(5 months 2 weeks 5 days)

At least Reese is the healthiest of the bunch! Saturday, you all know the story, Sunday was a blur of feeling better, but then started getting sick again that evening.... Along with Scott and when he called his Mom, his dad and youngest brother were also stricken with whatever I had all day Sunday going into Monday.... We blame Reese, "The Petri Dish" or "The Carrier" your choice.... but anyway you look at it, she was the common denominator. 

Sunday I went to bed with Reese and woke up at 6AM vomiting again, needless to say I couldn't go to work and Scott grabbed up Reese and took her to my MIL's for her to watch her while hanging over a bucket. By noon I was able to get up and take a shower and get off 3 days of hospital, sickness and grime... made me feel a bit better. I then stopped by the grocery store to pick up some soup and head over to my MIL's to eat lunch and pick up the Reesinator.

We left around 1:30ish... and headed home. I was exhausted.... Monday sealed the deal on the baby fever I had been feeling. I couldn't imagine 3 months of morning sickness with Reese by myself during the day... HELL, PURE HELL. Need to wait until Reese can hold her own bottle, sit up by herself, get her own toys, climb up on the couch herself, etc!

Tuesday I woke up feeling a bit better, still really light headed from only eating rice, bananas, a bowl of soup and toast, but I made my way over to Linda's with Reese and worked until lunchtime on my technically "day off," but I needed to help Terry with some cases we've been working on. When I got back to Linda's Reese had gone through 2 oz of avocado! Guess she's learning to like them!

[flashback]

Reese had her first taste of avocado on Sunday!! Scott did a fantastic job picking out ripe ones! He said "I squeezed a bunch of them!" I set up the camera and took a few photos myself (Scott wasn't able to take photos because he and his healthy BIL were driving back down to Exit 151 to pick up his car! THANK YOU AGAIN MATT!), so I'll letcha see her first reactions, which were... well, not as bad as the peaches... but not as good as the oatmeal, but by the SECOND round at dinner, she was sticking her tongue wayyyy far out asking for "more." She ate the whole ounce with no problems!

I'll post photos soon!

[/flashback]

Linda was funny and said, "She ate the whole first thing of avocado and kept sticking her tongue out for more so I told Tom "I think you'd better heat up the second one!" She downed that one too! I had to laugh... Reese looked at me like she was so proud of herself when Linda was explaining all of this.

Reese's new found talent the past week or more is YELLING at things. She'll be on her stomach, reach for a toy, look at it and then just start YELLING. I mean full on 10 - 15 second yells. It's pretty funny, but boy can she get LOUD. Oreo comes in to see if she's ok! It's a real throaty yell, so she's not really making herself hoarse... figure that she's just practicing getting her vocal cords to get to the point my mom is warning me about... "You want her to speak so badly, but then there will come a point when you can't get her to BE QUIET!"

Reese has also done really well with playing by herself. She's just a happy, jolly, easygoing baby (hence why the baby fever started)! I know, there will come a point when I will eat these words.... But until then, I enjoy every moment of being with her. It's funny to hear her in her swing when I think she's been sleeping but come to find out she's been playing with her links/teethers for the past 10 minutes as if they were the best things in the world, and as soon as she sees me she gets this HUGE grin on her face and does this laugh/raspberry/smile that just melts my heart.... But then she'll go back to playing with her toys.

On the sleep front.... Down between 7:30 - 8:00PM, up at 2:00... 5:00... and up for the day by 6:30 - 7:00AM. And to think that daylight savings time is right around the corner! Ever since she went through that massive growth spurt a couple of weeks ago, she's still trying to figure out when/how long to sleep.... But the BIGGEST thing that's waking her up is that she's HALF CRAWLING in her SLEEP! I've spied this with my OWN eyes.... She gets her legs under her, arms halfway under her and she pushes forward... she ends up jamming herself into the bumper, or getting diagonal to where her head is touching but she can't move her arms freely.... So then she's "mad" rather than really wanting to wake up, but is doing the grunting thing and slowly rousing herself... we've tried to let her CIO, but found that if Scott or I go to her crib and move her back to the center, pull her down from the top, back up from the bottom, or put her back on her stomach from her backwards tripod of being on her side with her right arm behind her to balance herself... she'll go back to sleep on her own, unless she's found that her diaper is just too wet to be able to fall back asleep, then it's change and a realization of "Oh! I haven't eaten in almost 8 hours! I'm hungry!!!!" Then I'll nurse her back to sleep and we'll put her back in her crib.

