last week Ryan was out of town for two days so the girls and I kept busy of course.  Then we had pictures at the church for the directory and then Pastor Christell came over to schedule Megan's Christening.  Her Christening will be August 21st.  That's short notice so this past weekend we rushed around trying to find a gown that would fit her tiny self, hee hee.  Also STILL trying to find shoes to fit her.  I want Robeez, but can't find the ones I want, wahhhh!  The bonnet to the gown is too small of course so she looks like a Quaker!  I ordered a bow to put in her hair instead and hope it gets here soon.  In order to get the gown the size we needed it the bonnet was too small. SIGH.

Megan is cooing like crazy but not frequent.  Terri calls her our little 'owl'.  LOL!  I think she sounds like a monkey myself.  She stopped rolling over the end of last month, now it's very few and far between that she'll do it.  It's concerning me, but the OT said not to worry until next month so I will try not to. 

We had to put her in size 3 diapers this past weekend because she's having 2 to 4 blow-outs a day!  She's pooping like crazy for this past week and the only thing I can think of as the cause is that we've weaned from the nipple shield at about the same time and my supply went CRAZY (oodles and oodles too much).  So she must be getting too much foremilk and not enough hind milk.  Which I guess could explain her HORRIBLE sleeping patterns lately.  Her sleeping patterns are never the same daily, which drives me crazy.  One night she'll sleep from 8 pm unShe's pooping in the mid of night as well for the past few days which is very abnormal for her and getting us all up when we don't want to be.

I think she's teething a lot now too, but still no pearly whites showing.  Friday, Aug. 12 Terri said she didn't eat very well at all and slept a lot.  She's been drooling a lot as well and has a horrible diaper rash, but that could be from the constant poo'ing.

She also got her other set of 4 month shots last Wednesday, the 10th and did very well with those.

August 21, 2005 - Megan's Christening was today.  It turned out really well. I was so surprised she didn't cry.  I did forget to get a family photo of the event, though :-( Megan did very well this weekend behavior wise.  She even took a few cat naps on the floor and couch without being swaddled.  She's really getting into her thumb despite our attempts to redirect her to the pacifier.

August 22, 2005 - Megan rolled over again!  Man, this baby just doesn't want to roll over for the life of it!  I was so excited she rolled over.  She started rolling over right before 3 months but in the two months she's been rolling she hasn't rolled much.  She loves to stand though.  I can't get her to sit down in her sling, she wants to stand in it! Ha-ha.  She came home from daycare very stuffy as if her reflux is bothering her and she's had a few mucous-y/blood in diaper and I'm suspecting it's the oversupply again.  It's been a few weeks since we've used the shield though.  I was really hoping my supply would tame itself AGAIN, but it's being stubborn.

August 26, 2005 - Megan rolled over again from tummy to back!  YAY! She's still rarely ever doing it though, ha-ha.  BUT tonight she surprised us!  She wanted her thumb so darn bad that she rolled over from her BACK to her TUMMY to get to it!  It was so cute. She did it several times.  She was also teething pretty badly, very crabby.

August 27, 2005 - Megan has her first TOOTH!!!!  It's barely out of the skin. I can't believe it.  That definitely explains her fussiness though.  Later on we noticed a second one was right underneath the skin.  Both teeth are the two front bottom teeth.  My sister watched the girls tonight so we could go see a movie, that was great!

August 28, 2005 - Megan's second tooth popped through!  She's so super fussy and seems like she's in a lot of pain.  I feel bad for her.  We are wondering if more are coming through.

July 5, 2005 - I started back to work 1/2 days for the first week and after that going back full days.  It was very hard to leave her this morning and I just hate that I have to.  She didn't do well with taking a bottle today, either.

July 16, 2005 - Megan turned 4 months of age!  Wow, she's growing so fast and it is in some ways so sad to see her grow and change because she will most likely be my last baby.  Sniff, sniff. 

We recently saw an occupational therapist and was told that she does have sensory issues and to continue doing the things we already are to help her deal with her surroundings.  Hopefully she will grow out of this soon because it can be so trying.  Especially since she will not go to too many people and I could really use a break at times. 

July 18, 2005 - Megan had her 4 month well baby visit and received 2 of the 4 shots she needs to get at this time.  She did very well at the doctor's office but the next two days were pretty awful.  She cried a lot and the shots obviously took a toll on her.  We were very glad when those few days were over with.

The rest of July has flown by.  Megan has gotten much better with taking bottles from Ms. Terri (her sitter) and adjusting fairly well to daycare.  I still hate hearing how she cried a lot while she was there but I'm not sure what else we could do.  She has her good and bad days just like everyone else. 

