Busy busy busy

It has been awhile since I have been able to blog, things have been busy and hectic around here. Obviously as you all know Taylor was born on October 8 th. She weighed 7lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long. The birth went pretty fast, 5 1/2 hours and I only pushed 4 times. Unfortunately the lady messed up my epidural and boy am I paying for that mistake!

Fast forward a month and my oh my has she grown! She is 9 lbs 15 oz and is 22 1/2 inches long. Off the charts for height just like her brother. I am grateful for the hand me down clothes I received from my sister, Lindsey, and Joey's cousin, Jenn. I learned the hard way with Brayden, that hand me downs are heaven sent and you should not point your nose to them, especially when your baby is only in them for a month or two. Taylor has been diagnosed with silent reflux. This has been a daunting task on Joey and I, it is hard to hear her screaming in pain and not be able to do anything for her. At one point she was screaming for 6-8 hours every single night with no relief. She would finally fall asleep from being so exhausted. We have been working with the doctors to try to get her feeling better. I have to be my daughters advocate because they do not take me as serious as someone whose child is losing weight. However silent reflux is when a child's food comes halfway up their esophagus, burns it, then goes back down. She does spit up but it is not projectile. She arches her back, chokes, coughs, sneezes, wheezes and screams in agonizing pain when her reflux begins to flare up. She has even set off the angel care monitor a few times. We have now found a combination of solutions that seem to be working for her, for the time being. The medication she is now on helps block the acid receptors, the downside is the medicine is weight prescribed and eventually we will have to find a new one because the receptors will find a way around this medicine. We have her on Nutramigen, with they refer to has liquid gold, this seems to help with her breathing which is an indication she may have an allergy to cows milk protein. We put Beechnut(it is soy free) rice cereal in her bottle to weigh down the formula, she can not drink straight liquid it will come right back up. We use Dr Brown's bottles with size one nipples, which with the cereal slows her feeding down tremendously and helps! We also have to incline where she sleeps, have an angel care monitor(it alerts us if she does not breath for longer then 20 seconds), a video monitor and several other rituals to get her to sleep(changing positions, baths, baby massages, etc). We also give her Mylanta in the evening to help with the reflux, since this is when it is worse. All these things combined seem to help us get through that difficult time period for her and makes for a happier baby. The doctor calls it 24 hour intense baby caring, which is fine as long as she is happy again! She is absolutely beautiful and looks exactly like my baby pictures, with my ears and all;) BRayden loves her more then words can describe...

Brayden was meant to be a big brother! He takes the role soo seriously and is the best at it. He is such a huge help and some days I do not know what I would do without him:) He is such a big boy now. He celebrated his 4th birthday at Chuckee Cheese's with a few close friends and relatives. He had so much fun and received lots of nice gifts from everyone. He is really into dinosaurs(t-rex) and trains(still)...he is hoping Santa brings him a lot of these gifts...however "Santa" has already gave him ever dino and train that is out there on the market! He is still off the charts for height and he is a solid 42 lbs:) He is in 5T pants and 5T/5 shirts. He is now in preschool, 2 days a week for a few hours a day. He enjoys the social interaction and has made some friends there.

Joey and I are doing good. It was pretty overwhelming for awhile with the baby but things are getting much better. Joey is working trying to pay off some of these doctor bills and Christmas money. I am still in pain from my epidural and am awaiting my 6 week check up with my obgyn, which is suppose to happen this Friday but I may have to reschedule to go home to NY. At 5 week postpartum I am down 35 lbs, which is 5 less then what I was when I got pregnant. I still have to get working on my belly, but until my back is feeling better that is not going to happen! I am hoping to lose another 10 lbs by summer and tighten up some areas, since I am in my sister in laws wedding at that time! Well time for a feeding, feeding every 3 hours does not leave for much time for things to do in between, especially when it takes 45 minutes to feed! Sorry no pics in this blog, but most of you have the kodak site...will post more soon!