Speaking of feeding... I had mentioned that Reese wants NOTHING, I mean NOTHING to do with plain formula. It's 100% because of the SMELL. Which makes sense because well, the stuff does smell like rotten eggs compared to breast milk. I've been mixing it in with 1/2 bottles of ebm (expressed breast milk) to get her used to the taste and familiarize herself with the smell. I also called my LC to see what she suggested and I got a call back from her last night. She said that I was doing the right thing by mixing and I wasn't hurting her and since I've been bfing for 6 months that Reese is now over the fear of allergies!!! YAY! I made the 6 month mark!!! She said that to keep trying different temps of the formula and amounts in the milk and to try and feed her when she's not famished... it will be a lot less stressful on everyone. If that didn't work, the LAST thing to do is put 1 tablespoon of Hershey's Strawberry Syrup into the bottle to mask the smell! GENIUS! Donna said it's always good to keep some on hand for emergencies. I inquired if we should be worried about a strawberry allergy and she laughed and said "There are no strawberries in that syrup!" It was a good call and glad to know that there are ways to get Reese to take formula IF we need her too..... and to think I had been telling my MIL from day one that if I had to work an hour or more later and she was out of ebm for Reese to give her a bottle of formula! YIKES!

This makes me recall something that happened Saturday night, when I was pumping and dumping for fear of the anti-nausea meds that I had taken, we were thawing ebm.... Scott got up at around 3:45AM to get a rather frustrated Reese. He changed her while I went downstairs to prepare a bottle and he then put her into bed while he waited for me. I came upstairs and heard a VERY unhappy baby but Scott said "Sue, you just missed the funniest thing." As I shoved the bottle into the begging open mouth of Reese, Scott went on to explain that he laid Reese down and she turned her head in the direction of my pillow (smell) and when she didn't feel me or something to go INTO her mouth she turned over, eyes TIGHTLY shut and started to SCREAM and flail her arms back and forth! I'm sure it was so funny to see! But it did make me sad because I knew that she wanted to be nursed, but I couldn't (or at the time I thought I couldn't). See, Saturday/Saturday Night/Sunday Morning was just traumatic for everyone all the way around.

Last night I also got the NICEST email from one of the nurses that took care of Reese and I!!! She had come across Reese's website and wanted to tell me how great it was to see it and to keep up the good work! It was nice to hear from her and hope that she will keep in touch!

Along with all my other bazillion emails that I haven't really been able to check over the past 3 days, I found out that I have an opportunity to do some freelance for Cleveland! WOO HOO! Will have to find out the details and such, but they wanted me to submit my ideas and portfolio... this was on the heals of my old graphics firm wanting me to start doing updates for another website that I had taken on. Good to get back into the game, but don't want to jump all the way back in... I like the "hobby" side and not the "work" side of web design.... Lots less stress.

I'm back at work today, though not feeling 100%... but plugging along, I hate being behind on work... Hurm, think that's an entire racap of everything since Saturday... hope you are all having a great week and an even better day!

(5 months 2 weeks 2 days)

We were delivered 5 Sunday papers today... couldn't figure out why! Scott called the paper to see why we got so many thinking that there was someone on our street that was a paper delivery person... come to find out, the Babies born in 2004 in the Akron area insert was included into todays paper. Remember when I had mentioned that my MIL had purchased a spot for Reese to be included in the paper? Well, seems she put down OUR address to have the papers delivered to!