She is growing fast and in size 2 diapers now.  We have had so many blow-outs this month it isn't even comical at this point.  I tried size 1-2 diapers and they just wouldn't cut it so we went up to straight size 2 and that seems to be helping....we think. 

Megan is rolling over a lot more this month; rolling over on both sides from her tummy to her back.  She is playing a bit more on her tummy as well as her most favorite activity to date..the exersaucer.  We will be putting her in her bumbo any day now and hope she likes that.  She should because she really likes to sit up and be apart of what is going on.

June 3, 2005 - Megan had her Upper GI.  I was so scared that she would not handle the x-ray.  She had to go 4 hours without nursing before the procedure and I didn't see how that was going to be possible since 4 am to 8 am is a big nursing time for her.  Ryan and I helped her through it and surprisingly enough she did extremely well during that time.  She didn't really fuss at all.  When we went to have the x-ray done Megan refused to drink the barium out of a bottle and after several attempts we had to resort to having a tube put up her nose into her stomach to feed it to her that way.  That made me a bit sad but she did well with it.  We got through the test and it confirmed she has prominent reflux but no other obstructions or malformations which is good news.

June 14, 2005 - Megan rolled over from her tummy to her back but I didn't see it.  Kylie did.  So I'm not sure if she actually did or not.  Kylie could have rolled her.  Megan didn't do it the rest of the day so I'll chalk it up to a fluke and we'll see how it goes.  Her neck is getting much stronger as she is letting me put her on her tummy a bit more often and for longer periods of time.  She appears to be rolling to her side really well when she lies on her back.  Maybe she'll roll from back to tummy first, hee hee.

Last week Megan appeared to be doing so well and sleeping at least 2 3-hour stretches of naps.  Now she takes only one 3-hour nap around 2 pm.  It's exhausting!  Also those nice 4 to 5 hour stretches at night went away and she's been nursing pretty much non-stop at night for the past 2 weeks.  She'll go to bed somewhere between 8 and 9 pm and sleep til midnight and then it's "the bar is open" all night long.  SIGH.  I was hoping to get an easier baby, but I guess not, lol.

Megan also appears to be teething, at least for the past week and a half.  She's constantly eating her fist and she's nursing constantly (at least 1.5 to 2 hours between sessions).

She's smiling so much now though, I just love it.  She'll wake up in the morning and just have a huge grin on her face.  What a sweetheart!

June 18, 2005 - Megan actually held her first toy today! It's a beautiful butterfly rattle that my uncle Kenny and aunt Mary got her.  It was so darling to see her hold it.  She's been such an angel today (at least until the evening).  I am enjoying her so much and wish I didn't have to work.

June 22, 2005 - Megan ROLLED OVER from her belly to her back today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so excited because I wasn't for sure she'd reach this milestone before I went back to work.  She also had her pediactric GI specialist appointment today.  There was soooo much discussed and we felt so better about things, but briefly she had anal stenosis, which meant they had to make her bum hole a bit bigger (don't really want to explain it any more than that, OUCH).  Also, he gave us the choice to continue with the zantac or try prevacid again but in a different *form*.  Also he had us see a speech pathologist/oral therapist and a lactation consultant.  It was actually one person qualified in all those areas. She was great and gave us lots of tips to deal with Megan.  She diagnosed her with deep sensory issues and we will go back for occupational therapy to deal with these issues that they DO grow out of before a year of age.

May 13, 2005 - Megan went to work with me because I needed to be there for the auditor.  She was quite fussy but stayed happy in the sling so that's where she was the entire time I was there. 

May 17, 2005 - Had 2 month well baby visit.  I know weigh 10 pounds 8 ounces and 21.75 inches long.  My head circumference was 15.15 inches.  After speaking with Dr. L regarding Megan's reflux he prescribed her Prevacid.  She takes 1/2 a packet every day as a trial and then we'd go from there.  

Megan is now in size 1 diapers and out of newborn size.  This made me cry so much because she's growing so fast and she's my last baby :-(  She's also in to o to 3 months size outfits now all the time and some 3 to 6 months are starting fit.  WAH!!!!

May 22, 2005 - She took it for three days and we discontinued it because she was horribly fussy, crying in extreme pain, throwing/spitting up so much more than she ever had on the Zantac.  As soon as we put her back on the Zantac she started to do much much better.  She's back to sleeping longer stretches during day and night.  Her poo's are very smelly though and a bit too close to diarrhea :-(  I hope that was just a side effect of the Prevacid and we'll get back to normal from here.  The three days she was on the other med she didn't poop at all (just smears in diaper) and was extremely gassy. 

