Sleep deprived....

The past month has been one of the hardest months I've ever had to endure. Working full time, trying to breastfeed and pump and be a mom is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.
I have a brand new class this year with lots of new opportunities! I have never had a class quite like this one before and though it is taking us longer to get to where we need to be, I know we will get there :) Trying to pump while work is taking quite a toll on my daily to do list. I pump right before I leave my house, I pump during my lunch break, and then right after school. When you add all the time up it's almost an hour out of my busy day that I could have spent planning/preparing things for my classroom. While I'm not complaining, I will just be glad when I am finished with it. I really thought I would stop nursing all together this past week, but for some reason I have decided to keep going until Adelyn is 6 months old. This is only another month and like two weeks so I know it's doable. By the time I get home, cook dinner, give Adelyn a bath, feed her and play with her I'm absolutely exhausted. (I don't know how those with more than one do it!) I then have to pull out my laptop and finish all of the things I didn't get to during the day. Unfortunately for Rene and I, Adelyn is still not sleeping through the night. She wakes up sometime around 12, 1, 2, or 3 for a feeding and then around 5. Though sometimes like last night, we were up from midnight until 2:30 with some major reflux and then she was hungry again at 4:00. So I basically got like 2 hours of sleep at night. When you work with five year olds all day it is so hard to be tired because they just keep going and going. And yes people constantly tell me "put her on formula, swaddle her, read her books, blah blah blah" YES....I DO ALL OF THESE THINGS. Her last two feedings before bed include formula and rice cereal. Her problem is that because of her reflux she is just not a big eater. She rarely takes more than 3-4 ounces in one feeding, when at this age she should be taking 6-7. So she gets hungrier often. I keep hoping that one day I'm going to wake up and realize I slept 8 hours! As soon as this happen, trust me, I will announce it to the world!
On another note, Adelyn has started physical therapy to hopefully fix her torticolus. She has a 10 degree tilt in the right side of her neck. Because of this she has to go to one hour of physical therapy once a week for 4-6 months. One hour is a very long time for a little one such as herself. The worst part is we are supposed to do lots of stretches with her and make her do one hour of tummy time everyday. She is not a big fan of tummy time and does NOT like her stretches at all. I keep telling her that it's for her own good and she will thank me later!
She is also rolling over from her back to tummy and vice versa. She first learned how to roll from tummy to back and then two days ago she rolled from her back to tummy. It's so cute when she does it because she has such chunky arms and legs that her arms get like stuck under her belly and she can't figure out how to move them!
I know I have said it a thousand times but she has grown so much and her little laugh is my absolute favorite part of my day! Every time I make myself and after school to do list and check everything off as soon as I can so I can go and pick her up. I love teaching kindergarten and being able to guide them but I also love being a mommy! Now if I could just find the perfect balance between the two then I would be a much happier, wiser, and well rested teacher and mom!

She's getting too big!!

So my little Adelyn is four months old today. We had a full day of shopping planned, but little missy has not been a happy camper. Friday she went to the doctor for her four month check up. She weighs 15.3 lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long, and she had to get four shots. Saturday she woke up with crusty junk all over her nose and then her nose was runny all day long. Then today she woke up again sneezing and was fussy all day. Her neck ended up locking on her again and my shopping adventure was cut short so that I could go home and basically rock her while she slept all afternoon. After two go rounds of tylenol she woke up around 5:30 feeling much better!!! She was laughing and talking up a storm!
At her doctor's appointment we found out that Adelyn needs to have a little bit of physical therapy to help her neck situation. She severly leans her head to her right side pretty much of the time. The doctor thinks she will grow out of it eventually but recommended we do a couple of therapy sessions to be sure. Thankfully, her Bella will be able to take her to PT.
The doctor also told us to start her on rice cereal since she still isn't sleeping through the night. I'm clueless about this stuff and of course my husband didn't ask any questions. I mean I don't know how to give the cereal and when and how much. So a call to the doctor is in order for Monday!
Adelyn is a super big girl except that she's still kind of on the short side. She can still wear most of her three month clothes but we are having an issue with the 6th month clothes. In the 6 month clothes she is close to the end of the weight limit, yet she is at the very bottom for the length. So things are kind of tight around her chest, yet like 5 inches too long! The clothes that fit her best are the ones labeled 3-6 months! So we have been in search of those clothes this past weekend!
She is getting so much better at tummy time finally! She loves to grab things and puts pretty much everything in her mouth. She prefers our fingers to her pacifier now, though she always takes her paci when it is bed time. We are still sleeping in the swing.....I can't let go just yet.
I had to go back to work this past Thursday and it was awful. I told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but I cried the entire way there and then for about another two hours after I dropped her off :( The first day I picked her up she wouldn't even look at me....she was looking at her sitter with big smiles. I won't lie, I was super sad. But the next day I picked her up she was crying and as soon as I grabbed her she stopped, so that made me feel much better!!!!! I was also able to successfully nurse while at work. Our schedule is going to work out perfect in order for me to able to nurse for the 6 months that I want to!!
Though I am sad about not getting to see her all day long, I'm glad for some normal adult interaction in my life again. I will be making the most out of my weekends that is for sure!

