We have it narrowed down to three possibilities including pears, an old blanket and the cats.  I first gave the girls pears on Friday and I had recently put out an old blanket for the girls to play on.  These have been the only “new” things introduced recently.  As for the cats, we’ve suspected Ella is allergic because she often sneezes when she’s around them.  The cats like to sneak onto their play blanket when I’m not looking and it is possible Ella reached her threshold for cat dander.

We are continuing with the Benadryl and the doctor gave us some eye drops to give her.  I’m also keeping the girls secluded to the back of the apartment which I thoroughly cleaned and we are staying away from blankets and fruit for a few days.

Perhaps it is a coincidence that we are in the process of finding the cats a new home.  We made the tough decision about a week ago to contact the adoption agency we got them from.  Cats tend to get into everything, which is what cats do, but ‘everything’ here included everything baby from the playpen to highchairs.   It’s to the point where we are constantly telling them “no” or “get away/down” and it has become an unfair living arrangement for them.  We hope they can find a new home where they can go crazy.  The fact that Ella seems to do better away from them helps reinforce our decision.

I am supposed to contact the doctor tomorrow with an update.  We are turning the cats over to the adoption agency on Tuesday so then I’ll be able to give the apartment a good cleaning.  I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but if you are reading this post, please send Ella some good thoughts.  Poor baby girl can’t catch a break these days!

I’ve decided for Mother’s Day that I want a new set of cookware and I want to go with this stainless steel set from Calphalon.  Non-stick is great, but you really have to baby it so I’d like something that I could throw in the dishwasher if I’m feeling lazy.

We are keeping Similac in business over here.  I recently had to increase the amounts of the girls’ bottles because suddenly they weren’t able to make it four hours between feedings.  As for solid food, after several suggestions I introduced bananas both by themselves and with oatmeal.  The girls unaminously chose bananas and only bananas.  I’ve been told by several friends that I should try the Gerber oatmeal with bananas so I’ll be searching for that.  They still don’t know what to make of the spoons though.   This week I plan to introduce apples just as soon as the girls feel up to it.

All of us girls are in the midst of sharing our first cold.   It hit me first then Ella and now Ava has it.  The girls have such great attitudes though that I think we are going to get through this alright.  They are both eating and sleeping well and there hasn’t been any fevers so that is really good.  Poor Ava woke up in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose though.  Oh how I wish I could take on both of their colds with mine!

Speaking of Ava, she continues to be as sweet as can be.  She loves kisses on her cheeks.  She’ll actually lay very still and let you kiss her all over her face.  Well, maybe she just lets Mommy do that.  She has started grunting though which I think is hilarious and totally my fault.  Sometimes I grunt at the girls because it makes them laugh and I think she may be imitating me.  Ava has also started joining in the conversation, be it either real or on TV.  She’ll start “talking” louder and louder until she’s noticed.  She is doing so much better at tummy time too, hardly crying at all.  She’s starting to roll to her sides more and I’m working with her on rolling completely over.  She’s so content with laying on her back though that I don’t think rolling over interests her much.  About a week ago she started grabbing at my face and now she actually puts her little arm around my neck when I carry her.  She is just so sweet she melts my heart!

Last week Ella learned to roll and she hasn’t stopped.  We call her the steamroller now because she’ll roll over everything in her path including Ava.  She is a pro at rolling from her back to her stomach, but sometimes she forgets how to roll back and she’ll get upset.  It’s funny because she had no problem going from her back to her tummy while Ava had no problem going from her tummy to her back.  Even with a cold Ella has such a happy and bright personality.  She always, always greets you with that smile that stretches from ear to ear and even makes me feel better when I’m sick.  While she’s been grabbing for objects for some time, we really have to watch her now because she’ll grab at anything in site including the phone, the remote, our food, etc.  Both girls have been drooling lately, but Ella more so than Ava.  We are going through a couple of bibs each day.  I know we are coming to that point where we should be on the lookout for teeth.  Oh boy!

I’m sorry I don’t have any photos to post today, but I’m using my cold as an excuse.  I promise I’ll get some photos up soon and maybe some video.  I really want to capture Ella rolling and Ava grunting.