She's smiling a lot which makes me happy.  With all of her reflux issues it's important for me to see that she's a happy baby somewhere in side of her.  I hope that we can get my oversupply under control and we can get off the nipple shield and maybe all of our other problems will go away too.  A girl can hope, right?  Today marks 4 weeks of being on the dairy elimination diet for Megan but we have not seen any results yet.  I'll go 2 more weeks before discontinuing it.

May 27, 2005 - We decided that something needs to be done.  Megan has a blood curdling scream sometimes when she gets ready to spit up and as her mommy I know her cries have changed from uncomfortable to painful type cries.  The PED has scheduled her to see a PED GI specialist and to have an Upper GI/bowel xray to see if anything is going on.  I'm not looking forward to this xray because she can't eat for 4 hour:

Megan's routine is now that she wakes up at 6:30/7:00 am; takes zantac at 7 am; nurses at 7:30 am; nurses at 8:30 am and then sleeps til about 10:30 or 11 am and then nurses at that time; sleeps again til 2 pm or so; nurses then takes a short nap; this goes on all afternoon but the most significant thing is she usually takes 3 2.5 to 3hour naps - 1 in am and 1 in afternoon and 1 in evening.  She'll go down for the night around 8:30 or 9 pm and almost always wakes at 1:30/2:30 am to nurse and then at 4:00/4:30 am to nurse at which time she marathon nurses til she gets up for the day.

May 30 - I found mucous in Megan's stool.  It wasn't a lot but it was enough to concern me.  She has been very congested, though, so that could be the reason it was in her stool.

May 31 - I did have some dairy. 

April 1st - I took Megan to get her pictures taken at Sears.  Megan wouldn't wake up for anything so all the pictures we got were of her asleep, but even those were just precious!  When we got home I went to change her diaper and didn't see her umbilical cord.  I opened up her diaper and there it was.  So at 2 weeks and 2 days Megan's umbilical cord had fallen off.  I had noticed the two days before that it was coming loose on one side, hanging of sorts, but I guess I didn't think it would come off at that time.

April 6th - I took Megan in for her weight check.  She gained 10 ounces!!!!!! I was in shock and so excited! Of course I could tell in her face and on her calves that she had but I was still surprised she gained so much in one week.  She was weighed with her diaper off too!  So she weighed in at 7 pounds and 4 ounces.  We have to go back for one more weight check to be sure she's continuing to gain. 

After the PED visit we went to the weekly Moms support group meeting.  Janet weighed Megan and then I nursed her.  After she nursed, I burped her and all of a sudden I heard a BIG BLOW OUT.  I felt her back and she had blown right out of her diaper.  Ewwwww!  It was a mess.  Janet weighed her before we cleaned her up and she had gotten 4 ounces of milk in one nursing!  Janet said she's getting the intake of what a 3 month old would get!  Obviously I have WAY too much milk, which we are still trying to correct. 

We have had one more horrible "episode" as I'm now calling them.  I just feel so sorry for Megan.  Most of the episodes don't involve projectile vomiting but she appears to be in pain from them. It's hard to tell :-(  Some days she goes all day with just minor spitting up and doesn't appear to be in pain.  Other days it's horrible episodes and keeps her awake appearing to be in pain.

She's starting to be awake a bit more.  Some nights she sleeps about every 2 to 3 hours at night and other nights she's on a marathon nursing run.  Most days she sleeps anywhere from 2 to 3 hours at a time and sometimes if i didn't wake her she'd go longer than 3 hours between sessions.  Her diaper outputs are great, although sometimes SUPER explosive.  She's gotten daddy several times now and the nurse at the PED's office once!  Hee hee.  Not me, yet ;-) 

Kylie is doing even better with her and Megan appears to recognize us all a bit better.  For the most part she's a super baby.  If it wasn't for the "episodes" I'd say she's 10 times easier to deal with than Kylie was.  Hee hee.  I wish she'd find her thumb again and pacify with it.  She found it early on but doesn't seem to be interested in it anymore.  I'm doing my best to stay away from binkies this time around.  Ryan is adamant on staying away from them, but I find myself doing everything possible to hold myself back (meaning I'd go for them if he didn't hold me back.  Haa haa.)

April 26, 2005 - We ended up taking Megan to see Dr. L last week because her spitting up was getting much much worse and she was screaming so much for so long we didn't know what to do.  She was inconsolable at times, we felt so bad for her.  He said that she was colicky and maybe had a bit of reflux so he put her on Zantac.  She has all the classic symptoms of reflux with the horrible wheezing and congestion :-(  Since then some days are good and some days are bad.  There is never one FULL good day, though.  It seems like if the daytime is good then the evening time is absolutely horrible.  It just depends and it's been very trying for all of us.  Over the weekend she developed the baby acne so besides her not feeling well she's not looking so well either.  And her diaper rash is getting awful.  I'm starting to think it's thrush and the doctor gave us nystatin cream to treat it as such.  What else could our poor baby go through?

