Lunch at the Park

I just about turned Raquel into a real prune, making her stay in the bath tub for so long while I tried to put Maxine to sleep. And my body is wrecked. For the first time, I actually considered calling someone to come take over for a bit. Things on my body that hurt right now: neck, back, feet, ankles, right arm......ugh. So tired I am. I still have bottles to prep and a kitchen to clean. Not to mention a few piles of clean clothes that have been waiting for me to fold them for a very long time. Yeah, I have a messy house right now so don't pay me a surprise visit!

We had lunch at a park today. The weather finally cooled off and it was so nice to be outside. The boys played catch while Raquel ran around and Maxine actually slept.

One Month Old, Already

Yep, she's already one month old. I can't believe how fast it's going. It's somewhat sad that babies grow up so quickly but one advantage of Maxine being a month old is she'll start to sleep a little longer if she's anything like her big sister was at this age. And she'll start to be a little more interesting, too, instead of just laying there looking around at mostly blurry images.

Here she is after having the biggest meal of her life today (5.5 oz):




I love her so much. I am crazy about her. It feels wonderful to love someone so much.

Smiles on Demand

Why do I never have my camera nearby when I make Maxine smile? Well, just to let you know, she smiles when I want her to, pretty much. This started yesterday when I could've sworn all of that grunting and pondering was because she was taking a dump and I was cheering her on by repeating, "Is it doo-doo time?" in the cutest voice I could muster. Turns out she was grunting just to grunt. I got some great smiles out of it though! Yes, I'll take pictures next time.

Like Pat on SNL

Maxine is 4 weeks old today. Lookie, she's a boy! (pobrecita!)

My Daughter, Quasimodo

Stuff always happens to my kids on the weekends when their pediatrician's office is closed. I kid you not, for the past 3 weekends there has been something warranting a doctor visit (if only to calm my nerves) that has had to wait 'til Monday. Somebody is playing a joke on me, right?

Yesterday morning Raquel was playing "gymnastics" on the furniture when I noticed she had been bitten up by mosquitos some time during the night. These red blotches were HUGE! There was one on her cheek that made her look like she lost a fight. These bugs pretty much went to town on any exposed skin they could find and for some reason most of these bites were bigger than a quarter in diameter.

Jose came home from work earlier than expected and took us to lunch at the Montebello Town Centre and afterwards we walked around window shopping. We went into The Raider Image store and Jose says, "Hey, Sarah, did you notice her eyelid?" Raquel walks over to me and I see that her left eye lid is swollen (I assume from another bite) which happens to be on the same side of her face as the mosquito bite that makes her look like she lost a fight but now it looks even more so like someone beat the crap out of her. And we're in public, at a mall, on a Saturday. Just great. Jose and I looked at each other and as if he read my mind he said, "We can go home now." I think if we were not in such a ghetto mall someone may have noticed Raquel's face and assumed the worst. No offense, Mall.

Well, we went home and Raquel took a nap. She woke up looking worse. The eye opening was smaller as the lid was swelling more.

Fortunately, the bites look worse than they feel. She doesn't seem to know they're there. Here's what she looks like this morning.

She had a breakfast date this morning with her babysitter so I had Raquel hold ice on the lid to see if it would relieve the swelling. Nope! So she's out in public right now looking like this. It's a good thing she doesn't have a hunchback.

As it turns out, the screen for Raquel's bedroom window had mysteriously fallen off (or been removed) which I believe is the culprit for the mosquito feast/attack. Her Uncle James was the one to bring this to my attention and fix it, too. Problem solved!