The first mistake I made was deciding to try the organic oatmeal.  I know I said we will be all organic over here, but what I neglected to mention is that I had previously tried organic rice cereal and the girls hated it, especially Ella.  Why I thought the organic oatmeal would be different, I have no idea.  Again, Ella hated it.  Thankfully I had a box of the good old Gerber oatmeal around.  Now I will revise my previously pompous statement and say we will (hopefully) be organic except for our cereal and oats (oh yeah, and formula).

The next mistake I made was choosing to wait until their afternoon meal to try the oatmeal.  They are usually hungrier at that mealtime so again, I thought they’d like the oatmeal so much they’d lap it up.  Wrong!  Starving babies do not want to try anything new, they want food and pronto!  Ava hated that the spoon didn’t give her food as fast as the bottle and while Ella took the spoon better, she still wasn’t so sure about the oatmeal.  I quickly gave up and resorted to the bottle.

The second attempt was better though.  That time Ava ate more of the oatmeal, but she was still leery of the spoon.  Ella decided she wasn’t having any of it, but she was gladly willing to help direct the spoon.  By the way, managing two spoons at the same time is not easy.  I still sometimes accidentally poke the girls in their faces with the bottles so naturally I’m worried about the spoons.  I’ll be glad when they can start eating with their hands.  Etiquette be damned, I don’t care, at least I won’t be the one injuring them.

A couple of more days in and we are still working our way through the oatmeal feeding.  I think I may try it a few more days before introducing fruit just to give them more time to become accustomed to the spoon.

In other baby news, Ella has rolled from her side to her belly and this morning I discovered her grabbing her feet and rolling to the side.  Both girls have been eying their feet for awhile now.  I suspect Ava will be grabbing hers in about a week or so.  They are usually no more than two weeks apart from each other with something new.

Oatmeal Is Messy Business, Just Ask Ava

At One Point Ella Gave Up on the Oatmeal and Opted for Her Hand

]]> http://thegorsuchgang.com/2010/02/21/oatmeal-friend-or-foe/feed/ 4 http://thegorsuchgang.com/2010/02/17/there-will-be-no-fit-pitching-around-here/ http://thegorsuchgang.com/2010/02/17/there-will-be-no-fit-pitching-around-here/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:04:39 +0000 brooke http://thegorsuchgang.com/?p=1356 Yesterday we saw Dr. Marina for the girls four month check-up.  The doctor said they are the most perfect babies she’s ever seen.  Well, not really but I could tell she wanted to say that.  In all seriousness, they are doing great.  Growing developmentally and physically right on target.

Ella now weighs 15 pounds, 9 ounces (50th percentile) and measures 25.25 inches long (75th percentile).  Ava is 15 pounds, 11 ounces (50th percentile) and 24.25 inches long (50th percentile).  As you can see, Ava has finally surpassed her sister in weight. Both girls also seem have large heads, a trait they apparently got from me as I recently learned that I had a large head as a baby. Ha!

Again we discussed our concern over Ella’s flat spot and helmet issue and again, our pediatrician put us at ease saying she believes it will even out naturally.  She is such a great doctor, Michael and I always feel so much better after talking with her.

She gave us the green light to start the girls on solids.  We will actually start with oatmeal since they’ve already been getting some rice cereal in their bottles.  After a week of oatmeal, then we can start introducing fruits.  I’m so excited for this stage.  I can’t wait to see what foods they will like and it’s a chance for us to really start them out right.   We are going the organic route and I’m also going to attempt to make my own baby food.  Yep, you read that right.  I’ve got four baby food cookbooks on order because I’m crazy and thought I’d add to my already busy workload around here.

The girls got second doses of two vaccines, one shot and one oral.  Ella didn’t even bat an eyelash during her shot and Ava barely cried so that was great.  Next month we will only do vaccines as the next big check-up will be their six month one.  I can only imagine how much they will have changed by that point!

*Thank you Michael for the title of this post.  He came up with this gem earlier today when Ava got upset.

