Groceries

Grocery shopping. Its not as easy as it once was and we don't go as frequent either. I used to carry my cute little bug on the Baby Bjorn but she is getting pretty heavy! I can still do it but this time I tried something else...just put her car seat in the buggie. Of course, there's not as much room for groceries that way but it got the job done. Here she is looking cute as ever....

Look what I picked up on the sweets aisle :)

In the driver seat for another front seat of the car feeding

Sweeter than sugar!

Check up

Today Kelsie had a followup with her CF doctor and things are continuing to look great. She weighed 13 lbs 3 oz and was 23 inches long!  Her weight has been climbing up and up on the growth curve so she is now 75th percentile while her length is 25th. Her weight for length is 90th percentile!! What a chubby baby!! No malabsorption evident in this girl! Thanks to those enzymes! Apparently they are really doing the trick! I feel we have finally perfected the method and she is really doing well getting them down! The doctor said that some babies with CF have to supplement with higher calorie formula in addition to the enzymes, but thankfully, Kelsie is getting all she needs to grow from my breast milk.  The doctor was very pleased with how well things seem to be going. Kelsie still hasn't gotten sick (thank God), she is growing, and we are consistently giving her meds, vitamins, salt, and chest PT as we should.  We did discuss her salt intake which is currently 1/8 tsp once a day in a bottle of breastmilk but they advised us to give extra if she has a day where she sweats alot. As I mentioned before, one of the issues with CF is that the salt balance in the body is messed up so dehydration occurs more easily. We give Kelsie salt to prevent her from becoming dehydrated. Since she is too young to tell us if she is feeling thirsty or craving something salty (signs that she may be getting dehydrated or need more salt), we have to make sure we are helping replace her salt daily. 

At our next visit in one month, they will check Kelsie's baseline pulmonary function through a procedure they do under moderate sedation. This basically gives an objective picture of how well Kelsie's lungs are doing now, while she is healthy. Then when she gets sick, they can recheck it and compare her lung function at that time to what it was while she was healthy. That information will in turn help them know how bad the illness is affecting her lungs and help guide treatment.

Here is a video of how we give enzymes!

 (She usually doesnt even cry this much while taking them but she was a little extra hungry.)



Bedtime story

Kelsie reading herself a story before bedtime. ;)

Daddy helps out with the story....

and then....

they both passed out on the couch...

 [Kelsie now likes to sleep with her hands in front of her face :)]

How rude!

I resent Nathan's post about Kelsie's favorite doll!!! She would never do such a horrible thing! He is also the one responsible for that unflattering picture by the way!

Nathan's Post

"I'm about to rip the head off of this ugly doll and eat it for breakfast!"

12 weeks old - Milestones and more

Kelsie is now making more cooing sounds and she is laughing more. She gives the biggest smiles when someone is talking to her or making silly noises. When I talk to her she tries to respond back with the sweetest smile or giggle, and "gooo". She is also becoming more interested in her toys especially the sound of a rattle and will smile and laugh and reach for them. And she is also able to grasp the rattle and hold onto it to shake it. She now pays more attention to books and will now grab at the pages. And she likes it when I carry her over my shoulder so she can look at everything around us. A couple days ago she officially found her thumb and has been using it some to self-soothe. She still likes the paci but will suck on her fingers and try to get a hold of her thumb if she doesn't have the paci. She is holding her head up on her own but still just a little wobbly when she is tired; and she is making alot more kicking motions with her legs and waving motions with her arms when she is excited. (My dad says it looks like she is practicing her swim strokes!) She is also able to use her tongue to push food back in her mouth a little better now - something most wouldn't notice this early but since we have been giving her enzymes with applesauce since she was 3 weeks old, I have definitely seen a progression in her ability to do this which makes giving her enzymes so much easier!

This weekend was busy but alot of fun! Saturday, Nathan's parents came up to visit. Nathan and his dad worked in the yard while his mom and I hung out with Kelsie.  We had lunch together and then I made my long trip upstairs for my first night back to work. On Sunday, Kelsie made her first trip to her grandma and grandpa's house (my parents) and met my mom's side of the family. It was so nice to get together with everyone again, a tradition I hope we can continue for many years to come! It was also Memorial at the church where I grew up; so Kelsie made her first trip there as well, where we saw many family and friends who just "oooed and ahhed" over her. :) It was also a time to remember my grandparents who were buried there.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

 Saturday May 20th

Sunday May 21st

Memorial at Antioch - standing at Grandma Kiser's grave. 