The photo came out really cute... there must be over 100 babies in there and come to find out that sextuplets were born in our area in Feb!!!! CRAZY!

What made me laugh is Scott going through and doing what all proud fathers do "Oh, Reese is much cuter than that baby...." or "He's a cutie!" or... "Oh my!"

Here's Reese's photo (Page 40, 2nd row, 5th column)!

(5 months 2 weeks 1 day)

But I hope to never see them again!

HUH?! All of you might be thinking…. Well let me explain. Reese and I had our FIRST ambulance ride to the hospital today after I battled, what I thought was a stomach virus, getting from Cuyahoga Falls to Columbus (1 hour 58 minutes). I had already called Meleah telling her that I was having to stop along the way because I wasn’t feeling good and though I may be late, I was still meeting her!

I was 20 minutes away from my destination with Meleah when my stomach / bowels cramped like you wouldn’t believe and I was at the point of “no return” and so I called Scott. I was so scared of what I should do with Reese in the car with me that I had a genuine panic attack. I lost all motor control… and this made me even MORE freaked out because REESE WAS IN THE CAR WITH ME!!!!

Scott told me to call 911 IMMEDIATELY, so I did just that. I was so embarrassed… I felt like one of those people on Cops where everyone is standing around being nosey. The dispatcher told me “don’t be embarrassed!” And one of the EMT guys said “Yeah, we call people like that ‘ditch men’ because they seem to just come up from out of the ditches to see what’s wrong.” Didn’t help I was parked at BP station with one of the largest Duke / Duchess Restaurants around. The dispatcher was trying to figure out where I was… and trying to calm me down because seriously, I lost all feeling in my hands/chest/legs and feet…. I WAS FREAKED OUT.

The Statie and Ambulance came barreling through and got to me within 10 minutes…. The dispatcher made me stay on my phone with them until the EMT’s got to the car, then I made the guy PROMISE to call Scott and let him know what was going on because I’m sure he was FREAKING OUT too. No later than 1 ½ minutes after hanging up with the dispatcher did Scott call and the State Trooper spoke with him and let him know what hospital I was going to.

They all took care of Reese WHO WAS A GEM! She only started crying about 10 minutes after I parked because she needed her diaper changed! She was sleeping the whole way down. But she got scared, hyperventilated, when the EMT driver went to get her out of the car seat… excuse me, the WHOLE car seat out with her in it. They strapped her in the back of the ambulance while they put me in a gurney, they had to lift me and do it, because I was cramping/dry heaving so much I couldn’t do it. My BP was THROUGH THE ROOF and I loved when they asked “When was your last period?” I said “December of 2003! I gave birth to Reese October 4th of last year.” “Any chance you could be pregnant?” “Doubt it… I’m nursing and no sign of menstruation has returned.”

Within 6 minutes, I was puking my guts up in the back of the ambulance, oxygen flow going, Reese looking at me like “Are you ok mom?!” But also enthralled with everything that was going on around her, I was being wheeled out from the back of the ambulance and into the Morrow County ER where I was greeted with a barrage of questions and they hurriedly got me hooked up to an IV and got some drugs in me. I was STILL freaked and kept saying “But I’m BREASTFEEDING! You can’t hurt my milk supply” Then I’d barf again… so within a 30 second decision, I said “Well, either way with me puking the entire time or you trying to give me meds to keep fluids in me, I’m hurting my milk supply.” The nurse agreed and she juiced me. When the doctor came in he said I’d have to pump and dump for 5 days before my milk is safe for Reese to drink. My heart sank… but hey, if I can get through 6 weeks of a shield, I CAN do this…. But she wants NOTHING to do with formula and only wants EBM or the real deal… so this will be our challenge for the next week… but thankfully I have enough frozen milk to make up the loss of “straight from the cow.”