The therapist that evaluated Ella was condescending on so many levels, but what really got my blood boiling was him bringing up the subject of a helmet for her flat spot.   This is the second time a therapist has suggested we get Ella a helmet.  I am really starting to believe there is a secret kick-back operation going on where therapists are rewarded for referring patients to helmet specialists.  Unlike the first therapist though, this one did not kindly accept my explanation that we are following our pediactrican’s advice and waiting to see if the spot will correct itself naturally.  Oh no, he kept pushing it even going as far as laying a guilt trip on me by asking me to picture Ella as a young woman who feels horrible and self conscious about her flat head.

Now as most of you know or have figured out by now, this is a sensitive subject for me.  I obsess over that damn flat spot.  Hell I even lay my hands on it and pray, willing it to pop out.  Ava’s is practically gone and I believe Ella’s has improved over the last month, but I’ll play my own devil’s advocate and admit I’m way too close to this case to be objective. I see it everyday and it is possible I could totally miss a change, good or bad.  (Michael is in the same boat as me so his view is questionable too.)  However, this guy wouldn’t stop so I asked him how does the helmet work exactly.  Does it apply pressure to the “normal” area of the head to somehow even it out?  His answer, no.  So then I asked how does the helmet help other than  keeping the pressure off the flat spot when a child is asleep or laying down?   He didn’t have an answer for that one.

I know that flat spots, if left untreated, can cause serious damage by messing up the symettry of the face.  Obviously if we woke up one morning and one side of Ella’s face looked like she’d gotten a bad Botox job, then we’d race to a specialist.  I’m so tired of these people making me feel like a bad parent because I don’t automatically want to subject my child to 23 hours a day of uncomfortable torture.  (You are only allowed one hour of freedom a day to clean the helmet and your child’s head.  Sounds like a party to me!)

Even though I think this guy was a complete jerk, I’m still a worried mom that only wants to do the best by my girls dammit.  So I decided to take pictures of Ella’s head – from the top to the sides to the front of her face – and I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing by keeping her off that side as much as possible and in a month I’m going to take more pictures and compare them.  If I have photographic evidence that things are getting worse, then I will swallow my words and deal with my heartbreak and put her in a helmet.

Oh and I’ll also mention that he chastised me for putting the girls in the jumperoo and exersaucer so soon.  Apparently those will screw up a child’s legs and walking ability.  I guess me, Michael, and every other person I know must be screwed up because I can’t name one damn person that didn’t have a bouncer or a walker growing up.

Ugh.  Thanks for letting me get this out.  I’m done.

Me: The girls will be 5 months old next week!

Grandma: What date?

Me: I don’t know the date.  It will be next Wednesday, whatever that day is.

Grandma: You don’t know the date?

Me: No, it will be Wednesday.

Grandma: They were born on the 30th of September.  So what date are they going to turn 5 months?

Me: No, Grandma, we count by the week.  Every Wednesday they turn another week old.

Grandma: Well that’s not how they did it in my day.

There was more to the conversation, but you get the gist.  After I got off the phone with her, I sat down with a calendar and plotted out the weeks until September 30th and you know what?  It didn’t add up right.  The girls were born on a Wednesday so we’ve counted every passing Wednesday as a new week in their lives.  All the baby sites I refer to count by weeks too.  Even our pediatrician counted by weeks until just recently.  (A fact I figured out when I went back and looked at their most recent office visit report.) I decided I couldn’t be the only one confused on this subject so I did a Google search for “how do you count a baby’s age?” and thankfully I found a bunch of other mothers in the same boat.  The general consensus is you can count in weeks up until three months, but after that things get screwy because not every month has the same number of weeks.   My go-to guru for all things baby, Ms. Marisa told me it could be a personal choice and that she goes by the monthly date because it’s easier.  I swear being a mom, I learn something new every day.

Going forward we will now go by the monthly date.  Honestly I was starting to forget my weeks anyway.  Since February doesn’t have a 30th day, we’ll just say they turn 5 months by the 28th.  And there you have it.  Thanks Grandma.

I’m working on an Ava video too so stay tuned.