We were so close and I still miss her dearly. Kelsie is named after her.

Found that thumb!

Kelsie and her cousin Cole - they are only 4 days apart!

Aren't they JUST PRECIOUS!?

First UNC game!

Last night we took Kelsie to her first UNC baseball game!! It was a great outing for us as a family and a fun way to expose Kelsie to Tarheel country! ;) It was quite a stimulating atmosphere and I think the cheering may have been a little too loud for her, but she didn't seem to mind too much. She didn't cry once, ate at her usual time, and fell asleep in my arms at her bedtime. I held my hand over her ears and she slept through it all. She woke up happy as a clam on the way home but went right down when we got in.

Teaching her the fight song! GO HEELS!

12 weeks and back to work

Kelsie was 12 weeks old yesterday! Gosh, she is growing up so fast! Twelve weeks seems like such a big milestone for some reason. I guess because its like she is graduating out of that fragile newborn state and into infancy. But its also that dreaded time for me  - the end of my maternity leave. I remember looking forward to this time to spend with my new baby for so long during pregnancy and its hard to believe that it has already came and gone! I never really thought I would want to be a stay-at-home-mom...but then, I met Kelsie! :) And she has just flipped that idea on its head. As exhausting as it may be, I love every moment of being home with her! However, there is that other side of me - the ambitious, professional side that enjoys my career and my patients. I have worked hard through undergrad and grad school to get to where I am and I have been blessed with 2 wonderful jobs. So I do not want to give that up either. The key will be finding the right balance. When Kelsie was diagnosed with CF, I automatically thought, "I am not going back to work, she is more important, and I don't want to be exposed to so many germs and bring them back home to her." But as we thought about it more, I have decided that working is both good and necessary for me and our family. I think the first few weeks will be the hardest but we will find a new routine and we will adjust. Today was my first shift back at Healthlink (my job at UNC as a phone triage nurse). The great thing about this job is that I can work from home from time to time. Today, I was assigned to work from home, but I still missed Kelsie like crazy! Its been so emotional for me and part of that is probably just realizing that today is the first of many days leaving her to go to work! :( Nathan took care of her and I have been hidden away at my desk for 8 hours but we have all survived! Hahaha. I think as a new mommy who spends 24hrs a day with her baby, this is a good reminder that she will still survive without me! And even though I would love nothing more than to take care of her 24/7, its good for her to have some one-on-one time with her daddy taking care of her too! (And perhaps, also good for him to see what mommy does all day!) ;)

Paci recovery...

Oh the pacifier.... yes, my baby has quite an affection for her paci and I have no problem knowing when she is asking for it. She doesn't exactly cry when she is wanting it (unless you wait too long) but she does have a way of "whining" for it and even has a specific outburst "neeay" when she needs it. This comes as she is getting tired but not quite ready for sleep. This is all good and fine and I like the fact that she is easily comforted by sucking on this small piece of silicone (ha), but it gets annoying in the middle of the night when she wakes up to realize that she spit it out while sleeping and needs it again to get back to sleep. This results in the head bobbing and pitiful "eh, eh, eh" as she desperately searches for it. I often watch this on our video monitor (which, much to my surprise, is one of my most favorite baby item purchases) and wait to see if she finds it or will settle back down without it before I go in and help her with the recovery. Sometimes I try to be strong and just let her work it out without the paci but experience has told me that if I let it go on too long, not only will she not give up, but she will become frantic, start crying and then spit up. Then she will not go back to sleep with her face lying in spit up. So what do we do?? We go in and try to give it back to her before she becomes fully awake! And stand there until she has a good grip on it and settles back down.

