Butterfly Hell

Against my better judgement we went to the Butterfly Conservatory on Saturday. Back story: I am terrified of all things that fly. Yes, that includes butterflies. Maybe not one butterfly, but thousands, definitely. Here is Lauren and her brave dad. This butterfly landed on Norm's arm and did not leave until he removed it about 10 minutes later. I was having a panic attack.

So you can imagine how I felt when ONE LANDED ON MY HEAD! (and yes, this photo just reminds me how much I hate my current hair cut.)

It was all I could do not to run screaming - after I saved my child from this monster of course.

She was completely oblivious.

I don't even know if she was aware of them. They move so fast I don't think she could really focus on them.

Let's just say that was a once-in-a-lifetime event for me. When Lauren is a teenager and tells me she hates me, my rebuttal will always be "BUT I WENT TO THE BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY FOR YOU!!!"

Updates

Week 25 has held some excitement for Lauren.

First, she is now taking baths in the big tub and she loves it! She lays on her back and splashes the water with her hands and feet. So cute to watch!

Second, she is now eating green bean! Now my sister would love to tell you how much I hated green beans as a child, and how they became the one food I didn't have to eat (hers was processed cheese, Daxton's was quiche and Aaron's were mushrooms, but this is not a blog about my nutty family) but my daughter is eating them like a rock star! It is very funny to watch her face though - she clearly isn't use to the taste of real food just yet, but she still gobbles them down.

She has definitely been feeling a bit better the last two days. I took her to the walk-in clinic yesterday just to get her ears looked at again and to see about the cough she has now developed but apparently all is normal.

Discouraged

I am getting more and more discouraged and frustrated by Lauren's constant crying and general fussiness. This kid is never happy.

I heard she would get better at three months, then six. When she could roll I'd see a huge difference, when she started eating solid food. Well all of those milestones have come and gone and the crying continues.

I began a napping routine hoping the extra sleep would help her general disposition, but no such luck, she still cries 60% of her waking day.

I have also tried more and more not to go to her as soon as the crying starts, but that only results in her working herself into a crying frenzie.

Will she ever grow out of this or am I doomed to have a crying, bratty kid forever? Will we survive this? Am I horrible for being so frustrated by this?

At least she's cute.

Ooztastic

Today is Monday. The ooz is finally starting to slow. Her ears have been draining since Thursday night. This morning only a little bit in her right ear and the left was clean. I'm hoping we are coming to the end of the ooz. She is stuffy and has a cough - these are new symptoms. And the rash we thought we saw last night is gone today so I think it was just a fluke. Poor baby.

Poor baby!

Monday night Lauren woke up at 4 p.m. and could not be settled back to sleep. I thought she was teething. Tuesday morning we left for Cobourg to visit her grandparents for the week. She was in a terrible mood all day. Tuesday night she woke up at 3 a.m. and again could not go back to sleep. We were giving her Tylenol and rubbing Oragel on her gums. We bought teething rings and did everything we could to help her with the teething pain. Thursday night I noticed she had dried white crust on her earlobe. I thought nothing of it at the time because it was probably dried milk or Tylenol that had run out of her mouth. Then I was taking her out of the highchair after her cereal around 5 p.m. when I saw green slime running out of her left ear! It was clear at that point that this week of hell had not been from teething, but rather from an ear infection! Poor baby! So Grandma, Lauren and I headed to the ER. The green goo coming out was obviously a huge relief for her because once it was coming out she was in the best mood she'd been in all week. The doctor gave her an antibiotic, but the next morning she woke up and the other ear was oozing too! Today she is still oozing and obviously not feeling great but I'm hoping she is on the mend.
At least the day the oozing started was St Patrick's Day so she was festive if nothing else.

Poor baby

Lauren has her first cold. I feel so bad for her. Her nose is running like a tap and she's congested. I can tell by the look in her eyes that she is miserable just like I am when I am at that stage of the cold. She had a bit of a fever this morning so we've been dosing her with Advil to help take the edge off. Poor baby! She freaks out when a Kleenex comes anywhere near her nose and the saline is even worse but we want to give her some relief so we do it anyway. I hope she is feeling better tomorrow.

On another note, yesterday I put my foot down and started a nap routine. I had been trying to follow one book that said naps had to be 2 hours in length, but I was getting frustrated because at the most she will go down for an hour. So a friend reminded me of another book I was given which says naps should be ever 2 hours and as long as they are at least 30 minutes in length that's okay. So we are on day 2 now of naps every 2 hours. So far she is doing well - but that could be the cold/Advil combination - she had 2 naps that lasted 1 hour today and one that was 90 minutes, then a little cat-nap at 5 p.m. We'll see how she sleeps tonight. I hope we are turning a corner.

Food!

Eating cereal is a milestone that I have been putting off because to me it means she is growing up. And I'm not ready for that. She is a week shy of six months so I finally decided that today we would give rice cereal a try. We were expecting a messy cry-fest, but...she liked it, she really liked it! I know the photos don't make it seem that way, but she really seemed to enjoy it. She has eaten it twice today so I guess we're adding rice cereal to our everyday routine.

The last time we were at my parent's house, my dad said multiple times that she needed mashed potatoes. Grandpa's going to be thrilled!

Sleeping Beauty

Although Lauren has always been great at nighttime sleeping, she has yet to master the daytime naps. I can usually get her to sleep for 45-50 minutes before noon, but after noon, the only way she will sleep is if I hold and rock her. I know that doesn't sound like the worst way to spend an afternoon, but it's a habit I think we need to break. By 5 p.m. when her father gets home she is tired and crabby. I think if she were to get in two good naps through the day she would be much happier all around.

On Tuesday I put her down in her crib at 11 a.m. thinking I'd have just enough time for a tea before she got up. Then noon came and went. Then 1 p.m. came and went. At 1:30 p.m. I I was starting to think something was wrong. I went up to her room felt her forehead, cheeks and the back of her neck to see if she had a fever! Shortly after that she woke up. Two and a half hours! Hallelujah!

So Wednesday I had a movie all ready to go, I put her in bed and settled in for my 150 minutes of Mommy Time only to have her get up 45 minutes later. Sigh.