Sinus infections and TiVo

Robert and I recovered from our rough weekend (oh, it was baaaaad), only to find at Sofia's six-month checkup, that she has a sinus infection. And thrush. Poor child. So she's on antibiotics, which she HATES. And she doesn't care much for the cereal lately. But she does love mama's boobs. Which makes me feel special. Lately, I must admit though, that I haven't been able to pump worth a damn. When I breastfeed, Sofia is happy as a clam, so I know she's getting enough. What I don't get is why my pumping output has dropped so significantly. I've just attributed it to being sick and I'm hoping it will climb back up, so here's to hoping. I may be popping fenugreek just yet.

I worked from home yesterday to be with her, and realized that it is very difficult to telecon into a meeting when trying to put an infant down for a nap while breastfeeding.

Tonight I also learned that trying to watch both American Idol and Survivor by flipping channels back and forth is not smart. I still don't know who the second guy voted off on American Idol was, but I did get to see Ruth Marie voted off on Survivor. I really need to invest in TiVo.

Rough Weekend

Yesterday was horrible. I woke up feeling not so great. My stomach was a bit torn up and I was making a few too many trips to the bathroom for my comfort. I decided to call work and let them know I wasn't coming in. I thought maybe I could make it in for the later part of the day. Boy was I wrong. Either Robert and I got food poisoning or we picked up some nasty bug because we spend the good part of Friday puking, sitting on the toilet, and trying to sleep. The sleeping was not so easy with an almost six-month-old needing us all day.

Yes, it was a bad, bad day. We spent all day pitifully sick. Poor Sofia. She wanted attention and I couldn't even lift her for more than a few seconds. I had chills. The works. Thankfully I started feeling better in the evening and was able to play with Sofia and bathe her and stuff, but Robert didn't really feel better until today.

Then as we were getting ready to go to bed Robert somehow manages to break the thermometer I had lying on the nightstand (I had taken my temperature earlier to see if I was running a fever -- I wasn't). And it just happens to be one of those old school mercury thermometers. So, of course, we panic since it breaks on the carpeted floor in our bedroom Sofia's asleep on our bed and she wakes up because we have to turn the light on so Robert could see where the mercury went and clean it up...and the night becomes a lot longer than we anticipated. We moved out of the family bed so we could open the window and air out our bedroom and into the nursery , where we have a futon so that's where slept, but we had a hell of a time getting Sofia to sleep. We're sleeping in there again tonight because I read somewhere to air out the room for 48 hours, but it's rough. Sofia is not used to sleeping anywhere else but with mommy and daddy in their bed. She's been waking up and howling every few hours and it's rough getting that child back to sleep. Poor baby.

Strollin' in Style

I worked my ass off last week at work and had lots of extra hours, so I took today off. It was nice and I planned to do so many things, but of course, I only did a few. Robert stayed home from work too, but because he's sick. Again. We think he has undiagnosed asthma. He gets sick way too often. He's going to the doctor tomorrow.

Because we all stayed home today, we made it out for a nice walk in the neighborhood. I finally opened up this stroller that was a shower gift for Sofia. It was in the box for months because I thought she was too small for it, but it's perfect! It's sort of like a jogging stroller, but not quite. It's all spiffy and nice, nothing at all like the stroller we've been using that is part of that infant travel system. She looked adorable too. After we got back from out walk, we fed our little sweet pea some rice cereal, bathed her, and put her to bed. It was a good day. If only I didn't have to work tomorrow.

So now that I've been feeding my little one rice cereal, I have a question for all the other moms: Does the cereal replace an entire feeding for your baby or do you still feed baby milk before or after the cereal? See, I'm a paranoid breastfeeding mom. I'm always terrified that my breastmilk supply is going down because of the whole working mom/pumping mom thing. Every time Sofia gets cereal, that's less time she's nursing so, unless I pump, it's essentially a missed feeding (lately I feel like the crazy milk pumping lady I'm pumping so often). Anyway, I'm just not sure how other moms have been doing it. One of the LLL leaders suggested I have daycare feed her the majority of the rice cereal then exclusively nurse when I'm with her. Any other suggestions?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I know, I'm late. It's already the end of the day, but I hope everyone had a good day. We didn't do anything special, but that doesn't mean this isn't a special day! Robert proposed to me eight years ago today. It was a very special day. Mainly because we had really never discussed marriage, and he totally surprised me with an engagement ring. And then I cried like a baby because he had even asked for my dad's permission before he proposed. I was floored. He had even picked out the perfect ring. It was a complete and utter surprise. I was so happy. We were broke students, but we were crazy about each other. I'm still crazy about him. And I'm crazy about the little Valentine we have together (who sometimes drives me crazy). Robert's the best. He keeps me sane. Most of the time.

Exhausted

I can't believe I actually have a few minutes to write! I just don't know what to do with myself. I am finally recovering from last week, which just turned out to be a truly hellish week. All week I went in at 7 am, which required me to wake at 5:30 am. My usual going to bed at midnight or 1 am just wasn't cutting it, but I just can't seem to go to bed any earlier. It's not that I don't want to, but my nights are consumed with getting ready for the next day. I never understood how hard it was to be a working mom. I know being a mom is just hard, but I've never known exhaustion like this. Work is demanding, home is demanding,

Sunday night I caught the last thirty minutes of Grey's Anatomy (I haven't been able to watch it for weeks because Sofia was going to bed after it started) and I cried and cried watching it. Was it really that emotionally wrenching? Probably not, but I think I just needed an excuse for a good cry. When I thought Bailey's husband might not make it, I just lost it. I mean, the woman was giving birth and her husband might not make it? Gosh, I cried a lot. I needed that. Some days I feel like my soul has been sucked out of me and it's all I can do to keep going. Yes, that sounds a bit dramatic, but hey, I feel dramatic.

The child is beautiful. Her dad took her to the doctor today because she has been coughing a sad little cough lately and has had a runny nose. Maybe we're overreacters, but better safe than sorry I say. She's fine. The doc said it was just a cold. She has two teeth now, and they are some sharp little things! The second is not quite as big as the first but it's getting there. She hasn't bitten me yet, but I can still feel the teeth and they hurt. We also started her on rice cereal these past couple of weeks and she's doing quite well. We also took her on her first trip to the beach the weekend before last. She enjoyed watching the seagulls and the water. Unfortunately it was the not-so-glamourous Galveston beach, but at least there's one nearby.



My child is stirring, so I have to get her back to bed.

We're a Happy Family

Highs and Lows

High points of my week:
- Sofia's getting her first tooth! I felt it barely pushing through on Monday, and now there's no doubt about it. My baby's getting a tooth. I hope she goes easy on mama's boobs...
- I got a laptop for work with a nifty docking station. I hope this makes working from home easier.

Lows:
- Feeling like I work in a Dilbert comic strip. I had so many b.s. meetings this week it's ridiculous. Pre-meetings, internal meetings, tagups...I hate it when meetings -- especially stupid meetings -- eat into my day and keep me from getting real work done.
- The husband getting home late almost everyday. Man, that gets old.
- Not being able to upload photos on blogger. What gives? I could do it before and for some reason, my pictures aren't showing up! Any ideas why?