Now that school is about to start we are getting ready for football season and we will make sure Adelyn knows which teams to root for!!! GEAUX TECH!!!

What a crazy week

This has been the craziest week for Miss Adelyn and I and it is only Wednesday! So about a month ago I started having these severe pains in both of my wrists when I would pick Adelyn up. I experienced these pains in college and they were not able to figure out what was wrong. I just told myself to ignore them and they would go away. Unfortunately they did not go away and I started having trouble picking her up because it was too painful. So I had to make an appointment to see the orthopedic. Well turns out I had a severe case of tendinitis in both of my wrists. I had to have a cortisone shot in both wrist and I now have to wear a brace on my right wrist because it is pretty tight. The shots weren't too bad. I am still nursing so to be safe I pumped and dumped for about 6 hours after the shots. I think I almost cried watching the milk go down the drain. That breast milk is so precious I hated to waste it. On top of all of that going on, we waited at the orthopedic office for almost 3 hours. My little Adelyn was such a trooper and did great the entire time!
Well we made it to Tuesday and things took a turn for the worse......we had our first trip to the ER :(
I was taking Adelyn out of the car at my mom's house and she started screaming. The only thing I could see visibly wrong was that she was kind of pulling her leg up and squishing her body to one side. I brought her inside and tried to calm her down by feeding her. This did not work and the screaming escalated. I started to notice that everytime I picked her up a certain way she would throw her arms out like she was falling. Something just wasnt right. I called her pediatrician and he said to come on in. By the time we got to his office Adelyn was holding her head to her left side and she could barely move her should or her neck. Of course I was in panic mode and I think she was too. Dr. Radimecky looked at her and sent us to the ER at Cook's right away. Rene met us at the hospital. When we took her back for paperwork and they started moving her around to take her blood pressure Adelyn freaked out. She started screaming the loudest I have ever heard her scream and cried so much she produced tears, which has never happened. You could just tell she was in pain. As she sat there crying I started crying and just held her and rocked her. They put us in room #71 where we waited for the doctor. She finally fell asleep and calmed down. Once she fell asleep her body relaxed quite a bit and her head kind of shifted. They came and took X-rays on her and thankfully nothing was broken. They ended up diagnosing her with "torticollis." The doctor said because of the way she holds her head (that is also the way she spits up) her muscles were overused on one side causing them to spasm in her neck and her shoulder. They kind of locked on her and she tensed up not allowing the muscles to relax. They told us to start stretching her neck out everyday so it doesn't get locked on one side and they also recommended we check for a hip alignment as sometimes this can be caused by one hip not being connected properly. After a long day of tears and then a long night of sleep she is feeling SOOOO much better today. I actually got several smiles from her this morning. Hopefully that will be our first and last trip to the ER for awhile because I'm not sure my blood pressure can take another one!!!

Such a brave girl

Finally fell asleep

So here we are on Wednesday with more appointments to come so hopefully we survive them all with smiles and class!!!

3 months already....

