Analisa is 15 months old, marching toward 16!
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| She honestly kept this on long enough for me to snap a pic then it was OVER. Devastating, right? |
It recently occurred to me that writing a monthly update at this point in Ana's life might be a bit much. I mean, she just doesn't change as much from one month to the next, at least, not like she used to, from say, 3 months to 4 months. You feel?
It's not like she's not growing -- I mean, she is, and she's changing constantly. But when it comes to silly anecdotes or what she's eating or how she's sleeping or whatever, I mean, a lot has probably stayed constant(ish). So yeah, as to whether I'll continue every month, I'll mull it over! I do love documenting what Ana's been up to through the blog. And these updates are fun to look back on, even now. I re-read her birth story the other day and I was like, WHAT?
I can't imagine how great it'll all be, to read this when she's 14.
Will she turn 14 one day? (Will there still be a blogspot to read?) Goodness.
So, here's her quickie update --
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| Actual bear. |
Ana is the cutest baby in the world (biased but sorry not sorry). She remains very happy and playful, and her days are full of joy. I swear, just now, she was running around the house, pretending to be talking on my phone, and she kept throwing her head back and doing this over-the-top fake laugh. Every time I'd watch, she'd laugh and laugh -- a genuine giggle this time -- at the sight of ME laughing at HER. She is such a little character.
We went out to breakfast a few mornings ago and she was just like, determined to get the attention of this random guy in the booth behind us. Such a little attention-seeker/ham sandwich.
James has brought her to the grocery store, just the two of them, two weeks in a row (which is a very noble and brave task, I'll add). Ana refuses to sit in the cart for longer than 10 or so minutes -- and even then, you need to be equipped with her toy remote, 15 books and a stuffed animal or two -- and then she'll just start standing up or crawling out. Girlfriend needs to be more scared, and she's definitely NOT. But she lovvvvvvves roaming the aisles, grabbing random stuff and approaching strangers (actually standing awkwardly in front of their carts, blocking their paths). So, we're those annoying people. But our baby is cute, right? We get her out of the way eventually. She has a great time, especially at the farmers market too, and it definitely wears her out before bed or naptime! The other day at CVS while I was waiting on a prescription, Ana was marching around with canned hot dogs and an Ace bandage, just bumping them together, yelling things at people down the aisles. What a tiny dictator.
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| Who, me? |
We went to her regularly scheduled baby appointment and she is ... a block, basically. Haha seriously, she's in the 70th percentile when it comes to weight, and only the 30th percentile in height. But well, they finally told me percentiles! Remember when I never knew, and everyone used to ask, and I'd be all, "I don't knowwwww, I guess I could Google?" Well, now I know. I'll send a push alert to your phone.
So yeah, Ana's just about 23 pounds and 30 inches long. For the record, as I was making notes for this blog, I asked James, "what do they measure babies in? Inches or centimeters?" And James was like, "You're not really asking that, right?" ... "So ... centimeters?" NO, apparently.
Let's hope Ana gets James' brain.
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| Sweet girl. |
Oh oh oh, one more cute story!
Ana and I were laughing so hard before bed maybe a week or so ago. One of her favorite things to do is, as I'm changing her for bed, I let her stay naked for a minute or two. She is the HAPPIEST. So she'll flop all over our bed, and run/crawl away from me, and curl up on the pillows, or just exist as an excited naked baby -- until I have to chase her down and put the PJs on her. This is brave of me, right? She hasn't peed on our bed yet.
Anyway, we kind of make it a game (a very calming bedtime routine, as the experts recommend), ;) and I don't know why, but it dawned on me the other day that I should make a very serious face at her. So I did. Then once we were making eye contact and you could tell she was trying to get a read on me, I'd raise my eyebrows at her, verrrrry slowly. OMG. We were both laughing hysterically. It was like an inside joke, only, not that elaborate because there you have it ... but I swear, I had tears from laughing so hard. She was doing that vibrate-y giggle and my heart was just like, exploding. I have such a little friend! And she understands me! I love that babe so incredibly much. Also I already have a hunch that she's weird like me. Yasssssssss.
