Kara and her new Bathtub

my child has always loved her bath...well she did ever since her cord stump fell off and we were able to "submerge" her in the water...the whole "sponge bath" was NOT for her but that's a different story!

Anyways...I had bought a convertible bath seat for her that we had used until recently! She splashes and kicks her little legs around in it like she is trying to win an Olympic medal! Due to her 26" in length the old bathtub got rather uncomfortable for her as she could hardly mover her legs around anymore and she is not yet ready for the "seat" option of the seat...

I was at WalMart and found this amazingly cute bathtub and we tried it out last night...can you see how much she is enjoying it? The pictures where she is actually smiling is when we made the duck quack (it quacks like crazy when you press the ducks beak)...

This was the only time she was happy yesterday as she decided to be a "very dramatic teether" (as our pediatrician called it) and is having screaming fits just about every hour on the hour and is pretty much whiny all day....I wonder if they make scuba diving suits for babies...I'd buy one and just keep her in the tub all day...

bless her little heart...

So it seems I have found the magic trigger to get my sweet girl to giggle... Or let's call it something that sounds like a *har ha* ...

She enjoys sitting on my belly while I am holding her by her hands and sing German children songs to her... Embarrassing as it is...my English song repertoire starts and ends with old McDonald had a farm...anyways she has this one song about a guy that stands in the forest totally still and quiet and how he has a red cape and there are a couple more phrases, which I will not get into. It ends up that this "guy" its a certain fruit that's growing there... *now talk about odd story* anyways whenever I sing this to her she just smiles at me and eventually I get those little giggles out... Bless her little heart... If you think about the worst American Idol auditions then you can somewhat imagine what MY voice sounds like... I am not tone deaf by any means but my voice is just anything but a singing one... really the child should be crying!

I must confess - I am yet to figure out whether she is laughing because she enjoys the entertainment or laughing because it is beyond awful to listen to and she just doesn't know whether to laugh or cry and simply made the decision to laugh...

Unfortunately I really have to now watch when I sit her on my belly as the position puts a lot of strain on her belly which usually results in about 4oz of throw up...I could do this all day long if I could as those smiles and giggles are better then anything I could have ever imagined!

my first inner grinning happy mom moment

wow...can you tell I've been way too consumed with other things? I guess once you dont post for a couple days its really hard to get back into the rhythm of things...

Anyways... I really do not want to talk about her constant puke issues...I am thinking way too much about it as it is and since I intended this blog mainly to use for me to look back on good things...I want to try to keep it positive!

I had my very first "wow is this happening?" mommy moment the other day. I was making saltdough ornaments with Kara's Hand and Foot print for our tree and also to send to my parents in Germany! Kara was in her jumperoo happily "playing" away. I kept turning around to see what she was doing and she was just looking at all her toys. I got busy with painting the ornaments and did not look around for a bit...as I turned around, cause I must admit that I realized it got rather "quiet" I found this:

My first instinct was to "get her out" but as I was grinning like a kid on christmas morning I just had to get the camera out!


There is a lot I laughed at already or smiled at things she, pretty much unintentially, did but this was my first inner grinning happy mom moment that you truly can only understand if you have aa child! It just melted my heart cause she was just so adorable and cute sleeping like that and yet I felt awful for not realizing sooner that she was tired to put her down for a nap!

Here's to many, many more moments like this as I can truly say...they make you feel really, really joyful!

first major blowout

ok...so I was sitting in bed trying to write Christmas Cards (which I religiously send out the day after Thanksgiving) when I hear the all too familiar noise of Kara having a MAJOR ...well....bowel movement... She always takes a little to finish so I decided to wait a couple minutes (as I always do in order to not get pooped on lol).

I then picked her up maybe 2 mintues later and realized my poor baby girl had been laying in her own yuckiness for the past 120 seconds...(dont really know why she smiled the entire time!!!???)

I carry my poor little girl to her changing table...wondering how to best do this...well I decided to lay a clean diaper (I knew I would put the package of Luvs to use somehow sooner or later!) under her and went from there...poor little kid...I swear poop was everywhere...on her on the changing table...the changing table cover...yikes...!!!

So herewith I nominate myself for the bad mommy award...I cant believe I let her lay in this for so long...she was - of course- wearing my one my favorite outfits and I already washed it and even though I pretreated it...the stain is not comming out...well I guess I deserve that...

Big Lots....who would've thought

I ventured to Big Lots yesterday and low and behold...they had some amazing toys. Tons of Fisher Price and Leap Frog stuff...who would've thought!?

I bought this ... its called "LeapFrog Brightlings Exploration Station" and I have actually seen this last week at Toys R Us for $39.99...well at Big Lots I paid $20!!!

I also found these cute things called "Brightlings Matchers" for only $5... they sell around $9 at other store online...

The last one I will post is the "Leapfrog Colors & Tunes Octopus Baby Toy" selling at well known Retailers for $19.99...I paid 12.99.

I bought a bunch of other toys too like rattles and teethers...after all Christmas is around the corner and she simply does not have any toys yet...I spend right around $100 and the average retail value on the things I bought and then found online was a combined total of about $160...good enough for me :-) Especially considering that everything I bought was either Leap Frog or Fisher Price...

I have thoroughly inspected them in the store and there is nothing wrong with them whatsoever...I cant help but admit that I am still not quiet trusting this and will take another closer look once the toys will be out of their package...

I must say that I am amazed... I honestly never thought Big Lots would have stuff like that...granted...I still wouldn't want to buy my groceries there but if this is what they carry I might need to venture there more often!

poop and modern technology

When is enough, enough?...what has modern technology made out of us (I only say "us" because I KNOW I am not the only one who does this!)?