I absolutely cannot believe Adelyn is 3 months and 5 days old. Time is flying by so fast and what's worse is it's almost time for me to go back to work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I'm so excited for another year, but how in the world am I going to be able to leave Adelyn. I haven't spent a day without her since she was born. It might be a little easier if I was going back to work six weeks after she was born, but I will have gotten to spend 4 months with her and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye the first day I go back. (I cry on the first day every year because I have to put the dogs up all day....I know I'm a weenie). I do feel much better knowing that she will only be a block from my school and I will get to see her everyday when Mrs. Cameron comes to pick up her son! I know she will have fun with her sitter as well as my mom on Mondays!
Adelyn is becoming such a little character. Now that we have finally got the spitting up/screaming under control she is so much happier! Now when she spits up all over herself she smiles and laughs at you instead of crying in pain. In fact we have only gone through one outfit the past two days!
She also finally started lifting her head up during tummy time. I haven't done it that much because everytime I would put her down she would throw up and cry, but then out of no where I put her down and she held her head upright. I could just see it in her eyes....."mommy-I can see the world"
The same day she also found her feet! She lifted them up and wouldn't put them down. This has made for very difficult diaper changing, but she loves those little feet. She is still figuring out what they are and hasn't touched them yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
She still LOVES mirrors. Everytime you put her infront of one, even if she is crying, that frown turns upside down!
She FINALLY started sleeping through the night about a week ago!!!!! It took 3 months for her to do it which was pretty exhausting, but I very much enjoyed getting to look at her beautiful face at 1 am, 3 am and 5 am for three months! She did wake up once in the past week for a midnight feeding but when right back to sleep! So hopefully she keeps it up!
Adelyn is wearing 3 month clothes. Her jammies are all still pretty long on her. When we first put her in pjs I dryed them all on extra hot because they were too long on her, well now she has outgrown them and all of the 6 months pjs are 5 inches too long. So I had to go and buy some 3 months pjs and this time I just won't dry them so hopefully they will fit for a little while before we slide into those 3 months!
I've also decided to attempt to breast feed her until she is 6 months old. I've been storing up milk in the freezer for when I go back to work and if my schedule works out then I should be able to pump twice during the day. I know it may not work out, but I am going to at least give it a shot. Wish me luck!!

Well Adelyn is calling ( actually I should say that Rene is calling.....men....they can only take so much)!

My amazing class!

So I know my blog has been all about my sweet Adelyn lately but something else in my life this past school year needs mentioning! I was so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing group of kids this past year. I had 20 kiddos in my kindergarten class for the 2011-2012 school year. I had all but one student pretty much the entire year. Way back in August of last year I got to meet some of my students for the next year and I was immediately excited! I was lucky enough to have three students who were siblings of former students, and three other students who were best friends with those students. When my class came together on the first day of school I was in love. I mean I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing these kids were. I had some of the brightest group of kids as a whole that I have had in my three years at my school. I had some incredibly high readers and some students who I could actually have meaningful converstaions with. My kids this past year had spunk and personality. I was so excited, yet a little sad when I found out I would be missing the end of the year with these kids. Lucky for me, I got constant updates and pictures from their parents and my long-term sub.

The above picture is with three of awesome girls, Kaya, Sofia, and Mia!


Not only were my kids fantastic, the parents were the best! The parents of my students actually cared about their kids well being and my own. They were always checking in on their child's progress and always making sure there wasn't something that I needed. Because of these parents, the kids and I had a fantastic year together. I am 100% sure that these children will have many great adventures and are in for many exciting things in their futures! Thanks to the help of some great parents, I was able to put together an end of year picnic (after school was out) at the park. All but 5 students and their parents came out to the park for a picnic lunch. All of my kids got to meet Adelyn and I got to talk with them one last time before they become first graders. I know I will see many of these kids, as I have become close friends with their parents, but I needed to see them one last time before summer started. I will also be fortunate to hopefully have many of their siblings in my future. It killed me not to put the picture of the kids I took at the park on here, but I am putting up the picture of the three parents who will be okay with my post. Thank you to the parents and my class for making my year such an amazing one!

