Eh?

Poor Kyle.  His ears were all plugged up and we tried to remedy it at home...  to no avail.  First we tried the ear drops to loosen everything up but they only made it worse.  After the drops he could hear practically nothing.  I would be talking two feet from his face and he would not know what I was saying.  Alternatively, I wouldn't say anything and he'd start shouting at me, "What did you say?"  This was not good.  Repeating myself is one of my biggest pet peeves and I have no patience for it.  Let me just say this: Kyle's plugged up ears were not good for our marriage.  

I tried to be Super Wife and ran to the store late at night for ear candles for him. They usually work but not this time!  And I burned a stupid hole in the carpet!

Kyle still couldn't hear anything.  He had some training for his new job in the morning and there's no way he would be able to hear anything so he went to urgent care before work and got his ears cleaned out.

Gross.  

So now my husband can hear.  But you know what?  He can hear EVERYTHING.  I had no idea he was so deaf before.  He jumps at the littlest sounds now and I've had to considerably adjust my speaking volume.  And all those nights he slept through Avery's hungry crying?  Haha.  Those are gone :)  

On the up side, at least now I have a glimpse of what our life might be like as old people one day.

2 Years!

Hey guess what?  Today is our anniversary!

Each year just keeps getting better!

2 months and more please!

Avery is 2 months old!

She is more alert and expressive now and is starting to smile a lot and eat her hands.

Pretty much I love her to pieces.  

(Even though she spit up in my face last night while I was feeding her in bed.)

What I love most is getting to know her little baby personality.  It's so rewarding to feel like I know what she wants or what she needs or how she likes to be held or what will put her to sleep.  It's a little sad to know that she is going to grow up and one day she won't be a snuggly, tiny baby but it's also so exciting every time she does something new.

And thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions on breastfeeding!  I'm taking fenugreek and eating oatmeal like it's my job and my skin is oozing maple syrup stench (side effect from fenugreek).  I haven't seen a huge difference yet, but I'm still reluctant to give up just yet.  And yes, I do have a pump, and no I can't hardly pump anything.  It's very disappointing.  And uncomfortable at that...

But can someone please remind me how uncomfortable it is to be pregnant?  Because I love this baby girl so much I want another one like right this minute.  It's totally against my better judgment (and life plan) but oh I just want to fill our house with babies!

Possible TMI? Oh well.

Have I mentioned lately that I hate PKU?  It gets in the way of my life.

Avery has to drink a medical formula every day to maintain the right amount of phenylalanine.  The amount that she needs changes about every week or two so one week she'll need 4 oz. a day, then 5 then 7.5....  it just depends on what her phenylalanine levels are.  

So the point of this is to say that she gets a varied amount of formula in bottles and the rest of the day she is breastfed.  But all the diet changes have taken a toll on my milk supply and folks, I think I'm drying up over here.  It's like it happened overnight.  We saw the pediatrician Friday and because Avery is not gaining weight properly, he recommended I quit breastfeeding altogether and go to formula.  But to him I roll my eyes and say "But dude, this baby has PKU and it is much more complicated than that."  And then I called Avery's dietitian who fixes problems like these.  My boobs must be on the pediatrician's side because they've up and quit on me and my baby is hungry!  So now I have to mix medical formula with regular baby formula like Similac to make up for my lacking lactation.  

In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can to increase the milk supply up in here.  I've dedicated my free time to making up cheers for the boobs and thinking happy thoughts.  I invested a small fortune in herbal remedies and oatmeal and drank as much water as I could handle.  If I can locate flax seed meal and brewer's yeast, I'm making lactation cookies.

I am determined to fight this because if I have to quit breastfeeding because of PKU I'm going to be pissed.  If it was for any other reason, I don't think I would care so much but I want to be better than PKU and right now that means breastfeeding even though it freaking sucks.

Oh the Irony

Alright so apparently Avery read my last post about her sleeping so well in the sleep sack and decided to revolt last night.  I was up with her pretty much nonstop from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.  Around 5:30 I hit some sort of breaking point and maybe might have yelled something about wanting to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time... and maybe I might have woke up Kyle.  And then cried about it.

Kyle fixed her a bottle and fed her and he was so cute with her that I forgot about being upset.  And then I slept for another half hour.

I usually get over the sleep deprivation around 9:00 a.m. and I didn't even notice how tired I was the rest of the day.  After dinner, however, Kyle made me take a nap.  I fell asleep somewhere around 6pm-ish and didn't wake up until after 10pm!  Now Kyle's asleep, Avery's asleep, and I'm wide awake!  

Oh the irony...

I missed some good TV tonight because of that nap.  But I think that probably it was worth it.