Kara has had a significant change in her poop...she went from having the "perfect" yellow seedy stool that occured about twice a week to green, non seedy and going at least once a day... I have been obsessing over this for days now...now this morning there is added mucous in the diaper... so what does my Blackberry obsessed mind do? I take a picture (god forgive me) and send it, with proper warning, to a friend to "inspect" it for me before I call the pediatrician...

Really? Now when I think back of the time when I was born or even a short ten years ago...there was no such thing as sending a poopy diaper picture to your friend for "inspection"...

Cant help but wonder...is this a blessing or a curse? I mean who wants to see a picture of a poopy diaper before breakfast?

our morning ritual

Kara and I have this morning ritual...when she is "awake" for the day, right around 8 every morning I walk in there and lean over her bassinett...I usually do not say anything until she "discovers" me. She gets this huge smile on her face and she keeps smiling every time I say "Good Morning"... Only ones child can truly appreciate ones extremely high pitched voice on a continous base...I can hardly stand to listen to it myself to be honest ... the things you do for your children...

How can anyones day be bad when it starts like this ?

her birth story August 14th 2008

by 4:30am I got up and jumped in the shower, called the hospital to make sure they have a bed (who would’ve thought…)

Got there, as instructed, right at 6:00am… got put straight in a room and had to put on the beautiful gown…before I realized it I was shaved and the nurse came to put in my IV…I asked if I could have the “ topical numbing lotion stuff” and she told me they didn’t use it… I told her she had ONE try (I bet she thought I was joking lol I WASN’T) she did good though…despite the fact that I was bleeding like a pig…blood was just running down my hands … well… then in came some Resident who asked all kinds of stupid questions about why c-section and such…got old real quick and I told him that since he will have no part in my treatment he might as well just leave as I don’t have to justify anything to him...out he went and in came the anesthesiologist… I know this is the worst profiling EVER but he was Asian and I KNEW the second he walked in all would be good. We went through the general blah blah and a bit later my doctor came in and by about 8:30 I was in the OR… I forgot to mention that up until I was in there I was fine…they made me sit up to give me the numbing shot and spinal… when the numbing went in it was a pain and sensation I did not expect…I remember saying “au” and I moved so the doc and the nurse said not to and grabbed me to hold me still and then I lost it…I started crying like there was no tomorrow…I was just about to jump off the table and just not have this baby….period…until they find out another way (other then c-section and vaginal…I began to wonder how long it would take for them to discover “beaming” babies out of tummies)…no all jokes aside…I felt awful and couldn’t stop crying…the weirdest thing was the spinal as I thought I wouldn’t feel anything but I felt my legs being there but I couldn’t move them and they felt heavy like tree stumps…my doc came in and shortly after my husband. I am still sorta sobbing and my doc tells me he made the cut… I calmed down a little as I figured that it’s really too late now anyways…I hated the oxygen mask and because of all the crying I couldn’t breathe through my nose… My anesthesiologist kept telling me what it was my doc was doing, kept wiping my tears away and kept telling me it was all gonna be ok…

Doc said that head was out and said “cute little face” and then announced her birth at 9:00am on the dot. She was whisked away to the little table thing and husband went over with her... I heard my doc talk about cleaning my uterus and such and oh and it seemed like forever until I heard her cry… I remember thinking “ well she sounds like a girl”…not sure why I would think a boy would sound any different lol

Her APGARS were a 7 and an 8 which I thought sounded just fine considering that she was 37 weeks and a c-section…

They didn’t have them darn sepra film and had to go get it from the main OR’s downstairs…at least my wonderful doctor remembered… J They got it and it sure took forever to get stitched up…damn was he taking his time … but boy did he do good… it looks like a mere scratch now… and its only been 6 days.
They took me back to my room and I remember seeing the time and it was 9:50am…I thought to myself well darn…they said it would take about 30 minutes in the nursery… where are they…?? After what seemed like an eternity (I cant remember what time it was) my husband came in, alone, and I knew something was up… he told me that she had lots of fluid in her lungs and that she was under an oxygen tent for now and that she would be for a couple of hours… at least he took pictures so I had “something’… he left again to be with her and I felt like I was about to through up…telling myself there was no way though as I didn’t have anything in me…I called for the nurse who gave me a thingy and sure enough…whatever it was (watery substance with thankfully no taste) came up…and man…it hurt like hell… the throwing up did…

They took me to my permanent room around 1 and I was very patient to no explanation of my part as to when I was finally going to get to see her (I have to ask my doctor…they have had to give me something…) As soon as I was in the room my doctor came to see me and I told him that I wanted to go see her NOW…he told the nurse to get me in a wheel chair and take me… The nurse didn’t quiet agree but I told her my doc said it was ok so that’s what she’d have to do… she moved the bed up so I would be more in a seating position and I got sick again… like really nauseated and throwing up (again that clear watery stuff…whatever the heck it was) and it took me a while to adjust…by the time we finally had my legs out of the bed…they wheeled her in… and she hasn’t left me since…that was around 3 pm. By 6 pm I was out of the bed walking the halls. The nurse was great and helped me get cleaned up on the toilet and since she was so great she help me cut my own underwear in a way that there was room for the catheter… (they had really weird synthetic long jons type things that were like pantyhose and made me sweat like crazy). She was also there the next day and the morning of discharge. The night nurse I had was ok but the one that came the next morning was awful…was very glad when I got to leave...