6 weeks already

I cannot believe it has been almost 6 weeks since Adelyn was born. She will be six weeks old on Thursday. Things have gotten so much better at our house, though I have no idea how people go back to work in 6 weeks because I'm not ready. I am still only getting a couple of hours of sleep at night and I'm still in pain (down there if you know what I mean). I can't imagine going back to work in a week. I think I will have to try really hard to plan to have the rest of my babies in April, May or June because 6 weeks just isn't long enough.
We finally had to take Adelyn in for an acid reflux sonogram because she has been spitting up after every meal and she cries in pain because her tummy is hurting her so badly. We haven't gotten the results back but we should hear from them today. Hopefully they can give us something to help her digest her milk because right now it's all coming back up. She did great at the sonogram by the way. I was so worried because she wasn't going to be able to eat for 3 hours prior to the test, and lets just say my child eats like every two hours. I just knew that last hour was going to be awful. But lucky for me, she slept all the way until the time of the test and just started to cry when we got there. More importantly, they got us right in so she could eat!
This past weekend we also went to our first pool party. We have a super cute swimsuit, but it doesn't fit yet so I bought Adelyn and her cousin Leighton matching Memorial Day outfits to wear. We had so much fun at the cookout, but we couldn't stay outside very long because it was just too hot outside. I guess I won't be getting my much needed tan this summer because I don't think Addy can take the heat. At the cookout, we also got our first real smile from Adelyn. My dad was talking to her in his different voices and she started beaming and I thought she was going to start laughing, but she just smiled. I wished I had got it on camera, but I wasn't fast enough.
She also almost crawled right off of her lamb mat. We put her down and she was not happy. She went from position A to right off the mat in a matter of seconds by moving her feet. (We also did not get this on camera). So I'm sure that crawling and lots of smiles are just around the corner!

Oh and if you are a facebook friend of mine I wanted to apologize for my oh so many pictures on facebook. I just can't help sharing her with my friends and family. So I won't be offended if anyone needs to block my status's from showing because I probably won't be able to stop posting pictures of my sweet girl!

Adelyn is one month old!

I can't believe Adelyn is already one month old! For her one month birthday she had quite the celebration. We spent the past weekend in San Antonio for Rene's cousin, Megan's, wedding! The wedding was so beautiful and Adelyn got so much attention. Her grandpa Paul was on baby duty as Rene and I were both in the wedding. I think Grandpa was in heaven. He spent the pre wedding hour watching Spurs and watching Adelyn sleep. Then he held her and fed her during the ceremony. Thank goodness she was super quiet because I would have been so embarrassed had she been screaming. During the reception she was grandpa's little angel. We think she likes loud noises because she either is wide-eyed the whole time or sleeps the entire time. Her grandpa took her around to every person he knew at the reception to show her off, though he was a baby hog and wouldn't let anyone hold her. He told them they could look at her but couldn't hold her because she was all his. I secretly was glad for this because I didn't want her to get too many germs on her!
During the wedding weekend we finally had our first night of almost, and I mean almost full sleep. We purchased this rock'n sleep bed for her. It is basically a little bed that is on an incline and you can rock it back and forth with your hand. She loves this and finally sleeps so well in. She was either sleeping in her swing or on my chest. She just refuses to sleep on her back or in the pack'n play so this is proving to be a good solution since we can't swaddle her. On Friday night Rene and I actually got to sleep in the same bed. Adelyn slept from 1:00-5:00, then I fed her and she slept again from 5:30-8:00. Mommy and daddy got some much needed sleep. Though she still makes so many noises when she sleeps because she is so stopped up. We are running the humidifier every night, but so far it hasn't been much help.
Adelyn is also taking to the bottle well. We are only giving it to her once a day and will move to three times a day next week! Her favorite thing to do is make these hilarious grunting noises when she is eating or trying to go the restroom. I feel so bad because her poor tummy hurts, but the noise is so funny that Rene and I can't help but laugh.
She also loves the tv. In the hotel, we laid her on the bed with all of the lights off except for the television and I think she watched the tv for almost an hour without making a peep. I know this is a bad habit already, but we had to get things done for the wedding!

 The above picture is Adelyn at the bridesmaids luncheon! She was so alert and pretty in pink!

The above picture is Adelyn on her one month birthday at the wedding!

I can't believe how much she has grown already. I let her lay on my chest and she just feels so much longer. I know what people mean when they say that the little ones grow so fast. I'm a little sad, but I can't wait to see how beautiful and active she becomes as she grows! I am just so in love with her and I am so thankful I get to spend the entire summer with her before I have to go back to work!