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| Celebrating Sparty's big win over Miami : ) |
Otherwise, she's going through maybe a liiiiittle bit of regression? They say sometimes there's like, a step backward before a big leap forward. I just think it's a really transitional time for her right now (do I say that every time?) Anyway, she randomly will like, start crawling, even though she's a very solid walker. Or she'll have mornings when all she wants to do is cuddle up on my lap and be held, or she'll pitch a fit (normally she's very independent and wants to buck out of my arms). I don't know! I'm always just like, whatever you need, little girl. Mama's here. There was this mom at our library group last week who was all, "GO PLAY. GO. GO PLAY. GO." And I was mildly horrified. I mean, I always say I don't judge other moms, but this little boy was around the same age as Ana. And all he wanted to do was sit with his mom. (Which, Ana was the same way. Very shy in groups lately). And I let Anz stay, because I'm like, "whatever they wanna do in the moment is FINE." I could not imagine kicking her off my lap. So I felt very sad for that kid who was basically evicted so that he could "socialize." Nahhhhh.
Speaking of "nah" and things that suck, poop problems remain, but I think we're making steps in the right direction! I could honestly write an entire blog -- like, not just a post, an entire COMPLETE blog on everything we've gone through -- but yeah, I'm happy to report things are looking up, knock on wood!
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| Hi. |
For some brief background, I know I've mentioned some of this in previous entries, but Ana has been backed up on and off almost since birth. When they're super little, you can't try much, outside of the old thermometer trick (horrifying). But once Ana started eating solids, our pediatrician recommended a prune pouch a day. That was effective, for a bit. Once it stopped working, we asked the other ped who works with Dr. L if she had any other recommendations. She said MiraLAX. I've had several friends with babies on ML, and they said they regretted not giving it sooner ... and that it was a total game-changer, in a good way. So we jumped on the ML train. Things were going OK, for the most part, until our NEXT visit when I still thought Ana was getting constipated from time to time, despite kind of a lot of ML.
The doctor said, no joke, "you cannot give her too much. It's not even technically a laxative, all it does is add more water to the colon, it's non-habit forming, basically just DUMP it into all her bottles and you'll be fine."
She was 9 months old at this point.
Hmmm. We did it, but we STILL experienced some back-ups; I think just because sometimes Anz would be stubborn and not drink her sippie cups at all.
But now I was starting to get suspicious. I mean, adult-sized doses for such a little person? In all her sippies? I hit up Google. And here's where I really fell head-first down a rabbit hole. I found an entire group on FB, of moms claiming prolonged ML use gave their kids tics, tremors, neurological issues; the works. Man, that was scary. Even more interesting was that some news outlets were starting to report on these moms. The FDA was even funding a huge study at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to look into the claims. I joined the FB group -- half for journalistic reasons, half for my own constipated baby, and to learn about some alternative remedies -- and I'll admit, you kind of have to take what these moms are saying with a grain of salt. It's a lot of the anti-vax crowd, scared of all "toxins" in general, or convinced their kids have autism based on that shit, or like, hmmm. Some of it is suspect, for sure. And while I'm a bit of a casual hippie, I'm never taking my kid off gluten (unless recommended), or sugar entirely, or doing anything too extreme.
But still -- nearly 20,000 parents are in the FB group raising all these concerns, so I think there are some level-headed moms involved, too. And honestly, there's power in numbers. Something might be up if this many parents are sounding off. Some major questions (that still linger), are like, why are pediatricians prescribing ML off-label when the drug company that makes ML doesn't even recommend it for anyone younger than 17? And, even though the study isn't complete, isn't like, the fact that there IS a study in the first place a bit disturbing?
Needless to say, I yanked Ana off the ML cold-turkey. And wrote this -- Is Miralax safe for children?
And then I started experimenting with natural remedies. We're not doing anything too cray at the moment, we're just cutting down on dairy (it's the proteins that can be binding, we don't think there's a lactose intolerance), replacing it with coconut milk and going OVERBOARD with fruits and vegetables. And I mean, she was eating a lot beforehand! Now it's just silly. And I make these smoothies, and I just throw shit in the blender. Ready?