About Sleep

My biggest headache with Avery sleeping at night wasn't her waking up, but getting her back to sleep!  She would eat, go to sleep, and the second I put her down in her cradle, she'd be awake.  Even when I swaddled her as best I could, she would somehow wiggle herself out of it in no time.  

So the other night I remembered that I had a Halo sleep sack that lovely Nicole had given me and I hadn't even tried it out yet!  I wrapped Avery up and for 4 nights in a row I've had no problems getting her back to sleep.  It's a miracle!  Now I just need like 5 more of these so I don't have to wash it all the time.

Day of Labor

We celebrated Labor Day by taking a day trip up Provo Canyon.   

We first stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and then stopped taking pictures after that.  The rest of our day included milkshakes from Dairy Keen in Heber City (best milkshakes ever!) and shopping at the Park City outlets which were insanely busy and we didn't even buy anything.  So sad.

Kyle hiked up the waterfall, but I stayed at the bottom with Avery.

She is so tiny in the Baby Bjorn!  Her head sits right at the arm holes :)

She pretty much just slept the whole time.

Except for when we were in the car and she was screaming.

This kid does not so much like being in the car.

A Story About Friday

Let me tell you a story about our Friday.

I noticed Avery's soft spot seemed swollen so being the paranoid first time mom that I am, I called the doctor.  I expected them to tell me it was nothing but instead they told me to come right in! Ah!

This is Gehry.  He is the darlingest 10 month old baby I watch during the week.   (Don't you love those big blue eyes?!)  So on this Friday I had two babies to pack up with me to the doctor.  

I changed 2 diapers.

I fixed 2 bottles.

I put 2 cute babies in the car.

I felt like a supermom.

At the doctor, everyone was eating up Gehry's flirty baby smile and Avery was fast asleep.  The doctor quickly determined Avery's soft spot was just fine.  Whew!  Buuut she's only gained 3 ounces in 4 weeks :(   I love how tiny and sweet she is but I was sad that she hadn't grown enough.  

And I immediately blamed the stupid PKU.

Pretty much anything crappy I blame on the stupid PKU.

Having a bad hair day?  Stupid PKU.

He decided to do a urine test to rule out some kind of infection that would keep her from gaining weight.  So they attached a bag to Avery's little baby bum and I gave her a bottle in hopes she'd pee on demand.  Well, my plan worked but the bag wasn't attached all the way so it leaked all over my pants.  It looked like I had peed my pants!  I was able to save enough in the bag but on my way to the door to call the nurse, it dripped all over the floor and the exam table.

I got a nurse and a receptionist to help me out and when I picked up Gehry to save him from the mess, I noticed that he had peed all the way through his diaper and his clothes were soaked.  3 of us covered in pee.  Yippee!

It turns out Avery doesn't have an infection, she just needs more calories (stupid PKU).  An hour and a half later I left the doctor's office with pee covered pants, a tiny Avery and a naked Gehry wearing a too small diaper the nurse had given me.  I felt pretty white trash but at the same time I was so proud that I had managed it all with two babies!

Let me tell you, this is a totally different life than I was living a few months ago!

But you know what?  I kind of love it :)

Fire Pit

We acquired some hand-me-down bricks and Kyle used them to make up a fire pit in our backyard!

He has been wanting to do this for years.  See how happy he is to be making a fire?  What a manly man.  

So when Avery was almost 2 weeks old we camped out for an evening and made smores!  It certainly isn't the prettiest set up, but that grassless pile of gravel was useless and ugly and at least now we can use it!

In Love

Def Leppard recently came to town and we left Avery with some friends for the night so we could rock.  

But mostly I just missed my baby.

You know when you're dating and in love and you think about him all the time and wonder what he's doing and wait anxiously for him to call you or return a text?  That's kind of how I felt.  I missed my baby girl.  I thought about her the whole time.  I wondered what she was doing.  I looked at all my pictures of her on my phone.  I imagined I heard her crying. I wished she could text me.

You guys, I am totally in love.  I've got it bad.

Oh but the concert was great anyway.

Perfect Timing

Bahahaha!

All by Myself

Sometimes I just kind of need a break, you know?

So tonight I went out for frozen yogurt all by myself.

I went straight for the coconut yogurt and covered it with every chocolate candy bar they had.  And then I covered it with hot fudge to hide my embarrassing manifestation of a hormonal breakdown.

And then I ate it in the parking lot.

Alone.

Before leaving I actually contemplated going back in for the watermelon sorbet but I felt that my insides had become coated in hot fudge.  And anyway, I had already made a scene in there when I managed to dump red velvet yogurt all over myself and then lick it off my fingers because I couldn't find a napkin.  I had only wanted to have a sample!

*sigh*

It's been a good day.