So at times I can't decide if the paci is helping her sleep or hindering it. At night, she can often self soothe herself back to sleep with or without it but during the day, she has a harder time with it. Granted she is still waking up a few times at night (but not to eat). So I'm trying to figure out the best way to respond. However, ignoring her and not giving her the paci does not seem likely to work. This is especially problematic during naptimes especially as she transitions through sleep cycles.  This week, we have spent a couple full days at home trying to work on this napping thing. I haven't been great at getting her settled into a routine so I've been working on that a little harder. I've been trying to help organize her feedings a little better and put aside my worries about her CF issues. So far that is going ok....although today she has been periodically waking up from her naps even 2-3hours after a feeding with this awful reflux and spitting up quite a bit.  Even though I've been trying to let her finish her nap on her own without picking up her, I finally gave in this afternoon. :/ I'm pretty tired myself and running back and forth up the stairs, giving her back her paci, and patting her until she settles down again is a little too exhausting by the end of the day, especially when I know if she doesn't get her rest now, she is going to be grumpy this evening! I'm hoping I can eventually influence some good sleep habits and not encourage the bad ones. I am optimistic though and think we are moving in the right direction. I start back to work this weekend so I'm praying she will start sleeping through the night consistently in the next week or so. We've at least dropped the middle of the night feedings so that's a good thing!

Oh, and one thing I've learned that I will take back to work with me next week is: being the provider and giving the advice is MUCH easier than being the mommy and heeding that advice!! Definitely something I will consider when telling moms to let them "cry it out"! Easier said than done!!!!

How productivity happens....

Bouncy seat, high chair, crib mobile, boppy - some of my favorite "babysitters" which allow me to cook, clean, or do laundry and still entertain my sweet pea. Since she is holding herself up a little better now, I can now sit her up in her highchair while I get things together for dinner and that has worked out quite well. I, of course, make silly sounds and tell her all about what I'm making so that keeps her entertained as well! If meals are timed right, she will also sit in her highchair while we eat which is always nice.

She also LOVES her mobile so I usually try to sit her up in her crib to watch that a few minutes during the day while I throw in some laundry or pick up upstairs.  She also thinks its funny to watch me fold clothes so I prop her up on some pillows on the bed while I fold.  Besides that, I try to make the most of her naps doing housework and then spend as much time interacting with her as I can when she is awake.  I also try to squeeze in some blogging when possible. I don't want to give it up even though it can be quite time consuming because its the best way I've found to record the milestones in her life during this fun and exciting, but busy, time!

Well, hello little lamb

This monkey is so silly!

Sportin my skinny jeans

Out to lunch

 Tuesday, Kelsie and I met my dad for lunch at S&T's soda shop in Pittsboro and it was a great time! I absolutely LOVE the fact that my dad works in this area from time to time and can meet us for lunch. It is such a great treat for me to visit with my dad and also gives him a little extra time to admire and dote on Kelsie, something they both enjoy! Kelsie was perfect - she slept while we ate and then woke up just in time to play with grandpa a bit.  After lunch, we made a stop at babies-r-us and then went to the farmers market with my friend Ashley and the Batcheller boys. It was a super fun day!

Grandpa's making those silly sounds again :)

Yesterday we had another lunch date with my friend Kristen. This time, Kelsie was not so perfect..instead she fussed for the first half of our lunch. She only really cries like that when she is so tired but can't get herself back to sleep. She dozed off before we left, but then woke up on the way over and just missed getting her full nap in. So I tried to soothe her back to sleep for the first part of the lunch, then Kristen took a turn so I could eat. Not the way our lunches used to go, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! We still had a nice time and Kelsie showed off her sweet side after she got a little more sleep and a full belly. :)

The rivalry lived out through our child...

Those of you who know us well know the rivalry that exists in our home: Tarheels vs. Wolfpack. We are both committed to steering Kelsie toward our preferred school but of course who she chooses to pull for is yet to be determined. If she is as big a sports' fan as her mommy and enjoys supporting a team with tradition, class, and the talent to win...then she will most definitely be a Tarheel fan. But... if she is ok settling for 2nd best, then she may deviate in the other direction towards her daddy's school. ;) Hehe. All kidding a side, for all those state fans out there, the wolfpack isn't THAT bad and I do try to support them from time to time (when they're not playing my Heels of course!) but I am still determined to make a Tarheel out of my Kelsie! And the one thing Nathan and I both agree on is NO DOOK FANS IN OUR HOUSEHOLD!