At some point in the back of the ambulance though, they did let me call Meleah just to let her know where I was and that I obviously wasn’t going to be able to meet her… she’s so nice, didn’t even phase her and obviously more concerned about my well being than her own. We are in the process of making plans to meet-up again in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, Scott got there, ummm, not sure when… I was passing in and out of sleep and wasn’t sure of anything but “I want to die I feel so bad.” He took Reese from the nurses, who did a FANTASTIC JOB, and played with her for 5 HOURS in the HOSPITAL before he left to get some food and let little antsy pants get a little more stimulation than the inside of the ER.

From 11:45AM – 4:30PM I was puking/diarrhea because they were trying to test my blood to see exactly what I had and testing drugs that would help to hold everything in/down. By the time I checked out at 6:00PM I had gone through 3 liters of fluid, 2 anti-nausia medications and something else that helped my bowels. Scott was so incredibly wonderful the whole time and the nurses said the same thing I’ve been telling everyone since we met almost 4 years ago…. “He’s a good man and doesn’t hurt you have a beautiful daughter to boot!”

I’m home now… ordered on strict bed rest and can’t drive a vehicle until Monday. I was going to offer to help Scott drive back down to pick up his car, but he said “Heck no! I’ve already got my dad to help me… just not looking forward to the 1 hr 30 min one-way drive again…”

Everyone is always worried about “How Reese will do on long trips?” when I think the real question is how the Cowlbeck WOMEN will do on long trips!? (My mom was admitted to the Hopsital last Saturday when she flew up from Virginia, but I had something different… my blood cell count wasn’t elevated, but the other thing that splits off from the white cells was THROUGH THE ROOF, therefore he diagnosed me with “Severe Virus Infection.”)

HAPPY FREAKING WEEKEND RIGHT? See.. never a boring moment!

(5 months 2 weeks)

This was crazy! I mean, it's been like David Blaine the past few weeks... I'd put her down in a spot in the living room and she'd be somewhere else when I'd return..... but to actually SEE it in process.... just mind blowing!

OH.........MY.........GOD.

Scott and I are in the living room. He put Reese on the floor... ON HER BACK under the carnival FP thing on the right.....

We sat and watched her do the following.... and this is not an exaggeration!!!

1. Got diagonal and turned herself over so that she could be facing Suzy Zoo.

2. Rolled over again so that she was BEHIND Suzy's head.....

3. Started to push herself backwards a bit.

4. Her foot was hitting the big red button on the Roll-A-Round Treehouse.... and it was making TONS of noise.

5. She pushed herself backwards but at a diagonal so that she could spin herself around.

6. Then pulled herself so she was RIGHT in the middle of everything and started to flail her arms to get the balls going!

I think this was Reese's first attempt at crawling that we SAW from begining to end! She did it backwards!! Feet / Arms under her and EVERYTHING!

Brings to mind a onesie that my MIL bought Reese... sums up the way I feel to a "T"

"If they could just stay little"

The back is cute too! hehe

(5 months 1 week 6 days)

Please excuse the double post, see St. Patty's Day greeting one below this one.

HOLY FREAKING COW.... I'm... I'm just.... uhhh shocked? I don't know what to think of what Reese did about 20 minutes ago (she's watching Baby E while I'm posting this).

I sat her down with her Roll-a-Round Gumball machine. I had her between my legs with it infront of me and I said. "Reese, if you put the balls in here *dropped them in*... turn the knob *made the knob click, it's just there for noise purposes*... then you press this big blue handle and WATCH! *balls came rolling out*"

I did this just ONCE... then I used her hands to practice TWICE.

I sat back and she did this.....


She didn't drop the balls in, but "knew" that's where they went in.





AND she sitting there trying to fish the balls out and found out that each ball behind it pushed the first one forward.... so look what she ended up doing!



HOLY FREAKING COW RIGHT?!

This is a 6+ month toy, but chrimney! We're going to have to put locks on the DVD and TV so she dosen't take them apart just to see "how they work."

(5 months 1 week 6 days)