April 27, 2005 - Today was a very good day.  I don't know what tonight will bring us, but so far today was a good day.  I don't know whether to be scared or what because she had bigger stretches between feedings and didn't spit up a lot until tonight.  She nursed several times through the night as normal and then we woke up for the day at 7 am which I nursed her then.  Then she didn't nurse until 11 am, so that was a 4 hour stretch!  Then she nursed at 1:30 pm and then again at 4:30 pm.  Tonight she nursed again at 7 pm and at that time was the first time today she REALLY spit-up, otherwise the rest of the day was minor spit-ups.  Let's hope tonight is a good one for all of our sakes.  She seems to be in less pain for sure today, which makes me very happy.

Wow, I still can't believe you are here, Miss Megan.  We are all still in shock.  We got home from the hospital around noon on Friday, March 18, 2005.  We spent most of the day trying to get things settled because we didn't have Megan's bedding washed or anything for that matter.  We had no groceries, nothing.  Today is Sunday, March 20th and we are still trying to get settled.  With Megan being 4 weeks early the doctor said we'd have a lot of changes happening in the next few weeks before she even gets started on the normal changes a newborn goes through.  We've had a lot of problems with breastfeeding and are currently working on those.  She also had her days and nights mixed up but last night she only woke 2 times to nurse so maybe she's on a good schedule now.  Kylie never let us sleep like that!  She still doesn't, LOL. 

Kylie is having some issues settling into the new routine but we are all trying.  She absolutely adores Megan, she just isn't used to sharing mommy and daddy.  Although Megan appears at this time to be much less needy than what Kylie was, but we aren't crossing our fingers yet since the doc told us to expect different things.  Once she hits "newborn" age in four weeks we could see a totally different baby, lol.

We are absolutely in love with our tiny bundle of joy.  She's so tiny she can't fit in any of Kylie's clothes.  Ryan went out and bought a preemie-to-newborn size outfit for her and she swims in it.  Megan is currently jaundice so we are dealing with that and her body temp seems to be having "issues" because we have to keep her dressed really warm and wrapped up tight or she shivers easily.  We didn't have any issues with that when it came to Kylie.

Megan has long tiny skinny fingers and toes.  She has a stork bite above her nose like her sister; the Nation nose, calves like her mommy, a squeaky little cry that you can barely hear unless you are REALLY listening.  Most of all I think she looks a LOT like Ryan.  Megan also is pretty good at holding her head up.  She found her thumb while in the hospital but started sucking it the day after we got home from the hospital - March 19th. 

She is a pretty good nurser, nursing more in the evening than during the day but she sure gives me more breaks than Kylie did so far.  She's not latching on well so we are using a shield and I'm having oversupply/forceful letdown but we are dealing with it. 

March 22nd - We took the girls to get their pictures taken at JCPenny.  Kylie did really well, but Megan didn't want to cooperate.  She was hungry and didn't want to be bothered.  Haa haa. 

March 27th - Megan has had a horrible gagging, gargling, choking, spitting up, projectile vomiting episode. She was crying and balling up in pain.  My poor girl. She's had one other episode like this one and all the rest were similar but no projectile vomiting.  It was very scary.  I'm told by a good friend that it's the oversupply/forceful letdown causing this and it should go away by 4 weeks hopefully.  We are continuing efforts to correct the milk supply so she doesn't have to deal with it.  It almost appears as if she has some sort of reflux but it's not evident at this point. 

March 30th- Megan had her two week check-up.  It's hard to believe she's already 2 weeks old and I'm still 2 weeks from my "due date".  Wow!   Megan weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces (with dry diaper on), so she's only gained an ounce over her birth weight.  She measured in at 20 inches long.  Dr. L said that since she hasn't gained what he had expected her to gain she would need to come in for weekly weight checks until he is satisfied with her weight gain.  SIGH. This made me a bit sad but we'll deal with it.  He also said she has a little tear in her bum hole :-( but that it should heal itself with time.

After her PED visit we went to the Mom's Support Group at St. John's.  Janet Tolley, the LC at the hospital, puts on the meeting.  It was a nice meeting and Janet helped me with Megan.  She weighed her before nursing and after nursing and concluded she was getting more milk with the nipple shield than without it and recommended that I stick with the shield for a bit longer until she gains some more weight.