We both like to dress her up in our school colors. Nathan dressed her in the red and white, and just happened to catch me in red the same day, so he had to snap a picture...but do not mistake this as anything more! I am a Carolina girl all the way!!!! GO HEELS!

Daddy, I like my shirt better than yours! :)

Meet my boyfriend(s)!

Yesterday, we had a very lovely dinner with our friends Ashley and Christian. We went over to their home and had a great time relaxing on the porch, playing with our beautiful children, and just hanging out and enjoying nice conversation and good food! They have become some of our most loyal friends and we feel very blessed to have met them! They also have two darling little boys that are so sweet and could quite possibly make a great match for my Kelsie one day! ;) Here are a few shots of them getting acquainted. 

Kelsie (11 weeks), Price (8 months), Brooks (2 years)

Price: "She's pretty cute..." Kelsie: "He's checking me out, I'm just gonna play it cool"

 

Price: "Hmmm, you have nice cankles"

Kelsie: "Hey now, thats far enough!!"

Price: "I love a girl with some round chubby cheeks"

Brooks introducing Kelsie to his friend Tidbit :)

Thought for the day

Read this today on a Dayspring calendar and thought it good advice, and also a reminder for me in the midst of what life has thrown at us recently...

May your walk with God be closer than ever and your spirit in tune with His will, so that if the path in front of you is washed out by the rains of life, you will not lose your footing, your courage, or your way.

Interesting discovery

Nathan's mom sent me this article today which is pretty interesting. We love hearing about new advancements in CF treatment and still hope more than anything that a cure will be discovered in Kelsie's lifetime. (She has the most common mutation mentioned here, Delta F508.)

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/ont_teen_wins_top_prize_for_cystic_fibrosis_discovery/992d1aee

11 weeks and 12 lbs!

Kelsie is 11 weeks old today. We went in for a weight check and she weighed 12 lbs 3.6 oz...so thats up 1 pound in the past 2 weeks. She is getting quite chunky! :)

We have had a great week! Monday we stayed around here and caught up on sleep from our busy weekend, but had a little playtime outside! :)

Tuesday, Valerie and Drew came to visit and we had a full day of fun. They watched Kelsie for me while I did some chores upstairs that morning (which was much appreciated) and then we went to Franklin St and walked around campus for a bit. I bought Kelsie a Tarheel outfit and we stopped at Krispy Kreme for a very delightful treat! :P And now that I've experienced this new Krispy Kreme on Franklin St (which is very nice by the way), I can't get it out of my mind and am so tempted by those little gooey, circles of greasy goodness! To top off our high calorie snack, we came back home and grilled out steaks! It was a super fun day and I just loved spending it with my 2 favorite girls! Oh, and it was also a very momentous occasion since it was Kelsie's first stroll through UNC's campus and first visit to the Old Well! ;) Hopefully she will choose to walk down those same paths as a college student one day!

Wednesday, Kelsie's Nana (Nathan's mom) came to visit and the 3 of us went to Southpoint for a little shopping! We didn't buy a lot but we had a lot of fun. And I discovered a fabulous nursing room at the mall making those on-the-go feedings even easier! Looks like we may be able to go the mall more often! :)

Thursday was just a lazy day at home! I used every free moment to try to be as productive as possible. Kelsie does not nap very well during the day so my time to get housework done is often very limited. The little bug really likes to cuddle during naptime! She typically wakes up 40-45 min into a nap and starts looking for her paci, then starts crying out. I'm still waiting for her to be able to self-soothe herself back to sleep but for now, I'm doing what I can to help her get back to sleep without picking her up. But she often ends up in my arms before her nap is over. Unless we're on the go...in which case, she is happy as can be looking around until she can't fight it anymore and falls asleep in her seat.  



Today was another day out. We went for her weight check this morning, then had pizza out, and then back to the mall. She is just so wide-eyed and smiley when we are shopping...hmmm, I wonder what that means! ;) Daddy just might have his hands full one day!