--Frozen mixed berries (I just buy a big bag: raspberries, strawbs and blackberries)
--Frozen spinach or kale
--Frozen mango
--Medium dollop of baby yogurt with probiotics (or Greek)
--Small splash of coconut milk
--Big splash of prune juice
--Handful of dried prunes
--Tablespoon or two of coconut oil
--Probably 2 tbsp. of flax seeds/chia seeds (we have a mixed bag)
--Flax oil (when I can find it in Michigan; rare)
--Any other fresh stuff I'm looking to get rid of -- the other day I added two kiwis
--Then at the end, if it looks like it needs more liquid, I'll do water or more prune juice
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| :) |
Anyway, Ana loves getting her smoothie on! And it's actually pretty effective. I mean, the smoothie, or maybe the fact that we cleaned up her diet a bit or switched her milk ... we also push water like no one's business. Hydration is such a big part of all this!
Basically, I'm not all the way convinced ML causes all those issues. I don't think doctors would recommend it to kids at all if it was THAT scary of a product. But like, I thought there were enough questions floating around where I'd just rather do things our way. We probably should have explored more natural options earlier, like after the prune packets, but you know, better now than never, right?
Ana obviously doesn't have any of those horrible-sounding symptoms. But as a mom, I thought we'd be better off safe than sorry. I mean, cigarettes were once thought to be fine, so. You never know. It's all about how ML is absorbed in your intestines, and it sounds like it's a different story if you're an adult. (So yeah, if you were prescribed ML before a colonoscopy, that's less of a concern).
But, progress!
Yes, Ana's still withholding and sometimes the poop is still a bit harder than I'd like, but now I've said too much.
Moving right along, Ana got a bunch more teeth this month! She's got a HUGE guy in the back, another up front and possibly even one more -- she doesn't like to let me poke around in there lately, so unless she's screaming with her mouth WIDE open, (probably about getting her hair washed), it's hard to be specific.
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| Teef. |
I probably said this last time, but she's more and more toddler-like every day. Asserting herself, choosing to be difficult at times, just wandering the house like, "mama oh NO oh NO!" (which I can't help but laugh at). I try to give her options so that she feels like she has some power, even if the choices are like, pink spoon or blue, pear yogurt or peach, yellow shirt or white.
She HATES socks (and I don't blame her, she gets better traction while barefoot around the house), but our floors are a bit chilly. I swear, her feet looked purple the other day, they were so cold. Yet she doesn't even seem bothered. I can't keep her in footy pajamas all day -- any suggestions here?
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| It just stinks that she's not that happy of a baby. ;) |
But we did get the shoe situation taken care of! I can't remember if I blogged about it, or if I just posted on Facebook, but I was nervous about shoes. Every time we even attempted to put a shoe on her, she'd freak. Well, we did what everyone recommended and took her to Stride Rite. She was measured, she got in a pair pretty easily -- I guess they make starter shoes so that the baby can feel some ground? Like they're not so thick on the bottom? -- and we figured why hesitate, let's just buy the first pair that she tolerated. (Um, even Stride Rite Outlet is kind of spendy, if you ask me: $40 for baby shoes that'll fit her for 10 seconds? Wah).
Anyway, she did bite it pretty bad outside the store, and split her lip open, which was more painful for me than it was for her, no joke. I think because there was blood, I panicked. She was smiling again 3 minutes later. She was just so excited to run around outside in her new shoes, I couldn't say no! And then I lived with self-hate for the next week (half jk).
Final items to mention? I said I was going to make this month's entry short (lol) and look at me. Happens every time, I suppose!
We met baby Collette! Who is adorable and Katie is such a cute mom. I love my friends becoming moms! We also traveled to Rochester a few weeks ago, so that was nice to get more time with the Ganleys. Liz's baby is due in July.
And I forgot to mention how much Ana loves singing. Her little voice is just the cutest. I never wanna forget sitting around my parents' dining room table last Tuesday or the previous, Ana just telling us stories and singing little songs. She does it around our house too, and I find it to be the most precious thing. Not so much when we're out, or when she's around people she doesn't know, but like, when she's truly comfortable, she'll just babble and babble and sing, and I turn into a pile of mush.
Although, Natalie said she was talking quite a bit in Paw Paw this past weekend! Maybe we have an all-around chatty bear on our hands after all.
See you next month!