The BEST Bottles for Newborns

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during Maxine's first days of life, we discovered her problem with breathing while feeding. She would sometimes forget to breath while she was enjoying a bottle. She doesn't do that anymore but there is something else she has been doing that really frightens me: she will choke on milk and not always clear her throat, which makes her turn a little purple before I get her to realize she's not breathing. I get nervous but I move quickly to lay her down and slap the bottom of her foot, rub it and/or scratch it and this gets her to "wake up" and cry and breath again. She was doing this at every feeding until I found that one of the types of bottles we have doesn't cause her to choke. They are the Playtex VentAire Advanced (wide) with slow flow nipples (pictured above). I am glad I had several different brands of bottles at home so I could do such an "experiment".
Before I came to this conclusion I went out and bought Evenflow slow flow nipples for newborns. I was pretty disappointed in them as one of them (in a pack of 3) would constantly flow when I turned the bottle upside down. That's not slow flow! Geez?!
Today I bought another 3-pack of these good Playtex bottles (about $13) and I am not going to use any of our other bottles until Maxine is a little older and can handle a faster flow. Not only has she stopped choking but also she has less gas because of the vent holes in the bottom of the bottle. These bottles are slightly more complicated then normal bottles but its nothing compared to the peace of mind they give me (and my baby). Another thing is the nipple is more like a real mommy nipple because it has a wide base and a shorter nipple tip.
I wanted to let you soon-to-be new moms know about this. Not all so-called slow flow nipples are built the same. Some are just faulty altogether. So when your newborn baby comes home and you give her a baba, check the flow first and experiment with several different brands to get the right one for your baby instead of registering for or purchasing a whole bunch of the same kind right off the bat.

Yay, Daddy's Here!

Tonight when Jose got home from work he did Maxine's 8:30 feeding. She must've missed her daddy because she did not want to close her eyes and she kept throwing smiles at him. I actually caught one of those smiles with my camera. Here are some pictures from tonight.

I have 2 good girls

With a newborn in the house you will have to expect a good amount of poop-talk in this blog. Maxine is just like Daddy, prefers to poop in the morning. Since she doesn't really poop for the rest of the day and night, the morning poop is a whopper. She was due for a bath today so I wiped her down a bit and then we took a bath together in the big bath tub with Raquel standing by just in case Mommy needed help. Maxine obviously enjoyed this bath which made it very pleasant for me, too. Being that she was so relaxed, I was able to get the soap into every little crease, let the warm water run down her body, make sure she was rinsed off well. We even played a little bit, letting her float on her back with my arm holding her upper body--she was extremely buoyant! All baby fat, huh?! All the while, Raquel was helping me by washing my back with the bath water.
Speaking of Raquel, just this morning I realized she is such a patient big sister and older daughter. She's only 4 years old yet she hasn't showed a temper at all any time I've said, "You'll have to wait a minute," when she asks me for something. She just says, "Oh, ok." I'm going to have to make it up to her when Maxine isn't such a newborn anymore.

Pooped Out Princess

Maxine is 17 days old today and I can see her gaining weight, looking chubbier. Her diet is becoming less and less breast milk and more Enfamil Gentlease formula, a ratio of about 35/65. Up until yesterday she had been having lots of BMs and "wet farts" but then she didn't have either for about 16 hours. She became fussy yesterday evening and was awake for almost 4 hours straight, squirming, grunting, fussing, bobbing her head up and down on me--I didn't put her down for most of that time. I think she was full of poop and that's not good for anybody. I didn't know what to do except hold her and comfort her. Thank goodness Jose didn't have to work late last night. He came home and took over and I played sudoku in a lukewarm bubblebath.

Well, this morning she finally relieved herself and I actually clapped and cheered, haha! She is very peaceful now. That's great because today is Monday, family day at our house. We will be able to hang out together and have a nice day. The picture below is post-poop.

Maxine's First Tub Bath

Maxine Louise is our brand new baby girl, born July 25, 2008 at 12:14pm. I couldn't have imagined an easier birthing experience, to say the least. In the photo above she is 11 days old. And below are pictures of her first real tub bath since her umbilical cord stump fell off. These pictures were taken this morning. She does not enjoy baths yet. She started crying shortly after that first shot and was very relieved to be wrapped up in her towel afterward.

Today I got her to turn her head toward my voice when I said, "Maxine". When she looked at me I smiled and started talking to her and she smiled back! I think it was a real smile meant for me. I always wonder if she knows who I am, if she finds comfort in my presence. I think she's starting to :)