Beach!

Last week, we took a trip to Port Aransas.  My mom, dad and sister went too.  Mira and I went last summer, but this year Brian was able to come too, so that was extra nice.  We rented a 3 bedroom condo that had a short boardwalk over to the beach, so we spent every morning playing on the beach.  Then a short walk back to the room for lunch, put the girls down for naps, then in the afternoons we swam in the pool or went back to the beach.  In the evenings after the girls were asleep, we were able to take nighttime walks in the surf.  It was really fun.  I wished it could have lasted longer.

Ellowyn liked sitting in the shallow waves.  For being only 7 months old, she did really well on the trip.  She woke up a little more often at night, but that's just to be expected at that age.  Otherwise, she was pretty happy and would tolerate about an hour or so at the beach before needing to head back to the condo for a break.  I had brought along the baby carrier that I use when we're in the pool, and I spent a lot of my beach time with her on my chest.  I'd go out into the water till it was up to my waist and the waves would come up to wash over Ellowyn's legs and body.  She enjoyed the motions that my body made while carrying her in the waves.  

It took Mira a little while to warm up to the beach experience and on the last day of our trip was when she was really starting to get comfortable with the ocean and the waves.  But she really loved playing in the sand.

We had a great time and already plan to go back again next summer.

Mira feeds Ellowyn

Mira loves feeding her baby sister.  Ellowyn cooperates nicely.

Catching up since my last post

Another month between posts.... I am seriously falling down on the job.

Ok, well... let's catch up.

Ellowyn:
We had some hiccups with the solid feedings, but it seems to be worked out now.  She went through a period where she was whining all the way through feedings to the point that I would just give up and nurse her.  I finally decided that the reason for it was that she was frustrated that she couldn't eat solids faster or get more immediate satisfaction with them.  Combine that with a terrible case of constipation that just would not clear up no matter what I tried, and we actually gave up on solid feedings for about a week there.  But she's back on now and I've figured out that the trick is to feed her when she is neither hungry nor tired.  I know.... feed her when she's not hungry.... seems counter-intuitive and more than a little superfluous, but it's what works.  Right now it's more about teaching her what solid food is all about rather than actually ingesting nutrition anyway.  

Ellowyn is also getting very mobile.  She's not crawling quite yet, but it will be very soon.  She still can't sit up unassisted, so she spends most of her time playing on her tummy.  She rolls and scoots all over the place.  Other than that, she's still sleeping great and is just doing really well overall.

Mira:
These hot hot summer days are hard on Mira.  We can't go any of the parks that we normally like to play at, I can't take her swimming unless I've got someone along to help, and in the afternoons the car gets so blisteringly hot that we can't even go anywhere in the car.  So the morning is our only time to get out of the house and then our options are pretty limited.  We've been doing lots of playdates at our friends' houses (or having friends over to our house).  It helps just to have different toys to explore.  We also do some indoor activities (museums, bouncy places, indoor playgrounds, the mall where we can ride the train and the carousel, the pet store, etc) but the options are limited.  So I've been really thankful lately that we've got Mira in a weekly gymnastics class.  It's been good for her.  It's tiring for me because I have to spot her on the equipment while I wear Ellowyn in the carrier, but still it's worth it.  She recently moved up to the older kids' class (previously she was in a class with 2 to 2.5 yr olds, now she's with the 2.5 to 3 yr olds).  I was nervous about the switch because I wasn't sure she had been at it long enough to keep up with the older kids, but she really rose to the challenge and I was surprised that she was doing so much more on the very first day with the older group.  I mentioned that to the teacher and she told me that it often happens that way because kids take cues from their peers so the older group pushes her to challenge herself.  So she's doing really well in gymnastics: forward and backward rolls, climbing on the uneven bars, flip overs (spotted) on the parallel bars, walking on the balace beam, etc.  In the last class (yesterday) she took a bad fall and busted her lip really good.  She was crying and bleeding everywhere and we went out to get ice and clean up.  Before she was even done bleeding, she was asking to go back in to class.  I was so proud of her for that!

Mira is really coming into her terrible twos.  Lots of whining and complaining and throwing fits and deliberately causing trouble.  It's getting to be a real challenge a lot of the time.  But that's a whole blog post all by itself... I may write on that soon.

Me:
I'm still working through this PPD stuff.  I don't have all the answers yet.  My GP is concerned about some vitamin deficiencies that came up in my blood work, so I'm taking additional supplements and then I'll get my blood retested in about a month.  My OB is concerned about my cycle irregularity and intensity, so he's ordered an ultrasound to check for "structural abnormalities" but I can't take it until after my next cycle so basically... who knows when.  And I'm also seeing a psychologist who specializes in PPD, is expensive as hell (we are paying her out of pocket since she refuses to deal with insurance claims), and is also utterly awesome and really seems to get me and is really helping me see some things more clearly and work through some emotions and identify some things that need to change.

Oh and I had a birthday.  It was kind of crappy, truth be told.  The day of my birthday, Brian was too exhausted from working long hours (poor guy, they're really asking a lot of him lately), so I let him sleep in and made him breakfast in bed.  Then I did get to have a nice dinner with my family and my mom took me shopping AND kept Mira overnight (thanks, mom, I can always count on you).  So that was nice.  The day after my birthday, Brian took Ellowyn and went grocery shopping for me in the morning so that was a nice break.  But after that, all hell broke loose.  Mira came home from my mom's house sick and spent the whole afternoon sobbing in my arms because she was so miserable.  Any time I would put her down she would scream bloody murder.  And all this time, I was alone and trying to deal with Ellowyn too because even though it was a Sunday Brian was back at work.  The next day our AC broke and the repair man had only bad news: we needed an entirely new system to the tune of $6000.  The entire day I was trying to juggle both girls and scheduling the repairs and finding somewhere to be that was not my hot house and still getting someone to the house when the repair guys needed someone and trying like crazy not to have to cancel my therapist appointment because they have a non-refundable late cancellation policy, so finding a babysitter who didn't mind watching a sick toddler and an infant (who was also starting to get sick BTW) and then the girls not napping because we were in a strange house even though they really needed to, being sick and all.  And a husband whose work is still being demanding so can't help much at all.  And then over the next few days, Ellowyn not sleeping well because she's sick, Brian leaving for work before we're awake and not getting home till after we're asleep... It was kind of a nightmare.

But now it's Friday.  Brian will be home from work before dinner tonight (!!!).  And then shouldn't (!!!) have to work this weekend.  And I have friends coming over on Saturday night to belatedly celebrate my birthday.  So hopefully things are getting better and I can say that I survived.